The People's Donkey

Summary

The Breakfast Club – Episode Summary

Podcast: The Breakfast Club
Host: The Black Effect Podcast Network & iHeartPodcasts
Episode: The People's Donkey
Date: June 19, 2026

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Episode Overview

This special Juneteenth episode of The Breakfast Club features DJ Envy and Charlamagne Tha God (with Jess Hilarious notably absent) discussing the significance of Juneteenth, black culture, and systemic challenges, with a focus on community contributions. In honor of the holiday, the episode centers on the "People's Donkey" segment, allowing listeners to phone in and share their frustrations, shoutouts, and thoughts on the current meaning of Juneteenth.

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Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. Juneteenth as a Federal Holiday and Black Responsibility

• Charlamagne emphasizes that, despite being a federal holiday, Juneteenth hasn't yet become the kind of day Black people in media and entertainment should take off. Instead, he believes they should use their platform to educate and celebrate.

  • Quote: "Juneteenth is a federal hol, but I don't feel like it's the kind of holiday to be off on if you black and work in radio or entertainment. ...we should be on the radio, raising awareness for it and celebrating it." (02:57)

• DJ Envy agrees on the show's roots and their role in using the platform for community upliftment, likening Juneteenth to other celebrated holidays but recognizing it's not widely observed at the same level—yet.

  • Quote: "Juneteenth ain't there yet, man." (05:59)

2. Caller Engagement: The People's Donkey Segment

Listeners call in to air gripes and share Juneteenth reflections:

a. Dion from Dallas (03:23)

• Calls out non-black people who fail to respect Black contributions and the significance of Juneteenth, expressing frustration with ongoing ignorance in 2026.

  • Quote: "I want to get a biggest he haw to everybody or every other race that's not black, that just don't respect us. ...Why are we going backwards? It's 2026." (03:27)

• Charlamagne responds by highlighting Juneteenth as not just a celebration but also a day of education, reiterating that learning about Black history should be a continuous effort, not just reserved for Juneteenth.

b. Joe from Lancaster, PA (04:50)

• Complains about workplace inequality, sharing that while the corporate (white) side of his company is off for the holiday, mostly Black and minority workers are still required to work.

  • Quote: "So you mean to tell me that the white people took advantage of the federal holiday, but they made y'all work?" (05:21)

• Discussion about Juneteenth vs. MLK Day: Joe reveals that his company made employees choose between celebrating MLK Day or Juneteenth.

  • Quote: "They chose between Martin Luther King Day, Dr. Martin Luther King Day, and Juneteenth, one of the days." (05:32)

• Challenges in Celebration: Joe discusses the lack of Black community representation in his area and uncertainty on how to celebrate Juneteenth versus more mainstream holidays like July 4th.

  • Quote: "I think it's trivial on, like, how to celebrate if people are still, like, on offensive." (06:54)

c. Philip from Ferro, PA (08:04)

• Satirical complaint about women who claim to have "a roster" and then pivots to criticizing the idea of "black fatigue" (non-Black people expressing tiredness regarding Black issues).

  • Quote: "I'm tired of hearing about black fatigue because how we go through all this for, like 400 some years now, all of a sudden y'all got fatigued black Fatigue." (08:29)

• Charlamagne jokes about being fatigued but not with Black people—”I got fatigue. I'm so sick of these. I'm so tired of these, man. ...But black people. I love my black people." (08:48)

d. Ken (Cap Ken) from Cap Ken YouTube (09:20)

• Calls out DJ Envy for not replying to a submission for a Black-owned RV business to participate in his car show. DJ Envy responds with logistical explanations and promises to follow up.

  • Quote, DJ Envy: "Your van is so big...We wanna make sure that if we put your car in there, you're gonna get the proper space...we gonna get back to you this week, brother." (10:14)

• Promotes his business: Ken asks for a shout-out for his YouTube channel supporting alternative Black lifestyles and RV living.

  • Quote: "We build camper vans for the black community. We want to get everybody interested in living a different alternative lifestyle." (11:13)

3. Community, Solidarity, and Celebration

• Calls for broader participation: Charlamagne highlights that Juneteenth, while rooted in Black history, should also be observed by non-Black communities in the same way other cultural holidays are recognized.

  • Quote: "...people of all backgrounds, like Dominicans...they can observe Juneteenth because we observe Cinco de Mayo and St Patrick's Day..." (12:04)

• Encouragement to reflect and support: Both hosts champion supporting Black-owned businesses, attending Black community events, and using the day to reflect on ongoing struggles for equality.

