Morgan the Producer makes her Stuck with Damon Young debut to help unpack the circumstances surrounding the Montgomery River Brawl – or Fade on the Water, as Damon likes to call it  Damon and Morgan chronicle the event, its main characters, the potential fallout and even offer what each of them would have done, if they’d been there.

 

 

TRANSCRIPT

 

Morgan Moody: The fusion of all those people coming from every which angle. It could have been a trailer for the an Avengers movie. The three men who skipped down to the fight. 

 

Damon Young: Yes. [laughs]

 

Morgan Moody: That’s when you know it’s over. When you’re happy to fight. 

 

Damon Young: Yeah. 

 

Morgan Moody: Like that is a that’s a great feeling. And. 

 

Damon Young: Yeah. 

 

Morgan Moody: You know, the Lord is on your side [laughs] if you’re happy and you’re skipping to a fight. [music plays]

 

Damon Young: Welcome back, everyone, to a very, very special episode of Stuck with Damon Young. The show where everyone has COVID well, okay, not everyone, but I do. My symptoms were much worse yesterday, but I feel good enough to record today. Our initial guest for this week my homie, Panama Jackson, has COVID too. And unfortunately, his symptoms are a bit too severe to join us. We were both in Birmingham, Alabama, for the National Association of Black Journalists annual convention and probably caught it down there. So instead, joining us today, and making her Stuck with Damon Young debut, will be Morgan Moody, aka Morgan the producer. And we spend the entire episode on something else that happened in Alabama last weekend, the Montgomery boat dock brawl, affectionately known as Fade in the Water. [singing] Fade in the water, fade in the water, okay that’s enough of that. [laughs] But not just a brawl. But all the angles, the historical context, all the characters, all the names for all the characters, and even our own thoughts on what we would have done if we were there. All right y’all. Let’s get it. [music plays] So yeah, again, we were scheduled to have Panama Jackson join us today. But again Panama has COVID, wasn’t able to, you know we hope that he gets better soon. Instead making her Stuck with Damon Young debut will be Morgan Moody. Morgan is a producer, a podcaster, a stand up comedian who has worked for very many shows, including Stuck with Damon Young. So, Morgan, how are you doing? 

 

Morgan Moody: Better than you, I guess. A little bit better than you. [laughs]

 

Damon Young: Better than me. Yeah. Yeah. I have COVID. I have the coronavirus. You know, it’s it’s hard to pin down exactly when you catch things like this, but I’m 99% certain that I caught it while I was at NABJ, which is the National Association of Black Journalists. They have the annual convention. This year they had it in Birmingham, Alabama. I was there from Thursday until Sunday. Had a great time. Great, great time. 

 

Morgan Moody: NABJ is fun. 

 

Damon Young: So you’ve been before? 

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah, I’ve been to one in D.C.. 

 

Damon Young: Okay. Okay. What year was that? 

 

Morgan Moody: Maybe 2016. It was. It was just like the last good year that we had. Obama was was getting ready. It was was sad year, sad time in our history. 

 

Damon Young: Okay. 

 

Morgan Moody: But and a great NABJ. 

 

Damon Young: And yeah so I was there for NABJ and it’s funny because I didn’t do anything official so I just went down and was hanging out and you know, hung out with people, had a really good time. And now I have COVID. Panama Jackson, who again was going to be a guest on the show, also has COVID and I’m I’m pretty sure that everyone we hung out with [laughter] that weekend is probably going to test positive because we kind of stayed with like this same group of people going to restaurants and hanging out and going to the parties and stuff together doing events and stuff together. So. So, yeah. And you were in Canton, Ohio, last weekend? 

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah, I was in Canton, Ohio, for the Hall of Fame. Darrelle Revis from outside of Pittsburgh. Aliquippa was getting inducted, is very cool. 

 

Damon Young: Yeah. And Aliquippa is a small town, which is in a county, Beaver County, which is adjacent to Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is. And Aliquippa has the distinction as being the high school in a country that has the most NFL Hall of Famers with Darrelle Revis, Ty Law and Mike Ditka. And for real? For real. They should have four, because Tony Dorsett should have gone to Aliquippa. I don’t know why he went to Hopewell. 

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah. My shameless plug is that I’m working on a documentary with another writer who lives in Pittsburgh. That is a friend of yours, Damon. And we actually yeah, we’re finding that out. What would have happened if Tony Dorsett would have gone to Aliquippa? Because, you know, maybe it wouldn’t have been the same. 

 

Damon Young: I mean, Tony Dorsett was like a comet, you know, in terms of his athleticism. 

 

Morgan Moody: How do you know, you don’t know. 

 

Damon Young: I saw him. I saw clips. [laughter] I remember my dad talking about seeing Tony Dorsett run and he said it was like he was floating. 

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah, I partied with him this weekend. First of all, he’s a fine man. 

 

Damon Young: Okay. 

 

Morgan Moody: Fine. Like, I don’t know his age, but Tony Dorsett is still gorgeous. He was lovely. He was like so bubbly around the party and he is very light on his feet. He just seemed like he was like floating through this party. 

 

Damon Young: Did you shoot your shot? 

 

Morgan Moody: I don’t know. It was really cool to see him. I had on my best Biggie’s T-shirt one pit was in it. That was the best that I could do. I was there professionally. I was there in a professional capacity. So.

 

Damon Young: I’m just saying, opportunity. [laughter]

 

Morgan Moody: I’m just saying Tony Dorsett’s still a very handsome man. 

 

Damon Young: When opportunity knocks, you gotta open the door. 

 

Morgan Moody: But yeah, that’s where I was this weekend. Not in Alabama. Kind of wish I was. 

 

Damon Young: I mean, and I was in Alabama. [laughter] I was in Birmingham at the same time that what are we calling it? 

 

Morgan Moody: The Riverfront brawl. 

 

Damon Young: Riverfront brawl. 

 

Damon Young: There’s another name. Fade by the Water. 

 

Morgan Moody: Fade by the Water. 

 

Damon Young: Fade by the Water. Yes.

 

Morgan Moody: That’s a book title. 

 

Damon Young: Yes. [laughs] I was in Birmingham at the same time that Fade by the Water was happening in Montgomery, Alabama. Now, for those of you who are unfamiliar with what we’re talking about, which I presume is nobody, if you’re listening to this podcast, you probably have an idea, but we’re going to do a quick summary anyway. 

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah. [laughs]

 

Damon Young: All right. So there is this riverbank boat dock in Montgomery, Alabama. These white people had a boat, were out boating, doing whatever they do, drinking whatever. And they docked their boat in a place that they weren’t supposed to dock the boat because there was a larger riverfront boat that had to dock there. So one of the dockworkers approaches these white people and it’s like, hey, you need to move about. Can’t have your boat here. You need to move it. And so you could see the conversation getting more and more heated and more and more just, I don’t know, hand movement very like, I don’t know, threatening movements. And then one of them hits him. 

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah. 

 

Damon Young: And then after one of them hit them, a whole bunch of them, like four or five of them converge on him and jump him. 

 

Morgan Moody: You’re also missing the the call to action. 

 

Damon Young: [laughs] I’m just given like the Wiki summary right now. [laughter] We’ll talk about him more—

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

 

Damon Young: But yes, so he gets jumped by these white people and then moments later, all these Black people converge out of nowhere, from land, from air, and even from water. [laughter] Okay. To basically jump the white people who were jumping him. And it becomes a brawl where in multiple camera angles, in fact, we’re discovering new camera angles. Every day, every hour, new angles. 

 

Morgan Moody: Every hour. 

 

Damon Young: There’s a new something, a new angle. Okay. And we’re record this on Tuesday, which is three days after the Fade in the Water [laughter] and again discovering new images, new angles every day like you just. This morning, I saw a still image of the brawl happening. And there’s a man who was like posing for the camera and is taking a picture. Like he’s taking one of those, like, I don’t know, club pictures with like the backdrop. [laughs] You know what I mean. 

 

Morgan Moody: Yes. With the drop down pose. [laughs]

 

Damon Young: Yes, and he’s just posing for his picture in the middle of all this mayhem going on. So, Morgan. 

 

Morgan Moody: Mm hmm. 

 

Damon Young: When you first saw this, what was going through your head? 

 

Morgan Moody: Okay. Because I was out of town, I was a little bit delayed, so I was really catching up. I feel like it really caught steam Sunday night and going into Monday, because when Monday hit, which was two days after Fade on the Water, I have just never seen Black people continue to amaze me because the amount of creativity that we’re seeing online and the jokes that have been coming from this have been mwah, chef’s kiss, like just top tier. Initially I thought, like, this is hilarious and I’m going to post it to my Instagram stories. And I had a tinge of like, regret because I was like, I really don’t know any of the background of this story. [laughter] I’m just happy to see Black folks whipping some ass and like for them to come together in this way because I already know like behind this, probably some racist shit has happened. Like, you know, these sorts of things. People aren’t just converging from air, water and land to gang up on people and beat them up like necessary. You know, I don’t know what was said, but I’m Black and I know what was said, so I’m not surprised. Have you ever been on a boat? 

 

Damon Young: Yes. I’ve been on boats. 

 

Morgan Moody: Like the boating culture is always that, like, you know, these people go out there, they drink to extreme excess. And I feel like that’s part of it. Then they come back and they’re drunk. And they got liquid courage and they got it knocked out of them. 

 

Damon Young: Oh, definitely. This was definitely an alcohol induced fate. [laughs] You know what I mean? Blame it on the a-a-a-a-a-alcohol, baby. Because these motherfuckers definitely got their ass kicked because of Bud Light. You know what I mean? And that liquid courage and that liquid racism. 

 

Morgan Moody: Mm hmm. 

 

Damon Young: You know what I mean, that lack of inhibition, that that feeling invincible. Feeling like, you know what? We could. We could jump this Black man. We could beat this man up in front of witnesses. 

 

Morgan Moody: Right? 

 

Damon Young: And nothing’s going to happen us. 

 

Morgan Moody: Right. 

 

Damon Young: We’re going to be fine. We’re going to be good. And the thing is, if we want to get a little more serious, a little bit more dark with this, they could have killed him. 

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah, absolutely. 

 

Damon Young: Like, that’s the sort of situation where, you know, you get four or five men jumping on one guy, one of them hits him in the head, one of them strangles like, whatever. This is the sort of situation where people could die you know what I mean. 

 

Morgan Moody: Mm hmm. I think that’s what we usually see with these sorts of videos that go viral when it comes to white people attacking Black people. 

 

Damon Young: Yeah. And again, we’ll get into some of the more entertaining particulars of this. But there has been also, like some criticism in form of a question like why are Black people why are you all so happy to see a bunch of Black people beat up a bunch of white people? And again, there’s this historical context. Right. 

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah. 

 

Damon Young: We don’t even have to go back super far. We could talk about lynching. We could talk about just all the circumstances historically in America. 

 

Morgan Moody: Right. 

 

Damon Young: Where white people brutalized Black people. You know what I mean? And got off scot free. In fact, lynching was a motherfucking like event with postcards and souvenirs and gift shops. And—

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah. [laughs]

 

Damon Young: They would fucking schedule lynching’s for Sundays so that people could come after church in their Sunday best, to witness this. You know what I mean, it was a community event. Right. And so you have that context. You have the context of, again, these white people thinking that it would be all right, to whup this Black man’s ass to jump him, to possibly kill him. And so the joy that people are seeing is these white people experiencing their comeuppance. You know, there’s the phrase which is, you know, cliche now, but whatever. They fucked around and found out [laughter] that’s what happened and that’s where the joy comes from. You know, if it was just like just a random like if we just saw the last half of the brawl where, you know, just some Black people kicking some white people’s asses—

 

Morgan Moody: Right, right. 

 

Damon Young: It would be like, okay, this is whatever. We see a thousand videos like, like on WorldStar or or whatever. It’s not like a big deal. But again, the entire context, the entire story, the entire video, all the different angles of the video, all that shit matters, right? 

 

Morgan Moody: All of the characters. [laughter]

 

Damon Young: And then all of the characters too. 

 

Morgan Moody: That was a movie. 

 

Damon Young: So the dockworker, these people attacked him, but he fought back. You know what I mean? He put up his dukes. 

 

Morgan Moody: He did all he could. 

 

Damon Young: You know, he landed a couple of blows. And before he did all of that. [laughter] He took his hat, and he threw it up in the air. 

 

Morgan Moody: The signal. 

 

Damon Young: Now we have no idea if that had his landed yet. [laughter] If that hat floated up to the heavens. 

 

Morgan Moody: It never came back in frame of all the angles I ever saw. It never came back in frame. 

 

Damon Young: Never came. That hat never. There are 50 different angles of this fight. There’s no angle of the hat ever coming back down. 

 

Morgan Moody: The ancestors took it from there. That’s why. 

 

Damon Young: Yes. [laughs] It was a call. You know, that hat [laughs] going up in the air was a call, and an ancestor caught it and then sent a message down back to Earth. And then again, the nigga Voltron emerged and had my man’s back. So, Morgan, as someone who is not a stranger to street brawls and bar brawls [laughs] as an adult, can you give us some context to the hat thrown in the air. I mean, when you were fighting niggas in the street, did you ever have, like, a thing that you would do to alert people that you were about to fight? Like, did you take off your glasses? Did you untie your shoes and throw them up in the air? Like, did you? Was there a thing that you ever did? 

 

Morgan Moody: I definitely think that there’s like, signals. The you know, you give your people whoever you’re with, that, like, something’s going down. I’m trying to think of when I was in high school, I saw a pretty bad fight on a boat. We were on a boat for graduation, and there were three fights on the boat. It was for, like, city high schools and yeah anyway, so we were on the boat and there were like three different fights and they were like, you know, next fight, we’re turning this boat around. And they literally did in the middle of the river. 

 

Damon Young: Wow. 

 

Morgan Moody: And we had to get off. [laughs] Then one of our friends, like, was still fighting, and then the police got involved and she hit them with her car and she got tased. So I’ve seen some fights, but [laughs] never anything like this. I’ve seen the signals I’ve definitely seen signals when like people are, you know, getting their ass kicked. But I’ve never seen people flock the way that they did, you know, to help this man. That was amazing. That was an amazing sight. 

 

Damon Young: Yeah. And again, that I’m still going to keep coming back to the fact that of all the camera angles that we’ve seen of this, we have not seen the hat land. 

 

Morgan Moody: No. Where is it today? 

 

Damon Young: Where is that hat? What happened to the hat? I mean, it’s the same thing with Bobby Shmurda’s hat. 

 

Morgan Moody: [laughs] It didn’t come back down. 

 

Damon Young: And again, I’m wondering too, like what was going through his head where it’s like, you know what? Maybe the hat signifies like, you know what? It reminds me that scene from  The 40-Year-Old Virgin with Kevin Hart and Romany Malco.

 

Morgan Moody: Mm hmm. 

 

Damon Young: Where he’s like, you know, you asked for a nigga, nigga here now. And I think that the hat being thrown off was his like, okay, you asked for a nigga? The nigga here now [laughs] moment like, I’m not I’m not the dockworker anymore. 

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah. 

 

Damon Young: You know what I mean, we’re going to fight. 

 

Morgan Moody: And there were so many, like, characters throughout the fight because first it’s the security guard, it’s obviously like all the white boaters. There was also a video that showed there was a young white dock employee and bless his heart, he tried and one of them punched him out, but he tried. So he was the first man on the scene. 

 

Damon Young: I haven’t seen that one. Maybe I saw it and I just didn’t notice. Maybe I just had, like, race blindness or something. 

 

Morgan Moody: He was standing there kind of just like, you know, kind of waiting to see what was going to happen. And once they started, like circling around the security guard, he, you know, went in and tried to break it up. And one of the men punched him. And then that’s when that’s when [laughs] the boat employee jumped into the water and swam to the fight. I’ve never seen that happen a day in my life. 

 

Damon Young: And there’s an angle we could see just how far the boat was from the dock. 

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah. 

 

Damon Young: This was not a short swim. 

 

Morgan Moody: And it was in a river. 

 

Damon Young: Yeah. 

 

Morgan Moody: Like this water moves. [laughs]

 

Damon Young: Yeah. This was not an easy, like, leisurely swim. Like he could have drowned. You know what I mean? But he’s obviously a strong swimmer. 

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah. 

 

Damon Young: Made it over there, hopped up on the deck, which, again, takes strength to be able to do that. 

 

Morgan Moody: In wet clothes. [laughs]

 

Damon Young: In wet clothes and lots of shoes. And there was an angle I didn’t see on Sunday. 

 

Morgan Moody: Mm hmm. 

 

Damon Young: But I saw it on Monday where he body slams someone that is maybe twice the size and did that maybe a minute after. 

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah. 

 

Damon Young: He had just finished that swim just climbed on the deck. I mean, this is this is like on some. Jim Thorpe, Wilt Chamberlain like type shit Bo Jackson. 

 

Morgan Moody: Mm hmm. 

 

Damon Young: Like athletes that are where that myth actually undersells how like what they actually did. Like this is one of the best athletic performances I think I’ve ever witnessed. 

 

Morgan Moody: I mean, I think that a lot of things came into play, one he’s a younger man, so it’s like, I’m sure that really helped being able to like, swim and then continue on the fight. I mean, personally, I would have needed, you know, a couple of business days to recover. The swim alone would have just been like my effort, but. [laughs]

 

Damon Young: The swim alone would have knocked me out for a month. 

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah. 

 

Damon Young: Like I wouldn’t have been podcasting. 

 

Morgan Moody: If I made it. 

 

Damon Young: I wouldn’t have been doing nothing. I would have been in bed and I can’t swim. So if I were to learn how to swim [laughter] and then had to do that, I would’ve been knocked out for a month. 

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah, but I think that when you see something like that, you know, in the past we’ve seen so many horrific videos of Black people’s lives being ended at the hands of, you know, police or at some sort of hate crime. And, you know, truly it’s like these people were probably triggered by that. Nobody wanted to see that happen. And then on top of that, they thought that they were going to beat this man up for doing his job and just and just get back on their boat and like walk away. [music plays]

 

Damon Young: One of the more entertaining bits of this is the different names that people have come up with for the young boy. [laughter] Who swam 200 yards, climbed 20 feet, and then body slammed a 400 pound man. All within like two minutes. Some of the names Swimmy Hendrix, Sea Murda, Mike Ty-Fin, Sting-Ray Leonard, Scuba Gooding Jr. I like that one.

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah, I like that one too. 

 

Damon Young: Gil Scott-Heron. 21 Salmon. JJ Fish. Michael B. Phelps. Captain Hook. Catfish Cuz. 21 Tilapia. Shaquille o Gills. I’ll be damned. 

 

Morgan Moody: I’ve also seen Jim Michael Phelps. 

 

Damon Young: Jim Michael Phelps. Okay, so my personal favorites, I think, are Aquamayn. 

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah. 

 

Damon Young: Okay. You got to say it like you’re Terrence Howard. [laughter] Aquamayn. 

 

Morgan Moody: Aquamayn. 

 

Damon Young: And Gary, Indiana Jones. 

 

Morgan Moody: Gary, Indiana Jones. That’s funny, that’s funny. 

 

Damon Young: Yes. 

 

Damon Young: Yeah. 

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah. So those are the ones that I’m most partial to. But again, I mean, this was a tremendous feat of courage, of bravery and of athleticism. 

 

Damon Young: Yeah. 

 

Morgan Moody: You see shit like this in movies. 

 

Morgan Moody: It could have been a trailer. 

 

Damon Young: You see athleticism. When you watch sports, you see courage when you watch things. But diffusion of courage, bravery in athleticism, you know what I mean, all in want is something it’s just a rare sight. 

 

Morgan Moody: The fusion of all of those people coming from every which angle. It could have been a trailer for the a, Avengers movie. The three men who skipped down to the fight. 

 

Damon Young: Yes. [laughs]

 

Morgan Moody: That’s when you know it’s over. When you’re happy to fight like that is a that’s a great feeling. And. 

 

Damon Young: Yeah. 

 

Morgan Moody: You know, the Lord is on your side. [laughs] If you’re happy and you’re skipping to a fight, everybody should be mad. And I’m talking about those white people should be mad at their little friend in the red shorts because he was the one that started all of it. He’s the one that threw the first punch. And then he was one of the ones like in that picture that I intend to get printed and have framed on my wall of the three men who surrounded them. And that was like the start of the ass kicking. That’s art that should be in a museum. 

 

Damon Young: It’s art and it’s [laughter] this and I’m glad you brought up skipping because, you know, skipping to whup someone’s ass just adds like a different layer of shame when you get your ass whupped. 

 

Morgan Moody: Oh, yeah. 

 

Damon Young: By a nigga who skipped to the fight. So not only was he happy [laughs] to be fighting you, he had no anxiety whatsoever. It’s like, you know what? Oh shit, I’m about to go whup some ass. [laughs] I mean, let me skip down here. [laughs] Let me do some Mary Poppins shit. 

 

Morgan Moody: To look at the picture like you can see the police standing behind them after they skipped over and they were like, all right, well, let’s let’s just see where this goes. Like. [laughs]

 

Damon Young: And the police, who were mostly Black from what I saw, took their time. 

 

Morgan Moody: There was a white man standing behind them. And I tell you what, he was probably looking like, I’m going to be next if I break this. [laughs]

 

Damon Young: Yeah they took their sweet time and breaking this up and the one time where it was like, okay, we really have to stop this shit is when chair nigga, the chair itself has become a meme. 

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah. 

 

Damon Young: We’ve seen people having pictures of themselves with the chair, almost like a gun, you know, talking about they’re an open carry state. [laughter] There is gifs with the chair. You know, there’s been like a whole mythology behind, like, the invention and the patent of the folding chair. So all of that has happened over the last couple of days. And again, it’s been a product of the Fade in the Water. But the actual chair nigga.

 

Morgan Moody: Mm. Unc.

 

Damon Young: Remember Anchorman. You’ve see Anchorman? 

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah. 

 

Damon Young: Okay. 

 

Morgan Moody: Which one, one or two?

 

Damon Young: One. We don’t acknowledge Anchorman two. 

 

Morgan Moody: It was great too. 

 

Damon Young: It was okay. 

 

Morgan Moody: Okay. 

 

Damon Young: And obviously you remember the big fight scene with all the different anchors and whatever. 

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah. 

 

Damon Young: Different stations. And then they have the recap, you know, that escalated quickly and then Ron Burgundy’s like, and Brit, killed a guy. [laughter] I feel like that. And Brit killed a guy award goes to the chair nigga. 

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah. 

 

Damon Young: Who beat the one man’s ass with the chair but then hit that woman in the head is like, oh shit. [laughs] Okay, if that is that what we’re doing now too?

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah. That’s really when the police were like, all right, we got to step in and try to break this up. 

 

Damon Young: Yeah, that was the point where it’s like, yo, we got to stop this shit. 

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah. 

 

Damon Young: Before it ends. 

 

Morgan Moody: But there was, I mean, the woman that, like, not the blonde woman, I found a video of her this morning, actually the blonde employee who knocked the woman into the river. Her name Tammie Howard. And she she she must have gone live. And somebody recorded it and brought it over to TikTok. But she was talking about how the security guard was somebody. That she grew up with. He, like, you know, helped raise her kids. And she was just like, you know, I’ve had a son die. And she was like, you know, I couldn’t have that happen to him. Like, that man could have died, you know. And she had said that she got fired. So I don’t know if that’s true or not. We really. Yeah, we really should, like, look into that. I hope not. I hope Tammie’s not fired, but she says she would do it again. 

 

Damon Young: I think that, you know, if there’s any way that I think that people around the country can contribute other than memes. 

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah. 

 

Damon Young: And jokes is all types of you know, I’m sure that people are going to be facing charges and contributing to a legal defense fund or a go fund me or whatever to help these people out who may have lost their jobs, may have lost their livelihood over this incident. And the other characters that we forgot to mention. 

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah. Honorable mention is the class of 1975 who was I think chairman was probably part of that. But they had on T-shirts and those men were 66 years old. And whupping ass like they were 16. 

 

Damon Young: This is another part of it. This was a generational. 

 

Morgan Moody: Yes. 

 

Damon Young: Ass whupping. 

 

Morgan Moody: Yes.

 

Damon Young: Like there were teenagers, they were people who looked to be in their twenties, and thirties, and there were old men out there. 

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah. 

 

Damon Young: Like it was. You rarely see generations like this come together for a common goal. It made me verklempt, it brought a tear to my eyes. Just see young men, old men, young women, old women coming together for a common cause. And that’s to whup some people’s asses, it brought a tear to my eye. And also, too, there were some white people who were on the right side and who tried to help try to stop the fighting or tried to help the Black people out who were, you know, the protagonist. And so, you know, give them a shout out too, good job [laughs] white allies. And I feel like if you’re going to be an ally, if you’re going to call yourself an ally, you got to you got to put your skin in the game. 

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah. 

 

Damon Young: You know what I mean, it’s not enough just to retweet something or to put a Black box on your IG profile. Now, you got to be willing to take a uppercut. 

 

Morgan Moody: Right. 

 

Damon Young: For the cause. 

 

Morgan Moody: You got to be willing to get hit with a chair. 

 

Damon Young: Willing to put your chin, your neck out there for it. 

 

Morgan Moody: The funny thing about a lot of this, too, is that there was just a Trump rally there the day before. So those people were charged up and really, you know, thinking that that they were going to get away with something like this. And I think like just a lot of energy charged around that. And I hope that, you know, none of those people involved who were trying to prevent the attacks get charged with anything. Fingers crossed. I can’t defend Unc with the chair after the second hit. I can’t. You know, but if if old girl was okay, you know what I mean like? [laughs]

 

Damon Young: And that’s one of the things that makes this so rewatchable. 

 

Morgan Moody: Mm hmm. 

 

Damon Young: And so meme-able and fodder for so many jokes. 

 

Morgan Moody: Right. 

 

Damon Young: So much conversation is that no one died, that there were no guns, didn’t look to be like any knives or any like, serious weapons. It was just a fistfight brawl. 

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah. 

 

Damon Young: I mean, you had chair nigga and you had Aquamayn getting, you know, the strength of the sea to help him. But aside from that, you know, it was just the old school throwdown you know what I mean? And that’s something that has added to the popularity of this is just seeing people fight and everyone goes home. 

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah. 

 

Damon Young: At the end of the night, you know, even the people that got their ass whupped, like no one died. Right? 

 

Morgan Moody: So, Damon, you were down in Alabama, but you weren’t at the riverboat brawl, unfortunately. But what would you done, like if you saw that happening? I mean, there were so many people on the side of the boat like [laughs] looking over at it. There was people on the dock. Like, if you saw that, what would you have done? 

 

Damon Young: Okay. Well, I first have to start with what I could not have done. Again, I can’t swim, so I couldn’t have been Aquamayn. 

 

Morgan Moody: Right. 

 

Damon Young: I would have drowned. So if I were on a boat, I would have just had to stay on the boat. Speaking of the boat, have you seen the clip where the band on the boat is actually playing the song? It’s like, y’all got to move the boat. Y’all got to move. 

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah. 

 

Damon Young: Y’all got to move that boat. 

 

Morgan Moody: The brawl had an announcer. 

 

Damon Young: Yeah. 

 

Morgan Moody: It was narrated. 

 

Damon Young: And again, that just adds insult to injury. It’s like I’m getting my ass whipped. Wow. I’m being crooned to and wild niggas skipping. 

 

Morgan Moody: Black people are so unserious. 

 

Damon Young: And throwing magic hats into the air like. 

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah. 

 

Damon Young: You’ll never forget that. So okay, what would I’ve done. I think I’m going to be I’m a keep it a buck. If I would have joined in that fight, I wouldn’t have been one of the first. I wouldn’t have been like the niggas that were skipping. [laughs] To the brawl. That wouldn’t have been me. 

 

Morgan Moody: Mm hmm. 

 

Damon Young: It would have been like, you know what? Shit, I need to get in this. There are enough of us that are in this. I need to get in this because if I don’t get in this, then it’s going to be a bad look. When the rest of my family, the rest of my friends are in this fight and I’m just chillin, you know, recording on my phone, like, nah, I need to I need to get into this. 

 

Morgan Moody: So you just gone down there for looks, though? You’re not really going down there for any action. You’re just going down there. So because everybody else is down there. 

 

Damon Young: Once I’m down there, there’s going to be action. Right. [laughter] I couldn’t just go down there, just pose for selfies. 

 

Morgan Moody: So I can’t throw my hat up around you. If I’m in a fight because you’re not coming. [laughter]

 

Damon Young: Well, you just say that you don’t have hats. You just said that. You said that you don’t do a thing. 

 

Morgan Moody: I’ve never thrown a hat in a fight, but I think that’s now our universal signal. If I’ve learned anything from this.

 

Damon Young: I will say that if I saw a Black man getting jumped by like a bunch of white people, then I would intervene, right? I don’t know how I’d intervene. Like would I go in just throwing haymakers immediately would I try to, like, get in between or stop it, I would intervene. 

 

Morgan Moody: Mm hmm. 

 

Damon Young: I wouldn’t be skipping. [laughs] To the fight, you know what I mean, but if I witnessed a thing like that happening, then I would. It’s one of the things where yeah, you have to because it’s the right thing. 

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah. 

 

Damon Young: And it’s also like, how can you live with yourself if you just walk by and just, just let it happen? You know, what I mean?

 

Morgan Moody: I think yeah, in this position, particularly like the people had the opportunity to do something because it wasn’t something, you know, like police involvement where everybody’s lives would have been, you know, under threat if they would have tried to intervene when it came to the police. But, yeah, I don’t know if that fight had happened and I had been in the vicinity. I mean, I think that there’s you know, there’s people that fight and then the people that recorded it recorded the fight from all of those different angles, like they are a major part of this, too, because I think that a big reason that because everybody was like taken into, you know, custody, but like from what I’ve heard so far, when we’re recording this, there haven’t been any charges for the Black people who were trying to prevent the attack and also just whupping ass. There hasn’t been any because, you know, everybody recorded it and everybody kind of knew that this how this started, there were there’s proof of it. You know, these people are might be charged with a hate crime. They are charged with felonies which carry some some weight and time. So. 

 

Damon Young: Yeah. And the recording of it plays an extremely vital role in all of this because, again, if the police happened upon a scene and they just see a whole bunch of Black people being up and white people. 

 

Morgan Moody: Right. 

 

Damon Young: Then it’s a completely different dynamic, completely different circumstance legally. But because there’s proof. 

 

Morgan Moody: Right. 

 

Damon Young: That, oh, these people started it, you know what I mean, now again, I’m no legal expert or anything like that, but I would imagine that that changes things, that having that context makes a difference. Right now, I will say that even though we had all the different camera angles and camera footage, there’s one angle that, you know, I don’t think that you’ve seen yet. And that’s like a man on the street sort of angle where someone who was actually involved with the brawl recording. 

 

Morgan Moody: Mm hmm. 

 

Damon Young: No, I haven’t seen that angle yet. And I’m wondering if that angle exists where someone who is actually doing the fighting right there on the deck was also a recording, too. 

 

Morgan Moody: Well, how could you be fighting and recording? They were down there about their business. 

 

Damon Young: People can multitask. We saw Gary Indiana Jones swimming and diving and jumping and slamming. So, you know, if he could do that, anything is possible. 

 

Morgan Moody: Have you ever been in a fight? Like a brawl like that? Like a—

 

Damon Young: A brawl like that?

 

Morgan Moody: Like a bigger fight. Not just like, you know, maybe you and your cousin or something like that. 

 

Damon Young: The closest I’ve come to that, I guess, as an adult or not even really as an adult, as a teenager, because I was 19, was when we went to basketball team in Canisius college, went to Italy the summer after my freshman year, and we got into an almost brawl with one of the Italian teams that we played against over there. 

 

Morgan Moody: Racially motivated? 

 

Damon Young: I don’t know if it was racially motivated. 

 

Morgan Moody: Because you don’t speak Italian. 

 

Damon Young: Yeah [laughs] and it’s funny, too, because like I had ACL reconstruction that summer, so I was still out there with like a big ass brace and limping around. But when a brawl was happening was about to happen. I actually was the first one out there.

 

Morgan Moody: [laughs] I’m proud. 

 

Damon Young: I remember that I actually was the first one out there. 

 

Morgan Moody: Were you still, like, hobbling? Were you still, like, on crutches? 

 

Damon Young: I was still hobbling. 

