WEBVTT - Political Conclusions We Can Draw About Black America with Dr. Christopher Towler (Part 2) 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:02.680 Keep on riding with it, says, we continue to broadcast 0:00:02.680 --> 0:00:04.800 the balance and defend the discourse from the Hip hop 0:00:04.800 --> 0:00:08.360 Weekly studios. Welcome back to Civic Cipher. I am your host, Rams' job. 0:00:08.440 --> 0:00:12.600 He is Rams' job. I am Q Ward. You are 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:15.720 tuned into Civic Cipher. Indeed, you still are, and we 0:00:15.760 --> 0:00:16.400 appreciate that. 0:00:16.680 --> 0:00:21.720 Today we are having a wonderful conversation. I'm doing a 0:00:21.760 --> 0:00:24.759 little bit more listening, but to be fair, Chris and 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:27.160 I got to talk twice, so Q it's you know, 0:00:27.200 --> 0:00:31.240 it's you two have your conversation. But we're having a 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:35.640 fantastic conversation with Christopher Taller, pH d. Make sure I 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:37.920 have that associate professor in the Department of Political Science 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:41.360 at California State University, Sacramento, director of the Black Voter Project, 0:00:41.360 --> 0:00:43.360 and the editor in chief of the Journal of Race, 0:00:43.400 --> 0:00:47.640 Ethnicity and Politics. And we are talking about the data 0:00:47.920 --> 0:00:50.880 of black voters. And I know the election is over, 0:00:50.920 --> 0:00:52.479 but there's still a lot that we can learn and 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:55.640 are learning right now from black voters. And of course 0:00:55.680 --> 0:01:00.040 doctor Taller is helping us sift through his data. But 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:02.320 before we go any further, it's time to be aba, 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:04.760 become a better ally Baba and today's Baba comes from 0:01:04.800 --> 0:01:09.199 the Black Information Network. This ain't Amazon, It's the Black Nile. 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:13.080 A black woman has created an app called the Black Nile, 0:01:13.200 --> 0:01:16.200 a black version of Amazon where consumers can shop from 0:01:16.240 --> 0:01:19.880 black owned businesses and services on one platform. As major 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:23.520 companies and retailers including Amazon, Target, Walmart, and more are 0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:27.000 rolling back their diversity, equity and inclusion policies and initiatives, 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:29.640 customers are looking for ways to support small and black 0:01:29.680 --> 0:01:33.800 owned businesses. I'm going to add this and to boycott 0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:38.840 those people that turn their back on us, all right, 0:01:38.920 --> 0:01:43.960 let me continue, UI and web designer Dacia Petrie I 0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:47.119 believe I'm saying that right used her background in technology 0:01:47.160 --> 0:01:50.040 to create the Blacknile to fulfill the need and make 0:01:50.080 --> 0:01:52.440 it even easier for shoppers to buy black owned The 0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:55.400 app currently features three thousand black owned businesses across over 0:01:55.480 --> 0:02:00.720 forty categories, including skincare, hotels, restaurants, grocery stores, luxury where, handbag, weddings, 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:04.240 home and kitchen goods, baby and kids, plus size clothing, 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:04.680 and more. 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:06.400 Quote. 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:08.960 I saw somebody in the comments saying that they're looking 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:11.840 for a black Amazon sista. I'm a Jo John. When 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:16.720 I say this, This ain't Amazon. Is black Nile unquote, 0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:21.120 Petrie said. Petrie integrated Google Maps into the app, allowing 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:24.600 users to easily locate nearby businesses and retrieve directions. Shoppers 0:02:24.600 --> 0:02:26.880 can also leave reviews on the app after visiting or 0:02:26.919 --> 0:02:29.440 experiencing their selected business or service. 0:02:29.960 --> 0:02:30.200 Quote. 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:32.720 I created this with the intention to make shopping with 0:02:32.800 --> 0:02:36.160 black owned businesses as easy as possible, Petri said. He 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:38.160 was on to say, I am a UI designer and 0:02:38.200 --> 0:02:40.880 web designer, and I noticed that there are a lot 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:43.240 of black owned directories, but many of them aren't as 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:46.440 user friendly or optimized for our mobile devices. I saw 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:48.440 someone in the comments saying that they were looking for 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:51.480 something that's a little bit more techy and something a 0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:54.919 little bit more user friendly. And this is perfect end quote. 