Speaker 1: Native Lampod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with
Speaker 1: Recent Choice Media.
Speaker 2: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.
Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome home. Y'all. This is episode ninety two of
Speaker 1: Native Lampod, where we give you all things politics and culture.
Speaker 1: We are your hosts Angela Raie, There's Andrew Gillien and
Speaker 1: Tiffany Cross. What's going on, y'all? What are we talking
Speaker 1: about today?
Speaker 3: I think we got to talk about DC. As you know,
Speaker 3: I'm here in the nation's capital and it is on fire.
Speaker 3: It is on lockdown, and it's giving twenty twenty vibes
Speaker 3: post the uprising, I'll say, after George Floyd. So I
Speaker 3: definitely want to get into that.
Speaker 4: With a direct target on the backs of black mayors.
Speaker 4: It appears all across the country. Angela, tiff good to
Speaker 4: be back with you. Welcome backstate side. Sis. We also
Speaker 4: got to get into this redistricting, which I think is
Speaker 4: monopolizing a lot of national conversation, and I think we
Speaker 4: got to level it so that people know where they
Speaker 4: fit into it.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 1: I think the other thing that's very important is to
Speaker 1: your point, Andrew, we are welcoming tip back, and I
Speaker 1: think her journey to the Motherland helps us to realize
Speaker 1: that our politics are not in fact flat. They touched
Speaker 1: the globe and we, especially as the people, got to
Speaker 1: be connected. So I can't wait to get this update
Speaker 1: from Tip. I would say a quad, but but that
Speaker 1: ain't it when you say, yeah, everybody.
Speaker 3: Spoke French and ingala, So I'm.
Speaker 1: Andrew what we say all the time, welcome.
Speaker 4: States.
Speaker 1: Step off message anyway, I wanted if you guys don't mind,
Speaker 1: I just want to do a quick shout out. Right
Speaker 1: before we started the show. Uh, I learned that a
Speaker 1: good friend of mine, who I've known since middle school,
Speaker 1: was killed tragically in a car accident. His name is
Speaker 1: Teddy Huger. I just want to dedicate this episode of
Speaker 1: Native Lamppod to him and his family. He hard to
Speaker 1: have his baby girl, and I think she's three now,
Speaker 1: so I just want to send leve to his family.
Speaker 1: It's a reminder for everybody at home that life is
Speaker 1: indeed short and we are living in some trying times,
Speaker 1: and in the midst of all that, on a macro level,
Speaker 1: people are also suffering and grieving. So I just wanted
Speaker 1: to learn to everyone Greeving loved ones today. Thanks time.
Speaker 6: Reporting live from Washington, d C. I'm right outside of
Speaker 6: Metro station, so if you're here, trained my apologies. I
Speaker 6: just want to give you all the update about the
Speaker 6: situation on the ground here in Washington, d C. So,
Speaker 6: as you guys know, for the past couple of days,
Speaker 6: this administration has been agitating local Washingtonians with the federalization
Speaker 6: of our police force, with the deployment of National Guard.
Speaker 6: He's doing everything that he can to a rode our
Speaker 6: local autonomy. Our council members are taking issue with the
Speaker 6: fact that section seventy forty of the Home Rule Act
Speaker 6: was invoked, effectively giving the executive control over our public
Speaker 6: safety functions and our decision making functions in the city.
Speaker 6: But the thing is, Donald Trump issued this order under
Speaker 6: the guise of a public safety emergency. But what we
Speaker 6: know to be true here on the ground is that
Speaker 6: there is no public safety emergency now. Outside of the
Speaker 6: thing that went viral where Elon's doge boy got beat
Speaker 6: up downtown last week, crime is actually down here in DC,
Speaker 6: violent crimes especially, and so it's important to note that
Speaker 6: this is not done for public safety. If this was
Speaker 6: done for public safety, you would have to wonder how
Speaker 6: that kind of decision making could be coming from the
Speaker 6: same person who decided to release the insurrectionists that wek
Speaker 6: havoc on this same city. I mean, if you prioritize safety,
Speaker 6: why would you do that? Or if you truly care
Speaker 6: about safety, where is the unredacted Epstein list. I mean,
Speaker 6: there's so many things that could promote more safety than
Speaker 6: coming and eroding the autonomy of a duly elected black
Speaker 6: legislature here in the form of our city council and
Speaker 6: our mayor. So we know it's not safety. We know
Speaker 6: it's a graph for control. We know this is a
Speaker 6: test for fascism to see how far will be allowed
Speaker 6: to go. And so to my folks that are outside
Speaker 6: of DC, turn our voices up.
Speaker 7: Most people don't.
Speaker 6: Care about DC because they don't see it as out
Speaker 6: of side, out of mind. They think we're just the politicians.
Speaker 6: We are a real city with real people and real experiences.
Speaker 5: That are being affected by this.
Speaker 6: And to my folks in the city, let's stay educated,
Speaker 6: because I mean, the reality is there's only but so
Speaker 6: much you can do to push back against the unchecked
Speaker 6: powers of the President of the United States. And we
Speaker 6: didn't do that to ourselves. The GOP capitulated, they kiss
Speaker 6: his ass and give.
Speaker 7: Him everything that he wants.
Speaker 6: The Democrats are right there sort of bowing down. And
Speaker 6: so for us as community members here in DC who
Speaker 6: have the most to lose, it's important to look out
Speaker 6: for each other. I know, I just helped somebody get
Speaker 6: de arrested yesterday, or diffuse the situation rather where cops
Speaker 6: were just surrounding the guy and had no cause to
Speaker 6: arrest him. And so just our vigilance can save us.
Speaker 6: I saw folks interacting with that t app and having
Speaker 6: all the details to share about folks, let's share some
Speaker 6: things about the presidence of.
Speaker 5: These federal agencies in our city.
Speaker 6: Let's insulate ourselves and make sure that we're safe.
Speaker 1: And so that's all.
Speaker 8: I have.
Speaker 6: Hope to be joining you on the show soon, but
Speaker 6: in the meantime between times, pray for DC.
Speaker 7: Free DC.
Speaker 1: That is from ty Hobson Powell, who has been on
Speaker 1: the show with us before. In addition to that really
Speaker 1: incredible update, those encouraging words, we have got another, Andrew
Speaker 1: gillim Tiff. We got a new word in our yeah,
Speaker 1: in our vocabulary, it is de arrested. I am gonna
Speaker 1: make sure that I get some people de arrested in
Speaker 1: this moment. I love that time.
Speaker 4: I think he was going to words de escalation, de escalty.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's fine, but I like the arrest I
Speaker 1: would like the arresting people.
Speaker 3: Well, he was you want to come to he was
Speaker 3: one of the three young people. Yeah, do we know
Speaker 3: remember how old he was?
Speaker 1: He's in his early thirties. But you know at Grandma's house,
Speaker 1: you sit at the young young people's table. Yeah, until
Speaker 1: you're forty five. I'm forty five, so I think I
Speaker 1: get graduated up in October. T if I want to
Speaker 1: come to you, Because we actually did my solo pod
Speaker 1: yesterday on the same issue. We had mother ms Corey A.
Speaker 1: Korra masters Berry on, we had Tony Lewis, who's a
Speaker 1: prolific activist and author in DC, and we also had
Speaker 1: Dion Reader. But I want to come to you because
Speaker 1: you live in the heart of the nation's capital. What
Speaker 1: are you scan tif, how are you feeling and how
Speaker 1: do you encourage residents to respond in this moment?
Speaker 3: Well, I one, I see a lot of pushback from
Speaker 3: the residence, a rainbow coalition of pushback. I've even stopped
Speaker 3: and chatted with a few people, and a lot of
Speaker 3: white men have been very vocal, and I would say
Speaker 3: even provocative when it comes to the increased presence of
Speaker 3: law enforcement. And when I've asked, you know, why are
Speaker 3: you yelling? What's your interests? And they say, I have
Speaker 3: a lot of privilege here, and I plan to use
Speaker 3: my privilege as much as I can to disrupt what's happening.
Speaker 3: And you can see that very blatantly in how they're
Speaker 3: approaching the residents of the city. Where I happen to live.
Speaker 3: I'm surrounded by public housing, and in these public housing units,
Speaker 3: it's community, you know, like the old folks sit out
Speaker 3: there and play cards, the old men hang on the corner,
Speaker 3: and all of that is gone. Then there are people,
Speaker 3: you know, who are out there doing things that are
Speaker 3: not community minded. They might be criminal. And you know,
Speaker 3: Trevor Noah writes this in his book Born a Crime.
Speaker 3: And you know, this is something that I'm privileged to
Speaker 3: be able to have this conversation with you all, because
Speaker 3: there's a nuance that's lost in legacy media, and there
Speaker 3: are certain rules, regulations and understanding to neighborhood politics. You know,
Speaker 3: I want to say hood politics, but neighborhood politics, that
Speaker 3: your intention is not always to break the law. So
Speaker 3: if like, there's always a dude he's gone now I
Speaker 3: don't know where he is, but he's in a wheelchair
Speaker 3: and he sits behind my building and he sells Lucy's
Speaker 3: And yes, technically he's breaking the law, but this man
Speaker 3: doesn't deserve to be slammed to the ground. This is
Speaker 3: how we lost Eric Gardner. He didn't deserve to be choked,
Speaker 3: you know, So there are there is something about living
Speaker 3: in a black city. You had on Coorra masters Berry
Speaker 3: and I just am heartbroken at so many younger people
Speaker 3: don't know Marion Barry anymore, but Mary and Barry was
Speaker 3: about that life and he was on the front lines
Speaker 3: of these types of things. And I imagine if we
Speaker 3: had a mayor like Marion Barry. Right now, there is
Speaker 3: footage of him and an amazing documentary on HBO where
Speaker 3: he's protesting. He's joining the protesters and a police officer
Speaker 3: approach approaches him and he loves him dead in the
Speaker 3: face and says, I wish you mother would put your
Speaker 3: hands on me. I just feel like, yes, you know,
Speaker 3: his legacy has been reduced. But let me just offer
Speaker 3: a little bit of information. Ty did such a great job.
Speaker 3: The Trump administration has deployed the National Guard through the
Speaker 3: end of September. As Ty said, this is only allowable
Speaker 3: under section forty of the DC Home Rule Act with
Speaker 3: Congressional seven forty forgive me for the DC Home Rule Act,
Speaker 3: with of course, the approval of Congress. Nothing meets that standard.
Speaker 3: He talked about crime being down, It's true. Crime is
Speaker 3: down twenty six percent after a thirty five percent drop
Speaker 3: in in twenty twenty four. Overall crime is down a
Speaker 3: seven percent, and that's according to the Metropolitan PD. This
Speaker 3: this for the people who are outside of DC who
Speaker 3: are not as plugged in. Believe me, this is coming
Speaker 3: soon to a city near you. He's threatened this to Chicago, Oakland, Baltimore.
