Speaker 1: Native Land Pod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership
Speaker 1: with Reason Choice Media. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.
Speaker 2: We're already a non white country. Get a grip, Get real, bro,
Speaker 2: this is already. We already live in Mogadishu. We already
Speaker 2: live in Islamabad.
Speaker 1: Have you been.
Speaker 2: Outside La Chicago.
Speaker 3: New York?
Speaker 2: We live in nigger hell. And that's just what and
Speaker 2: you know what it is. I got my James fishback.
Speaker 2: I shouldn't have said, shouldn't have said nigger hell with the.
Speaker 1: With the quarter.
Speaker 2: I told myself before the show. I was like, don't
Speaker 2: say anything out of pocket. You're repping the campaign. Now.
Speaker 2: I'm not on the campaign. I'm not involved, but I
Speaker 2: was like, don't say anything too crazy.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: Out of my apologies, oologies to the campaign. I was
Speaker 2: literally like, don't don't say anything too crazy. And then
Speaker 2: it's like, shouldn't have shouldn't have said that with the
Speaker 2: quarter zip on, but you know what, whatever, it's fine.
Speaker 1: Welcome y'all. This is a mini pod. And that was Angela.
Speaker 4: A dumb ho named Nick flintis a dumb hoe named
Speaker 4: Nick flintis, and it's not because he got the quarter
Speaker 4: zip on. It's because he got a quarter mouth, and
Speaker 4: I wish she would run up on somebody black talking
Speaker 4: that crazy. I'm outside though, Yeah he don't, and he
Speaker 4: better hope you don't.
Speaker 1: When he said as Lumbabad, I was just thinking the
Speaker 1: issue have you ever left? Have you? I don't know
Speaker 1: where you live, but I see he's got the Florida
Speaker 1: state flag on his shoulder. Y'all. Before we hop into this,
Speaker 1: this is this is us having not finished a topic
Speaker 1: we wanted to get into in this week's main episode
Speaker 1: around being built for the moment that all of us
Speaker 1: find ourselves encountering. And it was with sort of the
Speaker 1: met galle as the background. There's folks, are you know,
Speaker 1: looking great and fantastic and rich and wealthy with the
Speaker 1: billionaires who are paying for all the shit, and we
Speaker 1: got people who can't find hope in most corners of
Speaker 1: their day. And it did raise the question, I think
Speaker 1: for a couple of us of like, all right, like
Speaker 1: the same normal times and Angela, you've been saying the
Speaker 1: same normal time since we left the campus of Howard University,
Speaker 1: probably before, but I don't think I think you said
Speaker 1: it most aggressively after that but speaking of not miss,
Speaker 1: you know, not being with the times, there are no
Speaker 1: more whispers about racism. This dude is a bullhorn. But
Speaker 1: he also if he was regretting any of it, the
Speaker 1: mother could have not posted it, right, I mean, I guess,
Speaker 1: but I don't want to talk about him anymore, Angela.
Speaker 5: No, back cut, back up, back up, real quick. He
Speaker 5: has he has tens of thousands of donors, and he
Speaker 5: has one point three million followers on X So this
Speaker 5: isn't some random individual that we just got off. And he,
Speaker 5: for a long period of time, helped dictate policy, creates
Speaker 5: a whole group of they call gropers or whatever they're called.
Speaker 5: He's in the in cell culture and he's a huge
Speaker 5: MAGA supporter make America great again. And you know, I
Speaker 5: don't he is a part of the fabric of who
Speaker 5: this country is. To discount that I think is not
Speaker 5: a true different.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely don't discount it. And also recognize when a
Speaker 1: person is not in my league exactly.
Speaker 5: But I'm sorry, now, Angela, I just wanted to give
Speaker 5: him context.
Speaker 4: I am concerned about our continual response that somebody is
Speaker 4: beneath us.
Speaker 1: Or not in our not even not even on the
Speaker 1: same page.
Speaker 4: But the reason why I'm concerned about it is because
Speaker 4: it is very clear that the people that hold the
Speaker 4: key is to power in this country are of the
Speaker 4: same mindset as Nick Finch.
