WEBVTT - INTERVIEW: Dr. Cornel West Talks Presidential Run, Truth & Justice, Reparations, Student Loans, DEI + More 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:02.520 Wake that hands up in the morning. 0:00:02.640 --> 0:00:03.680 The Breakfast Club. 0:00:04.960 --> 0:00:05.240 Morning. 0:00:05.280 --> 0:00:09.080 Everybody's the j Envy just Hilarius Charlamagne the guy. We 0:00:09.119 --> 0:00:11.920 are the Breakfast Club. We got some special guests joining 0:00:12.000 --> 0:00:12.559 us this morning. 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:13.200 That's right. 0:00:13.280 --> 0:00:15.920 We got the good brother, doctor Cornell West. Yes, indeed, 0:00:16.040 --> 0:00:19.599 and also his running mate, Malina Abdullah. Welcome. 0:00:20.280 --> 0:00:22.680 It's a blessing to be here. My brother said, he 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:25.920 bring me back. He's a man of his word. It's 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:28.840 good to see you, my brother, j Envy, and I'm 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:32.839 so blessed to be with sister Malina. She is one 0:00:32.840 --> 0:00:36.559 of the great freedom fighters of her generation. And we 0:00:36.760 --> 0:00:40.919 are running together for truth, justice and love. And we 0:00:40.960 --> 0:00:44.000 want people to see what it's like to have two 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:48.680 black folk who have no fear, no lies, tell the truth, 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:51.680 seek justice, and love the people. 0:00:52.200 --> 0:00:55.000 Sister Molina, Let's let's start with you. When doctor Cornell 0:00:55.040 --> 0:00:57.760 West approached you to be his running mate, what was 0:00:57.800 --> 0:01:01.240 your thought process behind it all? And even receiving that 0:01:01.280 --> 0:01:02.600 message and didn't deciding to do. 0:01:02.560 --> 0:01:07.160 It well before thinking, my soul jumped out of myself 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:11.560 and said absolutely. I told him yesterday that I haven't 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:15.560 felt this kind of spirit soaring since I had my 0:01:15.680 --> 0:01:18.720 last child. And that was fourteen years ago. So my 0:01:18.840 --> 0:01:23.800 spirit spoke before my mind spoke. But then when I 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:26.720 thought about it, I never planned to run for office, 0:01:27.040 --> 0:01:29.800 but it made all the sense in the world. I, 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:33.039 like many people, have been deeply inspired by doctor West, 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:36.200 both as a scholar but also as a freedom fighter 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:39.600 and one who marches and moves on behalf of our people. 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:43.800 What made you want to choose Molina doctor Cornell. 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:46.000 You know, brother, I wanted to choose the best. I 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:50.880 believe that excellence in the form of vision, courage, willingness 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:53.120 to put your body on the line. She's a scholar, 0:01:53.240 --> 0:01:57.040 she's an intellectual. She's been to jail many, many, many times. 0:01:57.040 --> 0:02:00.800 They have attacked her in vicious way. She's ill standing 0:02:00.880 --> 0:02:04.360 with a tremendous sense of determination. And in that sense, 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:07.480 it's just a matter of always acknowledging what we always do. 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:10.919 And that's true for everybody around here. We'll come from 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:13.920 a great Black people who have the highest standards of 0:02:14.040 --> 0:02:17.800 excellence within our tradition. And I wanted to put a 0:02:17.880 --> 0:02:21.640 smile on the face of Fanny Louhammer and Martin Luther 0:02:21.760 --> 0:02:25.880 King Jr. Curtis may feel and Nina Simon. That's high 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:28.320 standards because those of folk who are free, as my 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:31.600 brother Clifton always says, I want to see whether you're 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:34.240 on a plantation or not. But it's since they've never 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:37.720 been on nobody's plantation. That's hard to find these days 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:40.480 for black folk. And so to be able to work 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:44.400 with her, work alongside her, learn from her, be instructed 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:46.280 and inspired, it's a beautiful thing. 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:48.640 And let the direct show Molina has been to jail 0:02:48.680 --> 0:02:51.680 for good trouble. Donald Trump has been to jail many 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:53.760 times too, So I just want to put that out there, 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:54.800 good trouble. 