Speaker 1: Native Landpod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with
Speaker 1: Reason Choice Media. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome. She
Speaker 1: is in fact a lawyer, and she's also a member
Speaker 1: of the Texas State House representing Districts one hundred and
Speaker 1: forty seven. We are joined today by State Representative Jalanda
Speaker 1: Joe Jones, and you just heard a clip of her
Speaker 1: talking about the governor talking about subpoena and issuing warrants
Speaker 1: for the arrest of the legislators who left Texas to
Speaker 1: avoid a vote on a very unconstitutional, racial, racist, frankly
Speaker 1: Jerry Mandarin process that the Texas government is currently going through.
Speaker 1: And they're not the only ones. This is happening, y'all
Speaker 1: in Missouri, it has happened in Louisiana, and there is
Speaker 1: a case before the Supreme Court right now about this
Speaker 1: very issue. So I'm three Native lampod fam I normally say,
Speaker 1: well a mom, but we jumped right into it. To
Speaker 1: be joined today by State Rep. Jones. How are you
Speaker 1: doing today?
Speaker 2: I'm well, I'm well very good.
Speaker 1: Where are you because you're on the run and this
Speaker 1: is not good for them because you're a former track
Speaker 1: and field athlete.
Speaker 3: So are you sure right, I'm a four time United
Speaker 3: States champion.
Speaker 2: Don't play. Yes, I can't tell you where I'm at.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, Well we're on the run and it's
Speaker 1: a secret. So can you talk to us about what
Speaker 1: you all are doing While you all are ensuring that
Speaker 1: the Texas State House cannot have a quorum on this very,
Speaker 1: very important issue. You are on the front lines of
Speaker 1: the fight that so many people in this country have
Speaker 1: been pleading for since January. Talk about how you all
Speaker 1: arrived at this destination, the importance of you all standing
Speaker 1: this ground right now.
Speaker 3: Well, we arrived at this destination because we saw that
Speaker 3: the fix was in for a variety of reasons, Like
Speaker 3: one reason was so we got our committee assignments in January.
Speaker 2: I was on the redistricting committee. I was like, why
Speaker 2: I'm on a redistricting committee.
Speaker 3: This ain't no, this ain't this has ain't just happened,
Speaker 3: So what's that about? So that sort of cued me.
Speaker 3: But then we had no meetings during the regular session,
Speaker 3: so I was like, Okay, maybe it's just a standing committee.
Speaker 3: And then all of a sudden in the spring, we
Speaker 3: start hearing talk about redistricting because Trump's numbers started coming
Speaker 3: in and everything he's doing is terrible.
Speaker 2: You know, He's got that.
Speaker 3: Big, horrible, tragic bill that he forced down our throats
Speaker 3: by one vote. And interestingly, Congressional District eighteen didn't have representative.
Speaker 3: The governor didn't set the special election until really far away,
Speaker 3: so things just started making sense. And even when he
Speaker 3: first called the special session, he didn't put redistricting on
Speaker 3: there because he didn't want no heat. And then he
Speaker 3: put it on right before it started, and then they
Speaker 3: had three sham hearings. Again, I was on the committee
Speaker 3: until I stepped down, but he had won in Austin,
Speaker 3: won in Houston, won in Arlington, and they literally had
Speaker 3: no maps. So how can people testify on redistricting and
Speaker 3: how it's going to negatively affect them if there are
Speaker 3: no maps? So we were like, and then because there
Speaker 3: were no maps, they were forcing people came to testify,
Speaker 3: to testify as neutral when legally you have to be
Speaker 3: four or against. And they kept saying, when you have
Speaker 3: to do that, and I'm saying, ah, they're trying to
Speaker 3: lay this legal framework for this so that when it
Speaker 3: goes to court, and it is going to court that
Speaker 3: the course would be will no one was against it,
Speaker 3: and then they ended up and then again it was
Speaker 3: a worst kept secret in Austin. I'd heard that the
Speaker 3: map was gonna drop on Wednesday. It ended up dropping
Speaker 3: on Wednesday. I'd heard that we were going to have
Speaker 3: a marathon hearing on Friday, and it happened on Friday,
Speaker 3: and then people were only given two minutes to speak.
