Speaker 1: Native Land Pod is the production of iHeartRadio in partnership
Speaker 1: with Recent Choice Media.
Speaker 2: Welcome Home.
Speaker 3: This is Angela Rye with Tiffany Cross and Andrew Gillham.
Speaker 3: You are tuned into this week's mini pod.
Speaker 4: Are well, Hiday.
Speaker 2: Hey, we're in the middle of recording. You face signed me.
Speaker 5: We love you, Jay, you can face us anytime.
Speaker 3: Welcome home, Jay, Welcome home j I'm trying to dismiss
Speaker 3: the bride. Okay, speaking of rights and speaking of crises,
Speaker 3: picking up facetimed in crises.
Speaker 5: Mayor Adams, Mayor Eric Adams of New.
Speaker 3: York City recently appeared on The Breakfast Club and he
Speaker 3: has something to say about migrant rights.
Speaker 5: And I want to know if you all think there's.
Speaker 3: Any truth to the profile of dei mayors also known
Speaker 3: as black mayors when.
Speaker 2: Looking at known as mayors.
Speaker 3: Okay, carry on, when looking at the migrant crisis in
Speaker 3: these United States.
Speaker 5: We are going to play this clip and discuss.
Speaker 6: Check out what they're doing. They're doing it to New York,
Speaker 6: They're doing it to Chicago, They're doing it to Los Angeles,
Speaker 6: They're doing it to Houston. What is the same in
Speaker 6: all those cities? All black mans all black mans, and
Speaker 6: so with we're saying same thing that I'm going through here.
Speaker 6: My brother Johnson is going through, my sister bass is
Speaker 6: going through, my brother Turner is going through. So our
Speaker 6: folks are what they wanted to happen, Governor Appen wanted
Speaker 6: to happen.
Speaker 5: We're going to turn these of cities against their mayors.
Speaker 6: We're going to create this environment where they're all going
Speaker 6: to go against their maths. Go google what they doing
Speaker 6: to my brother in Chicago, Go google what they doing
Speaker 6: to sister baths. So this cities have now turned against
Speaker 6: these black mayors that are making real change for the
Speaker 6: first time over police. And they're using this to say, Okay,
Speaker 6: these black mans are not competent, they can't run their cities.
Speaker 6: They're getting everything to the migrs and the simum seekers.
Speaker 6: This was a perfectly executed plan that we are buying
Speaker 6: into make black mans look batter from and when we're
Speaker 6: doing just the opposite.
Speaker 5: I love this moment.
Speaker 3: You all know that I was raised by an activist
Speaker 3: and an educator. My dad is on the activism side,
Speaker 3: and we constantly were talking about the ways in which
Speaker 3: the government from the Fedes on down worked diligently to
Speaker 3: try to dismantle black leadership, black power. We understand that
Speaker 3: by virtue of bussing migrants from the border they're crossing
Speaker 3: into the states, they step into to the north, there's
Speaker 3: already something going on there. It's already something afoot. He
Speaker 3: talked about mayors Johnson, Turner, Bass and at Hughes. Of
Speaker 3: course it's Adams. Is there something to this? Andrew, you
Speaker 3: are a mayor we talk about all the time, tiff
Speaker 3: your conspiracy theorist with me every now and then. Yours
Speaker 3: comes with data, So there might be some data you
Speaker 3: can run to on this point.
Speaker 5: But I just I'm very curious about this.
Speaker 1: Well, I do you want to say that they also
Speaker 1: bust migrants to the Vineyard, which has a different municipality,
Speaker 1: And I do not believe has anyone black and power there.
Speaker 2: Except it's also thou synonymous with the vacation home of
Speaker 2: Barack Obama, right exactly.
Speaker 1: It's like the vacation home for the quote unquote liberals
Speaker 1: that they might say, and I shouldn't say, there's not
Speaker 1: anyone black and power there.
Speaker 4: I just don't know.
