Speaker 1: What's the family. I'm your girl to meeke A D. Mallory,
Speaker 1: this your boy, my son in the general, and we're
Speaker 1: your hosts the street politicians to place me at the
Speaker 1: streets and politics. Me so, Mike Man. You know, um,
Speaker 1: crazy weekend. Crazy weekend. The craziest thing happened to me
Speaker 1: that nobody knew about a secret process that I have
Speaker 1: been in for the last several months, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: pledging as they say, and and being sort of head
Speaker 1: down focused on joining a sisterhood. And as of this
Speaker 1: past weekend, I am now a proud member of the
Speaker 1: Alpha halfa Alpha sorority incorporated beside dya O'naga chapter in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Speaker 1: I'm super happy and in this weekend in one of
Speaker 1: them most incredible things that could have happened to me
Speaker 1: among forty one beautiful women who are now my sisters,
Speaker 1: um our International President, who holds the highest position within
Speaker 1: the sorority, came to Knoxville to be at our ceremony
Speaker 1: and she also penned me um, which is really special.
Speaker 1: The person that pens you is a current a k a.
Speaker 1: A member for some time who you asked to come
Speaker 1: and pen you as a new a k A. And uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I was privileged to have our international president,
Speaker 1: Glenda Glover to do that. And I believe that you know,
Speaker 1: she uh you know, sees me as someone who's a
Speaker 1: real leader and someone who is trying to make change
Speaker 1: for our community. And I found out over the last
Speaker 1: several weeks that this is the sorority of Rosa Parks UM,
Speaker 1: and so I am proud to be in in her stead,
Speaker 1: you know, and and following in her her footsteps. So
Speaker 1: that happened to me this past weekend. Congratulations, man, you
Speaker 1: know that's it sounds like something that UM is worthy,
Speaker 1: that you're worthy of, first of all, and you know
Speaker 1: that's it's something that's dope. I don't really followed the
Speaker 1: or I gotta get into that, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: I gotta learn a little. But you know, it seems
Speaker 1: like I know, I've seen a lot of the pictures
Speaker 1: that you posted, you know, a lot of the women,
Speaker 1: and I hear a lot of women that we know
Speaker 1: who are part of the fraternity, and that Garrett Subart
Speaker 1: Brock apologize the man. I don't know I can say either.
Speaker 1: I'm learning, Yes, yes, family members, family members. I have friends,
Speaker 1: a lot of women. All of them are upstanding, you know,
Speaker 1: dope women, so you know, and you're supposed to be
Speaker 1: a part of so congratulation the a k A s
Speaker 1: Um this is they were the first sorority, first sority,
Speaker 1: so it's the first family and um, everybody else came
Speaker 1: after us. So I'm proud to be a part of that.
Speaker 1: We're pink and green, we get twenty pearls UM. And
Speaker 1: I have a lot of people who are in the
Speaker 1: Divine nine in general, so just so you know, as
Speaker 1: a part of education, the Divine nine includes all of
Speaker 1: the different sororities and fraternities, the stigmas and the zetas
Speaker 1: and the deltas um, they're all a part of the
Speaker 1: Divine nine. So it is a family of people who
Speaker 1: are in the Greek letter to organization. UM. But you
Speaker 1: know there are specific entry points, if you will, and
Speaker 1: homes that we have and mine is a k A.
Speaker 1: But I have lots of friends who are deltas and
Speaker 1: zatas and I love them all, so you know, it's
Speaker 1: a it's a yet another phase in my life. You know,
Speaker 1: turned forty years old and a lot of things happened
Speaker 1: for me, the release of my book State of Emergency, UM.
Speaker 1: You know me joining UH this sorority. So you know,
Speaker 1: life is in progress. UM. Life is about both your
Speaker 1: I think it's it's it's got to be about your
Speaker 1: personal and your professional and our communities and just making
Speaker 1: sure that you stay grounded in all of those things. UM.
Speaker 1: And I know that there are people out there who say, well,
Speaker 1: what do the Greek letter organizations do for me? And
Speaker 1: you know, how are they involved? And I thought about
Speaker 1: that a lot because I do want to ensure I'm
Speaker 1: also a Link, which is another organization that has lots
Speaker 1: of professional women. You have to be invited to become
Speaker 1: a LINK. I'm very proud of being in that organization
Speaker 1: as well. And one of the things about the way
Speaker 1: that UM white supremacy operates, in the way that laws
Speaker 1: and rules have been established, is that in order to
Speaker 1: maintain your five oh one C three status, you have
Speaker 1: to be very careful about how politically engaged you are
Speaker 1: in particular issues. And that's not just UM sororities and fraternities.
Speaker 1: That's any five O one C three organization UM, which
Speaker 1: includes churches, UH, and you know some of these foundations
Speaker 1: and otherwise, so you have. They're very very strict on
Speaker 1: the rules of how you can be politically engaged. You
Speaker 1: have to be very careful not to be lobbying or
Speaker 1: supporting candidates under your C three status, and so oftentimes
Speaker 1: there is conflict and conflict that I am one who
Speaker 1: intends to be a real advocate for us, looking at
Speaker 1: ways to change it and pushing it as close as
Speaker 1: possible to um making sure that we're not so caught
Speaker 1: up in our incorporation status that we are less concerned
Speaker 1: or or or not as much engaged in our community status. Right.
Speaker 1: So I'm one of those people who will definitely be
Speaker 1: fighting for that. But what I will say is that
Speaker 1: while people may not be wearing their colors right because
Speaker 1: pinky green is my color and the adults is have
Speaker 1: red and blue, and you know, different ones have different colors,
Speaker 1: the one thing that you do see is that many
Speaker 1: of the people out here fighting, from Dr King to
Speaker 1: Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee to uh as I said, Rosa Parks,
Speaker 1: and the list goes on and on. Even people who
Speaker 1: are currently on the ground today, they are members of
Speaker 1: these of the Divine Nine. Ben Crump. These are people
Speaker 1: who are members of the divine nine. But you don't
Speaker 1: necessarily see their colors on them at a protest. But
Speaker 1: people should not think in any way that it means
Speaker 1: that those individuals are removed from the movement, because they
Speaker 1: are very much so engaged UM. And I think what
Speaker 1: we have to find a way to do is to
Speaker 1: be able to show more of those individuals and their
Speaker 1: support that is notwithstanding or that is that is separate
Speaker 1: and apart from the exact you know, the organization, but
Speaker 1: allows them to be to let it be known that we,
Speaker 1: as we may be, were members UM. But nonetheless I'm
Speaker 1: not here in an official capacity, but as a member,
Speaker 1: I do still support my community, and that's you know,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a tough balance and we have to
Speaker 1: figure it out. But I think that's one of the
Speaker 1: reasons why I was invited is to help us figure
Speaker 1: out in such crazy times, how do we not us
Speaker 1: as an a k A. Not just in that organization,
Speaker 1: but in all of our organizations, find ways to help
Speaker 1: even more to fight for our communities. Well, congratulations, and
Speaker 1: I know that if that can be done, then you're
Speaker 1: gonna get it done. You know. I look forward to
Speaker 1: seeing the engagement of the divide none in our community,
Speaker 1: you know, led by you know, efforts that I know
Speaker 1: that you definitely hold them too, because you ain't gonna
Speaker 1: to the run and play. I don't have to say
Speaker 1: something here and then what stuff is going on there
Speaker 1: visible right there on the hill constantly engage in Congress
Speaker 1: and they're they're doing those things. But there's a style
Speaker 1: that we like and and and that's where the conflict
Speaker 1: comes in that people want a certain style. And I think,
Speaker 1: you know, it's a testament to what the a k
Speaker 1: a s are attempting to do by bringing more people
Speaker 1: like me into the organization. So I'm excited about my
Speaker 1: UM journey, this new journey in my life. So you
Speaker 1: know what I was thinking about today, it's totally off
Speaker 1: topic for this show that we have coming up, and
Speaker 1: that you and you know that you know, the the
Speaker 1: guests that we have that we're going to be bringing
Speaker 1: on today is really really important. In fact, we decided
Speaker 1: not to have two guests because sometimes when we try
Speaker 1: to fit in the two guests piece, it seems like
Speaker 1: it just cuts um the ability to really focus hone
Speaker 1: in And I think as we're getting into this political season,
Speaker 1: which politics is every season. But this is about to
Speaker 1: be a real um uh, it's gonna be a heavy
Speaker 1: lift for people, especially since they got nothing to claim
Speaker 1: that they've done for us and for our commune of
Speaker 1: these and we've but people still are in elected office.
Speaker 1: There's still work to be done, and so we're giving
Speaker 1: um the the gentleman that's coming on with us today
Speaker 1: full time to be able to talk to us. So um.
