WEBVTT - Ed Gordon Wants To Know "What's Going On?" 0:00:11.119 --> 0:00:15.040 Welcome to PM Mood, the no Talking Points, no Bullshit 0:00:15.160 --> 0:00:18.720 podcast that takes you behind the curtain, off the red carpet, 0:00:18.760 --> 0:00:21.720 and to the front lines of progress with change makers 0:00:21.840 --> 0:00:24.680 and innovators that are doing the work to shift our 0:00:24.720 --> 0:00:29.080 culture and expand our social impact. Y'all, I am so 0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:32.559 excited to bring you this incredible interview that I got 0:00:32.600 --> 0:00:38.040 to do pre quarantine with legendary journalists Ed Gordon, author 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:41.920 of the new book Conversations in Black on Power, politics 0:00:41.960 --> 0:00:45.199 and leadership. Thank you so much, Thank you for joining me. 0:00:46.040 --> 0:00:49.320 I have been very excited to speak with you for 0:00:50.360 --> 0:00:55.040 more for a few reasons. One because my background is 0:00:55.080 --> 0:00:58.360 in politics. I did not go to school for communications, 0:00:58.440 --> 0:01:02.639 but I got into communication is kind of because of activism. 0:01:02.680 --> 0:01:04.920 And I think that as I have been going through 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:11.039 your career thirty plus years, working literally at every network 0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:16.040 in every place, from b ET, CBS, NBC, you know 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:18.560 the question that you open up your book with is 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:21.080 a question that I want to open up our conversation with, 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:24.280 which is throughout the course of your career you have 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:29.240 seen so much. You have spoken to presidents, activists, leaders, 0:01:29.280 --> 0:01:32.960 members of Congress, and here we are in twenty twenty 0:01:33.440 --> 0:01:36.520 and the question that it still permeates is what is 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:41.679 going on? Well, I think that's always a question, right, 0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:44.959 what's going on? It's a fair question for any generation, 0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:49.240 but I think for African Americans in particular, because we 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:53.680 were brought in quotes here to this country. The sense 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:57.040 of us not having control and needing to ask what's 0:01:57.080 --> 0:01:59.760 going on? Not in the general sense of hey, what's 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:02.480 happening and what's going on? But what is going on? 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:05.400 Because we don't control It has always been a question 0:02:05.480 --> 0:02:09.080 that we've had to grapple with because often we don't 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:11.640 have control. We can't say, oh, well, this is going 0:02:11.680 --> 0:02:15.360 on or that's going on. Somebody else controls our what's 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:17.720 going on? And so when I open up the book 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:21.480 and I talk about Marvin Gay asking that question musically 0:02:22.520 --> 0:02:27.440 so many years ago and having the idea of some 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:32.720 of those same issues, same ills being so prevalent today. 0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:35.760 You know, we say, oh, he was such a master. 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:39.120 He was, he was all of that, But it was 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:42.160 less about Marvin being able to see into the future 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:45.200 as it is just we've not changed in this country 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:48.919 enough that it hasn't made some of those ills outdated 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:52.760 for us. And that's the real sense of what's problematic 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:54.840 to me. Do you find that that is a sense 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:59.799 sometimes of hopelessness that black folks have, because when we 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:03.520 look right at our history, when we look at the 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:06.240 progress that we've made, I mean, you can go back 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:09.360 and you can stay. Well, we were brought here in bondage, 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:13.720 and we were able to see a black president. So 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:17.760 we want to be able to celebrate the paths that 0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:20.560 we have fought and the places that we've gone. But 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:24.440 it doesn't look like a lot has changed from that though, 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:27.840 right So a lot has changed, a lot has changed quickly. 