Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to okay F Daily with
Speaker 1: Meet your Girl Danielle Moody once again recording from the
Speaker 1: Brooklyn Bunker. Folks, I'm arrived back into New York and
Speaker 1: it feels like March of twenty twenty all over again.
Speaker 1: The lines for COVID nineteen testing are back to being
Speaker 1: hours long and wrapped around city blocks. While folks want
Speaker 1: to say to us, epidemiologists and doctors and scientists want
Speaker 1: to say that we are in much better shape than
Speaker 1: we were in March of twenty twenty here in New York.
Speaker 1: The PTSD, the trauma, the grief, the anxiety that we
Speaker 1: felt back then is back. And frankly, you know, it's
Speaker 1: hard to consistently consistently be the guinea pig for nineteen
Speaker 1: and whatever variants come and so right now, currently there
Speaker 1: are four New York City schools that are closed. Hundreds
Speaker 1: of teachers have tested positive in one day. Mayor Bill
Speaker 1: de Blasio says that he will not be closing schools.
Speaker 1: I mean, schools will obviously be closing down for the
Speaker 1: upcoming holiday shortly, but that he has no intention, no
Speaker 1: intention of closing schools as he did back in twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: The reality is this, we have a problem in the
Speaker 1: United States that is obvious, right, and it isn't just Amicron.
Speaker 1: We have a whole host of problems that I'm going
Speaker 1: to dig into today because frankly, folks, I don't know
Speaker 1: about you, but I'm feeling a level of fatigue, frustration,
Speaker 1: and just hopelessness as we are approaching the holiday season
Speaker 1: that I haven't felt in quite some time. You know, Amicron,
Speaker 1: what is troubling me about this new variant? You know?
Speaker 1: One I will say this, we are in a better place.
Speaker 1: Why because we have vaccines and we have boosters. But
Speaker 1: I know way too many people who have been vaccinated,
Speaker 1: been boosted and have contracted COVID. What we are learning
Speaker 1: about amicron is that it is more contagious, and that
Speaker 1: the likelihood of us being able to dodge this variant
Speaker 1: that is three times as more contagious than alpha, than delta,
Speaker 1: and even in some instances they're saying three to eleven
Speaker 1: times more. It depends on how you are doing your math.
Speaker 1: But what we know is that it is unlikely that
Speaker 1: we are all going to end up unscathed. So I
Speaker 1: cannot say this enough. If you are have not been vaccinated.
Speaker 1: If people around you have not been vaccinated, have not
Speaker 1: been boosted, please please please continue to encourage them to
Speaker 1: do so. This is not a joke. Again, I have
Speaker 1: friends right now who have contracted COVID after doing all
Speaker 1: of the right things. And I also want to add
Speaker 1: to this, it is not an indictment of your character
Speaker 1: if you do contract COVID, because what we know is
Speaker 1: that because of the actions right of wealthier nations in
Speaker 1: not giving a waiver to other countries, lower income countries
Speaker 1: to be able to produce their own vaccines, this is
Speaker 1: why variants keep happening. Just you know, we want to
Speaker 1: blame the people that are unvaccinated for this surge, but
Speaker 1: the reality is is that this came out of or
Speaker 1: at least was first identified in South Africa, a country
Speaker 1: whose vaccination levels are low, not because of vaccine hesitancy,
Speaker 1: but because of lack of accessibility and the amount of
Speaker 1: vaccines that the higher income nations said that they were
Speaker 1: going to be offering right and giving to these nations
Speaker 1: they fell short of. And why is that because they
Speaker 1: would rather Maderna and Fiser and these other pharmaceutical industries
Speaker 1: make billions and billions of dollars that they receive money
Speaker 1: on the back end for. So once again, what is
Speaker 1: going to be the destruction of this country, of our planet? Right,
Speaker 1: it is going to be greed. Greed is going to
Speaker 1: be what destroys us. But what concerns me the most
Speaker 1: about Omicron is this, And I have stated this before,
Speaker 1: and our friend doctor Jonathan Metzel has told us that
Speaker 1: when there is more virus that is in the air, right,
Speaker 1: it is more likely that it's going to mutate. And
Speaker 1: there was a conversation I was having with a friend
Speaker 1: of mine a couple of days ago, and it was this,
Speaker 1: how long, right, did it take us to discover Delta?
Speaker 1: So let's let's look at this. In June of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one, vaccinations were readily available and we had mobilization
Speaker 1: and roll out from this administration. Okay, by July, Delta
Speaker 1: was already prominent. So by the time that we had
Speaker 1: received the vaccines, right, we're alpha, Delta had already come
Speaker 1: on to the scene. Only a couple of months had
Speaker 1: passed between the emergence of COVID nineteen alpha to Delta.
Speaker 1: Now Delta came on the scene in July. It is November. Right,
Speaker 1: it was November when omicron was first identified in South
Speaker 1: Africa and in several other countries in Europe. So we're
Speaker 1: looking now at the fact that within July, August, September, October, November,
Speaker 1: we're looking at a rent roughly four to five months
Speaker 1: in terms of the next variant. Right, Like the time
Speaker 1: is becoming smaller and smaller between when these variants are coming.