Speaker 3: DC does not have voting representation in Congress. We don't
Speaker 3: even control our own National Guard, unlike Puerto Rico and
Speaker 3: other territories. So the President is overriding the will of
Speaker 3: residence here. And I just want you all to get
Speaker 3: an up close and personal peak of what that looks
Speaker 3: like and what could be happening in your very neighborhood.
Speaker 6: You know, I was playing.
Speaker 5: You got your idea on your check?
Speaker 7: Uh no, I live? Okay, Cool, it's a cigarette.
Speaker 5: Did y'all get to call us up about right here? No,
Speaker 5: So we're doing checks.
Speaker 7: Keep everybody safe down here, right.
Speaker 9: Have you ever you heard of the federal surge that
Speaker 9: Donald Trump's putting out right?
Speaker 5: You didn't?
Speaker 9: You don't following three anything like that?
Speaker 7: All right?
Speaker 9: So yeah, Trump's Trump's got a federally He's kind of
Speaker 9: coming together for seven days and going out trying to
Speaker 9: stop the violent crime. Quality of life offense is smoking
Speaker 9: drinking in public, right, can't happen outside.
Speaker 7: Right, most people know that.
Speaker 5: So we're contacting people trying to advise.
Speaker 8: Him to the wall.
Speaker 2: On your eggs because when you walked up at the
Speaker 2: moment you walked up on your eggs, get.
Speaker 10: Well, it's smoke like the odor of marijuana front marijuana
Speaker 10: in the air. Right, Just know, right, learn tea, tell
Speaker 10: your boys, like yo, everybody's out from FBI to the police.
Speaker 7: So do your thing.
Speaker 9: Let him know, don't be smoking outside, don't be drinking
Speaker 9: outside because Donald Trump's.
Speaker 3: I play that to say, this man is sitting in
Speaker 3: his home on his front stoop in his home and
Speaker 3: if you're listening, what you don't see. It's about six
Speaker 3: or seven law enforcement officers from various agencies surrounding him
Speaker 3: and another person. Some of the more violent videos have
Speaker 3: been people literally fleeing, running when they see them approaching.
Speaker 3: And to me, I'm curiously hear from you guys. This
Speaker 3: is a litmus test on how much will we take now?
Speaker 3: I don't know what it looks like to stand up
Speaker 3: to this. I want us to survive, but I know
Speaker 3: we can't roll over and take this. So how much
Speaker 3: are we willing to take? Because the more and more
Speaker 3: we accept this, the more and more we normalize this,
Speaker 3: the more it's going to spread. So I don't know
Speaker 3: what the pushback is, but it has to be something.
Speaker 3: And right now I do see a lot of people,
Speaker 3: I mean yelling at them. A friend of the show,
Speaker 3: Booker Squared, welcomed police this way.
Speaker 8: What the whole. I can't imagine being a black.
Speaker 1: Person defending this ship. I can't imagine a black person.
Speaker 8: To an organization the play session. But that's just meant.
Speaker 8: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Why they left them five black officers.
Speaker 9: And they're not dropped.
Speaker 1: I don't want to let you know.
Speaker 3: The Elizabeth Booker Houston, who was a friend of the show,
Speaker 3: has been a guest on the show. That is her
Speaker 3: welcoming uh the added law enforcement and it's a very
Speaker 3: bodacious movie, right right. So I don't know she's.
Speaker 1: Been protesting the Heritage Foundation is before the the DC
Speaker 1: takeover though, So yes, I didn't mean I just I
Speaker 1: just wanted to clarify that. I think she's been insistent.
Speaker 1: She've been out there.
Speaker 4: Your question, your point if I could, about how much
Speaker 4: would we take and surviving whatever the experience is. I
Speaker 4: really think the gentleman demonstrated well right, not escalating, you know,
Speaker 4: the officer asking him for information while he sits on
Speaker 4: his property, minding his business, not inviting an interrogation like this.
Speaker 4: And the truth is is these kinds of situations don't
Speaker 4: prevent violent crimes. What they, nine times out of ten
Speaker 4: or ten times out of ten times will do is
Speaker 4: take what might be a normal situation in a normal
Speaker 4: neighborhood and escalated off of anything. It could have been
Speaker 4: a refusal to give a license or get off the
Speaker 4: porch and go inside and grab it and come back
Speaker 4: and show me, and any hesitation could have been a
Speaker 4: whole different kind of situation, and we all know what
Speaker 4: those potential conclusions could have been. So law enforcement, on
Speaker 4: one hand, should be serving the role of de escalation
Speaker 4: of of of of how do you say down, I
Speaker 4: mean just de arresting, right right right, but basically eliminating
Speaker 4: anxiety in situations. And when you go out in your
Speaker 4: face with that kind of show a force of law
Speaker 4: enforcement and bless his heart, but a law enforcement agent
Speaker 4: who's not really able to explain what the hell they
Speaker 4: out there doing. I mean he says, we're here to
Speaker 4: prevent crimes, and you know, in my opinion, you're here
Speaker 4: to potentially provocate, provocate a situation that could could spiral
Speaker 4: out of control. So it's where we how far we go?
Speaker 4: Is one, survive each incident, survive each of these moments, folks,
Speaker 4: as you're out there. But two, I think we have
Speaker 4: to protest. I think we you know, it starts from
Speaker 4: the top down and from the bottom up. You don't
Speaker 4: have to wait for instructions for you from your mayor.
Speaker 4: Your may or may not give those instructions to get
Speaker 4: out and show your disapproval. But as we saw in LA,
Speaker 4: the display of nonviolent disapproval pushed them back and made
Speaker 4: them a little caddy about their appearance there because they
Speaker 4: didn't belong. So I think people have to raise their
Speaker 4: voices and show that this is not the role of
Speaker 4: the federal government. You resist it. We understand that you
Speaker 4: are on orders, but you right now represent this person
Speaker 4: who's attempting to manipulate everything about what we think and
Speaker 4: what we know to put in front of us a whole,
Speaker 4: you know, situation that didn't deserve this, doesn't require it.
Speaker 4: If you really care, put some money back in. Put
Speaker 4: that billion dollars you took out of the budget from
Speaker 4: local governments. Give that back to local law enforcement so
Speaker 4: they can actually do the work of preventing crime instead
Speaker 4: of this scapegoating to basically avoid talking about, you know,
Speaker 4: a child molester and what his role is in that molestation.
Speaker 1: So I want to get into this really quickly. So
Speaker 1: Donald Trump issued this executative memorandum to the Secretary Pete
Speaker 1: Hegseth on Monday, calling for this DC takeover. What is
Speaker 1: ordinary in these circumstances is that the federal government would
Speaker 1: exercise its jurisdiction in Section seven forty to take over
Speaker 1: the Metropolitan Police Department as well as bringing the National
Speaker 1: Guard and other law enforcement entities from the FEDS in
Speaker 1: a state of emergency. What I'm wondering is why it
Speaker 1: wasn't a state of emergency on January sixth. What I'm
Speaker 1: wondering is why it's not an emergency when ice is
Speaker 1: raiding people's homes, separating families. I want to know why
Speaker 1: it's not a state of emergency when crime was up
Speaker 1: thirty percent. Again, it's dropped thirty percent. So I am
Speaker 1: hoping that the mayor, that the Attorney General in DC
Speaker 1: rely on these points when they go to argue the
Speaker 1: subjective standard that Donald Trump is relying upon to interpret
Speaker 1: Section seven forty, and they push back, why does that
Speaker 1: matter right now? Andrew everything you're saying in LA. We
Speaker 1: were on a panel in Tunica, Mississippi for the CBC
Speaker 1: Institute the Mississippi Policy Conference. Nana Jumfi, who's been a
Speaker 1: guest on our show, talked about LA being ready. They
Speaker 1: were ready to protest, they were ready for what was coming.
Speaker 1: What I think that, to Tip's point around a litmus
Speaker 1: test too, is a lot of our folks are unready.
Speaker 1: They did not know how bad this was coming. This
Speaker 1: man that Tip just played sitting on his front porch
Speaker 1: is like, what are you even talking about? Friend? Right Like,
Speaker 1: he has no idea this is coming. So we need
Speaker 1: some of the court actions taken so that we can
Speaker 1: buy our folks time to organize. I wanted to say
Speaker 1: that in closing because I know we have a very
Speaker 1: important update to get to from Tip about her trip
Speaker 1: to the Motherland. So I know we want to transition
Speaker 1: into that, but want to leave it open for just
Speaker 1: a moment, literally, a moment for any closing words from
Speaker 1: y'all before we transition.
Speaker 4: If you get ready, if you stay ready, you don't
Speaker 4: have to get ready. He listed the cities that are
Speaker 4: at the top of the list. Y'all take this time
Speaker 4: to get.
Speaker 3: Ready from the fire happening in DC to the fire
Speaker 3: happening across the globe and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Speaker 3: I want to give you an update on what I
Speaker 3: bore witness to their stay tuned that's coming up on
Speaker 3: the other side of the spring. The one thing I
Speaker 3: can tell you about visiting the Democratic Republic of Congo,
Speaker 3: it's nothing to see every few feet a member of
Speaker 3: the government in camouflage holding aks just everywhere all over
Speaker 3: the corner so it was really interesting to be traveling
Speaker 3: and then to come back to DC and see this through.
Speaker 1: Line of Wow, this is what.
Speaker 3: America is inching towards, and it's a frightening site. I
Speaker 3: know there's a lot happening domestically, so I'm going to
Speaker 3: be really quick, but I missed the show last week
Speaker 3: and just wanted to to make a connection with what
Speaker 3: happened in Africa and how it impacts us here. And
Speaker 3: what I'll say is the very way how we're communicating
Speaker 3: with each other now on our computers, our smartphones, electric vehicles,
Speaker 3: all of these things are emblems of the modern world
Speaker 3: and they all are powered from batteries that are powered
Speaker 3: by cobalt. Cobalt is in the mineral rich country of
Speaker 3: the Democratic Republic of Congo. It's mined by workers who
Speaker 3: are laboring in slave like conditions. So every time we
Speaker 3: use our computer, every time we answer our phone, every
Speaker 3: time we're on our smartphone, every time we see an
Speaker 3: EV or get into an electric vehicle, I want us
Speaker 3: to remember there are black folks working in slave like
Speaker 3: conditions to mine the cobalt right now, Because my question
Speaker 3: while I was over there was, well, who is buying
Speaker 3: who's the consumer. Of course, America is the largest consumer economy.