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:33.000 I think sometimes we forget that the change of a nation, 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:37.640 those cogs move very slowly. We've been able to accelerate 0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:40.960 it very quickly. I think our sense of hopelessness as 0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:43.720 a black people is very fleeting. I think there are 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:49.000 times that we feel this isn't changing, It's always going 0:03:49.040 --> 0:03:51.640 to be the same. The white man keeps us down. 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:54.640 But that's very fleeting, which is why we've been able 0:03:54.680 --> 0:03:58.400 to survive and thrive, many of us, some of us 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:03.200 because we are wrong people. For as downtrodden as they 0:04:03.240 --> 0:04:08.520 try to portray us, for as sometimes as overwhelming as 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:11.960 our conditions have been in this nation. I see us 0:04:12.160 --> 0:04:15.880 as a strong people, as a people that I won't 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:18.640 say no other people could have done this. I'm sure 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:21.160 Jews would say that they lived through the Holocaust, and 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:23.599 they did and all. But when you look at the 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:27.320 sheer issues that we have dealt with were the number 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:29.760 of years that we have dealt with, we are very 0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:34.440 strong people. Some of what we continue to trip over 0:04:34.920 --> 0:04:38.360 is self inflicted. And what I hope in terms of 0:04:38.400 --> 0:04:41.080 this book is that we start to look at new narratives, 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:44.560 have different conversations, look at the things that brought us 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:47.280 here that may now be obsolete and we need to 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:51.120 put them aside. I'm not talking about people. I'm talking 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:53.960 about issues, because I think that we are in need 0:04:54.040 --> 0:04:56.440 in some respects of new narratives. But there are other 0:04:56.480 --> 0:04:59.400 things that served us well. And I don't mean just 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:02.120 the moo men in marches, And I'm talking about how 0:05:02.160 --> 0:05:04.440 we treat each other and what we've done, and this 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:07.919 sense of black people really feeling like a family at times. 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:10.640 I think that's lessened in the sixties. I was born 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:14.440 in nineteen sixties, so I don't know about the sixties, 0:05:14.640 --> 0:05:18.120 but I know about the seventies and the eighties, and 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:21.000 there was this sense I think a lot more of 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:23.599 even though now we say hey sister, hey brother, that 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:26.279 sense is not the same as it was in the seventies. 0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:30.400 There was a real sense of sisterhood, brotherhood amongst our community. 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:33.480 There was a real sense of if you lived down 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:37.279 the street, that you are my child too. You know, 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:41.080 I think that has waned a little bit, certainly, just 0:05:41.279 --> 0:05:43.880 proximity Black people back then we all had to I 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:46.400 remember one of I grew up in Detroit. One of 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:50.280 the star Detroit Lions, Charlie Sanders, who was a tight end, 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:53.479 literally lived three blocks away. He was an All Pro 0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:57.800 football player. Today he would live, he would live somewhere 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:02.320 communities I wouldn't be able to. As we did walk 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:05.960 up to his door, three twelve year olds knock on 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:09.400 his door. His wife answers, and we said, can we 0:06:09.480 --> 0:06:13.120 see Charlie, And then Charlie invite us in back to 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:16.479 his den, show us his footballs, show us his trophies. 