Speaker 1: Mh. You are listening to Waiting on Reparations production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. Yo, Yo Yo, what's up? What's up?
Speaker 1: What's this dope? Knife? And we are waiting on reparations
Speaker 1: any day now? Right? What are you waiting for? It's
Speaker 1: my question, listeners, what are you waiting for? I know
Speaker 1: the people in California were waiting, and they even got
Speaker 1: themselves the reparations task Force that came out. They actually
Speaker 1: made a decision that there. I think they made a
Speaker 1: decision in Kelly for their Reparation task Force. It was like, uh,
Speaker 1: they're going to limit it only to the sentence of
Speaker 1: like free black persons, or hold on, let me find
Speaker 1: it and get the actual California's this is per the APS,
Speaker 1: California's first in nation task force on reparations, voted Thursday
Speaker 1: to limit the state compensation to the sentence of free
Speaker 1: and enslaved black people who were in the US in
Speaker 1: the nineteenth century, narrowly rejecting a proposal to include all
Speaker 1: black people, regardless of lineage split five four, and the
Speaker 1: hours long debate was at times testing emotional. Near the end,
Speaker 1: well yeah, for sure, what do you think about that?
Speaker 1: I think that's it? I'd love to see their methodology
Speaker 1: for for determining lineage, because that's the tricky part of
Speaker 1: that's like people, I mean other than like, oh, we
Speaker 1: shouldn't have to pay for the sins of our cast
Speaker 1: kind of ship, people are like, well, how do we
Speaker 1: determine who gets it? That's why, like in my work,
Speaker 1: because like the like slavery, wasn't it like continually well
Speaker 1: was like extracted from black people through over exploitation to
Speaker 1: the literal theft of land as we've talked about previously
Speaker 1: on the show. Um and so thinking reparations to things
Speaker 1: that we do can find the receipts for a little easier,
Speaker 1: like you know, when land is taken from people lynchings, um, etcetera, etcetera,
Speaker 1: because like there receipts on that are in your like
Speaker 1: in your local like libraries, archives and should So, I
Speaker 1: mean that's interesting. I definitely want to learn more about
Speaker 1: how they are going about determining you know, that kind
Speaker 1: of thing, because that's just like tool me the missing piece,
Speaker 1: and in like the call for reparations, well, I think
Speaker 1: a lot of you know sometimes in these this like
Speaker 1: modern error and stuff like that, especially you know when
Speaker 1: you like add him like the the like neoliberals sort
Speaker 1: of like view of it and stuff. I think we
Speaker 1: sometimes lose sight and forget that. It's like the purpose
Speaker 1: of things like slavery and Jim Crow, like there was
Speaker 1: a like an economic purpose for it, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, like the purpose the purpose wasn't the purpose
Speaker 1: wasn't necessarily like racism for the sake of racism was
Speaker 1: it was like you know, there was there was like
Speaker 1: sism for like an econot with an economic goal like
Speaker 1: in mind and ship like that. So the wealth that
Speaker 1: was abstracted, like I don't even I can't even imagine
Speaker 1: like how you would even quantify it to like actually
Speaker 1: come up with like a proper estimation how much needs
Speaker 1: to be repaired. I guess you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: But a columnist economists have calculated it previously. In fact,
Speaker 1: I could probably I've written on it a little bit.
Speaker 1: I could probably pull it up in a second. Um
Speaker 1: like calculated the amount of wealth that was taken from
Speaker 1: you know, slaves in terms of labor unpaid labor. Um
Speaker 1: hold on Hamilton with the Institute. Do you why you're
Speaker 1: looking for it? Do you think that UM determinations like this.
Speaker 1: Do you think that they are a cop out or
Speaker 1: do you think they're like a way out of repaying
Speaker 1: or do you think of these are like necessary steps
Speaker 1: and things that need to be figured out when you're
Speaker 1: going about stuff like this. I mean definitely in my experience,
Speaker 1: and some like fighting for reparations, Like I found it
Speaker 1: interesting that like the descendants, the folks from whom like
Speaker 1: wealth was taken, like they asked for very specific things,
Speaker 1: and so many mentioned this like task force. I think
Speaker 1: like task forcing, like um issues, is like a way
Speaker 1: of filtering black demands through like white supremacist mechanisms, like
Speaker 1: because like the government was like founded and mostly run
Speaker 1: by white people like historically, and so like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: you know, we hear you, we hear what you're asking for,
Speaker 1: but let's do it our way as a means of
Speaker 1: becoming comfortable with the outcomes and not just like doing
Speaker 1: what people have asked you to do. Granted, in our case,
Speaker 1: like you know, state law constrains us in various ways,
Speaker 1: so having an input of lawyers, etcetera like unnecessary, and
Speaker 1: I'm su it was true of this case. But the
Speaker 1: fact that like we need are like white attorneys to
Speaker 1: like say it's okay. We need you know, these white
Speaker 1: voices involved in the process rather than just like listening
Speaker 1: and doing. You know. That's another thing component of a
Speaker 1: lot of this work of just like the task forceszation
Speaker 1: of of black demands and task forces acting as like
Speaker 1: a sieve through which they are strained. It seems like
Speaker 1: they stay wanting to make task force and committees that
Speaker 1: gotta look at some ship for like fifteen years before
Speaker 1: they can make a decision whether it's I get it. It
Speaker 1: It requires like careful deliberation and consideration, but like according
Speaker 1: to whose rules, like you know, like who is setting
Speaker 1: up the task force? And why is it? Because that
Speaker 1: is it is? Is this a way? I mean, that's
Speaker 1: I've often seen it as a way to delay action
Speaker 1: also like almost well you know, sign into a committee
Speaker 1: and that way you can sort of like pass the
Speaker 1: buck on it. Think I think we've talked about that before. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you said you did something, you didn't do nothing. Yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, y'all know, y'all know how y'all can always
Speaker 1: help us with the reparations. Speaking of you, speaking of
Speaker 1: I'm getting ready to go on the road right now,
Speaker 1: and I know you just got off the road, Yo,
Speaker 1: what is good with these gas prices? Yo? This ship
Speaker 1: is insane man an X and be making up record profits,
Speaker 1: always funking all this talking inflation and like, oh we're
Speaker 1: gonna to raise prices when like CEOs or just yaught
Speaker 1: after yacht, just big yacht ladies and gentlemen. If if
Speaker 1: you like of venmo At dope knife, if you want
Speaker 1: to hear help with the dope knife, go onto our
Speaker 1: gas fund, dope knife. Hit him up, get get it started,
Speaker 1: get those refarations started. I was doing people like I
Speaker 1: was doing some little like rap commissions to like help
Speaker 1: fund my chi yeah, like ten bucks. Alright, actually this one, dude,
Speaker 1: this one, and I think it's like a history teacher
Speaker 1: like middle school or some ship commissioned me to do
Speaker 1: a we actually now we have to do an episode
Speaker 1: on this because I did not know of this. UM.
