Speaker 1: Native Lampod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with
Speaker 1: Reason Choice Media. Welcome Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome home, y'all.
Speaker 1: I'm Angela Riah, your host today for today's Native Land Pod.
Speaker 1: Solo pod. Tuesdays are my day to normally talk to
Speaker 1: you all about everything that's on my heart and mind,
Speaker 1: especially as it relates to politics and culture. I happen
Speaker 1: to be in Nashville right now, where the National Bar
Speaker 1: Association National Bar Association was so essential to helping me understand,
Speaker 1: to see, to view powerful black lawyers who understood the
Speaker 1: mandate from Charles Hamilton Houston to be a social engineer
Speaker 1: and not a parasite on society. That I took a
Speaker 1: little bit of a break from the National Bar. And
Speaker 1: the reason I took a break from the National Bar
Speaker 1: is because when I was working on Capitol Hill, we
Speaker 1: had an organization called Impact. We bring an impact back, y'all,
Speaker 1: we need to back. But Impacts had this incredible partnership
Speaker 1: with the National Bar where we did forty end or
Speaker 1: forty nation's best advocates celebrating young lawyers, trying to figure
Speaker 1: out an on ramp for young black attorneys to be
Speaker 1: connected to some of the greatest legal minds in the country,
Speaker 1: black legal minds in the country, and we did that
Speaker 1: for several years, and at some point that relationship between
Speaker 1: Impacts in the National Bar kind of came to a
Speaker 1: head and we were no longer a part of nation's
Speaker 1: best advocates. The program, I'm proud to say, continues today.
Speaker 1: But there was a little bit of a law, and
Speaker 1: if I'm honest, the law was because at least my
Speaker 1: feelings were hurt. I don't know about I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: blame Joe Briggs or David John's or Kindred Davis Briggs
Speaker 1: or some of my other colleagues with Impact, Nina Smith,
Speaker 1: Sarah Missilides. But there was a break for me and
Speaker 1: a departure, and I stopped being engaged, engaged as much
Speaker 1: with the National Bar and instead said, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go it alone and do the work that I
Speaker 1: do with the Congressional Caucus and sit on the pack board,
Speaker 1: and sit on the Institute board and engage in other ways.
Speaker 1: And last year, for the one hundredth anniversary of the
Speaker 1: National Bar, for the centennial, I decided it was time
Speaker 1: to come home. And the reason why I felt like
Speaker 1: it was time to come home is because when you
Speaker 1: look around on every side, every place where our rights
Speaker 1: are being challenged, the places where DEI is under attack,
Speaker 1: where our textbooks, the books that our kids could check
Speaker 1: out from the library are being banned. When we look
Speaker 1: at the amount of police violence, those who never separated
Speaker 1: themselves from vigilante, we can't even call it vigilante justice,
Speaker 1: vigilante injustice. When you look at all of the racist
Speaker 1: attacks that they are trying to codify in this country,
Speaker 1: when you look at the makeup of the Congress, of
Speaker 1: the House and the Senate, when you see the disparities
Speaker 1: that exist in our pay when you see the ways
Speaker 1: in which they've challenged whether or not black people deserve
Speaker 1: to be in jobs based on DEI, even if if
Speaker 1: you're not in a DEI job, When you see everything
Speaker 1: that's happening across the board, there is no choice but
Speaker 1: for us to lean into our gifts, lean into our talents,
Speaker 1: lean into what it means to build coalition. So I'm
Speaker 1: saying this now as a lifetime member of the NAACP,
Speaker 1: a lifetime member of National Action Network, a lifetime member
Speaker 1: of the National Bar Association, a lifetime member of the
Speaker 1: National Coalition of Negro Women. I always mess that up.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, Shavon, I love you, but here's my point.
Speaker 1: I am. I wouldn't say I'm an organizational person, but
Speaker 1: I would say that I understand when I'm called to serve.
Speaker 1: I believe that God gives me a portion of a
Speaker 1: vision to share with the people, to move our people,
Speaker 1: to move the needle on our issues. But I also
Speaker 1: believe that God empowers other people with parts of the vision.
Speaker 1: I'm not support to see the full picture. God is
Speaker 1: you got the blueprain right, But I do believe that
Speaker 1: there comes a point in time where we're supposed to
Speaker 1: come together. So sure, we can embody our individual power.