Speaker 3: Totally right, and so I want us to be yes.
Speaker 4: I want us to be hyper aware of what they
Speaker 4: are telling each other on their podcast, on their platforms,
Speaker 4: in their private conversations, because we're not going to be
Speaker 4: equipped for a fight when we don't know what's going on.
Speaker 1: And let me get let me get everybody straight real quick,
Speaker 1: because I read the long form piece about who Nick
Speaker 1: quintess is to be over an hour to make it
Speaker 1: through this exhaustive piece of work, and he spends eight
Speaker 1: hours a day talking to people similarly situated across the internet.
Speaker 1: He has millions of followers and retweets and downloads and
Speaker 1: says a lot of hateful, angry shit, and made a
Speaker 1: break with Donald Trump a couple of weeks ago on
Speaker 1: his podcast, led by his listeners firstly following them down
Speaker 1: the road that he doesn't want a Trumper, he wants
Speaker 1: more of him, he wants his name centerfold. And there
Speaker 1: are plenty of creatures walking, breathing, speaking, likely thought to
Speaker 1: be intellectual amongst themselves who are giving him lots of
Speaker 1: time of day. But I think we should recognize that
Speaker 1: he is playing an old hand, that vitriol, racism, hatred
Speaker 1: has been in form has been in vogue for white
Speaker 1: people just like him to listen, breathe upon contemplate on shit.
Speaker 1: I used to listen to it when I was in
Speaker 1: middle in high school, listening to right wing radio on
Speaker 1: AM in FM radio, So very familiar with these voices
Speaker 1: Laura Ingram before folks who pronounced her name was listening
Speaker 1: to her. And so he isn't new, he is not shiny,
Speaker 1: he's not even very good at it. He just happens
Speaker 1: to be tapping on with Donald Trump tapped into it first,
Speaker 1: which is exactly the white racist folks that are out
Speaker 1: there that have been in vogue since the forming of
Speaker 1: this country and are still in volgue today and are
Speaker 1: still in power. And he's giving them basically right back
Speaker 1: what they already know, think and believe.
Speaker 4: I guess my thing is, you know, you've asked this
Speaker 4: really important question, Andrew, about what it takes, what it
Speaker 4: will take for us to meet the moment. And I
Speaker 4: think that we have to be clear about who the
Speaker 4: enemy is. You know, we have to know that. It's
Speaker 4: a fundamental of the art of war. And I think
Speaker 4: we also have to know the terms of their fight.
Speaker 4: I don't think that that means we have to fight
Speaker 4: on their terms, but we should be aware of the
Speaker 4: terms of their fight. You know, America First is an
Speaker 4: ideology that excludes the people who built it. Make America
Speaker 4: Great Again presumes that America has ever been great in
Speaker 4: its history. The things that they tell each other are
Speaker 4: rooted in fear and hatred for people who they don't
Speaker 4: want to have to share space or more importantly, power with.
Speaker 4: And so I think that we've got to be informed
Speaker 4: about what their pathway forward is. And their pathway forward
Speaker 4: is on our next, on our backs, and fully behind us.
Speaker 4: They want to return to the past when you know,
Speaker 4: remember when they first asked people when was America its greatest?
Speaker 4: When they were championing this make America Great Again line,
Speaker 4: It was in the fifties, before things were integrated for us, right,
Speaker 4: And so I think we just have to be mind before.
Speaker 1: Women worked out of the home, before women could you know,
Speaker 1: exercise themselves in this free America or free Floyd. If
Speaker 1: you live where I live, I agree with that one
Speaker 1: thousand percent. And I fully believe in researching and reading
Speaker 1: about what the opposition is doing and how they're doing it,
Speaker 1: and so on and so forth. That isn't that's not
Speaker 1: my beef with the guy. It's much it's it's it's
Speaker 1: much more about as my grandmother would say, there ain't
Speaker 1: nothing new under the sun, nothing new under the sun.
Speaker 1: And what he is, what he is treading in is
Speaker 1: a most base level of human condition. It's not smart,
Speaker 1: it's not sophisticated, it's not savvy. It is the most
Speaker 1: base level. That's how he can be on the radio
Speaker 1: or whatever. He's on internet for eight hours a day.
