Ep.110 Racism to Redemption w/ Stephen Davis

In this episode, Stephen Davis shares his journey from being a leftist and a self-described racist to becoming a contributor for Turning Point USA. He discusses his transformation, his work educating the youth on the dangers of critical race theory, and his thoughts on fitness and bodybuilding. The conversation touches on how fitness principles can be applied to life and politics, dealing with negativity online, and the importance of self-accountability. Stephen also shares his experiences and views on navigating political landscapes, engaging with the black community, and staying true to oneself. #ProgrammingLionsPodcast

IG: @stephendavis1776

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00:00 Intro

00:12 Racism to Redemption

00:58 CrossFit

03:01 Capitalism vs. Communism

04:38 Ego Lifting

05:59 Journey into Politics

08:18 Victim Mentality

11:02 Facing Life's Challenges

11:36 Inspiration from Charlie Kirk

13:43 Online Hate

14:39 Debunking Racism

16:24 TPs Mission for Minority Communities

19:05 Hypocrisy in Politics

20:04 Final Thoughts

Transcript

Stephen_Davis-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_307ms-StreamYard 0:00

Welcome to the Programming Lions Podcast. This is Stephen Davis. Uh, how about you tell us a little bit about yourself? I'm Stephen Davis. I'm a contributor with Turning Point USA work with them full time. I was a former leftist and a former very moronic racist. But thank God for God's grace, I tell you that much. But you know, I was able to leave the lab to leave that racist mentality behind and now I go to college campuses and high schools and talk to the youth and, uh, young adults about critical race theory and how that produces a very racialized society. Was my mindset as a, as a younger individual and how we need to stay away from such ideologies that are so destructive to the cohesion of our United States of America. So that's what it's all about for me. Wow. Wow. And, uh, you, it is hard to miss your arms. Yeah. Yeah. No idea what it's talking about right now. Okay. And so you probably get asked about this a lot, but, uh, the boys have been getting into working out's. So Max, why don't you tell, tell'em about your workout, max. Come on. How do you get those guns going? Well, I mean, we just do CrossFit normally in the morning. Right now we're not doing it because of, you know, this AMP Fest. I kinda wanna wonder, like, do you just do like normal working out? Do you do CrossFit or like, do you do another type? I tried CrossFit once and I learned my lesson because, you know, you know with the, the, there's a few between bodybuilders and CrossFitters. Yeah, yeah. Right. So, you know, bodybuilders, you know, haze and RAs, the, the CrossFitters and the CrossFitters do the same thing. So I was like, okay, let's, let's see what it is that you guys have to offer. I went to a CrossFit gym and uh, I got put through the paces. Needless to say, I was dying. Yeah, because, you know, it's, it's, it's. Lightweight, but definitely high reps. And you just keep going. Yeah. And going and wasn't going to another station. They just go to another station and I was just going and going and going. And this was, was a lot bigger, so I was a lot stronger. Mm-hmm. It didn't make a dime of difference. It really didn't get Not a dime a difference. Yeah. I learned really quickly that without stamina, strength is nothing. Yeah. Yeah. That's one of the things we like about it actually. And I mean, our gym is. Got some really good athletes in it, which makes it fun because there is that like competitive. Oh yeah. Yeah. And in a good gym, I, I'm sure you can attest to this, but in a good gym there's like other athletes that kind of motivates you and so we like that about CrossFit because you, you're competing Yes. You know your time and reps and all that. So as you very well should, I mean that's the whole essence of what it is when, when we get to the gym. We're always trying to push ourselves, and then we look at other people's body parts. We're like, okay, I want my shoulder like that. I want my bicep like that. I want my back like that. I want my laps like that. Yeah, exactly. You know that's the name of the game, so that's what you do. Yeah. But you need others to feed off of. And that's the whole this healthy competition. And that's what makes the world go round actually. This is what you need to be able to better yourself and to propel yourself onto the future. And that's what I've been doing when it comes to the gym. Kinda like a free market, kinda like it. What, but what if? But if we had communist gyms where everybody lifted the same amount, wouldn't you think that would be better? It's so bad because then everybody would be equal. I mean, I, I guess so, but I always say, I