Speaker 1: I'll rap about um finale through now like Union versus
Speaker 1: Coca Cola then alleging that like Coca Cola hired like
Speaker 1: right wing paramilitaries to kill the union organizers. I think
Speaker 1: it was in Columbia. So I wrote a little rap
Speaker 1: about that. Yeah, you know what, I'm gonna put that
Speaker 1: at the end of the show this week. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: I'll let y'all hear my rap about a yeah organizers
Speaker 1: in Columbia. I like the idea about that. Yeah, if
Speaker 1: you yeah, if you send me, if you send me
Speaker 1: something on Vemo, just like in the note, just like
Speaker 1: say what you want your your custom wrap on, and
Speaker 1: I'll start working on those. I like that idea. That's
Speaker 1: so what we got what we got today, remar So
Speaker 1: today we're going to be joined by my friend and
Speaker 1: it seemed, colleague John Jackson. He is the chairman of
Speaker 1: the Decap County Democratic Committee. As folks who may have
Speaker 1: followed the runoff elections recall um to CAP was very
Speaker 1: instrumental in bringing home the wind for or President Pye.
Speaker 1: And and so we're gonna talk to him a little
Speaker 1: bit today about his political journey, what he sees as
Speaker 1: necessary solutions for the freedom of black people. A lot
Speaker 1: of them talk about now, you know, economic freedom. Economic well,
Speaker 1: you know, it relates to what we've been talking about here,
Speaker 1: because economic anxieties are so tied to racism. Like you know,
Speaker 1: the humanization of black and brown people is mostly to
Speaker 1: like help create the conditions for capital accumulation for white people.
Speaker 1: And so we get a little bit into um economic
Speaker 1: justice as as you know, a critical step in ensuring
Speaker 1: the full freedom of black people. So we're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about a lot about that, Talk a little bit about
Speaker 1: the Grammys, talk a little bit about Amazon. Let's get
Speaker 1: into it. We'll be right back. Today. We are joined
Speaker 1: by John Jackson, the esteemed John Jackson, CEO chairman, no
Speaker 1: chairman of the Decab County Democrats, mover and shaker out
Speaker 1: here in Georgia, Democratic politics, but and beyond and beyond,
Speaker 1: we're gonna get into a little bit about from where
Speaker 1: we all stand with regards to the Democratic Party these days, etcetera, etcetera.
Speaker 1: Getting some news and stuff. But first, John, how are
Speaker 1: you today? I'm doing I'm doing great. I'm blessed, less
Speaker 1: be here, less to be breathing. It's been the highlight
Speaker 1: of your week so far. It's Monday. But sad to
Speaker 1: be something something so far. Well, you know, I'm I
Speaker 1: been in physical therapy for some injuries and I'm getting
Speaker 1: a lot stronger, getting a lot better, and i think
Speaker 1: I'm about to be way better than I was before. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, just just feeling good, feeling better than I
Speaker 1: have in the past couples. It's beautiful. I'm so happy
Speaker 1: to hear that. Yeah, so I guess I guess at
Speaker 1: this point we kind of got like a somewhat of
Speaker 1: a loose format for how we start these but yeah, look, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, if you want to start out, just tell
Speaker 1: us a little bit about yourself. How do you get
Speaker 1: into what you're doing today, what you're doing these days? Also,
Speaker 1: like your professional life is very interesting. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you want to speak on that at all, but yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm about full disclosure here. Tell our listeners, like, who
Speaker 1: who are you? Like? What do you do? My name
Speaker 1: is John Jackson. I'm the chairman of the cab County
Speaker 1: Democratic Committee. Uh why did the regard it just one
Speaker 1: of the strongest county parties in the country. Uh. In
Speaker 1: my day job, I am a consultant um for big
Speaker 1: companies and that's how I pay my bills. I don't
Speaker 1: love it just you talking. But I was like, is
Speaker 1: this like passion? I'm not gonna do what if it was,
Speaker 1: But it's just it's kind of like I haven't found
Speaker 1: anything yet that affect can pay my bills. So I'm like, Okay, well,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna kind of figure I'm just gonna kind
Speaker 1: of do this and until I can find something that
Speaker 1: is something I love and and uh, something that also
Speaker 1: pays the bills. You know. I'm I'm I'm almost thirty
Speaker 1: eight years old, still figuring out what I want to
Speaker 1: be when I grow up. So so now I'm really interested. Now, Okay,
Speaker 1: So okay, So when you were so, what is it
Speaker 1: that you would want to do if you could like choose,
Speaker 1: if you like, if it was up to me. Um, honestly,
Speaker 1: and I'm already beginning to do some of this, I
Speaker 1: wouldn't I wouldn't uh depend on really anybody, you know.
Speaker 1: And I've already gone in a neural direction, but I
Speaker 1: want to take that on for gual direction, in a
Speaker 1: different direction where I can uh you know, really you know,
Speaker 1: help people, but also uh, you know, pay my bills.
Speaker 1: It's kind of it's kind of hard to have that
Speaker 1: bounce time of being able to really change the world
Speaker 1: but also pay bills. So it's it's tough. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: gotta sometimes you gotta choose. I changed the world, but
Speaker 1: you also got change. I see what I heard you
Speaker 1: there heard? Yeah, crap. It's like, you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: when I was growing up, I wanted to be an
Speaker 1: MTV VJ, like on Total plus five, and they canceled that.
Speaker 1: So I was like, man, I gotta come up with
Speaker 1: a new career plan. And I've done a lot of
Speaker 1: different stuff in life, but I'm still figuring it out.
Speaker 1: You could say, but that doesn't bother me. I haven't.
Speaker 1: I'm still I still consider myself purpose driven, even though
Speaker 1: I haven't found something that pays the bills that I'm passing. Yeah. No,
Speaker 1: I definitely know the feeling sometimes, but it's like you
Speaker 1: just have to keep you just have to keep working
Speaker 1: at it, you know, like it things like that, I
Speaker 1: guess they kind of you can pursue it, or you
Speaker 1: can do the things that you know are necessary to
Speaker 1: get there and you know what I mean, and and
Speaker 1: let the chips fall where they would where they will.
Speaker 1: I guess I definitely identify with that a lot, because
Speaker 1: people ask me all the time, so what's you what's
Speaker 1: your next move? And I'm like, I don't fucking know.
Speaker 1: First of all, like my job security, it's very very precarious.
Speaker 1: As an elected critical I mean, I could be here,
Speaker 1: I could be gone in another four years and just
Speaker 1: embracing that and all having to like pursue like hypothetical
Speaker 1: other directions with it. But also, I mean the other
Speaker 1: thing is that if you're trying to get ahead financially
Speaker 1: in this world, you can't be staying in the same
Speaker 1: job for like for our you know our parents generation name,
Speaker 1: same job thirty forty years, right. But like I just
Speaker 1: had a friend and without the Oakland you know, he
Speaker 1: does it and stuff, and like the university is working
Speaker 1: at they would not pay him what he deserved. He
Speaker 1: had to go or he had to move across the
Speaker 1: country to get prey when he was working. And so
Speaker 1: there's an inherent in the way that like labor exportation works,
Speaker 1: which we don't get into a little bit today. I think, um,
Speaker 1: like you just the transition, the hustle, the cycles are
Speaker 1: it's just it's just a part of it now that
Speaker 1: we kind of realized how disposable people find us, and
Speaker 1: then trying to find your passion amidst the groin and
Speaker 1: all that. So I feel that, but I'll make a
Speaker 1: displainmer though the very folks who I signed contracts with,
Speaker 1: who may be signed my paychecks. Sometimes I have no
Speaker 1: issue speaking out against those institutions and saying those institutions
Speaker 1: are corrupt, those institutions discriminate against people who look like us, uh,
Speaker 1: and those institutions are a big part of of of
Speaker 1: just injustice in this country. And so you know, at
Speaker 1: the same time, I am we live in a capitalist
Speaker 1: system where if you opt out, you're you're not You
Speaker 1: don't have a lot of options, but maybe live off land.
