Speaker 1: Native Lampard is the production of iHeartRadio and partnership with
Speaker 1: Reisent Choice Media.
Speaker 2: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.
Speaker 3: Welcome, Welcome. For every mountain side, let freedom ring. And
Speaker 3: when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we
Speaker 3: let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from
Speaker 3: every state and every city, we will be able to
Speaker 3: speed up that day with all of God's children, black
Speaker 3: men and white men, jos and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics
Speaker 3: will be able to join hands and sing in the
Speaker 3: words of the old Negro spiritual Free at last, pre
Speaker 3: ad Last, Thanks God Almighty, we are pre Admas Well.
Speaker 4: Welcome home, everybody.
Speaker 5: This is a very special edition of the Native Land
Speaker 5: Podcast because it is Martin Luther King Day.
Speaker 4: Nothing else important is happening today.
Speaker 5: All we care about is the dream that doctor King
Speaker 5: once had that appears to be coming in the form
Speaker 5: of a nightmare.
Speaker 4: On this very day.
Speaker 5: But I won't say what that nightmare is. I'll allow
Speaker 5: my calls to do that. I'm answer the rhy.
Speaker 4: I'm here with Tiffany Cross and Andrew Gillim.
Speaker 5: You guys, what could possibly be ruining doctor King's dream
Speaker 5: for America.
Speaker 1: Today, Well, I just want to say just really quick
Speaker 1: back and I love that we came into doctor King's
Speaker 1: word free at last, Free at last, because that and
Speaker 1: Angela is gowned appropriately in her MLK gear today, because
Speaker 1: that really is had such credo to black folks. That
Speaker 1: is what we have, It is our birthright, it is
Speaker 1: what we arrived in this country seeking. You know, we
Speaker 1: were free beings who were kidnapped, rates have the humanity
Speaker 1: beat out of us, and so for so long in
Speaker 1: this country we have sought freedom. And so to hear
Speaker 1: those iconic words every year, I still get goose bumps.
Speaker 1: I still I remember when The Cosby Show did a
Speaker 1: special episode and they played those words.
Speaker 6: It just it means so much to me.
Speaker 1: So my honor and respect to the King family today
Speaker 1: and your work and your sacrifice. Special shout out to
Speaker 1: doctor Burneath King who stay woke and stay out there
Speaker 1: carrying on her father's legacy.
Speaker 6: It is striking Angela.
Speaker 1: I'm heartbroken that inauguration is taking place on Mlkday because
Speaker 1: the Republican and conservative right wing MAGGA extremists are so
Speaker 1: skilled at co opting his words and perverting them to
Speaker 1: promote ideas, ideals and ideology that he did not stand for.
Speaker 1: They always cherry pick his language when really he has
Speaker 1: some pretty quote unquote woke language out there and holds
Speaker 1: a lot of conservative white people to account, and they
Speaker 1: never play those So I'm disgusted that inauguration is has
Speaker 1: taking place today.
Speaker 6: It's heartbreaking.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it is the worst kind of oxymoron, Andrew. I'm
Speaker 5: eager to hear what our resident diplomat has to say
Speaker 5: about this horrific occasion on such a very special day
Speaker 5: moday that we had to fight for, by the way,
Speaker 5: even fight John McCain, who I probably would prefer being
Speaker 5: inaugurated at this point.
Speaker 4: If he was.
Speaker 2: You know what, I appreciate one about MLK Day, but
Speaker 2: Martinuther King and the civil rights movement and struggle, the
Speaker 2: struggle toward our collective liberation, and it didn't start at
Speaker 2: the Civil rights movement. It dates back back, back, far back.
Speaker 2: And what I know is true about it is that
Speaker 2: the words, the hymns, the prayers prayed from then to
Speaker 2: now have always been aspirational. They've never been just about
Speaker 2: the moment that we're in. And I think for survival purposes,
Speaker 2: our ancestors had to project bright the future, a day
Speaker 2: of freedom, a day when we could decide, a day
Speaker 2: when there'll be no more sorrow, no more pain. You know.
Speaker 2: I just think about the songs and the hymns that
Speaker 2: carried us over, the speeches, the words, the poems that
Speaker 2: have carried us have almost always always spoken truth to
Speaker 2: what the moment is, and then try to take us higher,
Speaker 2: try to take us, lift us out of our grief
Speaker 2: into a higher plane. And so I'm acknowledging this day
Speaker 2: as another one of those days that while reality may
Speaker 2: feel bleak, while on one screen we might have the
Speaker 2: Devil incarnate and his crew about to take the helm,
Speaker 2: we also still have the example of Doctor King, of
Speaker 2: our freedom, fighters, of our movement, leaders, of our ancestors.
Speaker 2: To put our attention on something higher. And I really
Speaker 2: I'm clasping to that, y'all, because the right now can
Speaker 2: feel really defeated. The right now, this moment can feel
Speaker 2: like a letdown. It can feel like god Lee, I
Speaker 2: thought we had made so much progress and today feels
Speaker 2: like a complete and total throwback. And it does. But
Speaker 2: I also know that progress is almost always followed by
Speaker 2: this kind of a reflexive verberation, and then in a
Speaker 2: few years, be they two, be they four. You know,
Speaker 2: we whiplash the next direction, and all kinds of progress
Speaker 2: can be made. I just think for me, I'm making
Speaker 2: it by lifting up out of what's today and embracing
Speaker 2: what's today for the future.
Speaker 5: Well, my neck urge from whiplash, so hopefully we don't
Speaker 5: have to keep doing it. Yeah, I'm curious.
Speaker 2: American struggle, the Black Americans.
Speaker 5: Struggle, especially black and I'm just am tired. I would
Speaker 5: like to if we can't, speaking of Black Americans, go
Speaker 5: into something that we talk about often and ask who
Speaker 5: all gonna be there? And so Andrew's talking about a
Speaker 5: throwback talk about My argument is that you are our
Speaker 5: resident Barack Obama, uh, and Tiffany is our resident Michelle Obama,
Speaker 5: not because y'all married, but because this is these are
Speaker 5: the two houses in which y'all sit. I feel like
Speaker 5: I don't think so okay, well let's see, because I
Speaker 5: feel like you had the biggest argument for why Joe
Speaker 5: Biden should have invited Donald Trump into the White House, whereas.
Speaker 2: The Boss should have I should have What do you
Speaker 2: mean I don't have an argument about that? Period. To
Speaker 2: be quite honest, I know it came fiercely down, but
Speaker 2: I thought presidents have for traditional purposes this symbolic after
Speaker 2: the election passing of the torch, we're leaving and you're
Speaker 2: coming in. And it didn't to me read as a
Speaker 2: complete and total collapse of of I don't know protocol.
Speaker 2: It's just okay, well that's.
Speaker 6: What I understood you to be saying, Andrews. So I
Speaker 6: want you to correct me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 1: Is that yes, that that is the people elected Donald Trump,
Speaker 1: and it is protocol for the president to invite him
Speaker 1: to the White House, and that should happen. That should
Speaker 1: not be disrupted just because we don't like the election results.