always say it like this. That's what I love about capitalism. Yeah.'cause what the gains that I make are for me. Right. Right. They're not for everybody else. Not for everybody else to share. Okay. Yeah. The weights that I live won't benefit you. Right. The, the weights I live will benefit me. Yeah. And, and rightly so. Yeah. Right. So when, when I talked to Body Brothers about this, it's funny that you said that I talked to Bodies brothers about this, you know, who are, you know, kind of socialistic. Yeah. Which is actually kind of rare. Yeah.'cause they get this point that if I work for it, I earned it, therefore it should be mine. Right. Right. That's the mentality. So if that's the case, why don't we take that from the gym and not apply that to our lives? Right. Why don't we apply this to our daily lives? Yeah. If you go out and work for something in life, you should be able to earn it and take it home. Mm-hmm. It's not for you now to have to share it with other people. That's not the way things are supposed to work. Right. Yeah. It'd be like you giving part of your bicep to Mac. That's not fair. All it would, it would look a little off. I mean, the color difference. The color skew. Yeah. I mean I, yeah, it would be kind max. You might max, you might tip over from the weight on like what are the sides? Yeah. Yeah. It'd be too heavy. You have to compensate. You gotta have to compensate a little bit.'cause you'll be kind leaning to one side. That's not gonna be a good look. It ruins the postures. Chicks might dig it Max. Yeah. You never know. Won't into one side. I'm also wondering, so like you, just before you told us about your bench, but is there, like, what are your heaviest lifts? Yeah, that was definitely bench. I tried squatting. I've never really maxed out too much when it comes to squatting. It's always a lesson I always tell people, never. Ego lift. Mm. Never. I remember this one time, there was a young lady at the gym right next to me in the squat rack. I was trying to show out, trying to impress, right. I slapped on uh, uh, five plates and then I think it was like a 25 and, you know, went down. Went up, felt pretty good. Went down. Went up. You know, looking around, seeing who seen me. Mm-hmm. Went down, started coming up my knee, said, whoop, whoop. It taught me a valuable. Valuable lesson. Mm-hmm. Never bring your ego into the gym. You leave your ego at that door and you realize what you can do, what you can't do, and you apply that self. You, you, you apply yourself to the fullest extent in the gym. Yeah. You challenge yourself. Sure. But when you try to ego lift, it always ends badly. I'm a, I'm a Christian, so when it comes to the book of Proverbs. Yeah, pride goes before destruction in a haughty spirit before a fall. And boy, I almost fell and it would've been bad. Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah, I mean, pride is, well of course it's one of the sins, right? One of the, yeah. Boom. You're obviously a very strong bodybuilder, so. How do you go from, and I'll, I'll just make it, tell me if you started politics first or bodybuilding first, but how would you go from like maybe bodybuilding to like politics? Those are two. Vastly different, very different things. This is very true. One uses your, your muscle, one uses your mouth. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So it's, it's, it's a, it's a weird dichotomy, honestly. But yeah, it all, for me, it all started in 20 17, 20 18. Um, I was all about fitness, all about lifting, but I wanted to jump into the political arena. I wanted to understand what's going on within the realm of politics. Right. And this was during, Trump's presidency, and I was told that he's a, he's literally Hitler, right? That's what they say. Even to this day. Goodness gracious. Yeah. But. You know, this was still, I was in my racial stupor. Mm-hmm. And I was like, okay, well let me start doing my research so I can go after these Trump supporters. Mm-hmm. And beat'em all down with facts. Right. And it's gonna be great. It's gonna be glorious. Mm-hmm. But then doing my research, as we very well know, when you start looking for things, for looking at things for yourself, you start realizing where you've been duped, where you've been lied to, where the media has been manipulating you. Purposefully, which was a foregone concept for me. Like why would the, the media would never tell us a lie. Mm-hmm. The media would never lie to us. Yeah. That was my, of course, never, of course not. Of course not, you know, goodness gracious. But it really, it, it was an, a epiphany for me to realize that these people are using, utilizing their platforms. For something negative, utilizing their platform for something nefarious. It really took me out of the. Really just focusing on, because I used to always just do fitness videos. That was my thing, doing fitness videos. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Then I started getting into the political space and just started speaking out about the media and the lies and the deception and deceit. Then I really started realizing that this is more important. Mm-hmm. In the sense that, you know, this affects all of us, not in the sense that bodybuilding or working out your body is not important. Sure. I'm not saying that. Sure. But when it comes to the macro e essence of what our country's all about. This is gonna have a more profound effect. So I started using my voice and you know, I still do my fitness. Obviously I lift a weight or two here and there, but mostly I focus on, yeah, it doesn't look like you've lost much, so, uh, I hope not. But you said, you said you were a racist. Yes. Tell me more about this. Oh, goodness gracious. Now I always, I always, because I didn't think black people could be racist. Now that's what they say, especially when it comes to critical race theory, right? Black people. Okay. Uh, can't be racist'cause they say it's, uh, Patricia Olba. She wrote a book in 1970 entitled, discovering New Perspectives about Race. And that's where you have the whole equation. Power plus prejudice equals racism. Okay. Since white people have the power, white people have the privilege or the prejudice. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Therefore, they can finish the equation to be racist. Mm-hmm. But black people don't have the power in America, so they say, right. So black people at most can be prejudice, but never finish the equation and be racist. So that's where that idea came from. Okay. Interesting. You know, so it, it's really, when you really start breaking this stuff down, it's just foolishness. It's absolute foolish talk. Mm-hmm. But I always try to explain to people. That it is taught, obviously racism is taught. And my mother, she went through a lot of things as in her youth that contributed to her racism. Mm-hmm. And it wasn't until her death, I, she died when I was 17 years old, and she pulled me aside and tried to explain to me all the ways that she went wrong with her teaching. Different racist ideologies, right? Mm-hmm. Just, just different things that she would say. She would say, look, I am wrong. I was wrong. I was wrong. But it already ingrained in me. It was already ingrained in my mind. Right. So I started going throughout life as a victim. We talked a little bit about that earlier. Yeah. Yeah. You know, before we got on, the victim mentality was right within my mentality. Yeah. So I started looking at that life as a victim, and the whole essence of being a victim is that you perpetuate victimology. Mm-hmm. And you have to continue to hamper yourself, hold yourself back so you can continue to being the victim so you can continue being rewarded for your victim status, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, and that's what, that's what you see going on in this day and age. You're rewarded for being a victim. You're rewarded for being oppressed. Right. We're, yeah. We're so oppressed in the United States of America. Exactly. Clearly. Clearly, as you very well know. Yeah. So it's, it's one of those situations where I try to explain to people that there are certain things that of course you go throughout your life, you have certain experiences, but at the end of the day, if you just attribute everything to racism, you will fail. You will fail misery. Especially as a black person saying, oh, the white man's gonna hold me down and hold me back. No, you are holding yourself down. Yeah, you are holding yourself back. You gotta have self accountability, responsibility, and personal agency when it comes to your life. Utilize a little individualism, critical thinking, and you'll get yourself outta any situation, not racism. Yeah. I suppose to some extent, you know, even if there are, and I, and I, I don't dispute that there are probably some areas that is more difficult or there's more barriers. Absolutely. But sometimes, like those challenges can actually lead to better outcomes in terms of building skills and confidence and battling through adversity. Maybe these challenges, like we, we have challenges come up in our life. Of course, we're like. White dudes. But, but we have challenges too. Absolutely. We try to look at'em like, okay, uh, wow, we didn't expect this to happen, but good now we, we can battle through this and we're gonna be better at the end of it because we've either learned a new skill or we've learned how to like. Put things in perspective. We've learned how to get closer to God, maybe. Hold on. I'm on. And so these are, these are things that can really, help. So I love your message. That's great. Now let me, let me ask you about this.'cause you've been a turning point contributor for a, a while. Yes. Five years now. Okay. So six Charlie Kirk was. He was a big inspiration for us. Uh, the boys had a chance to ask him some questions at different events, and we Yes, they did. Fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. What'd you ask him? Well. I a or Max asked him about, I asked about him that since inflation is rising, if we could have a good life like our parents and yeah. And then we'll, what did you ask again? Forgot exactly what I asked. It was something related to like hope for like Gen Z and Gen Alpha. Something with something around those lines. Yeah. I like this. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, but that is phenomenal. Love it. Yeah. We went up to his, I think it was Freedom Faith night up at the, um. What that big church, uh, dream City Church. Dream City, yeah. Yep, yep. And we had a chance to ask him some questions there, and that was kind of the first introduction. And, and then they, you know, they saw Charlie online. He was a real mm-hmm. Inspiration, you know, he just spoke confidently, very, you know, articulate guy and sharp and, uh, to see him go the way that he went. And September being assassinated in public and. Uh, it really hit us hard. And so you, I can't imagine like being part of the organization and knowing Charlie, like what this must have meant to you. How did you take this? It was hard. It was hard. I remember that day I just got home from the airport. Just got through traveling from, uh, college campus myself. Mm-hmm. So I just got home just finally about to relax and the news comes in, my wife tells me, and we are just, we're Well,'cause at that time. He just got shot. All that sort of thing. Mm-hmm. The video was going viral. Of course. Yeah. Yeah. Which is so, so despicable to see. Yeah. It's sad to, it's sad to see that so many people online like. Want death effectively and like want to see it happen. It's, yeah, so weird. And then the reaction after it even happened is even more weird.'cause people are just like, yay, he's dead or something. And I'm like, what is wrong with you? Yes. I would never want, like, even like if he was my enemy, I would never want him dead. Like that's, that's the difference between us and them. Despicable. Yeah. That's the difference. Even today, we still get people dropping regularly in our comments, memes, and comments about, you know, watch your neck, things like this. It's wild. And, and, and, and we're like a kid Family channel, right? Yeah. Like, right. Yeah. And, and, but that's the essence of the left. They're very destructive. They're holistically destructive. This is what they do. This is what they thrive upon. They thrive on chaos. Mm-hmm. So when things like this happen to us. As you said, like you are celebrating Yeah. The assassination of a father of a husband, right. Of, of, of, of a brother like you. You're celebrating, you're excited. Mm-hmm. Because this man lost his life, but all he did. Was use his voice. Yeah, that's all he did. He used his voice for good. He challenged narratives. He went out and spoke the truth.'cause as the Bible says, the truth will shut us free. So he is giving people the truth and that is is a reason to celebrate. His. Or, or, or. First of all, they called him a racist, right? Yeah. Which is always what they call him. All these different, always a racist, racist, colder, all of those. Yeah. Racist sex is big and homo, both trans folks. Beautiful. All folks. Gimme a break. Okay? He's got all the folks. All the folks, all the folks you know, which you of course, as we very well know. A phobia. Having a phobia, you have an irrational fear of something. Mm-hmm. Okay. So I don't have irrational fear of anything. I'm just speaking truth. But because you don't like what it is that I have to say, you wanna label it as something nefarious. Yeah. When it's just, you need to embody the truth. The truth is always offensive to those living a lie. You must get, because a lot of people refer to Charlie as a white supremacist Racist. Oh yeah. You know the, you know the, and then there's like a couple of clips that they cut out of context, just Oh yes. But um. As, you know, as a black man working turning point. Mm-hmm. You must get all kinds of comments about like, how can you support this? What, tell us a little bit about what you get. Oh, goodness gracious. It, it, it really, it's astounding, right?'cause first and foremost, Charlie Kirk was willing to put me on the CRT uh, path, right? Yep. To learn about critical race theory. We had a interview. I was on this podcast. We talked exclusively about the black community and what are the problems and what we can do to fix the remedy, the situation. Yeah. Then we would have conversations off camera and he cared. Deeply