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't have a bunch of land I
Speaker 1: can live off of right now. So you know, I'm
Speaker 1: kind of having to opt in. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: I'm never gonna be so deep in or I never
Speaker 1: hoped to be so deep in where if like horrible
Speaker 1: craft is happening, I can't use my voice and mobilize
Speaker 1: against that and support leaders who uh, I want to
Speaker 1: change that that system. So you trying to name names
Speaker 1: and other companies, companies that you work for or that
Speaker 1: you that you have worked for, or maybe me. I
Speaker 1: won't say whether or not I've done work for Wells Fargo,
Speaker 1: but I think that Wells Fargo is in general a
Speaker 1: shitty institution. And you know, they might call me tomorrow
Speaker 1: for a six month engagement and they don't care that
Speaker 1: I might have said that because the bottom line. It's
Speaker 1: such the bottom line. They will say, Oh, we hired
Speaker 1: a guy four in a six month contract, criticized this
Speaker 1: on a podcast We're open lining. That's such an interesting
Speaker 1: insight because it really is about the bottom line for them.
Speaker 1: It's like, I don't care what you tell I don't
Speaker 1: care what you did. It's like we're talking the last episode,
Speaker 1: like if they would overturn Citizens United and in insider
Speaker 1: trading in Congress, they could be you know, on the
Speaker 1: bank bus on the weekend or whatever, like everybody, I
Speaker 1: don't care because give us the good. And that's kind
Speaker 1: of like the opposite of talable farther like I don't care.
Speaker 1: I don't care what you do when you are a
Speaker 1: free time or whatever. Yeah, it's like, as long as
Speaker 1: we're meeting the shareholder objective, John, you can say fuck
Speaker 1: you to our CEO, Like I don't bring him into
Speaker 1: the office. Let's let them stay it right since their face. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what's so like it's obviously now like it definitely seems
Speaker 1: like you have a certain piece that you found, like
Speaker 1: doing that to pay the bills. While your beliefs in
Speaker 1: your passions might may lie other word other where. But
Speaker 1: if I listen, I've worked on a lot of political
Speaker 1: campaigns and I have been involved in politics a lot.
Speaker 1: If money was driving my politics, and I wouldn't be
Speaker 1: very progressive. So it's kind of like I have compartmentalizing,
Speaker 1: like Okay, I'm gonna use capitalism for making money, but
Speaker 1: I'm gonna let my politics be my politics. Bes And
Speaker 1: there's some consultants out there who can, you know, make
Speaker 1: good money in the political game and remain true to themselves,
Speaker 1: but there's a lot who can't. Yeah, yeah, And people
Speaker 1: try to pull on you like, oh, I see you
Speaker 1: tweeting criticism about well targo from your iPhone made in China,
Speaker 1: like you know, like we live out here, like you
Speaker 1: gotta make make money. That's like the usual conservative like
Speaker 1: criticism of like Hollywood celebrities and stuff. It's like they're
Speaker 1: telling you about saving the whales, but they fly on
Speaker 1: private jets like to it where like everyone working folks,
Speaker 1: Like I'll let y'all, I'll let everybody down here slide
Speaker 1: because like this is hard out here if you can
Speaker 1: afford to be. If you were skating around on a
Speaker 1: yacht and accidentally chopping whales up with your rudder or
Speaker 1: whatever riches hill. I'm not gonna. I don't vibe with
Speaker 1: that as much. First boats myself anyway, kayak. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: scared of water. I like, I like. I like boats
Speaker 1: where I could cast my fishing rod from y'alls are
Speaker 1: a little big for that, you know. I don't think
Speaker 1: I've ever I've never been fishing. Fishing before. Fishing is
Speaker 1: a unit saw flashes in my opinion. I think it's
Speaker 1: a It's the activity of the proletariat globally, and I
Speaker 1: think that uh, you know, everyone on the food chain
Speaker 1: eats fish, including fish. Wow, I have my mind blown
Speaker 1: over here. Yeah, we have. So we've talked a little
Speaker 1: bit about seeing divergence between your politics and what you
Speaker 1: do for money, which I think we could all seek too,
Speaker 1: because we all live, like you said, and this is right.
Speaker 1: Let's get into like your politics particularly. I want to
Speaker 1: start with your journey to where you currently are a
Speaker 1: police because the chairman of the the Cab County Democrats,
Speaker 1: you know, the Cab County for like Biden uh in
Speaker 1: the last and the presidential election of points twenty. But
Speaker 1: here you are somewhat I would say, you know, based
Speaker 1: on my understanding of both the national and like statewide
Speaker 1: political context, a little more less working. Yeah, average every
Speaker 1: day chairman of the of the local club Democratic commit
Speaker 1: So how would you get a new journey to where
Speaker 1: you are today? It really wasn't supposed to happen. Um.
Speaker 1: It took years of organizing, years and years and years
Speaker 1: of grass was organizing to where the old guard of
Speaker 1: the Democratic Party in the KEB and its supporters were
Speaker 1: outnumbered by new people. And these new people might have
Speaker 1: been mostly maybe affluent, moderate neoliberal types, but they were
Speaker 1: so yearning to win that they were willing to elect
Speaker 1: a very outspoken kind of leftists our revolution endorsed person
Speaker 1: as the chair because they wanted to win there, Like
Speaker 1: John's gonna put in a hundred percent, He's gonna make
Speaker 1: sure that we're funded, that we just get it right.
Speaker 1: And I think that's what it came down to, was
Speaker 1: between me and an old system where we weren't turning
Speaker 1: out voters. Uh in this county that's non white and
Speaker 1: very democratic, and just turning the county out can make
Speaker 1: a difference and whether the state goes blue or I'm
Speaker 1: telling the people that all the time, like whoever shows
Speaker 1: up and shows up with like demonstrable conviction, like will
Speaker 1: went a lot of the time among folks that don't
Speaker 1: have very strong, like ideological commitments and they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm love winning or whatever like out here, Like I see,
Speaker 1: I was going people like rock with Republicans that they
Speaker 1: don't agree ideologically only anything. But like those are the
Speaker 1: folks that show up and like make promises and becoming
Speaker 1: it okay, And but but like with conviction, like yo,
Speaker 1: I'm here for you I should so I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's cool that she was able to get in there
Speaker 1: to show that conviction con of takeover. So how was
Speaker 1: your um leadership in the on the county committee sort
Speaker 1: of shifted? I don't know, but yeah, some of those
Speaker 1: policy commitments because like turning voters out is important. But
Speaker 1: like you know, if you all have a local platform,
Speaker 1: and how is your how is your policies that the
Speaker 1: things have gotten interesting? Um, you know, everybody who's on
Speaker 1: the current exact team is somebody I asked to run
Speaker 1: except one person. Uh So it's it's a board that
Speaker 1: was largely encourage you know, put there by myself. I
Speaker 1: mean the voters of the committee voted the men, but
Speaker 1: they were folks who've been running with me on this
Speaker 1: grassroots journey, and we've done some things that are unpressent.
Speaker 1: We centered Burning Jones, um who as someone in the
Speaker 1: old party in the Cab County, uh never never held accountable.
