Speaker 1: Native Land Pod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership
Speaker 1: with Reason Choice Media. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.
Speaker 1: What's up?
Speaker 2: It was up?
Speaker 1: Up? Was up?
Speaker 2: Was up?
Speaker 1: Hello, Hello, and welcome everybody. This is Andrew Gillum coming
Speaker 1: to you with one of our how do you say
Speaker 1: we call these side pieces? We call these many many
Speaker 1: mini pods, I guess, and we also call them solo pods.
Speaker 1: And it's where you'll get to hear from your hosts
Speaker 1: at Native Lamb Pod on days in which we're not
Speaker 1: in our regular schedule. And I just want to say
Speaker 1: welcome and also thank you for tuning in. I just
Speaker 1: want to quickly outline that these are really going to
Speaker 1: be very brief, if you will, by comparison to the show,
Speaker 1: maybe twenty minute long opportunities where you get to come
Speaker 1: in and hear from the various hosts about issues that
Speaker 1: we might consider to be important. And for me, I
Speaker 1: really wanted to kick these off with a little bit
Speaker 1: of a reminder and maybe some training support on what
Speaker 1: it means to get back to the basis of organizing y'all.
Speaker 1: The moment that we find ourselves in right now, I
Speaker 1: think is requiring us to really, really really get serious
Speaker 1: about what it means to see our neighbors, hear our neighbors,
Speaker 1: protect our clan, our family, the people who we love
Speaker 1: and support, make sure they remain harmless through this very,
Speaker 1: very difficult and trying time. And some of that is
Speaker 1: going to require that we get back in touch with
Speaker 1: foundational organizing principles that have carried our community from back
Speaker 1: there to where we are right now. And I know
Speaker 1: right now the challenges feel like one. They feel humongous,
Speaker 1: they feel exhausting, they feel tiring. I would even add
Speaker 1: to that heartbreaking, and I add heartbreaking because while I
Speaker 1: wanted to spend most of my time in these first
Speaker 1: twenty or so minutes with y'all talking about organizing and
Speaker 1: the organizing series that I'd like to I'd like to
Speaker 1: engage you all in Yesterday we learned about the cancelation
Speaker 1: of our dear Sister Joy and Reads show the Readout
Speaker 1: on MSNBC. Now, some of us may have quit MSNBC
Speaker 1: back when they tried the same thing with Tiffany Cross,
Speaker 1: my dear colleague and fellow co host on Native Lampod
Speaker 1: and many of us even if we made the decision
Speaker 1: to step away from the network at that time because
Speaker 1: of the treatment that she received. A lot of us
Speaker 1: stayed around and said, hey, look that's where Joy is,
Speaker 1: and Joy is from my standpoint, she's not just a newswoman,
Speaker 1: She's not just an anchor. She's not there doing this
Speaker 1: for anybody the entertainment value or for sport. Joy read
Speaker 1: the Joy read that I know, and the Joy read
Speaker 1: that we have all come to know and love over
Speaker 1: the years on the various platforms that she's been Joy
Speaker 1: quite simply is the bringer of truth and it doesn't
Speaker 1: matter how inconvenient that truth may be. She's going to
Speaker 1: bring it to you anyway. And today's day and age,
Speaker 1: where you have a very thin skinned political leadership apparatus,
Speaker 1: and I would even argue maybe a thinner or equally
Speaker 1: as thin skin in the corporate media, who are prepared
Speaker 1: to wilter and bend to the will of the White House,
Speaker 1: in the party that's in control right now, it's going
Speaker 1: to cost us something, and in this case, it's costing
Speaker 1: us one of the best truth tellers that we have
Speaker 1: out there. Joy represents, and my opinion, the best of
Speaker 1: who we are. She is fact based, her opinion is
Speaker 1: always supported by laundry lists of receipts. She is someone who,
Speaker 1: regardless of what the popular wins may be, has always
Speaker 1: deepened into what our true lived experiences are and we're
Speaker 1: in our community, and she broadcast broadcasts those experiences to
Speaker 1: the world. Y'all. She is going to be deeply, deeply,
Speaker 1: deeply missed by her viewers on MSNBC. But I got
Speaker 1: to tell you, you know, joy from from from my lips
Speaker 1: to your ears. I hope. Uh, this is a setup
Speaker 1: for really God calling you into greater service, to higher purpose.
