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Speaker 1: This is episode twenty five of Native Lampod where we
Speaker 1: give you our breakdown on all things.
Speaker 5: Politics and culture.
Speaker 1: And we are your hosts, Angela Rye, Tiffany Cross, and
Speaker 1: Andrew Gillen.
Speaker 5: What's going on, friends and fans?
Speaker 4: Family, family, family. We have storm down here in Florida,
Speaker 4: and all I know is my grandmama said, when it
Speaker 4: started lightning, the thing you're supposed to quiet down, turn
Speaker 4: the lights all stop moving around, just everybody sits still.
Speaker 4: So I'm acting in contradiction.
Speaker 5: Of all of that yeah, I gotta say, you better
Speaker 5: not go out.
Speaker 4: Didn't go out.
Speaker 5: I know I'm saying it better not go back out.
Speaker 6: My grandma used to say that same thing Andrew, like
Speaker 6: when she said, when God moving, you be stilled. It
Speaker 6: was always a storm and we used to go to
Speaker 6: the basement and just sit. I used to love it
Speaker 6: because we would all be together in the basement.
Speaker 4: It used to terrify me. But I will tell y'all,
Speaker 4: I did go and turn all the lights out throughout
Speaker 4: all the surroundings except where I'm sitting, as if it's safety.
Speaker 5: I guess it might save you. Grandma's wisdom saved a
Speaker 5: lot of people.
Speaker 1: Okay, shout out to all the grandma shout out to
Speaker 1: all the grandmothers.
Speaker 5: We love y'all. We thank God for you all the time.
Speaker 5: You saved our lives.
Speaker 4: That's right, Thanks for riding with us.
Speaker 1: So everybody's on today's episode, we are going to be
Speaker 1: talking about what just happened in Jamal Bowman's race in
Speaker 1: New York. It is a stunner for me, and Jamal
Speaker 1: is a personal friend, so I am feeling for Jamal
Speaker 1: in this moment. I don't know what you all have
Speaker 1: to say about the race. But I got a lot
Speaker 1: of layers that I hope you can get through pretty quickly.
Speaker 5: Wait, you got Andrew.
Speaker 4: I'm telling you well, everywhere I turned left, right upside down.
Speaker 4: There's something going on with the internets. And again this
Speaker 4: week the Supreme Court, just this week let a decision
Speaker 4: come down regarding the Biden administration and frankly previous presidents
Speaker 4: and interaction with social media companies, and it has Justice
Speaker 4: Alito's head spinning on us swivel. And of course there
Speaker 4: is a new Surgeon General's report out around the impacts
Speaker 4: of social media on mental health of adolescence, and I
Speaker 4: dare say all of us and I look forward to
Speaker 4: talking with you all about it.
Speaker 1: And on top of that, there's a place that made
Speaker 1: a lot of black folks feel real crazy, and that
Speaker 1: was on Juneteenth, the announcement that Timbaland and Swiss beats
Speaker 1: so distribution rights to Twitter are formerly known as Twitter
Speaker 1: now X. They say, cancel that, dude. So I want
Speaker 1: to talk about that a little bit, but not in
Speaker 1: the ways y'all think. I think there are a lot
Speaker 1: of aspects of this that have been asked, answered and
Speaker 1: analyzed and replied.
Speaker 5: We're not going to get into that part too.
Speaker 6: For what you got, I want to talk about the
Speaker 6: unrest happening in Kenya and the parallels that exist, what's
Speaker 6: what's happening here in the United States.
Speaker 7: So stay tuned to the end of the show for that.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and you all know it wouldn't be Native Lampid
Speaker 1: without hearing from our Native Lampod fam So we will
Speaker 1: definitely do that and of course will have calls to action.
Speaker 5: We just are not just about words on this show.
Speaker 5: It's also action, you guys.
Speaker 1: I you know what, before we even get into the race,
Speaker 1: let's just go into the clip because I don't want
Speaker 1: people to think that they're going to get the same old,
Speaker 1: same o on this show. So let's just roll the
Speaker 1: clip about what happened in Jamal Bowman's race.
Speaker 8: Does this feel like the haleable divide because it feels racial,
Speaker 8: It feels like regional in you know, the Westchester folks
Speaker 8: versus the South Bronx folsts, very different people, very different demographics.
Speaker 8: Does it feel like a healable rift as you're just
Speaker 8: talking to people?
Speaker 9: I think actually the answer to that question is something
Speaker 9: that we've talked about in our reporting and our stories
Speaker 9: on this race overall, which is the fact that this
Speaker 9: feels in some ways like a twenty sixteen reducts. It's
Speaker 9: got different issues at play, But the fact that Bernie
Speaker 9: Sanders and Hillary Clinton are both key endorsers in this
Speaker 9: race on opposite sides, just shows how long this rift
Speaker 9: within the Democratic Party has been going on and the
Speaker 9: ways in which that divide after.
Speaker 7: Twenty sixteen was healible.
Speaker 9: Okay, let's see if it's healable on a micro scale
Speaker 9: here in the sixteenth Congressional District of New York.
Speaker 1: So I wanted to start there because I think in
Speaker 1: so many ways, we keep harkening back to another point
Speaker 1: in history.
Speaker 5: You know, whether it's in the sixties, it's twenty sixteen.
Speaker 1: I wish we could harken back to two thousand and
Speaker 1: eight sentiments sometimes, but I mean we really are. Sometimes
Speaker 1: it feels like sixteen nineteen NSB. Sometimes seventeen seventy six.
Speaker 1: I think the frustration I have about this particular race
Speaker 1: is Jamal Bowman, who's become a friend of mine, is
Speaker 1: a former principal of a school really really incredibly brilliant.
Speaker 1: He represents, at least through the end of the year
Speaker 1: unless of the changes the New York's sixteenth Congressional district.
Speaker 5: The demographics of that district have changed.
Speaker 1: It is thirty seven percent white, it is thirty two
Speaker 1: percent Black, twenty two percent Hispanic. But the divide doesn't
Speaker 1: just exist with the fact that Hillary Clinton endorsed George
Speaker 1: Latimer and that Bernie Sanders endorsed Jamal Bowman. The divide
Speaker 1: is also very deep along Westchester versus South Bronx, you know,
Speaker 1: like this, they couldn't be more different, and I think
Speaker 1: that that is something that we have to take into consideration.
Speaker 1: The overall income in this area is over ninety six
Speaker 1: thousand dollars a year.
Speaker 5: And there are a few other.
Speaker 1: Things that I want to get into, but first I
Speaker 1: just want to get into the narrative that, you know,
Speaker 1: a PAC conquered Jamal Bowman, and that's not really what
Speaker 1: happened here. They absolutely spent the most amount of money
Speaker 1: in any primary in history. This primary was very, very expensive.
Speaker 1: There was a lot on the line, and I certainly
Speaker 1: think they that a PAC and other related packs had
Speaker 1: a lot to do with it. Fourteen point five million
Speaker 1: dollars to fundam George Latimer's ad by but twenty three
Speaker 1: million overall spent in this race, so it's highly contested,
Speaker 1: hotly contested. George Latimer, of course, is a county.
Speaker 5: Exec in Westchester County, YEP.
Speaker 1: And so I just anyway, I want to stop here
Speaker 1: and let your way in, and then I got some
Speaker 1: other things that I want to flag.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I was inspired early on by Jamal
Speaker 4: Congressman Bowman and just really impressed with one his willingness
Speaker 4: to be how do you say a follower amongst leader
Speaker 4: as well as a leader amongst leaders as it relates
Speaker 4: to the squad. You know, each of those individual persons
Speaker 4: you know, to me just stands out regardless of what
Speaker 4: affiliations constituency groups that they're associated with, because they're just strong, unapologetic,
Speaker 4: seemingly uncompromising voices on the things that they believe in.
Speaker 4: And I just hope that no one takes from this
Speaker 4: the message that those individuals themselves, as they constitute the Squad,
Speaker 4: are in any how do you say peril or risk?
Speaker 4: They've been challenged before, they have had significant financial contributions
Speaker 4: mounted against them before, and have been successful at bidding
Speaker 4: that back. And I just don't believe that this is
Speaker 4: the end for brother Bowman, and I really do wish
Speaker 4: him well.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I give a little context to the audience, and
Speaker 6: because if you don't live in this district, then why
Speaker 6: do you care?
Speaker 10: Right?
Speaker 6: I think there's a lot of conversation around this because
Speaker 6: of the role of apac apak is the American Israel
Speaker 6: Public Affairs Committee or Political Action Committee, depending on what
Speaker 6: feel they're playing in at any given time. And some people,
Speaker 6: you know, this excites the Beltway press because some people
Speaker 6: think it's a referendum on the quote unquote squad. The Squad,
Speaker 6: as you all know, began with four members, four women
Speaker 6: members in twenty sixteen and has since expanded. AOC I
Speaker 6: think was the most prominent but the original for Aana
Speaker 6: Presley Rashida to leave out of Michigan and.
Speaker 7: Uh han Omar ilhan Omar, thank you out of Minnesota.
Speaker 6: And so you know, he was one of the people
Speaker 6: that defeated a long time incumbent, Elliott Ingle in twenty twenty.
Speaker 6: He swelled the ranks of the Congressional Black Caucus. So
Speaker 6: he was, you know, a star or somebody who was
Speaker 6: you know, well spoken or outspoken I should say on
Speaker 6: the House floor. So you know, This again seems like
Speaker 6: very inside the Beltway, because I think the Beltway press
Speaker 6: is so eager to say, well, you know, this means
Speaker 6: trouble for the rest of the squad, and maybe it
Speaker 6: does or it doesn't. I think if you're somebody at
Speaker 6: home thinking about, you know, paying your mortgage and sending
Speaker 6: your kids to school, the relevances has to you is
Speaker 6: what issues did he stand on? Who will go on
Speaker 6: to win in the primary? Will Latimer represent your interest
Speaker 6: in the primary? I think the point Angela was trying
Speaker 6: to make is because that divide among Westchester and South
Speaker 6: Bronx is Westchester has a much different income median household
Speaker 6: income than the South Bronx and therefore probably different interests.
Speaker 6: So you know, even though you represent a district, you
Speaker 6: vote as you know, a part of a larger body,
Speaker 6: right exactly, And so when you lose a voice like that,
Speaker 6: I think those are the things that people should really
Speaker 6: be concerned about.
Speaker 4: Or a caucus, as you said, Tiffany, that is attempting
Speaker 4: to grow in strength and its ability to really serve
Speaker 4: as a conscience reminder on every vote, whether or not
Speaker 4: we're Democrats in Washington and the members at large are
Speaker 4: in service to the people or to some other constituency
Speaker 4: that they won't name, but we know in too many ways,
Speaker 4: it's too all powerful and omnipresent and almost every issue.