Speaker 1: They have a very different way the way they divide
Speaker 1: up who's responsible for the towns. I would be remiss
Speaker 1: if I didn't say that. I definitely disagree with Mayor
Speaker 1: Adams on a lot of political issues, but on this
Speaker 1: one I take his point that, you know, Andrew, you
Speaker 1: told us a story not too long ago that about
Speaker 1: Ron Desanders who went to get migrants from Texas just
Speaker 1: to bust them as a political stunt. I'm always moved
Speaker 1: to the humanity of these kind of discussions. I think
Speaker 1: about the people who risk life and limb and put
Speaker 1: their children at risk to get to these shores because
Speaker 1: they were in search of better opportunity, because they were
Speaker 1: literally not just in search of opportunity, but literally trying
Speaker 1: to save their own lives. Some of these states, particularly
Speaker 1: in South America, the policies that are running them out
Speaker 1: were influenced by US policies, and so some of these
Speaker 1: states are borderline narco states. Some of these folks are
Speaker 1: fleeing because their lives are threatened. So it's always baffling
Speaker 1: to me. The party who self identifies as pro life,
Speaker 1: we of course know that's not true, but they self
Speaker 1: identify as pro life. We'll see these people and look
Speaker 1: at them in disgust and want to essentially, you know,
Speaker 1: push them, put them out to pasture in states where
Speaker 1: they feel like there are other people who don't look
Speaker 1: like people that we, you know, acknowledge their humanity. So
Speaker 1: I hope that something changes.
Speaker 4: I know.
Speaker 1: So it is stress on cities with limited resources. I
Speaker 1: completely understand. We've heard a lot from people who say, no,
Speaker 1: they are taking resources away from us.
Speaker 4: I hear you.
Speaker 1: I understand that, But I just there's something about this
Speaker 1: that I think there is unity in humanity and if
Speaker 1: we can find our way to say, yes, it's unfair
Speaker 1: what they're doing, but we want to make sure that
Speaker 1: all human life is respected and valued and you have
Speaker 1: food and shelter. I hope that we can get to
Speaker 1: a place of that position in this country.
Speaker 2: And I think if we were to evaluate what these
Speaker 2: mayors are doing in response to the migrant crisis that
Speaker 2: has literally been dropped on their doorstep intentionally for political stunts,
Speaker 2: almost in all cases you'd see that they are extending
Speaker 2: the humanitarian arm of their cities, right. But what they're
Speaker 2: also being then faced with are these caricatures of them
Speaker 2: that basically say, this is a city run amuck, this
Speaker 2: is a lawless place, this is a mayor who can't
Speaker 2: handle big responsibilities. And I agree with Mayor Adams and
Speaker 2: have been on the side of it myself where individual
Speaker 2: mayors have been targeted and there there is no there
Speaker 2: is no coincidence whatsoever around what is shared between them all.
Speaker 2: There's no coincidence whatsoever. But but I also say the
Speaker 2: next step of this, by extension, they are attempting to
Speaker 2: assign lawlessness, on governability, lack of leadership to the Democratic Party.
Speaker 2: We for for a lot of these folks who come
Speaker 2: after them on the right, on the hard right, on
Speaker 2: these Fox shows. What they're what they're showing is is
Speaker 2: that this is what will become of America if we
Speaker 2: allow Democrats to take control. Yeah, they're there, they want
Speaker 2: to go this far left policies and homeless are going
Speaker 2: to be taken over every street, you know, a rapist
Speaker 2: and sex rings are taken over our cities because this
Speaker 2: is what the future of our country looks like if
Speaker 2: these people are in charge. So they're playing on Yeah,
Speaker 2: they're playing on two two aspects of the boogeyman. If
Speaker 2: in respect to us, it is yes, the the lawlessness.
Speaker 2: How many times that we've seen ourselves in images, uh,
Speaker 2: and and in prison, you know, attire. So they're they're lawless.
Speaker 2: They can't uphold the law because they don't follow it themselves.
Speaker 2: And then there is the caricature of black folks as
Speaker 2: the biggest recipients of the welfare state. The they want
Speaker 2: everything for free. They don't work for what they earn.
Speaker 2: The de I mayor, he's a mayor, but he didn't
Speaker 2: earn it the right way. He's not the most qualified.
Speaker 2: He's the he's he's he's just d e I, which
Speaker 2: I as in doing your rundown. I said, you know,
Speaker 2: it's synonymous for me, closer to the N word than
Speaker 2: it's the polite, the most polite way. These folks are
Speaker 2: being able to incorporate that into their into their.
Speaker 5: When we take their definition.
Speaker 2: When we take their definition right, when we take that
Speaker 2: where we accept their definite, that's what they mean it for.