Speaker 1: And this was a guy who endorsed your w Bush.
Speaker 1: And for the listeners who might not be familiar with
Speaker 1: Georgia policy, as much can you explained to Vernon Jones,
Speaker 1: Vernon Jones made national news. He's a as as being
Speaker 1: a state rap black man who endorsed Trump in and
Speaker 1: we almost immediately censured him, and we got behind his
Speaker 1: primary opponent. Wasn't he had to stop the steal stuff
Speaker 1: he was? He was definitely was that because y'all have
Speaker 1: to see that photo of him, like crowds Okay, the
Speaker 1: hell no? What was? Oh god? So we've got a
Speaker 1: lot of unprecedented things like that. We endorsed and a
Speaker 1: race and I mean it's for race where it was
Speaker 1: two Democrats running because one candidate was uh just aligned
Speaker 1: with our values. It was an unpresident moved. We fought
Speaker 1: the state party on it. So I think when you
Speaker 1: have leadership that shows courage, the whole committee kind of
Speaker 1: follows behind you. Like we we removed an elections board
Speaker 1: chair who had been there twenty five years. We've really
Speaker 1: we've reformed the Board of Elections of the Cab County
Speaker 1: through our activism. And um, I think that uh it,
Speaker 1: when you show courage, when you show that you're willing
Speaker 1: to roll up your sleeves, you're not here just to
Speaker 1: be seen, it really inspires others who are following you
Speaker 1: to kind of do the work. And it makes my
Speaker 1: job so easy because I have so many folks on
Speaker 1: this in this county party who are just anxious to
Speaker 1: do the work, and it's just my job to make
Speaker 1: sure that they have all the resources they need and
Speaker 1: that they're they're you know, they're ready to go, that
Speaker 1: we're ready to go. So, um, is it is it
Speaker 1: like more of a situation where like there's a bunch
Speaker 1: of different circumstances that are just right and the you know,
Speaker 1: just and then the right amount of hard work that
Speaker 1: makes you guys successful there or is this something that
Speaker 1: can be duplicated other places in Georgia or even Nationalwie.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say this, we have some socio economic advantages
Speaker 1: that other counties don't, and so it's harder to organize
Speaker 1: the Clayton County because it's more working class. And so
Speaker 1: the more working class of place gets, the less people
Speaker 1: have time to volunteer. And so county party organizations are
Speaker 1: and basically political organizations in general are built off of volunteers.
Speaker 1: And so you the more of a working class area
Speaker 1: you're in, the more your money you're gonna need to raise,
Speaker 1: because you've gotta be able to pay folks. Working class
Speaker 1: people don't have time to give up a Saturday. They
Speaker 1: can't give up a Saturday. They can't. And it is
Speaker 1: people of economic privilege, uh, suburban nights, suburban moms who
Speaker 1: are generally the ones who have the time to put
Speaker 1: in all these volunteer hours. Uh, suburban moms of economic means.
Speaker 1: It's not it's not your ones, it's not your single
Speaker 1: suburban moms on a uh lower middle class sellary mm hm.
Speaker 1: And so the Cab County has a lot of that
Speaker 1: class of people to mobilize a more working class set
Speaker 1: up you whereas you may grow out and get the
Speaker 1: other folks in call right, yeah, to talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about earlier about like you've been able to do
Speaker 1: some pretty unprecedented things as through this transformation of your
Speaker 1: local party. I'm including being a little more discerning about
Speaker 1: what candidates you get behind, etcetera. Um, so, what sorts
Speaker 1: of blue? I think this is an entryway and discussing
Speaker 1: like policies that animate your political imagination in the work
Speaker 1: that you do. So, um like what sorts of like?
Speaker 1: You know what, how do we get free? In your opinion,
Speaker 1: what sorts of policies we need to begin behind and
Speaker 1: ideally to getting behind the candidates that we can run.
Speaker 1: I don't know if we're there yet everywhere, but in
Speaker 1: a place like the Cap County maybe, So we still
Speaker 1: have trapped of falling into these cults of personalities revolving
Speaker 1: around our skin color. And uh, it could be a
Speaker 1: charming black man, it could be like an Obama, it
Speaker 1: could be a black girl, magic politician, but a lot
Speaker 1: of them still have the same antiquated politics of people
Speaker 1: who don't look like us. And so real leadership would
Speaker 1: be exciting the people about things that are going to
Speaker 1: benefit us. Um you know, I think so. So in
Speaker 1: Metro Atlanta we have a lot of problems with this.
Speaker 1: So we had we have Benette County has their first
Speaker 1: African American woman, d A but she's pushing real hard
Speaker 1: to prosecute all marijuana crimes. Is that is that black
Speaker 1: girl magic? If you're taking away um, you know, maybe
Speaker 1: half of an income of of of of a of
Speaker 1: a black family household because you know they're in jail,
Speaker 1: that's not That's not black girl magic. And I'm just
Speaker 1: kind of like, we have to we have to. Uh.
Speaker 1: That's why I think the discourse between black progressives and
Speaker 1: black neo liberals is incredibly important. In the Cap County,
Speaker 1: UM Commissioner Ted Terry was trying to pass uh some
Speaker 1: marijuana form uh and you know, banned marijuana drug testing
Speaker 1: in the cab counting for jobs, and it was black
Speaker 1: commissioners standing in the way. And I think it's beyond
Speaker 1: time for uh, particularly in black politics, for us to
Speaker 1: have a discussion on a platform where the masses can see, uh,
Speaker 1: are is black liberalism hurting the black community? Um? We
Speaker 1: get all excited about some of these folks sometimes, but
Speaker 1: some sometimes these folks are embracing some really antiquated thinking
Speaker 1: that we would call white folks racist. For yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean one one conversation I like haven't been I'm like,
Speaker 1: keep care to have still, But let's so I'll have
Speaker 1: it now. It's like, you know, we all know that
Speaker 1: not all folk kimp folks. But I think that in
Speaker 1: the sense of what you're talking about, these intiquated policies
Speaker 1: that are ultimately like continuing, you know, perpetuating the impression
Speaker 1: of our people. But like the fact that like not
Speaker 1: we're talking am I talking about not today terrible but
Speaker 1: not today No. So the idea that like, maybe sometimes
Speaker 1: I cannot believe people are the coming out out of
Speaker 1: my mouth, but sometimes I would prefer like a white
Speaker 1: leftist candidate that is embracing like what I would regard
Speaker 1: as transformative politics over like a black neoliberal, knowing that
Speaker 1: like representation for representation stake is not going to set
Speaker 1: us free a controversials, I mean, like a highly contregation.
Speaker 1: I agree with you, I'm with you. The problem is
Speaker 1: is the white leftists don't know how to talk the
Speaker 1: black people in general. They were a little better at it,
Speaker 1: then they would have more success. Uh, but you know
Speaker 1: I would I'm a hundred Uh. They're with you, And
Speaker 1: I think here's the thing. We don't have to cancel
Speaker 1: black neoliberal In fact, our best hope for Georgia right
Speaker 1: now is that black neoliberal. Let's just put it. Let's
Speaker 1: put a flame. I love her to death. I will
Speaker 1: go all out for her. In fact, it's my final
Speaker 1: mission in democratic politics to make her governor UM. But
Speaker 1: I will publicly encourage Stacy. I'm like, Stacy Abrahams, you're
Speaker 1: gonna support the Fight for fifteen. You should. We're knocking
Speaker 1: as often they are also heoliberals, but they support the
Speaker 1: Fight fifteen. Like she. She needs to support the Fight fifteen.
