WEBVTT - Political Conclusions We Can Draw About Black America with Dr. Christopher Towler (Part 1) 0:00:00.640 --> 0:00:02.719 Broadcasting from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios. 0:00:02.720 --> 0:00:05.200 I'd like to welcome you to another episode of Civic Cipher, 0:00:05.200 --> 0:00:08.400 where our mission is to foster allyship empathy and understanding. 0:00:08.480 --> 0:00:09.760 I'm your host, Rams' job. 0:00:10.039 --> 0:00:14.480 He is Rams' job, I am q Ward. You are 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:16.320 tuned into Civic Cipher, Yes. 0:00:16.200 --> 0:00:19.400 You are, and you know we've been putting it off 0:00:19.720 --> 0:00:23.320 long enough. We've been teasing it long enough. Of course, 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:29.080 q is now back despite having you know, committed to 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:31.200 having him back on the show for some time. He's 0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:34.200 now back with us. So the family is complete, and 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:38.200 we bring a very special gift for this episode. We 0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:41.640 hope that you will be as enlightened as and as 0:00:41.640 --> 0:00:44.159 informed by the conversations we've been able to have with 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:47.680 our guests today as we have been. Our guest, of course, 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:50.400 is the one and only doctor Christopher Twer, who is 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:52.960 an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:56.480 California State University, Sacramento. He is the director of the 0:00:56.520 --> 0:00:59.760 Back the Black Voter Project, the co founder of Black 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:02.880 inn Sites Research, and the editor in chief of the 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:05.720 Journal of Race, Ethnicity and Politics. 0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:06.640 So welcome to the show. 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:09.600 Thank you so much. It's an honor to be here 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:11.839 excited to have this conversation. 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:13.720 Yeah, and we're very much looking forward to it. 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:17.760 And for those that may not know what all of 0:01:17.760 --> 0:01:20.120 that means, and I'm sure that you know, you'll get 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:21.199 into it a little bit more. 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:23.800 Doctor Tayler works with data. 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:27.560 So you know, a lot of times us as journalists 0:01:27.600 --> 0:01:33.199 and you know, people politicians, et cetera, derived conclusions from 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:37.240 you know, their own experience, from you know, the way 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:39.360 the world feels to them, whatever. But a lot of 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:42.559 times that information is really siloed and people don't really 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:45.640 know it. And so what doctor Taller has been able 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:48.440 to do is kind of give us a global view 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:51.320 of where we are as a people, where we are politically, 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:53.960 what our goals should be, and what our goals no 0:01:54.040 --> 0:01:57.560 longer should be. And we're again, we're very much looking 0:01:57.600 --> 0:01:59.840 forward to the conversation we're about to have. But before 0:01:59.840 --> 0:02:03.040 we there, it is time to start off with some 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:07.720 ebony excellence, shall we? I think we shall. So today's 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:10.800 ABNY excellence comes from the Black Information Network and I 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:13.760 will share a seventeen year old Georgia student has received 0:02:13.800 --> 0:02:18.240 over sixty college acceptances and one million dollars in scholarships. 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:22.760 Good morning, America reports. Montavius Lebron Presley, a student at 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:25.800 Douglas County High School in Georgia, said he started applying 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:28.240 for colleges on the first day of his senior year 0:02:28.520 --> 0:02:32.120 in the hopes of pursuing medicine and later becoming an anesthesiologist. 0:02:32.680 --> 0:02:36.040 Presley juggled dual enrollment courses and work based learning while 0:02:36.080 --> 0:02:40.200 completing as many applications as possible. He also held leadership 0:02:40.280 --> 0:02:42.960 roles in the National Honor Society and Future Business Leaders 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:45.560 of America as he worked at a local pizza restaurant. 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:48.560 Presley said he received his first college acceptance from the 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:52.240 University of Alabama, one of his top school choices, in October. 