Speaker 1: While you have served an incredible purpose up to this point,
Speaker 1: you're being called into higher service. And sometimes in the
Speaker 1: process of moving into higher service, you have to be sifted.
Speaker 1: Remember those that old equipment that our grandparents, my grandmama
Speaker 1: used to use when she was doing her pancakes, a
Speaker 1: corn bread and the flour would go into the sifter
Speaker 1: and it would sift all the way through. But what
Speaker 1: would come out as a finer grain of things and
Speaker 1: it made everything taste just that much better. Well, there
Speaker 1: is a finer grain of you that is through this
Speaker 1: process and on the other side, and so many of
Speaker 1: us just can't wait to see whether that takes you,
Speaker 1: and more importantly, where it takes us collectively. But before
Speaker 1: we get to what Joy Read's next steps are, I
Speaker 1: think we have to send a very very important signal
Speaker 1: to the corporate folks who are making these decisions, are
Speaker 1: silencing our voices, are supplanting our voices with you know,
Speaker 1: minstrel shows and dictates of how they think we are
Speaker 1: supposed to show up on their platforms. We need to
Speaker 1: send them a signal that this is not a game,
Speaker 1: This is not a toy, This is not a transaction
Speaker 1: that you trade in and trade out. This is our
Speaker 1: lives and we deserve and need voices who are going
Speaker 1: to speak truth and power to the powerful about what we're,
Speaker 1: what our lived experiences are, and what we need and
Speaker 1: what we demand of the system. And Joy has unapologetically
Speaker 1: done that on behalf of all of us standing in
Speaker 1: the gap. We've got to send a signal, And so
Speaker 1: I want to join the bandwagon of folks who today
Speaker 1: are encouraging folks to watch Joy's last sign off show
Speaker 1: tonight on MSNBC during her normal regular seven pm Eastern
Speaker 1: Standard time, and wherever you live you can you can
Speaker 1: you can obviously look up the show times, but be
Speaker 1: with her, stand with her, hold her spiritually during this
Speaker 1: time where she has to make it through this show
Speaker 1: on the network that summarily decided that her voice was
Speaker 1: no longer a value to them. At this moment, we
Speaker 1: want to say that her voice is valuable to us,
Speaker 1: that it means something to us, that we are powering
Speaker 1: her forward. Even if they can't see it, we're gonna
Speaker 1: help to make sure that they feel it. So at
Speaker 1: the end of the conclusion of her show tonight and
Speaker 1: Joy will sign off by telling her telling the rest
Speaker 1: of us where it is that we can go and
Speaker 1: find her voice beyond this current platform. And after that, y'all,
Speaker 1: we're gonna turn the TV off. We're gonna shut it down.
Speaker 1: We're going to log off of whatever platforms in which
Speaker 1: you are watching or hearing MSNBC, and we're gonna send
Speaker 1: them a very important message that our voices matter. And
Speaker 1: guess what. My voice right now is being interrupted by
Speaker 1: my cell phones. And this has always been my theory
Speaker 1: about these lives. I'm telling you, y'all, I am technology
Speaker 1: of tooth and if it happens again, just charge it
Speaker 1: to my head, not to my heart. I'm gonnaigure this
Speaker 1: out by the time we get into the next one,
Speaker 1: but we want to make sure that they hear and feel,
Speaker 1: more importantly, feel the effect of when we choose to
Speaker 1: take our time and attention, a very precious and non
Speaker 1: renewable resource, our time and attention, when we choose to
Speaker 1: put that elsewhere. Joy, We're going to follow you wherever
Speaker 1: you go, and tonight we want to make a very
Speaker 1: very strong, important show of support that we're going to
Speaker 1: have your back because you have had our backs in
Speaker 1: our fronts and sides and other blind spots when we
Speaker 1: didn't even know it. The last confession I'll make on
Speaker 1: this one with regard to Joy is that when I
Speaker 1: ran for governor of the state of Florida back in
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, and it was looking like we might that
Speaker 1: we could potentially pull off a win in that race,
Speaker 1: I reached out to Joy and asked her if she
Speaker 1: could do her show live from Florida, and that I
Speaker 1: would grant her if I were to win that race.