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:19.479 That meant a lot to us. He wasn't this multi 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:22.880 millionaire who lives somewhere else. Even though people and kids 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:27.760 aspire to be Lebron James or whomever today, Steph Curry 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:30.839 or whomever you can't touch them in the same way 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:33.480 that we were able to. So I think there's some 0:06:33.520 --> 0:06:35.479 things that we need to think about getting back to. 0:06:35.720 --> 0:06:38.840 And doesn't mean that a multibillionaire and millionaire's gonna move 0:06:38.880 --> 0:06:41.240 back to your community, but this sense of being able 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:44.040 to touch them more often than we do well when 0:06:44.120 --> 0:06:47.000 in that sense, you know, I think about Nipsey Hustle, 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:50.920 and I think about someone who actually was living in 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:54.520 his community right and was very active and trying to 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:57.960 build in his community, and then he was murdered in 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:00.559 his community. And we talk about that in the book, 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:03.279 and some will say, some will argue that he shouldn't 0:07:03.320 --> 0:07:06.039 have been living there, that he should have maybe continue 0:07:06.080 --> 0:07:09.640 to help, but shouldn't have been necessarily living there and 0:07:09.720 --> 0:07:12.800 the way he lived there. So, but that's part of 0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:15.840 the discussion, that's part of the conversation. Is that right 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:17.920 is that wrong? Is there no right or wrong? Is 0:07:17.920 --> 0:07:20.960 that an individual's choice. I just want us to do 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:23.120 two things with this book. I want us to find 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:26.160 new narratives. I want us to start talking, not like 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:29.239 we've been talking, just complaining or saying the same things. 0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:33.720 I want us to hold insightful conversations that empower us 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:38.200 not just leadership, but empower twenty two year old who 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:42.560 thinks she has no power to make change, or forty 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:46.960 five year old who feels like I gotta continue working 0:07:47.000 --> 0:07:49.440 hard my nine to five to get that next promotion. 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:53.000 To know that we all have a stake in this game, 0:07:53.120 --> 0:07:57.040 and we all need to put something, some skin in 0:07:57.080 --> 0:08:00.680 the game of making all of us better, strong, or 0:08:00.760 --> 0:08:06.120 more independent, you know, becoming more financially sound as a community. 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:10.280 So we're not living by means of gratitude to a 0:08:10.360 --> 0:08:15.560 corporation who funds Quite frankly, many of our organizations. These 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:17.920 are the same companies, and we talk about this in 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:19.920 the book. These are the same companies that in some 0:08:20.040 --> 0:08:23.120 respects cause the ills in our community. Yet they give 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:26.560 one hundred thousand dollars to a civil rights organization to 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:29.360 put on their gala and their dinner, and we're cool 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:32.440 with that. We have to start thinking about different ways 0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:34.760 to attack our issues. Why do you think that we 0:08:34.880 --> 0:08:37.920 haven't been so expansive in the way that we've been 0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:39.960 thinking about the issues, Because I do think that it 0:08:40.080 --> 0:08:42.679 is important to have a space where you can vent, 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:45.840 right Like we are the only ones that understand what 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:48.960 it is like to be black in America, to have 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:52.600 to navigate all of these different obstacles that frankly were 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:56.400 created by other people for us. And so what do 0:08:56.440 --> 0:08:58.439 you think? How do you because I know the point 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:02.160 of this book is to create new narratives in power, 0:09:02.240 --> 0:09:05.960 in politics, in leadership, what do you think has been missing? 0:09:06.120 --> 0:09:09.120 So what makes it hard is that there's no right 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:13.240 or wrong answer to that, because in some respects we 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:18.280 have been expansive, we have overcome I remember I talked 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:21.560 about it in the book Going to Chicago. I flew 0:09:21.559 --> 0:09:25.400 to Chicago to interview Barack Obama about a month or 0:09:25.440 --> 0:09:27.960 two weeks before he was going to announce that he 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:30.120 was going to run. I knew him a little bit, 0:09:30.200 --> 0:09:33.680 we'd had some phone conversations, but didn't really know him well. 