WEBVTT - Codifying Conspiracies 0:00:11.880 --> 0:00:14.920 Welcome to woke f with me Danielle Moody. With the 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:18.160 first one hundred days of the Biden Harris administration behind us, 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:20.400 it's time to look forward to the many fights for 0:00:20.480 --> 0:00:23.239 justice that are still ahead of us. One battle that 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:26.159 grassroots activists have been fighting for almost a decade is 0:00:26.160 --> 0:00:29.280 the battle to renew and restore voting rights after the 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:32.880 twenty thirteen Shelby County de Holder decision gutted the Voting 0:00:32.960 --> 0:00:35.879 Rights Act of nineteen sixty five. A focal point for 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:38.839 this struggle is in the state of Georgia, where leaders 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:42.159 like Stacy Abrahams have been working tirelessly to activate more 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:46.400 voters and attain proper representation in government. Last month, Georgia's 0:00:46.400 --> 0:00:49.920 state representative part Cannon was arrested and charged with two 0:00:49.960 --> 0:00:53.080 felony counts simply for doing her job and knocking on 0:00:53.120 --> 0:00:56.520 the door of the illegitimate governor, Brian Kemp and demanding 0:00:56.680 --> 0:01:01.680 he not signed away Georgian's rights behind closed doors. Representative 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:04.400 Canon join me this week on woke af Daily to 0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:06.920 tell her story and talk about the gains that activists 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:09.160 have made on the ground in Georgia and the many 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:11.959 obstacles that had yet to be overcome. You can hear 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:15.959 our full half hour conversation about her experience being arrested 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:19.240 and charged, why more marginalized people need to be running 0:01:19.240 --> 0:01:22.280 for office in local communities and more by supporting me 0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:26.480 on Patreon at patreon dot com slash woke af for 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:29.840 right Now. Here's my question to Georgia's state representative part 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:34.200 Cannon on why and how Georgia became a centerpiece in 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:38.760 the fight for voting rights in America. What is really 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:42.080 interesting and maybe this is something that obviously, because you've 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:44.240 been working in Georgia for a quite some time now, 0:01:44.280 --> 0:01:46.520 that you've seen coming but the rest of the country 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:49.960 did not. Right, Georgia has become a lightning rod in 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:53.600 so many different ways because of the hard and tireless 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:59.560 work of extraordinary activists and politicians like yourself that have 0:01:59.600 --> 0:02:03.840 been due the work to elevate the voices of black 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:06.360 and brown people that are in that state. You know, 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:09.640 this piece of legislation that was signed into law by 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:13.480 Governor Kemp is based on a lie, right, just like 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:16.480 the over two hundred pieces of legislation that are now 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:21.400 in over forty states in this country based on a lie. 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:24.600 And I want to know, where do you think that 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:27.720 we head now, knowing that we are just, you know, 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:32.440 months shy of beginning midterm elections in this country where 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:35.000 there are elections that are happening all the time. We 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:39.600 know that Governor Kemp is being sued right again for 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:41.960 the actions that he has taken. But where do you 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:46.760 see Georgia moving now? As it pertains to voting rights. 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:55.200 Georgia is already voting in record numbers and voters have 0:02:55.919 --> 0:03:03.119 actually gone through whatever coping mechanisms that they need to 0:03:03.200 --> 0:03:07.920 access the ballot. When we talk about Georgians turning the 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:11.959 state blue, many times it's talked about as this idea 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:17.200 happened overnight. It really didn't. Years and years of trauma 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:24.160 informed practices by voting rights groups saying, Wow, you're having 0:03:24.160 --> 0:03:27.239 some issue with transportation to get to the polling place. 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:31.600 We will help you with that. Geez, you're thirsty or 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:35.160 hungry from standing in this six hour line, will provide 0:03:35.280 --> 0:03:39.800 you with some refreshments. Oh wow, you are experiencing COVID 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:43.040 nineteen and you're trying to figure how to get your 0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:46.960 ballot to you and back in. Who can sign for you? 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:50.160 Who can help you? Will help you with a hotline. 