Speaker 1: Native Land Pod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership
Speaker 1: with Resent Choice Media. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.
Speaker 2: Welcome, Welcome, Hey, everybody. This episode is a replay of
Speaker 2: one of our interviews from our live stream as a
Speaker 2: Congressional Black Caucus Foundations Annual Legislative Conference. If you want
Speaker 2: to listen to or watch the full stream, check out
Speaker 2: the links in the episode description. You can also find
Speaker 2: a full list of all the guests we interviewed. Welcome home, y'all.
Speaker 2: We have a few more guests coming and part of
Speaker 2: what's happening.
Speaker 1: One of them are here is here? Oh, we have doctor.
Speaker 2: Joining us, Doctor hebram Kindy, one of my favorite people.
Speaker 2: And also Andrew is gonna get next, to get to
Speaker 2: sit next. So this is the second rattler that we've
Speaker 2: had on the program already.
Speaker 1: Nice to see doctor. Hello. This New York Times best
Speaker 1: selling offers intellectual iluminary. We are so pleased to have
Speaker 1: you a thought leader here tonight. We see Jamie Harrison
Speaker 1: up above, Chair of the Democratic National Conference. We love
Speaker 1: to see Jamie Harrison, Eric Alexander Alexander, and Congressman Kelly.
Speaker 1: We see you you all, remember Eric Alexander max Deen
Speaker 1: Shaw on living singles, some of you Officer because of her,
Speaker 1: she was also on the Cosby Show, So a beautiful
Speaker 1: night of luminaries. Indeed, back to you, doctor Kendy, thank
Speaker 1: you for taking the time to be here. I'll let
Speaker 1: the rattler kick the county.
Speaker 3: Appreciate it. Appreciate it. Welcome Doc, to see you as always.
Speaker 3: I saw you.
Speaker 4: You had a post trying to help all of us
Speaker 4: struggle with and and and comprehend the significance of Donald
Speaker 4: Trump's and the Republican parties repeated mythology.
Speaker 3: I don't know what the hell to call it, but
Speaker 3: around the eating of of of pets.
Speaker 4: I want you, if you wouldn't mind just help us
Speaker 4: sort of see that, I think in a much more
Speaker 4: grounded and concrete and really important way, because I think
Speaker 4: it's easy to make jokes and memes without assessing the
Speaker 4: impact that it may have on the greater greater community.
Speaker 5: Well, well, I think it's it's part of a larger
Speaker 5: project to criminalize black people more broadly, but their specific
Speaker 5: target obviously we're ra Haitian immigrants yea. And in Springfield, Ohio,
Speaker 5: you have longtime black residents who are also being sort
Speaker 5: of demonized and racially profiled, you know, as a result
Speaker 5: of what they've said about those, you know, people presumably
Speaker 5: eating pets. And so I just tried to show that
Speaker 5: when you demean one black group, what ultimately happens is
Speaker 5: you demean every black group. And I think it's important
Speaker 5: for us to not think, say, if you are not
Speaker 5: a Haitian immigrant, but you're black, to think, no, that's
Speaker 5: just them. No, ultimately, it's gonna boomerang back to you.
Speaker 3: That's real, that's real. We have that a lot in Florida,
Speaker 3: even I know you know that.
Speaker 4: But because of the immigrant community, the expanding Caribbean, Afro
Speaker 4: Latino Haitian community, so on and so forth, you will
Speaker 4: hear at the higher education level folks saying I'm not
Speaker 4: you know, African American, I'm not Black, I'm Haitian, or
Speaker 4: I'm this, And I think black people do this, you
Speaker 4: know American more and black folks do do similarly. And
Speaker 4: I just thought your message was poignant because it started.
Speaker 4: I always felt that if they're going after Haitians, they
Speaker 4: don't know the difference largely between any one of us.
Speaker 4: It's not okay to go after Haitians period. But certainly
Speaker 4: when you consider that this is an attack on all
Speaker 4: of us, that we all have to say something and
Speaker 4: do something about it.
Speaker 5: And it's interesting because it just harkens me back to
Speaker 5: this speech that Malcolm X actually gave I believe it
Speaker 5: was in nineteen sixty two after police sort of barged
Speaker 5: into the La Mosque and ended up killing some members
Speaker 5: of the nation, and he gave this sort of funeral speech.
Speaker 5: And during that funeral speech, that's when he's well known
Speaker 5: for saying the most disrespected person in America today is
Speaker 5: the black woman. But in that speech, he also speaks
Speaker 5: to black people and says, who taught you to hate yourself?
Speaker 5: And I'm referencing that because you know, you can ask
Speaker 5: African Americans, well, who taught you to hate Black immigrants?
Speaker 5: Who you can ask black immigrants who taught you to
Speaker 5: hate African Americans? And so what happens is you have
Speaker 5: different groups of black folks seeing other groups of black
Speaker 5: folks through the eyes of racist white people.
Speaker 1: And know, yeah, I think that's such a legitimate point.
Speaker 1: How have you found because the last time you were
Speaker 1: in the news, we were all ready to come to
Speaker 1: your defense. How have you found navigating this space, because
Speaker 1: it does feel like it is such a visceral attack.
Speaker 1: You know, this kind of racial reckoning that mostly white
Speaker 1: run newsrooms introduced. What we've actually witnessed is more of
Speaker 1: a hostile backlash, a swift and hostile backlash to that.
Speaker 1: So in this age of how to be an anti
Speaker 1: racist and you, you know, contributing what you can to
Speaker 1: society and being I think all of us have been
Speaker 1: on the receiving end of such visceral attacks. How have
Speaker 1: you found navigating life personally, professionally, politically, all of it.
Speaker 5: I mean, it's difficult, yeah, And I think for me
Speaker 5: it's most difficult when I see attacks that those who
Speaker 5: are obviously trying to conserve racism create and launch, and
Speaker 5: people that I love sort of repeat those ideas, sort
Speaker 5: of not knowing it my mind. I think that's when
Speaker 5: it's sort of most painful. What's ironic even about comparing
Speaker 5: this to the last question about what's going on with
Speaker 5: those Haitian immigrants, is you have this sort of viral
Speaker 5: series of sort of reports with no evidence, like there
Speaker 5: was no evidence, right, And I think for those of
Speaker 5: us who've been targeted in the media for doing something
Speaker 5: where there's no evidence, because apparently, like our skin color
Speaker 5: is evidence enough. I mean it becomes hard like can you, like,
Speaker 5: can you present some portion of evidence to substantiate this claim.
Speaker 5: That's sort of more or less delegitimizing our work, our
Speaker 5: work as a scholar, our work as an elected official,
Speaker 5: I work, you know, as you knows as a commentator,
Speaker 5: and for typically black people, you don't need evidence. And
Speaker 5: I think that's what's incredibly painful for black people who
Speaker 5: are in the public life.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, Era.
Speaker 2: First of all, I just want to tell you thank you,
Speaker 2: because no matter what, anytime that I've caught on you,
Speaker 2: you've been there. And I wanted to start there because
Speaker 2: I think that that is an essential component and essential
Speaker 2: ingred ingredient for community.
Speaker 1: And I'd love to know in this era that we're.
Speaker 2: In right now, given the quality of the work you do,
Speaker 2: the significance of the work you do, what our community
Speaker 2: can do to really come together to not only support you,
Speaker 2: to support each other in our collective advancement and liberation.
Speaker 5: I really think we we have to. I think to
Speaker 5: support sort of my work or even others, I think
Speaker 5: we have to be more results oriented and I think
Speaker 5: we have to be more sort of evidence based, going
Speaker 5: back to what I was just you know, talking of,
Speaker 5: and I'm saying that to say, even in my book
Speaker 5: How to Be an Anti Racist, I ended up defining
Speaker 5: an activists as someone with a record of power and
Speaker 5: policy change. So so a person can't just say one day,
Speaker 5: I'm an activist. Yeah, right, you know, what is your record?
Speaker 5: What organizations have you have you built? What institutions uh,
Speaker 5: you know, have you have you created? What campaigns have
Speaker 5: you launched to you know, reduce levels of housing insecurity,
Speaker 5: you know, in your community. And I think we have
Speaker 5: to be more outcome oriented, more results oriented, because especially
Speaker 5: in a moment in which those who are trying to
Speaker 5: conserve racism are so intent focused. Yeah, we have to
Speaker 5: be outcome focused.
Speaker 1: And I think there's a lot of symbolism, right and
Speaker 1: even when we when it comes to the presidency, we
Speaker 1: you know, have seen the election of President Barack Obama
Speaker 1: and looking at that through the lens of policy, you know,
Speaker 1: we can judge his presidency. I think at this point
Speaker 1: we are for a lot of younger people, President Obama
Speaker 1: was the floor, not the ceiling, and so now younger
Speaker 1: people have a lot more demands of our leaders. We're
Speaker 1: beyond the role of symbolism. So I think that's so true.
Speaker 1: What is your prediction for what may happen in November
Speaker 1: and what this landscape might look like in this country?
Speaker 1: You know, because when he was elected, it was like, oh,
Speaker 1: we're post racial now, which we all kind of laughed
Speaker 1: at that ridiculous notion of that. What might we see
Speaker 1: what might await us under a president Kamala Harris.
Speaker 5: Well, it's interesting because many people have talked about the
Speaker 5: importance obviously of this election, and you know, as an historian,
Speaker 5: let me just say I can attest to that. I
Speaker 5: can't think of this election in twenty twenty four, particularly
Speaker 5: for black folks, without thinking of the election of eighteen
Speaker 5: sixty four. And this was an election between a candidate
Speaker 5: who more or less planned to end the Civil War
Speaker 5: and pretty much re enslaved black people, you know, in
Speaker 5: a candidate that presumed that he was going to continue
Speaker 5: the Civil War. I mean, it really is that stark,
Speaker 5: particularly when you look at the candidacy of Donald Trump
Speaker 5: and what he has planned, particularly for black folks, And
Speaker 5: so I don't I think it's important for us to
Speaker 5: understand those stakes, especially when you look at some of
Speaker 5: the candidates who are sort of allying with Trump internationally,
Speaker 5: when you look at what they've done when they've gotten
Speaker 5: a second term or when they've gotten a second presidency,
Speaker 5: this is a critical moment in the history of black
Speaker 5: life in this country and really in the history of
Speaker 5: the United States.
Speaker 3: That's powerful.
Speaker 2: Hey, y'all, thanks for listening. Remember to rate, review, subscribe,
Speaker 2: and tune into our regular episode that drops every single Thursday,
Speaker 2: Welcome Home, y'all.
Speaker 1: Native Land Pod is the production of iHeartRadio in partnership
Speaker 1: with Resent Choice Media. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.