Speaker 3: The chair of the committee kept saying, the chair is
Speaker 3: not advised. The chair is not advised. That means I
Speaker 3: don't know no answers for you can ask me questions,
Speaker 3: which if you knew our chair, he's a lawyer, he
Speaker 3: knows everything during regular session. For him to be willfully
Speaker 3: blind or ignorant didn't pass muster to me. And they're
Speaker 3: eighty eight Democrats, I'm sorry, eighty eight Republicans and sixty
Speaker 3: two Democrats in the House, and sixty two doesn't meet
Speaker 3: eighty eight. It only takes seventy six votes to pass
Speaker 3: a bill, but it takes one hundred votes to do business,
Speaker 3: and so they have to find twelve Democrats to go
Speaker 3: with their eighty eight votes to be able to have
Speaker 3: a quorum.
Speaker 2: And that's what we had to do.
Speaker 3: We had to stop them because people weren't paying attention
Speaker 3: when they racially redistricted in North Carolina where they literally
Speaker 3: stole three seats and they divided up the black and
Speaker 3: bround community, which is racist. And don't let anyone tell
Speaker 3: you anything else. This is not a power graph. This
Speaker 3: isn't an effort to disenfranchise black and brown voters, and
Speaker 3: that is illegal under the constitution. Power grabbing is actually
Speaker 3: legal under this Trump Supreme Court that he owns. It
Speaker 3: used to be illegal, but it's now legal. And so
Speaker 3: we saw that we didn't have the number, so we left.
Speaker 3: That's exactly what we did. And right now they're relegated
Speaker 3: to wining. And in fact, they winded so much I
Speaker 3: need some keys, some grapes, some salami to go with
Speaker 3: all that wining. And they can keep winding, and they
Speaker 3: can keep making threats that need nothing because we ain't
Speaker 3: scared and we ain't going back.
Speaker 1: Well, and to this point, I think that what's so
Speaker 1: fascinating about this, as you know, is being reported that
Speaker 1: Donald Trump met with legislators to say how many CT
Speaker 1: needs right for this twenty sixth election. Now, Julyan, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna tell you the truth. I have been on our
Speaker 1: podcast on Native Lampard regularly saying, I don't even know
Speaker 1: why we're doing this countdown for the midterms when there's
Speaker 1: not going to be an election. Perhaps we got a
Speaker 1: fascist in the White House. And all right, well, here's
Speaker 1: the thing. I was corrected by a brilliant civil rights
Speaker 1: lawyer who shall remain nameless. She said, now, I can't
Speaker 1: tell you a thing about twenty eight, but twenty six
Speaker 1: there will likely be an election, because why would he
Speaker 1: be going around telling this the stay time many ct needs.
Speaker 1: There's something else he's trying to do. So if we
Speaker 1: could for a minute, Representative Jones talk about why Texas.
Speaker 1: You already brought up the fact that the late great
Speaker 1: Sylvester Turner passed. We know, of course, before that, Congresswoman
Speaker 1: Sheila Jackson Lee passed. Governor Abbott was not going to
Speaker 1: allow for a special election until November, and the big, ugly, terrible, awful,
Speaker 1: ain't no good bill passed by one vote the first
Speaker 1: time it came to the House floor. So talk about
Speaker 1: why Texas. Why is this so critical right now?
Speaker 3: It's critical because it's what allows him to have his votes, Like,
Speaker 3: let me be clear, had I been in Congress how
Speaker 3: to vote it against it, and it would have failed,
Speaker 3: and we wouldn't be having the things going on that
Speaker 3: are that we're having going on that negatively affect Americans.