Speaker 3: China at this point accounts for sixty percent of all
Speaker 3: global cobalt processing, which turns into lithium ion batteries. The
Speaker 3: mining industry has ravaged the landscape of the DRC. So
Speaker 3: as you see the images being played right now of
Speaker 3: bloody hacking of limbs, it is internal conflict because the
Speaker 3: rebels have tried to seize control. And you have to
Speaker 3: this place should be Wakanda, This should be the wealthiest
Speaker 3: when you think about how it is powering the insant right,
Speaker 3: this is literally vibranium that is powering the world and
Speaker 3: the people there. Here you can be impoverished and still
Speaker 3: have a microwave, You can still have a refrigerator and
Speaker 3: be well below the poverty line. When I say poor there,
Speaker 3: I mean they literally have dirts and that's it. And
Speaker 3: so they're trying to survive. So I even had to
Speaker 3: understand somewhat of the rebels as horrific and barbaric as
Speaker 3: it was, that they too are trying to survive. Millions
Speaker 3: of trees have been cut down, the air of the
Speaker 3: mining area. Areas are hazy with grit. The water has
Speaker 3: been contaminated with toxic effluence from the mining process. Cobalt
Speaker 3: is toxic to touch and breathe. There are hundreds of
Speaker 3: thousands of poor Congolese people touching and breathing it in
Speaker 3: every day. You'll see young mothers with babies straped to
Speaker 3: the straped to their backs, breathing in this dust. Trump
Speaker 3: administration did just recently cut a deal between Rwanda and
Speaker 3: what we mostly know of this conflict is the Rwandan
Speaker 3: conflict that we all remember a lot of us. Yes,
Speaker 3: it became humanized to us in the movie Hotel Rwanda.
Speaker 3: And so recently Trump signed a deal because Rwanda was
Speaker 3: supporting a group of the rebels. It's really complicated, we
Speaker 3: don't have a lot of time to get into it,
Speaker 3: but essentially Rwanda was supporting a group of the rebels
Speaker 3: and the Trump administration came in and tried to coordinate
Speaker 3: this peace deal. But I would just say these piece
Speaker 3: deals do not always benefit the people there. The nearest
Speaker 3: example is Angola recently cut a deal. We're trying to
Speaker 3: build infrastruture in exchange for their oil, but the Angolans
Speaker 3: are not really benefiting from that. And the United States
Speaker 3: has a deep history in the Congo. Patrice La Mumba
Speaker 3: was their beloved leader. He was the equivalent to our
Speaker 3: Barack Obama. And he was murdered with the support of
Speaker 3: some local people, Congolese politicians, the Belgians who ravaged this
Speaker 3: country for decades, literally cutting off young children's arms. So
Speaker 3: many people there without limbs because they worked in the
Speaker 3: rubber plantations that the Belgians powered. But he was murdered
Speaker 3: with the tacit support of the United States government and
Speaker 3: the malign neglects of the United Nations. So I just
Speaker 3: wanted to share this so we could see that what
Speaker 3: happens in Africa not only powers the globe. Specifically, what's
Speaker 3: happening in the Congo not only powers the globe, but
Speaker 3: the conflict there we have to care about. And it's
Speaker 3: a beautiful country because you'll see on the screen now,
Speaker 3: you know, had this beautiful brunch, and you know the
Speaker 3: vegetation is there, and people Black people are beautiful in
Speaker 3: every language. They're speaking French fluently and flowing effortless between
Speaker 3: English and French. And you know, the skin looks like silk,
Speaker 3: and they're attired. I mean, they just move and look
Speaker 3: like royalty to people who are lucky enough to live
Speaker 3: that way. It's a lot of corruption there and so
Speaker 3: I just wanted to update people on what's happening there.
Speaker 3: We will dig more into this in the show. I
Speaker 3: would love to have a representative from the Congo or
Speaker 3: journalist who covers the Congo. Larry MacDowell does amazing work
Speaker 3: for CNN covering the entire continent of Africa. So in
Speaker 3: the future we'll talk about this more and how what's
Speaker 3: happening in Africa impacts us. But it's a lot of corruption,
Speaker 3: a lot of dictatorship, and I'm sad to say that
Speaker 3: America is falling right in line with a lot of
Speaker 3: what I've seen overseas and a lot of countries that
Speaker 3: are that are are falling or leaving their their democratic process.
Speaker 3: So thank you all for giving me the time to
Speaker 3: talk about it. It's a lot more to say, but
Speaker 3: I will reserve it when we have on an expert
Speaker 3: and not somebody like me who just went to be
Speaker 3: on ground to learn. But I do want to thank
Speaker 3: the people for inviting me there for the genocost event,
Speaker 3: which honored the people who I thought this was something
Speaker 3: that happened decades ago, but the conflict and the murders
Speaker 3: are still happening, So my sincerest thank you to the
Speaker 3: organization that brought me there. I had the opportunity to
Speaker 3: meet with the President and First Lady and it was
Speaker 3: a very humbling, sad experience. But we'll talk more about
Speaker 3: that later because I know we have exciting guests to
Speaker 3: get to today to get into our next topic.
Speaker 1: No, thank you so much tip for the share, for
Speaker 1: the update, and for holding all of us accountable to
Speaker 1: stay informed about these very critical issues. We can't talk
Speaker 1: about war and genocide in one part of the country
Speaker 1: and not talk about it on the continent.
Speaker 3: That was the pokay, that was my frustration the angel
Speaker 3: up because obviously what's happening in Gaza is heartbreaking. It's awful,
Speaker 3: like children are being stopped, and the world, well, America
Speaker 3: has been gripped by those images. And when it happens
Speaker 3: in Africa year after year after year, largely due to
Speaker 3: Americans meddling in politics and European countries raping and pillaging
Speaker 3: the continent, we look at it like, well, those are
Speaker 3: black babies in Africa, that's where it's supposed to happen.
Speaker 3: Those black babies in Africa, though Africa as a country
Speaker 3: and not a whole continent. But those black babies over there,
Speaker 3: that's normalized, like that's how they're supposed to live. But
Speaker 3: when it's somebody else that looks a little closer to white,
Speaker 3: it's impossible to think. It's like when the Ukrainian War
Speaker 3: took off. So those lives matter, those children. If we're
Speaker 3: so concerned about sexual abuse and the Jeffrey Epstein List,
Speaker 3: then let's be concerned about sex trafficking in Africa. Let's
Speaker 3: be concerned about these children being mutilated. If we're concerned
Speaker 3: about children starving, let's be concerned about the young people
Speaker 3: in Congo who have nothing. So thank you for that.
Speaker 3: I don't want to go off on a whole tangent again,
Speaker 3: but that's so true.
Speaker 1: That's exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 4: I just if I could just say to thank you
Speaker 4: for reminding us of how mineral rich the continent of Africa,
Speaker 4: being the most resourceful of all the continents. And a
Speaker 4: lot of times when I hear non people of color
Speaker 4: talk about the continent, and they like to describe these
Speaker 4: these fights of people of color against people of color,
Speaker 4: and they completely underestimate our intelligence by by suggesting that
Speaker 4: this is just some black on black crime or some sort,
Speaker 4: when we know that it is the supply lines that
Speaker 4: is fueling the rest of the world that you, largely
Speaker 4: European nations are protecting and are aligned with. Many of
Speaker 4: these groups have to protect that supply line, profiting from
Speaker 4: it exactly those situations and so just thank you for that.
Speaker 4: And we all we don't have to compare how terrible
Speaker 4: these situations are, but we absolutely need to pay attention,
Speaker 4: especially when it reflects us where we come from in
Speaker 4: the richness of the land.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and we are again so grateful. Tip for your
Speaker 1: journey next time, take us with you and we will
Speaker 1: definitely keep you all informed. We ourselves are going to
Speaker 1: be accountable on these issues and make sure that we're
Speaker 1: educating and learning at the same time. Here on Native
Speaker 1: lampod As you all know, there is a hot topic
Speaker 1: percolating all over the country. People thought it began in Texas.
Speaker 1: It did not begin in Texas. Someone, are you Louisiana
Speaker 1: somewhat argue North Carolina, But what we know now is
Speaker 1: that it is far beyond the bounds of the state
Speaker 1: lines of Texas joining us today though, are Congressman Mark Vezi,
Speaker 1: who represents texas thirty third Congressional District. State Representative Jelanda Jones,
Speaker 1: who was also a guest last week on My Solo pod,
Speaker 1: representing Texas's one hundred and forty seventh State District legislative district,
Speaker 1: and Congressman Emmanuel Cleaver the second. Some of them call
Speaker 1: some people call him rev. I call him boss. He's
Speaker 1: the CBC chair from when I was the executive director
Speaker 1: of the CBC, but also now in the crosshairs. Don't collapse,
Speaker 1: rup for this part. In the crosshairs for in the
Speaker 1: redistricting battle in Missouri. He is the one district Loan
Speaker 1: District that is protected or was at least by the
Speaker 1: Voting Rights Act, and now they are targeting the Republicans
Speaker 1: in Missouri are targeting Congressman Cleaver's district. So welcome to
Speaker 1: our show. We say welcome home, y'all, and we thank
Speaker 1: you so much for joining us. Tim Or Andrew, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna let you kick it off.
Speaker 4: No, I actually have a shirt on Representative Jones that
Speaker 4: I wore for you. It says move with faith not fear.
Speaker 4: But Pastor and Congressman VC, it applies to all of you,
Speaker 4: But we've been so hardened by you, Representative Jones and
Speaker 4: your in the delegation from Texas for showing what active
Speaker 4: and responsible resistance looks like. Your fight, I think is
Speaker 4: powering so many of us around the country who are
Speaker 4: confronting these issues as well. I know that this issue,
Speaker 4: you know, confronts the country, the entire landscape, and right
Speaker 4: now we may be looking at what I you know,
Speaker 4: I believe is sort of the armoring up, or maybe
Speaker 4: it is the ratcheting up between states as democratic states
Speaker 4: start to respond to what some of these conservative states
Speaker 4: are doing. I love if you all could kick it off,
Speaker 4: beginning with you, a Representative Jones. We're telling us what
Speaker 4: does the ground game look like if this actually does
Speaker 4: become a ratcheted up situation of d versus our states
Speaker 4: redistricting mid dissenial to basically confront and counteract what Republicans
Speaker 4: are doing to change the rules of the game so
Speaker 4: that they can cheat their way to re election.
Speaker 8: So the ground game in this systance looks like each
Speaker 8: state that's a democratic state going in and quite frankly
Speaker 8: redistricting out Republicans because that's what they're doing with us
Speaker 8: and it's surgically precise. They are literally finding where there
Speaker 8: are concentrations of black and brown people which are organically
Speaker 8: majority minority, and they are somehow trying to say that
Speaker 8: it is a coalition district. And so the districts currently
Speaker 8: weren't drawn because their coalition district. The districts were drawn
Speaker 8: because black people and brown people are just living by
Speaker 8: each other, and they somehow said that that's illegal. And
Speaker 8: so now they are dividing us, they're cracking us, and
Speaker 8: they're packing us in other districts that are majoritarily Anglo.
Speaker 8: And so the only way Trump gets five seats is
Speaker 8: if they go in with precision and divide up black
Speaker 8: and brown neighborhoods as racist. And it's important we call
Speaker 8: it what it is, and I see it as self defense.