Speaker 2: Do I Well, fundamentally, I don't think they're different. I
Speaker 2: just said I didn't bring I would not make an
Speaker 2: argument Joe Biden, you how to invite such and such
Speaker 2: and such and such. I'm also not going to lay
Speaker 2: down on the train tracks over him having done so
Speaker 2: by keeping with tradition, we just ran a race about democracy,
Speaker 2: the the need to not change our opinions on what's
Speaker 2: right based off of who gets elected.
Speaker 6: But people should go to inauguration.
Speaker 2: No, I wouldn't encourage people to go.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I don't mean people like gen pop presidents
Speaker 1: sit on that dais and watch him be sworn in.
Speaker 2: I think former presidents can choose to do that and
Speaker 2: keeping with the tradition and the peaceful transfer. I, however,
Speaker 2: believe that their wives, family members, or anybody else is
Speaker 2: obligated to the same. Michelle Obama never took an oath
Speaker 2: of office to the United States of America. I want
Speaker 2: to buy. The reason why that's important to me is
Speaker 2: because we should have a bifurcation of a bifurcation should
Speaker 2: exist between what are these traditions that are held because
Speaker 2: of constitutional purposes and then individuals who just make a choice.
Speaker 5: I don't know what the Constitution says about presidents being
Speaker 5: invited former presidents being invited to the oval or especially
Speaker 5: when they're threats to democracy, or what it says about
Speaker 5: presidents having to attend inauguration.
Speaker 4: I've never seen that.
Speaker 5: But I guess what I'm curious about before we get to.
Speaker 2: The whyll transfer?
Speaker 5: Okay, how do you peacefully transfer power to someone who
Speaker 5: you say is a threat to democracy.
Speaker 2: By keeping with the traditions of the office that inert
Speaker 2: to the same which is, you know what, we win
Speaker 2: this election. We competed. The election is now over. There
Speaker 2: is one president at one time, and that will be
Speaker 2: that son.
Speaker 5: Another tradition is the vice president normally invites the incoming
Speaker 5: vice president to the Naval Observatory for a tour so
Speaker 5: they can see where they'll be residing before they take office.
Speaker 5: Kamala Harris did not do that.
Speaker 2: Well, I think we Kama Harris provided presided vice president.
Speaker 2: Kamala Harris provided over the opening of the electoral vote
Speaker 2: and the counting of the electoral votes in the authentication
Speaker 2: process of the man who defeated her in the race
Speaker 2: for the presidency. As far as I'm concerned, she has
Speaker 2: hailed with the traditions of her office, and.
Speaker 4: That's not true, right.
Speaker 5: I just I think that she didn't that is her
Speaker 5: constitutional responsibility success. I'm sorry I didn't say anything about
Speaker 5: her presiding over the Senate. I was.
Speaker 2: That's what I said, because that's what I think is important.
Speaker 4: I understand.
Speaker 2: I don't care about the visit.
Speaker 4: I understand.
Speaker 5: Okay, so that's what I'm curious about. I don't know
Speaker 5: why you're you don't care about that visit, but you
Speaker 5: do care about the other visit.
Speaker 2: I didn't care about the other visit either, you did.
Speaker 2: I just happened to disagree with your conclusion.
Speaker 1: Well, Andrew, I get the point that you're taking because
Speaker 1: you're you're I think what you're saying is, I'm not advocating.
Speaker 1: I'm not out there like Joe Biden, you better invite
Speaker 1: don Trump. But the fact that he did, You're like, okay,
Speaker 1: that that is traditional.
Speaker 6: So this is to me, this.
Speaker 1: Gets to the heart of the conversation, because yes, it
Speaker 1: is tradition, that is what happens. And what I think
Speaker 1: Angela and I are saying is but he is a threat.
Speaker 1: He himself is a threat to democracy. I think the
Speaker 1: question that's more philosophical than it is political, is that
Speaker 1: is how we feel what happens when a Democrat gets
Speaker 1: elected and they say this democrat is a threat to democracy.
Speaker 1: Not that any of us are mouthpieces for the party,
Speaker 1: but there were people who felt like President Obama was
Speaker 1: a threat to democracy. There were people who felt like
Speaker 1: President Biden was a threat to democracy. There are people
Speaker 1: who would have felt had Vice President Kamala Harris become
Speaker 1: president elected, that she would have been a threat to democracy.
Speaker 1: So in keeping with that, and I don't think these
Speaker 1: are I think it is a false equivalency to talk
Speaker 1: about what republicans and how they are a threat to
Speaker 1: democracy andmocrats. So I'm not trying to compare the two,
Speaker 1: but I think it gets to the heart of the
Speaker 1: question of how much do we want to play by
Speaker 1: the rules here in anticipation that one day the vowels
Speaker 1: of power will shift and the expectation that we.
Speaker 6: Have right as they always do.
Speaker 2: I got it.
Speaker 6: I'm like, go the rules out right. That is the thing.
Speaker 6: People presuppose that this is just a normal time.
Speaker 1: Republicans in our office is going to be bad four
Speaker 1: years and I'm saying, ring the alarm, this is not normal.
Speaker 6: I say, throw out the rules. That's what they did.
Speaker 6: They threw out the rules.
Speaker 1: They just decided this is not it. They treated it
Speaker 1: like the pixie dust it is. So my thought is,
Speaker 1: let's imagine this democracy as a blank slate. F you inauguration.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to if I'm President Obama, I ain't
Speaker 1: about to sit it you inauguration on MLKA. Then I
Speaker 1: want my daughters to know I stood up on this
Speaker 1: day and said if that I ain't there.
Speaker 2: The way Obama. I know he won't, but but it'd
Speaker 2: be different to me if Obama, as in the first case,
Speaker 2: were transitioning the presidency from himself to mister Trump. He did.
Speaker 2: He showed up, as did Michelle. She was very much
Speaker 2: so not happy to be there. We could all read
Speaker 2: that on her face and demeanor, right, But he, as
Speaker 2: far as I'm concerned, held to his part of the bargain.
Speaker 2: Trump and his loser ass attitude didn't have what was
Speaker 2: required to do the same for his successor, and all
Speaker 2: I'm guys the reason why. So first of all, let
Speaker 2: me finish this point. So, as far as I'm concerned,
Speaker 2: previous presidents who are not the current sitting office holder
Speaker 2: are free to do whatever it is they want to
Speaker 2: do there. They are no law. They are not a
Speaker 2: threat to democracy because they no longer attend the inaugurations
Speaker 2: of the party they disagree with. That's that's that's a
Speaker 2: that's a fair choice. I came down, however, on the
Speaker 2: side of if you are the sitting president and your
Speaker 2: pat and you are transitioning between administrations, that we have
Speaker 2: to we have to show that there can be some
Speaker 2: reconciliation here, because, like your point and I don't mean reconciliation,
Speaker 2: like we all agree and we're we're holding hands on
Speaker 2: and skipping in whatever down the stage. But this is
Speaker 2: what it sets us up for. If we can just
Speaker 2: decide we don't like the person, and therefore we no
Speaker 2: longer have to respect any of the rules are guard rails,
Speaker 2: the same will happen to us, and so on and
Speaker 2: so forth, and so on and so forth. And I
Speaker 2: think what's been what what there is about this democracy
Speaker 2: that is defendable is that at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: we don't have to torch the country because we lost
Speaker 2: in a transaction of an election, all right, got to
Speaker 2: that's that's that's, that's it. And I get that there
Speaker 2: is a sentiment to throw out all the rules, to
Speaker 2: buck into this and the say f you, and let
Speaker 2: that message be resounding. And I find myself terified of
Speaker 2: the consequences of that when it comes down on us.