Speaker 5: That's how the president became the president. But I think
Speaker 5: the question that we have is the question.
Speaker 1: Based, and we should understand that it's part of the
Speaker 1: main strategy that maybe some of our strategies need to
Speaker 1: get back to just being based.
Speaker 5: That's going to be my question, Like, okay, all right, cool,
Speaker 5: I agree with both you. But the question that people
Speaker 5: have is where do we go from here? It's even
Speaker 5: more so plistic base the base.
Speaker 1: What does that mean? I think describe it communication it is.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of reasons we can give for
Speaker 1: why we should win elections, platforms, all these other vicissitudes.
Speaker 1: But people are really selfish, and base means not aspiring
Speaker 1: people to our country's high as great as good as
Speaker 1: a message. It isn't about democracy, you know. I care
Speaker 1: about it as an individual amongst the lists and pantheonic
Speaker 1: things that consume my attention at any point in the day.
Speaker 1: But there are things that are more base than that
Speaker 1: that really decide how almost been the next couple of
Speaker 1: moments of the next uh week ahead. And I think,
Speaker 1: I think the I think the opp position, and in
Speaker 1: this case the opposition to Donald Trump, which is largely
Speaker 1: symbolically represented in the Democratic Party, is attempting to catapult
Speaker 1: over our base level concerns to get us aspirational about
Speaker 1: a collective we that too many of us at the
Speaker 1: base level have never far fell part of the collective we.
Speaker 1: They don't now, and they haven't because they don't see
Speaker 1: that collective we putting their shoulder to the will to
Speaker 1: get the things done that we need done at a
Speaker 1: very base level. If I have to say base more,
Speaker 1: I would say what keeps you up at night? What
Speaker 1: is the thing that you spend most time on during
Speaker 1: the course of a day. What are the things that
Speaker 1: are putting more demands on you that you have to meet,
Speaker 1: not would like to meet, but have to meet. And
Speaker 1: then what are the set of solutions out there, the
Speaker 1: things that are being done to help me on that path.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 4: One thing that's come up recently, I think, given everything
Speaker 4: that's going on right now, is how like entertainers are
Speaker 4: responding to the moment. So there was a critique about
Speaker 4: the met Gala that Taraji Henson Tji p Henson raised.
Speaker 4: She's asking what are we even doing? There are some
Speaker 4: really large protests surrounding this year's met Gala. Jeff Bezos
Speaker 4: was a primary funder of this met galan so Amazon
Speaker 4: employees engaged in several activations, one where an elderly black
Speaker 4: woman was put up on the wall a video played
Speaker 4: right outside of the met Gala. And of course Chris
Speaker 4: I can't think of Chris's last name, but Chris was
Speaker 4: a protester that fought for Amazon.
Speaker 3: Amazon employees union unionizing.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna pull his name quickly, but he he was.
Speaker 3: Arrested outside of the met Gala. I think it's is
Speaker 3: it Chris.
Speaker 1: Malls, you organizer in New York.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Chris Malls, yes, and so he was the president
Speaker 4: of Amazon's labor union. So I think we were going
Speaker 4: to play footage of some of the outfits at the
Speaker 4: met Gala as well. But I think in these moments,
Speaker 4: what I think is required of us is like where
Speaker 4: we draw the line in our own hypocrisies, Like, you know,
Speaker 4: how do we meet the moment? Do we meet the
Speaker 4: moment by shedding hypocrisy or by acknowledging hypocrisy. Before we
Speaker 4: started recording, I was asking the guys that said, okay,
Speaker 4: so would you have gone to the met gala? Andrew
Speaker 4: objected to cost Bacari's response was, hell, yeah, And so
Speaker 4: I wonder if you go to the met Gala, given
Speaker 4: all that's going on, do you go and your outfit
Speaker 4: is a protest? Do you not go because of the
Speaker 4: price point because people can't afford gas or eggs or
Speaker 4: what's what?
Speaker 3: And how do you square that circle?
