#1307 - Greg Fitzsimmons

Joe Rogan (0:02)

Boom, and we're live. What are you doing, Greg?

Greg Fitzsimmons (0:04)

I'm looking up the title of a book I want to talk about.

Joe Rogan (0:07)

Which book?

Greg Fitzsimmons (0:08)

It's an audio book, and it was about reconstruction.

Joe Rogan (0:11)

Oh, what we were just talking about with the slaves. Yeah.

Greg Fitzsimmons (0:14)

And it was about how, you know, once the slaves were freed, they still perpetuated slavery by, it's called, I gotta find it, by, slavery by another name, by Douglas Blackman. And it's about how they would, they had, they put loitering laws in all around the country, and they would find black people, and if they were standing around, they would arrest them. Or if there was like a petty larceny or a domestic violence thing, they'd arrest them for fucking two years with a trial with one judge and no jury. And the judge was very often a magistrate of the coal mining company. They'd send the prisoner to a coal mine for two years where he'd work seven days a week with shackles on, and they would fucking whip them.

And if they tried to escape, they tracked them down with dogs and they beat them sometimes to death. And this went on for fucking decades.

So people talk about, well, slavery ended back, no, forms of slavery went on for a long time.

Joe Rogan (1:28)

Not only that, slavery ended, and what effort was done to sort of rectify the situation? What effort was done to try to give even opportunities for people who grew up in African American cities that were predominantly slaves before 1865?

What's ever been done?

Greg Fitzsimmons (1:52)

40 acres and a mule, do they ever get that?

Joe Rogan (1:54)

Is that real?

Greg Fitzsimmons (1:55)

I don't know, it was a...

Joe Rogan (1:56)

But even if you're dealing with that, even if some people got 40 acres and a mule, like, what, is that enough?

Greg Fitzsimmons (2:03)

No.

Joe Rogan (2:03)

Like, the whole thing is crazy. If you have an entire country that the ancestors that did most of the work, did it against their will. And then you're just like, yeah, yeah, yeah, well, you don't have to do that anymore.

And then people are like, we want reparations. And white people are like, that was 100 years ago.

Greg Fitzsimmons (2:26)

Do you know, at Georgetown, do you read about this Georgetown University as giving reparations to the slaves that built the university?

Joe Rogan (2:35)

So the families of the slaves, the ancestors of the families?

Greg Fitzsimmons (2:38)

They track them down with like 23andMe or one of those companies. And they're fucking knocking on doors, and they're like, hey, are you blah, blah, blah?

Well, your great, great grandfather built Georgetown University, and they're assessing the students. I don't think it's official yet, but it looks like it's happening.

Joe Rogan (2:55)

My concern.

Greg Fitzsimmons (2:56)

They're assessing the students like 50 bucks each or something.

Joe Rogan (2:59)

My big concern is that it's gonna go the other way. They're gonna track down people's DNA and gonna go, we found out that your family profited from slavery.

SPEAKER_3 (3:08)

Like, oh, I'm 22

Greg Fitzsimmons (3:10)

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_3 (3:10)

What the fuck did I do?

Greg Fitzsimmons (3:12)

Yeah.

Joe Rogan (3:13)

Give me all your money.

All of your money. All your ill-gotten gains.

Greg Fitzsimmons (3:17)

Yeah.

Joe Rogan (3:17)

And you'd be like, but no, no, no, no. My dad had a legitimate job. He worked for H&R Block and this and that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But his grandfather got his money to raise his dad because he had slaves.

Greg Fitzsimmons (3:32)

Yeah. Well, wasn't Schwarzenegger's grandfather an SS soldier?

Joe Rogan (3:38)

We don't talk about that.

Greg Fitzsimmons (3:39)

He was a...

Joe Rogan (3:40)

Was he? His grandfather was?

Greg Fitzsimmons (3:42)

I think he was a green shirt.

Joe Rogan (3:43)

Whoa.

What, you know, like there's a kid named John Gotti III. It's John Gotti, the gangster's grandson.

Greg Fitzsimmons (3:52)

Yeah.

Joe Rogan (3:53)

And he's an MMA fighter.

Greg Fitzsimmons (3:54)

Oh, no shit.

Joe Rogan (3:55)

And he's good.

Greg Fitzsimmons (3:56)

No shit.

Joe Rogan (3:57)

He's good, yeah. So far, he's fighting on these small promotions, but he's fucking people up and he's jacked.

Greg Fitzsimmons (4:05)

Wow.

Joe Rogan (4:06)

Yeah.

Greg Fitzsimmons (4:07)

Yeah, I remember John, cause I lived on Mulberry Street in Little Italy.

Joe Rogan (4:11)

Yeah, I remember that place.

Greg Fitzsimmons (4:13)

And it was a fucking tenement apartment, and downstairs, literally downstairs and one door over was the Ravenite Social Club, which was where Gotti met on Wednesday nights. All the bosses would pull up and the capos and I don't know the terms, but they lined up fucking limos. You saw them all.