Speaker 1: We can be influencers and culture creators and trendsetters and
Speaker 1: all of that. But what happens when all of that power,
Speaker 1: all of that leadership, all of those gifts come together. Well,
Speaker 1: what happens is we can strike a mighty blow. Right,
Speaker 1: We're better as a fist than we are with any
Speaker 1: one of these fingers. We can strike a mighty blow
Speaker 1: like this. We can't strike a mighty blow and we
Speaker 1: don't come together. And the thing really isn't about us
Speaker 1: all being on one track, us solving the problem in
Speaker 1: one way. Really, what we're being called to do is
Speaker 1: get to the end goal by whatever means, by any
Speaker 1: means necessary, as the great profit Malcolm X once said.
Speaker 1: And the reality of it is, we got to just
Speaker 1: start walking. We might not see the full staircase, but
Speaker 1: you got to take one step at a time. So
Speaker 1: when I think about the fact that so often the
Speaker 1: conversation that we have, especially the youngers among us, it's
Speaker 1: the questioning of the relevance of the organization. But what
Speaker 1: are you doing to make it relevant? What are you
Speaker 1: doing to make that organization impactful? How have you contributed
Speaker 1: to it being better? Right? How do you criticize something
Speaker 1: for not being good when you haven't even poured in
Speaker 1: your talents into the thing. And what are you actually doing?
Speaker 1: Are you just standing on the sideline criticizing or are
Speaker 1: you saying, I'm going to be a constructive critic and
Speaker 1: work to build something different. I was just in a
Speaker 1: session at the National Bar with the great Barbara Online,
Speaker 1: who used to lead a lawyer's committee and has done
Speaker 1: so much incredible voting rights work over the years. And
Speaker 1: Barbara Onwine said something so good that I'll never forget.
Speaker 1: She said that we have to be builders right now,
Speaker 1: and before we build, there's an architectural design that is strategy.
Speaker 1: So some of us are strategists, some of us are
Speaker 1: builders and executors operations specialists. Some of us are the
Speaker 1: coalition builders, the constructors of the partnerships. And what we
Speaker 1: have to understand, like we understood from Gary Indiana in
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy two for the National Black Political Convention, is
Speaker 1: being united without having a unanimous position. Unity without unanimity,
Speaker 1: it means we know that we are more powerful together
Speaker 1: even if we don't agree on every single aspect of
Speaker 1: this movement. That's really the point. So when we talk
Speaker 1: about the strength of our institutions and our ability to
Speaker 1: fight back right now, where is our project twenty twenty five?
Speaker 1: Where is our Black Agenda? Where are all of these things?
Speaker 1: What are you doing to create it? Or are you
Speaker 1: going to keep asking the question wondering where it is?
Speaker 1: Knowing the whole time that if the question came to you,
Speaker 1: you probably have some obligation to pour into it. So
Speaker 1: that's my thing thinking right now, it's now the one
Speaker 1: hundred and first anniversary of the National Are one hundred
Speaker 1: and one years of its existence, and there couldn't be
Speaker 1: a more critical time for lawyers to come together. We
Speaker 1: got voting rights fights, we got civil rights fights. We
Speaker 1: have people questioning whether or not the Constitution should be
Speaker 1: interpreted as it was intended, a strict constructionist like Clarence
Speaker 1: Thomas saying I don't know if it means what it
Speaker 1: says on paper. Right. We have all of that going on.
Speaker 1: This is an absolute battle for black legal minds. We've
Speaker 1: got to do this together. So, as I said in Nashville,
Speaker 1: the National Urban League is going to start here tonight.
Speaker 1: The National Bar Association has been going on for a
Speaker 1: few days. I would ask you to lean into at
Speaker 1: least learning about these organizations, figuring out what role we play.
Speaker 1: And here's why. Sometimes our criticism ends up creating the
Speaker 1: thing that dismantles our organizations, that takes out some of
Speaker 1: our strongest allies. What do I mean by that? And
Speaker 1: I think we'll talk about this more on the show
Speaker 1: we do tomorrow that will drop Thursday. But I'm thinking
Speaker 1: about Congresswoman Nancy Mace, who took it upon herself to
Speaker 1: introduce legislation to try to dismantle the Congressional Black Caucus.
Speaker 1: Congressional Black Caucus was founded in nineteen seventy one, right
Speaker 1: on the other side of a meeting with President Richard Nixon.
