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Sebastian tribbie TRANSCRIPT 8/20/20

Ziwe: We have another fantastic guest, Sebastian Tribbie. Let's clicky clicky, and Sebastian famously won the USPS challenge where people bought stamps, and then they tagged me. And whoever tagged me, I decided to pick one person to be my guest. Sebastian Tribbie won, and you know, I went down a long rabbit hole of who this person is, okay.

Sebastian Tribbie joins the stream holding a small dog.

Ziwe: Hello.

Sebastian Tribbie: Hi. He just want to say hi.

Sebastian Tribbie puts the dog down.

Ziwe: Thank you. Oh, hey, shout out to having a dog…greet me. I feel a little emotionally manipulated, but I think that’s interesting.

Sebastian Tribbie: Wait, why is it…? I can't hear you.

Ziwe: You can't hear me.

Sebastian Tribbie: Okay, there. There we go.

Ziwe: Can you hear me? Okay, speaking of dogs, you once said that Chinese food was dog food. Why would you say that?

Sebastian Tribbie: I said what?

Ziwe: “Chinese food is dog food.”

Sebastian Tribbie: I did say that, and I realized that was a terrible joke. It was up for like 30 minutes. Deleted. Just bad joke. Bad joke. You can’t…bad joke.

Ziwe: Okay, interesting. Okay, so you've gone on the record saying you’d die without poppers. I watched you in Public Figure. If you had to pick one for the rest of your life, which would you, which would you choose: talking in African American vernacular English or poppers?

Sebastian Tribbie: Um, I would say…well, I know ever since I moved to London like people don't do poppers here that much so I don't really do it. So I guess talking in African American vernacular.

Ziwe: The answer is neither.

Sebastian Tribbie: Oh!

Ziwe: Okay, so Sebastian, what, how are you doing, by the way?

Sebastian Tribbie: I'm bit nervous, but it's okay.

Ziwe: Nervous. Why are you nervous?

Sebastian Tribbie: Pisces just have this way of just getting shit out of you. There's, you have a psychicness.

Ziwe: What percentage of your online content is appropriated by black women?

Sebastian Tribbie: Um, I don't think it's that much, like I really read an article about like the digital blackface, and I try to like be mindful, but like sometimes like, I'm sorry, your race is the supreme when it comes to comedy, and it's just, I really, yeah, it's just like, there's no one else like NeNe Leakes, like, I love Atlanta Housewives, and she really just gets the point across when I'm trying to portray something that's like a bit exaggerated.

Ziwe: Would you consider paying reparations to all the black content creators in my comment section right now?

Sebastian Tribbie: Yeah.

Ziwe: Okay, drop the Venmos.

Sebastian Tribbie: I’ll send a Venmo.

Ziwe: Okay. People are gonna hold you to that. By the way, shout out to Josh Sharp who did redistribute his unemployment check. I have confirmation of that from my audience so shout out to Josh Sharp. Now, Sebastian, can you name three black-owned businesses?

Sebastian Tribbie: Black-owned businesses?

Ziwe nods.

Sebastian Tribbie: Um…like, can it just be like restaurants? Is that okay?

Ziwe: Three black-owned businesses.

Sebastian Tribbie: Okay, so the Red Rooster in Harlem, very good restaurant. Um, um I know that, I don't know, this is how am I going to get in trouble, but I know that the CEO of BET is like a billionaire, so I would go with BET. But also, Tyler Perry, Tyler Perry Studios. He brought so much movies to Atlanta like he built, he built a studio there so I would say that's a black business.

Ziwe: Okay, so BET, Tyler Perry, and Red Rooster Inn. On your Etsy page, you are selling an airbrush Black Lives Matter hoodie for $62+, where does the money go?

Sebastian Tribbie: So I donate everything to the Loveland Foundation, and I just want to go, I did a astrology thing for 24 hours and donated a lot to, just guessing people's astrology thing, it's like a little gift I have. And we raised like a lot of money. And I really like the Okra Project. I really, really, really researched it so the next $2500 is going to the Okra Project.

Ziwe: Shout out, shout out to redistributing– (cut off)

Sebastian Tribbie: And I didn't, I didn't take a dime like I looked…I tried so hard to find a black airbrush artist, but it just was very difficult to find one that could, could really, because I wanted a black artist to do this shirt and really make it as black as possible to really give back.