0:02:55.919 --> 0:02:57.440 I was going to ask you, what keeps you in 0:02:57.520 --> 0:03:00.440 the fight? You know, because it's a lot of money, 0:03:00.520 --> 0:03:03.000 it's a lot of time. It's stressful. They attack you, 0:03:03.040 --> 0:03:05.560 They attack every part of your life. They dive deep 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:08.600 into your finances, your taxes. And both of you guys, 0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:11.280 you know you both have families, so they gonna dive 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:13.480 into your family. So what makes you still want to 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:15.040 put that fight on? 0:03:15.840 --> 0:03:18.119 But I got so much love poured into me from 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:21.440 Irene and Clifton West and Grandma and granddad, from Shiloh 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:24.480 Baptist Church, Reverend Willie Pecook and Deacon Hinton and others 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:27.120 that I would have to live three lifetimes to begin 0:03:27.240 --> 0:03:29.600 to pay that back. And then by the time you 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:32.560 connected with the Black Panther Party, connected with those folks 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:35.520 I didn't know, the Malcolms and the Fanny Low Hammers 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:38.560 and others. All that love they poured it, all that courage, 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:41.320 all that integrity. The least thing I could do is 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:44.000 tell the truth and seek justice before I meet my 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:46.000 hand and meet my maker, you know what I mean. 0:03:46.080 --> 0:03:47.480 So I get up with a joy, and I got 0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:48.800 a joy in the world and give me the world 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:52.280 can't take away. And it's a deep joy tied to 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:54.960 the struggle and try to try to try and to 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:58.080 make the world a better face for oppressed people, poor people, 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:01.920 working people. To deal with all this organized greed and 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:07.240 institutionalized hatred and rutinize indifference to the vuner raubbul. It's 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:09.320 a beautiful thing to be in struggle with. This is 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:11.920 a Molina and the whole host of folk who are 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:14.120 concerned about making the world a better place with a 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:17.520 smile and also with a style too, because we come 0:04:17.520 --> 0:04:20.320 out of people that got style and sold Oh, brother. 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:24.960 Malini, I mean for me, I couldn't say it better 0:04:25.000 --> 0:04:27.760 than doctor West. It is what we owe our ancestors. 0:04:27.760 --> 0:04:29.880 It is what we owe our guide, it is what 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:33.440 we owe our people. And I'll also offer that I'm 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:37.920 a mother of three children, and my three children, two 0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:40.200 of the three of them had police called on them 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:41.640 in schools. 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:44.080 When they were six years old for the first time. 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:49.000 And I cannot leave a world as it is for 0:04:49.160 --> 0:04:52.320 Tandie way Amara and I'm in. We have to do 0:04:52.360 --> 0:04:55.400 the work to make the world better for them. That's 0:04:55.400 --> 0:04:57.960 what we owe our ancestors. That's what we owe our people. 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:00.680 That's what we owe our children, and that's what we 0:05:00.760 --> 0:05:03.920 owd generations to come. That's what we owe ourselves as well. 0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:06.640 I was going to ask what they shold me. I 0:05:06.680 --> 0:05:09.640 was going to ask, you know, you guys are running independently, 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:14.599 and people when they questioned the Democrats, or they questioned Biden, 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:17.520 or they questioned Kamala Harris, they say people are going 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:20.080 against their race and people are going against what they 0:05:20.160 --> 0:05:23.160 quote unquote should be doing. What's your thoughts on that, 0:05:23.200 --> 0:05:26.320 because in all actuality, people will say that you guys 0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:27.600 are questioning them as well. 0:05:28.080 --> 0:05:31.960 That's true, that's true. Fanny lou Hammer said, I'm questioning America. 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:39.400 I'm questioning capitalism, I'm questioning patriarchy, and I'm questioning white supremacy. 