Speaker 1: So if we're looking at omicron and we're saying that
Speaker 1: there is more of it and it is spreading faster,
Speaker 1: the likelihood of the next variant coming is probably going
Speaker 1: to be in the next two to three months. We
Speaker 1: already see that with omicron, that it is moving around
Speaker 1: the vaccinations. Now, people that are vaccinated plus boosted are
Speaker 1: less likely to have severe symptoms and be hospitalized right
Speaker 1: and die. But the thing is is that this virus
Speaker 1: is getting smarter, replicating faster, and moving at the speed
Speaker 1: of light. So in order to her for us to
Speaker 1: get a hold of it, people need to get fucking
Speaker 1: vaccinated and boosted. But more importantly, the wealthier nations need
Speaker 1: to be providing those trip waivers so that lower incominations
Speaker 1: can begin to tackle the initial vaccination fucking rollouts. We
Speaker 1: cannot be self serving at this moment. If there's anything
Speaker 1: that we have seen over the past two fucking years
Speaker 1: of living in this pandemic is that it is not
Speaker 1: a pandemic of isolation and silos. It is a communicable
Speaker 1: fucking disease and virus. So if we are not thinking
Speaker 1: about the collective we then we are going to all lose. Period.
Speaker 1: In other news, Joe Mansion is an asshole, right. Joe
Speaker 1: Mansion continues to show the American people, continues to show
Speaker 1: the world that he just does not give a fuck.
Speaker 1: And look, I know that shaming somebody who is shameless
Speaker 1: does not matter, but the level of rage that I
Speaker 1: have for Joe Mansion is on some next level. Shit.
Speaker 1: If I saw that man on the street, it would
Speaker 1: take everything in me not to punch him square in
Speaker 1: his face. And I'm not an advocate for violence, but
Speaker 1: I am at my wits fucking end, because what I'm
Speaker 1: starting to realize, folks, is this is that the end
Speaker 1: of our democracy isn't solely going to be laid on
Speaker 1: the shoulders of the Republican Party. The fascist cult right
Speaker 1: that wants to bring us back to nineteen fifty three. No,
Speaker 1: it is. It is going to rest on the shoulders
Speaker 1: of Democrats who are not seeing the urgency of now right.
Speaker 1: I listened fucking yesterday to Jen Saki, Press Secretary Jen
Speaker 1: Saki's press conference right following the major scathing statement that
Speaker 1: the White House put out in response to Joe Mansion
Speaker 1: going on Fox Right, going on Fox not calling the
Speaker 1: President of the United States, not issuing a statement, but
Speaker 1: going on the very network that is responsible for spreading
Speaker 1: the big lie, for spreading fucking COVID. That's where Mansion
Speaker 1: decided to go on to go and tell the American
Speaker 1: people that he doesn't give a fuck about them. Now.
Speaker 1: Jensaki right in her statement in her press conference following
Speaker 1: the quote unquote scathing statement that was put out, Jensaki
Speaker 1: contin he needs to refer to Joe Mansion as a
Speaker 1: good friend of the president. Let me tell you something,
Speaker 1: If Joe Mansion is somebody that you consider you're a
Speaker 1: good friend, then I would hate to think what your
Speaker 1: enemies do to you. Because Joe Mansion is no friend
Speaker 1: of this president. He is no friend of this fucking country,
Speaker 1: and he is sure as fuck not a friend of democracy.
Speaker 1: This man who was elected with two hundred and ninety
Speaker 1: thousand votes is able to thwart the voices and the
Speaker 1: need of eighty one million Americans that turned down in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty to vote for Joe Biden. Now, I know
Speaker 1: that everybody wanted to be up in arms about host Charlemagne,
Speaker 1: the God who has a new show on Comedy Central,
Speaker 1: and if you are a New Yorker, you know him
Speaker 1: because he is one of the three hosts that hosts
Speaker 1: the show called The Breakfast Club, which is a very
Speaker 1: popular morning our urban radio show. Charlemagne had Vice President
Speaker 1: Kamala Harris on air, and he asked her directly, who
Speaker 1: is the President of the United States? Is it Joe
Speaker 1: Biden or Joe Mansion. Now, Kamala Harris, in my humble opinion,
Speaker 1: which I said, recently missed a major opportunity, missed the
Speaker 1: major media moment to be able to go after fucking
Speaker 1: Joe Mansion's juggular. You know, here's the thing. I get
Speaker 1: that Joe Biden wanted to come into the presidency and
Speaker 1: say that I am the complete opposite of Donald Trump.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to trash my political opponents. I'm not
Speaker 1: going to make targets of them. I'm gonna usher in
Speaker 1: some grown up sensibilities back into our body politic and
Speaker 1: back into this White House. But at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, if you are not going after enemies of democracy,
Speaker 1: when you see that we are under fucking attack and
Speaker 1: that people within your own party are the ones that
Speaker 1: are bringing the sword to your legislation, that are tearing
Speaker 1: it up and defecating on our democracy, then I don't
Speaker 1: know what the fuck you are doing, right I honestly
Speaker 1: do not, because politics is a fucking blood sport. Right now,
Speaker 1: eight hundred thousand Americans are dead. And what we have
Speaker 1: learned right through tens of thousands of documents is just
Speaker 1: how willing and able the Trump administration was in thwarting
Speaker 1: right our ability to fight back against COVID when it
Speaker 1: first came on the scene right in twenty twenty, and
Speaker 1: when he learned about it in twenty nineteen. Is Donald
Speaker 1: Trump in jail or any of those administration officials in
Speaker 1: jail for what they did to the American people? Are
Speaker 1: they in jail for negligent homicide? Are they even being
Speaker 1: fucking indicted or questioned about what they did not do
Speaker 1: for the American people? Know they are not and so
Speaker 1: we want to believe in this country that every time
Speaker 1: we get a new administration that we can just turn
Speaker 1: the page without looking back and seeing exactly what it
Speaker 1: was that was done. It isn't just Republicans that are
Speaker 1: to blame for the situation that we are in right now.