Speaker 3: You know, with all these tariffs that have increased the
Speaker 3: prices of everything, where he's wiped out people and they
Speaker 3: don't have health care we're Medicaid and Medicare, people don't
Speaker 3: have it. Where people can't get good jobs, where he's
Speaker 3: at war with other countries which is increasing the cost
Speaker 3: of goods, where people can't afford affordable housing, where he
Speaker 3: is decimating public education. I'm a product of public education.
Speaker 3: That's why I know them bad laws because I went
Speaker 3: to good public schools, public elementary, middle school, high school's college,
Speaker 3: and law school. So we need a strong public education system.
Speaker 3: And I don't think it's a coincidence that the people
Speaker 3: that vote high for him aren't very educated. I believe
Speaker 3: he wants a dumb electorate so that he can sell
Speaker 3: them wolf tickets and that he can continue to be
Speaker 3: a monarch in this country and totally ignore the constitution,
Speaker 3: ignore it. He wants to take us back to Jim Crow.
Speaker 3: He wants to take us back before the Voting Rights Act.
Speaker 3: He wants to take us back to before the Civil
Speaker 3: Rights Act, and black people, I'm speaking to you if
Speaker 3: you think, if you think it can't get worse, it can.
Speaker 3: And the reason that you don't know how bad it
Speaker 3: is is because of the efforts that people made long
Speaker 3: before us, John Lewis, Martin, Luther King, Malcolm X, Barbara Jordan,
Speaker 3: you name it, to get us the rights we have.
Speaker 2: At least during segregation, we.
Speaker 3: Knew that we depended on us and that we had
Speaker 3: to provide for us from education to banks, to jobs,
Speaker 3: to everything. But then we went and got integration, and
Speaker 3: we done lost our minds and we literally think we've
Speaker 3: made it, when the truth is, during segregation, we made
Speaker 3: sure everybody came up. During integration is some special negroes,
Speaker 3: and then there are others that nobody cares about. And
Speaker 3: I'm a person who believes that a country should be
Speaker 3: judged not by how the best of us live, but
Speaker 3: how the disenfranchised, at least the last the loss live.
Speaker 3: And right now we are doing a horrible job. We're
Speaker 3: doing a horrible job. And if you think you can't
Speaker 3: be one of them, like one of those who can't
Speaker 3: pay their bills. You wrong, Like, I don't know what
Speaker 3: land you're living in, but you're not living in the one.
Speaker 3: I mean, in what world did we ever think us
Speaker 3: citizens could be deported?
Speaker 2: What world? I know?
Speaker 1: And we's threatening it. But let's let's put a pin
Speaker 1: in that right there. Let's talk about this just for
Speaker 1: a moment. One thing that was used to describe is
Speaker 1: presidency in twenty twenty was unprecedented. Right this time, it
Speaker 1: is unprecedented times fifty, and I think or maybe it's
Speaker 1: times twenty twenty five. Pun intended here, but here's the
Speaker 1: thing that I think is important for folks at home
Speaker 1: to know, you know, a representative Jones better than anyone's,
Speaker 1: especially serving on the redistricting committee. Redistricting generally happens every
Speaker 1: ten years, aligned with the census. The census is twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: twenty thirty, twenty forty is twenty twenty five. The only
Speaker 1: thing that's happened in twenty twenty five is Trump's election
Speaker 1: and project twenty twenty five. Can you talk about why
Speaker 1: this in particular is so troubling, especially because it's Texas,
Speaker 1: it's Missouri, it's we already talked about North Carolina, you've
Speaker 1: been speaking to North Carolina over and over again. Didn't
Speaker 1: they test this a little bit in North Carolina first
Speaker 1: to see if this would pass? Muster with other Republican
Speaker 1: legislators talk about the piece.
Speaker 3: So what they did was they went to like a
Speaker 3: smaller state, and they did that.
Speaker 2: They were successful.
Speaker 3: They literally stole I mean, Trump was a thief, so
Speaker 3: we shouldn't be surprised that a thief is thiefing, right,
Speaker 3: We just shouldn't be surprised of that. And he stole
Speaker 3: three seats that belonged to black and brown people in
Speaker 3: North Carolina, which again gave him the majority that they have.
