The Joy Reid Show – October 14, 2025

Episode: "Indigenous Peoples Day: Fight Fascism Everywhere"

Episode Overview

On this special Indigenous Peoples Day episode, Joy-Ann Reid delivers a sweeping, incisive analysis tying the legacy of European colonization, historical and ongoing erasure of Indigenous peoples, and the fight against rising fascism and white Christian nationalism in America. The episode features two major interviews—one with Indigenous writer and filmmaker Julian Brave Noisecat about Indigenous history and reclaiming narratives, and another with legal scholar Professor Ekow Yankah reflecting on allyship, racism, immigration, and the weaponization of law under the Trump regime. The show closes with in-depth coverage of attacks on Black women such as New York Attorney General Letitia James, an exploration of the political weaponization of homeownership, and commentary on the US role in the Israel-Palestine conflict.

1. Opening: The True Meaning of Indigenous Peoples Day (00:20–09:49)

Key Points:

• Joy welcomes listeners across platforms and acknowledges the audience.
• Deep dive into the historical origins of both Indigenous Peoples Day and Columbus Day, exposing the violent, colonial logic behind the latter.
• Joy outlines the Catholic Church’s 15th-century papal bulls legitimizing conquest, enslavement, and genocide of Indigenous peoples globally.
• Depiction of Indigenous dispossession in the Americas, linking colonial violence to the transatlantic slave trade and later conflicts in Palestine.
• Columbus Day’s origin revealed: created to appease Italy after the 1891 New Orleans mass lynching of 11 Italian Americans, with its transformation into a US holiday under FDR. Intended as a one-time event, it became a recurring holiday celebrating conquest, erasure, and the narrative of triumphant settler colonialism.
• [07:51] Joy criticizes right-wing efforts (e.g., PragerU) to whitewash history, and celebrates “narrative disruptors” like Nikole Hannah-Jones and Michael Harriot who challenge dominant myths.

Notable Quotes:

• “They started out having the whole country, but it wasn’t long before they had none of it.” (04:06, Joy Reid)
• “Columbus Day was a holiday to appease Italy over the lynching of Italians in the former slave South, now commemorated as the theft of the American continent...” (07:01, Joy Reid)

2. Interview: Julian Brave Noisecat on Indigenous History & Narrative Reclamation (09:49–18:56)

Julian Brave Noisecat: Writer, filmmaker, champion powwow dancer, and author of "We Survived the Night".

Key Segments & Insights:

Personal & Family History

• Noisecat recounts his father’s birth at a Canadian Indian residential school and survival of infanticide (“found in the trash incinerator”)—a family trauma illustrating the violence of colonial assimilation.
  • [10:20] “My family’s never really talked about [my father’s story]...it’s a really painful story about what was happening to the babies born at schools like St. Joseph’s Mission...” (Julian Brave Noisecat)
• Discussion of Indigenous peoples’ “contradictory position” of belonging to a homeland that has been stolen and is unrecognized by the broader society.
  • [11:36] “It’s a maddening thing to live in a country where that erasure is commemorated everywhere...every single inch of North America is evidence of colonization.” (Julian Brave Noisecat)

Counter-Narratives to Triumph

• Joy and Julian dissect how conquest is glorified, ignoring that 90% of Indigenous inhabitants were killed.
• Noisecat illustrates an Indigenous oral history retelling of Simon Fraser’s arrival, not as a “discovery,” but as a coyote–a trickster heralding the world’s end.
  • [13:15] “Our people remember Simon Fraser as the return of [the trickster] Coyote, who marked the beginning of the end of our world...not discovery, but survival by chance.” (Noisecat)

Colonization, Stewardship, & Assimilation

• They critique Western capitalism’s claim that Indigenous people didn’t utilize the land "productively."
• Noisecat underscores the difference between sustainable stewardship (by Indigenous peoples) and environmental collapse under colonialism in just a few centuries.
  • [15:39] “One of the main justifications for colonization was this idea that Native people weren’t using the land...but for thousands of years, Indigenous peoples created sustainable relationships with the land.” (Noisecat)

Canada vs. US: The Politics of “Sorry”

• Canada’s public apologies (“saying sorry”) are more visible than in the US, but neither state invests in Indigenous restoration commensurate with what was done to destroy Native communities.
  • [17:15] “There’s more visibility for Native people, Canadians feel ‘sorry’, but at the end of the day, our people still fall to the bottom of every measurement of misery in both countries.” (Noisecat)

Book Plug & Closing

• Joy plugs Noisecat’s new book, “We Survived the Night.”