Speaker 1: The first interview after the race was concluded, possibly later
Speaker 1: that that election night or maybe the next morning, and
Speaker 1: Joy did what she had to do, and she showed up.
Speaker 1: I didn't get to see her that night. It was
Speaker 1: a it was of course, it worked out a different way,
Speaker 1: and it was a bit heartbreaking on one end, but
Speaker 1: she did what was necessary within whatever the corporate confines were,
Speaker 1: to try to bring to the American people the experience
Speaker 1: that we had here in Florida. And I'll never forget that.
Speaker 1: And she's been her friend and the gap on so many,
Speaker 1: so many more occasions. Don't believe the hype that they're
Speaker 1: trying to sell us about unqualified, whatever stories they want
Speaker 1: to put out, ratings, all this craziness. You see the
Speaker 1: enemy tries to use. They do a little jiu jitsu.
Speaker 1: They take their weakest and most vulnerable place, and they
Speaker 1: then project that vulnerability onto other communities, other people, so
Speaker 1: that they can then insulate themselves from attack. What am
Speaker 1: I talking about, Well, I'm talking very specifically about not
Speaker 1: just Joy's incidents, and which is an example of the
Speaker 1: corporate side, but this picture, it can be drawn a
Speaker 1: lot bigger. It's not just the corporate We want you
Speaker 1: to obviously watch her show this evening, throw our support
Speaker 1: behind her, but following that, we want to make sure
Speaker 1: that we follow Joy and read on every platform in
Speaker 1: what she is listed. So if you in Snapchat, Instagram,
Speaker 1: blue Sky, whatever the platforms are that you get information
Speaker 1: and share information, please please please go ahead and put
Speaker 1: in the search engine right now Joy and read. If
Speaker 1: you don't already do it now follow her and then
Speaker 1: contact MSNBC. Let our voices be heard and let them
Speaker 1: know that we disagree with the step that they've taken
Speaker 1: and that they want our business. They best do better
Speaker 1: to bring us to voices who best represent our community.
Speaker 1: All skin folk and kim folk and all folks who
Speaker 1: may reflect what we look like who are on television
Speaker 1: are not necessarily speaking our truth and telling our stories.