Speaker 1: But as just this other sort of crazy thought that
Speaker 1: came to me. So lately, I've really been trying to
Speaker 1: take care of myself. I am trying to eat better.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to uh, you know, drink my teas and
Speaker 1: just do all the things that's necessary for my body,
Speaker 1: my mind and my spirit. Because you know, at forty,
Speaker 1: which I don't know if you experience is or not,
Speaker 1: because you're very, very healthy, but I know, especially for women,
Speaker 1: once we turned forty, we begin to see real shifts,
Speaker 1: Like you know that I've gotten older. It's not a
Speaker 1: bad thing because I feel the sexiest and the brightest
Speaker 1: and the best that I've ever felt, because I'm grown
Speaker 1: for real now. But I still can also sense that
Speaker 1: my body is telling me, hey, we gotta change some
Speaker 1: of our habits. We can't eat and get in the bed,
Speaker 1: you know, we gotta do things different. So I'm just
Speaker 1: I was thinking as I had to pack. I was traveling,
Speaker 1: um and I had to pack my teas because you
Speaker 1: can't find tumeric. You know. It's like we live in
Speaker 1: a society that this is not what they serve us, right.
Speaker 1: You can't go to the McDonald's and get some tumoreric
Speaker 1: ginger and pineapple tea that do with inflammation in the body.
Speaker 1: They don't have that. They don't have whole foods everywhere.
Speaker 1: We go to food deserts where you might not even
Speaker 1: be able to find a good supermarket. So I'm like
Speaker 1: packing teas and packing cranberry fills and doing all of that,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, why is it that everything that's good
Speaker 1: for us? This is really my put of the day.
Speaker 1: Why is it that everything that's good for us taste
Speaker 1: so damned? Dad? Like everything that's like really really good
Speaker 1: for you, they tell you eat avocado. I hate avocado.
Speaker 1: All of this stuff that's like super super good for you,
Speaker 1: it doesn't taste good. I was like thinking, watermelon, ca
Speaker 1: I'm gonna eat fruits to me, eat watermelon, eat this
Speaker 1: I mean that people are like, that's a bunch of sugar.
Speaker 1: This is what I like. Everything that's really good for
Speaker 1: you doesn't really taste that good. Yeah, I think. I
Speaker 1: think it's because we've trained I would taste buzz. Because
Speaker 1: you don't know what tastes good until you actually start
Speaker 1: training your taste buzz. And that's why different people, different
Speaker 1: cultures eat different foods. They've trained their taste buzzs to
Speaker 1: a certain seasoning, certain flavors. You know, some kids, I've
Speaker 1: watched my man's daughter. She's been vegan her whole life.
Speaker 1: She never ate meat. You understand I'm saying, so trying
Speaker 1: to meet trying to stop my kids from getting chicken.
Speaker 1: It's like cutting their head off. They're like, what, no chicken? Chicken?
Speaker 1: So when you're trying to stop when you when you
Speaker 1: give them something and you your taste, but get trained
Speaker 1: to it. It's really hard to retrain your taste. But
Speaker 1: especially at forty, you know you've been eating what you've
Speaker 1: been eating. You know how you want your food season
Speaker 1: you know how your mother usually cooked it. If there's
Speaker 1: a taste, but a sensation that comes from that. So
Speaker 1: now you're trying to give your body. Things that ain't seasoned,
Speaker 1: ain't got no sugar in it, and all of this
Speaker 1: stuff is excuse me, I eat season I ain't. I ain't.
Speaker 1: I ain't get all the way there yet. You know,
Speaker 1: I think there's another transition probably around fifty that you
Speaker 1: have to go through of some other things. But for now,
Speaker 1: I don't. I'm not saying I want like, I'm not
Speaker 1: one of these people that add salt. I don't believe
Speaker 1: in like getting the salt and adding it to my food.
Speaker 1: I don't. I see people put salt on like fried chicken.
Speaker 1: Then you know you're killing yourself if you actually put
Speaker 1: grains of salt on your fried food or on your steak.
Speaker 1: I try not to do that, but I definitely want
Speaker 1: to eat food that tastes good. Yeah. What I'm trying
Speaker 1: to say is your definition to taste good comes from,
Speaker 1: you know, these taste buzz being exposed to certain seasons
Speaker 1: in in foods, your whole life. So it's it's gonna
Speaker 1: be a process man retraining, retraining your body to do
Speaker 1: what's best for it instead it was best to it.
Speaker 1: It's very hard, just like rest rest you when you're
Speaker 1: sitting there and you're not doing nothing. You relax. It
Speaker 1: ain't the most healthiest for your body all the time
Speaker 1: because if you're not working out certain muscles, you're not
Speaker 1: moving them. The pain that comes with it, you don't
Speaker 1: like it. It's like, yo, I don't want to be
Speaker 1: in pain. But you see the results, so you gotta
Speaker 1: you gotta balance. It's just like even in food, you
Speaker 1: gotta balance. You gotta give yourself a little bit of
Speaker 1: the stuff that you know taste good, but the majority
Speaker 1: of it got to be the stuff that's best for it. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: we need to take you know what we should do.
Speaker 1: We should We should rent a kitchen studio set up
Speaker 1: and let Capra come and show us, because she keeps
Speaker 1: telling me if you have black rice and you cook
Speaker 1: it with instead of water, you cook it with chicken
Speaker 1: bra it adds taste to it. Now, that's one of
Speaker 1: the things that my my mom when she was diagnosed
Speaker 1: with diabetes many years ago, and they changed everything, they
Speaker 1: changed the way they cook. They didn't she didn't take
Speaker 1: the medicine route, which is why you and I argue
Speaker 1: so much about the vaccine and COVID and this and
Speaker 1: that in the third but you know good and well
Speaker 1: that from my family's perspective, they're not like run to
Speaker 1: get a flu shot and vaccine type of people. They're
Speaker 1: just not never have been. When my mom was diagnosed
Speaker 1: with diabetes, instead of them saying, okay, let's take all
Speaker 1: of this medicine, she took what she absolutely had to
Speaker 1: and the rest of it. It all came from them
Speaker 1: throwing out everything that was in the refrigerator and changing
Speaker 1: the way they eat, the way they seasoned food, all
Speaker 1: of that, so now everything is low sodium. They have
Speaker 1: found different brands um and ways that they cook. And
Speaker 1: sometimes I'm not gonna lie, you know, I taste some
Speaker 1: stuff and I'll be like, dange, this is really you know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of it's not as it's not as um,
Speaker 1: it's not as a season to your point. But but
Speaker 1: still they have found a way to make their food
Speaker 1: taste pretty good and pretty much the same but using
Speaker 1: different and more healthy um options and Kepra that is
Speaker 1: her position that you can make all of it tastes good,
Speaker 1: you just have to know how to cook it. And
Speaker 1: I think we should shoot a show that is on
Speaker 1: health that really just kind of shows us what it
Speaker 1: is that we need in order to be healthy since
Speaker 1: you're already into it. But I'm learning now and I
Speaker 1: think that would be do you know. She's definitely dope
Speaker 1: in that regards and just telling you it's healthy mentally, physically, spiritually.
Speaker 1: So I'm definitely old for that. Man. We gotta get
Speaker 1: kept up here and give us a little class, give
Speaker 1: us a class. So my son, as usual, we have
Speaker 1: a friend that is joining us on street politicians today. UM.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know. I think we gotta find
Speaker 1: a way to brand that our friends are joining us
Speaker 1: because we have so many friends doing really really powerful things.
Speaker 1: And I'm really today, I'm I'm star struck. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't get star struck about a lot, but I'm
Speaker 1: star struck because the person that's joining us, UM is
Speaker 1: someone that is very powerful, very brilliant, UM and very
Speaker 1: much so committed to our people, our communities. And I'm
Speaker 1: so happy that I watched UM as my mom. You know,
Speaker 1: right around the time that he was running for office,
Speaker 1: my mom had had her stroke. She was UM, you know,
Speaker 1: just kind of like getting herself back in in in place,
Speaker 1: if you will, and moving around in her community. And
Speaker 1: when it was time for her to go out and vote,
Speaker 1: that day. She was like, no, I don't want to
Speaker 1: do absentee, I don't want to do any of that.
Speaker 1: I want to go to the polls for this young
Speaker 1: man because I believe in him. Um, and that's none
Speaker 1: other than Congressman Jamal Bowman of the Bronx. Now there's
Speaker 1: a history here, because, Um, this is a man who
Speaker 1: went from being a founding principle at a middle school,
Speaker 1: being a BRONX site, living in public housing before that,
Speaker 1: and now becoming the Congressman for the sixteenth district in
Speaker 1: the Bronx and also joining the squad members in Washington,
Speaker 1: d C. As a real bona fide progressive. Um. And
Speaker 1: you know onitial we talk about radical progressiveness because there
Speaker 1: is there's some people who say they're progressive and I
Speaker 1: don't know what that means. But this man is really
Speaker 1: truly progressive and it has a radical vision for our community.
Speaker 1: So Congressman Bowman, thank you so much for joining us. Sir,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for having me. Um. I am
Speaker 1: starstruck because your leadership in our community for several years,
Speaker 1: if not decades, has been transformative and inspiration for me,
Speaker 1: particularly your work and your leadership with the Woman's march
Speaker 1: Um when it first happened, and so appreciate you and
Speaker 1: my son love you brother man. We were talking offline
Speaker 1: about how you came to the school and did a
Speaker 1: mediation with our students when I was a principal. Thank
Speaker 1: thank you for that, and thank you for your joint
Speaker 1: response to join the Lucas and that bs he put out, Dan,
Speaker 1: what was the name of that song? Um? What was Damn?