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:54.160 The offers continued to pour in. 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:57.520 As of last week, Presley received sixty one acceptances and 0:02:57.680 --> 0:03:01.840 was awarded over one point one million scholarships. The teenager 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:04.639 said he was determined to attend college from a young age. 0:03:04.720 --> 0:03:06.919 Quote when I was a little boy, I always said 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:09.760 that I would go to the university because people in 0:03:09.760 --> 0:03:12.320 my family will always talk about how much they love 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:16.000 their college life and how much it really impacted them. 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:17.720 So I always thought. 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:19.320 When I was a little boy that I would just 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:24.040 go off and do something amazing. So again, Montavius Presley, 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:27.720 you are our example of e any excellence this week, 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:32.160 especially when we talk about the amount of scholarship money 0:03:32.280 --> 0:03:36.480 you've received, that in and of itself is a testament 0:03:36.560 --> 0:03:41.920 to just a great accomplishments that you've already achieved. 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:43.960 And hopefully the things that are to come. 0:03:44.080 --> 0:03:47.400 And so the segment is the segment here exists to 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:51.080 highlight people that we think are doing great things and 0:03:51.120 --> 0:03:56.080 to remind other folks that we aren't just the worst things, 0:03:55.600 --> 0:03:57.880 you know, and often enough we are the best things. 0:03:57.880 --> 0:04:03.440 In today's example is you now, doctor Tyler again, welcome 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:07.960 back to the show. You know, for folks that you know, 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:10.360 for what we didn't cover, you know, go ahead and 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:13.360 give an introduction of you know, kind of the work 0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:14.840 that you do, the nature of the work that you do, 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:16.520 and a little bit more about yourself, just so folks 0:04:16.640 --> 0:04:17.880 have a little bit more of an idea of who 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:19.600 they're talking to today. 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:23.000 Absolutely, as I said, pleasure to be here. I've been 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:26.680 studying black politics for over a decade now. A lot 0:04:26.720 --> 0:04:30.040 of my work has focused on collecting accurate and reliable 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:33.599 data of the black community, something that really doesn't exist, 0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:36.680 not just in today's political world, but even in the 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:40.839 academic spheres, and it's something that I've taken pride in 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:43.880 doing really for the last six to seven years as 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:47.880 part of the Black Voter Project, where I've periodically collected 0:04:48.279 --> 0:04:52.680 data sets, both nationally regional data sets, statewide data sets 0:04:52.680 --> 0:04:55.359 of just black people to try and get a sense 0:04:55.440 --> 0:04:58.880 as to how Black attitudes and opinions might be similar 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:02.480 and different from those of the rest of America, attitudes 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:06.880 that oftentimes aren't captured in mainstream surveys and work that's 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:11.480 done in mainstream publications in mainstream media. This past election cycle, 0:05:12.040 --> 0:05:15.039 I had the privilege of having a project funded to 0:05:15.080 --> 0:05:20.520 collect four waves of election data from Black Americans, waves 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:23.839 that were of the same people at four different points 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:27.159 in time throughout the election, and then one wave after 0:05:27.200 --> 0:05:31.279 the election to see how things have changed or shifted 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:33.200 once the election took place. 0:05:33.320 --> 0:05:35.440 And so a lot of. 0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:37.000 My recent sort of work and ideas come from that 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:40.600 data set, But that data is built on a number 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:45.120 of years of different projects collecting other types of data, 0:05:45.760 --> 0:05:49.640 again all focused on Black Americans and the black experience 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:54.160 and trying to understand how attitudes and opinions and behaviors 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:57.600 of black people are shaped in ways that are similar 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:00.560 and unique to general America. 