Speaker 7: I just want to shout him out too, because when
Speaker 7: my show was canceled, he was a very vocal supporter,
Speaker 7: So I appreciate his support there.
Speaker 1: Jama is somebody who I think stands on business in
Speaker 1: ways that make people feel uncomfortable. He is a very
Speaker 1: loud voice. He's a very clear voice. He's very convicted
Speaker 1: about the things that he cares deeply about.
Speaker 11: You know.
Speaker 1: The other thing that is kind of frustrating to me
Speaker 1: is the fact that we haven't talked about like the
Speaker 1: racial animists that exists with black men who display anger
Speaker 1: or passion. And I think that Jamal has taken some
Speaker 1: real hits because of how he displays his passion on issues.
Speaker 1: People have talked about the way he cusses, or he
Speaker 1: sounds too aggressive. There was a black man on the
Speaker 1: same piece that we're joys talking to Ali that talked
Speaker 1: about how he comes across as too aggressive, and so
Speaker 1: I wonder how much of that was taken into consideration.
Speaker 1: I haven't haven't analyzed any of the ads. I'm interested
Speaker 1: to see what they talk about in the ads. I
Speaker 1: know that Apak didn't focus on his position on the
Speaker 1: Israel Hamas war as much as they focused on where
Speaker 1: he did not stand in lockstep with Joe Biden in votes.
Speaker 1: The other thing that I think would be foolish for
Speaker 1: us to not take into consideration is how they messaged
Speaker 1: him pulling the fire alarm right to get to that
Speaker 1: House vote where he pulled the fire alarm and had
Speaker 1: to plead to a misdemeanor. One of the things that
Speaker 1: we're seeing right now is the ways in which Democrats
Speaker 1: have leaned into talking about Donald Trump as a convicted felon.
Speaker 1: And I think that we don't have a solid ground
Speaker 1: to stand on here because the justice system is so
Speaker 1: jacked up.
Speaker 5: You shouldn't have had.
Speaker 1: To plead to a misdemeanor and pay a fine and
Speaker 1: be on probation for pulling a fire alarm to get
Speaker 1: to a vote that was a pretty significant one, Is
Speaker 1: it right?
Speaker 5: No, But I just think that we spend a lot
Speaker 5: of time on stuff that's crazy.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Same, if I could, Oh no, no, no, go ahead,
Speaker 4: I'm so sorry. I wanted to pick up on your
Speaker 4: invite around black men's comportment when in politics and being
Speaker 4: sort of seen by the rest of the world. You know,
Speaker 4: you you're familiar with this because you've been so involved
Speaker 4: in my life's politics. But when I ran for a
Speaker 4: local government here, I was running a almost seventy percent
Speaker 4: white majority, you know area, and the I've never represented
Speaker 4: a majority black constituency in all of my time as
Speaker 4: an elected official. And it it you'd be a maze
Speaker 4: and maybe not amazed at the number of times that
Speaker 4: people who genuinely express that they care about you will
Speaker 4: pull you to the side black, white, and otherwise. And
Speaker 4: I often got this from older black women at churches
Speaker 4: on Sunday. You know, don't don't don't get so mad
Speaker 4: with them, you know, commiss or mayor, because we need
Speaker 4: you to be around, We want you to be around,
Speaker 4: and tif you often reflect on the conversation that we
Speaker 4: had at your home around our ability to imagine and
Speaker 4: to with a blank saate slate paint the picture that
Speaker 4: we want to be in as black folks if we
Speaker 4: didn't have to consider other people and what they will
Speaker 4: make allowance for. And I and I really feel like
Speaker 4: what I was getting from particularly those black mothers grandmothers
Speaker 4: was out of concern for me, either they were let
Speaker 4: down or disappointed in my display. In fact, they probably
Speaker 4: were right there with me, but they also knew that
Speaker 4: there was another calculation at Bay and and and then
Speaker 4: to bring it back to Jamal, I'm sure that he
Speaker 4: had people pulling on him one way or another to
Speaker 4: do that. And this is just one of the ways
Speaker 4: that be being passionate about something life safety, security, housing,
Speaker 4: food on the table, how those things you should be
Speaker 4: angry and upset when that stuff isn't being tended to.
Speaker 4: And that we've always got to, you know, in some
Speaker 4: way reserve our passions, the things that give us the
Speaker 4: energy to take these fights on and convenience and out
Speaker 4: of convenience so not to offend others.
Speaker 5: I think that's exactly it.
Speaker 1: So with this, I think one other note is a
Speaker 1: little over ten percent of the voting population in his
Speaker 1: district participated in the primary on Tuesday, And I think
Speaker 1: that we have to start paying attention to who we
Speaker 1: want to make decisions for us in elected office. If
Speaker 1: we really want to bank on our neighbor or someone
Speaker 1: down the street to hold what's in our best interests.
Speaker 1: So only less again, a little more than ten percent,
Speaker 1: which is pretty high, honestly, but it's also really it's
Speaker 1: it's repugnant.
Speaker 5: It's so low. Let me think about how many issues
Speaker 5: we're not heard, Yeah.
Speaker 4: Like buy the amount of money per vote and he.
Speaker 1: I mean, he really got trounced in this in this primary.
Speaker 1: So that said, he has not ruled out Jamal has
Speaker 1: not ruled out running as a member of the Working
Speaker 1: Families Party in November, and I think that that is remarkable.
Speaker 1: We talk on we've had a podcast, a mini pod
Speaker 1: on third party runs on when that makes sense, and
Speaker 1: this is one of those situations where it might make sense.
Speaker 1: Working Families Party is a more progressive wing of the
Speaker 1: Democratic Party, but it is not separate from but he
Speaker 1: would separate a little bit to run against George Latimer
Speaker 1: if he were to make that decision in the fall.
Speaker 1: So at this point, we got to pay some bills
Speaker 1: and we will be right back.
Speaker 3: Welcome, welcome, come, well, come, well come.
Speaker 5: Welcome.
Speaker 4: And ti if Angela and of course our listeners. As
Speaker 4: we mentioned earlier, the internet is everywhere. We said politics
Speaker 4: is every year everywhere, as one of our segments. But
Speaker 4: truly it's been top of mind for a lot of
Speaker 4: people this week in particular, and I'll just say the
Speaker 4: latest before I go into where I hope we can
Speaker 4: spend a couple of moments talking, and that is, in
Speaker 4: a six to three decision, the Court decided. I won't
Speaker 4: sell you what he technically decided, but by making its
Speaker 4: technical decision about standing on this issue, it essentially is
Speaker 4: allowing the Biden administration in any future administration to continue
Speaker 4: to talk, coordinate, and work with social media companies and
Speaker 4: giants around misinformation, disinformation and such counterclaims. Of course, Justice
Speaker 4: Alito and his dissent take took real issue with his
Speaker 4: colleagues on the Court, basically saying this basically sanctions any president,
Speaker 4: any administration to go after the people who philosophically differ
Speaker 4: from them and conservative outlets and shut them down and
Speaker 4: so on and so forth. Obviously an extreme extension of
Speaker 4: what's being discussed here. And the reason why I thought
Speaker 4: it was important to just mention this, ladies, is because
Speaker 4: another thing happened this weekend. That is, the Surgeon General
Speaker 4: issued a warning the first of its kind, around adolescents
Speaker 4: use of social media. And while his announcement could not
Speaker 4: draw a because of this. Therefore, this because of the Internet,
Speaker 4: or because of social media, your kids are more depressed
Speaker 4: and more inclined towards suicidal thoughts, so on and so forth.
Speaker 4: Any of us, I think could make a conclusion that
Speaker 4: things just feel a little bit different for young people
Speaker 4: growing up today. And the truth is is social media,
Speaker 4: at least in my opinion, I think has an important
Speaker 4: amount to do with in that. And that's what the
Speaker 4: Surgeon General's warning brings a parents and all of our
Speaker 4: country's attention to. And I just hope that folks whoill
Speaker 4: go to the website, check it out, download it, and
Speaker 4: and really dig into it. I will tell you, ladies,
Speaker 4: as a parent, I'm like, I mean, I'm blowing gaskets
Speaker 4: every day, just trying to figure out what I'm supposed
Speaker 4: to do to moderate this thing and not let my
Speaker 4: kids become one addicted, but two just victims to what
Speaker 4: happens there. And the Surgeon General's report talks to the
Speaker 4: impact of social media on our youth, but I got
Speaker 4: to say, it's not just young people who are shaken
Speaker 4: by this thing. In fact, maybe these are some familiar
Speaker 4: faces and voices that you'll recognize. Also sending up some
Speaker 4: warning signs.
Speaker 7: Are you using your device or is your device using you?
Speaker 4: Can you put it down?
Speaker 11: Can you turn it off?
Speaker 3: Some of us are able to navigate it a little
Speaker 3: bit better because we're older.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you lived in a world without it.
Speaker 3: Can you imagine growing up in a society where this
Speaker 3: is all you know is social Goddamn?
Speaker 12: We just want I've been anxious, and I've been depressed,
Speaker 12: and I've been I have body dysmorphia, that's for sure.
Speaker 12: It doesn't make me feel better to really just like
Speaker 12: put that out there and talk about that sort of stuff.
Speaker 12: And I just I know how involved I am with
Speaker 12: social or how involved I was with social media, so
Speaker 12: seeing the responses to that is something that I wouldn't
Speaker 12: be able to handle.
Speaker 4: That was Doja Cat the last voice you heard, proud
Speaker 4: of her, Charlemagne the God, And of course leading off
Speaker 4: that quote segment was Denzel watching himself. And I did
Speaker 4: that just because r J is in love with the man,
Speaker 4: But I also think that his comments were appropriate. Apropos y'all,
Speaker 4: how do you relate to that? Particularly where Dojakat ended there,
Speaker 4: which is basically how she would react. She knows that
Speaker 4: she can't handle how she would react to what she
Speaker 4: might read on social media. And if that's her response
Speaker 4: as a woman, grown woman, what hope do we have
Speaker 4: for our kids? How are y'all regulating it?
Speaker 5: Can? I?
Speaker 7: Oh, sorry, go ahead, Angel, Nope, you got it.
Speaker 6: I just want to go back to the Supreme Court
Speaker 6: case because I think it's really important to put that
Speaker 6: in context and bridge these two topics, Andrew, because I
Speaker 6: definitely have strong thoughts on how we navigate social media. First,
Speaker 6: the Supreme Court case, it's not so much that they are,
Speaker 6: you know, allowing Biden to intrude. The case arose from
Speaker 6: a barrage of communications from administration officials urging platforms to
Speaker 6: take down topics, misinformation on topics like the coronavirus, and
Speaker 6: claims of election fraud. How this suit even came about
Speaker 6: is because the two attorneys general from Missouri and Louisiana,
Speaker 6: who both happened to be Republicans, sued and so this
Speaker 6: is one of those things that.