Speaker 1: She needs to support UM. She needs to support marijuana legalization.
Speaker 1: You'll get some crossover vote on that, I promise. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And so I think I think it's okay if we,
Speaker 1: in a love long way even push Stacy Abrams to
Speaker 1: the left. I don't I don't think there's anything wrong
Speaker 1: with that. We can be respectful, we can respect her
Speaker 1: work and everything she's doing for us, and the fact
Speaker 1: that she is he has a good chance of being
Speaker 1: America's for a black woman governor. That's that's amazing. But
Speaker 1: we also need to push her on the issue. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think the bottom line is, at this point in
Speaker 1: the game, I don't think we can really afford to
Speaker 1: like fracture the whatever you wanna call the left side
Speaker 1: of the spectrum. I don't think it can afford to
Speaker 1: be like fractured or shrunk any more than it is
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. So like I think the tent
Speaker 1: should be big. I think there's room. I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't think that will shrink in the tent. I think no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that that's what you're saying. I'm just
Speaker 1: I'm just saying I agree with you. Like that's generally
Speaker 1: where I fall on is like I think that there
Speaker 1: there shouldn't be we shouldn't be like canceling like neo
Speaker 1: liberals or neo liberals or that, you know, as long
Speaker 1: as they're not at this point in the game, like
Speaker 1: I said, given the snakes, as long as they're not
Speaker 1: working with the Nazis, yo, Like, like then I'm not
Speaker 1: canceling anybody because like it's just it's too much on
Speaker 1: the line to be like, oh they don't fall in
Speaker 1: line with X, y Z that you know what I mean. Well,
Speaker 1: if you want to cancel them, beat them in a primary.
Speaker 1: That's that's all I would primary um beat them in
Speaker 1: the primary. Otherwise, you know, Stacy's gonna be our nominee.
Speaker 1: For governor. He's gonna be the less not just the
Speaker 1: Democrats best bet, but the less best bet everyone who's
Speaker 1: not you know, uh, neo fascist the best bet. And
Speaker 1: so I think, um, I think we owe it to
Speaker 1: ourselves into the community to say, hey, it's okay to
Speaker 1: be black on purpose and a state. If you are
Speaker 1: not more black people, it won't even be close. So
Speaker 1: kind of you gotta phrase it like that. Don't listen
Speaker 1: to establishment consultants who not only tell you to be
Speaker 1: less progressive, but to not go all out for the
Speaker 1: black community, yeah, or for like marginalized communities in general.
Speaker 1: Like you know that that's the purpose of like all
Speaker 1: of this anti woke of sort of legislation and sentiment
Speaker 1: that they're trying to build. Is that that that is
Speaker 1: that exact effect happens that that they you know, uh,
Speaker 1: mainstream Democrats stay away from issues that are important to
Speaker 1: black people or gays or transgenders or women and stuff
Speaker 1: like that because it's deemed woke. You know, one thing,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, sorry, but one thing I want to add
Speaker 1: to go back to this, like uh, just like, um,
Speaker 1: I don't know the thing I posited earlier with regards
Speaker 1: to like black new liberalists them versus white leftism. I
Speaker 1: think you're absolutely right. White these these little white boys
Speaker 1: with the long hair don't know how to talk to people,
Speaker 1: don't know how to talk to people, And so I
Speaker 1: think it's like a false choice, like, oh, which one
Speaker 1: do you choose from? Because the real problem is that
Speaker 1: I think like the black leoliberal like leadership class generally
Speaker 1: just doesn't listen to the voices of or uplift the
Speaker 1: leadership of young black people, who I would say are
Speaker 1: more progressive than ever. You know, they've they've never lived
Speaker 1: in a world where like fight for fifteen and like
Speaker 1: free like legal weed, free weeds, legal weeds, and then
Speaker 1: maybe make it free after that, like has not been
Speaker 1: a part of the conversation, you know. Like but and
Speaker 1: yet like when we are expected to like honor the
Speaker 1: like honor the hierarchy, like oh yeah, pay your dudes,
Speaker 1: and you have to you know, have enough life experience
Speaker 1: to like know what you're talking about. Um, and those
Speaker 1: are the same people that are really hard to mobilize
Speaker 1: and engage around voting in the first But so um
Speaker 1: we gotta like, oh, like either or our only choices
Speaker 1: are like some core vote like Sanders sibling or you know,
Speaker 1: like somebody that's been in politics for like fifty years. Really,
Speaker 1: I mean it comes down to bringing in new quotes
Speaker 1: that I got different perspectives because dating in here right now.
Speaker 1: It's a matter of politics, and sometimes leftists don't understand
Speaker 1: the pop pop the power political persuasion. The Fight for
Speaker 1: Fifteen wasn't mainstream on the democratic side just six years ago,
Speaker 1: and now it's become pretty mainstream. It's not even considered
Speaker 1: that progressive to be for the Fight for fifteen. And
Speaker 1: so I think that's how we have to look at it.
Speaker 1: There are neoliberal folks that are mainstream liberals who we
Speaker 1: can get on board with our progressive policies. They're there
Speaker 1: are those who we could get to agree that, um,
Speaker 1: this is the only way forward. And you know, you
Speaker 1: have a lot of like really wonky centrist type people
Speaker 1: who like to think, well, I just I like to
Speaker 1: do the analysis of the policy and blah blah blah,
Speaker 1: and you gotta remind them and well, what about wages
Speaker 1: not growing with inflation and forever like what about CEO
Speaker 1: wages growing but not workers? And I'm like, like, that's
Speaker 1: that's the policy analysis. You should do, and so I
Speaker 1: think that, Um, there's even there's a class, There is
Speaker 1: a there is a section of liberals who have an
Speaker 1: ear to it. They just they're just a little bit
Speaker 1: more worried than leftists are about the political viability of it.
Speaker 1: Leftist or like, screw it, this is the only way
Speaker 1: we're gonna make it as as a people. Uh, where
Speaker 1: liberals are like, well, I'm just waiting for the rag time.
Speaker 1: And so I wanted to get your thoughts on some
Speaker 1: things that are going on then of like happening the day. So, Mariah,
Speaker 1: do you wanna talk about the Amazon situation? Well, actually
Speaker 1: I love last question. Well, and it might take a
Speaker 1: while for John, but I know you're very passionate about
Speaker 1: economic justice. Um what does that term even mean to you?
Speaker 1: I think it means righting the wrongs of centuries of
Speaker 1: economic oppression, uh in this country, And um, certain folks,
Speaker 1: it's not an oppression Olympics. The certain folks have had
Speaker 1: more economic oppression than others, particularly the ones who were
Speaker 1: brought here for free labor. Uh. So he's start with that. Um,
Speaker 1: you gotta write those fronts and understand. This is where
Speaker 1: liberals mess up every other form of inequality is attached
Speaker 1: to economic inequality. So that's whether that's criminal injustice system,
Speaker 1: whether that is the inequality and education attached to some
Speaker 1: screwed up funding formula, whether that is healthcare being great
Speaker 1: on the north side of Atlanta and on the south
Speaker 1: side good luck. Uh So I think that that can
Speaker 1: all be kind of. Economic justice is like the nucleus
Speaker 1: of all the policy issues of left in my opinion,
Speaker 1: including including um, reproductive justice, because at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, it's not reproductive since if only rich white
Speaker 1: ladies can get abortions, I think, I think that's what it.