Speaker 1: They developed a document of sixty one recommendations that they
Speaker 1: believed almost demands that they believe would make life better
Speaker 1: for Black Americans. This organization isn't just about coming together
Speaker 1: and having lunch with people who look like you. It's
Speaker 1: also an organization that has been the lifeline, the heartbeat
Speaker 1: and the conscience of the Congress. This woman doesn't want
Speaker 1: the Congressional Black Caucus to exist, because the Congress wants
Speaker 1: to exist absent a conscience. And so when we talk
Speaker 1: about doing the work of the oppressor, this is what
Speaker 1: I mean. When I was the Congressional Black Caucus Executive Director,
Speaker 1: I got emails on a weekly basis, sometimes daily, depending
Speaker 1: on Maden as y'all work for challenging President Barack Obama
Speaker 1: at the time. We didn't always agree, but we were
Speaker 1: still striving to get to the same end goal. Those
Speaker 1: emails would always question the relevance of the Caucus, whether
Speaker 1: or not it should exist. So congratulations the seeds. You
Speaker 1: so hoped to give Nancy Mace the courage that she
Speaker 1: needs to come up with this bogus bill. Let us
Speaker 1: stop doing the work of the oppressor for them when
Speaker 1: something doesn't feel as relevant to us, Let's figure out
Speaker 1: how to do the harder work of making it relevant
Speaker 1: to what we need to what our demands are right now.
Speaker 1: If you want something to be better, the solution isn't
Speaker 1: always to destroy it. Sometimes it's just to strengthen it.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you got to put in another pillar, another like pole,
Speaker 1: so that it's stronger than it was because you are there.
Speaker 1: That is what this moment requires of us. We're not
Speaker 1: in dismantling and destruction season, not of our organizations. We're
Speaker 1: in a time where we can come back to the
Speaker 1: altar to determine what is needed for us to be better.
Speaker 1: And I'm thrilled today to have joining us two women
Speaker 1: who are working to make things better. One of them
Speaker 1: is my dear sister, who leads and is the National
Speaker 1: Convener of the Black Women's Roundtable, also the President and
Speaker 1: CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, Melanie Campbell,
Speaker 1: and then Avis Jonk DOCTA, Avis Jones, Deweaver who's the
Speaker 1: principle of Neuvaux strategies. They're here to talk to us
Speaker 1: about a really important survey on pay equity, economic life
Speaker 1: and the DEI rollback. And what I think is so
Speaker 1: important that we'll probably resonate with most of the people
Speaker 1: in this audience is if you didn't even take this poll,
Speaker 1: you know, some of these results speak through you and
Speaker 1: for you. So with that, I want to bring them
Speaker 1: to the stage so we can have a very very
Speaker 1: important conversation about pay equity and the DEI ro back. Hello,
Speaker 1: mal Hi you there we're missing? Oh there she is. Okay,
Speaker 1: there she is. Hi, doctor A.
Speaker 2: Great to see your boat.
Speaker 1: I'm so happy to be with you all. Please forgive
Speaker 1: me just so you know, I get a civil rights pass.
Speaker 1: I was doing the work of the Lord with our
Speaker 1: dear sister Tanya clay House, and I was like, well,
Speaker 1: I guess I'm on the panel now. So I was
Speaker 1: on the panel.
Speaker 2: But be ever ready, be ever ready.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing you all will also appreciate this.
Speaker 1: The Queen Mother, Barbara Armwine was also on the panel,
Speaker 1: and so I was like, just so y'all know in
Speaker 1: this room Barbara Onwine speaks for me, So I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna close out. I'm the leave so I can get
Speaker 1: to this panel. Especially when Barbara Arnwine's eyes are closed,
Speaker 1: she really speaks for me. Then you know she did it.
Speaker 1: She did it, she was in the pocket. So yes,
Speaker 1: I want to thank you all first of all for
Speaker 1: doing this work at a time where I think black
Speaker 1: women in particular are feeling gas lit like I know
Speaker 1: I'm having this six and you're trying to make me
Speaker 1: feel like I'm not worthy of the pay that I
Speaker 1: that I know my counterparts are getting. I know that
Speaker 1: I'm worthy of this job that I just lost. Talk
Speaker 1: about why it was so important from a mission standpoint
Speaker 1: for you all to get this survey done.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 3: First of all, it is so good to be in
Speaker 3: community with you and of course our sister DODR and
Speaker 3: just listening.
Speaker 2: To you in the just now, just listening to the conversation.
Speaker 3: Uh, you're right on target. I'll say that if ever
Speaker 3: there's a time for us to come together and bring
Speaker 3: all that we have and like you say, we don't.