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:36.600 I knew that he wouldn't announce on this show that day, 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:38.600 but he might give me a little nugget. And I 0:09:38.640 --> 0:09:43.000 remember asking him saying, you know, a senator there whispers 0:09:43.040 --> 0:09:45.960 about you possibly running. And then he got into whatever 0:09:46.000 --> 0:09:47.840 spiel he was going to give me, and I remember 0:09:47.880 --> 0:09:51.840 as he was talking, thinking in my head, yeah whatever, man, Yeah, bro, 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:54.200 you ain't winning. You know, just don't embarrass us, do 0:09:54.240 --> 0:09:57.800 you think, but you're not winning. But he believed, he believed, 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:01.400 truly believed that he he could do this. He believed 0:10:01.480 --> 0:10:04.720 we figured this thing out with social media, with young people. 0:10:04.720 --> 0:10:09.319 What's our thresholder Without that new narrative, Without that new thought, 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:13.720 we would have never seen what we saw, which gave 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:18.040 my daughter who's twenty five and outlook and less baggage 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:20.720 than I had at twenty five when I thought I'll 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:23.719 never see a black president. She doesn't have to grow 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:26.880 up with that baggage. So I think that we sometimes 0:10:26.920 --> 0:10:29.840 don't give ourselves enough credit either. So the key is 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:33.160 to just keep talking. What I'd love for us to 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:38.720 do is maybe as organizations cobbled together for superhero fans 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:42.280 and Avengers like Team you know of maybe some of 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:46.720 the Black Lives Matter people and NAN and NAACP and 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:50.440 the Urban League, and tackle one specific issue. You can 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:53.079 have your singular issues, but and I know that one 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:57.360 specific whether it's education, whether it's police brutality, whether whatever 0:10:57.360 --> 0:10:59.559 the case may be, closing the wealth. Ye find out 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:01.760 what's that one issue that you all can agree on 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:04.120 and say, look, we're gonna and then bring the things 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:07.000 that you do best to the table and let's attack that, 0:11:07.080 --> 0:11:10.440 and let's ask all of us, here's the issue that 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:14.360 we are going to attack, whether it's police brutality, which 0:11:14.400 --> 0:11:16.839 I thought maybe that would have been at when there 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:19.240 was such a fervor with the spate of killings that 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:22.400 we saw with Treyvon and Michael Brown and Sandra Bland 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:24.920 and Tamir Rice, and we can go on and on 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:28.560 and that, and that started to die away, as most 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:31.960 causes do. And I think about, you know, the Montgomery 0:11:32.000 --> 0:11:34.600 bus boycott and how great those people were to keep 0:11:34.640 --> 0:11:37.960 that going for over a year and never to lose 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:41.079 the idea of this is what we're fighting for, this 0:11:41.160 --> 0:11:43.800 is what we're gonna do. And surely that wasn't a nation, 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:46.760 but that was a community of people. And they didn't 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:49.760 let anybody waiver, you know. They said, no, that you're 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:51.920 not getting on that bus. Dot, we'll get a car, 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:54.840 we'll pay your cab fare, we'll you know, but you 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:57.760 not getting on that bus. And they didn't. And it 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:01.679 not only changed Montgomery, but really change the world at 0:12:01.720 --> 0:12:04.600 least America. That's I hope what we can do. It's 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:08.120 not that the issues have changed so much. I think 0:12:08.160 --> 0:12:11.320 that it's the ways in which we have those conversations 0:12:11.360 --> 0:12:14.600 and the fact that we don't necessarily live in community 0:12:14.720 --> 0:12:17.480 the way that we did. You could do a Montgomery 0:12:17.960 --> 0:12:22.520 bus boycott back in those times because it was a 0:12:22.679 --> 0:12:27.760 very small community. Now we are everywhere, and it feels 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:33.000 like our problems are everywhere. So let's take one problem 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:35.640 that affects all of us, no matter where you live, 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:39.600 and that is racial profiling and the possibility of being 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:44.640 unjustly arrested or killed by law enforcement. You can be 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:47.440 a brother in the Bronx, or you can be a 0:12:47.480 --> 0:12:52.120 movie star in la