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Speaker 1: And so that's what we mean when we say black
Speaker 1: lives matter. And I think that when you say, what's
Speaker 1: the greatest misconception is that it's a plea rather than
Speaker 1: a rallying cry. Black Lives Matter is a reminder to us,
Speaker 1: what's up everybody? I'm Gammy and this is positively gam.
Speaker 1: Every week I have raw, in depth conversation with inspirational
Speaker 1: people pushing for change on everything from aging, relationships, politics,
Speaker 1: wellness to the current issues facing the black community. In
Speaker 1: this episode, we're going to be discussing one of the
Speaker 1: most talked about movements of Black Lives Matter. The message
Speaker 1: has become a visual staple. Today we take a deeper
Speaker 1: dive to understand the mission, principles, and misconceptions of the movement,
Speaker 1: and most importantly, the impact it's had on the community.
Speaker 1: Joining me today is Dr Melina Abdullah, a professor and
Speaker 1: former chair of Pan African Studies at California State University,
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, co founder of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: Well them, Doctor Abdullah, I am so excited to talk
Speaker 1: to you today, Like, what a way to start. I
Speaker 1: am so excited to talk with you. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for having me. I wanted to share space with
Speaker 1: you for quite a while, so I'm very excited to
Speaker 1: be with you. Yes, I'm glad that you took the time. Please,
Speaker 1: and there's so much to talk about, but I think
Speaker 1: I just want to start by having you explain exactly
Speaker 1: what Black Lives Matter is, how it got started, and
Speaker 1: what the mission is. Sure. So, Black Lives Matter was
Speaker 1: built really out of tragedy and outrage. We were born
Speaker 1: the day that George Zimmerman was acquitted in the murder
Speaker 1: of Trayvon Martin, and so we remember that all across
Speaker 1: the country, people poured out into the streets. And for
Speaker 1: those of us who are mothers, the theft of Trayvon
Speaker 1: Martin's life as a black boy really resonated for us.
Speaker 1: I remember President Obama said if he had a son,
Speaker 1: he would look like Trayvon Martin. And I actually had
Speaker 1: a son who was three years old at the time,
Speaker 1: and he not figuratively, but actually looked like Trayvon Martin.
Speaker 1: Same shiny brown skin and dancing eyes and a little
Speaker 1: bit of mischief and a lot of joy. And I
Speaker 1: think we were expecting a different outcome that you know,
Speaker 1: he Trayvon wasn't the first black boy to be killed
Speaker 1: by white supremacy, but George Zimmerman wasn't really a cop,
Speaker 1: and he wasn't even really white. His mother's Peruvian. And
Speaker 1: we thought, the system is not gonna double down for
Speaker 1: this one. And so when it did, when it said
Speaker 1: that George Zimmerman was getting off and getting his gun
Speaker 1: back and Trayvon Martin's life didn't mean anything, I think
Speaker 1: that we had no choice. We felt compelled, We felt
Speaker 1: we were divinely inspired and compelled to do work, and
Speaker 1: so for three days in Los Angeles we gathered. We
Speaker 1: don't really need a tweeter or a Instagram post to
Speaker 1: tell us where to go when something goes down in
Speaker 1: black Los Angeles, at least until very recently. We all
Speaker 1: went and gathered in a place called La mart Park,
Speaker 1: right off a crunch shop boulevard. And so I remember
Speaker 1: that day. It was July two thousand thirteen, and I,
Speaker 1: along with a bunch of other folks, I had gathered
Speaker 1: three other black mamas and we did what we do,
Speaker 1: you know, fed our kids, bathed them, put them to bid,
Speaker 1: and found somebody to sit with them. And then we
Speaker 1: poured out into the streets and for three days, during
Speaker 1: the daytime we would bring our children with us, and
Speaker 1: at night we'd find somebody to sit with them. But
Speaker 1: we engaged in what Dr Brenda Stevenson calls intuitive organizing. Right,
Speaker 1: So it's just the organized saying that you feel lad,
Speaker 1: that spirit feels fills you and pulls you into And
Speaker 1: on the third day of protest, I got a text
Speaker 1: from that originated with the sister comrade of my name,
Speaker 1: Patrese Colors she's co founder of Black Lives Matter, and
Speaker 1: she invited us to meet at her black artist community.
