Speaker 1: Native Land Pod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership
Speaker 1: with Resent Choice Media.
Speaker 2: America.
Speaker 3: America is a racis country.
Speaker 4: What's up, everybody?
Speaker 1: Welcome to the second episode of Native Land Pod, where
Speaker 1: we break down all that's happening in politics, with a
Speaker 1: little bit of culture in there too. Welcome home, y'all,
Speaker 1: go home.
Speaker 5: Welcome home, Sis.
Speaker 3: What's up?
Speaker 5: Ladies?
Speaker 4: We are your host.
Speaker 1: I'm Tiffany Cross here with angela Ryan Andrew gillim and
Speaker 1: as you know on Native Land Pod, we give it
Speaker 1: to you straight, no chaser.
Speaker 4: What's going on y'all?
Speaker 5: Everybody?
Speaker 3: Every day?
Speaker 1: Oh, I know one thing is going on all the
Speaker 1: way up and that's Native Land Pod.
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Speaker 3: How about that. It's not just news, it's not just politics. See,
Speaker 3: thank you over all overall, just had to brag on it.
Speaker 1: I want to thank y'all seriously truly for making us
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Speaker 1: so important. Honestly, it shows that there is a gap
Speaker 1: between what is happening in in the atmosphere. This was
Speaker 1: content that people needed. We're here to inform, We're here
Speaker 1: to invite you all to be a part of the conversation,
Speaker 1: and so as people are left out, I think a
Speaker 1: lot of people literally felt welcomed home.
Speaker 5: So thank you all, Tiffany just on that, I just
Speaker 5: just my goodness. Thank you to those of you all
Speaker 5: who has stuck with us, hung with us through the
Speaker 5: ins and outs, ups and down, tops and turvys. If
Speaker 5: this show with the three of us doesn't represent anything,
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Speaker 1: I knew brother Gil was gonna give us a word
Speaker 1: that's not that's not gonna be the first of the.
Speaker 5: Last that though. That's real, that's real. There's always we
Speaker 5: doubt that in the moment. You doubt that when you're
Speaker 5: going through and when times it's so hard and you
Speaker 5: can't even yeah, you can't even manifest the belief that
Speaker 5: life will get better.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: And the truth is is just hang in there.
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Speaker 1: and ride with us, because we riding with y'all. So
Speaker 1: on this episode, I want to give you guys a
Speaker 1: little preview what we're going.
Speaker 4: To talk about.
Speaker 1: We have to discuss Donald Trump dominating corn rows and
Speaker 1: white mountains, and by that.
Speaker 4: I mean Iowa, New Hampshire.
Speaker 1: We don't want to talk about Donald Trump, but he
Speaker 1: is the front runner of the Republican Party, so we
Speaker 1: do want to talk about what happen in Iowa and
Speaker 1: really just a GOP field as a whole. We're also
Speaker 1: going to get into some conversation around outreach.
Speaker 4: The black voters. What is our ask and what should
Speaker 4: be our ask?
Speaker 3: How about that?
Speaker 1: But stay with us and until the end of the show,
Speaker 1: because as you all know, each episode, uh, myself and
Speaker 1: my co host were we got a testimony and we
Speaker 1: are each going to share what happened with us since.
Speaker 4: Y'all last heard from us.
Speaker 1: And so at the end of this episode, I am
Speaker 1: going to answer a question I've been asked a lot
Speaker 1: over the last year, and that is what exactly happened
Speaker 1: with me at MSNBC, So stick around because I got
Speaker 1: a testimony for y'all today. All right, Angela Andrew, what
Speaker 1: y'all want to do? Where should we kick it off?
Speaker 1: I kind of want to get into Iowa just to
Speaker 1: get it out the way, to be honest, get it
Speaker 1: out the way, get it out the way.
Speaker 4: Well, I'll kick us off.
Speaker 1: I just want to play this SoundBite from this full
Speaker 1: ass clown. See I already let a curse hoorse slip through.
Speaker 1: But this man is so ridiculous. The people who call
Speaker 1: themselves pro life, okay, uh.
Speaker 4: This is their leader? Is this your king? Take a
Speaker 4: listen to this and we'll talk about it on the
Speaker 4: other side.
Speaker 6: So if you want to save America from Brook and
Speaker 6: Joe Biden, you must go call this tomorrow for the
Speaker 6: first step, the first step.
Speaker 5: We're gonna do it.
Speaker 7: We gotta do it big.
Speaker 5: You gotta get life.
Speaker 6: You can't sit home if you're sick as a dog.
Speaker 6: Even if you vote and then pass away, it's worth it.
Speaker 6: If you're sick, if you're just a shinky cat, don't it.
Speaker 6: I don't think get up.
Speaker 1: Get up.
Speaker 4: Please miss me.
Speaker 1: The next time you see a bunch of maga half
Speaker 1: witted folks holding up pro life signs.
Speaker 5: You do realize these people are laughing at this man
Speaker 5: talking about the meaning that you have to die. He
Speaker 5: is dead serious, is he ain't joking?
Speaker 3: He's like, sacrifice your life for me. This is the
Speaker 3: man who was behind an insurrection that like little lukewarm
Speaker 3: admonishing he gave to his followers on January sixth, twenty
Speaker 3: twenty one. This is the same man today and forevermore.
Speaker 3: He absolutely wants them to risk it off for him,
Speaker 3: off a dream. He's selling a dream that is all
Speaker 3: of the rest of our nightmare. And he really wants
Speaker 3: these folks to get out here and do this on
Speaker 3: behalf of their racism. We know exactly what it is.
Speaker 3: We're not confused.
Speaker 4: He's a fraud.
Speaker 1: I mean, even like with the wall, like Mexico's gonna
Speaker 1: pay for the wall, like his donors have been paying
Speaker 1: for this false effort that's not happening. His donors have
Speaker 1: been paying his legal fees. I mean, he is the
Speaker 1: biggest welfare recipient of these folks, and they keep.
Speaker 4: Falling for it.
Speaker 1: But honestly, I kind of feel like this whole GOP field,
Speaker 1: they're all garbage, you know, I wasn't surprised at what
Speaker 1: happened in Iowa, but we kind of talked about this
Speaker 1: last week. I do feel like when these reporters are
Speaker 1: on the ground in Iowa talking to these voters, not
Speaker 1: once did I hear anybody ask how do you account
Speaker 1: for the racist comments that you've heard from all of
Speaker 1: these candidates? At any given point, all of these candidates
Speaker 1: have said something acid nine and racist, and nobody ever
Speaker 1: has to account for that, least of all Nimrada, who
Speaker 1: you might know as Nikki Hayley uh Love.
Speaker 4: Check this out. Listen to what she said.
Speaker 5: Are you a racist party? Are you involved in a
Speaker 5: racist party?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 8: We're not a racist country, Brian. We've never been a
Speaker 8: racist country. Our goal is to make sure that today
Speaker 8: is better than yesterday. Are we perfect? No, But our
Speaker 8: goal is to always make sure we try and be
Speaker 8: more perfect if every day that we can. I know
Speaker 8: I faced racism when I was growing up, but I
Speaker 8: can tell you today is a lot better than it
Speaker 8: was then. Our goal is to lift up everybody, not
Speaker 8: go and divide people on race or gender, or party
Speaker 8: or anything else. We've had enough of that in America.
Speaker 8: That's why I'm so passionate about doing this. I don't
Speaker 8: want my kids growing up where they're sitting there thinking
Speaker 8: that their disadvantage because of a color or a gen.
Speaker 8: I want them to know that if they work hard,
Speaker 8: they can do and be anything they.
Speaker 4: Want to be in America, lord hip.
Speaker 9: Like what.
Speaker 3: First of all, here's my house.
Speaker 5: I just marvel at the privilege, the privilege, the privilege
Speaker 5: it must be to exempt yourself out of what is
Speaker 5: so many of ours every single day reality, multiple times
Speaker 5: a day, so much so it's baked into the case
Speaker 5: we don't even count anymore.
Speaker 3: But Andrew, did she exempt herself? I don't think she did.
Speaker 3: First of all, let's there's three issues here. The first
Speaker 3: issue is she's the question was are you a racist party?
Speaker 3: She talks about not a racist country. She couldn't even
Speaker 3: answer that part for a reason.
Speaker 5: The second was yah.
Speaker 3: The second thing is we're not a racist country from
Speaker 3: when Nikki from it's founding from the sixties and the
Speaker 3: Montgomery bus boycotts and the voting rights protest or is
Speaker 3: it that racism ended right after you experienced racism? Because
Speaker 3: you're saying what you don't want your kids to experience,
Speaker 3: But what you're certainly not saying is that they have
Speaker 3: not experienced it. So what I think that Nikki or Nimrata,
Speaker 3: as Tif said, is masterful at talking out of both
Speaker 3: sides of her mouth, just like Alita. Her leader is
Speaker 3: Donald Trump.
Speaker 5: If you're confused, Hey, Angela, we don't want to be
Speaker 5: talking to our kids about them being disadvantaged in any way,
Speaker 5: shape or form. I don't want to have to talk
Speaker 5: to my boys about what it means to have to
Speaker 5: demure themselves in dark spaces or as they encounter people
Speaker 5: who are not of color in authority, or how they
Speaker 5: may encounter our neighbors down the street after dawn or dust.
Speaker 5: And so Nikki or miss Haley former governor, we agree
Speaker 5: with you. We don't want to have to talk to
Speaker 5: our kids about that either. But what what what I
Speaker 5: don't understand Tiff and Angela, is what is the point
Speaker 5: of all of this right now? The the the persuading
Speaker 5: by the candidates from the leader of the party Trump,
Speaker 5: you know, all the way down to the bottom of
Speaker 5: the pits DeSantis. They're all trumpeting this racist brand of politics,
Speaker 5: and it's there's there's there's no it's not veiled, there's
Speaker 5: no thin layer between. This is the most obvious set
Speaker 5: of stuff I've ever seen. And I almost said a word,
Speaker 5: but we've been admonished not to use bad words about
Speaker 5: our parents, and I'm serious. But that's a sidebar. We'll
Speaker 5: talk about that later on this topic. Though, the very
Speaker 5: founder of our country, the great and original sin. Every
Speaker 5: major conflict domestically that has popped up, that has galvanized,
Speaker 5: intended to divide our nation, going even to the Civil War,
Speaker 5: where more Americans were killed and in that war than
Speaker 5: in every war we have ever fought as a nation
Speaker 5: from then forward combined, what is strong enough to divide
Speaker 5: a nation so fiercely that you could cut down your
Speaker 5: fellow American and not think again about it. Well, I'll
Speaker 5: tell you what that thing is. And it's the same
Speaker 5: complexity that the founders themselves faced in Philadelphia when they
Speaker 5: decided to make us three four us. Since the beginning
Speaker 5: of time, there has never been a person, a human
Speaker 5: regardless of what they're hue, that has any that has
Speaker 5: been anything other than human. So at what point did
Speaker 5: the country come to the realization that we were then
Speaker 5: human and therefore entitled to human treatment?
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I think most of our listeners know
Speaker 1: that this. Of course, the country is a racist country.
Speaker 1: It was founded on racism. I think a lot of
Speaker 1: people want to believe this fairy tale about America that
Speaker 1: they were spoon fed and have a willful ignorance about
Speaker 1: the real origin of the United States of America. But
Speaker 1: we know our listeners know Nimrada is saying these things
Speaker 1: to a very specific audience. She is speaking to white America.
Speaker 1: She's saying, I know I'm brown, but I don't think
Speaker 1: like those brown folks. I know I have an ethnic name,
Speaker 1: but if you call me Nikki, will that make you
Speaker 1: more comfortable? Then will you let me play at your table?