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:59.720 So again, check them out. It's black Nile, all right. 0:02:59.800 --> 0:03:02.560 So well, you know, the two of you obviously been 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:12.560 talking about drawing some meaningful conclusions from the data, really 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:15.560 and setting the record straight, because that obviously is very important. 0:03:15.680 --> 0:03:19.160 As we kind of get our bearings as a people. 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:23.240 As we get our bearings, many of us vote Democrats, 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:25.320 so as we get our bearings relative to that party, 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:26.840 and I feel like we might have stopped you a 0:03:26.880 --> 0:03:29.560 little short there, So any last words there you want 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:30.359 to pick up. 0:03:32.440 --> 0:03:36.960 Yeah, we were talking about sort of building solidarity and 0:03:37.320 --> 0:03:40.880 the lack of solidarity between parts of the black community, 0:03:40.880 --> 0:03:42.480 and I had noticed in the data that there were 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:46.760 some differences, especially between sort of younger Black Americans and 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:50.800 older generations. And I think it again, it comes back 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:54.920 to this connection to history, connection to generational struggle, especially 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:59.440 the Civil Rights movement, where younger people now, right, people 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:04.320 who have grandparents or maybe great grandparents that lived during 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:07.560 the Civil Rights era might not be previewed to some 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:10.480 of the conversations that we were and our parents were 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:13.680 growing up, where we were hearing direct stories from relatives 0:04:13.680 --> 0:04:17.160 who live through it, if not our parents, right, And 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:20.120 so building that connection is a bit different because now 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:23.200 people are hearing these stories second third hand, if at all. 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:26.120 And we already know the push to get rid of 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:29.440 black history, to remove these stories from the textbooks and 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:33.360 from our education altogether, all in the sense of trying 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:37.040 to destroy this solidarity that the black community has had 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:41.520 for generations. Right since really the Civil Rights movement, in 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:43.440 the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:46.719 Rights Act, there's been this sense that the Democrats are 0:04:46.920 --> 0:04:49.719 the party for civil rights, the party for the black community, 0:04:50.000 --> 0:04:52.680 and that seems to be waning a little bit. That's 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:54.880 not to say that there's a lot more people, as 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:58.320 we talked about, voting for Republicans, but there are fewer 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:01.960 young black people that st only identify with Democrats or 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:06.200 strongly have a liberal ideology, and that can become a 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:10.040 threat to black solidarity in the future if the party 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:12.720 politics do not take this into consideration and find a 0:05:12.760 --> 0:05:15.000 way to speak to these young people in ways that 0:05:15.080 --> 0:05:17.920 still brings them home and still connects them to their 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:19.839 history and to the rest of their community. 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:25.640 Doctor Tyler, we talked about the turnout and the election. 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:29.800 I want you to use data to tell a more 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:33.159 full story that you may give people some nuance. In 0:05:33.200 --> 0:05:37.400 some context, we said that the percentages were about the 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:41.000 same as the prior election, but I thought I heard 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:43.440 you mentioned that the numbers and the turnout may have 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:46.160 been lower even though the percentages of voters was the same. 0:05:46.200 --> 0:05:48.480 Can you tell us a little bit more about what 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:50.880 that means or what you think that means. 