Speaker 1: Native Land Pod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership
Speaker 1: with Resent Choice Medium.
Speaker 2: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.
Speaker 1: Welcome home. Y'all, Welcome to episode forty eight of Native
Speaker 1: Lamb Pod. It's so good to be home. We're coming
Speaker 1: to you live from the atl Shorty.
Speaker 3: We are live in.
Speaker 1: Atlanta for spell House homecoming. Well that's part of the celebration.
Speaker 1: We got another celebration. I'll tell you all about it later,
Speaker 1: but it's so good to be here Atlanta. And we
Speaker 1: have a live audience here. So we're gonna kick off
Speaker 1: the show right away and bring in my co host.
Speaker 1: I'm Tiffany Cross here with Andrew Gillham and the fabulous
Speaker 1: Angela Ry. What's up Angela fabulous tore in a mood today, y'all.
Speaker 4: So we just came in here, and Andrew is I'm.
Speaker 5: In a spirit of unity for all HBCU.
Speaker 4: I don't know, Just so.
Speaker 3: We're really clear.
Speaker 6: Andrew came in here represent his set, this ganggang all day.
Speaker 4: He said, to hell with.
Speaker 7: Comings, and you're from an HBC. You you reap your HBC,
Speaker 7: You not the HBC.
Speaker 6: I just am saying, I am us, Are you evoking
Speaker 6: my birthday weekend an honorary rattler, shout out to all
Speaker 6: the HBCUs.
Speaker 1: But we do want to honor Spellman and Morehouse. How
Speaker 1: many people want to Spellman the more House in the audience?
Speaker 8: Kay?
Speaker 1: Okay, y'all, well can they hall in the yard right now?
Speaker 1: But we got a few folks in here, so thank
Speaker 1: y'all for being here.
Speaker 4: Yes, Well, we have such a great show today.
Speaker 6: The one thing that I want to just highlight in
Speaker 6: this moment is the election. We did a Professional Development
Speaker 6: Program call with the group of young people that we
Speaker 6: train and shout out to the Professional Development program students
Speaker 6: are here, Janey and Kirsten and then Lolo who is
Speaker 6: a graduate of that program who is our booking producer,
Speaker 6: research producer, Utility player m VP, and I want to
Speaker 6: just acknowledge we did this call. We talked about how
Speaker 6: were feeling about the election, what are the vibes? There
Speaker 6: were tears shed, there was a conversation had about what
Speaker 6: folks were really feeling the angst. We have a student
Speaker 6: who talked about being in an area where they are
Speaker 6: actively recruiting for the KKK in North Carolina. Yeah, and
Speaker 6: it's just it's fascinating to see the dichotomy of existence
Speaker 6: right now, like there couldn't be a stark contrast.
Speaker 4: You think there might be some active KKK members in here.
Speaker 5: No, I want to know how feel feeling about the upcoming.
Speaker 4: A member of the KKK raise your about to go down?
Speaker 9: Why are you pointing me?
Speaker 5: Oh, I'm gonna say anything.
Speaker 7: I think I would love to know of the group
Speaker 7: that is as symbol here, how many of you all
Speaker 7: are feeling confident right now? By showing hand, it's pretty
Speaker 7: confident about the outcome that you desired. Okay, that are
Speaker 7: at the opposite end of that, which is not very
Speaker 7: confident about the and then always feeling sort of in
Speaker 7: the middle like I'm nervous.
Speaker 3: I'm nervous.
Speaker 5: I believe I'm nervod God, You're gonna come through.
Speaker 1: So not what I mean. About a third of the
Speaker 1: room said they feel confident about what do y'all think?
Speaker 1: About sixty percent of the room said they're not confident,
Speaker 1: and the remainder said they you.
Speaker 6: Know, I don't know add it up, but y'all thirty seven.
Speaker 4: That's great, tips up to one and fifty.
Speaker 7: But I think about a third is split across the
Speaker 7: across the space.
Speaker 1: I feel confident, y'all gonna just tell y'all, I feel confident.
Speaker 1: I feel like the sheer will of black women are
Speaker 1: going to carry her across the line. I believe and
Speaker 1: trust in our counterparts, our brothers. I know y'all gonna
Speaker 1: be right there with us to carry her across the line.
Speaker 1: I think it's just time. It's time. And I'm not
Speaker 1: consuming polls that come out every five minutes and one
Speaker 1: say this and one say that every day. I'm not
Speaker 1: consuming this media narrative that's been trying to divide our community,
Speaker 1: if you because none of that matters. If we just
Speaker 1: focus on what we have to do, and we get
Speaker 1: out the vote, and we cast our ballots and we
Speaker 1: make sure big Mama and Untie and cousin and little
Speaker 1: JJ and everybody else cast their ballots, I just feel
Speaker 1: like we're gonna win. I really did.
Speaker 7: I think the I think when we started looking at
Speaker 7: polls and reading everybody else's opinion about what's going to
Speaker 7: have in the election, we should turn on a new default,
Speaker 7: which is when you have that instinct to do it,
Speaker 7: text the relative who you're relatively unclear about whether or
Speaker 7: not they're going to vote. Uh, pick up the phone.
Speaker 10: Call.
Speaker 5: I know, it's very strange when your phone rings. I
Speaker 5: feel strange.
Speaker 11: I'm like, who is calling?
Speaker 5: Yeah, because there are other ways to communicate.
Speaker 4: But neither he don't communicate those ways.
Speaker 5: Pick up the phone and call somebody.
Speaker 7: But because it doesn't really help us, it doesn't ease
Speaker 7: our nerves to read these polls.
Speaker 5: It doesn't.
Speaker 7: It doesn't frankly, further inform us when reading everybody's opinion,
Speaker 7: because it's just that an opinion. And if we're that
Speaker 7: concerned and we think that democracy is that much at stake,
Speaker 7: let's text somebody and make sure they get out to
Speaker 7: vote on election day instead of in that spiral, because
Speaker 7: it can take you down reading some of the stuff.
Speaker 12: Georgia.
Speaker 1: I think Georgia. I'm so proud of Georgia because Georgia
Speaker 1: is officially a purple state. And I get tired of
Speaker 1: people saying, well, you know, the South is read and
Speaker 1: the South is Republican, and I always say it only
Speaker 1: is till it ain't. And I think the people in
Speaker 1: Georgia have shown this new coalition of voters that you
Speaker 1: know what I love about this area is black folks
Speaker 1: ain't the niche vote. Black folks are the base vote,
Speaker 1: so you need to pass through black folks to advance
Speaker 1: in a lot of elections. And I hope that this
Speaker 1: casts a wide shadow of influence over the rest of
Speaker 1: the country, as by twenty twenty or twenty forty four
Speaker 1: there will be no racial majority. So I think this
Speaker 1: is a good habit for us to get into owning
Speaker 1: our own political power and flexing the muscle this time around.
Speaker 6: So normally at the top of every show, you all know,
Speaker 6: we say welcome home, y'all, and we are in a
Speaker 6: city that well, tip can claim it. You can kind
Speaker 6: of claim it, but you do the people out today
Speaker 6: where I know you're rather but there's somebody, there's somebody
Speaker 6: who's here who can absolutely not only claim it, but
Speaker 6: also welcome us home. That is none other than the
Speaker 6: fifty ninth Mayor of Atlanta, Cassine Reid, who has joined us.
Speaker 6: So we were welcome Mayor Reid, former mayor, some of
Speaker 6: y'alls forever Mayor. We want to we want to welcome
Speaker 6: him home so he can walk up us home right back.
Speaker 6: And also can we give a shout out to Ryan
Speaker 6: at the gathering spot.
Speaker 4: Ryan Wilson.
Speaker 6: We love you, Thank you for welcoming us home. Thank
Speaker 6: you for everything you're doing in this election. Ryan is
Speaker 6: gonna come up to Ryan, come up. Why don't you
Speaker 6: go ahead and come up now, cause that's where I
Speaker 6: record every just so you guys. Let me tell y'all
Speaker 6: how down for the cause. Ryan Wilson is. We were
Speaker 6: trying to figure out a studio space in DC for
Speaker 6: the podcast.
Speaker 4: I'm about to go to them under the busch.
Speaker 6: iHeart told us that they had a studio that we
Speaker 6: could use, and they were not ready.
Speaker 4: They couldn't do it.
Speaker 6: And I was like, Ryan, don't y'all have a space,
Speaker 6: And Ryan was like, not only do we have a space,
Speaker 6: Tiffany is going to be welcome to record there every
Speaker 6: single week and he has done that. And so we
Speaker 6: are so grateful for you for the gatherings by family.
Speaker 6: So welcome home, y'all. We would like to get all welcome.
Speaker 13: Mare Well, I mean, I heard the conversation before I
Speaker 13: came up on stage. Let me just tell y'all we're
Speaker 13: gonna win, So I'm gonna start with that. So it's
Speaker 13: very important that folks in my space and everybody talk
Speaker 13: about that. The Republicans are running a confidence game on us.
Speaker 13: They did the same thing in twenty when Biden was running.
Speaker 13: All the consternation, all of the flooded poles. Trump got
Speaker 13: beat in twenty twenty two, there was a red wave,
Speaker 13: all the consternation, all the talk, all the chatter. These
Speaker 13: people are running on a forty seven percent platform. They
Speaker 13: can't be there straight up. So if we get out
Speaker 13: here straight up and go do it, we're talking about
Speaker 13: on ourselves on this stage. Let's beat these people. We
Speaker 13: need to finish this. And I don't want us to
Speaker 13: feel like this isn't in our hands. It's totally in
Speaker 13: our hands. But I do want us to go a
Speaker 13: step further than just saying, you know, we're gonna get
Speaker 13: our folks who we know should vote. All of us
Speaker 13: were involved in re electing President Obama, all of us.
Speaker 13: I remember all of you on the trail, and that's
Speaker 13: the election that meant the most of him because everybody
Speaker 13: thought he was gonna lose because the unemployment was above
Speaker 13: seven percent, and no president had.
Speaker 11: Been elected with unemployment being.
Speaker 13: Above seven percent, and the Republicans did everything they could
Speaker 13: to keep unemployment above seven percent. They wouldn't send money
Speaker 13: to Florida that ninety five quarter. They wouldn't take money
Speaker 13: in New Jersey with Chris Christy, right, and we beat
Speaker 13: them because we stayed at it. And so rather than
Speaker 13: saying that that we're gonna focus on getting ourselves to
Speaker 13: the polls, let's really make a list. Because Obama won
Speaker 13: by tens of votes across thousands of precincts.
Speaker 11: It's the same game.
Speaker 13: So we need to identify five people, ten people, fifteen people,
Speaker 13: twenty people, and let's get real about it. They're real specific,
Speaker 13: actually calling them, make sure that they actually vote. Every
Speaker 13: person that you've ever done a favor for, anybody that
Speaker 13: owes you some money.
Speaker 5: They may not answer.
Speaker 11: You know how it? Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 11: Y'all know how it is when people owe you money.
Speaker 13: Right, anybody that you've done something for, call them and
Speaker 13: tell them you need help.
Speaker 11: Our democracy is at risk.
Speaker 13: And you got a woman in Kamala Harris who's doing
Speaker 13: every single thing she's supposed to do, every ridiculous hurdle
Speaker 13: they've placed in front of her. She's not talking to
Speaker 13: depress enough she needed to do to debate, She's not
Speaker 13: talking to ordinary. Everything she's done, she's doing it, and
Speaker 13: so when I got the call to be with this
Speaker 13: extraordinary group of people, I stop whatever I'm doing.
Speaker 11: Every time you get a chance to talk talk.
Speaker 13: Last night, we had one hundred people in the yard
Speaker 13: in the backyard, and then Casey from Jodas showed up and.
Speaker 11: It became a whole nother thing.
Speaker 13: Right, Oh yeah, yeah, he's saying forever my lady and
Speaker 13: killed it.
Speaker 3: Y'all know.
Speaker 13: But the point I'm making is, y'all, we can do
Speaker 13: anything for twelve days. Black people can do anything for
Speaker 13: twelve days. Give it to this woman, give it to her.
Speaker 4: I want to come to you, Ryan, and then I.
Speaker 11: That's my welcome, y'all.
Speaker 4: Yes, that's it.
Speaker 6: That is a good welcome because the welcome is action oriented.
Speaker 6: We also close every show with a.
Speaker 4: Call to action. So we'll start at a call to action.
Speaker 4: We'll take that. Ryan.
Speaker 6: You have also not only utilized this space as a
Speaker 6: galvanizing and an organizing space for this election, but you've
Speaker 6: also gone out to talk to other entrepreneurs just like
Speaker 6: yourselves in business and like yourself and business leaders talk
Speaker 6: about the importance of getting folks to focus on the
Speaker 6: economics of this election, because that's what a lot of
Speaker 6: folks are talking about at the kitchen table.
Speaker 5: Look, look, I agree with the mayor.
Speaker 11: Can join hear me? I agree with the mayor.
Speaker 14: We have to do everything possible to make sure that
Speaker 14: we do everything possible before this election. I simply just
Speaker 14: cannot look at election night and know that we didn't
Speaker 14: leave it all on the field. So we're going everywhere.
Speaker 14: Right after this conversation. I'm going to the airport and
Speaker 14: I'm going to Durham right because they're small business owners there.
Speaker 14: We're going to talk about what's at stake. We're going
Speaker 14: to talk about what we need to do to make
Speaker 14: sure that we bring everyone else out to make sure
Speaker 14: that they vote at the end of the day, y'all
Speaker 14: I am. I'm optimistic because I know what we can
Speaker 14: accomplish when we come together to make things happen. So
Speaker 14: these next couple of days, you asked me a question
Speaker 14: about the economy, and that's what these discussions are about.
Speaker 14: For a long time the mayor mentioned this. There was
Speaker 14: this conversation of like, well, where is the policy, right,
Speaker 14: we don't have enough policy. Well, look, there's been a
Speaker 14: lot that's been put on the table that we've got
Speaker 14: to make sure people know about. So things like the
Speaker 14: tax exemption moving from five thousand and fifty thousand game changer.
Speaker 14: Simple things that are in some of these white papers
Speaker 14: talking about removing red tape would be a game changer
Speaker 14: for small businesses. So all in all, once folks get
Speaker 14: the information, what we're finding is that they see that
Speaker 14: the contrast is very clear, and then they go vote.
Speaker 14: I will ask everyone, if you have not voted already,
Speaker 14: please go get that out the way.
Speaker 11: And that's partially to make sure.
Speaker 14: That we're counted right, but it's also to make sure
Speaker 14: that down the stretch you're not diverting resources to go
Speaker 14: have to knock on your door again when we need
Speaker 14: to be going to knock on somebody else's door that
Speaker 14: might not vote right. So early voting, if you're here
Speaker 14: in Georgia, you have.
Speaker 11: Until the first.
Speaker 14: Please go vote now and then do like the mayor say,
Speaker 14: go get somebody else.
Speaker 6: So I want to take this moment now. There's somebody
Speaker 6: that many of us listen to most mornings, and if
Speaker 6: you don't listen to you most mornings, if you're like me,
Speaker 6: you might change your ring tone. You might need a
Speaker 6: little gospel song to get you ready. She has a
Speaker 6: radio show called Get Up with Erica, and she is
Speaker 6: a legendary gospel singer.
Speaker 4: We're bringing Erica Campbell to the stage to join us.
Speaker 15: Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello, Testing one two, testing one two.
Speaker 16: Okay, we're good.
Speaker 1: Hey, Welcome home America.
Speaker 4: Thank you, welcome home.
Speaker 16: I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 1: Thanks for being with us.
Speaker 16: Absolutely honored, Absolutely honored.
Speaker 4: I want to have this.
Speaker 6: We do family talk a lot on our podcast, and
Speaker 6: there was something I haven't even talked to y'all about
Speaker 6: this yet.
Speaker 4: I was crying about this, I know.
Speaker 6: So there's a gospel artist named La Craye who I adore,
Speaker 6: and he recently had I just heard some grown so
Speaker 6: y'all might have cried too. So he recently had a
Speaker 6: conversation with a Republican and a Democrat on his podcast,
Speaker 6: and they were talking about the choices in this selection,
Speaker 6: which I really don't believe there are any, but they
Speaker 6: were talking about the choices. The Republican gentlemen focused more
Speaker 6: on economic issues as we were used to, despite probably
Speaker 6: being left out of Trump's plans. I digress, and the
Speaker 6: other gentlemen talked about all of the hypocrisy that you
Speaker 6: see across the aisle, Lucree said something and I didn't
Speaker 6: watch the whole piece, so let me acknowledge that first,
Speaker 6: because I hate when people do this to me.
Speaker 4: But I'm about to do what I hate.
Speaker 6: He talked about the other side championing killing the unborn,
Speaker 6: and I think that we really have to have an
Speaker 6: honest conversation with our folks about what really is on
Speaker 6: the line and what we're talking about, because that hyperbolic
Speaker 6: rhetoric is so dangerous right now. So I want to
Speaker 6: come to you, Erica about how you're threading that needle.
Speaker 6: I know you've been working hard for the Harris campaign.
Speaker 6: You have a conference today, and you stopped what you
Speaker 6: were doing to come see us before you're a conference,
Speaker 6: So thank you.
Speaker 4: You're really laying it all online.
Speaker 6: Can you weigh in here and what you think we
Speaker 6: can do to really make sure church folks understand that
Speaker 6: this is still a very clear contrast.
