Speaker 1: What's up, family, I'm to make a demon Mallory and
Speaker 1: we are your host of the greatest podcast in the world,
Speaker 1: Street Politicians, The Place Politics Me. Wow, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm I don't want to talk long because we've got
Speaker 1: a lot of information to pack into this episode. I
Speaker 1: have been under the most pressure to decide out of
Speaker 1: candidates that I think are just okay. I'm not. I'm
Speaker 1: not blown away by any of the candidates running for
Speaker 1: mayor in New York City. I think there are some
Speaker 1: that are better than others. Um, but I don't necessarily
Speaker 1: feel like anyone is really speaking directly and impactfully to
Speaker 1: the issues I care about in a way that motivates me.
Speaker 1: I what I hear are people who have potential, great potential.
Speaker 1: But sometimes I get tired of being behind people with potential.
Speaker 1: And that's just my truth, and I tell them all
Speaker 1: that directly. I'm under a lot of pressure right now.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of stress to decide who will be
Speaker 1: in my top five ranking because New York, as you know,
Speaker 1: we now have the uh what is it, the ranked
Speaker 1: choice voting process, which means we get to rank five
Speaker 1: people and I gotta do that. So I'm feeling a
Speaker 1: little stressed out. How you feel I'm feeling all right, man.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a lot of a lot of different people,
Speaker 1: you know, that I'm interested in. Like you said, there's
Speaker 1: no one candidate that stands out like I like Isaac right,
Speaker 1: just understanding because we have kind of like similar background.
Speaker 1: Ray Maguire is somebody, you know. Maya is somebody that
Speaker 1: I'm paying attention to. And I'm just you know, I'm
Speaker 1: listening to all out of these different candidates, and I'm,
Speaker 1: like you said, it's not one person that completely that.
Speaker 1: It's not so much that one person. I feel just
Speaker 1: I don't know if they're capable of doing everything that
Speaker 1: they say they can do. So you know, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: I'm up in the air. So you know, this ring
Speaker 1: choice fold it might be good for me because I
Speaker 1: can list a couple and see, you know, and just
Speaker 1: and wish for the best. At this point, we we
Speaker 1: this system that we have already is not really working
Speaker 1: to me, I guess so, and that's not you know,
Speaker 1: and imagine if we people who are politically inclined, um,
Speaker 1: you know, feel this way, imagine how a lot of
Speaker 1: other folks feel. So that's just how I'm that's that's
Speaker 1: what's going on with me and today is that I have,
Speaker 1: you know, about a day before I have to publicly
Speaker 1: state all the folks that I'm supporting across the city
Speaker 1: of New York, state of emergency in your book what
Speaker 1: you mean your book behind you? I see state statecy
Speaker 1: How how are the sales? Like, we didn't hear anything?
Speaker 1: You did really well? I mean we sold like twenties
Speaker 1: seven thousand copies. Talk about that. See that's that's that's
Speaker 1: the best sell right then that's pretty well. Um, we
Speaker 1: need to sell a hundred thousand copies, so we've got
Speaker 1: some more work to do. Um. And you know, and
Speaker 1: and I think it's gonna happen. Um. You know, just
Speaker 1: from Louisville, Kentucky, where we had a book signing, um,
Speaker 1: and that was very successful. Along with in person book signing.
Speaker 1: There are more coming up. Yesterday was my birthday and
Speaker 1: so you know, forty plus one. I mean, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff happening. God God is really good. That
Speaker 1: is good. So my thought of the day today is
Speaker 1: gonna be the best thought of the day that I
Speaker 1: have ever ever ever had. My thought of the day.
Speaker 1: You want to know it is. You know what I
Speaker 1: was thinking, what was there? I was thinking, I want
Speaker 1: to know what our guests have to say about this
Speaker 1: crazy system that we had UM between rank choice voting
Speaker 1: in New York Joe Biden and his statements during the
Speaker 1: Tulsa commemorations. Um, you know what we're gonna do to
Speaker 1: get all the things we need? You know, in this
Speaker 1: short window. We got four years to really push and
Speaker 1: it's really kind of two years because if the Senate
Speaker 1: gets flipped or we lose some seats, lose the House
Speaker 1: in the midtim elections, we won't even have the opportunity
Speaker 1: that we have in this moment. So we've got like
Speaker 1: a year and some change to literally get some things done.
Speaker 1: And the progress is very slow, if even at all,
Speaker 1: on some issues. So my thought of the day today
Speaker 1: is that I want to hear from the guests because
Speaker 1: the guests have uh pretty good insight on where we stand.
Speaker 1: It sounds like a good thought to me. So today
Speaker 1: we're gonna be joined by um Jamanni Williams, the Public
Speaker 1: Advocate of New York City. You know, New York is
Speaker 1: very um unique in the fact that we have a
Speaker 1: public advocate. Uh, there's been many people trying to get
Speaker 1: rid of that seat, and his job. Really his role
Speaker 1: is to sort of monitor what the mayor is doing
Speaker 1: and be an advocate for the public UM. And in
Speaker 1: in others places you have the mayor and then of
Speaker 1: course their deputy mayor, so if something happens to the mayor,
Speaker 1: then the deputy mayor is in charge. In New York,
Speaker 1: actually it's different in that the public Advocate would step in,
Speaker 1: and the public Advocate is now the second most powerful
Speaker 1: elected official in the entire city of New York, and
Speaker 1: it happens to be a black man who's a revolutionary.
Speaker 1: And so it's good that we haven't coming on today
Speaker 1: to talk about ring choice voting because as the Public Advocate,
Speaker 1: it is his job to ensure that the people of
Speaker 1: New York are prepared to go to the polls and
Speaker 1: do what's necessary UM and not be disenfranchised. So we'll
Speaker 1: hear from Jimani Williams and then the Reverend Mark Thompson,
Speaker 1: who I often joke is my um work husband. I
Speaker 1: spend hours on hours talking to Mark, going through issues,
Speaker 1: dealing with my fears, frustrations, my insecurities, things I don't know,
Speaker 1: research that I have to do in order to be
Speaker 1: on my game. Um. And he is available to me
Speaker 1: at one am, two am, five am all the time. Uh.
Speaker 1: And and it really sort of stands in the gap
Speaker 1: of of other you know, places and spaces where I
Speaker 1: may not be fulfilled, um in terms of my intellect.
Speaker 1: And that's important, you know, to have somebody that when
Speaker 1: you're feeling like, man, I don't understand it, or I
Speaker 1: can't get it, or I just don't want to read
Speaker 1: this stuff, that he would sit with me and break
Speaker 1: it down and and and help me to stay focused.
Speaker 1: And so I I am so glad that Marcus coming
Speaker 1: on because I know even with you, Marcus the type
Speaker 1: of person that we turn to that will really help
Speaker 1: us strategically think through what are the next steps for
Speaker 1: our movement based upon the fact that he's been in
Speaker 1: movements of the past. So we're gonna hear from Reverend
Speaker 1: Mark Thompson. S. Thompson is my guy man. We are
Speaker 1: being enjoyed by our dear, dear, dear public Advocate for
Speaker 1: New York City and also our brother, um and friend.
Speaker 1: You know that street politician has a lot of friends.
Speaker 1: We always bring people who are doing great work and
Speaker 1: that's because the company we keep it's a good group.
Speaker 1: It's a good group of individuals across the nation who
Speaker 1: are really making change, really um standing up to this
Speaker 1: this call that is on all of us to carry
Speaker 1: the baton. The baton has been passed to us from
Speaker 1: many UM. And when I think about Public Advocate Germanni Williams,
Speaker 1: I think about somebody like Congressman John Lewis rest in peace,
Speaker 1: God rest his soul, and so many other elected officials
Speaker 1: who really stood for and stand for justice, fairness and
Speaker 1: equity for black people. And so I'm always proud to
Speaker 1: call him a friend. I was talking to someone the
Speaker 1: other day and they wanted to try to, you know,
Speaker 1: give me all the reasons why I shouldn't work with
Speaker 1: another individual. And I said, well, does that person support
Speaker 1: Germanni Williams. And they say, yeah, well they're friend of
Speaker 1: mine if they support him. Because I know that he
Speaker 1: has not always been able to get the type of
Speaker 1: support that he deserves from black people because he's too black.
Speaker 1: He speaks black, UM, he cares about our issues and
Speaker 1: is uncompromised, and we don't always agree. And I tell
Speaker 1: people all the time that Germany and I have had
Speaker 1: to have some real conversations. We were getting ready to
Speaker 1: talk about something right now that I'm not sure we
Speaker 1: agree on. But what we know is that we're this
Speaker 1: relationship that all of us have fostered among the members
Speaker 1: of Until Freedom, GERMANNI and other individuals in the city
Speaker 1: of New York is one that while we may not
Speaker 1: all agree all the time, one thing we agree on
Speaker 1: is that we're all fighting for black people and so
Speaker 1: we're glad to have Germany to join us today. I'm
Speaker 1: honored to be on peace and Blessings, Loving life, I said,
Speaker 1: I said a great introduction. Appreciate Kamika Mice everything you're
Speaker 1: doing across the country. Like every time I stay y'all
Speaker 1: that joint is this crazy look look at y'all doing anything.
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm there with what y'all doing. You know,
Speaker 1: you are brother, definitely extension of us. Man. And every
Speaker 1: time we see you, you know, speaking truth to problem
Speaker 1: and standing on the front lines of the people and
Speaker 1: we're not there, we feel like we're doing so we
Speaker 1: want to say we appreciate you, brother. Yeah. So Jamani,
Speaker 1: we're talking about ranked choice voting today. Uh street politicians
Speaker 1: tries to be a place that helps to educate our
Speaker 1: folks because, as you know, the tricks move around quickly,
Speaker 1: the cards change fast. Everything is always happening, UM, and
Speaker 1: we try to keep people up to speed on what's
Speaker 1: going on. And I think the next few weeks is
Speaker 1: gonna be really important for us to drill down on
Speaker 1: ranked choice voting to make sure that just regular folks
Speaker 1: get it. You know, I'm gonna be honest and saying
Speaker 1: that there's been a number of conversations that I've been
Speaker 1: involved in and I really did not understand all of
Speaker 1: the details of this new voting system in New York City. UM,
Speaker 1: but you have been a supporter of it for various reasons,
Speaker 1: and also you understand the intricate details. So I know
Speaker 1: you don't have a long time to be with us today.