Speaker 7: Bubbled the number, but they led the chart.
Speaker 6: So this is one of those things that bubble up
Speaker 6: from right wing maga extremists that now comprised the Republican Party.
Speaker 6: A Trump appointed actually issued an injunction that prohibited officials
Speaker 6: that they call threatening their platforms, and then that went
Speaker 6: to another three court judge panel, and so Scots this
Speaker 6: is a surprise ruling from them, So I think it's
Speaker 6: worth noting they overruled that and this is where it
Speaker 6: wasn't down party lines for a change in the six
Speaker 6: three opinion. So I think in one bucket, there are
Speaker 6: the dangers of misinformation that we really saw in twenty
Speaker 6: sixteen around GOTV efforts around getting people to participate in
Speaker 6: the election. In twenty twenty, that we saw around COVID
Speaker 6: nineteen and around what actually happened.
Speaker 7: In the election.
Speaker 6: So there's that bucket that definitely should concern all of us,
Speaker 6: regardless of what side of the divide you fit on.
Speaker 6: For the social aspect of it, this might be sound
Speaker 6: a bit elitist, and I look, I'm on social media,
Speaker 6: so I put myself in this. But I know a
Speaker 6: lot of people who are not on social media. If
Speaker 6: they are, it's minimal, they don't really participate. And if
Speaker 6: I could draw a line, I think the people who
Speaker 6: are not on social media are far intellectually superior. It's
Speaker 6: for me anyway, in conversations I have because you're not
Speaker 6: spending your time on Instagram or TikTok. Like these people
Speaker 6: read more and not like papers, but they like read
Speaker 6: books and know about history, and they're just consuming information
Speaker 6: in a different way. I used to read a book
Speaker 6: a week. I've slipped a bit. I find it difficult
Speaker 6: to focus. There's a lot of research around this. According
Speaker 6: to Data Portal, the average user spends two and a
Speaker 6: half hours a day on social media. I think Gallup
Speaker 6: had information saying the average teenage girl spends four and
Speaker 6: a half hours a day on social media.
Speaker 7: These things can lead you.
Speaker 6: I know, I scroll through and I think, oh I
Speaker 6: wasn't invited to that, and oh she looks so cute
Speaker 6: in that outfit, or oh I need to lose weight,
Speaker 6: or oh her makeup looks good. It's a constant criticism
Speaker 6: or just posing yourself in somebody else's life, and it
Speaker 6: makes such a difference when you stay present with people.
Speaker 6: I have literally lost friendships because I don't want to
Speaker 6: sit across from you looking at Instagram when I'm talking
Speaker 6: to you, and I just don't talk to them. I
Speaker 6: don't spend my time with those people. If you can't
Speaker 6: be present and look at me when I'm speaking and
Speaker 6: listen to what I'm saying and participate fully in the conversation.
Speaker 6: So you know, I'm concerned with some of the regulation
Speaker 6: because it depends on what administration is in office when
Speaker 6: it comes to you know, what information we share and
Speaker 6: how we share it. But on the social side of it,
Speaker 6: I wish we could all self regulate and get off it,
Speaker 6: put it down sometimes, you know, it should not be
Speaker 6: our lifeline to society, and I feel like it is
Speaker 6: increasingly so how people relate to each other. Young people
Speaker 6: don't even know how to talk to each other. They
Speaker 6: don't even ask each other out. They don't speak game
Speaker 6: no more. It's all about a DM or a snapchat
Speaker 6: or whatever the latest platform is.
Speaker 7: So it's concerning for.
Speaker 4: Sure, And Angela, I appreciate that context too in the
Speaker 4: framing tiff as always. And you know, we've got scientists
Speaker 4: that have diverged on both sides of this issue of
Speaker 4: whether or not social media and it's ubiquitous consumption access
Speaker 4: to it rather for young people is in fact impacting
Speaker 4: their mental health. So unfortunately, scientists have to do what
Speaker 4: scientists do, and often they are lagging indicators on a
Speaker 4: lot of this stuff we here twenty thirty years later.
Speaker 4: This was bad for you, but you've been consuming it
Speaker 4: for the last thirty years. So putting science where it
Speaker 4: needs to be, I mean, do I believe my lying
Speaker 4: eyes or no? Are young people not appearing all of
Speaker 4: us appearing differently and showing up differently in the world.
Speaker 4: I think possibly in part to this part.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I just really quick.
Speaker 1: I would say I fought on this issue where the
Speaker 1: Supreme Court fail, which is standing right, So scientists might
Speaker 1: have some standing, sure, but I'm gonna trust the parents
Speaker 1: over the scientists here.
Speaker 4: That's it.
Speaker 1: So I will tell you I really wanted watch my
Speaker 1: god children and how much they are engaging in social media.
Speaker 1: I have one in particular that spent over forty hours
Speaker 1: a week on TikTok, and it's it is deeply concerning,
Speaker 1: deeply troubling. And it starts not just with them, but
Speaker 1: like all children, you watch them like have a fit
Speaker 1: until they get the device. I think we're not any difference,
Speaker 1: like where's my phone, where's my phone?
Speaker 5: Where's my phone?
Speaker 1: There's this constant like you're almost controlled by it, and
Speaker 1: one and the same Like there's been a lot of
Speaker 1: debate about l a USD saying that they're going to
Speaker 1: prohibit devices period. Well, parents are like, yeah, why don't
Speaker 1: you prohibit these school shootings?
Speaker 4: Though?
Speaker 1: You know, so like you there's this this good and
Speaker 1: the bad, like there's a calendar share, like which parent
Speaker 1: is picking them up? Like they're all of these other
Speaker 1: things that matter. Yeah, for devices, but also the device
Speaker 1: itself is a problem.
Speaker 4: So so does it to be a smartphone? As could
Speaker 4: it not be?
Speaker 5: I stand for a flip phone.
Speaker 1: But good luck on texting on that joker quickly and
Speaker 1: having any type of calendar invite.
Speaker 5: But until then, we're gonna invite you to this ad break.
Speaker 1: So everybody I have been calling June Kendrick Lamar Appreciation month.
Speaker 1: He definitely owned Juneteenth, and some folks who didn't own
Speaker 1: Juneteenth but might have sold away some distribution rights were
Speaker 1: Swiss Beats and Timbaland, and I have been really fascinated
Speaker 1: watching the debate here. I've been asking a lot of questions,
Speaker 1: which normally I don't do. I'll just have an opinion,
Speaker 1: a strong opinion. But I've been asking a lot of
Speaker 1: questions because I've been seeing the flat side of my
Speaker 1: own hypocrisy here. So I wanted to start this conversation
Speaker 1: with our own little poll because you know, we're a
Speaker 1: residential poll firm. Now we pull black people. You all
Speaker 1: are included. So I'm gonna start with you, Tiff and Andrew.
Speaker 1: I would like to know how much money it would
Speaker 1: take for you all to sell Native Land pod distribution
Speaker 1: rights two X right there, yeah, right now, fifty dollars
Speaker 1: and maybe a gift card to a restaurants.
Speaker 5: You a cheap hole.
Speaker 4: You want to give it, you want to give it away.
Speaker 4: I thought that was worth more than friend, take.
Speaker 5: Me the red lobster.
Speaker 7: Listen, these coins tight over here, so I might need
Speaker 7: the wrong person.
Speaker 5: Asks not for.
Speaker 2: I.
Speaker 4: Look, I haven't seen X two years.
Speaker 1: I guess okay, but so but if somebody, if if
Speaker 1: I Heeart Approachest or reason trace media approaches, said hey
Speaker 1: we've got this incredible distribution deal opportunity with X, you.
Speaker 4: Know distribution, So you tell it it is, it is,
Speaker 4: it is accessible, It has been leveled all of us.
Speaker 4: I'm doing it in a different way that why would
Speaker 4: you sell what you already own?
Speaker 1: Okay, because maybe having it on Twitter to it increases
Speaker 1: opportunities eyeballs, like we have the podcast We have the
Speaker 1: podcast on YouTube, we have it on Spotify, we have
Speaker 1: it on Apple Podcasts.
Speaker 4: I get it, but guess what you can give glimpses
Speaker 4: into that? Didn't people like put two minutes or sixty
Speaker 4: second whatever videos up.
Speaker 5: Want to tell you what you're doing right now?
Speaker 1: You know how there's a debate tomorrow when this podcast drops.
Speaker 1: There's a debate. You're giving me one of those debate answers.
Speaker 5: I want to know how much money, what it costs.
Speaker 4: You, Angela it is, and what I'm the numbers. I
Speaker 4: am not going to sell what I own for someone
Speaker 4: to do what I can already do.
Speaker 7: You don't, you don't know, and they're not doing what
Speaker 7: you can do.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry versus no, Andrew.
Speaker 5: The question is.
Speaker 1: If we had an opportunity to distribute Native lampod on Twitter,
Speaker 1: how much?
Speaker 5: What is the dollar amount sir? That is the question I.
Speaker 4: Humbly passed, and begin with I passed.
Speaker 5: Oh okay, So here's this is the part right.
Speaker 1: So for me, there are kids I need to send
Speaker 1: to college, there are bills I need to pay. There
Speaker 1: there's there's something self righteous in me that feels like
Speaker 1: if I can change what's happening on Twitter. I want
Speaker 1: to do that, you know, like, if we get our
Speaker 1: content out, maybe he pushes it harder than he pushes
Speaker 1: that nonsensus Tip would say.
Speaker 5: Vacations, we need to pay for vacations. We need to
Speaker 5: pay I would say a cool.
Speaker 6: Five million, five million, if anybody know, come five million.
Speaker 7: Yeah, we can talk.
Speaker 4: And all you get is what we've already produced.
Speaker 7: That's not true, Andrew, that is not where you're getting
Speaker 7: that from.
Speaker 4: What I if this is about the sale of Versus.
Speaker 5: No, I asked a different question and you refuse to
Speaker 5: answer the question on the table because we're not in Twitter.
Speaker 7: I mean, we're not in versus and we don't but
Speaker 7: we don't own Okay, so let.
Speaker 4: Me let me let's do something else to explain it
Speaker 4: to me.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, I want to I want to waste time.
Speaker 1: I want to waste time on this. Let's say be
Speaker 1: Et comes to us, which is the legitimate thing. BT
Speaker 1: comes us, and they say they want to distribute the podcast.
Speaker 1: They want to air forty five minutes, a forty five
Speaker 1: minute cut down of the podcast once a week. What's
Speaker 1: the dollar figure you sell that for for distribution? They
Speaker 1: don't own the pot you still are a producer on the.