Speaker 15: I understand at the core of what abortion is people
Speaker 15: calling it murder.
Speaker 16: Okay, I get that, But.
Speaker 15: If Jesus was here, what would he say to a
Speaker 15: woman who had to choose? He wouldn't tell her what
Speaker 15: to choose. The Bible says I've placed before you life
Speaker 15: and death. So it is your choice. So if God
Speaker 15: lets me choose, how dare a government tell me what
Speaker 15: I can do with my body even.
Speaker 16: If I'm doing the wrong thing.
Speaker 15: So some people do choose to do the wrong thing,
Speaker 15: they'll stand before God, not their government. And I think
Speaker 15: that it is our job to remember that the government
Speaker 15: is not my pastor. And if you got faith, no
Speaker 15: matter what the economic strategy is, God still supplies all
Speaker 15: my needs according to His riches in glory. Some are
Speaker 15: already operating on a different level. So I don't feel
Speaker 15: like even excluding somebody from the LGBTQ community if we
Speaker 15: just honest about it.
Speaker 16: And I know I'm gonna get in trouble for this.
Speaker 15: They already go to our churches, they already sing, they're
Speaker 15: already here, So what is it that you're really talking about?
Speaker 16: Right?
Speaker 15: And so I just think that it is very hypocritical
Speaker 15: because in my mind, when you think of when Jesus
Speaker 15: was here, who was it that was.
Speaker 16: Bashing him the most?
Speaker 15: The religious we're better. You're supposed to be followed this law, followed,
Speaker 15: this rule. This says that you're religious. So if you
Speaker 15: have this unrealistic list of what it means to be
Speaker 15: a Christian, and you say we are the party of Christians.
Speaker 15: How dare you imply that somebody that doesn't agree with
Speaker 15: you is lacking faith. I just think it's absurd, and
Speaker 15: I just think if God lets me choose, even if
Speaker 15: I choose the wrong thing, it's still my choice and
Speaker 15: not yours.
Speaker 7: Thank you, miss Erica for taking time being with us.
Speaker 7: May I want to circle back around on this expectations
Speaker 7: game because you mentioned some of the flooding of the
Speaker 7: poll I don't know if you all had read about
Speaker 7: the fact that a lot of these outlying Republican polling
Speaker 7: firms have been dumping their polls into the mix here
Speaker 7: at the last minute as a way to affect the
Speaker 7: polling averages. So when you have national polling averages, it's
Speaker 7: not just one poll. They take the poll of all
Speaker 7: the polls, and so what you're getting is a bunch
Speaker 7: of trash polls from Republicans affecting what have been some
Speaker 7: legitimate polling that has happened as way to I think
Speaker 7: impact What the mayor pointed to, which is expectations, and
Speaker 7: what I'd love you to pick up is why are
Speaker 7: they trying to control the expectations game. If the election
Speaker 7: may be pointing more toward Harris win, why would the
Speaker 7: Trump folks be attempting to control expectations.
Speaker 13: Because hope requires courage, and people like to be a
Speaker 13: part of winning things. And you know, when you're in
Speaker 13: the home stretch and you feel something that's real, you've
Speaker 13: been in real campaigns, it energizes.
Speaker 11: It's a force multiplier.
Speaker 13: But if you're down, if you're concerned, if you're worried,
Speaker 13: you're less active to go be the best version of yourself.
Speaker 13: So that's why whenever I go, Ryan and Out are together.
Speaker 13: The other night, I opened by saying we were gonna win,
Speaker 13: and you can feel the room change just hearing. It's
Speaker 13: a force multiplier. And so I think that going into
Speaker 13: the last twelve days, all of you all have been around.
Speaker 13: The Vice president knows she feels amazing. And these people
Speaker 13: run a confidence game. They can't beat us straight up,
Speaker 13: but they're in.
Speaker 11: Georgia and we know how to vote.
Speaker 13: Raphael Warnock won three elections in a row for the
Speaker 13: United States Senate, and the Jewish gentleman named John Arsoff
Speaker 13: is the other United States Senator. So they can talk
Speaker 13: that talk to us but we know what we're doing.
Speaker 13: So I think and the reason I'm here today is
Speaker 13: to focus on the execution because it's that.
Speaker 11: Small margin, and to let people know.
Speaker 13: When we walking around barbershops, some beauty Pauls tell her
Speaker 13: we're gonna win and take people on. And when people
Speaker 13: talk crazy, talk crazy back, because you know they're folks
Speaker 13: that aren't watching this podcast.
Speaker 10: You know.
Speaker 13: I'm in the barber shop the other day. The guy's
Speaker 13: talking about Trump on the economy. I'm like, my guy,
Speaker 13: there're more black people working to day that have ever
Speaker 13: worked in the history of the United States of America.
Speaker 13: My guy, black wealth is being increasing. My god, there's
Speaker 13: a black woman on the Supreme Court. My guy, who
Speaker 13: are you talking?
Speaker 11: What did Trump do? It changes the room.
Speaker 13: And I'm not on the bandwagon a bashing black men,
Speaker 13: but I am on the bandwagon are telling black.
Speaker 11: Men we own sisters. Stop it. You don't even need
Speaker 11: to get deep. We own sisters.
Speaker 13: The President Obama, the President Obama ran black women, wasn't
Speaker 13: talking about even.
Speaker 11: So let's not have a sophisticated conversation. I got a mama,
Speaker 11: I got a daughter.
Speaker 13: I know what a black woman being president of the
Speaker 13: United States is gonna do to my daughter's brain. And
Speaker 13: you talking about Trump ain't for you, and so I
Speaker 13: think it's on us Andrew, my brother mayor right to
Speaker 13: be out here at it. We ain't got nothing more
Speaker 13: important than this. Over the next twelve days, I don't
Speaker 13: care who you are. This country's gonna be changed in
Speaker 13: a way that we can't even conceive. You had a
Speaker 13: man run for president of the United States of America
Speaker 13: who stood up on TV in front of a group
Speaker 13: of people who claimed to be Christians and said, if
Speaker 13: we get this election.
Speaker 11: Over with, y'all won't have to worry about voting anymore.
Speaker 13: Right, Come on now, So Atlanta, Philadelphia, Detroit, Mech's going home.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, for real, Right, he.
Speaker 11: Did his time.
Speaker 13: I'm for all of the talk. When they marched Kwame
Speaker 13: kill Patrick out of when Trump free Kwame kill Patrick.
Speaker 13: He was trying to do what trying to influence an election,
Speaker 13: So for all, I'm with all of the process.
Speaker 11: So that's what I came here to be, you know,
Speaker 11: I'm for it.
Speaker 13: I got three more of these today.
Speaker 4: Thank you for your service, mister Mayor. Tim.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to pick up on what you said
Speaker 1: because I appreciate your words that black men old sisters,
Speaker 1: but I just want to say, brothers, you owe yourself.
Speaker 1: You owe yourself because black women, when we win, y'all win.
Speaker 4: We are one.
Speaker 1: They can't deny us in her policies. She had a
Speaker 1: whole policy roll out just for y'all. You ain't doing
Speaker 1: us a favor by voting for her. We are locked
Speaker 1: arms as a community. There is no other community on
Speaker 1: this earth like black folks. When they try to divide
Speaker 1: us and talk about how violent we are, all these
Speaker 1: things ain't no. You dropped me in any neighbor. I
Speaker 1: can go to all y'all's house with Thanksgiving and I
Speaker 1: know the rules. You know that matters. You know, black women,
Speaker 1: we could have a whole conversation and not utter a word.
Speaker 1: Y'all know you get that. Look right, see was already
Speaker 1: on cue exactly those things matter. So I love your
Speaker 1: words may or read, but I just want to make
Speaker 1: that clear to brothers. All this talk about black men
Speaker 1: doing this black man, I've never believed it. I never
Speaker 1: doubted y'all for one second because I know y'all, because
Speaker 1: y'all are mean. I want to.
Speaker 4: Ask you all before you before you head out what
Speaker 4: your most.
Speaker 6: Significant issue was. If you had the privilege to be
Speaker 6: a single issue voter in this election, what would be
Speaker 6: your most important issue.
Speaker 14: We talk a lot about small business here, and there's
Speaker 14: some real important reasons why. Right, ninety six percent of
Speaker 14: our businesses don't employ anybody. Forty five percent of black
Speaker 14: folks in Atlanta have delinquent debt. And I got in
Speaker 14: trouble for saying this a couple months ago, but it's
Speaker 14: the truth. If you think about it, right, this is
Speaker 14: spell Houses homecoming weekend, and it's an important occasion. Shout
Speaker 14: out y'all.
Speaker 11: The didn't let me.
Speaker 14: But when you think about it, no matter where you graduate,
Speaker 14: right PWR or HBCU, unfortunately you were probably going to
Speaker 14: work at a PWI. And that's because too many of
Speaker 14: our businesses don't employ anybody. Right, So the research is
Speaker 14: very clear. Right, if we were to get more businesses
Speaker 14: in our community to a place where they were employing
Speaker 14: more people in our community, that that is and to
Speaker 14: expand the pie moment, that's good for everybody. So that's
Speaker 14: what we're talking about in this election. We've got to
Speaker 14: get access to capital to our businesses. We've got to
Speaker 14: make sure that we're not just talking about starting, but
Speaker 14: we're also talking about scaling, knowing that if we do
Speaker 14: that effectively, our neighborhoods will be better personally. You will
Speaker 14: see the impact, right because in this city, I know
Speaker 14: a lot of people were doing really well. All of
Speaker 14: those people are still going to go to a table
Speaker 14: in a couple of weeks where statistically there's going to
Speaker 14: be poverty at the table. So we've got to get
Speaker 14: to a place where we have the opportunity. I heard
Speaker 14: from one of our investors one time. He was like, look,
Speaker 14: there's only two ways to make money in America. You
Speaker 14: have to own something or you have to invest in something.
Speaker 14: Most black folks are not doing either one of those
Speaker 14: two things right now. So it's hard to put it
Speaker 14: down to one issue, but it connects to so many
Speaker 14: of the other things that we're trying to combat every
Speaker 14: single day because our businesses are too small.
Speaker 11: I love y'all.
Speaker 14: I'm actually about to go talk about the same thing
Speaker 14: in North Carolina. So if you know anybody in Durham tonight,
Speaker 14: tell them that we're doing what we're called Economic Freedom Talks,
Speaker 14: and we're having this discussion talking about what's on the table,
Speaker 14: but come back and see to GGS. I appreciate y'all, y'all, thank.
Speaker 4: You, mister Mayor.
Speaker 6: I'm gonna come to you because I got a two
Speaker 6: parter for you, Erica before you go to this conference.
Speaker 11: Yes, mineus. I like living in the democracy.
Speaker 13: I like being able to vote, and going to Tiffany's point,
Speaker 13: the fact of the matter is, just when we about
Speaker 13: to be able to run stuff, they want to change democracy.
Speaker 13: So as the country moves towards being where no one
Speaker 13: has a majority, right, we want to change the game.
Speaker 13: So I'm voting for a democracy fairer is harder. The
Speaker 13: more rights people have, the harder it is. And they're
Speaker 13: offering a Hitler based alternative.
Speaker 11: Thanks, So that's mine. I like democracy, I like being
Speaker 11: able to vote.
Speaker 4: I love that.
Speaker 15: I would say education, I would say, why aren't we
Speaker 15: teaching taxes in high school? Why aren't we talking about
Speaker 15: economics and you know, while we teach government and the
Speaker 15: different branches, and they don't even teach that anymore. They
Speaker 15: don't write in cursive anymore. Like there's so many things
Speaker 15: that they don't teach that would equip them to.
Speaker 16: Be prepared for what is to come.
Speaker 15: Why aren't we teaching them empathy and compassion and different
Speaker 15: things like that in our education system which is so broken.
Speaker 15: I went to public school, so I get it, and
Speaker 15: my kids are even in public school. With all that
Speaker 15: I do, and so when I see things, I say things.
Speaker 15: So I would be voting for education.
Speaker 6: So the last question I every year, and I know
Speaker 6: you guys have to run off. I just have been
Speaker 6: watching the souls to the polls efforts. Yes, I've been
Speaker 6: watching faith leaders fight. We just talked about one of
Speaker 6: the discussions that's not most recently. I would love for
Speaker 6: you to issue just a call to action for believers
Speaker 6: at home and for those in the audience to that.
Speaker 6: I think all these folks are going to vote, have
Speaker 6: already voted. But what's the thing that you're saying. This
Speaker 6: is what I need for you to do as you
Speaker 6: get ready to take your faith behind to the polls.
Speaker 16: Yes, yes, I stay behind you.
Speaker 15: I would say, if you have a church and your
Speaker 15: church is in a community and that community is struggling,
Speaker 15: you need to vote. If your parishioners are struggling financially,
Speaker 15: you need to vote. If you're seniors in your church
Speaker 15: are struggling with social security and don't have what they need.
Speaker 16: You need to vote.
Speaker 15: So you need faith, but you also need to take
Speaker 15: that faith and put in an action outside the church.
Speaker 15: You don't become a believer to just sit in the
Speaker 15: building you come in to. You become a believer to
Speaker 15: go out to the world to teach people, to help people,
Speaker 15: encourage people. And so that's why believers should vote. Take
Speaker 15: your faith, feel self to the polls and vote.
Speaker 1: Can I ask real quick that one quick question before
Speaker 1: the mayor leaves. I think there is a growing concern
Speaker 1: out there in the country, especially among black folks, that
Speaker 1: when Vice President becomes President elect Harris, how insufferable will
Speaker 1: Howard alumni be across the.
Speaker 11: Oh my god, you already know, you already know.
Speaker 13: I mean, you won't be able to go nowhere without here.
Speaker 13: You know, you know it's gonna be terrible. We'll discuss
Speaker 13: this good.
Speaker 5: All over the catcher.
Speaker 6: You will take y'all being insufferable for our freedom while
Speaker 6: we are thank you much to see read into Erica
Speaker 6: Campbell having wonderful conferences.
Speaker 9: Everybody, welcome y'all.
Speaker 6: Okay, while we're transitioning, we have our next panelists coming
Speaker 6: up from the A. C.
Speaker 8: O U.
Speaker 6: I want to just remind you all that you are
Speaker 6: welcome to come to this center mic to raise any
Speaker 6: question or comment to the audience, so feel free, or
Speaker 6: to our panelists into each other to the audience, so
Speaker 6: feel free to come up. When you do come up,
Speaker 6: make sure that you say your name and where you're
Speaker 6: from in true n LP fashion. Joining us now is
Speaker 6: Andrea Young, who is the executive director of a c
Speaker 6: o U in Georgia. She is doing some tremendous work
Speaker 6: which we are going to hear about. And one of
Speaker 6: my favorite things is the legacy that is sitting before us.
Speaker 6: This is the daughter of Ambassador Andy Young. So thank
Speaker 6: you so much for joining us.
Speaker 3: Listen, oh, listen to all that.
Speaker 4: If everybody's excited about that, I love it.
Speaker 10: And I hate to say about another Howard, So yes,
Speaker 10: the Howard people.
Speaker 12: To say nothing to you.
Speaker 10: Here, right, Howard is here, So yes. And and that
Speaker 10: was our you know, one of our mayors. You know,
Speaker 10: we've had black men for a long time in the city.
Speaker 10: That's kind of how we roll so and all about
Speaker 10: empowerment and as he said, democracy, because democracy is how
Speaker 10: we got here.
Speaker 7: Yes, No, I was just gonna say Speter. First of all,
Speaker 7: thank for the work that you do. I'm a monthly
Speaker 7: member contributor.
Speaker 5: Thank you so much, of course.
Speaker 7: But you all, we've been saying for a long time
Speaker 7: the most important election, the most important election. I gotta
Speaker 7: imagine that when we're faced with the potential of a
Speaker 7: fascist on the other side, that for the ACLUES, this
Speaker 7: has really.
Speaker 5: Got to be.
Speaker 7: You know, we're at a death con you know, death
Speaker 7: Con five at this point, and you.
Speaker 10: Know, just to say we are meeting NonStop and preparing.
Speaker 12: We have all the legal papers ready.
Speaker 10: You know, we saw you know, what happens in twenty twenty,
Speaker 10: and you know we are prepared and we're working, you know,
Speaker 10: in advance. I mean here in Georgia and in every
Speaker 10: battleground state, the ACLU is working to make sure people
Speaker 10: can vote unhindered. You know, that they don't change the
Speaker 10: in the middle of the game, and that afterwards the
Speaker 10: votes get counted, they get certified, they get sent up
Speaker 10: to Washington, you know, to to be for the Electoral College.
Speaker 10: So we're working on all fronts, all across the country,
Speaker 10: and especially with the focus on the battleground states.
Speaker 7: We love that and I would just ask for the
Speaker 7: ACOU what would you all what do you fear most
Speaker 7: in the changing of our democracy should there be a
Speaker 7: Trump two point zero.
Speaker 10: Well, you know, I came to Georgia during segregation, so
Speaker 10: you know, I don't have to imagine I remember, you know,
Speaker 10: because really, you know, Langston Hughes said Jim Crow is
Speaker 10: a fascist regime, right, so we know and our grandparents know,
Speaker 10: you know what, you know what this could look like.
Speaker 12: And you know, the ASILU.
Speaker 10: Was very involved in stopping the family separation policy. You know,
Speaker 10: so people who will do that, we don't know how
Speaker 10: low they can go.
Speaker 4: I want to ask you.