Speaker 1: I'm not a racist. Thank you, thank you, thank you
Speaker 1: for your response. I listened to that ship like twenty times,
Speaker 1: you know, so really appreciate that. Thank you both for
Speaker 1: what you're doing. Thank you for having me. Thank you man.
Speaker 1: It's a is you to be able to just see
Speaker 1: you elevate to this space. And just like you said,
Speaker 1: you know, I went to your school when you were
Speaker 1: a steam principal, man, and just the way the way
Speaker 1: that you brought me into the school. You know, it
Speaker 1: was unconventional, but you understood the times that were and
Speaker 1: you understood that we need different methods and different ideologies
Speaker 1: understanding to get to our kids. Like there was a
Speaker 1: there was a confusion with two rival games kids, right,
Speaker 1: and and it was just because they lived in different neighborhoods.
Speaker 1: It was they didn't even have their own personal beat
Speaker 1: because when we tried to roll it down, roll back
Speaker 1: what it was, it was like, well, that's just a
Speaker 1: way did this problem start? Well, they from here and
Speaker 1: we from there, and he said something to me one
Speaker 1: day and then you know, we just naturally even beating.
Speaker 1: I said, so when did it start? They said, I
Speaker 1: don't even know when it be so like they couldn't
Speaker 1: even tell me what the exception of this quote unquote
Speaker 1: beef that they had started. And you know, we rolled back.
Speaker 1: We got a lot of a lot of accomplished that day,
Speaker 1: you know, and it was just it was based on
Speaker 1: your leadership as a principal. So I just want to
Speaker 1: say congratulations. And all the work that you do definitely
Speaker 1: motivates and inspires us as well. You know, you are
Speaker 1: a you know, I call you Jamal, but I'm gonna
Speaker 1: trying to call me Jamal. He's our friends. We can't,
Speaker 1: but you know you are. You are hip hop head
Speaker 1: like you you and you know what's going on you
Speaker 1: in the culture, So that makes it all the better.
Speaker 1: And I know you don't have a lot of time
Speaker 1: today because your team they've already told me don't play myself,
Speaker 1: So let's let's move it along. And I want to
Speaker 1: what we're trying to figure out. What we've now already
Speaker 1: talked about some of your early stuff. And I think
Speaker 1: people need to do some research because what often happens
Speaker 1: in our community is that people say, well, oh no,
Speaker 1: he's already you know, he's a congress but he don't understand,
Speaker 1: he don't get it. But understanding where you come from, um,
Speaker 1: you know, knowing that you at one point lived in
Speaker 1: pulp the hows and understanding your your journey through the
Speaker 1: Bronx becoming a principle, bring people like my son into
Speaker 1: your school, which I didn't know about. So this is
Speaker 1: new information for me as well. Um, and now going
Speaker 1: to Washington, it would seem that's the story we're trying
Speaker 1: to really replicate in our communities over and over again.
Speaker 1: And UM, now what we're trying to figure oall? Since
Speaker 1: you're there, we celebrated you. Now we need to go
Speaker 1: to the effect that we mad at all of y'all
Speaker 1: because ain't not happening. So tell us what why is
Speaker 1: there so much? Uh? Some people want to say stalling.
Speaker 1: I'm at the point where I just I'm I don't
Speaker 1: even know the appropriate word to describe what how frustrated
Speaker 1: I am about the lack of action in Washington on policing,
Speaker 1: you know, now, voting rights, um, and just so many
Speaker 1: other things. So why don't you just kind of you talk, well, listen, yeah, so, Um.
Speaker 1: The short answer is Republicans don't want to do anything
Speaker 1: at all. And then we have a few Democrats who
Speaker 1: behave like Republicans. And you've heard the names Mansion in
Speaker 1: Cinema and the way the Senate works, and because we
Speaker 1: have such a thin majority, if Mansion and Cinema aren't
Speaker 1: on board, even through a reconciliation process where all we
Speaker 1: need is fifty votes, then we can't move anything like that.
Speaker 1: That's the short answer. The longer answer is the filibuster.
Speaker 1: So the filibuster was put into place several decades ago,
Speaker 1: pretty much designed to stop civil rights legislation from moving
Speaker 1: forward and to uh acquiesce um to Southern Democrats who
Speaker 1: lived in racist KKK driven communities, and so any civil
Speaker 1: rights legislation we try to move forward, the filibuster, which
Speaker 1: means we need a super majority sixty votes in the
Speaker 1: Senate to pass legislation is still in place because of that,
Speaker 1: you know, vote in rights, UH S one and as four,
Speaker 1: UH common sense, gun reform, um, immigration policy, all of
Speaker 1: those policies that have already passed the House. And that
Speaker 1: that's the thing, like it's it's not all of Washington.
Speaker 1: It's like the House passed these bills aready. Now it
Speaker 1: gets to the Senate, and each Senator, especially with the majority,
Speaker 1: is almost like a president. They could they could dumb
Speaker 1: up a thumb down a bill and the bill will
Speaker 1: not will not go anywhere. So that that's the short answer.
Speaker 1: The longer answer, and what you and I have talked
Speaker 1: about offline, Tamika, is we as a community, I don't
Speaker 1: think are doing enough to really build coalition and wield
Speaker 1: and use the coalition to engage Congress and the White
Speaker 1: House and to build power in Congress and the White House.
Speaker 1: And I'm saying that because and we talked about this,
Speaker 1: there are other groups and other lobbies in Washington, the
Speaker 1: Fraternal Order, police, fossil fuel industry, pharmaceutical industry, etcetera, etcetera.
Speaker 1: They'll make a couple of calls and literally we'll be
Speaker 1: voting on the bill on Tuesday. That we didn't know
Speaker 1: about on a Monday, because people may some calls or
Speaker 1: they'll get a bill pulled. UH that we was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought he's gonna vote on this, and they're like,
Speaker 1: and now we decided not to not to not to
Speaker 1: put that forward, they'll get it pulled on the same
Speaker 1: day as well. So the consistent engagement of members of
Speaker 1: Congress underneath around a black agenda, if you will, agenda
Speaker 1: to uplift poor people and everything we're fighting for is
Speaker 1: what's needed, both in the short term and the long term.
Speaker 1: So it's very frustrating. Now good news is dis Reconciliation
Speaker 1: package that we're working on right now. It seems like
Speaker 1: we're making forward progress in a way that's going to
Speaker 1: really benefit the entire country, but particularly communities of color
Speaker 1: and black communities. Investments in affordable housing, public housing, housing vouchers, UH,
Speaker 1: universal childcare, Medicare, Medicare and Medicare, and expansion three K
Speaker 1: programs client. So this bill has a lot in it,
Speaker 1: and the American Rescue Plan also had a lot in
Speaker 1: it as well with with investments in public education. But
Speaker 1: in terms of overall, you know, Congress isn't responsive to
Speaker 1: like our demands or agenda, if you will, because I
Speaker 1: think we need to do a better job of organizing
Speaker 1: around their building coalitions underneath that agenda and then using
Speaker 1: it to reel power in Congress through the CBC and
Speaker 1: other means as well. Is it frustrating for you being
Speaker 1: a congressman who got elected and on the right things
Speaker 1: for to do the right things and watching, you know,
Speaker 1: being involved in the situation like we see right now,
Speaker 1: just seeing how it's just not everything you're trying to
Speaker 1: do and old things you want to do to seeing
Speaker 1: it be installed and and you know prolonged. So yes,
Speaker 1: um it is, and it's it's like deflating as well.
Speaker 1: Like so a couple of weeks ago, while black Haitians
Speaker 1: were being harnessed at the border with horse reins, the
Speaker 1: George full of justice and police and that was dying
Speaker 1: in the Senate without ceremony, like it didn't even get
Speaker 1: that much coverage. And for those two as a black man,
Speaker 1: for those two things to happen at the same time,
Speaker 1: and and you know, we we brought attention to what
Speaker 1: was going on with the Haitians at the border, which
Speaker 1: was good, but it still just felt like damn when
Speaker 1: it comes to our stuff, it dies without ceremony. But again,
Speaker 1: you know, other issues, like I'll give you an example, um,
Speaker 1: the appropriate We just went through our first appropriations process,
Speaker 1: which is how the federal government spends its money both
Speaker 1: here and abroad. And I had to fight and still
Speaker 1: fighting to move two million dollars let's say, from the
Speaker 1: borough of Prisons to historically black college is uh minority
Speaker 1: serving institutions, and and and black small businesses, like I'm
Speaker 1: still fighting to move to million of like a seventy
Speaker 1: six billion dollar budget to these areas. Two million ain't
Speaker 1: nothing on the national level, is nothing, but because of
Speaker 1: the way that the structure of white supremacy and European
Speaker 1: seller colonialism is entrenched in Congress, that's just how we
Speaker 1: do business. Same thing with trying to send more money
Speaker 1: to the Caribbean, Like, well, we fund countries very well,
Speaker 1: you know, in Europe, in the Middle East and other places,
Speaker 1: but like the Caribbean and the Constant Africa, when you
Speaker 1: compare the money that goes there versus other areas, it's
Speaker 1: clear to see that, Like you know, no one really
Speaker 1: has four full organizing around in Congress for the stuff
Speaker 1: that matters. Most of our community so frustrating. But it's
Speaker 1: also like I you, there's an opportunity to to do
Speaker 1: things differently, and like it gives me a reason to
Speaker 1: go to work everything, like to to put pressure on
Speaker 1: people on the inside and do enough work on the
Speaker 1: outside to make sure that begins to change and it
Speaker 1: and it is change it. I mean, we just we
Speaker 1: just brought the Vice president to the Bronx a few
Speaker 1: days ago. And one of the reasons why that happens
Speaker 1: because we engage them in consistent conversations around the issues
Speaker 1: that we're talking about. And he's like, Yo, you gotta
Speaker 1: come to the Bronx and see it. Blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: And that happened. But there's there's obviously more work to do,
Speaker 1: right Well, I was gonna say, when you talk about
Speaker 1: funding countries, the amount of money that we spend with
Speaker 1: Israel Is it's huge, you know, and that mainly is
Speaker 1: for their um military. And so I think that your
Speaker 1: point about how we're spending our resources and I'm not
Speaker 1: even you know, obviously we have our own political position
Speaker 1: on the relationship between the US and is but we're
Speaker 1: not even talking about that, right, We're just talking about fairness.