Speaker 3: Unit does not mean uniform. It just never has, never
Speaker 3: will and this and this pop shows that right. But
Speaker 3: what is uh, you know, Andrew We've been doing this
Speaker 3: poll for ten years. This year we partnered with the
Speaker 3: Route to release it. Another sister running things over there
Speaker 3: and very and very intentional, nothing against brothers at all,
Speaker 3: but we also have a black woman poster this year.
Speaker 3: We hadn't done it in since twenty twenty four because
Speaker 3: last year everything was happening so fast.
Speaker 2: It was just a crazy year, and we.
Speaker 3: Just said, you know what, let's let the dust settle.
Speaker 3: It's gonna where's this gonna end up? So this is
Speaker 3: kind of like the dust settle moment to really say, Okay,
Speaker 3: this is what's been happening in the last almost year
Speaker 3: and a half now, and what.
Speaker 2: A black woman telling us right.
Speaker 3: In order for us to be able to develop strategy
Speaker 3: and organize, we have to know what's really really happening,
Speaker 3: and this pole really does that. And so I'm one
Speaker 3: to be losing coalition building that we bring the expertise.
Speaker 2: I am not a researcher.
Speaker 1: I just played for.
Speaker 2: It and I am talking, talking, talking, but I can't.
Speaker 3: Walk and walk and walking like doctor Avis Jones Weaver,
Speaker 3: who has been with us on this pole from the
Speaker 3: very beginning when we first started it actually more than
Speaker 3: ten years ago.
Speaker 2: But this is our tenth one and this is just
Speaker 2: a piece age. Well, girl, we got more to come that.
Speaker 3: Really lays out components of it that we'll have a
Speaker 3: political want to talk to you offline about it before
Speaker 3: we bring it out because it's going to tell some
Speaker 3: stories that need to be told. So if you don't mind,
Speaker 3: I want to just turn it over and when you're
Speaker 3: ready to just talk. But that's the why, right, And
Speaker 3: it helps us strategize and organized around what black women
Speaker 3: telling us, not what we sit up in our offices
Speaker 3: and think, but really and having And what's different about
Speaker 3: this pole besides being all women black women, is it
Speaker 3: also goes much deeper than we have in the past.
Speaker 3: And even layers are not just generational layers, but ideology layers,
Speaker 3: breaking it down by not just being black, but being
Speaker 3: Caribbean coming all the eighties, so that we are breaking
Speaker 3: it down in the layers that we have not in
Speaker 3: the past, and much more are robust questions that will
Speaker 3: hopefully help us in that strategy that you're talking about.
Speaker 1: Well, and I'm glad you said that. First thing I
Speaker 1: want to do, doctor Avis, before I come to you
Speaker 1: is mail. You said that you believe in coalition, and
Speaker 1: I really it's important to me. Every chance I get that,
Speaker 1: I give you your flowers just so y'all know. If
Speaker 1: you in the comments say that Mail needs to go
Speaker 1: on vacation, we raise a little bit of money so
Speaker 1: Mail could go on. Okay, I just want to know
Speaker 1: what the dates are before we get off the show.
Speaker 1: But the reason for this.
Speaker 2: Twenty second of August.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm excited, but I want you all to understand
Speaker 1: why I'm saying that this point. Don't tell nobody, you
Speaker 1: just tell everybody. But this call to me is it
Speaker 1: is an embodiment of some of the sacrifices Mail that
Speaker 1: I feel like I've seen you endure over the years. Right,
Speaker 1: Black women work twice as hard and sometimes don't get
Speaker 1: any recognition, So I want to name that. I think
Speaker 1: the other thing that I that I really think is
Speaker 1: important is I know you do the work that the
Speaker 1: men do, maybe five times as much as the men do,
Speaker 1: and probably get paid five times less than the men do.
Speaker 1: So I want to name that. And then I think
Speaker 1: the other part is on the positive side, when you
Speaker 1: talk about coalition building, you are someone who I have
Speaker 1: modeled coalition building after because I know it's possible because
Speaker 1: I watch you do it so much. So I just
Speaker 1: want to say thank you. Your team is in the
Speaker 1: comments talk about she going that is so funny, but
Speaker 1: I just like she is going. We know she just
Speaker 1: told us, she told the whole world. But I just
Speaker 1: want to say that Mail one thank you, but two,
Speaker 1: this is also a demand to your colleagues, to the
Speaker 1: people who are contributors and donors, to pay mail her value,
Speaker 1: to ensure that you are raising her Like we cannot
Speaker 1: do this work. We don't get paid what we ought
Speaker 1: to be paid if you don't do this work. And
Speaker 1: we saw that from what Reverend Jackson did that work
Speaker 1: over the years. We know that, so I just want
Speaker 1: to make sure we that we were clear about that.