Speaker 1: It is Democrats who want to think that we are
Speaker 1: continuing to function in some type of twentieth century mentality.
Speaker 1: We are at war. These people are at war. We
Speaker 1: already have eight hundred thousand people dead. By the time
Speaker 1: that we end the first quarter of this new upcoming year,
Speaker 1: a million Americans will have parish perished to COVID nineteen
Speaker 1: And do you know whose responsibility it is that we
Speaker 1: reach that number? Donald fucking Trump and the Trump administration.
Speaker 1: But do you hear this current administration laying blame where
Speaker 1: blame should be. Do you see them waging campaigns, going
Speaker 1: after their own party members and having them fall in line?
Speaker 1: Because it is it is inconceivable what will happen to
Speaker 1: this country if we don't pass voting rights? Right, I
Speaker 1: just do not get at it. And I am at
Speaker 1: a place right where I just put up and you
Speaker 1: can go to Zora zoramag dot com you can go
Speaker 1: to media to read my latest piece in zoramagazine, which
Speaker 1: is twenty twenty one, the Year of trauma, right. And
Speaker 1: I have to tell you that when I was asked
Speaker 1: to do a reflection piece on this year, there was
Speaker 1: not one good thing in terms of not in my
Speaker 1: personal life, right, but in the grand scheme of America.
Speaker 1: There is not one good thing that we can point to,
Speaker 1: not one. Now my friends want to say to me, oh, Danielle, well,
Speaker 1: the vaccine rollout went really well, And I'm like, were
Speaker 1: you around for the vaccine rollout? Because initially it was
Speaker 1: a bumbling, fucking mess. Now, I'm not saying that this
Speaker 1: administration didn't walk into a steaming pile of shit, but
Speaker 1: they were aware of the steaming pile of shit that
Speaker 1: they were walking into. The vaccine rollout was not great.
Speaker 1: The flip flopping by the CDC was not great. Right.
Speaker 1: But when we started off twenty twenty one, we started
Speaker 1: off six days in with a fucking insurrection, an insurrection,
Speaker 1: an attempt to overthrow the government. And as we are
Speaker 1: coming up on that year anniversary, the people that were
Speaker 1: in charge, the architects behind that, have yet to be
Speaker 1: fucking indicted. We have a Department of Justice that is
Speaker 1: spineless and run essentially by amibas. We have a Department
Speaker 1: of Health that is trying to do their best but
Speaker 1: still still playcating to the twenty five percent of Americans
Speaker 1: that refuse to get vaccinated and doing so in a
Speaker 1: way that makes them feel good about the fact that
Speaker 1: they're not getting vaccinated. When are we going to actually
Speaker 1: start to police and make policy, not police to make
Speaker 1: policy right with those that are doing the right thing
Speaker 1: in mind? When are we going to start to recognize
Speaker 1: that nicenes and euphemisms and patting everybody on the back
Speaker 1: for doing the bare minimum doesn't fucking work. So it
Speaker 1: brings me back to Joe Mansion. So one of the
Speaker 1: reasons why Mansion is saying that he will vote no
Speaker 1: on Build Back Better, and Chuck Schumer has recently said
Speaker 1: that he is going to bring the legislation to the
Speaker 1: floor because he wants everybody to be on record as
Speaker 1: if that fucking matters. Nonetheless, Joe Mansion says he's not
Speaker 1: going to vote for it because he doesn't believe in
Speaker 1: the childcare tax credit, because he thinks that parents are
Speaker 1: going to use that to go on vacation or to
Speaker 1: use it for things that they do not need. And
Speaker 1: the question that I tweeted when I heard that that
Speaker 1: was one of his responses, was why doesn't anybody ask
Speaker 1: Joe Mansion why he thinks that the American people are
Speaker 1: so undeserving? Why he thinks that low income Americans are
Speaker 1: lazy and not deserving of their own fucking money back.
Speaker 1: I am so sick and tired of this narrative coming
Speaker 1: down from this fucking uber wealthy about how they're going
Speaker 1: to dictate certain things to low income people and to
Speaker 1: the poor, and do so through a lens right, through
Speaker 1: a lens of scarcity, but also through the perception that
Speaker 1: these people are poor are low income because they just
Speaker 1: don't work hard enough, and that if we give people
Speaker 1: quote unquote handouts, then they won't want to do for themselves.
Speaker 1: Because to me, basically, what you are saying is that
Speaker 1: you do not believe in Americans. And I want somebody
Speaker 1: to have Joe Mansion be on the record fucking saying
Speaker 1: that as he is sitting on his seven hundred thousand
Speaker 1: dollars yacht and driving in his fucking thousands of dollars
Speaker 1: tens of thousands of dollar Maserati. Right, when you look
Speaker 1: at West Virginia, they are at the bottom, the fucking
Speaker 1: bottom of every socioeconomic indicator. Right, They're at the bottom
Speaker 1: of healthcare, bottom of education. But this man they have
Speaker 1: continued to elect for four fucking decades. I didn't have
Speaker 1: the opportunity to vote for or against Joe Mansion because
Speaker 1: I don't live in fucking West Virginia. But Joe Mansion
Speaker 1: has the power in our broken, fucking democracy to vote
Speaker 1: against eighty one million Americans. And we think that the
Speaker 1: system is working for us, folks, let me tell you something.
Speaker 1: Friend of the Show, Kurt Bardella also this week has
Speaker 1: a really great piece set is up at USA today
Speaker 1: which is his recommendations of what Democrats need to do.