Speaker 1: The number at MSNBC, and we'll hopefully get this in
Speaker 1: show notes is two one two six six four four
Speaker 1: four four four. Let's light up that board and make
Speaker 1: sure that they know that we're watching. When prompted, press one,
Speaker 1: then press two. Leave a message stating that you believe
Speaker 1: that their actions are unacceptable and that we need brave
Speaker 1: and honest journalists like Joy and Reid to come to
Speaker 1: us on their platforms as well. We want you to
Speaker 1: watch obviously tonight, but we want you to disconnect immediately
Speaker 1: following from the platform. That will bring us her show
Speaker 1: tonight MSNBC at seven pm Eastern Standard time, and look
Speaker 1: for your local networks for your showtimes. And then, last,
Speaker 1: and certainly not at least, we want you to spread
Speaker 1: the word. If you post about watching the show tonight
Speaker 1: or anything related to it you're discussed around the decision,
Speaker 1: please use the hashtag. We need joy. We need joy
Speaker 1: in so many forms, joy in our spirit, but also
Speaker 1: joy the person. And we thank you for bringing us
Speaker 1: both of those joy. Thank you for your friendship. We
Speaker 1: will follow you wherever because you are a true and
Speaker 1: an honest voice who has earned our trust. And know
Speaker 1: Johnny Come Lately or Surprise or pop up figure is
Speaker 1: going to have our trust. You have to earn it,
Speaker 1: you have to work for it. You put in the work,
Speaker 1: and that's why we want to put in some work
Speaker 1: for you. What I was getting to on second topic,
Speaker 1: just changing the page, and then finally I'll talk to
Speaker 1: you about what we hope to do with these on
Speaker 1: a regular basis when we come to you in these
Speaker 1: solo pods. When I talked about the enemy weaponizing their
Speaker 1: weakness to insulate themselves from attack, I'm talking about this
Speaker 1: DEI stuff right which I have translated to the N
Speaker 1: word is how I experience it when they use it,
Speaker 1: it seems like the sessing out of us wherever they
Speaker 1: can find it. Well, this weekend, something else happened in
Speaker 1: addition to the news and the corporate world regarding Joy Reid,
Speaker 1: the general who led the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which
Speaker 1: is the which is the collection of all of the
Speaker 1: military chiefs and leaders across the various branches, including the
Speaker 1: National Guard. This is the group that assembles as advisory
Speaker 1: to the President of the United States, Defense Secretary of
Speaker 1: the United States, and the intelligent chiefs of our country.
Speaker 1: They are the official advisory group Joint Chiefs that chairmen
Speaker 1: of the Joint Chiefs serves both and Democratic and Republican administrations.
Speaker 1: Why because their oath and their fealty is to the
Speaker 1: Constitution of the United States and to the people and
Speaker 1: the nation of the United States. Well, the current Joint
Speaker 1: the previous I guess I should say, before he was
Speaker 1: fired Chairman of the Joint chief of Staff was General C. Q. Brown,
Speaker 1: who spent forty years as a pilot in the Air Force,
Speaker 1: met all of the criteria. There were no lessening of criteria,
Speaker 1: no quotas having to be met. It simply required that
Speaker 1: those making this decision looked across the entire board of
Speaker 1: qualified individuals underscore qualified, and choose from amongst them a
Speaker 1: person who would lead the Joint Chiefs. While President Trump
Speaker 1: decided to dismiss CQ. Brown this weekend and removing him
Speaker 1: from his position in addition to a couple of other
Speaker 1: top brass within the United States Armed Services, and replaced
Speaker 1: him not with somebody equally qualified or really not with
Speaker 1: somebody who is just qualified for the position of Chairman
Speaker 1: of the Joint Chiefs, which does require special experiences in
Speaker 1: qualifications to be named. He decided to name a gentleman
Speaker 1: named Dan Caine, who I don't know personally, but yes,
Speaker 1: says served this country and we thank him for it.
Speaker 1: But in appointing mister Caine, the President actually had to
Speaker 1: waive the criteria necessary for him to have been automatically
Speaker 1: qualified for the President to make that appointment. The President
Speaker 1: has the ability to waive that criteria if he chooses,
Speaker 1: if it is in the best interests of the nation. Well,
Speaker 1: he determined it was in the best interest of the
Speaker 1: name to appoint someone who was not qualified technically for
Speaker 1: the position, so he takes out a qualified individual who
Speaker 1: met all of the standards, no quotas simply qualified ready
Speaker 1: to serve, and replace them with someone who, while they
Speaker 1: have served this nation and we are grateful, was not
Speaker 1: qualified on paper to be named the Chairman of the
Speaker 1: Joint Chiefs of Staff. I think we would all agree
Speaker 1: that Secretary Hexseth, who is now the Secretary of Defense,
Speaker 1: who pales can't even be mentioned in the same sentence
Speaker 1: as his predecessor, quite frankly, but is unqualified for the
Speaker 1: position that he holds. And that, frankly is true across
Speaker 1: the board with almost all of Trump's appointments to the
Speaker 1: National Cabinet. So what do they do. They go on
Speaker 1: a rampage against Dei, which they say didn't earn it,
Speaker 1: and truth all their folks didn't earn it. Yet they're
Speaker 1: in these positions, and they are placing men and women
Speaker 1: and folks of color and other marginalized people who fought
Speaker 1: to be just considered off their merit. They're being pushed out,
Speaker 1: while people with no merit at all are being pushed in.
Speaker 1: I say this, y'all because I think we have to
Speaker 1: begin to forward our truthful narrative around this We shouldn't
Speaker 1: be pushed back on our back heel in this fight
Speaker 1: around DEI when it simply means take the qualified individual
Speaker 1: and guess what. Look beyond your circle of friends, Look
Speaker 1: to the people who are qualified but may not share
Speaker 1: your same lived experience, are committed to the constitution, but
Speaker 1: may not be loyal to you the individual, because their
Speaker 1: oath is to the constitutional and to the country. We
Speaker 1: have no shame, we ought to have no shame around
Speaker 1: the term diversity, equity, and inclusion. We are not carry
Speaker 1: the load that they want to put on our backs
Speaker 1: of dishonesty. Like we didn't earn where we are. We
Speaker 1: earned it. We worked hard, in fact, in many cases,
Speaker 1: harder than most that surround us to get those positions.
Speaker 1: We're not going to tolerate that they want to apply
Speaker 1: that across the corporate sector and across now the public sector.
Speaker 1: And it's simply a lot, and we have to reject it. Finally, y'all,
Speaker 1: I just want to say, when we come to you,
Speaker 1: at least when I'm doing many pots, I'm going to
Speaker 1: try my very very best to ensure that they're bringing
Speaker 1: information and education and hopefully that you'll leave our conversations
Speaker 1: having felt more informed and more equip than when you
Speaker 1: joined us. And so in that spirit and in the
Speaker 1: spirit of where I sort of started describing these many
Speaker 1: pods to you, at least from my perspective, is that
Speaker 1: in the coming weeks, I'm going to take time, with
Speaker 1: the support and help of Lolo, one of our producers,
Speaker 1: who's going to pop in here in a moment to
Speaker 1: let me know if there are any questions, We're gonna
Speaker 1: walk our listening audience through some of the basics and
Speaker 1: fundamentals around organizing. How do we get our communities ratcheted up,
Speaker 1: how do we move them not just through this moment,
Speaker 1: but to a place where I think as a community
Speaker 1: we begin to live our truest, fullest sells and have
Speaker 1: the policies and institutions that are around us being built
Speaker 1: to support that growth, that freedom, that independence, that ability
Speaker 1: to live truly free and unencumbered, in order to get
Speaker 1: closer to that beloved community that I think all of
Speaker 1: us want and admire. It doesn't have to be a
Speaker 1: pipe dream, but it does require something of us and
Speaker 1: from us, and quite frankly, it's the same thing that
Speaker 1: democracy requires of us and from us, and that is
Speaker 1: that we be in the movement in action in whatever
Speaker 1: way that suits us and whatever way that deepens into
Speaker 1: our skill set. But you can't maintain societies that see
Speaker 1: us and respect us unless we're prepared to put in
Speaker 1: the work. We shouldn't always have to, but given the
Speaker 1: challenges we face, the foes we face, our ancestors didn't
Speaker 1: let their knee break their necks, and we're not going
Speaker 1: to let it happen to us. But it is going
Speaker 1: to require the work. So today, what we're going to
Speaker 1: make sure you have in the show notes as my
Speaker 1: time comes to an end, is a list of organizations
Speaker 1: and groups that you can research, determine whether or not
Speaker 1: they fit in your skill set and interest area, and
Speaker 1: then hopefully you make the move to deepen into how
Speaker 1: you can better support the work of those entities and organizations.