Speaker 1: Uh if if you talk to maybe some upper middle
Speaker 1: class folks who are maybe okay with voting for Biden
Speaker 1: and then voting Republican on the down ballot Roe v.
Speaker 1: Wade is not going to impact them being overturned because
Speaker 1: you know what, say, they can still get an abortion
Speaker 1: if your others at economic questions, Yeah, they can go
Speaker 1: out of state if they need to. And so I
Speaker 1: think that uh, just about every issue you could think of, um,
Speaker 1: you know, like I've seen lgbt Q plus organizations who
Speaker 1: never address lgbt Q plus poverty for homelessness or uh,
Speaker 1: just the lower economic gear of queer folks. They act
Speaker 1: as if they're not a thing, and so I think
Speaker 1: that uh neoliberalism. We'll sometimes try to erase that. They'll say, well,
Speaker 1: as long as we get the social liberalism down, we're good.
Speaker 1: I'm like, no, it doesn't work that way. Everything has
Speaker 1: to be funded everything, show me the money. Yes, absolutely,
Speaker 1: it's not just about like, oh we're inclusive, like you
Speaker 1: know these companies that you're trying to do like e
Speaker 1: I training saada da, but have to like not asked
Speaker 1: to touch my hair or whatever. But it's like also
Speaker 1: just pay or just paying people more. Just like where
Speaker 1: where where are you putting? You know, you're just you're
Speaker 1: just putting money into training and you're not putting any material,
Speaker 1: not transforming people's material conditions, which oftentimes makes you know,
Speaker 1: create these racials, you know, gender disparities, etcetera, etcetera. Put
Speaker 1: the money in folks hands, period. I don't care. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: we hot, you know, oh we uh you know, like
Speaker 1: just oh we're culturally sensitive. Yeah, I hope your pocketbook
Speaker 1: is culturally sensitive. And if you all your money, I
Speaker 1: mean yeah, I mean like the corporate grift is definitely
Speaker 1: like one thing. But I don't necessarily think it's as
Speaker 1: a separate issue. I don't think it's necessarily like misguided
Speaker 1: to attempt to change the culture when you're attacking something
Speaker 1: like racism and sirs. It's only part of it, though, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's exactly. It's only part of it, just like with anything. Though.
Speaker 1: It's like if somebody's just doing it and they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is the this is the one step fixed all tool,
Speaker 1: then obviously you're going about it the wrong way because
Speaker 1: it's you know, you would think that that, like most
Speaker 1: people would would understand, like it's a bit more complicated
Speaker 1: than issue than like, yo, don't touch your coworkers there,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. I think what's missing from
Speaker 1: modern liberalism is the fact that you really can't perform
Speaker 1: all these other systems. It that liberalism will try to
Speaker 1: reform everything before they address economic justice. I'll you'll try
Speaker 1: to receive a criminal justice system reformed, You'll try to
Speaker 1: see a school system reformed. But how can you do
Speaker 1: that when there's still this disparity in basic resources and
Speaker 1: it's staggered by skin colors so much, And so I
Speaker 1: think they skate around it, and they don't like being
Speaker 1: confronted with it. But it's a hard reality that I
Speaker 1: think it has. It has to be addressed. And I
Speaker 1: think also, I think we wouldn't have to worry about
Speaker 1: losing mid terms right now if the Biden administration, let's
Speaker 1: say a reparations bill had passed the House and it
Speaker 1: got stuck in the Senate and President Biden made a
Speaker 1: big speech about it sucks how it got stuck in
Speaker 1: the Senate and this is why we need to expand
Speaker 1: the majority. I guarantee you more black folks if it
Speaker 1: was about that would be coming out for mid terms.
Speaker 1: We wouldn't have to worry about us coming out for
Speaker 1: mid terms if our issues weren't continuously thrown under the
Speaker 1: bus after we save everyone's asks. And so I think, um,
Speaker 1: it's something to think about. Lack of courage isn't rewarded.
Speaker 1: And we're playing a risky game now, not going all
Speaker 1: out for the people who want us several swing sticks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: y'all trying to really trying to really stave off fascism. Like,
Speaker 1: y'all gotta get with it, because this is not it's
Speaker 1: not gonna work in a long term, y'all. It's not
Speaker 1: gonna work No, not not at all. I mean, like
Speaker 1: I said, scared money don't make money. You can't it.
Speaker 1: I mean, you can't talk all of that ship. When
Speaker 1: the chips are on the line and the elections on
Speaker 1: the line, it's like, yeo, this is like the most
Speaker 1: important thing ever. We've got to stop this rising fascism.
Speaker 1: The Proud Boys are coming Trump's side of control. The
Speaker 1: Republicans are crazy. And then when you get in power,
Speaker 1: you're going about the ship like it's not really that serious,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like you're not even treating
Speaker 1: anything with the urgency that you were talking just a
Speaker 1: year ago, Like that was just a summer ago. But
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So yeah, it's like these
Speaker 1: motherfucker's don't really want to win. I don't know, Well,
Speaker 1: it comes down to this. It's it's the more it's
Speaker 1: the Diet Cola brand of white supremacy racism that is
Speaker 1: more prevalent amongst liberals. It's a Diet Cola version because
Speaker 1: it's not culturally acceptable for liberals to be as nasty
Speaker 1: as the far right. So you kinda have to kind
Speaker 1: of you show a Diet Cola version by sweeping it
Speaker 1: under the rug. And saying now let's get to the
Speaker 1: people who really matter, the regular Americans. Words like that
Speaker 1: are used and so working class right, So basically color
Speaker 1: blinding the whole situation. That is the liberal version of it.
Speaker 1: And you know it sucks like hell that are people
Speaker 1: have to choose between fuck you and oh I don't
Speaker 1: have time for you right now? Can I can I
Speaker 1: get you to expand on that a little bit, because
Speaker 1: like something that I find just whether it be with
Speaker 1: certain like leftist pundence I listened to, or even when
Speaker 1: I'm you know, interacting with like leftist spaces on Twitter
Speaker 1: and stuff like that, I find that there tends to
Speaker 1: be like and it could should be me personally, but
Speaker 1: I tend to see like this sort of like economic
Speaker 1: essential ism from some leftist to where it's like the
Speaker 1: economic aspect of things is the only thing that matters
Speaker 1: and don't pay it to you know what I mean. Like,
Speaker 1: there's a certain color blind sort of push I find
Speaker 1: from some people who leftist as well. Leftists can be
Speaker 1: a big part of the problem. Um uh, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of white leftists who have no clue how to
Speaker 1: be intersectional, and they have just as much problematic white
Speaker 1: supremacit thinking it's just in a more progressive form, and
Speaker 1: it's even It's like liberals they have to culturally adjust
Speaker 1: to what's acceptable. Leftists have to as well, and so
Speaker 1: you can't they can't get away with saying what you
Speaker 1: could say and fire right crowds. So they try to
Speaker 1: color blind everything and say, oh, it's all class and
Speaker 1: I'm like, and I'm like, it's it's I would say,
Speaker 1: it's not all class, it's it's class and race. And
Speaker 1: you can tell to Like one of the things I
Speaker 1: say to them is like, man, Medicare for all is
Speaker 1: super dope. But if you're not even thinking of including
Speaker 1: black people and when you're talking about it, then like,
Speaker 1: am I just supposed to be stupid? Like? Oh you
Speaker 1: said that? You know what I mean? Like? Nah? Like
Speaker 1: did you be like that? Sometimes? Do be like that? Sometimes? Well,
Speaker 1: at this point, do you all want to uh segue
Speaker 1: into discussing a little bit what's been going on this week?