Speaker 1: Tell us what ranked choice voting is and how it
Speaker 1: impacts this election. And then I want to talk about
Speaker 1: the ramifications of those who are saying, don't do the
Speaker 1: ranked choice voting, just vote for you know, one individual,
Speaker 1: So tell us what we need to know. Appreciate you
Speaker 1: and if you if you're in New York, it's the
Speaker 1: first time we're gonna be doing ranked choice voting in
Speaker 1: New York City, has been done in other places across
Speaker 1: the country, and also a minded people of voting has started.
Speaker 1: Election day is gonna be on June, but absentee ballots
Speaker 1: are already being sent in an early voting starts on
Speaker 1: June twelve, so people are going to be using ranked
Speaker 1: choice voting. I believe it helps empower and strengthen UH
Speaker 1: one person vote while having some other impacts that are
Speaker 1: beneficial as well. But quite simply, you're simply ranking the
Speaker 1: order in which you prefer a candidate from one to
Speaker 1: five UM, and if no one gets they go through
Speaker 1: the tally to see where people's second, third, fourth, and
Speaker 1: fifth votes are, and they tally that at up and
Speaker 1: then we get a winner that by itself generates a
Speaker 1: position with a person who's elected actually has more support
Speaker 1: UH than it was the first time. What most selectors
Speaker 1: won't tell you is we're usually elected by very small
Speaker 1: slice of the population. When I was first selected in
Speaker 1: the city Council won by thick thirty five. That means
Speaker 1: sixty five of the people did not vote for me.
Speaker 1: They didn't have a choice to decide whether I wanted
Speaker 1: to be in or not. They just voted for somebody
Speaker 1: else who didn't win. I don't know if that's the
Speaker 1: best way to do it, but this way you can
Speaker 1: actually rank who you'd want for a second third and
Speaker 1: your void your vote, I believe has more weight what
Speaker 1: that has had the advantage of. And most places that
Speaker 1: have done this has actually increased diversity by color, by gender,
Speaker 1: sexual orientation, and by ideas because a lot of folks
Speaker 1: who have new ideas is half of them to break
Speaker 1: into it because the system is usually run by those
Speaker 1: who are most established, and put a system where it's
Speaker 1: harder to break in. And that's coming from somebody who
Speaker 1: actually beat an incumbent. So I'm not saying it's impossible,
Speaker 1: but I know the difficulties of it. Uh, And I
Speaker 1: think this is a better way to government and has
Speaker 1: been shown to be a better way to go. So
Speaker 1: let me let me get this straight, because I think
Speaker 1: I'm getting it as I listened to it. So basically,
Speaker 1: we can if ten people want to vote for Let's
Speaker 1: say they want to vote for you, and it's about
Speaker 1: fifty people voting, and all fifty of the people's second
Speaker 1: vote will probably be me. Yeah, but tend will vote
Speaker 1: for you. Tend will vote for me, tend will vote
Speaker 1: for Tamika and tend with vote for somebody else with
Speaker 1: the second person that they will vote for will probably
Speaker 1: all be the same. Yes, so the second person would
Speaker 1: win to vote over the person who had the most
Speaker 1: first place. Will It's possible. What we've seen is in
Speaker 1: over of the time the personal won the first rank
Speaker 1: when but there are times where that's just not the case.
Speaker 1: And that's okay because people vote for different reasons. They
Speaker 1: get in there and like, damn, I really like these
Speaker 1: two people, or damn I wish that they have to
Speaker 1: make this choice, and the choice they make can be
Speaker 1: based on many other things. But what we see in
Speaker 1: ranked choice voting, we will get a consensus of some
Speaker 1: of someone where everybody had an input on. And I
Speaker 1: think that's pretty dope. So that second point that everybody
Speaker 1: agreed on, if there was one person, like people agree
Speaker 1: on this, one person didn't, but eighty five percent of
Speaker 1: you believe that this second person would be good for
Speaker 1: the majority of us, I think that has way to it.
Speaker 1: I think that could change the game of people who
Speaker 1: are in and the ideas that people want to express,
Speaker 1: because the way it is now, quite frankly, I don't
Speaker 1: have to care about the entirety of the city, you know,
Speaker 1: I gotta care about that slice that's gonna come out
Speaker 1: of vote for me and hold me down. UM. And
Speaker 1: that I don't think it's the best way to go
Speaker 1: because people don't then talk to other parts of the community,
Speaker 1: other parts of the district, on the city level. Um,
Speaker 1: there is uh, you know, runoff if somebody didn't get
Speaker 1: which doesn't happen all the time. Not only is that bad,
Speaker 1: it's also wasteful because the amount of money that we
Speaker 1: have to go into not having another off another time,
Speaker 1: which by the way, has even less people voting in it.
Speaker 1: I don't think quite captures what we want to capture.
Speaker 1: This instant think of it as an instant runoff. Um
Speaker 1: is a better way to go. I get it. I
Speaker 1: think I think I might be on your side with
Speaker 1: this one. And I listened to it. It really it
Speaker 1: really is by the people. You know. If people just
Speaker 1: vote for the number one candidate, you know, because they
Speaker 1: he's probably somebody know or whatever, but the second person
Speaker 1: didn't get no votes because they only can vote for
Speaker 1: one person, you know, then more people probably would have
Speaker 1: been like, well, I like this person better. You know,
Speaker 1: if if I had, if I had another opportunity, I
Speaker 1: think I think, I think I see it. I'm thinking,
Speaker 1: what do you think about it too? I think that
Speaker 1: it makes some sense. The only thing that I'm concerned about, honestly,
Speaker 1: it is whether or not people are going to be
Speaker 1: disenfranchised because they don't have information, or they don't understand
Speaker 1: it properly, or they feel like it's too much and
Speaker 1: they just don't participate, and maybe it takes a few
Speaker 1: elections to get it right. Um. I worry that with
Speaker 1: a mayoral election coming up, and I know the conversation
Speaker 1: we had before, um Jamanni was that people, Um, you
Speaker 1: were saying that most folks do understand it right, that
Speaker 1: there are several, I guess studies or polls, which I'm
Speaker 1: always very leary about polls that indicate people get it,
Speaker 1: but I know I don't really get it. And what
Speaker 1: I'm concerned about is that if I'm really focused on Maya,
Speaker 1: Wily Ray McGuire or you know, any of the other candidates.
Speaker 1: Those are the two candidates that I'm particularly looking at
Speaker 1: right now for me. But if I'm focused on one
Speaker 1: or the other or just two of them, now, do
Speaker 1: I have to put five people down or four or
Speaker 1: three in order for me really to participate in this
Speaker 1: process and to make sure that my vote is counted.
Speaker 1: And now do I am I now responsible for going
Speaker 1: to take the time being a mother of how many
Speaker 1: I got all these things going on, and now I've
Speaker 1: got to go research Stringer, Adams and Yang and everybody
Speaker 1: else and try to figure out where they stay ending
Speaker 1: these issues too. I'm just wondering, is it going to
Speaker 1: disenfranchise people in the election is serious as the one
Speaker 1: that we're up against right now, but I think we
Speaker 1: have to put the question in context. Uh, we're disenfranchised
Speaker 1: currently and so it's not like the system that exists
Speaker 1: now produces the results that we want to see. And
Speaker 1: as we were talking about, we've had some issues with
Speaker 1: the last three mayors for various reasons. Bill the Blasio,
Speaker 1: Michael Bloomberg, Rudy Giuliani all came from the system that
Speaker 1: exists currently. There are city council members that we have
Speaker 1: had issues with that have continued to lift up structures
Speaker 1: that we don't agree with. They continue to get reelected
Speaker 1: and re elected. Um, so we have to come from
Speaker 1: the context. There's disenfranchisement that occurs now. There are people
Speaker 1: who don't vote for judges simply because they don't have
Speaker 1: time to figure out who those judges are. Most people
Speaker 1: don't vote for the judges. Most people, uh, don't vote
Speaker 1: for reprimending gonna put up. So those things happen right now.
Speaker 1: The question is is this gonna make it worse or better?
Speaker 1: I think it will make it better. What we've seen
Speaker 1: and while the polls are important and speaking to people
Speaker 1: is what we've seen is that one, when you do
Speaker 1: the education like happened in the special elections that I
Speaker 1: put in New York City, people get it, even those
Speaker 1: who don't necessarily get it when they get to the
Speaker 1: polls where we found it's not that difficult when you
Speaker 1: explain and say rank one to three or four or
Speaker 1: five and so with don't let me jumping in and
Speaker 1: ask a question, being very vulnerable, because I don't want
Speaker 1: this to be they or them me? What is the
Speaker 1: cities education process right now? Not so much on candidates,
Speaker 1: but on this process to where people will will know, oh, shoot,
Speaker 1: I need to do some work before I get there,
Speaker 1: because now I'm I'm looking at five people and not
Speaker 1: one or two so I think that is an important question.
Speaker 1: What I just want to bring back is that's an
Speaker 1: important question. Now if you come in now without having
Speaker 1: ranked choice, voting the old system, not having done the work,
Speaker 1: you may be voting for the wrong person. Right. You
Speaker 1: might be voting for the person that you heard their
Speaker 1: name the most, But those other four person people probably
Speaker 1: you should have been vote for one of them. So
Speaker 1: what some folks and people who are posing this are
Speaker 1: pretending as if those questions aren't as valid and as jermaine,
Speaker 1: as if you uh didn't have the system in place. Uh.