Speaker 5: I mean, I don't. I just find there to be
Speaker 5: I mean, Chris Mall's is his name, by the way,
Speaker 5: And oh you said that, Okay, I missed it. Yeah,
Speaker 5: you know, I just find there to be some damn headphones,
Speaker 5: so many different ways you know, I was gonna compliment
Speaker 5: you today too, Angela, cause you look really good. I
Speaker 5: don't know, you look well arrested, like your exercises, like
Speaker 5: your your sauna in and everything. But I ain't gonna
Speaker 5: say none of that shit allowed because hell so anyway, anyway,
Speaker 5: you know, I just think that the met Gala, and
Speaker 5: you know what, I love taragips because she got me
Speaker 5: rethinking it. Because you know, the original reason I said
Speaker 5: I didn't go this year is because they only sent
Speaker 5: me one ticket and I couldn't take Ellen. So I
Speaker 5: didn't go this year.
Speaker 1: But I would have gone. But but but.
Speaker 5: Taragi actually makes you, makes you shake your consciousness and think.
Speaker 5: And so I wish that we had more individuals who
Speaker 5: utilize their platform in this particular way. You juxtaposed that
Speaker 5: against somebody like Stephen A. Smith this week, who was
Speaker 5: going back down the path of non righteousness, and you
Speaker 5: look at Taraji p Henson and I think there's a
Speaker 5: role for all of us to play. And I say
Speaker 5: all that to say that kind of the base level
Speaker 5: that Andrew was talking about, no matter your field, right,
Speaker 5: you can always be an agent of change. My dad
Speaker 5: would always say that if you're a doctor. If you're
Speaker 5: a lawyer, if it doesn't matter if you get the
Speaker 5: if you're a sanitation worker, you can always be a
Speaker 5: change agent. And we have to go back to that
Speaker 5: mind frame that we're going to be change agents for
Speaker 5: our community because the way that Taraji p Henson was
Speaker 5: able to shake the consciousness just around the met galap
Speaker 5: I did see one dress that I really really liked.
Speaker 5: It was a woman who had like all the sovil
Speaker 5: rights heroes on her gown. I don't know her name.
Speaker 5: I don't know her name. I was just looking at
Speaker 5: it on I was scrolling through reels. But and Beyonce
Speaker 5: is was awful. But it was not blue kilt Beyonce.
Speaker 3: I think they both looked really nice. No, no, did
Speaker 3: you see Rihanna was a oyster?
Speaker 5: Did you see Rihanna get out stunned by her husband?
Speaker 4: I will give you a samples fly with his pink Tridon.
Speaker 4: You know we're not playing that of these clips. I
Speaker 4: thought we had.
Speaker 1: It feels a little. Yeah, we can't show the office
Speaker 1: about amazing. In fact, you can plaster over my fids
Speaker 1: just so so dressing.
Speaker 3: No, I just I just thought because we were drawing
Speaker 3: that contra I agree.
Speaker 1: I agree with your point, and I guess I'm struggling
Speaker 1: with this. You know why Taraji p Henson is so
Speaker 1: Almost every time, I really every time I hear her,
Speaker 1: I feel like on the mark is she is a
Speaker 1: person who clearly has done the work and is doing
Speaker 1: the work that no matter where she is, she seemingly
Speaker 1: at home. And when you're at home, the things that
Speaker 1: come out of your mouth are expressions of who you
Speaker 1: are feel very much so sympotical with, like who am
Speaker 1: I whose shoulders? And I mean, my goodness, the ancestors dreams,
Speaker 1: you know, And so when you're really clear about that,
Speaker 1: it don't take nothing to call out the wealthiest people
Speaker 1: in the world for the real trouble around why that
Speaker 1: night is so troubling for her and for many of us.
Speaker 1: And I think I say this during the elections when
Speaker 1: we were talking about fifty cent and like why would
Speaker 1: he be for it? And I kept saying, this man
Speaker 1: got so many more zeros than I can count in
Speaker 1: his bank account, And we really, really really are reducing
Speaker 1: the power of what money does. It puts you in
Speaker 1: a different class, it puts you at a different viewpoint
Speaker 1: in life. And by the way, it changes some allegiances.
