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Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome to episode two of my brand new podcast,

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Speaker 1: Still brand New. Who's with me? I'm your host w Cambell.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for coming back for episode two, or thank

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Speaker 1: you for starting with episode two, but go back and

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Speaker 1: pick up episode one with Del Orlando. That's a great

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Speaker 1: one too. Anyway, today our guest is my friend and

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Speaker 1: my congresswoman, Latifa Simon. Latifa is incredible. I'm so happy

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Speaker 1: she sat down to.

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Speaker 2: Talk to me. She is super busy. Unlike a lot

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Speaker 2: of congress people.

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Speaker 1: Who aren't that busy because they don't really like go

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Speaker 1: to work or have much to do because they're just

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Speaker 1: sitting there collecting a check and also trying to raise

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Speaker 1: money to run again, Latifa is actually doing the big work.

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Speaker 1: And we'll talk about that. Mark Mayn, I hope it's okay.

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Speaker 1: I said, doing the big work. You don't have your

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Speaker 1: podcast anymore. But I'm not trying to take care intellectual property.

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Speaker 1: Shout out to Mark maren Og of this kind of podcasting. Actually,

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Speaker 1: let's talk about that for a second. I'm glad I

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Speaker 1: brought that up. Thanks, good job me bringing that up.

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Speaker 1: One of the goals of this podcast is a sort

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Speaker 1: of take up space not trying to take up Mark

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Speaker 1: Mayrin space. I love Mark. I was actually one of

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Speaker 1: the most booked guests. I think the most book guests

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Speaker 1: on WTF is Old podcast. Weirdly, I just do because

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Speaker 1: I was on an early days and kept coming back.

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Speaker 1: So I love Mark. I was in his documentary Are

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Speaker 1: We Good? Check out his documentary Are We Good? Out

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Speaker 1: there wherever it is? And love Mark with all of

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Speaker 1: his sharp edges and also his sensitive heart. I respect

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Speaker 1: that and and love that about him, and also his

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Speaker 1: blistering wit and also his ability to speak truth to power,

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Speaker 1: even speaking truth to power in the comedy industry where

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Speaker 1: a lot of my fellow it's hard to say fellow comedians,

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Speaker 1: but a lot of the comedians out there have aligned

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Speaker 1: themselves with Trump and MAGA. I don't eve want to

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Speaker 1: say they've aligned some with the right. They just aligned

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Speaker 1: themselves with who's in power right now. And Mark has

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Speaker 1: been very clear and he's not with it, and he's

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Speaker 1: called him out. And I've done some of that on

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Speaker 1: my substack Who's with Me? I've done some of that

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Speaker 1: on Instagram, and recently my Instagram mentions were in flames

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Speaker 1: because I talked about it through the lens of the

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Speaker 1: Kevin Hart roast and how some of those jokes I

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Speaker 1: thought were very clearly like the very least Maga Codd.

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Speaker 1: But certainly I don't know why you would make fun

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Speaker 1: of George Floyd when he had nothing to do with

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Speaker 1: Kevin Hart roast. I don't know why you would use

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Speaker 1: lynching as the subject of a joke. But you know

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Speaker 1: that's good. I mean, I'm not telling you you can't

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Speaker 1: do it freedom of speech, but I'm also using my

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Speaker 1: free speech to say I'm not down with that. And

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Speaker 1: Mark has done a lot of that in his career,

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Speaker 1: especially as he got to the end of his podcast

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Speaker 1: in his comedy specials. Check out his comment all his

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Speaker 1: comedy specials. But I feel like I want to be

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Speaker 1: a part of that too. I want to make comedian.

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Speaker 1: I want to make male led comedian podcast great again.

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Speaker 1: That's what I'm here to do. I'm going to make

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Speaker 1: male led comedian podcast grade again. I think a lot

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Speaker 1: of my comedy brethren, and it's just the brethren for

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Speaker 1: the most part, not the cistern, but a lot of

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Speaker 1: my comedy brethren are just putting out misinformation and lies

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Speaker 1: or don't actually know what they're talking about and just

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Speaker 1: a line of themselves with power. You know who I'm

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Speaker 1: talking about the Rogan sphere, everybody under that thing called

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Speaker 1: the Rogan sphere. And I'm I don't talk about these

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Speaker 1: people if they do what they do. When Joe Rogan

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Speaker 1: was just talking about aliens and whether or not we

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Speaker 1: landed on the moon, good for him when he starts

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Speaker 1: giving out medical advice or or somehow, or he has

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Speaker 1: Trump on his podcast and forgets to ask him about

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Speaker 1: the Epstein Files. Even though Joe Rogan claims to be

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Speaker 1: obsessed with the Epstein Files, I feel like we got

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Speaker 1: to do something. When you endorse that guy for president

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Speaker 1: and you live in Texas and that guy's running on

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Speaker 1: the mass deportations, and you live in Texas again, a

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Speaker 1: place where lots of undocumented immigrants live, and a lot

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Speaker 1: of Mexican Americans live who are afraid of being swept

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Speaker 1: up in that in that ice net, and you don't

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Speaker 1: have a lot to say about that, even though you

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Speaker 1: endorse Trump for president. I think, I'm I'm I gotta

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Speaker 1: say something. And it's so fun to call out your peers,

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Speaker 1: but that's what I gotta do. And now again shout

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Speaker 1: out to Mark Marin for showing me the way. So

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Speaker 1: again that's what we're here to do on this podcast.

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Speaker 1: But again not just that, we're also here to motivate you,

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Speaker 1: the listener and give you ways to figure out how

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Speaker 1: to help in these dire times. So this conversation with

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Speaker 1: my congresswoman with the Tiva Simon is certainly going to

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Speaker 1: do that. At the end, I ask her about ways

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Speaker 1: in which she thinks we can help or ways in

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Speaker 1: which we can all come together. She answers it beautifully,

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Speaker 1: and as always I start off by giving her flowers,

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Speaker 1: because we need more of that these days. But check

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Speaker 1: out this episode with my friend and my congresswoman, Latifa Sign.

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Speaker 1: I feel like again when I'm sitting across from someone

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Speaker 1: like you like to say, yeah, I'm very busy, seems

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Speaker 1: sort of silly.

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Speaker 3: We're all very busy.

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Speaker 2: We are all very busy.

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Speaker 4: Literally, I think about when folks ask me all the time, Latifa,

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Speaker 4: you must be so busy. This is the first time

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Speaker 4: in my adult life that I've only had one job.

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Speaker 4: I've always had multiple jobs, work in the nonprofit sector,

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Speaker 4: and I was on boards or I had other initiatives

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Speaker 4: that I was starting, and so I have one office.

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Speaker 3: I have one job, and I have.

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Speaker 4: Seven hundred and eighty thousand people that I work for.

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Speaker 4: But it's kind of nice just to be drilled in

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Speaker 4: right now.

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Speaker 2: I like that.

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Speaker 1: You know the number Oh absolutely, yeah, Okay, seven or

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Speaker 1: eight thousand. That's just to be clear. So that means

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Speaker 1: because you're a congress person who represents that is Oakland, Alameda,

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Speaker 1: and Berkeley.

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Speaker 4: Well, let me started off. We got Oakland. That's kind

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Speaker 4: of in some ways, it's the centerpiece.

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Speaker 3: Thank god.

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Speaker 4: We love the town. Berkeley, San Leandro, Albany, Emeryville, Piedmont.

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Speaker 1: Oh, oh, I'm glad Piedmont.

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Speaker 3: You know what.

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Speaker 4: Strangely enough, you know, folks in Piedmont are quite progressive. Yeah,

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Speaker 4: and you know they've made a choice to be here.

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Speaker 4: They could be, you know, in San Francisco, they can

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Speaker 4: be in the South Bay. Folks chose Piedmont. They wanted

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Speaker 4: to be in the mix of things. So yeah, I

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Speaker 4: represent seven cities and it's a beautiful district.

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Speaker 1: So for people who are listening who don't know, because

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Speaker 1: I didn't know about Piedmont til I moved here. Piedmont

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Speaker 1: is a city smack dive in the middle of Oakland,

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Speaker 1: that's exactly right. That people who had the means to

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Speaker 1: form their own separate.

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Speaker 3: Town, they annexed out, they annexed out.

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Speaker 4: Their own school district in that department. They want to

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Speaker 4: stay away historically from the Blacks.

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Speaker 1: The history of Piedmont is as problematic as it sounds

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Speaker 1: like it would be. But now there are many people

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Speaker 1: in Piedmont working to actually tell that history accurately and

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Speaker 1: also to unproblematic.

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Speaker 2: If I Piedmont, that's.

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Speaker 4: Right, and you know they vote majority Democrat, and I've

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Speaker 4: done a lot of work there with their mayor, and

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Speaker 4: they have a wonderful Martin Luther King celebration every year

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Speaker 4: where we try to bring the fire and not just

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Speaker 4: the painted King that most folks think about.

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Speaker 3: We have a lot of work to do everywhere, that's

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Speaker 3: for sure.

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Speaker 1: And for me, I know Piedmont is whenever I'm in Piedmont,

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Speaker 1: people who live there like, oh, do you live here?

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Speaker 1: I'm like no, no, no, no, no, no, I mean nothing

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Speaker 1: against you, but I live in Oakland. But like just

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Speaker 1: just passing through they allow me to or I'm coming

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Speaker 1: to the they have a lot of like they just

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Speaker 1: they just did the play like a girl day in

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Speaker 1: Piedmont where they have all these sports for they invite

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Speaker 1: we go every year. They like have like basically sports

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Speaker 1: set up for girls to try different sports from like

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Speaker 1: like my seven year old tried fencing, parkour, basketball.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's called play like a girl. Great.

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Speaker 4: Shouldn't all cities have the tax base to be able

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Speaker 4: to do amazing things with young people and their families

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Speaker 4: and our elders and are disabled. I mean, I actually

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Speaker 4: do get inspired when I'm in very wealthy spaces because

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Speaker 4: I'm like, our folks deserve this, Yes, wonderful childcare with

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Speaker 4: credential teachers who make enough to be able to live

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Speaker 4: fifteen minutes away from their homes. I mean, what folks have,

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Speaker 4: what the school district has, and in Piedmont, you know,

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Speaker 4: the kids in West Oakland deserve that.

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Speaker 3: And that's part of what we're working for for sure.

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Speaker 1: Man, this is I never when I thought I'd invite

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Speaker 1: you to the podcast, I ever thought we talked about

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Speaker 1: Piedmont this much.

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Speaker 2: It's always a surprised, which I'm happy to but.

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Speaker 4: It's it's the district and everybody don't care who you are,

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Speaker 4: what you look like, who you vote for. I love

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Speaker 4: being able to say, I work for you as a

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Speaker 4: public servant, but also like as an organizer, as somebody

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Speaker 4: who's come from the mud. Money doesn't equate all the

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Speaker 4: time happiness. And you know, my parents grew up my

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Speaker 4: mother particularly grew up in the South without running water.

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Speaker 3: When we talk about the Voting.

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Speaker 4: Rights Act and we're talking about Jim Crow, my mother

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Speaker 4: was born and raised in Malvern, Arkansas, where they literally

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Speaker 4: had an outhouse. So this stuff is not abstract real

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Speaker 4: poverty but also real prosperity. Everyone in between is screaming

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Speaker 4: for somebody to represent them.

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Speaker 1: It's so funny because I'm glad you brought that up,

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Speaker 1: and it's funny. This is this isn't really the official

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Speaker 1: start of the podcast. We're recording all this, but you

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Speaker 1: make me think about all these other things because I

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Speaker 1: think people think like you say, your mom grew up

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Speaker 1: in an outhouse without indoor plumbing, because that's a lot

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Speaker 1: of that footage of people from that generation in black

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Speaker 1: and white.

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Speaker 2: Yep. I think.

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Speaker 1: I mean I thought it when I was a kid,

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Speaker 1: but even now my kids, it seems like it's from

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Speaker 1: a thousand years ago.

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Speaker 3: It feels like that.

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Speaker 1: And like as I always say, Parley King Junior could

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Speaker 1: still be alive. He'd be like, what ninety seven, which

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Speaker 1: would But that's not the oldest person you've ever heard of,

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Speaker 1: you know, he could be a ninety seven year old man.

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Speaker 1: He could he could have a he could have an iPhone,

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Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So, like all that stuff

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Speaker 1: we see in black and white footage is basically yesterday.

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Speaker 3: I mean, I've met your beautiful mother.

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Speaker 1: Yes, do you have what year was she born? She's

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Speaker 1: born in nineteen thirty seven, you know what I'm saying.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, mother, that's not great great, great great grandmother.

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Speaker 4: Your mother was born in a segregated America, for sure,

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Speaker 4: where if her father wanted to vote or she wanted

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Speaker 4: to vote at eighteen, depending on where she was in

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Speaker 4: the country, she would have to stand at a desk

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Speaker 4: and guess how many gumballs were in a jar, or

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Speaker 4: recite the Preamble to the Constitution on site. There wasn't

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Speaker 4: a real democracy before the Voting Rights Act was signed

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Speaker 4: into law. And so what we just saw a few

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Speaker 4: weeks ago in the Supreme Court was a direct betrayal

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Speaker 4: on all of that work. We're not talking mom being

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Speaker 4: seven generations away. That's your mother that's your baby's grandmother

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Speaker 4: who was born into an apartheid US, so we ate

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Speaker 4: far from that. In fact, in many places around the country,

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Speaker 4: in Alabama and in Georgia, for instance, there was state

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Speaker 4: law put on the books that voting spaces needed to

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Speaker 4: We're talking about redistricting, which is really complicated, but it's

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Speaker 4: not really that complicated. Where you could go vote in

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Speaker 4: many districts in the South was changed at one point,

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Speaker 4: and in black neighborhoods with less staff, with less capacity,

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Speaker 4: so there was like lines out of the door that

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Speaker 4: would stretch three hours on voting days, and then cities

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Speaker 4: and counties created laws where you couldn't give those people

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Speaker 4: water who were waiting and scorching hot temperatures to vote,

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Speaker 4: Like this has all been the plan for so long

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Speaker 4: and we know that, yep, but we can't back down,

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Speaker 4: not even when they gut punch us.

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Speaker 3: So happy to be here.

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Speaker 1: We wrapped it up. I think we got everything I need.

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Speaker 1: So first of all, it's funny. So my mom was

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Speaker 1: born in Indiana, which is like people don't realize that.

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Speaker 1: My mom always says like, at one point had more

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Speaker 1: people government officials who were admittedly in the KKK than

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Speaker 1: any other state. So Indiana is like the secret South.

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Speaker 1: It says it's the Midwest, it's really the South. And

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Speaker 1: my dad lives in Alabama, was born and raised in

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Speaker 1: Alabama and still lives there. So you mentioned two things

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Speaker 1: that are that I have direct connections to. So now

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Speaker 1: we're starting. I mean, we're going to use all that,

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Speaker 1: but now we're starting. So I was like to start

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Speaker 1: by giving people their flowers, which is so easy for

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Speaker 1: you for me to do. For you, you make it

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Speaker 1: easier for me to be who I am and the

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Speaker 1: work I do because you're out there bravely saying the things,

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Speaker 1: you know, speaking up for black women, speaking up for

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Speaker 1: black people, saying free Palestine, but also being against anti Semitism,

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Speaker 1: being for the LGBTQ community, plus being for all the

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Speaker 1: letters of the LGBTQ, and if they had a new one,

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Speaker 1: you'll be for that one too, Speaking for the poor folks,

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Speaker 1: but also able to speak directly to the people with

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Speaker 1: money about how they need to do better.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, and so it makes it easier for me.