Speaker 2: So I just I agree with Mayor Adams, and I
Speaker 2: think it's a layer beyond. I don't. I don't think
Speaker 2: it is by itself exclusively about black mayors. I think
Speaker 2: it is because of the tropes that they've spent decades
Speaker 2: echo inter in the minds of everyday Americans about why
Speaker 2: it is you ought to be locking your door when
Speaker 2: you see a black man walking toward you. Why you
Speaker 2: ought to clutch your purse underneath you, why you ought
Speaker 2: to switch sides of the street that you're walking on.
Speaker 2: They're playing on a long history of investment in defining
Speaker 2: who we are, who they want people to think we are,
Speaker 2: and now they're attaching that to the Democratic Party for
Speaker 2: the power shift here. They believe we shouldn't have power,
Speaker 2: and if we have power, this is what it will
Speaker 2: look like.
Speaker 3: All right, y'all, we're going to take a quick break,
Speaker 3: but before we do, we all know it's important for
Speaker 3: our community to stay informed, particularly in an election year.
Speaker 3: So tell someone you know about the show. Tell five
Speaker 3: people arrive with five to the podcast. You can also
Speaker 3: leave us a rating or review sending those questions in
Speaker 3: those comments.
Speaker 5: More coming up after the break. You know.
Speaker 3: The other part of this that I think is interesting
Speaker 3: is also on that interview, Mayor Adams talks about how
Speaker 3: when these people are on your doorstep, you have a
Speaker 3: legal obligation or face the liability of not taking care
Speaker 3: of them. So he got innovative and created a program
Speaker 3: that may end up costing uppers of fifty three million
Speaker 3: dollars with Mobility Capital Finance. They provided debit cards to
Speaker 3: these families that like, will have twelve dollars a day
Speaker 3: because they didn't want the we've talked about before the podcast.
Speaker 5: The food that was given to them was nast them.
Speaker 3: It gives them an opportunity to go get food from
Speaker 3: places they like and eat hopefully.
Speaker 5: Okay, twelve dollars a day isn't much, we know that, and.
Speaker 2: Not just place they like, right, these are culturally.
Speaker 5: Of them. Yeah, they can spend it on food.
Speaker 2: They can get it anyway they want. But the a
Speaker 2: lot of food was going to waste because this isn't
Speaker 2: stuff that they were eating, yeah where they were coming from.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so they were in that Wait, there was a
Speaker 3: lot of food waste that was happening. This was another opportunity.
Speaker 3: Mobility Capital Finance is actually a black owned business. So
Speaker 3: they're getting this huge opportunity to and I'm not saying
Speaker 3: that it's not a handout, but a huge opportunity to
Speaker 3: solve a really important crisis from the humanity standpoint.
Speaker 5: Topcius you talked about. And so this is one of those.
Speaker 3: Moments where a mayor who very much ran on lot
Speaker 3: order I don't always agree with Eric Adams either. When
Speaker 3: he talked about being targeted, I understood exactly what he meant.
Speaker 3: This is someone who's like, Okay, I see this happening,
Speaker 3: this isn't right. I'm going to try to solve for it.
Speaker 3: And they're still trying to make you look like you're irresponsible.
Speaker 3: You're still they're still trying to make you look like
Speaker 3: you can't manage your city. They're still trying to make
Speaker 3: you look like when migrants come in, there goes the neighborhood,
Speaker 3: which is a trope that we also understand and have experienced,
Speaker 3: is going from one group of people of color to another.
Speaker 5: And I wonder when it all stops.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I don't think it does stop.
Speaker 2: I don't think it. I don't think it stops over
Speaker 2: race by itself. I think the only way it stops
Speaker 2: is if we somehow had a realignment of what power
Speaker 2: looks like in this country. But that well, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I mean, like I said, for I'm not convinced that
Speaker 2: what is motivating and moving these folks begins and ends
Speaker 2: with race. I think it begins and ends with who
Speaker 2: has power and who risks losing power. It is this
Speaker 2: is how I've always had it because I've built and
Speaker 2: designed this system for my advancement. What happens is someone
Speaker 2: who is not like me, didn't come from where I
Speaker 2: came from, doesn't understand my history, my lineage, my story.
Speaker 2: What if they start being able to make the rules,
Speaker 2: and then what if they replicate what we did, which
Speaker 2: has built the rules to suit us, except now they
Speaker 2: build the rules to suit them. They make two mistakes. One,
Speaker 2: that's not what we're about equity period, and that means
Speaker 2: for everybody. But but if this is more what's going
Speaker 2: through your mind? Building the system like we built it
Speaker 2: for us, except now as being built for someone else.