Speaker 1: So maybe before the tax code didn't matter you a
Speaker 1: whole bunch, and now the tax cold matters a whole
Speaker 1: bunch to you. And I think the met Gala and
Speaker 1: what we saw Monday was really that I saw Bezos
Speaker 1: and his wife and all that she could anyway that
Speaker 1: she possesses with their wealth, and him too, at an
Speaker 1: event that used to require more than just your money
Speaker 1: to get in. There had to be some demonstrated contribution
Speaker 1: to humanity, largely in the space of arts and creatives,
Speaker 1: and they were reduced to their most base level, which
Speaker 1: is wealthy. Filthy. Wealthy people socialized together and they have
Speaker 1: a good time together. And while the rest of us
Speaker 1: may view that congregation as being political or trying to
Speaker 1: send a message or a point, they consider it very
Speaker 1: differently than we do. Right Chris Jenner was at the
Speaker 1: damn a dinner at his house the night before. Oprah
Speaker 1: was at the wedding when they shut down Italy. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, It's like, I like these people
Speaker 1: at this level, but I like them for reasons, and
Speaker 1: they like each other for reasons, and it just happens
Speaker 1: to be that they all share a lot of zeros,
Speaker 1: and I just think common cause shifts based off of
Speaker 1: where you stand in life. And I think that they
Speaker 1: have some areas of common cause that unite them on
Speaker 1: that night to look as filthy, wealthy and glamorous as
Speaker 1: they do. And so I guess thank you Taraji for
Speaker 1: maybe getting a lot of you know, some folks to
Speaker 1: open their house and say, man, this is more than
Speaker 1: just that. But it is the Gilded Age on steroids
Speaker 1: right now.
Speaker 5: And I think Taragi was right. So I'm never going
Speaker 5: by myself. The only way I go is if they
Speaker 5: send me two tickets so I can take ellen.
Speaker 1: So I think that we've concluded that we are very
Speaker 1: ready for the moment evidenced by all obviously for a moment.
Speaker 3: I think that we are.
Speaker 4: Close, but I think we have some You just talked
Speaker 4: about healing work, Andrew like in what you've recognized in Taraji,
Speaker 4: even from doing your own work. But I think so
Speaker 4: much of this is about our willingness to lay aside ego.
Speaker 4: There's also an article with President Obama talking about he's
Speaker 4: not like a commentator, and he talked about also Michelle
Speaker 4: Obama taking issue with how much he's been called upon
Speaker 4: to respond to the times and how a lot of
Speaker 4: other presidents haven't been called upon in that way. Well,
Speaker 4: this is a unique set of circumstances, and so we're
Speaker 4: all being called to do things that we hadn't anticipated,
Speaker 4: you know. I believe Andrew you referenced twenty twenty four
Speaker 4: being at Howard. I was looking forward to just you know,
Speaker 4: being closer to home, supporting my parents, you know, working
Speaker 4: doing well because we knew who was in the oval,
Speaker 4: you know, And that's not the story that we're here
Speaker 4: to tell.
Speaker 3: We are in the fight for our lives. I think,
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 4: I dare say, this is the most difficult two years
Speaker 4: that I have experienced in my life politically, you know,
Speaker 4: like from a sociological standpoint, historically, like emotionally, all the ways,
Speaker 4: on a micro level and a macro level. And so
Speaker 4: then I just wonder, like, how do we show up
Speaker 4: for ourselves, our families, our community, and the culture in
Speaker 4: this hour? And I dare say, it is not the
Speaker 4: way we're used.
Speaker 3: To doing it. It's just not. We have to show
Speaker 3: up differently.
Speaker 4: We have to point out the gray areas, we have
Speaker 4: to recognize our hypocrisies, we have to be able to
Speaker 4: receive criticism hopefully that it's constructive.
Speaker 3: Stop with all the freaking canceling behavior too.
Speaker 4: You got eighty five reasons why you are going to
Speaker 4: cancel this black person or that black person in Bakari. Honestly,
Speaker 4: that was the beef I had with the conversation we
Speaker 4: were having the other day. It's just pointless. People made
Speaker 4: dumb decisions. People said dumb things in twenty sixteen about
Speaker 4: who to vote for and who not to vote for.