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Speaker 1: Whenever I feel a little shy about saying something or

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Speaker 1: being a little bit like this too far, all I

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Speaker 1: do is go to your ig profile and go, oh no,

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Speaker 1: the chief has already said it, So I guess we

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Speaker 1: try yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 3: And we're trying not to.

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Speaker 4: Nothing that I've said or done in my life has

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Speaker 4: been radical. It has all been purported by our collective faiths.

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Speaker 3: Right.

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Speaker 4: I grew up Muslim with a super Christian grandmother. The

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Speaker 4: idea is that you know, our God is supposed to

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Speaker 4: welcome the neighbor. He tells us to welcome the neighbor

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Speaker 4: and to support the widow, which I am one, to

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Speaker 4: feed hungry children, and to hope that you know, the

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Speaker 4: blind have what they need to see and that the

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Speaker 4: sick have what they need to get. Well, that's single

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Speaker 4: payer health care. That's loving someone who may have come

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Speaker 4: out to you as transgender or LGBTQ like I love

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Speaker 4: their soul. And all I want to do as a

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Speaker 4: mama bear and an organizer is to protect and love

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Speaker 4: on folks who deserve just the most basic the Lord,

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Speaker 4: to live a life with some dignity.

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Speaker 3: And so I don't think it's that radical.

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Speaker 4: I think it's a lot more difficult to be a homophobe,

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Speaker 4: to be anti black, to be racist, to create environments

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Speaker 4: where people are unsafe.

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Speaker 3: That has that takes a lot.

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Speaker 4: It's a much easier to just go by some of

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Speaker 4: the written words that we know that tell us how

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Speaker 4: to do the right thing.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I was to prepare for today. I was watching

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Speaker 1: one of your speeches at the No King's rally. And also,

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Speaker 1: you know how to give your flowers. For as much

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Speaker 1: as I'm known as a comedian and somebody who's a

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Speaker 1: good public speaker, you know how to do as they say,

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Speaker 1: talk that talk. So and my mom as mentioned that too.

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Speaker 1: We we you know you mentioned my mom earlier. We

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Speaker 1: saw you at the Planned Parenthood benefit and it's like

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Speaker 1: and you and you get up there and start to

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Speaker 1: preaching and whatever, whatever whatever God you're pulling on or

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Speaker 1: whatever spirit you're pulling on, it comes through you. So

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Speaker 1: I just said, what the No King speech I heard

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Speaker 1: you say you ended with and salaam.

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Speaker 4: So that's exactly right, Yes we can and peace right

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Speaker 4: and the idea. I was actually on a zoom the

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Speaker 4: other day with a ton of Muslim folks democrats and asking,

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Speaker 4: you know, Muslims in this country to remember who we are.

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Speaker 3: We came here in sixteen nineteen, those weren't.

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Speaker 4: Just black folks, and chains Word says but one third

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Speaker 4: of those folks were Muslim, and the Abrahamic face in

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Speaker 4: many ways have been taken to ostracize and to demonize

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Speaker 4: all folks. But what I am trying to do, and

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Speaker 4: I've done in my service, is take what I have

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Speaker 4: learned that is all good and really try to emerge

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Speaker 4: you know, those those those values into action.

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Speaker 3: So thank you.

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Speaker 1: They're there gonna say you've always been so nice, and

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Speaker 1: not that I would expect you not to be.

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Speaker 2: But like Juno, who we.

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Speaker 1: Talked about, who paid in this picture, feels like she

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Speaker 1: knows you because she's been in the same room as you,

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Speaker 1: and she just feels connected to you in a way

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Speaker 1: that like I didn't grow up feeling connected to any

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Speaker 1: politician in my life now, you know, and no politician

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Speaker 1: was trying to connect me deal with other people who

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Speaker 1: weren't my kid. That you have a way of connecting

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Speaker 1: with people when you're in the room that is that

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Speaker 1: makes those people feel like I'm actually talking to a person.

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Speaker 1: I'm not talking to a representative of a person.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 3: I appreciate that. I mean, every.

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Speaker 4: Every day I have to remind myself, oh my goodness,

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Speaker 4: I'm in public office.

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Speaker 3: It's so awesome because.

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Speaker 4: You know, I was that kid who would you know,

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Speaker 4: on Martin Luther King Day. Remember when it came Martin

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Speaker 4: Luther King Day and you got to stay home and

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Speaker 4: you got to watch, you know, the Martin Luther King

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Speaker 4: biopics that were not.

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Speaker 3: Done very well.

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Speaker 4: I would write I would always want to be King

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Speaker 4: or Rosa parks in the place. And you know, I

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Speaker 4: had a book about Malcolm X at a very very

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Speaker 4: young age and his pilgrimage to Mecca, and he talked about,

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Speaker 4: you know, the fierceness of wanting to be a deep

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Speaker 4: agent of change and to call out white supremacy and

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Speaker 4: to you know, call out misogyny, to call out all

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Speaker 4: of these these wicked things, addiction to wealth. But Malcolm

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Speaker 4: was very clear about being kind to people. And you know,

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Speaker 4: studying for so many years, my Angelou, I remember the

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Speaker 4: first time I read I Know Why the Cage Verd

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Speaker 4: Sings and learning about how she moved through the world

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Speaker 4: as a victim of sexual assault, of rape, but also

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Speaker 4: being raised by her grandmother. All of these literary folk

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Speaker 4: and activist folk in my life have really brought me

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Speaker 4: to this idea of if you have an opportunity to

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Speaker 4: be in a position of power, use it for real good.

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Speaker 3: I'm a mom. I'm a mom first, you know.

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Speaker 4: And I started my career working with young girls on

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Speaker 4: the streets in the Tenderloin and the Mission in West Oakland,

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Speaker 4: young women who were hustling their bodies, young women who

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Speaker 4: had been who had served tons of time in jail,

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Speaker 4: young women who had literally fought to survive. And to

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Speaker 4: create that community that is still alive today, the Young

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Speaker 4: Woman's Freedom Center. I needed to create a community where

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Speaker 4: people wanted to not only develop their power, but feel

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Speaker 4: really good. And so, yeah, being kind is part of

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Speaker 4: that strategy.

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Speaker 2: Yes, yes, do you remember where we met the first time?

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Speaker 3: I've known you for a very long time, A big star.

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Speaker 2: I was, I was a medium, I was, I was

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Speaker 2: on my way.

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Speaker 4: I was like get a backpack, you know, with some

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Speaker 4: tore up ax on it.

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Speaker 1: I don't know, but but we met at an event

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Speaker 1: that put on by our mutual friend Dan uh.

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Speaker 2: It was. It was like an event for like lawyers

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Speaker 2: who want to be good people.

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Speaker 4: In the constitutional society, the American constitutional sciety. But come on,

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Speaker 4: I have known, I knew you for so many years prior,

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Speaker 4: and I love how you know, you are just in

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Speaker 4: the mud here in Oakland and in Berkeley and then

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Speaker 4: all over the country. And then when you did that

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Speaker 4: wonderful set show about Oscar Grant's mother and about his

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Speaker 4: life that, yeah, I just know that I would follow

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Speaker 4: you to the willow.

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Speaker 1: I mean I just talked to Mo Morgan Foulon, who

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Speaker 1: directed that episode. I was saying I was going to

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Speaker 1: talk to you, and he just said how powerful you were.

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Speaker 1: And that was before or I mean when I met you.

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Speaker 1: It was before you were on the bar board and

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Speaker 1: maybe you were a candidate, was running. You're running, and

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Speaker 1: so I feel I feel very much like I didn't.

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Speaker 1: I didn't I was. I mentioned like this person incredible.

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Speaker 1: I had no idea how I was buying low into

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Speaker 1: this person. It was like it was like, oh, I

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Speaker 1: like Lati, but she's great. Whatever she wants to do,

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Speaker 1: I'm there. And then to see your journey and to

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Speaker 1: see how you your your laser focus. I felt so

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Speaker 1: lucky to have to have been there, like before it

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Speaker 1: all you would have taken off and just too And

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Speaker 1: then as you said, we did episode of the United

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Speaker 1: Shtates of America about the about defund the police and

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Speaker 1: I wanted to film it here in Oakland, in the

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Speaker 1: Bay from Valletjo too, and Cat Brooks is in it,

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Speaker 1: and to get you in there to tell your story,

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Speaker 1: and also to have Mama Wanda in there to tell

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Speaker 1: the story of Oscar Grant and Uncle Bobby. I just

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Speaker 1: felt lucky that any of y'all agreed to be in it,

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Speaker 1: you know what I.

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Speaker 2: Mean, because I sort of still see.

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Speaker 1: I think, maybe I understand that people trust me now,

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Speaker 1: but at that point I was I was still like,

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Speaker 1: I don't know if these I don't know, I don't

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Speaker 1: know if these people take not even think I'm going

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Speaker 1: to do the.

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Speaker 2: Right thing by them.

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Speaker 1: So I felt very careful in that moment and very

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Speaker 1: honored that that that all came out.

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Speaker 3: It was beautiful. It was beautiful.

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Speaker 4: And I remember being on the Bart platform and we

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Speaker 4: pointed out the exact place where he was murdered, and

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Speaker 4: it had been years, almost a decade at that time,

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Speaker 4: not quite a decade, but almost, and Mama Wanda you

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Speaker 4: could just still see the deep hole in her spirit,

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Speaker 4: you know. We went on to work together to name

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Speaker 4: you know, the street outside Oscar Grant Way, and we

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Speaker 4: got a wonderful artist here to paint a thirty foot

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Speaker 4: mural of his face. I wanted, you know, being on

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Speaker 4: the bart Barrier Rapid Transit Board of Directors, I believe

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Speaker 4: so much an accountability and to put that young man's

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Speaker 4: face thirty feet tall on a structure owned by a

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Speaker 4: governmental agency that killed him, to me, was part of

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Speaker 4: that account ability. We have a long way to go,

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Speaker 4: but everywhere that I am, I want to make a

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Speaker 4: sizeable difference in how we see ourselves. When I say

439
00:20:09,760 --> 00:20:15,200
Speaker 4: ourselves black people, Yes, I will always wrap everyone all folks. Yeah,

440
00:20:15,280 --> 00:20:17,040
Speaker 4: but as a black woman, I walk in the skin

441
00:20:17,600 --> 00:20:21,000
Speaker 4: and holding the grief of that woman, even just for

442
00:20:21,119 --> 00:20:22,760
Speaker 4: a moment. If you're ever able to be around her,

443
00:20:22,760 --> 00:20:23,280
Speaker 4: you feel it.

444
00:20:23,440 --> 00:20:26,720
Speaker 1: Yes, no, it's and you should feel it. And the

445
00:20:26,720 --> 00:20:28,359
Speaker 1: fact that she can carry it. And I think about

446
00:20:28,359 --> 00:20:29,920
Speaker 1: this about black mothers all the time, who are in

447
00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:32,680
Speaker 1: this position where something happens to one of your children,

448
00:20:32,760 --> 00:20:34,760
Speaker 1: often black men, often at the hands of police. Happens

449
00:20:34,760 --> 00:20:36,520
Speaker 1: a young black women too, at the hands police and

450
00:20:36,800 --> 00:20:39,359
Speaker 1: all black people. But for these moms who then have

451
00:20:39,400 --> 00:20:42,320
Speaker 1: to sort of end up in spokesperson role. Yes, yeah,

452
00:20:42,359 --> 00:20:46,960
Speaker 1: and they all seem to carry it to and don't

453
00:20:46,960 --> 00:20:48,600
Speaker 1: shy away from it because it's part of being a

454
00:20:48,640 --> 00:20:50,440
Speaker 1: mom as I'm still a mom to this child, even

455
00:20:50,480 --> 00:20:52,520
Speaker 1: though this child has been taken from me. Just the

456
00:20:52,560 --> 00:20:56,159
Speaker 1: power that Mama Wanda has and just carries gracefully.

457
00:20:56,600 --> 00:20:58,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was.

458
00:20:58,119 --> 00:21:00,720
Speaker 1: I felt honored to be allowed to be next to

459
00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:02,440
Speaker 1: her she told that story of being because I don't

460
00:21:02,440 --> 00:21:03,359
Speaker 1: think she'd been up there.

461
00:21:03,520 --> 00:21:06,879
Speaker 3: No, yeah, no, she hadn't been up there. Yeah, thanks

462
00:21:06,880 --> 00:21:07,359
Speaker 3: for doing that.

463
00:21:07,800 --> 00:21:09,919
Speaker 1: I mean again, I just I feel lucky that I

464
00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:14,000
Speaker 1: have the that you know, I don't know if it's

465
00:21:14,040 --> 00:21:15,800
Speaker 1: going to surprise you, but you know, when you tell

466
00:21:15,840 --> 00:21:18,040
Speaker 1: CNN we're doing an episode about the fund the police

467
00:21:18,080 --> 00:21:19,960
Speaker 1: and we're not demonizing it, that.

468
00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:22,280
Speaker 3: Was not like it was a tough time.

469
00:21:22,440 --> 00:21:25,000
Speaker 4: It's still a tough time, but it was very brave

470
00:21:25,080 --> 00:21:27,280
Speaker 4: and I'm glad, glad we got all those voices out

471
00:21:27,320 --> 00:21:33,120
Speaker 4: there from real interesting, beautiful activist and organizers and people

472
00:21:33,160 --> 00:21:34,840
Speaker 4: who are healing from state violence.

473
00:21:35,040 --> 00:21:36,359
Speaker 2: Yeah.

474
00:21:36,359 --> 00:21:37,879
Speaker 1: So the other thing I want to talk to you

475
00:21:37,920 --> 00:21:42,399
Speaker 1: about is that when I think about the Democratic Party

476
00:21:43,080 --> 00:21:45,200
Speaker 1: and the and the trajectory that sometimes it seems to

477
00:21:45,240 --> 00:21:48,080
Speaker 1: be on, and trajectory I wanted to be on. I

478
00:21:48,119 --> 00:21:50,399
Speaker 1: think about you being on this in the center of that,

479
00:21:50,840 --> 00:21:54,040
Speaker 1: that trajectory that I hope the Democratic Party is on. Yeah,

480
00:21:54,240 --> 00:21:56,920
Speaker 1: because there's the there's working with Republicans, which is its

481
00:21:56,960 --> 00:22:01,080
Speaker 1: own trick bag, but there's also working with Democrats, which

482
00:22:01,119 --> 00:22:02,440
Speaker 1: is a trick back onto itself.

483
00:22:03,359 --> 00:22:04,680
Speaker 2: You know, democratic.

484
00:22:04,240 --> 00:22:09,000
Speaker 1: Leadership and and and the things that you say very easily.

485
00:22:09,119 --> 00:22:12,480
Speaker 1: Not all Democrats in leadership positions can say the fact

486
00:22:12,520 --> 00:22:14,280
Speaker 1: you say white I think you said white supremacy a

487
00:22:14,280 --> 00:22:14,840
Speaker 1: few minutes ago.

488
00:22:14,920 --> 00:22:16,119
Speaker 3: Absolutely, that's not really a thing.