Speaker 1: But basically, what he has stated is that Democrats need
Speaker 1: to prepare themselves for the fact that we are losing
Speaker 1: the midterms. Right, the calendar year hasn't even changed, but
Speaker 1: we can already sense what is in the air. Democrats
Speaker 1: will lose the fucking House, and they will lose the
Speaker 1: goddamn Senate. And what Republicans have already said is that
Speaker 1: they will spend the next two years right making it
Speaker 1: so that Donald Trump is going to be the nominee
Speaker 1: for twenty twenty four. We will never have three and
Speaker 1: fair elections, and they will end up probably throwing Joe
Speaker 1: Biden in jail for whatever things that they want to
Speaker 1: make up about him or his families. They have told
Speaker 1: you out loud what the fuck they plan to do,
Speaker 1: and so what Kurt Bardella says in his piece is like,
Speaker 1: here's the thing. You need to operate off of the
Speaker 1: fact that we are fucked and that we have nothing
Speaker 1: left to lose. So instead of operating from this place
Speaker 1: of fear, which is so the place of comfort for Democrats, right,
Speaker 1: they are fearful of every goddamn thing. What will people think?
Speaker 1: What about the movable middle? What about independence? We need
Speaker 1: to be bipartisan? Fuck that. Guess what. Republicans don't want
Speaker 1: to fuck with you, right, They've said that to you
Speaker 1: time and time again. And as a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: if you're really not paying attention, many of them have
Speaker 1: threatened you all with fucking violence. Your colleagues in the
Speaker 1: fucking Congress have threatened you with violence. So to think
Speaker 1: that they're coming to the table for any bipartisan measure
Speaker 1: is like dreaming about candy Land, I guess you probably
Speaker 1: believe in Santa and the tooth Ferry as well. So
Speaker 1: that's number one. Number two is this number two? Is this?
Speaker 1: No one fears Democrats. That's what Kurt said in his
Speaker 1: play and his Peace. No one fears them. They don't
Speaker 1: fear the Commission, they don't fear the Department of Justice.
Speaker 1: They don't fear this White House because they know they
Speaker 1: have no teeth, because they've proven time and time again
Speaker 1: that they are not willing to do what it takes
Speaker 1: in order to save our democracy. So when you know
Speaker 1: that you're going to continue to run them up, you
Speaker 1: think Mark Meadows wasn't isn't afraid of the criminal indictments
Speaker 1: that may or may not come down from the Department
Speaker 1: of Justice because Merritt Garland has showed us that he
Speaker 1: has no sense of urgency, that he doesn't think that
Speaker 1: ourocracies in peril, and that apparently right. His colleague Bob Mother,
Speaker 1: who put together a fucking walking memo of ten ways
Speaker 1: that you can fucking charge Donald Trump, well he, I
Speaker 1: guess put that in the bottom of the file draw
Speaker 1: and locked it up. You have all of the evidence
Speaker 1: in front of you. You know that the administration that
Speaker 1: came before. You are a group of criminals. They have
Speaker 1: fucking told you on podcasts and on Fox, and still
Speaker 1: you do nothing. I am so tired, folks, of being
Speaker 1: a part of a party that no one fears, being
Speaker 1: a part of a party that all they want to
Speaker 1: do is have in fighting about policies that the American
Speaker 1: people honestly don't understand. Do what needs to be done,
Speaker 1: get your fucking members in line. And if you're not
Speaker 1: going to do it with carrots, right then it's time
Speaker 1: to take out the fucking stick. I want to see
Speaker 1: campaigns waged against Joe Manchin. I don't give a fuck
Speaker 1: if we lose West Virginia, because frankly, we are losing
Speaker 1: right now. Because if this is what power looks like,
Speaker 1: if this is what winning in twenty twenty looks like,
Speaker 1: then you can fucking have it, you know. I'm so
Speaker 1: like infuriated because we have so much that is at stake,
Speaker 1: There is so much that is at risk, and it
Speaker 1: seems like there are only a handful of people that
Speaker 1: recognize that truth. And so when Charlemagne says to Vice
Speaker 1: President Kamala Harris, who's the president of the United States,
Speaker 1: and she has the audacity to pop off and be like,
Speaker 1: it's Joe Biden, don't act like a Republican. Well, then
Speaker 1: Joe Biden should start acting like the fucking president, right,
Speaker 1: Maybe do that. We are in a lot of trouble, folks,
Speaker 1: Like as this year comes to a close and as
Speaker 1: we get ready to move into twenty twenty two, we
Speaker 1: are in a world of fucking trouble. Over eight hundred
Speaker 1: thousand Americans are dead, Twenty five percent of the population
Speaker 1: still doesn't want to get vaccinated. We have mass shootings
Speaker 1: that are back on the rise. We have over four
Speaker 1: hundred voter supression bills that are on the books. We
Speaker 1: have you know, the rise in racism, rise in white supremacy.
Speaker 1: We have so much climate change right. I mean, it
Speaker 1: is either fire season, tornado season, hurricane season. But every
Speaker 1: time these seasons roll around, they are once in a century.
Speaker 1: How can it be once in a century? Every couple
Speaker 1: of months, we are headed towards the end of days
Speaker 1: in so many fucking ways. It's biblical what is happening
Speaker 1: right now? And yet I'm waiting for Democrats to wipe
Speaker 1: the call out their eyes and wake the fuck up.
Speaker 1: We are out of getting to a point where we
Speaker 1: have nothing to left to lose, so you better leave
Speaker 1: it all on the fucking floor right now, or just leave.
Speaker 1: The reality is is that I'm ready to fight. I've
Speaker 1: never stopped fighting. The Trump administration and what they did
Speaker 1: and Donald Trump descending down that escalator set off an
Speaker 1: alarm inside of me that has yet to go, that
Speaker 1: has yet for me to be able to hit snooze.