  • Quote: "You should celebrate by learning about the history of black people. You should attend black community events. And today is a great day to reflect on broader themes of freedom and equality." (12:14)

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Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• Charlamagne on being present for Juneteenth:
  "Back in 2010, it was just me and Envy and Angela Yee...and we made it happen. ... Juneteenth is a federal hol, but I don't feel like it's the kind of holiday to be off on if you black and work in radio or entertainment." (02:30 - 02:57)

• Dion calling out lack of respect:
  "We in 2026, we got the Internet, all types of information...but these people just don't understand the contributions we made to this country." (03:27-03:57)

• Joe on workplace inequality:
  "The corporate office has off, but everybody on the ground still has to work." (05:06)

• Charlamagne on MLK “branding”:
  "If you can only have one, you would choose MLK Day. Because MLK, he just got better branding and marketing. That's why." (05:45)

• Discussion on how to celebrate Juneteenth:
  "My daughter went to prom yesterday...we was just sitting around like, damn, what should we do for Juneteenth? ... It's no different than Fourth of July. You know, you get together. It's in the summertime. You have little gatherings. You have cookouts..." (06:23)

• Philip on “black fatigue”:
  "We the only ones allowed to have that? ...I don't have black fatigue. ...But black people. I love my black people. But these. Oh, Lord, I'm so tired of them. God damn it." (08:27 - 08:56)

• Ken promoting Black RV business:
  "We build camper vans for the black community. ...Check out YouTube at Cap Ken, that's K A P, K E N." (11:13)

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Important Timestamps

• 02:30 – Start of Donkey of the Day/People’s Donkey segment
• 03:23 – Dion’s call: Lack of respect for Juneteenth
• 04:50 – Joe’s call: On working Juneteenth while white coworkers are off
• 06:17 – Discussion on learning about Juneteenth via social media
• 08:04 – Philip’s call: On “rosters” and “black fatigue”
• 09:20 – Ken’s call: Support for Black camper van business and DJ Envy’s event
• 12:30 – Hosts invite callers to share Juneteenth activities and reflections

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Tone and Language

The discussion is conversational, authentic, and candid—marked by humor, streetwise observations, and a deep sense of cultural pride and frustration. The hosts balance light-hearted ribbing with serious reflection on racial justice and community solidarity.

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Conclusion

This Breakfast Club episode turns the focus toward community reflections and collective frustrations on Juneteenth. By opening the phone lines, the hosts amplify everyday Black voices—from workers still not afforded the full dignity this holiday represents, to entrepreneurs seeking platforms, to long-haul listeners expressing fatigue mixed with pride. The conversation is a blend of celebration, ongoing education, and a reminder that the work for true freedom and recognition continues—on and beyond Juneteenth.

Transcript

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[Charlamagne Tha God]

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[Charlamagne Tha God]

800-585-1051 yes Donkey Today for Friday, June 19th Juneteenth is the People's donkey. Today really does feel like the early days of Breakfast Club, man. If you're just joining us, it's just myself here and Envy and Red, our bored op. And it feels like the early days of Breakfast Club because back in 2010, it was just me and Envy and Angela Yee and our bored op and Mezzy and our producer, Q.

[DJ Envy]

That was it.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

And we was the little niggas that could.

[DJ Envy]

That's right.

[Philip]

That's right.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

All right. And we made it happen. And, you know, Juneteenth is a federal hol, but I don't feel like it's the kind of holiday to be off on if you black and work in radio or entertainment. Okay, not yet, anyway. Biden just made it a federal holiday in 2021. Like, we not 4th of July, Memorial Day, or Veterans Day, or MLK Day yet. So I feel like we should be on the radio, you know, raising awareness for it and celebrating it and, you know, talking to the people about it. So that's why we're here today. But it is the people's donkey. Good morning. Who's this?

[Dion]

Yo, this is Dion.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Dion, what's happening, my brother? Who you want to get a biggest he haw to?

[Dion]

I want to get a biggest he haw to everybody or every other race that's not black, that just don't respect us. You know what I'm saying? We in 2026, we got the Internet, all types of information you can get. You can do independent fact checking, but these people just don't understand the contributions we made to this country. Oh, so you know, Juneteenth, like, bro, like, what's going on here? Like, why are we going backwards? It's 2026. We've been fighting for right since the 50s and 60s, you know what I'm saying?

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Well, you know, that's why even though today is a federal holiday and this is our day off, you know, me. And if he still wanted come in here, because that's what Juneteenth is absolutely all about. Juneteenth is, you know, not just a celebration of freedom. It is a day of remembrance and education and, you know, it's a day for people to learn about, you know, black history and black culture, even though they should be doing it every goddamn day. But, you know, and you're right, man.

[Dion]

I'm working right now myself, you know what I'm saying? So you're doing what you're supposed to do, man. We appreciate everything y' all doing.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

I appreciate you.

[State Farm Advertiser]

Where you working?