Speaker 1: Then will you let me sit at the head of
Speaker 1: the table. And we're going to see how a very racist,
Speaker 1: maga extremist voting block responds to her, because she's doing
Speaker 1: all of this for very little reward. If you think
Speaker 1: by Kyle toeing to this group of people that they're
Speaker 1: going to say, Okay, well, we don't like the rest
Speaker 1: of y'all, but we'll make an exception for you, baby girl,
Speaker 1: You in for a rude awakening.
Speaker 4: It ain't gonna happen like that.
Speaker 1: I don't even need to waste my breath trying to
Speaker 1: convince somebody it's a racist country. History can tell you
Speaker 1: that we are trying to force America to fulfill the
Speaker 1: promise that so many other people think she's already fulfilled.
Speaker 4: That's where the work is.
Speaker 5: But this is why, and this is why I am dumbfounded.
Speaker 5: Which is why. What is the point to this right now?
Speaker 5: What value add does it have for us to litigate
Speaker 5: this this this this topic of where we racist?
Speaker 9: What?
Speaker 5: Why did the Civil War occur?
Speaker 3: Why are these people know why?
Speaker 5: I ain't gonna say everybody, but why are these people
Speaker 5: so terrified of the future that they're so willing to
Speaker 5: just grasp to the past as their greatest achievements? About that,
Speaker 5: but I got to I believe in a better future.
Speaker 3: You know why?
Speaker 1: Vice President Harris responded to this. Angel I didn't see it,
Speaker 1: but Angela, you saw it.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Anna Navarro asks uh Kamala Harris about this uh
Speaker 3: statement by Nikki Haley, and she responds on the view,
Speaker 3: do you agree that America has never been a racist country?
Speaker 10: You know, I first of all, and I think everyone agrees.
Speaker 10: We all agree the history of racism in America should
Speaker 10: never be the subject of a SoundBite or a question
Speaker 10: that is meant to elicit a one sentence answer. But
Speaker 10: there is no denying that we have in our history
Speaker 10: as a nation racism, and that racism has played a
Speaker 10: role in the history of our nation. And when I
Speaker 10: think about it, I think we all would agree that
Speaker 10: while it is part of our past and we see
Speaker 10: vestiges of it today, we should also be committed collectively
Speaker 10: to not letting it define the future of our country.
Speaker 10: But we cannot get to a place of progress on
Speaker 10: the issue of race by denying the existence of racism,
Speaker 10: by denying the history of racism.
Speaker 3: You know what is most unfortunate to me and tiff
Speaker 3: and Andrew, I really want to hear your thoughts on this.
Speaker 3: I don't think that there's a politician running for national
Speaker 3: office who answers this question. Well, like if we can
Speaker 3: just not both sides this but just talk about it
Speaker 3: for what it is. I remember when President Obama was
Speaker 3: asked if he was the president of Black he said
Speaker 3: he wasn't the president of Black America. He's the President
Speaker 3: of the United States of America. Right. There is not
Speaker 3: a politician seeking federal office, whether they have to run
Speaker 3: statewide or they're running nationally that answers this question well.
Speaker 3: And I think Kamala Vice President Harris found her footing
Speaker 3: in the latter part of this question from Anna Navarro.
Speaker 3: But I really want her to be able to say yes,
Speaker 3: from its inception, this country has has a racist past
Speaker 3: that we are desperately trying to clean up every day.
Speaker 3: Why does that matter right now? Going back to Andrew's
Speaker 3: last point, it matters so much right now because they're
Speaker 3: so willing to manipulate history that they will take it
Speaker 3: out of books, they will ban books, they will take
Speaker 3: it out of the classroom, they will ban ap black studies.
Speaker 3: They are fighting diligently and hard and violently to ensure
Speaker 3: that we believe something very different about this country's inception,
Speaker 3: its founders and racism, and it's always been there. And yes,
Speaker 3: it is an economic battle first, but it is absolutely
Speaker 3: based on the dehumanization of black people and the others.
Speaker 3: So I want her to be able to say that.
Speaker 3: And I I'm so frustrated with this country for not
Speaker 3: being able to provide us the space that we need
Speaker 3: to stand ten toes down in our truth and be
Speaker 3: able to say what it is without the penalty of
Speaker 3: losing an election, I want her to be able to
Speaker 3: say that, you know, anyway, I think that's a consistent
Speaker 3: problem across all politicians, even folks who look like us.
Speaker 3: As we see, and let me be clear, I will
Speaker 3: cast a vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, as
Speaker 3: I assume my two other co hosts will. We have
Speaker 3: a right to criticize our politicians, and we want to
Speaker 3: say we want you to do help us, help you.
Speaker 3: And so I think a part of this challenge is
Speaker 3: so often in campaigns and elections they will come to
Speaker 3: black neighborhoods and whisper, hey, when I get elected, I'm
Speaker 3: gonna help y'all. But they not gonna say that on
Speaker 3: the stump speech. On the stump speech, they so concerned
Speaker 3: with appealing to white folks. The challenge is this, politicians,
Speaker 3: you lost that vote a long time ago. White folks
Speaker 3: have not overwhelmingly voted for a Democratic party since the sixties,
Speaker 3: and that is when the demographics of this country looked
Speaker 3: a lot different. They got I think eighty nine percent
Speaker 3: of the white vote over fifty years ago. Now, with
Speaker 3: the changing demographics of America, reevaluate your message and live
Speaker 3: and speak a more truthful assertion. And if you can
Speaker 3: can't tell me, if you're trying to convince me, notice,
Speaker 3: piss you feel in your face is actually rain. You
Speaker 3: have lost my vote, you have lost my confidence. You
Speaker 3: have lost the thing that most people look for in politicians,
Speaker 3: and that's for authenticity. That's the thing that's so fragile
Speaker 3: and so few and far between.
Speaker 4: I think.
Speaker 1: So I'm always disappointed when I hear people because what
Speaker 1: the bottom line is, you're trying to make yourself palatable
Speaker 1: to white thricks, and to me, you leap frog over
Speaker 1: me and my interest when I'm the main person holding
Speaker 1: you down. So I will put this not just to
Speaker 1: Vice President Kamala Harrison, but to anybody who's talking inspire,
Speaker 1: be bold and speak of truth. We do, and we
Speaker 1: support you, and we want to help it make it
Speaker 1: easier for other people to speak their truth.
Speaker 4: Andrew, you guys something else on this.
Speaker 5: Well, I'll just say I'm sick of the question being asked,
Speaker 5: when do we live in a country where we don't
Speaker 5: even opposition the question of whether or not we have
Speaker 5: a racist founding history steeped in it and its vestiges
Speaker 5: every single day. And what I will argue is the
Speaker 5: reason Kamala Harris has to answer that way, and I
Speaker 5: agree with you, I think she got better. More direct
Speaker 5: towards the end is because of the vestiges of racism
Speaker 5: and white supremacy. We can't take the chance that by
Speaker 5: acknowledging that the founding was steeped in racism is the
Speaker 5: original sin of this country, and every single major battle legal, social, cultural,
Speaker 5: or economic, and otherwise are stemming from it. It's an
Speaker 5: octopus with a whole bunch of tentacles, and part of
Speaker 5: those tentacles include people not being able to speak the
Speaker 5: truth that we know, and that, to be honest, every
Speaker 5: single person knows Nikki Hayley, Donald Trump. What they're afraid
Speaker 5: of is that by acknowledging that it is an indictment
Speaker 5: on them. I don't indicte you for your ancestors enslaving me,
Speaker 5: and I'm not even I'm not even blaming you from
Speaker 5: all the ways in which you benefit today from their
Speaker 5: having done so. So release yourself with the guilt. That
Speaker 5: isn't what we're saying.
Speaker 3: I know, I want, I want some people to actually
Speaker 3: own their guilt. And here's the other part. It's not
Speaker 3: I don't think that we're trying to put white supremacy
Speaker 3: and racism at the feet of Nikki Hayley except for
Speaker 3: when she is benefiting from those things and boldly benefiting
Speaker 3: from those things.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: But but what I am saying is, you don't get
Speaker 3: to not acknowledge us. There are other cultures, other groups
Speaker 3: where you do not garner their support if you don't
Speaker 3: acknowledge them. And I think that that's where we must be.
Speaker 3: We must be at the point where we say no
Speaker 3: if we have been impacted by discrimination in federal contracts
Speaker 3: and accessing jobs. Now with a ban on affirmative action
Speaker 3: and higher education, you know, all of the police violence
Speaker 3: right someplace where again, Kamala Harris, Madame Vice President, stood
Speaker 3: ten toes down on the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act.
Speaker 3: We need to keep that same energy right now because
Speaker 3: people are still being killed by police. Last year was
Speaker 3: the deadliest year for police violence. I want her in
Speaker 3: a position where she is shining, and that is as
Speaker 3: a prosecutor, prosecute the case about racism in this country
Speaker 3: and go hard at its neck. If you end up
Speaker 3: sacrificing your role but dismantle the system, my sister was
Speaker 3: worth it. And I don't want that for her, like
Speaker 3: I would love to see her in the Oval one day,
Speaker 3: but it's going to take bold, powerful leadership, and I
Speaker 3: don't think we get there by doing the same things
Speaker 3: that have always been done. I would argue right now,
Speaker 3: just based on where this nation's consciousness is. I don't
Speaker 3: know if Barack Obama could win today. I don't know
Speaker 3: if he could running the same campaign that he ran
Speaker 3: in two thousand and eight in.
Speaker 5: Twenty twelve, I don't know if we would have this
Speaker 5: problem if Barack Obama had won. That's oh, I'm telling
Speaker 5: you what to do. I was set in front of them,
Speaker 5: set in front of them what it might mean when
Speaker 5: you're not in control, and they assigned him attributes that
Speaker 5: he didn't.
Speaker 3: Even attempt, didn't even he didn't trying to throw you.
Speaker 5: Out your business. He didn't try to expand opportunities for
Speaker 5: us to get the same degrees you'd do at no cost,
Speaker 5: because we built this thing, as Angela says, for free,
Speaker 5: and there's so many other ways, and so his election,
Speaker 5: I'm don't know if we'd be dealing with this in
Speaker 5: quite the way we are right now if they hadn't
Speaker 5: seen it. Set in front of them.
Speaker 1: Does somebody say during the Trumpet administration that Donald Trump
Speaker 1: was the president they thought Barack Obama would be. They
Speaker 1: thought the black president would have one, two, three baby mamas.
Speaker 1: They thought the black president would have countless indictments showing
Speaker 1: their own racism. They thought the black president would be
Speaker 1: inarticulate and wouldn't know how to hold himself on a
Speaker 1: global stage and up the ante and the steeds that
Speaker 1: America has. No, that's your boy, that's your people. That's
Speaker 1: your racism, really, and that's your king who did all that.
Speaker 5: And by the way, in their quiet places, that's them,
Speaker 5: that's them.
Speaker 4: Absolutely.
Speaker 3: But here's the thing. And I'm not saying that I
Speaker 3: didn't want Barack Obama to win. What I'm saying is
Speaker 3: based on where we are right now. I don't know
Speaker 3: that he could. I don't know that he could. Like
Speaker 3: I think we as a people are getting more conscious,
Speaker 3: Like we're not going to moderate to fit in your box.
Speaker 3: We're not trying to make you feel comfortable in your stuff.
Speaker 3: We know now that a rising tide doesn't lift off boats,
Speaker 3: and as hard as hell, fight these waves without a
Speaker 3: boat to sit in. Right, Like, all of those things anyway,
Speaker 3: I'm down a whole other road. Tip. I'm sorry, but
Speaker 3: I just I am feeling away.
Speaker 1: Honestly, because I am just tired of talking about playing
Speaker 1: in the snow. To be honestly, it's not a lot
Speaker 1: of daylight between any of these candidates. They're all the same.
Speaker 1: A week's at all of all the Republicans. I'm speaking
Speaker 1: specifically about the Republican base or the Republican pool of candidates.
Speaker 1: A week is an eternity in politics. We had a
Speaker 1: long time to dive into why these folks are garbage.
Speaker 1: To me, It's time to pay the bills with a
Speaker 1: quick commercial break, So don't go anywhere because we'll be
Speaker 1: right back, all right. I want to get into something else.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about black voter outreach. And the
Speaker 1: reason I want to talk about this is because the
Speaker 1: d TRIP, which is the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, has
Speaker 1: committed thirty five million dollars to reach voters of color.
Speaker 4: So that's a big umbrella. By voters of color.
Speaker 1: They're referencing black voters, the members of the Api community,
Speaker 1: Asian American Pacific Islander, the Indigenous community, and of course
Speaker 1: the Latino community. I find this really interesting and I
Speaker 1: really want to throw this to you, Angela, because I
Speaker 1: think it's a really fair point that you make all
Speaker 1: the time about we uphold this party, and so I
Speaker 1: want to look at what does this outreach look like?
Speaker 1: What should this outreach look like, and what should our
Speaker 1: ass be.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so, as I understand it, they've named this initiative power, Persuade, Organize, welcome, educate,
Speaker 3: and reach. They've committed five million more than they did
Speaker 3: last cycle. For us, a cycle is an election cycle.
Speaker 3: I know that sometimes we use terms on here that
Speaker 3: everybody doesn't necessarily know. I think that more I want
Speaker 3: to know, like the line items for this right. You know,
Speaker 3: there was some pushback that we got after Leonard and
Speaker 3: I did Joy Show and I talked about campaign consultants
Speaker 3: and polsters and communication strategists. How are they spending this money?
Speaker 3: Because if they are targeting voters of color but they're
Speaker 3: not utilizing consultants of color, I think we find ourselves
Speaker 3: in the same position. Why am I so upset about this?
Speaker 3: Why am I always pushing this Because we've been having
Speaker 3: the same discussion cycle after cycle with little impact. We
Speaker 3: need people who aren't as informed as we might be
Speaker 3: because of where we worked because of Andrew. Where we've run, right.
Speaker 3: We need folks who you know, ride the bus to work,
Speaker 3: who maybe have been formally incarcerated and just out and
Speaker 3: want to see politics serve them. The folks who are
Speaker 3: barely keeping the lights on the folks who are saying
Speaker 3: I don't know how I'm going to get to the
Speaker 3: ballot box because I just have to pick up my
Speaker 3: child on time from daycare, right if they can afford daycare.
Speaker 3: I want to make sure that we are reaching those folks,
Speaker 3: and we can't do that trying the same old tactics.
Speaker 3: Desperate times call for desperate measures. We know that democracy
Speaker 3: is on the line. We also know that every time
Speaker 3: turnout is low, the first group of people they blame
Speaker 3: are their most loyal and faithful base. And I'm looking
Speaker 3: at them as black voters, right, So I want to
Speaker 3: make sure that they are treating us as loyal and faithful.
Speaker 3: Where are you buying ads right? Who are you retaining?
Speaker 3: What do your focus groups look like? Have you had
Speaker 3: any conversations with CBC members state legislators of the National
Speaker 3: Black Caucus of State Legislators NBC, which is the local
Speaker 3: elected officials. Folks like Andrew who ran the Young Elected
Speaker 3: Officials Network. Are you talking to young elected officials who
Speaker 3: overcame so much and as an elected official of color,
Speaker 3: have something to say. They were able to mobilize a
Speaker 3: base that you can never even touch. That means you
Speaker 3: have to do some different things, some extraordinary things to
Speaker 3: get some extraordinary results. We need that kind of effort.
Speaker 3: It is a code read. And if the party doesn't
Speaker 3: realize it's a code read right now, they're in trouble.
Speaker 3: And you could throw as much money as you want
Speaker 3: to at it, but if you don't spend it in
Speaker 3: the right places and talk to people about it how
Speaker 3: to spend it differently, you gonna find yourself in the
Speaker 3: same spot.
Speaker 5: That's real and Angela, my responses on the other side
Speaker 5: of that, which is thirty five million to win an election,
Speaker 5: how many millions, billions, trillions toward public policy that then
Speaker 5: benefits and expands opportunities the lives, livelihoods, and lifestyles of
Speaker 5: communities of color. Because look, I believe the Democrats will
Speaker 5: spend whatever is required to get the voters they need
Speaker 5: in order to win that they believe in another win.
Speaker 5: So what I'm saying is if they thought that it
Speaker 5: was going to cost them, because this campaign will cost
Speaker 5: what a billion a campaign a billion for each of
Speaker 5: the parties and their allied groups. That's so thirty five
Speaker 5: million a billion over the course of the campaign when
Speaker 5: I ran for governor of the state of Florida, where
Speaker 5: black people are still only about eleven percent of the
Speaker 5: voting population. Yes, we had tactics that were very specific
Speaker 5: and discreete to different activities that minority groups and people
Speaker 5: of color might do. But black people were part of
Speaker 5: the center of my campaign, and so in all of ours,
Speaker 5: spending not in a set aside, but what runs through
Speaker 5: the bloodstream. The body of the campaign was talking to
Speaker 5: communities of color and folks who were similarly situated, and
Speaker 5: I identified who need public policy that works for them too,
Speaker 5: because we're not a monolith and people are tired of
Speaker 5: just surviving. They're sick of it. I heard a homeless
Speaker 5: man interview the other night on a local news station
Speaker 5: who said, no, I didn't want that. I ain't want
Speaker 5: him to give it to me. I just wanted an
Speaker 5: opportunity to earn it. This man doesn't know where he
Speaker 5: may sleep tonight, but his interest was not in getting
Speaker 5: something that was for free, but rather having an opportunity
Speaker 5: to earn it for himself. So don't mistake us. We're
Speaker 5: not asking that we want to be able to compete,
Speaker 5: to earn and to know that off the strength of
Speaker 5: our value and our work alone, that we will earn
Speaker 5: what we deserve to be paid.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I want to pick up on your point, Angela,
Speaker 1: because that it's interesting the way that white supremacy has
Speaker 1: framed the thinking of some black folks. I'm going to
Speaker 1: pull from my good brother Andrew Gillam. I'm gonna share
Speaker 1: a bit of a private conversation we had and it's
Speaker 1: really we have to encourage.
Speaker 4: Encourage people.
Speaker 1: I ain't gonna tell that at all this show, maybe
Speaker 1: next show, but we have to encourage people to tap
Speaker 1: into their imagination because I think Andrew, you've made the
Speaker 1: point before, like that's what they do. They capture our imagination.
Speaker 1: So if you can't envision a democracy that serves you,
Speaker 1: because when we say of the people, by the people,
Speaker 1: for the people, some people are okay with that as
Speaker 1: long as for the people doesn't include us. And no
Speaker 1: matter how they make us feel, this is our home.
Speaker 1: Our ancestors built this joint for free, as my good
Speaker 1: sister Angela says. And so I think we have every rights.
Speaker 1: We have every right to make demands of this country.
Speaker 1: We have every right to criticize this party. And I
Speaker 1: think that's the punctuating point that Angela was making. And
Speaker 1: in addition to that, we might lose some of our
Speaker 1: a man corner here. But white liberals, white liberals are
Speaker 1: problematic and a lot of these spaces. I worked in
Speaker 1: labor briefly, and every suggestion I had it was all
Speaker 1: about organizing communities of color. Every suggestion I had was
Speaker 1: sumarily dismissed most of the time because they just didn't
Speaker 1: understand the culture. There's ethnicity and there's culture. They did
Speaker 1: not understand the culture. And so when I would suggest
Speaker 1: things like, hey, not everybody is going to an NAACP
Speaker 1: meeting at six point thirty on Friday, Like, there are
Speaker 1: other ways where black people organized and galvanized. You got brunches,
Speaker 1: you got book clubs, you got jack and jail, you
Speaker 1: got the Divine nine.
Speaker 4: You have all these pockets.
Speaker 1: It's not just churches, barbershops, beauty salons and civil rights groups,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, all those places have a role.
Speaker 1: But you do have to stretch yourself and think beyond that.
Speaker 1: And they would pay consultants big, huge contracts like twenty
Speaker 1: five to fifty thousand dollars a month who don't look
Speaker 1: like me, who are telling you how to talk to
Speaker 1: people who do look like me.
Speaker 4: That makes zero sense.
Speaker 1: Like to quote the great urban Philosopherdrick Lamar, sit down
Speaker 1: and be humble, like this is the area where you
Speaker 1: really don't know what you're talking about. And it's insulting.
Speaker 1: Like even in their their their effort to work for equality,
Speaker 1: it is still from a perspective of I know better
Speaker 1: than you or I'm okay with this as long as
Speaker 1: we don't get into areas that don't make me feel comfortable.
Speaker 4: And that's a problem.
Speaker 1: To Angela's point about contracts, consultants, all of that matters,
Speaker 1: even polsters, all of that matter. What do the people
Speaker 1: look like on your campaign? So you're telling me you're
Speaker 1: trying to reach out to these communities, but your campaign don't.
Speaker 1: Your campaign look more like Iowa, New Hampshire than it
Speaker 1: does Atlanta, Miami, La, Detroit, Chicago. That's not okay. So
Speaker 1: I got a challenge with it. I know Andrew's campaign
Speaker 1: look good, Angela was down there getting on it.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Here's here's the Here's the thing though, that I want
Speaker 3: to flag TIF and Andrew to these points. There is
Speaker 3: if you were saying that they everything was summarily rejected,
Speaker 3: all your ideas were severely rejected, that is by design.
Speaker 3: That is, there is a stronghold of a good old
Speaker 3: boys network that exists not just in the Democratic Party operators,
Speaker 3: the same thing exists in the Republican Party and even
Speaker 3: worse right. But what I'm saying is some of these
Speaker 3: things have to be dismantled and disrupted for them to
Speaker 3: actually win. And so if they really care about winning Tiff,
Speaker 3: as you say all the time, the rising majority of America,
Speaker 3: you have to do something different. It's not throwing an
Speaker 3: extra five million dollars at it. Because at the core
Speaker 3: of this campaign is combating disinformation. How what does that
Speaker 3: look like? You have a hub on your site and
Speaker 3: you think people are going to go visit that's side.
Speaker 3: How will they know about this site? You have folks
Speaker 3: who are working on telling people about voter suppression. They
Speaker 3: know about voter suppression. See, our issue is they keep
Speaker 3: talking to people who are already involved, already brought into
Speaker 3: the fold don't need to be reached. And if you
Speaker 3: keep talking to those people who don't need to be reached,
Speaker 3: what's your vocus group talking about? What are they saying?
Speaker 3: Tipp has told you, you know, these are the things
Speaker 3: that I'm here from people in my family, my friends,
Speaker 3: who are not politically engaged. D Trip has said they're
Speaker 3: focusing on seven districts in California. Two in California, one
Speaker 3: in Florida, one in New Mexico, two in Texas, and
Speaker 3: one in North Carolina. That's gonna be a black and
Speaker 3: brown strategy. Who are the consultants? We'll be here next week,
Speaker 3: same time, same place, d Trip, Please, by all means,
Speaker 3: send us the names of the consultants who are black
Speaker 3: and brown, who you've engaged in this work. We want
Speaker 3: to know and we want to know how much you're
Speaker 3: spending with them. And don't tell us that seventy five
Speaker 3: percent of this is going to add buys. Yeah, and
Speaker 3: for the people online who said, why does this matter?
Speaker 3: I'm in the weeds. It matters that I'm in the
Speaker 3: weeds because it's your cousin and your auntie and your
Speaker 3: church member who's not involved. You might be. You might
Speaker 3: already be in the hive, and that's great for you, honey.