Speaker 1: It's called Saint Elmo Village. And I was in the
Speaker 1: streets again with my biological children, my three children that
Speaker 1: were birth from my body, but also who I call
Speaker 1: my spirit children, who are my students from Pan African
Speaker 1: Studies at cal State l A. And that night, about
Speaker 1: thirty of us circled up in this courtyard of this
Speaker 1: beautiful it feels like an African village, and we pledged
Speaker 1: to build a movement, not a moment. And what we
Speaker 1: didn't realize at the time is that while we were
Speaker 1: in the streets, Patrese was organizing with a sister named
Speaker 1: Alicia Garza, who I didn't know at the time but
Speaker 1: as a dear friend now. And then they later brought
Speaker 1: in Opal till Matti and say, we've been involved in
Speaker 1: struggles for justice for Oscar Grant and for Amadu Diallo
Speaker 1: and Sean Bell and Margaret Mitchell and all of these
Speaker 1: names that we could rattle off, but it's bigger than
Speaker 1: the individual names. So we have to honor the individual names.
Speaker 1: We have to honor Trayvon spirit. And it's also about
Speaker 1: a system of policing that descends from a system of
Speaker 1: slave catching. And so it's not just about getting justice
Speaker 1: for Trayvon. We have to transform the system. We have
Speaker 1: to end that system, and so that's what we've been
Speaker 1: doing work on for the last seven and a half years.
Speaker 1: We believe Dr Manning Marrable rites that the systems under
Speaker 1: which we live are intentionally and deliberately designed to produce
Speaker 1: the outcomes that they do. And so then our charge
Speaker 1: is in transforming those systems, toppling systems that are murderous
Speaker 1: and oppressive and violent and that steal the lives of
Speaker 1: our people, and building up new systems. So this is
Speaker 1: why we say reimagine public safety, and that's the work
Speaker 1: that we intend to do and continue to work on.
Speaker 1: Is Black Lives Matter? That brings such clarity to me.
Speaker 1: And we're gonna delve into the defunding the police a
Speaker 1: little bit later on, But I want to ask, just
Speaker 1: considering the lengths that we have to go to just
Speaker 1: to be heard and just to be considered human beings
Speaker 1: in this country, it's exhausting. What do you think the
Speaker 1: biggest misconception about black lives matter is do we even
Speaker 1: need to be concerned about particularly white people feel about
Speaker 1: Black lives matter. And I guess the only reason why
Speaker 1: I think about that too is because we do live
Speaker 1: in a global society and we do have to learn
Speaker 1: to get along. But we spend so much time assimilating
Speaker 1: into I'm gonna use your description, assimilation into what you
Speaker 1: describe as a white supremacist, patriarchal, heteronormative, capitalistic society. Are
Speaker 1: we losing ourselves in that? I love this question. I
Speaker 1: think the greatest victories of the Black Lives Matter era
Speaker 1: is the unapologetically black approach that we've taken. That. No,
Speaker 1: it's not our job to convince white supremacists that black
Speaker 1: lives matter. This is not a plea. This is a
Speaker 1: rallying cry. This is an affirmation to ourselves right, a
Speaker 1: reminder of who we are, a reminder of our power are,
Speaker 1: a reminder of our beauty and creativity and the capacity
Speaker 1: that we have to really build the world in which
Speaker 1: we want to live. No, we're not pleading to anybody
Speaker 1: um to see our humanity. We know who we are.
Speaker 1: We are the daughters of God and the sons of God,
Speaker 1: and we're divine beings, and we are Mama Harriet Tubman
Speaker 1: is our ancestor. Right. We don't need to convince white
Speaker 1: folks of our value, but we do need to remind
Speaker 1: each other that all those things that they heap upon us,
Speaker 1: that they tell us that we are, is not the
Speaker 1: truth of who we are. The truth of who we
Speaker 1: are is who our grandmother's whisper to us is. The
Speaker 1: we are the dreams of our ancestors. I saw that's
Speaker 1: a shut I think we're our ancestors wildest dreams. We
Speaker 1: absolutely are. And so that's what we mean when we
Speaker 1: say black lives matter. And I think that when you say,
Speaker 1: what's the greatest misconception is that it's a plea rather
Speaker 1: than a rallying cry. Black lives matter is a reminder
Speaker 1: to us, perfect perfect Now. In sixteen, you did a
Speaker 1: Ted talk Molina, and it was describing resistance as the
Speaker 1: new normal. Can you break that down for me and
Speaker 1: talk to me a little bit about that? Sure? In
Speaker 1: that talk, I quoted Henry Highland Garnett who says, let
Speaker 1: our motto be resistance. No oppressed people have ever secured
Speaker 1: their liberty without resistance. When we talk about a society
Speaker 1: that is white supremacist, patriarchal, heteronormative capitalist in its nature.
Speaker 1: We can't succumb to that system, and that's some beauty
Speaker 1: of being an African person. We have never admitted to
Speaker 1: our own oppression. We have always engage in this resistance.
Speaker 1: So they try to take away our humanity. You know,
Speaker 1: when we think about chattel slavery um in the America's
Speaker 1: that's really the core of chattel slavery is that white
Speaker 1: folks attempted to not just steal our labor, but to
Speaker 1: dehumanize us. We never submitted to that dehumanization. We never
Speaker 1: They would call us slaves, but we never saw ourselves
Speaker 1: as such. We might have been enslaved, but we were
Speaker 1: never slaves. We were always fully human with an unbroken
Speaker 1: connection to the divine and to each other. And so
Speaker 1: resistance is about that. Resistance is about dreaming and building
Speaker 1: a world where police are not the answer to our
Speaker 1: questions about community safety. Where when we're in the midst
Speaker 1: of the greatest health pandemic of our lifetime, with an
Speaker 1: economic all up that's simply unimaginable, we reach back and say,
Speaker 1: what was the practice of Richard Allen and Biddy Mason
Speaker 1: and all of the founders of our sorority who said
Speaker 1: that mutual Aid that it is our sacred duty to
Speaker 1: use our collective resources to make sure that we are
Speaker 1: of service and that we are bound together to all
Speaker 1: of our people. And so you see this like resurgence
Speaker 1: of mutual Aid where black folks every Sunday are in
Speaker 1: Lamart Park again Lamart Park right, giving away backpacks and
Speaker 1: clothes and food and cooking for each other and making
Speaker 1: sure that even though this is the worst economic crisis
Speaker 1: I remember, right, we're making sure that nobody falls off,
Speaker 1: even if they have to live in tents. We're making
Speaker 1: sure we got tents and sleeping bags to donate. And
Speaker 1: so I think that is what resistant says, and it's
Speaker 1: also what abolition is. It's about resisting what is and
Speaker 1: imagining and building towards new worlds. So Well said, you
Speaker 1: talked about or Martin Luther King's the celebration of his birthday.
Speaker 1: You did a zoom call with co founder Patrice Colors.
Speaker 1: It was you and Trudy Goodwin, who is affectionately known
Speaker 1: as Mama True. Yes, she's one of the our our
Speaker 1: precious elders from the Black Panther Party Lamomba ben Delli,
Speaker 1: I hope I'm pronouncing these names properly and doctor I
Speaker 1: can yale you moja. Those two are from the Malcolm
Speaker 1: X grassroots movement. So you did a zoom call and
Speaker 1: your topic was keeping us safe, that we keep us safe,
Speaker 1: we being the black community. Can you tell us a
Speaker 1: little bit about discussion about community driven approaches to keep
Speaker 1: us safe based on as you all describe, preparedness not fear. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's no secret to anybody that white supremacy, violent white
Speaker 1: supremacy has been unveiled in this country. So it's always
Speaker 1: been there, right is it's the foundation of the America's
Speaker 1: right Um, the America's were built on the stolen land
Speaker 1: of Indigenous people and the stolen labor and stolen lives
Speaker 1: of African people. White supremacy is at the foundation. So
Speaker 1: when we hear a lot of this rhetoric about this
Speaker 1: is not who we are, No, this is absolutely who
Speaker 1: we are or who America is. America is it's not
Speaker 1: what we wanted to be. And so how do we
Speaker 1: then do the hard work of undoing, of ending white supremacy.
Speaker 1: And as we watched that siege, that failed coup on
Speaker 1: the Capitol on Janu weary six, we were reminded that
Speaker 1: white supremacy is pervasive. It didn't begin an end with
Speaker 1: Donald Trump, right, it is everywhere, even in California, where
Speaker 1: we think we're a liberal state, and so it's important
Speaker 1: to move forward recognizing that and reminding ourselves of what
Speaker 1: got us this far down. Freedom's wrote and it was
Speaker 1: a community driven approach to safety. That it's black folks
Speaker 1: looking out for black folks, it's working class folks remembering
Speaker 1: that our interests are aligned. It's building approaches. And I
Speaker 1: don't want to belabor it too much with a personal story,
Speaker 1: but can I tell one real quick? Yes? Please? So
Speaker 1: in August of I'm a single mom of three children.
Speaker 1: We were squatted and what that means is white premacist.
Speaker 1: And it sounds like it was clearly a white supremacist.