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:41.920 The folk who want to defend Biden and can't say 0:05:41.920 --> 0:05:44.360 a mumbling word about the general side and ethnic cleansing 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:49.000 and apartheized state of Israel, it means they're turning their backs. Well, no, 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:51.400 we don't come out of a tradition like that. We 0:05:51.480 --> 0:05:54.480 committed to jamal Leticia in the hood. We committed to 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:58.880 Wan and juan Nita in the barrio. We committed to 0:05:58.880 --> 0:06:01.800 poor white, we committed Palestinians, we committed to any folk. 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:04.560 We committed the Jews when they catch in hell, we 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:07.159 are around. In nineteen thirty we insolidated with the Jews 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:11.000 against Hitler. Now right now, you got genocide taking place 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:15.000 in Gaza. We take a stand not out of self righteousness, 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:17.520 but because we want to be moral and spiritual. That's 0:06:17.560 --> 0:06:19.880 who we are as a people. Man at our best, 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:23.279 I'm not talking about our worst, at our best. And 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:26.880 therefore you got Trump, dead up, gangster leading the country 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:33.480 towards Civil War two, Biden war criminal, leading the world 0:06:33.520 --> 0:06:35.960 toward World War three. Now you're gonna choose between Civil 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:39.080 War two and World War three. What you're gonna do, 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:41.839 That's the history of black folk. For us, Pharaoh has 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:44.120 always been on the blows, both sides of the bloody 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:47.000 red seas. What you're gonna do, Sing a song, what 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:50.279 you're gonna do, Crack a smile, crack a joke, hug 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:54.800 organize it, mobilized, and then make a way out of 0:06:54.839 --> 0:06:57.080 no way. That's the history of black folk. How have 0:06:57.240 --> 0:07:00.280 we made a way out of no way? I sit 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:02.839 here and look at your young brothers. I know what's 0:07:02.880 --> 0:07:05.680 in you. I know your grandparents. I know what they 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:08.400 been through. They made a way out of no way. 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:10.760 Look at you sitting there with all this dignity. Couldn't 0:07:10.760 --> 0:07:14.280 do it by yourself. That's that rich tradition inside of you. 0:07:14.520 --> 0:07:17.600 That's all we're trying to do. And that's true for 0:07:17.640 --> 0:07:20.080 my dear sister, going back through Louisiana. We both got 0:07:20.120 --> 0:07:23.320 Louisiana roots deep Louisiana, even though she come out of 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:25.160 East Oakland, so I mean, you know, she got jumped 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:30.600 started like East Oakland's like Detroit and Chicago and Mississippi's 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:32.280 even deeping them, all of them. We won't get into 0:07:32.320 --> 0:07:36.880 that right now. South South Carolina, what was it Month's corner? Yes, sir, 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:39.840 oh lord. 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:42.560 You know you brought up the civil war thing. And 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:44.800 this happened to me this Friday's happened on like I 0:07:44.800 --> 0:07:47.640 think Tuesday ones. I walked downstairs and it was just 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:51.600 a white guy had on some khakis and nice shoes 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:54.920 and sweater glasses, looked like a Wall Street type. And 0:07:54.920 --> 0:07:57.600 he was just like, man, you Charlamagne right he goes Man. 0:07:57.880 --> 0:07:59.520 He said, I want you to tell people that it's 0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:02.520 gonna be a war regardless of who wins. And I 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:04.360 was like, because he didn't even look like the type. 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:07.480 He wasn't a wild conspiracy theorist. He is like, you 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:09.600 tell people that it don't matter if Biden went to 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:11.600 Trump win, there's gonna be a civil war in this country. 0:08:11.640 --> 0:08:13.840 And I was like, yikes, so what makes you feel 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:14.520 that way? 