Speaker 4: Pod and would it be exclusive? No, that's the only
Speaker 4: way you get to see us.
Speaker 5: No how much.
Speaker 7: Andrew like if they say we got dollars a distribution.
Speaker 4: You're just asking the questions that I would want to have.
Speaker 5: What it costs for you?
Speaker 4: How about fifty fifty mil ten.
Speaker 5: Or fifty million dollars distribution deal?
Speaker 4: Non exclusive? And will do recorded promoted not have?
Speaker 10: No?
Speaker 5: And I don't.
Speaker 7: I don't want Andrew negotiating an.
Speaker 4: You think we were fifty three fifty three cents fifty dollars?
Speaker 4: You think you worth five million. I'm trying to ask
Speaker 4: the questions that might help lead me to a rational
Speaker 4: estimation of what we're worth and without one worth million at.
Speaker 5: Least Lebron, Thanks Lebron, Thanks Lebrin.
Speaker 4: If Lebron can do it in one year, I just
Speaker 4: laid out a ten yurre deal.
Speaker 6: Okay, But I take your point is I think you're
Speaker 6: trying to make a point. Is here and here is
Speaker 6: the point Tivity is like, make your part break.
Speaker 1: I have not made the point the first Andrew answer
Speaker 1: the question we said you in debates, damn.
Speaker 4: It out to land on my nose.
Speaker 5: Well, boom on the nose. Anyway, I like it. I
Speaker 5: appreciate this.
Speaker 1: I like to get Tim Maya here Andrews like after
Speaker 1: all them dugs, as you know, we're get it.
Speaker 5: So here's the theme.
Speaker 1: People had so much heat for Tim and Swiss about
Speaker 1: this distribution deal. They say as black owned, but they're
Speaker 1: posing with Elon on Juneteenth to announce it. And I
Speaker 1: think folks were more upset about the picture and the
Speaker 1: image than they were about the distribution itself. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of criticism about it, and I think that all
Speaker 1: I want to talk about really is the hypocrisy that
Speaker 1: exists for all of us, Like we don't know how
Speaker 1: much it was worth, but I can tell you those
Speaker 1: two businessmen then sell that for cheap. I ain't seen
Speaker 1: her sell a little bit when last time y'all seen verses?
Speaker 1: That was my other pole question about right, the last
Speaker 1: one I remember seeing was Escape in a WV. Doesn't
Speaker 1: mean I wouldn't watch it again, but I'm saying, like,
Speaker 1: I don't even remember the last time we saw it.
Speaker 5: So I'm actually like fascinated.
Speaker 4: Designed for COVID where you couldn't get no by nobody,
Speaker 4: but who you breathe with Yeah.
Speaker 1: So anyway, but I'm fascinated to know, like what if
Speaker 1: they actually hustled Elion Musk.
Speaker 7: Because then that's the question. Yeah, yeah, Like I think
Speaker 7: that that's the point you're you're making.
Speaker 6: It's because on one side, that is like, we're gonna
Speaker 6: get this dude's money, you know, Yeah, we're selling the price.
Speaker 6: We're not making money anyway, We're gonna sell it to
Speaker 6: him for a big chunk of money because y'all know,
Speaker 6: he thinks he know the culture and he he he
Speaker 6: wants to picture with us on juneteen. Fine, we'll get it.
Speaker 6: So then it becomes well, what are y'all doing with
Speaker 6: this money? How are you uplifting the culture? How are
Speaker 6: you using capitalism in this platform to fight back some
Speaker 6: of the oppression that black folks are still experiencing in
Speaker 6: this country?
Speaker 7: Like then that's a different set of questions.
Speaker 6: On the other side, is by giving our culture and
Speaker 6: talent over to a platform that promotes and welcomes white
Speaker 6: supremacists this information, you are also legitimizing that platform. You
Speaker 6: are lending your talent, your face, your reputation to Elon Musk,
Speaker 6: who is the equivalent of an evil character in an
Speaker 6: Austin Powers film, like he's somewhere stroking a cat, you know,
Speaker 6: with his pinky finger in the air. So then is
Speaker 6: that a wise move too? What Angelin and I talked
Speaker 6: about is a little bit when this first happened, we
Speaker 6: were on the phone, and the point I understood you
Speaker 6: to be making, tell me if I'm.
Speaker 7: Wrong, is how are we.
Speaker 6: How are we prioritizing our own hypocrisy or how are
Speaker 6: we considering our own hypocrisy? Because if we say, oh,
Speaker 6: Twitter is terrible, then are we promoting this podcast on Twitter?
Speaker 6: Are we promoting other things that we do on Twitter?
Speaker 6: And does that make us hypocritical? And if we're saying
Speaker 6: Twitter is terrible, they are white supermass.
Speaker 7: I don't use it. But we're talking on our iPhone.
Speaker 7: You and I were both on our iPhones and we're talking.
Speaker 6: About this and the labor practices and the cobalt and
Speaker 6: all the things that the that makes the iPhone problematic
Speaker 6: or all these smartphones problemat Where do we draw the.
Speaker 7: Line when it comes to our morals and the choices
Speaker 7: that we make? And I think that it can be
Speaker 7: a fuzzy line for a lot of people.
Speaker 4: I mean I think people are going to reserve their
Speaker 4: clutch your pearls righteous moment and apply it as selectively
Speaker 4: as they think about it, because that's just how that
Speaker 4: thing operates and how it works. That's not to dismiss
Speaker 4: whether or not there are credible questions to be asked
Speaker 4: when a platform empowered for and then powered by the
Speaker 4: community feels like they have some sense of ownership to it,
Speaker 4: access to it. We made this work when them feeds
Speaker 4: was dropping the middle ten minutes in and we still
Speaker 4: holding thirty minutes in, babyfacing y'all anyway for the thing
Speaker 4: to start, We held you down. And so I think
Speaker 4: the way folks are thinking about it is much more
Speaker 4: democratized than some economic trade off between two corporations or
Speaker 4: a number of corporate entities who don't have to think
Speaker 4: about that. And if I'm thinking about it in the
Speaker 4: lens of I helped build this, I sustained this. We
Speaker 4: were all scraping for what we could get by way
Speaker 4: of sanity, and we built this and now it's gone.
Speaker 4: I understand how folks can feel that way. Now, is
Speaker 4: it right and merited with regard to how they choose
Speaker 4: to then spend those resources? No, it's a company, it's
Speaker 4: an idea of business and advent so on and so forth,
Speaker 4: and if they don't apply a set of moral value
Speaker 4: standards or whatever. To an Elon Musk, who didn't just
Speaker 4: welcome the voices of the most extreme in society, did
Speaker 4: all he could to level what's factual what is not.
Speaker 4: He started charging folks for a blue check when those
Speaker 4: blue checks exist to determine and signal to people that
Speaker 4: this is a real person versus that fake over there.
Speaker 4: So somebody who is not interested in seeing the facts
Speaker 4: wants to blur the lines so deeply that truth no
Speaker 4: longer matters because there is no truth. I mean, I
Speaker 4: can't get in bed with that.
Speaker 6: But you know, it's capitalism, and it is, yeah, some
Speaker 6: of the the point, even when it comes to black folks,
Speaker 6: A billionaire is a billionaire is a billionaire, like I
Speaker 6: think you when we look at some of the billionaires
Speaker 6: that we know and how they move and decisions they
Speaker 6: make and financial moves they make that aren't always uplifting
Speaker 6: to the culture or for the culture.
Speaker 7: And there is I think a certain level.
Speaker 6: Where do you lose touch with the community and some
Speaker 6: of your decisions you make or you know, are you
Speaker 6: seduced by the trappings of wealth that you forget about
Speaker 6: those things.
Speaker 4: And it doesn't causes that.
Speaker 7: Power proximity to power, Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And you don't have that money to have power.
Speaker 5: You don't.
Speaker 1: But this is the point I think that we should,
Speaker 1: at least on this podcast, in this space, we should
Speaker 1: stress test where our flat sides are and where our
Speaker 1: blind spots are, and where our hypocrisies exist.
Speaker 5: I am blown away by the fact that people tweeted
Speaker 5: about how mad they were about this deal for free.
Speaker 4: You mean I got a suspended license and I called
Speaker 4: in the court while Oh no, no, I'm just saying,
Speaker 4: but that's your point. You're on the platform, you got
Speaker 4: an account.
Speaker 6: But I think selling the platform Angela versus tweeting on
Speaker 6: it is different.
Speaker 1: But did they sell it or did they just distribute
Speaker 1: there like they were distributing on Triller and He And
Speaker 1: here's my other thing. If they say I'm going to
Speaker 1: distribute on a place where black people overwhelmingly occupy, that
Speaker 1: is still catering to the culture because unfortunately, we haven't
Speaker 1: supported spill at the levels that we should or spoutable
Speaker 1: at the levels that we should.
Speaker 5: So they're like where we're going to go where black
Speaker 5: people meet? Remember that?
Speaker 7: Why haven't we supported?
Speaker 5: Oh, Tip, that's a great I mean, I think it's
Speaker 5: a great question. You guys know, I love us. I
Speaker 5: would love for us to have our own stuff.
Speaker 1: What is it gonna take for us to support our
Speaker 1: step to the degree where somebody could get a distribution
Speaker 1: deal like that on ours?
Speaker 5: And until that happens, how dear? Like, come on, you guys.
Speaker 7: Get the picture.
Speaker 1: Boys, I get the picture, but like I'm saying, I
Speaker 1: didn't finish my how dear, how dare you tweet about
Speaker 1: it for free and then criticize them for making the deal,
Speaker 1: Like where was this smoke for?
Speaker 5: Where was the smoke for?
Speaker 7: Don?
Speaker 5: Lemon?
Speaker 7: Don got all kind of smoke?
Speaker 4: You?
Speaker 6: You said that before, And I was like, what, I
Speaker 6: didn't see it? I definitely saw it. I think I
Speaker 6: saw it online. I saw it in my personal inbox
Speaker 6: and text message like there was definitely a lot of
Speaker 6: conversation about why.
Speaker 5: Maybe they just didn't tell me.
Speaker 4: I think my decision probably mostly for reputation. It likely
Speaker 4: ain't money.
Speaker 5: And I believe you, Tip, I'm not calling you a lot.
Speaker 7: Yeah, No, I get it.
Speaker 5: Or maybe I wasn't paying attention at that point. I
Speaker 5: think I was just so surprised.
Speaker 1: It's like you're surprised though, right like when when Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I was surprised versus like I was surprised honestly
Speaker 1: by Swiss and Tim too, But I don't have smoke
Speaker 1: for it. Like for me, I'm like to me, I'm like,
Speaker 1: get your money, and then when you get your money,
Speaker 1: I expect you to do certain things that are uplifting
Speaker 1: to the community. Now here's my last focus of a
Speaker 1: question because this went long, But here's my last question.
Speaker 5: Would you all take a distribution deal with Fox?
Speaker 7: No, you mean Fox News or Fox Corporation.
Speaker 5: Let's do Fox Corporation.
Speaker 6: Probably no, but it depends on what it is and
Speaker 6: what it looked like. How much too well is that
Speaker 6: fifty three seventy five? Would it gift cards the DK
Speaker 6: favory or are we talking like just Streight Cass.
Speaker 5: I don't know. For Fox, they have so much, so
Speaker 5: much with.
Speaker 4: It'd have to be a wicked amount, Like tell.
Speaker 5: Me, tell me how wicked Andrew like we be.
Speaker 4: We get in the bill, We'll be in the bill,
Speaker 4: in the bill.
Speaker 6: Billion Billy has got to be something else.
Speaker 4: If it's got an organization, that corporation like that made
Speaker 4: the decision that we were a desirable enough content that
Speaker 4: their viewership, subscribership, you know, whatever where they make their money,
Speaker 4: is still willing to stay in that place.
Speaker 5: And hear us they're going to give you. Okay, I'm
Speaker 5: about to set up the deal for you'll.
Speaker 1: They're going to give you uh uh five million each
Speaker 1: a year and give you titles in Fox Soul and
Speaker 1: decision making power. No decision making power, decision making power
Speaker 1: on Fox Soul, in equity in Fox Corporation, let's say
Speaker 1: three percent equity per host every year.
Speaker 6: I'm countering with I want a spot on Fox News.
Speaker 6: They got to air this on Fox News? Oh you
Speaker 6: want it on Fox News?
Speaker 11: Yeah?
Speaker 7: Because there we have to penetrate Like that is a problem.
Speaker 1: Do you want do you want a daily show on
Speaker 1: Fox News or do you want a weekend show on
Speaker 1: Fox News.
Speaker 4: I'm about to jump off the building.
Speaker 6: They have to broadcast this podcast on Fox jumping off
Speaker 6: the building during some of their highest rated programs. So
Speaker 6: I don't know if that's Sean Hannity or whatever, but
Speaker 6: if they want to give you a spot on the five, no, No,
Speaker 6: I'm not. I'm not not hostings before I know you did.
Speaker 5: I have never I've always told.
Speaker 4: Them, no exclusive decision making.
Speaker 5: Exclusive decision making about what about what.
Speaker 4: Goes on show itself. No, our show can't tell us
Speaker 4: to have guests who guests ought to be. There's no
Speaker 4: corporate line, there's no this is industry across corporation.
Speaker 5: Five million a year and you're ownership stake in Fox Corporation.
Speaker 4: I do that.
Speaker 7: But that see, I'd have to restructure at all.
Speaker 5: Of course, Tiff, but just theoretically so long.
Speaker 4: You know how some artists will have to own their masters.
Speaker 4: We have to own our masters, own our masters.
Speaker 6: Okay, okay, I would I al would have some I
Speaker 6: would have some structure in there that we would come
Speaker 6: together on as a trio and say, you know, with
Speaker 6: the equity and the money and all of that, has
Speaker 6: got to be some sort of HBCU initiative. They got
Speaker 6: to set up a studio in the hood on the
Speaker 6: South side of Chicago. They got to have a spot
Speaker 6: in Atlanta, like they gonna be in the blackest areas
Speaker 6: across the bench.
Speaker 7: But I's so.
Speaker 5: Good to one thing.
Speaker 1: The reason why I really appreciate my pole questions and
Speaker 1: my focus grouping with you all today is because I
Speaker 1: think one we're showing people that there is a way
Speaker 1: to get to yes, especially if you consider a model
Speaker 1: of no permanent friends, no permanent enemies, just permanent interests.
Speaker 1: There are things that we can utilize these toxic people,
Speaker 1: these toxic places for it ensure a more just and
Speaker 1: equitable outcome for our people. And I just want to
Speaker 1: remind our folks that you can count on us for
Speaker 1: this type of advice. Swiss and Tim, if you didn't
Speaker 1: do this with elon, call us up.
Speaker 5: We got you. But I love this. Thank y'all. That
Speaker 5: was my that was my thing. I just wanted to
Speaker 5: get into it a little bit.
Speaker 7: Okay, Well I like that discussion, and I actually you're joking,
Speaker 7: but I actually do wish Swiss and Tim had called you.
Speaker 5: I think they should call well all of us. We
Speaker 5: got some ideas for them.
Speaker 1: Really, like all these folks, who are, you know, trying
Speaker 1: to do the right thing, and I think sometimes personal
Speaker 1: interests get in the way. I'm not even saying that
Speaker 1: they didn't do it, but I think that we probably
Speaker 1: could have sharpened them. Like I'm sharper because I talked
Speaker 1: to y'all. Y'all just has a great ideas. I didn't
Speaker 1: think about none of that. They should have cast y'all.
Speaker 4: Me if if help in the community, if our collective
Speaker 4: liberation is their goal. Yeah, And I just think that
Speaker 4: people negotiating power show up with all different sorts of reasons.
Speaker 4: There are reasons. There are certain groups that won't sign
Speaker 4: on to certain letters. There are reasons there are public voices. Tiffany,
Speaker 4: you didn't hear. I didn't hear. Angela, you didn't hear.
Speaker 4: And it's not because they lost their voice, but rather
Speaker 4: than negotiated it away, there was something that was more
Speaker 4: valuable than their own personal autonomy over their voice. So
Speaker 4: I don't I don't subscribe to anybody's belief system around
Speaker 4: why they do what it is they do and sell
Speaker 4: what they sell and buy what they buy. You got
Speaker 4: to share with me what that expressed is and I
Speaker 4: don't have to have judgment about it. You want to
Speaker 4: make all the best money, you can't go do it.
Speaker 4: But if the.
Speaker 1: Moral of this story is we are apparently open to
Speaker 1: lots of unique distribution deals, and until then we got
Speaker 1: to figure out some kind of way to pay these bills.
Speaker 1: If you mad at us, tweet us, We'll be back
Speaker 1: to the East, my brother to the East factory.
Speaker 4: We expect to see you. I'm just saying they were
Speaker 4: named checked.
Speaker 5: I just keep shout no money.
Speaker 4: I am honestly tired of decisions being made on behalf
Speaker 4: of us.
Speaker 7: They do not benefit us.
Speaker 10: One of the things that did strike home close to
Speaker 10: close to home is the fact that they increased they
Speaker 10: wanted to increase taxes on cancer treatment. Personally, I think
Speaker 10: I have had a relative or someone close to me
Speaker 10: just and I go through the treatment and it's not cheap.
Speaker 7: I don't think there is a specific lead up.
Speaker 9: We are doing it scared, we are doing it tired,
Speaker 9: but we are doing it forgredless and let me tell
Speaker 9: you this will have an impact in the future.
Speaker 5: And that's what we're here for this bill.
Speaker 7: We can't let it past. We want to reject it
Speaker 7: completely and that's where we're here. It's our duty to
Speaker 7: protest against the bill.
Speaker 5: Kenya is read by poverty. We have no education.
Speaker 10: Most of our people have learned, they cannot rive, they
Speaker 10: cannot read, and the government still wants to to to
Speaker 10: pull away the budget. It's really shocking. To learn that
Speaker 10: we are living in a country where youth are losing
Speaker 10: their lives for merely exercising their constitutional rights.
Speaker 6: What you just heard are the voices of the young
Speaker 6: people leading a revolution across the country of Kenya. If
Speaker 6: you have paid attention to the news this week, you
Speaker 6: may have seen that five young people were shot as
Speaker 6: they stormed the parliament, their version of Congress. And I
Speaker 6: just wanted to take a quick moment and try to
Speaker 6: explain how we got here and what's going on. And
Speaker 6: as I do this, I hope that you guys will
Speaker 6: note some of the parallels between what's happening in Kenya
Speaker 6: and what's happening right here in America. So I want
Speaker 6: to start with Kingy's President, William Rudo. He came to
Speaker 6: power in twenty twenty two by appealing to the common people.
Speaker 6: He even called himself the hustler, and he was vowing
Speaker 6: to offer economic ease for people. He called himself the
Speaker 6: anti establishment candidate, and he wanted to implement policies to
Speaker 6: make sure that there was more money in Kenyon's pocket.
Speaker 6: So I want to talk about this election very quickly.
Speaker 6: So in twenty twenty two, sixty five percent of Kenya's
Speaker 6: twenty two zero point one million registered voters turned up
Speaker 6: to cast ballots. What's interesting about Kenya is approximately seventy
Speaker 6: five percent of their population is within the range of
Speaker 6: eighteen and thirty five years old. That's a pretty big
Speaker 6: deal when you look at economic opportunity like global markets,
Speaker 6: look at that and say, wow, that's something we want
Speaker 6: to tap into. Why that mattered, I remember reading at
Speaker 6: the time of this election, that's a pretty significant drop
Speaker 6: off in their vote. The drop in numbers for participation
Speaker 6: was blamed on lack of voter education, low interest, but
Speaker 6: mainly that the youth did not show up. So when
Speaker 6: we say seventy five percent of Kenya's population is young folks,
Speaker 6: they account for more than seventy of seventy five percent
Speaker 6: of the population. They only comprised about forty percent of
Speaker 6: the voting population the people who actually showed up in vote,
Speaker 6: so that was about nine million people. Now take us
Speaker 6: to what was happening at that time. Kenya's govern needs
Speaker 6: to raise money because the country has to function. They
Speaker 6: also have to pay two point seven billion dollars or
Speaker 6: they need to raise two point seven billion dollars to
Speaker 6: pay interest on their national debt. The United States has
Speaker 6: the same thing. They're trying to reduce their budget deficit.
Speaker 6: We go through this here in the United States, and
Speaker 6: of course they want to keep the government running. So
Speaker 6: shortly after Ruto the president, is elected, he began an
Speaker 6: aggressive campaign that everybody should pay their fair share in taxes.
Speaker 6: He took away subsidies, so, you know, people got fuel
Speaker 6: subsidies for gas, he took that away. People got subsidies
Speaker 6: for flour, a big.
Speaker 7: Deal in Kenya. He took that away.
Speaker 6: He signed a finance bill in twenty twenty three that
Speaker 6: was unpopular, you know, featured a tax on salaries for housing.
Speaker 6: It did pass, but it wasn't popular. Some proposals were
Speaker 6: so egregious that Kenya Supreme the version of their Supreme Court,
Speaker 6: blocked some of his tax proposals. How did Rudo respond
Speaker 6: by a threat to disregard the courts entirely. We've heard
Speaker 6: similar rhetoric happening here in the United States. Now, the Parliament,
Speaker 6: which again is like their version of Congress. They are
Speaker 6: attempting to raise this money to keep the country functioning,
Speaker 6: and they're doing this by raising taxes on a range
Speaker 6: of daily items and services like internet data. So imagine
Speaker 6: tomorrow if America said you're going to be charged every
Speaker 6: time those the social media we just talked about, for
Speaker 6: all those hours that you spend, for every two and
Speaker 6: a half hours you're spending, you're going to start paying
Speaker 6: for that. That's what happened in Kenya gas. They raise
Speaker 6: taxes on gas. Imagine tomorrow if you can't get from
Speaker 6: point A to point B because prices have doubled or tripled.
Speaker 6: Bank transfers, diapers, Imagine if you're a mom and you
Speaker 6: have kids and the cost has gone up significantly. These
Speaker 6: are all things that we're struggling with here in the
Speaker 6: United States. I also want to remind you just in May,
Speaker 6: we hosted President Rudou here for a state dinner at
Speaker 6: the White House. President Biden lawded praise on him. He
Speaker 6: was celebrated. Now, all people in Kenya were already struggling
Speaker 6: before these tax proposals, So during this state dinner, people
Speaker 6: were struggling. How did President Rudo come here to the
Speaker 6: United States By chartering a private jets? He a luxury
Speaker 6: private jet. Now he could have used the Presidential jet
Speaker 6: or Kenya's National Air Carrea. He decided to charter a
Speaker 6: private jet and a lot of people are seeing some
Speaker 6: of his aggressive stands on a lot of these issues,
Speaker 6: very similar to a dictator, that of a dictator. So
Speaker 6: this is the state of things that were happening in Kenya.
Speaker 6: And now all those young people who some participated in
Speaker 6: the election, some didn't, but now they've taken to the
Speaker 6: streets because they're frustrated these taxes they have. They see
Speaker 6: no future, they're you know, see no hope. And when
Speaker 6: you have a people who feel that way, of course
Speaker 6: they're going to erupt. So the protests began in Nairobi
Speaker 6: and quickly spread across the country. Things came to a
Speaker 6: head when a crowd of armed unarmed protesters reached the
Speaker 6: parliament and according to the Washington Post, gun shots could
Speaker 6: be heard from inside the parliament. In the streets, police
Speaker 6: beat protesters and fire tear gas at them. You can
Speaker 6: see some of these images on Al Jazeera English and
Speaker 6: BBC another reputable outlet to make their content available on YouTube.
Speaker 6: So as a result of this, five people lost their lives.
Speaker 6: By the way, in that shooting young people. You may
Speaker 6: have seen the SoundBite President Barack Obama's half sister. President
Speaker 6: Obama is a descendant of Kenya and his half sister
Speaker 6: is a resident of Kenya. She was tear gased live
Speaker 6: on air talking to the amazing reporter Larry Madowo, who's
Speaker 6: a reporter at CNN, and so you can see the
Speaker 6: violence for yourself. Here's where things stand now. President Rudo
Speaker 6: has declined to sign the contentious finance bill that would
Speaker 6: have hiked taxes, and parts of the Parliament building were
Speaker 6: set on fire. The military has been deployed their equivalent
Speaker 6: of a Secretary of defensee. He's ordered army troops to
Speaker 6: support the national police and dealing with the nationwide protests.
Speaker 6: And Rudeau had actually warned that his government is going
Speaker 6: to take a solid stance against these protests.
Speaker 7: What he has violence and anarchy.
Speaker 6: We've also heard messages similar to that, I want you
Speaker 6: guys to take a listen to hear from President Rudo.
Speaker 11: Directly following the passage of the bill, the country witnessed
Speaker 11: widespread expression of dissatisfaction with the bill as passed, regrettably
Speaker 11: resulting in the loss of life, destruction of property, and
Speaker 11: disaggression of constitutional institutions. On my own behalf and on
Speaker 11: behalf of these members and many other canyons. I sent
Speaker 11: my condolences to the families of those who lost their
Speaker 11: loved ones in this very unfortunate manner. Consequently, having reflected
Speaker 11: on the continuing conversation around the content of the Finance
Speaker 11: Bill twenty twenty four, and listening keenly to the people
Speaker 11: of Kenya who have said loudly that they want nothing
Speaker 11: to do with this Finance Bill twenty twenty four, I
Speaker 11: concede and therefore I will not sign the twenty twenty
Speaker 11: four Finance Bill.
Speaker 6: So the reason why I wanted to talk about this
Speaker 6: is because the obvious parallels that exist with our politics
Speaker 6: here in America and the youth led protests that brought
Speaker 6: this president to heal essentially the striking difference in the
Speaker 6: amount of people who voted versus the amount of people
Speaker 6: who protest it. I'm struck by that as well, and
Speaker 6: it just shows that a free people contry the government.
Speaker 6: A government does not control a free people. Kenya is
Speaker 6: not a democracy like ours, but they are a unitary presidential.
Speaker 7: Parlament.
Speaker 6: I believe I could be wrong. I don't want to
Speaker 6: get that wrong. Unitary presidential republic. Their unitary presidential republic,
Speaker 6: which essentially means that laws are passed by the elected
Speaker 6: officials who vote for them, which is kind of similar
Speaker 6: to our government too.
Speaker 7: So it's just a striking thing.
Speaker 6: I think we should talk about what's happening in the
Speaker 6: continent more, and so when this violence erupted in Kenya,
Speaker 6: I thought it was timely to address and just lay
Speaker 6: out what's happening there and see the parallels happening here.
Speaker 6: And will we see something like that happen here with
Speaker 6: young folks and you know, elected of leaders getting in office,
Speaker 6: adopting very dictator like language. All of those things should
Speaker 6: be scary, and we're seeing a lot of that happen
Speaker 6: across the globe. So we'll keep our eye on Tenyu r.
Speaker 1: What's that?
Speaker 4: Were the alude to what we see happen in Kenya,
Speaker 4: except the people who were demonstrating had a very different,
Speaker 4: I would imagine worldview here in the United States, the
Speaker 4: folks who attacked the capital and disrupted their constitutional ability
Speaker 4: as certification of the next president, those folks intended to
Speaker 4: arrest power as well. They intended to be a free
Speaker 4: people governing freely over the elected officials in In other words,
Speaker 4: you are my delegate as a representative in Congress, not
Speaker 4: my trustee, which means a delegate says you do what
Speaker 4: I say do. A trustee is advised to use their
Speaker 4: own wisdom, life skills, and own knowledge to reach a decision.
Speaker 4: But I respect what's happening in Kenya. I respect dissent
Speaker 4: in the United States. What I'm not cool with is
Speaker 4: the belief that you can arrest a free and democratically
Speaker 4: election did government because you disagree with a vote or
Speaker 4: decision they may have made.
Speaker 5: Oh, I.
Speaker 1: Just I wouldn't compare what's happening with Kenya with the insurrection.
Speaker 4: The story itself, and the way in which we discussed
Speaker 4: it and heard it was a direct comparison between democracy
Speaker 4: and actually, oh, I don't.
Speaker 7: I didn't hear that at all.
Speaker 1: I think that I heard someone who was functioning like
Speaker 1: a dictator, similar to Trump, who has been forced to
Speaker 1: deal with what the people actually want. The power of
Speaker 1: the people is should always to me, should it should
Speaker 1: always win?
Speaker 4: I don't.
Speaker 5: I'm not talking about a small minority of folks.
Speaker 1: I think Tip was saying that the largest demographic in
Speaker 1: Kenya's young people.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and in comparison, half the United States right.
Speaker 7: Believe you're comparing them to Yeah, that so to me,
Speaker 7: those are completely different.
Speaker 4: The issues in which they're standing for and advocating for
Speaker 4: is not where I take issue. I'm simply saying that
Speaker 4: the the what is like is people rising up to
Speaker 4: petition their government.
Speaker 1: And I think that we can compare them then to
Speaker 1: the civil rights movement or to Black Lives Matter protests
Speaker 1: during George Floyd, I.
Speaker 7: Anyuary sixth wasn't rising up to petition their government.
Speaker 5: No, that was a they were trying to reject election results.
Speaker 4: Half the country believe that they were rising up against
Speaker 4: a corrupt government that fixed them a life.
Speaker 1: But I think there's a difference between the belief of
Speaker 1: a false belief system about something and like actually working
Speaker 1: towards a more just and perfect union.
Speaker 4: No, but who gets to decide me me right now?
Speaker 5: Damn it?
Speaker 4: Nope, No, but half the country believes and something extremely
Speaker 4: different than I do.
Speaker 7: But Andrew, but to compare them to like to pro
Speaker 7: unarmed protesters.
Speaker 4: I'm not comparing their issues of what they're advocating for.
Speaker 1: But they're not insurrection, not even the issues exactly. It's
Speaker 1: not I know you're not comparing the issues, but even
Speaker 1: what happened there. I think is so dangerous to compare
Speaker 1: that Toanuary sixth.
Speaker 4: But what I understood the point to have been, which
Speaker 4: is the people should govern their government. If that is
Speaker 4: the thesis, and we can disagree about what manner and measure,
Speaker 4: But if you begin the conversation with the people and
Speaker 4: ended with the people, are the people, the majority, the
Speaker 4: people of free people out to govern their government?
Speaker 5: The free people ought to the government ought to work
Speaker 5: on behalf of the people who pay.
Speaker 4: Sure as trustees and not as delegates.
Speaker 5: Sure, oh, I know, I think they should be delegates.
Speaker 5: I think that's the reason why we can call and
Speaker 5: write our legislators, legislators to let them know what we
Speaker 5: want them to do.
Speaker 4: Would they show up at debate?
Speaker 1: Why would the debate in the conscious Let me just
Speaker 1: show you how I see this differently. What I think
Speaker 1: is jacked up about Americans politics is that they are
Speaker 1: delegates to campaign donors and trustees by the people who
Speaker 1: voted them in and pay them.
Speaker 5: I think that is problem.
Speaker 1: I think here we have people who rose up like
Speaker 1: an air of spring, or like with George Floyd protesters,
Speaker 1: or like the civil rights movement, or like I mean,
Speaker 1: we can go on and on and on, or like
Speaker 1: or like us on on on slave ships, or uprisings
Speaker 1: like Nat Turner, like those things were just they were right.
Speaker 1: They might be against the law, but they were right.
Speaker 1: Some civil unrest is deserved and it is fact based.
Speaker 1: I am not going to defend and protect ill founded, misinformed,
Speaker 1: brainwashed people who tried to rebel against the very thing
Speaker 1: that our ancestors built, and they said they would forever
Speaker 1: protect the same people who so Trump flags, Confederate flags
Speaker 1: and American flags like they were synonymous.
Speaker 4: It could be to me in your opinion, it is
Speaker 4: not just my opinion.