Speaker 1: And now that I'm with my demands, doctor, as you
Speaker 1: have the floor, I'm bad to do a little bit.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 3: Thank you for love and like we said, I can
Speaker 3: follow too, but thank you for what you do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm gonna be a boss to you just about
Speaker 1: this vacation, but that's it. After that you're back in charge.
Speaker 4: And I do say ditto to each and everything that
Speaker 4: Angel just said. Okay, absolutely, and I think her staff
Speaker 4: will lock the doors so she don't come in.
Speaker 1: It's good, cannot work.
Speaker 4: Good good that you deserve it. That sat in terms
Speaker 4: of this poll, you know what was really powerful to me?
Speaker 4: As you mentioned, Angela, I think all of your viewers
Speaker 4: and listeners will resonate with this. We've all felt this
Speaker 4: to our bone. Specifically, we looked at this issue of
Speaker 4: pay equity and beyond how are they doing in this economy. So,
Speaker 4: just briefly, in terms of the issue of pay equity,
Speaker 4: almost ninety percent eighty eight percent of the people that
Speaker 4: we've polled, and by the way, it was a national
Speaker 4: survey of black women across the dimensions in terms of
Speaker 4: different generations, one thousand women in the poll, so this
Speaker 4: is a statistically significant poll. And we found that eighty
Speaker 4: eight percent of the Black women that answered the poll
Speaker 4: were concerned about being paid less than their co workers.
Speaker 4: And not only were they concerned, I have to say
Speaker 4: that nearly half of them actually reported that they have
Speaker 4: been paid less than their co workers. Interestingly, women who
Speaker 4: were college educated were actually more likely to say that
Speaker 4: they were paid less than their coworkers than non college
Speaker 4: education black women and women that are a little bit younger,
Speaker 4: like millennials. Specifically, that generation was the most likely to
Speaker 4: say that they were paid less than their coworkers.
Speaker 2: So this is a very.
Speaker 4: Relevant issue to millions of black women out there. You know,
Speaker 4: as the song used to say, when we be paid
Speaker 4: for the work that we've done, we have still yet
Speaker 4: to be paid equitably for the work that we've done.
Speaker 4: We also looked at this at how they've been impacted
Speaker 4: by some of these recent dynamics in regard to things
Speaker 4: like the destruction largely of DEI in the workplace, and
Speaker 4: once again, black women have really been slammed by that. Specifically,
Speaker 4: forty three percent of the women that we survey said
Speaker 4: that they were impacted by DEI rollbacks, and once again,
Speaker 4: college educated black women were the most likely to be impacted.
Speaker 4: They were also the most likely to say that they
Speaker 4: in fact were not only reported more personal paid discrimination,
Speaker 4: but they are also had more exposure to those DEI
Speaker 4: cuts and it hit them in a number of ways,
Speaker 4: everything from having to make hard decisions when they go
Speaker 4: to the grocery store, either paying for less quality food
Speaker 4: or spending less on food. I was really shocked by
Speaker 4: the fact that one in four even said that they
Speaker 4: skipped meals or ate less so that other people in
Speaker 4: their family could eat. They were really having a hard
Speaker 4: time making ends meet with things like the basics, utilities, gas,
Speaker 4: paying for rent. So in all of those different ways
Speaker 4: and more honestly, black women are feeling it when it
Speaker 4: comes to this issue not only a pay equity, but
Speaker 4: the issue of affordability written large in this economy and
Speaker 4: specifically as a result of some of the policy decisions
Speaker 4: that this administration is made.
Speaker 1: And I think that's just it, Like we are getting
Speaker 1: hit on every side. We know that we know where
Speaker 1: we stand generally, but normally the polls don't come to us.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: This is the exception, right, this is the time where
Speaker 1: you're like, no, you're gonna be heard and there's going
Speaker 1: to be data attached to what's going on. Given where
Speaker 1: we are, and trying not to lose hope, try to
Speaker 1: stay hopeful, keep people engaged in the fight. What do
Speaker 1: you think are the next steps? What do we do
Speaker 1: to turn the tight on this? We got the facts,
Speaker 1: now what do we do to change it.
Speaker 3: One of the things I want to also point out
Speaker 3: in the poll is that with all the things.
Speaker 2: Coming after at us.