Speaker 6: You all have been instrumental in the state election board's
Speaker 6: recent hand counting rule, and you all are fighting the
Speaker 6: good fight, whether we know it or not. I would
Speaker 6: love for you to talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 6: We talked about it on our podcast as well. Thank
Speaker 6: you to hear from someone on the front lines. I
Speaker 6: think is really really important to our listeners.
Speaker 12: Yeah.
Speaker 10: So, you know, the ACLU is working on the right
Speaker 10: to vote twenty four to seven, three hundred and sixty
Speaker 10: five days. We don't just do it in election years.
Speaker 10: So we've been monitoring the election boards every month when
Speaker 10: they meet. We have volunteers that go we monitor the
Speaker 10: state election Board. We go in the legislature to try
Speaker 10: to keep them from changing the rules. So they change
Speaker 10: the rules to make the state Election Board essentially a MAGA,
Speaker 10: you know, advocacy group, and uh, we had to. They
Speaker 10: came up with about seven rules that would have made
Speaker 10: it easy to prevent certification of the of the vote
Speaker 10: in Georgia. So we you know, we sued and were
Speaker 10: able to actually get to rules. Two different judge judges
Speaker 10: ruled Judge mcberney and Judge Tom Cox, who uh, who's
Speaker 10: basically smacked down seven of them and said they were
Speaker 10: out acting outside of their authority.
Speaker 12: And so the.
Speaker 10: Rules that were in place during the primary will pretty
Speaker 10: much be the rules under which we are operating this election.
Speaker 10: But it takes relentless, relentless effort to you know, as
Speaker 10: the church folks say, the devil is busy, and so
Speaker 10: it takes a relentless effort to to to keep access
Speaker 10: to the to the ballot. So at the a c
Speaker 10: l U, we believe voting should be easy for for
Speaker 10: everyone and and you know, everyone votes and you accept
Speaker 10: the result.
Speaker 12: That's democracy.
Speaker 10: Now that Georgia only fifty two percent of Georgia voters
Speaker 10: self identify us white. So, as Mary Reid said, you
Speaker 10: know now that you see, you know, this real opportunity
Speaker 10: for you know, we've already elected you know, Senator Warnock,
Speaker 10: Senator Astov statewide that are folks who are pro choice,
Speaker 10: pro democracy, interested in criminal legal reform, uh, you know,
Speaker 10: interested in you know, access to capital for you know,
Speaker 10: communities of color. Now that we've elected those kinds of
Speaker 10: leaders that you know there is that possibility.
Speaker 12: Let's keep this going. And and politics.
Speaker 10: Is how you and voting is how you make the
Speaker 10: folks who make decisions be responsive to your priorities.
Speaker 12: I want to.
Speaker 1: Ask some some local issues here. I really appreciate the
Speaker 1: point you made about Atlanta having black mayors. Atlanta always
Speaker 1: has a black mayor, and it's been shaky a few
Speaker 1: times a few elections. But my mother worked for Bill Campbell.
Speaker 1: My grandmother grew up not far from here. I went
Speaker 1: to elementary school, middle school, high school here, So this
Speaker 1: city means a lot. I haven't lived here in over
Speaker 1: twenty five years. When I left, it was not the
Speaker 1: demographics that I see now. Atlanta is important because I
Speaker 1: think it's a message to every city in Mississippi, every
Speaker 1: city in Alabama, every city in Arkansas. What have you
Speaker 1: seen happen here that harnesses black power in a way
Speaker 1: where we are flexing this political muscle now that other
Speaker 1: cities perhaps can mimit.
Speaker 10: So I think, you know, one of the things I
Speaker 10: look at is in the in terms of the agency
Speaker 10: of the black community is what Manor Jackson's grandfather called
Speaker 10: the book, the ballot and the book. Right, So we
Speaker 10: have the education, you use your political power, and you
Speaker 10: use that for economic power.
Speaker 12: And while you know, as they.
Speaker 10: Said, we're not where we need to be, and of
Speaker 10: course all of this has been taking place. You're working
Speaker 10: against a state, you know, that doesn't believe in even
Speaker 10: medicaid expansion. You're working against the federal government that has
Speaker 10: withdrawn resources for housing. You know, there's no such thing
Speaker 10: as welfare, the kinds of things that used to sustain
Speaker 10: people and allow them to move up. So we're working
Speaker 10: against you know, some very difficult national and state trends.
Speaker 10: But it's that kind of understanding. But one of the
Speaker 10: things you do with your political power is, as Ryan said,
Speaker 10: you you want to create the opportunity for economic power.
Speaker 10: But at the same time, if you have economic power.
Speaker 10: You know, Black folk have always created wealth, but we
Speaker 10: don't keep it unless we have the political power to defend,
Speaker 10: defend our businesses, defend our communities, you know, and defend
Speaker 10: our access to you know, our ability really to prosper
Speaker 10: because you know, in the in the south, uh, you know,
Speaker 10: if you get too upp aty, somebody will come, you know,
Speaker 10: burn your stuff down in the past.
Speaker 6: Right, you know, one of the things that we address
Speaker 6: at the top is the inks that some folks are
Speaker 6: feeling about this election. You're doing the work that would
Speaker 6: hopefully prevent us as a collective from experiencing that type
Speaker 6: of inks. What can this audience do? And you all
Speaker 6: are still welcome to ask questions. I am very surprised
Speaker 6: because normally NLP fan be all up into mic and
Speaker 6: in the camera. So please ask questions with this genius
Speaker 6: we have seen here, this wonderful attorney. So I would
Speaker 6: love to hear what you think folks can do to
Speaker 6: prevent that inks? Well, how can they support a c
Speaker 6: O you What are the things that we should be
Speaker 6: doing right?
Speaker 10: Well, as Andrew said, we do we we do take
Speaker 10: individual donations and you know, our monthly supporters, and it's
Speaker 10: actually because we are supported by individuals, not by big
Speaker 10: mega We don't get corporate government, which means we are
Speaker 10: independent and we work for the people. And you know
Speaker 10: we will you know, we will persist, but people have
Speaker 10: to vote right, we and we have to talk people
Speaker 10: through their anxieties and concerns. You heard, you know, some
Speaker 10: of the things Cassim had to say that, you know,
Speaker 10: we have to help folks understand that while Trump put
Speaker 10: his name on the check, it was the Black Caucus
Speaker 10: that got that check, right, it was it was the efforts.
Speaker 10: It was you know, he he he wasn't trying to
Speaker 10: give that money to votes. You have to help people understand.
Speaker 10: I think President Obama said, you know that was my
Speaker 10: economy that you inherited, right, help people really understand that.
Speaker 12: What the realities are.
Speaker 10: And there is a lot of disinformation, a lot of
Speaker 10: very intentional we know we've heard that you know, Russia,
Speaker 10: China and Iran are all trying to throw this to
Speaker 10: Donald Trump. Why is that? You know, we are the
Speaker 10: example of a multi racial, multicultural democracy. There's so much
Speaker 10: more that we can do and we're not you know,
Speaker 10: as we said, let's you know, we have you know,
Speaker 10: understand so really talking to people, meeting with them where
Speaker 10: they are asking them what is really important to them.
Speaker 10: Sometimes people think that, I don't know, have they heard
Speaker 10: about the one million public servants that got loan forgiveness?
Speaker 4: Uh?
Speaker 10: And of course, you know, reproductive rights understand that that
Speaker 10: when they when they.
Speaker 12: Struck down Roe v.
Speaker 10: Wade, they didn't just say you can't have an abortion.
Speaker 10: They also struck down the law that says the government
Speaker 10: can't sterilize you.
Speaker 12: Right.
Speaker 10: And so this thing of reproductive choice and freedom goes
Speaker 10: both ways. Right, if the government can tell you that
Speaker 10: you have to continue your pregnancy, they can tell you
Speaker 10: that you can't have a pregnancy. And we know that
Speaker 10: this has happened to Black women in the past.
Speaker 12: You know, So.
Speaker 10: This this thing when we talk about reproductive justice. You know,
Speaker 10: Black women disproportionately die from maternal uh. You know, maternal health.
Speaker 10: Infant mortality is still was too high in our community
Speaker 10: before Roe v. Way.
Speaker 12: Now that they've struck down Road v.
Speaker 10: Way, they are undermining the ability of women to get
Speaker 10: reproductive health care. We see maternal mortality and infant mortality
Speaker 10: going up in you know in you know this very
Speaker 10: not because the ability isn't there to save people's lives,
Speaker 10: but because the government is saying and tying the hands
Speaker 10: of physicians when they are trying to deliver health care.
Speaker 1: You have a question. Yes, yes, Brandon Carter.
Speaker 17: I live here in Atlanta, and my question is a
Speaker 17: lot of people feel that Trump's presidency was retribution for
Speaker 17: Obama's election twenty twenty.
Speaker 11: We know January sixth.
Speaker 17: Was retribution for Biden's and then all of the court
Speaker 17: of all of the laws that were passed was because
Speaker 17: of that.
Speaker 11: Do you feel that there's going to be a retribution win?
Speaker 11: Harris wins.
Speaker 10: Now if we keep voting, you know, I mean people,
Speaker 10: you know, there was a big outpouring. People came out
Speaker 10: and voted for Obama, and you have to keep it going.
Speaker 12: So we talk.
Speaker 10: We also at the ACLU have a saying called Hope,
Speaker 10: Vote Advocate.
Speaker 12: You know, voting is the beginning.
Speaker 10: You then have to advocate, you know, for the things
Speaker 10: that you want your elected officials to do, and we
Speaker 10: have to keep voting. I think Spelman has a thing
Speaker 10: about for donations, like every woman every year like don't.
Speaker 12: Just give on your you know, your alumni year.
Speaker 10: And it's the same thing we have to vote every year.
Speaker 10: We can't just vote every four years. We didn't we
Speaker 10: even with Obama, he didn't keep the Congress that he
Speaker 10: needed to let him continue his agenda.
Speaker 12: So we we are.
Speaker 10: I mean, the only reason this is even a discussion
Speaker 10: is because we have the electoral college, which is rooted
Speaker 10: in you know, the defensive slavery. But if you look
Speaker 10: at the popular vote, you know Hillary won the popular vote, right,
Speaker 10: and so based on the popular vote, George Bush shouldn't
Speaker 10: have been president and Trump shouldn't have been president if
Speaker 10: we had a system where the popular vote winner was one.
Speaker 12: So yes. So the thing is is that we just
Speaker 12: have to keep at it.
Speaker 10: There will always be pushback, but the but I think
Speaker 10: the people who believe in a fair and just and
Speaker 10: multiracial America, I believe are the majority. But we have
Speaker 10: to believe it and we have to keep voting like it.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for you. I think there will
Speaker 1: be retribution. I get your point about keep voting and
Speaker 1: political retribution, but I am fully raised for political violence
Speaker 1: in this country. When President Kamala Harris wins, I think
Speaker 1: we've already seen evidence of that, and as black folks,
Speaker 1: we already know how violent white people can be when
Speaker 1: they don't get their way, So I'm very raceed for
Speaker 1: what will come next.
Speaker 7: I also think there'll be political policy retribution. I think
Speaker 7: the Senate is probably going to go Republican. They already
Speaker 7: stole the Supreme Court seat from Obama a year out
Speaker 7: from the election, yet they gave one four or three
Speaker 7: to Trump and one within weeks a few months of
Speaker 7: the election. I think they're going to be poised to
Speaker 7: prevent her from moving her agenda on day zero. The
Speaker 7: people who we are in bed with for the purposes
Speaker 7: of getting her elected, these former Trumpers who are now
Speaker 7: never Trumpers or whomever. I mean, they've already got the
Speaker 7: opinion pages written for when she gets there. This is
Speaker 7: what we thought we would get. She's more liberal than
Speaker 7: we expected she, you know, so I think we should
Speaker 7: gear up for that to the point, which is why
Speaker 7: we have to keep voting and keep supporting her, because
Speaker 7: that is already I think.
Speaker 10: But you know, Beyonce is going to Texas now, Colin
Speaker 10: already is.
Speaker 12: You know, uh.
Speaker 10: In Florida, the you know, abortion issue is on the ballot.
Speaker 10: That has always brought out, you know, voters who believe
Speaker 10: in in freedom. So you know, I, uh, you know,
Speaker 10: I'm an optimist till they till they capt the votes.
Speaker 4: Hear that, and we have another question, and tell us
Speaker 4: your name and where you're from, sir.
Speaker 18: Afternoon, Welcome home, y'all.
Speaker 11: My name is Earl West.
Speaker 18: I'm from Seattle, Washington, twelve six.
Speaker 19: Garfield class of eighty four, same as your brother.
Speaker 4: Same as my brother and my daddy, my brothers. Have
Speaker 4: you talked to him, I haven't talked to him.
Speaker 9: I have talked to him.
Speaker 18: I was with your father at our one hundred year
Speaker 18: reunion up in Seattle, so I do have a picture
Speaker 18: of that. But my comment in question, my comment will
Speaker 18: probably will lead to a question.
Speaker 19: But uh, just the other day I was over at.
Speaker 18: A black owned boutique and in line talking to some
Speaker 18: brothers the importance of voting, and one of them was
Speaker 18: a libertarian, which was confusing to me because you had
Speaker 18: a black owned boutique.
Speaker 11: Ironic.
Speaker 18: But it's more of information and how information is being
Speaker 18: gathered and distributed and where we can find it information
Speaker 18: because I'm having to combat the information out there just
Speaker 18: by talking to some of the brothers, because I don't
Speaker 18: believe that the black man thing is real because I
Speaker 18: have moms, sisters, aunts and every nephew's nieces. So I
Speaker 18: have to vote as a as the poet and lyricists
Speaker 18: and UH sports expert once said, we vote based on
Speaker 18: harm reduction, you know so sports knowledge. You know, I
Speaker 18: got you you know so, So the way I vote
Speaker 18: is based on what I have in my family. But
Speaker 18: is there a way as far as getting the information
Speaker 18: out and making sure that I'm speaking the truth to
Speaker 18: these young brothers to make sure I am pointing them
Speaker 18: in the right direction, because I see that a lot
Speaker 18: sometimes everywhere I go, I make sure that I vote.
Speaker 18: I tell the people that work for me, you take
Speaker 18: the day off, go vote whatever you need to do.
Speaker 18: So if there's a way that I can get that
Speaker 18: information and get that information to the people, that would
Speaker 18: be a good thing for me.
Speaker 4: I love for you to answer.
Speaker 10: You know, our website a c l uga dot org
Speaker 10: has all the information about you know, links to where.
Speaker 12: To vote, how to vote.
Speaker 10: You know, we have talking you know, different issue on points,
Speaker 10: but particularly right now, it's just the you know, getting
Speaker 10: the getting the where to go. And I appreciate your
Speaker 10: point about harm reduction because you know, we do a
Speaker 10: lot of that right now. And uh, and it's real, right,
Speaker 10: it makes a difference.
Speaker 19: And why don't I see like.
Speaker 18: The comments that JD Van said about Trump on the
Speaker 18: air twenty four seven? You know, I mean, there are
Speaker 18: some things that I think we should be saying and
Speaker 18: seeing that though Republicans have said about this guy, and.
Speaker 19: Why don't we see these things twenty four seven?
Speaker 11: It just baffles.
Speaker 6: Me, you know, I'm gonna tell you, Leonard and I
Speaker 6: did CNN last night, and yeah, they ended up going viral,
Speaker 6: and part of it was honestly a continuation of the
Speaker 6: conversation we had on our podcast. We talked about fascism
Speaker 6: and if Andrew, of course, you've already mentioned today that
Speaker 6: Jim Crow is a form of fascism, and so one
Speaker 6: of the things that I brought up was I remember
Speaker 6: being on air, and this is getting to to your point,
Speaker 6: being on air, and I said that Donald Trump was racist.
Speaker 6: It was one of the first times I think that
Speaker 6: it's been said on cable news. And Anderson was moderating
Speaker 6: the conversation.
Speaker 4: He was like, well, what are you basing that on?
Speaker 6: I'm like his history, So I started running things down.
Speaker 6: But it was a very tense moment on air, not
Speaker 6: just with Anderson, but with the whole panel, because oh,
Speaker 6: you can't say that, I dare say that, Yes I can.
Speaker 4: Here are all the facts.
Speaker 6: So I brought up the point that when Kamala Harris
Speaker 6: was asked at the town hall if she thought Donald
Speaker 6: Trump was a fascist, not is he a fascist, but
Speaker 6: if she thought he was a fascist, it got so
Speaker 6: so much more press attention than the fact that her
Speaker 6: chief of staff, the former Department of Homeland Security secretary,
Speaker 6: said that he is a fascist and defined the terms.
Speaker 4: So that is one of the things that we should
Speaker 4: be saying.
Speaker 6: I also want to acknowledge we are saying in a
Speaker 6: lot and that's why we did our podcast the way
Speaker 6: we did. We went through and defined what fascism is,
Speaker 6: examples of fascism. These guys go overseas a lot more
Speaker 6: than me and their commentary. I stay domestic as much
Speaker 6: as I can. It's enough going on over here. But
Speaker 6: they are brilliant at this. They talk about the ways
Speaker 6: in which we've seen fascism historically and through other parts
Speaker 6: of the world. We have to emphasize that people are like,
Speaker 6: it can't get worse, Yes it can.
Speaker 4: It absolutely can so well.