Speaker 1: The system that we're trying to put in I think
Speaker 1: helps more once you get it. UM, you can vote
Speaker 1: for one person, I don't think that's the best thing
Speaker 1: to do. That can have the ability of disenfranchising some
Speaker 1: folks because it's like they are disappearing if there is
Speaker 1: a runoff, which they're is likely to be because it's
Speaker 1: hard to get so many people UH in the race.
Speaker 1: So going down the line, I believe it's important. Also,
Speaker 1: I believe it's important especially to UM make sure that
Speaker 1: UM black and brown folks get it because if they
Speaker 1: don't vote and their problems, there are people telling people
Speaker 1: not to rank certain folks and that's harmful because they
Speaker 1: are all parts of our city that are only more
Speaker 1: ccifically engaged. UM. And so the Upper West Side, for example,
Speaker 1: which is more cipically engage, ranks one to five and
Speaker 1: m Brownsville or UM. White people do it right and
Speaker 1: the black and brown folks do it wrong. Go ahead,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna translate that. That could be a problem because
Speaker 1: then they're they're they're runoff. Votes just didn't count. So
Speaker 1: instead of having people opposed this, but what we all
Speaker 1: should be doing is encouraging people to just rank all five. Well,
Speaker 1: we have no choice at this point. This is not
Speaker 1: an optional I mean, I know that there are some
Speaker 1: people who are trying to encourage people not to use
Speaker 1: their choices, but I don't that. I think we have
Speaker 1: to vote. We have to make sure that we are
Speaker 1: in the game properly. And if you're talking about ranking
Speaker 1: people one through five, we need to be ranking people
Speaker 1: one through five periods. Those of us who are are
Speaker 1: dropping endorsements in the next few days, should we be
Speaker 1: telling people one through five? What do you think is best?
Speaker 1: For public messaging? I believe for public messaging it's best
Speaker 1: to say one through five and hear who those one
Speaker 1: through five are. It is particularly tough because we got
Speaker 1: tough group of folks running for me. So it's not
Speaker 1: like we can, you know, honestly, be like, yo, these
Speaker 1: five people are gonna be great. That is not the case.
Speaker 1: You're not realistic. But it's also not realistic to think
Speaker 1: just saying this one or two person is going to
Speaker 1: do it, because that one person or two persons probably
Speaker 1: won't make it. So either way, we're not in great shape.
Speaker 1: And so depending where you are, any system looks bad.
Speaker 1: But quite frankly, we got a tough group of folks
Speaker 1: that we have to choose from, and it is hard.
Speaker 1: I'm grappling with this very question myself, and I hope
Speaker 1: I don't fail. Like because you know, one through five,
Speaker 1: I think it's important. I'm sure we're not gonna get
Speaker 1: on the mayor race, and so it's important to have
Speaker 1: all your traces there, those first two, so you know,
Speaker 1: you gotta have that the first one ain't gonna get it. Basically, like,
Speaker 1: I agree with what you're saying, this is very important.
Speaker 1: Our first two things I want to ask right before
Speaker 1: we leave. It's very important. First of all, let me
Speaker 1: stay that thank you for giving us the information and
Speaker 1: letting us understand what exactly it is because I'm getting
Speaker 1: a better perspective of it. But when you listen to it, right,
Speaker 1: it's so it sounds difficult, right for the average person
Speaker 1: who just wants to go out. They know Jamana oh Jama,
Speaker 1: they know Germany. I see him. I want to vote
Speaker 1: with your mind now, and I gotta think of four
Speaker 1: more people. They're more than likely, especially in our communities.
Speaker 1: They don't come to us, they don't knock on our doors,
Speaker 1: they're not even marking into us, they're not even campaigning
Speaker 1: to us. So we gotta pick probably at least three
Speaker 1: out of those five that we probably never heard of.
Speaker 1: That's just the reality. Do you think that those things
Speaker 1: are deterring? People? Are gonna be deterrence? Because when we
Speaker 1: look at the whole voting process now, everything that's coming
Speaker 1: up right now, is it detern We look at how
Speaker 1: the voter suppression, the new laws that they put in
Speaker 1: an acting all over this world. Do you think that
Speaker 1: those things are gonna to deter And then I just
Speaker 1: want to go a little bit off, you know, just
Speaker 1: because you are someone who is you know, public official. Yes,
Speaker 1: that this this whole statement about Biden me because a
Speaker 1: lot of people are having a lot of issues with
Speaker 1: the fact that he went there and he had this
Speaker 1: whole press conference in you know, in so about Black
Speaker 1: Wall Street, and nobody's talking about even reparations for those people.
Speaker 1: They're like, do you think that these things are very
Speaker 1: harmful to just the voting process of black people, because
Speaker 1: it's hard for me as a black person trying to
Speaker 1: tell people to guard and vote in these processes and said, well,
Speaker 1: this is gonna be different, and this is gonna be different.
Speaker 1: Do you think these things are gonna be hard for
Speaker 1: people to get over or do you think that they
Speaker 1: you know, people are have any enthusiasm to even vote. Right, So,
Speaker 1: just from the beginning of what you said, the problem
Speaker 1: there that we we are blossing over is they shouldn't
Speaker 1: only know Germany. And the fact that we only vote
Speaker 1: for Germany because we know Germany is also part of
Speaker 1: the problem. And so we should know who those other
Speaker 1: three or four people are because they may be better
Speaker 1: Germany made shut up to your barbecue, may have knocked
Speaker 1: on your door, but it's doing very harmful things in
Speaker 1: those back rooms and in those votes. And we should
Speaker 1: know that, and we should take the time to try
Speaker 1: to figure out out that is those money when when
Speaker 1: you work nine to five, you've got three kids, you
Speaker 1: gotta pick the baby up, you gotta come home, you
Speaker 1: gotta take care of kids, you've got two jobs. I'm
Speaker 1: not the only person that you're gonna see is the
Speaker 1: person that's that's making sure that you see them. So
Speaker 1: how do how do you tell somebody who's dealing with
Speaker 1: those issues that they should know that that's a fact.
Speaker 1: So we gotta find a way to help educate those folks.
Speaker 1: I think rank choice voting pushes that. And now the
Speaker 1: other four candidates, Sleeker, I really got a shot. Maybe
Speaker 1: if I double up my outreach efforts. Maybe if I
Speaker 1: double up this effort, combined with the fact that I have,
Speaker 1: uh the ability to get matching funds, I can now
Speaker 1: give my who I am to these folks, and then
Speaker 1: I can make a choice. And now you can go on, y'all.
Speaker 1: Let me see who these people are real quick, even
Speaker 1: if it's just a couple of moments before you go in,
Speaker 1: let me read through it and see what Yo, this
Speaker 1: dude did do that? So I think it helps set
Speaker 1: a stage where the problems that you're talking about UM
Speaker 1: won't go away. But perhaps this encourages people one to
Speaker 1: our reach more and to to learn more because their
Speaker 1: vote is now magnified. And if we can view it
Speaker 1: as that as that I have magnified your vote from
Speaker 1: what it was, I think that's empowering. But what I
Speaker 1: just don't want to keep pushing back is none of
Speaker 1: the systems have been delivering what we want to deliver.
Speaker 1: I believe that this system has the ability to deliver more.
Speaker 1: And if you look at how people do even UM pose,
Speaker 1: if you ask somebody if they're happy or sad, you
Speaker 1: will not get an accurate assessment. That's why they break
Speaker 1: it down and be like, are you somewhat sad? Are
Speaker 1: you somewhat happy? Some They have to do those things
Speaker 1: because people will answer in a spectrum because in the
Speaker 1: way it is now, you don't have that spectrum choice.
Speaker 1: We have no thoughts of choice. You have this person,
Speaker 1: I don't know these other people. Let me vote found
Speaker 1: but yo, there's two black people. Oh, they're gonna split
Speaker 1: the vote. There's no split in the vote around choice vote.
Speaker 1: I could vote for one to three and hit it.
Speaker 1: So there's so many benefits to this choice, but change
Speaker 1: is always difficult. Usually people who push back on the
Speaker 1: most have the most game for the system that exists
Speaker 1: and that it doesn't. That is also for our black
Speaker 1: establishment elected officials. You know, if I have a choice
Speaker 1: between establishment that doesn't look like me, an establishment that does,
Speaker 1: my goal for establishment that does. In terms of Biden Um,
Speaker 1: the Biden Harris ticket and what they're doing now, I
Speaker 1: don't think surprises any of us who understood we had
Speaker 1: to support the Biding Harris ticket only because of what
Speaker 1: was in opposition to it. So it's not surprising anything
Speaker 1: that we're seeing. As a matter of fact, I'll be
Speaker 1: surprised when we see something different, and I hope you
Speaker 1: see something different. We do have to acknowledge, um that
Speaker 1: these Republicans like the Democrats are a problem. I'm never
Speaker 1: gonna never gonna ignore that. Like it's just wild what
Speaker 1: the lookings do like they can. They're literally now telling
Speaker 1: millions of Americans that what they saw was a peaceful
Speaker 1: tour on January six. That's some wild ship, like that's
Speaker 1: that's that's crazy that and and people are buying it.