489
00:22:16,119 --> 00:22:18,199
Speaker 1: You're here A lot of Democrats say, you know, so

490
00:22:18,840 --> 00:22:21,560
Speaker 1: talk about what it is to be a leader in

491
00:22:21,640 --> 00:22:25,639
Speaker 1: this party and the what you're doing to try to

492
00:22:25,680 --> 00:22:28,520
Speaker 1: sort of say to sort of, I don't know, to

493
00:22:28,560 --> 00:22:30,399
Speaker 1: be a loud voice so that your voice can be

494
00:22:30,400 --> 00:22:31,479
Speaker 1: as loud as the other voices.

495
00:22:31,560 --> 00:22:33,359
Speaker 4: Well, what are the things coming into Congress. I've been

496
00:22:33,359 --> 00:22:35,680
Speaker 4: there for only a year and a half. I don't

497
00:22:35,640 --> 00:22:36,199
Speaker 4: why would you.

498
00:22:36,200 --> 00:22:38,240
Speaker 2: Fix things Yetly, that's what I'm saying, but I'm.

499
00:22:38,119 --> 00:22:39,879
Speaker 3: Saying I'm working on Okay.

500
00:22:39,920 --> 00:22:43,200
Speaker 4: I actually don't feel like I need to have permission

501
00:22:43,320 --> 00:22:47,240
Speaker 4: to represent the people of California's Grade twelfth district. I

502
00:22:47,280 --> 00:22:49,520
Speaker 4: mean again, it's censors in Oakland. So I'll give you

503
00:22:49,560 --> 00:22:53,080
Speaker 4: an example. Last week, we had a press conference on

504
00:22:53,119 --> 00:22:55,200
Speaker 4: the Senate side of the complex. You have the House

505
00:22:55,240 --> 00:22:57,400
Speaker 4: of Representatives, the big dome in the middle. You got

506
00:22:57,440 --> 00:22:59,600
Speaker 4: to walk about fifteen to twenty minutes to the Senate side.

507
00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:02,280
Speaker 4: And I'm on the Small Business Committee. A small business's

508
00:23:02,280 --> 00:23:04,520
Speaker 4: needed voice. That is very thoughtful. I said, I'm sure

509
00:23:04,520 --> 00:23:07,960
Speaker 4: I'll do that work. We had a press conference. There's

510
00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:11,199
Speaker 4: a new bill that I'm co sponsoring that push us

511
00:23:11,280 --> 00:23:16,119
Speaker 4: back on the Trump administrations not wanting to fund SBA grants,

512
00:23:16,119 --> 00:23:20,080
Speaker 4: small business grants, or loans to immigrants green card holders.

513
00:23:20,119 --> 00:23:22,479
Speaker 4: I'm talking about legal immigrants.

514
00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:26,600
Speaker 1: Rights and as man, all research shows immigrants open up

515
00:23:26,600 --> 00:23:27,760
Speaker 1: more businesses.

516
00:23:27,560 --> 00:23:31,119
Speaker 4: Hundreds of millions of dollars in this state alone. I mean,

517
00:23:31,160 --> 00:23:35,919
Speaker 4: forty percent of the businesses in California are operated and

518
00:23:35,960 --> 00:23:39,879
Speaker 4: owned by immigrants. Okay, you can't talk about anything more American.

519
00:23:40,320 --> 00:23:43,000
Speaker 4: And so my colleagues, we were, you know, again as

520
00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:46,359
Speaker 4: spouting how horrible this policy is coming out of the

521
00:23:46,359 --> 00:23:50,200
Speaker 4: Trump administration. And when we were walking out, I thought,

522
00:23:50,280 --> 00:23:52,520
Speaker 4: I said to myself, am I the only one who

523
00:23:52,560 --> 00:23:53,800
Speaker 4: said that this was racist?

524
00:23:54,200 --> 00:23:59,480
Speaker 3: Like racist? Not like unfair or dishonest American.

525
00:24:00,080 --> 00:24:04,320
Speaker 4: Am I I'm just I'm there to be honest. And

526
00:24:04,359 --> 00:24:06,639
Speaker 4: I also linked it, which in some ways is a

527
00:24:06,720 --> 00:24:08,879
Speaker 4: jump for many people. But talked about you know, this

528
00:24:09,040 --> 00:24:13,120
Speaker 4: assault on you know, immigrant Americans who are paying taxes,

529
00:24:13,160 --> 00:24:16,320
Speaker 4: who are creating Main Street, along with folks who again

530
00:24:16,400 --> 00:24:19,240
Speaker 4: have citizenship. They're part of a bigger fabric.

531
00:24:20,400 --> 00:24:22,760
Speaker 3: But this is not new. There was a time.

532
00:24:22,760 --> 00:24:25,639
Speaker 4: Where African Americans, for instance, served in our armed services,

533
00:24:25,920 --> 00:24:28,879
Speaker 4: and all veterans were promised what now we refer to

534
00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:31,880
Speaker 4: as a GI bill, but not black folks. You talked

535
00:24:31,880 --> 00:24:34,280
Speaker 4: about the fact that you know, in during a civil

536
00:24:34,359 --> 00:24:38,320
Speaker 4: rights movement, SBA type loans and grants were closed off

537
00:24:38,480 --> 00:24:45,679
Speaker 4: to Latinos what they just called Mexicans, Negroes and Asian Americans.

538
00:24:45,760 --> 00:24:49,639
Speaker 4: And so the idea to me that I have a

539
00:24:49,720 --> 00:24:52,879
Speaker 4: responsibility to call a spade a spade, but also to

540
00:24:52,920 --> 00:24:55,480
Speaker 4: back it up, to back it up with the work.

541
00:24:55,720 --> 00:24:57,840
Speaker 4: And it's we know things are bad, but people also

542
00:24:57,880 --> 00:25:01,040
Speaker 4: want an affirmative vision. Listen, a part of a party

543
00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:04,120
Speaker 4: that is imperfect at best. But when I look over

544
00:25:04,200 --> 00:25:06,080
Speaker 4: at the other, even with these bad eyes, I look

545
00:25:06,119 --> 00:25:09,159
Speaker 4: at the other side of the aisle and it is

546
00:25:09,560 --> 00:25:11,720
Speaker 4: literally the only five black.

547
00:25:11,440 --> 00:25:13,919
Speaker 3: Men in the Republican Party this year are all leaving.

548
00:25:14,080 --> 00:25:17,399
Speaker 2: I just read they all because they all showed up

549
00:25:17,440 --> 00:25:18,080
Speaker 2: and they maggot.

550
00:25:18,400 --> 00:25:21,119
Speaker 1: They all the maga and they maggot as much as

551
00:25:21,400 --> 00:25:23,119
Speaker 1: and Donald Trump said, thank you for doing that you

552
00:25:23,119 --> 00:25:23,679
Speaker 1: can need.

553
00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:47,560
Speaker 4: But the racism is so clear, the demonstrative politics that

554
00:25:47,600 --> 00:25:50,520
Speaker 4: are so anti anything that has to do with any

555
00:25:50,640 --> 00:25:55,360
Speaker 4: any faith practice. They're stabbing again the widows and the hungry,

556
00:25:55,680 --> 00:25:58,080
Speaker 4: uh and the fatherless in the in the back every day.

557
00:25:58,280 --> 00:26:02,800
Speaker 4: So my responsibilit it is to be absolutely bay Area,

558
00:26:03,160 --> 00:26:05,920
Speaker 4: bay Area values. My hope is that you know, as

559
00:26:05,960 --> 00:26:08,080
Speaker 4: I continue to rise in leadership in the party, which

560
00:26:08,119 --> 00:26:14,080
Speaker 4: I am doing, that I bring other folks farther a

561
00:26:14,119 --> 00:26:15,000
Speaker 4: little bit to the left.

562
00:26:15,080 --> 00:26:17,800
Speaker 3: Not for the left's sake, but the idea that.

563
00:26:17,760 --> 00:26:21,960
Speaker 4: We would ever leave out a particular population out because

564
00:26:21,960 --> 00:26:24,520
Speaker 4: they don't pull well will never sit with me. I

565
00:26:24,560 --> 00:26:27,359
Speaker 4: know so many trans children and they are babies, and

566
00:26:27,400 --> 00:26:31,119
Speaker 4: they are amazing and resilient. You know, I know so

567
00:26:31,320 --> 00:26:34,760
Speaker 4: many folks who are disabled. I know so many elders

568
00:26:34,760 --> 00:26:38,280
Speaker 4: who are trying to figure out do they buy milk

569
00:26:38,480 --> 00:26:41,320
Speaker 4: or do they literally have their nurse come one more

570
00:26:41,320 --> 00:26:43,760
Speaker 4: hour a day. Thoks are really struggling. So I'm going

571
00:26:43,800 --> 00:26:47,199
Speaker 4: to always center those folks. I don't care what the

572
00:26:47,240 --> 00:26:49,480
Speaker 4: polling says. That's the job of leadership.

573
00:26:49,840 --> 00:26:51,880
Speaker 1: I don't care what the polling says. That's the job

574
00:26:51,920 --> 00:26:54,160
Speaker 1: of leadership. Is the That's the phrase of the day,

575
00:26:54,200 --> 00:26:56,760
Speaker 1: because I think that's the it feels like so many

576
00:26:56,840 --> 00:27:00,280
Speaker 1: people in democratic leadership, and not just even elected people

577
00:27:00,320 --> 00:27:02,600
Speaker 1: like the Ken Martin who runs the DNC, it's just

578
00:27:02,640 --> 00:27:04,439
Speaker 1: the idea. It's like it feels like you're listening to

579
00:27:04,480 --> 00:27:06,320
Speaker 1: the polls and not listening to the people.

580
00:27:06,880 --> 00:27:10,720
Speaker 4: I think that that's how politics has gone. But we

581
00:27:10,800 --> 00:27:12,920
Speaker 4: know that that doesn't work for us any war. So

582
00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:16,000
Speaker 4: what you all are going to begin to hear, hopefully so,

583
00:27:16,600 --> 00:27:19,720
Speaker 4: is more courageous voices coming from members of Congress, both

584
00:27:19,760 --> 00:27:22,600
Speaker 4: those folks who are running for Congress to enter the

585
00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:24,800
Speaker 4: House and folks who are still there. You know, we're

586
00:27:24,800 --> 00:27:29,240
Speaker 4: talking about wars with real consequence. The first day of

587
00:27:29,600 --> 00:27:31,800
Speaker 4: the Iran War, by the way, I found out about

588
00:27:31,800 --> 00:27:34,240
Speaker 4: it at the same time you did, the Democrats were

589
00:27:34,280 --> 00:27:40,399
Speaker 4: not briefed. Dozens of baby girls murdered, literally blown up, and.

590
00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:42,880
Speaker 3: For what right.

591
00:27:42,960 --> 00:27:48,000
Speaker 4: And it's been sixty days Congress still hasn't really been

592
00:27:48,040 --> 00:27:50,920
Speaker 4: briefed or notified of what the next steps are. I'm

593
00:27:50,960 --> 00:27:55,240
Speaker 4: able to, you know, talk about colonialism and fring Palestine

594
00:27:56,119 --> 00:27:58,800
Speaker 4: with a lot of clarity. I'm really not worried about

595
00:27:59,359 --> 00:28:02,520
Speaker 4: any pushback. To be an anti war candidate in this moment.

596
00:28:02,560 --> 00:28:04,199
Speaker 4: Of course it takes courage, but it's the right thing

597
00:28:04,200 --> 00:28:04,439
Speaker 4: to do.

598
00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:07,359
Speaker 1: So were you always this person or did you learn

599
00:28:07,560 --> 00:28:11,120
Speaker 1: did you somehow come to be this person? Like I

600
00:28:11,160 --> 00:28:15,159
Speaker 1: know for me, I certainly raised by my mom. There

601
00:28:15,200 --> 00:28:17,680
Speaker 1: was always talking about the civil rights movement and racism

602
00:28:17,720 --> 00:28:20,840
Speaker 1: and white supremacy, but it was very understandably a black

603
00:28:20,880 --> 00:28:22,960
Speaker 1: and white paradigm at that point because my mom.

604
00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:24,960
Speaker 2: We grew up Indiana where there were there were.

605
00:28:24,800 --> 00:28:27,920
Speaker 1: Probably other races and nationalities, but black people only saw

606
00:28:27,920 --> 00:28:29,879
Speaker 1: white people. You know, there was not there was not

607
00:28:29,920 --> 00:28:31,600
Speaker 1: a lot of I don't know about what was happening

608
00:28:31,640 --> 00:28:35,040
Speaker 1: in the Chinatown section of Indianapolis, But so I sort

609
00:28:35,040 --> 00:28:36,880
Speaker 1: of felt like moving out to the Bay really sort

610
00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:39,400
Speaker 1: of exposed me to lots of different types of people,

611
00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:42,440
Speaker 1: lots of different identities, and then shape me and be like, oh, yeah,

612
00:28:42,520 --> 00:28:45,840
Speaker 1: there's there's this whole idea of intersectionality that Professor Kimberly

613
00:28:45,880 --> 00:28:47,880
Speaker 1: Crenshaw talks about. I think I understand it because I'm

614
00:28:47,880 --> 00:28:50,200
Speaker 1: living it. So for you, did you grow up this

615
00:28:50,280 --> 00:28:51,600
Speaker 1: way or did it come to you?

616
00:28:51,840 --> 00:28:52,280
Speaker 3: I did?

617
00:28:52,480 --> 00:28:54,680
Speaker 4: You know, my family came from the South, like many

618
00:28:54,720 --> 00:28:57,160
Speaker 4: families black families who live here. We are two generations

619
00:28:57,160 --> 00:28:58,440
Speaker 4: of one generation from the South.

620
00:28:59,320 --> 00:29:00,360
Speaker 3: And I'm so that.

621
00:29:00,400 --> 00:29:03,480
Speaker 4: Actually my aunts and uncles on my dad's side, including

622
00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:07,240
Speaker 4: my dad, they were all radicals, Black radicals in the

623
00:29:07,280 --> 00:29:10,320
Speaker 4: Bay Area. My aunt, Damirah Ahmad, God rest her soul,

624
00:29:11,120 --> 00:29:13,880
Speaker 4: she actually became Muslim and got you know, all the

625
00:29:13,920 --> 00:29:15,520
Speaker 4: other brothers and folks.

626
00:29:15,200 --> 00:29:16,480
Speaker 3: In our family to take Shahada.

627
00:29:16,560 --> 00:29:20,400
Speaker 4: So I was raised actually in the Dean Dmira was

628
00:29:20,440 --> 00:29:24,120
Speaker 4: one of the few organizers to organize and launch the

629
00:29:24,160 --> 00:29:27,960
Speaker 4: student strike in nineteen sixty eight. And so I grew up,

630
00:29:28,320 --> 00:29:30,880
Speaker 4: you know, in a family in a community that was

631
00:29:31,440 --> 00:29:34,320
Speaker 4: hyper political, you know, and at a very young age,

632
00:29:34,360 --> 00:29:37,000
Speaker 4: I started seeking out the words of Angela Davis and

633
00:29:37,040 --> 00:29:39,240
Speaker 4: I learned about the move nine, you know, before I

634
00:29:39,280 --> 00:29:42,080
Speaker 4: was ten years old. And you know, my dad drove

635
00:29:42,120 --> 00:29:45,560
Speaker 4: a cab in Oakland and I'd be in the front

636
00:29:45,680 --> 00:29:47,680
Speaker 4: and we would be driving around like it was just

637
00:29:47,760 --> 00:29:49,840
Speaker 4: our car and people would be hailing us down when

638
00:29:49,880 --> 00:29:53,440
Speaker 4: he's talking to me about you know, he had tapes

639
00:29:53,480 --> 00:29:57,040
Speaker 4: of Minister farakhat On in the car and on the

640
00:29:57,080 --> 00:30:01,160
Speaker 4: floor there was how to eat to live. And I

641
00:30:01,200 --> 00:30:04,120
Speaker 4: had a wonderful cousin who was a nurse. I will

642
00:30:04,160 --> 00:30:07,320
Speaker 4: never forget. Saint Francis Hospital was on strike. I was

643
00:30:07,320 --> 00:30:09,880
Speaker 4: about seven years old. She was s CiU. She had

644
00:30:09,920 --> 00:30:12,280
Speaker 4: me for the day. My mother was in school at

645
00:30:12,400 --> 00:30:16,200
Speaker 4: John Adams, you know, studying to be pacemaker tech. And

646
00:30:16,240 --> 00:30:19,880
Speaker 4: I'm on the line the whole day. And I will

647
00:30:19,880 --> 00:30:22,920
Speaker 4: never forget, like being outside on the line. I was seven.

648
00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:25,320
Speaker 4: I was this is early eighties, and I was like,

649
00:30:25,360 --> 00:30:27,200
Speaker 4: I want to do this the rest of my life.

650
00:30:27,200 --> 00:30:31,760
Speaker 4: So I I've always been seeking out opportunities to lift

651
00:30:31,800 --> 00:30:35,160
Speaker 4: up voice. And you know, growing up in a political

652
00:30:35,200 --> 00:30:38,560
Speaker 4: family also, you know, in the in the eighties, being

653
00:30:38,600 --> 00:30:40,800
Speaker 4: surrounded in the community where all of our families were

654
00:30:40,840 --> 00:30:44,520
Speaker 4: deeply impacted by crack cocaine, like deeply. And so I'm

655
00:30:44,520 --> 00:30:47,400
Speaker 4: playing with a friend one day. The next day they're

656
00:30:47,400 --> 00:30:50,440
Speaker 4: in foster care, their parents are incarcerated or dead, you know,

657
00:30:50,480 --> 00:30:53,360
Speaker 4: folks in my family seeing it right up close what

658
00:30:53,440 --> 00:30:58,240
Speaker 4: addiction does to amazing people. The eighties were tough, but

659
00:30:58,320 --> 00:31:00,920
Speaker 4: they pull every day. I felt like I was more

660
00:31:00,960 --> 00:31:03,520
Speaker 4: politicized to want to stand up one for black women

661
00:31:03,800 --> 00:31:06,960
Speaker 4: who were completely maligned, you know, during the drug war,

662
00:31:07,080 --> 00:31:09,800
Speaker 4: and for the tens of thousands of black men who

663
00:31:09,880 --> 00:31:12,560
Speaker 4: were disappeared, knowing that when they got out of jail,

664
00:31:12,800 --> 00:31:16,240
Speaker 4: they weren't more equipped to deal with the economy than

665
00:31:16,280 --> 00:31:18,760
Speaker 4: when they went in. It's always the work that I

666
00:31:18,800 --> 00:31:20,680
Speaker 4: wanted to do, and what a blessing to not have

667
00:31:20,760 --> 00:31:24,440
Speaker 4: to change because every single day I walk into the

668
00:31:24,560 --> 00:31:26,960
Speaker 4: United States Capital, same politics, same fire.

669
00:31:29,680 --> 00:31:32,960
Speaker 1: I would imagine that walking into that building regularly like

670
00:31:33,040 --> 00:31:38,200
Speaker 1: you do that you can feel the history and the weight. Yeah,

671
00:31:38,240 --> 00:31:41,280
Speaker 1: and also as you also the fact that you're one

672
00:31:41,320 --> 00:31:43,640
Speaker 1: of few black folks who walk through that through that

673
00:31:43,720 --> 00:31:45,040
Speaker 1: door as an elected official.

674
00:31:45,520 --> 00:31:46,160
Speaker 2: What is that like?

675
00:31:46,240 --> 00:31:47,640
Speaker 1: What was that like the first day you walked through

676
00:31:47,640 --> 00:31:50,520
Speaker 1: there knowing that you were also that you were like

677
00:31:50,640 --> 00:31:51,440
Speaker 1: that this was your.

678
00:31:51,400 --> 00:31:52,600
Speaker 2: Job now, you know.

679
00:31:52,680 --> 00:31:56,240
Speaker 4: I had a conversation a very similar one one with

680
00:31:56,600 --> 00:32:00,480
Speaker 4: Mahakim Jeffries, who will be the next Speaker the House,

681
00:32:00,480 --> 00:32:03,840
Speaker 4: the first black Speaker of the House, and he reminded

682
00:32:03,880 --> 00:32:06,160
Speaker 4: me of the pen. I'm wearing an Oakland pen today,

683
00:32:06,160 --> 00:32:08,640
Speaker 4: but usually when I'm at work, I wear a congressional pin.

684
00:32:09,120 --> 00:32:11,400
Speaker 4: It's a security pin. And he reminded me the less

685
00:32:11,400 --> 00:32:13,520
Speaker 4: than eighty black women in the history of this country

686
00:32:13,760 --> 00:32:16,800
Speaker 4: have ever worn that pen, eight zero out of eleven

687
00:32:16,840 --> 00:32:18,360
Speaker 4: thousand members of Congress.

688
00:32:19,360 --> 00:32:21,280
Speaker 3: So I would ask.

689
00:32:21,120 --> 00:32:24,560
Speaker 4: All of your viewers to watch the Shirley Chisholm movie

690
00:32:24,640 --> 00:32:25,440
Speaker 4: that was on Netflix.

691
00:32:25,520 --> 00:32:27,720
Speaker 3: What I love about it.

692
00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:31,560
Speaker 4: She's so clear in that movie one that she makes

693
00:32:31,560 --> 00:32:35,720
Speaker 4: the same salary as her bigoted colleague from the South,

694
00:32:36,560 --> 00:32:39,000
Speaker 4: and that she has the same job and came in

695
00:32:39,040 --> 00:32:41,640
Speaker 4: the same way that he did. The beautiful thing about

696
00:32:41,800 --> 00:32:48,200
Speaker 4: this democracy, there's no such thing as there's no affirmative action. ORDI.

697
00:32:48,560 --> 00:32:51,680
Speaker 4: In elections, I got the same amount of voters or

698
00:32:51,760 --> 00:32:54,920
Speaker 4: more than many of the folks that I'm working with,

699
00:32:54,960 --> 00:32:58,600
Speaker 4: So I absolutely Maybe it's coming from California. Maybe it's

700
00:32:58,640 --> 00:33:01,480
Speaker 4: reading my whole life of about freedom fighters like Asada

701
00:33:01,520 --> 00:33:04,440
Speaker 4: scor or other women who just decided to take seats

702
00:33:04,480 --> 00:33:07,440
Speaker 4: at tables that weren't built for them. I feel like

703
00:33:07,480 --> 00:33:10,600
Speaker 4: I damn belong and in fact I also know that

704
00:33:11,040 --> 00:33:15,840
Speaker 4: my intellect, my education, not just my educating my self

705
00:33:15,920 --> 00:33:19,600
Speaker 4: learned education, but my education is on par and or

706
00:33:19,640 --> 00:33:21,560
Speaker 4: even more than some of the folks that don't believe

707
00:33:21,560 --> 00:33:23,000
Speaker 4: that I'm human that are on the other side of

708
00:33:23,040 --> 00:33:26,280
Speaker 4: the aisle. I go into what's called Statuary Hall, and

709
00:33:26,320 --> 00:33:30,520
Speaker 4: there's an emancipation Hall, and you'll see these oil paintings,

710
00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:33,560
Speaker 4: both that are inspiring and some that are extremely troubling.

711
00:33:33,800 --> 00:33:38,720
Speaker 4: Pocahontas being baptized right or you know again, statues of

712
00:33:38,840 --> 00:33:43,080
Speaker 4: king and statues of leaders who have led. For us

713
00:33:43,160 --> 00:33:46,280
Speaker 4: to be sitting at this table, so an immense responsibility

714
00:33:46,320 --> 00:33:48,080
Speaker 4: to be serious. You k not ales really see me

715
00:33:48,120 --> 00:33:51,200
Speaker 4: making no crazy TikTok videos and I'm not doing that.

716
00:33:51,760 --> 00:33:54,240
Speaker 4: I'm not even on CNN a lot. You know, we're saying, no,

717
00:33:54,280 --> 00:33:57,360
Speaker 4: we're not doing the msnbcs. We're really trying to serve

718
00:33:57,440 --> 00:34:00,400
Speaker 4: our constituents, trying to bring money home. I'm trying to

719
00:34:00,480 --> 00:34:03,200
Speaker 4: have hard conversations. I'm organizing in the capitol.

720
00:34:03,480 --> 00:34:05,320
Speaker 1: And I think you also had the challenge of like,

721
00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:07,719
Speaker 1: h and I know you're aware of this. It's not

722
00:34:07,760 --> 00:34:10,960
Speaker 1: like you it's not like you're seceeding a Congress person

723
00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:15,759
Speaker 1: that that nobody cared about or about, or you're not

724
00:34:15,840 --> 00:34:18,640
Speaker 1: just like just some long time serving you.

725
00:34:18,600 --> 00:34:22,000
Speaker 3: Know, as somebody was taking up a chair, a chair.

726
00:34:21,880 --> 00:34:24,359
Speaker 1: That didn't have a lot of opinions and didn't leave,

727
00:34:24,400 --> 00:34:27,680
Speaker 1: it hasn't left. The legacy behind is now also still around.

728
00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:30,040
Speaker 1: You're seeing this person in Oakland every day.

729
00:34:30,160 --> 00:34:32,160
Speaker 3: We were texting and talking every day.

730
00:34:32,239 --> 00:34:35,320
Speaker 1: So for those who may not be aware, what was

731
00:34:35,360 --> 00:34:37,080
Speaker 1: it like and who is Barbara Lee?

732
00:34:37,239 --> 00:34:38,720
Speaker 2: And what was it like to seceed Barbaraly?

733
00:34:39,560 --> 00:34:41,000
Speaker 3: I was with Barbarlee last night.

734
00:34:41,200 --> 00:34:44,360
Speaker 4: Actually I love her so much, like it's a deep,

735
00:34:45,080 --> 00:34:48,680
Speaker 4: profound love that I have for the spirit of a

736
00:34:48,719 --> 00:34:51,600
Speaker 4: woman who is almost eighty years old, and she's finer

737
00:34:51,640 --> 00:34:52,240
Speaker 4: than anybody.

738
00:34:52,239 --> 00:34:53,400
Speaker 3: You know. Let's just be clear.

739
00:34:53,560 --> 00:34:56,319
Speaker 4: She suited and booted, but she spent thirty years in

740
00:34:56,320 --> 00:34:58,960
Speaker 4: the United States Congress, and about you know, twenty before

741
00:34:59,040 --> 00:35:02,440
Speaker 4: that working as a staffer for Rondellam's and that leadership

742
00:35:02,480 --> 00:35:05,600
Speaker 4: model of being in the mud and then ascending up.

743
00:35:05,640 --> 00:35:08,160
Speaker 4: It takes work, and it takes a lot of energy,

744
00:35:08,239 --> 00:35:10,239
Speaker 4: a lot of clarity, a lot of study, and a

745
00:35:10,280 --> 00:35:14,440
Speaker 4: lot of faith. You know, as she left Congress and

746
00:35:14,480 --> 00:35:17,320
Speaker 4: I was still running She kind of passed the baton

747
00:35:17,360 --> 00:35:18,759
Speaker 4: to me, but I had to earn these votes. She

748
00:35:19,160 --> 00:35:22,319
Speaker 4: endorsed me. We sat for days and days just going

749
00:35:22,360 --> 00:35:24,640
Speaker 4: over her what we call her orphan bills, bills that

750
00:35:24,680 --> 00:35:27,000
Speaker 4: were still in the ether, and then looking back on

751
00:35:27,040 --> 00:35:31,440
Speaker 4: her timeline of thirty years from urging the United States government,

752
00:35:31,520 --> 00:35:35,640
Speaker 4: the administration under George Bush to give literally hundreds of

753
00:35:35,680 --> 00:35:38,080
Speaker 4: millions of dollars early on in the AIDS epidemic.

754
00:35:38,200 --> 00:35:39,320
Speaker 3: That was Barbara Lee.

755
00:35:39,440 --> 00:35:41,279
Speaker 4: That's the reason why now we know in the next

756
00:35:41,320 --> 00:35:44,680
Speaker 4: twenty years hiva's will be a chronic disease. She was

757
00:35:44,760 --> 00:35:48,160
Speaker 4: one of the lone voices pushing that dynamic forward. We

758
00:35:48,239 --> 00:35:50,600
Speaker 4: also know her as, of course, the single and only

759
00:35:50,680 --> 00:35:54,200
Speaker 4: vote post nine to eleven to go into what we

760
00:35:54,280 --> 00:35:57,160
Speaker 4: knew would be have been an endless war. She got

761
00:35:57,239 --> 00:36:00,839
Speaker 4: death threats daily, and that's before the was sort of

762
00:36:00,840 --> 00:36:04,600
Speaker 4: any organized metrics to keep members of Congress safe. She

763
00:36:04,640 --> 00:36:06,520
Speaker 4: took it on the chin and continued to work, but

764
00:36:06,560 --> 00:36:10,200
Speaker 4: again aligned her faith in that vote in every vote

765
00:36:10,239 --> 00:36:12,759
Speaker 4: that came after that. We don't want to be the

766
00:36:12,920 --> 00:36:15,399
Speaker 4: evil that we despised. The last thing I'll say about

767
00:36:15,400 --> 00:36:20,000
Speaker 4: miss Lee, she actually she reminded me yesterday. She was like,

768
00:36:20,040 --> 00:36:25,320
Speaker 4: where are we on all my Africa bills?

769
00:36:25,719 --> 00:36:27,480
Speaker 1: She's now the mayor of Oakland, so she's got enough

770
00:36:27,480 --> 00:36:29,319
Speaker 1: on her plate. But she's also like, you.

771
00:36:29,280 --> 00:36:31,840
Speaker 4: Know, she's like, Latifa, You're doing a lot for small business,

772
00:36:31,920 --> 00:36:34,200
Speaker 4: a lot around war, a lot around the FC and survivors,

773
00:36:34,440 --> 00:36:38,040
Speaker 4: you know, a lot around transparency, reparations. I've co sponsored

774
00:36:38,040 --> 00:36:42,759
Speaker 4: reparations bills. But the President of the United States all

775
00:36:42,800 --> 00:36:46,520
Speaker 4: but gutted what's called USAID, which was an agency that

776
00:36:46,640 --> 00:36:51,120
Speaker 4: was supporting are not with bullets, but with grain and

777
00:36:51,160 --> 00:36:56,359
Speaker 4: with food, with medical care, stopping really really the assaults

778
00:36:56,480 --> 00:37:01,640
Speaker 4: of from malaria to HIV to hunger, and which was political,

779
00:37:01,760 --> 00:37:05,480
Speaker 4: not just that that agency wasn't doing work to just

780
00:37:06,960 --> 00:37:10,799
Speaker 4: be a good friend. Part of the work of USAID

781
00:37:11,000 --> 00:37:13,080
Speaker 4: was to keep people alive around the world, but also

782
00:37:13,480 --> 00:37:19,400
Speaker 4: to slim down forced migration, and tens of thousands of

783
00:37:19,440 --> 00:37:21,120
Speaker 4: people have died just in the last year and a

784
00:37:21,160 --> 00:37:24,600
Speaker 4: half since we've stopped administering food and aid to babies

785
00:37:24,880 --> 00:37:28,040
Speaker 4: right to the most ill, to folks suffering drought and

786
00:37:29,239 --> 00:37:31,480
Speaker 4: devastation around the world. But one of the things that

787
00:37:31,560 --> 00:37:36,120
Speaker 4: she reminded me yesterday, there will always be a crisis.