3. Systemic Racism, Trust, and Allyship: Revisiting Race Relations with Prof. Ekow Yankah (21:19–55:54)

Professor Ekow Yankah: Law Professor, NYT Op-Ed Author (“Can My Children Be Friends With White People?”)

A. Media Clip: Tucker Carlson’s 2017 Interview with Prof. Yankah (21:19–30:59)

• Tucker Carlson tries to frame Black wariness of white people as “racism,” ignoring the context of American history.
  • [23:55] “What was true for you has never been true for lots of people.” (Yankah to Carlson)
• Joy and Prof. Yankah highlight the hypocrisy—Carlson’s show regularly promotes white nationalist talking points even as he claims colorblindness.

B. The Problem with American “Truth-Telling” (30:59–32:36)

• Joy underscores the relevance of the 2017 interview to the current Trump regime.
• Prof. Yankah’s key point: Friendship and trust require active allyship—white friends, in times of crisis, must show up for those under attack.
  • [29:16] “If I want to prove I’m the kind of person who can be your friend, that means that when something threatens you, I actually have to be there for you.” (Yankah)

C. Lawless America: Immigration Raids, Brutality, and Journalist Arrests (32:36–41:55)

• Joy shares harrowing footage:
  • ICE agents ramming cars, kidnapping a Latina woman and her brother—U.S. citizens—at gunpoint, in full view.
  • Black residents in Chicago (including Patishu Fisher) detained “like we were nothing,” children separated from parents in chainsaw-equipped ICE raids.
  • A white woman journalist, WGN’s Debbie Brockman, tackled and arrested for witnessing an abduction.
• Framing: "If these videos came from Colombia or the Middle East, we’d call that dictatorship."

Notable Quotes:

• [37:27] "It was scary because I've never had a gun put in my face." (Patishu Fisher)

D. Interview: Prof. Yankah on Responsibility & Solidarity (42:53–55:54)

• Joy: “What do you make of white people now feeling compelled in Trump 2.0 to intervene?”
• Yankah applauds bystander bravery yet decries a culture where things must “get visceral and violent before we stand up for each other.”
  • [43:37] “I wish it didn’t have to be so visceral...but when your Black and brown friends tell you this is the danger you’re inviting, they weren’t making it up.”
• Why do Black Americans step up for others? “Our history fortifies us—we know what it takes to earn the next step in the American story...We’re willing to take our turn.”
  • [46:02] “Black Americans, at least some of us, are deeply aware that it’s our turn.” (Yankah)
• Discusses "ally fatigue," moral obligation, and the dangers of detachment ("the experiment is not guaranteed—'blowing it up' risks everything").
• Joy & Yankah critique the return to a plutocratic, oligarchic America: “We’re returning to the status quo ante, where the planter class (now Big Oil, Big Tech) carves up the country.”
  • [55:21] “There’s got to be a bottom line where we stand together and say no further. If we don’t, power will consolidate.” (Yankah)
• Joy: “You took Tucker Carlson to school so thoroughly, all he could do was his weird laugh at the end—he was out of gas.”

4. The Weaponization of Law: Letitia James Indictment and Attacks on Black Women (58:00–87:14)

Context:

• Joy reads directly from Lawfare: Trump DOJ’s case against NY AG Letitia James is “thinner than toilet tissue,” attempting to criminalize her co-signing family mortgages.
• House values at issue: $137,000 (vs. Trump’s millions in fraud that James prosecuted civilly).
• These prosecutions—against James, Lisa Cook, Marilyn Mosby—reflect a pattern: targeting Black women for mundane acts of homeownership.