Speaker 1: Donald Trump is not telling people is gonna be reinstated
Speaker 1: in August. Michael Flynn is saying that we should have
Speaker 1: a cool that is what as much as Democrats we
Speaker 1: got a hold them accountable, we are also, you know,
Speaker 1: with that crazy and that's what. That was my whole
Speaker 1: thing before. I just want to say, that was my
Speaker 1: whole thing. You know, I get so much flak every
Speaker 1: time Boden does something wrong, and I'm like, I never
Speaker 1: told you that Boden was the end all bill. I
Speaker 1: just told you that the opposition to Boden was worse
Speaker 1: than body. When you look at somebody who's saying form
Speaker 1: cools that that you know they have insurrections that pretty
Speaker 1: much running the Whitehouse like a drug kingpin, you understand,
Speaker 1: saying what with this and calling pretty much calling for
Speaker 1: them to just take over the government. Like that's not
Speaker 1: something that was even an option for me. I I
Speaker 1: told him I was gonna vote for my ten year
Speaker 1: old son before I was gonna vote for Trump. And
Speaker 1: so that's just the reality of the situation. But I
Speaker 1: want to say thank you your money. I know you
Speaker 1: gotta go. You know, you always very informative and you
Speaker 1: break things down to terms that everybody can listen to
Speaker 1: continue to do the work. Hopefully we'll be voting you
Speaker 1: for man soon. You know, I need you need to take.
Speaker 1: That's the that's the step we're looking for. That's the
Speaker 1: ticket I'm going forward and my one, two and three
Speaker 1: or my rank choice. Man, I appreciate you. That's that's
Speaker 1: a terrible job, but I appreciate you. Man. Somebody got
Speaker 1: to do it. Man. I'd rather good people do terrible jobs.
Speaker 1: The terrible people do terrible job. Yeah, I hear that.
Speaker 1: Apprecate Thank you, We appreciate you, Jamani. Thanks for coming
Speaker 1: on with us today. You gotta come back to street
Speaker 1: politicians so we can talk about a bunch of things.
Speaker 1: And I agree with my son that we really should
Speaker 1: have been voting for you, um this mayoral election. But
Speaker 1: there's more elections to come, and in fact, you have
Speaker 1: an election. Yes, I'm running. I'm election exactly. So, folks,
Speaker 1: if you're watching, your public advocate Jermanni Williams is running
Speaker 1: for re election. And also if you're out of town
Speaker 1: and you want to support a true liberation fighter, UM,
Speaker 1: a revolutionary who is in office, you can donate to
Speaker 1: Germany's campaign. UM. The information is below UM. But Germany,
Speaker 1: if you want to tell people just how to find
Speaker 1: you online. That'd be great, and thank you brother again.
Speaker 1: Appreciate y'all. Germany Williams dot COM's the campaign website at
Speaker 1: Germany Williams, Twitter at Germany dot Williams, I G and Facebook.
Speaker 1: I think it's Jermanny Williams uh the same. But you know,
Speaker 1: thankfully not too many Jamanti Williams out there, so you'll
Speaker 1: be able to find it. But I appreciate your I
Speaker 1: appreciate y'all. It's an honored people tell me run from me.
Speaker 1: I'm just still at crazy from Brooklyn who love hip hop,
Speaker 1: So that's what That's just an honor for anybody even
Speaker 1: mentioned that. But I appreciate y'all. Piece. Thanks, bye bye.
Speaker 1: Take care. Before we go to the next segment and
Speaker 1: have our special guests joint, we're gonna take a quick
Speaker 1: break for our sponsors. I don't know, you know, I
Speaker 1: feel like I don't really have I still my brain
Speaker 1: sometimes does not accept concepts like this is just something
Speaker 1: that I've always had a problem with in school. It
Speaker 1: was probably one of the reasons why I couldn't focus.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's my A D H D.
Speaker 1: I don't know what it is, but it's certain things
Speaker 1: like I hear everything that he's saying, and I know
Speaker 1: you're you're a person that gets concepts and numbers really well,
Speaker 1: so I can tell like you get it and I
Speaker 1: get it in in in in theory, I understand one
Speaker 1: through five. But where I where they knew us me
Speaker 1: every time is the part around if number one it
Speaker 1: doesn't get enough, then how you get to number three?
Speaker 1: And then it's everybody gonna Does that mean people voted
Speaker 1: for number three in the same number three slot? Could
Speaker 1: they have been in two and three? I don't get it.
Speaker 1: I just don't get I don't think it's I don't
Speaker 1: think it's really just the slot. I just think it's
Speaker 1: the options. Right. So, like I broke it down, if
Speaker 1: you have a hundred people that's voting m M, and
Speaker 1: all hundred of those people are split about the first person,
Speaker 1: you might have ten people that want to vote for
Speaker 1: one person. You've got twenty people that want to vote
Speaker 1: for another person. You got fifteen that want to vote
Speaker 1: for another person. But all of them were saying, you know,
Speaker 1: we we you know, we we like this one is
Speaker 1: between these two. But all of those same people would
Speaker 1: have voted for the same person would have voted for
Speaker 1: the second person, right, So in essence, but that's never
Speaker 1: gonna be the case. But that's not it was because
Speaker 1: everybody's second. Everybody's second choice could be the same, their
Speaker 1: first choice could be different. But what if they second
Speaker 1: choices all over the place and their third choices all
Speaker 1: of them? Like, I just what is this? They? I
Speaker 1: guess what they do is tally the first in the
Speaker 1: second d Like if you're somebody's first and second, right,
Speaker 1: and they italian all, then they go to the third.
Speaker 1: If you were some people's third and you wasn't they first?
Speaker 1: If the if the same face shows up in the
Speaker 1: majority of the votes one through five, like some people
Speaker 1: might just have just only no one person and in
Speaker 1: the second vote or the third volde they might not
Speaker 1: even have those, right, But if the same person constantly
Speaker 1: shows up one through five in in large amounts throughout
Speaker 1: everybody's thing, then that tells you that everybody to some degree, Right,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, It's it's not it's not
Speaker 1: gonna be angry. Like some people get voted, You're like,
Speaker 1: who the hell is this person? Like how did they
Speaker 1: get in? I don't even know. I've never vote, I've
Speaker 1: never seen it. So when you look through the ring
Speaker 1: choice vote voting and you see, okay, a hundred, I
Speaker 1: means forty percent of these people said this would have
Speaker 1: been the first rule. Then another thirty said he would
Speaker 1: have been a second book, then another forty or fifty
Speaker 1: said he would have been a third vote. I mean
Speaker 1: he's he is a common factor or she is a
Speaker 1: common factor, the common factor. Didn't that gives you a
Speaker 1: better feel of what the people actually want. That's just
Speaker 1: how I see it. Okay, Well, I don't want to
Speaker 1: have too many conversations on this show in June when
Speaker 1: we're in the final quarter about the challenges of ranked
Speaker 1: choice voting. I think we're gonna see how it works,
Speaker 1: and so I guess after this election will have an
Speaker 1: opportunity to really see how it all worked out. And
Speaker 1: then we'll have some folks like uh, Reverend Kierson John Foy,
Speaker 1: who is against ranked choice voting, to come on and
Speaker 1: talk about you know, where we go from there after
Speaker 1: we have an election where we see how it works.
Speaker 1: I just hope that we don't have a situation where
Speaker 1: we end up getting the wrong candidate in office for
Speaker 1: mayor because this is a serious election. So I think
Speaker 1: for me, like, I don't mean to cut you off,
Speaker 1: but like he said, the system we got a'm working
Speaker 1: in something we need some difference. Okay, Well, hopefully that
Speaker 1: works out for all of us. Our next guest, hopefully
Speaker 1: he's with us, the Reverend Mark Thompson, another one of
Speaker 1: our friends. That's look, we we just happened to be
Speaker 1: blessed to have people in high places of good character,
Speaker 1: you know, that really believe in equity and in liberation.
Speaker 1: For our people to just be our friends when we
Speaker 1: just you know, I think when they say six degrees
Speaker 1: of separation, I think it's even smaller. Man, when you
Speaker 1: got the same mind state, you know, and you you
Speaker 1: want with the you want the same things, it actually
Speaker 1: connects you to people. Man. So we're just blessed to
Speaker 1: have brothers life. My brother, the good, the good doctor Good,
Speaker 1: Reverend doctor Mark Thomps. What's up, y'all. I'm on street, politicians.
Speaker 1: Good to see everybody here for the first time. Glad
Speaker 1: to be here. Mice been trying to get me on
Speaker 1: for a minute. To me, didn't want me on right away,
Speaker 1: but I'm here now and I'm thankful. Yeah, whatever, you
Speaker 1: all you have an open invitation to just call and
Speaker 1: say I'm coming on the show, like we can do
Speaker 1: you on your shop. That's right, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 1: I'm about to We still have on match focused calling.
Speaker 1: Cursed me out, y'all be right there with me. So
Speaker 1: we did, right, Yeah, it was wasn't. It wasn't with
Speaker 1: the Dinner crew for a minute, the Donner crew, right right, right,
Speaker 1: that a crew, that's where we were. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: It's right, it's right, exactly right. So we've been talking.
Speaker 1: We talked to a public advocate in New York City
Speaker 1: before you. We've been talking about this rank choice voting thing.
Speaker 1: You know, obviously this is really critical. Um, there is
Speaker 1: an election happening, and I can't help but feel like
Speaker 1: the game has been changed in the final inning? What
Speaker 1: what jamani Um is saying public advocate Williams. He's saying
Speaker 1: that this has been a long time in the incoming.