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:17.280 Well, we certainly headed that way. That's what civil wars 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:20.000 are about. When you get organized greed and institutionalized hatred 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:23.320 running amuck, especially at the top, manipulating every day people 0:08:23.960 --> 0:08:28.720 feeling frustrated, impotent, powerless, and then you escape, go to 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:31.440 the most vulnerable rather than confront the most powerful, and 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:34.560 what sits at the center of it white's supremacy. Now 0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:38.080 it's undergirded by capitalism and all the greed that that 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:40.920 generates profit and so forth. But does that make sense, 0:08:41.000 --> 0:08:43.400 my dear sister, It does. 0:08:43.240 --> 0:08:45.800 Make sense, and it makes sense when we talk about 0:08:46.240 --> 0:08:48.480 why we have to get involved and why we have 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:51.040 to do something different, why we can't just go along 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:54.200 to get along. So the question about why we're not 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:58.000 just saying, you know, let's let's dust Trump, let's make 0:08:58.040 --> 0:09:01.080 sure Trump doesn't get in. Of course Trump is the 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:06.559 embodiment of evil. Of course Trump is the He's a 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:11.760 devil incarnate, absolutely right. But we also have to remember that, 0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:15.400 you know, my children and all their friends recognize Joe 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:16.960 Biden as genocidah Joe. 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:20.240 And so we can't just go along to get along. 0:09:20.320 --> 0:09:23.440 We can't just say, let's take the lesser of two evils. 0:09:23.440 --> 0:09:26.440 The lesser of two evils is still evil. And so 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:31.439 how do we pull ourselves into our highest selves? How 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:33.880 do we say, you know, it's always been true that 0:09:33.920 --> 0:09:38.280 white supremacist patriarchal capitalism will try to get us to 0:09:38.480 --> 0:09:44.119 celebrate the individual advancement of a few at the expense 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:46.679 of the many, And so we refuse to do that 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:49.920 we say we all must be free. If we're not 0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:51.480 all free, nobody's free. 0:09:51.760 --> 0:09:53.160 I got a question for both of y'all when you 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:55.720 talk about this civil war. I don't think the civil 0:09:55.760 --> 0:09:57.559 war is going to be between Republicans and Democrats. I 0:09:57.600 --> 0:09:59.320 think it's going to between the haves and the have not. 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:03.280 What do you think I think? I think that's that's 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:06.800 that's the serious formulation. But it's hard to know exactly 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:11.680 what formula because race and white supremacy cuts so deep 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:15.280 in the country that even well to do black folk 0:10:15.320 --> 0:10:20.560 could be viciously attacked by some of the poor wife folk. 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:24.559 So that race is gonna be crucial, But the class 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:27.880 dimension that you talk about will be crucial too, There's 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:29.920 no doubt about it. And we know how ugly the 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:32.920 gender question is. But you got what thirty percent now 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:36.480 black brothers saying they're gonna vote for gangster Trump. Hey, 0:10:36.640 --> 0:10:41.120 where's that coming from? Well, that's a complicated situation. That's 0:10:41.240 --> 0:10:42.880 just at the moment. We don't know what it's gonna 0:10:42.880 --> 0:10:47.400 be like in November. But once the vicious conflict sets in, 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:50.680 we don't know what response would be. We just have 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:55.080 to make sure that we have a moral and spiritual witness. 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:57.800 We're gonna be a witness. We're gonna bead witness to 0:10:57.920 --> 0:11:00.839 the best of the traditions of our people that has 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:04.680 preserved our dignity and our sanity, regardless of what the 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:07.400 circumstances is. Because you got to keep in mind, there's 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:09.920 been a war against indigenous peoples for about six hundred years. 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:12.240 There's been a war against black folk for four hundred years. 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:15.840 We at war right now. So we're just talking about 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:18.480 the hot war versus the cold. You go to mass 0:11:18.520 --> 0:11:21.040 incarceration and the jails and so forth, and on sloop 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:23.240 by the Muomea because he got his birthday coming up 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:26.680 seven ozer, but he been in a war. So the 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:30.480 war's always ongoing. But the question what form it will take? 