Speaker 2: In Congress right now.
Speaker 3: So now since he controls Texas, I mean, he has
Speaker 3: shown us with vouchers and with other things that when
Speaker 3: he tells Greg Abbott to jump, Greg Abbot jumps, however.
Speaker 2: How he tells him.
Speaker 3: And the reason that that is is because there were
Speaker 3: twenty four Republicans in Texas that voted against something that
Speaker 3: was very important in the eighth in the eighty eighth
Speaker 3: legislative session, and literally when there was time for reelection
Speaker 3: for the eighty ninth legislative session, they targeted those twenty four.
Speaker 3: They took out fifteen of the twenty four. It is
Speaker 3: very very very very very hard to take out an incumbent.
Speaker 3: But they Trump endorsed against all of them and poured
Speaker 3: millions of dollars against them. The Republicans are leading, and
Speaker 3: I actually don't believe it's leading by fear and not
Speaker 3: by courage, by cowardice and not by courage. And so
Speaker 3: he's already showed them I can take you out if
Speaker 3: you don't do what I say. So they are all like, okay, fine,
Speaker 3: and they've been the neee and so they have allowed
Speaker 3: themselves to be bullied, and they would they're worried more
Speaker 3: about staying elected than they are about what's best for
Speaker 3: their constituencies.
Speaker 1: When I'm sorry, and.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry you asked me a question and I sort
Speaker 3: of went on a tangent. Here's the reason why twenty
Speaker 3: twenty five is so important is because I believe that
Speaker 3: Trump wants to get the Supreme Court and all the
Speaker 3: federal courts stacked, which he needs the government to function
Speaker 3: in these Congress not to vote against him, not for
Speaker 3: judicial appointments, but for his twenty twenty five policies, and
Speaker 3: he needs for to be able to pass laws to
Speaker 3: abridge states rights so that he can control them. And
Speaker 3: so he needs to make sure that he has enough
Speaker 3: Republican districts so that in the twenty twenty six elections
Speaker 3: that they don't lose Congress, because we now know that
Speaker 3: despite his actestations that he's sold popularly, he has never
Speaker 3: had more He's never been more popular, which reminds me
Speaker 3: of like a middle schooler or an elementary school person
Speaker 3: saying I'm the best, I'm the best, I'm the best.
Speaker 2: Which is what he does.
Speaker 3: He got to vouch for himself because people don't vouch
Speaker 3: for him, but he needs he knows he's going to lose,
Speaker 3: so he's got to rig this so he can keep control.
Speaker 3: Because the only people that can stop Donald Trump is Congress.
Speaker 3: Congress can vote against his shit right, Congress can investigate him,
Speaker 3: call hearings, pull his records, pull the Epstein files, and
Speaker 3: that's what he's really terrified about. And Congress can impeach him.
Speaker 3: The Senate doesn't do those things. That's why it's important
Speaker 3: that he hold on to Congress.
Speaker 1: Well, and let me ask you this, I know you
Speaker 1: have to go. You're literally on the run. So we
Speaker 1: can't hold you in one location for too long. I
Speaker 1: want to ask you, you know people are watching you
Speaker 1: all think outside the box and be really strategic, not
Speaker 1: just in resisting the agenda, but really adamantly opposing it
Speaker 1: and providing it with an alternative. You all are showing
Speaker 1: people what democracy should look like, that you have the
Speaker 1: right to oppose and say not on our watch. This
Speaker 1: isn't the right thing to do. This isn't how we
Speaker 1: normally operate. But for folks at home who are saying, well,
Speaker 1: how long can you be on the run, And when
Speaker 1: you all are no longer on the run and have
Speaker 1: to face whatever is coming, what can we do at
Speaker 1: home to support you all in this agenda to ensure
Speaker 1: that this particular thing doesn't just not pass in Texas,
Speaker 1: but not in these other states that are at risk
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 3: So one, I hope that we're an example to other
Speaker 3: people that you can stand against tyranny, you can stand
Speaker 3: against bullies. But I almost stay running for as long
Speaker 3: as I need to run. And let me be clear,
Speaker 3: I ran away from things that are very important to me.