788
00:37:36,800 --> 00:37:40,240
Speaker 3: There will always be a war. We cannot forget about Africa.

789
00:37:40,760 --> 00:37:43,879
Speaker 4: And you know, I'm just so thankful that I have

790
00:37:44,320 --> 00:37:50,040
Speaker 4: every day a mentor who literally decided, after fifty years

791
00:37:50,080 --> 00:37:52,480
Speaker 4: in government writ large that she still wasn't done that

792
00:37:52,560 --> 00:37:56,160
Speaker 4: my city, Oakland, California, deserves healing and a leader who's

793
00:37:56,200 --> 00:37:57,759
Speaker 4: ready to wake up every day and go to bed

794
00:37:57,840 --> 00:38:02,240
Speaker 4: very late. So if you can get you a mental

795
00:38:02,280 --> 00:38:03,600
Speaker 4: or get you a mental or I know I have

796
00:38:03,640 --> 00:38:04,399
Speaker 4: a wonderful one.

797
00:38:04,440 --> 00:38:05,879
Speaker 2: I mean, you certainly do.

798
00:38:05,960 --> 00:38:07,960
Speaker 1: And I think that just for people who don't know

799
00:38:08,280 --> 00:38:10,920
Speaker 1: Barbara Lee, after she was done being a congress person,

800
00:38:11,480 --> 00:38:14,400
Speaker 1: and she could just say, okay, I'm ready to retire

801
00:38:14,440 --> 00:38:18,040
Speaker 1: and put my and lay my burden down, and she

802
00:38:18,160 --> 00:38:19,680
Speaker 1: decided Oakland needed help.

803
00:38:19,800 --> 00:38:21,319
Speaker 2: And I feel like she has been.

804
00:38:21,760 --> 00:38:24,200
Speaker 1: It's funny to say this about somebody who's, you know,

805
00:38:24,640 --> 00:38:26,760
Speaker 1: like you said, is almost eighty.

806
00:38:26,800 --> 00:38:27,920
Speaker 2: But she's a breath of fresh air.

807
00:38:28,120 --> 00:38:31,160
Speaker 1: She is. Yeah, just because it feels like so many

808
00:38:31,160 --> 00:38:33,040
Speaker 1: people I think who are mayor of Oakland, I think

809
00:38:33,080 --> 00:38:35,240
Speaker 1: there's a suspicion that they're using Oakland as a stepping

810
00:38:35,239 --> 00:38:38,040
Speaker 1: stone to the next place. That's right, and Barbara Lee

811
00:38:38,040 --> 00:38:39,080
Speaker 1: don't need a step nowhere.

812
00:38:39,160 --> 00:38:39,960
Speaker 3: That's exactly right.

813
00:38:40,000 --> 00:38:43,320
Speaker 4: She did not run for office for power, no right,

814
00:38:43,760 --> 00:38:46,880
Speaker 4: or prestige or another article. She's been there and done that.

815
00:38:47,280 --> 00:38:52,239
Speaker 4: I think the city needed someone who understood the clunkiness

816
00:38:52,239 --> 00:38:56,160
Speaker 4: of governance and the fact that she's working on potholes

817
00:38:56,160 --> 00:39:00,600
Speaker 4: and dumping right now after again, you know, changing the

818
00:39:00,600 --> 00:39:04,200
Speaker 4: way that we view foreign policy in this country.

819
00:39:04,520 --> 00:39:05,520
Speaker 3: Healthcare, she was.

820
00:39:05,520 --> 00:39:08,319
Speaker 4: Right there along with creating the opportunity that led to

821
00:39:08,320 --> 00:39:10,960
Speaker 4: the ACA for folks to get healthcare, which we now

822
00:39:10,960 --> 00:39:13,560
Speaker 4: we call Obamacare, and so many other issues. But she

823
00:39:13,960 --> 00:39:15,840
Speaker 4: has been a public service from the very beginning. And

824
00:39:15,880 --> 00:39:20,319
Speaker 4: how people experience their politics is typically when they get out,

825
00:39:20,480 --> 00:39:22,319
Speaker 4: you know, from their door. They dropped their kid off?

826
00:39:22,360 --> 00:39:24,319
Speaker 4: Is there a pothole? Do the lights work?

827
00:39:24,680 --> 00:39:26,480
Speaker 3: Was my neighbor murdered? And she gets that.

828
00:39:26,760 --> 00:39:27,719
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.

829
00:39:27,960 --> 00:39:30,320
Speaker 1: While we're talking about her as the mayor of Oakland,

830
00:39:30,680 --> 00:39:32,480
Speaker 1: one of these things the podcast is supposed to do

831
00:39:32,600 --> 00:39:34,839
Speaker 1: is to sort of explain Oakland to those of us south,

832
00:39:34,960 --> 00:39:37,319
Speaker 1: to those folks outside of Oakland, What do you love

833
00:39:37,400 --> 00:39:38,080
Speaker 1: about Oakland?

834
00:39:38,080 --> 00:39:40,439
Speaker 2: Wise? Oakland got such a special place in your heart.

835
00:39:40,960 --> 00:39:45,000
Speaker 4: So my family came here in forty one and half

836
00:39:45,080 --> 00:39:48,560
Speaker 4: of the signments were in Oakland, the other half in

837
00:39:48,600 --> 00:39:49,400
Speaker 4: San Francisco.

838
00:39:50,320 --> 00:39:52,799
Speaker 2: Wow, that's a family had fields and McCoy's a little bit.

839
00:39:53,280 --> 00:39:56,960
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, folks settled, you know, over here, but what

840
00:39:57,000 --> 00:39:59,799
Speaker 4: we now call Mills Mount, which at that point was

841
00:40:00,080 --> 00:40:03,640
Speaker 4: half Irish, you know, and it was very segregated. East

842
00:40:03,680 --> 00:40:07,320
Speaker 4: Oakland wasn't always a black community, right, and migration changes things.

843
00:40:08,320 --> 00:40:12,120
Speaker 4: And my other side of the family was in a

844
00:40:12,120 --> 00:40:14,400
Speaker 4: little community called Fillmore in San Francisco.

845
00:40:14,600 --> 00:40:19,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, but it came known as a historic Black community.

846
00:40:19,000 --> 00:40:21,560
Speaker 3: It is a historic, beautiful black community.

847
00:40:21,160 --> 00:40:22,520
Speaker 2: Black cultural hub of San Francisco.

848
00:40:22,800 --> 00:40:27,120
Speaker 4: And I started organizing in Oakland around like ninety five,

849
00:40:27,280 --> 00:40:31,719
Speaker 4: ninety six, around Prop twenty one and one eighty seven

850
00:40:31,840 --> 00:40:35,120
Speaker 4: came before that. These were horrible initiatives that came down

851
00:40:35,160 --> 00:40:38,759
Speaker 4: from a Republican governor. I started doing a lot of

852
00:40:39,200 --> 00:40:41,799
Speaker 4: work with community organizations black other black groups. I was

853
00:40:41,800 --> 00:40:44,239
Speaker 4: a teenager as well, and I love Oakland, I love

854
00:40:44,280 --> 00:40:46,600
Speaker 4: San Francisco. I did a lot of work there, you know,

855
00:40:46,680 --> 00:40:50,160
Speaker 4: in jails, on the streets. But something about this beautiful

856
00:40:50,160 --> 00:40:52,920
Speaker 4: city in the middle of the city, we have our lake, right,

857
00:40:53,120 --> 00:40:55,200
Speaker 4: And then you know, in fifteen minutes. You can be

858
00:40:55,200 --> 00:40:59,240
Speaker 4: in the Redwoods. Every kind of food you can imagine,

859
00:40:59,239 --> 00:41:03,239
Speaker 4: and it's just people hustling and struggling to be On

860
00:41:03,320 --> 00:41:06,120
Speaker 4: the weekends, you see folks from the Four Directions, from

861
00:41:06,280 --> 00:41:08,520
Speaker 4: all over the world, but they live here and they're

862
00:41:08,560 --> 00:41:12,000
Speaker 4: just out with their families. Oakland's the city of struggle.

863
00:41:12,200 --> 00:41:17,200
Speaker 4: The Black Panthers gave our beautiful city. It's a lot

864
00:41:17,239 --> 00:41:21,200
Speaker 4: of it's international notoriety, but you know we are. We

865
00:41:21,280 --> 00:41:25,040
Speaker 4: are a region of radical thinkers that believe in human

866
00:41:25,120 --> 00:41:28,720
Speaker 4: rights and free speech and brown and black life living.

867
00:41:28,920 --> 00:41:32,520
Speaker 4: And there's something about the music of the streets literally

868
00:41:34,160 --> 00:41:37,879
Speaker 4: the culture, the artist, but also the movement leaders here.

869
00:41:37,880 --> 00:41:38,720
Speaker 3: They keep you honest.

870
00:41:39,160 --> 00:41:42,160
Speaker 4: I you know, I did almost thirteen thirteen and fourteen

871
00:41:42,160 --> 00:41:45,799
Speaker 4: town halls last year, and folks give it to me

872
00:41:46,520 --> 00:41:49,120
Speaker 4: straight up right. I don't have to worry the calls

873
00:41:49,160 --> 00:41:51,120
Speaker 4: into my office even when things are good.

874
00:41:51,120 --> 00:41:52,200
Speaker 3: They know how I'm gonna vote.

875
00:41:52,239 --> 00:41:55,080
Speaker 4: But they're just folks are so active here because we

876
00:41:55,280 --> 00:41:59,799
Speaker 4: actually want to be a community where people can you know, learn, work,

877
00:42:00,040 --> 00:42:00,799
Speaker 4: play and live.

878
00:42:01,040 --> 00:42:03,080
Speaker 3: And I just love it. If you haven't been to Oakland,

879
00:42:03,080 --> 00:42:03,959
Speaker 3: you have to come to the town.

880
00:42:04,000 --> 00:42:06,719
Speaker 1: So something like it yes, No, agreed, agreed, Thank you

881
00:42:06,760 --> 00:42:27,319
Speaker 1: for doing that. Like I said, I see you, I

882
00:42:27,360 --> 00:42:29,680
Speaker 1: hope you. I work to make you whatever I can

883
00:42:29,680 --> 00:42:31,279
Speaker 1: do to make you, to make sure you're a part

884
00:42:31,400 --> 00:42:33,520
Speaker 1: a center of the future of the Democratic Party. I mean,

885
00:42:33,520 --> 00:42:35,480
Speaker 1: you're in the Democratic Party now, but also like in

886
00:42:35,520 --> 00:42:38,160
Speaker 1: the in the upper of the upper upper room of

887
00:42:38,160 --> 00:42:39,440
Speaker 1: the leadership, whatever that is.

888
00:42:39,560 --> 00:42:41,120
Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't know what your goals are.

889
00:42:41,120 --> 00:42:42,640
Speaker 1: I'm not pushing you in any direction or another, but

890
00:42:42,680 --> 00:42:44,759
Speaker 1: I just want your voice to be centered. Can you

891
00:42:44,840 --> 00:42:48,200
Speaker 1: let people know about other people who are currently in

892
00:42:48,200 --> 00:42:50,680
Speaker 1: in where they're Congress people, their senators who you feel

893
00:42:50,719 --> 00:42:52,319
Speaker 1: like they These are people that I work with.

894
00:42:52,360 --> 00:42:52,839
Speaker 2: These are the people.

895
00:42:53,120 --> 00:42:56,120
Speaker 4: You're so many cool people that I would have never

896
00:42:56,280 --> 00:42:59,759
Speaker 4: expected to be so wonderful and cool in the United

897
00:42:59,800 --> 00:43:02,919
Speaker 4: States Congress, including some of the ogs. Right, there's some

898
00:43:03,040 --> 00:43:06,439
Speaker 4: super ogs in the Congress. There's a woman named Betty

899
00:43:06,440 --> 00:43:09,600
Speaker 4: Watson Coleman, and she's leaving. She's from New Jersey. I

900
00:43:09,840 --> 00:43:12,960
Speaker 4: just adore this sister. She has been again. She was

901
00:43:13,040 --> 00:43:16,400
Speaker 4: ceasefire pro Palestine from the very beginning. She's somebody's auntie.

902
00:43:16,400 --> 00:43:19,040
Speaker 4: You wouldn't think she had a foreign policy background. She

903
00:43:19,160 --> 00:43:23,360
Speaker 4: will tell you again, regardless of who you are, what

904
00:43:23,440 --> 00:43:24,920
Speaker 4: the world should be like in a second.

905
00:43:25,040 --> 00:43:27,400
Speaker 3: There's another sister named Summerley who's extreme.

906
00:43:29,120 --> 00:43:31,960
Speaker 2: United. She was just a I think she was a

907
00:43:32,000 --> 00:43:33,319
Speaker 2: state representative at that point.

908
00:43:33,480 --> 00:43:35,920
Speaker 4: Summer Is she graduated from Howard Law School, like my

909
00:43:36,120 --> 00:43:40,000
Speaker 4: oldest baby girl. There is not one moment ever well

910
00:43:40,280 --> 00:43:42,279
Speaker 4: Summer in her gut. She just knows the right way

911
00:43:42,280 --> 00:43:42,640
Speaker 4: to vote.

912
00:43:42,640 --> 00:43:43,120
Speaker 3: She doesn't need it.

913
00:43:43,440 --> 00:43:45,480
Speaker 4: She's brilliant, but she doesn't need a lot of analogies

914
00:43:45,600 --> 00:43:47,759
Speaker 4: just like that doesn't sound right to me, so you

915
00:43:47,800 --> 00:43:50,680
Speaker 4: know it. Even folks like Nancy Pelosi right, you may

916
00:43:50,680 --> 00:43:53,760
Speaker 4: not agree with her politics every day, but there's something

917
00:43:53,840 --> 00:43:57,880
Speaker 4: to me I find that is so interesting in her

918
00:43:57,880 --> 00:44:01,400
Speaker 4: wisdom of how she works that floor. She came to

919
00:44:01,480 --> 00:44:04,719
Speaker 4: Congress to work. Now again, we will vote very differently

920
00:44:04,760 --> 00:44:06,400
Speaker 4: on issues of foreign policy.

921
00:44:06,880 --> 00:44:10,640
Speaker 3: Those are huge differences. And I am so curious and.

922
00:44:10,680 --> 00:44:14,480
Speaker 4: Hungry about the overall vocation of moving something. So when

923
00:44:14,560 --> 00:44:18,800
Speaker 4: she moved ACA and tens of millions of people got healthcare,

924
00:44:19,080 --> 00:44:20,000
Speaker 4: I gotta respect that.

925
00:44:20,480 --> 00:44:21,200
Speaker 3: I gotta respect that.

926
00:44:21,239 --> 00:44:24,359
Speaker 4: And I also understand that politicians, in no way they

927
00:44:24,400 --> 00:44:27,360
Speaker 4: are not gods, and they are not fierce, mortal beings.