Ziwe: What did you mean by as black as possible?

Sebastian Tribbie: Like I just wanted it to go into a black person's pockets rather than us.

Ziwe: And you couldn't find a black airbrush person?

Sebastian Tribbie: I put it on my story. I asked my friends, and no one gave me anything. I mean, yeah, but I'm also in London, so I'm trying to like do shit from, from London.

Ziwe: Interesting. Now, okay so you once called a group of black girls a “Fashion Nova.” What does that mean?

Sebastian Tribbie: Um, I wouldn't know, um, it's just like Fashion Nova to me is, coming from a white man, the perception of Fashion Nova to me is a black brand, I would say. Like all, that's just what it was to me.

Ziwe: Would you call Fashion Nova a black-owned business?

Sebastian Tribbie: No, they're exploiting, I would say, blacks.

Ziwe: Now. “Blacks.”

Sebastian Tribbie: No, like it’s, they, yes, have you seen, I don't know, the advertisements really make me upset like the memes that Fashion Nova pays for are like the most like, like so like cringe memes and yeah.

Ziwe: When you write “blacks,” do you capitalize the B or not?

Sebastian Tribbie: I do capitalize the B.

Ziwe: In “blacks?”

Sebastian Tribbie: Yeah.

Ziwe: Okay. So you also tweeted “how many wigs do you think the average black girl owns?” That got one retweet, by the way. So just to turn that question onto you, how many wigs do you think the average black girl owns?

Sebastian Tribbie: What you have to realize is that all these tweets get like one retweet. I didn't know my Twitter was open for the longest time. I just thought it was like a few people and like, these are just drafts of mine. They're not like on my Instagram, or shit like that. So I have like, as you know, as a writer, like we, we just say ideas, and it sucks that I put it on the internet. Yes! But I wouldn't know. I'm not a black woman so I can't I can't judge how many weaves they have.

Ziwe: What do you mean by “they?” Sebastian, how many black friends do you have?

Sebastian Tribbie: A lot.

Ziwe: How many?

Sebastian Tribbie: I'm not gonna name.

Ziwe: Can you give a general number?

Sebastian Tribbie: I would say no, I'm not going to do that.

Ziwe: Sounds like they don't exist.

Sebastian Tribbie: No, they do. Watch Bravo While Black is one of my favorite, Kaia, she's a black girl that loves Bravo, has an amazing podcast called Bravo While Black. She's my girl. Capricorn. Love her.

Ziwe: You’re really into astrological signs, but you talk a lot of crap about Pisces, which I famously am –

Sebastian Tribbie: But Pisces men, that's what people have to realize a lot of my things are dealing with relationships. I'm a gay male so everyone knows that like, I don't think Pisces females gaslight as bad as Pisces men.

Ziwe: Interesting. What do you qualitatively like about the black community?

Sebastian Tribbie: Um, I just really think even when you don't know, a black woman or a black person, they come up to you, and it's just like, you really believe in like fairness. And I think it's just so admirable when you haven't been treated fair your entire life. So I just think like, it's just like, you really are just a better person than…there's just fairness. Like, the love that I get from a stranger like even like in my DM’s is like, from like, like a really nurturing like black woman. It's just, it's just, I don't know, that's what, that's just my DM’s sometimes, and I appreciate that.

Ziwe: So your DM’s are full of nurturing black women?

Sebastian Tribbie: No, I don't know. You've got a Gemini very, very nervous which does not happen.

Ziwe: What which astrological sign is the most racist? Is it Gemini?

Sebastian Tribbie: Um, I just think, I wouldn't say they're racist. It's just, no, I wouldn't say Geminis. I would say probably Taurus just because they're stubborn. So if you are racist and grew up racist, you're not going to go out of your way to try to figure out, but if you're a racist, you're always gonna be a racist if you're a Taurus, that's just how I would feel.

Ziwe: A couple of days ago you tweeted “Cardi putting Kylie in the WAP video is further proof that she is a black woman.”

Ziwe looks at Sebastian Tribbie. Speechless.

Sebastian Tribbie: That's sarcasm, obviously.

Ziwe: Obviously?