Speaker 8: I think Nancy Pelosi called itself. It's self defense for
Speaker 8: the preservation of representation by black and brown people to
Speaker 8: elect the representatives of their choice, plain and simple. And
Speaker 8: so if you've been in a fight, you have to
Speaker 8: use the tactics that your opponents are using. There's no
Speaker 8: way they can expect for us to fight with both
Speaker 8: hands behind our back when clearly Trump and the billionaire boys,
Speaker 8: and those people literally don't respect the Constitution. They don't
Speaker 8: respect historic districts in Houston. I know that Congressman VC
Speaker 8: can probably explain to you how his stronghold is Tarrent County.
Speaker 8: It's been in thirty three and they some kind of
Speaker 8: way tried to carve out Tramp County out there to
Speaker 8: make him weaker in his district. I'll let him talk
Speaker 8: about that. And so it looks like guerrilla warfare, it
Speaker 8: looks like hand to hand combat. It looks like we
Speaker 8: need to stay where we are so that they can't
Speaker 8: get a quorum. Because at the end of the day,
Speaker 8: there's eighty eight Republicans in Texas in the House and
Speaker 8: the Democrats and sixty two never beat sad eight. So
Speaker 8: the only tactic that we have is to get ghosts
Speaker 8: where they literally can't conduct business, which is what our
Speaker 8: quorum break is. So that's what it is. It's living
Speaker 8: in an uncomfortable state. This is not normal for me
Speaker 8: to be hiding, for me to be Washington, who I
Speaker 8: talk to on the phone, for me to stay in
Speaker 8: my where if I'm staying, I'm not telling you that,
Speaker 8: for me to be concerned that the FBI are hunting
Speaker 8: us like we are criminals for something that's not criminal,
Speaker 8: and it's not even federal, so none of this is normal.
Speaker 8: But for us, it's necessary for us to just hold
Speaker 8: the line and deny them a quorum because it's all
Speaker 8: we have to do at a minimum, until California like
Speaker 8: drops their maps or something so that we can see
Speaker 8: your Texas. If you go forward, we're gonna do that too.
Speaker 8: You think you're the biggest, like you're the badgest bullets
Speaker 8: on the block where you ate, and that's that's what
Speaker 8: it is.
Speaker 1: That thank you so much for Fendarie.
Speaker 3: That is the biggest coming out this week that governor
Speaker 3: California Governor Gavin Newsom has said that he will draw
Speaker 3: congressional maps that will end Trump's presidency, quoting him, he
Speaker 3: has yet to offer any details on that, but certainly
Speaker 3: the American public is waiting with baited breath. You kicked
Speaker 3: it to Congressman Mark VC, so i'll pick up with you,
Speaker 3: Congressman VC.
Speaker 11: One.
Speaker 3: I think for the people who may not understand the
Speaker 3: seriousness of this, which I understand because we're blitzed every
Speaker 3: day with fifteen things that are urgent, and we're asking
Speaker 3: people to care about these fifteen things and to fight
Speaker 3: these things. Right now, DC residents are worried about their
Speaker 3: children getting to and from school safely. The same in Texas.
Speaker 3: You know, there was a fifteen year old student who
Speaker 3: was disabled who was detained by Ice because of a
Speaker 3: mistaken identity. So while we have all that going on,
Speaker 3: we see our core democratic institutions eroding before our eyes.
Speaker 3: And now, even though the redistricting issue has been in
Speaker 3: the limelight for years, you know, predating the Trump administration,
Speaker 3: why should people care? Like, what is the sense of urgency?
Speaker 3: Make it plain for people that if you're sitting in
Speaker 3: your apartment in New York City, or you're sitting in
Speaker 3: Seattle or Chicago, what is the sense of urgency why
Speaker 3: we should care about this issue.
Speaker 12: I mean, there are so many reasons why you should
Speaker 12: care about this issue, and the first one is that
Speaker 12: to me, what's happening is Trump is clearly trying to
Speaker 12: consolidate as much power as he possibly can. And this
Speaker 12: is just another example. Whether you want to look at
Speaker 12: what's going on at the Smithsonian, you know, him appointing
Speaker 12: himself the head of the Kennedy Center, where he's going
Speaker 12: to try to you know, be the czar of anything
Speaker 12: out of the federal government that deals with the arts.
Speaker 12: He's trying to consolidate as much power as he possibly
Speaker 12: can uh, and he's going to continue to do this
Speaker 12: with ice. He's going to continue to do this with
Speaker 12: the firing and the federal workforce and these and these
Speaker 12: doge layoffs. And I really do think that he is
Speaker 12: trying to move us towards a place that we have
Speaker 12: not seen when it comes to how the US government works.
Speaker 12: This whole idea that he's going to take another census
Speaker 12: in a couple of years would to me be the
Speaker 12: beginning of him trying to put together a group of
Speaker 12: legislators that are Republican and one hundred percent beholden to
Speaker 12: him that would absolutely allow him to stay in office
Speaker 12: if that's what he chooses to do on January sixth,
Speaker 12: twenty twenty nine, where he absolutely could not be removed.
Speaker 12: And so I think that we're in a very dangerous
Speaker 12: situation right now, and what he's trying to do is
Speaker 12: not healthy, is not helpful. I think for those of
Speaker 12: us that have followed voting rights for a long time
Speaker 12: that this could also be the end of the voting
Speaker 12: rights Act. There's something that has not been talked a
Speaker 12: lot about when it comes to the Texas Map and
Speaker 12: one of the congressional districts that they dismantled Jelanda Jones
Speaker 12: Neck of the Woods in Houston by Silvia Garcia. It
Speaker 12: was a sixty three percent Hispanic voting age population district
Speaker 12: and now it's been down to about forty four percent
Speaker 12: Hispanic voting age population, and that is a clear violation
Speaker 12: of the Voting Rights Act. If anything is over fifty percent,
Speaker 12: it is supposed to be a protected district. And so
Speaker 12: now that's been dismantled. My guess is that Texas is
Speaker 12: trying to set themselves up to be and Greg Abbott
Speaker 12: more specifically, is trying to set himself up to be
Speaker 12: the person that took down the Voting Rights Act and
Speaker 12: specifically took down Section two of the Voting Ranks action
Speaker 12: that would have a huge impact not just on Texas
Speaker 12: and congressional seats, but that would have a big impact
Speaker 12: on state legislative seats, on county commissioner seats, on city
Speaker 12: council seats, and it would really hurt the black community
Speaker 12: probably more than anybody else.
Speaker 3: Ierson can I just I want to last really quickly
Speaker 3: because our viewers may not understand, you know, everything that
Speaker 3: you said again because there we're flooded with so much information.
Speaker 3: So one you talked about Donald Trump and the senses.
Speaker 3: So just so our viewers know, Donald Trump has instructed
Speaker 3: the Commerce Department, which is of course where the censes live,
Speaker 3: to immediately begin working on a new sensus. And we
Speaker 3: don't know what that means. Again, he says these things
Speaker 3: and has offered no details on what might include that.
Speaker 3: But the concern is who counts within that census, and
Speaker 3: why that matters is because that can determine budgets, that
Speaker 3: determines resources that come to your community. But what we're
Speaker 3: talking about today, why that matters is because every ten
Speaker 3: years after the census, states redraw the boundaries of congressional
Speaker 3: and state legislative districts, which, if he has his say,
Speaker 3: it will not be an honest account and it could
Speaker 3: be redrawn in a way that is racist. Gerrymandering, sadly
Speaker 3: is not illegal. Racist gerrymandering is, and so we have
Speaker 3: seen in North Carolina. Andrew will correct me, Andrew and
Speaker 3: Angela correct me if I'm wrong. But the court when
Speaker 3: they were looking at North Carolina said it was done
Speaker 3: with surgical precision to exclude voters of color. So you
Speaker 3: have a process where you have politicians picking their voters,
Speaker 3: not voters picking their choosing their politicians. So I just
Speaker 3: wanted to give our viewers some context there.
Speaker 1: And I know we want to make sure we get
Speaker 1: some ample time to hear from you all.
Speaker 7: Two.
Speaker 1: Congressman Cleaver had a technical difficulty, but it's coming right back, okay.
Speaker 1: I wanted to come back to you, Congressman BC, because
Speaker 1: there's something very, very critical that we are kind of
Speaker 1: not talking about proactively in the press, and you brought
Speaker 1: it up about Sylvia Garcia's district. These are sinister acts
Speaker 1: because the president is trying to figure out how to
Speaker 1: get a majority, but not just politically. He's doing it
Speaker 1: the same way that he removed the Martin Luther King
Speaker 1: bust out of the Oval. He's doing it the same
Speaker 1: way that they attacked DEI, which is diversity, equity, and
Speaker 1: inclusion for those of you who are not following it
Speaker 1: at home. He's doing it the same way that he
Speaker 1: calls those of us who he decides to attack black
Speaker 1: journalists low IQ. This is absolutely racist at its core.
Speaker 1: Can you talk about how this racist jerry manderin practice.
Speaker 1: Because jerry mandering in and of itself is not bad.
Speaker 1: We'll get into that later. Redistricting in and of itself
Speaker 1: is not bad every ten years. But why all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, when he needs a majority of white supremacists
Speaker 1: in the House of Representatives in state legislatures all over
Speaker 1: the country, now you find yourself also in the cross
Speaker 1: hairs of that. Why should people pay attention to this,
Speaker 1: Why should they focus on this, and why should they
Speaker 1: make it a priority given what Tip just said about
Speaker 1: everything else that we have to carry.
Speaker 12: Yeah, absolutely, people should care about this for a lot
Speaker 12: of different reasons. Let me give you an example. One
Speaker 12: of the things that my Republican colleagues will absolutely not
Speaker 12: do is that they will not when we have the
Speaker 12: appropriations process, they will not ask for community funding project money.
Speaker 5: They refuse to do it. And I just got a YMC.
Speaker 12: Reopened in one of the black communities in Fort Worth
Speaker 12: in my district, and the way the lines are withdrawn,
Speaker 12: that district would now be represented by a member of
Speaker 12: Congress in the North Texas delegation that's hardcore rural Republican,
Speaker 12: and he would never ask for community funding project money
Speaker 12: so that YMC could be open to serve low income families.
Speaker 12: He just would not do it. And so all of
Speaker 12: a sudden, if you can draw these districts in like
Speaker 12: you said, sturgically remove us from areas and make it
Speaker 12: to where our votes won't count, then you will have
Speaker 12: a bunch of members of Congress representing our communities that
Speaker 12: won't do things that we believe are important and bring
Speaker 12: tax dollars back into our communities to help uplift our neighborhoods.