about the black community. Sure. Deeply. So whenever people try to say, oh, he's a racist. Oh, he, you know, I'm like, you don't know the man. You don't know the passion That was in his eyes whenever you were talking about trying to help the black community. Help as in let's, what can we do to give them resources to help them better themselves, not give'em resources, not. Giving them the fish, but teaching them Yes. How to fish. Yes. Right. That's the whole essence. It's frustrating to hear these narratives'cause you have no clue. Do, do you think a lot of people are familiar with Xi and kind of sort, I mean, and the work that, because like, like he, there's a whole part of Turning Point that focuses on minority communities. Like, why would he stop that if he's a racist? Thank exactly. What kind of racist helps black people. Like I I, that's a weird racism. Yeah. That's why, you know, Donald Trump is a racist. Well, he is one of the best racists I've ever seen in my life. Okay. We need more of that type of racist in this world, you know? Right, right. But it's, it's really ridiculous.'cause blacks said now it's called TPSA rise. Right. Okay. And we're, we're including all communities. So it's not just the black community now, it's the Asian community. Hispanic community, all communities. Okay. And that's what's so beautiful is that he always wanted to build coalition. Right, and, and try to help us all lift up and all rise. That was his whole mission. Us as Americans, if you're in America and you're an American, let's help you rise above your situation and circumstance. What's, that's what it's all about. So when I hear people try to put out these different narratives, I'm like, look. There's a Bleitt organization. It's literally a black organization that he took over so he can form more resources into this organization. Sure. To help the black community, and that makes him a racist. Yeah. Wow. What an awful, despicable person. I know. I know, right? Right. Oh man. How about this LA last, uh, maybe last question, final question. Yeah, go ahead, max. You got it. So this is going off of all that racist, uh, topic and all that, uh, since you are, you know, looking like this, would you rather wrestle a bear or a tiger? A bear or a tiger? Yeah. Wow. What choices do I have here? I think I wanna wrestle, um, a tiger. It'll be quick, it'll be a quicker death. Yes. Really a tiger. If it's a polar bear, polar bears are worse. Yeah, well, polar bear are way worse. That's like apex on. It'd be over much quicker. That's a good, maybe I like the way you think. That's a good point. Yeah. I think one swipe I'll be done. So yeah, I, you know what? I switched my answer. Polar bear. Yeah. Polar bear. Polar bear. Polar bear. There you go. Hi somebody. Somebody asked you guys a interesting would, would you rather question? What was that? Oh, I was ask, would you rather have Gavin Newsom as president or a$6 gas? I'll take the$6 gas, I'll pay that. That's what we said. That's what we said. We were like, if Gavin Newso comes into office adding onto all the other bad things, he would probably do, he would probably make gas like$90. Exactly. I'll take the, I'll take, I'll the six Gas would be a bargain if Gavin was president. That's, that's, that's actually a good day. Yeah. In comparison. Yeah. Unbelievable. I grew up in California. Okay. In Southern California. Yeah. So, you know, seeing the governance of Gavin Newsom, just 2020 alone. The French laundry. Right. That whole situation. Oh, wait, what happened? Oh, he, okay. So he's telling everybody to stay at home. Right. This is during COVID. Stay at home. Stay at home. You can't go out, can't do this, can't do that. But yet, and still. He's out with his friends, enjoying himself with a nice dinner, nice expensive dinner with his little circle of individuals who don't have to ad adhere to the COVID mandates that all of us had to adhere to. Mm. It was so hypocritical. Then, of course, the same thing with the vineyards, right? The, the wineries, right? Yeah. He had all these different wineries shut down because of COVID restrictions. Except for his, yeah. What that is, right. Right. So when you say Gavin Newsom, I'm like, ah, no. Yeah, no, no. We can't have that. We cannot have that. No. Brutal. That'd be the worst thing ever. Oh, please. And thank you. You better believe it would be. Yeah. Well, right before we end up, where can people like find you or support you? You can find me on, on Instagram, that's where I'm most active. Stephen Davis, 1776, but I'm Stephen, the Biblical Stephen. So that's up with the pH. Okay. Stephen Davis, 1776 on Instagram, Stephen D 1776 on X. You can find me there and uh, we'll have a good time. All right. Well thank you for coming on. It's my pleasure. Thank you very much for having me. Yes, sir.