working together and also the importance of taking care of your corner of the ocean . the by i'm rick sanchez and i've been doing news for 30 years and 2 languages all over the world. here in the united states, i've interviewed what poor presidents worked at for us. major television networks been fired by 7, but i really knew it should be honest, direct me. that's why i was fired at impact holt. and this is direct impact. the we here in america have this log cabin mentality, right. it was taught to us in grade school, when many of us were in classrooms where there was literally

a blast of abraham lincoln to remind us that even a poor farmer who lived in a log cabin could grow up to become the president of the united states is he's actually exceptionalism, america, no royalty here, no clash structures here, right? well, hold that thought. whole hold that thought because writers recently put out of study that seems to confirm just the opposite of that. and what it finds is that a 5th or more of all, the political leaders who rule america today come from families who were slave owners, slave owners, the numbers when we break it down even further. well, it really does seem to dispel that which we of americans i've always believed differentiates us from the other places, especially the european countries that we broke away from. it's what was ingrained

in us, you know that in europe, everything is based on your class, your lineage, your status, but not here, by golly. so here's what the study did. it looked at the family records of members of congress, the supreme court, the governors of all the different uh, 50 states and the living presidents. and here's what it found. of the 536 members of congress right now. 100 of them have family members or descendants who own slaves. right in the senate, 28, out of a 100, come from families who own slaves. and of the 9 members of the supreme court to amy connie barrett and neil gorse, which our descendants of the slavery business was a big numbers right between 20 to 25 percent across the board of all the people who

are in power in this country head slaves and why is that important? well, you know why, you know, why? because part of the civil war, the number of people who own slaves in this country was 2 percent. 2 percent. how many is the vast majority of americans do not come from families who own slaves, but our leaders do we don't, they do. think about it. more than 25 percent of the senate, 20 percent of the house of representatives, 22 percent of the supreme court. all come from families who own slaves. and what that makes clear to me anyway, isn't families who had the privilege, the power and the money to be able to afford slaves a century ago. are the same people who still have the money, the privilege and the power over us today. think about that. and then if we ponder this next question that i'm about to pause, it kind of becomes almost creepy. it's not, you know,

ominous. and here it is. here's my quandary. if cells are the people who come from families that somehow got our ancestors as americans to kill each other during assuming more to protect very economic interest, what are they willing to do now? what will their grandkids, these folks and power now? right? what will they do with wars? now, you know, the kind of wars that we seem to see now that never seem to end. it makes you wonder, right? same people doing the same things, especially in light of all the wars and all the money being made on those wars of light. so let's talk about the study of the study by writers. also finds that nearly all the living presidents, interestingly enough, george bush, bill clinton, jimmy carter, and yes, even brock obama, on his mother's side are all descendants of slave owners. only donald trump is it

interestingly enough, who knew right for me, donald trump is not a descendant of slave owners, and that's because his family came to the united states after slavery had already been abolished. if you're wondering, by the way, were reuters got all this data, believe it or not, it's easy to get the same same, or it was a business to business enterprise. and people were said julie property. so they were all purchased and sold and all those purchases in sales or are written down there, documented whether it's a chair or a human being. i got an example. look at this, this is lindsey graham, former, or not former. she's popular sen from south carolina who had a great great grandfather named joseph maddox. he had 8 slaves and look at the look at this document right here that we're showing you right now. you can read their names right there. it's on the contract, right? sam, z law rubin,

james and one describe the only as me grow man sam. he sold for a $155.00, which by today's calculation, which be about $6000.00. joining us now to talk about this is a kelvin dark. he's not only a political analyst, but you're going to find out during this interview and stay with me here, that there could not be a better guess to have this conversation with then. calvin dark, for reasons that you will find out during the sooner you run. it's a, it's a pleasure to join not to have calvin join us today. yeah. how are you, calvin? i'm doing well. it's hot and i'm, i'm doing great about the summer time. exactly. so listen um what, what do you think of the study? but basically what the study says is one 5th, depending on what you look at, but anywhere between a 5th to a 4th to something like that of all political powerful leaders in the united states

come from families who were slaveholders. was that when you 1st read that report, what did you fix as well, the 1st thing i thought is people are probably going to misinterpret what really matters about this. you know, it turns into like the blame game, but i think it, it tells us 2 things. that are really important. one is that slavery and its aftermath is not that long ago. you know, we tend to think out of centuries and centuries ago, i would hope that these members of congress who, you know, if they didn't know the people they knew the people that knew the people. i have that in my family, or my great aunt talked to me about her grandmother who had been a slave. so i would hope that it would one show them to show the american people, but it's not that far back in our history. the 2nd thing is, is i would hope no matter what political party that they are, part of that understanding the after effects of slavery would inform their policy