Speaker 12: And just that alone could be something that I think
Speaker 12: could have profound implications on our communities as well as
Speaker 12: a continuation of people just being able to be five
Speaker 12: from a lot from the federal workforce, and many people
Speaker 12: that work at many different agencies are from the African
Speaker 12: American community, and the list goes on and on and on,
Speaker 12: and so people need to realize that it's not really
Speaker 12: just about him trying to elect more Republican Congressmen. It's
Speaker 12: about him trying to elect more congressmen that are going
Speaker 12: to completely neglect the African American communities and put together
Speaker 12: majorities in the House of Representatives that will not advance
Speaker 12: legislation that is collectively in our best interest and it's
Speaker 12: very real what they're trying to do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Andrew, I want to make sure that you
Speaker 1: weigh in here too. But there's one thing that I
Speaker 1: really want to say to Representative Jones and to all
Speaker 1: of your colleagues. Thank you all for bringing a fight
Speaker 1: that the nation could see themselves reflected in. I know
Speaker 1: that some of your colleagues now are kind of wavering,
Speaker 1: trying to figure out if they have the willpower, the desire,
Speaker 1: the funds right to even stay out in this fight.
Speaker 1: Can you talk about what people can do at home
Speaker 1: to encourage those who are wavering, who are worried about
Speaker 1: their families, like legitimate issues, but who are worried about
Speaker 1: how they continue this fight. What happens when the next
Speaker 1: special session is called? Where do we go from here?
Speaker 4: So let me say this.
Speaker 5: Right here, right now, we will we are.
Speaker 8: We can't tell you where we are right because we're
Speaker 8: been hunted by the FBI. Let's be clear, for something
Speaker 8: that's not even federal, and for something that's not even criminal.
Speaker 8: I want you to let that sink in. We are resolute,
Speaker 8: you know, and we are actually taking it one day
Speaker 8: at a time. And here's why. Just yesterday the governor said,
Speaker 8: because I think he's embarrassed that he hadn't been able
Speaker 8: to force us to come back, and he hadn't been
Speaker 8: able to find us that, oh, we're going to end
Speaker 8: the special session on Friday. The special session was supposed
Speaker 8: to end on Tuesday, you know, coming up. And so
Speaker 8: now I won't believe the special session is in until
Speaker 8: this officially ends, because it could actually be a way
Speaker 8: to get us to come back, to capture us like
Speaker 8: they get back in the Slavery days, to drag us
Speaker 8: back to the plantation on the on the House floor.
Speaker 8: So so we are resolute we ain't going nowhere.
Speaker 5: We'll deal with the.
Speaker 8: Second special session when he calls it. Now he's told
Speaker 8: us he's gonna call it, and we know he's gonna
Speaker 8: call it. We don't know if he's gonna call it immediately.
Speaker 8: We don't know if he's gonna wait till Monday. We
Speaker 8: just don't know. And so just continue to give us encouragement,
Speaker 8: support us, support the TBC, the Texas Legislative Black Caucus.
Speaker 8: That would be good for you to do, and so
Speaker 8: and just keep talking about this, and you ask Congressman VC,
Speaker 8: what should people other places feel like pay attention to
Speaker 8: what's going on? Let me tell you why, because last
Speaker 8: year in North Carolina, nobody knew what was going on.
Speaker 8: Last year in North Carolina, they literally racially and illegally
Speaker 8: and unconstitutionally jairmandered and they stole three seats. And right
Speaker 8: now Donald Trump has a Congress with a three Republican
Speaker 8: majority who rubber stamps all of his stuff. So you
Speaker 8: wonder how what happened in North Carolina with something that
Speaker 8: people didn't know about. So let me give us a
Speaker 8: pat on the back that we let y'all know what
Speaker 8: they're trying to do in Houston because we don't want
Speaker 8: it to go under cover of darkness. And why you
Speaker 8: think North Carolina might not have anything that affects you
Speaker 8: or text us If he keeps the house in twenty
Speaker 8: twenty six, we're going to have more of these bad policies.
Speaker 8: So you know those eggs that used to cost six
Speaker 8: dollars that now cost thirteen dollars, that's because they stole
Speaker 8: them three seats in North Carolina. You know the Social
Speaker 8: Security they're trying to take from us after we've paid
Speaker 8: into it for our entire adult life. They trying to
Speaker 8: take away our social security to give it to billionaires
Speaker 8: for tax breaks. We earn that that's not a handout,
Speaker 8: that's not welfare. You know how families are literally, us
Speaker 8: citizens are literally being deported. They're coming up, covered up,
Speaker 8: don't know who they are, don't even know if they
Speaker 8: legitimate police, being shifted off the countries. That's because Trump
Speaker 8: has a three Republican majority, so trust and believe. It
Speaker 8: can get worse. And I think we've gotten comfortable, it
Speaker 8: says a people, as black people in this country, because
Speaker 8: we're so far removed from segregation, we don't realize how
Speaker 8: we used to get lynch. We don't realize how we
Speaker 8: used to have crosses burned in our yards. We don't
Speaker 8: realize how we used to get assassinated. Martin Luther, King,
Speaker 8: Malcolm X, metgr Evers, you name them in it till
Speaker 8: who was a kid who ain't doing nothing wrong right,
Speaker 8: We don't realize that it can be bad. We don't
Speaker 8: realize that we had to go to separate schools. We
Speaker 8: don't realize that we had to drink out of separate faucets.
Speaker 8: We don't realize that stuff. You know why, because we're
Speaker 8: taking it out of our books and we don't realize that,
Speaker 8: and so we need to realize that it can get worse.
Speaker 8: We used to have to pay poll taxes and it's
Speaker 8: just been so far removed. And I really need for
Speaker 8: black people to go back to the mentality that we
Speaker 8: had during segregation, where we were it. We were get
Speaker 8: each other, we were going to look out for each other.
Speaker 8: We were going to make sure that we all were
Speaker 8: supported and that we survived and that we thrived and
Speaker 8: we didn't rely on other people. But my point is,
Speaker 8: this is what they're trying to do. We just had
Speaker 8: the sixtieth anniversary of the Voting Rights Act early either
Speaker 8: earlier this week or last week, I can't remember the date,
Speaker 8: and they trying to take us back to a time
Speaker 8: when we didn't have the right to vote. And you know,
Speaker 8: right now, there's not a lot We have twelve point
Speaker 8: three three percent of the population in Texas black people do,
Speaker 8: and most of us are concentrated in the Houston area
Speaker 8: and the Dallas area, and so that's where the four
Speaker 8: black congress people in Texas are elected, in Houston and Dallas.
Speaker 8: And with this racist redistrict thing, They literally are potentially
Speaker 8: putting Mark Nice against Jazz mcrockett. Why we can't have both,
Speaker 8: Why they got to fight each other? Why does it
Speaker 8: have to be a blood bath In Houston? We got
Speaker 8: Al Green, you know, the one who shook his cane
Speaker 8: at the State of Disillusion and said in Pete's Trump
Speaker 8: and they escorted him out. Why has he been drawn
Speaker 8: into CDA TE which is where Correnswiman, Jackson Lee and
Speaker 8: Congressman Turner were. So they're literally going to wipe out
Speaker 8: two black seats. And you've talked about Congresswoman Garcia. They've
Speaker 8: literally diluted hers to where the Hispanics that they put
Speaker 8: in her district don't vote as higher rate. And so
Speaker 8: you think this can't affect you, It most certainly can,
Speaker 8: and it will. And fool me once, Shame on you,
Speaker 8: fool me twice. Shame on me. North Carolina was the
Speaker 8: first fool And we know about it. Well now we know, no,
Speaker 8: we have no reason to expect it. Trump is all
Speaker 8: of a sudden going to respect black people or the
Speaker 8: constitution of women, you name it. He doesn't respect anybody.
Speaker 8: And so I'm asking you to please pay attention and
Speaker 8: please hold us down because it is hard. We're away
Speaker 8: from our families. I got a new baby, I miss her.
Speaker 8: I'm my mother's caregiver, but my son and my sister
Speaker 8: are taking care of our mother and grandmother because this
Speaker 8: is something we just have to do for me. I
Speaker 8: always thought if I live back in the day with
Speaker 8: the Edmond Petterson Bridge and the Montgomery bus boycott, that
Speaker 8: I would be there. So I know that I'll be there.
Speaker 8: So just keep praying for us, keep fighting for us,
Speaker 8: Encourage us, you know, because we literally are getting fined
Speaker 8: five hundred dollars a day. Y'all. We make six hundred
Speaker 8: dollars a month, right, and that's six hundred dollars a month,
Speaker 8: which is seventy two hundred dollars a year. That's six
Speaker 8: hundred dollars a month goes to pay for my retirement.
Speaker 8: So my pension goes to pay for my health insurance.
Speaker 8: And I also take out my dues because I'm a member,
Speaker 8: a duced member of the Texas State Employees Union. And
Speaker 8: six hundred dollars a month is not a lot of money.
Speaker 8: Who can live off of that? And now they're threatening
Speaker 8: to cut our budgets and they're saying we've abandoned our duties.
Speaker 8: We have not abandoned our duties. I'm a district office
Speaker 8: that's open right now. When my constituents had issues with
Speaker 8: getting their medicaid or their Medicare, or they have problems
Speaker 8: with their relatives who are who are incarcerated, or they
Speaker 8: can't get Section eight housing, my office helps them.
Speaker 5: That's what we do.
Speaker 8: Out they're cutting our budget by thirty percent, So I
Speaker 8: will stop venting about why you need to care about
Speaker 8: what happens in Texas because it is going to affect you.
Speaker 8: And if Donald Trump is able to hold on to
Speaker 8: the House by targeting minorities, black and brown people, I
Speaker 8: don't even know how we recover. If we lose those
Speaker 8: two black seats, we ain't gonna get them back. We're
Speaker 8: gonna be stuck. So please support us. It's really important
Speaker 8: and let us know you know how you feel about
Speaker 8: what we're doing. And people are tired of for the
Speaker 8: most part, they say Democrats don't fight.
Speaker 5: Well we fight. We literally.
Speaker 8: We have literally got California, New York, in Illinois to say, hey,
Speaker 8: if you pull the trigger in Texas, Donald Trump, we
Speaker 8: got something for you. We can do the same thing
Speaker 8: where we're at so we need for democratic governors to
Speaker 8: do that.
Speaker 4: You're stiffening their spines. It's already been chuck full of information.
Speaker 4: You don't want to miss the rest of our conversation
Speaker 4: with these amazing elected representatives on redistricting. Stay tuned.
Speaker 1: We have another fighter who's joined us, Andrew. I know
Speaker 1: you probably have a question. Conversan Cleever, I.
Speaker 4: Mean really great comments by everybody and a reverend Congressman Kleaver.
Speaker 4: We early in the conversation, Representative Jones mentioned packing and
Speaker 4: cracking and are those are terms of art as well
Speaker 4: as as science, they have a meaning to them. Help
Speaker 4: us understand, because I think this connection really has to
Speaker 4: be made of the layperson might look at a map
Speaker 4: and see someone draw a circle around it and say, well,
Speaker 4: this is a district, and then go with adjacent to
Speaker 4: it and draw another circle and say this is a district.