Speaker 1: It has been blaring for the last five years, and
Speaker 1: I want to know if anybody else can hear it.
Speaker 1: There's so much at stake, and as we tick down
Speaker 1: with just a handful of days left and this year,
Speaker 1: all I keep wondering is, my God, what does twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two have in store? Because I'm actually terrified to
Speaker 1: find out, folks. Coming up next is a really hopeful,
Speaker 1: hopeful conversation with Hope will Well and Sack. Hope Well
Speaker 1: and Sack is the executive director of a Georgia initiative
Speaker 1: to create a guaranteed income for black women of eight
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty dollars eight hundred and fifty dollars a
Speaker 1: month that could provide black women with breathing room, provide
Speaker 1: them with the ability to understand what it's like to
Speaker 1: thrive and not just survive. And I'm really excited because
Speaker 1: Hope will offer to us a lot of statistics and
Speaker 1: a lot of reasons why the in Her Hand initiative
Speaker 1: that they have launched will launch, excuse me at the
Speaker 1: beginning of twenty twenty two matters and could possibly present
Speaker 1: itself as a model for what guaranteed income, which is
Speaker 1: different from universal basic income, what guaranteed income could look
Speaker 1: like for those communities that are always marginalized and never
Speaker 1: invested in. So I'm very excited for the upcoming conversation
Speaker 1: with Hope while in Sack, folks, I am very excited
Speaker 1: to welcome to woke F for the first time Hope
Speaker 1: wallin sach who is the executive director of Georgia Resilience
Speaker 1: and Opportunity Fund or GROW Fund in Atlanta. The in
Speaker 1: Her Hand initiative will be focusing on providing black women
Speaker 1: with guaranteed income of around eight hundred and fifty dollars
Speaker 1: a month over the next two years. And the hope here,
Speaker 1: I'm assuming, is to see how such a program that
Speaker 1: we've heard in different formats and in different ways by
Speaker 1: different politicians, how we can help those black women who
Speaker 1: want are the base of the Democratic Party, who are
Speaker 1: often heads of households, and who are often also making
Speaker 1: fifty cents on the dollar or seventy five cents depending
Speaker 1: on who's measuring on the dollar of white men. Hope,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for making the time to join
Speaker 1: us on woke F tell me more about this extraordinary
Speaker 1: in Her Hands initiative and this program. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for having me, Daniel. Yes, so, just as you described,
Speaker 1: the in Her Hands Initiative is a partnership between the
Speaker 1: Georgia Resilience and Opportunity Fund or Growth Fund and give
Speaker 1: directly and we'll be providing thirteen million to black women
Speaker 1: across Georgia in a two year program that provides approximately
Speaker 1: eight hundred and fifty dollars a month on average to
Speaker 1: participants to over six hundred women across the state. Our focus,
Speaker 1: or our launch site is the Old fourth Ward neighborhood
Speaker 1: of Atlanta, which is directly in the heart of the
Speaker 1: city of Atlanta. It's the neighborhood where doctor Martin Luther
Speaker 1: King was born, where he preached to ebnez Or Baptist Church.
Speaker 1: King was an early advocate for guaranteed income, especially in
Speaker 1: his last book in nineteen sixty eight, Chaos our Community.
Speaker 1: And yet this neighborhood today, like many neighborhoods across Atlanta
Speaker 1: and across Georgia and probably across the country, although it
Speaker 1: sits in the shadow of King's legacy of justice, it's
Speaker 1: home to the largest concentration of Section eight housing jud
Speaker 1: was too million dollars newly constructed homes. So we feel
Speaker 1: that this neighborhood, like many neighborhoods across the city, across
Speaker 1: the country, has a particular charge to pursue racial and
Speaker 1: economic justice in really bold ways that are not just
Speaker 1: a program, but also switching the paradigm on how we
Speaker 1: understand economic insecurity and poverty. So very excited about the
Speaker 1: launch of this program in early twenty twenty two and
Speaker 1: all of the work that's gone into it over the
Speaker 1: past couple of years to make it possible. Talk to
Speaker 1: me about the difference between what you in this initiative
Speaker 1: are calling a guaranteed basic income versus what we heard
Speaker 1: in the you know, the initial I guess it would
Speaker 1: be twenty nineteen, twenty twenty primary Democratic primary where we
Speaker 1: had Andrew Yang talking about you know, universal basic income.
Speaker 1: What are the distinctions between the two. Yeah, absolutely so.
Speaker 1: Guaranteed income is a term that goes back to the
Speaker 1: Civil rights movement also the Black power movement, and has
Speaker 1: long been a term to describe sort of an unconditional
Speaker 1: cash transfer program that has racial and economic justice at
Speaker 1: the heart of it. Guaranteed income programs tend to be
Speaker 1: targeted towards members of a specific community because we know
Speaker 1: that these issues of racial and economic injustice and disparities
Speaker 1: did not emerge out of nowhere. They emerge as a
Speaker 1: result of policy, political and policy choices, and so if
Speaker 1: we want to uproot some of those issues, we have
Speaker 1: to tackle them head on, and we actually have to
Speaker 1: under know the roots of where they came from and
Speaker 1: be intentional about the solutions and policies that are going
Speaker 1: to help to pursue a more more racially just and
Speaker 1: equitable economy. And so guaranteed income tends to be more
Speaker 1: focused on members from a specific community and at least
Speaker 1: started beginning with those communities and hute impacts. It begins
Speaker 1: with those communities. Certainly can be widespread for everyone below
Speaker 1: certain income thresholds, but tends to be more focused whereas
Speaker 1: universal basic income most common proposals sort of our universe,
Speaker 1: and so they would focus on everyone in a population
Speaker 1: sort of even regardless of income, so a little bit
Speaker 1: more targeted. The other is universal. As the title implies.