Speaker 5: It is based on fact.
Speaker 4: That's why I'm saying, who gets to be the arrs.
Speaker 5: I'm deciding it. I'm if I can read, if I.
Speaker 4: Can read true, gets to decide what is righteous.
Speaker 7: And just Andrew, But that is so dangerous.
Speaker 4: If there's something dangerous about calling out what is the fact, which.
Speaker 7: Is to me, it is dangerous.
Speaker 5: But you're not calling out the facts. You're saying that
Speaker 5: the people who are the insurrectionists are the same as
Speaker 5: the Kenyans.
Speaker 6: Right, And you're complating these young people fighting for survival
Speaker 6: and you're you're comparing them to that we're not.
Speaker 4: Having the same conversation. We clearly we're not. We're not,
Speaker 4: and it's okay. It's a matter of misunderstanding and miscommunication.
Speaker 4: That's why we're not having the same conversation.
Speaker 1: Can we can we clarify so we're not miscommunicating. I
Speaker 1: don't want that to happen.
Speaker 4: This is not a debate about what was righteous and
Speaker 4: what wasn't righteous in a in an uprising and a
Speaker 4: protest or a civil rights movement versus January sixth insurrection
Speaker 4: on the Capitol. Sure so say half the country, And
Speaker 4: if you.
Speaker 5: Don't mind clarifying this part, can you please tell me
Speaker 5: what set of facts.
Speaker 4: The majority of people believed Plessy versus Ferguson was rightly
Speaker 4: decided by the United States Supreme Court at the time,
Speaker 4: welmingly correct. But that's any of these movements are being
Speaker 4: measured in the moment in which they occur. We are,
Speaker 4: we're dealing with what is happening at the time. But
Speaker 4: that's another point.
Speaker 11: My use.
Speaker 4: What I would hope I want to try to communicate
Speaker 4: is is I'm not passing judgment on the righteousness of
Speaker 4: the of the goal of protests of whatever uprising reaction
Speaker 4: to government. But if we can all agree that the
Speaker 4: object of the affection is the government, the folks we
Speaker 4: are trying to get the attention of to act in
Speaker 4: our interests and on our behalf is the government. If
Speaker 4: if that is like in the United States, as it
Speaker 4: is like in Kenya, that they were were trying to
Speaker 4: get those in leadership in government to take an action,
Speaker 4: It doesn't matter what they what they are asking that
Speaker 4: government to do is all I'm saying. It causes can
Speaker 4: be righteous one day and non righteous the next day.
Speaker 4: And maybe if you're a believer in the arc of
Speaker 4: history that over time history will write this way, then
Speaker 4: maybe you have a different motivation. But people rise up
Speaker 4: every day in different places for all different types of reasons.
Speaker 4: And I applaud that. I'm simply talking about where the
Speaker 4: guardrails around it, so that there was an institution left afterwards.
Speaker 1: Can I ask you this, Do you ever think there's
Speaker 1: a time to not protect an institution?
Speaker 4: Yeah, if it's corruptly built.
Speaker 1: Okay, So I think that's what's happening here. Yes, ch
Speaker 1: Chip articulated all of the reasons why this man who's
Speaker 1: functioning as a dictator has taken actions that are in
Speaker 1: direct conflict with what the people want, So it sounds
Speaker 1: like they were uprising against that.
Speaker 5: I think the concern that I have, and I don't
Speaker 5: think it was your intention, is the what.
Speaker 1: Appeared to be a conflation between people who refuse to
Speaker 1: accept election results went and terrorized people who I worked with,
Speaker 1: who I know very well. Smeared shit on Nancy Pelosi's desk.
Speaker 1: They have been some of them arrested and slapped on
Speaker 1: the hand and Kenya, they were taken and took on, violently,
Speaker 1: took on police officers at the capitol. I don't think
Speaker 1: you're meaning to say that these folks, young folks in
Speaker 1: Kenya protesting are the same as the January sixth folks
Speaker 1: who were protesting things that were not fact based and
Speaker 1: actually trying to overturn an election and a democracy.
Speaker 5: I don't think that's what.
Speaker 4: This conversation was. A debate around the merits of the movement,
Speaker 4: we'd be having a different conversation. So absolutely, I'm not
Speaker 4: making the debate for me was never about the merit
Speaker 4: of what any one I was standing for. There wouldn't
Speaker 4: be a conversation if it was. If that, for me,
Speaker 4: a question between what's clearly right and what's clearly wrong.
Speaker 4: I'm saying, if everybody is positioning the government to take
Speaker 4: an act consistent with what they believe, those beliefs very
Speaker 4: wildly amongst amongst different people in different groups. And so
Speaker 4: all I'm saying is I stand for the ability for
Speaker 4: people to be able to activate and petition their government
Speaker 4: not to overthrow, because we're not talking about a value
Speaker 4: judgment about which motive for acting is better than the
Speaker 4: other or more righteous than the other. But all I'm
Speaker 4: saying is there are guard rails around how far the
Speaker 4: demands of your government are until you reach the point
Speaker 4: of quite frankly revolution.
Speaker 1: Right, And I think that we have to remember that
Speaker 1: even in the comparisons, some of these things are apples
Speaker 1: and oranges, Because even though we had someone who wanted
Speaker 1: to function as a dictator in the White House who
Speaker 1: was leaving at the time of January sixth, there are
Speaker 1: other countries who are actually under the thumb and the
Speaker 1: rule of dictatorship. And I think that might be what
Speaker 1: struck a chord for me and where I might have misunderstood.
Speaker 1: So my apologies, I suppose, are we.
Speaker 7: Hop on time or do I have time? To point
Speaker 7: out another point of contention.
Speaker 1: I think you should go for it because I think
Speaker 1: there'll be people who are interested in this.
Speaker 6: Here's my challenge, Andrew. Because you're saying so, say you
Speaker 6: when we're saying no, it's not. You know, January sixth,
Speaker 6: they were wrong. You're saying so, say you have to
Speaker 6: believes right half the country believes them. So I do
Speaker 6: think I'm understanding what you're saying. My pushback on that,
Speaker 6: and deep, deep concern about that, is I think there
Speaker 6: are other folks who echo your sentiment. We see it
Speaker 6: every day on cable news broadcasts where we are normalizing
Speaker 6: this behavior, this thought process. So when you say that
Speaker 6: to me, that sounds as bizarre as saying, oh, this
Speaker 6: is just like when the Nazis rose up in Germany.
Speaker 4: Adding a value judgment to it. All I said is
Speaker 4: is you you identified an issue upon which you agreed
Speaker 4: for people rising up, And I'm simply acknowledging I didn't
Speaker 4: mean it, even as a point of contention or debate,
Speaker 4: that there is another constituency that is diametrically opposed to
Speaker 4: what it is that we believe, and right now, in
Speaker 4: a country where unbiased institutions are supposed to be holding
Speaker 4: us down, keeping us honest to the values and the
Speaker 4: principles of the country. All those things are right now
Speaker 4: under tremendous strain. Tremendous strain. And guess what in some
Speaker 4: cases Isilan cannon Ie down here in Florida over this
Speaker 4: federal case. The post ain't holding. And so imagine that
Speaker 4: she's joined by a whole court that starts to allow
Speaker 4: the group of people who charge the capital on the
Speaker 4: sixth and believe, completely contrary to what I believe, end
Speaker 4: up in charge of the goddamn you know, the house,
Speaker 4: all of it. And in some places we may argue
Speaker 4: they already are in charge of it, but truly in
Speaker 4: charge of it, which means which means our Alito and
Speaker 4: his wife they're direct replicas of the other non eight
Speaker 4: members of the court outside of themselves, that we have
Speaker 4: a core of Alito in his wife, and now they
Speaker 4: are the arbiters of what's good justin right, people who
Speaker 4: now flew flags in solidarity with January sixth, in that
Speaker 4: movement sits on the highest court in the land.
Speaker 7: That has happened throughout American history.
Speaker 4: Correct. All I'm saying is is all if we're just
Speaker 4: acknowledging that these institutions exist, that there's a target of
Speaker 4: the of the people's affection or their disaffection, and that's
Speaker 4: the government. We have to then also believe that that
Speaker 4: government then becomes the arbiter of what's right, what's true,
Speaker 4: what's lawful, and what isn't.
Speaker 5: It's supposed to be.
Speaker 4: But yes, and that's all I'm saying is so you
Speaker 4: can have whatever cause you want, whatever cause you're but
Speaker 4: to what you're attempting to have happened is the government
Speaker 4: that didn't take action, and your interest and those interests
Speaker 4: are not the same. That's why they're not.
Speaker 5: And yeah they're not.
Speaker 4: January sixth is different than civil rights.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it sounded like they were January six ers,
Speaker 1: and they're more civil rights than January six ers.
Speaker 5: They're literally fighting.
Speaker 4: If I were comparing the movements, that would be a
Speaker 4: conclusion that might be drawn. But I'm not comparing the
Speaker 4: righteousness of the goal of whatever the movement might be.
Speaker 4: Simply saying who they're trying to get to take action.
Speaker 5: Right, I'm saying it's a dictator, right, a dictator who?
Speaker 4: But who who was bought to heal by saying I
Speaker 4: will not sign this bill in the law.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I just want you to know that if Trump gets
Speaker 1: back election, if Trump is elected again and there's something
Speaker 1: crazy that he does, I'm going to be the Kenyan protesters.
Speaker 5: Absolutely.
Speaker 4: And there were moments about that that were made available
Speaker 4: to us all every day almost of all four years,
Speaker 4: where we could have been that.
Speaker 1: Yes, And I've just said saying I think that that
Speaker 1: is more akin to the Civil rights movement than the insurrectionists.
Speaker 5: I think that it is our responsibility to object human right.
Speaker 4: And if we are debating the righteousness and the merits
Speaker 4: of a movement, we can go into that. I didn't
Speaker 4: think that was what we were doing, because it doesn't
Speaker 4: sound like there would be much of a debate if
Speaker 4: it were our January sixth people and their movements righteous
Speaker 4: and right and legual.
Speaker 5: I get it.
Speaker 1: Well on this, because we are clearly in protest land.
Speaker 1: We have a question about protests, or at least a suggestion.
Speaker 2: Hig native land. This is Valorie Dixon from Santa Ana, California.
Speaker 2: Last week you asked for suggestions for aspective strategy text
Speaker 2: plus our displeasure, but the Biden administration's role in the
Speaker 2: Israeli Palestinian conflict. Andrew suggested protesting at the Democratic National Convention.