0:06:00.680 --> 0:06:02.120 Really pushing for. 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:08.200 A clear path to having a narrative for black political 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:13.160 power and having pundits and politicians understand what Black America 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:16.200 is thinking when they otherwise might not really have the 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:19.640 data to do so. 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:24.200 Doctor Tyler, There's an interesting thing that happens hosting this show. 0:06:25.000 --> 0:06:28.040 Because of the type of stories that we cover and 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:32.880 our position with our listeners, we spend a lot of 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:39.680 time talking about very, very difficult subjects. A counterpoint to 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:43.240 that is that oftentimes we get to talk to people 0:06:43.240 --> 0:06:45.800 who we admire and respect and who we are honored 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:47.080 to have a conversation with. 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:49.520 And today is one of those times. 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:52.760 So you know, if you can see my smile, I'm 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:57.200 trying to fight my smile off. Very very excited and 0:06:57.279 --> 0:07:00.720 honor to be speaking with you today. A wonderful thing 0:07:00.720 --> 0:07:04.719 that happens in your space is the use of data 0:07:04.800 --> 0:07:08.560 in facts and ramses. And I in our travels have 0:07:08.680 --> 0:07:12.400 heard many times that facts don't care about your feelings, 0:07:12.440 --> 0:07:15.000 and using data to tell stories is just a far 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:18.280 more effective way to do it than how sometimes I 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:22.440 get very emotional. So thank you for providing that balance 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:23.280 for us as well. 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:24.840 Yeah, happy to do it. 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:29.600 We've asked before, and it had conversations before about the 0:07:29.600 --> 0:07:33.800 idea of black men defecting from the Democratic voter base. 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:36.840 Is that something that you noticed. 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:42.280 And a second question would be, have you seen that 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:45.600 black men are regretting or those who did vote for 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:48.920 President Trump regretting the decision that they made. 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:52.960 Yeah, that's a great question and one that kept coming 0:07:53.000 --> 0:07:56.280 up throughout the election cycle. I think, first and foremost, 0:07:56.360 --> 0:07:59.040 it's important to point out that the data that I've collected, 0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:03.040 some of the largest data sets on Black Americans, in 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:05.240 what I consider some of the most reliable data out 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:08.440 there when looking at black public opinion, kind of puts 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:11.280 to bed these narratives that a lot of black folk 0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:14.520 defected and voted for Trump. There's nothing in the data 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:19.280 that suggests that the turnout did decline slightly, and I'll 0:08:19.320 --> 0:08:20.920 get into that in just a second. But when it 0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:23.920 came to who black people voted for, I found that 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:26.640 just as many black people voted for Kamala Harris about 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:29.200 eighty six percent, as they did for Joe Biden in 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:32.560 twenty twenty, and almost the exact same amount of the 0:08:32.600 --> 0:08:36.040 black community, right around twelve percent voted for Donald Trump, 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:39.440 and so there was no major defection, no racial realignment 0:08:39.559 --> 0:08:42.760 of Black people moving towards Trump or the Republicans in 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:46.400 this election cycle. When it comes to black men, My data, 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:49.360 because it's unique, and then I collected data over time, 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:52.520 shows that in the beginning there might have been some 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:55.680 truth to the idea that black men were not very 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:59.000 excited about voting for the Democratic candidate, especially when it 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:02.040 was Joe Biden. Early on in April, when I asked 0:09:02.080 --> 0:09:04.280 people who they were going to vote for, only about 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:06.400 fifty eight percent of black men said that they were 0:09:06.400 --> 0:09:08.520 going to vote for Joe Biden. By the time I 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:11.280 asked people to get in August and Harris had moved 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:13.400 to the top of the ticket, the number of black 0:09:13.440 --> 0:09:15.240 men who said they were going to vote for Harris 0:09:15.320 --> 0:09:18.319 jumped to sixty three percent and ended up all the 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:21.800 way at eighty two percent saying that they voted for Harris. 