Speaker 3: Black women are still hopeful black women are still I said,
Speaker 3: uh that my life is still good, right, and younger
Speaker 3: women feel that way more than older women, which is
Speaker 3: usually kind of someone's the opposite. So I think that part,
Speaker 3: I think, give you the data that says we're still
Speaker 3: hopeful and you're not gonna that I would saying, no, devil,
Speaker 3: still your joy, We're still joyful.
Speaker 2: We're still going to.
Speaker 3: Uh to enjoy our lives as we continue to fight
Speaker 3: this our slot that we're up against. So I think
Speaker 3: being able to be very very clear one of the
Speaker 3: uh things that we did and released in in this
Speaker 3: this portion of the release is really the things that
Speaker 3: black men are concerned about. So we try to develop
Speaker 3: an agenda what other concerns, right, and so being able
Speaker 3: to see that for black women and it ties right
Speaker 3: to what's happening uh this this time.
Speaker 2: Uh two years ago, it was cost of living.
Speaker 3: Now it's uh the uh cuts in medicare right uh
Speaker 3: and concerned about social security. Uh, it's uh voting rights, which.
Speaker 2: We know it's tied to what we've seen happen.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: We know it's issues around racism.
Speaker 3: And discrimination, healthcare costs. So when it comes to being
Speaker 3: able to say, well, what do we do.
Speaker 2: We got this election in front of us, but we
Speaker 2: also have to develop the long term.
Speaker 3: Build or rebuild, if you will, because what we learned
Speaker 3: and what we've been learning and all things all of
Speaker 3: us have been working in so many ways around of
Speaker 3: the resistance.
Speaker 2: Is being able to be clear. We have to we learned.
Speaker 2: We're learning that.
Speaker 3: What was there as fraud, as the quote unquote democracy
Speaker 3: was our freedoms and opportunities can just be thrown away
Speaker 3: with a stroke of a pen.
Speaker 2: That doesn't happen to do a law, or be even
Speaker 2: legal to happen.
Speaker 3: But yet we are seeing black women losing our jobs
Speaker 3: from a public sector, and we know the public sectors
Speaker 3: the ways that many of us became in our in
Speaker 3: our families, made it out of poverty, if you will,
Speaker 3: into middle class. So those are the things that we
Speaker 3: want to do right now, and that is to develop
Speaker 3: the kind of messages, make sure folks know about it,
Speaker 3: and be able to make sure that the people who
Speaker 3: we elect up and down the ballot, because now we know,
Speaker 3: people are learning how important state races are, how important
Speaker 3: state legislatures are, where we don't vote in those numbers
Speaker 3: like we should, like we do a presidential election that
Speaker 3: these people took what the Supreme Court did and said, well,
Speaker 3: we're just gonna go ahead and just do all this
Speaker 3: done and just take black political power at will. Now,
Speaker 3: we fought back, and so we know that all roads
Speaker 3: lead to the South. And the things we've been doing
Speaker 3: together with Black Votes of Matter and LDF and one
Speaker 3: hundred and sixty organizations that became part of that Home movement,
Speaker 3: we know we have work that we have to do.
Speaker 3: So from an organizer perspective and from a pushing to
Speaker 3: leverage that vote in this election, it's going to be critical.
Speaker 3: And if people want to know what's gonna we're gonna
Speaker 3: do about their rights and their freedoms, don't tell everybody democracy, right.
Speaker 2: I see that y'all don't really care about it.
Speaker 3: The law is not for you, white man, it's just
Speaker 3: for everybody else. And when it doesn't work for me,
Speaker 3: I would I would dismiss it. And that's historic in
Speaker 3: this country quite frankly. Right.
Speaker 2: So we got a lot, we got it.
Speaker 3: It's a it's a long distance race, too, right, and
Speaker 3: gives us an opportunity because I think where the hope
Speaker 3: comes from, there's still opportunity for us to win this battle.
Speaker 1: There are people now and doctor Avis that you know
Speaker 1: who work in corporate America. Uh some of them again
Speaker 1: got that good government job and they were impacted by
Speaker 1: these rollbacks too. They don't see themselves as organizers or
Speaker 1: you know, maybe they're not even organizational people. I don't
Speaker 1: consider myself an organizational person, but I was like, I
Speaker 1: tell you what, I'm pay these dues and get involved.
Speaker 1: And I wonder what directive we would give them in
Speaker 1: this moment, like everybody has a part to play. And
Speaker 1: even if you're like, I don't even know where to
Speaker 1: get in, where I fit in? Do I fit in?