Speaker 1: Typical southern white male voice called into l a p D.
Speaker 1: And made a false claim that I was being held
Speaker 1: hostage along with my three children. And this is how
Speaker 1: police are complicit, because he actually said he was trying
Speaker 1: to send a message to Black Lives Matter, So they
Speaker 1: knew right off the bat that it was not a
Speaker 1: real call. Nonetheless, police came to my home at nine
Speaker 1: o'clock in the morning, surrounded my home with assault rifles,
Speaker 1: helicopter overhead, probably forty or soap ups. When I came
Speaker 1: to the window, I live off a crunch us, so
Speaker 1: I just thought something was going on in the neighborhood.
Speaker 1: It can be busy around here, but they were actually
Speaker 1: here from me. When I came to the window. Two
Speaker 1: officers actually pointed their A R fifteen in the window
Speaker 1: at me. So I did what mothers would do. I
Speaker 1: got my my kids to the back room, got them
Speaker 1: to safety, and I did have my comrade who helps
Speaker 1: with security present, and I just looked at him and
Speaker 1: I said, I have to go online. And I went
Speaker 1: on Instagram Live. And I was nervous about giving my
Speaker 1: home address out on social media, but I said, I
Speaker 1: don't have a choice. So I asked everybody please get
Speaker 1: here as soon as you can, because in my mind,
Speaker 1: I said, if these people kill me, I don't want
Speaker 1: them to do it in the dark. I want everybody
Speaker 1: to see what happens. And I didn't. I wanted to
Speaker 1: keep my children as safe as possible. So they had yelled,
Speaker 1: gotten on the loudspeaker and sick everybody inside this address
Speaker 1: come out with your hands up. So I had my
Speaker 1: children secured in a back room, had the security person
Speaker 1: staying with them, and I put my hand out the
Speaker 1: front door, and I said, there's a phone in my hand.
Speaker 1: There's just it's just a phone. And I'm thinking of
Speaker 1: Karin Gains and the way she was killed. And my
Speaker 1: kids are screaming, please don't go out. But I had
Speaker 1: to pull them away from the house because what if
Speaker 1: they started shooting into the house right with my children inside.
Speaker 1: So as I walked out, what I didn't see when
Speaker 1: I looked out the window is there were about a
Speaker 1: dozen or so neighbors already standing outside. And when I
Speaker 1: walked onto my front walkway, and I can never tell
Speaker 1: this without tearing up. Two of my neighbors who are
Speaker 1: also parents black parents. The husband walked up. Now imagine this.
Speaker 1: A black man walks in front of these dozens of
Speaker 1: officers with the song rifles to me and he goes, sister,
Speaker 1: what are you doing? Why are you leaving the house?
Speaker 1: And I said, my kids are inside, and he said,
Speaker 1: I get it, and he said so the sergeant says,
Speaker 1: walked towards me and otis is his name? And he said, well,
Speaker 1: if you're going, I'm going. And he put his body
Speaker 1: right in front of mine, and his wife stood beside me,
Speaker 1: and the three of us began to walk towards the police.
Speaker 1: And we got there and it was clear they knew
Speaker 1: they were just there to terrorize me. They didn't even
Speaker 1: bother to check if I was okay, if I was
Speaker 1: who I said I was, if the kids were okay.
Speaker 1: So they were just there to traumatize and terrorize. But afterwards,
Speaker 1: Sophia and Otis had me and my kids come to
Speaker 1: their house and they fed us. And I asked Otis,
Speaker 1: I said, why did you do that? Because if there's
Speaker 1: anybody more at risk than a black woman, it's a
Speaker 1: black man, a big black man too. Yes, And he said, well, sister,
Speaker 1: if they started shooting, I wasn't gonna let you be
Speaker 1: the one to take the first bullet. Wow. And so
Speaker 1: I'm sharing that story to say that it affirmed for
Speaker 1: me what we mean when we say we keep but safe.
Speaker 1: The police were there to maybe kill me. White supremacy
Speaker 1: was absolutely trying to kill me and possibly my children,
Speaker 1: but my neighbors. And it wasn't just Otis and Sophia,
Speaker 1: it was doesn't that's what I mean. That's why we
Speaker 1: keep us safe as such an important mantra. It's such
Speaker 1: an important practice that we trust each other to keep
Speaker 1: each other safe, but we also provide safety to each other.
Speaker 1: So thank you for indulging me in the personal story.