and you can get pulled over 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:56.000 in the same way. You can be harassed in the 0:12:56.080 --> 0:12:58.839 same way. If they don't know it's Anthony Anderson or 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:04.240 Jamie Fox or whomever you know, and heaven forbid if 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:06.560 they move the wrong way before they even got into 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:08.480 the winner, and they may not even know that it's 0:13:08.520 --> 0:13:12.360 Anthony Anderson or Jamie Fox. You know, they might know Denzel, 0:13:12.480 --> 0:13:15.079 but they may not know all of us. Right, there 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:19.200 are issues that we could attack no matter where we live, 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:23.080 our condition, our station in life, that we could say 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:26.800 this affects all of us. Or if we and this 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:29.760 is not just black people, if we are of the 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:33.240 belief that as we say our children are our future, 0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:36.960 and we really care about kids, then why are the 0:13:37.040 --> 0:13:42.439 school systems so poor? The vast majority of black kids 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:46.280 who go to public schools will not be prepared for 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:49.960 this modern world. I live in Brooklyn, and there are 0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:52.640 in the vicinity of where I live there must be 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:55.800 at least ten public schools that are in walking distance 0:13:56.679 --> 0:14:00.360 of my house. There are only black kids that go there, right, 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:04.080 And from the outside it seems fine, But I know 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:08.000 better because I have worked in New York City public 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:11.800 affairs system and will know the public education system and 0:14:11.880 --> 0:14:14.400 know that they're all failing. And I say to myself, 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:18.760 why why? Because Brooklyn is incredibly gentrified. New York is 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:22.280 incredibly gentrified, and yet none of those white folks are 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:24.640 putting their kids in public schools. And we have to 0:14:24.680 --> 0:14:29.800 be honest about our conversations. We don't sometimes like to 0:14:29.800 --> 0:14:34.040 tell our truths out loud in public. I have argued 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:39.400 with many a public school teacher who tries to defend 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:44.040 often not necessarily their particular school, but the system as 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:46.880 a whole. And then they will say to me, well, 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:49.240 you're a public school graduate, And I say to them, 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:52.840 a proud one but the system I grew up in 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:57.040 in nineteen seventy seventy one, seventy two through my graduation 0:14:57.120 --> 0:15:00.160 in high school nineteen seventy eight is not the same 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:04.160 school system that a kid in Detroit would have to 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:08.440 deal with today. So please don't tout me as a 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:11.200 college or a high school graduate who went through the 0:15:11.240 --> 0:15:14.520 public school system who did well and assume that that 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:18.880 system could turn me out today. Yeah, that's incredibly important. 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:24.120 Somebody who does have a very singular focus is Stacy Abrams. 0:15:24.640 --> 0:15:30.720 Stacy Abrams, having been robbed of the governorship in Georgia, 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:36.080 is very focused on voter suppression. Is very focused on 0:15:36.280 --> 0:15:43.600 creating a machine to enlist and inspire and engage Black people, 0:15:43.920 --> 0:15:49.320 Latin X people, women, young people in activating their right 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:53.400 to vote. That has always been a huge issue in 0:15:53.440 --> 0:15:57.360 the community. And we see what happens allah Donald Trump 0:15:57.640 --> 0:16:02.240 when people decide to opt out of the system. Could 0:16:02.280 --> 0:16:04.680 that be something could be? It could be. I mean, 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:06.720 you know, you look at Andrew Gillum and others who 0:16:06.800 --> 0:16:09.920 have also thrown their hat in the ring to make 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:14.400 sure that they design organizations and watchdog groups to try 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:17.640 to suppress the voter suppression. So you have to ask 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:21.760 yourself if the NAACP, if Urban League, if now maybe 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:24.440 