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:57.119 So Georgians have already been working towards stopping what they 0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:02.440 have done the GOP, which is caught defying conspiracies. When 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:07.440 you spotify a conspiracy and you turn it into state law, 0:04:07.880 --> 0:04:13.200 you enact so many different officers who believe that they 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:17.880 are the protector of the vote to do things that 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:22.320 will disempower people from voting. There are two pieces of 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:25.600 Senate Bill two O two that I really want Georgians 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:30.520 to take in consideration and have a strategy for. The 0:04:30.680 --> 0:04:36.000 first one is now any old person in Georgia can 0:04:36.800 --> 0:04:42.600 put in an unlimited number of petitions to people's voter registrations. 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:45.880 We saw this in twenty eighteen. We wrote a whole 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:51.000 movie about it, documentary and screened it. It's called Suppressed 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:55.520 with Brave New Films. And what we explained there was 0:04:55.560 --> 0:04:58.440 there was this gentleman who lived in a rural community 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:01.640 and he felt like people with these different last names 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:05.240 with hyphens in their last names, that they weren't real people. 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:08.680 So he would go up to the elections boards meetings 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:11.799 that really no one else attended, and he would submit 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:15.560 the number of petitions he could submit for that day 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:18.000 and next month he would go back and do it again. 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:21.479 Now that same person is going to have the power 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:25.000 to be the voter registrations are And you don't even 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:28.040 know us, you don't know who we are, but we 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:32.719 know strategy is. So that's the first issue. The second 0:05:33.000 --> 0:05:39.760 is the human rights violations that are codified by criminality. 0:05:39.920 --> 0:05:43.360 You can face a misdemeanor now for helping someone get 0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:47.880 food or water in line. What So, we are trying 0:05:47.920 --> 0:05:53.039 as Georgians to help the country understand that these factions 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:56.640 and these bills and policies didn't just happen overnight. They 0:05:56.640 --> 0:05:59.920 have been working on these four years. So we want 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:04.400 other states to go ahead and sure up voter rights, 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:08.279 even if it's in a small subsection, the criminality section, 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:11.840 the mail in ballot, the in person voting, the absentee, 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:17.520 whatever it is, sure up voting rights before conspiracies become codified, 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:20.640 I'm telling you. And if there is anything that the 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:25.119 Republican Party has become the master of, it is codifying conspiracies. 0:06:25.560 --> 0:06:29.679 Right now in Arizona, they are doing yet another audit 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:33.960 on the twenty twenty election that is being overseen by 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:37.839 oa N News, you know, the Trump News channel. As 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:41.640 if that is bipartisan or non party. I feel like 0:06:41.680 --> 0:06:44.320 we are living in a parallel universe. One of the 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:49.400 other things. You know, you started off saying that you 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:54.320 were the youngest representative to be elected in Georgia, and 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:57.200 I think that that is extraordinary. I remember when you 0:06:57.240 --> 0:07:00.440 were first running, we were also excited. I mean, as 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:02.320 a black queer woman like I was just let go, 0:07:02.560 --> 0:07:05.440 girl go. You know, whatever can be done should be done. 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:08.919 You've written a book entitled The Universal Guide for Running 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:11.800 for Office at the State level. Why do you still 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:16.280 believe that folks like us should be running for office 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:19.560 given all that we're up against. Should we be in 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:22.600 the streets, should we be in the c suites? Should 0:07:22.600 --> 0:07:25.840 we be in state office? Why do you think it's 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:29.000 important that we run? All of it? But what I 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:33.520 will say about this message of running for office is 0:07:33.560 --> 0:07:37.480 the most important piece of it is recognizing that you 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:40.440 are going to run as you are. So if you 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:44.320 are a CEO already or you've been working in McDonald's, 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:46.920 you're going to need to run as you are. You're 0:07:47.000 --> 0:07:50.520 going to