928
00:44:27,560 --> 00:44:31,200
Speaker 4: They are accountable to the people that they serve, and

929
00:44:31,239 --> 00:44:34,479
Speaker 4: so if we want politicians to do what we want

930
00:44:34,480 --> 00:44:35,960
Speaker 4: them to do, then we have to stand up for

931
00:44:36,040 --> 00:44:39,080
Speaker 4: them and hire and fire them. So there are a

932
00:44:39,080 --> 00:44:41,520
Speaker 4: lot of folks in Congress. I mentioned Summer and Bonnie

933
00:44:41,560 --> 00:44:43,840
Speaker 4: as two of many folks.

934
00:44:43,840 --> 00:44:45,080
Speaker 3: But you know, I hang out.

935
00:44:45,080 --> 00:44:47,960
Speaker 4: The other day, I was hanging out with Sister Sarah McBride,

936
00:44:48,000 --> 00:44:51,920
Speaker 4: the first transgender member of Congress, Sisters from Delaware.

937
00:44:53,160 --> 00:44:54,120
Speaker 3: I love her a lot.

938
00:44:54,320 --> 00:44:58,960
Speaker 4: She's right, she's brilliant, and there's a lot on her shoulders,

939
00:44:59,000 --> 00:45:03,040
Speaker 4: and yet she's us working. You know, there's mister Clyburn

940
00:45:03,080 --> 00:45:07,359
Speaker 4: who's been in Congress for a thousand years, and you know,

941
00:45:07,560 --> 00:45:11,319
Speaker 4: every week I get to hear some piece of his

942
00:45:11,320 --> 00:45:13,680
Speaker 4: history in Congress. He spends a lot of time talking

943
00:45:13,680 --> 00:45:15,920
Speaker 4: to me and other Black members about really where we

944
00:45:15,960 --> 00:45:18,359
Speaker 4: are right now and how it's not a crisis, it's

945
00:45:18,400 --> 00:45:23,000
Speaker 4: a reoccurrence right of that Jim Crow force. I'm happy

946
00:45:23,000 --> 00:45:25,040
Speaker 4: to be there, but locally, you know, there are so

947
00:45:25,160 --> 00:45:27,600
Speaker 4: many folks. I was with the Mayor of Berkeley is

948
00:45:27,640 --> 00:45:30,279
Speaker 4: a mayor is shei Japanese sister who is just so

949
00:45:30,520 --> 00:45:34,719
Speaker 4: kind and conscientious, and watching her lead and govern like

950
00:45:34,760 --> 00:45:37,360
Speaker 4: you know, there are opportunities for folks to step in

951
00:45:37,520 --> 00:45:40,360
Speaker 4: and do the right thing and to hold each other accountable.

952
00:45:40,440 --> 00:45:43,440
Speaker 4: Five thousand dollars a little check will never buy my soul.

953
00:45:43,840 --> 00:45:45,520
Speaker 4: The last thing I want to say about that I

954
00:45:45,560 --> 00:45:47,400
Speaker 4: did come to Congress to lead, not just to be

955
00:45:47,440 --> 00:45:49,960
Speaker 4: in a seat. I want to bring a lot of

956
00:45:49,960 --> 00:45:52,480
Speaker 4: money back home. I want to save our healthcare system.

957
00:45:52,520 --> 00:45:54,359
Speaker 4: I want to be a part of creating a new

958
00:45:54,360 --> 00:45:56,479
Speaker 4: one where if you need a doctor, you go where

959
00:45:56,520 --> 00:45:59,319
Speaker 4: black women are not dying in childbirth, Where you know,

960
00:45:59,360 --> 00:46:05,839
Speaker 4: if folks are are leaving governments, where tyranny is, you

961
00:46:05,840 --> 00:46:08,080
Speaker 4: know the soup of the day, that there is a

962
00:46:08,120 --> 00:46:10,120
Speaker 4: place here for them. I want to be a part

963
00:46:10,120 --> 00:46:13,320
Speaker 4: of creating an immigration system that works and a market

964
00:46:13,400 --> 00:46:18,560
Speaker 4: that is not extractive only. I'm a radical, So going

965
00:46:18,680 --> 00:46:23,880
Speaker 4: into Babylon, going into you know, a space where we

966
00:46:23,960 --> 00:46:29,800
Speaker 4: are debating and legislating a market, a capitalist market, where

967
00:46:29,800 --> 00:46:32,279
Speaker 4: we're trying to oversee and hold accountable systems that I've

968
00:46:32,280 --> 00:46:35,400
Speaker 4: never truly worked for our folks. I do that from

969
00:46:35,440 --> 00:46:40,279
Speaker 4: my faith's perspective, right that if God gives you a platform,

970
00:46:40,560 --> 00:46:42,800
Speaker 4: you work to make it better. Yes, I can be

971
00:46:42,840 --> 00:46:46,480
Speaker 4: an ideologue all day and be like, this whole situation

972
00:46:46,680 --> 00:46:50,040
Speaker 4: is bullshit. Of course there's a lot of bullshit. But

973
00:46:50,120 --> 00:46:51,120
Speaker 4: I can make it better.

974
00:46:51,160 --> 00:46:52,200
Speaker 2: Well, that's what I was going to ask you.

975
00:46:52,320 --> 00:46:55,239
Speaker 1: I can make it because there's also there is you know,

976
00:46:56,000 --> 00:46:57,600
Speaker 1: so I just heard the number of ninety one million

977
00:46:57,640 --> 00:47:00,520
Speaker 1: people who are who are elgibly vote but are registered.

978
00:47:00,680 --> 00:47:02,480
Speaker 1: There's also a lot of black folks who sort of

979
00:47:02,560 --> 00:47:04,600
Speaker 1: get caught up in or a certain percentage black folks.

980
00:47:04,600 --> 00:47:05,960
Speaker 1: I want to say, a lot who get caught up

981
00:47:06,000 --> 00:47:08,640
Speaker 1: in both parties are the same. You know, we don't

982
00:47:08,680 --> 00:47:11,839
Speaker 1: I'm not voting Democrat. We've been voting Democrat. Yeah, how

983
00:47:11,880 --> 00:47:14,799
Speaker 1: do you reach those people who feel so differ? Because

984
00:47:14,800 --> 00:47:18,920
Speaker 1: I understand feeling disenfranchised by the system and also but

985
00:47:19,000 --> 00:47:23,279
Speaker 1: I also don't understand not giving up, you know what

986
00:47:23,280 --> 00:47:26,879
Speaker 1: I mean, or just thinking or sort of aligning saying

987
00:47:26,920 --> 00:47:27,799
Speaker 1: all of this is the same.

988
00:47:27,880 --> 00:47:29,239
Speaker 2: So I'm just not going to mess with any of it.

989
00:47:29,360 --> 00:47:31,920
Speaker 4: You know, you know, you know I'm a I'm a

990
00:47:31,960 --> 00:47:33,920
Speaker 4: super kind of goofy nerd, but I actually come from

991
00:47:33,920 --> 00:47:37,759
Speaker 4: a real hood. I come from the Filmore and San Francisco.

992
00:47:38,000 --> 00:47:40,320
Speaker 4: And I say that to say that I am tough.

993
00:47:40,400 --> 00:47:41,799
Speaker 4: You know, I just had to look at these I

994
00:47:41,800 --> 00:47:44,719
Speaker 4: had to fight every day as a kid and for

995
00:47:44,800 --> 00:47:46,960
Speaker 4: what's right, you know, whether some I'm trying to break

996
00:47:47,040 --> 00:47:48,440
Speaker 4: up a fight and people try to fight me, or

997
00:47:48,600 --> 00:47:51,960
Speaker 4: helping somebody else as a little kid on the school bus.

998
00:47:55,920 --> 00:47:59,640
Speaker 4: Our folks can't be on the sidelines that we have to.

999
00:48:00,040 --> 00:48:03,839
Speaker 4: And I want us to invite ourselves to creating a

1000
00:48:03,920 --> 00:48:06,720
Speaker 4: party or a democracy where we are in the front.

1001
00:48:07,200 --> 00:48:07,560
Speaker 3: And so.

1002
00:48:09,560 --> 00:48:12,120
Speaker 4: I don't care if it's a third party. You know,

1003
00:48:12,160 --> 00:48:15,400
Speaker 4: I'm also very close and working with the Working Families Party. Yes,

1004
00:48:16,080 --> 00:48:18,279
Speaker 4: they're they're killing it. They're on the doors every day

1005
00:48:18,280 --> 00:48:20,120
Speaker 4: around the country.

1006
00:48:19,160 --> 00:48:22,320
Speaker 1: And they're like an alternative party that actually gets people elected.

1007
00:48:22,520 --> 00:48:24,960
Speaker 4: They do, and I you know, I was endorsed by them,

1008
00:48:24,960 --> 00:48:27,040
Speaker 4: and they helped get me elected. Why I brought up

1009
00:48:27,080 --> 00:48:33,160
Speaker 4: the fighting piece. There are promises made in the Constitution

1010
00:48:33,960 --> 00:48:36,840
Speaker 4: to the people who step on the soil of this country.

1011
00:48:37,680 --> 00:48:43,640
Speaker 4: And are you just going to let folks control all

1012
00:48:43,680 --> 00:48:47,920
Speaker 4: that we have worked for, including our tax base, how

1013
00:48:47,960 --> 00:48:51,640
Speaker 4: our schools are run, what poor people are allowed to eat,

1014
00:48:52,440 --> 00:48:55,920
Speaker 4: who goes to war, and when you know, I just

1015
00:48:55,920 --> 00:48:58,840
Speaker 4: say hell no, Like I'm well, I buried my husband

1016
00:48:58,880 --> 00:49:02,600
Speaker 4: who died of cancer. I'm raising two children by myself.

1017
00:49:02,960 --> 00:49:04,640
Speaker 4: You know, I am not wealthy. I'm one of the

1018
00:49:04,640 --> 00:49:07,080
Speaker 4: few people in Congress. I don't own a house. I

1019
00:49:07,200 --> 00:49:10,560
Speaker 4: rent on by the way, a very loud street these days.

1020
00:49:10,280 --> 00:49:12,080
Speaker 3: So I have mercy.

1021
00:49:12,360 --> 00:49:14,680
Speaker 4: I'm like, whoa goodness, we need to get a lot.

1022
00:49:14,719 --> 00:49:16,840
Speaker 4: There needs to be a lot for folks who are struggling.

1023
00:49:19,400 --> 00:49:21,920
Speaker 4: I believe that you have to hold people to account.

1024
00:49:22,400 --> 00:49:25,120
Speaker 4: And so if I'm going to hold the Constitution to account,

1025
00:49:25,160 --> 00:49:28,279
Speaker 4: if I'm going to hold the republic to account, It's

1026
00:49:28,280 --> 00:49:31,120
Speaker 4: not just about making the Democratic Party better or making

1027
00:49:31,160 --> 00:49:34,520
Speaker 4: the Republicans eat their words. It's about ensuring that a

1028
00:49:34,680 --> 00:49:38,120
Speaker 4: child with cancer in her second stage of her clinical

1029
00:49:38,200 --> 00:49:40,640
Speaker 4: trial that the funding continues so she can live.

1030
00:49:40,960 --> 00:49:41,160
Speaker 3: Right.

1031
00:49:41,239 --> 00:49:44,920
Speaker 4: It's like, I don't really care if the leadership of

1032
00:49:44,960 --> 00:49:49,560
Speaker 4: the Democratic Party they're going to vote yes on more

1033
00:49:49,640 --> 00:49:52,680
Speaker 4: weapons to countries that won't stand in front of the

1034
00:49:52,760 --> 00:49:55,920
Speaker 4: United Nations. I know what I'm about to do, and

1035
00:49:55,960 --> 00:49:58,200
Speaker 4: my vote is as good as theirs. And if I

1036
00:49:58,200 --> 00:50:02,759
Speaker 4: can continue, you know, again being honest about where I am,

1037
00:50:02,800 --> 00:50:05,120
Speaker 4: where we are as a country where we are as

1038
00:50:05,120 --> 00:50:08,960
Speaker 4: a district and push against the leadership of whatever party

1039
00:50:09,280 --> 00:50:10,120
Speaker 4: when they're not doing.

1040
00:50:10,000 --> 00:50:10,400
Speaker 3: The right thing.

1041
00:50:10,440 --> 00:50:12,960
Speaker 4: I'm doing my job, and so I don't want to

1042
00:50:13,000 --> 00:50:16,280
Speaker 4: be an organizer or a legislator that is just menacing

1043
00:50:16,480 --> 00:50:18,640
Speaker 4: about what we're not going to do. I have been

1044
00:50:18,680 --> 00:50:22,919
Speaker 4: effective because you move with heart, you move with heart,

1045
00:50:22,960 --> 00:50:25,560
Speaker 4: and so yes, I meet with people every single day

1046
00:50:25,600 --> 00:50:28,400
Speaker 4: who don't believe that I am human, or that the

1047
00:50:28,840 --> 00:50:31,520
Speaker 4: people of the Sudan deserve another chance, or that the

1048
00:50:31,560 --> 00:50:35,600
Speaker 4: folks in Palestine should live in their homes in the

1049
00:50:35,640 --> 00:50:39,960
Speaker 4: West Bank. But that's my job, is to be across

1050
00:50:39,960 --> 00:50:44,160
Speaker 4: folks where we do get out using diplomacy instead of guns,

1051
00:50:44,200 --> 00:50:47,360
Speaker 4: instead of wars. And I'm so proud actually to be

1052
00:50:47,440 --> 00:50:49,719
Speaker 4: a part of a party that is pro choice, that

1053
00:50:49,840 --> 00:50:53,279
Speaker 4: is wrangling with its own morality in this moment, and

1054
00:50:53,320 --> 00:50:56,560
Speaker 4: I'm hoping that I am on the deepest side of

1055
00:50:56,600 --> 00:50:57,760
Speaker 4: that moral curve.

1056
00:50:57,880 --> 00:51:00,479
Speaker 1: All right, So I can't as you go talking about

1057
00:51:00,480 --> 00:51:01,560
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court.

1058
00:51:04,000 --> 00:51:05,680
Speaker 2: So there's so many things to talk about.

1059
00:51:05,719 --> 00:51:07,120
Speaker 3: The sprem I am just when you just say it,

1060
00:51:07,160 --> 00:51:08,840
Speaker 3: just I'm so pissed off.

1061
00:51:09,080 --> 00:51:12,960
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, it's so devastating. Continue your question, right, when

1062
00:51:13,000 --> 00:51:13,880
Speaker 4: you said the Supreme.

1063
00:51:13,600 --> 00:51:14,239
Speaker 2: Court, I do know.

1064
00:51:14,600 --> 00:51:18,759
Speaker 1: But the and like they started gutting the voting Voting

1065
00:51:18,800 --> 00:51:20,760
Speaker 1: Rights Act, I think in twenty thirteen was the first.

1066
00:51:20,840 --> 00:51:24,800
Speaker 1: And then but to this next step which really guts

1067
00:51:24,800 --> 00:51:29,719
Speaker 1: the Voting Rights Act. It is so anti American, it's

1068
00:51:29,760 --> 00:51:33,440
Speaker 1: so racist, it's so pro white supremacy as it is,

1069
00:51:33,480 --> 00:51:37,200
Speaker 1: it's so all these things. How did it feel? And

1070
00:51:37,280 --> 00:51:39,160
Speaker 1: what do we do?