Speaker 1: Now I have my thoughts, which I said at the top,
Speaker 1: as to why this is being focused on black women initially.
Speaker 1: Can you explain more as to why they in Her
Speaker 1: Hands initiative, why it's focused on black women and not
Speaker 1: just black people in general. Yeah, absolutely so. This program
Speaker 1: is the result of a twenty twenty task force that
Speaker 1: convened in Atlanta called the Old Fourth Ward Economic Security
Speaker 1: Task Force and involved twenty stakeholders from across the metro
Speaker 1: Atlanta area as well as several national stakeholders. And of
Speaker 1: course we began this work actually before the economic and
Speaker 1: health public health impacts of COVID had really taken hold,
Speaker 1: but certainly any trends that had already been in place
Speaker 1: for hundreds of years were brought to the four and
Speaker 1: really amplified. During twenty twenty, we saw that we finally
Speaker 1: started to recognize and talking about it in regular discourse,
Speaker 1: the disproportionate women were taking on in terms of childcare.
Speaker 1: The unpaid limit for women also take on in terms
Speaker 1: of sort of household duties and caretaking duties. We also
Speaker 1: saw unemployment rate spike for women in particular, and of course,
Speaker 1: Black women live with the intersection of both gender inequality
Speaker 1: and racial inequality, and they bear the brunt of both
Speaker 1: of those. So women here in Georgia makes sixty three
Speaker 1: cents on the dollar to their white male counterparts. We
Speaker 1: know that those paid disparities also increase or widens as
Speaker 1: we gain higher educational attainment, and so these disparities are
Speaker 1: really pervasive. This task force asked open ended questions about
Speaker 1: economic insecurity, and what we found when we barely scratch
Speaker 1: the surface, was that although economic insecurity is pervasive, there
Speaker 1: are certain communities that are feeling it more acutely. And
Speaker 1: we would not be doing justice to tackling the problem
Speaker 1: of economic insecurity if we did not face that head
Speaker 1: on and start with some of the groups that are
Speaker 1: facing the most pervasive, the most acute impacts of economic
Speaker 1: insecurity and an economy that isn't working for everyone. And
Speaker 1: so really this is how the task force really decided
Speaker 1: to focus on Black women. Black women are one of
Speaker 1: the groups most likely to live in poverty in Georgia.
Speaker 1: They're also one of the groups like we stuck in
Speaker 1: poverty in Georgia. And we know black women serve this
Speaker 1: role as oftentimes head of households, but also like the
Speaker 1: backbone of our community in so many ways, and so
Speaker 1: we don't view this program as something that is a handout.
Speaker 1: We view this as something people already deserve, and so
Speaker 1: excited to help to bring the conversation into this is
Speaker 1: what people already deserve and more and how do we
Speaker 1: actually direct more of that towards these communities. Let's dig
Speaker 1: into the already deserve peace, because you know, one of
Speaker 1: the things that troubles me the most, particularly when we're
Speaker 1: talking about let's just look on the macro level at
Speaker 1: federal programs that we're looking right in this occurrent administration.
Speaker 1: We just learned yesterday Build Back Better is dead in
Speaker 1: the water, right because of one obstructionist Democrat who does
Speaker 1: not care about the needs of a majority of Americans.
Speaker 1: And the idea here to me is that we all
Speaker 1: pay taxes. We pay a lot of taxes, right, particularly
Speaker 1: middle income and low income people pay more than their
Speaker 1: fair share. And I look at it, and I say
Speaker 1: on wokop all the time that the social safety net
Speaker 1: programs are the government reinvesting our money back in US, right,
Speaker 1: And yet when you hear these conversations happen on Capitol Hill,
Speaker 1: it is always, you know, clouded in this idea that
Speaker 1: Americans are lazy, that like, what we shouldn't be giving
Speaker 1: them money? Oh my god, cut off the COVID relief package,
Speaker 1: you know, cut off the unemployment credits that we were
Speaker 1: giving back to people. Because if we provide, right, if
Speaker 1: we provide people with their own tax dollars back so
Speaker 1: that they can live their day to day lives without
Speaker 1: worrying about their basic needs, then they're not going to work.
Speaker 1: And so how do you all push back against that
Speaker 1: narrative and kind of help to reframe it, you know,
Speaker 1: for people outside of oh, we're just giving these lazy
Speaker 1: people money to sit on their couch, as opposed to
Speaker 1: this is what they're owed right, right, right, This is
Speaker 1: a system that we've already paid into, and so now
Speaker 1: people just getting back a little bit of what we've
Speaker 1: already paid into. Yeah, the core, at the core of
Speaker 1: this initiative is changing changing the narrative on what people
Speaker 1: broadly deserve and I think we start by doing that
Speaker 1: by changing the narrative on what black women deserve. I
Speaker 1: think for too long we have allowed the trope of
Speaker 1: in the myth of the welfare queen Yep influence policy
Speaker 1: that influences the material conditions of people across generations, across communities,
Speaker 1: and it is no longer acceptable. We need to face
Speaker 1: it head on and say this is everyone deserves a decent,
Speaker 1: dignified life. Why why have we why have we decided
Speaker 1: policies that actually undercut people's ability to do that. The
Speaker 1: truth is, the federal government, state governments play a huge
Speaker 1: role in determining who receives resources from, you know, those
Speaker 1: at the top to those at the bottom, and for
Speaker 1: some groups of people we put in these restrictions for
Speaker 1: some for some types of resource allocation, people have to
Speaker 1: jump through whos. And that is inherently linked to our
Speaker 1: conceptions of who deserves what in this economy. And so
Speaker 1: at some point I think we sort of we change
Speaker 1: the narrative by building a new one. And that's what
Speaker 1: this program is. We are building something new. We are
Speaker 1: recognizing we're not waiting for someone else to recognize our deservedness.