Speaker 2: I have an alternative. I say that protest is an
Speaker 2: ineffective strategy. The only thing protesting that the DNC will
Speaker 2: accomplish is to ensure that every police officer in the
Speaker 2: Greater Chicago Land area receives overtime pay. I say during
Speaker 2: the DNC, we should express our displeasure by boycotting, don't watch,
Speaker 2: don't spend any money during that time, and if we
Speaker 2: do have to spend money, circulate those dollars within our
Speaker 2: own communities. Remember, during the Civil Rights era, the first
Speaker 2: effective protest was an economic one, the Montgomery bus boycott.
Speaker 2: Let's channel that thank you be blessed.
Speaker 4: I love that.
Speaker 5: I love that.
Speaker 4: I love that thought.
Speaker 7: And she looks so fly y'all can't see her. She
Speaker 7: looks flat. She does look so flat.
Speaker 1: I just want to say, this show has been epic
Speaker 1: on all of the gray areas. And she was, like
Speaker 1: Andrewson protests.
Speaker 7: I wisht plan that.
Speaker 1: Andrew the charge delegate trustee protester, what do you what
Speaker 1: do you say about this question here?
Speaker 4: About I love it, I love it. I mean, they're
Speaker 4: all do you want to.
Speaker 5: Boycott the DNC. Our friend Mignon Moore is chairing the DNC.
Speaker 4: No, I didn't say that, that's what I was personally
Speaker 4: going to do. What I was saying was there are
Speaker 4: a lot of ways in which we can show a
Speaker 4: protest vote. Yeah, and November, ain't it. Let's let's think
Speaker 4: of all the alternatives before we get there to show
Speaker 4: our displeasure.
Speaker 1: I said.
Speaker 4: So I'm with her economic go for.
Speaker 1: She's talking about, uh, boycotting the DNC, not watching to
Speaker 1: express displeasure.
Speaker 5: Tive, what say you on this?
Speaker 7: I think that's a great idea.
Speaker 6: Actually, we were just talking about why don't we support
Speaker 6: like black owned platforms, and you know, it's like, why
Speaker 6: don't we collectively move and not tune into these things?
Speaker 6: Not nonsense like I always say, spend our dollars within
Speaker 6: the community.
Speaker 7: I love this idea.
Speaker 6: I mean, I don't know what our plans are around
Speaker 6: the DNC, but I support tuning it out. But the
Speaker 6: honest is a Landam Lampard is at the DNC, then
Speaker 6: people can they can still tune in the native land.
Speaker 7: That doesn't mean they have the wise gabbl to gavel
Speaker 7: coverage of the DNC.
Speaker 1: Are you all worried about any backlash if the viewership
Speaker 1: is down for the DNC and it's up for the
Speaker 1: rn C, what that might mean from now or turn
Speaker 1: out in November.
Speaker 6: The only reason I say no is because Fox News
Speaker 6: continues to lap both MSNBC and CNN in terms of viewership.
Speaker 6: They're even right wing conservative podcast and talk radio they
Speaker 6: do very well because they like their ignorant echo chamber.
Speaker 6: I think the left side of things, it's a bigger tent,
Speaker 6: and so there's more appeal to talk about different things.
Speaker 6: So I don't think that impacts anything at all. I
Speaker 6: also think there's a thousand things screaming for our attention.
Speaker 6: The DNC is happening in August. It's the vacation month
Speaker 6: where people are pretty much gone out of town at
Speaker 6: the beach chilling. I don't know too many people who
Speaker 6: were waking up like waiting to see that gabble strike
Speaker 6: so they can see the speeches. The last time I
Speaker 6: remember being excited about the DNC two thousand and four
Speaker 6: was in Boston when President Obamas was the first time
Speaker 6: we heard him on a big national stage. Reveen now
Speaker 6: Sharden gave one of the best speeches that year.
Speaker 4: Too.
Speaker 6: Unfortunately it was overshadowed because Obama spoke. But that was
Speaker 6: the year where it was like this is major. And
Speaker 6: then when Obama was leaving office in twenty twelve, yeah,
Speaker 6: twenty sixteen. In twenty sixteen, it was so packed at
Speaker 6: the DNC in Philadelphia. I abandoned even listening to President
Speaker 6: Obama's final speech because I couldn't even get into suite,
Speaker 6: that's how packed it was. Me and the Uber driver
Speaker 6: left and I was so hungry, and I was like,
Speaker 6: do you mind you want to get something to eat?
Speaker 6: And he was like yeah, And we literally pulled over
Speaker 6: at this Philly cheese steak spot and he turned the
Speaker 6: radio all the way up and a group of us
Speaker 6: sat there listen to Obama talk.
Speaker 7: After that, I just felt like the whole thing was boring.
Speaker 5: Well, what do you think?
Speaker 1: I just think that we have had a very long show,
Speaker 1: and I would like to encourage you all to find
Speaker 1: some of the young rising superstars in the Democratic Party
Speaker 1: that will be on that stage at least in the evening.
Speaker 1: I anticipate that Wes Moore will be on that stage,
Speaker 1: the Jasmine Crockett will be on that stage, the Faith
Speaker 1: Leaders will be on that stage, and I want to
Speaker 1: be showing because if she doesn't have a good showing,
Speaker 1: you know, as a black woman chair of the DNC,
Speaker 1: that could be problematic. But I also want you all
Speaker 1: to follow your conscience. Andrew wants you to go back.
Speaker 4: Well, no, I just want to say I was not
Speaker 4: advocating anybody protests.
Speaker 5: Don't watch you said, just don't protest your vote.
Speaker 4: Yeah, my point. There are a lot of ways to
Speaker 4: show your displeasure. There's a lot of ways to sit
Speaker 4: in the signal before your first and last choice being
Speaker 4: I ain't vote November. That's right.
Speaker 8: Yes.
Speaker 6: Can I ask a quick question, Angela, you're saying you
Speaker 6: want Mignon to have a good showing Minyon More, who's
Speaker 6: sharing the dancy the convention this year, Does a good
Speaker 6: showing mean good ratings?
Speaker 5: I think so. I think I think she needs a
Speaker 5: good turnout.
Speaker 1: I think they need to figure there's gonna be protests
Speaker 1: in Chicago, so I think they need to have a
Speaker 1: good pivot plan for how they address that. I know
Speaker 1: that she's trying to ensure that there's general people represented,
Speaker 1: multi generationally, that the platform is diverse and includes all
Speaker 1: the big tenth that you just talked about TIF, so yeah,
Speaker 1: going in a cause to action, I think my call
Speaker 1: to action would be that we figure out how to
Speaker 1: have the conversations amongst us to make us uncomfortable. Our
Speaker 1: podcast ran long today because we had some of those.
Speaker 1: Thank God, we know each other for twenty years, so
Speaker 1: I know today was not Andrew's breaking news. He's about
Speaker 1: to join Fox News as a contributor. He actually does
Speaker 1: not want to join the next insurrection in kse Scheller
Speaker 1: planning one. But sometimes it just we have to have
Speaker 1: tough conversations to figure out what people's actual intent are,
Speaker 1: and we have words and phrases that bump us. So
Speaker 1: in conflict, try to figure out a way to get
Speaker 1: to peace, not by soothing over the actual conflict, but
Speaker 1: by talking to each other like you love each other.
Speaker 5: That's my call to action.
Speaker 4: Can do it?
Speaker 5: I like it.
Speaker 4: I would call to action for those who do plan
Speaker 4: on watching the DNC and it's week of activity, and
Speaker 4: it may be some entertaining nights of television that everywhere
Speaker 4: anywhere in this country where you have the opportunity to
Speaker 4: help use that time to organize and last minute register
Speaker 4: and figure out how we move in friends, family members,
Speaker 4: and others to the polls. You know, everybody reflects on
Speaker 4: the civil rights movement, but only what five percent of
Speaker 4: black folks in this country actually actively took a step
Speaker 4: in action to participate in retrospect. We all, you know, righteous,
Speaker 4: and then in the moment, friends are really fleeting. So
Speaker 4: I would just hope that if you think like I think,
Speaker 4: that this is the consequence of this election can be dangerous,
Speaker 4: not just for our country, but coming down my block,
Speaker 4: my driveway, into my garage, that level of problem that
Speaker 4: we don't have to guess about it and ask other
Speaker 4: people about it, you will feel it in your own
Speaker 4: home and your own family. And if that doesn't motivate
Speaker 4: you to take an action, if I saw a threat
Speaker 4: that I could get involved with then possibly prevent coming
Speaker 4: at my family, my house, my folks, absolutely there was
Speaker 4: another thing in the world that would stop me from
Speaker 4: an intervention. So what's your intervention?
Speaker 7: Yeah, okay, I'll be really quick because we're about to
Speaker 7: lose the videographers.
Speaker 6: I mind has nothing to do with politics. I just
Speaker 6: want to say I was in New York and these
Speaker 6: people kept walking these dogs past me. Everybody knows I
Speaker 6: love dogs, And then I realized they were the same
Speaker 6: people walking different dogs. And they told me they volunteered
Speaker 6: at a shelter, that they just show up these animal
Speaker 6: shelters and take the dogs out for walks. So, if
Speaker 6: you are able, find the local animal shelter in your
Speaker 6: neighborhood and show up, volunteer, take the dogs out for
Speaker 6: a walk, give them some love, and adopt.
Speaker 1: Don't shop, all right, well, adopt, don't shop. Protest if
Speaker 1: you want to. And I don't even remember my call
Speaker 1: to action.
Speaker 5: Oh love on your people. Talk to them right and
Speaker 5: you're comfortable.
Speaker 1: Conversations uncomfortable, No nonsense though, no none nonsens.
Speaker 5: Okay, Andrew and tiff thank you for Native Lampod. Look
Speaker 5: at me. Thank you for Native Lampod. Thank you for
Speaker 5: this safe space. I love y'all.
Speaker 4: Deep Okay.
Speaker 1: Before we end the show, I want to remind everyone
Speaker 1: to leave us a review and subscribe to Native Lampod.
Speaker 1: Just know that we are available on every every platform
Speaker 1: or you get your podcasts and on YouTube. New episode
Speaker 1: drop every single Thursday. You can follow us on social media.
Speaker 1: We are Angela Rie, Tiffany Cross, and Andrew Gillim. Welcome home, y'all.
Speaker 5: There are one hundred and thirty one days until election day.
Speaker 7: Welcome home y'all morning.
Speaker 3: Thank you for joining the Natives attention of with the
Speaker 3: info and all of the latest Rock Gilliam and Cross
Speaker 3: connected to the statements that you leave on our socials.
Speaker 3: Thank you, sincerely for the patients. Reason for your choice
Speaker 3: is clear, so grateful took the to execute roads. Thank
Speaker 3: you for serve, defend and protect the truth.
Speaker 7: Even in case.
Speaker 5: We welcome home to all of the Natives wait, Thank you.
Speaker 7: Welcome y'all.
Speaker 4: Welcome.
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