Speaker 1: I want to say about the news urn because I
Speaker 1: think that's a significant thing. You know, that's my constant
Speaker 1: beef the cable news. Y'all have seen like they have
Speaker 1: centered a shrinking demographic. They center the interest and comfort
Speaker 1: of conservative white folks. They have no interests in centering us,
Speaker 1: and that's why we've seen their numbers continue to decline
Speaker 1: over the years, and media has become more democratized so
Speaker 1: other people have a voice. The sad part about that
Speaker 1: is that opens up a door for a lot of
Speaker 1: misinformation and disinformation, and so we don't see a lot
Speaker 1: of the just actual facts because they have a vested
Speaker 1: interest in feeding you all this narrative where you have
Speaker 1: angst around this election. So what do you do when
Speaker 1: you wake up? You want to put on CNN and
Speaker 1: watch that all day to see what this poll said
Speaker 1: at eleven o'clock. Maybe it's gonna say something different at noon.
Speaker 1: They have turned the news platform into reality television. Let's
Speaker 1: go find somebody to say it's raining outside, and then
Speaker 1: let's go find somebody to say it's sunny outside, as
Speaker 1: though they themselves are not reporters to say, we can
Speaker 1: demonstrably say it is a sunny day, it is not raining.
Speaker 1: They treat both of these sentiments and statements as though
Speaker 1: they are facts when they are clearly not. There's also
Speaker 1: a comfort right, less than six percent of all newsroom
Speaker 1: staff is black. And so when you have all of
Speaker 1: these people and they say, well, my my grandmother voted
Speaker 1: for Trump, she likes Trump, and she's not a bad person. Ps.
Speaker 1: Yes she is, my auntie, my mom, my dad did
Speaker 1: all these things she's not about. Yes they are. And
Speaker 1: so they extend humanity to these folks in a way
Speaker 1: that they can never extend to us. We can get
Speaker 1: shot right on camera and they still got to be
Speaker 1: the perfect victim. It's still a question. We have to
Speaker 1: die in spectacular ways to pierce the white narrative of
Speaker 1: what's happened to us. But when it comes to their policies,
Speaker 1: their platform, they got all the humanity in the world.
Speaker 1: So I discourage people. Really, I am more of a
Speaker 1: reader now than I am a watcher. Watch Joy Ree
Speaker 1: please every night on MSNBUC at seven pm. She is
Speaker 1: holding it down. But outside of that, I don't see
Speaker 1: a lot of truly intellectual discourse from these people who
Speaker 1: get so many of our eyes and our viewership and
Speaker 1: our dollars.
Speaker 5: So just two quick things. One on Partifany's point on
Speaker 5: the media.
Speaker 7: One of the strategies with fashion in its earliest stages
Speaker 7: is the assassination of facts so that no one becomes
Speaker 7: the arbiter of what is true in what is false.
Speaker 7: And now you don't have a source that we can
Speaker 7: call a main source, because everybody's a main source.
Speaker 9: The stuff you.
Speaker 7: Get on your feed, the stuff through social media, somebody's
Speaker 7: snapchat video to you becomes a primary source. So the
Speaker 7: assault on facts is number one. And who introduced that
Speaker 7: in large form, Donald Trump, when they began with alternative facts.
Speaker 5: Oh, that's just another way to see it.
Speaker 7: And we adopted that there are now alternative facts as
Speaker 7: a legitimate form of describing another set of facts not
Speaker 7: true fascism.
Speaker 5: And then to the point of when we speak.
Speaker 7: About Iran and Russia foreign actor's intrusion in our elections,
Speaker 7: it's not that they're sending missiles and bombs and folks
Speaker 7: into our country. They're taking what exists in our country
Speaker 7: as natural rifts between communities, between a people's and then
Speaker 7: they are exploding those rifks and what push notifications you
Speaker 7: get what information, what shows up as as whatever in
Speaker 7: your Instagram and you're like, I ain't followed this person,
Speaker 7: but they're still showing up in your in your fees.
Speaker 7: That's the they have. They have sophisticated technology where they
Speaker 7: are they are deliberately interfering with what you see on
Speaker 7: your screen. So when we talk about black men, they're
Speaker 7: not making it up. What they hear, what they heard,
Speaker 7: what they thought were facts. It is being deliberately sent
Speaker 7: to them in oversaturated form so that it becomes a
Speaker 7: fat the truth.
Speaker 6: Absolutely, I want to give you the opportunity to any
Speaker 6: partnering words. I know you have to go and we're
Speaker 6: bringing up our next panel, but before you do, yeah,
Speaker 6: I just.
Speaker 12: Went, well, thank you for doing this. I'm you know, I.
Speaker 10: You can't say enough about how important this election is.
Speaker 10: And one of the things, you know, one of the
Speaker 10: things we do, of course, is defend the right to
Speaker 10: free speech and the right to protest, and so understand
Speaker 10: that we can disagree with the president Harris, you won't
Speaker 10: be able to disagree with the President Trump. And he's
Speaker 10: already promised to send the military, to send the National
Speaker 10: Guard after people who don't agree with him and support him.
Speaker 10: So if nothing else, you know, understand that the freedoms
Speaker 10: that we had to fight for the kind of demonstrations
Speaker 10: that we saw with the George Floyd, the Women's March,
Speaker 10: we had to fight for the right to do that,
Speaker 10: and that is also a right along with reproductive rights,
Speaker 10: along with voting rights.
Speaker 12: That are on the ballot right now, because voting is.
Speaker 10: Happening in Georgia, North Carolina right now. So please participate
Speaker 10: and take five friends.
Speaker 4: From Aco you.
Speaker 6: We are so grateful for your partnership and for being
Speaker 6: here today.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much, thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.
Speaker 6: We now have the opportunity to welcome to the stage
Speaker 6: some additional women champions and queens joining us from the
Speaker 6: UH from from Georgia. She is a Democratic Member of
Speaker 6: Congress and a CBC member, so she's CBC fan. This
Speaker 6: is Congresswoman to Kima Williams. We also have someone who's
Speaker 6: becoming a legend before our eyes, fighting the good fight
Speaker 6: to ensure access to capital and equity for businesses and
Speaker 6: business owners who look like us, as Arian Simone from
Speaker 6: the Fearless Fund.
Speaker 4: She got some fans in here and certainly not look
Speaker 4: at them and.
Speaker 3: You're look at this.
Speaker 4: I knew it, no problem. We love y'all. Y'all got
Speaker 4: to set down now.
Speaker 6: We also have joining us our good friend and sister
Speaker 6: Kimberlee Blackwell, who runs a Marsham marketing company PMM agency
Speaker 6: and is a business strategist extraordinaire dimples. Hello everybody, Hello,
Speaker 6: thank you all for joining us.
Speaker 4: Nikim, I want to start with you.
Speaker 6: You sit on financial services, you are dealing with kitchen
Speaker 6: table issues every day, and Committee. I know that we
Speaker 6: did a round table with you with Arian. I want
Speaker 6: you to talk about the fight that we're up against,
Speaker 6: particularly if Democrats don't take over the house. What does
Speaker 6: it look like for people who are just trying to
Speaker 6: make ends meet, who are trying to access capital, who
Speaker 6: think DEEI doesn't mean didn't earn it, but actually means diversity,
Speaker 6: equity and inclusion are abundantly important.
Speaker 20: Absolutely well, hellover one and welcome to Georgia's fighting fifth
Speaker 20: Congressional District. I am Congresswoman Nikima william and so happy
Speaker 20: to be here having this conversation with people that I've
Speaker 20: been in this fight with and it is still ongoing.
Speaker 12: Y'all.
Speaker 20: So, as a member of the House Financial Services Committee, y'all,
Speaker 20: I've been in Congress for two years, well, two sessions,
Speaker 20: two terms, and my first year in Congress, I was
Speaker 20: appointed to the very powerful House Financial Services Committee, and
Speaker 20: one of my subcommittees was the Subcommittee.
Speaker 4: On Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Speaker 20: And I served on that committee for two years under
Speaker 20: the leadership of my chairwoman, Joyce Baty, and then, y'all,
Speaker 20: I got re elected to my second term in Congress
Speaker 20: and Democrats were no longer in control. And the first
Speaker 20: thing that they did in our organizational meeting is.
Speaker 4: They got rid of the entire subcommittee.
Speaker 20: So there is no longer a subcommittee on diversity equity
Speaker 20: inclusion in the House Financial Services Committee. And we looked
Speaker 20: at our chairman and we asked, well, what was this about,
Speaker 20: and he said, well, we're going to include it in
Speaker 20: everything that we do. But we all know that means
Speaker 20: it is not going to be included in nothing. And
Speaker 20: then we are under attack at every angle. And I'm
Speaker 20: sure you'll hear more about that shortly, But in the
Speaker 20: House Financial Services Committee, where everything that you can think
Speaker 20: of that impacts us building generational wealth and our financial
Speaker 20: well being in this country, especially as black people goes
Speaker 20: through that committee. Housing is in that committee, every banking
Speaker 20: industry that you can think of, not just traditional banks,
Speaker 20: but fintech, and now we're writing the rules of the
Speaker 20: road when it comes to digital assets and what that
Speaker 20: looks like. All goes through this committee with no lens
Speaker 20: for DEI because that entire committee was gotten rid of.
Speaker 20: So as we're going through this election cycle, we got
Speaker 20: eleven days, but who's counting? I am but eleven days,
Speaker 20: and here in battleground Georgia, we understand.
Speaker 4: What's at stake.
Speaker 20: So when we talk about our freedoms being on the ballot,
Speaker 20: it includes our economic freedom. It includes our ability to
Speaker 20: build that general racial wealth so that we can close
Speaker 20: the racial wealth gap that is so persistent in this country,
Speaker 20: even here in Atlanta, where we are the mecca for
Speaker 20: black people coming to build wealth. I moved here from
Speaker 20: rural Alabama. Shout out to my HBC utility of college.
Speaker 20: Moved here after college looking for the opportunity that I
Speaker 20: knew the leaders before me, like my predecessor. I don't
Speaker 20: know if Andrew is still here, but Ambassador Andrew Young,
Speaker 20: who held the seat before Congressman John Lewis, and so
Speaker 20: moved here looking for this opportunity and now knowing that
Speaker 20: my city is leading the country in the racial wealth gap,
Speaker 20: and there are so many forces trying to keep us there.
Speaker 4: But we know that in eleven.
Speaker 20: Days we have options on the ballot. We have work
Speaker 20: to do to make sure that we are victorious.
Speaker 4: And when I.
Speaker 20: Show up to the polls, because I haven't banked my
Speaker 20: vote yet, but I have a plan. So when I
Speaker 20: show up and cast my vote, my vote for Kamala
Speaker 20: Harris is a vote for our future, a vote for
Speaker 20: our economic freedom. Because when we're disbanding committees like DEI
Speaker 20: in the House Financial Services Committee, it is quite telling
Speaker 20: where the Republicans in this country are and what they
Speaker 20: think about us being able to close that racial wealth
Speaker 20: gap and build generational wealth within our communities.
Speaker 7: Thank you for that, congress Woman, and we're extremely proud
Speaker 7: of you. Another person we were proud of is Arian,
Speaker 7: the rattling community all over but I think all over
Speaker 7: the country we've born witness to your fight. And I
Speaker 7: say your fight, but I know it's your fight on.
Speaker 5: Behalf of all of us. Right. We hope to see
Speaker 5: you in Detroit last week. What up?
Speaker 21: Though?
Speaker 5: We were there and your.
Speaker 4: Home is every Can y'all leave the mic sign because
Speaker 4: this is a very interacting podcast. Let's leave the mic sign.
Speaker 22: You guys are going to every city I've lived in. Yes,
Speaker 22: my hometown Detroit, my home here and fam.
Speaker 5: You the real home.
Speaker 4: Yes, he's not biased, but.
Speaker 7: Arian, I want you to talk about a lot of
Speaker 7: us that follow the ebbs and flows of this fight.
Speaker 7: I'd love for you to give this audience and our
Speaker 7: listenership an update on where we are as relationship protecting
Speaker 7: women's accesship.
Speaker 3: I'm Marian Simone.
Speaker 22: I'm CEO of the Fearless Fund, where the nation's first
Speaker 22: venture capital fund that's built by women of color for
Speaker 22: women of color. And literally we had opposition way before
Speaker 22: a lawsuit. So I want people to understand that when
Speaker 22: people see that this lawsuit is over, they're like, oh,
Speaker 22: she can breathe. Yeah, to an extent. To an extent,
Speaker 22: the opposition still exists. Women of color are the most
Speaker 22: founded entrepreneur demographic, just the least funded, receiving only zero
Speaker 22: point three nine percent of venture capital funds. The industry
Speaker 22: has ran ninety two percent white male. Now that doesn't
Speaker 22: even include any other men, like as far as other races,
Speaker 22: ninety two percent white male. So that just shows you
Speaker 22: due to the numbers, there's opposition.
Speaker 4: Way before a court case.
Speaker 22: Right now, our case is permanently dismissed. Thank god, that's
Speaker 22: a collap.
Speaker 16: Thank you, Lord said.
Speaker 22: Thank you Lord, because she was in plenty of meetings
Speaker 22: with us and plenty of the late nights strategizing. So literally,
Speaker 22: even as soon as this week, we've been dealing with
Speaker 22: people trying to shut our fun down conversations Angela, I
Speaker 22: have you have to even inform you of this is
Speaker 22: still a situation just because you don't see it in
Speaker 22: a lawsuit. The enemies of equity and equality are real,
Speaker 22: and they have a problem with us running this business.
Speaker 22: Prior to the Fearless Fund existing, a black woman's average
Speaker 22: fundraise was only thirty thousand dollars. And we are still
Speaker 22: cutting seven figure checks. We came on the scene cutting
Speaker 22: them and we're still cutting them, and it is very disruptive.
Speaker 22: It's just very disruptive. But right now, legally we're good.
Speaker 22: But honestly, this is not a matter of where the
Speaker 22: private sector should be having to defend this.
Speaker 4: This is more of a policy issue.
Speaker 22: That's what it is at its core, which is why
Speaker 22: I was so excited when.
Speaker 3: Kind of Swimming Williams was on the panel. I said,
Speaker 3: wait a minute.
Speaker 4: I showed him out to do list. I said, at
Speaker 4: the top of it was, I said, you're on my
Speaker 4: call is today.
Speaker 3: I said, we'll chat right after this.
Speaker 4: But really it's because that's what it is. It's a
Speaker 4: policy issue.
Speaker 22: There was a time, as we all know, when slavery
Speaker 22: was legal, you know, but that doesn't mean it's right.
Speaker 22: So we have to fix some of our policies in
Speaker 22: order to protect marginalized communities so that everybody can achieve
Speaker 22: the American dream er.
Speaker 1: I just want to pick up on something that you said,
Speaker 1: because I think it's so important to understand those numbers
Speaker 1: when it comes to when you have a business idea
Speaker 1: and you go to get funded. There was research that
Speaker 1: came out, I think twenty eighteen on rate my VC.
Speaker 1: So you talked about the numbers of who is on
Speaker 1: the other side of that table. The number of black
Speaker 1: people at that time who were vcs was less than
Speaker 1: point two percent, and those white boys were they were
Speaker 1: making it rain on anybody with an idea, and you
Speaker 1: watch their businesses crumble time after time, black businesses had
Speaker 1: to struggle and they were thriving. This research found that
Speaker 1: because of black businesses getting denied, that the United States
Speaker 1: missed out on multi billion dollars in economic opportunity. Racism
Speaker 1: does not pay. So thank you for what you do.
Speaker 22: And I'll think one second, and I know we got
Speaker 22: to get to Kim, but I want people to understand
Speaker 22: how this industry actually works. So the largest investor in
Speaker 22: private equity and venture capital the industry I work in,
Speaker 22: are pension funds. I work in a sixty two trillion
Speaker 22: dollar industry. So on the ground floor you have pension funds.
Speaker 6: You say that number again, sixty two trillion dollars, trillion trilli,
Speaker 6: not billions trillions.
Speaker 22: So on the ground floor you have these pension funds
Speaker 22: that are the largest investors. You're talking teachers, you're talking firefighters,
Speaker 22: you're talking police officers, ground floor right here. Then that
Speaker 22: money goes up to the sixty two trillion dollar industry
Speaker 22: that is controlled by ninety two percent white men. That
Speaker 22: then goes into the white startups, and it very rarely
Speaker 22: makes us all the way down in a circle back
Speaker 22: to the people of color who are very much, so
Speaker 22: highly populated, and the teachers, the police officers, and the
Speaker 22: fire workers and everybody else where this money was made
Speaker 22: off of. So if you know any public workers or
Speaker 22: anybody with pension funds, you'd tell them, Hey, if you're
Speaker 22: going to put my money somewhere, it has to come
Speaker 22: back to my community.
Speaker 14: You know.
Speaker 4: Kim. I love that arian You said that it is
Speaker 4: a public policy issue, and it is.
Speaker 6: But one of the things that we know is that
Speaker 6: public policy doesn't change without pressure. So I love that
Speaker 6: you're up here, Kim, in part because of your own
Speaker 6: role on boards. The important role that boards played. That
Speaker 6: is also politics, right y'all are voting members of an
Speaker 6: entity that control how dollars are spent for a corporation.
Speaker 6: Please for a moment talk about the very significant role
Speaker 6: that board members play in shifting corporate policy and how
Speaker 6: that impacts groups like what Arianne has started with Fearless Bud.