Speaker 1: Because this has never been my lot? But I know
Speaker 1: that if I don't move for myself, I certainly can't
Speaker 1: move the needle for other people in our community. Are
Speaker 1: what are the things that you could tell them, like
Speaker 1: the basic abcs for what's the first that they can
Speaker 1: take to pivot because they're going to need to and
Speaker 1: get involved. What do you say to them?
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I definitely think they have been impacted. And
Speaker 4: up and down the spectrum, as you've mentioned, people have
Speaker 4: been doged, people have had their whole divisions, you know,
Speaker 4: completely eliminated. People who had that good corporate job are
Speaker 4: finding themselves being targeted and released. I mean we're seeing
Speaker 4: it on a broad scale right now by celebrities on ESPN,
Speaker 4: for example, but it happens with everyday people as well.
Speaker 4: And so I think what we really can learn from
Speaker 4: this moment is a couple of things we are saying
Speaker 4: large that a lot of black women are saying that, hey,
Speaker 4: I still have skills, I still have abilities. I want
Speaker 4: to see how I can open up a business and
Speaker 4: monetize the Beyond that, I think that the community itself
Speaker 4: is understanding the the importance of supporting one another, supporting
Speaker 4: one another in business, supporting one another in terms of
Speaker 4: our educational institute, supporting one another in terms of our
Speaker 4: legacy organizations. Because the reality is that as these different
Speaker 4: cuts have been taking place all across our economic spectrum,
Speaker 4: so too has largely as a result of the focus
Speaker 4: on DEI and the ability of corporations oftentimes to either
Speaker 4: use as an excuse to do what they've always wanted
Speaker 4: to do, which was pulled back on it, or be
Speaker 4: intimidated and wanted to bend the need to this administration.
Speaker 4: That has led to a number of trickle down effects
Speaker 4: that have harmed the bottom line of a lot of
Speaker 4: these organizations that have been out here fighting for black
Speaker 4: people for decades. So we need to invest in our
Speaker 4: own organizations. We need to make that a part of
Speaker 4: what we do. We need to provide our not only
Speaker 4: our monetary support, but our intellect, our support, our volunteership,
Speaker 4: our time. We have every resource that we need within
Speaker 4: the ten talents and abilities within our own community in
Speaker 4: order to be able to think creatively about what needs
Speaker 4: to happen next and put our own sort of shoulder
Speaker 4: to the plow to make it happen. I think in
Speaker 4: this moment, we need to remember that we are still empowered,
Speaker 4: we are still brilliant, we are still capable, and think
Speaker 4: about how can we start to actually put action behind
Speaker 4: the needs so that we're not waiting and expecting things
Speaker 4: to come back, but think about how can we use
Speaker 4: the power that we currently have right now in order
Speaker 4: to make what should be eventually?
Speaker 1: What is that is? That's just it. I want to
Speaker 1: add just a little bit to that.
Speaker 3: As you know, we know stay to people right, We
Speaker 3: know even in what we do it in many places
Speaker 3: with roads to the South, is that we have.
Speaker 2: To provide the need. But people are telling us that
Speaker 2: they have to buy groceries.
Speaker 3: If you say you buy the lesser grocery, that doesn't
Speaker 3: necessarily mean lesser in you're getting it off brand. That
Speaker 3: means you may be buying from the bulk and eating
Speaker 3: much things that really are healthy for you because you're
Speaker 3: trying to stretch it.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: So being able to be clear in the local communities
Speaker 3: what we must do to help people go through because
Speaker 3: we understand, uh, data will show us that more people
Speaker 3: are on welfare, more people on this, more more white
Speaker 3: people of this and that. But at the end of
Speaker 3: the day, on my street, my hometown of Mills, Florida,
Speaker 3: where I'm from, people are hurting and they're invisible because
Speaker 3: they in these red these red places, right, like very
Speaker 3: red red, red red right. And so we have to
Speaker 3: do our churches, our community. Everybody can do a little
Speaker 3: something like you're talking about, like what can I do?
Speaker 3: Is your neighbor does neighbor need Ah?
Speaker 2: Now, everybody doing what is called the apple pane.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: It's always give all kinds of ways to do something.
Speaker 3: Check check your home, check your your block. Yeah, you
Speaker 3: can do that right, find out through your church. You
Speaker 3: don't want to do it like that, then find out
Speaker 3: what the church can do.
Speaker 2: You know what our all of our and now not
Speaker 2: I say people aren't doing. I just think that the.