Speaker 1: And in the coming weeks, we want to talk to
Speaker 1: you about how you then build that beloved community right
Speaker 1: where you are, either online or in person, hopefully a
Speaker 1: mix of both, but better equip each and every one
Speaker 1: of us with the knowledge, the skills, and the tools
Speaker 1: that are necessary to bend that arc more deeply, and
Speaker 1: more admittedly, and more permanently. In the direction of justice
Speaker 1: for all of us. With that, I want to avite, Lolo,
Speaker 1: if there are any questions, I want our listeners to know,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to be just talking about organizing by
Speaker 1: what by virtual of what I read. I'm going to
Speaker 1: be talking about organizing from my own lived experience. For
Speaker 1: many years, was an organizer, mostly on college campuses and
Speaker 1: then in greater community. And then my organizing work led
Speaker 1: to organizing elected officials who were our age and younger
Speaker 1: and diverse cohorts so that they can be more effective
Speaker 1: at bringing the benefits back to our community. And now
Speaker 1: we got to organize for all of us. And so
Speaker 1: I'm not going to be talking to you about what
Speaker 1: I've read. I'm going to be talking with you and
Speaker 1: engaging and exchanging with you about what I know, and
Speaker 1: hopefully you'll bring some of your experience to the table
Speaker 1: and we'll just have a great exchange of how to
Speaker 1: do this and do it the best and most effective way.
Speaker 1: With that, Lolo, are there any questions, anything I missed,
Speaker 1: anything I need to reiterate, let me know.
Speaker 2: Hey, y'all. All right, so we haven't gotten a lot
Speaker 2: of questions, but there was one in particular I thought
Speaker 2: was really cool. And so this person said, how do
Speaker 2: we assert and not only respond We need to assert
Speaker 2: because they're already expecting a response.
Speaker 1: Well, let him expect the response, but we got to
Speaker 1: give the response as well. That's number one. There is
Speaker 1: a group right now working on a database that will
Speaker 1: be able to direct us to either black owned or
Speaker 1: black lead black hosted platforms where we can have a
Speaker 1: exchange of information. We can get our source of information
Speaker 1: and facts from people who we know and who we
Speaker 1: trust that we don't always have to rely on the
Speaker 1: corporate media quite frankly to do that for us. And
Speaker 1: so in my thought around how it is we get
Speaker 1: in front of just the reaction, just the response. And
Speaker 1: by the way, I don't take for granted that people
Speaker 1: are gonna automatically respond. I gotta be honest about that, lol.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you have thoughts on it, but
Speaker 1: I don't take for granted that people automatically have a
Speaker 1: knee jerk reaction that when someone does something that they
Speaker 1: don't like, that they have a choice to make. They
Speaker 1: can continue to support the thing that is doing the
Speaker 1: thing that they don't like, or they can make another decision.
Speaker 1: It can't be well, that's the network I've always gone to.
Speaker 1: D there are other options, so we have a choice
Speaker 1: to make. I don't think any of us should take
Speaker 1: for granted that people are automatically going to do a
Speaker 1: thing and reaction to being offended or heard, or let
Speaker 1: down or quite frankly, pushed to the side. The reason
Speaker 1: I mentioned this resource of other places that you can
Speaker 1: go is because we don't want to leave you empty.
Speaker 1: We want to make sure that our buying power can
Speaker 1: continues to show its strength except we get to show
Speaker 1: its strength and places that see us, know us, hear us,
Speaker 1: respect us, and then respond lolo. I may have gotten
Speaker 1: off on the on the question, but I think I
Speaker 1: understood the question uh uh, and then reframed it to
Speaker 1: basically say, one, don't assume we know what to do
Speaker 1: when we're when we're pushed to the side. And then two,
Speaker 1: let's do the work of finding the platforms that are
Speaker 1: in service to us that we then support so that
Speaker 1: folks are then incentivized to do more of the things
Speaker 1: that are in service to us and not less.