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:55.280 Yeah, so there's some nuance here in this conversation. Right 0:05:55.320 --> 0:05:57.920 on the one hand, we're talking about who people voted for, 0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:01.039 which I like to call vote choice, and that was 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:03.560 pretty much the same as twenty twenty and so we 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:06.720 didn't see much shift in vote choice as far as 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:09.520 how many black people voted for the Democratic candidate in 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:12.880 this case, Harris or the Republican candidate Trump. Where we 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:16.000 did see change is in the raw number of people 0:06:16.000 --> 0:06:19.640 that actually came out to vote, and there were significantly 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:22.719 less Black people voting in twenty twenty four than in 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:25.520 twenty twenty and for the first time in a long time, 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:29.360 we actually had fewer people cast a ballot than the 0:06:29.440 --> 0:06:32.679 year before. Right every year since pretty much the Obama years, 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:34.960 the number of Black people voting had gone up and 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:37.600 up and up. This year it fell off. And in 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:41.280 some states such as Georgia, we know that black voters 0:06:41.279 --> 0:06:45.040 are the only voter where turnout only group were turnout dropped, 0:06:45.320 --> 0:06:47.920 where every other group turnout rose. And what that does 0:06:48.040 --> 0:06:51.920 is that creates sort of this situation where the gap 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:56.839 between the amount of black voters and other voters grows 0:06:56.960 --> 0:06:59.760 wider in a case like twenty twenty four, making it 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:03.520 less likely that black voters can affect an election. And 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:06.280 in a state like Georgia, where almost thirty percent of 0:07:06.400 --> 0:07:10.240 voters are black. It's very, very important that everyone gets 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:12.280 out and vote so that they can have the same 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:14.360 effect on the election in Georgia as they did in 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:18.480 twenty twenty when Georgia went blue for Biden. In twenty 0:07:18.520 --> 0:07:21.440 twenty four, with less voters actually turning out to vote, 0:07:21.760 --> 0:07:25.240 even though the same are more voted for the Democratic candidate, 0:07:25.640 --> 0:07:28.800 the state turned red because you had far more of 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:33.080 other types of voters, predominantly white voters coming out to vote, 0:07:33.400 --> 0:07:37.040 shifting the ballots the other direction right, And we see 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:40.080 this taking place across the country. We don't have raw 0:07:40.120 --> 0:07:42.880 turnout for every state yet. That typically comes from the 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:47.040 Secretary of State's offices across the country, but in places 0:07:47.040 --> 0:07:49.360 like Georgia where we do have those numbers, it's very 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:52.760 clear what's taking place, and that getting people out to 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:54.880 vote was the issue this year, not trying to figure 0:07:54.920 --> 0:07:56.120 out who they were going to vote for. 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:03.800 We spoke about solidarity. We also spoke about post election, 0:08:04.080 --> 0:08:11.960 post inauguration hopelessness, frustration and apathy leading up to the election, however, 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:14.840 and this is where this kind of lack of solidarity 0:08:14.920 --> 0:08:19.680 rings very loud to me. With what we were obviously 0:08:19.800 --> 0:08:24.440 facing as a people, like the threats to our safety, 0:08:24.640 --> 0:08:29.640 our health, our access to information, resources, capital education, the 0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:35.440 erasure of our history, our access to opportunity once upon 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:37.439 a time, And I think you hit the nail on 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:42.080 the head our ancestors, our parents. I use my mother 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:44.920 as an example because when she turned of age, it 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:49.080 was not yet legal for black women to vote in 0:08:49.120 --> 0:08:52.000 this country. So this is not three hundred years ago. 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:54.480 This is not my great great grandmother. This is my 0:08:54.640 --> 0:09:00.000 mother with what seemed like a very clear and obvious 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:04.440 threat to us more than everyone else. How are people 0:09:04.559 --> 0:09:09.200 so comfortable not participating this time, like this idea that 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:11.520 I'm just not going to vote this time, I'm just 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:14.760 not going to participate. How do you think we got there? 