Speaker 3: Data that we're looking at is showing the reality of
Speaker 3: what's happening. And our people are in black women who
Speaker 3: are seventy heads of household.
Speaker 1: That means the.
Speaker 3: Children are strung. The impact is real. Does not mean
Speaker 3: men are doing or all that. All I'm saying is
Speaker 3: we have to all do what we can to help
Speaker 3: fill the void while we try to work on the
Speaker 3: systemic impact of what has been happening to try to
Speaker 3: take black people out. Let's just be clear, like, let
Speaker 3: me just say it's just trying to take us out.
Speaker 3: You don't understand what that is. So if the fight
Speaker 3: has to be different. In the meantime, day to day
Speaker 3: living is also impacted.
Speaker 4: We have to worry about that as well.
Speaker 1: That's right. One thing that I've been doing a lot
Speaker 1: in my speeches is, as can people, what's the first
Speaker 1: thing your grandmother said when you walk the door. And
Speaker 1: I actually was surprised to see white folks said this too,
Speaker 1: But grandma asked you, are you hungry? Are you hungry,
Speaker 1: that's it, and so we have to do that work.
Speaker 1: I think that is the first order of business, and
Speaker 1: the first order of ministry is service and meeting people's
Speaker 1: basic needs. So I love you said that, and I
Speaker 1: think on the other side of this November election, we're
Speaker 1: going to see just how important meeting those basic needs
Speaker 1: are and our ability to lean in around mutual aid
Speaker 1: structures and societies like they leaned upon and during slavery,
Speaker 1: we're gonna be right back there. And self determination is
Speaker 1: our pathway to liberation. So we're gonna work on that.
Speaker 1: But now without this data, we got some data to
Speaker 1: prove we need it. And I can't wait for y'all
Speaker 1: to come back and break it all down for me
Speaker 1: on the political side too, and hear what's going on.
Speaker 1: You know, how parties should serve us, where we should
Speaker 1: lean in, where our demands go. We are getting so
Speaker 1: close to this election, less than one hundred days out.
Speaker 1: It's time for us to come together and Mail and
Speaker 1: doctor Avis, y'all have always made sure we do exactly that.
Speaker 1: So as we continue to come together, as we continue
Speaker 1: to build and be strategic, I absolutely want to be
Speaker 1: shoulder to shoulder with y'all. But after Mail's vacation, Doctor.
Speaker 2: Avis vacation at six, that's the next drop.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, so okay, we're gonna have some time before that,
Speaker 1: but then after that you're going on vacation.
Speaker 4: Yes, okay.
Speaker 1: Well, we appreciate you all for being with us. As
Speaker 1: we always say on Native Lampod, welcome home, y'all, and
Speaker 1: I can't wait to have you both back. Melanie Campbell
Speaker 1: and Doctor Avis do we love y'all.
Speaker 2: Thank you girl, absolutely, thank you.
Speaker 1: Well, y'all, that was an incredible show, great data. We're
Speaker 1: gonna make sure we put in the show notes the
Speaker 1: information so that you all can see that polling data
Speaker 1: from black women who spoke, who were heard, and they
Speaker 1: talked to us about the pay gaps, DEI rollbacks and
Speaker 1: the impacts. And we want to make sure that we
Speaker 1: are lifting up our dear sisters who have been impacted
Speaker 1: by the treachery this administration and the corporations that followed it.
Speaker 1: We've got to stick together, y'all, come together and make
Speaker 1: sure that you're looking out for your neighbor. Please love
Speaker 1: your neighbor as yourself. And in the meantime and in
Speaker 1: between times, I will see y'all on our next show
Speaker 1: this week. Bacari is on vacation he forgot to tell
Speaker 1: us about. So Garrison Hayes and the Joyane Read will
Speaker 1: be joining me for our podcast this week. I hope
Speaker 1: you guys will tune in. We have a lot to
Speaker 1: talk about, including South Carolina will be the first in
Speaker 1: the South, I'm sorry, first in the nation democratic primaries
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty eight. What type of power does that
Speaker 1: give black people? We're gonna talk a little bit more
Speaker 1: about this Nancy Mace Bogus Bill and so much more.
Speaker 1: You know, we're gonna get into it with Garrison Hayes
Speaker 1: Enjoy Read, So make sure y'all tune in for that.
Speaker 1: I will see you soon. I'm gonna get back to
Speaker 1: the National Bar Association be a good dues paying organizational member.
Speaker 1: Until next time, y'all, Welcome home. Native Lampod is a
Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio in partnership with Reis and Choice Media.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visits the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.