Speaker 1: We're saying we have it already, and so certainly everyone
Speaker 1: deserves a decent and dignified life. And so when we can,
Speaker 1: when we support black women, who have often been the
Speaker 1: punching bag on these policies, that we can begin to
Speaker 1: uproot this system that is actually failing broadly many different
Speaker 1: groups of women, but many different groups of people, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: but on the back of really black women and by
Speaker 1: using them as the punching bag here. So I mean,
Speaker 1: I think it goes without saying, people who are cash
Speaker 1: or experience in cash shortfalls, low income for whatever the
Speaker 1: term is, are incredibly resilient and resourceful. I think they
Speaker 1: could actually probably teach some folks who have a lot
Speaker 1: more more funds on like the best ways to make
Speaker 1: one dollar turn into two and to stretch a dollar.
Speaker 1: But we don't view it that way. We actually view
Speaker 1: it the opposite. I view it that actually our communities
Speaker 1: are incredible places of wealth and knowledge on how to
Speaker 1: make an economy that is works for everyone, not just
Speaker 1: on an individual level, but on a community level, and
Speaker 1: to think about sort of how to make resources go further.
Speaker 1: But we don't tap into that knowledge. In fact, we
Speaker 1: do the opposite view. We view it as a place
Speaker 1: of absence of knowledge, a deficit based mindset versus a
Speaker 1: asset based mindset. So hopefully this program can help to
Speaker 1: uproot some of those some of those tropes, and certainly
Speaker 1: our evaluation aspect of this program, we'll be looking into
Speaker 1: some of the questions you you just asked, So let's
Speaker 1: get into some of the nitty gritties of the program,
Speaker 1: which you know, again, I think it's extraordinary, right because
Speaker 1: I think, you know, I have been thinking it, particularly
Speaker 1: since the pandemic where millions of people lost their jobs.
Speaker 1: You know, when I was quarantining with my family in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty at the height, you know, of the of
Speaker 1: the pandemic, I saw lines around food pantries that I
Speaker 1: didn't even know existed in the community that I grew
Speaker 1: up in. And there were lines that we saw on
Speaker 1: national news just I mean miles long, with people just
Speaker 1: needing to get a box of food so that they
Speaker 1: could get through the next couple of weeks. And I
Speaker 1: thought to myself, how often do we say that America
Speaker 1: is the wealthiest nation. America is this beacon, and yet
Speaker 1: a majority of Americans, if a four hundred dollars bill
Speaker 1: can do wouldn't be able to pay it, and that
Speaker 1: has stayed consistent, you know, over the years. And so
Speaker 1: with this program, how do people opt in? Right? And
Speaker 1: then what are what are some of I guess the
Speaker 1: recordings or the reflections that you all will be get
Speaker 1: will be receiving from the participants in the program terrific.
Speaker 1: So we'll be launching in the Old fourth Ward neighborhood
Speaker 1: of Atlanta, and then we'll be expanding out to a
Speaker 1: couple additional geographies across the state. So people will will
Speaker 1: be doing enrollment in reaching out to folks within these
Speaker 1: selected neighborhoods to focus to let them know that they
Speaker 1: may be eligible for the program and encourage them to apply.
Speaker 1: And so all right out, let me let me think.
Speaker 1: So we hope that this program, certainly it's one of
Speaker 1: the largest guaranteed income programs in the country. It's also
Speaker 1: the largest program in the country focused on black women.
Speaker 1: It's the largest guaranteed income program in the South. And
Speaker 1: yet we know we would love to actually see this
Speaker 1: work grow because we know it's a bit of a
Speaker 1: drop in the bucket compared to be of the problem.
Speaker 1: And so we hope that this it's going to be
Speaker 1: selected areas across the state. We're really about the size
Speaker 1: of it, but we also hope that you know, it
Speaker 1: can grow even further and that this program has actually
Speaker 1: an influence on state or federal policy towards similar type solutions.
Speaker 1: And we have some ideas on what sort of a
Speaker 1: guaranteed income could look like at scale, but that is
Speaker 1: essentially how the program will be ruled out. And it's
Speaker 1: so it's a short term initiative in the hopes of
Speaker 1: generating insights and learnings and that would compel us towards
Speaker 1: sort of old old policy change towards these types of solutions.
Speaker 1: What does eligibility look like? Do you have to be
Speaker 1: at you know, at or below poverty level? Do you
Speaker 1: have to have depends you know, a certain amount of dependence. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is one of the first programs you do. You
Speaker 1: do not need dependence. So, okay, you can be um
Speaker 1: a parent or or not a parent and participate in
Speaker 1: this program. You um, it's focused on black women and
Speaker 1: focused on black women in specific geographies and so and
Speaker 1: then there is an income threshold for participation in the program,
Speaker 1: which will let people know for the specific geographies. Okay,
Speaker 1: you know, it's just I really love this idea and
Speaker 1: I'm excited to see how it changes, you know, how
Speaker 1: how it changes the communities that you're going to be
Speaker 1: tapping in. Just tell us, you know, one of my
Speaker 1: last questions is, you know, tell us about what your
Speaker 1: hopes are, what what what do you hope to see
Speaker 1: um from out of the out of this two years
Speaker 1: and you know, how do you think that it will
Speaker 1: change the lives the participants? Yeah, our hope for these
Speaker 1: two years is that we're able to increase the economic
Speaker 1: security and financial stability of individuals who participate in the program.