Speaker 1: You know, people been knowing about it for a while,
Speaker 1: and that in some of the polling that has been done,
Speaker 1: most people understand it. I don't think they polled black folks,
Speaker 1: UM and brown folks. That's in the hood. So I'm
Speaker 1: not sure if we can use a pole as a
Speaker 1: determination for whether or not our people actually get what
Speaker 1: we are up against in this moment. So where do
Speaker 1: you stand on this? Where do you think? Do you
Speaker 1: think we're going to be disenfranchised in this election because
Speaker 1: rank choice voting is now going to be shoved down
Speaker 1: people's throats in the next few weeks. You think folks
Speaker 1: been paying attention to the conversation, I don't have any
Speaker 1: evidence that they really had, and and I don't wouldn't
Speaker 1: even I don't need to. Paying attention is the right
Speaker 1: thing when you do something like this, people have to
Speaker 1: be educated. You have to make sure they're educated. And
Speaker 1: let's be frank, the struggle in America, in in our
Speaker 1: inner cities has been around voter apathy in general, especially
Speaker 1: at the local level. Right, So, where you have people
Speaker 1: who have interest to national electures, they don't have as
Speaker 1: much interest at the local level. That's the problem. And
Speaker 1: so when you're introducing something new to an electorate that
Speaker 1: already has not made voting and local voting a habit,
Speaker 1: that's challenging. And the proponents of this should have done
Speaker 1: more to make sure people are educated. This is sort
Speaker 1: of um, you know the whole And don't get me wrong,
Speaker 1: I support proportional representation when it comes to electoral bodies
Speaker 1: legislative bodies because what that would mean. For example, let's
Speaker 1: say we wanted to form a street politicis this party
Speaker 1: with proportional representation. If the Street Politicians party only got
Speaker 1: ten percent of the vote, it still would get ten
Speaker 1: percent of the six seats in the legislature. That's one
Speaker 1: aspect of voting change rank choice voting. However, it's a
Speaker 1: little bit more complicated because you're ranking candidates and and
Speaker 1: nobody really has been educated about it or understands it
Speaker 1: bears a segment of the population who get it, and
Speaker 1: that's fine, but it has not touched the inner city
Speaker 1: and urban areas in the way that they should. Having
Speaker 1: said that, I'm not prepared to dismiss it or say
Speaker 1: it's wrong. But the first time out it could be damaging,
Speaker 1: It could be disenfranchising because people don't know enough about it.
Speaker 1: So I think that's the problem. I don't I don't
Speaker 1: know how comfortable we should feel doing something like this
Speaker 1: for such an important election, when it's really on the
Speaker 1: job training for everyone. It's it's a dry run. And
Speaker 1: I don't think that that was thought through very carefully.
Speaker 1: You know, I might disenfranchise people, you know, as we
Speaker 1: as we look you know, just all over just just
Speaker 1: the whole situation. We're just not just just our mayor candidates.
Speaker 1: When we look at our presidential you know, the people
Speaker 1: that we pretty much I voted for him. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you did, I think to Mika, did we
Speaker 1: voted for this election because we felt that you know,
Speaker 1: the opposition wasn't even you know, uh candidate for us?
Speaker 1: You know, And as we look forward and we look
Speaker 1: at right now, what we what should we be doing?
Speaker 1: We look at you know, we just we're hearing these speeches.
Speaker 1: We're hearing everybody's on me. Oh they got an Asian
Speaker 1: bill that protects the Asian people, and you know, you know,
Speaker 1: and he just made a speech in Toast, Oklahoma that
Speaker 1: never discussed reparations, you know, And and they're actually people
Speaker 1: who survived the massacre of Black Wall Street that there's
Speaker 1: survivors who have not received anything. They said they gave
Speaker 1: somebody said they gave the pair sneakers. You know, how
Speaker 1: how should we be feeling what should be our next this?
Speaker 1: Because I know that we we we definitely said as
Speaker 1: when we told people to go out in vote, that
Speaker 1: we wanted to hold this administration account right, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: what should be doing right now to hold them accountable
Speaker 1: for these things that we see how black people who
Speaker 1: pretty much put this whole administration in office aren't receiving
Speaker 1: what we believe we should get. Well, Um, you probably
Speaker 1: shared the wrong words to me. I'd asked me come
Speaker 1: out and talking as reparations. But I think if we
Speaker 1: use that as an example to answer your question, so
Speaker 1: you're right, he didn't mention reparations. Um, we are responsible
Speaker 1: for this administration being empowered, so whatever we want, we
Speaker 1: should get. Plus he said, we didn't ask him to
Speaker 1: say that. He got him said trying to talk black.
Speaker 1: When he won, y'all have had my back, now I'm
Speaker 1: supposed to have yours. Those are his words. It's a
Speaker 1: lot easier to hold a man accountable to his own words.
Speaker 1: But you know, I know too much because I'm involved
Speaker 1: in this. Let me tell you all what's happening, and
Speaker 1: and this is unfolding and developing story. Maybe next time
Speaker 1: we'll talk, I'll be ready to call out some names.
Speaker 1: But I'm just gonna say this to put people on
Speaker 1: notice that we know who they are. It ain't bad.
Speaker 1: There are some black politicians and Negro leaders that are
Speaker 1: lobbying Biden and the Congressional Black Caucus and members of
Speaker 1: Congress to be against reparations. All right, I know who
Speaker 1: they are, and I know what their agenda is. What
Speaker 1: is happening is there are a hundred eighty eight co
Speaker 1: sponsors of the reparations bill in Congress. That's more than
Speaker 1: it's ever had, puts us approximately thirty nine short mice
Speaker 1: of the votes needed for passage in the House. Now,
Speaker 1: when you have a hundred eight co sponsors, that also
Speaker 1: means that there are people who may not be co
Speaker 1: sponsors but willing to vote for the bill. Right, so
Speaker 1: we're close to passage. You got some negroes saying, oh,
Speaker 1: don't do that. That's gonna mess us up for the
Speaker 1: mid terms. And and so some ms is saying, what
Speaker 1: are you talking about. That's gonna help you win the
Speaker 1: midterms and hold the House because that would motivate more
Speaker 1: black folks to vote. Okay, And so we're dealing with
Speaker 1: black people who are are about that agenda, pushing that agenda.
Speaker 1: That's antireparations. If we can get it through the House past,
Speaker 1: then we got to go to the set and nothing
Speaker 1: like everything else, nothing's going through the center because of
Speaker 1: the Filipbuster, McConnell mansion, all of that. So then the
Speaker 1: next piece would be to have Biden do a bad
Speaker 1: executive order. And that's some negroes calling around some people.
Speaker 1: We shouldn't do this right now, brother Mark, we shouldn't
Speaker 1: do this because it's gonna mess us up for the
Speaker 1: mid terms. Let's do that mid terms. That's it mark
Speaker 1: every election period, especially after presidential election. We here can't
Speaker 1: do anything for black people because the term that that
Speaker 1: is the that's like the biggest excuse or whatever reason
Speaker 1: every time Obama couldn't do to policing because there was
Speaker 1: gonna be a backlash around of mid terms. We did
Speaker 1: all the work, especially coming out of the Women's March,
Speaker 1: to win in two thousand and what was that eighteen? Yeah,
Speaker 1: in two thousand and eighteen, we put all of these
Speaker 1: progressives in place. We we got more women elected than
Speaker 1: ever have been and still and then we still couldn't
Speaker 1: block Trump from the whole one that they did. Now here,
Speaker 1: we are a new administration. The mid terms is tomorrow.
Speaker 1: We all know that this tomorrow, it seems to me
Speaker 1: like we might actually lose some seats. I'm just very
Speaker 1: confused and need you to help us understand again what
Speaker 1: people should be doing. You know, a lot of folks
Speaker 1: say to me or they are critiquing, criticizing the fact
Speaker 1: that I am not as vocal as I have been
Speaker 1: in the past, and I think people don't understand. In leadership,
Speaker 1: you have moments when you were speaking, organizing, pushing, and
Speaker 1: then you have other moments when you're studying, trying to
Speaker 1: figure out what is the next approach that needs to
Speaker 1: be taken for these issues to move the ball forward.
Speaker 1: It's not that you're not doing the work. It's not
Speaker 1: that I am not paying attention, but I am also
Speaker 1: in deep reflection about what we need to be doing next.
Speaker 1: Because we have Joe Manchon and what's the cinema? The
Speaker 1: other Senator so and Mansion are two Democratic senators that
Speaker 1: vote like Republicans, right, so they're not with us. We've
Speaker 1: got the Filibus too in the way. We've got an
Speaker 1: administration that, while I think they want to do some things,
Speaker 1: I don't think that Joe Biden is giving the same
Speaker 1: effort for us as we had for him. In my opinion,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that I don't think they're doing anything,
Speaker 1: because the Gun Violence UM Executive Order that was signed
Speaker 1: has poured a whole well. The money has not been
Speaker 1: released yet, but certainly the intention to to give five
Speaker 1: billion dollars to organizations across the country that are doing
Speaker 1: gun violence work is very important, especially when we see
Speaker 1: the number of violent incidents and shootings rising across the
Speaker 1: country and we know that locking people up is not
Speaker 1: going to be the answer. It never has been and
Speaker 1: never will be. We need services, we need UM, We
Speaker 1: need our people who are on the ground to be
Speaker 1: able to do their work. But I feel like Mark,
Speaker 1: and this is really something that you and I talked about,
Speaker 1: and I know there's a lot of other people that
Speaker 1: feel it. We just went to people and said we
Speaker 1: have to win two seats in Georgia. We almost killed
Speaker 1: ourselves trying to living in the street, out there knocking
Speaker 1: on doors every day, and yet still we have all
Speaker 1: of these issues. People are beginning to feel like the
Speaker 1: system will never work, and I'm gonna tell you that
Speaker 1: I have I'm beginning to feel that way myself. Well, um,
Speaker 1: the fact of the matter is that what everybody ought
Speaker 1: to be doing. First of all, I was walking, walking,
Speaker 1: and cheering gun at the same time. That is to say,
Speaker 1: we've got to fight this battle against voter suppression. Um,
Speaker 1: that's what you anyone can do right now where they
Speaker 1: live because that's governed on a local level. Meanwhile, though, yes,
Speaker 1: the Democratic Party needs to be held accountable. What I
Speaker 1: was gonna say this arguing about days and we can't
Speaker 1: do it before the midterms. Didn't they say we can't
Speaker 1: do nothing before the next president isn't ever spent a
Speaker 1: wheel That is not acceptable. And we need to demand
Speaker 1: that the Biden administration do what we want, whether it
Speaker 1: be reparations, whatever we need on gun violence, voting rights.