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:34.120 And we have to decide personally and collectively, are we 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:37.439 gonna hold on to some sense of morality and spirituality 0:11:37.679 --> 0:11:39.120 giving all this barbarity? 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:41.160 What do you think believe? Who do you think the 0:11:41.160 --> 0:11:41.880 war will be between? 0:11:42.880 --> 0:11:45.199 Yeah, I think you're right on about the halves and 0:11:45.240 --> 0:11:49.240 the have nots, And it's those who also identify with 0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:51.320 the haves and the havelf nights, right, So you have 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:56.199 plenty of poor people plenty of poor white people, especially 0:11:56.640 --> 0:12:00.400 who identify with the halves, even though they themselves are 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:03.760 the have nuts. And so it's really important that we 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:07.040 awaken people to what their real interests are. Right, that 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:11.800 we awaken poor people, working class people, regardless of race, 0:12:12.000 --> 0:12:13.520 to what their interests are. 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:17.520 And so as we awaken folks, we. 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:21.679 Can lock arms and engage in whatever struggle needs to 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:26.520 take place for the liberation of beginning with black people 0:12:26.520 --> 0:12:28.840 and extending to all oppressed people. 0:12:29.040 --> 0:12:30.640 How do we get people to get out of the 0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:35.199 mind frame where I only can vote for Democrat or Republican? Right, 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:37.240 I say it all the time. A lot of people 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:40.560 are from years and years and years of grandparents voting Democrat, 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:44.120 and great grandparents and the parents and then yourselves. How 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:46.679 do we get him out to think outside of the box, right, 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:50.160 Because automatically, when somebody sees somebody running as an independent, 0:12:50.200 --> 0:12:53.400 they think, well he is or there's no way that 0:12:53.440 --> 0:12:56.400 they can possibly win. They're just somebody in there to 0:12:56.440 --> 0:13:00.240 start trouble and to mess up the Democrats. How do 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:02.040 we get people to change that view? 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:05.280 Yeah? I think part of it is, you know, Curtis 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:07.680 Mayfield got this song no Thing on Me I'm so 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:09.839 glad I got my own, so glad that I can 0:13:09.960 --> 0:13:13.559 see my life is a natural high. The man can't 0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:16.360 put no thing on me. It depends on what you see. 0:13:16.920 --> 0:13:19.960 When we see, we have to see a system. You 0:13:20.000 --> 0:13:22.560 can't just look at two parties. You got to see 0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:25.040 how both of them are tied to Wall Street, a Pentagon, 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:27.640 both of them tied to war, both of them tied 0:13:27.920 --> 0:13:31.920 to greed, and so you have to have an understanding 0:13:31.960 --> 0:13:36.079 of how the system operates and then say, ah, I 0:13:36.200 --> 0:13:38.720 want to be critical of the system. I'm not just 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:42.640 critical of Trump's gangsterism. I can see how Trump's gangsterism 0:13:42.880 --> 0:13:48.959 is inseparable from Biden's genocidal policies, facilitating genocide and Gaza. 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:51.680 So you begin to see how the system operates and connects. 0:13:51.880 --> 0:13:54.680 What's happening with the Palestinians in Gaza, but what's happening 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:57.079 in Black Folk and Harlem, what's happened with poul Whites 0:13:57.120 --> 0:14:00.960 in Kentucky, what's happening with poor Latinos in East And 0:14:01.000 --> 0:14:03.559 that is a different way of seeing the world. That's 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:06.840 why our artists, at their height, none needed Simons and others. 0:14:07.000 --> 0:14:10.640 They help us to see things. We didn't see. Then 0:14:10.679 --> 0:14:13.360 the question becomes how do you implement? How do you execute? 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:16.960 Usually when you see and you raise your voice, you 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:21.320 get incarcerated or assassinated. That's what the system does to 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:23.800 free black people. So you have to be willing to 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:26.720 pay that cost. And that's exactly what the cost we're 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:29.520 willing to pay. How come because we love the people 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:32.600 and the only thing that breaks the back of fear 0:14:33.200 --> 0:14:35.680 is love. And if you don't love the people, then 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:38.160 get out of the way and go on and sell out, 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:41.240 going and sell your soul for mesapology and tell people lies, 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:44.560 tell them how great Biden is. Tell them Biden has 0:14:44.600 --> 0:14:48.680 always been concerned with portfolio. He's an architect of mass incarceration. 