Speaker 1: And that exists. That same conversation exists in so many
Speaker 1: different areas of how the US government operates. Right, So
Speaker 1: when we start talking about defunding police, it's the same
Speaker 1: same exact concept. We're not even at the point of saying,
Speaker 1: let's just pull all of our money but you know,
Speaker 1: and don't fund police at all. We're just that can
Speaker 1: we please make sure that some of the resources are
Speaker 1: shifted to things that would keep police officers from even
Speaker 1: having to approach particular situations like mental health issues and
Speaker 1: you know, things that the community can address on its own,
Speaker 1: and and of course preventative services. And it seems like
Speaker 1: that's very difficult for people to understand. But since we're
Speaker 1: on that talk about the George Floyd Justice and police
Speaker 1: and bill, there are those who will have us. First
Speaker 1: of all, I think spending time trying to work with
Speaker 1: Tim Scott was a waste of energy. Um And I
Speaker 1: also think in many ways, maybe some folks don't recognize it,
Speaker 1: but it became it was the stall factor, right, Like
Speaker 1: they send us to talk to the token negro who
Speaker 1: has really no power and over certain issues within the Senate,
Speaker 1: right um and And and we spend so much time
Speaker 1: focused on that knowing that it's going nowhere and now
Speaker 1: we have nothing. So tell us because there are some
Speaker 1: people who want us to believe in this moment that
Speaker 1: because of progressives being unwilling to bend on qualified immunity
Speaker 1: and some other issues, that that's the reason why the
Speaker 1: George Floyd Justice and Police and Act did not, um
Speaker 1: even go to the floor. Yeah, so great question. Um,
Speaker 1: A couple of things, right, So the myths of bipartisanship now,
Speaker 1: all things being equal, all things considered, like you know,
Speaker 1: if Republicans were Kosha and things were like they if
Speaker 1: they were principal Republicans that just felt like, we want
Speaker 1: the same thing, but we want to go about it differently. Um,
Speaker 1: that would be one thing. But that's that's that's long gone.
Speaker 1: Like it was gone, it's been gone for a while,
Speaker 1: but Trump made it worse where like it's not it's
Speaker 1: a it's a party of Trump and it's Trump is Um.
Speaker 1: So they just want to obstruct, obstruct, cobstruct, delay, delayed delay.
Speaker 1: So knowing that going into it with them as if
Speaker 1: there was gonna be some bi parsonal solution of this
Speaker 1: was was we were misguided in that and right, now
Speaker 1: bi partnership is a myth. The the other thing is so.
Speaker 1: So there was a stall tactic and then it ultimately
Speaker 1: fall apart, fell apart. We Democrats compromised on qualified immunity,
Speaker 1: like we took that off the table, and we took
Speaker 1: other things off the table that they were saying, we're
Speaker 1: non starters. So what happened is they kept moving the
Speaker 1: goal posts, saying, oh, you gotta do this, you gotta
Speaker 1: do that, and with move the goal post until it
Speaker 1: got to a point where uh, sending the book, I
Speaker 1: realized they were negotiating good faith and we need we
Speaker 1: need to kill the negotiations. But here's a key, key point.
Speaker 1: The Fraternal Order of Police were supportive of many aspects
Speaker 1: of the bill. Corey Booker got them to sign off
Speaker 1: on it. But what happened is there's like a sheriff's
Speaker 1: union and I'm forgetting the name of it right now,
Speaker 1: this is a sheriff's union in South Carolina with Tim
Speaker 1: Scott is from that was like, you cannot we we
Speaker 1: do not support any of this. And as opposed to
Speaker 1: responding being responsive to the Fraternal of the Police, he
Speaker 1: was responsive to them. And that's what ultimately killed the bill.
Speaker 1: Now he's lying by saying, um, you know, uh, you
Speaker 1: know they wanted we wanted strings attached to the bill
Speaker 1: related to the police funding. So you know, so we
Speaker 1: were trying to defund the police. First of all, you
Speaker 1: try to pass any bill in Congress where and you
Speaker 1: want the Republicans support. They're gonna attach strings to everything
Speaker 1: we want to do. So I don't want to hear
Speaker 1: the strings attached bullshit. That's that's bs. The other thing is,
Speaker 1: and going back to the defund the police piece, what
Speaker 1: we're saying is simple, put the money where it needs
Speaker 1: to go so that we can stop crying from happening
Speaker 1: in the first place and stop violent acts from happening
Speaker 1: in the first place. Police are not equipped to respond
Speaker 1: to our needs in our community. At best, they can
Speaker 1: respond after the fact. We are trying to stop shipped
Speaker 1: from happening before it happens. So we haven't. The federal
Speaker 1: government stopped investing in public housing ten years ago, and
Speaker 1: they've been they've been disinvesting in public housing for for
Speaker 1: thirty years. Our communities were purposely redlined. We we we
Speaker 1: have food deserts and travel deserts in our communities, lack
Speaker 1: of healthcare, under funded schools, no job programs, etcetera, etcetera.
Speaker 1: This is by design. So instead of giving us jobs
Speaker 1: and education and what have you, they gave us police.
Speaker 1: So George Floyd tried to kind of bring all that
Speaker 1: together and move in the right direction when it comes
Speaker 1: to police accountability. But there's other aspects of that that
Speaker 1: we need to talk about as well. Probation, parole, um,
Speaker 1: conditions for people who are incocerated, voting rights for people
Speaker 1: who are inconcerated like that. That's all part of that,
Speaker 1: in addition to mental health, substance abuse support, etcetera, etcetera,
Speaker 1: true holistic approach. So now the House um is moving
Speaker 1: to you know, take hearts of the justice and police
Speaker 1: and that and hopefully move them forward as individual bills.
Speaker 1: Because if Republicans are saying, oh, we would have accepted
Speaker 1: this and accepted this and accepted that, Okay, let's see.
Speaker 1: Let's let's let's see what we could push through. But
Speaker 1: I gotta tell you, like I, I think they're full
Speaker 1: of it and they're gonna continue to try to obstruct,
Speaker 1: which is another reason why again we gotta run the
Speaker 1: right people for office. Killer philipbus etcetera, etcetera. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: realizing I'm giving a lot of long answers and I'm
Speaker 1: sorry about but we need to answer because listen, people,
Speaker 1: our people is piste off, you know, a lot of us.
Speaker 1: You know, we we we came to vote, we brought
Speaker 1: out people, we said, well, this is what we need,
Speaker 1: We need this to do this in the House and
Speaker 1: we need this and we and even against our better
Speaker 1: judgment for you know, for because we didn't believe completely
Speaker 1: and all the way in the administration, but we said
Speaker 1: it was better than what we had and we we
Speaker 1: getting help. So we need answers to you understand, said
Speaker 1: we really need answers, and you wanted the brothers that
Speaker 1: we know is definitely on the front line of this work,
Speaker 1: that that really wants what's best with our community. So
Speaker 1: the long answers is needed because people are tired of
Speaker 1: the short off everything's fine, because everything ain't fine, you know. So,
Speaker 1: So what is the White House's responsibility too in all
Speaker 1: of this situation and what is there responsible? What can
Speaker 1: they do? What should they be doing? What do you think?
Speaker 1: So they need to provide a vision for where this
Speaker 1: country needs to go. Um, they need to provide a
Speaker 1: vision in terms of a black agenda. They've done some
Speaker 1: of that with their Justice for the Initiative, etcetera, etcetera.
Speaker 1: But then they need to be out there, uh like
Speaker 1: like like screaming from the rooftop, from the mountaintops what
Speaker 1: that is. So that's what's happening now with Build Back Better.