Speaker 1: I'm curious your thoughts of Angelo, because that's I mean,
Speaker 1: that is an institutionalist, that's a traditionalist.
Speaker 2: What are you?
Speaker 6: What are your thoughts?
Speaker 5: Yes, and I respect that's what I call I call
Speaker 5: Andrew often jokingly our resident diplomat, but he's always going
Speaker 5: to take the high road and do what isn't necessary
Speaker 5: to preserve the institution. I'm making the argument that by
Speaker 5: virtue of this man's elections, the institutions are gone.
Speaker 4: I'm making the go ahead.
Speaker 2: No, I just wanted to correct myself and say, I
Speaker 2: believe some institutions need to be leveled. So it's not
Speaker 2: protect the institution at all costs. It's not protect the
Speaker 2: institution because what there.
Speaker 4: Was to be leveled, I just don't know if they're
Speaker 4: going to be leveled in the way that you would like.
Speaker 2: And I think, well, but but by advocacy before, if
Speaker 2: there is a thing that needs to be taken away
Speaker 2: to be leveled, it ought to be leveled and put
Speaker 2: energy into that. But I'm not going to put energy
Speaker 2: into the things that to me are not on the
Speaker 2: whole importance.
Speaker 4: Okay, here's the consequential. Here's my thought.
Speaker 5: I think that we have and I'm saying I feel
Speaker 5: like I've been lied to. I feel like I've been betrayed.
Speaker 5: I feel like when people told me that there was
Speaker 5: sound evidence to support that Donald Trump is a threat
Speaker 5: to democracy and his election would need the end of
Speaker 5: the thing that we know is imperfect, but that we
Speaker 5: are since our ancestors were here, have been working to
Speaker 5: better even when it didn't benefit us.
Speaker 4: If it is truly an.
Speaker 5: Endto democracy, I don't understand how you welcome that into
Speaker 5: your house. I don't understand how you welcome that into
Speaker 5: the bodies of government. I don't understand any of that.
Speaker 5: I don't understand how you clear the pathway for him
Speaker 5: not to serve time in prison. I don't understand how
Speaker 5: you have strong evidence to support a conviction for him,
Speaker 5: and you don't work to ensure that the day.
Speaker 4: Of justice or that justice has served. I don't understand that.
Speaker 5: What I think, what I think is the problem now
Speaker 5: is that there are a number of people who are
Speaker 5: watching Barack Obama at Jimmy Carter's funeral, talking to Donald
Speaker 5: Trump NonStop, who are seeing that he's at the inauguration,
Speaker 5: who understood, who understand that Michelle Obama stood her ground
Speaker 5: and did not attend for another reason. Who understand that
Speaker 5: Kamala Harris, who was called trash by jd Vance, did
Speaker 5: not welcome her into her home until it's time for
Speaker 5: her to move out. I think that we are saying
Speaker 5: one thing, asking people to stand with us and saying
Speaker 5: that thing and doing something very different, and that is
Speaker 5: more dangerous than the threat that Donald Trump could ever be,
Speaker 5: because what happens is you lose credibility with people because
Speaker 5: you don't look honest.
Speaker 4: I feel lied to because.
Speaker 5: Everything that I've seen says that this man does not
Speaker 5: care about the rules. The fact that Elon Musk will
Speaker 5: have an office on the White House campus, the.
Speaker 7: Fact that tech companies writ Lodge large bought their way
Speaker 7: into Donald Trump's pockets by funding the inauguration, that Coke
Speaker 7: gave him the first commemorative inauguration bottle, like the way
Speaker 7: that these these companies left and right are throwing out DEI,
Speaker 7: we are not acknowledging the true threat he is. If
Speaker 7: our leaders, the people we've elected, the people that we've
Speaker 7: campaigned for, the folks that our parents and everybody else
Speaker 7: has donated to, are no longer saying the same thing,
Speaker 7: that is far more dangerous than.
Speaker 4: Any constitutional protection we could ever have.
Speaker 5: It is far more dangerous than any area of decorum
Speaker 5: thing that we could say is just the right thing
Speaker 5: to do. Damn that I'm not welcoming the devil into
Speaker 5: my house. The Bible says resist the devil and he
Speaker 5: will flee from you. Then we got to resist get
Speaker 5: the break.
Speaker 1: I want to get on the other side. Well, on
Speaker 1: the other side of this break, I want to get
Speaker 1: into who's not going to be there, and that is
Speaker 1: forever flowed as Michelle Obama, and I want to remind
Speaker 1: our viewers how she feels about Donald Trump and why
Speaker 1: she might not be there. And I want to get
Speaker 1: back in some more of what you had to say,
Speaker 1: so we'll see you on our side.
Speaker 8: We will never benefit from the affirmative action of generational
Speaker 8: wealth if we bankrupt the business.
Speaker 6: If we bankrupt the business.
Speaker 8: Or choke in a crisis, we don't get a second, third.
Speaker 6: Or fourth chance.
Speaker 8: If things don't go our way. We don't have the
Speaker 8: luxury of whining or cheating others to get further ahead. No,
Speaker 8: we don't get to change the rules, so we always win.
Speaker 8: If we see a mountain in front of us, we
Speaker 8: don't expect there to be an escalator waiting to take
Speaker 8: us to the top.
Speaker 6: No, we put our heads down. We get to work.
Speaker 8: In America, we do something.
Speaker 1: So those, of course, were the words forever flows Michelle Obama,
Speaker 1: who tossed the deuce of city inauguration today, she said,
Speaker 1: count me out. I ain't got com I love that
Speaker 1: so many people have been sending around all these pictures
Speaker 1: of Michelle Obama talking about if I'll send you this,
Speaker 1: I ain't coming. She she is me, I am her.
Speaker 1: I would not be there. And I think this is
Speaker 1: kind of the point Angela was making, because Angela, some
Speaker 1: of the things that you were talking about, and someone
Speaker 1: from across the aisle someone could say those are policy differences,
Speaker 1: like DEI, you could say, those are policy differences, not
Speaker 1: necessarily a threat. That is, that is like the baseline
Speaker 1: of how they're threatening us. The more scary thing, I
Speaker 1: think is what you talked about about the tech companies
Speaker 1: and what they touched and how they have bought their
Speaker 1: way into this administration, which quite frankly, we have not
Speaker 1: dug into deep enough. I don't mean we native Land,
Speaker 1: I mean we the country. We the constituents of America,
Speaker 1: have not examined that very dangerous relationship, the threat that
Speaker 1: we are on the global stage with all of these
Speaker 1: people who are inept leading these agencies. So I think
Speaker 1: you had raised a really good point about normalizing this
Speaker 1: when we see people normally, when you are engaging with
Speaker 1: this man who questioned your very citizenship, who said that
Speaker 1: you were born in Kenya, who disrespected key key after that,
Speaker 1: And you know what it reminds me of. I'll tell
Speaker 1: y'all which y'all all of us can appreciate. In the
Speaker 1: green room on some of these cable news hits, okay,
Speaker 1: there are people who are MAGA extremists, Trump apologists, and
Speaker 1: they're on with people who you know are democratic exposed people,
Speaker 1: people on the left, and in the green room they
Speaker 1: all ki ki in and hahan and oh oh.