decisions. and that is actually very serious. and we don't see enough law makers doing that. you know, we're still trying to, as a country, to decide if systemic racism as a thing. but you know what, you know, what, you know, what really the reason this story has struck me and made me think, and maybe it's even been one of those counter intuitive moments for me, which, you know, i should have had to be a kind of thing. was when i started thinking about this, i've always been so proud to be an american in that i've always felt that as an american, i lived in one of the few countries on earth where you could literally grow up poor . and you know, the whole log cabin abraham lincoln thing. you can have no money and become president. the people who make it big in america are not there because they are like the europeans, like those people in england where everything is class. and you know, you have to be part of the royals or the dukes and we don't have any of that here. anybody can just go up and be anything. and our leaders don't come from the gilded

age or anything like that. they, they just are people who've worked harder than the next guy. and guess what? after reading the study, i now think that that thought process that i grew up with, and most of us grew up with, is bullcrap a. well, you know, i tend to be optimistic. i agree with you that we have an ideal, but we're not quite there. and i know for asking americans, it's kind of, you know, 2 sides of a coined where on one hand, i knew i grew up like a lot of african americans knowing that whatever i sought to achieve, i was going to have to work a lot harder. just because of the perceptions you might call on my skin and the racism that we haven't dealt with in this country. but that's exactly my point kelvin. you just, you just made my argument well, trying to disagree with me. personally, i've had to work twice as hard, they didn't, and we're not talking about a small percentage. all right, less than 2 percent of americans during the civil war had slaves less than 2 percent. and yet, up to 40 percent,

up to 25 percent of the people in leadership today had slaves. just think about that number real quick. i mean, 25 percent of the people who come from families who had slaves happen to be extremely successful and are the leaders of the united states of america a while only 2 percent of the time actually even had slaves the, the math does not add up what it says is, we're no different than the europeans. we may not call them kings and queens and dukes and all that crap, but we're no different. well, here's what i think 1st, you know, the positive side of all of that is i think it's possible and i hope it will get better. i think brock obama is a good example of that. yeah, this dichotomy of we have racism in some ways is becoming more apparent. but then, you know, we've had an out american president, but i think on that number about, you know, the number of people that, you know, had slaves in my research during about my family working on my book. i talked to a lot of white people who had assumed slavery and its aftermath had nothing to do

with them. because they said, you know, my family was poor at that time, or we didn't have slaves or my family came after the slavery was ended. but what i try to explain and then is you have the people who own slaves. but then you have the people that benefited from that system. and you have the people that, you know, even if they didn't have slaves, they understood that they could benefit from the system and they, after a map of that created. so it affected a lot more than those just those 2 percent. by the way, you mentioned brock obama. here's a lie or any for you. among all living presidents, only one does not come from parents who had slaves, and that's not brock obama. it's donald trump. and the only reason for that, by the way, is that donald trump's family did not immigrate to the united states until after slavery was done, so he could not have had slights. you know, uh meanwhile, president obama, on his mother's side comes from

a family of slave slave holders. yeah. for me and a lot of african americans, that's not really a surprise because my great great, great grandfather was a slave on. and he essentially right, a, one of the slaves and the baby from that incident was my great great grandfather. and so it's a very reopened, biggest i want, i want to just stop for a moment. i want, i want our, our viewers are around the world to listen to what you just said. it's just because it's, it's pretty amazing what you just said well, and also it ties into the fact that my last name is dart b a r k. my name came from the fact that once slavery was over and you had these mixed families, you know, in this country, you know, if you had one drop of black blood, you're black. um, some of my relatives are very light skin. and what happened was they couldn't take the name of the white slave owning family,

so the name dark was made up. that's my name today because of that. and so i think there are a lot of african americans that have the stories. now one thing i want to say on a former president, trump, i think that what we have to remember to, even though his family came after slavery, i think he has something that he could have done for 2 reasons. one, his family built their fortunes on the, the system that was set up after slavery. and specifically, we know during the 70s he and his father had a lot of dealings with the justice department on discrimination in housing. okay. yeah, it was a really big thing and, and what enabled them to even do it in the 1st place where things like red lining that came after slavery. so black people couldn't live well, white people live. yeah, so i think that's one reason i also think for president trump had a responsibility as president, you know, regardless of what he personally did to see that the after effects stomach, racism is something needs to be address. and i think not only didn't he address