Speaker 1: Yeah, But I wonder what you would say, particularly because
Speaker 1: you were a mayor to people, because there are these
Speaker 1: issues reference you know, mayors of Elster, Turner out of Houston,
Speaker 1: Careen Bass out of LA There are people and municipalities
Speaker 1: where there appears to be a fight over resources. It
Speaker 1: makes sense, and the subtext of that sometimes the commons
Speaker 1: do come across as very anti immigrant. We've talked about
Speaker 1: this before, where you're saying, no, these are people fighting
Speaker 1: for their resources and it can be you know, both
Speaker 1: in right, I wonder what you would say to people
Speaker 1: who have these negative comments to me that pull from
Speaker 1: the oppressor's language and perspective instead of let's build.
Speaker 4: Together, but like no, ain't no room here, you got
Speaker 4: to get out.
Speaker 1: What do you say to those shops like y'all have
Speaker 1: looked over us and bypass us, and now your.
Speaker 2: Comment is, well, the first thing we don't tell them
Speaker 2: is we don't tell them that that's not true because
Speaker 2: and there they lived experience. If I'm trying to get
Speaker 2: a job meant applying for one and can't get one,
Speaker 2: but you got here yesterday and yet you have one,
Speaker 2: we can't. They're never going to believe us or trust
Speaker 2: us that that that that that that.
Speaker 5: But is the job?
Speaker 1: It's not like it's a job with like six figure
Speaker 1: payments and benefits. Is it a job that people want
Speaker 1: to do?
Speaker 2: But it is one that they feel that they could
Speaker 2: access And.
Speaker 1: Is it though I know how they feel, is it
Speaker 1: actually a job they do they want to be dated?
Speaker 2: If I'll put it this way, it almost doesn't matter
Speaker 2: what you or I think about that. If the story
Speaker 2: that we're telling ourselves and that they're telling themselves is
Speaker 2: I lost out on the opportunity because you.
Speaker 5: But also be pray it could be.
Speaker 3: But but it also is their living experience what he's saying,
Speaker 3: And the part of it is this, you have a job.
Speaker 3: I don't have one. It's not that it's the same job.
Speaker 3: It's you have a job and I can't get one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they made a way for you and they're
Speaker 2: not making a way.
Speaker 4: That is how white folks have felt. It is anybody
Speaker 4: who doesn't look like that.
Speaker 2: But we all know that more than one thing can
Speaker 2: be true at one time, and so if it's somebody's
Speaker 2: lived experience has got to be validated. And what I
Speaker 2: would say is as loud and proud as we are
Speaker 2: with the services that we are providing for asylum seekers
Speaker 2: and immigrants who coming to the compt we got to
Speaker 2: be equally as loud and proud. If Mayor Adams had
Speaker 2: to go through and detail the budget that he spends
Speaker 2: on housing, on small business development, on what he you know,
Speaker 2: spends on growing, building, sustaining protecting the community, it would
Speaker 2: be a bohemoth by comparison. But his job today is
Speaker 2: to deal with the mike and Cress's right here on
Speaker 2: the street, and so that's what we're hearing a lot
Speaker 2: about those moneies that are spent. They don't even compare, right,
Speaker 2: they don't even compare. But because we have, as you've
Speaker 2: already said, you know, adopted the Master's plan using the
Speaker 2: Master's playbook, thinking that we're going to disassemble that house
Speaker 2: using the instructions he wrote, we will not. He didn't
Speaker 2: build his house to fail, He built it to throat.
Speaker 3: If I'm getting snap benefits in my s, benefits don't
Speaker 3: cover my groceries. They're not paying attention to the fact
Speaker 3: that it's twelve dollars a day per person going on
Speaker 3: this card and eggs are eleven dollars. They're focused on
Speaker 3: the fact that you're getting benefits that I've been having
Speaker 3: a scrap for all my life in some instances.
Speaker 5: I don't want to overgeneralize.
Speaker 3: But the other thing on this point is this same
Speaker 3: card that was created by a black company. A white
Speaker 3: council member, Gail Brewster, is like, we need to investigate,
Speaker 3: we need to investigate what this is. I don't know
Speaker 3: about this, probably because it was a company or two
Speaker 3: or three that she she thought I could have got
Speaker 3: this contract over them when it wasn't there.
Speaker 5: I did because it's a DEI contract.