Speaker 6: Did you you and your family went here? Blah blah blah.
Speaker 6: I won't tell you.
Speaker 1: I never did that shit in my life. I wasn't
Speaker 1: never out there performing. I wasn't playing no character, ain't
Speaker 1: no key key. I don't give a damn with you
Speaker 1: and your family did over the weekend. I'm not talking
Speaker 1: to you about it. We can talk about policy when
Speaker 1: we get on air. You're not my friend, I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to reach across the aisle. You're not my good
Speaker 1: distinguished person. And sometimes I think those performative antics do
Speaker 1: more harm to our democracy by pretending the thing that
Speaker 1: we see, the clear and present danger that is before
Speaker 1: us is not a clear and present danger, and the
Speaker 1: quite the quiet truth that should be allowed truth is
Speaker 1: Donald Trump is an existential threat to not only America,
Speaker 1: but our lives as American citizens, as black people, and
Speaker 1: our livelihoods as people of this country.
Speaker 6: So I just disagree with the politeness. Uh, I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't. I don't think so. Your example of not
Speaker 2: sitting in the green room kicking, I've never done that either.
Speaker 2: It's not my thing.
Speaker 6: Any of us.
Speaker 2: No, I just want to be clear up about the difference.
Speaker 2: I don't and I don't and I don't in Florida
Speaker 2: with wishing people happy birthdays who don't believe in my
Speaker 2: existence and yeah, all that that is performative. I have
Speaker 2: no obligation to that. I don't think. You know, many
Speaker 2: people don't have an obligation. Michelle Obama has never taken
Speaker 2: an oath of office to the country, not as first Lady,
Speaker 2: and not in any way prior to that. I'm not
Speaker 2: saying that to say she had loved the country and
Speaker 2: it is fighting tooth and nail to protect it for
Speaker 2: herself and for her daughters and their porogeny all that,
Speaker 2: But she doesn't have an obligation in regards to the
Speaker 2: levers of power. In the exchange of that, all good.
Speaker 6: She can I just real quickly in her She's not.
Speaker 2: For the games. I love that about her, and I
Speaker 2: love that she gets to show her protests in this way.
Speaker 2: I wish her husband had joined her to add even
Speaker 2: greater weight to that, because I don't think he himself
Speaker 2: is consequential to this passage of power. I do think
Speaker 2: that the current president and administration are the fact that
Speaker 2: the vice president didn't invite dance and his wife is
Speaker 2: of zero import Number one, he has no job responsibility
Speaker 2: except to wait for the president to die. Uh, and
Speaker 2: that that he gives them. Yeah, they have no constitutional
Speaker 2: obligations of the constitutional obligation to any duty other than
Speaker 2: to stand in in the absence of the president.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so.
Speaker 2: You're off the hook. As far as I'm concerned, I
Speaker 2: not that not a tradition.
Speaker 3: She did.
Speaker 2: She held her Are we mad at her because she
Speaker 2: presided over the accounting of the electoral vogus?
Speaker 5: I wish that she would have been more contentious about it, sure,
Speaker 5: but no, I'm not mad at her for doing what
Speaker 5: was her obligation. I think there's obligation and decorum.
Speaker 2: Though we both we both signaled that the difference, which
Speaker 2: is I can't give it a about t at the House.
Speaker 2: I didn't give a damn about at the House first
Speaker 2: time either with Vice President with Biden. What I care
Speaker 2: about is that we don't get to throw out the
Speaker 2: guard rails simply because we remember.
Speaker 4: It's not that we lost.
Speaker 5: It's like, I want to make sure that we're really
Speaker 5: clear about the fact that this isn't and George W.
Speaker 5: Bush felt like an existential crisis too, right, George W.
Speaker 4: Bush, this isn't.
Speaker 2: That was the example I was about to go to, Yeah, it's.
Speaker 4: It's it felt like that, But.
Speaker 2: This is, this is democratic.
Speaker 5: This is this is still very That was awful, and
Speaker 5: this is still very different. If we listen to the
Speaker 5: campaign ads that were run, if we listened to the
Speaker 5: rhetoric of every talking head, every spokesperson, every surrogate for
Speaker 5: the campaign, if we listened to the Vice President herself
Speaker 5: in the debates, if we listened to Joe Biden talk
Speaker 5: about this man in twenty twenty when he ran against
Speaker 5: Donald Trump, this is very different, or all of that
Speaker 5: was a lie, And so we have to come to
Speaker 5: terms with the fact that either he is a threat
Speaker 5: to democracy and we treat him the same way we
Speaker 5: would teach any treat any other world leader that is
Speaker 5: a threat to democracy, or he's not.
Speaker 4: But we can't have it both ways.
Speaker 2: Well, But so first of all, I don't I don't
Speaker 2: disagree with you, which is why I think people have
Speaker 2: to be really careful about rhetoric. You have to be
Speaker 2: very careful about the words that come out your mouth
Speaker 2: and how you assign them to other people. But that
Speaker 2: being said, we don't if he is going to assume
Speaker 2: all of the levers of power, it does us no
Speaker 2: good to go underground and pretend that he won't be
Speaker 2: making these decisions he and his administration for the next
Speaker 2: four years that impact us. I no, I get it.
Speaker 2: But but we're to what end. I guess what I
Speaker 2: guess in what end?
Speaker 5: I think that Andrew we Here's here's the part where
Speaker 5: I'm gonna just say. This is where I feel like
Speaker 5: Republicans have balls. I think they have balls on the
Speaker 5: wrong things. I think their balls are false. But here's
Speaker 5: where I think they have balls. I think that if
Speaker 5: the roles were reversed, were reversed, and they really thought
Speaker 5: that this person that was elected that beat their team
Speaker 5: was a threat to democracy, there would be more of
Speaker 5: a proachest. I'm not suggesting in January sixth, what's gonna
Speaker 5: be my next point, But what I'm saying is there
Speaker 5: is a difference between tearing up your own house and
Speaker 5: saying these are the ways in which I won't engage
Speaker 5: with you because you are a threat to everything I
Speaker 5: stand for. And I just think that we say that
Speaker 5: with the rhetoric, We say that at rallies, we say
Speaker 5: that in debates.
Speaker 4: But when it's come time, it comes time for.
Speaker 5: A leader to have passed away, to pass the baton,
Speaker 5: we'd be like, good job, man. It's not an NBA
Speaker 5: playoff game. This ain't the finals. Like this is not
Speaker 5: just like the better team won. That's not what this is.
Speaker 5: It's very different. We are going into a war for
Speaker 5: our livelihood. We know, you know from the last administration.
Speaker 4: What's at stake. You were a target.