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:51.560 That's a crime against humanity. I've taught in prisons for 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:54.080 forty one years. I've seen it go from two hundred 0:14:54.080 --> 0:14:56.880 thousand to two point three million right before my very eyes. 0:14:57.040 --> 0:14:59.520 That's a crime against humanity. That's my brothers and sisters 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:02.440 in there. Don't lie, don't don't want to be lying 0:15:02.480 --> 0:15:04.760 on Biden in that sense. So is that kind of 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:07.000 truth telling that we need, and that's kind of and 0:15:07.120 --> 0:15:07.880 is rooted in love. 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:10.520 Why do they act like you know as a black 0:15:10.560 --> 0:15:14.600 person you can't speak that kind of truth but still 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:17.880 know what's in your best interest to do come November. 0:15:17.960 --> 0:15:19.480 Why do they act like why do they act like 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:24.440 those two things can't happen at the same time, Belina, I. 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:25.400 Think that there. 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:28.680 You know, when we talk about this duopoly of Democrats 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:31.600 and Republicans, they want to lock us into these very 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:36.000 narrow choices. Black people are the most critical people, the 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:40.040 most discerning people, the most creative people on this planet, right, 0:15:40.400 --> 0:15:43.080 and they want to block us from that creativity because 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:46.520 that kind of creativity gives birth to new ideas but 0:15:46.600 --> 0:15:48.000 also new worlds, Right. 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:50.560 So I want to. 0:15:50.080 --> 0:15:53.480 Lock in and be clear about what this campaign is about. 0:15:53.880 --> 0:15:59.840 That we're advancing alternative visions. As Harriet Tubman abolitionists, we 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:02.800 absolutely want to topple systems of harm. 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:04.160 We want to topple. 0:16:04.080 --> 0:16:08.880 Systems of prisons that descend from plantations and policing that 0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:14.600 descend from slave catchers. And as Harriet Tubman abolitionists, we 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:18.600 also know that as we tear down systems of harm, 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:21.960 we want to build new systems of care that we 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:26.200 can have if we make different choices. Imagine what would 0:16:26.240 --> 0:16:29.440 happen if we had the one hundred and something billion 0:16:29.560 --> 0:16:35.200 dollars that Joe Biden just sent to fuel genocide and gaza. 0:16:35.360 --> 0:16:36.880 What if we had that for housing. 0:16:37.600 --> 0:16:40.400 What if we had those resources that are poured into 0:16:40.440 --> 0:16:44.440 police in major cities. It's about half of the unrestricted 0:16:44.480 --> 0:16:47.720 funds that go to policing, even though police don't make 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:50.760 us more safe. What if we had those dollars instead 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:55.160 for healthcare? What if we had those dollars instead or education? 0:16:55.600 --> 0:16:59.720 These are simple and easy choices, and so that doopoly 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:04.560 that's owned by corporations wants to lock us out so 0:17:04.600 --> 0:17:08.200 that they can keep the vision and the possibilities narrow. 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:09.800 We're saying no more of that. 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:15.000 Our possibilities are expansive and beautiful and creative, and we 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:18.720 have to shake off this world that really sucks the 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:21.480 life out of our people and puts targets on the 0:17:21.480 --> 0:17:22.560 backs of our children. 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:25.440 You know, Molina, you founded, you were the co founder 0:17:25.480 --> 0:17:28.399 of the LA chapter of the Black Lives Matter movement, 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:31.359 and in twenty twenty two you got police took you 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:33.320 out of a Marrow debate. Well, I'm not gonna say 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:35.480 took you out, that'd be kindie. They dragged you out. 