Speaker 4: I am not excusing that, but we are in twenty
Speaker 4: twenty four in the fight for our lives, and I'm
Speaker 4: not about to tell you six oh yeah, you're right
Speaker 4: twenty twenty six. I'm trying to go back to twenty
Speaker 4: twenty four. Maybe you can get a do over in
Speaker 4: my defense twenty of y'all. Negro said twenty twenty two.
Speaker 4: In the last podcast, I was Ellie. But I don't
Speaker 4: know what year it is. All I know is the
Speaker 4: time is now for us to figure out a different
Speaker 4: path forward.
Speaker 3: This is way too late.
Speaker 4: We're talking about ten years since somebody made a major
Speaker 4: mistake saying who not to vote for? Want I want
Speaker 4: to sign them up to do the right thing right
Speaker 4: now that's what type of time I'm on and I
Speaker 4: would want if I made a grave mistake, I would
Speaker 4: want somebody to offer me the grace to say, you
Speaker 4: know what, you made a mistake. You can't do no
Speaker 4: dumb stuff like that. But you are welcome in this
Speaker 4: fight right now. We are all hands on deck. It's
Speaker 4: not enough of us. I'm tired of saying that.
Speaker 1: Okay, I just think we should be clear on what
Speaker 1: we're enlisting people to do when the ask is made,
Speaker 1: because I don't. I ain't signing anybody up to be
Speaker 1: leading me down. Nothing right, I think.
Speaker 4: But we worry about leadership without knowing what our objectives are,
Speaker 4: and the mission is no.
Speaker 1: What I'm saying is I think we absolutely have to
Speaker 1: lower the bar here. Yeah, when it's when it comes
Speaker 1: to an election. This really sucks, because an election in
Speaker 1: the most powerful nation in all the world should actually
Speaker 1: be able to consider something more than who I want
Speaker 1: to have a beer with choice when considering the leader
Speaker 1: of the free world. It is it is not that
Speaker 1: it ain't. We we have graduated past that level of baseness.
Speaker 1: And I don't say this as a word to say, oh,
Speaker 1: and I'm evolved I'm based too, and and how I
Speaker 1: approach my day and what we all hope for. And
Speaker 1: we talked about this before angel Angelo with Tiffany some
Speaker 1: over years back. Now that it's a luxury to be
Speaker 1: able to push back from the table, stand up and
Speaker 1: take a look and survey the land. That most people
Speaker 1: don't have the luxury of pushing back and thinking. Theoretically
Speaker 1: not because it doesn't help and it doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1: It makes all the sense in the world, makes all
Speaker 1: the sense in the world. That's why I ain't nobody
Speaker 1: trying to give us the room to do it. But
Speaker 1: I don't need everybody to do that part. But when
Speaker 1: it comes to these elections, there are some things that
Speaker 1: we kind of just need folks to be able to do,
Speaker 1: and I'm not trusted.
Speaker 3: That's why we mess up. I think we mess up
Speaker 3: by focusing our organizing.
Speaker 1: And I'm also one thing. I didn't say the things
Speaker 1: I needed them to do. I just said there are
Speaker 1: some things that we need you to do in an election.
Speaker 1: That's why I said I didn't I want, I don't
Speaker 1: need the right wingers to be my friends.
Speaker 3: But I guess I'm not suggesting that either.
Speaker 4: I'm saying, I think that where we mess up as
Speaker 4: a people as we formulate our organizing and mobilizing strategy
Speaker 4: around elections, and I think, yes.
Speaker 1: If we're talking about organizing, we should That's a whole
Speaker 1: another pod.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: No, I just am saying, I'm not even on what
Speaker 4: do we do for the midterms.
Speaker 5: I'm with you, Angela about this about just the cultural
Speaker 5: personality and how we've gotten to this culture where we
Speaker 5: are subtracting unnecessarily from when you talk about this path
Speaker 5: of canceling, when you talk about this path.
Speaker 4: Oh, he responded to three comments ago, Okay, uh huh oh.
