WEBVTT - "America Never Was America to Me" 0:00:19.360 --> 0:00:25.560 Maybe I fam it goes without saying that this is 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:31.680 not the type of episode that I thought I was 0:00:31.720 --> 0:00:37.440 going to be recording today. I woke up about an 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:42.560 hour ago, and right now it's five am on Wednesday, 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:46.120 November sixth I woke up about an hour ago. I 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:51.839 had gone to bed around ten maybe eleven. Honestly, I 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:56.120 was super sleepy, and I had taken something from my 0:00:56.160 --> 0:00:59.160 anxiety to mellow me out, and it mellowed me out 0:00:59.200 --> 0:01:03.640 a little too, so I actually just took my but 0:01:03.800 --> 0:01:06.160 I took my butt to bed. I might have even 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:11.039 fallen asleep before my son, before my almost five year old. 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:17.760 But I woke up at four ish and picked up 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:20.440 my phone, like I imagine many of you guys did, 0:01:20.640 --> 0:01:24.280 saw the news, saw the latest news anyway, the way 0:01:24.319 --> 0:01:29.240 it's going, and you know, it really brought me back 0:01:29.319 --> 0:01:31.880 to twenty sixteen. It was very similar. I had gone 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:36.640 to bed because I couldn't bear the sadness, and I 0:01:36.720 --> 0:01:41.919 woke up to a very different reality than I had expected. 0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:46.520 And I walked out into my kitchen. Well, first I 0:01:46.600 --> 0:01:49.000 rolled over and I didn't see my husband, and I 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:51.640 saw my son in bed with us, because of course 0:01:51.680 --> 0:01:56.880 he is because again five years old, and I was like, 0:01:56.920 --> 0:01:59.720 where's my enery case. I walked out into the kitchen 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:03.120 and was standing there in the middle of a spec 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:08.840 like spotless clean kitchen, sparkling clean, and he had cleaned 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:10.600 the whole kitchen and the floors were clean and the 0:02:10.600 --> 0:02:12.440 counters were clean, and he was just standing there and 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:15.960 the kind of semi darkness, and I just looked at 0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:20.200 him and I said, Babe, I can't believe this. I 0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:23.520 can't believe this. And I just started to cry and 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:26.639 I walked over to him and he put his arms 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:33.440 around me. And my husband is very He's not a 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:38.840 super emotional, like outwardly emotional guy. I think like a 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:41.440 lot of couples who, you know, you have one person 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:43.720 who's on the more emotional side. The other person just 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:50.800 like balances them out. And he definitely is that. He 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:55.200 definitely mellows me out, and honestly, in the past, it's 0:02:55.200 --> 0:02:59.280 something that's kind of driven me nuts because I'm super passionate, 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:02.480 and you know, I'm very vocal and i feel things 0:03:02.520 --> 0:03:06.720 very deeply, and sometimes it can feel like I don't have, 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:09.400 you know, someone on the other side who like kind 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:11.960 of gets my energy and is more like exhausted by it. 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:18.320 But there's there's like these magical moments in our relationship 0:03:18.320 --> 0:03:21.200 where I just kind of am like, Okay, I understand 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:24.280 this is the balance that I need. So he put 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:28.440 his arms around me, and he he just said, listen, 0:03:28.919 --> 0:03:34.600 this is not the outcome that I expected or was 0:03:34.639 --> 0:03:37.920 hoping for, but for the sake of the boys, please 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:45.160 we can't let this. We can't let this. What were 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:50.280 his words, something like, we can't let this get us 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:54.560 too down. We have to keep going and we have 0:03:54.640 --> 0:03:56.920 to stay positive. And he just kept saying, for the 0:03:56.920 --> 0:04:01.360 good of the boys, please don't let this consume you. 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:03.600 That's what he said, Please don't let this consume you. 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:09.240 And I really needed to hear that, to be honest, 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:15.920 And it was that kind of quiet support and that 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:20.120 quiet reminder of there is something bigger at play here, 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:27.760 our children, our family, And what am I willing to 0:04:30.200 --> 0:04:34.360 How am I How much am I willing to let 0:04:34.680 --> 0:04:41.599 feelings dictate my actions for the next hour, the next 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:45.440 twenty four hours, the next week, the next year, the 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:50.040 next four years. How deeply am I willing to let 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:53.719 the feelings of dismay consume me? Because they are there, 0:04:54.040 --> 0:04:59.800 I feel it. I cannot fucking no, I'm not even 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:01.719 going to to say it, because I can believe it, 0:05:01.760 --> 0:05:06.000 because we did it before. It was always likely that 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:10.599 the country was going to go this way again, and 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:18.560 so I believe it. When my husband said that, I 0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:22.160 hugged him back, and we just sort of stood there 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:24.360 in the kitchen in the dark for a while. And 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:27.240 then he had been up, so it was around four 0:05:27.279 --> 0:05:29.360 point thirty. He went to bed, and I came down 0:05:29.360 --> 0:05:31.680 here and I sat right where I am at in 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:35.640 the Brand Ambition studio, and I looked at myself on 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:41.080 the camera, you know, bathrobe and no makeup and exhausted, 0:05:41.440 --> 0:05:45.480 and nothing was going to make me feel better reading 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:53.120 any news. Nothing but when I am in a space 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:59.839 of like emotional turmoil, and when I'm in a space 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:05.160 where I just am looking for purchase, you know, when 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:09.680 I am looking for some purchase to hold on to, 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:15.120 some foothold, something to keep me still. My husband's gone 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:20.680 to bed now, so I turned to poetry and bea 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:25.239 fam I have no script to follow during this episode. Again, 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:28.080 this is not the kind of episode I ever thought 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:32.480 I would record, but it has brought me a lot 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:36.360 of peace to just kind of sit here read some 0:06:36.400 --> 0:06:42.680 poetry and remind myself that there's still a lot of 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:48.240 fight in me, and there's still so much to fight for, 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:53.080 and I don't want you know, one of the campaign 0:06:53.120 --> 0:06:55.960 slogans of Kamala Harris and the Harris campaign that has 0:06:56.000 --> 0:06:59.159 been so effective has been this idea of We're not 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:03.960 going back. And I don't want to go back to 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:10.720 the emotional wave of depression that overcame me in twenty 0:07:10.760 --> 0:07:16.160 sixteen after Donald Trump won the first time. I don't 0:07:16.200 --> 0:07:19.920 want to go back because that, to me, accomplished very little. 0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:26.040 I think those like that depression, like, I just don't 0:07:26.040 --> 0:07:28.640 have time to be depressed. I have two little kids. 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:32.000 I've got to show up for them. And I also 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:34.960 think that we can feel our feelings. But I am 0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:38.200 very much in like the we need to keep moving forward. 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:41.520 Why do I feel like we need to keep marching forward? 0:07:41.560 --> 0:07:44.400 Where is that hope? What does brown ambition mean in 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:47.520 an age where we just elected this man again? What 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:51.040 does it mean? It means? Did we think it was 0:07:51.160 --> 0:07:56.920 gonna be fucking easy? Did we think if we thought? 