Speaker 6: This is not.
Speaker 5: Somebody who you welcome into your space and say, now,
Speaker 5: how can I make this transition easier for you?
Speaker 4: That no.
Speaker 2: So my question, I guess back to the two of you,
Speaker 2: is when the election is over and the new administration
Speaker 2: is sworn into office. Is the argument then to people
Speaker 2: to not engage any That's.
Speaker 1: What I'm but no, I don't think you're saying That's
Speaker 1: what you're saying is but that. But that is a
Speaker 1: question to talk about because and that's legitimate, because that's
Speaker 1: what happened the first time around. He was inviting Steve
Speaker 1: Harvey for some dumbfuck reason to talk about policy, Like,
Speaker 1: I hope that people don't let their hubris lead them
Speaker 1: into an office that they don't belong.
Speaker 6: But that is the question.
Speaker 1: If you know, if you're there to advocate, if you're
Speaker 1: there to fight, do you show up to the meeting?
Speaker 1: Do you meet with his sick of fans? Do you
Speaker 1: meet with his cabinet members? Try to, you know, sway
Speaker 1: them to your side, knowing that it probably won't happen.
Speaker 1: I don't have the answer to that question, Andrew. Honestly,
Speaker 1: my immediate thought, without giving it its due consideration, is no,
Speaker 1: because I don't think that you can squeeze justice from
Speaker 1: this turn up. I don't think that these are people
Speaker 1: who are good actors. I don't think that they are
Speaker 1: acting in good faith, So I would say no. But
Speaker 1: what do you say do you disagree.
Speaker 2: Well, we talked before about, for instance, the common cause
Speaker 2: that might exist on some level of policy around the
Speaker 2: Justice Department accountability being you know, there were some things
Speaker 2: that I think, while they may have arrived at their
Speaker 2: position for the wrong reasons, we know them to be
Speaker 2: costly and devastating and life disruptive, if not ending, for
Speaker 2: our communities. And so if the window exists for us
Speaker 2: to level that part of the system, do we walk
Speaker 2: through that door or not. I don't believe that you
Speaker 2: participate in stagecraft. I don't believe that you are. I
Speaker 2: don't think you willingly and ignorantly go into into being
Speaker 2: a prompt. It's why I refuse to do a post
Speaker 2: meeting after I lost. We're not sitting down to talk
Speaker 2: about my agenda and what advice I have. I've never
Speaker 2: been governor. I can't give you advice on what that
Speaker 2: looks like. And you rejected my agenda during the course
Speaker 2: of this race. There's no progress to be had there. No,
Speaker 2: I'm not going to sit down with you for it
Speaker 2: would be a useful idiot.
Speaker 1: If he says I want to talk to you about
Speaker 1: a black agenda, would you sit down and talk so
Speaker 1: so here's.
Speaker 2: The thing without preconditions.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I think that's the important part. What we
Speaker 5: know about Donald Trump from the last administration, and sadly
Speaker 5: that's all I have to go on is he loves
Speaker 5: to have the conversations for the photo op. I'll never
Speaker 5: forget that meeting with all those HBCU presidents piled into
Speaker 5: the Oval office looking like Sardine's.
Speaker 4: It was humiliating.
Speaker 5: So I think for me, what I would what I
Speaker 5: would have to acknowledge is I'm not likely a voice
Speaker 5: that he can hear from. I am not opposed, as
Speaker 5: you guys know, to being behind the scenes figuring out
Speaker 5: who those spokespeople are somebody who wasn't as somebody who
Speaker 5: wasn't as critical of his agenda as somebody who he
Speaker 5: thinks might be a friend.
Speaker 4: But they're actually.
Speaker 5: Gonna be a Frederick Douglass to an Abraham Lincoln kind
Speaker 5: of a maybe there's that. I'm definitely not opposed to
Speaker 5: figuring out how we get our stuff across the finish line,
Speaker 5: because I'll be honest with you, I am so disappointed
Speaker 5: by the Biden administration and the last and final days
Speaker 5: and how our stuff wasn't handled. So if there's an
Speaker 5: opening in the Trump administration. By all means, let's strategize.
Speaker 5: That does not mean that I want to go tomorrow Lago,
Speaker 5: key key, and ro Smores with your ass.
Speaker 4: I'm not doing that.
Speaker 5: So I think it's different, And I do like that
Speaker 5: stretch of like, well, what would it take for us
Speaker 5: to get there? Who are those players? Who are those people?
Speaker 5: What's on the agenda? Our genda changes nineteen seventy two
Speaker 5: would arguably since eighteen sixty four, you know, like it
Speaker 5: has been the same, and it is. It is freedom,
Speaker 5: and we are still striving for it is. It is
Speaker 5: not here, and it is not lasting. It is but
Speaker 5: for a moment, and it is far too fleeting. We
Speaker 5: have an agenda that we need to get accomplished. That
Speaker 5: as black liberation at all caps. The CBC says, no
Speaker 5: permanent friends, no permanent enemies, just permanent interests.
Speaker 4: We got to see if we can ride that thing out.
Speaker 5: But right now I'm hot this hell, and I probably
Speaker 5: should not be the person y'all send it to the oval.
Speaker 6: I'm just all right, Well, let's take it. Let's take
Speaker 6: a quick break.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: On the other side of this, I want to talk
Speaker 1: about protests because what is also happening today, there are
Speaker 1: protests across the city.
Speaker 6: What you will not see is a lot of black.
Speaker 1: People at this protest. So we should get into that
Speaker 1: on the other side of the break'll get me into
Speaker 1: a chance to cool down, because she how cool? All right,
Speaker 1: we're back. So I look, I the first pussy hat
Speaker 1: I see. I'm rolling my eyes at it, like y'all
Speaker 1: got it.
Speaker 4: If it wasn't a thought, i'd smack it off, right.
Speaker 1: I just I don't care about it. I'm not protesting
Speaker 1: on this day. I am enjoying time with our community
Speaker 1: with Michael Harriet about the dream.
Speaker 6: Yes, exactly exactly.
Speaker 1: I just and but I think this kind of goes
Speaker 1: to what you were saying, Angela about engaging like you're
Speaker 1: still in the fight. You're willing to sit down with
Speaker 1: them and figure out strategically what it is. I have
Speaker 1: to say. I'm I'm probably to the left of you
Speaker 1: on that. I don't want to even do that. I
Speaker 1: don't want to sit across from these people. I think
Speaker 1: people like you probably should, you know, but.
Speaker 4: I said I should not go. I said I was
Speaker 4: sending people in.
Speaker 1: But behind that, like you, you can behind the scenes
Speaker 1: try to advance something. I just don't trust these people,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't think that there. I don't know
Speaker 1: what areas we could find common ground on and work
Speaker 1: on something. I think I'd rather put all my energy
Speaker 1: and effort into protecting the community, because you know, that's
Speaker 1: where the most harm comes. Unfortunately, FBI, we talked about
Speaker 1: that before.
Speaker 5: If they're talking about agetting, and this was Andrew's point,
Speaker 5: I think earlier on there are.
Speaker 4: Some institutions that should be level because they've never seen this.