Speaker 1: That's why VP Harris came to the Bronx. And but
Speaker 1: whatever that vision is and whatever that agenda is, particularly
Speaker 1: black agenda, you have to gauge our community, meaning go
Speaker 1: to the go to the hood, talk with people, listening
Speaker 1: to people, engage them, pull them in, Like pulled Tamika
Speaker 1: and my son into the White House. Not just the
Speaker 1: legacy civil rights groups, No offense to them, but we
Speaker 1: were The black community is a big tent and it's
Speaker 1: a diverse tent, and we all need to be a
Speaker 1: part of that conversation. Um. So it's the vision, it's
Speaker 1: the engagement, is the communication, and it's the pressure. Like
Speaker 1: what pressure is President Biden and the White House putting
Speaker 1: on Mansion in Cinema, Uh, to move things in the
Speaker 1: direction that they need to move. It's the opposite. It's
Speaker 1: the opposite. Yeah, they're telling us which we're not listening,
Speaker 1: but they're telling us don't go after cinema or and
Speaker 1: definitely Mansion. It's almost like Mansion is the president. I'm
Speaker 1: I'm confused at times who is the President of the
Speaker 1: United States because it seems like it's like it's almost
Speaker 1: like if you you know you you you're in the
Speaker 1: relationship with somebody, whether it be a business relationship or whatever,
Speaker 1: but you seem to constantly be talking about somebody else. Well,
Speaker 1: after a while you start saying, well, if there's so
Speaker 1: much focus on this person, perhaps you know, this relationship,
Speaker 1: this whatever we're in, it ain't nothing because I need
Speaker 1: to be talking to him. And that's how that's how
Speaker 1: we feel. But yet the white and not the White House.
Speaker 1: I won't say the White House because that's a lot
Speaker 1: of people. And that's another thing. We say the White House, right,
Speaker 1: And I get that that Joe Biden is the is
Speaker 1: the the whatever, he's the main person in chief exactly.
Speaker 1: But they have they have said several times that attacking,
Speaker 1: which that word depending on how you want to use
Speaker 1: it and throw it around. You can be um, you know,
Speaker 1: it can mean different things. But but rather than engaging,
Speaker 1: whether that be in a confrontational manner or not. It's
Speaker 1: not the right approach to addressing Joe Manchin. But yet
Speaker 1: we're hearing him say or we're seeing him be an
Speaker 1: obstructionist in the process. Yeah, so I disagree with that,
Speaker 1: Like I think, I think we need to engage all
Speaker 1: parties all the time, very aggressively towards accomplishing our agenda.
Speaker 1: And I'm saying that because I could tell you, and
Speaker 1: we've talked about this, if I do something that certain
Speaker 1: communities don't like, I'm going to get a thousand emails
Speaker 1: in my inbox that in one day. So that's what
Speaker 1: I mean by engagement. Like our community needs to be
Speaker 1: in coalition and have a letter writing campaign, email campaign,
Speaker 1: phone campaign, actions at people's office. Is all over social media,
Speaker 1: all over mainstream media, all constant, all the time, all
Speaker 1: the time, all the time. Like when we you know,
Speaker 1: we weren't alive during the Civil Rights movement, but when
Speaker 1: we read about it and watch documentaries about all that,
Speaker 1: it seemed like they were relentlessly pursuing their agenda and
Speaker 1: their goals, and Dr king Ship had a direct line
Speaker 1: to to to UH the president at that time, first
Speaker 1: Kennedy and then UH brother came out to Kennam forgetting um.
Speaker 1: But I think I think Tamika to your point, there
Speaker 1: needs to be consistent engagement from our community around the
Speaker 1: issues that matter most to us and our agenda. And
Speaker 1: we need to engage all four hundred thirty five members
Speaker 1: of the House and all fifth all huntred members of
Speaker 1: the Senate. Now there's something we don't need to be
Speaker 1: bothered with because they're just gonna be who they're gonna be,
Speaker 1: so we don't need to spend energy on them. But
Speaker 1: at least two thirds of both need to consistently hear
Speaker 1: from us all the time. And by us, I mean
Speaker 1: you know street from street politics to N double A
Speaker 1: CP and everything in between. Like it gotta be, you know,
Speaker 1: because I'm not you know, I just speak for myself.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to stay in Congress thirty years and
Speaker 1: see what happens like like I'm trying to I'm here now.
Speaker 1: I just beat the thirty one year incumbent. No one
Speaker 1: thought we could be beating by sixteen points. No one
Speaker 1: thought that could happen. But now that we're here, we
Speaker 1: gotta trying to hit it out the park like for
Speaker 1: the next five years and then after that we see
Speaker 1: where we are. UM frustrate, but I want people to
Speaker 1: we gotta harness that frustration and channel it in the
Speaker 1: right directions, because you know, it's not enough to just
Speaker 1: you don't have conversation around thanks to give a table
Speaker 1: like we always do. Right, It's it's it's not enough
Speaker 1: for our bad or story. It gotta be everything at
Speaker 1: the same time all the time. We do want to
Speaker 1: hear about your vision because we don't have a vision.
Speaker 1: And I think to your point about the White House
Speaker 1: having a vision with more I have to be honest
Speaker 1: with you and saying they'll tell you they have vision.
Speaker 1: My issue is that it doesn't seem like they're working
Speaker 1: towards it. That's that's the problem for me. Sounds like
Speaker 1: they have all of these ideas about what should happen,
Speaker 1: but I don't see the boots on the ground, and
Speaker 1: I don't see you all being used as surrogates to
Speaker 1: go out into the communities and and make these things happen.
Speaker 1: And I'm trying to figure out why did I go
Speaker 1: live along with my son and live this our soul
Speaker 1: and Angelo Pinto and others, why do we and vote
Speaker 1: vote and black voters matter. Why did we move ourselves
Speaker 1: to to Georgia to fight to get the two Senate
Speaker 1: seats and still we're going back to we don't have
Speaker 1: anything to go back to our people with. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I'm sharing a vision, but I want to respond
Speaker 1: quickly what you just said. So there was a Washington
Speaker 1: Post article I think two weeks ago about black men
Speaker 1: in particular, um and black people in general being being
Speaker 1: disenchanted with the White House because of everything you just
Speaker 1: sat and rightly so. And I called around and texted
Speaker 1: around that day just get a sense for what people
Speaker 1: were feeling about that. And still there was some misunderstanding
Speaker 1: about the importance of communication and engagement. There was some,
Speaker 1: but then there were others who like jo Jamal, We
Speaker 1: had a meeting about that article, and the President was like,
Speaker 1: this is unacceptable. We gotta do something about it. And
Speaker 1: when I heard that, you know, I spoke to Senator Showman.
Speaker 1: I'm like, yo, like, this is the White House. You
Speaker 1: got all the resources in the world, there's no excuse
Speaker 1: for this to be an issue. Put me in coach,
Speaker 1: like I I got a plan, Like, let's let's enacted.
Speaker 1: So stay tuned on that. Hopefully they're listening and hopefully, uh,
Speaker 1: we can move something. But in terms of division, I
Speaker 1: want to go back to my son was talking about
Speaker 1: UM when he came to my school and did that
Speaker 1: mediation with the two groups to rival gangs that didn't
Speaker 1: even know what the beef was about UM, but they
Speaker 1: was beefing with each other. Like you both know how
Speaker 1: many kids die under them circumstances, right, like literally get
Speaker 1: and up killed because of that kind of thing, Like
Speaker 1: they just got beef, they don't know why. Next thing
Speaker 1: you know, someone is killed. So there's a couple of
Speaker 1: components to my vision. One is reparations for our community,
Speaker 1: Like do to study, get clear on what it is,
Speaker 1: and let's figure out what reparations look like for the
Speaker 1: for that black community. That's that's number one, and I
Speaker 1: think they'll deal with issues of wealth, inequality and all
Speaker 1: of that. UM. Education is another one that would be
Speaker 1: number two. And it's not just it can't just be so.
Speaker 1: It needs to be Black history and culture in schools.
Speaker 1: It needs to be project based learning. It needs to
Speaker 1: stop being an over testing that we're doing right now
Speaker 1: and needs to be a curriculum that unlocks the brilliance
Speaker 1: of our kids, our kids are brilliant. We're just teaching them.
Speaker 1: We're just teaching like us a hundred years ago. By
Speaker 1: Our kids are super creative, innovative. They got so much
Speaker 1: to offer, and they're waiting for us to get our
Speaker 1: stuff together and design the curriculum that way. So that's
Speaker 1: part of it. But the other part of it is,
Speaker 1: and we were talking about this offline education needs to
Speaker 1: work with healthcare, particularly in poor communities, particularly in poor
Speaker 1: communities of color. Why because there air kids are with
Speaker 1: mental health challenges, substance abuse challenges, trauma, and the family
Speaker 1: and home and teachers and clinicians need to work hand
Speaker 1: and glove and meeting those needs. So that involves more
Speaker 1: mental health services, smaller class sizes, and this is something
Speaker 1: people don't talk about enough. It also involves more sports
Speaker 1: and arts and day of the programs and and other things.
Speaker 1: So education and healthcare being together is key. Another piece
Speaker 1: would be housing. Now reparations is connected to that to
Speaker 1: give people access to um you know, mortgages and affordable
Speaker 1: housing and all of that. But our communities that have
Speaker 1: been redline, like we we need to really invest in
Speaker 1: those communities to reverse the impact of redlining. And this
Speaker 1: goes with environmental justice as well, Like that's part of
Speaker 1: it because we died from COVID because of our coal morbidities.