[Dion]

I'm in Dallas right now. I work for a finance company, but I'm from Baltimore and I just want to say shout out to Jess, man. I seen her when she was there in Plano and she doing her thing up there, man.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Well, she's not doing her thing up here today because she decided not to come in today.

[Dion]

No, if I was her, I probably wouldn't have came in either.

[Philip]

So I get it.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Jess said she free. Thank you for calling my brother.

[Dion]

For sure.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Yes, sir.

[Philip]

All right.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Good morning. Who's this?

[Joe]

This is Joe from Lancaster Penns.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Joe who? You want to get the biggest? He haw to Joe. Don't curse, man.

[Joe]

Everybody.

[Philip]

Oh, my bad.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Yeah, we got a skeleton crew today. It's just me and being red, so we don't got everybody doing all editing. Okay. Okay. But who is your job? Who you. Where you work at?

[Joe]

Henkel and McCoy. I work for them. They the corporate office heads off today, but I do construction. The corporate office has off, but everybody on the ground still has to work.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Is it a black owned company?

[Joe]

No, no, this is a. It's a pretty huge company. It's not black owned.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

So you mean to tell me that the white people took advantage of the federal holiday, but they made y' all work?

[Philip]

Yep.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Did they? Do they work? Do they know that Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery?

[Joe]

No, I don't think they do. Out of probably 50 something employees, there's about three of us. And they chose between Martin Luther King Day, Dr. Martin Luther King Day, and Juneteenth, one of the days.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

But you know why they probably chose Martin Luther King Jr. Day. If you can only have one, you would choose MLK Day. Because mlk, he just got better branding and marketing. That's why. That's another reason I wanted to come to work.

[DJ Envy]

He's had a longer.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

I don't have a longer run. No, for real. Like Martin Luther King did. Fourth of July, Memorial Day, Veterans Day. Juneteenth ain't there yet, man.

[Joe]

That's true. And I think social media was allowed us to get that information out about Juneteenth. So, you know, we're just starting to really, really hear and learn about it like that. Because of social media.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

That's right.

[Joe]

I didn't hear about this when I was a kid. I thought July 4th was it.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

We don't even know how to celebrate.

[Joe]

I never knew about it.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Like yesterday we. My daughter went to prom yesterday. So, you know, like a bunch of people was at the house and stuff and we was just sitting around like, damn, what should we do for Juneteenth? Tomorrow. But it's a. It's no different than Fourth of July. You know, you get together. It's in the summertime. You have little gatherings. You have cookouts, you know. Yeah. There's parades and festivals going on. Salute to the International African American Museum in Charlton, South Carolina. They got Juneteenth on the yard today from noon to 5pm These smoke's gonna be out there. So it's like. It's events going on all over the place.

[Joe]

Yeah, I was looking that up. There's a lot of things to do. I just don't think. I think. Well, in my area, there aren't a lot of books out here. Ain't a lot of black folks out here. So, like. Yeah, I think it kind of. I think it's trivial on, like, how to celebrate if people are still, like, on offensive. At least from my. My point of view, it seems like some of us be on the fence whether we could celebrate this the same as Fourth of July or not.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

We should.

[Joe]

I'm not sure what the hesitation is. I mean, absolutely.

[Ken (Cap Ken)]

We should.

[DJ Envy]

Yeah.

[Joe]

I think people are doing it just. I'm not in a predominantly black city, so it's, you know, it comes off weird to people. Like, it's at least job wise, I would say maybe.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Well, when you get off today, man, go throw. Go throw one back and put something in the air for Juneteenth, man, like we do for any other holidays.

[Joe]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Yes, sir.

[Joe]

Absolutely. Oh, can I give a quick shout out? Of course, Victoria. Love you. And. And hats off to all the other brothers and sisters that's out here working through this. You know, I actually have one of my brothers on my crew working. I mean, I want to give a shout out to all them. Wale, Ty, Kid, everybody. My parents. I got good parents. I can actually say that.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Yes, sir.

[Dion]

Yeah.

[Joe]

Shout out to y', all, man. I appreciate y', all, man, for being on here.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Thank you. King Brother. Good morning. Who's this?

[Philip]

This is Philip from Ferro, pa. Philip,

[Charlamagne Tha God]

who you want to get the biggest yard to?

[Philip]

Okay. The biggest PR goes to these chicks that be saying they got a roster. Because, you know, a key that opens up every lock is a master key, but a lock that opens up for every key is useless. So you don't have a roster. You're a Jesus. Can I give one more?

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Yes, go ahead, sir.

[Philip]

Okay. I'm tired of hearing about black fatigue because how we go through all this for, like 400 some years now, all of a sudden y' all got fatigued black Fatigue.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Tell me. Oh, you mean people that are tired of black people?