Speaker 1: But but I think I'm very clear when they talk
Speaker 1: about level in the FBI cash Hotel, is no talking
Speaker 1: about we got to crush operations like cointel prone. We
Speaker 1: can't do that. He's talking about how can we weaponize
Speaker 1: these institutions to serve our King, Donald Trump. We don't
Speaker 1: have a president, ladies and gentlemen, we have a king,
Speaker 1: and that is what we are are looking at in
Speaker 1: this landscape. I don't want to participate in it, and
Speaker 1: I don't know how to do that and protect our
Speaker 1: people at the same time.
Speaker 6: But I'm sure as hell gonna try to figure it out.
Speaker 2: I think there's a lot of crossover between harm, you know,
Speaker 2: protecting our people which basically equals harm reduction, like don't advance, Like,
Speaker 2: I don't expect you to make me the millionaire, but
Speaker 2: I expect you not to drag me back, not to
Speaker 2: drag me backwards. Now again, I don't know that I
Speaker 2: have to trust these people or their motivations for why
Speaker 2: they want to do a thing, because I think I
Speaker 2: can say pretty clearly from Jump Street that they're going
Speaker 2: to be self motivated at every turn that if we
Speaker 2: can just walk into the room anticipating that whatever they do,
Speaker 2: whatever we walk away with is going to be to
Speaker 2: their advantage more than it's going to be to mind.
Speaker 2: Their reasons for getting here are going to be different
Speaker 2: than the reasons I have forgetting here. But if it
Speaker 2: still takes aim at that same motherfucking policy that got
Speaker 2: us here, then let's take aim at it and blow
Speaker 2: it away.
Speaker 6: Well where do you stand on protests? Like I feel
Speaker 6: like black people have done so much.
Speaker 1: I just I don't know how I can add, like
Speaker 1: does our protest still look like marching?
Speaker 6: Are we you know?
Speaker 1: Circulating petitions? Are we showing up? Are we being disruptive?
Speaker 6: Are we you know?
Speaker 2: I don't know. I think it depends on the stakes
Speaker 2: I definitely don't think it's a I don't think it's
Speaker 2: a strategy we rule out. I do think it depends
Speaker 2: on the stakes of the fight at the time. But
Speaker 2: I also think, just like our civil rights leader, which
Speaker 2: we should take lessons from today, that we had a
Speaker 2: Malcolm and a Martin who the world experienced as being
Speaker 2: completely separate thisoint know, disconnected move ments and body mens
Speaker 2: represented as you know, one of peace loving, god fearing
Speaker 2: you know, uh, a leader of the of the army,
Speaker 2: and the other being radical, untraditional, willing to go to
Speaker 2: the hilt for our people, and they both I don't
Speaker 2: think any one of us would say there wasn't equal
Speaker 2: relevance and import from from both if we were to
Speaker 2: look at it that way, they were both. I think
Speaker 2: that's what I'm again, I don't think the lines are
Speaker 2: as I have just described. I think that is the
Speaker 2: super observation of what that was. But I agree none
Speaker 2: of that, to me is the truth of the matter.
Speaker 2: But what I know is the truth of the matter
Speaker 2: is is that, just as Angela acknowledged, I may not
Speaker 2: be the person that sent into that room, but we
Speaker 2: should think together about who that right is so that
Speaker 2: when after that meet not go on TV and blast
Speaker 2: them that they understand from whence I come. My blasting
Speaker 2: is necessary to give them greater leverage in the room
Speaker 2: toward the negotiated end that we're fighting for. And I
Speaker 2: still think that black people know this lesson, and I
Speaker 2: don't think we should ever betray this lesson that advances
Speaker 2: are to be made and we all got roles to
Speaker 2: play and how we get there. Some of us gonna
Speaker 2: throw the bombs from outside, others are going to set
Speaker 2: the trap inside, and still others are going to drag
Speaker 2: us over the finish line and other ways. So I
Speaker 2: just think we have we are dexterious, and we got
Speaker 2: to show that dexterity.
Speaker 6: Now I agree with that.
Speaker 5: I want to switch gears slightly to the pomp and
Speaker 5: circumstance of it all because I remember in twenty sixteen,
Speaker 5: we had strong feelings about people who chose to perform
Speaker 5: at Donald Trump's inauguration. Recently, Woopy Goldberg had this to
Speaker 5: say about Carrie Underwood performing.
Speaker 9: People do what they do for whatever reasons. It's like
Speaker 9: Joe and Mika.
Speaker 4: Did what they did.
Speaker 9: They felt that's what they needed to do, And I
Speaker 9: gotta stand behind them, yeah, you know, and I stand
Speaker 9: behind her if she's no, no, not or not, because
Speaker 9: if I believe I have the right to make up
Speaker 9: my mind to go perform someplace, I believe they have
Speaker 9: the same right, of course, and so I have to Yeah,
Speaker 9: I gotta. I have to support. Doesn't mean I'm particularly
Speaker 9: interested in what I won't be watching, you know, but
Speaker 9: that's me.
Speaker 5: But I'm just curious because last time there was such blowback, blowback,
Speaker 5: especially for black performers, it was Chrissette Michelle, I Am
Speaker 5: christ Michelle. No more was Travis Green Travis and Apologize
Speaker 5: Gospels thinger. So I'm just curious to know has the
Speaker 5: temperature changed. There are now we see in this as
Speaker 5: a strategy move.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: I honestly, I think will Be Gobert probably would have
Speaker 1: felt that same way about Chrissette Michelle and I. Actually
Speaker 1: I'm glad that we heard the exact clip because I
Speaker 1: actually agree with a whoopee now that I've heard what
Speaker 1: she said, I don't expect anything from Carrie Underwood. I
Speaker 1: remember the little bit that she did on Obama Care
Speaker 1: with Brad Paisley. I think it was at the CMA's
Speaker 1: or somewhere wherever it took place. Well, So yet this
Speaker 1: is behavior I'd expect from her. I do expect better
Speaker 1: from black people. I did expect better from Chrissette Michelle.
Speaker 1: I did expect better from Steve Harvey. I did expect
Speaker 1: better from people who were so eager to drink from
Speaker 1: the white man's cup that they scurried the ass is
Speaker 1: over there to you know, to do something, to tap
Speaker 1: dance for them, all of it. And we hold ourselves
Speaker 1: to a higher standard because we are we have first
Speaker 1: hand experience with how damaging and harmful this system can be.
Speaker 1: So when you go and perform for the face of
Speaker 1: this system that is taking this system even further back,
Speaker 1: even further to the right, even more oppressive, even more draconian.
Speaker 6: Then I do have to wonder what is your intention?
Speaker 6: So I agree with Whoopee if she wanted to perform,
Speaker 6: who gives a damn. I can't name three Carrie Underwood
Speaker 6: songs don't really care about her, and people who listen
Speaker 6: to her imagine it's gonna be a lot of other
Speaker 6: performers performing too. But if Lol Wayne showed up, I'm
Speaker 6: like messing with Little Wayne, Like that's an embarrassment and
Speaker 6: he was kind of out. That's why I wasn't on
Speaker 6: that Super Bowl conversation because I'm like, he was out
Speaker 6: here real maga for a minute. Y'all dont want to
Speaker 6: buy an informative foot bowl. I don't care.