have to go back through those photo albums 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:53.360 and ask your family members, why were we living there, 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:56.600 what were we doing, who was working where and how 0:07:56.640 --> 0:07:59.360 do we get to this place where half of our 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:02.800 family didn't vote in this one specific election. There's going 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:05.880 to have to be a really deep dive that people do, 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:09.120 and I use the Universal Guide to Running for Office 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:12.720 to explore that, to help people break it down and 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:16.680 to make it actionable. I have a whole mess at 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:20.040 the end of it of affirmation pages where I have 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:23.720 you and then you affirm yourselves, and you keep that 0:08:23.960 --> 0:08:27.080 going so that as you're out there on the campaign trail, 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:32.000 you're able to say, I understand legislating uber and lyft 0:08:32.320 --> 0:08:36.280 because I take uber and lyft more differently than maybe 0:08:36.280 --> 0:08:39.960 some of my seventy eight eighty year old colleagues. So 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:43.640 I am a subject matter expert in this conversation. Or 0:08:43.679 --> 0:08:47.760 if you've been working at McDonald's, you understand food safety guidelines, 0:08:47.840 --> 0:08:52.000 you understand osha, you understand all of these different micro 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:58.440 situations that make you the perfect to run for office, 0:08:58.559 --> 0:09:03.800 that actually help you see your power in the place. 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:07.280 Everyone can talk about balancing the state budget, maybe they 0:09:07.320 --> 0:09:10.000 want money for their hospitals, But if you're a black 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:13.160 woman and you're a healthcare worker in Georgia, you should 0:09:13.200 --> 0:09:16.440 be running for office. You were the number one type 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:20.960 of person in the clinical settings contracting COVID nineteen during 0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:24.200 this pandemic. So you are a subject matter expert on 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:29.319 the issues related to COVID nineteen and hospital financing and funding. 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:33.199 So even though sometimes people get concerned that they might 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:37.320 not have all the money to finance pain, we talk 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:40.760 about all the different types of organizations that can help 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:43.480 you when you're considering running for office, and that at 0:09:43.480 --> 0:09:47.120 a certain point, money doesn't always do it. You know, 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:50.120 even if you spend five hundred dollars on yard signs, 0:09:50.920 --> 0:09:55.000 yard signs don't vote. They might get your information out 0:09:55.000 --> 0:09:57.720 to a block of voters, but they're not going to 0:09:57.760 --> 0:10:00.600 go to the polls to cast their ballot for you, 0:10:00.800 --> 0:10:03.800 or do that from home. So running for office in 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:08.440 this digital space, in a highly polarized moment like now, 0:10:08.679 --> 0:10:12.600 we have to use our own stories and just run 0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:16.040 as we are, even if it doesn't pay much as 0:10:16.040 --> 0:10:19.520 it relate to a salary. I always help young people 0:10:19.640 --> 0:10:25.080 understand this, How different would it be if you graduated 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:28.679 from high school you had no sex education Because we 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:33.320 are of course a absent and only state, and you 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:36.600 ran for school board and one you would be able 0:10:36.640 --> 0:10:41.720 to change your comprehensive sexual education policies, therefore helping teenage pregnancy, 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:46.000 therefore helping community resources all kinds of things. So we 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:49.160 have to just think differently about who makes up those 0:10:49.200 --> 0:10:53.000 seats and not feel as though they're going to challenge 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:55.959 us right when it happens. People want to hear the 0:10:56.000 --> 0:10:59.120 truth right now, when people run for office, and the 0:10:59.200 --> 0:11:03.840 season is happening. Qualifying in Georgia is in August, which 0:11:03.880 --> 0:11:06.040 is just three months away, And if I can be 0:11:06.080 --> 0:11:16.479 of help to anyone, please reach out directly. Codifying conspiracies 0:11:16.480 --> 0:11:20.560 has increasingly become the norm in American politics. Just as false, 0:11:20.800 --> 0:11:24.440 racialized accusations of voter fraud increased in the Trump era, 0:11:24.600 --> 0:11:29.240 there was also an increase in scaremongering around immigration, especially 0:11:29.280 --> 0:11:32.079 at the southern border. But this othering of immigrants was 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:35.880 not new under Trump. It started decades earlier, fed into 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:39.240 and encouraged by popular white nationalism. This is how a 0:11:39.280 --> 0:11:42.920 man like Joe R. Pio ended up being elected sheriff 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:46.920 of Maricopa County in Arizona back in nineteen ninety two 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:50.600 and keeping that position until finally being