Speaker 4: Tell us why it makes absolutely no sense or what
Speaker 4: since you think it makes for communities of color, shared interests,
Speaker 4: communities of shared interests. How it is that that is
Speaker 4: the way in which don't take a layman's look at
Speaker 4: these maps, understand what we have in common, and how
Speaker 4: then we get drawn out of power and disempowered through
Speaker 4: our vote. So when we hear cracking and packing these districts,
Speaker 4: and I've seen it firsthand here in Florida where we've
Speaker 4: lost now three CBC members out of the state of
Speaker 4: Florida sets that were hard won by a consent decree
Speaker 4: through the courts. So I've seen it happen. But talk
Speaker 4: to us about what it means for black folks who
Speaker 4: share common interests to be able to elect a representative
Speaker 4: of their choice who will then go and advocate on
Speaker 4: behalf of those shared in How does that show up
Speaker 4: in this redistricting fight? Uh, the separation of our communities.
Speaker 7: Well, well, we thank you very much for the question.
Speaker 7: I apologize for.
Speaker 11: But what we have in Missouri is dummy mandarin, uh
Speaker 11: you know, and it is based on, uh, the pursuit
Speaker 11: of pure power. Nothing legal uh should creep into the conversation,
Speaker 11: is pure political power.
Speaker 7: And what they would like to do is is gather
Speaker 7: all the.
Speaker 11: Minorities they can, all the African Americans into one little
Speaker 11: area and UH say, well, did you get angry? We
Speaker 11: we We've got thousands of black people right here piled
Speaker 11: in together. And that's exactly the danger because What happens then,
Speaker 11: is they take away any They will reduce and perhaps
Speaker 11: even take away the opportunity for African Americans, along with
Speaker 11: progressive whites, brown people to be in a district where
Speaker 11: they would have a voice with the person if I'm
Speaker 11: not if I'm not in the fifth district, or if
Speaker 11: somebody with progressive values are not or is not in
Speaker 11: that in that district. Here, the people here have no voice. Yeah,
Speaker 11: they can go out and vote, they have no influence.
Speaker 7: With the member.
Speaker 11: They can go to a town hall meeting. That member
Speaker 11: who was elected in a dumming Mandarin district is going
Speaker 11: to end up.
Speaker 7: Setting the.
Speaker 11: Here's or her agenda, political agenda, the community they want
Speaker 11: to be on.
Speaker 7: In the most they take on actually a minority of
Speaker 7: the people, uh you know, and.
Speaker 11: We are in Missouri are particularly vulnerable to this because
Speaker 11: you know, my district right now is maybe twenty five
Speaker 11: percent African Americans. And you know, if you take my
Speaker 11: twenty five percent and put it in a district where
Speaker 11: where they have eighty percent already white voters, I am
Speaker 11: now just going to Washington and uh and and renting
Speaker 11: a room someplace.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 8: You know.
Speaker 11: So we've got to have we and I know people
Speaker 11: some African Americans here. We're having a meeting this afternoon
Speaker 11: with all the state representatives. But I had even one
Speaker 11: of them to say, well, if we get all of
Speaker 11: the bad people in this district, we're going to be
Speaker 11: more powerful.
Speaker 7: No, we won't.
Speaker 11: We're going to be important politically importent. H And so
Speaker 11: we have a lot of educating to do with with
Speaker 11: with people. And uh, you know, I just got off
Speaker 11: the phone with Eric Holder uh to come and do
Speaker 11: this when we first got started, and uh uh he
Speaker 11: is preaching the same uh sermon if you will to
Speaker 11: to all of us who are in Injebarty that don't
Speaker 11: fall from for the okie doke.
Speaker 7: Uh you know, and start thinking.
Speaker 11: Well, you know, for example, I wanted to one of
Speaker 11: the state representation said well, well we got some large
Speaker 11: rumany black folks over in Reytown, Missouri, which is a
Speaker 11: suburb of kas City. Let's put them over in the
Speaker 11: Pith district too, you know. And and you know, on
Speaker 11: the on the surface it may sound good, there ain't
Speaker 11: no good in it. So we're in a situation where
Speaker 11: it's flight or fight, and we are choosing fight. And
Speaker 11: I think that has to be done all over the country.
Speaker 11: We're going to do it here in Missouri where people
Speaker 11: want to pick their voters instead of the voters picking
Speaker 11: their people. Right.
Speaker 8: Can I say this?
Speaker 12: And I want in Julyan to touch on this a
Speaker 12: little bit earlier, which I think is very important, and
Speaker 12: I want to you know, first of all, before I
Speaker 12: say this, I want to thank Gavin Newsom for doing
Speaker 12: the redraw because the biggest mistakes that Democrat made in
Speaker 12: two thousand and three when Tom Delay did did middicate
Speaker 12: decade redistricting and also misused federal resources. I don't know
Speaker 12: if y'all remember back in two thousand and three when
Speaker 12: when Oklahoma still had a Democratic governor and they were
Speaker 12: trying to do the mid decade redistricting, state legislators from
Speaker 12: Democrat from state Democratic state legislators from Texas went to Ardenore, Oklahoma,
Speaker 12: and no one knew where they were, and Tom Delayed
Speaker 12: used an F sixteen to find the tail number of
Speaker 12: the former Speaker of the House who flew his own plane.
Speaker 12: They literally used government resources the same way how they're
Speaker 12: misusing the FBI now. And when that happened, we didn't
Speaker 12: do anything back. We did nothing and had we done
Speaker 12: something back in two thousand and three, we wouldn't be
Speaker 12: where we are today, because when a bully hits you
Speaker 12: on the playground, you got to hit his ass back.
Speaker 5: And we didn't do that.
Speaker 12: And so now they're thinking that we're just going to
Speaker 12: roll over and take it, and we're not anymore.
Speaker 5: We're fighting back.
Speaker 12: But if they go to Missouri and then they're talking
Speaker 12: about going to Florida, we need to make sure that
Speaker 12: our governors are hitting back.
Speaker 5: And right now there are too many excuses.
Speaker 12: People are saying, well, I can't because of our state
Speaker 12: constitution says this, and that Florida has very strict.
Speaker 4: Rules after constitutional amendment, they have.
Speaker 12: Very strict rules in Florida. And I guarantee you I
Speaker 12: don't know what the makeup is of the Florida Supreme
Speaker 12: Court right now. Andrew can probably.
Speaker 4: Tell us all decide disappointees.
Speaker 12: I promise you, those Federalist Society judges in Florida are
Speaker 12: not going to go by the rules. So why the
Speaker 12: hell are we still talking about the damn rules? We
Speaker 12: need for Jersey, we need New York, we need for Colorado, Angela,
Speaker 12: your home state of Washington, we need for them to
Speaker 12: draw some long, skinny lines like they did in Texas,
Speaker 12: because no one in those cities need to be in
Speaker 12: a Kamala Harris eighty four percent district. And they need
Speaker 12: to put some of those Democrats in some of those
Speaker 12: heavily packed districts in blue states and draw those Republicans out.
Speaker 12: They need to draw their asses right out. And if
Speaker 12: we if we're going to sit back and talk about
Speaker 12: all the rule of law and and and you can't
Speaker 12: do that and the Constance, and when they are eliminating
Speaker 12: us and eliminating black seats.
Speaker 5: Then what in the hell are we even doing. We
Speaker 5: got to fight back. It's now or never.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you. I know Mark is mad when
Speaker 1: he cuts it in front of Connerson.
Speaker 4: Clear.
Speaker 1: That's good Mark, That's important. This is one of these
Speaker 1: these moments where you have to call a thing a thing.
Speaker 1: I think it's really really important. Even though my state
Speaker 1: is not as diverse as it once was, there are
Speaker 1: populations where people of color need to still have their
Speaker 1: representatives and have a voice. We cannot lose sight of
Speaker 1: the importance of calling this thing what it is. It
Speaker 1: is racist. It is not just political. It may so
Speaker 1: happen to be that our politics generally swing left, but
Speaker 1: that does not make it just political. It is racist first,
Speaker 1: and we've got to lead with that. And I think
Speaker 1: that is so important. T If I saw you leaning in,
Speaker 1: I don't want to tumble.
Speaker 4: Ref Jones. Can I pick up what Tiffany didn't want to,
Speaker 4: just to say, you all have stiffened the spines of
Speaker 4: some of these frankly super blue state Democratic governors who
Speaker 4: previously before I mean when you sat there with Kathy
Speaker 4: Hochl and I heard the words coming from her mouth,
Speaker 4: you know, love all the Democrats at all, but I
Speaker 4: just wasn't expecting it. You all have, you all have
Speaker 4: taken the wool off, and I'm just I'm curious to
Speaker 4: know how much of this you can share of your
Speaker 4: conversations with some of the more timid of democratic governors
Speaker 4: who are not recognizing that they must meet this moment
Speaker 4: with a threat of mutual destruction. So if you go there,
Speaker 4: we all die, right, the system blows up on everybody.
Speaker 8: It's a period victory, right. And it was interesting. One
Speaker 8: of the reasons that I ended up saying what I
Speaker 8: said with Governor Hoko that ended up going viral was
Speaker 8: because one of the problems we have with our allies,
Speaker 8: our allies who do not have melanin in them is
Speaker 8: they don't want to say racist. They just don't want
Speaker 8: to say it. And the truth is the Supreme Court
Speaker 8: that's owned by Trump has said that political gerry mandarin
Speaker 8: is legal, that if Republicans want to drive Democrats so
Speaker 8: they can have more Republican seats, it's it's legal. So
Speaker 8: if you lead with it's a political ger mandering, Repoltans
Speaker 8: are trying to draw Democrats out, they can do that.
Speaker 8: We have got to be smarter, and we need our
Speaker 8: allies to call a thing a thing, call a spade
Speaker 8: a spade, pull a race card when they're racist, and
Speaker 8: they need to say it's racist gerrymandering. And at the
Speaker 8: end of the day, what I've said and what I
Speaker 8: said then was I need we need our white allies
Speaker 8: to call it racist. Right, Black people vote at the
Speaker 8: highest levels for Democrats, but we are the ones that
Speaker 8: are the least protected by Democrats. I mean, we will
Speaker 8: have white Democrats filibuster and pink shoes for however many
Speaker 8: hours for a woman's right to their body. I'm gonna
Speaker 8: need that same vigor and awareness to be brought to
Speaker 8: racistly gairmandering out the right constitutional right of black and
Speaker 8: brown people to elect a representative of their choice. And
Speaker 8: to Congressman Cleaver's point, where you want somebody who is progressive,
Speaker 8: let's just say progressive, and who's going to be able
Speaker 8: to vote progressive things? If you Congressman bc U served
Speaker 8: with Congressman Turner, and if he say nothing else, people
Speaker 8: knew he was.
Speaker 5: From the faux FO, which is Acre's Hokers Home Right.