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:20.520 Yes, it's a tricky situation, and for me studying not 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:27.160 just black politics, but politics and social of predispositions. Over 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:30.760 the years, the idea of racism has changed quite a bit, 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:34.120 and the racism that our parents and our grandparents face 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:39.000 there was a far more overt segregation that was outlawed 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:42.480 in many ways by the Civil Rights Act. So since then, 0:09:42.640 --> 0:09:46.280 racism has become far more covert and harder to just 0:09:46.360 --> 0:09:50.120 point out the record, Right, there's absolutely still clear racism 0:09:50.120 --> 0:09:54.319 and bigotry out there, but the systems have become far 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:59.480 more secretive in the way that they perpetuate racism, where 0:09:59.520 --> 0:10:01.920 now it's a about, Okay, did I get the job 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:04.920 because I was black, or because my name sounded ethnic, 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:08.120 or was it something else that happened in the job interview? Right? 0:10:08.640 --> 0:10:11.960 Did my house get evaluated differently when it came to 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:14.640 the appraisal because of the artwork that I had in 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:17.520 that might be African American? Or was it because of 0:10:17.559 --> 0:10:19.600 something actually having to do with the house. And these 0:10:19.640 --> 0:10:21.440 are the types of questions that we have to ask 0:10:21.480 --> 0:10:24.680 today when trying to figure out where racism and discrimination 0:10:24.840 --> 0:10:27.680 still lives in society, and so it makes it harder 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:29.720 to point them out, and it takes a lot of 0:10:29.760 --> 0:10:32.920 time and a lot of effort, especially for people, as 0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:36.520 we said, these younger generations of black people who haven't 0:10:36.559 --> 0:10:42.000 grown up either experiencing segregation or a lot of direct 0:10:42.080 --> 0:10:46.960 over racism themselves, or haven't talked with elders who experienced this, 0:10:47.080 --> 0:10:50.640 and so they are sort of one step removed from 0:10:51.040 --> 0:10:56.520 our history of extreme overt segregation and racism, something that 0:10:56.960 --> 0:11:00.800 has dictated the way our institutions work in this country today. 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:03.400 But it's much harder to see. You can't just point 0:11:03.400 --> 0:11:04.880 it out and say, oh that you can't go in 0:11:04.880 --> 0:11:07.280 there because you're black. Right, you can go in there, 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:09.720 but you might get followed around by the security guard. 0:11:09.800 --> 0:11:12.120 And if you've never experienced that and you don't know 0:11:12.160 --> 0:11:14.319 what you're looking for, it might not be as obvious 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:17.400 until it's too late, right, until you have that experience 0:11:17.440 --> 0:11:20.160 where you end up getting arrested, you end up spending 0:11:20.200 --> 0:11:23.120 some jail time. Right. And if you don't know the statistics, right, 0:11:23.120 --> 0:11:25.440 about one in three black men in their lives ends 0:11:25.520 --> 0:11:29.360 up incarcerated at some point, right, the highest rate in 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:31.960 the country. Right. And the United States is already the highest, 0:11:32.240 --> 0:11:36.000 has the highest rate of incarceration in all world democracies. 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:39.400 And so these are issues and problems that still persist, 0:11:39.880 --> 0:11:43.040 but they're far more difficult to sort of put your 0:11:43.040 --> 0:11:45.120 finger on it and say, there it is. That's the 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:49.920 racism that I'm talking about. That's the institutional oppression that 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:53.719 has always been there but still exists. And so when 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:56.040 we see an election like the last one take place, 0:11:56.080 --> 0:11:58.400 and we have a lot of different messages being put 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:01.560 out sometimes on social media, where you only get like 0:12:01.600 --> 0:12:04.680 a three second clip or a ten second sort of 0:12:04.760 --> 0:12:07.960 video saying a message, and then you get sixty of 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:11.200 those videos in ten minutes, it can be that much 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:14.200 more difficult to really decipher what's really going on, what 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:17.440 people really stand for, and where you need to stand 0:12:17.480 --> 0:12:20.400 when it comes to choosing a political representative or a 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:21.800 political party to get behind. 