voted out in 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:54.560 twenty sixteen. If you remember R. Pio was also Donald 0:11:54.559 --> 0:11:58.480 Trump's first presidential pardon after his policies and programs became 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:02.559 the subject of legal scrutiny. I invited Jude Joffey Block, 0:12:02.679 --> 0:12:05.800 associated Press reporter and co author of the new book 0:12:06.080 --> 0:12:10.599 Driving While Brown Sheriff Joe Arpile Versus the Latino Resistance 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:13.360 onto Woke af Daily this week to take a deep 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:17.240 dive into how he gained power, the abuses he carried 0:12:17.280 --> 0:12:19.920 out with that power, and what led to the reckoning 0:12:19.960 --> 0:12:23.640 and ultimate pardon under the Trump presidency. You can hear 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:27.320 her full breakdown of Arpio's twisted legacy right now on 0:12:27.440 --> 0:12:30.400 my Patreon at patreon dot com slash woke a f. 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:34.280 I also asked Jude how the wave that finally voted 0:12:34.360 --> 0:12:38.400 out Sheriff Joe ties into Arizona going blue for the 0:12:38.440 --> 0:12:41.560 first time in over a half century. Take a listen. 0:12:47.200 --> 0:12:54.920 Arizona became a really a kind of interesting place right 0:12:55.080 --> 0:12:57.920 in twenty twenty, much in the same way as Georgia. 0:12:58.280 --> 0:13:01.720 Arizona for the first time went blue. How do you 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:06.679 make sense of how something like that could happen in 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:12.079 twenty twenty, but they produce a man like Joe are 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:13.880 a pie? I mean I guess it's the same question 0:13:13.880 --> 0:13:17.199 of how can this country both give us Barack Obama 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:20.240 and Donald Trump. I have no idea is the great 0:13:20.280 --> 0:13:24.640 paradox of our times, but humor me, how did how 0:13:24.679 --> 0:13:29.160 did Arizona get to this place? They're actually really connected. 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:34.680 So the grassroots organizing that starts happening in Arizona, it's 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:37.280 not just our Pile, but our Pile is a big 0:13:37.320 --> 0:13:41.240 part of it. It's also Arizona's laws that are aimed 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:45.480 at criminalizing immigrants and that many Latinos also feel like 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:49.080 cause them to fall under suspicion as well. People will 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:52.360 remember Senate Bill ten seventy that Arizona passed in twenty 0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:57.319 ten that was mostly gutted by courts, but still some 0:13:57.400 --> 0:14:01.040 parts of art in effect today. So these laws and 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:05.480 our pio's tactics and rhetoric created a backlash, and so 0:14:05.520 --> 0:14:09.920 there was organizing on the ground that started getting young 0:14:10.000 --> 0:14:14.560 people to register people to vote, canvassing neighborhoods. There's a 0:14:14.600 --> 0:14:18.280 whole generation of people in their twenties who have been 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:24.320 knocking on doors registering voters since like two, ten, eleven, twelve, 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:27.920 and now you know, there seasoned adults and they they're 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:31.920 pretty savvy at running political campaigns. So what we see 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:36.720 is this building clout among Latino voters, voters of color, 0:14:37.120 --> 0:14:41.400 voters who didn't used to be engaged, rising each cycle 0:14:42.080 --> 0:14:46.240 after Joe our Pile was defeated because this movement really 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:50.080 rallied in twenty sixteen to defeat our Pile. Hump was 0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:54.320 elected that cycle and he won in Maricopa County, but 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:57.600 our Pile lost by thirteen points in Maricopa County that 0:14:57.680 --> 0:15:00.640 year in twenty sixteen, after you know, being in office 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:04.280 for twenty four years. So the same folks who were 0:15:04.360 --> 0:15:08.080 organizing on the ground continued in twenty eighteen, and they 0:15:08.120 --> 0:15:11.320 continued in twenty twenty, and we've seen a shift, and 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:13.720 it's there are other factors as well. There was a 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:17.760 lot of engagement among the indigenous vote in Arizona. There 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:22.680 were sewn McCain style Republicans who were just attacted with Trump. 0:15:22.960 --> 0:15:26.560 There were suburban women who turned against Trump. And then 0:15:26.560 --> 0:15:30.840 there were California implant transplants who had moved to Arizona 0:15:30.880 --> 0:15:33.520 and started to vote in a more democratic way. But 0:15:33.800 --> 0:15:37.479 this movement and the engagement of young people, the engagement 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:40.440 of more voters of color, and the kind of on 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:43.360 the ground work what you hear from people who were 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:47.000 involved in that. They say, once people saw we could 0:15:47.080 --> 0:15:51.720 defeat Joe Arpaio in twenty sixteen, that opened their eyes 0:15:51.760 --> 0:15:55.280 that their vote mattered, that elections matter, and that they 0:15:55.320 --> 0:15:59.840 could actually defeat Trump. And so there is a direct 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:04.760 connection between this whole saga of what everyone lived through 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:07.880 under Maricopa County under Joe our pile, with the politics 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:13.680 of Arizona today. Where do you think that we go 0:16:13.880 --> 0:16:19.920 from here? This is a huge, nightmarish legacy that our 0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:23.760 pile has. We have, you know, children that still need 0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:27.440 to be united with their families. We have detention centers 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:31.440 across this country that are still overflowing with undocumented people. 