Speaker 1: We have those core morbilities because our communities have been neglected,
Speaker 1: so that that we gotta deal withal deal with that issue.
Speaker 1: And then the last piece is not really the last piece,
Speaker 1: because there's health care, criminal justice reform we talked about earlier,
Speaker 1: like all the components, not just police reform, but the
Speaker 1: cultural system, immigration reform, that's part of it. But I
Speaker 1: think maybe the most the most important piece is just
Speaker 1: the concept of black self determination um and and and
Speaker 1: Black and Pan African liberation building, meaning like you know,
Speaker 1: we we we can't accept the mental disease as European
Speaker 1: settler colonialism does let many of us to believe that
Speaker 1: we're not kings and queens. Like we have to like
Speaker 1: unlock that disease from our mind and really work towards
Speaker 1: black self determination. And once we do that, we change
Speaker 1: the world. And that's one of the reasons why I'm
Speaker 1: such a hip hop fan. It's not about the music,
Speaker 1: but I think hip hop captures that essence. It's like,
Speaker 1: funk it, We're gonna do it ourselves and we just
Speaker 1: did something and change the world. I mean, I'm in
Speaker 1: Congress because of hip hop. People don't understand that. But
Speaker 1: when you understand Kariswan and Chuck D and Rock Him
Speaker 1: and the impact of my life as a black man
Speaker 1: growing up, That's why I'm in Congress. But none of
Speaker 1: that happens if we're not in coalition with each other.
Speaker 1: And so, and I want to go back to this.
Speaker 1: My office is lobbied constantly from all groups who want
Speaker 1: me to join, Join the Join, the Albanian Caucus, Joined,
Speaker 1: Joined the Join, the Muscular Discript Treaty Caucus, Join this Caucus, Join.
Speaker 1: I'm constantly lobbied on this stuff, but I'm rarely lobbied
Speaker 1: by black institutions, even civil rights institutions. They don't call
Speaker 1: me like, Yo, Jamal need you on this, I need
Speaker 1: you on that. I don't get those calls and like
Speaker 1: that coalition that we're building needs to be together. And
Speaker 1: y'all got a lobby the mess out of me and
Speaker 1: the CBC and other members of Congress. So none of
Speaker 1: that happens until we make it happen, and we make
Speaker 1: it happen in coalition. Everybody is doing good work already. Um,
Speaker 1: but once we do that good work together in coalition
Speaker 1: with a strategic plan towards those goals, I think we
Speaker 1: move things forward. And now when you got myself and
Speaker 1: Corey and squad and in Congress like use us like
Speaker 1: we're we're ready to wield black power. We just need
Speaker 1: to know that the the coalition has our back in that.
Speaker 1: I hear that. And you said a lot of things.
Speaker 1: I want to say one thing that you when you
Speaker 1: wrote about this education and the way that we teach
Speaker 1: our children a lot of things. I was having this
Speaker 1: conversation with my son, ten year old son taking him
Speaker 1: to school one day, and he just started crying like
Speaker 1: he didn't want to go to school. And I'm like why.
Speaker 1: He said, because school is killing my curiosity and my creativity.
Speaker 1: He said, we sit around all day. I was supposed
Speaker 1: to be out here learning off the land. I was
Speaker 1: supposed to be When you go to school, it's just
Speaker 1: based on tests and scores. It's not based off learning.
Speaker 1: When you outside, you learned, And he was he broke
Speaker 1: it down so eloquently, and it's pretty much exactly what
Speaker 1: you said. And and I've been an advocate for teaching
Speaker 1: our children the way that they learned. You know that,
Speaker 1: like you said, the school system is primitive and it
Speaker 1: doesn't go according and that's why you have a very
Speaker 1: low graduation weight in attendee rate of black men because
Speaker 1: it doesn't it doesn't grasp us. So I'm that I
Speaker 1: wanted to say that, and then next I just I
Speaker 1: wanted to because I know we at the end of this, right,
Speaker 1: but it's hard for us right as blacks, just to garden.
Speaker 1: But we have in this country. We haven't really seen
Speaker 1: with the government has really benefited us, you know, And
Speaker 1: and somehow we still understand the mission. You understand, we
Speaker 1: understand that at the end of the day, we gotta
Speaker 1: still put people in position that can do things. But
Speaker 1: we've been we've been constantly let down throughout the government. Right,
Speaker 1: So what we're trying to figure out what is the
Speaker 1: messaging that we do for this menterm how because I
Speaker 1: don't know what it is. You know, we understand how
Speaker 1: dangerous Republicans is. We see that. We know that because
Speaker 1: we are engulfed in this and we understand. But from
Speaker 1: the dis alayment's perspective or just a regular person going
Speaker 1: to work every day just seeing a new seeing this,
Speaker 1: how do you engage them? How do how do how
Speaker 1: do we get them to say, I'm gonna get I'm
Speaker 1: gonna mustle up this energy again and go out to
Speaker 1: do this even though I ain't seeing shit happen and
Speaker 1: I keep him getting worse and words for us. How
Speaker 1: do we engage yes, so that this is the ongoing
Speaker 1: conversation we gotta have, like offline, we gotta continue to
Speaker 1: talk about this because it's a great question, and we
Speaker 1: gotta look we kind of plan for that because you're
Speaker 1: you're absolutely right. I think the short answer is our
Speaker 1: coalition needs to have a clear agenda, and we need
Speaker 1: to go out there and hold elected officials accountable to
Speaker 1: our agenda in every part of the country, from dog
Speaker 1: catcher to school board, to local elections to to federal elections.
Speaker 1: Like we gotta go to candidate forums, shoot them emails,
Speaker 1: like engage them and ask them what do you what?
Speaker 1: What where? Where's your stance on this? This, this, and this?
Speaker 1: And have them respond and then we follow up, and
Speaker 1: then we follow up and we follow up. Because you're right,
Speaker 1: it's not like come out and vote for X person
Speaker 1: if I haven't even I don't what is that person's agenda,
Speaker 1: How is that person gonna what are they gonna do
Speaker 1: to benefit my life? And then the other part, this
Speaker 1: is really really important. It's good to have Jamal Bowman
Speaker 1: in Congress, but like I can't do it alone. What
Speaker 1: I mean by that is, don't just send me off
Speaker 1: and expect me to do it. I need y'all with
Speaker 1: me as we continue to do the work because it
Speaker 1: empowers me to be more radical as I do the work.
Speaker 1: Like if I know I got thousand people in Corps
Speaker 1: City holding me down, for example, or in Mount Vernon
Speaker 1: or Yaker's, then it's like I say whatever I do
Speaker 1: and say whatever I want. So oftentimes I know what
Speaker 1: we think. It's like many of us think, oh, I
Speaker 1: voted for this person, they ain't in, but they ain't
Speaker 1: doing nothing. Well, how are you holding them accountable for
Speaker 1: doing something what they're once they're in, Because I know
Speaker 1: for a fact they're hearing from other lobbies on a
Speaker 1: variety of issues. So it's both like democracy is a
Speaker 1: contact sport and we gotta be in it on a
Speaker 1: day to day like grind. It's almost like breathing, especially
Speaker 1: as we're trying to, you know, build black power in
Speaker 1: this country. Like we gotta be in in a day
Speaker 1: to day basis, like you two are well, thank you
Speaker 1: so much on Congress Mopoement for being here and speaking
Speaker 1: with us. And I think part of accountability and support
Speaker 1: is funding. So how do we give use of money? Which,
Speaker 1: by the way, you had an event the other night
Speaker 1: and my counterpart, Linda star Store, was invited but I wasn't,
Speaker 1: and she tried to get me to come with her,
Speaker 1: and I Black people don't just go to events that
Speaker 1: they were not invited to our parents and they didn't
Speaker 1: invite you don't go, so I told her not be
Speaker 1: going because I was not invited. You and my sister
Speaker 1: Court want my money. You know it's crazy, isn't it crazy?
Speaker 1: Someone on my staff gonna get in trouble? How Linda
Speaker 1: they lived, even my constituent like Tho with' and y'all
Speaker 1: law y'all wasn't there. I don't know. I don't know
Speaker 1: what happened with that. But to your question, yes, funding
Speaker 1: is really important. And let me also say this, the
Speaker 1: people who don't want the world to change, they are
Speaker 1: very well financed, that's right, very well finding how do
Speaker 1: people find it so so you can go to Bowman
Speaker 1: for Congress dot com slash donate. Every little bit helps
Speaker 1: Bowman for Congress dot Com slash donate, And you know,
Speaker 1: like always say, the more generous people are, the more
Speaker 1: radical I can be. Well, thank you, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: And even though I wasn't invited, I am going to
Speaker 1: go and give my donation right now. As my son
Speaker 1: likes to call it, investment in more radicalism, because I
Speaker 1: need you to be that um and we're gonna We're
Speaker 1: gonna have We're going to organize a fundraiser for you
Speaker 1: with uh, you know, a select group of individuals who
Speaker 1: I know want to be there to help you see
Speaker 1: your vision through. I was just talking to Ebro a
Speaker 1: couple of days about you and the conversations that you
Speaker 1: guys have been having, so I want to we want
Speaker 1: to pull that together. So we're committed to that. I
Speaker 1: appreciate that. I want to say one more quick thing.