Speaker 1: They need to come up with a solution to the
Speaker 1: problem that exists in the Senator as well. You've got
Speaker 1: two Democratic senators now they claim not to be Democrats
Speaker 1: and name only Well that's the case. See what what
Speaker 1: the president is supposed to do. This is where the
Speaker 1: the wheel is supposed to work. This is what this
Speaker 1: is what the l b J did. L b J
Speaker 1: will call a senator, threaten a senator or or or
Speaker 1: influence something in that senator's district to get something done.
Speaker 1: Whatever buttons need to be pushed in Arizona and West
Speaker 1: Virginia to get them to vote down the philipbus that
Speaker 1: is sent them and Mansion respectively. Whatever button needs to
Speaker 1: be pushed, Joe Biden needs to threaten to push it.
Speaker 1: All right, Um, I mean that's pretty much the way
Speaker 1: that this has to happen. To be clear, the only
Speaker 1: reason the Asian piece went through, let's be very honest,
Speaker 1: very clear, is because Mr. Mconnell's wife is Asian. As
Speaker 1: always that they would have blocked that too. So so
Speaker 1: because they're blocking everything that went through because Mitch McConnell's
Speaker 1: wife is Asian, who also has happened to be an
Speaker 1: investigation for improprieties while she was a Department Transportation. But
Speaker 1: be that as it made. That's why certain bills get
Speaker 1: through because Republicans still control. So the question is, I
Speaker 1: think another way to put your question to me is
Speaker 1: why are we telling people to vote to elect Democratic
Speaker 1: senators when they still don't having the power and they
Speaker 1: can't do nothing anyware. I mean, what what? So So
Speaker 1: it boils down to the brokenness of the institution of
Speaker 1: the Senate because I'm gonna tell you something. What we
Speaker 1: have to again sleep in the streets, get stressed out
Speaker 1: in Georgia again this year because because warnox terms song
Speaker 1: is a small term to fulfill inspired term of someone else.
Speaker 1: So everything we did in January breaking news everybody, We're
Speaker 1: gonna have to do it again to keep him there.
Speaker 1: But the question is doing that gets us? What if
Speaker 1: we don't get rid of the filibuster, if mansion and
Speaker 1: Cinema on being held accountable. Now, to be clear, folks,
Speaker 1: other Democrats already talking about primary getting her all the
Speaker 1: way out of it. She's gonna face a primary as
Speaker 1: a Democratic I mean, I mean the cinema. I'm sorry
Speaker 1: she She's gonna face a Democratic primary her stelf. Why Arizona.
Speaker 1: She's in Arizona. So so watch this. This is gun
Speaker 1: violence Awareness Month, of gun violence, prevent your month, whatever
Speaker 1: you call it awareness. What is questions, y'all? She is
Speaker 1: upholding the filipbuton which is blocking background checks? Start weapon
Speaker 1: dank those issues. Parents to the House from a state
Speaker 1: where a fellow politicians whose husband was elected senator was
Speaker 1: shot in a mass shooting. And it's it's paralyzed that's
Speaker 1: uh Mark Kelly's wife, big difference husband. So Cinema's counterpart
Speaker 1: in the Center for Arizona has a wife that was
Speaker 1: shot in a mass shooting and Cinema won't even do
Speaker 1: in Arizona. And Cinema won't even do anything. She says
Speaker 1: the other day, Well, you know, the filipbuster, we might
Speaker 1: just want to keep it. It's not the worst thing
Speaker 1: in the world. What this is are other thing. This
Speaker 1: is where we come in a black people. The filibuster
Speaker 1: and electoral colleges, electoral college, and the Second Amendment are
Speaker 1: rimnant from the era of enslaved. They exist because of it.
Speaker 1: The electoral college was to keep the southern states in
Speaker 1: power that had more of us, more black folks in
Speaker 1: their states population and white people, so electoral college gave
Speaker 1: them an extra boost to compensate for the black people
Speaker 1: they weren't allowed to vote, and we were just three fifths.
Speaker 1: They used us to get those electors as three fives
Speaker 1: to add us up. The filibuster obviously was used to
Speaker 1: prevent anti lenging, to prevent civil rights legislation. So these
Speaker 1: are relics of an era of enslavement and for for
Speaker 1: these institutions to continue to exist. They are continuing to
Speaker 1: exist because of us, and they're now continuing to exist
Speaker 1: to uphold the ongoing oppression of us. And so that's
Speaker 1: where we all begin. So the voter suppression issue is important.
Speaker 1: It's also a man to be important. As you mentioned, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, buying has none to progressive things. I think
Speaker 1: we have to be honest and we we run this show,
Speaker 1: we call these plays because he would not even be
Speaker 1: in there. There's ever a president that did that one
Speaker 1: office specifically and exclusively because of the black community. It
Speaker 1: was Joe Back. Mm hmm. That's the fact. You know.
Speaker 1: I often have these you know, concel is for myself
Speaker 1: because I'm learning government and I'm learning just to understand
Speaker 1: more over and a lot of people like, yo, he
Speaker 1: should just sign this executive order to do these things.
Speaker 1: He should just sign these executive orders. And and when
Speaker 1: you're in office, like I'm just I have to put
Speaker 1: myself in a position like you know, if if if
Speaker 1: I have a a Senate and I have a body
Speaker 1: of people that have to oversee certain laws that I
Speaker 1: have to present most of the laws too, and policies
Speaker 1: and things that I want and I want to work
Speaker 1: in unison with you know this, this this governing body.
Speaker 1: If I constantly just signed executive orders that go against
Speaker 1: everything that this other party is with, then it makes
Speaker 1: it hard to to actually get any real work done
Speaker 1: inside the government, you know. And and that's a that's
Speaker 1: a that's a thing like a lot of people because
Speaker 1: they don't you know, when you talk to the average
Speaker 1: person on the street and well he he signed this,
Speaker 1: he needs to just sign that. And a lot of
Speaker 1: times people don't understand politics, don't understand just doing in
Speaker 1: a business world. If you know, if you if you're
Speaker 1: working with business and you just sidekay, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm I have rank and I'm over I'm put my
Speaker 1: rank over this person and make the decision. People still
Speaker 1: responsible for running the building. Right, So you can make
Speaker 1: that decision. Now when you make the decision and they decide,
Speaker 1: you know what, fun that we're not running this building
Speaker 1: no more? The buildings gonna get stand. You can make
Speaker 1: that decision that it goes. So so people have to
Speaker 1: understand that it's not as simple as just every time
Speaker 1: we want something just right, an executive or that has
Speaker 1: to be a culmination of things. Even though we know
Speaker 1: that they're not trying to play fit. It has to
Speaker 1: be a level of strategy that goes into this thing.
Speaker 1: You know, we have to do things in the manner
Speaker 1: that makes sense that you know that the government doesn't
Speaker 1: just crumble completely, even though that's something that most people
Speaker 1: would rather, you know, and we start something new, most people,
Speaker 1: some people, not most yet. But to your point, my song,
Speaker 1: it is true that the systems actually have to follow
Speaker 1: suit with whatever decisions are being made in the exact
Speaker 1: eegative office. And we know that white supremacy is running
Speaker 1: rampant within all of these different institutions. But that that's
Speaker 1: the reason why I said to you Mark that it
Speaker 1: feels like the energy for what we need is not there.
Speaker 1: Let me explain what I'm saying. Reform doesn't feel like
Speaker 1: it will work anymore. To me, I now have erased
Speaker 1: the word reform from my vocabulary when talking about policing.
Speaker 1: I think because of everything you just stated, we're talking
Speaker 1: about institutional issues. I mean, you just went through a
Speaker 1: whole thing, right, and and ism, right, the racism that exists,
Speaker 1: the the idea that most of these systems come from
Speaker 1: a time when we were enslaved. I think you need
Speaker 1: overhauls right that these syste that policing as it currently
Speaker 1: exists is going to have to be really literally strict,
Speaker 1: apart and redesigned. I don't know when we are ever
Speaker 1: going to get to a point that we had elected
Speaker 1: officials in office that had that same fire and energy
Speaker 1: understanding that the police unions are probably or I don't
Speaker 1: even know, as someone else said, they're not even unions.
Speaker 1: These are games mobs that they had. They are so powerful.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to figure out when you you know, you've
Speaker 1: been in this thing for a long time, and there
Speaker 1: have been periods that you've worked with individuals who had
Speaker 1: to be creative in terms of how they thought about
Speaker 1: restructuring the ask, restructuring the demand. Do you think we're
Speaker 1: at a time when we have an administration in place,
Speaker 1: but we need to be coming up with a new
Speaker 1: way of thinking about how we should approach our issues.
Speaker 1: Puffy is all over the internet right now saying equity
Speaker 1: everything is about money, equity, equity, equity, money, But I
Speaker 1: don't know if we if that if we can just
Speaker 1: go completely in that direction. So I know what I'm
Speaker 1: asking may not be makes sense, but I'm sure people's
Speaker 1: thoughts are just as scattered as what I'm saying to you.
Speaker 1: And it's a lot to lay on one man. But
Speaker 1: where what other times in history have we had to
Speaker 1: adjust the way in which we approached these issues and
Speaker 1: begin to man things in a different way. Well, let
Speaker 1: me just what you both said, um, because I think
Speaker 1: you raised some relevant question and I'm sure a lot
Speaker 1: of people listening for whom the way the government operates
Speaker 1: is not clearly understood. But the fact of the matter
Speaker 1: is that the three branches exist and it's supposed to
Speaker 1: be a check and balance. What the Republican Party has
Speaker 1: done successfully since the Clinton era is figure out ways
Speaker 1: to shut down the government so they're not only filipbus
Speaker 1: to debate in the Senate, be able to filipbus to
Speaker 1: the government and grind the wheels of government to a halt.
Speaker 1: Joe Biden has let us know he would like to
Speaker 1: emulate Um, Franklin Roosevelt, who um obviously did a lot.