Speaker 2: The trope continues, right, I.
Speaker 4: Just don't want us to participate it.
Speaker 2: No, I don't want to suit to either. That's alonger
Speaker 2: road I think for us to have to hold. But
Speaker 2: I but what is important here.
Speaker 3: It was just about to say you got to talk
Speaker 3: to some country.
Speaker 2: People from South georgiad you want to is that? And
Speaker 2: again nobody will receive it. But what Mayor Adams did
Speaker 2: in paying for this program the way he is is
Speaker 2: a fraction of what they would spend and the food
Speaker 2: program that they are currently running. So he's saving money,
Speaker 2: he's doing it in a culturally sensitive way. He's addressing
Speaker 2: the problem in demonstrating leadership as a mayor, as are
Speaker 2: the others. But it is also fitting into a narrative
Speaker 2: that is very convenient for the other side. And I
Speaker 2: think we got to be aware of it. We got
Speaker 2: to see it all the way through. And I agree
Speaker 2: with you. We have to interrogate the same language being
Speaker 2: used by the oppressor. Now we're adopting and we're using it.
Speaker 2: And I think it is my Meslow's hierarchy of needs,
Speaker 2: and I.
Speaker 5: Think that doesn't see anything.
Speaker 2: This is food shelters, safety, security, and if you come
Speaker 2: against any of that. For me and mine, there are
Speaker 2: no rules on the table.
Speaker 1: Can I ask you a question before we close out?
Speaker 1: Often I read the comment sometimes on our YouTube or
Speaker 1: social media, my comments. My people email me to my website.
Speaker 1: They DM me and all of you guys. A lot
Speaker 1: of times people email me to my website. They've copied
Speaker 1: you guys. But it's accounts you A'll never check. But
Speaker 1: nonetheless I read them a lot of consistent comments about you,
Speaker 1: specifically Andrew. I think people feel I know this is
Speaker 1: not true, but people feel abandoned, you know, like.
Speaker 4: Andrew, you've left us with the scantis, and you know, like.
Speaker 1: Somehow you're like, I don't want to be governor, guys,
Speaker 1: never mind, you know, but people are saying to count
Speaker 1: all the votes, right, But people they feel away, and
Speaker 1: they're like, when are you getting back in the game.
Speaker 1: And when I hear you week after week on this podcast,
Speaker 1: I do wonder, do you think you'll ever run for
Speaker 1: office again?
Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't know, but I do know this.
Speaker 2: There are a lot of ways in which we can
Speaker 2: be of service, and serving in the office of a
Speaker 2: policymaker is just one route we can. We can I
Speaker 2: think I'm on purpose and on mission, on God's mission
Speaker 2: here only because I think we can penetrate minds. I
Speaker 2: think we can engage people. I think what this country
Speaker 2: needs more than anything right now is a real revolution.
Speaker 2: And I don't mean to I'm turning the table over
Speaker 2: and whatever, but a revolution from the standpoint of we
Speaker 2: have we have. We have left it to somebody else
Speaker 2: to take care of that, to go and take care
Speaker 2: of that, to go and handle that by way of politics,
Speaker 2: for too long, thinking that we have to be locked
Speaker 2: out because we don't know enough about it. Too complicated.
Speaker 2: It's hard that you know, I wouldn't know what to
Speaker 2: do here, and the system benefits by all of us
Speaker 2: who draw that conclusion. I'm saying, it ain't that complicated.
Speaker 2: It's as simple as I'm a priority. I'm a living, human,
Speaker 2: breathing thing. I deserve what I need in order to survive.
Speaker 2: And the government has the ability to do that part
Speaker 2: and to help you do your part. But but if
Speaker 2: we keep checking out who holds them accountable, those marbles
Speaker 2: never get picked up off the floor.
Speaker 3: When we need all the marbles to weigh in on
Speaker 3: who holds them accountable.
Speaker 5: On social media, because guess what we ought.
Speaker 1: To Well, I ask a lot of people want to
Speaker 1: ask answer that question.
Speaker 4: The comments I asked for you, Yes, you got the answer.
Speaker 5: You got the answer. Thanks for listening, y'all.
Speaker 3: Remember to rate, review, subscribe, and tune into our regular
Speaker 3: episode every Thursday, Welcome Home, y'all.
Speaker 1: Native Land Pod is the production of iHeartRadio in partnership
Speaker 1: with Recent Choice Media. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows