Speaker 1: Native Lampod is a production of iHeart Radio in partnership
Speaker 1: with Reason Choice Media.
Speaker 2: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.
Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome home. Everybody, this is tipping a crous No,
Speaker 1: it's not got a right.
Speaker 3: You don't want to start with yourself.
Speaker 1: And I'm Andrew Gellham and you're tuned into this week's
Speaker 1: mini pod, which we have decided off the fly to
Speaker 1: make this week's quick mini pod. Uh. Some answers to
Speaker 1: the questions that y'all posed that we didn't get you
Speaker 1: in the show, So forgive us, but also direct your
Speaker 1: friends over here to see your debut on Native Lampod.
Speaker 1: So how y'all doing?
Speaker 4: How we have we have decided off we have on
Speaker 4: the fly, off the fly. We have decided on the fly.
Speaker 4: So didn't that means it's not on the fly, weirdo?
Speaker 1: It is on the fly. We just decided on the fly,
Speaker 1: just a couple of minutes to do this said importantly, however,
Speaker 1: more important than y'all doing all right? Yes, if it was,
Speaker 1: if it is good, can we get to the first question? Please?
Speaker 5: Yeah, what you were talking about?
Speaker 3: Welcome home, y'all.
Speaker 6: I'm April McFadden from Chicago by the way of Atlanta,
Speaker 6: and two things. DNC coverage loved it. Second thing, Angela,
Speaker 6: listen to last week's episode, Andrew out cooolled you, I
Speaker 6: didn't think that day would happen, but you.
Speaker 3: Should let him have the if you feel in froggy.
Speaker 6: Jump moment all to himself because it was great and
Speaker 6: you had to bring the flower into it. We love
Speaker 6: you though, anyway. But my question that I want y'all
Speaker 6: to choose. There's a lot of talk about Kamala Harris,
Speaker 6: Vice president, Kamala Harris energizing the base.
Speaker 3: But is it her energizing the base or is the
Speaker 3: base energizing her?
Speaker 5: H What's I like that?
Speaker 1: What's the name? Differently, what was her name?
Speaker 5: Do we remember?
Speaker 3: Her name was? Okay?
Speaker 4: What is you talking about? I don't even know she
Speaker 4: said about froggy jump, I.
Speaker 1: Said last week she said, when I said if you
Speaker 1: feeling froggy jump, you said what you thought? It was, Tiffany. No,
Speaker 1: I didn't say I'm telling you feeling froggy jump. Well
Speaker 1: that may be true. However, I said froggy jump. You
Speaker 1: then pulled over your uh potted plant. Oh the lid
Speaker 1: that ain't a lily pad and she was like, you
Speaker 1: should have let and you have that cool moment moments.
Speaker 2: Ever, I see, but is it cool if you said
Speaker 2: the quote wrong?
Speaker 5: Well, it's was to her, so maybe it was.
Speaker 2: But I thought she was talking about something else. I
Speaker 2: was I'm glad that.
Speaker 5: We we will let his.
Speaker 1: April that I'm not cool. He does not need to
Speaker 1: be little.
Speaker 5: She's saying you cool. She's saying you cool. But I
Speaker 5: love her question about is I think it's both. I
Speaker 5: think it's both. That's my answer.
Speaker 1: I think it doesn't make a difference.
Speaker 3: I am curious.
Speaker 2: No, it doesn't make a difference, but I like it
Speaker 2: as a question and a topic to discuss.
Speaker 1: No, I mean I I do wonder is seriously, does
Speaker 1: it make a difference if she's giving us energy or
Speaker 1: if we're the ones giving her energy.
Speaker 2: I would say it does only because after the campaign
Speaker 2: she she has to govern. And if you know, if
Speaker 2: you need like people around you cheering all the time
Speaker 2: for you to lead with the courage of your convictions
Speaker 2: and go out there and deliver for the people, you know,
Speaker 2: you don't always have that. As president, approval ratings go
Speaker 2: up and down. So I would say she is energizing
Speaker 2: the people. But she's being.
Speaker 5: Fed a lot of energy.
Speaker 2: It's like if we our energy is different when we're
Speaker 2: in front of a live audience, you know, and then
Speaker 2: people are you know, responding and talking to us, then
Speaker 2: we have more energy.
Speaker 5: Energy is contagious.
Speaker 2: Our energy when we're together is different versus being on
Speaker 2: a zoom. So yeah, I think it makes a difference.
Speaker 2: And I think the people are feeding her energy and
Speaker 2: I think she is feeding back.
Speaker 5: Energy to us. I think it's both and I.
Speaker 3: Like it, you know, and I think it's not just both.
Speaker 4: I think there's like a where's that from Lionking somewhere?
Speaker 4: Circle of life, Like there's a whole linking. Yeah, there's
Speaker 4: a whole like ecosystem that is happening. And I think,
Speaker 4: you know, people were excited to see a shift on
Speaker 4: the Democratic ticket.
Speaker 3: I think that it energized the party.
Speaker 4: I think that it energized some young folks who were like, Okay,
Speaker 4: maybe there's an opportunity to have a conversation with someone
Speaker 4: who's as stuck in their ways. I think Kamala Harrison
Speaker 4: demonstrated that she listens even to opposing views, and I
Speaker 4: think that you can see a complete shift in her demeanor,
Speaker 4: and that is coming from the love that she gets.
Speaker 4: Like you know, when she was on the stage of
Speaker 4: her speech that Thursday night at the DNC, I wonder
Speaker 4: how many times Kamala said thank you, And I think
Speaker 4: it was genuine gratitude because when she was you know, VP,
Speaker 4: or she still is VP, but as the VP, she
Speaker 4: was in such obscurity whether you know, I'm not saying
Speaker 4: that she wasn't working hard, but she wasn't getting the
Speaker 4: coverage and the attention that the work she was doing,
Speaker 4: the boldness of the work she was doing really deserves.
Speaker 4: So now to kind ofly be to kind of be seen,
Speaker 4: I think it does do something to her and for her,
Speaker 4: and I think that she's now reciprocating that seminergy.
Speaker 3: So basically I agree with Tip.
Speaker 1: I think she's electric. I think she's electorate, electrical by
Speaker 1: the audience. But I've also been in spaces where there's
Speaker 1: been great anticipation for someone and the people didn't get
Speaker 1: let down, like it's almost as if you can't reach
Speaker 1: the level at which folks have put yeah, and so
Speaker 1: it was just yeah, which is why I'm glad that
Speaker 1: the way this thing started was her impressing everyone because
Speaker 1: we were so refreshed to hear her voice, see her disposition,
Speaker 1: see the snap you know, the snap back, the the
Speaker 1: you know what she was like, as the saying goes,
Speaker 1: if you got something to say, say that didn't come
Speaker 1: out of nowhere, right, she she played on on on
Speaker 1: all the things that felt very familiar to her. And
Speaker 1: I think, like you both said, she was in She
Speaker 1: was in her body. She was fully encompassing Kamala Harris
Speaker 1: or whatever they call her. When you know everybody ain't
Speaker 1: in listening here, right, whatever that name is, she was
Speaker 1: fully embodying that. And I would just say the beauty
Speaker 1: is that it can work both ways. The fact that
Speaker 1: she met us above our expectations, performed at a level
Speaker 1: get certainly given the circumstances, the unforeseen circumstances of it
Speaker 1: all that you would have thought she had been preparing
Speaker 1: and you know sort of you know, teed up on
Speaker 1: this a long, long, long, long long time ago. And
Speaker 1: in fact, I think the Kamala Harris that we are
Speaker 1: seeing now was different than the one that we saw
Speaker 1: when she was running for president. I feel like she
Speaker 1: is fully yeah in the sense that yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 1: was not as compelled by her then I didn't think
Speaker 1: that her positions on issues were as solid as they
Speaker 1: are I think, as they are now. She learned some things, Yeah,
Speaker 1: she learned some things, Yes, sure, And that's what I
Speaker 1: mean about flip flopping. This whole thing that people can't
Speaker 1: evolve if you aren't every single day learning something new,
Speaker 1: adding to the repertoire, maybe even contradicting some things you
Speaker 1: knew before. Then what are you doing? Are you really living,
Speaker 1: are you really experiencing? Are you open to whatever the
Speaker 1: universe is putting? You know?
Speaker 5: Your way?
Speaker 1: And I'm not blaming anybody for an evolution so long
Speaker 1: as it's hard come by. Like you, you know, you've
Speaker 1: done some thinking and some some some doing here, So anyway,
Speaker 1: I don't know that it makes a total difference, but
Speaker 1: I do think there's something different in the fact that
Speaker 1: we thought of her at some level and she came
Speaker 1: out in the stratosphere and has really, you know, bodied
Speaker 1: this this race up to this point, and I think
Speaker 1: she'll do it, you know beyond guys.
Speaker 4: One one other question on this question, how much of
Speaker 4: that that energizing do you think is coming from this
Speaker 4: inherent desire to protect Kamala Harris, Like, we think about
Speaker 4: what we've had to do to ensure they know her name,
Speaker 4: to ensure they understand just how qualified she is. I
Speaker 4: wonder if some of what is feeling energizing is this
Speaker 4: innate desire and need we know it, like, uh, you know,
Speaker 4: secondhand to protect not only what is ours. Like remember
Speaker 4: when Congressoman Budget got on the podcast of the DNC
Speaker 4: when Leonard asked her what was the difference between Hillary
Speaker 4: Clinton running and Kamala Harris running for her? And she
Speaker 4: says she is mine, and yeah, it was like that.
Speaker 4: When she said that, I had goosebumps. I was like,
Speaker 4: oh my god, there was.
Speaker 3: Something that was very diferent.
Speaker 2: I think that, like, we are part of the largest
Speaker 2: sorority of the globe as Black women. It is a
Speaker 2: magical space, a magical thing to be a part of.
Speaker 2: We don't hold hands, we chain a soul. We don't
Speaker 2: have the privilege to even dislike each other. There are
Speaker 2: people who I don't, you know, amongst us and family talk,
Speaker 2: it's like, yeah, I don't really rock with her, I
Speaker 2: don't like her, you know, But when we get out
Speaker 2: here in the world, you know, and somebody's attacking her.
Speaker 2: I have to stand with my sister. I'm not going
Speaker 2: to turn you over to them, because I know the
Speaker 2: cruelty of them too well. So I think as black
Speaker 2: women we are a coalition, and black women are the base,
Speaker 2: the strongest, most enthusiastic part of the base of the
Speaker 2: Democratic Party, and even outside the party, just a base
Speaker 2: of voters who stand on the side of goodness and
Speaker 2: righteousness and does what's right. So yeah, I think this
Speaker 2: is a part of protecting her, but also investing in
Speaker 2: ourselves and our future and trusting. If I got to
Speaker 2: choose between her and this unhinged ass white man, I'm
Speaker 2: going with somebody who looks like me.
Speaker 5: Every time there.
Speaker 2: Was a really quickly there was a father. I man
Speaker 2: told this on the podcast before. There was a father
Speaker 2: who was letting his young black daughter fly by herself
Speaker 2: for the first time, and he told her, if you
Speaker 2: get in any trouble, if you get lost, if you
Speaker 2: have any problems, find the closest sister you can and
Speaker 2: tell her you're lost and you need help. That says
Speaker 2: so much, because if I had to unleash my child
Speaker 2: in the world, I would offer her the same thing.
Speaker 2: Find any black woman and tell her you need help
Speaker 2: because we so try. I don't have to know you, but.
Speaker 5: I know you.
Speaker 2: You are me and I am you. So I think
Speaker 2: there is something some of that with Kamala Harris. We
Speaker 2: got less than ten minutes. I don't want to take
Speaker 2: that much time.
Speaker 6: We've got to.
Speaker 1: Question this next question. But I will say that I
Speaker 1: think respecting the bond of obviously amongst black women and
Speaker 1: women of color, it's all real, is that black men
Speaker 1: and I think other communities also feel this ownership and
Speaker 1: protection piece because once someone sets their aspirations at this level,
Speaker 1: whatever level it is, you have the courage to put
Speaker 1: yourself out there. It's like, Nah, you can't let every
Speaker 1: Tom Dick Harry run along Trump or you know, run
Speaker 1: along and strike that person down, because you're now going
Speaker 1: at the best of us. You're now going at what's
Speaker 1: represent what I feel is part representation of me. So
Speaker 1: I think a lot of us got are back for sure.
Speaker 1: What's that next question?
Speaker 7: High Native Lampod family, how are you?
Speaker 3: This is Jennifer.
Speaker 7: I live just outside of Washington, DC, in a suburb
Speaker 7: of DC in northern Virginia. I'm sure you're familiar with
Speaker 7: that area and My question revolves around how can we motivate, mobilize,
Speaker 7: and centivize Black Americans who live in upper middle class
Speaker 7: communities to participate in holding elected officials accountable in between
Speaker 7: election cycles. So I live in a community in which
Speaker 7: a lot of black people seem to me to be
Speaker 7: very comfortable. They don't want to upset the apple gart
Speaker 7: they don't want to upset the status quoth. They don't
Speaker 7: want to upset and jeopardize their own comfort. And so
Speaker 7: it seems as though black people are taking and tolerating
Speaker 7: a lot of behavior by elected officials instead of holding
Speaker 7: these officials accountable. Do you guys think that there is
Speaker 7: something that we can do as a group as black
Speaker 7: people in order to motivate and sentivize these people or
Speaker 7: these the people that Harriet just would have left behind.
Speaker 7: So much answer to answer my question.
Speaker 3: And Tiffany, it was meeting you the other way.
Speaker 7: So much for being so gracious with your time and
Speaker 7: generous with your spirit.
Speaker 3: Take care.
Speaker 7: I love you guys. Bye.
Speaker 2: And I'm like I know her? Like, where do I
Speaker 2: know her from? Can I tell you, guys? I met her?
Speaker 2: Michael Harriet was in town and he was doing a
Speaker 2: book talk for Black a f history, amazing book.
Speaker 5: Please read it.
Speaker 2: He was doing a book talk at Sankofa and she Uh,
Speaker 2: they gave me a shout out from the stage, and
Speaker 2: she came up to me and was saying how much
Speaker 2: she loves NLP. She said, she listens going in the
Speaker 2: car in the morning with her kids. But I told
Speaker 2: you all about her.
Speaker 5: And anyway, Yes, that was the woman who I met.
Speaker 2: She was so sweet. She loves y'all, like she loves
Speaker 2: the whole podcast. So I'm like, where do I know
Speaker 2: her from? She's I literally was showing her how to
Speaker 2: send a question.
Speaker 5: I'm like, oh, you can send it.
Speaker 1: On this She said it.
Speaker 5: Thank you so much. Who want to take that question?
Speaker 4: I love this question so much, in part because it's
Speaker 4: something that I've wrestled with for for a long time.
Speaker 4: Still wrestle with it, wrestle with it in a book
Speaker 4: that I'm going to write and publish at some point.
Speaker 4: But I think that black folks have had to be
Speaker 4: very strategic and calculating, and in some instances to our
Speaker 4: own detriment. There are a number of elected officials on
Speaker 4: the local, state, and federal level who have decided that
Speaker 4: incremental progress is better than no progress at all, and
Speaker 4: I understand it, but it is immensely frustrating to be
Speaker 4: talking about incrementalism four hundred and fifty plus years after
Speaker 4: our arrival here we know the first documented arrival, but
Speaker 4: I'm just saying four under fifty plus years after arrivals period.
Speaker 4: So when we're talking about a people who built this,
Speaker 4: of people who are challenged on ownership, of people who
Speaker 4: when they have when we have created areas there were
Speaker 4: our own, just to be out of your way and
Speaker 4: to not coexist, and you burn that down to the ground.
Speaker 4: It is very frustrating to deal with folks who are like, Okay,
Speaker 4: well I've arrived. The rest of y'all haven't arrived, but
Speaker 4: y'all will figure it out, like we should at the
Speaker 4: very least have a united front. So that incremental progress
Speaker 4: is never bold, it is never radical, and it never
Speaker 4: really results in our true liberation. It is something that
Speaker 4: we have to I think, probably wrestle with in a
Speaker 4: maybe not a public forum, but in a large forum
Speaker 4: where we address the needs of a black agenda. I
Speaker 4: will give a shout out here to Black Features Lab
Speaker 4: that developed the Black Census and did one in twenty
Speaker 4: twenty two and has used that census to formulate a
Speaker 4: Black Economic agenda, But that Black Economic agenda does not
Speaker 4: necessarily coincide with.
Speaker 3: UH. What is the name of that organization?
Speaker 4: Black Economic Alliance and and b e A does not
Speaker 4: talk to necessarily UH Black to the Future Action Fund.
Speaker 4: To ensure that our collective and widespread and disparate interests
Speaker 4: are all coming together, we need those spaces. We got
Speaker 4: to work together to see our collective advancement, Like if
Speaker 4: we're honest, yes to these things.
Speaker 1: And when you name those two groups that kept thinking
Speaker 1: when I was a candidate having to go and try
Speaker 1: and recruit dollars and the very different interest Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean we're talking about the poohbas versus the popular, you know,
Speaker 1: the the proletariat NOE. Not to be disparaging to any
Speaker 1: particular group, I would just say Angela and Tiff. In
Speaker 1: my experience, I have come across cush or cushy or
Speaker 1: comfortable black folks in my own community and around the
Speaker 1: state when campaigning who have frankly come by their They've
Speaker 1: earned their spot wherever that spot may be for them.
Speaker 1: But in many ways that spot always feels tenuous. That
Speaker 1: spot always feels like it could be taken from us.
Speaker 1: That it could be, you know, whether it's something I said,
Speaker 1: or I didn't pay how much to the right person,
Speaker 1: or whatever that is. And so folks haven't lost I
Speaker 1: guess the revolutionary in them. They still have a dream,
Speaker 1: they still have an aspiration. They still know what it
Speaker 1: feels like to be kicked, and they know when they're
Speaker 1: being kicked, even if they don't give voice to it.
Speaker 1: But their perch doesn't allow them the flexibility to be
Speaker 1: to act it out in the way that we might think.
Speaker 1: I was always shocked that so many of the white
Speaker 1: folks who wrote me checks to run for office and
Speaker 1: that kind of thing never hesitated to come by the
Speaker 1: office visit state what their issue was, whether it was
Speaker 1: zoning or their support for something or another. And oftentimes
Speaker 1: our community didn't want to put upon me. It was
Speaker 1: good enough for them for me to show up, be
Speaker 1: able to get my words out. And if there was
Speaker 1: a thing I was passionate about to see that thing
Speaker 1: crossed over the three to two finish line and we
Speaker 1: win victory. That it was like, we know that it's
Speaker 1: hard enough just getting up every day and doing this thing,
Speaker 1: and so we don't want to add to it, and
Speaker 1: I would just encourage us. I appreciate that, and I'm
Speaker 1: sure the elected officials in your community appreciate not being
Speaker 1: put upon. But in truth, that's what we're there for.
Speaker 1: If you can't hold us accountable, encourage and applaud us,
Speaker 1: but also admonish us when it is necessary, then what
Speaker 1: is this all for. Then we're not moving our agenda.
Speaker 1: And as good of an elected official may be and
Speaker 1: as on point around the issues you care about, they
Speaker 1: may be, know that there is another interest out there
Speaker 1: who's pulling them in a different direction. So it matters
Speaker 1: that your voice is in the room. It matters that
Speaker 1: you say what you believe deserves being addressed, and that
Speaker 1: you be dogmatic about it. You don't have to be disrespectful,
Speaker 1: but you can absolutely ride that horse, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, through the finish line. So I just I
Speaker 1: don't think it's a lack of interest in wanting to
Speaker 1: hold people accountable, or lack of interest, or even an
Speaker 1: absence of desire, but rather that the world has whipped
Speaker 1: us into a place, and the reality of the world
Speaker 1: has whipped us into a place where we do hedge
Speaker 1: when it comes to our positionality because our movement from
Speaker 1: that place impacts our household, my children, my children's future,
Speaker 1: my family, my you know, dot dot dot, you put in,
Speaker 1: you know, fill in the blood line. But but but
Speaker 1: I don't think it's a I don't think it's there's
Speaker 1: anything sinister there. It's probably just the need for for
Speaker 1: for for frankly, updating our outlook on what accountability looks
Speaker 1: like for each other.
Speaker 5: All Right, I love it.
Speaker 2: Well, I think that's close. Our mini pod, Guys.
Speaker 1: Native Lampard, is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with
Speaker 1: reisent Choice Media. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
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