Speaker 1: A lot of the things that are in place today
Speaker 1: that are any good to anyone happened then. But that's,
Speaker 1: you know, almost eighty years ago. I mean, everything has
Speaker 1: to be renewed. We can't keep making the same wages
Speaker 1: that FRANKL. Roosevelt gout was eight years ago and the
Speaker 1: same soci security check from eight years ago. So so
Speaker 1: that's one thing, and they figured out a way to
Speaker 1: shut all that down to make sure that never happens
Speaker 1: again and probably have hobbled the effectiveness of the presidency.
Speaker 1: If Tamika Mallory or my son Lennon we're president there
Speaker 1: would you would be somewhat hobble because of what they've done.
Speaker 1: So I was want to put that out there. We're
Speaker 1: talking about that later in terms of what you just said,
Speaker 1: uh Jamika and people uh you know, knowing what to do,
Speaker 1: whether anything is effective, whether anything is is working, those
Speaker 1: are all uh valid questions, even in terms of of reform. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: are those African Americans and abandoned administration who want to
Speaker 1: emphasize equity over reparations. You know, they feel like equity
Speaker 1: because they get caught up in terms defund hurt there
Speaker 1: it cost us seats when actually we found out those
Speaker 1: of us who look at the numbers found it defund
Speaker 1: didn't hurt anything. Defund actually motivated or millennials and Gen
Speaker 1: Zers to get out to vote. And that's the new
Speaker 1: generation coming reparations has been a word in the lexicon
Speaker 1: for for many, many years. It's not gonna hurt anymore.
Speaker 1: But this thing about equity, well, we don't want to
Speaker 1: do reparations now, Mark, we want to do equity. No,
Speaker 1: that's that's not accepted because equity is actually a subset
Speaker 1: of reparation. Reparations is the whole thing. Equity is just
Speaker 1: a piece of that. But I reminded about it. And
Speaker 1: this is the kick I've been on. This is the
Speaker 1: the hymnal I've been singing from. It is the importance
Speaker 1: of everyone listening, organizing on the local level because police
Speaker 1: are gone locally, boards of elections are governed locally. And
Speaker 1: that's the little trick in the constitution. That's how it
Speaker 1: set up set up the state's power. They didn't want
Speaker 1: to see if you have a centralized voting system, a
Speaker 1: centralized police system like they're doing Europe. Uh, Britain has
Speaker 1: the police department service everybody. So when they had me
Speaker 1: come on British TV like we don't understand, I said,
Speaker 1: because you'all got a centralized system, each city is different.
Speaker 1: Here the way they did that for the purpose of
Speaker 1: confusing us and dividing us and making it difference. It's
Speaker 1: much harder to take out uh fifty um systems in
Speaker 1: each state and in each state a hundreds of my counties.
Speaker 1: Then it would be if you have one singular department
Speaker 1: or agency or oversight, that's one easy target. We gotta
Speaker 1: go get so. I remind everyone Dr King won the
Speaker 1: Nobel Prize not for what he did as national leader,
Speaker 1: but what what he did in Montgomer Sisten Brothers. As
Speaker 1: we organized locally, learn understand, get involved in you know
Speaker 1: how the government is run, how legislation is made in
Speaker 1: your locale, because that may then educate you and inspired
Speaker 1: you to run yourself. We need, we need young black
Speaker 1: people to run for office. Now, don't jump up, run
Speaker 1: for the United States. And I as back calling me,
Speaker 1: I'm getting representate. I said, no, slow down, you're not
Speaker 1: ready for that. Uh City council, fight for police citizen
Speaker 1: commissions to oversee the police department in your local. Fight
Speaker 1: for that. Get on that commission, hold the police accountament demonstrate,
Speaker 1: don't there's one thing to demonstrate to stop killing us,
Speaker 1: it's another thing to demonstrate two that solves the immediate problem,
Speaker 1: solve the long term problem. Let's demonstrate and make these
Speaker 1: city councils um pass legislation to put citizen commission not
Speaker 1: just civilian complaint with you, not just to look at cases,
Speaker 1: but commissions to oversee the police department. Again, another look
Speaker 1: civic lesson, y'all watch is the Department of Defense is
Speaker 1: run by civilian for a purpose, so that there's always
Speaker 1: civilian oversight over the military. You don't want the military
Speaker 1: to run it because what uses in countries where they
Speaker 1: have military coups. There's a reason for that. So in
Speaker 1: this country's decision was and many other behind the countries,
Speaker 1: civilians oversee the military. The police are paramilitary force, not
Speaker 1: community civilians that look like you and me need to
Speaker 1: oversee those departments. That's the argument struggle around that. And
Speaker 1: then I'm gonna tell you, mice and to me and
Speaker 1: everybody listening. When you do that, you're also gonna call
Speaker 1: out a lot of black politicians. Okay, because some of
Speaker 1: these black people on some of these city councils, they
Speaker 1: get endorsed by the police union. They're getting money. So
Speaker 1: you may have to take on people that look like
Speaker 1: you who are an elected office who want to still
Speaker 1: cozy up to the police and then make this argument.
Speaker 1: Watch this, we can't be fund we can't bolus, we
Speaker 1: can't have oversight because we need the police to protect
Speaker 1: us from uh gang bangers and young brothers in hood.
Speaker 1: Let me, let's tell them tell you about that right now?
Speaker 1: When was the last time, as everybody listening, you have
Speaker 1: heard of the police solving or addressing any crime in
Speaker 1: your community? Think about it now now now, we pay
Speaker 1: taxes as black people, allegedly for the police to protect
Speaker 1: and serve us, and they don't do it. More black
Speaker 1: women are missing and murder. Police don't investigate squat at all.
Speaker 1: Uh when somebody gets killed, not community. Don't let somebody
Speaker 1: you get about breaking in your house, scaling the car.
Speaker 1: That's like a paper clip. They don't care about that.
Speaker 1: So you paying them not only not to protect you
Speaker 1: little old ladies still getting hit the head. I was
Speaker 1: on sething else today, police killing uh civilians? What's that
Speaker 1: time you heard police running up in some gang banging
Speaker 1: crib to have a shootout with people who could shoot back,
Speaker 1: and them they don't do that because they don't want
Speaker 1: to get shot. They don't take on people who can
Speaker 1: shoot back. And then and then real talking. This is
Speaker 1: a whole another show. Some of the folks out here
Speaker 1: that they don't want to go get with the guns
Speaker 1: vice they have flipped in the confidential informants. Anyway, they're
Speaker 1: working for the cops. So your money, your tax money,
Speaker 1: is paying the confidential informant. We need a whole to
Speaker 1: talk through. Um, all the things you're talking about. We um,
Speaker 1: there's so much to unpack, and it's important to unpack it.
Speaker 1: Not with folks who are just mad at everybody all
Speaker 1: the time, but folks who are really thinking strategically about
Speaker 1: what the next moves are going to be. Yeah, we're
Speaker 1: all frustrated and we all know that we're not getting
Speaker 1: what we deserve. But there is still a way to
Speaker 1: approach our our efforts and to approach what we what
Speaker 1: we need to see happen in this nation. And so
Speaker 1: it's good to just have you on because you're always
Speaker 1: stabilizing our thoughts and helping us to sort of get organized.
Speaker 1: And you know, whenever we talk to you were like
Speaker 1: all over the place, But that's because we know you
Speaker 1: have the ability to center us and bring us back
Speaker 1: to what we have to focus on. And I think
Speaker 1: the local elections is so important. Even though I know
Speaker 1: West Virginia rest West Virginia is an issue in terms
Speaker 1: of um, you know, the truncsters that are there and
Speaker 1: the Republicans. I can tell you that there are people
Speaker 1: who have been dming me and tagging me saying they're
Speaker 1: ready to go to work, even in West Virginia. So
Speaker 1: I think we bottle up on that. So Mark, we
Speaker 1: create you for coming on and talking with us. Get
Speaker 1: you to come back, maybe even next week so we
Speaker 1: can talk more about reparations and to TOSA movement, and
Speaker 1: you know, just so many things that's happening right now,
Speaker 1: um where I feel like everything is sort of coming
Speaker 1: to get you. Guys. You've got reparations, even the DC
Speaker 1: statehood piece, which I never even under I understood the
Speaker 1: importance of making sure that DC does become a an
Speaker 1: official state, um, but I didn't think about how important
Speaker 1: it is in light of trying to gain power, to
Speaker 1: be able to silence the votes and voices of folks
Speaker 1: like Joe Manchin. So thank you, Mark, Appreciate your anger
Speaker 1: in the action. Everybody join your anger in the action.
Speaker 1: That's right, that's right. Appreciate Thank y'all, Love y'all, it's
Speaker 1: always dope listening to Mark. He's like in the cyclopedia.
Speaker 1: Every time we don't know something, he knows the history
Speaker 1: of it, he knows the term, he knows we ever started, man,
Speaker 1: So he's always dope handing him in his perspective, because,
Speaker 1: like we said, man, it's it's just so much going on,
Speaker 1: and our people feel disenfranchised and even wonderful. Like I
Speaker 1: went out and I told people had to vote, and
Speaker 1: I told people from the beginning that it wasn't because
Speaker 1: I was the biggest Biden Harris fans. It wasn't anything
Speaker 1: to do with that. It just did I understood the
Speaker 1: imminent danger we had with Trump in the Whitehouse, and
Speaker 1: you know, and and now we have to we gotta
Speaker 1: live up to that. Man. We gotta call him out.