Speaker 1: But it's just for me. It was um eye opening
Speaker 1: and life changing and gave me a trust in my
Speaker 1: people that I don't think could ever be quantified. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I have to experience something like that to to feel
Speaker 1: it to the depths that I'm sure that you do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry. Just sounds insane. Yeah, it was insane.
Speaker 1: It was traumatic. And again, my people helped me to heal.
Speaker 1: They donated money to put bars on my house, you know,
Speaker 1: they relocated me. You know, they made sure I was fed,
Speaker 1: my children were fed, and and that's the practice. That's
Speaker 1: what got us through. That's that's how you know, we
Speaker 1: are the descendants of enslaved people. We got each other
Speaker 1: through chattel slavery, through Jim Crow, through segregation, through cointelpro
Speaker 1: through all of these things. We did that and that's
Speaker 1: the truth of who we are. And I just think
Speaker 1: that's a beauty of who we are. Yeah, so you
Speaker 1: talked about about healing Molina, and that was one of
Speaker 1: the points that Mama True was making in that call
Speaker 1: that you all had, and she spoke about the use
Speaker 1: of yoga and meditation and sam bowls and chanting art
Speaker 1: and music, all of those things to help keep the
Speaker 1: community healthy spiritually. Talk to us a little bit about that,
Speaker 1: because our spiritual well being is just as important as
Speaker 1: our physical well being. Absolutely, so all of those practices
Speaker 1: that Mama True talked us through our imperative and they
Speaker 1: are spiritual well being and our physical well being are
Speaker 1: tied together. So if I don't meditate every day, I
Speaker 1: start to lose my mind. If I hadn't have been
Speaker 1: prayed up, I sincerely doubt that I would have been
Speaker 1: able to be as deliberate and calm in the midst
Speaker 1: of crisis. And so all of that is hugely important.
Speaker 1: And I'm resistant often times to the term that people
Speaker 1: use self care because I think that sometimes that can
Speaker 1: be selfish care. But community care and healing justice are
Speaker 1: really really important, that it's important that we take the time.
Speaker 1: I have not pledged to myself that I'm gonna walk
Speaker 1: every single day, and so I have not missed today.
Speaker 1: I don't care if it's raining. I don't miss my walk,
Speaker 1: I don't miss my meditation. And then I also believe
Speaker 1: that our spiritual practices provide us with kind of a
Speaker 1: hedge of protection that when we're doing Black Lives Matter
Speaker 1: work off in the first work we'll do is respond
Speaker 1: to a killing of somebody. Right, So somebody was killed
Speaker 1: by the police, and we go out and we're standing
Speaker 1: on their blood like literally, and when we go we
Speaker 1: poor libation m hm. And we do work spiritual work.
Speaker 1: But I still believe my Grandma's with me and she's
Speaker 1: not gonna let nobody touch me either. I think that's
Speaker 1: really important. It really is helpful, believe it or not,
Speaker 1: because during these times when you know I and I
Speaker 1: had to remove myself from social media. I've talked about
Speaker 1: this before. I have to remove myself from social media
Speaker 1: from time to time because I get so riled up
Speaker 1: and I'm not out there on the front lines like
Speaker 1: you and and so so many of the people that
Speaker 1: I've spoken with comfortably in my home but just full
Speaker 1: of frustration and feeling very helpless and hopeless. So these
Speaker 1: measures to keep yourself aware but also to keep yourself
Speaker 1: in a safe and calm space spiritually and mentally is
Speaker 1: so important so that we can figure out what it
Speaker 1: is that we're what our role is supposed to be
Speaker 1: to support all of you. I want to talk about
Speaker 1: that a little bit later, but that is important too,
Speaker 1: because we have a part to play in all of
Speaker 1: this as well. But so let's talk a little bit
Speaker 1: more about your ideas about defunding the police, because for me,
Speaker 1: I feel like defunding the police is just the beginning
Speaker 1: of trying to change a system that actually needs to
Speaker 1: be just abolished and recreated a completely different way. But
Speaker 1: understanding that that is such a challenge and that's gonna
Speaker 1: take time. We certainly, like I said, starting can start
Speaker 1: with just defunding. So talk to us about the audience,
Speaker 1: because I think people have a total misconception about that.
Speaker 1: Of course, So see, Gammy, this is what I've been
Speaker 1: wanting to get with you. I love what you're saying. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: defund the police was a budgetarian. We thought it was
Speaker 1: a real league modest way of getting to abolition right then,
Speaker 1: and and I know it takes a while to bring
Speaker 1: people along with us, but abolition is absolutely necessary. It
Speaker 1: would be ridiculous for us to say, you know what,
Speaker 1: we don't want to abolish slavery, let's just reform it
Speaker 1: exactly exactly. That's real time, right, I just gotta go.
Speaker 1: Police are a vestige of chattel slavery. Police are the
Speaker 1: evolved form of slave catchers. So as ridiculous as it
Speaker 1: would be to say reform chattel slavery, that's the same
Speaker 1: ridiculousness with which we have to meet the idea of
Speaker 1: reforming policing. That said, not everybody is there, and they go, well,
Speaker 1: what do we do about safety if we don't have police,
Speaker 1: because they haven't taken time to be imaginative and even
Speaker 1: be thoughtful. Right, I don't know anybody black who feels
Speaker 1: safer when a police our pools up behind them. But
Speaker 1: it was really easy. So about a year into Black
Speaker 1: Lives Matter, we got a copy of the city budget.
Speaker 1: We were staging a protest and somebody handed us a
Speaker 1: copy of this city budget and inside it had this
Speaker 1: pie chart and it was all of the city's general
Speaker 1: funds and how it's divided up. And at the time,
Speaker 1: the portion of the city's general fund that went to
Speaker 1: police was over fifty And we've been studying this, but
Speaker 1: to see it in a pie chart. We're like, over
Speaker 1: fifty percent of the city's general fund is going to
Speaker 1: l A p D. That's ridiculous. And so then we
Speaker 1: started sharing it with people who might have more conservative
Speaker 1: views than ours, and even conservatives were going more than
Speaker 1: that's crazy, that's ridiculous. So that's when we started talking
Speaker 1: about defunding the police. If you're spending three billion dollars
Speaker 1: on l A p D, that's three billion dollars you
Speaker 1: don't have to spend on after school programs or libraries
Speaker 1: or mental health. And so we started talking about defund
Speaker 1: the police. And then it became when George Floyd's body
Speaker 1: was stolen, it became this kind of clarion call of
Speaker 1: the moment of the movement, moment defund the police. It
Speaker 1: was a logic of if we divest from the police
Speaker 1: that put targets on the backs of black people, we
Speaker 1: can invest in the things that actually keep communities safe.
Speaker 1: And that's what defund the police is about. We always
Speaker 1: couple defund the police with reimagine public safety, because we
Speaker 1: want to use those dollars for the things that keep
Speaker 1: communities safe, and that to me is so in line
Speaker 1: with what vice President Harris is suggesting to rethink how
Speaker 1: we think about community safety. And it doesn't have anything
Speaker 1: to do with adding more police. It's about providing for
Speaker 1: It's about providing housing, jobs and jobs, opportunity, healthy foods,
Speaker 1: quality education, quality healthcare, all of those things. If you
Speaker 1: have those things, your crime rate is going to drop
Speaker 1: and you don't need the police. Absolutely, that's absolutely right,
Speaker 1: And they even admit it. They even admit that police
Speaker 1: have no business being mental health providers. No, mental health
Speaker 1: providers are good at their jobs. Educators, when they're provided
Speaker 1: with enough resources, are great at their job. So how
Speaker 1: can we invest in those kinds of things. Yeah. One
Speaker 1: thing that was really helpful for me during the this
Speaker 1: period last year when it was time to vote was
Speaker 1: because I was new to Los Angeles as a resident,
Speaker 1: and Black Lives Matter had on their Instagram all of
Speaker 1: the their views on all of the propositions that were out,
Speaker 1: all of the candidates that were out, and it was
Speaker 1: extremely helpful to me as someone who was new to
Speaker 1: the area to help me understand the views and the
Speaker 1: history of the candidates, to understand all those million and
Speaker 1: one propositions that were up. And these are the kinds
Speaker 1: of things that organizations provide for people that are unaware
Speaker 1: and to help them make informed decisions when it comes
Speaker 1: to voting. And as a result, we were able to
Speaker 1: flip the Senate And what are can you tell us
Speaker 1: some of the things that black lives matter? Some of
Speaker 1: your successes and wins during the election, and electoral politics
Speaker 1: is not our primary work. Right out in the streets,
Speaker 1: we like I like it. I get a little therapy
Speaker 1: from being able to cuss out the police chief, right,
Speaker 1: but electoral politics is important. So what we adopted is
Speaker 1: a model of vote and organized You know, voting also
Speaker 1: can't be discounted, right when we lift up ancestors like
Speaker 1: Fannie lou Hamer, we cannot say Fannie Lou Hamer's name
Speaker 1: and then not go out and vote. So we absolutely
Speaker 1: have to do that work. And so we we said
Speaker 1: we organized to get to the polls, but then we
Speaker 1: also have to keep organizing after election day. Some of
Speaker 1: the victories that we won are absolutely getting the evil
Speaker 1: that was occupying the White House out. So we gotta
Speaker 1: be real clear, it's black people who voted Donald Trump out.
Speaker 1: We some were enthusiastic about Kamala Harris. I don't know
Speaker 1: many people who were enthusiastic about Joe Biden. But if
Speaker 1: that's what it took to get Donald Trump out, hey,
Speaker 1: and we've been able to at least get Joe Biden
Speaker 1: and saying as inaugural address that he's gonna work to
Speaker 1: end white supremacy. So there's a win right there, getting
Speaker 1: racial equity on the agenda of the new administration as
Speaker 1: a victory. But then there's also other electoral winds. We
Speaker 1: were able to pass Proposition sixteen, which gave formally incarcerated
Speaker 1: people it restored their voting rights in the state of California.
Speaker 1: That was huge, hugely important. We have people who joined
Speaker 1: Black Lives Matter, um a brother named Eric who said,
Speaker 1: you know, this is why I joined Black Lives Matter,
Speaker 1: because I'm able to vote for the very first time.
Speaker 1: We were able to get rid of the district attorney
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles County, who's one of those folks that
Speaker 1: Zora Neil Hurston says all skin folk and kin folks.
Speaker 1: So we had a disc rick attorney who was one
Speaker 1: of those happens to be black people who actually signed
Speaker 1: off on the murders of six hundred forty three people
Speaker 1: at the hands of police. And refused to press charges
Speaker 1: against the officers who killed our people, even fourteen year
Speaker 1: old Jesse Romero, who was killed when he was he
Speaker 1: was just accused of tagging. I don't know a fourteen
Speaker 1: year old child who hasn't written on something other than paper.
Speaker 1: Sixteen year old A. J. Weber, who was murdered while
Speaker 1: he was leaving a Super Bowl party by Los Angeles
Speaker 1: County Sheriff's right. She signed off on those killings. And
Speaker 1: for three years we protested outside of her office, and
Speaker 1: then the election opened up the way for all of
Speaker 1: that political education we've been doing for three years. We've
Speaker 1: been saying that she was complicit in these murders for
Speaker 1: three years, and people heard us and they voted against her.
Speaker 1: And this is over. Let me tell you, Gammy, the
Speaker 1: police associate Shans we're spending millions of dollars to try
Speaker 1: to get her reelected. We have no money. Black Lives
Speaker 1: Matter just got its few first chunka change recently. We
Speaker 1: are not paid organizers. I got a whole another job,
Speaker 1: all of us do. But we overcame all of those
Speaker 1: millions of dollars of police associations because for three years
Speaker 1: we've been talking to our neighbors. We've been building an
Speaker 1: awareness and community, and we got Jackie Lacey out of office,
Speaker 1: and actually the d A who new d A George Gascon,
Speaker 1: who is a white appearing Latino man who it doesn't like.
Speaker 1: When you look at these two, you'd say, why are
Speaker 1: they going? But he adopted our platform. He has reopened
Speaker 1: cases already. He has said children will no longer be
Speaker 1: tried in adult courts. He said he's ending the death penalty,
Speaker 1: he's ending gang enhancements. He says people will only be
Speaker 1: prosecuted for the crimes that they're currently accused of. They're
Speaker 1: not going to be prosecuted because they live in the
Speaker 1: wrong neighborhood. And so we're really excited about that victory. UM.
Speaker 1: We also against summoning an ancestors recently launched a website
Speaker 1: which we call our Contemporary Red Record in honor of
Speaker 1: Ida b. Wells, were painstakingly keeping track of every single
Speaker 1: person who was killed by police in Los Angeles County.
Speaker 1: We are naming them. We have part of the site
Speaker 1: is called more than a Hashtag l a dot org
Speaker 1: where we tell their stories. But then another side of
Speaker 1: the site is called Prosecute Killer Cops. Dot org. And
Speaker 1: we are exposing these police who sometimes kill not one,
Speaker 1: not two, not three, but four in five people, so
Speaker 1: that if the prosecutors aren't going to prosecute them, the
Speaker 1: neighbors are communities can say these people are unsafe in
Speaker 1: our neighborhood. Yeah, this is so important. I'm telling you,
Speaker 1: I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to talk
Speaker 1: to you today because this is a kind of information
Speaker 1: that people need to be aware of. People that are
Speaker 1: interested and want to know and want to know how
Speaker 1: to stay involved. This is how you keep yourself informed
Speaker 1: about what's going on. We're going to move into as
Speaker 1: we end with our wouldn't you like to know questions?
Speaker 1: And for the listeners, is there are reading lists that
Speaker 1: you would suggest of books that we might want to
Speaker 1: read that would help enhance our awareness and knowledge of
Speaker 1: what we're going through or whatever you you would want
Speaker 1: to suggest. Sure, So I'm a professor, so I could
Speaker 1: give you fifty books, but I'll just give you Sure.
Speaker 1: I forgot about that at the moment. Yeah, so I
Speaker 1: would absolutely read Patrice Colors. When they call you a terrorist,
Speaker 1: that's a must read. I'd also think, yeah, it's yes, yes,
Speaker 1: and there's a young adult version too. I know you've
Speaker 1: got some young adults in your life. There's a young
Speaker 1: adult version as well. I'm I'm starting to read Stacy
Speaker 1: Abram's book Lead from the Outside and it's really really good.
Speaker 1: And then for me, the classic book is Black Power
Speaker 1: by for me Terray and Charles Hamilton's I believe everybody
Speaker 1: should start their politicization with that book. Of course, there's
Speaker 1: the autobiographies right by a Satish Shakur, Taste of Power
Speaker 1: by Elaine Brown. Sometimes those auto bio biographical pieces are
Speaker 1: really good in pulling you in and they're good stories, right, yeah, yeah, Okay,
Speaker 1: what's one thing you want to get off your chest?
Speaker 1: I don't know if you have one. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you have just one thing. Yes, I'll say this
Speaker 1: in a nice way that liberal white supremacy is as
Speaker 1: problematic as violent, blatant white supremacy. So all these liberal
Speaker 1: white folks who want to brag about their one black
Speaker 1: friend at the dinner table, if you are passing policies
Speaker 1: and engaging in ways that are oppressive to black people,
Speaker 1: you are just as racist as the blatant white supremacists
Speaker 1: that you claim. The counter exactly, and you are just
Speaker 1: as much of the problem. You are not part of
Speaker 1: the solution. Don't get it twist right, Yeah, what's a
Speaker 1: motto that you live by? A Bible verse? Faith without
Speaker 1: works is dead? Is dead, faith without works. And my kids,
Speaker 1: I can tell you, they actually think that I came
Speaker 1: up with that. I had to show them, No, this
Speaker 1: is in the Bible because I say so much. Faith
Speaker 1: without works is dead. Before you, Lee, please tell where
Speaker 1: people can find you on social media. Sure you can
Speaker 1: find me on social media at doc Meli mel d
Speaker 1: O c M E L y M E L and
Speaker 1: Black Lives Matter is on Twitter at b l M
Speaker 1: l A and on Instagram at b LM Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Dr Melina. I swear it was
Speaker 1: just we could go on forever. You could go on forever.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'll have to have you back again, and maybe
Speaker 1: we should start that private bookball. Yes, I would love that.
Speaker 1: I would love that. I hope that this is not
Speaker 1: the last, but the first of many times that we
Speaker 1: share space. Thank you, Thank you so much, Melinah. And
Speaker 1: these are my takeaways from my conversation with Dr Melina Abdullah.
Speaker 1: Be creative when considering how to be a good ally.
Speaker 1: Use your voice, your platform, your artistry, and your dollars
Speaker 1: ten toes down. This is a movement, not a moment.
Speaker 1: Now is the time for transformation. Use reliable and very
Speaker 1: available resources to keep yourself informed so you can participate,
Speaker 1: not just be a bystander. This is our community and
Speaker 1: your involvement matters. And lastly, build Black by Black, Bank Black.
Speaker 1: If you're listening on Apple podcasts, be sure to rate
Speaker 1: and review. Follow me on my Instagram at gammy nars
Speaker 1: to share with me your thoughts on the episode. I'm here,
Speaker 1: I'm talking, and I'm listening. As always, stay grateful y'all.
Speaker 1: Positively GAM is produced by Westbrook Audio Executive producers Adrian
Speaker 1: van Field, Norris, Jada Pinkett Smith, Amanda Brown and Faloner
Speaker 1: co executive producer Sam Hati, Associate producer Erica Ron and
Speaker 1: Crystal Devons, Editor and mixer Calvin Bailiff. Positively Gam is
Speaker 1: in partnership with Art nineteen h