Speaker 23: Okay, so one, thank you all for having me. I
Speaker 23: will tell you that in the same way that we
Speaker 23: have public policy, there's governance. As Angela mentioned in the
Speaker 23: cor in Corporate America and the Private Spector. I'm a
Speaker 23: twenty five year old year young founder founded my business
Speaker 23: right out of college scaled it to a multimillion dollar enterprise,
Speaker 23: Thank you Jesus. But what that being said, some of
Speaker 23: my primary partners are of Corporate America. And so when
Speaker 23: you look at where and how we are discussing DI now,
Speaker 23: and I'm gonna kind of throw a little bit in
Speaker 23: here that might be kind of an interesting twist because
Speaker 23: while I certainly believe in the commitment to d unequivocally,
Speaker 23: I want us to also remember it's chestnut checkers, and
Speaker 23: sometimes I think that we need to make sure that
Speaker 23: we're looking at the commitment rather than the merchandising. And
Speaker 23: so for me to your point as it relates to duty,
Speaker 23: when I'm sitting in a board seat or when I'm
Speaker 23: advising to chairman of Fortune one hundred of the C suite,
Speaker 23: we are looking at it from a standpoint of inclusion
Speaker 23: and commitment. I don't need to necessarily see DEI. I
Speaker 23: don't need to see those words. I do need to
Speaker 23: see the business plan. I do need to see the accountability,
Speaker 23: and most importantly, I want us to be able to
Speaker 23: show the business value to where and how those things
Speaker 23: are reached. Because I'm going to tell y'all in anything
Speaker 23: by way of what doesn't get measured won't matter. So
Speaker 23: for me, it's about how are we accounting to to
Speaker 23: the metrics and measurement and outcomes, because what we know
Speaker 23: is that inclusion is good business. This week in Atlanta
Speaker 23: is the National Minority Supplier Development Council Conference. I'm certified
Speaker 23: as a minority women business enterprise. I'm certified as a
Speaker 23: women's business enterprise. With that said, Magic Johnson hosted something
Speaker 23: this week with that. He had Tony Wrestler, one of
Speaker 23: the owners of the Hawks, who stood before as the
Speaker 23: title sponsor, to say that in all of his enterprises
Speaker 23: he's looking at where and how inclusion is good business.
Speaker 23: When you talk to Derek Johnson and others, again, I
Speaker 23: want us to look at where and how we play
Speaker 23: the game. You know, Angela introduced me as a strategist,
Speaker 23: and all.
Speaker 16: Of this becomes strategic.
Speaker 23: Sometimes we are a little bit lost in the tactics
Speaker 23: of things and we need to stay at the macro.
Speaker 23: But with Angela's comment, we have to have seats at
Speaker 23: the table. And after George Floyd, you did see a
Speaker 23: spike and increase by way of representation of many on
Speaker 23: boards whether it was women, black Latino, and I want
Speaker 23: to say this to our Latino brothers and sisters too.
Speaker 23: You know, you talk about where and how we are
Speaker 23: underrepresented and under marginalized. When I'm going out and doing
Speaker 23: campaigns as it relates to building business strategies for corporations,
Speaker 23: it's harder sometimes to find.
Speaker 4: Them in the leadership seats.
Speaker 23: So you know, we have to look at this as
Speaker 23: a collective force and get out of the game of
Speaker 23: marginalizing all these different verticals and understand that the power
Speaker 23: is really in the collaboration and making sure that the
Speaker 23: representation and the accounta But because you can't go in
Speaker 23: there scared, see you and those folks who on me
Speaker 23: and I operate from a spirit of humility, but I
Speaker 23: also understand where and how when I'm in the room
Speaker 23: and at the table, operate from the side of making
Speaker 23: sure that right is discussed.
Speaker 4: I don't have to lead.
Speaker 23: They can see that I'm a black woman, but we
Speaker 23: need to discuss in the sense of business and what
Speaker 23: is right and be able to show that as business leaders,
Speaker 23: and that's how we begin and continue to move the needle.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you bringing up the Latino community Kim, because
Speaker 1: we have had this discussion on our podcast routinely what
Speaker 1: we see happening in some communities across the country. I
Speaker 1: hate to see any of us use the white man's
Speaker 1: the oppressor's tools or language. This country has not been
Speaker 1: kind to any community of color. In twenty forty four,
Speaker 1: there will be no racial majority, so we can win
Speaker 1: together or we could lose divided. And I think we
Speaker 1: have to acknowledge that one we talk about this as well.
Speaker 1: The Latino community for the first time has eclipsed to
Speaker 1: Black community in terms of eligible voters, not registered voters,
Speaker 1: but eligible voters, of course, and I will acknowledge their
Speaker 1: anti black sentiments in every community, but more often than not,
Speaker 1: we are trying to work together. So I just as
Speaker 1: they make migrant crime an issue, which is not an issue.
Speaker 1: It's significally going. This is a lie of fallacy when
Speaker 1: they try to divide us, when they make us fight
Speaker 1: over resources, we're literally fighting each other over crumbs while
Speaker 1: they're sitting across watching that happen, eating a steak. So
Speaker 1: I just want to make sure when you hear those
Speaker 1: kinds of sentiments, please combat it, Please say that that's
Speaker 1: not our enemy. That's our ally and the fred Hampton approached,
Speaker 1: that's why he was so powerful and killed by the state.
Speaker 1: The fred Hampton approach said, let me go tell you everybody,
Speaker 1: including poor white people, how we can work together. So
Speaker 1: shout out to you for acknowledging saying that you had
Speaker 1: a question, so right, you didn't have a another guy,
Speaker 1: I had a question. I went back to a seat.
Speaker 1: So I want you to think, y'all.
Speaker 4: We have to get through this guy into it.
Speaker 1: But come on, come on up.
Speaker 23: The only other thing I wanted to add because I
Speaker 23: think as we look at the segmentation and I'm wearing
Speaker 23: this sweatshirt today that represents all of the black female
Speaker 23: leaders as it relates to Fortune one hundred CEOs and
Speaker 23: they sit and lead as directors of some of the
Speaker 23: largest global brands that we know. It's also understanding too,
Speaker 23: let's not leave out white women. And I say that
Speaker 23: because we haven't really talked about that as much.
Speaker 22: No, they laughing as this there's a podcast.
Speaker 5: You haven't been interrupted yet. I'm impressed. Well, you said, you.
Speaker 23: Know, we have to look at and she used the
Speaker 23: word ally. In my world, and especially in the space
Speaker 23: of business, I'm looking for accomplice, you know, because to me,
Speaker 23: you gotta be willing to go out there. And I
Speaker 23: was reading some articles and there's all this stuff out
Speaker 23: there about where and how you know, Jamie Diamond is
Speaker 23: privately supporting candidate Eggs and Bill Gates just gave fifty
Speaker 23: million to you know, candidate Eggs and all of these
Speaker 23: things being said, there is a principle in courageous leadership, right,
Speaker 23: and I think too as we look at where our
Speaker 23: great sister Jotikah Joetaica Edie sparked this whole catalyst around
Speaker 23: building community. To your point, Tiffany, we really need to
Speaker 23: hone in. They started the you know, white women for Kamala.
Speaker 23: You know same white women are underrepresented in leadership in
Speaker 23: corporate America. We need to find those commonalities to look
Speaker 23: at it for in the standpoint, by way of policy
Speaker 23: and by way of protocol and where and how we
Speaker 23: are changing thing systemic, inequities systemic and that's work, and
Speaker 23: that's work that means that we have to do it together.
Speaker 4: We better find them commonalities.
Speaker 6: After they find this chastising real quick, let me come
Speaker 6: here for this question, all right, So then yeah, just
Speaker 6: say your name and where you're from. And then y'all
Speaker 6: we are over time on this panel.
Speaker 4: We love y'all. We're gonna keep talking about this, but
Speaker 4: I do want to come here.
Speaker 11: How y'all doing.
Speaker 24: My name is Mario Raised, originally from the Bronx New York,
Speaker 24: calling Atlanta home in.
Speaker 9: New York's everywhere home to Atlanta.
Speaker 11: Thank you.
Speaker 24: I actually sit really knee deep in the trenches in Atlanta.
Speaker 24: When it comes to black men, I'm a board member
Speaker 24: here at TGS, I'm a board member with on Google,
Speaker 24: I'm a board member with black Man Lab, and I
Speaker 24: see about one thousand men faces weekly.
Speaker 11: And one of the.
Speaker 24: Things that has come up time and time again, so
Speaker 24: I'm gonna respectfully disagree with you brother that you guys
Speaker 24: have to fight very hard for the black male vote
Speaker 24: and it's because they feel betrayed by the Democratic Party.
Speaker 24: They don't feel like they represent them. And I also
Speaker 24: feel like this they've been taking for granted. So how
Speaker 24: can I, sitting in front of them, combat a lot
Speaker 24: of the misinformation that they've been fed time and time again.
Speaker 24: And just a follow up comment, I am Afro Latino.
Speaker 24: You know Bronx Bodiquehaile all day that being said, I.
Speaker 24: Colorism is pervasive in every community, of course, and I
Speaker 24: have to constantly remind my Latino brothers and sisters that
Speaker 24: just because their skin may be lighter don't mean that
Speaker 24: white privilege extends to them.
Speaker 9: And I'm often combatd with that.
Speaker 24: Furthermore, especially obviously black women, notwithstanding a lot of women
Speaker 24: in the Caucasian and Latino community are scared and don't
Speaker 24: believe America is ready for a female president.
Speaker 9: And I look at that kind of as cutting your nose.
Speaker 24: Off despite your face, right, And I guess my biggest
Speaker 24: question first is how do I come back to misinformation?
Speaker 24: Is there just a simple website where I could.
Speaker 1: See Well, I want to ask you, because you said
Speaker 1: black men feel betrayed by the Democratic Party. I want
Speaker 1: to be clear. We are not mouthpieces for the Democratic understand,
Speaker 1: but I am.
Speaker 4: A sure woman of our state Democratic woman to ever
Speaker 4: hold this position.
Speaker 20: And I hired the first black man to ever be
Speaker 20: the executive director of our state Democratic Party. And Kevin
Speaker 20: raise your hand, Kevin is here with us today.
Speaker 4: Are not overlooked on our watch.
Speaker 20: I am married to a black man, I'm raising my
Speaker 20: nine year old son to be a black man, and
Speaker 20: this is something we're in this together. I hear it
Speaker 20: all the time, and my pushback is, we're showing up
Speaker 20: to do the work, and it shows in the work
Speaker 20: that we're doing, not just the word of mouth that
Speaker 20: you'll hear in an election cycle. And I hear you, Angela,
Speaker 20: We're over time, and so I would love to connect
Speaker 20: you with Kevin so that we can get you those resources.
Speaker 24: Said something really specific that I want to touch on.
Speaker 24: You said, you show up and a lot of times,
Speaker 24: these great handles show up behind the gate, so people
Speaker 24: can't afford the gathering spots, so they're not privy to
Speaker 24: this conversation.
Speaker 4: And Ryan opened it up for everyone.
Speaker 20: So shut up to Washington Park on two days ago
Speaker 20: with the community for a barbecue and ballacy that with
Speaker 20: that the story not showing up here at the gathering spot,
Speaker 20: I mean open events for the community.
Speaker 4: I represent this community. I live in Southwest.
Speaker 20: Atlanta, and every day I am leading into in this
Speaker 20: community for the people that I serve.
Speaker 4: And I know that I cannot do this alone. It
Speaker 4: takes whole communities and.
Speaker 24: That includes this is such a big disconnect, and I
Speaker 24: would like to say I would like to offer myself
Speaker 24: to help men that thank you.
Speaker 1: I shouldn't do black men feel because I think this
Speaker 1: is such an important point you're making. I want to
Speaker 1: hear what do black men feel that they've been left
Speaker 1: out of or disrespected.
Speaker 24: By, but from the Democratic Party. I want to hear
Speaker 24: everything about, you know, financial progress, the way that the
Speaker 24: nuclear family is now propagated by because they feel this
Speaker 24: LGBTQ agenda that's being hijacked by the Democratic Party. These
Speaker 24: are conversations that I've heard seriously, and a lot of
Speaker 24: times black men say.
Speaker 9: What I've heard also is that they will hold their vote.
Speaker 24: In protest, which obviously, again is cutting your nose despite
Speaker 24: your face. So I want to be out here as
Speaker 24: a mouthpiece to help bridge these gaps in communication and misinformation.
Speaker 11: So that's just the first of all.
Speaker 5: Everything you said, it resonates.
Speaker 4: And the resident black man on the stage.
Speaker 7: We're not a monolith and we shouldn't be fighting a
Speaker 7: battle against what one person's experiences versus your own. And
Speaker 7: that extends to you, which is, uh, you're not every
Speaker 7: black man. Uh uh bronx bodiqua is what you said.
Speaker 7: But I know this much, there's not the gentleman that
Speaker 7: you're coming into contact with aren't lying about what they
Speaker 7: feel their experiences with the Democratic Party.
Speaker 5: They're speaking it as they have experienced it.
Speaker 7: And the truth is is that until Kamala Harris, I've
Speaker 7: never seen a president of the United States or candidate
Speaker 7: put out an agenda specifically for black men. Never ever
Speaker 7: within the Democratic Party, it's been a third rail by
Speaker 7: and large that the campaigns and candidates haven't gone to
Speaker 7: put black men first. In to name it, my philosophy
Speaker 7: with when you don't call something a thing, it ain't
Speaker 7: a thing.
Speaker 5: It is. How I tell you, one of my kids
Speaker 5: are at the pool.
Speaker 7: If everybody's watching, ain't nobody watching, which means I have
Speaker 7: to name it.
Speaker 5: I'm watching my three children as they play. So what
Speaker 5: I would say is that, yeah, we have problems within
Speaker 5: the Democratic Party.
Speaker 7: Yes there are champions who are trying to change that,
Speaker 7: but Kamala Harris, as a candidate standalone right now for president,
Speaker 7: has prioritized us and she's done it over the black
Speaker 7: man president.
Speaker 5: And I say that with.
Speaker 7: Respect of Barack Obama, because when he was asked what's
Speaker 7: the black agenda, he said, my agenda for America is
Speaker 7: the black agenda. And guess what there's an a black
Speaker 7: person I know that didn't benefit from health care when
Speaker 7: he changes.
Speaker 5: So in some ways he's right.
Speaker 7: But also in some ways the third rail wouldn't allow
Speaker 7: him to call out Look at what he said, what
Speaker 7: about Skip Gates coming in contact, He had to have
Speaker 7: a bear summit.
Speaker 5: It still came up on the short end of that.
Speaker 7: Look at what happened with Donald Trump, what he called
Speaker 7: him out is not an American, he's Birtherism and all
Speaker 7: that shit. It broke my heart when the President of
Speaker 7: the United States, at least his public birth certificate.
Speaker 11: Broke my heart.
Speaker 7: It still does when I think about it. Right, So,
Speaker 7: but the point is that we are making progress. We're
Speaker 7: in We're not the perfect, but we are in the
Speaker 7: pursuit of the better, in pursuit of the perfect. Kamala
Speaker 7: Harris is not the person we are to take our
Speaker 7: angst out on. She actually is in alignment with what
Speaker 7: it is that we believe ought to be the case.
Speaker 7: And we also shouldn't take our anks out against LGBTQ folks,
Speaker 7: black women, and the other folks that they tend to
Speaker 7: put us hit us against, because that's all deficit mentality.
Speaker 5: That's what white people have gifted us.
Speaker 9: I agree with your whole heartedly.
Speaker 24: And one of the things I've noticed that the squeaky
Speaker 24: wheels get the greased so they're the loudest. The those
Speaker 24: complaints are resound louder than the solutions and the actual policies.
Speaker 24: And a lot of times we speak in echo chambers.
Speaker 24: We speak to those that understand, that communicate on a
Speaker 24: certain level, versus the brothers that feel like because they
Speaker 24: can't understand and there is that disconnect, they automatically feel abandoned.
Speaker 7: But that's why we're talking with you, because the attention
Speaker 7: is is that you may have access to rooms that
Speaker 7: they won't have, so that you can take information back
Speaker 7: that they otherwise won't get access to. And I'll just
Speaker 7: simply say, there isn't a There is not a single
Speaker 7: website you can go to and get all of the debunking.
Speaker 5: It all depends on what the attack is.
Speaker 4: That one.
Speaker 5: It all depends on what the attack is. But I
Speaker 5: guarantee you.
Speaker 4: You cancl you toe.
Speaker 6: But sorry, Andrew, really quick, I wasn't talking about acl
Speaker 6: There's a gentleman.
Speaker 4: I don't know where he went. His name is Evan.
Speaker 4: He oh, Evan, where do you mean, I've been telling
Speaker 4: you to come up in Evan. I texted you and
Speaker 4: said come up here, Evan. Evan talked to this. What's
Speaker 4: your name?
Speaker 11: Brother, Mario?
Speaker 6: Mario Evan is working on a Fullton County specific website
Speaker 6: that deals with misinformation and how to combat is can
Speaker 6: you Wave Evan?
Speaker 4: He works for congress Woman macmeth as well.
Speaker 6: But the reason why this is important, what happened with
Speaker 6: Nakima is important. What happened with Andrew and what he's
Speaker 6: saying is important. Nakima and Andrew have had to take
Speaker 6: on the party themselves. This isn't just like, let's be honest,
Speaker 6: because we can't. What we can't do is win them
Speaker 6: over with lies. What the honest truth is. Democratic Party
Speaker 6: got just as many racists in it as the Republican Party.