not Urban League because of their stance in terms of 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:28.760 the organization they are, But whomever we want to dictate 0:16:28.840 --> 0:16:31.720 as those who would be on that front lines, maybe 0:16:31.720 --> 0:16:33.800 that would be one of those things that certainly if 0:16:33.800 --> 0:16:36.160 you did that as a collective versus all of these 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:39.960 little silos, it would be stronger. But I think we'll 0:16:40.040 --> 0:16:43.520 find out the medal of black people for this election 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:47.880 if you don't realize now that sitting out got you 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:52.440 not only Donald Trump. But I tell people it's not 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:55.040 about Donald Trump. He'll either be gone in four or 0:16:55.080 --> 0:16:57.960 eight years. It's about all of these judges he's appointed, 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:04.040 who have lifetime appointments, who will deal with your children 0:17:04.760 --> 0:17:08.359 and make life harder for your children. So I think 0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:12.040 we have to start to say, hey, we cannot sit out, 0:17:12.280 --> 0:17:15.480 and you can't allow, even if you don't love the candidate, 0:17:15.760 --> 0:17:20.280 this to happen again. Because Hillary Clinton ran a poor campaign, 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:22.520 she did not speak to black people in the way 0:17:22.560 --> 0:17:25.720 she should. I would deal with her campaign once a 0:17:25.800 --> 0:17:28.880 month saying look, I got to a point where I said, 0:17:28.920 --> 0:17:31.000 if you're not going to sit with me, sit with 0:17:31.119 --> 0:17:35.920 Roland sit with you know, anybody, anybody, anybody, just talk 0:17:36.000 --> 0:17:38.520 to black folks in a way that you're not It's 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:40.720 not enough to go with Beyonce and Jay Z on 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:43.520 stage and take a selfie with Lebron James and assume 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:47.639 that that's enough. It's not enough, So poor campaign, notwithstanding 0:17:48.320 --> 0:17:50.920 what we have to do. What we have to do 0:17:51.480 --> 0:17:54.000 is say to whomever we give our vote to, we're 0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:56.439 gonna give it to you, but when you get in office, 0:17:56.920 --> 0:18:00.200 you will no longer take us for granted. Often an 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:06.000 uneducated voter believes that their power stops at election day, right. 0:18:06.160 --> 0:18:08.920 The reality is your power should start the day after 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:11.479 election day. You should be able to walk in you know, 0:18:11.800 --> 0:18:14.679 quid pro quo has become famous through Donald Trump, right, 0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:17.399 But that's what politics has always been about. Okay, I 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:20.239 gave you my vote. Now this is my expectation and 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:22.399 not to be afraid to go in there and demand it. 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:26.480 And that comes not only from individuals, but that should 0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:29.520 be our leadership. And it's not enough to demand that 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:32.119 just because your leader has an open door policy with 0:18:32.160 --> 0:18:35.040 whomever as a president, that's not enough. You know, the 0:18:35.119 --> 0:18:37.359 fact that you get to take pictures and be at 0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:40.119 the press conferences. That's not enough. What else are we getting? 0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:43.439 I think that we've got to become more sophisticated in 0:18:43.520 --> 0:18:45.639 our politics, you know. But I also think that that 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:48.920 goes back to the failings of our public education system 0:18:49.240 --> 0:18:52.400 and the failings of civics in general. By background, I'm 0:18:52.440 --> 0:18:55.840 an educator, was an early childhood educator, believed very much 0:18:55.880 --> 0:18:59.199 in building up the education and creating global citizens that 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:02.120 will take off on the world. And I think that 0:19:02.680 --> 0:19:05.000 what is always frustrating to me and what I try 0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:08.200 and advocate in terms of the responsibility of your citizenship. 