Speaker 5: I thought they were I thought there was a through line.
Speaker 4: There are we trying, were trying real hard, but please
Speaker 4: please connects.
Speaker 5: No, I was just saying, and I think that as
Speaker 5: we talk about mobilization, what we'll realize is that at
Speaker 5: the end of the day, as much as it's kind
Speaker 5: of hurts my heart to say a little bit, you
Speaker 5: know you're going to have to have those individuals like
Speaker 5: the Eddie Glaus of the world be a part of
Speaker 5: the same ministry that the Jamal Bryants of the world are,
Speaker 5: that the Andrew Gilliams of the world are that the
Speaker 5: Tiffany crosses of the world are, and all of us
Speaker 5: are going to have to lift each other up as
Speaker 5: a collective. A baldfitst is much stronger than a spread hand.
Speaker 1: I agree, and I y'all, I have to tell you,
Speaker 1: I don't think. I don't even look at this as
Speaker 1: a hierarchy of contribution, right. I know what the power
Speaker 1: of the presidency is. I know what the power of
Speaker 1: commentary is. I know what the power of organizing is.
Speaker 1: I also know what the power of being a single
Speaker 1: individual voter is. Going into a ballot box, I get it.
Speaker 1: I'm saying, drop whatever whatever value proposition we want to
Speaker 1: put on what everybody does in this work, and just
Speaker 1: tighten up into the thing that you can do.
Speaker 5: I agree with that. That takes self awareness, though we
Speaker 5: got a whole generation without that.
Speaker 4: All I'm saying is we keep pushing people towards the
Speaker 4: ballot box. And I think we need to be formulating
Speaker 4: around an agenda. Did you take the Black Census. We
Speaker 4: need to be formulating around an agenda. Did you read
Speaker 4: the Black papers that will be published in October but
Speaker 4: have been up on our site. We need to formulate
Speaker 4: around an agenda. Who are we running for office? Who
Speaker 4: are we preparing to do other things to be activists
Speaker 4: and advocates in other ways we are fighting.
Speaker 1: I don't think everybody. I don't think everybody wants to
Speaker 1: be in that conversation.
Speaker 3: I think that I'm not asking for everybody, but I.
Speaker 1: Know I don't. I don't mean. I'm just saying and
Speaker 1: if we're staying on this on this line of sort
Speaker 1: of what are we are we expecting too little too
Speaker 1: much of people? Where you know, we got to go
Speaker 1: beyond just show up and vote. And I agree with
Speaker 1: you there, Angela, But and I really am trying to
Speaker 1: have a conversation here on this one, which is to say,
Speaker 1: is do we accept that in this greater movement work
Speaker 1: and to get us to the more beloved community, that
Speaker 1: everybody's going to have different things to do, and that
Speaker 1: if we take the value proposition off of just voting
Speaker 1: is not the thing to do, but organizing in this
Speaker 1: way is a thing to do in addition to doing that.
Speaker 1: And all I'm saying is is I think there's some
Speaker 1: people who are going to say the thing I'm willing
Speaker 1: able to do where I am now is this thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it may be a time where there's some other things
Speaker 1: I can consider, but this is the thing, and that
Speaker 1: it's not a bad thing if you and I acknowledge
Speaker 1: that everybody, we all play parts, and some people's parts
Speaker 1: are going to be this thing I am.
Speaker 4: I think the issue today has been that we are
Speaker 4: talking past each other.
Speaker 3: I completely agree with that.
Speaker 4: I'm saying where we run a foul of even getting
Speaker 4: a critical mass is pushing people just to go vote.
Speaker 4: Like now, we've been pushing people just to go vote,
Speaker 4: and that thing has also been eliminated. Now there's not
Speaker 4: even people in some instances who represent their interests or
Speaker 4: represent them to And I'm not saying don't vote.
Speaker 3: I'm saying we pushed people.
Speaker 4: We made it seem as if the entirety of our
Speaker 4: political power was the thing that we could exercise on
Speaker 4: election day. And you do not see any other powerful
Speaker 4: group of people, no matter how small or large, doing that.