1071
00:51:39,200 --> 00:51:43,680
Speaker 3: You know? No, we tell the truth. We tell the truth.

1072
00:51:43,760 --> 00:51:46,040
Speaker 4: We cannot depend on the Court right now to keep

1073
00:51:46,080 --> 00:51:49,640
Speaker 4: our people safe, to keep our environment safe, to keep

1074
00:51:49,680 --> 00:51:52,400
Speaker 4: the air safe. It's important that we know that. So

1075
00:51:52,480 --> 00:51:55,000
Speaker 4: like defining the problem the Supreme Court, it's not the

1076
00:51:55,080 --> 00:51:57,720
Speaker 4: Roberts Court, it's the Trump Court, Okay. And the Trump

1077
00:51:57,760 --> 00:52:00,239
Speaker 4: Court is hell been on bringing us back to a

1078
00:52:00,320 --> 00:52:01,160
Speaker 4: Jim Crow South.

1079
00:52:01,440 --> 00:52:02,120
Speaker 3: It's hell been.

1080
00:52:02,200 --> 00:52:06,040
Speaker 4: And it has taken the bodily autonomy away from young

1081
00:52:06,080 --> 00:52:08,440
Speaker 4: women and girls in terms of their abortion rights and

1082
00:52:08,480 --> 00:52:13,080
Speaker 4: their reproductive health rights. The administration is extremely clear on

1083
00:52:13,120 --> 00:52:15,839
Speaker 4: how they view women and disabled people. Okay, So now

1084
00:52:15,960 --> 00:52:20,239
Speaker 4: our north star to me, there's a couple mechanical ways.

1085
00:52:19,920 --> 00:52:21,960
Speaker 3: That we can move forward.

1086
00:52:22,360 --> 00:52:24,880
Speaker 4: Let's agree that we either need to expand the court

1087
00:52:25,040 --> 00:52:28,160
Speaker 4: not just because we don't agree with what they're doing.

1088
00:52:28,239 --> 00:52:30,080
Speaker 3: I think we need court reform all around.

1089
00:52:30,320 --> 00:52:33,319
Speaker 4: Why do these fools get lifetime jobs against like it's

1090
00:52:33,719 --> 00:52:37,120
Speaker 4: like a lifetime nobody gets a lifetime job when you

1091
00:52:37,719 --> 00:52:39,960
Speaker 4: every day and we show, and they've been showing, not

1092
00:52:40,040 --> 00:52:42,200
Speaker 4: just with the decision to gut the voting rights sack,

1093
00:52:42,440 --> 00:52:46,640
Speaker 4: but day after day they are maligning Americans and folks

1094
00:52:46,640 --> 00:52:51,120
Speaker 4: who are on the margins. Where's your evaluation right? If

1095
00:52:51,120 --> 00:52:53,840
Speaker 4: the President of the United States has to run every

1096
00:52:53,880 --> 00:52:57,480
Speaker 4: four years, they get to put in place folks who

1097
00:52:58,040 --> 00:53:02,200
Speaker 4: get to do have no accountability system. And again, I

1098
00:53:02,239 --> 00:53:07,000
Speaker 4: think our Constitution has always been up for revision. That's

1099
00:53:07,000 --> 00:53:09,800
Speaker 4: why we have the amendment structure. And so I'm hoping

1100
00:53:09,840 --> 00:53:12,759
Speaker 4: that we can expand the court and that we find

1101
00:53:12,760 --> 00:53:15,680
Speaker 4: new ways to hold the Supreme Court accountable. They are

1102
00:53:15,760 --> 00:53:20,400
Speaker 4: leading this country into the mud. But listen, it's not

1103
00:53:20,600 --> 00:53:23,960
Speaker 4: enough to just say, you know, the Court is horrible,

1104
00:53:24,120 --> 00:53:27,440
Speaker 4: the Trump Court is horrible, the President is ridiculous, the

1105
00:53:27,480 --> 00:53:33,399
Speaker 4: Democrats are they're out of touch, the Republicans are clansmen. No,

1106
00:53:34,000 --> 00:53:37,480
Speaker 4: there's over twenty states right now where women can't access

1107
00:53:37,520 --> 00:53:40,440
Speaker 4: the right to abortion. We have to create underground railroads.

1108
00:53:40,480 --> 00:53:42,960
Speaker 4: We have to ensure that our college and universities. We're

1109
00:53:42,960 --> 00:53:46,000
Speaker 4: holding our presidents to account, to say, stop sending the

1110
00:53:46,120 --> 00:53:50,320
Speaker 4: names of protesters to this evil DJ from the courts

1111
00:53:50,640 --> 00:53:54,080
Speaker 4: to every single department within the administration, and I'm clumping

1112
00:53:54,080 --> 00:53:56,080
Speaker 4: the courts even though they're supposed to be a dual

1113
00:53:56,560 --> 00:54:00,719
Speaker 4: form of government, they're run by the Trump administration. I

1114
00:54:00,719 --> 00:54:03,520
Speaker 4: don't think we stop. I don't think we stop our organizing.

1115
00:54:03,680 --> 00:54:07,360
Speaker 4: I don't think we stop caring for our folks. We will,

1116
00:54:07,480 --> 00:54:11,719
Speaker 4: hopefully you and I and our children be here on

1117
00:54:11,800 --> 00:54:15,160
Speaker 4: earth when we get this republic right. There has never

1118
00:54:15,200 --> 00:54:17,360
Speaker 4: been a time where black folks have said, oh we

1119
00:54:17,480 --> 00:54:21,480
Speaker 4: can chill, things are okay. Never ever, whether you be

1120
00:54:21,520 --> 00:54:23,600
Speaker 4: Democrat or republic, if you're on the right side of

1121
00:54:23,680 --> 00:54:26,480
Speaker 4: humanity and the republic, you'll continue to try to make

1122
00:54:26,520 --> 00:54:30,319
Speaker 4: government better. Remember this is an experiment. This republic is

1123
00:54:30,400 --> 00:54:33,759
Speaker 4: very very young, and we have to keep pushing it

1124
00:54:33,840 --> 00:54:37,400
Speaker 4: to hold itself accountable, shining a mirror to it is

1125
00:54:38,120 --> 00:54:41,080
Speaker 4: the job of not just the elected, but of the citizen.

1126
00:54:41,160 --> 00:54:44,440
Speaker 4: The most powerful thing you can do in this country.

1127
00:54:44,480 --> 00:54:48,360
Speaker 3: I mean the floor last week in Congress.

1128
00:54:48,920 --> 00:54:51,200
Speaker 4: It's a couple of weeks ago, I should say there

1129
00:54:51,239 --> 00:54:53,719
Speaker 4: was a war Powers resolution on the floor.

1130
00:54:53,760 --> 00:54:55,000
Speaker 3: It lost by one vote.

1131
00:54:55,440 --> 00:54:58,600
Speaker 4: One vote, it would have not ascended to the Senate,

1132
00:55:00,640 --> 00:55:02,920
Speaker 4: and this war and Iron might have been stopped in

1133
00:55:02,960 --> 00:55:06,000
Speaker 4: its cold feet. But one vote elections have consequences, so

1134
00:55:06,040 --> 00:55:06,920
Speaker 4: we do need to vote.

1135
00:55:07,520 --> 00:55:10,520
Speaker 1: Okay, on that, on that token, on that, on that,

1136
00:55:10,600 --> 00:55:14,120
Speaker 1: on that point. Give the people watching some homework.

1137
00:55:14,680 --> 00:55:16,160
Speaker 3: Oh my god, so much homework.

1138
00:55:17,840 --> 00:55:21,440
Speaker 1: You talked about your high level of education, So Professor Simon.

1139
00:55:21,880 --> 00:55:24,000
Speaker 3: Let's talk about the high level of education. Listen.

1140
00:55:24,200 --> 00:55:27,120
Speaker 4: It took me twelve years to finish undergrad Hey, and

1141
00:55:27,160 --> 00:55:30,680
Speaker 4: so I'm paying that every month. I'm looking at that

1142
00:55:30,680 --> 00:55:31,759
Speaker 4: that one bill and then.

1143
00:55:31,680 --> 00:55:32,640
Speaker 3: The second bill I went.

1144
00:55:32,680 --> 00:55:36,440
Speaker 4: I got a policy degree from the University of San Francisco,

1145
00:55:36,719 --> 00:55:38,120
Speaker 4: and that was just two years ago.

1146
00:55:38,200 --> 00:55:39,120
Speaker 3: I spent my whole life.

1147
00:55:39,160 --> 00:55:43,200
Speaker 4: I feel like in a classroom, right and right, Professor,

1148
00:55:43,680 --> 00:55:46,000
Speaker 4: I got to get that PhD at some point. I

1149
00:55:46,080 --> 00:55:50,919
Speaker 4: love I love sharing ideas the homework to me. Turn

1150
00:55:51,000 --> 00:55:53,759
Speaker 4: off your TVs. Okay, I stopped watching the news.

1151
00:55:54,120 --> 00:55:55,600
Speaker 2: Oh you stop watching the news.

1152
00:55:55,960 --> 00:55:57,839
Speaker 3: I read it now. Okay, I read it now.

1153
00:55:57,880 --> 00:56:02,280
Speaker 4: Because the infotainment of the twenty four hour news cycle.

1154
00:56:03,080 --> 00:56:04,400
Speaker 3: It ain't cool. You don't know.

1155
00:56:05,360 --> 00:56:09,440
Speaker 4: It's so much conversation and dialogue and less analysis, And

1156
00:56:09,480 --> 00:56:13,840
Speaker 4: I feel like the homework should be in this moment again,

1157
00:56:13,920 --> 00:56:17,320
Speaker 4: understanding what's happening in the world. So our local papers,

1158
00:56:17,560 --> 00:56:19,319
Speaker 4: there's a few of them, but they're good. You can

1159
00:56:19,360 --> 00:56:21,839
Speaker 4: read those on your phone. But the infotainment will drive

1160
00:56:21,840 --> 00:56:23,839
Speaker 4: you crazy. The twenty four hour news cycle. It's more

1161
00:56:23,880 --> 00:56:26,920
Speaker 4: opinion than fact these days. I think the most important

1162
00:56:26,920 --> 00:56:29,160
Speaker 4: homework to do in this moment is to get ready

1163
00:56:29,160 --> 00:56:32,600
Speaker 4: to vote in your next primary in every state in

1164
00:56:32,680 --> 00:56:35,680
Speaker 4: the Union. I don't know what Louisiana gonna do, but

1165
00:56:35,960 --> 00:56:39,400
Speaker 4: we have to win the midterms because I don't care

1166
00:56:39,480 --> 00:56:42,799
Speaker 4: if you vote read If you hate black people and

1167
00:56:42,920 --> 00:56:47,160
Speaker 4: trans people, your grandmother is going to be kicked out

1168
00:56:47,200 --> 00:56:50,640
Speaker 4: of her nursing home, okay, Right, Like you're not going

1169
00:56:50,680 --> 00:56:52,680
Speaker 4: to be able to get healthcare when you need it

1170
00:56:52,960 --> 00:56:55,960
Speaker 4: if you're in a union. There is a great push

1171
00:56:56,400 --> 00:56:58,080
Speaker 4: to deunionize the country.

1172
00:56:58,239 --> 00:56:58,399
Speaker 2: Right.

1173
00:56:58,880 --> 00:57:02,359
Speaker 4: If your daughter is right, and she lives in half

1174
00:57:02,360 --> 00:57:04,359
Speaker 4: of the states in this country, she will not have

1175
00:57:04,480 --> 00:57:07,319
Speaker 4: access to reproductive health care. She will not have a

1176
00:57:07,440 --> 00:57:09,520
Speaker 4: choice but to carry the child of her rapist.

1177
00:57:09,560 --> 00:57:10,120
Speaker 3: I can go on.

1178
00:57:10,239 --> 00:57:13,960
Speaker 4: I mean it's sounding nasty and hard course, but the

1179
00:57:13,960 --> 00:57:17,080
Speaker 4: thing about the vote in this moment.

1180
00:57:16,840 --> 00:57:18,960
Speaker 3: You get to hire and fire some folks.

1181
00:57:19,400 --> 00:57:22,520
Speaker 4: So if you don't have the opportunity to manage in

1182
00:57:22,560 --> 00:57:26,000
Speaker 4: your own life, well you have it this year. You

1183
00:57:26,040 --> 00:57:29,480
Speaker 4: can manage. You can manage the corporation of the United States,

1184
00:57:29,520 --> 00:57:32,400
Speaker 4: which is to me, the federal government. They owe your

1185
00:57:32,400 --> 00:57:35,800
Speaker 4: social Security if you have worked again. If you have cancer,

1186
00:57:35,920 --> 00:57:38,360
Speaker 4: I want you to be able to get treatment. I

1187
00:57:38,440 --> 00:57:41,440
Speaker 4: want you to have research on your side. I want

1188
00:57:41,640 --> 00:57:43,880
Speaker 4: for that mother who is working and going, you know,

1189
00:57:44,000 --> 00:57:47,320
Speaker 4: to college at night, to be able to have affordable

1190
00:57:47,360 --> 00:57:51,280
Speaker 4: daycare in the morning. So yes, start reading your news

1191
00:57:51,320 --> 00:57:53,320
Speaker 4: if you have you know the wherewithal to do that.

1192
00:57:53,360 --> 00:57:56,520
Speaker 4: But more importantly, let's step back and think about the

1193
00:57:56,520 --> 00:58:01,320
Speaker 4: world that we want. The world that North Star be

1194
00:58:01,400 --> 00:58:04,560
Speaker 4: good to people. You know, Once I was at a

1195
00:58:04,600 --> 00:58:06,680
Speaker 4: forum with Barbara Lee, and it was before I was

1196
00:58:06,680 --> 00:58:09,840
Speaker 4: even on the BART board. We were talking about women

1197
00:58:09,920 --> 00:58:12,840
Speaker 4: in politics and I had been doing political organizing and

1198
00:58:12,840 --> 00:58:15,160
Speaker 4: so miss League when she was in Congress, she invited

1199
00:58:15,200 --> 00:58:17,280
Speaker 4: me and some other folks. It was a school somewhere

1200
00:58:17,280 --> 00:58:20,200
Speaker 4: in the district and a little girl. She was about,

1201
00:58:20,280 --> 00:58:22,280
Speaker 4: you know, maybe in the sixth grade, and she asked,

1202
00:58:22,920 --> 00:58:26,880
Speaker 4: I want to run for office, And Barbara miss Lee said,

1203
00:58:27,320 --> 00:58:29,840
Speaker 4: I want you to volunteer at a childcare center first.

1204
00:58:30,040 --> 00:58:32,439
Speaker 4: I want you to think about serving first. I want

1205
00:58:32,440 --> 00:58:34,800
Speaker 4: you to work with people first. I want you to

1206
00:58:34,800 --> 00:58:37,600
Speaker 4: make sure the elderly person next door to you has food,

1207
00:58:38,120 --> 00:58:40,800
Speaker 4: Invite them to dinner. So how we take care of

1208
00:58:40,840 --> 00:58:44,400
Speaker 4: our selves during times of war? How we take care

1209
00:58:44,440 --> 00:58:46,840
Speaker 4: of ourselves when gas is six dollars and your neighbor

1210
00:58:46,920 --> 00:58:48,960
Speaker 4: might not be able to get to childcare the next day?

1211
00:58:49,800 --> 00:58:53,240
Speaker 4: We can turn off the TV, fill ourselves with culture,

1212
00:58:54,200 --> 00:58:56,960
Speaker 4: read the news, but more importantly, be good to each

1213
00:58:56,960 --> 00:58:59,200
Speaker 4: other and organize and let's vote, and let's get these

1214
00:58:59,240 --> 00:59:00,440
Speaker 4: bastards out of.

1215
00:59:00,520 --> 00:59:03,840
Speaker 1: All right, ask everybody to sort of relate to this.

1216
00:59:03,960 --> 00:59:06,200
Speaker 1: If there's some cause they want people to support, to

1217
00:59:06,320 --> 00:59:08,680
Speaker 1: know more about, is that yours?

1218
00:59:08,720 --> 00:59:09,000
Speaker 3: Okay?

1219
00:59:09,240 --> 00:59:15,800
Speaker 4: So here's what I really realized in my own advocacy

1220
00:59:15,800 --> 00:59:18,720
Speaker 4: that I could do a better job with. I've been

1221
00:59:18,720 --> 00:59:23,280
Speaker 4: working on criminal justice reform, education again, poverty work, trying

1222
00:59:23,280 --> 00:59:25,520
Speaker 4: to get more people involved again in the voting process,

1223
00:59:25,680 --> 00:59:28,560
Speaker 4: I mean, you name it. Working at the intersection of disability,

1224
00:59:28,680 --> 00:59:31,760
Speaker 4: justice and transit work, things that have really sort of

1225
00:59:31,800 --> 00:59:37,000
Speaker 4: fed my heart. But you know, during the shutdown, I

1226
00:59:37,040 --> 00:59:40,720
Speaker 4: started doing work around food and security and spending a

1227
00:59:40,720 --> 00:59:45,640
Speaker 4: lot of time at the food bank and going around

1228
00:59:45,640 --> 00:59:49,840
Speaker 4: the city and seeing all the distribution spots where folks

1229
00:59:49,840 --> 00:59:52,760
Speaker 4: are taking food, bringing them to community organizations and seeing

1230
00:59:52,760 --> 00:59:56,160
Speaker 4: the lines of folks lining up for fresh food and

1231
00:59:56,280 --> 00:59:59,760
Speaker 4: vegetables in my district, in one of the wealthiest regions

1232
00:59:59,760 --> 01:00:00,560
Speaker 4: in world.

1233
01:00:02,320 --> 01:00:03,680
Speaker 3: We have to take care of each other.

1234
01:00:04,120 --> 01:00:06,680
Speaker 4: So when I can, I can pick a number of

1235
01:00:06,920 --> 01:00:10,160
Speaker 4: NGOs that are all doing great work, go to those

1236
01:00:10,360 --> 01:00:14,000
Speaker 4: NGOs and volunteer and we can give money. But even

1237
01:00:14,160 --> 01:00:16,480
Speaker 4: in these times, folks are sleeping on the concrete and

1238
01:00:16,520 --> 01:00:20,720
Speaker 4: standing in line, uh in the breadline. And our food

1239
01:00:20,720 --> 01:00:23,440
Speaker 4: banks are one easy way where you can volunteer and

1240
01:00:23,480 --> 01:00:26,000
Speaker 4: really support folks in your community. But let's take care

1241
01:00:26,040 --> 01:00:27,960
Speaker 4: of each other to fight back. So when we win,

1242
01:00:28,400 --> 01:00:31,400
Speaker 4: we have to have full bellies to create the world that.

1243
01:00:31,400 --> 01:00:32,919
Speaker 2: We want to do for sure. For sure.

1244
01:00:33,000 --> 01:00:35,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, So there's I've done work with the Alamey County

1245
01:00:35,680 --> 01:00:39,840
Speaker 1: Community Food Bank here in the Bay Area, and also

1246
01:00:39,920 --> 01:00:41,640
Speaker 1: I know feeding America dot Com will let you know

1247
01:00:41,680 --> 01:00:42,720
Speaker 1: where the food banks.

1248
01:00:42,480 --> 01:00:45,640
Speaker 2: Are in your area, so it's and they love a volunteer.

1249
01:00:45,720 --> 01:00:47,520
Speaker 3: That's right. Love, you got to bag those carrots. I

1250
01:00:47,560 --> 01:00:49,160
Speaker 3: was backing carrots out there.

1251
01:00:49,920 --> 01:00:52,680
Speaker 1: My last question is the easy one. If the podcast

1252
01:00:52,760 --> 01:00:53,480
Speaker 1: is called Who's with me?

1253
01:00:53,560 --> 01:00:54,080
Speaker 2: Are you with me?

1254
01:00:54,440 --> 01:00:57,080
Speaker 3: I am with you, Kamal, I am with you all

1255
01:00:57,160 --> 01:00:58,360
Speaker 3: the way. Let's be working.

1256
01:00:58,560 --> 01:01:00,000
Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you, this is great.

1257
01:01:00,400 --> 01:01:01,320
Speaker 3: I love you very much.

1258
01:01:01,400 --> 01:01:02,480
Speaker 1: Oh and the last thing I got to say, I

1259
01:01:02,480 --> 01:01:04,400
Speaker 1: really I didn't say this, and hopefully we're still recording.

1260
01:01:05,000 --> 01:01:07,920
Speaker 1: Thank you for saying my name on the floor. My

1261
01:01:08,040 --> 01:01:10,920
Speaker 1: dad was so proud of me. After the celebrity Jeopardy win,

1262
01:01:11,080 --> 01:01:11,840
Speaker 1: you better win.

1263
01:01:11,760 --> 01:01:12,800
Speaker 3: Some other stuff so I could.

1264
01:01:13,360 --> 01:01:16,920
Speaker 4: So every week we tried to illuminate someone from the district,

1265
01:01:17,240 --> 01:01:19,760
Speaker 4: and you were. We just started the program that can

1266
01:01:19,840 --> 01:01:21,920
Speaker 4: stitch you another week and I said, let's start.

1267
01:01:21,720 --> 01:01:24,480
Speaker 3: With come Out. It was awesome.

1268
01:01:25,280 --> 01:01:27,520
Speaker 2: I mean the fact that that happened, and I.

1269
01:01:27,560 --> 01:01:31,320
Speaker 4: Just it's in the congressional record forever. But one thing

1270
01:01:31,360 --> 01:01:34,800
Speaker 4: I will say, you started off giving me flowers. I'm

1271
01:01:34,840 --> 01:01:37,240
Speaker 4: so happy that you stay here. You could easily be

1272
01:01:37,320 --> 01:01:40,000
Speaker 4: in the midst of LA and you're raising your babies here.

1273
01:01:40,440 --> 01:01:43,440
Speaker 4: And your wife. You're all coming out as a family

1274
01:01:43,680 --> 01:01:47,080
Speaker 4: all the time to all of these community and youth events.

1275
01:01:48,040 --> 01:01:51,160
Speaker 4: It's really beautiful like to have you here with all

1276
01:01:51,240 --> 01:01:52,040
Speaker 4: that you represent.

1277
01:01:53,400 --> 01:01:55,000
Speaker 3: I'm so lucky. We're so lucky.

1278
01:01:55,080 --> 01:01:57,240
Speaker 2: Well, thank you, you make it easy. So thank you

1279
01:01:57,320 --> 01:01:57,760
Speaker 2: very much.

1280
01:02:00,280 --> 01:02:00,680
Speaker 3: Speaker.

1281
01:02:00,840 --> 01:02:04,600
Speaker 4: Today, I rise to address the house to celebrate my

1282
01:02:04,800 --> 01:02:12,560
Speaker 4: constituent w camal Bell, who won Celebrity Jeopardy. It's a

1283
01:02:12,640 --> 01:02:16,520
Speaker 4: pretty cool thing. Not only did he win Celebrity Jeopardy.

1284
01:02:17,720 --> 01:02:20,560
Speaker 4: As a constituent who's lived in my district in Oakland,

1285
01:02:20,600 --> 01:02:26,160
Speaker 4: California since the nineteen nineties, he's consistently given back philanthropically

1286
01:02:26,440 --> 01:02:31,800
Speaker 4: to young people and underserved communities again for almost thirty years.

1287
01:02:32,240 --> 01:02:37,760
Speaker 4: After winning Celebrity Jeopardy. Just recently, he gave a million

1288
01:02:37,880 --> 01:02:43,760
Speaker 4: dollars the full winnings back to community, specifically to the

1289
01:02:43,760 --> 01:02:47,280
Speaker 4: school district in Oakland, California. His donation has supported over

1290
01:02:47,280 --> 01:02:50,800
Speaker 4: two hundred projects in Oakland schools, including Castlemont High School.

1291
01:02:50,880 --> 01:02:52,680
Speaker 3: Just recently, I visited.

1292
01:02:52,360 --> 01:02:55,880
Speaker 4: Castlemont High School and met with these amazing students who

1293
01:02:55,880 --> 01:02:58,880
Speaker 4: are full of potential. These students are not only the future,

1294
01:02:58,960 --> 01:03:02,200
Speaker 4: they are the now. Many teachers across our school districts

1295
01:03:02,200 --> 01:03:04,520
Speaker 4: in my district and throughout the country are going out

1296
01:03:04,520 --> 01:03:07,480
Speaker 4: of their own pockets to buy support services for students

1297
01:03:07,480 --> 01:03:13,040
Speaker 4: and their own supplies. Comals philanthropic spirit will reduce that

1298
01:03:13,120 --> 01:03:15,720
Speaker 4: reality for our teachers. And I am so proud to

1299
01:03:15,800 --> 01:03:19,080
Speaker 4: call him not only my constituent, but a leading voice

1300
01:03:19,800 --> 01:03:20,720
Speaker 4: in the United States.

1301
01:03:20,760 --> 01:03:21,440
Speaker 3: Thank you so much.

1302
01:03:21,480 --> 01:03:29,200
Speaker 1: Comel So again, that was Congresswoman Latifa Simon. An incredible conversation.

1303
01:03:29,360 --> 01:03:30,840
Speaker 1: I love that she's in my life. I love that

1304
01:03:30,920 --> 01:03:33,320
Speaker 1: she's in my kids' lives. I love that they feel

1305
01:03:33,320 --> 01:03:35,320
Speaker 1: like they know they're Congresswoman. It's such an honor to

1306
01:03:35,400 --> 01:03:38,080
Speaker 1: know her. At the end, she talked about food insecurity,

1307
01:03:38,440 --> 01:03:41,400
Speaker 1: So the shout out some organizations if you're in Oakland,

1308
01:03:41,640 --> 01:03:44,320
Speaker 1: the Alamina County Community Food Bank. I've been there. It's

1309
01:03:44,360 --> 01:03:48,040
Speaker 1: an amazing organization. It's super friendly and fun to go there. Weirdly,

1310
01:03:48,040 --> 01:03:50,120
Speaker 1: you would think it might be I don't know. I

1311
01:03:50,120 --> 01:03:52,720
Speaker 1: get nervous when thinking about going places new and volunteering

1312
01:03:52,720 --> 01:03:54,480
Speaker 1: my time. But they are easy to work with. So

1313
01:03:54,480 --> 01:03:57,600
Speaker 1: you can go to their website ACCFB dot org and

1314
01:03:57,640 --> 01:03:59,120
Speaker 1: if you're in the Bay area, you can sign up

1315
01:03:59,160 --> 01:04:01,200
Speaker 1: to go volunteer to directly, or if you're not in

1316
01:04:01,200 --> 01:04:02,760
Speaker 1: the Bay Area or you just want to donate some money,

1317
01:04:02,760 --> 01:04:03,840
Speaker 1: you can do that, or if you're in the Beyer

1318
01:04:03,840 --> 01:04:06,080
Speaker 1: you can drop off food. But again, this is not

1319
01:04:06,120 --> 01:04:08,120
Speaker 1: just about the Bay Area. Also, you can go to

1320
01:04:08,240 --> 01:04:11,000
Speaker 1: Feedingamerica dot org to find out the food bank in

1321
01:04:11,040 --> 01:04:13,880
Speaker 1: your area that you can volunteer with or donate money

1322
01:04:13,960 --> 01:04:17,000
Speaker 1: or food too. There's no reason anybody should go to

1323
01:04:17,040 --> 01:04:19,520
Speaker 1: sleep hungry in this country. There's no reason anybody should

1324
01:04:19,560 --> 01:04:21,320
Speaker 1: wake up hungry and not be able to solve that

1325
01:04:21,400 --> 01:04:24,040
Speaker 1: real quickly. We have all the resources we need well

1326
01:04:24,120 --> 01:04:26,160
Speaker 1: right now, we got to help and do it ourselves

1327
01:04:26,240 --> 01:04:29,280
Speaker 1: until we get our government right again. So please support

1328
01:04:29,280 --> 01:04:32,600
Speaker 1: your local food bank and support this podcast. Shout out

1329
01:04:32,640 --> 01:04:34,880
Speaker 1: to the MK Lab here in San Diego for letting

1330
01:04:34,920 --> 01:04:38,920
Speaker 1: me record this here. Shout out to Skyline Studios in Oakland,

1331
01:04:38,920 --> 01:04:41,120
Speaker 1: where I had the conversation with the chief assignment, and

1332
01:04:41,400 --> 01:04:44,240
Speaker 1: shout out to Rabbergrant Productions who's producing this with me

1333
01:04:44,400 --> 01:04:47,680
Speaker 1: and my production company who knows best productions. And also

1334
01:04:47,760 --> 01:04:50,640
Speaker 1: shout out to Pushkin Industries who's put me on their

1335
01:04:51,200 --> 01:04:52,160
Speaker 1: network of podcasts.

1336
01:04:52,240 --> 01:04:52,880
Speaker 2: I appreciate it.

1337
01:04:52,920 --> 01:04:55,280
Speaker 1: Shout out to you please do the thing I've seen

1338
01:04:55,320 --> 01:04:58,520
Speaker 1: people do on YouTube forever. I've seen people say this

1339
01:04:58,560 --> 01:05:02,480
Speaker 1: for a long time, like subscribe, vibe, share, rate, thumbs up,

1340
01:05:02,800 --> 01:05:04,800
Speaker 1: whatever you gotta do. And if you're rating it on

1341
01:05:04,840 --> 01:05:06,760
Speaker 1: a star system, just give us five. It will just

1342
01:05:06,800 --> 01:05:08,960
Speaker 1: help us boost us through the algorithm. You can be

1343
01:05:08,960 --> 01:05:11,160
Speaker 1: critical in the comment, but just give us five stars.

1344
01:05:11,280 --> 01:05:13,240
Speaker 1: We're getting better at this and the guests coming up

1345
01:05:13,240 --> 01:05:16,440
Speaker 1: are amazing. Next week we have actor Ted Danson and

1346
01:05:16,480 --> 01:05:18,680
Speaker 1: I'll give you a little review. He tells the story

1347
01:05:18,720 --> 01:05:23,560
Speaker 1: from his past that some people only found out very recently.

1348
01:05:23,600 --> 01:05:25,840
Speaker 1: But he retells the story from his past about his

1349
01:05:26,240 --> 01:05:29,280
Speaker 1: I gues say his most controversial moment. It's an amazing episode.

1350
01:05:30,120 --> 01:05:31,280
Speaker 1: Check it out. Thank you?

1351
01:05:31,840 --> 01:05:32,440
Speaker 2: Are you with me?