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:24.920 After the asking them after the election who they ended 0:09:25.000 --> 0:09:29.480 up voting for. That number rose tremendously throughout the election cycle, 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:31.400 showing that black men came. 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:33.040 Around to the Democratic Party. 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:36.280 There was not much defection, if at all, and we 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:39.319 actually see that there's a slightly higher percentage of black 0:09:39.320 --> 0:09:42.320 men at eighty two percent, that voted for Kamala Harris 0:09:42.360 --> 0:09:45.000 in twenty twenty four than the seventy nine percent of 0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:48.079 black men according to exit polls, that voted for Biden 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:50.680 in twenty twenty and so kind of both of these 0:09:50.760 --> 0:09:54.160 narratives fly in the face of good, accurate data that 0:09:54.320 --> 0:09:58.040 black people, and especially black men, actually defected much, if 0:09:58.080 --> 0:09:59.320 at all, this election cycle. 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:03.880 I'm sure you've noticed there's been a lot in the 0:10:03.880 --> 0:10:08.440 way of counter programming and loud contrarian opinion with regard 0:10:08.520 --> 0:10:11.880 to where black people stand in the current political climate. 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:17.760 Where from what you see, does the overall black public 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:22.880 opinion like now post election, now that those those votes 0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:27.239 have been cast, we are now in this current administration, 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:32.600 What does the data say about where our opinion, our 0:10:32.640 --> 0:10:35.360 public opinion collectively stands today. 0:10:36.240 --> 0:10:39.320 Yeah, I think that's a really interesting point. There's tons 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:43.880 of misinformation out there. I'm finding that it's especially affecting 0:10:44.000 --> 0:10:47.200 younger black cohorts because they rely a lot on social 0:10:47.240 --> 0:10:51.760 media and YouTube and podcasts, more so than older Black 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:54.920 people who pay more attention to sort of television and 0:10:55.040 --> 0:10:59.520 traditional media. However, all Black people that I've talked to 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:03.679 after the election are far more disillusioned and apathetic than 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:05.240 they were even. 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:07.720 You six months prior to it, when Biden was still 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:08.280 the candidate. 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:12.240 Over the election cycle, the data that I collected suggested 0:11:12.280 --> 0:11:15.760 that there was some sense of positivity building amongst the 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:19.960 Black community when it came to the Democratic Party, primarily 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:22.840 because of Harris elevating to the top of the ticket, 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:26.400 and so initially about twenty eight percent of Black people 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:29.320 said that they felt that the Democratic Party was welcoming 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:32.640 to Black people. That rose up to forty two percent 0:11:32.960 --> 0:11:35.760 right before the election when asked in October, after Harris 0:11:35.800 --> 0:11:38.880 having successfully sort of mounted a campaign that looked like 0:11:38.920 --> 0:11:43.240 she was very competitive going into election day. However, when 0:11:43.280 --> 0:11:46.120 asked again in December after the election, that number dropped 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:48.840 from forty two percent back down to thirty five percent, 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:52.760 reversing course right and so there were significantly less people 0:11:52.840 --> 0:11:55.760 saying that the Democratic Party was welcoming to Black people 0:11:55.800 --> 0:11:59.200 after the election, showing this sense of sort of disillusionment 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:03.560 and apathy with party. We also asked people looking forward 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:06.120 whether or not they felt like a second Trump president 0:12:06.600 --> 0:12:09.000 was going to motivate them to participate or if a 0:12:09.040 --> 0:12:12.080 second Trump presidency would