Sebastian Tribbie: Yes. I, I, I –

Ziwe: Is it obvious?

Sebastian Tribbie: -- if anyone doesn't know that that is sarcasm, are you kidding me? Like I hate the Kardashians. I make fun of them nonstop. They’re culture vultures.

Ziwe: So you've been blocked by Ashanti, EJ Johnson, Tamar Braxton. How many black people have blocked you on Twitter or Instagram?

Sebastian Tribbie: Um, and Azealia Banks so four.

Ziwe: Okay, four. Why do you hate on people of color for retweets and reposts.

Sebastian Tribbie: No, I have no idea why. I know the meme that Ashanti blocked me on. It was just, I said she looked like “dollar store Cardi B” cause it was just a little, very similar fashion look that she used. And like it was very not Ashanti, and I got blocked. I didn't say anything mean I said “dollar store Cardi B.”

Ziwe: Well, that's kind of mean.

Sebastian Tribbie: But it was just, it was so out of her comfort zone that that's just what came to me.

Ziwe: Would you say that, do you think that like being a white gay man gives you license to maybe like, verbally abuse women and people of color online?

Sebastian Tribbie: Um, I don't think…I've learned a lot, like trust…I haven't had like any drama or blocks in like almost, I'd say, like two years. But I just like, you learn from your mistakes. Like I literally, I didn't think, I'm sorry that I didn't think calling a very talented musician “dollar store Cardi B” would get me blocked. I thought she would have like, I thought it would just be okay. So.

Ziwe: How have you decolonized your mind in the last year?

Sebastian Tribbie: Um, I would just say like, I mean, I just don't try to go with stereotypes or like preconceived notions of what like I grew up, what I know just being from a small town in Ohio, like really just trying to expand myself. And just like, not, just looking at the person and having the reaction of, of who that person is in front of me. Not…yeah.

Ziwe: Who are your favorite black authors?

Sebastian Tribbie: James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, um Alice…Alice Walker.

Ziwe: Shout out. So you went, you grew up in Ohio, a small town in Ohio. When, how old were you when you discovered that like race existed?

Sebastian Tribbie: Um, I remember watching The Little Rascals, and my favorite character was Buckwheat cause he was really funny. And I, and then I really associated comedy with blackness like really Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy. I really just liked comedy.

Ziwe: Could you give me like a Richard Pryor impersonation?

Sebastian Tribbie: No.

Sebastian laughs.

Ziwe: Okay, have you ever, have you ever said the n-word?

Sebastian Tribbie: I said it, accident – I did say…I’m honest. I'm gonna be honest. This is what the show is. But I was watching Tokyo Toni's dating show on that crazy network that I can't remember what it is. And –

Ziwe: Zeus Network.

Sebastian Tribbie: Zeus, yeah. And she, the way she said “big n-word,” I was trying just to repeat it to my friend, and then as soon as I said it, I was like, oh my god, like no. And ever since then, like, absolutely not. But I was, I caught myself immediately, but the way she said it was just the most, weirdest thing I've ever heard.

Ziwe: How did she say it?

Sebastian Tribbie: I'm not gonna say it.

Ziwe and Sebastian Tribbie laugh.

Ziwe: Okay, you said that you wouldn't date Asian men. Is this true? People have –

Sebastian Tribbie: No, no, I said, my big meme that got me in a lot of trouble was, I was talking about my own life, and I said, dating an Asian girl is the gateway drug into homosexuality because I dated one girl, and she is Asian, but like, horrible meme. You can't, you can't group a whole race of people. It's just terrible, terrible choice.

Ziwe: Ay Caramba. Okay. Wow, you know, this has been, an experience. Have you built a following on making memes that exploit racial stereotypes to degrade people of color and women?

Sebastian Tribbie: Um, I don't think so. I, I literally, I post what is on my mind, and since, like, the education of Black Lives Matter, learning so much and like, I didn't know what aversive racism was, I was completely doing aversive racism. And I just didn't know that.

Ziwe: What is that?