Speaker 2: Listen, so we have so I know, on a normal day,
Speaker 2: this is just the first solo pie we would have
Speaker 2: way more time to get through a lot of these questions.
Speaker 2: There was one in particular, because we're on this topic,
Speaker 2: I wanted to ask you, and then I wanted to
Speaker 2: close off with something that is just in general. So
Speaker 2: this person asks, why are we still talking about DEI
Speaker 2: if white women and white gays benefit the most.
Speaker 1: Well, first, I don't know that. I don't have any
Speaker 1: empirical data. If we're talking about affirmative action, that may
Speaker 1: be one thing. I don't have any empirical data to
Speaker 1: suggest that back at what level we are benefiting from diversity,
Speaker 1: equity and inclusion, in part because, like there are a
Speaker 1: lot of approaches to DEI. It can be if you
Speaker 1: were a grosser or retailer. It could be in the
Speaker 1: fact that you are including brands that are from communities
Speaker 1: or constituencies that are not your normal, normal vendors, that
Speaker 1: you're uplifting creative voices of black folks that have women
Speaker 1: and so on and so forth. It could be if
Speaker 1: you are in a workplace that there are deliberate steps
Speaker 1: that are taken to showcase the talents of all people
Speaker 1: and not just my homegirl or my homeboy who I
Speaker 1: hang with. I know them. We share a lot in common,
Speaker 1: and that's why they're always the ones that are selected
Speaker 1: and tapped to give the presentation before the board or
Speaker 1: before they're coworkers, right, So it takes a number of forms.
Speaker 1: In my opinion, sometimes when we're climbing, we're bringing other
Speaker 1: people who may not look like us or share all
Speaker 1: of our identities along with us because they too have
Speaker 1: been marginalized. I'm never gonna make the fight between marginal
Speaker 1: communities and other marginal communities. That isn't the fight that
Speaker 1: we want. That's the fight they want to give us.
Speaker 1: I don't have a beef with women, I don't have
Speaker 1: a beef with LGBTQ, I don't have a beef with
Speaker 1: black folks in general. I'm saying, if all of us
Speaker 1: are being oppressed, then we better figure out where we
Speaker 1: have common cause and start that process of rising. But
Speaker 1: they want us to gobble and fight between the folks
Speaker 1: who they're marginalizing. They want us to fight about whether
Speaker 1: or not this minority group or this minority group is
Speaker 1: getting more time and attention and resource. And my suggestion
Speaker 1: is there's plenty enough to go around, plenty enough, and
Speaker 1: we're not gonna fight over the crumbs. We want to
Speaker 1: be at the table and we're gonna fight over the meal, period.
Speaker 2: I love that, and that was such a great response
Speaker 2: because I'm like so many people say, but white women
Speaker 2: are the main ones who benefited from the I I'm.
Speaker 1: Like, they're oppressed too and are largely hated by the
Speaker 1: power structure. But that's not our fight. That's on our fight.
Speaker 1: We all have more women, morey LGBTQ, more black folk,
Speaker 1: more of the marginalized communities, and there is enough to
Speaker 1: go around. You see. They got us activating in this
Speaker 1: mentality of deficit. We're always operating from a deficit mentality. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't want to operate from a deficit. We need
Speaker 1: to operate from positions of strength and a power of
Speaker 1: access resource. And what that means is you don't negotiate
Speaker 1: against yourself before you get to the negotiating table. You
Speaker 1: bring all of yourself to that table, and you negotiate
Speaker 1: over the entire pie, not the crumbs.
Speaker 2: All right, So to close the South, because I know
Speaker 2: we gotta go, but to close this out this series,
Speaker 2: I know you talked about it, but now we have
Speaker 2: a lot more people on Live right now. So the
Speaker 2: series that you are doing over the next few weeks
Speaker 2: about how to get active. Can you just close let
Speaker 2: us know what it is?