0:07:57.000 --> 0:07:59.000 And I'm part of that generation, You're part of that 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:02.040 generation where you've read about the civil rights movement, and 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:06.120 you read about Martin Luther King and Shirley Chisholm. If 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:08.640 you're lucky you read about it in school. I certainly didn't, 0:08:08.880 --> 0:08:13.160 not until later you read about Fanny lou Hamer. You know, 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:17.840 you live through the Obama election, in my case, the 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:21.760 first election I ever voted in. I can understand how 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:25.200 we would end up now devastated when we get an 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:28.360 outcome that doesn't fit the narrative that we have been 0:08:29.480 --> 0:08:35.800 fed as children growing up in a post civil rights era. 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:40.199 We have been fed this idea that this is the 0:08:40.280 --> 0:08:45.840 natural order of things. We are ancestors, our grandparents are 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:49.679 great grandparents. They fought these battles so that we would 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:57.040 have a better shot. And the lie or the version 0:08:57.120 --> 0:08:59.520 of things that we have been believing for so long 0:08:59.600 --> 0:09:03.280 on all speak for myself, maybe you guys agree, is 0:09:03.360 --> 0:09:07.720 that the fight was over, and that there was this 0:09:08.480 --> 0:09:12.440 natural progression in the story where now we begin to win. 0:09:12.600 --> 0:09:16.040 Now we begin to make gains, and there's this upward trajectory. 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:22.480 But here's the reality. Nothing worth fighting for. Nothing as 0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:30.720 important as democracy and liberty and freedom and the rights 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:36.280 to a dignified, happy and healthy life. Nothing about that 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:41.600 should be easy to fight for or easy to protect. 0:09:42.200 --> 0:09:46.520 We have to understand that it is going to be 0:09:46.600 --> 0:09:51.960 a struggle. We have to get comfortable with the struggle. 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:56.520 We need to get comfortable with the idea that it's 0:09:56.559 --> 0:10:00.840 not going to be Let's turn this around. Four years, 0:10:01.160 --> 0:10:04.640 eight years, we've had two elections now where we've gotten 0:10:04.720 --> 0:10:08.400 really close to electing a woman. We have to keep going. 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:11.920 It's not going to be easy. I wanted the end 0:10:11.960 --> 0:10:17.760 of the story to stop on that screen of Kamala Harris, 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:21.600 My god, what a hero. I wanted to see her 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:25.160 with the confetti streaming down, walking away with a victory. 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:29.480 I really wanted that too, But the story keeps going. 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:37.479 This is a defeat. Nothing worth it comes without suffering. 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:41.600 Suffering is a part of life. What we're feeling today 0:10:42.520 --> 0:10:49.040 is painful. It is depressing. It causes dismay, and you 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:53.480 may be feeling that, and I feel it too. And 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:59.359 yet today, right now, I put on my damn lipliner, 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:03.040 I put on my mascara, I sat in this chair, 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:08.960 I hit record because I am here with y'all, and 0:11:09.160 --> 0:11:12.920 I understand what I really want y'all to understand too, 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:17.040 which is that this is the time, more than ever 0:11:17.600 --> 0:11:22.120 to push forward. This is what it was like for 0:11:22.280 --> 0:11:27.400 our generations before, to suffer and to fight and to 0:11:27.600 --> 0:11:32.840 claw back humanity, to claw back rights. And now we 0:11:33.120 --> 0:11:37.400 are being called in the same way to learn how 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:40.160 to take these blows, to get knocked down and get 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:43.040 the f back up. And I'll tell you right now, 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:46.640 Ba Fam, I'm getting back up. In fact, I barely 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:49.840 hit the ground. There is no place I'd rather be 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:55.160 and than a time like this than on this stage. However, 0:11:55.240 --> 0:11:59.000 whatever size, this stage is speaking to my ba Fam, 0:11:59.559 --> 0:12:02.560 because I need y'all to know that I'm not giving up. 0:12:03.120 --> 0:12:06.920 I am showing up. Okay, I'm doing it for y'all. 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:09.240 I'm doing it for my kids. I'm doing it for myself. 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:14.800 I'm doing it for I'm doing it for the ancestors. 0:12:14.880 --> 0:12:17.720 I'm literally doing it for the generations that came before us, 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:22.400 because at the first sign, multiple signs, we've had now 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:25.880 the first sign of strife, and this may not be 0:12:26.000 --> 0:12:30.920 a fair fight, and this may be a bloody knockdown, 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:35.760 drag out, multiple round beating, and we have to get 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:39.760 back up and keep going. The enemy the other side 0:12:40.600 --> 0:12:46.040 they are stronger right now, and yet I don't want 0:12:46.080 --> 0:12:49.200 The story is not going to end with me crawling 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:54.360 back into a hole, with me crying all day, with 0:12:54.559 --> 0:12:57.760 me not speaking to my family because I was so 0:12:57.880 --> 0:13:01.319 devastated and betrayed and felt betrayed by them. In twenty sixteen, 0:13:01.320 --> 0:13:04.800 because many members of my family did and have again 0:13:05.559 --> 0:13:09.520 voted for someone who stands for everything that I believe 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:14.200 is wrong with the world, I choose to walk a 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:16.679 different path this time. I choose to keep my head up. 0:13:16.800 --> 0:13:20.520 I choose to go forward into the darkness because this 0:13:20.920 --> 0:13:24.079 is when we are needed the most. Okay, it's when 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:27.960 our kids need us. It's when we need each other. Lynn, 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:31.080 my neighbor who I go on walks with Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Bitch, 0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:33.800 we're going for a walk. Okay, I'm about to text 0:13:33.800 --> 0:13:36.240 you right now because after I'm done recording this, We're 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:39.200 going for our fucking walk because we will walk on. 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:43.200 Suffering is a part of life, y'all. And if there's 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:46.200 one thing that I have learned this past year, it 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:52.800 is that we can survive suffering. We can survive the pain, 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:56.200 and we can push forward and keep going. The pain 0:13:56.240 --> 0:14:00.880 can exist, but our behavior has everything to do with 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:05.559 how much power we get that pain. I choose to 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:10.640 wake up, like I said, foot on some blipline or 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:15.360 put on mascara and come speak to y'all. And right 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:18.160 now I want to share some poetry that I've been 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:21.320 sitting here reading and has just been, you know, washing 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:26.120 over me. And I hope that some of this provides 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:29.520 you some comfort. For me. It's you know, I don't 0:14:29.520 --> 0:14:34.400 have living grandparents, so I don't have and this is 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:37.680 maybe a time when it's so it's a reason to 0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:39.800 reach out to any elders you have in your life 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:42.600 and just look for their support, because you know what 0:14:43.480 --> 0:14:46.640 our elders know what that fight was like, and they 0:14:46.720 --> 0:14:51.680 probably will have some words of support for us. They 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:54.560 didn't have it easy. We thought maybe we were on 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:57.200 the other side. Well we're not. We got to continue 0:14:57.200 --> 0:14:59.880 that fight. We have to find that inspiration. We have 0:14:59.880 --> 0:15:04.120 to find the will to keep fucking going. Maybe ours 0:15:04.120 --> 0:15:06.920 will be the generation that gets the shit done. But 0:15:06.960 --> 0:15:09.280 no matter what, there's no way it was never going 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:11.280 to be a fight to preserve what we've had to win. 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:15.640 We have to defend what generations before works so hard 0:15:15.680 --> 0:15:19.360 for and we have to get comfortable with the idea 0:15:19.400 --> 0:15:23.040 that we are in defense mode. Okay, all right, I'm 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:29.360 gonna read, uh oh man, which one? All right? I'm 0:15:29.360 --> 0:15:36.840 gonna start with Langston Hughes. Let America be America again. 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:40.120 I'll post a link to this in the show notes. 0:15:42.320 --> 0:15:46.640 Let America be America again. Let it be the dream 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:50.200 it used to be. Let it be the pioneer on 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:54.520 the plane seeking a home where he himself is free. 0:15:55.120 --> 0:15:59.680 America never was America to me. Let America be the 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:03.920 the dreamers dreamed. Let it be that great, strong land 0:16:03.960 --> 0:16:08.720 of love, where never kings connive nor tyrant scheme, let 0:16:08.760 --> 0:16:13.320 any man be crushed by one above. It never was 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:18.040 America to me. Oh, Let my land be a land 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:22.200 where liberty is crowned with no false patriotic wreath. But 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:26.680 opportunity is real, and life is free. Equality is in 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:30.760 the air we breathe. There's never been equality for me, 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:36.800 nor freedom in this homeland of the free. Say, who 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:39.440 are you that mumbles in the dark, And who are 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:43.520 you that draws your veil across the stars? I am 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:47.520 the poor white, fooled and pushed apart. I am the 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:51.920 negro bearing slavery scars. I am the red man driven 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:55.160 from the land. I am the immigrant clutching the hope 0:16:55.200 --> 0:16:59.400 I seek, and finding only the same old stupid plan 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:04.000 of d eat, dog of mighty, crushed the weak. I 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:06.840 am the young man, full of strength and hope, tangled 0:17:06.840 --> 0:17:11.479 in that ancient endless chain of profet power, gain and grab, 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:15.399 the land of grab, the gold of grab, the ways 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:18.919 of satisfying need of work, the men of take the 0:17:18.960 --> 0:17:23.520 pay of owning everything for one's own greed. I am 0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:26.280 the farmer, the bondsman to the soil. I am the 0:17:26.280 --> 0:17:29.879 worker sold to the machine. I am the negro servant 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:33.800 to you all. I am the people, humble, hungry, mean, hungry. 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:39.640 Yet today despite the dream beaten, Yes, today, o pioneers, 0:17:40.359 --> 0:17:43.679 i am the man who never got ahead, the poorest worker, 0:17:43.760 --> 0:17:47.320 bartered through the years. Yet I'm the one who dreamt 0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:51.080 our basic dream in the old world, while still a 0:17:51.200 --> 0:17:55.240 serf of kings, who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, 0:17:55.400 --> 0:18:00.280 so true that even yet its mighty daring sings in 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:03.880 every brick and stone, in every furrow turn that's made 0:18:03.880 --> 0:18:06.680 America the land it has become. Oh, I'm the man 0:18:06.720 --> 0:18:10.000 who sailed those early seas in search of what I 0:18:10.160 --> 0:18:12.840 meant to be my home. For I'm the one who 0:18:12.920 --> 0:18:17.000 left dark Ireland shore in Poland's plain and England's grassy lay, 0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:21.280 and torn from Black Africa Strand. I came to build 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:26.119 a homeland of the free. The free who said the 0:18:26.200 --> 0:18:31.399 free not me? Surely not me. The millions on relief today, 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:36.320 the millions shot down when we strike. The millions who 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:40.240 have nothing for our pay, For all the dreams we've dreamed, 0:18:40.240 --> 0:18:42.960 and all the songs we've sun in, all the hopes 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:46.160 we've held, and all the flags we've hung. The millions 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:50.040 who have nothing for our pay except the dream that's 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:55.480 almost dead today. Oh, let America be America again, the 0:18:55.600 --> 0:18:59.919 land that never has been yet and yet must be 0:19:00.800 --> 0:19:05.440 the land where every man is free, the land that's mine, 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:11.359 the poor man's Indians, negroes me. Who made America. Who's 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:15.640 sweat and blood, Whose faith and pain, Whose hand at 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:19.320 the foundry, whose plow and the rain? Must bring back 0:19:19.440 --> 0:19:24.000 our mighty dream again? Sure call me an ugly name 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:27.760 you choose. The steel of freedom does not stain from 0:19:27.800 --> 0:19:31.080 those who live like leeches on the people's lives. We 0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:36.600 must take back our land again, America. Oh yes, I 0:19:36.800 --> 0:19:41.080 say a plain America never was America to me, And 0:19:41.200 --> 0:19:46.359 yet I swear this oath. America will be out of 0:19:46.400 --> 0:19:50.040 the rack and ruin of our gangster death, the rape 0:19:50.080 --> 0:19:53.240 and rot of graft and stealth and lies. We the 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:58.640 people must redeem the land, the mines, the plants, the rivers, 0:19:59.160 --> 0:20:03.720 the mountains, and the endless pain, all all the stretch 0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:18.919 of these great green states, and make America again. I 0:20:18.960 --> 0:20:22.119 can't think of a better I can't think of a 0:20:22.160 --> 0:20:31.359 more beautiful, heartbreaking, defiant poem than this from Lingston Hughes. 0:20:32.200 --> 0:20:37.760 Let America be America again. That's exactly how I feel. 0:20:38.359 --> 0:20:43.840 Sometimes poetry is just the perfect way for expression. And 0:20:43.920 --> 0:20:48.280 maybe for y'all you find that piece in scripture. And 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:52.080 if there are any scriptures that have been you know, 0:20:52.240 --> 0:20:55.199 or poems or quotes or something that you lean on 0:20:55.240 --> 0:20:58.960 in hard times, I mean, I'm happy to for y'all 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:01.800 to send those to me Ambition Podcast at gmail dot com. 0:21:01.840 --> 0:21:04.399 You can DM me on ig Brand Ambition Podcast. But 0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:08.560 this poem, oh baby, I'm putting it in a frame. 0:21:08.840 --> 0:21:15.760 Let America be America again. It's so true, full of 0:21:15.800 --> 0:21:18.760 strength and hope. But who said free? Not me? Surely 0:21:18.840 --> 0:21:25.960 not me. We the people must redeem the land, the minds, 0:21:26.000 --> 0:21:28.520 the plants, the rivers, the mountains and the endless pain. 0:21:29.440 --> 0:21:35.280 Make America great again. That was the slogan that they've 0:21:35.359 --> 0:21:39.639 used to defeat us. Make America again, Langston Hughes says, 0:21:40.160 --> 0:21:46.359 make America again. America never was America to me, and 0:21:46.440 --> 0:21:59.399 yet I swear this oath America will be Wow. I 0:21:59.400 --> 0:22:03.639 want to read another poem, a shorter one, also by 0:22:03.720 --> 0:22:08.920 Lingston Hughes. Hold fast to dreams. For if dreams die, 0:22:09.520 --> 0:22:13.639 life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly. Hold 0:22:13.680 --> 0:22:17.520 fast to dreams for when dreams go, life is a 0:22:17.560 --> 0:22:24.000 barren field frozen with snow. I was dreams by Lyingston Hughes. 0:22:25.240 --> 0:22:28.680 Be a fan. We have to hold fast to our dreams. 0:22:29.800 --> 0:22:32.200 And maybe you need a day to be beaten down. 0:22:32.359 --> 0:22:35.320 But baby, I'm getting back up. I can't be down 0:22:35.359 --> 0:22:38.920 for too long. I'm too young. We are too young. 0:22:39.000 --> 0:22:42.080 We have too much time ahead of us. We have 0:22:42.240 --> 0:22:45.560 time to fight and to make the world better for 0:22:45.680 --> 0:22:49.000 our children and for each other. We have to fight. 0:22:49.119 --> 0:22:52.520 We have to keep fighting. It was never going to 0:22:52.560 --> 0:22:56.920 be easy. We can't give up. It was always going 0:22:56.960 --> 0:23:01.520 to be this hard. Okay. We were playing ourselves. If 0:23:01.520 --> 0:23:04.560 we thought we were going to wake up, and that 0:23:04.720 --> 0:23:06.560 was going to be the end of the fight. But 0:23:06.640 --> 0:23:11.840 that's not how stories get to end in the real world. Okay, 0:23:12.600 --> 0:23:16.520 it's not a ninety minute movie, it's not a book. 0:23:17.240 --> 0:23:21.560 We are living through history in real time, and history 0:23:22.119 --> 0:23:25.280 and our right to survive it is something we have 0:23:25.359 --> 0:23:31.879 to keep fighting for. We have to keep fighting for democracy, 0:23:33.240 --> 0:23:40.480 civil liberties, bodily autonomy, social justice. It's worth it. Education 0:23:41.840 --> 0:23:45.720 for our children, safe schools for our children, It's worth it. 0:23:45.880 --> 0:23:50.679 We have to keep fighting. We really do, guys. It 0:23:50.760 --> 0:23:54.640 was never going to be easy. We cannot feel defeated 0:23:54.720 --> 0:23:57.600 right now. This is a battle in the grand scheme 0:23:57.640 --> 0:24:00.879 of things, and we have to keep fighting. We cannot 0:24:00.880 --> 0:24:04.800 give up. I am petrified that too many of us 0:24:05.000 --> 0:24:07.680 are gonna be beaten down and pushed down and broken 0:24:07.880 --> 0:24:10.720 by what has happened. And I just I need you 0:24:10.760 --> 0:24:13.879 to know. For me, brown ambition is not that. Brown 0:24:13.880 --> 0:24:15.959 ambition is the fact that we wake the fuck up 0:24:16.000 --> 0:24:17.639 and we get the fuck back in the streets and 0:24:17.680 --> 0:24:22.880 we keep fighting. Brown ambition is everything that we do 0:24:23.080 --> 0:24:26.320 in spite of the challenges that we face. And I 0:24:26.440 --> 0:24:28.879 have been sitting here for nine years saying that, and 0:24:28.920 --> 0:24:31.040 I'll be damned if I'm going to walk back on 0:24:31.160 --> 0:24:35.120 that message not today be a fam now. Maybe soon 0:24:35.320 --> 0:24:37.000 too soon for some of y'all to hear this. But 0:24:37.119 --> 0:24:39.280 one of the things that I have been thinking sitting 0:24:39.320 --> 0:24:46.400 here trying to cope with this news, is that it's 0:24:46.560 --> 0:24:49.680 never been more important for us to show a peaceful 0:24:49.720 --> 0:24:54.520 transfer of power than in this moment. It really hasn't 0:24:55.000 --> 0:24:57.200 in a lot of ways. If there had to be 0:24:57.280 --> 0:25:02.520 a loser tonight, I think that we are the best 0:25:02.920 --> 0:25:07.760 losers for this moment because we value democracy, we know 0:25:07.880 --> 0:25:11.440 how important it is. We were petrified of what would 0:25:11.480 --> 0:25:13.919 happen if Harris had won and there'd be such a 0:25:13.960 --> 0:25:18.760 long fight, because they would have said that it was rigged, 0:25:18.840 --> 0:25:20.880 they would have said that it was fraud, they would 0:25:20.920 --> 0:25:24.560 have said, don't trust these elections. There would have continued 0:25:24.600 --> 0:25:28.760 to build on this narrative of how we can't trust democracy, 0:25:29.640 --> 0:25:34.760 and if we just let this transfer of power happen 0:25:35.320 --> 0:25:40.280 and we move forward. I just want to leave that lesson. 0:25:40.320 --> 0:25:43.480 I want to leave that impression. I want to make 0:25:43.520 --> 0:25:48.320 sure that we don't take any more chips out of democracy, 0:25:48.800 --> 0:25:51.240 any make any more cracks in the foundation that we 0:25:51.359 --> 0:25:57.600 believe in. By fighting this and by not accepting the 0:25:57.720 --> 0:26:01.320 results and not certifying the election we need, like the 0:26:01.400 --> 0:26:05.320 peaceful transfer of power is what makes America's democracy something 0:26:05.359 --> 0:26:10.160 to be revered, and it has been beaten to a 0:26:10.200 --> 0:26:13.800 bloody pulp, the idea of democracy in this country. And 0:26:13.840 --> 0:26:17.199 I just feel, I feel a type of way about 0:26:17.200 --> 0:26:19.600 what could continue to happen, the damage that we could 0:26:19.600 --> 0:26:21.399 do if we don't accept this and let there be 0:26:21.440 --> 0:26:30.800 a peaceful transfer of power. So I really want to 0:26:30.840 --> 0:26:33.800 read this poem. I know y'all have heard it before. 0:26:34.160 --> 0:26:36.359 Can you be a woman of color in this country 0:26:36.400 --> 0:26:41.720 and not have either performed read done a school book 0:26:41.720 --> 0:26:45.080 report on this poem by the Great Maya Angelou? Still 0:26:45.080 --> 0:26:51.320 I rise. You may write me down in history with 0:26:51.400 --> 0:26:55.320 your bitter, twisted lies, you may trod me in the 0:26:55.480 --> 0:27:00.040 very dirt, but still like dust, I rise. Does my 0:27:00.040 --> 0:27:04.360 my sassiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom? 0:27:04.560 --> 0:27:07.760 Because I walk like I've got oil wells pumping in 0:27:07.880 --> 0:27:11.960 my living room, just like the moons, and like suns 0:27:12.280 --> 0:27:16.800 with a certainty of tides, just like hopes springing high. 0:27:17.119 --> 0:27:21.400 Still I'll rise? Did you want to see me broken 0:27:21.560 --> 0:27:25.960 bowed head and lowered eyes, shoulders falling down like teardrops, 0:27:26.040 --> 0:27:31.240 weakened by my soulful cries. Does my haughtiness offend you? 0:27:32.119 --> 0:27:35.639 Don't you take it awful hard because I laugh like 0:27:35.760 --> 0:27:40.239 I've got gold mines digging in my own backyard. You 0:27:40.280 --> 0:27:43.760 may shoot me with your words, you may cut me 0:27:43.840 --> 0:27:47.120 with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness. 0:27:47.119 --> 0:27:52.960 But still, like air, I'll rise. Does my sexiness upset you? 0:27:53.680 --> 0:27:56.720 Does it come as a surprise that I dance like 0:27:56.760 --> 0:28:01.080 I've got diamonds at the meeting of my thighs? Out 0:28:01.080 --> 0:28:05.440 of the huts of history shame? I rise up from 0:28:05.440 --> 0:28:10.160 a past that's rooted in pain. I rise. I'm a 0:28:10.200 --> 0:28:15.720 black ocean, leaping and wide, welling and swelling. I bear 0:28:15.960 --> 0:28:20.280 in the tide, leaving behind nights of terror and fear. 0:28:20.440 --> 0:28:24.480 I rise into a daybreak that's wondrously clear. I rise, 0:28:25.359 --> 0:28:28.480 bringing the gifts that my ancestors give. I am the 0:28:28.600 --> 0:28:34.280 dream and the hope of the slave. I rise, I Rise, 0:28:35.240 --> 0:28:43.520 I rise, levey ba, fam keep going. I'm here for you. 0:28:45.000 --> 0:28:51.800 Send me e mail comment see one's social But even 0:28:51.840 --> 0:28:54.800 more so than just brown ambition, reach out to your friends, 0:28:54.800 --> 0:28:58.479 your family, your neighbors to day show up, bring them 0:28:58.480 --> 0:29:03.720 a cup of coffee, bring them something to share, Sit 0:29:03.800 --> 0:29:08.200 on the front porch, take care of each other, talk, 0:29:08.920 --> 0:29:11.760 let it out, like, let's feel the feelings, all right, 0:29:11.840 --> 0:29:13.760 but then we have to get back up and keep moving. 0:29:13.840 --> 0:29:16.640