prove exhausting and they kind of 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:14.719 just want to be left alone. And when we ask 0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:17.560 people this question, about twenty three percent said that they 0:12:17.600 --> 0:12:20.760 were motivated compared to a whole forty three percent who 0:12:20.760 --> 0:12:22.920 said they were going to be they felt exhausted and 0:12:23.000 --> 0:12:25.840 wanted to be left alone. And when we looked at 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:29.360 that in some different breakdowns in the beauty of collecting 0:12:29.520 --> 0:12:33.000 sort of these large data sets of just black folks, 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:35.079 as you can actually look at things based on age 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:38.000 and gender and have real ideas as to what's taking 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:41.360 place instead of having to do cuts with small sections 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:45.000 of data and other surveys that aren't designed to measure 0:12:45.040 --> 0:12:47.880 black opinion. And when doing so, when it comes to 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:50.400 looking forward, we found that a whole fifty one percent 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:53.439 of black women said that they were exhausted and really 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:56.000 just wanted to be left alone after the election, kind 0:12:56.000 --> 0:12:59.040 of building on this sentiment that you suggested where people 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:02.240 are really tired, right and they feel like this selection 0:13:02.400 --> 0:13:04.960 really beat them down, building on a lot of the 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:08.199 memes that we see where especially black women are ready 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:10.720 to just you know, sit back and watch the world 0:13:10.800 --> 0:13:11.640 burn if need be. 0:13:14.160 --> 0:13:22.640 A very interesting mixture of frustration, apathy, and just kind 0:13:22.640 --> 0:13:27.120 of a lack of enthusiasm is what Ramses and I 0:13:27.160 --> 0:13:34.960 have noticed. People being feeling hopeless has led to conversations 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:39.520 that we've noticed where there's a blatant false equivalence. You know, 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:41.839 people are like throwing up their hands like, hey, neither 0:13:41.920 --> 0:13:45.440 party cares about us, which Ramses and I thought was 0:13:45.480 --> 0:13:50.120 a dangerous trend because even if that's how you feel, 0:13:50.480 --> 0:13:53.360 I think it's pretty obvious that one side of the 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:57.400 aisle is more of what we've been hearing people call 0:13:57.480 --> 0:14:00.560 for years an existential threat to democracy, and the other 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:09.000 why do people feel black people specifically so unenthusiastic about 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:11.840 what the Democratic Party brings to the table currently, Because 0:14:11.840 --> 0:14:14.680 we've seen people just kind of tapping out on the 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:18.200 whole process and throwing their hands up and saying aloud 0:14:18.360 --> 0:14:21.360 that neither party cares about us, So why should I care? 0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:24.240 When we see that again, one side of the aisle 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:26.560 is just far more dangerous than the other. 0:14:27.800 --> 0:14:30.120 Yeah, there's two things that I want to say here. 0:14:30.160 --> 0:14:33.320 I think first it's important to point out you're exactly right. 0:14:33.360 --> 0:14:36.680 The danger of building this false equivalency is real, and 0:14:36.760 --> 0:14:39.480 I think it happened before the election took place. As well, 0:14:39.560 --> 0:14:43.160 A lot of the rhetoric around certain black people voting 0:14:43.200 --> 0:14:46.440 for Trump, or black men in particular moving towards Trump, 0:14:46.520 --> 0:14:49.680 rhetoric that does not bear out in the data, tried 0:14:49.720 --> 0:14:52.760 to build this false equivalency and really make it seem 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:55.560 like there's not much difference between the two candidates or 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:58.880 the two parties. And although this doesn't didn't necessarily cause 0:14:58.880 --> 0:15:01.920 people to actually vote for or Trump or vote against 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:05.680 the Democrats, it did drive apathy and it caused people 0:15:05.680 --> 0:15:08.960 to stay home and to not vote altogether. We absolutely 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:12.480 saw that numbers suggest black turnout was down in twenty 0:15:12.520 --> 0:15:16.160 twenty four compared to twenty twenty, compared to twenty sixteen, 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:19.440 and especially compared to the Obama years, and in states 0:15:19.520 --> 0:15:23.480 like Georgia, the only group to have turnout fall is 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:24.280 black voters. 0:15:24.360 --> 0:15:24.520 Right. 