Interview: Karen Finney (Democratic Strategist, cousin of Letitia James)

Family Testimony

• [70:49] “She’s doing her job—when you can help family, you help family...all of this is dumb. The thinnest of the toilet tissues.” (Karen Finney)
• Finney and Joy underscore the hypocrisy—Trump appointees have committed actual mortgage fraud on luxury homes, yet only Black women are targeted.
• “She was trying to help her family. That’s what we should do. Isn’t that an American value?” (Karen Finney, 78:33)

Broader Injustice

• Joy: “Trump is weaponizing the American dream against Black women...he’s thrown Black women out of the workforce, out of higher ed, out of everything, and now out of homeownership.”
  • [81:48] “They’re basically saying, we’re cutting off every lane of the middle class American dream, especially from Black women...” (Joy)
• Karen: “We were never fooled. Not the first time, not the second. Now they’re even trying to take away the path to the middle class in the armed forces.” (83:19)

On Letitia James’ Resilience

• “She is not afraid...she is focused on serving New Yorkers and being part of our family.” (85:31, Finney)

5. The Trump Doctrine: White Christian Nationalism, Exclusion, and the Israel-Hamas Ceasefire (87:15–114:41)

A. White Christian Nationalism Exposed

• Joy identifies MAGA as a white supremacist religious movement: “If you’re brown, you can ride the MAGA bus, but you’re supposed to be in the back.”
• Clip: Indian-American Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy grilled at a MAGA event for being Hindu, exposing exclusion even of “friendly” non-white conservatives.
• Joy: “MAGaism is a white Christian nationalist philosophy...Its basis is exclusion and myth-making.”

B. America for ‘Us’: Erasing Non-Whites

• Clip of Senator Eric Schmitt: “America belongs to us—our heritage, our birthright. If America is everything and everyone, then it is nothing and no one at all.” (100:31–101:23)
• Joy: “That is what they believe...they don’t think Black and Brown people are legitimate members of this society.”

C. Middle East Politics: Trump, Netanyahu & Qatar

• Trita Parsi (Quincy Institute) explains the mechanics of the new ceasefire/prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas—Trump’s role, leverage, and why previous presidents balked.
• Parsi: “This could have happened two years ago if a president used US leverage. Biden never did it...”
  • [103:52] “This deal is a ceasefire and a prisoner exchange...But Trump has put his own name on this. Opposing it is to oppose Trump.”
  • Joy: “I always thought a Republican president had a better shot at peace...Democrats are too owned by the Israel lobby. Trump is just Trump.”
• Parsi: “Trump’s shift happened because Israel’s popularity plummeted with MAGA...It became a political liability for Trump.”
  • [113:12] “The answer lies more in how Israel has completely plummeted with Trump’s constituency.”

6. Moment of Joy: Fighting Fascism with Solidarity and Joy (114:46–Episode End)

• Joy spotlights activism: In cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, and especially Portland, citizens and business owners are fighting back against the Trump regime’s ICE raids and fascist tactics.
  • “Chicago businesses have said, ICE is not welcome—they refuse entry to businesses and parks. Portland? They fight fascism with furries and dancing.”
• Closing montage: “Dance, Antifa dads!”—joyful, creative protest as resistance.

Timestamps for Other Key Segments:

• [00:20] Start of show, Indigenous history monologue
• [09:49] Julian Brave Noisecat interview begins
• [21:19] Tucker Carlson/Prof. Yankah segment starts
• [42:53] Prof. Yankah joins live for further discussion
• [58:00] Letitia James case analysis
• [70:49] Karen Finney interview
• [87:15] “Moment of Joy” and anti-fascist activism
• [99:52] Eric Schmitt (White Christian Nationalist rhetoric)
• [103:52] Trita Parsi on Middle East ceasefire

Episode Highlights & Signature Quotes

• “If I want to prove I’m the kind of person who can be your friend, that means that when something threatens you, I have to be there for you.” (Prof. Yankah, 29:16)
• “This is a white Christian nationalist philosophy...It is a religion whose basis is white supremacy.” (Joy, 94:24)
• “She was trying to help her family. That’s what we should do. Isn’t that a core American value?” (Karen Finney, 78:33)

A thoughtful, unflinching episode connecting the past to the present, centering the voices and stories of the marginalized, and refusing to cede truth or joy in the face of fascism.