Speaker 3: I'm talking about the people who don't feel like they're
Speaker 3: gonna get up off the couch. It's not about them
Speaker 3: voting for Donald Trump or Nikki Haley or whomever else
Speaker 3: ends up running against Joe Biden. It is about making
Speaker 3: sure that they feel heard and seen enough to go
Speaker 3: to the polls. I already had to risk it all.
Speaker 5: Once same and then after they do that, produce the
Speaker 5: public policy. Yes, that's going to get us free. Yes,
Speaker 5: produce the evidence I want the receipts. The receipts are
Speaker 5: not your election. The receipts are the bills, the policies,
Speaker 5: the systems, the structures, the organizations, the entities that you
Speaker 5: dismantle that stand in the way of my liberation.
Speaker 1: Because if I am only of value to you as
Speaker 1: I show up to vote, then you don't honor my life.
Speaker 1: I am of value because I am a child of God.
Speaker 1: I was produced here, I breathe, I love, I feel
Speaker 1: just like you. That is my value. And so when
Speaker 1: I start from a place of saying, hey, I understand
Speaker 1: the person who does not want to participate in the
Speaker 1: very system that has harmed them. I'm not saying don't vote.
Speaker 1: I'm showing up in first to say, I understand you.
Speaker 4: Brother.
Speaker 1: Ain't nobody asking you to believe in this white man's democracy.
Speaker 1: We asking you to believe in you happen to your imagination.
Speaker 1: And what does a government look like that services you,
Speaker 1: your family and protects the country and advances equality for everybody.
Speaker 1: I think that's an important point.
Speaker 3: Because you paid for it. Because you paid for it,
Speaker 3: they work for you.
Speaker 5: It doesn't require a whole bunch of imagination. I would
Speaker 5: just say, treat me like you would want to treat
Speaker 5: your your son or daughter, the things that the safeguards,
Speaker 5: the protections, the the opportunities that you want in place
Speaker 5: for them. I love it be imaginative enough to see
Speaker 5: me like you might see your own child or a
Speaker 5: member of your family, and you would do whatever you could.
Speaker 5: Let's talk about kids. For your you. I would tear
Speaker 5: down these walls and this brick to to to to
Speaker 5: do whatever I needed to do to make a way
Speaker 5: from my child. So if that's the case, and I
Speaker 5: believe it is for them too, put that brain on
Speaker 5: and let that brain god your your action.
Speaker 1: All right, Welcome back to Native Land pod, welcome back
Speaker 1: home where we keep it a book, Give it to
Speaker 1: you straight, No chase there this one. I was reading
Speaker 1: the papers and I honestly thought about Andrew Gillham when
Speaker 1: I saw this story. Andrew, Florida Man. Florida Man is
Speaker 1: busy in your neck of the woods, and they wreak
Speaker 1: havoc on everybody else. Now there is a story that
Speaker 1: it might soon become illegal, literally illegal to call somebody racist, homophobic, misogynistic.
Speaker 1: That somebody literally put this on the ballot. It was
Speaker 1: yet another Florida Man. Now we got the good kind
Speaker 1: of Florida man with us. Andrew, what is up with
Speaker 1: this law? I mean, the reason I'm concerned about it
Speaker 1: is because a lot of crappy laws emerged from state legislatures,
Speaker 1: and so when we don't pay attention and don't take
Speaker 1: it seriously, it ends up landing in Congress and becoming
Speaker 1: a federal policy. So can you give us a background
Speaker 1: on this? Is it possible that this actually might ask listen.
Speaker 5: First of all, yes, in a state where Ron Dea
Speaker 5: Santis chief a spokesperson as CEO executive director of Florida
Speaker 5: Man Incorporated, Yeah, it could. But guess what. I don't
Speaker 5: think there's a snowballs chance in hell that free speech
Speaker 5: lawsuit wouldn't immediately ensue and stop this whole thing in
Speaker 5: its track. But more importantly, this is coming from Rond
Speaker 5: DeSantis and his party here in Florida, who basically invented
Speaker 5: the word the pejorative and negative a tone a connection
Speaker 5: of woke, wokee culture. I mean, they practically invented the
Speaker 5: attack unquote woke people in wote culture because they said
Speaker 5: they're acting like squirmy worms. They can't they just don't
Speaker 5: have a spine. They can't hear anything they disagree with,
Speaker 5: and so they wanted to legislate that you could not
Speaker 5: be a whiny baby about the things that you don't like. Okay,
Speaker 5: and I'm using they're approaching not how I think about it. Well,
Speaker 5: how can that same group of people now pass suggests
Speaker 5: legislaate that you can't call a racist a racist or
Speaker 5: a call out institutions for the things that they do.
Speaker 5: How can you abridge my free speech? Who's acting soft
Speaker 5: and warming now ron so high Hills, ain't I ain't
Speaker 5: hating I mean, if you know, they look good with them.
Speaker 1: But this, this is from a state senator, Jason Broader.
Speaker 1: Jason Broder, I don't know if I'm pronouncing his name right, Broder, Well, listen,
Speaker 1: I'm saying his name because at some point, nobody knew
Speaker 1: who Ron DeSantis was, and now everybody does, so like,
Speaker 1: who knows where Jason can go introducing this kind of legislation.
Speaker 1: He will rally the uninformed, the ignorant, the racists, the angry,
Speaker 1: the misogynist and xenophobics, and they will rally behind this
Speaker 1: man and try to send him to the White House
Speaker 1: if we're not careful. So this is what's happening in Florida,
Speaker 1: is what you got.
Speaker 3: I just you know, there's nothing new under the sun
Speaker 3: in the Sunshine State. And I think it's really really unfortunate,
Speaker 3: you know, seeing that they would work to pass a
Speaker 3: law that says that it is defamatory for you to
Speaker 3: call someone racist what if they are? Or sexist? What
Speaker 3: if they are? Or misogynists? What if they are? But
Speaker 3: it's more of we cannot handle the truth of what
Speaker 3: this country represents to so many people, and so we're
Speaker 3: gonna work our very best, our most diligent to silence you.
Speaker 3: So I think it's more of the same I said.
Speaker 5: Of doing the campaign, A hit dog will.
Speaker 3: Holler, Yes, it will.
Speaker 5: They've been so offended by honest, a hit dog will holler.
Speaker 5: And they're hollering through their legislation, their proposals because we've
Speaker 5: come too close to the nose with this, with this stone. Yeah,
Speaker 5: we've come far too close to them.
Speaker 1: The best quote you had on the campaign, I thought
Speaker 1: was on a debate stage. And when you say, I'm
Speaker 1: not saying he's the racist, but the racists thinking are racist.
Speaker 1: I thought that was such a brilliant line.
Speaker 5: Andrew, that's what the party has become, that's what they
Speaker 5: have their candidates have become. Yeah, they don't want us
Speaker 5: to call them racist. But why is it that all
Speaker 5: the races seem to be organized behind you all who
Speaker 5: don't like diversity of women? What?
Speaker 9: What?
Speaker 3: What?
Speaker 9: What?
Speaker 4: Openly out louds?
Speaker 9: Is it? Right?
Speaker 1: They standing they standing down and standing by.
Speaker 5: They know exactly what they're doing. You know exactly what
Speaker 5: they're doing. And then and there's no there's you talk
Speaker 5: about we give it straight, no chaser, they're giving it
Speaker 5: to it straight. There's no content.
Speaker 1: It's not just politics though, like I mean, as we say,
Speaker 1: politics are everywhere.
Speaker 5: Everywhere, are everywhere.
Speaker 1: I'm shifting gears again. For those who don't know me
Speaker 1: and are getting to know me, I happen to be
Speaker 1: one of the country's most world renowned sports experts. People
Speaker 1: are always begging me for my sports expertise. It is
Speaker 1: no no, let's some football. I am happy to hear
Speaker 1: there is a new black head coach in the NFL
Speaker 1: and curious y'all's thoughts about it.
Speaker 3: Well, I think that the most important thing to note
Speaker 3: is that for a league that has over seventy percent
Speaker 3: of its players looking like us, the coaching staff does
Speaker 3: not reflect the players. We know that the Rooney rule
Speaker 3: has now been in place for over twenty five years,
Speaker 3: but we've yet to see the real results from that,
Speaker 3: and so it's always uh the rule is the Rooney
Speaker 3: rule ensure that there would always be someone black interviewed
Speaker 3: for coaching positions, for leadership positions in the NFL, and
Speaker 3: it just hasn't netted what we would expect. I think
Speaker 3: the same thing is true about affirmative action policy, right.
Speaker 3: I think one of the smartest things Bill Clinton said
Speaker 3: back in the day was amended, don't end it. And
Speaker 3: I think the same thing applies now. Affirmative action has
Speaker 3: got some yards to go pun intended here, and I
Speaker 3: think the same is true for the Rooney rule. So
Speaker 3: it's always great to have another black coach, but we
Speaker 3: want to ensure that they have the ability to not
Speaker 3: just be hired, but to be retained. And that is
Speaker 3: the same thing we need across industry.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just want to say it's Jared Mayo. He's
Speaker 1: the new head coach of the New England Patriots. Good
Speaker 1: Lucky Tree, you're in Boston, brother, we are with you.
Speaker 4: Before we come to you. Andrew.
Speaker 1: I just Angela made such a good point. I want
Speaker 1: you out to hear from foreign players themselves. The Washington
Speaker 1: Post did a great piece talking to black NFL players
Speaker 1: on their thoughts on coaching in the NFL.
Speaker 4: Take a listen.
Speaker 5: I do think the words genius, guru, quarterback, whisperer are
Speaker 5: all phrases that they use to describe non African American coaches.
Speaker 5: It's as if we don't have the same IQ intelligence
Speaker 5: level as some of our other brothers. You can go
Speaker 5: out and catch the ball, you can throw the ball,
Speaker 5: but you can you lead.
Speaker 9: I think that if owners would give black coaches more opportunities,
Speaker 9: not saying that you have to keep a guy for
Speaker 9: eight years, but you would if he won.
Speaker 5: You're a minority coach, you got to win. It seems
Speaker 5: like when you have diversity, well you've taken responsibility and
Speaker 5: this topic is not a topic. But when you don't
Speaker 5: have it, it's a topic.
Speaker 4: So powerful, very powerful. Andrew what you got.
Speaker 5: You know the beauty of that. And we all know
Speaker 5: this to be the truth. Those gentlemen were not asking
Speaker 5: for them to throw out the merit book. They didn't
Speaker 5: say reduced to standards. They didn't say pay me more
Speaker 5: or even equal to what you pay the guy now.
Speaker 5: They said, we simply want an opportunity. When I ran
Speaker 5: for governor, I did a commercial that set a chance,
Speaker 5: titled a Chance, And all I was asking for is
Speaker 5: all of you, with pre determined notions about who I
Speaker 5: am and what I can do, how I perform, and
Speaker 5: so on and so forth, just suspend with it for
Speaker 5: a moment to look at me the same way you
Speaker 5: might look out. I don't know your son when it
Speaker 5: comes to you and asks you, I just want a chance.
Speaker 5: If given a chance, I will dot dot. These guys
Speaker 5: are saying, I just want a chance.
Speaker 3: All right, everybody, So we told you that this was
Speaker 3: home and you will always have a seat at the table.
Speaker 3: So it is your favorite part of the pod where
Speaker 3: we hear the questions from you all. And today's question
Speaker 3: first question is Angela.
Speaker 7: And in the breakfast club, you said you hope there would
Speaker 7: be a push from the administration to meet people where
Speaker 7: they're at. But I don't see how they will listen
Speaker 7: without leverage. And I don't see how we have leverage
Speaker 7: if they know that black people are just gonna vote
Speaker 7: for them anyway. So how can we work with other
Speaker 7: people who, whether we think think it's good or bad,
Speaker 7: might actually threaten to not vote, or what other ways
Speaker 7: can we pushed to actually get leverage.