Speaker 6: They also got fascism and other Now the folks, at
Speaker 6: least on our side, I think, are at least amenable
Speaker 6: to changing, in part because nothing, no power does it
Speaker 6: concedes nothing without a demand. They've been demanding. He demanded
Speaker 6: when he was running for governor. He demanded as mayor,
Speaker 6: he demanded as a commissioner, that those are the kinds
Speaker 6: of things that happen if we don't get in the
Speaker 6: room and say, oh no, no, this is going to
Speaker 6: change on my watch, it won't.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 6: I submit to you that it's a hell of a
Speaker 6: lot easier to do it within the Democratic Party than
Speaker 6: to be having that fight with the Republican Party.
Speaker 4: We gotta be well.
Speaker 9: Things was much better under Jim Crow.
Speaker 4: Okay, y'all know who I'm talking. Mom will leave me alone.
Speaker 9: I'm not gonna hijack.
Speaker 1: I appreciate your question. Thank you for that.
Speaker 4: We gotta you, guys, We gotta really get to this. Yes,
Speaker 4: Evan talked to him, and come really quick, tell us
Speaker 4: about his website.
Speaker 1: Okay, and then oh yeah, we'll go to your question
Speaker 1: as soon as you're gonna tell us about.
Speaker 4: This because it was about this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, informational quick, go ahead.
Speaker 25: Oh hello everyone, Hello, wonderful panel. Apologies for being late.
Speaker 25: I kind of got lost in viewer mode. Love you, guys.
Speaker 25: I I am with Watch the Vote at L is
Speaker 25: a collaboration between the Black Cross founded by Gail Brooks
Speaker 25: and George the Georgia Institute of Technology for their specific
Speaker 25: school for People and Technology. So what we have been
Speaker 25: doing is we have created a system where We use
Speaker 25: both machine learning and humans to track all the social
Speaker 25: media sites, so not just Facebook, not just Instagram. We
Speaker 25: also have accounts on True Social, We also have accounts
Speaker 25: on TikTok And basically what we'll be doing is we'll
Speaker 25: be doing real time fact checking on any tweet, any video,
Speaker 25: or any type of source that's sharing misinformation specifically for
Speaker 25: the Fulden County area, so we will be sending it
Speaker 25: directly to Fulton County's communications team. This project started because
Speaker 25: you know, eighty five percent of people this election feel
Speaker 25: like very scared of misinformation and a plug for the podcast.
Speaker 25: I actually got inspired to be a part of the
Speaker 25: project and helped start the project because of this podcast.
Speaker 25: I think on your third episode, miss Rye played a
Speaker 25: video about Biden being an AI deep fake, and I
Speaker 25: ended up calling my friends at tech in Fulden County
Speaker 25: and we were able to get it together. But yeah,
Speaker 25: so follow us at watch the v ATL if you
Speaker 25: want Fulton County specific information, we'll have it in real time.
Speaker 25: We're also looking for partners so other people that when
Speaker 25: we have these reports about misinformation, we can get it
Speaker 25: shared out widely as a way, you know, kind of
Speaker 25: taking a medical approach and a quarantine approach to it.
Speaker 1: So thank you, thank you, Welcome home, Welcome Home.
Speaker 26: My favorite podcast is twenty twenty four.
Speaker 11: I love you guys.
Speaker 26: As a certified financial social worker, I appreciate all the
Speaker 26: great work that you ladies do. I want to talk
Speaker 26: about picking back a conversation before as a social worker.
Speaker 26: My name is Basilisa Moreno. I'm also a Bronx bodyco
Speaker 26: I live in Delaware. Now we talk about I had
Speaker 26: the unfortunate having conversations of.
Speaker 9: Working explaining.
Speaker 26: Severely mentally ill clients back in twenty eighteen when Donald
Speaker 26: Trump cut food stamps. But why don't we talk about that?
Speaker 26: Why don't we use the language in twenty twenty when
Speaker 26: his disastrous COVID response and say he's got blood on
Speaker 26: his hands, He's killed a million people, one of them
Speaker 26: being my mom, one of them being ten clients when
Speaker 26: I worked in New York City. Why don't we have
Speaker 26: these conversations. Why don't we have the conversations of people
Speaker 26: are actually experiencingly like worse after COVID and the aftermath
Speaker 26: of COVID. That's one of my biggest problems with the
Speaker 26: Biden administration, as much as.
Speaker 5: I was riding with bout it all the way.
Speaker 26: Until election day and now the Harris, I'm still all
Speaker 26: the way. I still have the image in my hand
Speaker 26: as a Bronx bod Equa and him shooting fake ass
Speaker 26: free throws on the island, Like what the hell are
Speaker 26: you doing? We don't even have electricity having to call
Speaker 26: my family or try to reach my family. They don't
Speaker 26: even have electricity, and having like guys I went to
Speaker 26: high school with that are Hispanic and like voting for
Speaker 26: Trump high school friends who are black brothers that went
Speaker 26: to high school, we're voting for trouble. Like what are
Speaker 26: y'all doing? Fellow social because licensed social works that called
Speaker 26: them out. I was like, you need to have your
Speaker 26: license revoked if you vote that for that guy.
Speaker 5: What are y'all doing?
Speaker 26: Why don't we have these conversations? That's all I wanted
Speaker 26: to say, thank you, thank you, and.
Speaker 1: Our condolences on the loss of your mother and our
Speaker 1: gratitude for the work that you continue to do.
Speaker 7: So thank you for having those conversations, smartpactful.
Speaker 9: From you ladies.
Speaker 6: We gotta do a part two or this. We did
Speaker 6: not have enough time, and yeah, we talked me so
Speaker 6: much time. But thank you all so much. We're gonna
Speaker 6: getting your sister just in one moment. Thank you all
Speaker 6: so much.
Speaker 4: We are gonna bring up now if we can't give
Speaker 4: a round of applause. First to the Keema, Thank you, Arian,
Speaker 4: thank you for your work.
Speaker 9: Queens.
Speaker 4: We got a few more queens. They're joining us on
Speaker 4: the stage.
Speaker 6: We have Alicia Garza, who is the founder of Black
Speaker 6: Futures Lab. We have Latasha Brown, co founder of Black
Speaker 6: Voters Matter, and Aaron Haynes, a podcast host called The
Speaker 6: Amendment and also as they hug and kiss and not
Speaker 6: walk up here, Aaron is also editor at Large of
Speaker 6: The Nineteenth.
Speaker 4: They're gonna just say my time. I'm gonna take my time.
Speaker 4: Y'all want late.
Speaker 6: Oh, they're gonna walk over here and also disrupt apartment
Speaker 6: last time, y'all come over here and hug.
Speaker 4: Just stay till the end, Praise the Lord. Y'all gonna
Speaker 4: keep going.
Speaker 6: Okay, all right, you know what's just ask your question
Speaker 6: because they're not even sitting down Jesus, Yes, ma'am, you're naming.
Speaker 12: Where you're from.
Speaker 1: Wait, wait, wait, before Albert Sanders, Albert Sanders is leaving.
Speaker 1: I just want to give a shout out to Albert Sanders.
Speaker 1: Real quick, Albert.
Speaker 4: Sanders, we shouted you out on the podcast with Jibber Sanders.
Speaker 4: What are you doing to make sure that black people
Speaker 4: vote this selection? All the things he said, except and
Speaker 4: running out of the podcast. Okay, we'll still send us
Speaker 4: your notes my friends.
Speaker 27: Okay, yes, ma'am, Okay, I was trying to lower this.
Speaker 27: I'm so sure it was a little tall for me,
Speaker 27: so you'll fix it. So my name is Littoria Whitehead.
Speaker 27: I'm originally from Jacksonville, Florida, but I've been here for
Speaker 27: a little over twenty years and I'm not a family rattler,
Speaker 27: but I'm a cau Clarkland University panther a long time.
Speaker 27: Oh okay, okay, So my question was actually for the
Speaker 27: wonderful congress woman. I wanted to know in her opinion,
Speaker 27: do you think we're talking enough about environmental injustices during
Speaker 27: this election cycle, which is connected to jobs and poverty
Speaker 27: and transportation and housing as well. And we do talk
Speaker 27: about climate change climate justice, which is under the umbrella
Speaker 27: of environmental justice, I would argue, but I think that
Speaker 27: a lot of people think that the environment is something
Speaker 27: so pristine and out there, and it's not. It is
Speaker 27: connected to your child getting asthma and the pollution in
Speaker 27: your environment in Flint case study. And so when you
Speaker 27: look at the environmental injustices, these disparities, these are the
Speaker 27: majority of people of color and low income populations. So
Speaker 27: that's a part of our everyday lives when you walk
Speaker 27: out your door, your grocery stores, what you don't have
Speaker 27: and what we call the built environment. And I think
Speaker 27: a lot of people are not directly connected to that.
Speaker 27: And I'm just wondering what you thought about this election
Speaker 27: cycle that we are we talking enough about what we
Speaker 27: call environmental injustices.
Speaker 4: And I'm so happy to.
Speaker 14: See all of you.
Speaker 1: We definitely talk about it, Welcome home. We definitely talk
Speaker 1: about it, but it's not under the headline environmental justice.
Speaker 1: But with that hurricane coverage, that is environmental justice yesterday.
Speaker 1: There are over one hundred and thirty five million people
Speaker 1: in this country who mostly look like us, who do
Speaker 1: not have access to clean drinking water. If there were
Speaker 1: one hundred and thirty five million white folks who didn't
Speaker 1: have access to clean drinking water, it would be breaking
Speaker 1: news to this day every day until it's result when
Speaker 1: we talk about uh, like heavy rains and flooding, even
Speaker 1: outside of hurricanes, is weather that is environmental injustice. So
Speaker 1: we may not be using those terms, which we definitely
Speaker 1: should be, but we definitely in news, they definitely talk
Speaker 1: about it. They don't talk about issues that impact us disproportionately.
Speaker 1: That's the challenge.
Speaker 16: Yeah, and that is the piece.
Speaker 12: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Yeah, we have three lovely guests who have joined us. Natasha,
Speaker 6: part of your work, you think about Black Voters Matter
Speaker 6: and how you all started Hurricane Katrina. And I think
Speaker 6: this goes hand in hand with what Tip was just
Speaker 6: bringing up. And tell me your name against sister Littoria,
Speaker 6: what Latoria was just addressing with environmental justice, talk to
Speaker 6: us about the important work that you all are doing
Speaker 6: every day, sis what you're hearing on the ground. We
Speaker 6: got into a good conversation with this brother earlier, as
Speaker 6: with Mario.
Speaker 21: I just want to say, hey, y'all, we welcome to
Speaker 21: the Atlanta So two things I wanted to say really
Speaker 21: related to what you just the system on what you
Speaker 21: just shared.
Speaker 28: One, well, let me let me let me do it
Speaker 28: backwards so we don't hear a lot about environmental justice.
Speaker 28: Part of my organization is doing work. We have a
Speaker 28: campaign that we're doing called the Block is Hot, and
Speaker 28: that's our environmental justice because we've got to connect environmental
Speaker 28: justice for many people, it feels or when you start
Speaker 28: talking about the environment, particularly the six major environmental organizations,
Speaker 28: they made it where it was like the protection of
Speaker 28: the trees, and we need trees, right, But people in
Speaker 28: their day to day lives they're like, yeah, I understand
Speaker 28: the trees, but I'm like I'm suffering. And so part
Speaker 28: of our organization we've done work and continue to do
Speaker 28: this work. We did this Block is Hot because down
Speaker 28: in South Georgia, people had electric bills that were six, seven,
Speaker 28: eight hundred dollars and they didn't make the connection of
Speaker 28: how the climate change is impacting them and impacting their pocketbooks.
Speaker 28: And so that's why we did this particular kind of
Speaker 28: education campaign around it. The connection to Hurricane Katrine. I'm
Speaker 28: from the Guff Coast a lot of my life and
Speaker 28: so part of before Black Govters Batle.
Speaker 3: Was started, Black Voters Battle was started.
Speaker 28: It wasn't necessarily organization, but we did a lot of
Speaker 28: hurricane relief because ultimately, what is happening in the Guff
Speaker 28: coast is that the guff water. As the water is
Speaker 28: getting warmer and warmer, you're having more intensified storms. And
Speaker 28: so you're going to have a more frequency of storms
Speaker 28: and they're going more intensified. And I know my brother
Speaker 28: Andrew can speak to that. But the second part that
Speaker 28: I wanted to raise to your point is part of
Speaker 28: right now, if I were to ask people kind of,
Speaker 28: let's look at the top three issues that are dominating
Speaker 28: the political landscape, what we're not really realizing is that
Speaker 28: many of those issues have already been predetermined by some folks,
Speaker 28: and we're hearing.
Speaker 5: It over and over and over and over again.
Speaker 28: And one issue would be how they framed abortion. You
Speaker 28: would think that everybody in America get up every day
Speaker 28: thinking about, oh my god, what is about abortion?
Speaker 9: Right now?
Speaker 28: That's a real valid issue, right, but it is framed
Speaker 28: because it really was an artificial issue in terms of
Speaker 28: frame to actually take downv way, but it was also
Speaker 28: to listit a particular kind of emotional response from folks,
Speaker 28: right so that people make a divided line on this
Speaker 28: particular one issue. And I'm saying that because oftentimes the
Speaker 28: issues that we're hearing are not issues that you're hearing
Speaker 28: from the ground.
Speaker 4: Or that people are really making their main issue.
Speaker 28: I can talk to people on the ground right now
Speaker 28: for five minutes, and I can tell you they listen to.
Speaker 28: I can almost tell you what podcasts they listen to.
Speaker 28: I can tell you what network they listen to. I
Speaker 28: can tell you whether they read or not right.
Speaker 9: And so part of.
Speaker 28: It is because oftentimes what we're seeing as issues and
Speaker 28: what we're responding to, we're responding to because those there
Speaker 28: are folks who are planting particular kind of ideas and
Speaker 28: issues and priorities of ideas and issues. The black male
Speaker 28: thing right around, black men are going to have this
Speaker 28: exodus one. It's racist as hell. I'll tell you in
Speaker 28: terms of just the very foundation of that, and I'll
Speaker 28: tell you why I say that. What's really interesting about
Speaker 28: that is that it's it's it's framed as with us
Speaker 28: as if all of a sudden, because what we white
Speaker 28: folks will do is they'll columbus us when they discover something,
Speaker 28: then all of a sudden, it just created. It just
Speaker 28: was founded, right, So, oh my god, the black men
Speaker 28: are upset and they're a disillusion hell. Black men have
Speaker 28: been upset like what you're talking about this ain't the
Speaker 28: first election cycle, right, This ain't the first time we've
Speaker 28: been disillusioned. Matter of fact, black folks in general don't
Speaker 28: necessarily excited about politics in America. That's not what we're
Speaker 28: excited about. We know all of them, like we just
Speaker 28: we're doing the best we can a survive. We're clear, right,
Speaker 28: And I'm saying that because I think it's framed as
Speaker 28: if it's like, you know, Columbus discovered America, right, even
Speaker 28: though the folks was already here, like.
Speaker 16: Oh there's black disillusionment.
Speaker 28: Oh it must be because of Kamala Harris, And then
Speaker 28: that becomes the narrative, that is, and then it's becomes
Speaker 28: an analysis about black men and this this black I'm
Speaker 28: at the top of the ticket. If there was real
Speaker 28: genuine interest, you would really get to the bottom of
Speaker 28: an analysis of why black men are frustrated, right, and
Speaker 28: why it is valid for them to frustrat it. But
Speaker 28: you want to talk about d you want to talk
Speaker 28: about is coma. And then unfortunately, because of us don't read,
Speaker 28: some of us don't read, and some of us are
Speaker 28: really getting our information in our thoughts not really having
Speaker 28: a critical analysis. We're taking what they're saying, and then
Speaker 28: we're responding. Now, now you got black folks.
Speaker 4: Running around saying that stop.
Speaker 28: It, y'all, stop it, right, unless you're literally talking to
Speaker 28: people and really doing this work and getting down to it.
Speaker 28: Part of what we do a black vote is matter.
Speaker 28: Part of our work is really around listening. When we
Speaker 28: first started, for seven months, Cliff and I it was
Speaker 28: the only two we literally went to seven states and
Speaker 28: listen to folks. And so I'm saying that, and normally
Speaker 28: I hate to say it, but this is the truth. Normally,
Speaker 28: the first answer people give us.
Speaker 16: Ain't never the real answer.
Speaker 5: It's really not.
Speaker 28: People would give you the quickest answer because we like
Speaker 28: to perceive.
Speaker 11: As we're small and we thoughtful.
Speaker 28: And so when we hear people on TV, when we
Speaker 28: see folks on the podcast where we read something, then
Speaker 28: if I give you I just heard over and over
Speaker 28: and over and over again that black men don't want
Speaker 28: to support this system. So I've heard that over and
Speaker 28: over again. I'm not really sat down and had an
Speaker 28: analysis or even really sat with that for a minute.