Speaker 1: We gotta hold people accountable, you know, like he said,
Speaker 1: he promised us something, and he told us we did
Speaker 1: right for him, so he owes us, so we gotta
Speaker 1: make him do good on those problems. It's um, you know,
Speaker 1: talking to market is always good. So I'm happy we
Speaker 1: had him on. And I think we need to really
Speaker 1: make sure we bring him back regularly so that he
Speaker 1: can help to inform folks about their feelings and what
Speaker 1: we're seeing. You know, he's just he's equally frustrated, but
Speaker 1: also very strategic. He's been in these movements for a
Speaker 1: long time, and I think we need to make sure
Speaker 1: we have we have people like that informing how we
Speaker 1: approach our work. And that brings me to my I
Speaker 1: don't get it, you know, when we talk about the
Speaker 1: whole Trump and an administration and the voting piece, I
Speaker 1: don't get though, Yeah, because well I've been talking about
Speaker 1: Trump and still to be talked about like he's coming
Speaker 1: He's he's basically coming back, and he said it. You know,
Speaker 1: he's he's getting up, he's getting more energy, like he's
Speaker 1: actually being actually getting stronger, you know, because this country
Speaker 1: is moving to a different space. And if we're not
Speaker 1: paying attention to the strength that he's gavin on so
Speaker 1: when when they when they vote to say that, um,
Speaker 1: the insurrection was just people just touring, you know, then
Speaker 1: we we understand the power that he has and the
Speaker 1: we're ignoring that power and we just in this lacks
Speaker 1: of data who state then we're definitely gonna have more
Speaker 1: issues to deal with. But that brings me to my
Speaker 1: I don't get it. And I just don't get why
Speaker 1: people don't get that when we said vote for Biden
Speaker 1: and Harris that we looked at the administration, which was
Speaker 1: Trump and said, I don't give a damn who gets
Speaker 1: in the White House. He just can't get it. He
Speaker 1: cannot stay in power. I don't get. I just don't
Speaker 1: get how people don't understand that concept. I just don't
Speaker 1: look how people seeing that we had a straight up
Speaker 1: dictator in the White House. And yes, we look at Biden.
Speaker 1: He's not the perfect candid we look at, but this
Speaker 1: was the only what we had. We had Kamala and
Speaker 1: on Biden on one hand, and we had Trump and
Speaker 1: Pence on the other hand. And like I said, and
Speaker 1: I'll say it again, I will vote for my ten
Speaker 1: year old son before I will vote for Trump. And
Speaker 1: that's just it. So I don't understand why people don't get.
Speaker 1: I just don't get why that concept is so hard. Yes,
Speaker 1: we we we we we understood that Biden had a
Speaker 1: history of things that weren't all the way progressive and
Speaker 1: right now, like like Mark said, he's done some things
Speaker 1: that have been progressive that we didn't even we didn't,
Speaker 1: you know, we didn't anticipate, you know, and we're holding
Speaker 1: him way more accountable. People are way more on him than,
Speaker 1: you know, than they I don't know if I see that,
Speaker 1: you don't see what people being more holding him more accountable.
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't say accountable, but I'm saying way
Speaker 1: more critical. I think people are very very critical. Like
Speaker 1: and because people act like I'm the president. Oh this
Speaker 1: is what you want, Oh this is what you voted for. Yeah, okay, listen,
Speaker 1: I just wasn't not gonna let a straight up terrorist
Speaker 1: stay in the White House. So if people don't understand
Speaker 1: that concept, yes, this the bottom line is, you know,
Speaker 1: the position of president of the United States is not
Speaker 1: a position that is favorable to black people. The system
Speaker 1: that the presidency is built on, it's not favorable to
Speaker 1: black people. You know when you have sent it, and
Speaker 1: you when you look at you have a Senate and
Speaker 1: we can vote as much as we want, and we
Speaker 1: still have senators that are supposed to be democratic, that's
Speaker 1: supposed to be for the same issues that against you know,
Speaker 1: everything that has to do with advancement and evolution of
Speaker 1: black people. We understand that this country is built on
Speaker 1: white supremacy and racism. We're never gonna stop that fight.
Speaker 1: That fight is not gonna stop until we this man
Speaker 1: to the whole system. But why are we trying to
Speaker 1: disman to the system of white supremacy and racism. We
Speaker 1: have to put people who are less likely to harm us. See,
Speaker 1: I don't mind if you don't help me. Like I
Speaker 1: said all the time, you don't gotta help me. I
Speaker 1: just don't need you to hurt me. Like right now,
Speaker 1: with Biden is doing a lot of things are not
Speaker 1: helping us. They're helping a lot of the people, but
Speaker 1: he's not implementing policies and laws that are hurting black people.
Speaker 1: And that, for me, gives me an opportunity that I
Speaker 1: can fight. Long as you're not damaging me and stabbing
Speaker 1: me and making it harder for me to be able
Speaker 1: to move up. Then you're not a friend, but you're
Speaker 1: not a folmer, So I'd rather deal with you. Trump
Speaker 1: was directly putting policy in place that was death and
Speaker 1: mental to the life of our people. It was detrimental.
Speaker 1: It was rolling back civil rights, it was taking basic
Speaker 1: human rights from black people. So I don't get why
Speaker 1: people just don't see that. I really just don't get
Speaker 1: that well. I mean, I think that UM. Overall, I
Speaker 1: think you're right. I think there will be many people
Speaker 1: who will critique what you have said thus far, because
Speaker 1: people are going to say that if you're not helping
Speaker 1: us while hurting us UM And I do I agree
Speaker 1: with that to a certain extent. But I completely understand
Speaker 1: that the point that you're making is that in the
Speaker 1: previous administration, what we were dealing with is them literally
Speaker 1: rolling back things like, for instance, saying that we would
Speaker 1: no longer have diversity and UM and racial sensitivity training
Speaker 1: within the federal government, so you would no longer have
Speaker 1: those types of trainings and important information and and all.
Speaker 1: So I think the point of taking the training out
Speaker 1: is to also roll back the need to address a
Speaker 1: racial incident if it happens within the workplace as well,
Speaker 1: it's gonna it's a need to eliminate the acknowledgement, and
Speaker 1: that's exactly what they were doing. UM And I think
Speaker 1: in this particular situation, what we will find is that
Speaker 1: there will be more UH systems put in place to
Speaker 1: at least acknowledge the pain, but there is not enough
Speaker 1: that has been or probably will be done to address
Speaker 1: the issue and to hold as you said, people accountable,
Speaker 1: UM in a real, real way, and so I you know,
Speaker 1: we are in a state of emergency all the time.
Speaker 1: I do think, though, that there are efforts by organizations
Speaker 1: that's happening behind the scenes. I know, UM, you know,
Speaker 1: looking at what Black Folds Matter are doing, and the
Speaker 1: work around June teenth and beyond UM that until freedom
Speaker 1: is a part of you know, all of these things
Speaker 1: are not necessarily being discussed every single day in the
Speaker 1: public sphere, but there is planning that is in progress
Speaker 1: to really not so much try but to push back,
Speaker 1: to make sure that this administration understands that they don't
Speaker 1: get a pass, they don't get a pass UM, and
Speaker 1: that our efforts to UM not just hold them accountable,
Speaker 1: but to ensure that they understand that if they don't
Speaker 1: do what is necessary, don't call us. Don't look for
Speaker 1: us to be on the front lines to help organize
Speaker 1: folks in the future, because I know I will not
Speaker 1: be able to participate in that, just because I personally
Speaker 1: don't feel it. You know, my own life is beginning
Speaker 1: to diminish. Although I understand exact aptly why I voted
Speaker 1: for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and if it was
Speaker 1: I had to make the same decision again, I would
Speaker 1: make the same decision. But in terms of me going
Speaker 1: out into the world and trying to get people to
Speaker 1: understand the importance of them showing up to the polls
Speaker 1: no matter who they vote for, it is very difficult
Speaker 1: to tell people that when they can't see the progress
Speaker 1: on either side. Um. And so you know, folks will say,
Speaker 1: while I don't agree with that either, because there is progress.
Speaker 1: You know, we have have gun violence resources, we have
Speaker 1: a focus on addressing those issues, and I think that's
Speaker 1: all important. But we know, we absolutely know that police
Speaker 1: terrorism is one of the most important issues that black
Speaker 1: people across this country care about, and it has to
Speaker 1: be addressed, and at this point it's not being addrust properly.
Speaker 1: And of course economic empowerment is another issue. And we're
Speaker 1: not talking about sending out a few checks that those
Speaker 1: things are cool. Those things will put a band aid
Speaker 1: on a bleeding arm, but we want the tired um
Speaker 1: sore to be bandaged up, sown up, treated everything. We
Speaker 1: want all the medications, we need everything to heal a wound.
Speaker 1: And and we've been wounded very much about this country.
Speaker 1: So that's what I have to say on that. Well,
Speaker 1: with that's being said, that brings us to the close
Speaker 1: of another Dope episode. You know, I appreciate, huh the
Speaker 1: informational education. Yeah, definitely, definitely informational man. You know. Shout
Speaker 1: out to my brother of Mark Thompson. Shout out to
Speaker 1: Jamani Williams for coming through and just kicking it with
Speaker 1: us and giving informing us about certain things. You know.
Speaker 1: Every time we sit down on this platform, we bring
Speaker 1: our friends, you know, and our brother bring some people
Speaker 1: who are not our friends. Yeah, we're gonna stop bringing
Speaker 1: so because I want to have some debates with people.
Speaker 1: I told you I'm trying to just to be be
Speaker 1: in you a debate. You know, I went all the
Speaker 1: debates we have. I gotta you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: I gotta bring somebody else to be I want to
Speaker 1: have some you know, give us some people. Tell us
Speaker 1: some people that you want to see on street, Politicians
Speaker 1: that we might not agree with, you know, and we
Speaker 1: want to have We want to have dialogue because you
Speaker 1: don't gotta agree. But if you have something to say,
Speaker 1: as long as you got don't tell me somebody that
Speaker 1: that ain't even worth talking to tell me somebody that
Speaker 1: might have something to say, who our views might be
Speaker 1: a little different, and you know, and we want to
Speaker 1: we want to get, you know, have a little healthy debate,
Speaker 1: healthy dialogue. Man. So with that being said, once again,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna always be right to me, is not
Speaker 1: gonna always be wrong, but we will both always be
Speaker 1: authentic at that. That's how we are not sorry.