0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:35.120 We have an immigration crisis where we can't seem to 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:40.720 no administration, Obama, not Bush, not Clinton, has been able 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:44.840 to not Trump has been able to do anything about 0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:50.520 how we create a humane right immigration system. Where do 0:16:50.560 --> 0:16:53.480 you think that we go from here? And what do 0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:57.920 you think this administration, the Biden Harris team will do 0:16:58.120 --> 0:17:01.640 in the coming months and coming years. Yeah, I mean 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:04.000 it's a great question. I think. I mean, what we 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:07.840 hope to do in the book is lay the groundwork, 0:17:07.920 --> 0:17:10.240 so that if somebody wanted to be caught up on 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:16.480 k where the immigration reform debate started in sort of 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:19.560 modern history in the last few decades, where it started 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:22.560 and where it is today. We tried to give that 0:17:22.640 --> 0:17:25.040 context in the book to catch people up to this moment. 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:28.280 And we have President Biden who's made a campaign promise 0:17:28.320 --> 0:17:31.919 to tackle immigration reform, which is something that has been 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:35.159 really impossible for anyone to do for quite some time. 0:17:35.760 --> 0:17:39.399 And I think what I see in Arizona is that 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:44.640 there are newly engaged voters and people who have been 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:49.040 involved in the political process and have been inspired to 0:17:49.119 --> 0:17:52.679 be involved, and are have been on the side of 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:57.879 helping Democrats get elected. If Democrats continue to not be 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:01.639 able to deliver on immigration reform, I do wonder what's 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:04.440 going to happen, you know, to the same political factors 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:07.639 that are a play right now. If this goal of 0:18:07.680 --> 0:18:12.040 immigration reform seems like it's never going to happen, it 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:15.160 could kind of change the calculus of how the politics 0:18:15.200 --> 0:18:17.440 are working out on the ground. And so I think 0:18:17.480 --> 0:18:21.960 that's something that will be interesting to watch because certainly 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:25.320 what's happening at the border does make it politically a 0:18:25.359 --> 0:18:29.400 lot more complicated for the Biden administration to move forward. 0:18:29.560 --> 0:18:33.600 And I think that we're seeing already how the issue 0:18:33.680 --> 0:18:37.320 of what's happening at the border is being politicized. That 0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:40.919 there's rhetoric around a lot of rhetoric around fear and 0:18:41.040 --> 0:18:46.240 criminality and threats to Americans as part of the larger 0:18:46.280 --> 0:18:49.240 conversation that we're seeing about what's going on. And that 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:55.080 same rhetoric kind of was something we saw in Arizona 0:18:55.160 --> 0:18:59.240 at the height of that enforcement. The equation of immigrants 0:18:59.320 --> 0:19:04.520 with criminality has deep consequences for the kinds of politics 0:19:04.560 --> 0:19:11.879 and policies that step forward from that. The myriad of 0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:14.679 problems that we are facing today go back decades to 0:19:14.760 --> 0:19:18.639 the right wing, white nationalist conspiracies that have been codified 0:19:18.680 --> 0:19:21.480 into law. We need to call out these policies for 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:26.080 what they are, racist laws created by and for racist Americans. 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:29.080 We can do better, and we need to do better, 0:19:29.320 --> 0:19:33.600 or else America's lost to the worst among us. I 0:19:33.720 --> 0:19:35.919 tell you every week that it is important not to 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:39.160 give up hope, but hope is not enough without a fight. 0:19:39.800 --> 0:19:43.280 Wherever you are in this vascination, get connected with your 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:46.560 community and get to work organizing for a better tomorrow. 0:19:47.200 --> 0:19:49.880 The more of us there are, the harder it is 0:19:49.960 --> 0:19:53.199 for them to say no, to say things can't change, 0:19:53.680 --> 0:19:56.120 to say that this is the way it has always been, 0:19:56.680 --> 0:20:00.200 it hasn't and it doesn't have to be. As always, 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:02.800 follow me on Patreon to get the latest from me 0:20:02.960 --> 0:20:06.840 every single weekday at patreon dot com slash woke AF 0:20:07.280 --> 0:20:10.480 Until next time, Power to the people and to all 0:20:10.720 --> 0:20:14.280 the people. Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.