Speaker 28: So when you come to me and put a microphone
Speaker 28: in my face, guess what I'm gonna say. I'm gonna
Speaker 28: repeat the same thing that I've heard, I've seen on
Speaker 28: the internet that I've heard because I'm not really using
Speaker 28: a critical analysis or thought around that. I'm raising that
Speaker 28: because I think sometimes we're perpetuating something that really is
Speaker 28: not rooted in the real analysis. Is riddy And what's
Speaker 28: the quickest and the easiest kind of pundit point that
Speaker 28: we've gotten that some of this stuff has been placed
Speaker 28: in this in the some of this, y'all, all of
Speaker 28: these polls coming out from folks that we don't even know.
Speaker 28: You're doing a sampling pole of millions of folks with
Speaker 28: two hundred people come.
Speaker 9: On, right, And so a lot of that.
Speaker 28: There are poles, There are information that's literally being injected
Speaker 28: in our communities. And then we respond, we take it,
Speaker 28: we run with it, because what they're really doing is
Speaker 28: exploiting our pain, because the truth of the matter is
Speaker 28: we are disillusion The truth of the matter it is
Speaker 28: black men are upset, but they being upset now y'all
Speaker 28: just paying attention, and all of a sudden they just
Speaker 28: got upset because you're paying attention, right, and you're paying
Speaker 28: attention because you're forced to pay attention because now you're
Speaker 28: face to deal with gender and race. We've never had
Speaker 28: a circumstance in the presidential election that we had to
Speaker 28: deal with gender and race, dealing with gender and race
Speaker 28: just at the very just the best of the fact
Speaker 28: that there's a black woman at the top of the ticket.
Speaker 28: So my point is we've got to have a little
Speaker 28: bit deeper analysis around when people are coming to us
Speaker 28: with that information, what's the source of it, and why
Speaker 28: are you bringing it to me?
Speaker 9: Because now all of a sudden, you care about black
Speaker 9: men being.
Speaker 4: Upset, and so that's the thing.
Speaker 6: I want to go here for a moment, and at
Speaker 6: LEASTI I want to come to you because there's also
Speaker 6: another issue, the folks who dedicate their time and efforts
Speaker 6: and their own resources to ensure that black voices, Black
Speaker 6: voices are heard and black people are listening to to
Speaker 6: what LB was just saying, I think it's so important
Speaker 6: you founded Black Futures Lab to do just that. There
Speaker 6: was a black Did you guys hear about the Black census?
Speaker 6: Raise your hand if you heard about the Black Senses?
Speaker 3: So this okay, so.
Speaker 4: A lot of people in here, how many of y'all
Speaker 4: took the Black Senses don't lie. I'm gonna find out.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna look up your names on it. I'm just winning.
Speaker 4: I'm not gonna do that.
Speaker 6: But I think that it's important to just pause here
Speaker 6: for a moment to acknowledge that when black people do
Speaker 6: things for black folks, to ensure that black voices are
Speaker 6: heard and that black people's needs are met on a
Speaker 6: policy level, we don't damn participate. Okay, Hello, lights, Alicia,
Speaker 6: can you just weigh in on this.
Speaker 4: I think it's important that'sring me in. Wait, hold on?
Speaker 9: Can her mic?
Speaker 4: Can we please turn all these mics on? All right now?
Speaker 4: Please no hell because you can hear me.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, like hold it like this?
Speaker 5: Okay, there you go that.
Speaker 4: Sorry, y'all, I'm.
Speaker 1: Gonna get real.
Speaker 4: Eric being rock, Come on, hi, y'all get afternoon.
Speaker 5: All right.
Speaker 29: We can talk about the Black Census, we can talk
Speaker 29: about the Black Futures lab.
Speaker 4: But I just want to.
Speaker 29: Say thank you, Natasha, because I think there is both
Speaker 29: a conversation about what we need to be doing with
Speaker 29: each other to stay connected, to stay focused, and to
Speaker 29: stay unified. There's also a conversation about what onslaught we
Speaker 29: deal with every single day. And that misinformation disinformation stuff
Speaker 29: is a real thing and we all getting caught up
Speaker 29: in it. So I want to appreciate you for raising that,
Speaker 29: and I want to appreciate you for raising it and
Speaker 29: saying not what you're going to do about it, but
Speaker 29: what can we do about it? I think you know,
Speaker 29: when we talk about the environmental racism thing, which where
Speaker 29: I want to sit that we got people out here
Speaker 29: saying there was no hurricane.
Speaker 3: No, no, we literally we.
Speaker 29: Have people out here saying that that was made up too.
Speaker 29: So I want to sit us inside of like a
Speaker 29: powerful vision for how we get free by having each
Speaker 29: other's back and staying connected. And that's really what the
Speaker 29: Black Futures Lab is about. I started that organization to
Speaker 29: be a political home for black people, to be a
Speaker 29: space where black folks can come, not have to know everything,
Speaker 29: not have to be you know, rocket scientists.
Speaker 3: But be able to get in a place where.
Speaker 29: You can get informed, where you can fight together for
Speaker 29: the things that we want and the things that we
Speaker 29: need on our terms, not created by somebody else's agenda
Speaker 29: for us. And the Black Census was our first project
Speaker 29: that was an opportunity for us to say, Okay, the
Speaker 29: Democratic Party is not going to speak for black folks.
Speaker 16: We can speak for ourselves.
Speaker 29: We reach two hundred and eleven thousand black folks with
Speaker 29: that Black Census. That's the largest survey of black people
Speaker 29: that's ever been done in this country's history. Let me
Speaker 29: say that again, that's ever been done in this country's history.
Speaker 29: But at two hundred and eleven thousand black people, can
Speaker 29: you believe that we've never done that before? That We've
Speaker 29: never talked to two hundred and eleven thousand black people
Speaker 29: from all fifty states, inside of jail, in prison, outside
Speaker 29: of jail in prison, all kind of backgrounds that you
Speaker 29: can think of. Can you imagine that we haven't done
Speaker 29: that before? And from that survey, what we did was
Speaker 29: we didn't tell you what to say, how to say it, whatever.
Speaker 1: We just asked, what do you care about?
Speaker 29: How do you see these people, how are you relating
Speaker 29: to these people?
Speaker 3: What are the issues that you care about?
Speaker 29: And I can tell you we said a year ago
Speaker 29: the number one issue for black folks.
Speaker 3: Is the economy.
Speaker 29: We said this a year ago, we said it four
Speaker 29: years ago, and people like, what is the most important
Speaker 29: issue for black people?
Speaker 10: Is it?
Speaker 29: We We were like, no, it's the economy, second most
Speaker 29: important issue for black folks, gun violence, third most important
Speaker 29: issue for black folks. Housing, affordable, accessible, quality housing. Now,
Speaker 29: those aren't the sexy things that people like to talk about,
Speaker 29: but those are the things that we go to sleep
Speaker 29: thinking about every night, and those are the things that
Speaker 29: we wake up thinking about every day. And so then
Speaker 29: the question becomes, okay, well, now you've got that information,
Speaker 29: what do you do with it? Well, we turned it
Speaker 29: into a policy agenda. We turned it into a Black agenda.
Speaker 29: We've done it twice. Now, go to Blacktothefuture dot org
Speaker 29: and you can see the Black Agenda that was designed
Speaker 29: from the Black census. That is all stuff that we
Speaker 29: said we care about. And then what we did was
Speaker 29: we just dug in and said, okay, well, what laws
Speaker 29: can you make around this? Okay, laws about how we
Speaker 29: care for each other? How many y'all are caring for
Speaker 29: parents and kids? Okay, that's a lot of us parents
Speaker 29: and kids. Okay, there's a lot of us out here
Speaker 29: right who are trying to figure out how do I
Speaker 29: pay my mortgage, how do I even get a place
Speaker 29: where I can rent. There's a lot of us out
Speaker 29: here actually talking about abortion but it's not our tenth
Speaker 29: issue because the way we're talking about it is, I
Speaker 29: got to have money to raise a family. I got
Speaker 29: to have money for health care. And then when we
Speaker 29: go and try to access health care, there's.
Speaker 3: Just one clinic with one doctor.
Speaker 4: When we go and.
Speaker 29: Try to access health care, right, we can't get it.
Speaker 29: Why Well, the governor in this state don't want to
Speaker 29: accept federal dollars so that the rest of us can
Speaker 29: have health care.
Speaker 4: That's a real thing.
Speaker 29: So we started this project in this organization to fight
Speaker 29: for us on our terms. We don't always have to
Speaker 29: be a part of the conversation that people shape. For us,
Speaker 29: always have to be inside of that comment. Do you
Speaker 29: like Kamala or do night like Kamala? That's not the
Speaker 29: conversation that people are having. The conversation people are having
Speaker 29: is why is gas so high? Why can't I get
Speaker 29: toilet paper at the supermarket? Why is there no supermarket
Speaker 29: in my neighborhood. So we got to stay in the
Speaker 29: right conversation.
Speaker 4: We got to stay in.
Speaker 29: The right story, and the Black Futures librially helps to
Speaker 29: try to do that.
Speaker 4: Speaking of stories, you gotta go ahead.
Speaker 1: No, I was a saying thank you, thank you.
Speaker 4: I'm not doing a good job at it today. I'm
Speaker 4: like we over time, Aaron.
Speaker 6: I want to come to you because Alicia brought up stories,
Speaker 6: just so you all know that the three down there
Speaker 6: and Tiff and I Andrew can be honorary since he
Speaker 6: got his Rattler shirt on, and we do claim our brothers.
Speaker 6: We do not disconnect from our brothers, but we represent
Speaker 6: half of the Machetes.
Speaker 4: For those of whose listening a podcast, you heard.
Speaker 6: About us Ganggang all day, Aaron, So I want to
Speaker 6: come to you. Speaking of stories, Aaron is one of
Speaker 6: the funniest writers in history, right, It's the best funny
Speaker 6: text and tweets and all the things. I can't wait
Speaker 6: till she go to Hollywood and breaks away from the nineteenth.
Speaker 4: You should be a Hollywood writer. She really is that good.
Speaker 6: So if she's unfiltered today, y'all might get some of
Speaker 6: it in her answered, Aaron, you're talking to Mike.
Speaker 4: Why you whisper it?
Speaker 3: I'm like, but are you reading the journalism?
Speaker 10: No?
Speaker 30: I mean yes, I'm hilarious, but I mean I got
Speaker 30: a newsletter, I got a podcast.
Speaker 3: I'm not hearing these elections story.
Speaker 4: When you were hugging. You didn't hear any of it,
Speaker 4: but I did say all of that in your intro. Man,
Speaker 4: So I want to come to you though, speaking of
Speaker 4: the stories.
Speaker 3: I'm writing stories when I'm not cracking jokes. It's true.
Speaker 4: Yes, she writes the stories, all the stories.
Speaker 6: So can you tell me the headline that you envision
Speaker 6: writing the night of the election.
Speaker 3: I can tell you the headline she would have.
Speaker 4: Let me get to my question.
Speaker 30: You see the headline that the headline that is in
Speaker 30: my mind that I cannot write on election day.
Speaker 3: And this is regardless of who is y'all aint gonna
Speaker 3: believe this shit.
Speaker 12: Either way.
Speaker 3: Either way, it goes like that could.
Speaker 30: Be a headline that someone could use. I don't know
Speaker 30: if it's going to show up somewhere. If it does,
Speaker 30: just know you heard it here first. No, but I mean.
Speaker 3: That's actually a real thing.
Speaker 12: Actually, that's where I'm at.
Speaker 3: That's where I'm at.
Speaker 12: Today's out people, That's where I'm at.
Speaker 3: But no, I mean, look, I think.
Speaker 30: I am reminded listening to both Alicia and Latasha. We
Speaker 30: have to listen to voters in this moment. I love elections,
Speaker 30: I love covering elections. I love you know, covering candidates,
Speaker 30: but hearing from voters about the things that they care about,
Speaker 30: about what their daily lives are like, and how that
Speaker 30: is impacting how they may or may not participate right
Speaker 30: at the ballot box, Like that matters, and that is
Speaker 30: not what we are seeing in too much of our journalism,
Speaker 30: which is literally the reason that the Night eighteenth exists.
Speaker 8: Right.
Speaker 3: We started our newsroom.
Speaker 30: Four years ago, a week before the Iowa CAUCUSUS this
Speaker 30: is now our second presidential election, and listening to voters
Speaker 30: about the things that.
Speaker 3: They care about.
Speaker 30: Yes, we'll tell you that the economy is the top
Speaker 30: issue for people that we are centering, women, people of color,
Speaker 30: LGBTQ plus people, the disabled community, the caregiving community, listening
Speaker 30: to those people about the things that are affecting their
Speaker 30: daily lives.
Speaker 3: And also, what do.
Speaker 30: You mean when you say the economy is your number
Speaker 30: one issue? Because that looks different for different people. We
Speaker 30: have an economy, we have an environment and gender reporter.
Speaker 30: Why because we know that gender is I mean, people
Speaker 30: are disproportionately impacted by gender as it comes to the environment.
Speaker 30: Everybody's environment is not created equal, right, and your environment
Speaker 30: sucks in a lot of cases depending on where you live.
Speaker 30: We're talking about hurricanes Hell, Flint, Michigan is still not solved. Right.
Speaker 30: That is in centering to Latasha's point, not just nature
Speaker 30: or buildings, which is what the majority of white folks
Speaker 30: who are ps, the majority of the people who cover
Speaker 30: the environment in journalism, that's what.
Speaker 3: They care about.
Speaker 30: People of color care about the people that are being
Speaker 30: impacted by climate change. And so that's what we mean
Speaker 30: we talk about. We can't talk about environmental justice for
Speaker 30: a building, right, we need to talk about what that
Speaker 30: means in terms of people. The reproductive rights issue that
Speaker 30: Alicia mentioned right like that is we are talking about
Speaker 30: reproductive rights is an economic issue. That is what we
Speaker 30: are hearing from people. We are talking about abortion. What
Speaker 30: does it mean when a clinic closes for people in
Speaker 30: the LGBTQ community who are getting gender firm and care,
Speaker 30: they can't get that care because that clinic has gone.
Speaker 3: Now, what does it mean when you have abortion?
Speaker 17: Man?
Speaker 30: People are flooding into other states, flooding into the er.
Speaker 30: Now are people who may or may not have insurance
Speaker 30: who need to show up at the r can't get
Speaker 30: in because they can't be seen because this abortion ban
Speaker 30: is sending people in droves to states where it's still
Speaker 30: safe to get care.
Speaker 3: You don't know that kind of stuff.
Speaker 30: You wouldn't know a lot of that stuff watching cable
Speaker 30: news right now, reading a lot of the stories in
Speaker 30: some legacy traditional mainstream outlets, because those people are not
Speaker 30: spending time with people on the ground, They're not hearing
Speaker 30: from people on the ground, and so that matters. And
Speaker 30: that is where the Nineteenth has remained focused in this election.
Speaker 30: And that is I mean, like, we just have to
Speaker 30: continue to talk about the issues. And that is beyond
Speaker 30: election day. By the way, right as people are governing,
Speaker 30: whoever we elect on November fifth, like, paying attention to
Speaker 30: how they govern, making sure that they govern in the
Speaker 30: interest of the emerging small d democratic majority of this
Speaker 30: country matters And so those are the kinds of stories
Speaker 30: that we are committed to tell. We know that race
Speaker 30: and gender are not just a storyline of our politics
Speaker 30: and democracy. They are the storyline. And so that is
Speaker 30: that is what we are committed to. I'm sorry that
Speaker 30: that wasn't funnier. I'll be funnier on that.
Speaker 9: You started.
Speaker 4: You start off funny, So do you guys know where
Speaker 4: over time, so we really quickly.
Speaker 2: Well come, well come, welcome, welcome, welcome.
Speaker 6: Miss Lawrence, my good friend, Miss Lawrence is gonna ask
Speaker 6: a question, make a statement. But we have Quentin James,
Speaker 6: who is I'm here from the Collective Pack.
Speaker 4: What are you telling me?
Speaker 17: Oh?
Speaker 4: John Taylor is here as well. John Taylor is joining us, right?
Speaker 4: Is that what's happening? Okay, ladies, I love you, we
Speaker 4: need lady love you.
Speaker 1: We're out of here.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 12: Yeah.
Speaker 4: When one of y'all say, we got two of them,
Speaker 4: two of them got to sit down up like, well
Speaker 4: all right, no, I.
Speaker 5: Don't say y'all can say that then stage, I'll move
Speaker 5: to the neee he.
Speaker 4: Said, don't leave, but you just got to get off
Speaker 4: the stage. Please. We love y'all. We need these shares
Speaker 4: for John Taylor, who is the co founder of Blackmail Initiative. Y'all,
Speaker 4: we have to be done in six minutes. What are
Speaker 4: you telling me? But yes, and Quentin, nobody is obedient.
Speaker 4: You can stay up here. Alicia says she's gonna stay
Speaker 4: right here. Okay, I love you says that is just fine.
Speaker 4: You are always welcome. They can they won Hi, John
Speaker 4: and Quinton, Hello, Okay, so you're closing us out. What
Speaker 4: y'all gouts say something to it?
Speaker 11: If you haven't, oh, I'll be real quick.
Speaker 5: My name is Quintin James.
Speaker 31: I'm the co founder and president of the Collective Pack,
Speaker 31: also the Votes to Live Action Fund and Votes Live Foundation.
Speaker 11: I got a resource for you all.
Speaker 31: A lot of people are talking about who to vote for,
Speaker 31: why to vote and all that, and that's really important.