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:29.200 Every other group, White voters, Asian American voters, Hispanic Latino voters, 0:15:29.440 --> 0:15:32.200 they all saw increases in turnout from twenty twenty to 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:35.560 twenty twenty four. It was black voters who saw a drop. 0:15:35.960 --> 0:15:39.400 And I really feel like that comes from building this 0:15:39.520 --> 0:15:42.920 false equivalency. And so there's really two things here, right, 0:15:43.040 --> 0:15:46.920 One it's the idea that the Democrats aren't doing anything 0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:50.520 for black folk, and this has to be a misnomer 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:54.000 that is fought by breaking down some of the policy 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:56.920 that's taken place in real simple terms. But to do so, 0:15:57.000 --> 0:15:59.040 you have to first meet a lot of black voters 0:15:59.080 --> 0:16:02.200 where they are with their disillusionment. You can't kind of 0:16:02.240 --> 0:16:04.720 talk down to people and tell them, hey, we've done 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:07.280 all this stuff. You should like us, Like are you dumb? 0:16:07.360 --> 0:16:09.280 Why don't you know this? You have to understand that 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:12.000 a lot of people are working from a historical understanding 0:16:12.040 --> 0:16:15.640 of politics where black people have been alienated and left 0:16:15.680 --> 0:16:19.360 out for generations, and so it's not surprising that they 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:22.480 approach party politics with skepticism. So you have to meet 0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:25.160 them where they are before you try and sell them 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:28.600 on any real accomplishments, especially with how complex a lot 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:32.240 of policies are, and it doesn't always easily translate down 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:35.520 to an individual's life. You might not exactly see how 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:39.440 some of the larger policies, especially things such as environmental 0:16:39.480 --> 0:16:43.800 policy or healthcare policy, fit into one's everyday life. So 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:46.120 that's the first thing. The second thing is I think 0:16:46.200 --> 0:16:48.920 Democrats failed to make as strong of a case they 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:51.320 could as to the dangers that Trump and the MAGA 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:53.120 movement represent to the Black community. 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:57.240 In the surveys that I've conducted, a lot of people were. 0:16:57.040 --> 0:16:59.720 Not necessarily sure if Trump was going to follow through 0:16:59.720 --> 0:17:03.160 on some of his threats. They didn't necessarily believe Project 0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:06.159 twenty twenty five was a real thing, right, And this 0:17:06.720 --> 0:17:09.240 again I see as more of a failure of Democrats 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:12.879 to really message as strongly as they possibly could, to 0:17:12.920 --> 0:17:15.359 convince as many people that this is a real threat, 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:17.879 This needs our attention, and we need to vote to 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:20.760 protect ourselves from this. And all of the modeling I've 0:17:20.840 --> 0:17:25.159 run before and since the election suggests that convincing people 0:17:25.440 --> 0:17:28.520 that you need to vote to protect yourselves in this time, 0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:31.840 in this political environment is the most effective and efficient 0:17:31.880 --> 0:17:34.399 way to get people out to vote in thinking that 0:17:34.440 --> 0:17:36.959 politics is important and relevant to their own lives. 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:45.560 You know, doctor Tyler, I wondered if the public, black 0:17:45.600 --> 0:17:49.360 people and those who supported you know, Democratic candidates throughout 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:52.639 you know, the last let's say ten years, felt like 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:55.760 the party was crying wolf when it came to Project 0:17:55.800 --> 0:17:59.720 twenty five. I said the word existential threat before, but 0:17:59.760 --> 0:18:02.159 that wasn't the first time you heard that, and that 0:18:02.280 --> 0:18:05.199 wasn't the first time A lot of voters heard that 0:18:05.280 --> 0:18:05.760 as well. 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:09.120 I think when you come and you say. 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:13.280 That again, after people have already been through a Trump presidency, 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:15.879 they think, well, maybe it's not going to be that bad. 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:20.640 And the messaging about how afraid people should have been 0:18:21.480 --> 0:18:23.840 of what the possible outcome could be with this election, 0:18:24.000 --> 0:18:26.640 I think may have fallen on death ears because of that. 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:29.000 As black people are looking. 