Speaker 3: So I think that the most important thing here is
Speaker 3: something that we hear often tiff and Andrew. It is
Speaker 3: about what do we do with the folks who say
Speaker 3: they're not going to vote they feel like their leverage
Speaker 3: is in not voting, and what other things can we
Speaker 3: do to ensure that we have leverage. Well, I'm proud
Speaker 3: to say that Tiffany and I and some of our
Speaker 3: dear sisters utilize I think what is part of our
Speaker 3: leverage in the last election. In the twenty twenty election,
Speaker 3: after Joe Biden Rant one South Carolina, we said, you
Speaker 3: know what, black folks made sure that he got to
Speaker 3: the finish line, and we said that there were three
Speaker 3: things that we wanted from Joe Biden. The first was
Speaker 3: a black woman vice president, the second was a black
Speaker 3: woman Supreme Court justice, and the third was a black agenda.
Speaker 3: We know that we're still lacking on the black agenda part,
Speaker 3: but this is the perfect moment for me to shout
Speaker 3: out our dear sister Alicia Garza, who does some tremendous
Speaker 3: work the Black Census Project. She has talked to over
Speaker 3: two hundred thousand black people. It is the largest survey
Speaker 3: of black people in the country, and that census, that
Speaker 3: survey will serve as a basis for what and how
Speaker 3: we construct a black agenda. I think our leverage is
Speaker 3: in pushing our agenda. What do we require of any
Speaker 3: elected official that serves us on the local, state, or
Speaker 3: federal level. Our leverage is not in saying, if you
Speaker 3: don't play with us, we're gonna take our ball and
Speaker 3: go home. Our leverage is in saying we're always going
Speaker 3: to show up and even when you don't want to
Speaker 3: see us. We're gonna be sitting right at your door,
Speaker 3: or we're gonna be calling you, or we're gonna be
Speaker 3: emailing your staff to find out where you are on xyz.
Speaker 3: And here's this black agenda for the local level, here's
Speaker 3: this black agenda for the state level. Here's this black
Speaker 3: agenda for the federal level. We want to see our
Speaker 3: agenda happen, and we are going to push you to
Speaker 3: do what we want to do. Why Because, as the
Speaker 3: CBC always says, there are no permanent friends, no permanent enemies,
Speaker 3: just permanent interests. And our permanent interest is in seeing
Speaker 3: our true and ultimate liberation in this country, and everybody
Speaker 3: else should follow suit.
Speaker 1: All right, the next question, Andrew, I would love to
Speaker 1: get your thoughts on it. Take a listen and Andrew,
Speaker 1: you can respond on the other side.
Speaker 2: Hey, Native land Pod, I'd love to hear your thoughts
Speaker 2: on why many of our elected officials, both in the
Speaker 2: House and in the Senate, and even in state and
Speaker 2: local government for that matter, that are of advanced age
Speaker 2: and almost choosing to die in office.
Speaker 5: Oh man, Well, first of all, I'm not going to
Speaker 5: be the one to sour on older politicians in office.
Speaker 5: I think what matters to me most in that consideration
Speaker 5: is what have they done for us lately? What have
Speaker 5: they done for me lately? Are they still producing so
Speaker 5: on and so forth, Because in that case, maybe what
Speaker 5: you need to do is go intern or go apply
Speaker 5: for a job and then help influence around that process.
Speaker 5: But my real answer you, aside from you know, respect
Speaker 5: for those who are older but are doing their job,
Speaker 5: is that not many of us are choosing the run
Speaker 5: against them. Not many of us are choosing to say
Speaker 5: we are ill served. And if you don't show up
Speaker 5: and show out on the job that we put you on,
Speaker 5: then I am going to take you out. People don't
Speaker 5: people don't fear things and people and interventions that don't
Speaker 5: impact on their lives. If you can't make a difference
Speaker 5: for me, then then why are you here? And that
Speaker 5: is the that's the that's the rude sounding aspect of politics.
Speaker 5: But these decisions get made every single day, every single day.
Speaker 5: Why do they legislate against us when we're such and
Speaker 5: such other population Because they don't fear that we're gonna
Speaker 5: do anything about it. And I don't mean extracting your
Speaker 5: vote from the democratic part I mean, have we shown
Speaker 5: up at their offices? Lady? Did we go to their
Speaker 5: town hall and pack that thing out? Did we show
Speaker 5: that we can produce people who then will hold them accountable?
Speaker 5: And unfortunately, if you just say, oh, I'm not going
Speaker 5: to vote in next election, we don't know who to credit,
Speaker 5: we don't know who to reward, we don't know who
Speaker 5: to induce. So show that you can produce something and
Speaker 5: that you are forced to be reckoned with and therefore power.
Speaker 5: What does it say? Oh, this was Fanny lou Hamer.
Speaker 5: Our seeds nothing without a demand. Power yields nothing. And
Speaker 5: all I would add to without a demand is in
Speaker 5: a way to enforce it.
Speaker 1: I just I want to just real quick just say
Speaker 1: to the caller's point about older people dying in office,
Speaker 1: I do think there is something to be said that
Speaker 1: it is our responsibility to bring up the folks behind us.
Speaker 1: And so I know a lot of people hold on
Speaker 1: to their positions, but it's hard, right, you know, but
Speaker 1: there are younger people in place, and I think to
Speaker 1: Andrew's point, like get in the position, get out there
Speaker 1: and run, you know, like there are very few limitations
Speaker 1: if you want to run for office. Get out there
Speaker 1: and knock on doors. It's not just I'm not saying
Speaker 1: go out and be thirty five and let you know
Speaker 1: your first jobs in government to be president of the
Speaker 1: United States like it was with Donald Trump. I'm saying,
Speaker 1: there are school board elections, there are city council, there's aldermen,
Speaker 1: there's all kinds of things that if you want to
Speaker 1: see changing your community, you can do, and to put
Speaker 1: yourself in a position to run for federal office one
Speaker 1: day if that's what you want to do.
Speaker 5: But I do think we have fairness to Donald Trump.
Speaker 5: His first job was our president. He ran many businesses
Speaker 5: into the ground prior into.
Speaker 1: This first job in government was president of the United States.
Speaker 5: That I'm talking.
Speaker 1: About his business at his first jobs job in the
Speaker 1: government America, seventy five million Americans say yes, we will
Speaker 1: let you be president of the United States when you
Speaker 1: and the.
Speaker 5: City council are we blame for that?
Speaker 4: If seventy five million Americans?
Speaker 3: So anyway, Yeah, As a former executive director of the
Speaker 3: Congressional Black Caucus, this comes up a lot, especially with
Speaker 3: our elders, and I think one of the things we
Speaker 3: don't just have a responsibility to bring up young folks.
Speaker 3: We have a responsibility to ensure that older folks can
Speaker 3: retire and step aside with dignity, and we don't always
Speaker 3: do that. I will never forget when Congressman Major Owens
Speaker 3: left office and retired, he went to be a Library
Speaker 3: of Congress. Fellow. That's not what happens with white folks
Speaker 3: when they retire from Congress. So we need to figure
Speaker 3: out what else we can do. I think it is
Speaker 3: so shortsighted when some folks, again to your points, have
Speaker 3: who have no experience, want to challenge in primary and
Speaker 3: elected officials. Also, who's actually doing the work for us.
Speaker 3: I'm not talking about the people that are just sitting
Speaker 3: there as benchwarmers. I'm talking about the folks who are
Speaker 3: really doing the work. So I just wanted to bring
Speaker 3: up that one distinction. Shout out to my CBC.
Speaker 4: Fans and listen.
Speaker 1: I want the viewers to note, we don't just answer
Speaker 1: questions that are nice and polite. If you disagree with us,
Speaker 1: if you have criticism, we want to hear from you.
Speaker 1: So dm us drop us a note, follow us on socials,
Speaker 1: drop your question and we would love to hear it.
Speaker 1: I want to play something we did hear from one viewer,
Speaker 1: an enthusiastic viewer who did like the show and had
Speaker 1: some criticism as well. So some advice, some advice, some advice,
Speaker 1: So please everybody take listen to Mama Rai, also known
Speaker 1: as Angela's mom, who listened to our podcast and had
Speaker 1: some thoughts and.
Speaker 3: Son to say, Mama Riah in the building, Mommy, what's
Speaker 3: the one thing you liked about Native Lampard?
Speaker 10: It was very well organized, and you guys are articulate
Speaker 10: and good thinkers.
Speaker 3: What is one thing you would change? Can I tell
Speaker 3: you this lady's normally deliver it and takes her time.
Speaker 3: She didn't even think about that, mind you. Shout out
Speaker 3: to my pastor, God Dad. It was a bishop in
Speaker 3: the Kojik church who had words I know about them.
Speaker 3: God Dad, and my father who thinks he is the
Speaker 3: father of me and Tiff and Andrew, Andrew's mama. We
Speaker 3: got dragged, so y'all we had well in our forties,
Speaker 3: well in our forties in trouble in time out, So
Speaker 3: we gonna limit the cussing on here. But sometimes law
Speaker 3: your mother in law too. I forgot Jesus, So we
Speaker 3: we're gonna work on it. We are still saved worn again.
Speaker 3: We're not backsliding out here. But sometimes you know, there's
Speaker 3: a word that you can't find, and four little word helps.
Speaker 3: But we'll do our best.
Speaker 1: And you need something to punctuate your point, and they
Speaker 1: have four letters to them, so brace yourself. Sometimes you might.
Speaker 1: My two co hosts can probably be a little more
Speaker 1: clean than I can. But sometimes you might hear from
Speaker 1: this center right here to say something to punctuate a point.
Speaker 4: But the Lord going to.
Speaker 5: Tell you who taught me the cuss words.
Speaker 4: Exactly, Daddy, Daddy.
Speaker 1: The Lord is still working on me. Also bear with me,
Speaker 1: all of us. All right, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: your questions. We again, we want more. What do you
Speaker 1: want to know? Send us your videos dm us on instag,
Speaker 1: Facebook and Twitter. But right now we're going to hear
Speaker 1: from our sponsors. But don't go away, because right after
Speaker 1: this break, I will be telling my story on what
Speaker 1: happened with me at MSNBC. All right, what happened with
Speaker 1: me at MSNBC. Before I get into this story, I
Speaker 1: want to just say first that I am good. All
Speaker 1: of us are good, All of my co hosts, we
Speaker 1: are all good. This is not some sort of Revenge Tour.
Speaker 1: We are looking forward, not backward. But it's important that
Speaker 1: we take the time to address these things because one,
Speaker 1: we want to be truthful. Some of you all know us,
Speaker 1: some of you don't, so you're getting to know us.
Speaker 1: We want to be honest with our listeners, and we
Speaker 1: really want to answer question.
Speaker 4: And that was the main question I got.
Speaker 1: I still get when I'm walking through airports and people
Speaker 1: stop me, they always ask what happened with you at MSNBC.
Speaker 1: So I think it's important that you all know how
Speaker 1: we got here and why this platform is so important
Speaker 1: to all of us for different reasons. So I will
Speaker 1: start with MSNBC to say how I got to the network.
Speaker 1: So I used to appear on MSNBC all the time,
Speaker 1: and I was never paid. There are paid contributors and
Speaker 1: there are people who go on for free. Ellie Misstaal
Speaker 1: is one of the most brilliant voices. He's on that
Speaker 1: network frequently. He has never been paid for his brilliant
Speaker 1: contributions nor for the viewers that he brings to the network.
Speaker 4: So keep in mind when.
Speaker 1: Y'all see on social media comments and people say, well
Speaker 1: they getting paid millions to get up there, and say whatever. No,
Speaker 1: very few people are paid contributors, and when it comes
Speaker 1: to people who look like us, even fewer people. So
Speaker 1: people were being paid to lie. I was spitting all
Speaker 1: my truth for free. But that's another testimony. So Enjoy
Speaker 1: made history by going Joy read who hosts The Readout,
Speaker 1: When she made history by going to prime time, first
Speaker 1: black woman in cable news to host a primetime show.