Speaker 4: We are the only group of people they do that with.
Speaker 4: That is the reason why the Democratic Party feels comfortable
Speaker 4: showing up to our churches and our community events two
Speaker 4: months and sometimes two weeks or.
Speaker 3: Two days before an election. That is the problem.
Speaker 4: And I'm saying that we have the ability, the power,
Speaker 4: the voice, the ingenuity, the innovation to do much more
Speaker 4: than that. I'm not saying each individual person. I'm saying
Speaker 4: as a community, and I'm also suggesting that it is
Speaker 4: high time for us to stop saying if you don't
Speaker 4: do this thing on this day in my way, then
Speaker 4: your efforts are futile. I think that's also dumb, and
Speaker 4: it hasn't served us well. We have to mobilize on
Speaker 4: multiple means towards the same end goal and saying I'm
Speaker 4: going to keep saying that.
Speaker 1: I hate that we have talked a past each other,
Speaker 1: because what I'm submitting is that I think that there
Speaker 1: are sophisticated enough black voters in our community who actually
Speaker 1: know that there's an ecosystem of things getting that they
Speaker 1: may even call it ecosystem, but they can say such
Speaker 1: and such over there working on that, who know that
Speaker 1: there's a greater ecosystem at work, and have resigned themselves
Speaker 1: to this vote thing. Is going to be my contribution
Speaker 1: to that while everybody else in their places are doing
Speaker 1: the parts that they are good at. I'm simply saying
Speaker 1: that there are people who are sophisticated consumers of the world.
Speaker 1: We live in who say I'm just the voter.
Speaker 3: I get it. And that's the damn shame, because I
Speaker 3: hope they can do it.
Speaker 4: Out to the point of the last podcast and today,
Speaker 4: I hope they're at least able to exercise their franchise,
Speaker 4: and if not, I hope they are willing and able
Speaker 4: to do whatever the thing must be so that they
Speaker 4: can continue to just do that one thing. But we
Speaker 4: have poorly served ourselves and our people by focusing all
Speaker 4: of our efforts into that.
Speaker 1: I completely agree that shit, if that's the game plan
Speaker 1: for us, that's there. Ain't no plan at all.
Speaker 3: Ain't no plan.
Speaker 4: That's that's all I'm That's all I'm saying. I'm like,
Speaker 4: and I'm not saying we should not do it. I
Speaker 4: oh my god, I understand now more than ever. When
Speaker 4: Reverend Jackson said, and I played a clip from him
Speaker 4: on the podcast on Tuesday, that the right to vote
Speaker 4: is sacred. John Lewis would say that I would get
Speaker 4: so frustrated when Reverend would spend all this time talking
Speaker 4: about the right to vote. I'm like, we have that,
Speaker 4: we have that we have that he wanted the Constitutional Amendment.
Speaker 4: I'm like, that's cool, but we don't really need that.
Speaker 4: God damn it, we needed that. He knew because in
Speaker 4: his lifetime he saw what it could be like, and
Speaker 4: we didn't preserve that.
Speaker 3: And it's just like we got.
Speaker 4: To do all the things with none of the resources
Speaker 4: and none of the time and none of the unity.
Speaker 3: So I hope that we can come together.
Speaker 1: I think that's right. And you kind of close us
Speaker 1: out with a good I think a good charge there,
Speaker 1: And I hope you all on the listening side you
Speaker 1: were rolling with us. Hopefully, if you're still here, you
Speaker 1: were rolling with us because we have figured this out
Speaker 1: on spot, which is started at the MET and now
Speaker 1: we're talking about how we build a beloved community and
Speaker 1: all of the things that are required to help get
Speaker 1: us there. So I hope you have been made uncomfortable
Speaker 1: in the conversation and that it moves you to something
Speaker 1: I know I have been and I think I like
Speaker 1: where it is leading me, but stay tuned for where
Speaker 1: that actually is. We just want to welcome you home
Speaker 1: and thank you for listening, and go get Tiffany's book.
Speaker 3: And it is twenty twenty six. Sorry guys, Welcome home, y'all.
Speaker 1: Welcome home. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
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