Sebastian Tribbie: It's just like, putting, like when it's, it's like, oh my gosh, I'm really bad at explaining things, but it's like, um, it's when, like, it's like a stereotype like, like, in just like, the person's like not that stereotype, but you're putting that person as the stereotype, even though he's not that person. It just further goes into the systematic racism. And like, I don't know that my followers are these stupid people from South Carolina that don't have brains, and they're gonna see something, and they're gonna have a hate reaction when I have like a lighthearted reaction, and that's just not okay.

Ziwe: All right, I'm gonna go through some civil rights…oh, wait, so before I go through civil rights leader, you said, you have a very public beef with Little Miss Sunshine. Like what's the deal with you and, like you have also like said some not kind things about certain celebrities’ children so what is up with you and kids and, you know, cyberbullying.

Sebastian Tribbie: Okay, Little Miss Sunshine is not a child. She's like 25, and she, it was just one of, it was a personal thing with one of our friends that tried to talk shit about this, one of my favorite places of um going out in New York, and he was a complete asshole, and I just called him out for it so she said I was a bully. That was it. It was personal. It wasn't, I didn't even say anything about her.

Ziwe: No, you said “fuck Little Miss Sunshine.” I saw you say it in a documentary –

Sebastian Tribbie: No, I'm saying, that's, yes, fuck Little Miss Sunshine, but I didn't say anything about her appearance or her, or her acting. I just said fuck Little Miss Sunshine.

Ziwe: Okay. Do you, you also have a deep hatred for Anna Kendrick, you think she's basic and has no talent? Why?

Sebastian Tribbie: I've met her, and she's literally one of the, the scummiest human beings I've ever seen to like people, like I’ve heard stories about her on set. She just isn't nice. She's very sarcastic and dismissive to people and I, she just was very rude and like, I just, I just think she ruins every movie that she pops up in, in half of the movie. I just don't think she's a good actress. I just –

Ziwe: I loved her in A Simple Favor, which I think is a fantastic film by Paul Feig. Now, you call yourself a public figure.

Sebastian Tribbie: No, it's completely sarcasm. That movie was, like, probably one of the worst things I've ever done, but it got me off cocaine. I literally, like, saw how fucking of an asshole and a mess I am in it. And it really helped me for the better. But yeah, I mean, it's there. So…

Ziwe: Okay, let's go through some black civil rights leaders and you tell me… Do you have notes?

Sebastian Tribbie: No.

Ziwe: Okay. Let’s go –

Sebastian Tribbie: I just, I want to talk to my hands.

Ziwe: No, I talk with my hands too. No, no stress. Now I'm going to go through some black civil rights leaders, and you're gonna tell me what comes to mind when I mention their names. Martin Luther King.

Sebastian Tribbie: Um, a Capricorn, but also just like, he is like so Capricorn to me, but just like “I have a dream,” Washington speech, very minister-turned-activist. Just like very powerful. Non-violent.

Ziwe: Shirley Chisholm.

Sebastian Tribbie: I don't know who Shirley Chisholm is.

Ziwe: Sojourner Truth.

Sebastian Tribbie: Uh, she was a runaway slave that actually won the best, the first lawsuit against a white man. She was successful.

Ziwe: You look like you're reading notes.

Sebastian Tribbie: I swear. Look.

Sebastian Tribbie flips his camera.

Sebastian Tribbie: There's literally nothing on my computer.

Ziwe: Okay. Lisa Leslie.

Sebastian Tribbie: The basketball player? Like the WNBA?

Ziwe: Yeah.

Sebastian Tribbie: Yeah.

Ziwe: What's her, do you know her sign?

Sebastian Tribbie: I don't know her sign. I just remember her like 1996 like iconic white Olympic uniform.

Ziwe: She's an icon. What about Booker T. Washington?

Sebastian Tribbie: So he, it was Booker T. Washington vs. W.E.B. DuBois, and it was, he said like if you're going to separate education from, if you're going to have separate schools, blacks are always gonna be second class citizens.

Ziwe: John Michel Basquiat.

Sebastian Tribbie: Amazing artist lived on Lafayette. Just like so, just amazing, really, just an artist like phenomenal. New York based.

Ziwe: Okay, interesting. What about George Washington Carver?

Sebastian Tribbie: So he was a black scientist, and it's a funny thing like everyone, I don't know why this is, they associate him with peanut butter, but he just did lots of things with peanuts, but he didn't do anything with peanut butter. Cause like, it’s so funny, in AP US, it’s so funny, Ohio AP US history, we literally learned like three black people, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and George Washington Carver. I have no idea why, they just, that's just the curriculum.

Ziwe: And then, what's, what's your Malcolm X take?

Sebastian Tribbie: He was, he didn’t mind using racism and violence to get, to be an activist and was the leader, was part of the Black Panthers, and then changed into being a Muslim.

Ziwe: Okay, so we have a bunch of questions for you. We'll do a couple questions and then I think you're good to go. What a time. Does your Grindr profile say “no fats no fems no Asians?”

Sebastian Tribbie: Uh, no, I'm in a happy relationship. I haven’t had Grindr in years, but it never said that anyways.

Ziwe: Have you ever dated a black guy before?

Sebastian Tribbie: No, but I've only dated, I've only been five relationships.

Ziwe: And none of them were black?

Sebastian Tribbie: No.

Ziwe: Interesting. What does black love mean to you?

Sebastian Tribbie: Um, black love to me is that, like, is it personal or like what…when you just said black love like what I thought of it's that literally that scene of Kanye hugging Virgil at the Louis Vuitton show, like I don't like…no, it is that that literally like we have conquered, like I, I'm not the biggest Virgil fan but it's amazing that he is the head of Louis Vuitton as a black man. And that hug, like Kanye never gave that hug to fucking launch of SKIMS like that was like real love. So I just really think that.

Ziwe: No, I think that Kanye-Virgil for black love is a definitely a, you know, interesting take, and I think that that's never been said before on the show. So, hey. God bless. Now, what's your definition of home girl?

Sebastian Tribbie: I don't think I've ever used home girl. Like, I just don't like that word.

Ziwe: Okay, what's the last anti-racist book you’ve read?

Sebastian Tribbie: I haven't read a book…I, the last book I tried to read was fucking Amy Schumer's Girl with the Dragon Tattoo or whatever it was and I got like 40 pages in. It was terrible. I'm not a big reader.

Ziwe: What do you like?

Sebastian Tribbie: I like astrology. No, I mean, that, you can ask a lot of people that Amy Schumer book wasn't, it just wasn't, it wasn't good. I didn't think.

Ziwe: Do you ever like keep things in your head and not say them?

Sebastian Tribbie: I've gotten a lot better. But I just don't think like I don't understand why just saying that I didn't like the Amy Schumer book, like, I'm not putting her down. I just didn't think it was a good book. That's, that's just, how can we grow from or like, know that like, it was a bad book, like…

Ziwe: But what does that have to do with me asking what anti-racist book you've read?

Sebastian Tribbie: Because it's the, I haven't read an anti racist book, and the last book I read was like, literally, eight, six years ago, and it was that Amy Schumer book.

Ziwe: Okay, interesting. You know, you are an interesting, interesting, interesting. Oh, okay. I think we're going to do one last question. Ooh, what's the last gif of a black woman in your i-Message?

Sebastian Tribbie: Um, I think it's just from WAP, I would say. Like, yeah.

Ziwe: Why did you come on this show?

Sebastian Tribbie: I mean, I know that I'm a controversial person, but I really respect you and just like, think what you're doing is so amazing because, like, all this shit that I would see, read about me, and I was like, I know, like, I'm not racist, but like, I was racist, and like, I just had to own it. And like, the whole thing is racism, racism has like a, like, I always thought, like, hate, but it's also a bit of shame. And like, really just trying to like, just show that like, I am learning like, I, when I make a meme, it's not really to be racist, but yes, it did have racist undertones, but I just really respect you and just like, I'll be vulnerable. I probably, a lot of people still probably hate me, but I did it, and I thought it'd be entertainment. It would be a good show.

Ziwe: You know, this has been a fantastic show. Shout out to being a proud racist. Thank you so much, Sebastian. You're a fantastic guest. Shout out to Sebastian. Everyone feel free to go follow Petey and Sebastian. Shout out to them. Fantastic guests. This has been a great show. Next week, we have Yes, Jules and Michael Rapaport at 8pm. Eastern Thursday. As a reminder, we will be going on hiatus soon because I famously have to write a book. But I'll see y'all next week. Same time, same place. Stay safe out there, guys. Bye.