Speaker 1: I was guest hosting for her, and this was really
Speaker 1: part of the audition process to see who would be
Speaker 1: taking over for Joy. This was also at the time
Speaker 1: that I had a book coming out, my first book
Speaker 1: that I wrote, Say It Louder was hitting bookshelves and
Speaker 1: so on my pub date, I was invited to appear
Speaker 1: on Mourning Joe So Joe Scarborough. I'm sure y'all have
Speaker 1: watched Joe Scarborough before the segment. Right before I was
Speaker 1: coming on, Joe Scarborough started saying that he wanted the
Speaker 1: Republican Party to get their acts together. He didn't want
Speaker 1: his country run by some of the leftists who were
Speaker 1: running countries like Portland, and he called out some other
Speaker 1: municipalities that this was right after the height of Black
Speaker 1: Lives Matter, and so he said we got to get
Speaker 1: it together, and the Republican Party is failing. Donald Trump
Speaker 1: turned the party racist. So when I was introduced, I
Speaker 1: obviously had a lot to say about that. There's an
Speaker 1: unspoken rule that you're not supposed to disagree with Joe.
Speaker 1: But I didn't get that memo. Even if I had,
Speaker 1: I don't know how much attention I would pay to it.
Speaker 1: And so when it came time for me to speak,
Speaker 1: I went through very specific policies, talked about Ronald Reagan,
Speaker 1: talked about George Bush, and made the point that even
Speaker 1: though they may have been more articulate, their policies were
Speaker 1: just as damaging to black folks, and that this was
Speaker 1: truly the only GOP that I knew, And I think
Speaker 1: this incensed Joe. My segment was done, Joe disagreed with me.
Speaker 1: We went back on forth. I got off air. We
Speaker 1: were trending every single time I did Morning Joe. We
Speaker 1: were trending. And when I say we, I don't mean
Speaker 1: Joe Scarborough was trending. I mean Tiffany Cross was trending
Speaker 1: on Mourning Joe. Well after I got off the air,
Speaker 1: he continued to talk about it. He was very upset.
Speaker 1: Apparently and so when he left set, he was beside himself.
Speaker 1: That's what was described to me. I was told from
Speaker 1: several reputable sources, including a talent agent, two anchors, and
Speaker 1: another executive at the network, that he left set and
Speaker 1: went into the president's office, the president of the network,
Speaker 1: to complain about my segment, complain that I disagreed with him,
Speaker 1: said that I called him racist and suggested that I
Speaker 1: should not be joy read successor to get the show.
Speaker 9: Wow.
Speaker 1: So the president at the time was another white man,
Speaker 1: but his boss was a man by the name of
Speaker 1: Caesar Conde, and I got to show. Caesar Conde hired me.
Speaker 1: He was also a historic hire, a Latino man overseeing
Speaker 1: the entire news division of NBC Universals that was the
Speaker 1: Today Show everything. So I got the show after this
Speaker 1: big battle. But little did I know the battles were
Speaker 1: just beginning, my friends, because let me tell you, on
Speaker 1: my show, I was very mission driven, and Angela has
Speaker 1: heard me talk about this, Andrew's heard me talk about this.
Speaker 1: I take the Fred Hampton philosophy of being inclusive in
Speaker 1: our battles, so I was very intentional. Obviously, I'm showing
Speaker 1: up for black folks talking about black folks. I'm a
Speaker 1: black woman, that's my first priority. But I wanted to
Speaker 1: be sure to include stories that were relevant to our
Speaker 1: fellow countrymen, like the Asian American Pacific Islander community, like
Speaker 1: the Latino community, like indigenous How often do you see
Speaker 1: Native Americans on platforms telling their stories, testifying, talking about
Speaker 1: what's happening with them. I want you all to know,
Speaker 1: every single week, from the start of my show to
Speaker 1: the very last show I did, it was a battle.
Speaker 1: Every single week. It was a battle to cover things
Speaker 1: that I wanted to talk about. The network's philosophy was
Speaker 1: Trump Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump Trump. They wanted me to
Speaker 1: be part of the echo chamber, and I fought as
Speaker 1: hard as I could. I wanted to cover things like
Speaker 1: in humane treatment and prisons. That's something that disproportionately impacts
Speaker 1: my community, mental health among black men, the erasure of
Speaker 1: Afro Latinos in the Latino community, land battles of the
Speaker 1: Indigenous Native Americans trying to get their family artifacts back
Speaker 1: from museums right here in America, black farmers reaching Latino voters,
Speaker 1: things like that. When I would fight these battles, I
Speaker 1: know y'all know exactly what I mean I was spoken
Speaker 1: to in the most condescending ways. I mean anything from
Speaker 1: being told the definition of news. Me with my twenty
Speaker 1: plus year career in news and broadcasts and television, I
Speaker 1: would have somebody sit across from me and explain to
Speaker 1: me how news worked.
Speaker 4: I had my intelligence questioned.
Speaker 1: The central theme to them again, Trump, Capitol Hill, Minutia,
Speaker 1: and they wanted me to use the same recycled faces
Speaker 1: you see all the time. So I've really found the
Speaker 1: constant criticism debilitating at times, but mostly confusing. And let
Speaker 1: me tell you why, Because viewers seemed to love it.
Speaker 1: According to NBC's own research department, the Cross Connection, my
Speaker 1: show was averaging four point six million viewers a month.
Speaker 1: We had the most black viewers, second only the Revern
Speaker 1: NOWL Sharpton Show. We were routinely the highest rated show
Speaker 1: of the entire weekend. So I was scratching my head, like,
Speaker 1: what's y'all so mad about?
Speaker 9: It?
Speaker 1: Seems to me like there are some other shows that
Speaker 1: warrant your attention, not this one. We actually routinely beat
Speaker 1: Morning Joe in the ratings. This is something a lot
Speaker 1: of people don't know. People think millions of people watch
Speaker 1: more than Joe. This is public information. You can go
Speaker 1: on and watch maybe a few hundred thousand, maybe six
Speaker 1: hundred thousand, seven hundred thousand. Clearly we were getting more
Speaker 1: than that. So I'm getting more ratings than your favorite
Speaker 1: white boy, but I'm getting criticized every turn. Joe was
Speaker 1: allowed to say what he wanted to say, as were
Speaker 1: other white men on the network. He came up with
Speaker 1: the phrase Moscow Mitch, I use that phrase too.
Speaker 3: Good one.
Speaker 1: Joe my other colleague who I rock with, and you
Speaker 1: know we have no beef. But Ari Melburgh gets to
Speaker 1: quote rap lyrics. I had my script scrutinized. They didn't
Speaker 1: want me saying anything that sounded like an insult. When
Speaker 1: I would make a reference to something that was very
Speaker 1: specific to the black community, it was always a question,
Speaker 1: is this enough that people would understand most of your
Speaker 1: viewers are white, etc.
Speaker 4: Etc.
Speaker 1: It was exhausting, and I know a lot of my
Speaker 1: folks out there go through that every day, so I
Speaker 1: just want y'all to know I went through it too.
Speaker 1: But I held the line as best I could. And
Speaker 1: this is an important point that I want to make
Speaker 1: for me in behalf of my co host There is
Speaker 1: a burden to speak in the truth. It comes with
Speaker 1: a consequence, and when you find yourself as the messenger,
Speaker 1: there is a power structure in place that is not
Speaker 1: welcoming to our voices. And I was prepared for these
Speaker 1: battles because I had been fighting them my entire career,
Speaker 1: from my time as a producer and associate producer at
Speaker 1: CNN to a field producer at America's Most Wanted, to
Speaker 1: a field producer at Discovery to an executive producer at Viacom.
Speaker 1: I fought many battles at this point because I had
Speaker 1: shifted from being behind the camera to on camera. In
Speaker 1: fighting these battles, I can't lie. I made some enemies.
Speaker 1: I held the line I didn't acquiesce, because for me,
Speaker 1: what was the point in having this platform If I'm
Speaker 1: going to show up and spit out some vanilla granola
Speaker 1: boringness and hope that one day maybe the white man
Speaker 1: would let me host his Today Show. I've just never
Speaker 1: seen that happen. I have never seen anybody be rewarded
Speaker 1: for acquiescing to the comfort of white folks, not in
Speaker 1: a way where I could live with myself. I would
Speaker 1: go through what I went through ten thousand more times
Speaker 1: for sake and my own integrity and character, my viewers
Speaker 1: and my community were always the top of mind. I
Speaker 1: never positioned my self to center to comfort the colonizers.
Speaker 1: So leadership change at the network and a new president
Speaker 1: came in and listen, we need to celebrate and normalize
Speaker 1: the leadership of black women. So we can never make
Speaker 1: this about one individual. The problem is systemic. So if
Speaker 1: a black person is at the HELM, but they consider
Speaker 1: part of their job to keep free black folks in
Speaker 1: a state of submission, or to prove to their superiors
Speaker 1: that they can keep black and brown folks in check,
Speaker 1: that's really not anything to celebrate. An overseer might be
Speaker 1: of the community, but they are certainly not in it.
Speaker 1: And so I was fighting battles internally with leadership, and
Speaker 1: then I was fighting battles externally. I would routinely sound
Speaker 1: off on issues that centered white supremacy, a disease that
Speaker 1: y'all know still sickens the country. And often these essays
Speaker 1: I did would go viral and we would garner over
Speaker 1: a million views across all social media channels. Well, it
Speaker 1: didn't take long for the right wing media zealots and
Speaker 1: extremists to begin attacking me. Everybody from Megan Kelly to
Speaker 1: Bill O'Reilly routinely with accusations and racist white fear. But
Speaker 1: one night's Tucker Carlson dedicated the top of his show
Speaker 1: to me. I want you all to take a listen.
Speaker 11: Now, you probably knew about Joy Reid, the race lady
Speaker 11: who's been fixated on race hate for years now. But
Speaker 11: MSNBC has a new host, someone called Tiffany Cross.
Speaker 1: Okay, So Tucker goes on to play several clips from
Speaker 1: my show, and pretty much anytime I said the word
Speaker 1: white people, he messed them together and was basically accusing
Speaker 1: me of trying to start a race war by comparing
Speaker 1: my commentary to what happened in Rwanda Kajohn O'll Tucker
Speaker 1: care so much about black lives? And then live on air,
Speaker 1: he began to direct his comments to the executive.
Speaker 11: So you have to ask yourself, what does Comcast board
Speaker 11: think of?
Speaker 9: This?
Speaker 11: Comcast board is mostly white people. White people who, according
Speaker 11: to the channel they own, decided they wanted something, then
Speaker 11: they annexed it. White people who still, because they're white,
Speaker 11: white people who could quote turn to violence where they
Speaker 11: don't get their way white people are going crazy endangering
Speaker 11: their communities. So you have to ask yourself, why are
Speaker 11: they putting this on the air, Why are they allowing this.
Speaker 11: This is not a policy debate. These are open attacks
Speaker 11: on people, on Americans.
Speaker 1: So after this, the network did not issue a statement
Speaker 1: the way they had for some of my white colleagues
Speaker 1: who had also been targeted by MAGA extremists. Instead, network
Speaker 1: executives spoke to me and instructed me that I could
Speaker 1: not respond to Tucker Carlson at all. Then they began
Speaker 1: to scrutinize my show, every little thing I wrote, every
Speaker 1: little thing I said before the show, after the show,
Speaker 1: after the show. It was always, here's all the things
Speaker 1: that you said, here's all the things.
Speaker 4: That you did wrong.
Speaker 1: The ratings didn't lie, but according to them, people must
Speaker 1: just be tuning in to criticize me, because that's all
Speaker 1: they had was criticism. Never thanks for doing a good job,
Speaker 1: never thanks for bringing so many new viewers to the network.