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:11.879 Imagine having your daughter you didn't drop her off in 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:14.679 kindergarten and pick her up in twelfth grade at graduation, 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:22.359 but having no parent teacher conference, having no engagement whatsoever, 0:19:22.400 --> 0:19:24.960 and not following up and asking her who her friends were, 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:27.560 who she's hanging out with, engaging with her teachers, and 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:30.640 understanding what her interests are and how she's changing over 0:19:30.680 --> 0:19:33.960 that time. It's the same way that folks don't engage 0:19:34.040 --> 0:19:37.439 with their elected officials once. That's just it. There's nothing 0:19:37.560 --> 0:19:40.919 in this book that is so earth shattering that we 0:19:41.000 --> 0:19:45.359 uncovered something new. The answers are there. We have to 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:50.199 just believe that those answers work. And what's interesting is 0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:54.080 we have to stop chastising those of us that don't 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:56.520 agree that it should be left instead of right. The 0:19:56.600 --> 0:20:00.399 reason that I try to have this broad selection of people, 0:20:00.960 --> 0:20:03.000 you know, I mean literally the first name on the 0:20:03.040 --> 0:20:05.840 front cover is Maxine Waters, and the last name before 0:20:05.840 --> 0:20:09.560 we get to and many more's t I completely different, 0:20:10.000 --> 0:20:13.520 and we run the gamut in between. What we need 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:17.120 to do is find commonalities in common ground and say, look, 0:20:17.280 --> 0:20:21.240 I may not agree that the answers charter schools, but 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:24.120 I do believe that we have a problem with our 0:20:24.160 --> 0:20:27.480 community and law enforcement. So let's hold hands on that 0:20:27.640 --> 0:20:30.240 you do charter. I'm gonna stick with public, but dog 0:20:30.240 --> 0:20:32.360 garn it, we're gonna work together on this. There are 0:20:32.359 --> 0:20:36.200 things that we can agree. We all need to say 0:20:36.720 --> 0:20:40.120 this impacts and affects all of us, and let's move 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:42.920 to that. And again, I still say a good litmus 0:20:42.960 --> 0:20:45.960 test is the twenty twenty election. It's going to be 0:20:46.040 --> 0:20:48.520 a test, all right, It's gonna be a test. Someone 0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:50.240 said to me, forgive me, But someone said to me 0:20:50.520 --> 0:20:52.520 the other day when we were doing an interview, but 0:20:52.600 --> 0:20:55.119 what are we gonna do if Trump wins. What do 0:20:55.200 --> 0:20:56.880 we gear up with? I said, then it's too late 0:20:56.880 --> 0:20:59.879 to gear up. Gearing up for Trump is right now 0:21:00.359 --> 0:21:02.959 gearing up. But Trump is making sure that you go 0:21:03.080 --> 0:21:05.760 to the polls. And not only you know it's cliche, 0:21:05.920 --> 0:21:09.720 but it works when you go take somebody and take 0:21:09.800 --> 0:21:12.080 somebody else, and take somebody else. You know how you 0:21:12.119 --> 0:21:14.160 get four girlfriends and you go to the concert, Get 0:21:14.200 --> 0:21:16.399 those four and go to the polls. You gotta have 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:19.160 five dudes to run a pickup game. Get them five 0:21:19.280 --> 0:21:22.560 dudes and let's go to the polls. It's real. There 0:21:22.560 --> 0:21:26.600 are solutions here for some of these problems. So Trump 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:29.800 doesn't have to get a second term, and if he does, 0:21:30.040 --> 0:21:33.119 and if he does, shame on us. We have the numbers. 0:21:33.160 --> 0:21:35.800 Democrats always have the number. You always have the numbers, 0:21:35.800 --> 0:21:38.800 which is why voter suppression is real. We have the numbers, 0:21:38.960 --> 0:21:42.119 which I don't think the suppression will be the same 0:21:42.160 --> 0:21:45.000 though this time I don't. I really don't. I do 0:21:45.119 --> 0:21:47.800 think that. Let me say this, if we're smart again, 0:21:48.359 --> 0:21:51.320 people like Stacy and you know, the eyes will be 0:21:51.520 --> 0:21:55.120 much keener than they were the last time. Doesn't mean 0:21:55.160 --> 0:21:58.920 that it can't happen. It doesn't mean that the right. 0:21:59.119 --> 0:22:02.520 I'm not suggested, but I am suggesting too. If you 0:22:02.640 --> 0:22:04.879 turn out. I mean, just look at the percentage of 0:22:04.960 --> 0:22:09.920 people who are registered but don't vote. It's hard to 0:22:09.960 --> 0:22:14.359 suppress huge numbers, that's what I can It's hard to 0:22:14.400 --> 0:22:18.040 do that if you keep those numbers low, which is 0:22:18.080 --> 0:22:21.320 why the Russians and the Bots were you know, they're 0:22:21.359 --> 0:22:23.640 against black people because they said, if we can keep 0:22:23.680 --> 0:22:26.200 them away, then we've got a better chance. So we 0:22:26.280 --> 0:22:29.520 have to again be an educated voter and know and 0:22:29.680 --> 0:22:37.000 understand that this is perhaps arguably the most important election 0:22:37.040 --> 0:22:39.240 of your lifetime save maybe you can argue on the 0:22:39.240 --> 0:22:42.600 other side Obama's was, but it's important, and it's even 0:22:42.680 --> 0:22:45.560 more important for our children. And so my take is 0:22:45.840 --> 0:22:47.800 we've got to turn out. We've got to turn out 0:22:47.880 --> 0:22:51.720 in so many numbers. It's almost like watching the NBA. 0:22:51.960 --> 0:22:55.119 Though it can happen, it's hard to lose a thirty 0:22:55.119 --> 0:22:57.640 point lead. You can get down and they can come 0:22:57.640 --> 0:23:00.240 back twenty eight, but they couldn't get that last get 0:23:00.280 --> 0:23:02.280 to tie it up, or two to win it, even 0:23:02.320 --> 0:23:04.840 though they chipped away and got it down to twenty 0:23:04.840 --> 0:23:07.199 eight points. So it will be hard if you have 0:23:07.400 --> 0:23:12.480