Speaker 3: I'm a new grandmother, I missing my granddaughter. Have to
Speaker 3: be okay with facetiming because I'm fighting for her. I
Speaker 3: need for her, as a mixed race black slash Indian
Speaker 3: child to have the opportunities that doctor King and John
Speaker 3: Lewis fought for. I do not want for her to
Speaker 3: be a second class citizen by virtue of her being
Speaker 3: at a mixed race child with immigrant relatives. And so
Speaker 3: I've got to fight for her. And if I don't
Speaker 3: do it, who will? And if I don't do it now,
Speaker 3: then when? Because we literally have to stay gone, and
Speaker 3: what we need for you to do is to support us.
Speaker 2: We are.
Speaker 3: I left a business. My son is a lawyer. We
Speaker 3: practice law together. He's got to hold a four down
Speaker 3: right this morning, I'm talking to him like, you got
Speaker 3: to go to this course, you gotta go to this court.
Speaker 3: He's handling my clients because I have bills to pay,
Speaker 3: just like y'all.
Speaker 2: Y'all think we're rich.
Speaker 3: We literally make six hundred dollars a month as state legislators.
Speaker 3: That's what we make, and that pays for our insurance
Speaker 3: in our retirement. True so, And I'm a dues paying
Speaker 3: member of the Texas State Employees Union. So I'm a
Speaker 3: union girl as well, because I believe strong unions and
Speaker 3: you've got to have dues paying members.
Speaker 2: But my point is this, if we want in America.
Speaker 3: Where we can get the Civil Rights tect, the Voting
Speaker 3: Rights Act, and have a black man be president and
Speaker 3: a black woman beyond the US Supreme Court, we've got
Speaker 3: to have a country that allows that.
Speaker 2: And Donald Trump is trying to take that away.
Speaker 3: He literally doesn't respect anybody black who's in any position
Speaker 3: of authority. He calls it affirmative action for the most part,
Speaker 3: and that's some bs. And so somebody's got to fight.
Speaker 3: And at this moment, and this time it's the Texas Democrats.
Speaker 3: And what happens in Texas will affect you, just like
Speaker 3: what happened in North Carolina has affected you. And that's
Speaker 3: why your life right now is way harder than it
Speaker 3: was before Donald Trump took office. And the Supreme Court
Speaker 3: is afraid of him, the media, mainstream media is afraid
Speaker 3: of him. You're not afraid of him. So thank you
Speaker 3: very much, But let me be clear, We've got to fight.
Speaker 3: We've got to fight now.
Speaker 2: We need your help.
Speaker 3: Please give to the Texas Legislative Black Caucus. You can
Speaker 3: find the link. I don't have it on me right now,
Speaker 3: but I've literally got to go because they're waiting on
Speaker 3: me because we got to keep it moving like this
Speaker 3: is life on the run.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, will you keep running and we'll keep talking. State
Speaker 1: Representative Jelanta Jones, thank you so much for all you
Speaker 1: do is this. We lift you up, we hold you
Speaker 1: up how you are in our prayers and we'll we're
Speaker 1: definitely supporting you. Everybody.
Speaker 2: Thank you. I appreciate you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Okay, everybody, We'll be right back after we
Speaker 1: pay some bills. Oh wow, so you all, I don't
Speaker 1: know if you're following redistricting at home. I tend to
Speaker 1: believe that our native lampod listeners understand these issues a
Speaker 1: little more than others. But I just want to make
Speaker 1: sure you all understand what is all at stake and
Speaker 1: why I wanted to back into this. Our good sis
Speaker 1: could make a little bit of time for us and
Speaker 1: literally as a track and build star. She's a runner,
Speaker 1: she's a t and that's real life. So I just
Speaker 1: want to back into this for a moment. Jerry Mandering
Speaker 1: isn't in and of itself wrong. Racist jerry mandering and
Speaker 1: redistricting is wrong, and the challenge that we have right
Speaker 1: now as a country. On the sixtieth anniversary, y'all can
Speaker 1: look this up of the Voting Rights Act. Donald Trump
Speaker 1: is doing all he can to decimate that with the
Speaker 1: help of his little Republican imps that are including state representatives,
Speaker 1: state senators, and of course some of these governors where
Speaker 1: they have supermajorities. They plan to challenge this at on
Speaker 1: every side, because what they want to do is to
Speaker 1: get to a point where there is so much unanimity
Speaker 1: in the federal government that there's nobody there to challenge him.