[Philip]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We the only ones allowed to have that?

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Yeah, I. I'm. I don't have black fatigue. I got fatigue. I'm so sick of these. I'm so tired of these, man.

[Philip]

You want me both?

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Yeah, yeah, but black people. I love my black people. But these. Oh, Lord, I'm so tired of them. God damn it.

[Philip]

Yeah, we the only ones allowed to speak on that.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

That's right. Because we the only ones that understand the difference. For real. You know what I'm saying?

[Dion]

Right?

[Philip]

It's your time. Imagine what we got going on.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

You see what I'm saying?

[Philip]

Y' all don't know time.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's right. Happy Juneteenth, my brother. Good morning. Who's this?

[Ken (Cap Ken)]

This is Ken from cap.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Ken Kim from what?

[Ken (Cap Ken)]

Cap can is the name of our YouTube page. So we.

[Joe]

That's my wife and my name put together.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Okay. What's up, camp? Happy Juneteenth, man.

[Ken (Cap Ken)]

Hey. Happy Juneteenth, man. I appreciate you guys showing up for work, man. Most people don't do that and I'm working too, so. Hey, man, I appreciate it.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Who you want to get the biggest he haw to, man?

[Ken (Cap Ken)]

I want to give a he heart to DJ Envy and his car show.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Oh, what do you do? What did this Dominican do? Oh, boy. Now keep in mind, this Dominican is here on Juneteenth. Okay, sir.

[Ken (Cap Ken)]

Hey, let me tell you, man, we. We sent the email to DJ Envy for his car show to submit our car, which is actually not a car. What we do, we build camper vans. So it was African aspire camper vans. And we sent, you know, videos and pictures and did not get a response. We was like, what's going on, man?

[DJ Envy]

Not yet. Yeah. Cause your van is so big. This is for the Virginia one or the essence. The one in New Orleans.

[Ken (Cap Ken)]

The one in Virginia.

[DJ Envy]

Yeah. So your vans and your RVs are so big, we gotta make sure that we could actually space it. We wanna make sure that if we put your car in there, you're gonna get the proper space and the proper, you know, detailing and things that you would need, you know, for it. Cause you got a big ass rv. So we gonna get back to you this week, brother. Don't worry.

[Ken (Cap Ken)]

Oh, please do, man. Because like I said, we build a camper vans. We just starting this business and we're hoping to get the thing going and something like your, your, your car shows will help give us a nice Boost for the black community, man.

[DJ Envy]

All right, well. And it's an indoor and outdoor show. The show is July 25th in Hampton, Virginia. And maybe we could fit you, you know, we could put you guys outdoor because we're doing a block party outside. But, you know, I'll talk to Mercedes and we'll get you in, brother. Don't worry about it.

[Ken (Cap Ken)]

Oh, I appreciate it, man. I appreciate you guys, and I love you guys. Listen to you every morning, my wife and I. And if you can, I would love if y' all can give our YouTube channel a shout out.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Go ahead, do your thing, my brother.

[Ken (Cap Ken)]

All right, this is Captain. We build camper vans for the black community. We want to get everybody interested in living a different alternative lifestyle. So if you can check out YouTube at Cap Ken, that's K A P, K E N. You'll see what we're building.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Yes, sir.

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All right, brother.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Appreciate you, man.

[DJ Envy]

Now that was the people's donkey.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

That was the people's donkey. We do that every Friday, 1-800-585-1051. You can call up and give somebody the credit they deserve for being stupid. And, you know, salute to envy. He is Dominican, but he does so much for the black community, man. You know what I'm saying? And Juneteenth is not just for black Americans. It is a holiday that. It is a holiday that commemorates the emancipation of enslaved, you know, African Americans. And it does center black history. But people of all backgrounds, like Dominicans, indeed, they can observe Juneteenth because we observe Cinco de Mayo and St Patrick's Day and all that other stuff. Like, so. So, you know, other racists can observe Juneteenth as well. And you should celebrate by learning about the history of black people. You should attend black community events. And today is a great day to reflect on broader themes of freedom and equality. As one of the brothers said earlier, they are definitely rolling us back. So today is a great day to reflect on broader themes of freedom and equality.

[DJ Envy]

So let's clear the lives. Let's open up the phone lines and find out what people are doing today.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Yeah, let's see how people celebrating. Let's see if you are out here learning about the history of Juneteenth. Are you spending time with family and friends? Are you supporting the black owned business or a local. Local black event? You know, are you reflecting on the meaning of freedom and the ongoing work toward equal opportunity? Let's Discuss.

[DJ Envy]

That's right. 800-585-1051. Let's open up the phone lines. Let's talk to you. What are you doing Today? It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning, dog.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

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