0:12:28.720 --> 0:12:33.160 There is no justice until there is justice for all. 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:38.640 That echoed in my head throughout the election cycle as 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:44.440 I watched those who oppose us other, all of these 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:48.320 separate groups, all of these separate groups that would be attacked. 0:12:49.000 --> 0:12:51.720 And I bring up the other ring because it gave 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:55.360 people an opportunity to say, Okay, that thing that they 0:12:55.400 --> 0:12:58.720 plan to do doesn't affect me, so I don't think 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:01.640 it's that big of a deal. And as we see 0:13:01.679 --> 0:13:06.479 people the clean version is messing around and finding out, 0:13:07.400 --> 0:13:12.200 they are realizing that these policies and these agendas that 0:13:12.280 --> 0:13:20.280 seek to oppress anyone can very quickly oppress everyone. Ramses 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:24.960 and I have a video of the show online that's 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:28.800 circulating that's, you know, somewhere close to ten million views, 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:38.160 where we discuss having biracial children Hispanic LATINX biracial children 0:13:38.880 --> 0:13:42.520 who could very well be affected by ice raids and 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:47.560 talks of deportation, and how their friends, teachers, you know, 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:51.320 their parents, and classmates look at them at school has 0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:54.800 been different since this device of rhetoric has become the 0:13:54.880 --> 0:14:01.360 norm when we're talking about DEI or deportations or anti 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:09.040 LGBTQ initiatives. It always startled me that even any Black 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:12.839 people could kind of step back and remove themselves from 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:17.560 fighting to defend other marginalized communities, something that I thought 0:14:17.600 --> 0:14:20.600 would have been something that brought us together more than 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:27.800 separated us. From your purview, What has that looked like 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:31.360 post election, as we're seeing people realize, oh, that thing 0:14:31.400 --> 0:14:34.840 that I thought would only affect other people is now 0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:36.320 knocking on my front door. 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:41.640 Yeah, it's somewhat difficult to watch. I think that there's 0:14:42.160 --> 0:14:45.480 definitely people, even people within the black community, who are 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:49.720 realizing how real this. Things got so quickly, right, and 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:51.800 it wasn't like Trump's first term where there was some 0:14:51.880 --> 0:14:54.000 stumbling around and it took a couple of years for 0:14:54.080 --> 0:14:56.800 things to get off the ground. Right. There was this plan, 0:14:57.280 --> 0:14:59.720 Project twenty twenty five that was put into action, very 0:14:59.760 --> 0:15:04.040 cool quickly. I will say this, though, there are and 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:06.800 always have been a segment of the Black community that 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:10.280 is just conservative. Right. These are people who are Republicans 0:15:10.280 --> 0:15:13.200 who are going to vote Republican no matter what, many 0:15:13.200 --> 0:15:16.400 of whom write don the MAGA hat with pride. They're 0:15:16.440 --> 0:15:19.920 not being affected by these changes, right. They're looking at 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:22.760 what's going on and they're satisfying this is something that 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:26.760 they really wanted to see happen. They understood these consequences. 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:29.840 And so there's always going to be certain Black people 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:34.080 who side with the oppressor, if you will, and who 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:37.920 are willing to give up sort of this solidarity or 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:40.720 this idea of what's best for their community, for these 0:15:40.800 --> 0:15:45.560 individual Republican notions of what's going to help them get ahead, right, 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:47.960 and what's going to benefit them in their personal lives 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:52.880 and those beliefs. But there's absolutely this sentiment right that, oh, 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:56.320 things are happening really quickly. My worry though, is that 0:15:56.360 --> 0:15:59.960 there's far more Black people who are like, yeah, that's fine, 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:02.560 and you know that we're now in the find out 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:04.880 