Speaker 1: If if hip hop and sports get involved in this
Speaker 1: is over, yeah, it's we win exactly. You know what
Speaker 1: also happens. Tamika just had you know we had on
Speaker 1: another show. She talked about Cardi B right, and how
Speaker 1: Cardi B was very vocal on a lot of things
Speaker 1: that we're dealing with. And she got so much backlash
Speaker 1: from being vocal and standing up for what she believed
Speaker 1: was writing on people that hip hop artists and you know,
Speaker 1: um athletes, they don't want to deal with that. They
Speaker 1: want to be able to say these things, and they
Speaker 1: want to be liked and comfortable. So the average person
Speaker 1: that's already rich and famous and and and getting this
Speaker 1: thing and says, yo, you know what, I don't like that,
Speaker 1: and get backlash from his own fans and his own
Speaker 1: people that he's supposed to be protecting us, like, you
Speaker 1: know what, I'm just gonna be quiet in my my business.
Speaker 1: It's true. But the money they can help with the
Speaker 1: money we need to right. That's right. And one of
Speaker 1: the things that I've done in my life is moved
Speaker 1: elected officials and celebrities and others onto their next thing.
Speaker 1: So we are going to release you from this interview
Speaker 1: right now and say thank you so much for being
Speaker 1: with us. Congressmen, he said, love, thank you all. I
Speaker 1: talked to you soon. All right. That's how we are.
Speaker 1: Congressman Jamar Bowman, I think you know he's if we
Speaker 1: could ever just get the right people were putting them
Speaker 1: in the pipeline. We just gotta get them to the
Speaker 1: starting line, right They gotta be in the starting five,
Speaker 1: um and and the problem is that, unfortunately, we've got
Speaker 1: other people in the starting five right now who do
Speaker 1: not share our vision, and they're dangerous. And that's just three.
Speaker 1: And I'm to my black votes. I'm not talking about
Speaker 1: like the Republicans. I'm telling about black Democrats, right that
Speaker 1: are just not on. They're not on. We're not singing
Speaker 1: on the same tune. I think it is. You know,
Speaker 1: we have a lot of skin folks that ain't kin folks,
Speaker 1: you know, and we we and a lot of people
Speaker 1: are just scared to because like I really I realized
Speaker 1: that people behind closed doors will support your you know
Speaker 1: what they call quote on called ragged radical idealism, just
Speaker 1: just actual justice with justice really should look like they
Speaker 1: called radical. They want that, they support it. They're just
Speaker 1: not gonna stand next to you into the world and
Speaker 1: everybody else is supporting. They don't want to be part
Speaker 1: of the minority. They don't want to push the car,
Speaker 1: they want to ride it. They ain't gonna help you
Speaker 1: when the flat comes. They're not gonna put no gas
Speaker 1: in the tank. But when you're riding in the smooth
Speaker 1: they're gonna get in the back again. I'm with you
Speaker 1: when you get a good paint job. But they don't
Speaker 1: see the vision, like, Yo, this car right here could
Speaker 1: really beat something. We all got around it and built
Speaker 1: it up. They don't want to do that cart. They
Speaker 1: want to go with the comfortability. So they know what's
Speaker 1: right and wrong, and they support it in their mind
Speaker 1: and in theory, but they are not going to risk
Speaker 1: whatever position they have, whatever relationships they have, whatever the
Speaker 1: parties they can be invited to to support, to stand
Speaker 1: up visually, verbally and say it. They're just not gonna
Speaker 1: do it. I think that's true. I think that's true.
Speaker 1: But I would say that some of the individuals I'm
Speaker 1: talking about, they don't. They are the party. They make
Speaker 1: the party. They're not looking to be invited or be comfortable.
Speaker 1: When I think about Representative Clyde Burn, you know, this
Speaker 1: is not somebody who needs an invitation to an event
Speaker 1: or that is feeling like he just wants to be comfortable.
Speaker 1: This is somebody who fundamentally believes different than what we believe.
Speaker 1: Right He's he fundamentally believes that this or he is
Speaker 1: he is adamantly against defunding the police. Maybe he agrees
Speaker 1: in theory that they need can't The thing is this,
Speaker 1: he can't be against the funded police right because the
Speaker 1: things that he acts like he wants to fight for,
Speaker 1: you you you against the term right. And if you
Speaker 1: and if you're a big enough person, like if you
Speaker 1: can if you can get people, if you can get
Speaker 1: black people to vote for body and after all the
Speaker 1: ship he did, if you can give support behind that
Speaker 1: in and say not what you're talking about, this is
Speaker 1: what we need right now, right then you should be
Speaker 1: able to say, I know what my people need by
Speaker 1: the fund police, and I'm going to equate that and
Speaker 1: make us all be in coalition instead of separating us.
Speaker 1: I agree with that. I agree with that. I agree
Speaker 1: with that. But I think that even he at this
Speaker 1: point in his life, has become so disconnected from like
Speaker 1: Ray Ray and what is happening on the ground, very
Speaker 1: hyper hyper hyper locally that in his mind, police being
Speaker 1: in our communities is working, except there's some bad apples
Speaker 1: or there's some changes that need to be made. We
Speaker 1: except that that may be the reality, because we may
Speaker 1: not be able to completely remove police, but our fundamental
Speaker 1: belief is on the far other side of that argument
Speaker 1: that we need less police. I mean to the point
Speaker 1: where maybe a few officers that you could call on
Speaker 1: and more community programs. I don't. I think we would
Speaker 1: be on two different and we started having this conversation
Speaker 1: with UH, with the Congress mcclaburn right now, we will
Speaker 1: be completely on two different sides of the table about
Speaker 1: this issue, but we both agree about what we want
Speaker 1: to see happen for our communities. How we get there,
Speaker 1: there is a fundamental difference someone newer, sort of younger
Speaker 1: black folks that are going into Congress, like a Corey Bush,
Speaker 1: like a Jamal Bowman. These are individuals who are now
Speaker 1: who now who see and understand what we're saying. So
Speaker 1: I think that the people who are in the starting five,
Speaker 1: they are so disconnected from from from from our position
Speaker 1: that until they are able to retire and move on,
Speaker 1: we're going to continue to see clods in the pipe.
Speaker 1: Because the attitude that we should be careful going after
Speaker 1: cinema right and and mansion to senators to senators who's
Speaker 1: supposed to be Democrats and all the rest of the
Speaker 1: Democrats for the most part, are agreeing that certain bills
Speaker 1: need to be passed. They are supporting uh certain legislation
Speaker 1: and also are aligned to some degree with our vision.
Speaker 1: Except these two people mhm right, and they're telling us
Speaker 1: be easy with them. We're working on what like it
Speaker 1: doesn't make sense. But I promise you that a Corey
Speaker 1: Bush and a Jamal Bowman and others who who are
Speaker 1: in who are part of either the squad or just
Speaker 1: progressives in general, they're like yo to his point, engage
Speaker 1: them aggressively every single day. And I think that's the
Speaker 1: advice that we have to follow. So so when people
Speaker 1: who are who have the most radical vision, they're really
Speaker 1: deeply into this thing and they and they want to
Speaker 1: see major change happened. That's in our favor. When they
Speaker 1: are not funded and supported by the community, they become
Speaker 1: beholden to those who will support them. And that is
Speaker 1: where you start to see. Because you cannot be a
Speaker 1: congressional member, a leader, or anything and not have food
Speaker 1: to eat and close on your back and be able
Speaker 1: to take care of your family and have the resources
Speaker 1: necessary to continue to win elections, and to have discretionary
Speaker 1: funds that you can use to support certain things within
Speaker 1: your community. You can't. It can't be done without supporting.
Speaker 1: You have to be supported. Supported. Support is mandatory. There's
Speaker 1: no way that as any official or lead or anything,
Speaker 1: that you can do something without support. You just can't
Speaker 1: do it by yourself. We're not supported, we're not financially
Speaker 1: supporting them. The communities that come and say, hey, well
Speaker 1: these are our issues and we're gonna support you. We're
Speaker 1: gonna make sure that we come out, we're gonna do
Speaker 1: all things necessary are the people that people don't care to.
Speaker 1: So I know that we want a lot done, but
Speaker 1: we have to be intentional. We have to be steadfast,
Speaker 1: We have to be persistent and constant in what it
Speaker 1: is that we want. So you know what I don't get,
Speaker 1: I really just don't get how Riker's Island is still open. Like,
Speaker 1: you know, throughout the years, they got documentaries, You've heard
Speaker 1: the stories of how there's so much corruption going on,
Speaker 1: how people are getting stabbed, how there it's just so
Speaker 1: much like right Island is accessibool for what's wrong with
Speaker 1: this justice system? You know? And the last week I
Speaker 1: pretty much posted of photos that have been taken inside
Speaker 1: holding seals and Sidewrickers aland where you got people sleeping
Speaker 1: on the floor with plastic bags on them. You know,
Speaker 1: it just was so inhumane. And it's like they care
Speaker 1: about COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, covid, but you got
Speaker 1: these people in these closed cells with plastic bags, sleeping
Speaker 1: on the floor in cells. And I've been in right
Speaker 1: Becas Island, so tell you that the the dirt in
Speaker 1: the mold and that's inside these cells, and the old
Speaker 1: pits that you can still smell in the toilet boones
Speaker 1: that ain't really been cleaned. You know, it's just it's
Speaker 1: not even there's no way that I can describe it.