a bit exacerbated in some cases. yeah. but, so here's the thing and look at trust me. i'm not going to get into an argument with you about president trump. so moral of moral standing when it comes to this as a hispanic myself. i've heard some of the things that he said including. busy all the mexicans crossing the border are rapists and criminals, quote on quote specific words, by the way, and those words about it. but you know what, or here's where i'm going to give the president of the past. what this study tells me is from may be that overt blowhard, who says the things and does the things that are that we can put a finger on and say, wow, what a racist action. wow, what a racist statement. but is he really that much different from all the other people in the system that this, that this, this, this, this report shows us were 25 percent of the senate come from families,

which were slaveholders. and even today, we tend to see that their, their, their, their, their nuanced actions also reflect the same things that were taking place more than a 100 years ago. know, right, and i think that if you look at the case of lawmakers to test a something you have in particular south carolina, mississippi, georgia, alabama. that the people who represent those districts not only are from states that you know were at the heart of slave holding our country. but as the study showed, many of them descend directly from slaveholders. yet they tend to be the ones that are pushing back the most against things like, you know, promoting diversity, addressing systemic racism. and so i, i'm off until one of my friends, if you can name a slight hold in your family tree, then you are not ever speak

a gets that there isn't systemic racism. so in that sense, i do believe that they are even more responsible because not only are they in power as former present trump was, but in additionally they know what's in their family tree. and so they can't say, didn't realize the problem exist. i want to talk to you in just a moment about the personal side of this. first of all, as i teased at the very beginning before i started my interview with you, i'm absolutely fascinated by the fact that on your grandfather saw ride. you come from slave holders on your great grandmother's side. however many years you want to go back, i don't know how many grades we have to and put in front of the word grand. you come from slaves. that is such a unique and special needing perspective to carry with you throughout your life. and i think that's something that's also what part of the conversation i want to share with you as well. what it's like for me as a latino we are minorities in the united states of america. we love our country,

but we also are not afraid to point out its blemishes. so i want to get into that a little bit because i think this is a good topic for that type of conversation between 2 guys. like you and me, we're gonna come back in just a minute. with this conversation with calvin dark. by the way, i'd like to continue this conversation with you. we can do so on twitter. love to talk to you on twitter or x or whatever the hell they're calling it these days more handle their it's rick sanchez, tv. that's rick sanchez, tv, and i'll look forward to hearing what you have to say in particular about this story. but when we come back, so on the question of who had slaves prior to the civil war? who do you think that more republicans or democrats and want to take you through the of the we

are in august on one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse regions on the entire planet. as you make your way through the start, you will discover each region is known for its own unique arts and traditions the known in vietnam american war, the vietnam war lost it for almost 2 decades and drained in numerous countries. not any time right now and then you don't see it now. wow. it's all, i'm emptied. hundreds of thousands of american troops was sent to the country to bank the south vietnamese on me. i got to say no not that not, but the american soldiers murdered resistors mercilessly burned down entire

villages and spread dangerous chemicals. and lee laid up day by all right. did the americans ever fully acknowledge what they did on the vietnamese veterans ready to forgive? yes, yes, yes, that's the way to the quarterback. i want to mention something else that reuters also did when it broke down this study. they also looked at party affiliation, but they found is this 20 percent of republicans come from families that own slaves while only 8 percent of democrats that but before you come to the conclusion that this means that republicans are more races. let's examine the why is a,

the vast majority of elected republican officials come from southern states. that's where they've been elected recently in southern states. the south is where slavery was rampant because it was more profitable there. so it follows that there are more apt to be defendants if they're from the south. just as northern elected officials today will be more apt to come from families who are part of a non agricultural businesses like manufacturing. so let's get back to this conversation with calvin dark. and before we went to break, i mentioned this about new calvin. i think it's fascinating that you actually represent both sides of his argument. you don't need to guess, cuz you can literally speak for both what it's like to come from knowing that you come from slain holder family. because you know, well knowing that you also come from slaves in your family, which you do deal with that then. and what, what have the, how does that shape you?

if it does, oh, it definitely shapes me and i'll add one other interesting dynamic to that. the town where i grew up, i have very close relationships with the white people who are part of the slave moaning family. because we have to remember these are rural areas. we literally grew up across the street from each other way. no, no, no, you're not telling me that they have reclaimed, you have they? i mean your, your white ancestors have embraced you and said you are a part of our family like family get togethers and stuff like this. it's, it's either one or 2 extremes. the more common extreme is people that i've known growing up for wife who didn't really know for sure that we were related, right? even though our families, you know, are connected by location and everything like that. i, in my research, you know, especially doing some like genetic geology where i was able to like,

actually prove it. yeah. one extreme was just distancing. and i, i really got the impression that they didn't know what they, what was expected of them. you know, were they going to be asked to apologize? what should they do? on the other extreme, this is less, so wait a minute, take, take me back. i think i lost you a little bit there. and i think maybe the listeners and viewers to, to uh, you're saying you, you've had opportunity to confront, or maybe confront is the wrong word. embrace meet your ancestors on your grandfathers side and when you and when you, when you reached out to them and told them you and i are related. how did they respond? what, what did they say? did they say b. s? i don't believe you. you can't be your black, i'm not. know, most of them had ideas. you know, they never confirmed it. and it was, i didn't get any real, a negative reaction, but i did it kind of standoffishness like they were afraid to really pursue it.