Speaker 1: Those are the kinds of things that the Voting Rights
Speaker 1: Act guarded. Again, so let me tell you what happened
Speaker 1: in twenty thirteen, there was a case that went to
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court called Shelby versus Holder. In that case,
Speaker 1: which just so happens to be after Barack Obama's second election,
Speaker 1: not by accident, they decided, Hey, do we really need
Speaker 1: all of this stuff in the Voting Rights Act? Do
Speaker 1: we really need Section four's formula that ensures that Section
Speaker 1: fives states that need to be pre cleared to ensure
Speaker 1: that there's no discrimination. Do we need to do that?
Speaker 1: Y'all got a black president. I think discrimination is gone.
Speaker 1: But let me tell you something. While they were making
Speaker 1: that decision, and by the way, spoiler alert from twenty thirteen,
Speaker 1: they decided to gut Section four, which pretty much renders
Speaker 1: a Section five nullan nullan void of the Voting Rights Act.
Speaker 1: They decided to say that we no longer needed those
Speaker 1: protections that we shall overcome has now become we have overcome,
Speaker 1: we don't need it. That's what they did in the
Speaker 1: Supreme Court. While that was happening, there was an organization
Speaker 1: called it, actually it still exists, called the American Legislative
Speaker 1: Exchange Council. It goes by Alex some of you all
Speaker 1: got to know Alec from the Stanyard Ground Law, which
Speaker 1: is what George Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin's killer, relied upon to
Speaker 1: get out of that case and to be quitted. Now,
Speaker 1: at the same time that case was making its way
Speaker 1: to the Supreme Court, the American Legislative Exchange Council, which
Speaker 1: includes state legislators from all over the country, had a
Speaker 1: boiler plate template bill that legislators could literally copy and
Speaker 1: paste for voter ID. And there are a lot of
Speaker 1: folks y'all who say, well, voter ID is not racist,
Speaker 1: It's fine it doesn't hurt anyone. We're all good. It's okay.
Speaker 1: We just want to make sure that we identify you.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing. A lot of advocates said that the
Speaker 1: voter ID legislation was a solution in search of a
Speaker 1: problem that by the time some folks who live in
Speaker 1: rural areas go to get their ID just to vote,
Speaker 1: it is equivalent to a poll tax. A lot of challengers,
Speaker 1: So remember that's happening. There was also a template bill
Speaker 1: they introduced to cut back on early voting days to
Speaker 1: make absentee voting more challenging. I believe at that time,
Speaker 1: between twenty ten and twenty tail twelve, the one hundred
Speaker 1: and thirteen measures were introduced in state legislatures all over
Speaker 1: the country. Why am I bringing this up in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five again, there's something that happened in twenty eight
Speaker 1: and twenty twelve that they never wanted to see happen again.
Speaker 1: His name is Barack Hussein Obama. He was your forty
Speaker 1: fourth president. Do you understand? So this is all by design.
Speaker 1: Project twenty twenty five did not pop up and get
Speaker 1: birth yesterday. This thing has been in the works for
Speaker 1: forty plus years and now because there was a place
Speaker 1: where it seemed like we had arrived, we had reached
Speaker 1: the promised land, at least in the mind of some folks,
Speaker 1: they wanted to find a way to ensure that we
Speaker 1: were punished. The way they did that was through our
Speaker 1: voting rights, because it was one of the Moose Prize
Speaker 1: civil rights accomplishments we have. So here we are now
Speaker 1: in a space where members of Congress, by the way,
Speaker 1: have been fighting to ensure that majority minority districts are
Speaker 1: preserved so that people who look like me and you,
Speaker 1: who are in states have representation in Congress. Racial gerry
Speaker 1: mandering is different than jerry mandering for representation. They are
Speaker 1: trying to shed and dilute and get rid of the
Speaker 1: states states to the seats that are both state legislator
Speaker 1: based seats, State senator seats and members of the House
Speaker 1: of Representatives United States House of Representative seats, diluting those
Speaker 1: to just make them strictly geography geographical based districts. Some
Speaker 1: of you may say, well that seems fair. Well, you
Speaker 1: don't know what it's like to be in this country
Speaker 1: filling voiceless, unseen, unheard, with no representation. The other big
Speaker 1: thing that's happened since over the past several years. When
Speaker 1: I was the CBC executive director, I believe we had
Speaker 1: forty maybe forty three CBC members. That number is now
Speaker 1: up to twenty of twenty more members. So now I
Speaker 1: think there are sixty four black members who are CBC members,
Speaker 1: because everybody black ain't a member of the CBC in
Speaker 1: the United States House as well as in the Senate combined.
Speaker 1: So now they're trying to figure out a way to
Speaker 1: retract because you know what, we didn't got too power
Speaker 1: for y'all. So this is what's going on. Your president
Speaker 1: is trying to figure way, figure out a way to
Speaker 1: retract that power, to control that power, to reduce that power.
Speaker 1: And how they're going about it is through the redistricting process.
Speaker 1: It is normally every ten years. We are at the
Speaker 1: five year mark. The only thing that has happened is
Speaker 1: Donald Trump's America, where they don't have to go by
Speaker 1: the rules anymore. There is no gentlemen or gentle ladies
Speaker 1: agreement or gentle person's agree. All of the rules go
Speaker 1: out the window. And what he is doing, what his
Speaker 1: administration is doing, what the Heritage Foundation is doing, what
Speaker 1: Fox News is doing is trying to stress test every
Speaker 1: single thing that we've relied upon for protection in this country,
Speaker 1: to ensure that our voices are heard, to ensure that
Speaker 1: there actually is a democracy. So they pull up the
Speaker 1: thing to see if they can make it fall, and
Speaker 1: when they make it fall, they go to the next
Speaker 1: thing to destroy that. So we have spent a lot
Speaker 1: of time banking on our civil and human rights, banking
Speaker 1: on those protections to ensure that even when we don't
Speaker 1: have the money they have, when we don't have the
Speaker 1: tools that they have, when we don't have the access
Speaker 1: they have, that there's still something we can rest up against.
Speaker 1: Those are the things they're knocking down right now. So
Speaker 1: I know that we're asking people who are carrying so much,
Speaker 1: making sure you have enough money to feed your families,
Speaker 1: making sure you have grocery money, gas money, making sure
Speaker 1: that your snap benefits are in tacked and they don't
Speaker 1: continue to get cut, making sure that you can afford healthcare.
Speaker 1: In this country. We are asking you, I know, to
Speaker 1: care about yet another thing. And the reason why is
Speaker 1: because if we don't bring the battle to them on this,
Speaker 1: I don't know what the next battle will be. I
Speaker 1: don't know that we'll be able to win the war.
Speaker 1: So I'm asking you to read up on this, to
Speaker 1: pay attention, to look at the long fight black folks
Speaker 1: had to get the representation in Congress. We deserve to
Speaker 1: get the representation in state houses all over the country
Speaker 1: that we deserve, to get the representation in state senates
Speaker 1: in places we deserve, and even on the city level,
Speaker 1: on the municipal and county level, there is an election,
Speaker 1: an election today where I live in Washington State. We
Speaker 1: have we made history in twenty four electing the first
Speaker 1: ever black Attorney general. We're about to have a black
Speaker 1: county Executive's name is Germie. Uh. Why can't think of
Speaker 1: Vermad's last name? Now lord anyway, but about to be
Speaker 1: our guy. I'm gonna look this up because this is
Speaker 1: my friend too. I don't know why I can't think
Speaker 1: of Germa's last name, but he is gonna win, uh
Speaker 1: the state the county executive a race in uh in
Speaker 1: King County, which is where I'm from in Seattle, and
Speaker 1: Germai Zahlai, sorry, Germi Zahalai is going to be the
Speaker 1: next King County exec But what I'm telling you is,
Speaker 1: even when we go and make history. They always figure
Speaker 1: out a way to retract. Y'all, we have to figure
Speaker 1: out a way to fight back, and we cannot leave
Speaker 1: our elected officials on their own. We just cannot do it.
Speaker 1: So I'm asking you all to if you are have
Speaker 1: an election today like we do in Seattle, go vote
Speaker 1: Bruce Harrel is running. That's a black mayor. They got
Speaker 1: a white progressive woman named Katie that is going against him,
Speaker 1: doesn't want him to win. I'm telling y'all, some of
Speaker 1: this is not just political. Some of it is just racism.
Speaker 1: That's what it is. And sometimes racism is not just
Speaker 1: part I ask you to look up what it means
Speaker 1: to dilute districts racially, to understand what racist redistricting and
Speaker 1: jurymandering looks like. That is what is happening right now.
Speaker 1: We cannot afford to have it happen on our watch.
Speaker 1: It impacts everything. It impacts whether or not your elected
Speaker 1: official signs and ice agreement. It impacts whether or not
Speaker 1: folks get accurate representation in contracts and vendor opportunities with
Speaker 1: the city, with the state, with the county. It impacts
Speaker 1: all of these things. It impacts how much time people
Speaker 1: spend in jail. It impacts whether or not bail cash
Speaker 1: bail will be the law of the land or not.
Speaker 1: It impacts healthcare systems. These things touch your lives, whether
Speaker 1: or not you touch politics. It is time for politics
Speaker 1: to be touched by you. It is time for politics
Speaker 1: to be influenced by you, because if you do not
Speaker 1: stand in the gap, I promise you these folks are eager,
Speaker 1: eager to take your place, and as you can see,
Speaker 1: they are not representing your best interests. The Congressional Black
Speaker 1: Caucus founders used to say, no permanent friends, no permanent enemies,
Speaker 1: just permanent interests. These are your permanent interests. If you
Speaker 1: want to have some permanence in this country, if you
Speaker 1: want to fight back for what you know is right,
Speaker 1: you've got to join join us. And I'm saying I'm
Speaker 1: standing with the tracks star y'all. Julanda Jones, the state
Speaker 1: representative in Texas, joined us today. She's prolific, she's profound,
Speaker 1: and she is not the only fighter. She's being joined
Speaker 1: by all of the Legislative Black Caucus in Texas and
Speaker 1: many others stand with them. Read about what they're doing
Speaker 1: and get creative in your response too. This is Native Lampod.
Speaker 1: I am your host, Angela Rye. Will be all together
Speaker 1: again on Thursday, reunited and it feels so good. We
Speaker 1: have a great guest, Meddi Hassan will join us and
Speaker 1: we can't wait to talk him about how he dragged
Speaker 1: those folks at the Jubilee conversation or debate. And we
Speaker 1: will also be talking a lot more about redistricting and
Speaker 1: so much more that is going on in this country
Speaker 1: right now. As always, please make sure you send us
Speaker 1: your videos, tell us what's on your heart and mind.
Speaker 1: Let us know if you disagree with us or if
Speaker 1: you agree, share a testimony. We don't mind hearing some
Speaker 1: good news these days. And definitely make sure that you rate,
Speaker 1: review and subscribe if you haven't already done that. That's
Speaker 1: the least you can do. That's your most reasonable service.
Speaker 1: It is your homework and that is how you can
Speaker 1: stand form. We love y'all, We see you soon. Welcome home.
Speaker 1: Native Lampard is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with
Speaker 1: Reason Choice Media. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
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