phase and we're just going to watch everybody find out, 0:16:05.360 --> 0:16:07.520 and we're just going to sit back and people are 0:16:07.600 --> 0:16:09.360 going to have to deal with this, and to me, 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:13.480 I understand that sentiment, I really do, but it's a 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:17.080 very dangerous sentiment to place ourselves in because we as 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:20.480 black people then lose our political voice. And if voting 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:23.560 becomes more difficult, if there are elections in the future 0:16:23.600 --> 0:16:27.200 where our vote could change things and doesn't, it's going 0:16:27.280 --> 0:16:29.200 to make it that much harder for us to assert 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:32.280 ourselves and re enter the political sphere in a way 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:34.440 where we can really make a difference and continue to 0:16:34.440 --> 0:16:37.280 have the impact on elections that we have had, say 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:40.160 in twenty twenty in local and state elections in twenty 0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:44.280 twenty four and going forward. And so that's really the 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:46.920 worry for me, right is that black people are going 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:49.280 to take a step back and everyone's going to be 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:51.280 thinking everyone else is going to pick up the slack, 0:16:51.400 --> 0:16:54.280 but it's not going to be enough. And then when 0:16:54.400 --> 0:16:58.440 it comes time for elections to be had in people 0:16:58.480 --> 0:17:01.480 to decisions to be made, black people are going to suffer, 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:04.600 right because we're going to have to deal with the 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:08.439 consequences of political actions. 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:16.240 Recently, the President signed an executive order that is going 0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:21.479 to or that seeks to overhaul elections comprehensively, and of 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:27.160 course unilaterally with I think close to fifty seven percent 0:17:27.240 --> 0:17:33.399 of Black people electing to vote in person and I 0:17:33.440 --> 0:17:37.720 think thirty one percent on election day. As they seek 0:17:37.760 --> 0:17:41.640 to make voting more difficult in general, how is that 0:17:41.760 --> 0:17:45.159 going to impact Black voters that want to show up 0:17:45.200 --> 0:17:48.480 and that have not turned a blind eye and who 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:52.440 will not sit out. I think they know where they 0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:55.720 want to focus to make voting more difficult. What is 0:17:55.760 --> 0:17:57.840 that going to look like for us moving forward? 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:03.960 Again? I think this is a difficult question because elections 0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:07.560 right now, with the way our country is polarized, are 0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:10.560 really wanted the margins, and it can be that fifty 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:13.840 hundred thousand votes that make a difference. Right the state 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:17.160 of Wisconsin was decided by less than thirty thousand votes 0:18:17.240 --> 0:18:20.280 this past election cycle, and so it flipped back to 0:18:20.400 --> 0:18:24.959 read by such a thin margin, where these questions about okay, 0:18:25.440 --> 0:18:28.879 is having some sort of ID valid ID necessary to 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:32.680 vote that prove citizenship going to change things? And what 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:34.760 it's going to do is it's going to affect things 0:18:34.760 --> 0:18:38.480 at the margins, and you're going to have active voters, 0:18:38.640 --> 0:18:41.199 people who vote and are engaged in politics, figure out 0:18:41.240 --> 0:18:43.560 how to get this ID, figure out how to vote right, 0:18:43.560 --> 0:18:45.800 they're going to find the resources to do it. But 0:18:45.880 --> 0:18:48.200 there's going to be those people on the margins who 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:51.040 maybe don't vote all the time, or young people who 0:18:51.080 --> 0:18:54.480 are thinking about voting but maybe are undecided or are 0:18:54.480 --> 0:18:56.639 going to be affected by this type of legislation, and 0:18:56.680 --> 0:18:58.680 it's going to cause them not to vote. Right there, 0:18:58.800 --> 0:19:02.200 that extra step of finding the right ID or figuring 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:06.120 out how to get proof of citizenship or figuring out 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:10.000 where to go to get extra documentation just to register 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:13.440 to vote. Right if this law ends up being upheld, 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:16.359 which we'll see what happens, because states typically have the 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:19.439 