because they didn't know what that opened up, and they didn't want to really know the details of those slight holding relationships. because like i said, these are people that i grew up with. now will say on the other extreme, i had a couple of people who, when i heard about my research or you know, relatives or people i contacted called me and you know, one lady apologized for her relative. she even said she was hoping that her relative, you weren't a part of, you know, the slavery and institution of slavery. and i had one of one of those white relatives who happens to be married to an african american man. insured told me that her way of rebelling against the racism that had been in our family is married . a black man and their children are african american, you know, and they're met. so that's something that i've had to really grapple with. and you know, kind of, you ask you to have that kind of informs me and what i do, i see connection with that. when you mentioned your situation here,

because my friends and latino community, i've always been jealous of the one thing in particular. uh huh. and that is not being able to point to exactly where my culture comes from. you know, i can point roughly to a cotton, you know what i mean? and that was intentional. it's because you know, that identity was stripped away. and one of the things that it's made me kind of grapple with is because i did research on the side of the go to inflate. and the and laborers i know from, in northern ireland, the towns where the dance labor was from. i've had to ask myself, do i claim them to have a right to claim them? do i want to claim them? and so those are issues that are no, no, no, no, no, you're not coming out of this. you just asked a very important question and i'm going to fire that right back out that you, you know, that you had a man in your defend and see who was a rapist. uh and as you referred to him and then slaver. and it's,

it's funny that you're using that word because it had some very negative connotations. do you accept the fact that he was just a man of his generation? or do you think he was a son of a bitch? well, i think in his particular case, he was a, he was in the system, you know, and he didn't fight back against it. however, what started my research project was on his deathbed because he knew we had the 2 slaves. the want, the, the, the psych woman and then the child that resulted me, they were going to be remaining in slavery after he died. and so he kind of had, at the last moment, this a tiffany, i guess you want to call it freedom inc. and well, he tried to north carolina, it like many southern states. it was illegal to free your slaves unless you pay like a huge bon. they wanted to discourage free black people in those states. and so i make sure that i give him credit for that at the end, but that i recognize that,

you know, even with that, i don't think he saw them is equal. i don't think he saw them is fully human beings . and i think that that unfortunately, after slavery was over, that carried out, carried on and to our laws in our society, and we still haven't addressed it. you are a delightful guest. thanks so much for. thank you. taking us through this conversation. like i said earlier, we couldn't evict a better person to have this conversation with. thanks again, my friend. thank you. enjoyed being here to hey, before we go, i want to remind you of something. our mission. it's simple, really. we want to the silo the world. we've got to stop living in these little boxes with one set of rules over here. one set of troops over here, one sort of troops over there. no troops don't live in boxes, they're everywhere. i'm research. i'll be looking for you again right here, where we hope to provide a direct impact the

the asia tends to speak for a to we, we can, we are free to do whatever is in the interest of asia. so with that, i believe with the, with the nice of but not if it's a non issue for us news . the at the end of the 18th century britain began the illegal opium afraid in china. this hard drugs causing addiction and literally destroying the human body became

a gold mine, or businessman from the foggy l. b. a. however, the ruling chinese gene dynasty tried to resist and to stop the illegal trade, which provoked the wrath of the london business community. in 1840 without a declaration of war, the english fleet began to seize and plunder chinese coastal boards. the bar lee armed and poorly drained chinese army, was unable to provide adequate resistance. the jing empire was forced to hand hong kong over to england and open its boards for trading the legal goods in 1856 branch and the united states joined in the robbery of china. the anglo french troops defeated the chinese occupied basie and committed an unprecedented robbery. destroyed and blundered the wealth of the un menu one palace. the defeat of the jing dynasty and the do opium wars fled to the transformation of the celestial

empire into a semi colony of european states and started the age of humiliation. and the sale of opium took on collazo proportions and led to the horrible depths of millions of ordinary chinese the of the the work i'm not, i'm kind of read now when you're saying that now why why,

why, why being given you labeled out monday. so i'm talking about week of total weight the on the in the on.