Speaker 1: They assigned more oversight, more executives, which meant more battles
Speaker 1: for me to discuss topics that were relevant to an
Speaker 1: emerging audience that I was bringing to the network, much
Speaker 1: like Le brought an emerging audience to the CNN. So
Speaker 1: then I did a rant on Supreme Court Justice Clarence
Speaker 1: Thomas and his insurrectionist supporter of a wife, and it
Speaker 1: was definitely very snarky, but it was factual. And the
Speaker 1: network leadership, nervous about the attention that I was attracting
Speaker 1: to the network from the right wing, began openly siding
Speaker 1: with conservative viewpoints. And I was invited on a late
Speaker 1: night comedy show hosted by Charlemagne where we were asked
Speaker 1: to pick one of four states that we get rid of.
Speaker 1: And know this to my friend and my brother, Andrew Gillham,
Speaker 1: but this is what I said. Florida literally looks like
Speaker 1: the dick of the country. So let's get rid of Florida.
Speaker 5: Ron is the country there.
Speaker 4: Let's cast rate Florida.
Speaker 1: Here's the problem, Ron, the stupid, Ronda Santis, whatever you
Speaker 1: want to call Florida man. He is so problematic. The
Speaker 1: people there passed Amendment for which gave returning citizens those
Speaker 1: formerly incarcerated the rights to vote.
Speaker 4: He instituted a poll tax.
Speaker 1: He has done everything he can to keep black and
Speaker 1: brown people from the ballot. He traffics in stupidity and ignorance,
Speaker 1: and I just think they are a problem for the
Speaker 1: rest of the country.
Speaker 4: Let's get them.
Speaker 3: Out of there.
Speaker 1: So after that show, this was four days before midterms,
Speaker 1: and one day before my show was going to air,
Speaker 1: we had booked an exclusive sit down with Stacy Abrams, who,
Speaker 1: as you all know, was in the fight for her
Speaker 1: life running for governor at that time. That morning, I
Speaker 1: got a call from the president of the network saying
Speaker 1: they would not be renewing my contract, which was up
Speaker 1: in a month, and that my viewers would not even
Speaker 1: be given the courtesy or respect of me being able
Speaker 1: to sign off or have a final show. I think
Speaker 1: it's important that you all know when that happens, it
Speaker 1: suggests to other people in the industry that this person
Speaker 1: is so unhirable that we could not trust her with
Speaker 1: a live mike. So it was all very intentional. The
Speaker 1: firing was abrupt, and it was also very intentional to
Speaker 1: my audience, to my viewers that you are not the
Speaker 1: type of viewers who the company cares about. I was
Speaker 1: devastated when my show was canceled. I was so sad,
Speaker 1: not just for myself professionally and all that I had
Speaker 1: fought for, for more than two decades, but for the viewers,
Speaker 1: for the audience, because I did not have confidence that
Speaker 1: there would then be another place where indigenous topics, API
Speaker 1: Latino and a fam topics that we covered was going
Speaker 1: to be And this is where I have to testify.
Speaker 1: And I've always cried when I talk about this, but
Speaker 1: I'm not going to cry to day because I feel
Speaker 1: so good. I was surrounded by machetes. When I say machetes,
Speaker 1: I mean my sister friends are our girl group. It's
Speaker 1: a group of us were all in media, and Angela
Speaker 1: Rye at that point took on the role of mama,
Speaker 1: chief of staff security. Everything you literally could not get
Speaker 1: to me without going through her, because I had reporters
Speaker 1: calling the audience was an uproar that we were trending
Speaker 1: for weeks even though my show wasn't on air, and
Speaker 1: I felt so comforted at that time. The shock of
Speaker 1: what happened didn't even hit me until weeks later because
Speaker 1: I was surrounded in sisterhood. You guys saw joy Read
Speaker 1: closed her show after my show was canceled, giving me
Speaker 1: a shout out. Sunny Hassen was given interview saying, you
Speaker 1: know what a big deal this was and that the
Speaker 1: media went backwards with the canceling of my show. I
Speaker 1: was just truly surrounded, and so find you some friends
Speaker 1: who ride for you like that.
Speaker 4: There was a fierce.
Speaker 1: Backlash from the audience, and I was never given an
Speaker 1: official reason for why they canceled my show, but it
Speaker 1: was pretty obvious that I had drawn the ire of
Speaker 1: white conservatives, which even made some white liberals uncomfortable.
Speaker 4: So I had to go.
Speaker 1: Never mind that millions of people found my voice to
Speaker 1: reflect the ears. They weren't the viewers who MSNBC seemed
Speaker 1: to care about.
Speaker 4: But I gotta say.
Speaker 1: What happened next truly surprised me, despite me not saying
Speaker 1: anything at the time other than to issue a very
Speaker 1: politely worded and gracious statement mostly for my viewers, a
Speaker 1: statement in which did not attack the network at all
Speaker 1: or say anything bad about them. The network began attacking me.
Speaker 1: They planted hit pieces in the press. The president of
Speaker 1: the network began a bizarre, unhinged tour where she was
Speaker 1: on damage control. I don't know what she was trying
Speaker 1: to do, but it was filled with outright lies, including
Speaker 1: showing up on the set of the view. You guys
Speaker 1: can Googles and read the story to talk to. Everybody
Speaker 1: knows Sunny Hasten is a close personal friend of mine.
Speaker 1: This network executive went to the view tried to talk
Speaker 1: to Whoopy Goldberg and Sunny Houston. This has been coroborated
Speaker 1: by countless people and written about. It's very strange for
Speaker 1: the president of a competing network to show up at
Speaker 1: another network and talk directly to their talent.
Speaker 4: That just doesn't happen. So it was bizarre.
Speaker 1: It was humiliating at the time, to be quite honest,
Speaker 1: But thank god, I was surrounded in sisterhood.
Speaker 3: And so.
Speaker 1: I fought as much as I could. But I was
Speaker 1: not trying to go back to the network, but I
Speaker 1: fought to say, hey, what happened here was not okay.
Speaker 1: I want you all to know I am good. I
Speaker 1: am mission driven. My life's mission has always been through
Speaker 1: work and live in service to the equality and liberation
Speaker 1: of black folks, and I think when that happens, everyone
Speaker 1: benefits from that. When black folks are free, we all
Speaker 1: get free. We are very communal people, and that's why
Speaker 1: people benefit from our work. If I'm mission driven, it
Speaker 1: does not matter where I'm doing that mission.
Speaker 4: The work continues.
Speaker 1: If my mission was to be famous, if my mission
Speaker 1: was to be a celebrity, if my mission was to
Speaker 1: host a cable news show, well then my mission dies.
Speaker 1: That ain't never been my mission, will never be my mission,
Speaker 1: and so when your mission driven, just keep that in mind.
Speaker 1: Here we are, the work continues. I am thrilled to
Speaker 1: be in community with my fellow co host here. I
Speaker 1: think it is so important that you hear our voices
Speaker 1: and that you see that we continue to live, survive,
Speaker 1: and thrive because the message this was intended to send
Speaker 1: was don't get too free and don't get too gold.
Speaker 1: Then don't get too audacious in your blackness. And if
Speaker 1: they can somehow send me out there as a warning
Speaker 1: signal and say, look what we did to her, this
Speaker 1: might happen to you, then it might shiver somebody into
Speaker 1: not speaking the truth. And I want to testify that
Speaker 1: I am here still speaking the truth, and my story
Speaker 1: did not end at MSNBC. MSNBC was certainly the top
Speaker 1: of one mountain in my career, but it was the
Speaker 1: bottom of a next and we are here to keep climbing.
Speaker 1: I want to thank you all the viewers for riding
Speaker 1: with me during that time. I cannot tell you a
Speaker 1: specific reason the show was canceled because I was never
Speaker 1: given one but to be in community and still get
Speaker 1: to be in service only happens because you are ride
Speaker 1: with me so hard, and I just want y'all to
Speaker 1: know I will always, always, always ride with you. And
Speaker 1: I want to say thank you to the Machetes, but
Speaker 1: most certainly, first and foremost, I have to thank.
Speaker 4: Angela, who held my hand.
Speaker 1: We were in Atlanta together, we were still speaking together,
Speaker 1: we were out doing you know, voter drive work, eating, strategizing,
Speaker 1: and so when you have friends who ride with you
Speaker 1: in the thick of it, it really just softens the
Speaker 1: blow and it inspires me to be that person for
Speaker 1: someone else, because angel is always that person in our
Speaker 1: friend group. So thank you, my sister Angela. Thank you
Speaker 1: my brother Andrew, because you you were dealing with your
Speaker 1: own life and posted about me on social media, which
Speaker 1: I know you hate. So I want to thank you
Speaker 1: both for standing in solidarity with me and know that
Speaker 1: the community will always have us to stand in solidarity
Speaker 1: with them.
Speaker 3: You know, Tiff is the nicer one of the two
Speaker 3: of us, and I want to just say that three
Speaker 3: of us, most times. I want to just say that
Speaker 3: it is so disappointing how this was handled. I do
Speaker 3: want to shout out joy read Joyanne Reader der sister
Speaker 3: who puts it all all on the line all the
Speaker 3: time for what is righteous, and she did the same
Speaker 3: thing with you because because it was the right thing
Speaker 3: to do. And shame on you. To the other black
Speaker 3: hosts on that network who said nothing, I see you,
Speaker 3: I see you. I also want you to know that
Speaker 3: we know that you called people of influence to try
Speaker 3: to slander Tiff and to damage her character and it
Speaker 3: did not work. I'm gonna say one more thing that
Speaker 3: I'm probably gonna get in trouble for Anne Walker Marshawn.
Speaker 3: I don't know why you decided to launch a pr
Speaker 3: campaign against something you know nothing about, but shame on you.
Speaker 3: Shame on every black person in position of power at
Speaker 3: that network and other places who did not say anything
Speaker 3: and do anything. You know exactly who you are, and
Speaker 3: I will not give you the dignity that you do
Speaker 3: not deserve to say your name on this here number
Speaker 3: one podcast. You can download it though, And guess I'm
Speaker 3: not bitter, but I'm gonna tell them the truth.
Speaker 4: We're naming names.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna name all the names, but there was
Speaker 1: a very senior Obama administration official who got involved. And
Speaker 1: what I noticed or learned from Antelo's people are loyal
Speaker 1: to power. People are loyal to those who they think
Speaker 1: can do something for them. So when you have the option,
Speaker 1: when you have the choice to do what's righteous or
Speaker 1: to do what serves you, do what serves the community,
Speaker 1: or do what serves the greater good, or serve yourself.
Speaker 1: A lot of people they were jocking. And let me
Speaker 1: just say that some of these black women, including the
Speaker 1: one who was at the home of the network at
Speaker 1: the time, came to black folks in crisis where we
Speaker 1: have been with you always. We didn't come to you
Speaker 1: in crisis. We came with our hands extended to say,
Speaker 1: what can we do for you? Not what you can
Speaker 1: do for us? How can you cover us in our
Speaker 1: time at crisis? So that was disappointing to see we.
Speaker 3: Didn't have to come because we've always been See there's
Speaker 3: a distinction. We don't have to come at all. We've
Speaker 3: been here. We can welcome you home because we at
Speaker 3: home the rest of y'all. You can come on back.
Speaker 3: We're gonna let you come back. But let me just
Speaker 3: say this last point that Andrew, I want you to
Speaker 3: weigh in. You can be high and mighty. I'm still
Speaker 3: gonna go low, low, low to the flow. Tiffany deserves
Speaker 3: an apology, right and this is an opportunity for the
Speaker 3: network to get it right. She deserves an apology for
Speaker 3: the disrespect. There were articles that came out about her
Speaker 3: mismanaging resources for the show. It's a lie from the
Speaker 3: fiery pits of hell. We're not doing that right. And
Speaker 3: so she deserves an apology. And so I encourage you all.