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:38.240 You know what, was the reasoning behind that. 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:43.560 They carried me out by all fours, so that means 0:17:43.960 --> 0:17:47.040 on each limb I had a different cop pulling me 0:17:47.560 --> 0:17:50.679 from each limb on the last day Ramadan with my 0:17:50.800 --> 0:17:55.240 legs sprawled open. It was not only brutal, it was humiliating. 0:17:55.680 --> 0:18:01.280 It was dehumanizing. There is no just defiable reason for 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:06.760 them doing that. I don't know the reason that they 0:18:06.800 --> 0:18:10.399 did that. I can surmise that they thought I was 0:18:10.440 --> 0:18:12.920 there to do something that I wasn't there to do. 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:16.640 I was simply there to watch a mayoral debate. By training, 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:20.440 I'm at my PhDs in political science, and we had 0:18:20.440 --> 0:18:24.080 the first viable black woman for mayor who's now our mayor, 0:18:24.520 --> 0:18:29.080 Karen Bass. My research is on black women's leadership, so 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:33.080 of course I wanted to be on my own campus. 0:18:33.320 --> 0:18:36.760 I wanted to be on my own campus watching that debate, 0:18:36.800 --> 0:18:41.159 and so I think that that's absolutely despicable. Still haven't 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:44.760 gotten a real apology or any remedy from the school. 0:18:44.840 --> 0:18:48.680 The school still continues to harass me, sending police into 0:18:48.680 --> 0:18:51.720 my office, searching my office and telling me they'll be 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:52.320 back for me. 0:18:52.640 --> 0:18:54.160 And this is the reason why. 0:18:53.960 --> 0:18:57.919 We want to advance policies like removing police from our campuses. 0:18:57.960 --> 0:19:01.320 Our campuses don't have enough care councilors, they don't have 0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:05.600 enough scholars, they don't have enough staff to clean up, 0:19:05.960 --> 0:19:08.800 but we have police that were spending millions and millions 0:19:08.840 --> 0:19:09.600 of dollars on. 0:19:09.800 --> 0:19:11.199 I'm sorry you had to go through all of that 0:19:12.080 --> 0:19:14.560 is the true that you sued BLM. 0:19:16.800 --> 0:19:20.679 I sued, and I should be very clear. Black Lives 0:19:20.720 --> 0:19:24.200 Matter grass Roots, which is the side of Black Lives 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:26.720 Matter that I represent where the boots on the ground. 0:19:27.160 --> 0:19:31.320 We're thirty three chapters around the country. Black Lives Matter 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:34.560 grass Roots is the real BLM. When you think of 0:19:34.600 --> 0:19:39.120 Black Lives Matter being in the streets, organizing alongside families, that's. 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:42.520 Who we are. In twenty twenty two. 0:19:42.520 --> 0:19:46.520 Our resources and platforms were stolen by a group of 0:19:46.600 --> 0:19:50.480 highly paid consultants, and we know we have a right 0:19:50.520 --> 0:19:54.240 to those things back, and so we sued them after 0:19:54.320 --> 0:19:57.399 trying to convince them to do the right thing, and 0:19:57.440 --> 0:20:00.159 that wasn't going to happen. They refused to listen to 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:03.560 the voices of the people. We did file a lawsuit 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:05.440 in September of twenty twenty two. 0:20:06.200 --> 0:20:08.840 Okay, well, let me just add this though. You see 0:20:08.880 --> 0:20:11.160 when they attacked our dear sistant, and they do it 0:20:11.200 --> 0:20:13.160 over and over again, And that's true for so many 0:20:13.200 --> 0:20:16.640 of us go to jail and so on. That we're threats, 0:20:17.200 --> 0:20:20.720 you see, that's a compliment. That means that we're true 0:20:20.720 --> 0:20:23.719 to our calling. And you can have a calling as 0:20:23.720 --> 0:20:26.119 a secular person. You can have a calling as a 0:20:26.160 --> 0:20:30.359 religious person. You see, I'm a Jesus loving free black 0:20:30.440 --> 0:20:33.159 man who wants to be true to the call. So 0:20:33.400 --> 0:20:36.119 if I'm not constituting a threat, then how am I 0:20:36.200 --> 0:20:38.000 following with Jesus who went into the temple and ran 0:20:38.040 --> 0:20:40.320 out the money changes they put him on the cross. No, 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:45.280 my dear sister's Muslim. She's a law loving free black woman, 0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:51.120 mercy justice Koran, and you constitute a threat. So when 0:20:51.160 --> 0:20:54.520 she's willing to pay that kind of cost, that's the 0:20:54.600 --> 0:20:58.760 sign of courage, integrity, and it's connected to a calling. 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:01.320 You got to have some call. If all you got 0:21:01.400 --> 0:21:04.960 is your career, then you on somebody's plantation and any 0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:07.880 any carriage that they dangle in front of you, you're 0:21:07.880 --> 0:21:10.560 gonna opt for. But when you have a calling and 0:21:10.640 --> 0:21:13.560 a professor, distinguished scholar and so forth, that that my 0:21:13.640 --> 0:21:17.080