Speaker 1: We know that although cash shortfalls and financial insecurity, we
Speaker 1: use it that term as if it's really abstract from
Speaker 1: people's everyday lives, but it affects the material conditions of
Speaker 1: people's lives, the duration of their life, and the quality
Speaker 1: of one's life. So we hope that this, in some
Speaker 1: small way. It is certainly not enough, and people deserve more,
Speaker 1: but in some small way gives people back a little
Speaker 1: bit of time, a little bit of autonomy, a little
Speaker 1: bit of freedom to make choices, a little bit of
Speaker 1: breathing room. Finally for them to just have a second
Speaker 1: to take a step back and take care of themselves
Speaker 1: and their loved ones. Individuals experience cash shortfalls, but those
Speaker 1: ripple effects are felt across generations, it is felt across communities,
Speaker 1: it is felt across household units. And so we hope
Speaker 1: that there are some ripple effects even across communities with
Speaker 1: this type of program. And so our goal is, yes,
Speaker 1: to improve the sort of financial security of folks in
Speaker 1: the short run, and we think that we'll have sort
Speaker 1: of impacts on their financial well being in the long term,
Speaker 1: their mental health and well in physical health in the
Speaker 1: long term, as well as a number of other factors.
Speaker 1: But really, if I had to boil it down, giving
Speaker 1: folks just that breathing room, and then I think a
Speaker 1: second objective for the program is to influence influence policy.
Speaker 1: Something about what we've been doing isn't working. As you said,
Speaker 1: the majority of Americans in a four to four hundred
Speaker 1: dollar emergency. We can keep trying the same things and
Speaker 1: investing in the same things over and over, or we
Speaker 1: can finally take a step back and say, why don't
Speaker 1: we listen to people in communities about what their needs
Speaker 1: are and then do something about it. Let's place the
Speaker 1: power in the hands of the people. Closest to the
Speaker 1: problem to develop solutions on solving it and actually listen
Speaker 1: to them when they're telling us what the root of
Speaker 1: the problem is. We heard income community members cash would
Speaker 1: be a game changer. It is very difficult to budget
Speaker 1: plan for your life when month after a month your
Speaker 1: experiencing cashhort falls. And so we hope that this program
Speaker 1: has some short term implications for program participants, but also
Speaker 1: begins to shift the paradigm on how we even develop
Speaker 1: policies in the first place, and whose voices are centered
Speaker 1: in that in that decision making process. You know, it's
Speaker 1: always the people who are so distant from the actual
Speaker 1: problem that are the ones that are making policy. And
Speaker 1: one of the things that you had said, you know, earlier,
Speaker 1: is low income communities are so much more resilient because
Speaker 1: they have always had to do more with less. And
Speaker 1: you know, and this idea that a lot of politicians,
Speaker 1: not just you know, Republicans, but Democrats alike, really look
Speaker 1: at low income communities as through a deficit lens, as
Speaker 1: opposed to saying, like we are in a bucks supposedly
Speaker 1: an abundant nation, right, and so how is it that
Speaker 1: we are unable to help the least among us and
Speaker 1: why is that? And it is because I believe that
Speaker 1: they don't think that these people are deserving. We have
Speaker 1: set up this idea around you know, if you are wealthy, right,
Speaker 1: then we should be taking advice from you. You should
Speaker 1: be providing, you know, books on success and how to achieve.
Speaker 1: And I'm just like, how when you look at most
Speaker 1: of those people, the super wealthy, the one percent, they
Speaker 1: received money from family right to start their businesses, to
Speaker 1: do these things, and it's like you should be asking
Speaker 1: questions of those that have been able to make the
Speaker 1: most out of the least about how you thrive right?
Speaker 1: And I think that moving this fun to me, seems
Speaker 1: like an opportunity to move people from a place of
Speaker 1: survival into actually thriving. Like what does it mean, you know,
Speaker 1: to be able to have breathing room, whether you're putting
Speaker 1: that money back into the economy or you're saving it,
Speaker 1: or you find like I have a little bit to
Speaker 1: invest in something right and grow it from there. And
Speaker 1: I think that that's really important. Holly tell us, if
Speaker 1: folks want to find out more information, if they want
Speaker 1: to get involved, how they can find you all. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: so folks can visit the Growth Fund dot org to
Speaker 1: learn more about our work and also support our work. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just you know, I really want to commend you.
Speaker 1: I hope that we can circle back in a couple
Speaker 1: of months to hear how things are going, how many
Speaker 1: participants that you have, and what are some of the
Speaker 1: testimonies coming out from the women that you're helping, because
Speaker 1: I think that that's going to be really important too.
Speaker 1: I want to definitely hear hear their voices about what
Speaker 1: it means to be able to know that you have
Speaker 1: this guaranteed income coming in and how you're better able
Speaker 1: to plan your life moving forward rather than dealing paycheck
Speaker 1: to paycheck. So, Hollie, thank you so much for making
Speaker 1: the time to join us on woke f and I
Speaker 1: hope to have you back to hear how well things
Speaker 1: are going and for those people that are interested in
Speaker 1: getting in contact folks had to grow dot org. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much. We'd love to be back. That is
Speaker 1: it for me today. Friends on woke F as always,
Speaker 1: power to the people and to all the people. Power,
Speaker 1: get woke and stay woke as fuck.