final say when it comes to voting, especially since the 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:21.960 gutting of the Voting Rights Act in twenty thirteen. But 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:25.639 if Trump's executive order ends up being upheld anyway in 0:19:25.680 --> 0:19:28.880 the courts before twenty twenty six or twenty twenty eight, 0:19:29.200 --> 0:19:31.640 it's going to affect things at the margins, and it's 0:19:31.640 --> 0:19:34.879 going to make it even harder for Democrats or anyone 0:19:34.880 --> 0:19:37.680 else trying to mobilize black voters to get those people 0:19:37.760 --> 0:19:40.639 at the margins off their couch into the polls. And 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:44.960 that's always been the debate behind voter ID laws, Right, well, 0:19:45.119 --> 0:19:48.680 is it going is it really a barrier to certain people? 0:19:48.720 --> 0:19:51.720 And yes, it is right. There's always going to be 0:19:52.560 --> 0:19:57.480 disproportionate disadvantages in communities such as the black community, where 0:19:57.480 --> 0:20:01.639 there are less resources, there's less information, there's less political 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:07.520 knowledge because of the historical alienation and removal from politics 0:20:07.560 --> 0:20:10.000 that the community is faced for generations. 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:16.560 They look to make voting more difficult, and they look 0:20:16.640 --> 0:20:21.520 to make voting inconvenient for the direct purpose that you 0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:26.280 just stated, to impact our community in difficult ways, doctor Tyler, 0:20:26.680 --> 0:20:29.000 to say, we appreciate you, man, it's just not really 0:20:29.040 --> 0:20:32.399 saying enough. I want to say thank you. I know 0:20:32.440 --> 0:20:34.480 my brother wants to say thank you. Oh yeah, though 0:20:34.480 --> 0:20:37.439 he's already spoken to you. But honored to have this 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:40.240 conversation with you, and hoping that we can continue these 0:20:40.280 --> 0:20:43.119 conversations because we need it and so do our and 0:20:43.160 --> 0:20:45.160 so does our community. Sure. 0:20:45.240 --> 0:20:49.159 Sure, And again to be able to sit here, you know, 0:20:49.200 --> 0:20:51.159 for those I'll speak for us in this kind of 0:20:51.200 --> 0:20:56.440 journalistic space, a conversation with you is like a reset, 0:20:56.600 --> 0:20:58.240 you know. And today I actually got to be a 0:20:58.280 --> 0:21:01.399 bona fide journalist because they did less hosting and more producing, 0:21:01.560 --> 0:21:06.320 you know, and just to listen to that conversation. It 0:21:06.960 --> 0:21:10.720 imbues the energy around here with the kind of motivation 0:21:10.840 --> 0:21:13.879 that we need, you know, for those of us looking 0:21:13.920 --> 0:21:16.000 for a glimmer of hope. You know, it's kind of like, well, 0:21:16.040 --> 0:21:18.040 you know, all hope is not lost. The narratives that 0:21:18.119 --> 0:21:22.720 had been successfully chronicled by those on the right now 0:21:23.040 --> 0:21:26.239 you know, there's a little there on shaky ground, and 0:21:26.560 --> 0:21:29.879 some were entirely unfounded. Altogether. There's still work to do, 0:21:29.920 --> 0:21:32.960 of course, but again, a conversation like this certainly does 0:21:33.000 --> 0:21:35.560 help at least those of us that are in this space, 0:21:35.560 --> 0:21:37.879 and we have to continue having these conversations. So with that, 0:21:38.760 --> 0:21:41.439 I want to make sure that I thank you on 0:21:41.480 --> 0:21:43.760 behalf of all of us here at Civic Cipher before 0:21:43.800 --> 0:21:45.480 we let you go do his favorite shout out any 0:21:45.520 --> 0:21:47.640 sort of social media websites, anything like that where people 0:21:47.640 --> 0:21:48.880 can go get more information value. 0:21:49.440 --> 0:21:52.720 Absolutely, thank you so much for having me. Again. You 0:21:52.720 --> 0:21:56.080 could find all of the research and results posted on 0:21:56.640 --> 0:21:59.920 Black Voter Project dot com as well as the Black 0:22:00.080 --> 0:22:04.880 Insightsresearch dot com websites, and you can find me on 0:22:04.960 --> 0:22:09.600 Twitter formerly Twitter x and blue Sky these days at 0:22:09.880 --> 0:22:15.679 Black b l K Prof Prof CCT. And again, I 0:22:15.720 --> 0:22:17.560 just want to say thank you, And just just to 0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:20.760 highlight once more, this election was a punch in the 0:22:20.800 --> 0:22:25.000 gut to the black community, you know, seeing the potential 0:22:25.119 --> 0:22:27.760 for a first black female president sort of go up 0:22:27.760 --> 0:22:30.800 in flames. But this is nothing new, right, Tough times 0:22:30.840 --> 0:22:34.080 are nothing new for black people in America. And as 0:22:34.160 --> 0:22:37.920 we've learned, history can tell us sometimes the biggest steps 0:22:37.960 --> 0:22:41.520 forward come from the darkest times. And so I'm really 0:22:41.600 --> 0:22:45.760 hoping that, you know, we see immense change come from 0:22:45.800 --> 0:22:48.800 this dark era, change that not only brings hope to 0:22:48.800 --> 0:22:51.400 the Black community, but changes the country for good as well. 0:22:52.240 --> 0:22:55.480 With that in mind, we will leave it right there 0:22:56.240 --> 0:22:57.440 and until next week, y'all. 0:22:57.800 --> 0:22:58.119 Peace,