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah. [laughs]

 

Damon Young: But I was talking shit, you know, I don’t know if they understand a word I said, but I was out there talking shit. It is funny because afterwards my teammates were talking about it was like, Damon what the fuck were you going to do? You can’t even walk. What were you going to do? Out there? [laughs] You know talking. 

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah. 

 

Damon Young: But. Okay, I forgot about that. Thank you for reminding me. 

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah. 

 

Damon Young: About that Morgan, appreciate you. 

 

Morgan Moody: Remembering it with some flashbacks of your golden years. 

 

Damon Young: When was your most recent brawl? 

 

Morgan Moody: [laughs] Been a part of, like, I mean, for me, physically. A few years ago, my sister had just had a baby. And so you can see where this is going. We took her out and she just she was just stressed. The baby was crying and it was just a stressful time. And I said something to her along the lines of you need to calm down. And, you know, we were just it was like I was driving around. So we’re like fighting the whole car ride, you know, my nephew is like in the back as a baby. [laughs] We’re like, fighting the whole car ride. My mom is, like, threatens to get out. She does. She, like, gets out of the car cause she’s like, I’m not going to ride with you if you’re fighting like this. And I’m yelling at her, this is like, you know, run down Fifth Avenue and Shadyside. It’s a scene. So finally, we, like, get to my sister’s house and, like, she’s trying to fight me. I’m like, in my car, and I’m like, I’m not going to get out. I’ve been going to therapy. I’ve set boundaries. Like, I’m not engaging in this. And then finally, you know, I mean, sometimes it’s just like, you know, that fight response is strong in my family. And I got out of the car and I was like, ready to fight her. And she punched me in the face and my glasses got scraped and somebody from far away yelled WorldStar. And I don’t know who it was. To this day [laughter] the police came like, my nephew is a baby, like a few months old, like maybe like four months old. And he’s like in his in his little car sear just on the curb. My mom is like, watching this go down and trying to, like, break it up, you know? But yeah, that was a few years ago, you know? But yeah, for the most part, like now, I would never really get into a fight. But if I saw that go down. Yeah, yeah, I’m a, I’m a fighter in that way. Like, if, if something’s really happening, I think it’s my duty to hop in and do what I can do. 

 

Damon Young: And a circumstance like that. 

 

Morgan Moody: Yeah. 

 

Damon Young: You know, you’ll be protected by the ancestors because again, that hat, then never landing hat, you know, alerted them and they bestowed their protection upon all of the members of the brawl. So. 

 

Morgan Moody: If you throw your hat around me, I’m, I’m coming. 

 

Damon Young: Okay. I’ll keep that in mind. [laughs]

 

Morgan Moody: Taking my earrings off and I’m there in seconds. 

 

Damon Young: Okay so, Morgan, the producer [laughs] thank you for joining us on this on this COVID influenced decision of Stuck with Damon Young. As you could see, I didn’t I didn’t say anything about this earlier, but I’m even recording this from a different location in the house. I’m in my bedroom because I’m barricaded in here to keep away from my kids, to not infect them and my wife. This is this where I live. [laughter] Where I’ve been living for the last 24 hours, and where I’ll probably be for the next 36 hours. So again, this was fun. You know, shout out to everyone in Montgomery, part of the brawl, the Fade by the Water. 

 

Morgan Moody: We love you. 

 

Damon Young: Love y’all. And we thank you for helping us. This has been, you know, for reasons that don’t really need to get into, this has been a difficult week in Stuck-land. You know, and I think that watching some of this talking about this sharing memes, sharing jokes is, you know, help alleviate just some of the difficulties of the week. 

 

Morgan Moody: Certainly cathartic. 

 

Damon Young: So, yeah, thank you all for that too. [music plays] Again, just want to thank our guest, our one guest, Morgan Moody. Great conversation, great topic was a lot of fun. And also, we just want to thank everyone in Montgomery who played a part in just making our weeks so joyful. So thank you to you all. And again, Stuck with Damon Young is available at every platform. Anywhere you get podcasts if you’re on Spotify. If you’re on a Spotify app. We have interactive questions and polls and things of that nature. So go knock yourself out have some fun with that. Also, we did not have dear Damon this week. Again, it was a very special episode. But going forward dear, Damon will be on every episode of Stuck with Young. And so if you have any questions about anything whatsoever, hit me up at deardamon@crooked.com. All right y’all. See you next week. [music plays] Stuck with Damon Young is hosted by me, Damon Young. From Crooked Media, our executive producers are Kendra James and Madeleine Haeringer. Our producers are Ryan Wallerson and Morgan Moody. Mixing and mastering by Sara Gibble-Laska and the folks at Chapter Four. Theme music and score by Taka Yasuzawa. And special thanks to Charlotte Landes. And from Spotify our executive producers are Lauren Silverman, Neil Drumming and Matt Shilts. Special thanks to Lesley Gwam and Krystal Hawes-Dressler. [music plays]