Speaker 1: And just seeing it constantly seeing it and seeing that
Speaker 1: it's still the same way as it was twenty years
Speaker 1: ago when I was when I was in there, it's
Speaker 1: just unbelievable, even on a visit. It's nasty, like right
Speaker 1: because Island, like you said, you said, the best thing.
Speaker 1: It's successful of all the things that's wrong with the
Speaker 1: justice system, right, And it's so for this city of
Speaker 1: New York and Mayor Deblasio to have a mandate where
Speaker 1: people can't even go to a restaurant unless they are
Speaker 1: vaccinated and then turn around right, and and and allow
Speaker 1: a facility to just fester COVID and and and you know,
Speaker 1: and the thing about it, right, and there's a lot
Speaker 1: of people really well, if they didn't do the crime,
Speaker 1: you do the crime, you gotta do the chump, you know,
Speaker 1: and and the thing about it just for education, even
Speaker 1: though I don't agree with that sentiment at all, because
Speaker 1: human beings are human beings, and you most of the
Speaker 1: people are in there for low level crimes. But the
Speaker 1: reality is they're being accused, most of those people, and
Speaker 1: they have not even been found guilty of what they
Speaker 1: on the trial. They haven't gon to try to, haven't
Speaker 1: done nothing. This is a holding facility. So it's not
Speaker 1: this whole theory. But all you do to come some
Speaker 1: of them people are find out they didn't do the crime,
Speaker 1: or they're in their trial process, but regardless they're not
Speaker 1: because when they found guilty, they are sent upstate or
Speaker 1: wherever or released the you know, based upon the sentences.
Speaker 1: So it's like it's I'm just saying, in general, it
Speaker 1: is hypocritical for the city to say we care so
Speaker 1: much about COVID, we care so much about wellness and health,
Speaker 1: health and this and that and then to have people
Speaker 1: piled up on top of one another inside of these
Speaker 1: facilities on Breaker's Island. And to your point, it should
Speaker 1: have been closed once. Um, what's what's our young brother's name,
Speaker 1: Khalif Browder was killed? Well, he wasn't killed, but once
Speaker 1: he killed himself as a result of all the things
Speaker 1: we know happen in right, is not what we think
Speaker 1: we know what happened in writers and yet and still
Speaker 1: the facility states open. Now it's interesting that we are
Speaker 1: talking about that because and I wanted us to invite
Speaker 1: someone on that may be able to talk to us
Speaker 1: next week about this issue with Rikers, because there are people,
Speaker 1: even our own friends, who say things like, well, if
Speaker 1: you close Rikers, then what do you do? It goes
Speaker 1: back to the original conversation about defunding these systems that
Speaker 1: are about incarceration, that are about um uh incarceration and
Speaker 1: punitive measures for things that need to be taken care
Speaker 1: of in completely different fashions. So, for instance, I have
Speaker 1: several family members who are correctional offices on Rikers Island
Speaker 1: that will tell you half of the population has severe
Speaker 1: mental illness and they are they're in prison in jail
Speaker 1: rather and they're not being cared for, and the correction
Speaker 1: officers are not trained and don't have the temperament to
Speaker 1: deal with the mental illness of people who are in there.
Speaker 1: So the the issue is the facility has been opened
Speaker 1: and left that way for jobs. Because I've also had
Speaker 1: family members who said, don't be out here talking about
Speaker 1: clothes and rics, because then where we gonna work? What like,
Speaker 1: just think about what you're saying. Keep people incarcerated. That
Speaker 1: to their point, they also want to argue, well, they're
Speaker 1: slicing our faces. Um, you know there they're they're they're violent.
Speaker 1: Well they're violent, many of them because they they have
Speaker 1: other issues that are not being addressed, So why would
Speaker 1: you want them to be inside of this jail with you?
Speaker 1: It just it's it's it's like it's like it's like
Speaker 1: everyone and and everything in our society is like this,
Speaker 1: like just don't be making sense period. As you're right, man,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm hoping that we get to a stage
Speaker 1: because we're just so divided. Like I realized how people
Speaker 1: are dealing with so many different issues, right, there's so
Speaker 1: many different understandings and classes, and we deal with classism,
Speaker 1: we deal we deal with racism as just black people,
Speaker 1: but within our black community, we deal with classism, we
Speaker 1: do a colorism. We deal with so many different things
Speaker 1: and ideologies, and a lot of times people that you
Speaker 1: think should understand certain things that we're dealing with, they
Speaker 1: don't because their reality is just so it's so far
Speaker 1: from what some of us are actually dealing with, you know.
Speaker 1: And it's card and you love that they're good people.
Speaker 1: It's not that they're bad people. It's just that they
Speaker 1: don't really understand the whole system. They don't under especially
Speaker 1: this injustice system. Me actually being informally incarcerated, I have
Speaker 1: conversations with people and I listened to them in the
Speaker 1: way that they view you know, jail and how people
Speaker 1: should be locked up and what should be going on,
Speaker 1: and how it's good for them and all that, and
Speaker 1: and trying to, you know, until I'm able to really
Speaker 1: break it down to them, and and even then they'd
Speaker 1: be like, oh, well, yeah, I hear what you're saying,
Speaker 1: but because they're so far removed from that reality, you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's not something that they could even consciously understand.
Speaker 1: And then I've watched people who have been never been
Speaker 1: involved in the Lord and prior to all of these
Speaker 1: situations had to go through stints inside prison and come
Speaker 1: home with a completely different mind frame understanding like Dan,
Speaker 1: this this is really crazy. Like what they're doing in
Speaker 1: here is it's really like slavery and the way they're
Speaker 1: treating these and they start to identify. So, you know,
Speaker 1: it's just a lot of you know, moving parts when
Speaker 1: it comes to this injustice system and in prison in general.
Speaker 1: I just hope that we recognize what's going on the
Speaker 1: writers right now, and you know, and we start really
Speaker 1: advocating for our brothers and sisters who are there because
Speaker 1: they literally killing these people, like they're literally the inhumane COVID.
Speaker 1: If you told my COVID what's going on? Is that
Speaker 1: a lot of people I note that they had COVID
Speaker 1: almost died, they had to sit and sell they're giving them,
Speaker 1: locking them in the cell. You know, they're not really
Speaker 1: giving you, no real medical attention. They just gotta fight it.
Speaker 1: That's not that's in all the jails. Yeah, that's that's
Speaker 1: what I'm saying every day. So you know, hopefully man,
Speaker 1: something that starts to change, man, But until then, man,
Speaker 1: close it, close down, close it down. So once again
Speaker 1: that brings us to the end of another Dope episode.
Speaker 1: Shout out to Congressman Bowman, who we had who was
Speaker 1: very informative, you know, gave us his vision, gave us
Speaker 1: his frustration, just gave us a whole glimpse of what
Speaker 1: is going on. A lot of us don't really be knowing.
Speaker 1: We just see what's on the news and we're here
Speaker 1: and we frustrated. Man, but his brothers like him, who
Speaker 1: give me just a little be a hope. If we
Speaker 1: can get five or six people like that on one team,
Speaker 1: you know, and we can rally behind them, then I
Speaker 1: can really see some change coming man. So I appreciate
Speaker 1: his interview, and um, you know, like we do. Man,
Speaker 1: we we're gonna keep on doing what we do. If
Speaker 1: you got any suggestions for the show, let us know.
Speaker 1: Tell us if you love us, if you hate us.
Speaker 1: You know, we are the number one show in the world,
Speaker 1: so we truly appreciate being number one. When you tell
Speaker 1: people that we're number one and we're not, then they
Speaker 1: might not feel like they gotta go get you know,
Speaker 1: more downloads and get more people involved. Not tell people
Speaker 1: we number one because those little bit of stats they
Speaker 1: talk about that that's cool, but number one. Like I
Speaker 1: got people that come up to me and this, people
Speaker 1: like I love your podcast, my favorite podcast in the world.
Speaker 1: So we number one the people. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: We number one to us. So now the world is
Speaker 1: gonna transfer to number one. If you start, you gotta
Speaker 1: say it. Yeah, you gotta talk it into existence, man
Speaker 1: manifest your destiny. We are the number one podcast in
Speaker 1: the world. And even though me and to me you
Speaker 1: don't agree, we agree on that, you know. So we're
Speaker 1: not gonna always agree. We're not gonna always disagree, but
Speaker 1: we will both always and I mean always be authentic. Alright, plute.
Speaker 1: Listen to Street Politicians on the Black Effect Network on
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio catch us every single Wednesday. The video
Speaker 1: version of Street Politicians on I Woman dot Tv