Speaker 1: Absolutely, so we're going to spend the next the coming
Speaker 1: weeks of my mini pie helping folks get reconnected to
Speaker 1: what it means to organizing community and whether that is virtual,
Speaker 1: whether that is in person, whether that is building campaigns
Speaker 1: that put pressure on power systems and structures. Right, the
Speaker 1: saying is tried and true, but it is more true
Speaker 1: than anything, and that is power yields nothing without a demand.
Speaker 1: So if we're expecting the system to see us and
Speaker 1: to give to us because we're there, not going to happen.
Speaker 1: We have to state our demands. I remember going in
Speaker 1: and trying to negotiate from my first salary increase, and
Speaker 1: I think I started by saying, you know, I hadn't
Speaker 1: gotten an increase in three years, and my boss responded, well,
Speaker 1: you hadn't asked in the past three years, And I'm like,
Speaker 1: you see my work, you know my effort, you know
Speaker 1: what we're doing all that to say, y'all, yeah, people
Speaker 1: can see that and they'll take it for what is worth,
Speaker 1: but it does not automatically trigger for them that they
Speaker 1: ought to be paying for the services that were rendering.
Speaker 1: And so we've got to get back to the basics
Speaker 1: of organizing, how to do it, What do we start,
Speaker 1: what does the middle of that look like? And then
Speaker 1: what is the north star that we're aiming toward. And
Speaker 1: I want to bring in some voices organizational leaders, people
Speaker 1: who have had the experience of doing this, not just
Speaker 1: in a professional capacity, but just as individuals in their
Speaker 1: communities and their neighborhoods on their block, organizing to move
Speaker 1: us towards the more beloved community economically, politically, socially and otherwise.
Speaker 1: I think we've forgotten a lot about that in the
Speaker 1: privilege that a lot of us have now come up in.
Speaker 1: And while it ain't everybody, it doesn't reflect everybody's privilege.
Speaker 1: Right there folks who are much more privileged than we are.
Speaker 1: But we've also ascended to some levels of privilege. And
Speaker 1: then so doing have I think forgotten some of the fundamentals,
Speaker 1: and we need to deepen back into those fundamentals, get
Speaker 1: back into those basics, understanding civics, understanding the pressure points,
Speaker 1: recognizing that the federal government is one thing, but guess what,
Speaker 1: we're a federation of fifty states, in a number of
Speaker 1: territories and what pressure points can we impact and input
Speaker 1: at our level to get the kind of outcomes that
Speaker 1: we want. We know that pressure breaks pipes. We saw
Speaker 1: it just this past week with members of the Republican
Speaker 1: Party who host the town hall meetings that were explosive.
Speaker 1: The people showed up and they're let their voices be
Speaker 1: heard and by so doing, they're going to moderate the
Speaker 1: actions of those elected representatives. I'm willing to bet on it,
Speaker 1: but that's just one example. I think we can see
Speaker 1: greater examples and greater successes when we organize. We know
Speaker 1: that they're coming for us. They've already started. They're not
Speaker 1: going to stop now. What we got to do is
Speaker 1: get shake off the shock and get information with the knowledge,
Speaker 1: skills and the tools that we need to fight back,
Speaker 1: but not fight back for fighting sake, but to win.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm committed to do, seeing us win, regardless
Speaker 1: of what party is in power. We ought to be
Speaker 1: winning at the end of the day, y'all, I appreciate
Speaker 1: you taking time, Lolo, thank you for the help on that.
Speaker 1: We'll see you when we see you, and when we do,
Speaker 1: we're coming with our first deep training twenty minutes giving
Speaker 1: you some skills that I think are going to help
Speaker 1: transform our communities and our country as a result of
Speaker 1: Thank You Everybody by Native Land. Pod is a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio in partnership with Resent Choice Media. For more
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Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.