Speaker 31: I have a resource for you all. Please go to
Speaker 31: vote to Live dot org. We're providing free ride share
Speaker 31: vouchers folks to go and vote early round trip uber
Speaker 31: go go early between now and election day. That's what
Speaker 31: I'm here to say. All right, make your voice heard
Speaker 31: however you think you need to do, but show up
Speaker 31: and vote right now. We are running about three percentage
Speaker 31: points behind in Georgia in terms of our black early
Speaker 31: voting targets.
Speaker 5: So is this specific to Georgia or is it.
Speaker 31: It's in about ten states? But here in Georgia it's
Speaker 31: live now some states don't.
Speaker 5: Can you say the ten? Just because yes?
Speaker 31: Again votes live dot org. We are running this program
Speaker 31: in Florida, in Georgia and North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Texas, Arizona,
Speaker 31: and Nevada and also Maryland. So any one of those
Speaker 31: states go to votes who live dot org you can
Speaker 31: get a free voucher to go and vote early between
Speaker 31: now and.
Speaker 6: November fifth, John, you have are you're coming at this
Speaker 6: from a unique man. Of course, we just had Latasha
Speaker 6: Brown on the stage who also is involved in canvassing
Speaker 6: efforts getting out and talking to our folks. Please talk
Speaker 6: to the audience and to us a little bit about
Speaker 6: some of the tremendous canvassing efforts that you're engaged in.
Speaker 11: Absolutely, good afternoon, everybody.
Speaker 17: First of all, I'm John Taylor Black mel Initiative fun founder,
Speaker 17: co founder Black Men Bill number of networks that we
Speaker 17: do on ACRON around the country. In this moment, I
Speaker 17: have about six hundred and fifty canvas was on the
Speaker 17: ground right now. They've been kicking since July first. We
Speaker 17: knocked over one hundred and fourteen thousand doors for the primary,
Speaker 17: had over twenty two thousand conversations with voters in Georgia.
Speaker 17: As of today, we have done nine hundred and five
Speaker 17: thousand attempts on doors, not just in Atlanta, Columbus, Macon, Millageville, Augusta,
Speaker 17: ALLBENNI majority of my crew we call them way In's.
Speaker 17: They're young black folks on the ground under the age
Speaker 17: of thirty. My director and number two of the organization
Speaker 17: is twenty five years old. He's not here right now
Speaker 17: because he's doing a voter or L's Voter or die
Speaker 17: Bus tour with Marvin Ban and them. So the reality
Speaker 17: is we've talked about one hundred ninety five thousand Black men,
Speaker 17: women people of color across the state of Georgia. These
Speaker 17: are black men and women and people of color who
Speaker 17: are listed as infrequent, low propensity, low value voters. I
Speaker 17: don't mean the not one hundred and ninety five thousand
Speaker 17: people we talk to. That's them too, I mean the
Speaker 17: six hundred and fifty canvassers that we employ. We are
Speaker 17: proving that black men are not apathetic, we're not lazy,
Speaker 17: we're not disengaged.
Speaker 11: Not only do we care, but we're critical thinkers. The
Speaker 11: other thing, thank you.
Speaker 17: Tasha, because I love Natasha Brown like fat folks love cake.
Speaker 17: It is one thing to drive a wedge into our
Speaker 17: community and say black men and black women have a
Speaker 17: problem with each other. It is another thing to tell
Speaker 17: the lie that we don't show up for each other.
Speaker 17: Latasha Brown been showing up since for brothers, since brother's
Speaker 17: been here. Black men care about black women. We support
Speaker 17: and respect the leadership of black women. We all came
Speaker 17: from a sister. We know what it means to be
Speaker 17: in right relationship with a sister. These brothers that are
Speaker 17: on doors knocking having these conversations are not afraid of
Speaker 17: what it looks like to have a black.
Speaker 11: Woman as president.
Speaker 17: My grandmama been telling me what to do my whole life,
Speaker 17: and she ain't never told me wrong.
Speaker 11: Black women have great knowledge and wisdom.
Speaker 17: That is not the same as black men not trusting
Speaker 17: systemically the problems that we face.
Speaker 11: In a country where it does not matter who's president,
Speaker 11: we die. It does not matter who elected. We go
Speaker 11: to jail.
Speaker 17: It does not matter who gets elected or appointed to Congress.
Speaker 17: We still get arrested. No matter where I go, handcuffs
Speaker 17: follow me. Not because I'm a danger, a threat, a problem, aggressive,
Speaker 17: or any of those things. It's because the narrative is
Speaker 17: that somehow I'm a problem. So no matter how articulate, beautiful, powerful,
Speaker 17: intelligent we are, we find ourselves on the wrong side
Speaker 17: and out in with this. Never in the history or
Speaker 17: running have you ever seen six people in a foot race,
Speaker 17: and the second person in the foot race is the
Speaker 17: one that you boom.
Speaker 11: Well, that's what y'all do to black men.
Speaker 17: Not y'all in this room, but as a society structurally,
Speaker 17: black men have been the second largest progressive voting block
Speaker 17: since the inception of voting for us in this country.
Speaker 17: Yet somehow we're always the reason and the problem.
Speaker 11: We don't win. It's not us.
Speaker 17: So our message is there's nothing wrong with black men.
Speaker 17: As a matter of fact, there's everything right about us.
Speaker 17: And when we connect with sisters, there's everything great about us.
Speaker 17: And when we do the work that we do on
Speaker 17: the ground, not only will we break a million doors,
Speaker 17: but we will turn out. Because it's sixty seven percent
Speaker 17: strong approval from our data, it's another fifteen percent week
Speaker 17: to moderate approval.
Speaker 19: If you do maths.
Speaker 17: She broke eighty four y'all, less than five percent undecided.
Speaker 11: Y'all, I'm not telling you.
Speaker 17: About what some poster said. That's one hundred and ninety
Speaker 17: five thousand conversations you could take.
Speaker 11: To the bank.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much. Really quickly, we have a former
Speaker 4: Congressman Cedric Richmond here. Sedric, can you just join us
Speaker 4: really quickly. We're having this really important black men moment.
Speaker 6: John, that was divine which you just shared. I just
Speaker 6: want to acknowledge that as well. Thank you so much
Speaker 6: for your work. Congressman Cedric Richmond for Congressman, also a
Speaker 6: White House senior advisor. Be careful, please don't slide off
Speaker 6: that stage.
Speaker 4: That scared me.
Speaker 6: He is a co chair of Kamala Harris's campaign, and
Speaker 6: I just wanted you to give us some closing words
Speaker 6: before we wrap up.
Speaker 12: Is you ever mine?
Speaker 11: First all, let me thank you all for what you do.
Speaker 32: Good to see Andrew and Tiffany and Tiffany, But I
Speaker 32: was gonna say at some point I was gonna say
Speaker 32: something specific about Andrew because we were talking about brothers
Speaker 32: and knocking doors. I went down the campaign for Andrew
Speaker 32: because I believe in him and his leadership and what
Speaker 32: he has done. So thank you for everything in Tiffany
Speaker 32: and Angela, y'all are my bantering partners. We argue like
Speaker 32: sister and brother because we love each other like sister
Speaker 32: and brother. Let me just thank you all for what
Speaker 32: you're doing and thank you for having me. Look, this
Speaker 32: is gonna be a close race. We always said it was.
Speaker 19: Going to be close. But the struggle in the fight
Speaker 19: for us, it's what we've always done.
Speaker 32: I will tell you don't get too excited or interested
Speaker 32: in polling because the first part of a poll is
Speaker 32: you have to predict who's going to show up. And
Speaker 32: they never predict we're going to show up. But when
Speaker 32: you see people in this room like this, you know
Speaker 32: we're going to show up. And I have since I've
Speaker 32: been running for office since nineteen ninety nine, I have
Speaker 32: one way of telling when we're gonna have turnout, high turnout.
Speaker 32: I get older black men and black women come up
Speaker 32: to me and whisper in my eart Cedria, what are
Speaker 32: we gonna do about turnout. When they're doing that, it
Speaker 32: means they're also calling their daughters and their grandkids and
Speaker 32: they're saying, go out and vote, and you will see
Speaker 32: that excitement. But what we've seen in this race is
Speaker 32: just the climax of foolishness. We keep holding Kamala Harris
Speaker 32: to some standard of she needs to be, you know,
Speaker 32: at genius level.
Speaker 11: And she's running against it.
Speaker 32: Kids stuck in his terrible threes that just keeps making
Speaker 32: stuff up. I mean it is when I say climax
Speaker 32: and foolishness.
Speaker 11: It's crazy.
Speaker 32: This dude's on TV tumbo. I'm not going to tax
Speaker 32: overtime pay. But in Project twenty twenty five they said
Speaker 32: I'm gonna get rid of overtime. So you're actually right,
Speaker 32: you're not going to overtime paid because you're gonna get
Speaker 32: rid of it. He said, I have concepts of a plan,
Speaker 32: and all of a sudden, no matter what Kamala Harris does,
Speaker 32: they're just gonna keep moving the goalposts. But the truth
Speaker 32: of the matter is we're not trying to please the
Speaker 32: political pundits. What we're trying to do is answer the
Speaker 32: Janet Jackson question of what have you done for me lately?
Speaker 32: And the answer to that is, we've increased black wealth
Speaker 32: by sixty and forty thousand new homeowners. We've created a
Speaker 32: bunch of jobs, not black jobs, we created sixteen million jobs,
Speaker 32: and we've closed the racial wealth gap.
Speaker 19: Now we still have a long long way to go.
Speaker 19: And then the other question is what's in it for me?
Speaker 11: Why bother?
Speaker 32: And so when we talk about black males and we
Speaker 32: talk about black women, we owe them answering the question.
Speaker 19: Why bother? And what's in it for me it is.
Speaker 32: There's nothing wrong with challenging your elected officials in saying,
Speaker 32: what's in it for me, what's in it for my
Speaker 32: common unity, what's.
Speaker 11: In it for my family?
Speaker 32: And so that's what you heard from black men, and
Speaker 32: rightfully so they should ask, and rightfully so we produced
Speaker 32: an agenda to answer their question because they deserve the
Speaker 32: respect of knowing. And so in closing, that's why I
Speaker 32: think it's gonna be a close race, but I think
Speaker 32: we're gonna win, and in fact, I would not be
Speaker 32: surprised if we won all of the battleground states. So
Speaker 32: you know, I'm bullish on Georgia, and that's because I'm
Speaker 32: a more house man. I'm bullish on North Carolina, especially
Speaker 32: if you look at the Baffoon running for governor there.
Speaker 32: I'm bullish on Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin. But guess what, We're
Speaker 32: gonna go to Arizona, Nevada, and we're gonna win there too.
Speaker 32: So I'm not telling you all to do like my
Speaker 32: family's doing and start texting about out inauguration tickets and stuff,
Speaker 32: because you never go by the drapes and cut the
Speaker 32: grass before the closing. So we have to close this election,
Speaker 32: and my grandmother would always say, the law will auter
Speaker 32: your steps, but you got to move your feet. And
Speaker 32: so come election day, we're going to have to make
Speaker 32: us move our feet. And for those who didn't vote early,
Speaker 32: we're going have to show up and show out on
Speaker 32: election day and look, vote early. You know, back in
Speaker 32: the day in Louisiana, we would say vote early and
Speaker 32: vote often. And I want anybody accuse me of saying that,
Speaker 32: I'm just telling you what the politicians used to say.
Speaker 32: But the fact that you're here should give you some
Speaker 32: comfort that we know the stakes of this election. And
Speaker 32: I just want to thank this group for all of
Speaker 32: the work they do, not just during election time, because
Speaker 32: this is the easy time, but to bring real conversations,
Speaker 32: real guest and facts and passion in and out straight
Speaker 32: to the black community with no filter is important.
Speaker 11: And so thank you all for what you're doing.
Speaker 32: Look, offering yourself a public service is never easy, and
Speaker 32: to do that, we do it for kids, families and
Speaker 32: people will never ever know. But it's not about politics,
Speaker 32: it's not about profits, it's not even about party.
Speaker 19: It's about purpose.
Speaker 32: And at some point somebody is going to be appreciative
Speaker 32: that the Lord allowed me to walk this earth. And
Speaker 32: that's how Kamala Harris feels. She wakes up every day
Speaker 32: fighting and for anybody you know who really questions her,
Speaker 32: she is HBCU through and through. Whoa slow down? I mean,
Speaker 32: that's why I didn't name the HBCU. She is HBCU
Speaker 32: threw and through and she can fight with the.
Speaker 19: Best of them.
Speaker 32: So, like my grandpa used to say, if you see
Speaker 32: her fighting a bear, help the bear because she's gonna
Speaker 32: be all right.
Speaker 11: So let's go out and help her. Let's win this election.
Speaker 1: That bear alone.
Speaker 11: I didn't say help for orange bear.
Speaker 19: I just said help no bears.
Speaker 22: Please.
Speaker 5: A beautiful place to end, y'all.
Speaker 7: I know it's felt like rapid fire, but can we
Speaker 7: give it up for this closing panel and stuff conversation,
Speaker 7: And we also want to thank our listeners who are
Speaker 7: on the other side of these cameras.
Speaker 17: You know.
Speaker 7: Uh they say polls are predictive, but the only one
Speaker 7: that matters, right is election day. Uh, those that are counted.
Speaker 7: I remember being running fifth out of fifth the weekend
Speaker 7: before the primary election in Florida and being one out
Speaker 7: of five on election night at its close. So we
Speaker 7: get to determine who who wins, who becomes the next president,
Speaker 7: and we'll fight whatever fight is necessary. After that, y'all,
Speaker 7: there's only one thing left to do is say.
Speaker 1: Wait, wait one second, we have another Oh we have
Speaker 1: a special I thought say we had a bether guest.
Speaker 1: We might have no ho, I think we do and
Speaker 1: we don't. Maybe you guys don't know. But tomorrow is
Speaker 1: Angela Rye's birthday.
Speaker 5: Happy birthday.
Speaker 1: Oh and some of our Machete sisters could not be
Speaker 1: here today, but they could not let the day go
Speaker 1: by without wishing her a happy birthday. So let's roll
Speaker 1: that tape.
Speaker 8: Angie Rye, Happy birthday, girl, wishing you the most fabulous, fun,
Speaker 8: fierce and phenomenal birthday ever because you deserve it, because
Speaker 8: you are such a dear sister, friend, so genuine. So
Speaker 8: they're not just for your people, but for the people.
Speaker 8: So I just respect and love and adore you so much.
Speaker 1: You know, Hey, sister, I hope that you're having the
Speaker 1: very best day.
Speaker 12: We love you so much.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry I can't be there in person to celebrate
Speaker 3: your birthday.
Speaker 33: But Angela, you are chief of staff to the Blacks,
Speaker 33: just like Tiffany says all the time, but you are
Speaker 33: also chief of staff to so many of our hearts.
Speaker 33: You make us feel loved and mothered, cared for, and
Speaker 33: always thought about.
Speaker 9: We love you, We love you, We love you.
Speaker 3: Happy Birthday.
Speaker 34: I love you so much, sister. I think that you
Speaker 34: deserve to be celebrated for your excellence every single day
Speaker 34: of the year. But because today is your special born day,
Speaker 34: I am celebrating you. I am saying I'm so bummed
Speaker 34: I cannot be there, but I love you big, I
Speaker 34: love you deep. I love you hard like we go together.
Speaker 12: So five, So God that you're aundlive.
Speaker 5: Hey, you look real great. So people are gonna hate.
Speaker 12: Hey, keep doing what you do because they really needed you. Hey,
Speaker 12: this is your year.
Speaker 11: So that's toasting.
Speaker 4: Cheer wo.
Speaker 5: Website lady, other birthday.
Speaker 12: We love you, Angela.
Speaker 3: You are such a beautiful person inside and out.
Speaker 30: You do so much for the culture, for your family,
Speaker 30: inspire assault to be better people, and I just pray
Speaker 30: that you have the happiest birthday.
Speaker 8: I love you.
Speaker 35: What's going on Native lamp Pod family. It is your cousin,
Speaker 35: doctor David J. John's Angela, Teresa Rye. I'm so very
Speaker 35: thankful for the gift of you. I pray that this
Speaker 35: next turn around the sun brings you an abundance of everything, love, joy,
Speaker 35: everything that you've been dreaming of.
Speaker 11: And that's some because you deserve that and more. I
Speaker 11: love you.
Speaker 19: I look forward to celebrating with you soon.
Speaker 1: Now we're doing that. We don't do that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, happy bir.
Speaker 36: Yeahe early happy Yeah, happy Boday.
Speaker 4: Okay, we gotta love you.
Speaker 1: Let yourday about.
Speaker 4: Twenty minutes, says somebody else got to be in this room.
Speaker 4: You ain't got your goe.
Speaker 3: You got to get and we thank you you all.
Speaker 1: Welcome home, y'all. Thank you so much. That is go vote, go,
Speaker 1: go vote.
Speaker 4: Thank you y'all. I love you, dee. Thank you. My
Speaker 4: birthdays tomorrow so I'll do this all again tomorrow. Thanks.
Speaker 37: Thank you for joining the Natives intentional with the info
Speaker 37: and all of the latest rock gulum and cross connective
Speaker 37: to the statements that you leave on our socials. Thank
Speaker 37: you sincerely for the patients. Reason for your choice is clear,
Speaker 37: So grateful it took to execute rooms. Thank you for serve,
Speaker 37: defend and protect the truth.
Speaker 3: He went the pace.
Speaker 11: We welcome home to all of the natives.
Speaker 3: We thank you Welcome Home, y'all.
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