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:32.840 Forward to what we can do now, what we can 0:18:32.920 --> 0:18:36.240 do next, and what politics and society can look like 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:39.320 in the future, what do black voters, black citizens, black 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:42.439 Americans have to look forward to as we see the 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:46.480 promises of Project twenty twenty five coming to life. Right 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:49.919 the first time that Project twenty twenty five got the 0:18:50.000 --> 0:18:52.760 type of attention that we'd hoped, I think it was 0:18:52.800 --> 0:18:56.359 Taraji p Henson at a BT Award ceremony where she 0:18:56.480 --> 0:19:00.320 kind of threw that term out into the stratug sphere 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:03.560 and people started reacting to it in real time. And 0:19:04.040 --> 0:19:07.439 you know, the Republican ticket denied and denied and denied 0:19:07.520 --> 0:19:09.280 that they had anything to do with it, even though 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:12.080 that was clearly a lie. I think some people bought 0:19:12.119 --> 0:19:14.479 into that, so as we look forward, how do we 0:19:15.119 --> 0:19:18.880 deal with this sense of hopelessness and apathy and look 0:19:18.960 --> 0:19:21.119 forward to what we can do next. 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:26.000 For me, it's twofold right. 0:19:26.040 --> 0:19:30.040 On the one hand, it's really important that we understand 0:19:30.160 --> 0:19:33.199 that the political dangers are real when it comes to 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:36.040 Project twenty twenty five, when it comes to the Trump administration, 0:19:36.680 --> 0:19:39.040 and that we don't just kind of sit out our 0:19:39.040 --> 0:19:41.560 hands and wait for other people to see how real 0:19:41.600 --> 0:19:44.320 it is and to act in our behalf right. The 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:49.600 black community has seen time and again different electorates, different 0:19:49.640 --> 0:19:57.840 populations would rather take policies that hurt themselves and take 0:19:57.960 --> 0:20:02.320 material hurt if they feel it's going to allow for 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:05.840 black people to gain less right, they'd rather see the 0:20:05.840 --> 0:20:10.399 Black community hurt than benefit themselves. And so as black people, 0:20:10.720 --> 0:20:13.679 we have to really stand up and find ways to 0:20:13.760 --> 0:20:16.720 get our voice heard. We have to look for representatives 0:20:16.880 --> 0:20:20.760 that we support, especially black representatives, who we feel are 0:20:20.800 --> 0:20:23.720 speaking for the community, and prop them up and get 0:20:23.760 --> 0:20:26.320 behind them, whether it's at the local or statewide level. 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:28.520 I think we have to look for other ways to 0:20:28.560 --> 0:20:31.919 have our political voice heard too, beyond just voting right. 0:20:32.240 --> 0:20:35.400 We're coming to a time where voting itself is becoming 0:20:35.440 --> 0:20:37.400 more and more tenuous, and there's going to be even 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:40.719 more questions about access to voting and what type of 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:42.680 power the vote has, And so we have to make 0:20:42.680 --> 0:20:45.440 sure that we have our voices heard political otherwise in 0:20:45.560 --> 0:20:47.720 other realms, right, And so we see a number of 0:20:47.760 --> 0:20:50.919 boycotts being organized. I think those are really important to 0:20:50.920 --> 0:20:53.880 pay attention to right to use our economic power. 0:20:53.880 --> 0:20:55.160 To have a voice. 0:20:55.400 --> 0:21:00.280 There's other ways to have protest movements, sign petitions, find 0:21:00.320 --> 0:21:05.000 ways to continue to speak your political voice with and 0:21:05.040 --> 0:21:09.399 beyond voting, and really make the case to those, especially 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:12.640 those who are disengaged, who don't follow politics, who don't 0:21:12.640 --> 0:21:15.359 pay attention to politics, that this is really going to 0:21:15.359 --> 0:21:17.920 be a turning point in American history when it comes 0:21:18.000 --> 0:21:21.200 to the road forward for the black community, and there's 0:21:21.240 --> 0:21:24.679 an opportunity here to continue to fight, to continue to 0:21:24.720 --> 0:21:29.200 push forward and sort of push back the authoritarian press, 0:21:29.720 --> 0:21:33.159 if you will, trying to move us back towards an 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:36.439 era of Jim Crow, an era of less rights for 0:21:36.520 --> 0:21:41.600 the black community, rather than allowing for those rights to 0:21:41.640 --> 0:21:45.320 be infringed upon and having to work for generations again 0:21:45.520 --> 0:21:47.480 just to get back to where we are right now. 0:21:51.560 --> 0:21:54.240 Once upon a time, it seemed like our collective voice 0:21:55.000 --> 0:21:58.200 was more singular. We were all fighting for the same 0:21:58.240 --> 0:22:02.160 things and one of the same outcomes. It doesn't feel 0:22:02.520 --> 0:22:07.679 like that anymore. Before we close out this segment, I 0:22:07.760 --> 0:22:10.359 just wanted to get your opinion and on what the 0:22:10.480 --> 0:22:15.560 data might show regarding how we collectively feel we can 0:22:15.600 --> 0:22:18.959