Speaker 3: It's twenty twenty four. We'll give you a clean slate,
Speaker 3: but you need to apologize you're out of pocket. Go ahead, Andrew,
Speaker 3: say something that sound like church, because I'm sound like
Speaker 3: something else. I sound like reality TV right now.
Speaker 5: First of all, a man a man, A man a man,
Speaker 5: Ditto to all of that. Ifany, you are one of
Speaker 5: the hardest working on SMATE professional people. I know this
Speaker 5: is my first time hearing the extent of your story,
Speaker 5: but I didn't need to hear it to be with you,
Speaker 5: and just says a reminder to all of us. There
Speaker 5: were other African tribes who co created with white slave
Speaker 5: traders to sell other blacks into slavery. And I say
Speaker 5: that to they were few and far between. Let that
Speaker 5: be known they were. The minority are very very small.
Speaker 5: Let's call them the one percent. There's no wonder why
Speaker 5: that one percent mentality still exists, and and and and
Speaker 5: and unfortunately still thrives in the highest of places, so
Speaker 5: much so that they divorced themselves from the culture and
Speaker 5: from who they are, to side with a group of
Speaker 5: people who one know they're not part of the original clan,
Speaker 5: They're just they they've adopted it. Cardagie Woodson says, uh,
Speaker 5: you know, if you send the miseducation of the Negro
Speaker 5: requires that if you send a man to the to
Speaker 5: the back door, and he he he, he goes to
Speaker 5: the back door, and he goes without challenge because he
Speaker 5: knows his place. And if he gets there and there
Speaker 5: is no door, he will carve one out for its
Speaker 5: special purpose. His education makes it necessary. And this again
Speaker 5: is part of the vestiges of enslavement and discrimination rooted
Speaker 5: in the founding of this country and has played out
Speaker 5: over all those many, many many years. Is that some
Speaker 5: of us have adopted the master's tools and use those
Speaker 5: same tools to dismantle us. They using to dismantle us,
Speaker 5: because the master tools, as we are told, will never
Speaker 5: be used to dismantle the Master's house. Never, those tools
Speaker 5: were adopted by them to use on us. And that's
Speaker 5: how we can you know, and it is what it is.
Speaker 5: But I know one thing. The devil is a lie,
Speaker 5: a lie. His intention is to create chaos, divide, destroy,
Speaker 5: devour and then cause you to believe what he says
Speaker 5: about you instead of what he says about you. And
Speaker 5: I just love the fact that you didn't embrace any
Speaker 5: of it. You knew who you were, you knew who's
Speaker 5: you were. And through all of our experiences, who has
Speaker 5: the shouting, who gets the victory? I'm all bet on
Speaker 5: the two of you every day of the week, every
Speaker 5: day of.
Speaker 4: The week, right back at you.
Speaker 1: And I have a question for you, Andrew, because one
Speaker 1: thing that happened after all this happened, so even members
Speaker 1: of the Congressional Black Caucus, we're calling like, hey, what
Speaker 1: happened here?
Speaker 4: We don't like it.
Speaker 1: They were calling Comcast and reaching out. I had introduced
Speaker 1: a project to the network, the Culture Is. It was
Speaker 1: something that Joy read and I hosted. It was supposed
Speaker 1: to be a special it aired. We won our time
Speaker 1: spot that night. We trend it on Twitter that night
Speaker 1: and it was for black women, and then there was
Speaker 1: iterations after that we were intentional about. We said, hey,
Speaker 1: we think the Asian Americans should have one, the Latino
Speaker 1: women should have one, Indigenous women should have one. So
Speaker 1: this was a project Joy and I brought to the network.
Speaker 1: When members of Congress were calling to complain, the heads
Speaker 1: of the network were saying, no, no, no, no, we
Speaker 1: still value diversity because we have this great new project
Speaker 1: called the Culture Is. They were using my project that
Speaker 1: I brought to them to cover themselves.
Speaker 4: But Andrew to.
Speaker 1: Justify it, I mean, you got to have a strong
Speaker 1: mental state, you know, to say, you know what, I
Speaker 1: expect this. And Andrew, you gave me such words of
Speaker 1: wisdom that I try to adopt every day. I'm having
Speaker 1: trouble adopting it because I do have expectations. But Andrew,
Speaker 1: you said to me, Tiffany, you are expecting a hyena
Speaker 1: to act like a lion when the hyena only knows
Speaker 1: how to be a hyena.
Speaker 5: That's it. So you can't blame them. We get mad
Speaker 5: at them but they're only doing what they know how
Speaker 5: to do, and what a shame.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they need to learn how to do something else.
Speaker 5: Well, all I'm just saying is that is a release
Speaker 5: for us. We held them at a regard. They don't
Speaker 5: know what it means to perform at that level. They
Speaker 5: were faking it the whole time, and we're just being
Speaker 5: turned on to the trick. We're just learning that they
Speaker 5: were flogging that they weren't ever in this thing quite
Speaker 5: the same way they were takers. You were the provider
Speaker 5: and you're the lion. You and the Pride caught the meal.
Speaker 5: They were just eating on it.
Speaker 9: That's it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And all I have to say and that we
Speaker 5: have to know this to free ourselves from it. Now,
Speaker 5: to your point, Angela, we wanted I'm calling you higher.
Speaker 5: I need you. If you're in my circle, you're my friend.
Speaker 5: I expect when the battle comes, you're going to show
Speaker 5: up as part of the Pride. I have that expectation.
Speaker 5: But the problem is is that it took crisis for
Speaker 5: all of us for God to show us that the
Speaker 5: hyena was a hyena and we didn't have the power
Speaker 5: to remove them from our lives before. So he did it.
Speaker 5: He extricated them for us. So I ain't no love loss.
Speaker 5: I see you, Hey, we're moving. You're not in the Pride.
Speaker 5: Why because you're not a lion?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just I want to do one more thing
Speaker 3: because I shouted out some people that should be ashamed
Speaker 3: of themselves. I want to shout out some folks that
Speaker 3: I want to send some love to because they showed
Speaker 3: up for you too, Joe Tika and that dog gone
Speaker 3: win with black women and all of the women who
Speaker 3: signed to that letter. Joe taka Edie Right, I'm saying
Speaker 3: it like she's everybody's sister. She's our sister who we love.
Speaker 3: Check her name. She's standing on them credentials ten toes down.
Speaker 3: I'm Joe Tika. But Joe showed up for US civil
Speaker 3: rights leaders who signed onto the letter supporting Tiff, the
Speaker 3: folks who asked questions and stuck by the questions they asked.
Speaker 3: I am grateful for y'all, and I see y'all too.
Speaker 3: The rest of y'all, I still say, be ashamed, but
Speaker 3: I did want to say shout out to the people
Speaker 3: that showed up.
Speaker 1: Thank you Angela for that, and thank you to the
Speaker 1: Machetes as well on everybody who supported, because I felt
Speaker 1: your love support, even people I didn't meet who were
Speaker 1: just like, I'm praying for you. I'm mad about it.
Speaker 1: Who just stuck with me and was able to see
Speaker 1: immediately through like oh wow, this network, this big network
Speaker 1: trying to take this little black woman out.
Speaker 3: And she is little. She got she talked Ben that
Speaker 3: she is really little. I don't know if y'all know,
Speaker 3: tiffanin't but five to two on a good day. Yeah, maybe,
Speaker 3: but my attitude six's one.
Speaker 5: That's what you're supposed to be. You fun size, but
Speaker 5: don't cross me.
Speaker 3: Not fun sized.
Speaker 4: Okay, it's that time for call to action. Who's gonna
Speaker 4: go first?
Speaker 3: I go first because mine isn't really a call to action.
Speaker 3: But I want y'all to look at this. So this week,
Speaker 3: my whole year was made because the best basketball team
Speaker 3: ever in college basketball. To me, they were everything in
Speaker 3: the nineties for me, My childhood got together. There was
Speaker 3: a reunion after thirty two years. It was the Fab
Speaker 3: five University of Michigan boys basketball team, men's basketball, black shoes,
Speaker 3: black socks a day. Shout out to Jalen Rose, shout
Speaker 3: out to Chris Weber, Ray Jackson, Jimmy King, and Juwan Howard,
Speaker 3: who of course is also coaching University of Michigan's men's
Speaker 3: basketball right now. I so love y'all, and I want
Speaker 3: you to know that if y'all can get back together again,
Speaker 3: so can the rest of Black America. I will keep
Speaker 3: hope alive, as Reverend Jesse Lewis Jackson Senior says.
Speaker 1: And since angelin shouting out Jalen, I'm gonna just shout
Speaker 1: out Jalen too, who was also very supportive when I
Speaker 1: was going through what I was going through, posting being
Speaker 1: physically there. So we love you, Jalen Rose. Shout out
Speaker 1: to you and all the rest of the Fab five crew,
Speaker 1: who I actually learned about later in life despite being
Speaker 1: a world renowned sports expert. All right, Andrew, what's your
Speaker 1: call to action?
Speaker 5: Hang on in there. The reason we have to be
Speaker 5: different on this platform is because so many people out
Speaker 5: there are looking and living by other folks's highlight reels,
Speaker 5: and they're never exposed to those valleys traveling about those
Speaker 5: people who they admire and respect and want to be
Speaker 5: just like. But the truth is we all got valleys.
Speaker 5: Those days you just want to pull the covers up
Speaker 5: over your head and not get up again. But see
Speaker 5: it through. See it through some of them, you know,
Speaker 5: some of these setbacks to fan Angela. God has to
Speaker 5: make them loud and big. You got to make them
Speaker 5: loud and big so that our examples can then be
Speaker 5: of service to other people that you can go through,
Speaker 5: come out and stand in the reality and the truth.
Speaker 5: That's sure later will be better than your former. And
Speaker 5: I just think I think we're going to exhibit it.
Speaker 5: Our praise is going to exist through the peak's end
Speaker 5: of valleys, and I'm just asking y'all to keep us
Speaker 5: at a peak by arriving with five of your friends, downloading, subscribing,
Speaker 5: and giving a review to Native Land. We need you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, y'all become the Fab five. Show up with five.
Speaker 3: They have set the example. Also, resist the urge, resist
Speaker 3: the urge to assassinate character just because you disagree with us, right,
Speaker 3: or we don't like when we disagree, We're not tearing
Speaker 3: each other down. There is a way to disagree and
Speaker 3: not be disagreeable. Right. We are at a critical time
Speaker 3: in this country. I would ask you all to think
Speaker 3: long and hard about having difficult conversations and leaning into
Speaker 3: those and let us figure out a way to get
Speaker 3: to agreement on the end goal, which I think we
Speaker 3: mostly do. We might disagree on the means, but I
Speaker 3: think we mostly do. We disagree all the time, y'all,
Speaker 3: all the time, and yet here we are together. Yeah.
Speaker 4: I'll pick up on that.
Speaker 1: And my call to action is to be mission driven. Uh,
Speaker 1: don't get caught up in things that are fleeting, but
Speaker 1: decide what your mission is, the mission that serves you
Speaker 1: and the greater good, and focus on that mission. If
Speaker 1: your mission driven, it makes everything else seem a lot smaller.
Speaker 4: So that's our call to action for the week.
Speaker 5: Welcome home, all.
Speaker 1: Right, Before we end the show, I want to remind everyone, please,
Speaker 1: please please, We'll keep saying this. Leave us a review
Speaker 1: and subscribe to Native Land Pod. We're available on all
Speaker 1: platforms and YouTube. New episodes drop every Thursday. You can
Speaker 1: also follow us on social media. We are Angela Rye,
Speaker 1: Tiffany Cross, and Andrew Gillim. Welcome home, y'all. There are
Speaker 1: two hundred and ninety one days.
Speaker 4: Until election day.
Speaker 1: Native Land Pod is a production of iHeartRadio and partnership
Speaker 1: with Reason Choice Media. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
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