Speaker 8: So if you're not from Houston, Texas, you probably did
Speaker 8: your research to figure out what is the faux fo?
Speaker 8: What is Acres Holmes. When Congressional District eighteen came into
Speaker 8: existence in nineteen seventy three, Acres Holmes has always been there.
Speaker 8: Acres Homes, Independence Heights, and Acres Holmes came because the
Speaker 8: homes were on Acres Right. And this is when black
Speaker 8: people didn't even have land right. Independence Heights speaks for
Speaker 8: itself is independent. Those were always in Congressional District aen
Speaker 8: since nineteen seventy three when it was created. In this
Speaker 8: new gerrymandered racist map, they have literally removed AGAs Home
Speaker 8: from CD eighteen. They have removed Independence Heights from CD eighteen,
Speaker 8: and put it in CD twenty nine with a latina, right,
Speaker 8: So they basically we had a herd of black folks
Speaker 8: who had common to share an interest, and we voted
Speaker 8: our interests to get somebody elected. And let me tell
Speaker 8: you who's who represented CD eighteen, Barbara Jordan, Mickey Leland,
Speaker 8: Craig Washington, Sheila Jackson, Lee, Sylvester Turner. How do you
Speaker 8: take away AGAs Holmes and you basically separated them from
Speaker 8: the Herbard. I mean, if you look at those Animal
Speaker 8: Kingdom shows, what happens when somebody gets separated from the herbit,
Speaker 8: they get eaten, right, that no one's there to protect them.
Speaker 8: And so this is series. And what they're doing is
Speaker 8: they're going and they and what they have to do
Speaker 8: in order to succeed is that they've got to go
Speaker 8: to urban areas where we are concentrated. Because in Texas
Speaker 8: wet from like racist towns. When we get older, the
Speaker 8: first thing we do is go to the big city.
Speaker 8: We go to Houston, we go to Dallas where we'll
Speaker 8: see other people like us. Right, And so they've literally divided.
Speaker 8: It's called it's a legal terminology cracked. They've cracked the
Speaker 8: black community or cracked the Hispanic community and packed them
Speaker 8: where they want them to go, to dilute, to dilute
Speaker 8: minority power to go who they want. So this is
Speaker 8: serious as a heart attack. And again, if you learn
Speaker 8: nothing from me, if you get nothing from me from this,
Speaker 8: is you. We've got to call a thing a thing.
Speaker 8: I'm a trial lawyer for thirty years. Here's what I do.
Speaker 8: I prepare for my I prepare for my opposition. Right,
Speaker 8: how would I get me and I do that if
Speaker 8: I'm a Republican lawyer.
Speaker 5: In this lawsuit that's going on.
Speaker 8: I'm gonna go find every Democrat who on TV said
Speaker 8: that it was a powergraph or that Trump is trying
Speaker 8: to hold on the power, or that Trump is trying
Speaker 8: to get five seats. I'm gonna go and they gonna
Speaker 8: be on the witness stand and I'm gonna say, aren't
Speaker 8: you Andrew Gillum And you're gonna say, yes, ma'am, ma'am,
Speaker 8: And have you been not an advocate to preserve to
Speaker 8: get rid of these this Jerrymander And you're gonna say, yes, ma'am.
Speaker 6: I have.
Speaker 8: And did you not say was this on you on TV?
Speaker 8: On CNN on this day you're gonna say, yes, ma'am,
Speaker 8: and did you not say that this political jerimander And
Speaker 8: you're gonna say yes, ma'am, I did because it is.
Speaker 8: And I'm gonna say, so it ain't racist, right, and
Speaker 8: you will say, well, yes it is, and they say
Speaker 8: the thing what you say, so you lined in or
Speaker 8: you line now. And every time our allies do not
Speaker 8: have the courage to say that it's racist, you are
Speaker 8: putting a nail in the coffin of black and brown
Speaker 8: people to elect representatives of their choice, because that's exactly
Speaker 8: what they're going to show. And under Chief Justice Roberts,
Speaker 8: political jer man is okay.
Speaker 1: That's exactly right. And I want to Congress mc clevean.
Speaker 1: I'm coming to you because this is a good time
Speaker 1: for the benediction. I know congressm and VC has a
Speaker 1: hard out and once, uh in twenty twelve at the DNC,
Speaker 1: you told us to march on, boss, so I need
Speaker 1: you to close this out bring us home. As Andrew
Speaker 1: would say, well.
Speaker 7: First of all, thank you. What you guys are doing
Speaker 7: is the Lord's work, and uh, thank you. We're fighting.
Speaker 11: I mean, this is a brazen effort to reduce the
Speaker 11: voices of our people, and we've got to resist, uh
Speaker 11: you know. And so this this is a dark moment
Speaker 11: for our country and for our people. But we you know,
Speaker 11: there is no law against fighting in the dark. So
Speaker 11: uh you know, I think this is time for us
Speaker 11: to punch for sunshine our darkness. And I had to
Speaker 11: say to some people earlier today, when we're doing what
Speaker 11: we're doing, it's not the hyperbird pabolic rantings of a
Speaker 11: member of Congress trying to hold on to a threatened
Speaker 11: house seat. This is about falling back into the moments
Speaker 11: of our parents and grandparents, of their grandparents who brought
Speaker 11: us this fall. And we've got to hold on to
Speaker 11: the light right now so that when I when, when
Speaker 11: when our children and their children, if the light is
Speaker 11: still on, so we still have some light.
Speaker 7: We have to hold on to the light no matter what.
Speaker 8: Uh you know.
Speaker 11: Uh, my grandfather used to love to tell people about
Speaker 11: down and walks at you. He uh he said, well
Speaker 11: you probably don't want well yeah, uh, Visa knows what
Speaker 11: walk settes. But uh uh you know he said that
Speaker 11: the man took his son to the town. Uh and
Speaker 11: uh he told his sons that you stand here on
Speaker 11: the corner and I'm gonna uh, I'm gonna be back shortly.
Speaker 10: Uh.
Speaker 11: And if I don't make it through to night, you
Speaker 11: got my little flash light here, so you use it.
Speaker 11: And so some people came by and a little boy,
Speaker 11: you know, away from the humane community.
Speaker 7: We are humane. We want you to have a homie
Speaker 7: stand over here on the corner. You follow us. I said, no, no, no,
Speaker 7: I can't go. I can't go. Why can't you go?
Speaker 7: My daddy told me the way there.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 11: And so I said, all he's lost. He's gonna be
Speaker 11: one of those statistics. So a little while later, another
Speaker 11: group of people came by and said, look, you ny,
Speaker 11: we're gonna take you down to the restaurant and buy
Speaker 11: you some dinner and you can come back and down
Speaker 11: in the corner.
Speaker 7: Whatever you want to do. We just we'll we'll do goodness.
Speaker 7: We want to help you eating. So I thank you
Speaker 7: very much.
Speaker 11: My daddy told me to stay here and then started raining.
Speaker 11: People said, little boy, get out of the rain, get
Speaker 11: out the right and now I'm gonna stay with My
Speaker 11: daddy told me to stay no matter what. So when
Speaker 11: a jaddy showed up later, it doesn't how to go
Speaker 11: son and said, well, you know, started raining, as you
Speaker 11: know it's done in the light, and I got scared,
Speaker 11: but I remember that you told me to.
Speaker 7: Hold on to the light.
Speaker 11: And then I stood up and some women came by
Speaker 11: and they wanted to take me and try to fix me. Said,
Speaker 11: but I didn't go with them because you wanted me
Speaker 11: to hold on to the light. Well, there are a
Speaker 11: lot of things going to come our way, of people
Speaker 11: trying to say, you know this is crazy, just surrender.
Speaker 11: We gotta tell we're gonna hold on to the light
Speaker 11: no matter what happens.
Speaker 5: We're gonna hold on.
Speaker 7: To the light, not just for us, but for generations
Speaker 7: not even torn.
Speaker 11: We want them to know that there were some people,
Speaker 11: some African Americans as we went into the twenty twenties,
Speaker 11: who decided they were.
Speaker 7: Gonna hold on to the light. And then it is
Speaker 7: because they held onto the light, we still have a life.
Speaker 4: That's all right. That's all right. And Congressman and future
Speaker 4: Congresswoman Angela, I know you're gonna wrap this section, but
Speaker 4: I just have one piece of advice, which is simple,
Speaker 4: which is I don't know if it's gonna be you
Speaker 4: congressmen and pastic cleverer, or if it's going to be you,
Speaker 4: Representative Jones. But we need a convening of the Democratic
Speaker 4: leaders of Houses and representatives and all of the states,
Speaker 4: and or speakers or speaker designates in all the states,
Speaker 4: because I don't want to turn on the television and
Speaker 4: see Democrats and negotiating against themselves to hand over power
Speaker 4: to Republicans, because we want to choose the higher ground
Speaker 4: or the higher civil democracy ground, because we've already seen
Speaker 4: where that leads us. You don't take a spoon to
Speaker 4: the gunfight. You've already said it. But conversation can't be
Speaker 4: had in public. It needs to be had, it needs
Speaker 4: to be the fight needs to take place there. So
Speaker 4: the game playan is we have to do what is
Speaker 4: required in this moment to win.
Speaker 8: And I just want to make sure that whenever we
Speaker 8: have this convening, as you said, we need to make
Speaker 8: sure that we have black representation at the table.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, we have to that's all.
Speaker 1: That's all I want to talk to. I want to
Speaker 1: talk to the black legislators, the black elected officials at
Speaker 1: every level. I've been looking at Congressman William Lacy Clay's
Speaker 1: book Just Permanent Interest, just to get inspiration for this moment.
Speaker 1: They had a black elected officials convening before they even
Speaker 1: did Gary in nineteen seventy two with the National Black
Speaker 1: Political Convention. So we are way past time. We are
Speaker 1: over time, not just for this podcast, but also for
Speaker 1: this meeting. So Andrew, I appreciate you saying that State
Speaker 1: Representative Julanda Jones always a pleasure, Thank you for joining
Speaker 1: us today.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Thank you, representative.
Speaker 1: And that's what's is absolutely and as it always is,
Speaker 1: the black woman held it now, she stayed the August tip.
Speaker 1: That's what's happening.
Speaker 4: I love it. They were great, and Angela, your point
Speaker 4: is is that, yeah, we do need a black meeting.
Speaker 4: What I'm terrified of is the Democratic Republican in Colorado,
Speaker 4: Democratic governor in Colorado.
Speaker 1: Who may Democratic republics all.
Speaker 4: I want to say, and I don't know what his
Speaker 4: position is, but I don't want to see them doing
Speaker 4: these interviews where these interviewers put them in the position.
Speaker 4: Will they say, isn't it the right thing for democracy
Speaker 4: to independent redistricting?
Speaker 7: Yes?
Speaker 4: When rules are fair, yes, but when they're cheating, when
Speaker 4: they're cheating, we have to level the field. And I'm
Speaker 4: terribly afraid that we're going to have too many of
Speaker 4: our folks not willing to jump when the time comes,
Speaker 4: and so they got to get it together, and they
Speaker 4: need to do it behind closed doors.
Speaker 1: Well, and that's just it, you know. And I think
Speaker 1: I was telling y'all this earlier. TI if I want
Speaker 1: a hushk, I do want to hear your perspectives on
Speaker 1: this too. When we were in Tunica this weekend, Congressman Thompson,
Speaker 1: I actually handed him to. Mike Joy and I were
Speaker 1: doing this fireside chat and we were talking about the
Speaker 1: Freedom to Vote Act, where members were pushing for these
Speaker 1: independent commissions. And these independent commissions work when people are
Speaker 1: in integrity. They do not work when you're playing with
Speaker 1: people who don't play by the same rule book or anything.
Speaker 1: So Congressman Thompson was one of the only Democrats to
Speaker 1: vote against this bill. Nancy Pelosi was on his head,
Speaker 1: what are you doing? Why are you voting against this?
Speaker 8: He said, I.
Speaker 1: Don't will leave in these independent commissions. I want to
Speaker 1: be right. I don't want to be fair. We're not
Speaker 1: playing with people who want to be fair. And he
Speaker 1: ended up being the property always is too.
Speaker 3: I mean, I to be honest, we've talked on this
Speaker 3: podcast a few times about what does a twenty twenty
Speaker 3: eight look like?
Speaker 1: And I think this is a preview for it.
Speaker 3: I was listening to them talk and I think this
Speaker 3: is one tiny area that casts a wide net of influence,
Speaker 3: but it's one tiny area where we can fight, where
Speaker 3: we need to make our voices heard. I think we're
Speaker 3: just looking at this is how they plan to cheat,
Speaker 3: you know, this is how this will impact midst our elections.
Speaker 3: This is going to impact the presidential elections.
Speaker 7: Right.
Speaker 3: It's happening before our eyes. And it again feels like
Speaker 3: we're being flooded because they're flooding the zone. Everything is
Speaker 3: happening before our eyes. We are turning into a police
Speaker 3: state before our eyes. Like literally out outside the window
Speaker 3: where I'm looking at it's you know, DC has thirty
Speaker 3: plus different law enforcement agencies here. This is going to
Speaker 3: take place all across city. So it was nice to hear,
Speaker 3: particularly Saint Rep. Jones, she's been coloring the airwaves and
Speaker 3: you know with her fire and this is We talked
Speaker 3: about how we came to know congress Woman Jasmine Crockett
Speaker 3: because she too fled the state of Texas during a
Speaker 3: crucial vote and people fell in love with her on air. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so it's just nice to see us fighting somewhere.
Speaker 12: I am.
Speaker 3: Cautiously optimistic about what tangible impact this will have. I
Speaker 3: also appreciate her point about allies refusing to say the
Speaker 3: word racist, because to me, that makes you less of
Speaker 3: an ally. And I've given this example before, but it's
Speaker 3: like if you're at the airport and some you know,
Speaker 3: white man comes up to you and he's like, excuse me, ma'am,
Speaker 3: you need to get out of line. This is for
Speaker 3: first class passengers only, and you they're like, well you
Speaker 3: because I am in first class, and this whole you
Speaker 3: know thing as symbols. And then when it's all over,
Speaker 3: all the good hearted white folks come up to you like,
Speaker 3: I just want to say, that was completely inappropriate and
Speaker 3: we do not support that. I don't need that right now.
Speaker 3: What I needed is for you, in the moment to
Speaker 3: come up and say, wait a second, you will not
Speaker 3: speak to this woman that way. That is not appropriate.
Speaker 1: That is allyship.
Speaker 3: The other one is an effort to make you feel
Speaker 3: good about yourself. But the ally jumps in the fight
Speaker 3: when the fight is happening, and cause of a thing
Speaker 3: so I really like that that she called that out.
Speaker 1: Okay, everybody, well, right after this, we're going to get
Speaker 1: to CTA's because you know, we have cost to action.
Speaker 1: Would you all like to talk about on the mini pie?
Speaker 3: I have a story I would like to tell on
Speaker 3: the mini pie, but I kind of want y'all's opinion.
Speaker 3: But I told y'all a story before. But when when
Speaker 3: she talks about that thing, I said, I want to
Speaker 3: tell the story that I told y'all briefly before about
Speaker 3: potential violence with some of these people. I told y'all, don't.
Speaker 4: Remember none of you or you're just making sure it's
Speaker 4: not to be born.
Speaker 1: And not too boring. I don't know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: I just I just I just feel like, I mean,
Speaker 1: maybe and maybe this is me being the political nerd.
Speaker 1: I just feel so drawn to this redistricting peace tip
Speaker 1: because there are these these these fights that are going
Speaker 1: to be waged on us, and I you know, my
Speaker 1: math isn't great, but I just want to see how
Speaker 1: the math is going to math. Like if Florida is
Speaker 1: talking about taking more seats, Florida is twenty of the
Speaker 1: twenty eight seats right now in Congress are Republican in Florida.
Speaker 1: They're talking about Nebraska, now Missouri. Of course, we just
Speaker 1: had mister Cleever on Andre and Indiana. You know, South Carolina,
Speaker 1: they're threatening mister Clybird's seat. You know when they were
Speaker 1: trying to draw another black districy not that long ago, Ohio, Texas, Louisiana,
Speaker 1: And I don't know what's going to happen with Alabama.
Speaker 1: Shamari just got there, So you want to I'm like, still,
Speaker 1: I meant it, But I believe in a democracy.
Speaker 4: So I want to about the math. I want to
Speaker 4: talk about how we survive mutual annihilation. But yeah, I
Speaker 4: think I think what she's saying will carry us there.
Speaker 1: I also want to talk about when is Eric Holder
Speaker 1: coming on, because I want him to defend these independent commissions.
Speaker 4: I think we can be for them and still set
Speaker 4: it aside right now, which is why we should have
Speaker 4: that conversation.
Speaker 3: I think there's some daylight between you guys on that. Okay,
Speaker 3: So on the Mini I will tell a story when
Speaker 3: I almost literally came to blows with this white woman.
Speaker 3: I will tell that story. Yes, I will tell that
Speaker 3: story on the mini pod, okay, And that will leave
Speaker 3: us the fight of us coming to blows.
Speaker 4: Don't get what.
Speaker 1: Listen, I would like to de arrest you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I definitely want to de escalate the matter.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, all right, well let's do our calls to action.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, that's important because I was definitely just about
Speaker 1: to close out the show. But yes, we should do call.
Speaker 4: Uh, y'all could be prayed up. My two first children
Speaker 4: are now middle schoolers as of this week. Uh so
Speaker 4: uh praying up all the families who are dealing with
Speaker 4: them the return to school, Thank you Jesus. But also,
Speaker 4: you know, growing kids who who think they've grown and
Speaker 4: ain't grown. You know that.
Speaker 3: Well, congratulations for surviving this far Andrew. It reminds me
Speaker 3: of the episode of The Cosby Show where it's the
Speaker 3: first day back to school and Ruby packed her own lunch.
Speaker 1: So congrats.
Speaker 4: That's exciting.
Speaker 1: Though in the time.
Speaker 3: All the parents days days are long and the years
Speaker 3: a short.
Speaker 4: Juggling, so this time is gonna go by absolutely.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So that's a believe it back to school already?
Speaker 3: Speaking of my goodness, I guess.
Speaker 1: So, TIV, what's your CTA?
Speaker 3: My call to action is to survive these encounters with
Speaker 3: law enforcement I'm struck by what I'm seeing across the
Speaker 3: streets of DC. And I know, we know, we collectively
Speaker 3: know right now with certainty, that these interactions will continue
Speaker 3: to expand he's already said he's coming to Chicago, Baltimore,
Speaker 3: Oakland and other cities, particularly those were black mayors. So
Speaker 3: it's fine for us to protest, it's fine for us
Speaker 3: to not yield to authoritarianism, but please survive, know your rights,
Speaker 3: and survive the encounter. Because I don't want any of
Speaker 3: y'all to be a hashtag. I don't want us showing
Speaker 3: pictures or bodycam footage of somebody whose anger got the
Speaker 3: better of them. We have to be smart and strategic
Speaker 3: with how we confront authoritarianism is particularly when it comes
Speaker 3: to people who are armed and have been given immunity
Speaker 3: to do whatever they want to to you. We got
Speaker 3: to be smart about that.
Speaker 5: Son'll survive.
Speaker 1: Please survive. We need you to. My call to action
Speaker 1: is actually I need you all to toorn your neighbor
Speaker 1: and say fifty dollars well, thank you for your participation.
Speaker 1: We are giving away a fifty dollars gift card to
Speaker 1: some lucky winner for those of you who agree to
Speaker 1: take our survey. We have an audience survey that you
Speaker 1: all have seen a great promo from tip about online
Speaker 1: if you follow us on Instagram. We also have a
Speaker 1: clip of it up on our YouTube and it is
Speaker 1: in our podcast as a promo. We want you to
Speaker 1: weigh in. Tell us what you like about the show,
Speaker 1: give us your feedback. We definitely want to hear from you.
Speaker 1: You can check out the link in this episode's description.
Speaker 1: And I really want to just say, you know, the
Speaker 1: loonies might have said they got five on it. We
Speaker 1: got fifty on it, so we've been beaten the loonies
Speaker 1: up here right and a poster right, Oh yes, and
Speaker 1: it's consolation prize for those of you who don't get
Speaker 1: the f fifty dollars is a sign poster from us.
Speaker 1: Some of you are all excited about it. I don't
Speaker 1: know why, but we're gratefuls And as always, we want
Speaker 1: to remind everyone to leave us a review and subscribe
Speaker 1: to Native lamppod. We are available on all podcast platforms
Speaker 1: and YouTube. If you're looking for more shows like ours,
Speaker 1: check out the other shows on our Recent Choice Media network.
Speaker 1: It's Politics with Jamil Hill Off The Cup with Si
Speaker 1: Cup in our newest edition now you know with thirteen
Speaker 1: year old Noah de Barrasso. Be sure to give those
Speaker 1: a follow, and don't forget to follow us to on
Speaker 1: social media. By the way, y'all, we are on fan
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Speaker 1: on Native landpod dot com. We are your hosts Angela Raie,
Speaker 1: Tiffany Cross and Andrew Gillum. Welcome home, y'all. There are
Speaker 1: four hundred and forty six days until the midtermination one
Speaker 1: of the last morning.
Speaker 2: Say thank you for joining the Native's attention to what
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Speaker 2: Cross connected to the statements that you leave on our socials.
Speaker 2: Thank you so for the patients Reason for your Choice
Speaker 2: is cleared, so grateful and took to execute Road for serve,
Speaker 2: defend and protect the truth even in paste Walcome home.
Speaker 4: To all of the Natives, We thank you.
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