Speaker 1: I got plenty of other people I can support other
Speaker 1: than anybody who was supporting as president.
Speaker 5: What the reason why he was shounding real crazy in
Speaker 5: his last couple of performances. So even if even if
Speaker 5: it wasn't maga issuees because the quality of performance is
Speaker 5: gone down.
Speaker 2: I'm just saying karma is a But the truth is
Speaker 2: is that for these folks who make their living off
Speaker 2: of our buying into what it is they do, what
Speaker 2: it is they're selling, how it is or whatever, these
Speaker 2: choices have consequences, right and both ways. Right regardless of
Speaker 2: which side wins, these choices have consequences. And I can
Speaker 2: every day vote with my wallet on whether I'm going
Speaker 2: to be a consumer, continue to patronize you or or what.
Speaker 2: But I have the same stance that y'all have as
Speaker 2: a relations to the folks who went to the first
Speaker 2: Trump thing, and not just that, but on a whole
Speaker 2: range of issues. When you show up on the opposite
Speaker 2: side of where I am on issues that are consequential
Speaker 2: to my life existence. Were gonna have problems and you
Speaker 2: might not know me from tom Adam Cat, but just
Speaker 2: know none of my money is coming to you. It's
Speaker 2: going to a New York benefit.
Speaker 1: Y'all were talking about going to these meetings. I just
Speaker 1: want to just do another throwback because I love our
Speaker 1: forever flowtus. Michelle Obama in two thousand and nine was invited.
Speaker 1: This was something around inauguration.
Speaker 6: It was like.
Speaker 2: The after the inauguration, the Senate lunch.
Speaker 6: Yes, that's what, thank you.
Speaker 1: She was seated next to then I think House Speaker
Speaker 1: John Baber leader beleader Leader John Banner is the speaker.
Speaker 2: He was speaker. I'm sorry, I said, I thought we
Speaker 2: were talking about Mitch McConnell.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, this was House Speaker, Republican John Banner from Ohio.
Speaker 1: We're going to roll this clip. There's no sound for
Speaker 1: those of you who are listening and not watching. Those
Speaker 1: of you who are watching, you can see that. Yes,
Speaker 1: she when I tell you, she ain't got no time
Speaker 1: for whatever this man was saying. He could have been saying,
Speaker 1: these are the winning lottery numbers. She got irol after
Speaker 1: irow she and her food. She ain't given him, no
Speaker 1: eye contact, She's barely looking her way. And you can
Speaker 1: tell how disgusted she was that she's supposed to sit
Speaker 1: there and pretend that this man wasn't part of a
Speaker 1: machine that was calling her husband. I'm not saying he
Speaker 1: was not an American who was questioning his qualifications, who
Speaker 1: was questioning his integrity, who had accused them of doing
Speaker 1: a terrorist fist bump, who had talked about her physically,
Speaker 1: who has talked about her personality, talked about everything she said,
Speaker 1: she wasn't about to be Therefore.
Speaker 4: She was terr right.
Speaker 2: So she said there.
Speaker 1: Everything about her body language said fuck you. From the
Speaker 1: South side of Chicago to my spirit, from Whitney Young
Speaker 1: High School to the Wild Hundreds, I'm telling you, double
Speaker 1: middle finger to you, I ain't got it for you.
Speaker 1: And I have to say in these times, in that time,
Speaker 1: I remember some people even in our community, being critical like,
Speaker 1: oh she could have been nicer, blah blah blah. No,
Speaker 1: at that time, she was doing the right thing. This
Speaker 1: time she's doing the right thing.
Speaker 2: I'm not even going I agree.
Speaker 6: I know that, And she did.
Speaker 2: You see it all over her fail being. In fact,
Speaker 2: it would be a hard thing for me to ask
Speaker 2: her to join me at X thing. You know what
Speaker 2: I mean, Like, I may have an obligation, he perceived obligation.
Speaker 2: I don't want anyone to think that I don't get
Speaker 2: what it means to send non verbal signals to people
Speaker 2: that by your presence, by your existence, you are connoting
Speaker 2: something to the people who are looking.
Speaker 1: ERTI lobby and corporate movements who are having like these
Speaker 1: welcome inauguration parties, and people are like, oh, I have
Speaker 1: to go.
Speaker 6: It's for my job.
Speaker 1: I don't want to, but I work for Coke, I
Speaker 1: work for this company or law.
Speaker 2: I can't speak to none of that, but I do
Speaker 2: know as it relates to obligation. There are things that
Speaker 2: I understand to be obligatory and I and I by
Speaker 2: and large will defend those things. And then they are
Speaker 2: the things that are just your choice, that are like, Okay,
Speaker 2: you know what, I could have done this or not
Speaker 2: done this, and it wouldn't have been a world of
Speaker 2: difference to the consequences of the exchange of power. But
Speaker 2: then there are the choices that you can make that
Speaker 2: show as real protests and what Michelle Obama has given
Speaker 2: us is I think a will and by the way,
Speaker 2: we've assigned meaning to this because her statement ain't say
Speaker 2: nothing about what she's doing and why she ain't going.
Speaker 2: But I have to read it from it exactly. All
Speaker 2: of us can read it from understood. Not it need
Speaker 2: not be stated, right. She ain't got to say a
Speaker 2: damn thing. We know exactly what's going on. We need
Speaker 2: that too, We need that too, that that somebody's reminding
Speaker 2: us that it ain't right. Yeah, And I think she
Speaker 2: has sent and will continue to send powerful reverberations by
Speaker 2: her not being there and I and I embrace it.
Speaker 2: And I, as I said before, with your husband would
Speaker 2: join her.
Speaker 4: DNA.
Speaker 1: He's officially the president. Angelo, what is keeping you up
Speaker 1: at night? Not that this man is officially the president
Speaker 1: for those Angela just let out a deep side.
Speaker 4: Because you know my blood pressure trying to keep my
Speaker 4: blood pressure load. I'm serious, I literally got to take
Speaker 4: it every day. Uh hmmm.
Speaker 5: I think they're pledged to go after political enemies. I
Speaker 5: think the super litigious nature of those who Trump is
Speaker 5: rehired into the administration, the things that they will litigate.
Speaker 5: You know that it's or people would just kind of
Speaker 5: let go of the settlements that we've already seen happen
Speaker 5: from media companies, the fact that there's such a severe
Speaker 5: double standard, and what that says to our children, you
Speaker 5: know what, the ways in which crafty and intelligent world
Speaker 5: leaders will take advantage of this administration. I think the
Speaker 5: real lack of separation. We used to have talk about
Speaker 5: the separation between church and state. Now there's no separation
Speaker 5: between corporate and state. And I think that the blending
Speaker 5: of you know, how you get to power is through
Speaker 5: money and privilege is really a very dangerous precedent.
Speaker 4: So there's so much.
Speaker 1: Well what would you I mean, as we're officially in
Speaker 1: this administration now, what would you guys like us to
Speaker 1: focus on on the podcast? Because there's going to be
Speaker 1: so much happening all the time, So should we like,
Speaker 1: how do we go forward in terms of what we
Speaker 1: do here? I mean, I don't want us personally, I
Speaker 1: don't want to talk about Donald Trump all the time.