Speaker 1: Get some of your reactions down to well, let's uh break. Oh,
Speaker 1: you're right, you're right, you're right. I'm tripping. I'm tripping.
Speaker 1: We still got to pay these bills. I gotta pay
Speaker 1: these bills. We'll be back after the joke. The big
Speaker 1: thing I will talk about this week. Come on, let
Speaker 1: me let me get it first. Let me get it first.
Speaker 1: I had something before we went to a break. I
Speaker 1: was about to I was about to ask ask something
Speaker 1: I wanted to get. This isn't like the best. I'm
Speaker 1: not saying mine is the best or oh I'm so exciting, Okay, John,
Speaker 1: I wanted to Did you pay attention at all to
Speaker 1: any of the U in particular hip hop aspects of
Speaker 1: the Grammys. Tyler the Creator one Best Best Rap Album
Speaker 1: with this Yeah Yeah Album? I didn't realize top I
Speaker 1: heard it there. I didn't know that should happen until
Speaker 1: this morning. I'm gonna be honest. I did not watch
Speaker 1: the Grams for free over here, and not a single
Speaker 1: one of them. I heard the great things. I had
Speaker 1: had a friend who was there, so I saw some
Speaker 1: Instagram stories. I heard it went better than the Oscar
Speaker 1: Wait who want to? Yeah? Who? Who wanted? All? Right?
Speaker 1: So on the hip hop and um or hip hop
Speaker 1: adjacent type stuff. Tyler the Creator one Best Rap Album,
Speaker 1: You'll Call Me If You Get Lost Kanye One Best
Speaker 1: Rap Song with Jail featuring jay Z, Little Baby One
Speaker 1: Best Melodic Rap Performance Best Melodic Rap Performances a category
Speaker 1: that's dope um with the song Hurricane featuring Kanye West
Speaker 1: in the Weekend, it actually sounds like that might just
Speaker 1: be a way so they can give R and B
Speaker 1: singers a rap grabmy without saying it's R and B.
Speaker 1: Best Rap Performance went to Baby Keeman Kendrick Lamar for
Speaker 1: the song Family Tie and Yeah. Yeah. Those are the
Speaker 1: main hip hip hop related grammy wins. Did you hear
Speaker 1: any of those albums? I heard the Tyler joint, it
Speaker 1: was good, mar and Baby came. I heard I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be honest. I stopped listening to Kanye several years ago.
Speaker 1: Met me too. I listened to the old Kanye. I
Speaker 1: do listen to the old Kanye, but I haven't listened
Speaker 1: too much new Kanye. Yeah, no, no, okay, unless he
Speaker 1: shows up. He'll like show up on the random, like chance,
Speaker 1: the rapper saying, not really, well, like the field is there.
Speaker 1: You can feel Kanye in the music and you're just like,
Speaker 1: but apparently doesn't Capparently he's doing noil. Now he's got
Speaker 1: older dark money, so he's doing something right. Okay, so
Speaker 1: we're here's That's interesting, right, because you know, if I
Speaker 1: do take a survey of the age range of the
Speaker 1: three of us right now, me and you John are
Speaker 1: in are like mid to late thirties, Marizon or early thirties.
Speaker 1: So why it like what's going on that none of
Speaker 1: us just are completely oblivion because to the fact that
Speaker 1: the Grammys took place and we're like, yeah, I heard
Speaker 1: that one song. When we're all talking about the stuff
Speaker 1: that won, I don't any of those like show like
Speaker 1: award shows. I've never I've never. Hip Hop is a
Speaker 1: very wide, wide genre, and so you can be a
Speaker 1: hip hop hit and I'm not a hip hop hit.
Speaker 1: I listened to a lot of hip hop, but I'm
Speaker 1: nothing closed to being a hip hop hit. You give
Speaker 1: me a hip hop hit and still not listen to everything. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know, Like I honestly, you know, I gess,
Speaker 1: I guess. I guess I heard the Tyler album and
Speaker 1: then I did hear that Baby Kaman Kendrick Lamar song.
Speaker 1: But I mean, definitely the other stuff definitely kind to
Speaker 1: kind of missed me. And it's it's not like I
Speaker 1: wasn't listening to a lot of music. I guess this
Speaker 1: is just you know what I mean. The it's just
Speaker 1: like it's like a particular I guess, like like little
Speaker 1: carving of like all that there is out there that's
Speaker 1: actually involved with the Grammys. That it's like, if you're
Speaker 1: not super in tune to wherever the hell people are
Speaker 1: getting updated on that stuff, are you? It kind of
Speaker 1: like it just kind of skipped that fast you by.
Speaker 1: You don't you don't even know that the ship took place.
Speaker 1: It's like John said, it's a warm hoole. I keep
Speaker 1: falling backwards and forwards in the hip hop chronology in
Speaker 1: terms of what I listened to. I'll be like I'll
Speaker 1: just discover like an album from my favorite like my
Speaker 1: Nick Jake it's from my two tho, Like why Wilt
Speaker 1: go through the whole time? What the hell? There's not
Speaker 1: enough time to all to keep to keep up with everything.
Speaker 1: But you know, being a winners at the Grammys. You
Speaker 1: know who else won this week? Amazon, Labor Union, got
Speaker 1: that ship. Everyone for the listeners, everyone's dancing on camera
Speaker 1: right now. Yeah, and so that's super exciting. I mean
Speaker 1: I am slightly bumped for like my homies down Investmer, Alabama.
Speaker 1: Who are you know? They early tallies look like they lost.
Speaker 1: You know, there's probably gonna be some sort of n
Speaker 1: LRV challenge and try to like get it overturn again.
Speaker 1: But so it was. I'm a little heartbroken for them
Speaker 1: because you know, I'd love to see the south wind
Speaker 1: but first first unionized Amazon warehouse in the country up
Speaker 1: there in stud Island. Do you know what some of
Speaker 1: the things that they're gonna be like working out to
Speaker 1: change when they yeah, and they're trying to get thirty
Speaker 1: dollars an hour they want um paid to PA repaid
Speaker 1: breaks to thirty minute paid breaks and then an hour
Speaker 1: for lunch, and they wanted to totally completely stop changing
Speaker 1: any HR policies like that, um like between now and
Speaker 1: when they start to like bargain with the union. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's everything that you said sounds like super reasonable, but
Speaker 1: that he didn't even literally like no, they're just coming
Speaker 1: for what they deserved, not men sports here, Like literally,
Speaker 1: this isn't a big deal. Let's just get this done
Speaker 1: with yo. But interesting fact I learned is that Chris Smalls,
Speaker 1: who's the president of the Amazon Labor Union, uh, the
Speaker 1: guy that's got fired into a tony for the to
Speaker 1: walk out over like the coronavirus policies and like being
Speaker 1: organized ever since. So he is a rapper apparently, Oh
Speaker 1: that before like in a former life went on tour
Speaker 1: with Meet Mill. I did not know that about Chris Small.