Speaker 1: It's going to be hard not to, But I would
Speaker 1: like us to offer something else to people other than
Speaker 1: what this administration is doing. How do we strike that
Speaker 1: balance or do you all think we need to I.
Speaker 2: Thought your question was going to the direction of if
Speaker 2: we have to cover them, what pieces of it are
Speaker 2: we trying to track and because thousand percent that we
Speaker 2: should be across the range just showing fine, we can't
Speaker 2: look at the national model as a true example of
Speaker 2: representative democracy, but let's look here at the state of
Speaker 2: Maryland and let's assess that if we had our what
Speaker 2: what would this look like? And then what decisions might
Speaker 2: flow from it. Let's highlight some of that. So I'm
Speaker 2: with you. You know, we talked about that before, and I
Speaker 2: think that those are really important bright spots that must
Speaker 2: be held up for us at this time. But I
Speaker 2: also think it's we have to be ever vigilant that
Speaker 2: while we were sleeping, that we didn't lose something very important,
Speaker 2: critical fundamental to our existence now in the future because
Speaker 2: we were sleep And so watching him and covering them
Speaker 2: is not about following Trump. Watching them and covering them
Speaker 2: is going to be about the threat or opportunity it
Speaker 2: presents to our community.
Speaker 5: For me, yeah, we have to and that's the thing
Speaker 5: I hope that we can center more. And Andrew, you
Speaker 5: hit on this earlier today, center more on what it
Speaker 5: means to protect us and advance our causes. And so
Speaker 5: if this, if this podcast can be a part of
Speaker 5: an organizing body, I'm here for it. Like I never
Speaker 5: wanted to do media for media's sake. It It was
Speaker 5: always for the advancement and liberation of like you. And
Speaker 5: so to the extent that we can use this platform,
Speaker 5: utilize this platform, utilize the gifts and talents that God
Speaker 5: gave us to do that. I am down so we
Speaker 5: can coverage. We can do coverage for oversight, but we
Speaker 5: also need to do coverage for strategy and moving by.
Speaker 5: So I would like to see that. Even though Tiff
Speaker 5: was asking an audience, consider me part of the audience,
Speaker 5: and then.
Speaker 1: You a good point. That's a good point. We should
Speaker 1: ask the audience, like, what do you guys want to
Speaker 1: hear from now that we're officially in this administration? What
Speaker 1: do you guys want to hear from us? What role
Speaker 1: do you want to play in the podcast? You know,
Speaker 1: we have a very open table, So we invite your comments,
Speaker 1: your questions, your videos.
Speaker 4: Even when y'all get mad.
Speaker 6: Even we play y'all videos and y'all get mad.
Speaker 1: I read your YouTube comments. Whatever the good, bad, and ugly,
Speaker 1: I see it. All because it's his community, you know,
Speaker 1: and we hold each other to to to a higher
Speaker 1: account than I think we know.
Speaker 4: If you didn't answer the question oh yet either you
Speaker 4: just say you don't want to.
Speaker 6: What would you like to see us cover?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: I would like us to see what's below the fold,
Speaker 1: you know, not what's above the folte on A one,
Speaker 1: but what's on you know, F three below the fold.
Speaker 6: And I think you know I have right job about
Speaker 6: criminal justice.
Speaker 1: I care about what's I want our people who are
Speaker 1: behind bars and know they're not forgotten. For the past
Speaker 1: few weeks, I'll tell you guys, we had that gentleman
Speaker 1: who's a member of Alpha Bay Alpha Fraternity Incorporated, asked
Speaker 1: a question about disability. So for the past few weeks,
Speaker 1: I have been looking into that. So stay tuned because
Speaker 1: I will come back and talk about the intersection of
Speaker 1: people of color, black people and disability and policies around that.
Speaker 1: So that's something that I'll be talking about. Of course,
Speaker 1: I have a lens of foreign policy and how we
Speaker 1: show up on the globe. I just don't want to
Speaker 1: get caught up in like the outrage every week. You know,
Speaker 1: Donald Trump said this, and his cabinet member said this
Speaker 1: in this exchange happened on Capitol Hill. I'd like to
Speaker 1: have deeper, more philosophical discussions around what some of these
Speaker 1: things mean and keep in mind our people, to give
Speaker 1: our people something to believe in again, because it's so
Speaker 1: easy to check out, but we have to remind people, hey,
Speaker 1: this country for eight years was an amazing place to be,
Speaker 1: even though we had a lot of challenges.
Speaker 6: But we can do that again and do it better
Speaker 6: this time, So we'll see.
Speaker 1: I mean, I know, sometimes it's going to be hard
Speaker 1: not to talk out the shiny object. You know, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be hard not to address the disrespect or the
Speaker 1: insult or the fist fight that happens on Capitol Hill,
Speaker 1: which I am predicted you're gonna I'm predicting because they
Speaker 1: getting real froggy and at some point somebody gonna leave.
Speaker 2: You know, you got it, but you know to they
Speaker 2: said that we are in talking about the what's above
Speaker 2: the fold, We're going to talk about it through a
Speaker 2: lens that centers our experience and how it is going
Speaker 2: to impact us. So that doesn't worry me because I
Speaker 2: think we've had an exhibited example of trying to show
Speaker 2: like Look, this isn't going to be the generic talk
Speaker 2: you're getting on M and NA nah and that yeah,
Speaker 2: this is going to be all right, Well, how is
Speaker 2: this landing with us? Because we're really ever considered in
Speaker 2: this conversation right.
Speaker 1: Well, I just I want to just say one tiny
Speaker 1: little thing, and that is that I have always had
Speaker 1: an eye or try to be true and authentic and
Speaker 1: live in service to community, which is why it's a
Speaker 1: pleasure to do this with both you guys, because we
Speaker 1: all have that in common. And trying to gain favor,
Speaker 1: you know, or secure things outside of that has never
Speaker 1: been my intention.
Speaker 6: And you know, people come and go.
Speaker 1: But I think what people know about all of us
Speaker 1: here is we have never tried to appease the people
Speaker 1: who come and go. The corporate structure can like you
Speaker 1: today and hate you tomorrow, but we have stayed true
Speaker 1: to our community. And I just want to take this
Speaker 1: moment of the hundreds it felt like thousands, maybe it
Speaker 1: was thousands, but the thousands of people who this week,
Speaker 1: this past week, I should say, have reached out, tweeted,
Speaker 1: posted tag.
Speaker 6: DM all of it.
Speaker 1: I have seen your comments and I just appreciate you
Speaker 1: all for acknowledging the work that we do here on
Speaker 1: Native Land and how I've always tried to show up
Speaker 1: for community despite who was in what position of power.
Speaker 6: So I thank you all for riding.
Speaker 2: With me at the emailk everybody, and.
Speaker 4: We still have a dream.
Speaker 6: You have a dream, and we work for freedom.
Speaker 4: Always of all powers to the people. Welcome home, y'all.
Speaker 1: Native Land Pod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership
Speaker 1: with Reason Choice Media. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
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