Speaker 1: So that was like a little nation right there. We
Speaker 1: gotta it's like we're like highlanders and it. You know,
Speaker 1: it's like we're in all walks of life. You run
Speaker 1: to somebody's like yo MC yeah, I used to Nope,
Speaker 1: I gotta say you're you're you're leading a labor union
Speaker 1: and you're a rap. That's actually really hard rappers, yeah,
Speaker 1: and politicians very similar and very similar times. People say,
Speaker 1: very similar skill sets only differences. Rappers are not contivation
Speaker 1: behind the two. I would like to see mainstream rap
Speaker 1: affected with uh a labor union rapper. Like I feel
Speaker 1: like mainstream rap is more neoliberal than actual neoliberal politics.
Speaker 1: Mainstream wrappers actually kind of like mainstream American hip hop
Speaker 1: has got like a lot of at least from an
Speaker 1: economic standpoint, I think it's got like a lot of
Speaker 1: right wing sort of yeah, right wing is more like it.
Speaker 1: But you know, neo liberal is a gentle way of
Speaker 1: putting it, Like, yeah, exactly a lot of shaming. It's
Speaker 1: a lot of poverty shaming and made sap it and
Speaker 1: I mean it's like poverty shaming from like it's not
Speaker 1: even like a superficial like Nana Nana boo boo sort
Speaker 1: of way, like my car so much doper than yours.
Speaker 1: It's like on some philosophical like you're broken, you shouldn't
Speaker 1: be bro It's like you shouldn't be broke, only real mannery,
Speaker 1: it's like time out. Don't don't get me wrong, I'm
Speaker 1: not into policing art, but I would not mind if
Speaker 1: that went away from I would not mind if that
Speaker 1: just went away because it's living in Atlanta, and in
Speaker 1: Atlanta that impacts the actual culture in the streets, Like
Speaker 1: I it hits you. I'm like, whoa, No, I agree,
Speaker 1: you know, like it's weird Joe, and to the point
Speaker 1: where it's like if you if you just listen to
Speaker 1: the stuff, It's like, man, I'm not saying this has
Speaker 1: nothing that there's not like a quality judgment, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. This isn't like, oh it's whack or whatever.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about like the actual like way that the
Speaker 1: ship like feels and you know, I personally I have
Speaker 1: these like other political beliefs and ship and they bleed
Speaker 1: into the art that I consume. So yeah, there's like
Speaker 1: certain elements of listening to it where it's like, man,
Speaker 1: this is this is nothing. If this didn't have a
Speaker 1: beat behind it, like I wouldn't. I'm just wondering how
Speaker 1: many women who were like born to like working class
Speaker 1: or poor fathers say broken niggas don't deserve No, you didn't,
Speaker 1: You didn't deserve to be born No. Yeah? Yeah, Well, John,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for coming on the show and
Speaker 1: sharing some of your perspectives from on the ground. Um,
Speaker 1: do you want people to catch up with you? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Like if you do want people to find you, where
Speaker 1: can they find you? To drop of? Like this, yo'all
Speaker 1: want people who know about you? I want people to
Speaker 1: know about it. I want I want people to cancel
Speaker 1: me over it. I don't care lit Man j J
Speaker 1: on Twitter, Instagram, John Jackson on Facebook. Yeah, hit me up.
Speaker 1: He watched all the smoke all of Oh Man, Well
Speaker 1: thanks so much again, Man, and uh, oh my god,
Speaker 1: thank you for coming out. This was super fun. Plus
Speaker 1: I just don't know what anything hang out with you,
Speaker 1: so it's like good hanging out with you again, Yo.
Speaker 1: So that's my homie, John. I appreciate you coming on
Speaker 1: once again. Bro. Think something we're gonna talk more about
Speaker 1: on the show that we can really got into with
Speaker 1: him was like the reconciliation of like the things that
Speaker 1: we do for money with like the fact that we
Speaker 1: are inherently participant in like a sick and toxic system.
Speaker 1: I appreciate him as like a you know, financial analysts
Speaker 1: working with these big companies that like he's also outspoken
Speaker 1: about hating uh yeah, and you know, like there's various
Speaker 1: ways that we like play the game, but like you know,
Speaker 1: don't participating in boycotts or avoiding certain companies or participating
Speaker 1: with certainly Yeah, yeah, exactly. I Mean that's something that
Speaker 1: we both I wouldn't say struggle with, but it's something
Speaker 1: it's a it's a it's a reality that we both
Speaker 1: come to grips with, even with posting our podcast and
Speaker 1: doing the O you know, and according to the other
Speaker 1: things that we do. So, I mean one thing we
Speaker 1: got to grapple with, Like as artists, we are like
Speaker 1: take this with a grant of salt, but we are
Speaker 1: capitalists and agree to like I get some money together
Speaker 1: and buy some T shirts and then I sell them
Speaker 1: more than their work um to get the money and
Speaker 1: so like I get I make money if by had
Speaker 1: like by having money, you know, like you know, I
Speaker 1: don't know stuff like that. It's one of those things
Speaker 1: where it's like what the idealized you know, world that
Speaker 1: you would like to live in, budding heads with like
Speaker 1: the real world that you do live in. It's one
Speaker 1: of those certain things, you know. It's like we all
Speaker 1: have to play the game because we don't have any
Speaker 1: other there's no other world for us to live in
Speaker 1: other than the one. Yeah, I just have you. I
Speaker 1: have to at this point, like it's my career. Like
Speaker 1: I don't know what else to do, you know, you
Speaker 1: know what else we have to do because it's our career.
Speaker 1: That's bit wraps and ship. All right, let us get
Speaker 1: a beat please. Oh you said you're gonna kick one
Speaker 1: of your customers during this okay, word, I want to
Speaker 1: hear this all right? Joel dropped that drop that Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: who we be? It's that rhetorical question, who we be? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: weight on reparations, You better give me my paper. My
Speaker 1: people and Amazon they was organizing for labor black and
Speaker 1: brown and the yellow the games we got manny flavor.
Speaker 1: We never crossing the pick and lion march in front
Speaker 1: of the mayor. Hey, we want lunch in the bathroom.
Speaker 1: Break we want more to cash you make. I've been
Speaker 1: eating too long as fact, you say, but you should
Speaker 1: have built on my back. You break because of y'all green.
Speaker 1: Now we all stock spe ships to the side. We
Speaker 1: can see y'all butt. Why be the billionaires that we
Speaker 1: all trust? Why never funk with no elon must or
Speaker 1: birds came to get under the bundaid that they see,
Speaker 1: not to fight for what they owed for body lining
Speaker 1: up the Coke for a multi national folk United bargain.
Speaker 1: Divided with slave and staying broke, the Coke responded with
Speaker 1: brutality written in their families. Some leaders disappeared and some
Speaker 1: others would badly beat five fatalities. So the workers took
Speaker 1: it to the court seeking justice protragedy station door. And
Speaker 1: still today they're fighting for what they worked in the
Speaker 1: face of intimidation. Even no one that homeless had gotten
Speaker 1: their lives cut short standing before they write to stick
Speaker 1: in it to the bosses. Because the name of the
Speaker 1: game is always people over profits. Hey, hey, hey, this
Speaker 1: is Dope Knife and you have been listening to Waiting
Speaker 1: on Reparations. See you next week. Plea. Listen to Waiting
Speaker 1: on Reparations on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts.