December 16, 2020 • 64 mins
When it comes to U.S. politics, 2020 has shown us how messy, racist, ignorant, and apathetic our leadership can get. Four years of a Trump administration was more than the people of the U.S. ever asked for (quite literally, considering 2016's popular vote outcome). But now that a Democratic presidency is on the horizon, how do we move forward? How do we avoid getting complacent and stay on these politicians' necks? Jill, Laiya, and Aja discuss the realities of the last four years, the upcoming presidential transition, and the work that still needs to be done. Plus, a conversation with Dr. Angel Love Miles, a social justice and disability rights advocate.
Resource mentioned in this episode:
Black Philly Radical Collective
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Jay dot Dell, a production of I Heart Radio. Hi,
it's still Scott and we're here for Jay dot il
(00:28):
the podcast and with my sister friends La Yas sat Clair, Yes, ma'am,
that's me, yes ma'am, President St Clair, Yes, St Claire.
I used to say sint Clair. It's it was that first.
It's okay. You know Slavery didn't funk it all up anyway, Jill,
So you know I can't even claim the classiness of
the name. Wow and age grating danceller. Sorry too much, Danzla, Danzla.
(00:58):
There it is. I wish I could have had a
couple more syllables. I mean a couple of more syllables.
Been nice. You have a three letter name with two
syllables aga, I do, I do, and yet people still
can never say it correct. Its shocking. You're a continent.
(01:19):
It's a a jo look a jaw like jah Rostafar. Okay,
apparently today we've had some coffee. We have, We've had
several cups, a little bit a little sweet on us today. Um,
(01:44):
we're talking about how to move on from where we
are now? Where are we now? Trump has been I
think he's been put out of office. It looks like
it looks like not pysically, but he will be yes.
Currently he's still held up in the White House. Um,
(02:08):
I am looking forward to the day seeing him out
of it, Yo, scramping about, scrapping about to come and wrap,
scramming about to be like, Yo, you don't get your
ass off up out of here. We're gonna do it
for you. I need a slow motion. I need it.
I need a slow motion so that I could just
watch it over and over again. Well, I I don't know,
I don't know. I would like it to be I
(02:28):
like the Obama's to be present when he gets kicked out,
you know what I'm saying, Just because they had to
say face in sixteen and walk that motherfucker through the
White House like they like this. No, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
I gotta no no, no no, no, no no, it's applicable right there, okay, okay, yeah,
right there and sit in the office and and she
they even left notes for these motherfuck us like I
(02:51):
just I'm sorry, all extensive notes. That's that's what it's class.
I'm tired on your ass and I'm very very interested
in us publicly getting to see them drag him on
out of there. I almost don't want him to leave.
I want him to be there on the twenty one
(03:13):
Or is it in January twenty one? Is the very
last day? The last day is or I want to
see the Secret Service switch over and grab him by
the ankles and slide him out the front door the floor.
I've been to the White House a couple of times,
and what I liked about how they kick you out
(03:37):
is the they're like, I guess they're in the military.
Who wears white, the Marines, some kind of white fans,
But I honestly don't know which part of the military
they were in. But they were smoothed. What they do
is they kind of heard you out. So everybody's having
(03:58):
a good time and in these big spaces, and and
all of a sudden, the white suits come in a
little closer. And and because you you know your your
your your personal space, you move a little bit and
then they move forward and you move a little bit
(04:20):
like a wall. It's like a wall, and they're smiling
the whole time and listening to the music too. It
wasn't uncomfortable. Next thing, you know, you're outside. Can I
just say to the people that Jill is talking about
a very interesting experience because number one, I believe you
are talking about an Obama white house experience. Number two,
you are talking about Obama white House party experience I E.
(04:43):
D b ET closing party, which I'm gonna say to you, Jill,
that white house that gone whatever you saw that white house,
That white house was the once in another life with
that white house, right, So glad I got to be there.
Did I tell you that they at one of those events?
(05:05):
I went to five of them. Oh, they invited me back, honey,
so I every time. It was a great experience. At
one of them, I think it might have been the
first one where I took my mom and they had
watermelon and fried chicken. And I ate that watermelon so hard.
(05:29):
I ate it so hard they cut it. Don't tell
the half story, Jail. It's more things than watermelon. Please
tell me. It was more than watermelon and chicken. It
was more on the menu. I don't know there. It
was like tet. It was little pizzas and things all
(05:51):
over the place, pieces of of of delicious all over
and they had a mountain of sliced watermelon. It looked
like the watermelon was cut by buy um uh not
a razor but maybe a laser. It was. It was perfect.
And then they they little turning they like el es
(06:14):
and I thought, who puts feat of cheese on watermeltain?
And did it? Did sound nasty? But I ate it
and I ate it the kind And then there was
an you know how it is something that's good. You
start doing the little dance, you know, so like black
(06:38):
I'm black chicken and a white hu. We did poses.
Everybody posed in front of George Washington the picture Who squatted?
Did anybody? We all did everybody You're not having a camera,
but everybody did it. Everybody's like how you like now?
(07:00):
A lot of how you like me? Out? It felt great?
Was the electric slide. Every possible dance was wobbled. That
was like you know the probably wobbled. Every possible dance
was done. The party didn't end. The last party didn't
entil five am. Can you break down what the bathroom
(07:22):
looks like in the White House Hill? Which one? Did
they look different? Would would they look different? Are the
different decor? Is it like the Ebony building where every
color it's a different color on every floor. That's how
they building like the bathroom, like, just give me it wasn't.
I don't have a glowing recommendation of the bathrooms. I
can tell you that they were wallpapered and they were efficient. Okay.
(07:46):
The rooms coming from those bathrooms were had plates and
and things that were hundreds of years old, you know,
And it was a lot of antiques, a lot of
memory re bilia from other presidents. You know that Trump's
picture portrait will be hanging in the White House, is it? No? No? No,
(08:07):
that have they confirmed that they confirmed? No? No, I
don't know. I don't. He didn't hang You know that
he did not hang Obama's picture, So actually I don't.
I don't. I promise you that, yes, Obama's picture is
not in the White House. I promise you that there's
something really going on. I mean, everybody knows this, we're
just talking about it. There's really something there where you're
(08:30):
so jealous, so agitated by doesn't he have a reason?
The words are big mad, big mad. I mean from
the physicality to the education, he is everything that that
he that Trump is not right true? Indeed, I mean
(08:51):
I just feel like that portraits do be looking at
you and if you had to walk down the hallway
and that brother just sitting in the chair like he
is in his portrait. You're just looking at you. And
the portrait was done so well, unlike any other portrait
ever done, ever done anywhere anywhere. Fantastic. Yeah, I think, Okay,
(09:17):
I'm just looking forward to that moment when we can
really just figure out what's gonna happen next, Like how
does this thing gonna go? Because I'm tired of the
little linger, the language bothering me. Well, here's the issue,
and you know that the linger is not is not
all the fault of the incoming president. The linger is
(09:38):
the fact that this is the first time ever that
there is not a graceful transition, not even a transition team.
So oh yeah, no, no, I'm yeah, yeah, I know
you are, but yeahing. Still, you know, big up to
Biden inherent because they still have their whole COVID team together,
they still meet and then like we're gonna do what
we can do to make sure there's a transition and
not just because like Dr Fauci said, you can't stop
(10:00):
the game and started again. They've gotta be a you know,
transition to be smooth, like people have to work together
like this, this is this is necessary. But it's just
like it's the the instability and the the disregard and
the i mean, the the full on arrogance is just
it's beyond beyond. It is beyond beyond. And we still
(10:24):
have seventy seven million American people who voted for this guy,
and many of them that are in the same are
just as delusional. Yeah, that's not that's just interesting in
the scary part, right, because we've had the most ever
election of folks come out to vote. But that also
means that, yeah, like you said, seventies six million people
(10:44):
are so voted for for Trump, which means we know
they're there and they're upset. I mean, we always knew
(11:08):
were there. But it's just that's so bering. That is
sobering to think that here we are four years later,
you've seen all that you've seen. There's no there was
It's not like the first time when they thought, oh
I thought it was gonna be this way or I
thought it might be this way. No, you saw how
it was. And still more people turned out for him.
(11:28):
In fact, more white women in particular came out. He
had the biggest increase of the electorate was white women,
white women. More white women voted for him this time
than the first time. And and they and there's a
larger increase in white women than in white men. Yeah,
(11:50):
because all you gotta do is put the fear in them.
And I just thought to myself, wow, wow, And I
refused him. But leave that of those women, of those
white women, those fifty of the white woman electorate that
I refused, the police believe that none of them was
down on Washington with one of them pussy hats on.
(12:12):
One of them had a pussy hat on, one one
of them dead, when many of them many dead. But
now now you're talking about the breakdown between racism and
female I mean womanism. You know what I'm saying, feminism
(12:33):
say do with me? Yeah? They had not to do
with me. Feminism and womanism, Yeah yeah, I mean, let
me just keep it to you straight. If I you
might hear me say feminism, you understand what I'm saying.
But I'm very clear in terms of what white women
feel and think and practice when it comes to feminism
does not always include me, and more often than not
(12:57):
does not include me. Yeah, they're not clear. I like
to I most definitely like to use the word womanism,
which was coined by Alice Walker, if I'm not mistaken,
because I know that was meant for me. M hm.
So I like to use terms I know of for me.
Thank you for breaking that down because I was somewhat
unclear on the woman as a versus feminism. So I
(13:18):
appreciate that Alice Walker must respect that. Well. I'll tell
you what I want to see as this man leaves office.
This is so many things this man as he leaves office,
I definitely need us. And I'm gonna just going to
(13:41):
say me, we have to start really paying attention to
politics within our community down the Who's block, Captain. Yeah,
we really have to talk about who's running for office
(14:01):
so that we can get It's like it's like training
a child on how you you know, how to grow up? Mhm.
It's the same thing within our government, Like we have
to choose well and UM support the people that are
attempting to make changes in our society, like really support them.
(14:21):
If nothing else, We've learned this. If nothing else, We've
learned this because the clear blue sky, some whack ass
billionaire UM who's not earned anything in a lifetime, who
has no relationship at all with anybody, no relationship with
(14:43):
the with the common people who wash clothes, who clean toilets,
who fold, who who go grocery shopping, no understanding of
any part of it. I don't even know if the
if the man us wash his own ask before m
I don't know the question. It's a good question. Who knows.
(15:07):
But I know that he was gold toilets when I
was catching scepter. So um you know that asked crack dirty?
You know you gotta want to dirty? I'm sorry, just no,
ain't nothing like a man with a dirty ass. Crack Sorry,
come on, fellas, girl, what we a skid mark? No?
(15:32):
Right there on the toilet seats? Is that on the toilets?
If there's a skid mark, it's not like he wouldn't
know about it, nor would he have to deal with
because he don't look back. No, he wouldn't have to
deal with his own, his own foolishness, none of it.
That's I'm excited, and it's funny. I don't want to
I don't like to make somebody president who's never been
accountable for anything. How, I don't know, ask Pete Putin.
(15:57):
I think it's very easy to pick up president who's
never been accountable for anything. We don't listen, how do
you make them the poor? How do you make them
the poor white people? President? Is the question? How did
that rich white man become the po white man's president?
Like whoa, that man became the poor white man's president
way before that, Because the bottom line is that poor
(16:19):
white people didn't have nothing to do with planners and
owners or plantations, and plantation owners were our first senators
and our first congressman, and poor white people wasn't getting
none of that money. Right, So rich white men been
making the rules for poor white people a long time,
and they've been sipping that bs kool aid that the
(16:39):
rich white man been telling them since you know, the
seventeen sixteenth century, telling him, oh you poor, you disenfranchised,
but you better than them niggas. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's
been going on for a long time. That's why it
was the poor yeah yeah, yeah yeah, and an important
lie to hold on to that that gave them a
(17:02):
sense of being, a sense of of of value, purpose, purpose,
And it's right, Mrs Trump, this is our place, that's right.
It's not the well we see, we see the amount
of hatred. We see the amount of anger. We're still
here in this country. So now what We'll be back
(17:26):
after the breath, And can I just allow a moment.
I know people, you know people on social media. I
know people on social media, like you know, I don't
(17:47):
know what y'all are so happy for this motherfucker Biden
and ain't no better than But can I just say
on just the a level of symbolism, because I know
it used to not matter until Trump came into office.
Symbol of them and what these what this man symbolizes.
I'm still more excited to see a man who didn't
come from nothing in a way, I'm still excited to
(18:09):
see a man who loves his wife, and I'll be
able to see some love back in the White House.
I mean a man who is married to a teacher,
so she is connected to things. He is still a teacher,
like a man who has been lifted up in the
White House twice by two black people. Because remember, there
would be no Joe Biden if not for in a
sense of a president Joe Biden, in a sense of
(18:30):
a Barack Obama and a Kamala Harris. And he knows
that I am very conscious that this white man knows
that he is on the back of these people. So
I just can we just have a moment to say
things are possibly going to be better than the last
four years without making me feel like yo, then is
wrong with you? Don know? Girl, listen, and not that
(18:53):
you need my permission or anybody else. I do need
a girl. Better come now. You'll be a crazy person
to think it's not gonna be better. It's but better
has varying degrees, and better is also, you know, in
comparison to what and so if you're not comparing it
specifically to the character of Donald Trump, if you're just
(19:16):
talking about Yeah, if you're just talking about Donald Trump,
then yeah, I mean most of us would have voted
for Barney, you know what I'm saying. But I do
think it would be unfair to a Joe Biden or
or or even a Kamala Harris to assume that or
to even hit towards that they are the same types
of they would have the same kind of leadership as
(19:38):
a Trump and there is no difference. I think that's
dangerous and it lacks Yeah, it lacks nu once and
it's it's it's silly to me However, you know, we
do have to understand that, you know, Trayvon Martin that
happened on the rocks watch, these kinds of things happened
to us and continue to happen to us throughout the
(19:59):
Obama pre residency. And yeah, it was awesome. A lot
of bad things happened throughing Obama. We lost a lot
of children. Sandy Hook happened on Obama's watch too, like
most child school shootings and history and Obama's watched. I'm
sorry because right, no, no, and we're on the same
page because so what we're saying, I think it's so
important to keep having the nuance there. What we're saying
(20:21):
is that or what anyone is saying is, yes, it
is important to not have Trump, but we cannot be
so focused on not having Trump that we um create
a pedestal for Joe Biden, or we create a pedestal
for Kamala Harris or anybody else who would come into
office on the tales of this kind of terrible criminal administration.
(20:42):
So that is where we have to be careful, and
we have to be careful not to set them up
into a moment where they cannot be publicly critiqued. That's true.
I think we are. We are dangerously at that moment
with but hey, but no, I don't know, because we've
been critiquing her the whole ride, the whole wide through
right now. Yeah, in comparison into she's been critiqued in
comparison to so as a black woman, she's gonna get
(21:04):
way more drama than anybody else. Because she's a black woman,
people are gonna be on her ask the same way
they were on Um, way worse than Yeah, exactly, like
a Michelle Obama. So yeah, she's gonna get it worse.
(21:32):
But what we have to do as a community, and
we are absolutely sophisticated enough to do this, is that
we have to be clear that as we protect her
from these white supremacist attacks, that we are also extremely
critical and not critical in a way that says that
we are being unfair or mean or inaccurate, but that
(21:56):
we deserve that he deserved leadership that does and just
represent us in color and background, but that they also
represent our best interests, not some of our interests, but
our very best interests as a group, as an electorate,
as a community. Period. I see the activists already on
(22:18):
social media is talking about, Yeah, we ain't forgot that
we got you here, so we're gonna come back. We're
coming for We're coming for you. But what wel you
promised us? So I see a lot of activists on
social already ready to collect and I'm not mad at that.
I mean, I get it. Although you probably can we
collect on this COVID first, I just don't. Let's not forget.
I just want to listen. The thing is this. This
country has a whole lot of checks that done sent out.
(22:40):
It is a lot of people. It needs to cover
a lot lot of checks. Okay, speaking of these checks,
this this this might be really really personal. UM. I
got alone as well for my employees, UM because I
had over thirty employees and they gave me an amount
(23:02):
of money that I celebrated. I was like, yeah, I'm
going to be able to pay everybody for a month.
UM didn't do the math right really, and it really
only paid for two weeks. I just I guess I
you know, I hyped it up in my mind that
(23:22):
this was going to be such a relief for everybody
and was going to um take some of the weight off.
That's what I thought. But anyway, it only took care
of two weeks for everyone down to the nickel and
I get a phone call saying that they over gave
(23:44):
me but five times and that they want to Yeah,
they want me to repay them for or or to
reimburse them for the two weeks of finance today, you know,
(24:05):
sent out to my employees. And I think that that's
what's going to happen with a lot of people. I
think I feel like it was a scam. Yeah, I
feel like it was a scam. Um, it wasn't as
if I didn't send everything that was necessary, sent it on,
sent my payroll, sent their names. They can account for
(24:28):
the money. Everything went to employees. I didn't get a
cent of it. But nonetheless, no, no, no no, no, But Jill,
you know what, would you ever would you ever sign
up for Donald for Trump University? No? Would you ever
do a deal with Donald Trump? No? And so it's funny.
I don't think people thought about it like it's the
(24:49):
same it's the same thing. I'm so sorry I worried
about that. And it's funny you heard like conspiracy theories
about people. Um it, I'm out of their taxes for
and I'm just hoping that's not the case too, because
some people took money and they're like, what did they
decide in that I gotta pay this ship back, which
I hope is not the case. But it's the case.
(25:11):
I absolutely believe that it's the case. M hmm yeah, yep.
Five times. So you're telling me you fucked up five
times waiting for me to cash the check. You you
messed up five times? How? How did? How are your
calculations this wrong? How? And where's your proof? I'm looking
(25:36):
because all of mu shi it is in order. We
need to pay attention to these late night uh congressional meetings.
We need to pay this stuff is happening in the
middle night. I know that I've you know, in in
in my lifetime, I've seen you know, the live recordings
(25:56):
of of congress meeting and I turned away. I want
to watch that. It's long winded. Man, This legal jargon
that is unnecessary. It's just unnecessary. I don't know, But
as I get older, I it depended on the hearing
is a form of entertainment. Ship not for nothing. That's
(26:17):
how I got to know Kamala Harris wasn't until m
Kavanaugh's hearing. It I was like, oh, ship, who is
this she was coming at? So it's it's it's interesting
I think as I get older that all that the
political it reminded me of a soap proper in my
own way. That's that's how I watch MSNBC and CNN
so much. Sous like a soap proper. I'm reading now, Okay,
(26:53):
the Constitution of the United States divides the federal government
into three branches to make sure no individual or group
or have too much power. That ain't working. Well, we're
still waiting for Georgia because that is child. We just
we need this one. We need to send it child,
We need just how we need to send it, how
we need to send it. I mean typically though, when
(27:14):
the president, any president comes in, they typically are not
getting the presidency and the House and Senate. Usually that
happens in the interns. Yeah, typically you're not gonna get both.
And don't forget Obama. What's the whole eight years that
he worked with a Republican Senate as well and so
and they made the deal in the beginning. Today wasn't
(27:36):
gonna really work with him. So when people say, you
know why I was certain things so hard, it's like
he goes back to but that's also typical. So, yes,
that did happen to Obama, but that situation is typical.
It was typical during the Clinton administration. It was typical
throughout you know, it happens because they just bounced from
one party to the next, to the next and back again.
(27:59):
Which again, that brings up the other issue that a
lot of Americans have, which is why do we have
this two party system. We should have office longer than residents.
We'll be back after the break. I would like to
(28:29):
know why we keep doing the same repeating the same actions.
Like I just I just think it's really crazy that
we're still doing the same thing. That the laws remain
the same in so many areas, Like Okay, in the Bible,
you know, um, you could have your hand cut off
for stealing the local bread. M Um. In the Koran, um,
(28:56):
you have to wash yourself before you pray. Right, Yeah.
My my thoughts here are that I always felt like
with with the with the Koran in that particular area,
like sometimes or you can't be have been with a
woman before you pray, like you have to wash your body.
(29:19):
But I'm like, sometimes my best prayers are in the
middle of sex. So oh, my Lord Jesus, and how
does that? How does that work? You know? And things
are in practice and are part of how detheran they're
not exactly written in the Koran. But also there are
also um things. They are also um exemptions. If you're
(29:42):
in the desert and there is no water, right you
can strike the earth. I mean, there's not so different.
You know. Islam has a lot of a lot of details.
I find that to be very fair. The more detailed
the better. Yes, lots of details. A lot of people
like to you know, they get the kind of surface part,
but there's lots of allowances details, things that go into
(30:05):
real life. I think that what happened when the real
life happens. Yes, real life. Okay, So if you have
two presidential candidates and uh, they're very very close to
one another. Um, let's I would say that at that point,
if they're very close to each other but nobody really
likes either of them, then we need to have another
(30:27):
vote to see who gets to stay, and whoever gets
to stay has to come up against another candidate that
we vote for. But then we have to create like
a deadline because we could do this and keep doing
this until because there is no perfect candidate either. There
is no perfect candidate. But we shouldn't be in a
position where we don't like either. Well, we were dealing
(30:51):
with Hillary Clinton and um, Donald Trump. You know, I
didn't know ultimately, Like I said, this is the part,
this is the problem with the two party system. However, Um,
this country is not that old, that's the other thing.
But they hold onto the as a United States quote unquote,
(31:12):
it's just over a hundred years old. The rules like
they can't be changed, like they can't be manipulated for
the for the benefit of the people. But yet they
are still ever changing, right, Because if they weren't ever changing,
the Supreme Court wouldn't be such a big deal. All
these these issues with US holding making sure the Supreme
Court is fair and balance and whatnot wouldn't be such
a big deal because they're constantly making rulings over things
(31:34):
that are ever changing. Abortion is ever changing, right, same
thing with the Voting Rights Act, Like they're just I mean,
there's a whole case of things. L G. B. T
q I writes like these are new things that they
had to create new laws and you know, rewrite certain
things don't you think we're in a constant kind of
rewrite in a way, it's just on who's rewriting at
(31:56):
the time. Yeah, because there you go, there you go.
Now that's a word who is doing the writing? Yeah,
the rewriting is not the issue. It's who's doing the
writing is the issue. And does that reflect those people
who are living in this country? And does that reflect
the best interests of the people who are living in
this country or the people who are less likely to
(32:16):
have an optimum experience in this country. So it's like
it's really more so about like who we're trying to
serve and are we serving them well? And that question
is gonna be ever changing because the landscape of the
country will be different over time. The country will not
look exactly the same that the way it did in
nineteen twenty. Right, That's why your cabinet should not look
(32:38):
like the same cabinet from a president in the twenties,
i e. Donald Trump's cabinet for the last four years. Right,
And let's just be fair, the nineteen twenty cabinets shouldn't
have looked that way either. No, but right, so you're
talking about nineteen twenties and that that's like the year
that women got the right to vote, the right to vote, correct,
twenties something around that time. So at that time, our
(33:02):
leadership wasn't reflecting its people right, even with the women.
You say the white should have been more white women,
It should have been more black women, should have been
more Native women. I'm tying frond the gate from the
onset of this country, like the country is very young,
and then on top of that, from the onset of
the writing of the constitution is written by flaming racists,
(33:24):
you know. So, and so as of today, we just
actually started to be able to say that, and we
just started to be able to say that, so things
are so much in their infancy stages and and thus
getting to the point where we can have conversations and
decisions and leadership that reflects the conversations and decisions that
we're making personally in within our communities, and that leadership
(33:45):
reflects that. That's new. Think about this, y'all. Juneteenth just
came into the mainstream and twenty that's when corporations was like, oh,
that's the thing, Like, oh, we can sell you all
some ship on this day. It is young, but we're
talking about you know, my great grandmother's time, my grandmother's time,
my mother's time, my time, you know. Yeah, not to
(34:20):
be backing off of Baldwin, but I the bourbage does
have to change. Yeah, and change. We're in a state
it will change. It even has to change. And we
as a society have to pay attention to who we're
putting in office and why we're putting them in office.
(34:44):
It gets dangerous. It's just like with pastors, you know,
or or any kind of religious figure. It's the why
you're here that counts, not that you're here, it's the
why what is your purpose now? Is before it was
just we needed to be in the room. It's funny
you say that, Jill, because you made me think of
like a race that we had out here for district
(35:05):
attorney against this woman, Jackie Lacey, who's a black woman, right,
And so at some point it was just like, yeah,
a black woman district attorney that should be in the conversation, right,
but this black woman is not really for black lives matter.
They've and protesting at her house in front of her
house this whole time, and all this other stuff. So
now we're getting to a point to where like we've
discussed before. There are layers to us as a people.
(35:27):
Right she black, or she might not be for you, right, Yeah,
this this reminds me of conversations we had about Kamalade
Harris before before the election. What was just like, yeah,
come on, guys, we can't be so not that we
should ignore representation. Representation is a big deal, but not
that we should ignore representation, but that we should be
(35:48):
able to critique representation. We shouldn't be able to have
um to to to think critically about it and to say, hey, hey,
this is it's not just about having someone there. It's
just about it's about the align with our values and
the values of those who are most vulnerable amongst us.
And that's fair. We just got to the point where
(36:10):
we can do that, right because we wanted to be
in Yes, yes, just got to that point. I say
that to say, Jill, sometimes we got to remind ourselves
to be persistent, be active, but also at some point
be patient with our movement, like I mean, and acknowledge
that we have had movement in progress in this small
(36:31):
amount of time, not to say we stop and we
slow down, but also just give yourself a little bit
of credit. A little bit of credit. I'm saying that
from now on, I'm gonna wear I'm gonna wear some
kind of slipper when I come down the steps, because
slid in the fuzzy socks and bust my ship, you
(36:52):
know what I'm saying. From the point moving forward, Yes,
my person lead am going to make it a point
to pay attention to who's in office. In my vocality,
there's a chance for me to vote that, I'm going
to do it because what happened is a whole racist,
(37:17):
negative asshole who had no no relationship with with people
with the with regular human beings in this world, no
relationship with them whatsoever, became president of the United States. Yeah,
and it happens because it happens on the local level. Two,
(37:39):
I'm with you on that. I will say this too.
In addition to paying attention to local politics, there's a
there is a section of people that go absolutely ignored
by people who are generally voting, and that is your
community activists. It's like there's a disconnect there, you know,
in terms of listning to the work, listening to what
(38:01):
they have to say, and listening to the work that
they do. Because the work that they do is directly
tied into service and the service of the people in
the community who are the most vulnerable. If you are
only really looking at the platform of you know, politicians
when they come up for office, you know, how can
(38:21):
you really I mean, you're looking at their platform. They're
saying that's what they believe in. But the local activists
and the community folks, they're keeping those people honest. And
I'm saying, no, we don't know you well. You when X,
Y and Z happened. Because I'll say this about a
local a local election that happened here in this neighborhood.
I want to say that the people were I remember
(38:43):
a certain person was running and I called my elder.
I was like, she ain't talking such as such, you
know her? She was like, oh no, I did three events.
I invited all the candidates. That person never showed up.
That person never showed up. I don't know who that
person is. I'll call, make another couple of com phone
calls and I'll tell you. So it's like it's that
kind of thing, is that we have to be able
(39:04):
to communicate with each other and those who are doing
community work and service when they understand some things that
we don't those of us who are getting up going
to work every day, minding our business, doing X, Y
and Z. We're not doing that work. That's not our ministry.
But we owe it to them and the work that
they do to take their word for it. And I
think there's a bit of a disconnect with that its
(39:24):
at the local level. On the local level, however, I
do want to pick up Black Lives Matter in a
way because I feel like they have at least this
election became a great kind of McDonald's sense of that
being that Glass Roots organized the exactly. And I say
that to say that they gave it was a time
when I'm looking at I told John and Cally, it's
(39:46):
a large study book for the ballot, so many things
you have to vote on, right. But what Black Lives
Matter did was they made themselves, uh, the central person
for all local elections and gave you a checklist of
kind of like at least who rose with them? Right.
So then on a local level, which was like, okay,
so you roll with them? Now I decide do I
(40:06):
roll with you? Because of this and because of all
these other things that I know. So I also say
that to say that Asia, I think that too, is
a process that we're in the midst of that. I
want to acknowledge that we might have been not so
progressive about four years ago, but I think that what
Donald Trump has done has made us forced us to
be more part of the situation where we didn't understand
(40:27):
the power of our territories, our states, the electoral college,
our local the registrars, you know, the importance of the
person who actually is in charge of voter registration in
your local municipality. Like thank you to to to my
girl Stacy Abrams, because she brought that up. So again,
I just I'm acknowledged. I want to acknowledge that we
(40:47):
learned and we're getting there. We're watching more MSNBC and
we trust them. Believe those people who were organizing under
BLM locally, they were most definitely the same folks that
have been organizing all the law with their own organizations
and their own stuff. They just happened to also be
a part of BLM or come together under BLM. Believe
(41:08):
you me that the folks that have been on the
ground are the same people that were on the ground
ten years ago. They're the same people that were on
the ground five years ago. These are the same folks.
So I think it's just important to remember that when
we when we're mad at people, we talk about you
too woke for your own good and I don't know
about that. Think about that these people they've been on
the ground years before. You knew who they were years before.
(41:31):
And one thing I will bring up was, and when
we see progress, when we see something and say, oh,
that's progress, what you see is organizers. What you see
is their work. So what you are seeing is that
that's not the politician. Those are the organizers who have
made that a point that that politician make that a
part of what they're doing. The politician is the person
(41:53):
who follows the directive of the organizers who are connected
to the people. Think about how far we come to
this that our work. Community organizer was a bad word.
(42:14):
Remember when they called obamaaction, he ain't nothing but the
community m hm. And that works on that works on
the Trump side too. Somebody brought this up the other day.
I was watching a panel and they said, yeah, we
have to remember that they were organizing their asses off
same thing. So we have to be clear that this
(42:34):
same action is happening on the opposite end. As well.
And remember, please, good people that being a citizen um,
some of us are just born into citizenship. But it's
also a responsibility, yes, ma'am. And it is also um,
it's a privilege, depending on how you look at it
(42:57):
or why you look at it, but it's a response
ability and a privilege. So pay attention to the people
in your community. When you hit eighteen and you're old
enough to vote, UM, pay attention to the community that
you're in, on every possible level wherever you can have
a voice, making a point to have it, because what
(43:17):
we don't want is another um hate monger um of
any kind of any race in the presidency ever again.
Coming up next on the show, What's on Your Heart
(43:40):
an occasional segment where we're checking with people re respect
about how they're really feeling. Hold on, y'all, waitment, I
think somebody's calling. That must mean it's time for Lots
on your Heart? All right, So here's the deal. When
we first started this show the j dot Ill Podcast,
(44:00):
Jill Scott made it a point to let me an
Asian know that she wants all kinds of different voices
to be represented on this show. Now, of course, the
first person that I thought about was my cousin, Dr
Angel Loved Miles, who has a PhD and women studies
and some other things that I really can't pronounce. But
it's also a beautiful black woman who was born with
spina bifida, who has surpassed all kinds of gold records
(44:23):
and whatever she is, we are. She is the pride
of our family. Uh so I wanted to bring And
she's also a Philly girl, so with all, a Philly girl,
a German. So, with with all that being said, Dr
Angel Love Miles, how are you good? You know, just
(44:43):
Jill Scott in Asia, so I know all about your
First of all, it kills me when her cousin got
a whole PhD. My cousin is a wrestler. I'm like, see,
that's how black folks do you. They're like, oh, you know,
I'm just gonna call my cousin. You know, she's just
you know, just dope, you know. But but you know,
(45:09):
not people. I'm lucky and blessed. But you know, and
it's funny because as me and Angel we were talking
today and she was talking about how she is connected.
She's fans of both of y'all. She's gonna be real
humble and not say that. But I was like, you know,
he should from kindred On here too. So I kind
of wanted Angel to tell her own story in a way,
and you know, kind of introduce yourself to not only
the listeners, but to Asia and Jail as well. Okay, Um, well,
(45:33):
like like you said, my my big cousin, um Angel
from Philly, from Germantown, Philadelphia, I grew up going to
a school for kids with physical disabilities, um, and Philly
called Widener Memorial School. And if I'm not mistaken, jil,
you went to Girls High. So so Widener's right behind
(45:54):
Girls High. Yeah, and I don't you know a lot
of people don't notice that. And I went to Girls
High part part time. UM. So it's called at the time,
they called it mainstreaming. And so I went to Widener
part of the day and I would go to Girls
High the other part of of the day. Um. And
when when I was in high school, I was in
Girls I went to Widener really from kindergarten fourth grade.
(46:15):
I only went to Girls High like maybe my sophomore
year to to my tudor to my senior year. And
so but I also you know, I'm a black girl,
so um, and I grew up in low income housing
um in Philly, and um, you know, dealt with the
typical Philly issues of you know, being poorant just drama,
(46:36):
drugs and addiction in my family and all that stuff. Um.
And so somehow, in spite of and also because of
all those things, I was able to go to college
and I would depend state which was like not like
Philly at all, main campus uh overwhelmingly majority white, like
(46:56):
no disabled people. Um. And that was really hard because
I went to a school for disabled kids my whole life,
where everything was made for us and it was like
normal to be disabled, and suddenly like nothing was made
for me, and um, I had to talk to the
teachers and like asked them to accommodate me, where like
I never had to do that before. Like things were
(47:17):
just accessible, Like if my wheelchair broke down, but there
was a Brave shop and I could just go to
the Brave Shop and get my chair fixed. Um. They
even had we even had like a a wheelchair um
um swing in our in our in our in our playground.
So like everything was like made for us. And then
(47:37):
all of a sudden, like life was like never will
never be like that again. I had to face reality
that like I live in a dominant, non disabled world
and that um, and that I have to get everybody
else to adjust to me. So so I did that
in addition to adjusting to race and racism at Penn State,
(47:57):
which was like I knew racism and said, of course,
but like um, and I was, you know, I was
exposed to white people growing up, but there I was
exposed to white people who weren't used to black people.
Like if for white people, I grew used to black people,
so like they grew with black people. Uh. Particularly my
stepfather was white. Uh and like, yah knows that he's
(48:18):
not an everyday black man, me white man. So I
called him black man by an accident because he grew
up around black people and people would be like, oh,
you know the well that light skinned brother right there,
and I'm like, no, my my dad is white. He's
like real. So anyways, I grew up you know, um
(48:38):
with that and anyway, UM, to make a long story short,
I went to UM Penn State, graduated, I pursued my
masters and then my PhD. Because I wanted to know,
like when I went to college. I was like, where
did everybody go? Like like I grew up with like
a really diverse community, Like where everybody go? Like why
(48:58):
am I, you know, the only black disabled women and
like all my classes at least with apparent disability, because
there are people with on apparent disabilities. I wanted gods
at but there were no people that like we're openly
saying that they're disabled and ever physically disabled and a
person of color. UM where I was and my friends
that I grew up with who were disabled and often
(49:20):
people of color, they were unemployed, they were chilling at
home their parents, living off of their soul security. And
I was like why, Like we all had dreams and
goals just like everybody else. So I researched it UM
and I went to grad school and I got a
PhD here and like that's like the skip like skipped
(49:41):
to the end. There's like a whole lot in between it.
And it's in women's studies UM, and you know I
it's so it's a radical uh degrees. Everybody's like women
studies like are you a kind of college or whatever? No, No,
I'm not interested in UM, but really just it's just
(50:05):
studies like gender basically as a as a category and
like gender and relationship to other other social identities. So
it really is just a way of like looking at
identity and inequality in general because in challenging like dominant ideology,
so so challenging dominant world views that and dominant usually
(50:27):
is like male, white, um sis, hetero sexual um. Just
challenging all those like dominant identities and really instead centering
like marginalized identities and thinking about intersectionality and feminism and
all that stuff. So so all that good stuff. So
I really wanted to. Um, my grandparents had master's degrees
(50:50):
and they taught me that, Like they got it at
a time when it's really hard for black people to
get master's degrees. Um and uh, because they were black,
they weren't able to economically benefit from their degrees the
way that they should have. So that's why I like,
in spite of their degrees, when my mother was in
(51:10):
college and that my father, I'm like like his uncle,
and I had my brother and then me, Um, we
still wound up and subsidized housing because they didn't have
wealth to transfer to to the family like they would
have if my my my grandparents would have been white
but anyway, they had taught me that education should make
(51:31):
you better to people, not better than people. Right. Let
me just say that growing up in North Philly, Um,
I really think it was although we had we had drugs,
we had violence, we also had a really gigantic group
(51:55):
of people who were just people. So I don't recall
feeling of heaviness about someone being uh bold or or
or gay or a person with disabilities. I don't recall, Um,
(52:16):
we we knew who the crackheads were, like, oh that song,
so they don't crack you know what I mean. It
was kind of like we were very accepting of everything
that everybody was and if you like the person, you
like them, and that's just what it was. If you didn't,
you didn't for whatever reasons that were yours. But I
don't remember feeling of heaviness um in my neighborhood anyway
(52:40):
about people being themselves. And I think that that's really
what all all we want is for people to be
the you know, be themselves without having to carry whatever
boxes and bullshit that this society places on us. So
here's the question, Dr Miles, what is on your heart?
(53:01):
You know? Pieces on my heart? You know, I'm just
really trying to think about, you know, how can we
get to peace because I believe that it's achievable, and um,
I have to have hope that that it's achievable. And
I think that there are groups in power that want
us to believe that it's not, um, you know, and
(53:21):
so I think that that's something that's really all my heart.
You know, love is all my heart, you know. UM.
You know, I have someone that I really love who
voted for Trump, and it's really tearing me apart. Like
this person is a person of color, this person is disabled,
and someone I really love that I actually had a
(53:42):
relationship like amate relationship with at one point, and I
just cannot figure it out and it's really turning me apart.
And I'm like, do I cut this person off? It
is that the way do I handle it? Because are
they harboring some type of hate that I don't know about?
Someone like but when I'm with them, like I don't
experience any of that, like, you know, I just experienced kindness,
(54:03):
and so you know, I have to believe that like
love will help us overcome these differences. Like I don't
think that, um, but just cutting people off will solve it.
And I'm just hopeful like that because I'm not perfect either. Um,
(54:23):
and there are some other your areas that you know,
I may be harming someone. So I'm trying to figure
out how to have grace but also like standing my principle,
stay to my principles, and so that's really hard. Um.
But I and I also want to close to say
that like you know, you're on my heart, Asia, You're
on my heart, Jill, Like, oh, like, yeah, you're in
(54:46):
my heart because you're my family. Um, and UM, I
wanted I couldn't be remissed without like sharing you know,
like how Jills like music like has impacted me how
it particularly um has helped me get through graduate school
and overcome so many of those barriers. And so you
(55:09):
know when you say like and beautifully human, like I
am here, like I am a wealth unfathomed and if
you don't recognize my presence, I am here. Um, if
you don't recognize me, I am here, like I felt
I am a source of power, Like I felt that
way in my soul as a black woman because I'm
and it was a black woman's disability because I'm ignored
so much and and I'm I've treated invisibly so much.
(55:33):
And so you know, when I grew up in Germantown, Yes, people,
there was some part where like everybody was accepted in
some ways, but there were a lot of ways where
like I was ignored, I was chased, I was spit
on by black people. I was teased, um unrelentingly. UM,
I was excluded. I wanted to be on drill team
(55:54):
so much. I want to be on drill teams so much,
but they would not let me be on their parents
and kids because I was disabled, um, and just treated
me like like my disability was contagious. UM. So I
experienced that, but I also experienced an immense kindness UM
from from the same community. So we have both in
our community. We have to you know, when Joe Biden
(56:16):
talks about um, you know that this is not who
we are. When he talks about his um. When he
did a speech and he said, like it's accepted, species
is not who we are. We're Americans, and um, he
needs to acknowledge that it is who we are. We
are like we are, we are both, we are as Americans,
like we are both you know, the our our worst enemy,
(56:38):
you know, and our best friends, and we can't keep lying.
So he did for the first time actually any president
of any president or president left actually mentioned disabled people
in his speech, which is not he shouldn't get a
big cracker for. But he did that because of the
work that we did, because we organized disabled people or
(57:00):
and ize and um and and got on and we
helped elect him. So so we have we fought really
hard for that because we're twenty percent of population and there,
and the Democratic Party is just starting to really say like, oh,
if we get these folks to organize, like maybe they
have some power. So so I wanted to like, you know,
(57:20):
talk about about that and everything and un understanding that
what was behind that. So I'm just like, because it's
so important and so poignant that to to bring us
back to the fact that, yes, when you see these
things happen, there is work behind that. There's organizing behind that.
When you see something, it didn't just fall out of
(57:41):
the sky. There are black women, there are black people.
There are black people from all kinds of intersections, all
kinds of spaces that are organizing to make sure that
those things happened. It's not the empty moment. It's a
moment that black people worked and and and strive to
get and that that's not even off. Yeah, and it's
(58:02):
like and not just buy people, but like margin life
people in general, like disabled people, like LGBTQ people, like
like disabled people, like a lot of times people treat
us like, um, like things were a charity, like just
like given to us, Like oh, wasn't that nicely? You know?
Um that um that they that the America gave us
ramps and automatic doors, and it's like, no, they don't know.
(58:23):
They don't teach the disability rights movement, like they don't
know that disabled people chain themselves to buses, Like they
don't know that disabled people put sledgehammers to to curbs,
like that we that we we father they wouldn't let us,
um have you know, our own to be integrated into schools,
that it was legal to just segregate disabled people into
(58:43):
schools and utial schools like the school that I went to,
where there there was really no reason why I shouldn't
have been able to go to girls high all day
long when I went to Penn State. But there's this,
but there's this belief that um, you know, because I
was disabled, that I needed something special. Um, and clearly
I didn't, because I mean, I'm I moved to Chicago,
(59:05):
I live in Chicago now, like I've been to Japan,
I've been to Australia. So clearly I could have been
a girls high. And so it's like society has to
change the way that they think about because we put
limitations on people with disabilities that are more limitating than
our actual conditions themselves. And so when Jill Scott says
living my life like it's golden, like that is a
(59:27):
power that is an empowering thing for a disabled person
to say, because our lives are not viewed as valuable like, um,
you know, so when I say I'm happy, people are like, well,
how could you be happy? You're disabled? You were born
like you. People say this to me all the time.
They congratulate me for being outside, like look at you outside.
(59:49):
You know, do you have a do you have a
certain like tool bag of cuss words that you have
to that you have for people, because I just need
to know because I'm just saying people out on a
regular People have said that they start praying for me automatically,
Like one lady was like, you're out of that chair, girl,
(01:00:12):
like if you just demanded and my mother said I
should have got up, Like it's because I can't. Well,
so it just started mess with Like I didn't think
about it, you know, but I should just start playing
with people. But um, just for fun. But you know,
and I like to laugh about it, but it's really
not okay, it's a it's a type of street harassment,
like you know about street harassment for women being sexually
it's disable people get street harassed. People randomly asked me
(01:00:36):
can I have sex? Like when I was a teenager man,
just like okay, well how do you do it? Can
you do it? Dada? Less than the first of all,
that's done of your business, but like secondly, like what
you know, it's just so we need to want to
educate people about disability. People don't learn about it in school,
and so the conversation is important. Angel. That's why your
(01:00:57):
voice it's important. Angel. You know one thing about this
kind of work, and people like yourself. I feel like
the more that I listen to you, the more I
understand how to treat people better. Like you said, education
should make you better to others, not better than others.
And I feel like the more that I interacted. I'm
always telling people like, why are we not listening to
(01:01:18):
our organizers? Why are we not listening to our advocates
and activists. These are the people who are most in
touch with who we are at our core. These are
the folks that are talking to people who are the
most affected by all the things that are going on
because they don't get an opportunity to speak in a
way where everybody gets to hear it, and that is
(01:01:40):
an issue and is an issue. I thank you so
much for being with us, Doctor Miles Angels Love Miles.
How do you eat an elephant? One by it time? Hey, y'all,
(01:02:09):
I'm Eves, a producer on the show, and I'm here
to bring you the resource of the day. As all
of the women on the show mentioned, the organizers in
your community are out here putting in work. Let's give
them our support and acknowledgement. Jill, Layah, and Asia all
have love for Philly, and Asia has a recommendation for
y'all based in the city. Check out the Black Philly
(01:02:29):
Radical Collective, which includes the organization's Philly for Real Justice,
Black Lives Matter Philly, the Abolitionists Law Center Philadelphia, and
many more. I'll drop a link to the collective's website
and the description. And for those of you outside of
Philly research the anti racist abolitionists and progressive organizations and
(01:02:49):
causes in your area. Thank you so much for sening
and um you know you can always leave your comments
where we're open to that. Always. Thank you for listening
(01:03:11):
to Jill Scott Present j dot il the Podcast. This
podcast is hosted by Jill Scott, Laya st. Clair, and
(01:03:33):
agent Gayden Dance Flare. Its executive producers are Jill Scott,
Seawan g and Brian Calhoun. It's produced by Laya Sat
Claire and me Eve Steph Cooke. The editing and sound
design for this episode we're done by Taylor Chakom. Just
like so many reasons why this ship happened, that for
(01:03:54):
us to prevent it? What about them seventies six million people,
if that's real? If that's real? Because now we know
that other countries can be involved in our elections and
maneuver our elections. This is the problem with having so
much information, y'all's too much, so you don't know what's real.
You don't know what's real. So many you know, and
(01:04:16):
there's the truth and then it's my truth. I have
my truth, I'm standing in my truth. All of those
things we don't know what truth is anymore. J dot
Ill is a production of I heart Radio. For more
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Welcome to Jay dot Dell, a production of I Heart Radio. Hi,
it's still Scott and we're here for Jay dot il
(00:28):
the podcast and with my sister friends La Yas sat Clair, Yes, ma'am,
that's me, yes ma'am, President St Clair, Yes, St Claire.
I used to say sint Clair. It's it was that first.
It's okay. You know Slavery didn't funk it all up anyway, Jill,
So you know I can't even claim the classiness of
the name. Wow and age grating danceller. Sorry too much, Danzla, Danzla.
(00:58):
There it is. I wish I could have had a
couple more syllables. I mean a couple of more syllables.
Been nice. You have a three letter name with two
syllables aga, I do, I do, and yet people still
can never say it correct. Its shocking. You're a continent.
(01:19):
It's a a jo look a jaw like jah Rostafar. Okay,
apparently today we've had some coffee. We have, We've had
several cups, a little bit a little sweet on us today. Um,
(01:44):
we're talking about how to move on from where we
are now? Where are we now? Trump has been I
think he's been put out of office. It looks like
it looks like not pysically, but he will be yes.
Currently he's still held up in the White House. Um,
(02:08):
I am looking forward to the day seeing him out
of it, Yo, scramping about, scrapping about to come and wrap,
scramming about to be like, Yo, you don't get your
ass off up out of here. We're gonna do it
for you. I need a slow motion. I need it.
I need a slow motion so that I could just
watch it over and over again. Well, I I don't know,
I don't know. I would like it to be I
(02:28):
like the Obama's to be present when he gets kicked out,
you know what I'm saying, Just because they had to
say face in sixteen and walk that motherfucker through the
White House like they like this. No, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
I gotta no no, no no, no, no no, it's applicable right there, okay, okay, yeah,
right there and sit in the office and and she
they even left notes for these motherfuck us like I
(02:51):
just I'm sorry, all extensive notes. That's that's what it's class.
I'm tired on your ass and I'm very very interested
in us publicly getting to see them drag him on
out of there. I almost don't want him to leave.
I want him to be there on the twenty one
(03:13):
Or is it in January twenty one? Is the very
last day? The last day is or I want to
see the Secret Service switch over and grab him by
the ankles and slide him out the front door the floor.
I've been to the White House a couple of times,
and what I liked about how they kick you out
(03:37):
is the they're like, I guess they're in the military.
Who wears white, the Marines, some kind of white fans,
But I honestly don't know which part of the military
they were in. But they were smoothed. What they do
is they kind of heard you out. So everybody's having
(03:58):
a good time and in these big spaces, and and
all of a sudden, the white suits come in a
little closer. And and because you you know your your
your your personal space, you move a little bit and
then they move forward and you move a little bit
(04:20):
like a wall. It's like a wall, and they're smiling
the whole time and listening to the music too. It
wasn't uncomfortable. Next thing, you know, you're outside. Can I
just say to the people that Jill is talking about
a very interesting experience because number one, I believe you
are talking about an Obama white house experience. Number two,
you are talking about Obama white House party experience I E.
(04:43):
D b ET closing party, which I'm gonna say to you, Jill,
that white house that gone whatever you saw that white house,
That white house was the once in another life with
that white house, right, So glad I got to be there.
Did I tell you that they at one of those events?
(05:05):
I went to five of them. Oh, they invited me back, honey,
so I every time. It was a great experience. At
one of them, I think it might have been the
first one where I took my mom and they had
watermelon and fried chicken. And I ate that watermelon so hard.
(05:29):
I ate it so hard they cut it. Don't tell
the half story, Jail. It's more things than watermelon. Please
tell me. It was more than watermelon and chicken. It
was more on the menu. I don't know there. It
was like tet. It was little pizzas and things all
(05:51):
over the place, pieces of of of delicious all over
and they had a mountain of sliced watermelon. It looked
like the watermelon was cut by buy um uh not
a razor but maybe a laser. It was. It was perfect.
And then they they little turning they like el es
(06:14):
and I thought, who puts feat of cheese on watermeltain?
And did it? Did sound nasty? But I ate it
and I ate it the kind And then there was
an you know how it is something that's good. You
start doing the little dance, you know, so like black
(06:38):
I'm black chicken and a white hu. We did poses.
Everybody posed in front of George Washington the picture Who squatted?
Did anybody? We all did everybody You're not having a camera,
but everybody did it. Everybody's like how you like now?
(07:00):
A lot of how you like me? Out? It felt great?
Was the electric slide. Every possible dance was wobbled. That
was like you know the probably wobbled. Every possible dance
was done. The party didn't end. The last party didn't
entil five am. Can you break down what the bathroom
(07:22):
looks like in the White House Hill? Which one? Did
they look different? Would would they look different? Are the
different decor? Is it like the Ebony building where every
color it's a different color on every floor. That's how
they building like the bathroom, like, just give me it wasn't.
I don't have a glowing recommendation of the bathrooms. I
can tell you that they were wallpapered and they were efficient. Okay.
(07:46):
The rooms coming from those bathrooms were had plates and
and things that were hundreds of years old, you know,
And it was a lot of antiques, a lot of
memory re bilia from other presidents. You know that Trump's
picture portrait will be hanging in the White House, is it? No? No? No,
(08:07):
that have they confirmed that they confirmed? No? No, I
don't know. I don't. He didn't hang You know that
he did not hang Obama's picture, So actually I don't.
I don't. I promise you that, yes, Obama's picture is
not in the White House. I promise you that there's
something really going on. I mean, everybody knows this, we're
just talking about it. There's really something there where you're
(08:30):
so jealous, so agitated by doesn't he have a reason?
The words are big mad, big mad. I mean from
the physicality to the education, he is everything that that
he that Trump is not right true? Indeed, I mean
(08:51):
I just feel like that portraits do be looking at
you and if you had to walk down the hallway
and that brother just sitting in the chair like he
is in his portrait. You're just looking at you. And
the portrait was done so well, unlike any other portrait
ever done, ever done anywhere anywhere. Fantastic. Yeah, I think, Okay,
(09:17):
I'm just looking forward to that moment when we can
really just figure out what's gonna happen next, Like how
does this thing gonna go? Because I'm tired of the
little linger, the language bothering me. Well, here's the issue,
and you know that the linger is not is not
all the fault of the incoming president. The linger is
(09:38):
the fact that this is the first time ever that
there is not a graceful transition, not even a transition team.
So oh yeah, no, no, I'm yeah, yeah, I know
you are, but yeahing. Still, you know, big up to
Biden inherent because they still have their whole COVID team together,
they still meet and then like we're gonna do what
we can do to make sure there's a transition and
not just because like Dr Fauci said, you can't stop
(10:00):
the game and started again. They've gotta be a you know,
transition to be smooth, like people have to work together
like this, this is this is necessary. But it's just
like it's the the instability and the the disregard and
the i mean, the the full on arrogance is just
it's beyond beyond. It is beyond beyond. And we still
(10:24):
have seventy seven million American people who voted for this guy,
and many of them that are in the same are
just as delusional. Yeah, that's not that's just interesting in
the scary part, right, because we've had the most ever
election of folks come out to vote. But that also
means that, yeah, like you said, seventies six million people
(10:44):
are so voted for for Trump, which means we know
they're there and they're upset. I mean, we always knew
(11:08):
were there. But it's just that's so bering. That is
sobering to think that here we are four years later,
you've seen all that you've seen. There's no there was
It's not like the first time when they thought, oh
I thought it was gonna be this way or I
thought it might be this way. No, you saw how
it was. And still more people turned out for him.
(11:28):
In fact, more white women in particular came out. He
had the biggest increase of the electorate was white women,
white women. More white women voted for him this time
than the first time. And and they and there's a
larger increase in white women than in white men. Yeah,
(11:50):
because all you gotta do is put the fear in them.
And I just thought to myself, wow, wow, And I
refused him. But leave that of those women, of those
white women, those fifty of the white woman electorate that
I refused, the police believe that none of them was
down on Washington with one of them pussy hats on.
(12:12):
One of them had a pussy hat on, one one
of them dead, when many of them many dead. But
now now you're talking about the breakdown between racism and
female I mean womanism. You know what I'm saying, feminism
(12:33):
say do with me? Yeah? They had not to do
with me. Feminism and womanism, Yeah yeah, I mean, let
me just keep it to you straight. If I you
might hear me say feminism, you understand what I'm saying.
But I'm very clear in terms of what white women
feel and think and practice when it comes to feminism
does not always include me, and more often than not
(12:57):
does not include me. Yeah, they're not clear. I like
to I most definitely like to use the word womanism,
which was coined by Alice Walker, if I'm not mistaken,
because I know that was meant for me. M hm.
So I like to use terms I know of for me.
Thank you for breaking that down because I was somewhat
unclear on the woman as a versus feminism. So I
(13:18):
appreciate that Alice Walker must respect that. Well. I'll tell
you what I want to see as this man leaves office.
This is so many things this man as he leaves office,
I definitely need us. And I'm gonna just going to
(13:41):
say me, we have to start really paying attention to
politics within our community down the Who's block, Captain. Yeah,
we really have to talk about who's running for office
(14:01):
so that we can get It's like it's like training
a child on how you you know, how to grow up? Mhm.
It's the same thing within our government, Like we have
to choose well and UM support the people that are
attempting to make changes in our society, like really support them.
(14:21):
If nothing else, We've learned this. If nothing else, We've
learned this because the clear blue sky, some whack ass
billionaire UM who's not earned anything in a lifetime, who
has no relationship at all with anybody, no relationship with
(14:43):
the with the common people who wash clothes, who clean toilets,
who fold, who who go grocery shopping, no understanding of
any part of it. I don't even know if the
if the man us wash his own ask before m
I don't know the question. It's a good question. Who knows.
(15:07):
But I know that he was gold toilets when I
was catching scepter. So um you know that asked crack dirty?
You know you gotta want to dirty? I'm sorry, just no,
ain't nothing like a man with a dirty ass. Crack Sorry,
come on, fellas, girl, what we a skid mark? No?
(15:32):
Right there on the toilet seats? Is that on the toilets?
If there's a skid mark, it's not like he wouldn't
know about it, nor would he have to deal with
because he don't look back. No, he wouldn't have to
deal with his own, his own foolishness, none of it.
That's I'm excited, and it's funny. I don't want to
I don't like to make somebody president who's never been
accountable for anything. How, I don't know, ask Pete Putin.
(15:57):
I think it's very easy to pick up president who's
never been accountable for anything. We don't listen, how do
you make them the poor? How do you make them
the poor white people? President? Is the question? How did
that rich white man become the po white man's president?
Like whoa, that man became the poor white man's president
way before that, Because the bottom line is that poor
(16:19):
white people didn't have nothing to do with planners and
owners or plantations, and plantation owners were our first senators
and our first congressman, and poor white people wasn't getting
none of that money. Right, So rich white men been
making the rules for poor white people a long time,
and they've been sipping that bs kool aid that the
(16:39):
rich white man been telling them since you know, the
seventeen sixteenth century, telling him, oh you poor, you disenfranchised,
but you better than them niggas. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's
been going on for a long time. That's why it
was the poor yeah yeah, yeah yeah, and an important
lie to hold on to that that gave them a
(17:02):
sense of being, a sense of of of value, purpose, purpose,
And it's right, Mrs Trump, this is our place, that's right.
It's not the well we see, we see the amount
of hatred. We see the amount of anger. We're still
here in this country. So now what We'll be back
(17:26):
after the breath, And can I just allow a moment.
I know people, you know people on social media. I
know people on social media, like you know, I don't
(17:47):
know what y'all are so happy for this motherfucker Biden
and ain't no better than But can I just say
on just the a level of symbolism, because I know
it used to not matter until Trump came into office.
Symbol of them and what these what this man symbolizes.
I'm still more excited to see a man who didn't
come from nothing in a way, I'm still excited to
(18:09):
see a man who loves his wife, and I'll be
able to see some love back in the White House.
I mean a man who is married to a teacher,
so she is connected to things. He is still a teacher,
like a man who has been lifted up in the
White House twice by two black people. Because remember, there
would be no Joe Biden if not for in a
sense of a president Joe Biden, in a sense of
(18:30):
a Barack Obama and a Kamala Harris. And he knows
that I am very conscious that this white man knows
that he is on the back of these people. So
I just can we just have a moment to say
things are possibly going to be better than the last
four years without making me feel like yo, then is
wrong with you? Don know? Girl, listen, and not that
(18:53):
you need my permission or anybody else. I do need
a girl. Better come now. You'll be a crazy person
to think it's not gonna be better. It's but better
has varying degrees, and better is also, you know, in
comparison to what and so if you're not comparing it
specifically to the character of Donald Trump, if you're just
(19:16):
talking about Yeah, if you're just talking about Donald Trump,
then yeah, I mean most of us would have voted
for Barney, you know what I'm saying. But I do
think it would be unfair to a Joe Biden or
or or even a Kamala Harris to assume that or
to even hit towards that they are the same types
of they would have the same kind of leadership as
(19:38):
a Trump and there is no difference. I think that's
dangerous and it lacks Yeah, it lacks nu once and
it's it's it's silly to me However, you know, we
do have to understand that, you know, Trayvon Martin that
happened on the rocks watch, these kinds of things happened
to us and continue to happen to us throughout the
(19:59):
Obama pre residency. And yeah, it was awesome. A lot
of bad things happened throughing Obama. We lost a lot
of children. Sandy Hook happened on Obama's watch too, like
most child school shootings and history and Obama's watched. I'm
sorry because right, no, no, and we're on the same
page because so what we're saying, I think it's so
important to keep having the nuance there. What we're saying
(20:21):
is that or what anyone is saying is, yes, it
is important to not have Trump, but we cannot be
so focused on not having Trump that we um create
a pedestal for Joe Biden, or we create a pedestal
for Kamala Harris or anybody else who would come into
office on the tales of this kind of terrible criminal administration.
(20:42):
So that is where we have to be careful, and
we have to be careful not to set them up
into a moment where they cannot be publicly critiqued. That's true.
I think we are. We are dangerously at that moment
with but hey, but no, I don't know, because we've
been critiquing her the whole ride, the whole wide through
right now. Yeah, in comparison into she's been critiqued in
comparison to so as a black woman, she's gonna get
(21:04):
way more drama than anybody else. Because she's a black woman,
people are gonna be on her ask the same way
they were on Um, way worse than Yeah, exactly, like
a Michelle Obama. So yeah, she's gonna get it worse.
(21:32):
But what we have to do as a community, and
we are absolutely sophisticated enough to do this, is that
we have to be clear that as we protect her
from these white supremacist attacks, that we are also extremely
critical and not critical in a way that says that
we are being unfair or mean or inaccurate, but that
(21:56):
we deserve that he deserved leadership that does and just
represent us in color and background, but that they also
represent our best interests, not some of our interests, but
our very best interests as a group, as an electorate,
as a community. Period. I see the activists already on
(22:18):
social media is talking about, Yeah, we ain't forgot that
we got you here, so we're gonna come back. We're
coming for We're coming for you. But what wel you
promised us? So I see a lot of activists on
social already ready to collect and I'm not mad at that.
I mean, I get it. Although you probably can we
collect on this COVID first, I just don't. Let's not forget.
I just want to listen. The thing is this. This
country has a whole lot of checks that done sent out.
(22:40):
It is a lot of people. It needs to cover
a lot lot of checks. Okay, speaking of these checks,
this this this might be really really personal. UM. I
got alone as well for my employees, UM because I
had over thirty employees and they gave me an amount
(23:02):
of money that I celebrated. I was like, yeah, I'm
going to be able to pay everybody for a month.
UM didn't do the math right really, and it really
only paid for two weeks. I just I guess I
you know, I hyped it up in my mind that
(23:22):
this was going to be such a relief for everybody
and was going to um take some of the weight off.
That's what I thought. But anyway, it only took care
of two weeks for everyone down to the nickel and
I get a phone call saying that they over gave
(23:44):
me but five times and that they want to Yeah,
they want me to repay them for or or to
reimburse them for the two weeks of finance today, you know,
(24:05):
sent out to my employees. And I think that that's
what's going to happen with a lot of people. I
think I feel like it was a scam. Yeah, I
feel like it was a scam. Um, it wasn't as
if I didn't send everything that was necessary, sent it on,
sent my payroll, sent their names. They can account for
(24:28):
the money. Everything went to employees. I didn't get a
cent of it. But nonetheless, no, no, no no, no, But Jill,
you know what, would you ever would you ever sign
up for Donald for Trump University? No? Would you ever
do a deal with Donald Trump? No? And so it's funny.
I don't think people thought about it like it's the
(24:49):
same it's the same thing. I'm so sorry I worried
about that. And it's funny you heard like conspiracy theories
about people. Um it, I'm out of their taxes for
and I'm just hoping that's not the case too, because
some people took money and they're like, what did they
decide in that I gotta pay this ship back, which
I hope is not the case. But it's the case.
(25:11):
I absolutely believe that it's the case. M hmm yeah, yep.
Five times. So you're telling me you fucked up five
times waiting for me to cash the check. You you
messed up five times? How? How did? How are your
calculations this wrong? How? And where's your proof? I'm looking
(25:36):
because all of mu shi it is in order. We
need to pay attention to these late night uh congressional meetings.
We need to pay this stuff is happening in the
middle night. I know that I've you know, in in
in my lifetime, I've seen you know, the live recordings
(25:56):
of of congress meeting and I turned away. I want
to watch that. It's long winded. Man, This legal jargon
that is unnecessary. It's just unnecessary. I don't know, But
as I get older, I it depended on the hearing
is a form of entertainment. Ship not for nothing. That's
(26:17):
how I got to know Kamala Harris wasn't until m
Kavanaugh's hearing. It I was like, oh, ship, who is
this she was coming at? So it's it's it's interesting
I think as I get older that all that the
political it reminded me of a soap proper in my
own way. That's that's how I watch MSNBC and CNN
so much. Sous like a soap proper. I'm reading now, Okay,
(26:53):
the Constitution of the United States divides the federal government
into three branches to make sure no individual or group
or have too much power. That ain't working. Well, we're
still waiting for Georgia because that is child. We just
we need this one. We need to send it child,
We need just how we need to send it, how
we need to send it. I mean typically though, when
(27:14):
the president, any president comes in, they typically are not
getting the presidency and the House and Senate. Usually that
happens in the interns. Yeah, typically you're not gonna get both.
And don't forget Obama. What's the whole eight years that
he worked with a Republican Senate as well and so
and they made the deal in the beginning. Today wasn't
(27:36):
gonna really work with him. So when people say, you
know why I was certain things so hard, it's like
he goes back to but that's also typical. So, yes,
that did happen to Obama, but that situation is typical.
It was typical during the Clinton administration. It was typical
throughout you know, it happens because they just bounced from
one party to the next, to the next and back again.
(27:59):
Which again, that brings up the other issue that a
lot of Americans have, which is why do we have
this two party system. We should have office longer than residents.
We'll be back after the break. I would like to
(28:29):
know why we keep doing the same repeating the same actions.
Like I just I just think it's really crazy that
we're still doing the same thing. That the laws remain
the same in so many areas, Like Okay, in the Bible,
you know, um, you could have your hand cut off
for stealing the local bread. M Um. In the Koran, um,
(28:56):
you have to wash yourself before you pray. Right, Yeah.
My my thoughts here are that I always felt like
with with the with the Koran in that particular area,
like sometimes or you can't be have been with a
woman before you pray, like you have to wash your body.
(29:19):
But I'm like, sometimes my best prayers are in the
middle of sex. So oh, my Lord Jesus, and how
does that? How does that work? You know? And things
are in practice and are part of how detheran they're
not exactly written in the Koran. But also there are
also um things. They are also um exemptions. If you're
(29:42):
in the desert and there is no water, right you
can strike the earth. I mean, there's not so different.
You know. Islam has a lot of a lot of details.
I find that to be very fair. The more detailed
the better. Yes, lots of details. A lot of people
like to you know, they get the kind of surface part,
but there's lots of allowances details, things that go into
(30:05):
real life. I think that what happened when the real
life happens. Yes, real life. Okay, So if you have
two presidential candidates and uh, they're very very close to
one another. Um, let's I would say that at that point,
if they're very close to each other but nobody really
likes either of them, then we need to have another
(30:27):
vote to see who gets to stay, and whoever gets
to stay has to come up against another candidate that
we vote for. But then we have to create like
a deadline because we could do this and keep doing
this until because there is no perfect candidate either. There
is no perfect candidate. But we shouldn't be in a
position where we don't like either. Well, we were dealing
(30:51):
with Hillary Clinton and um, Donald Trump. You know, I
didn't know ultimately, Like I said, this is the part,
this is the problem with the two party system. However, Um,
this country is not that old, that's the other thing.
But they hold onto the as a United States quote unquote,
(31:12):
it's just over a hundred years old. The rules like
they can't be changed, like they can't be manipulated for
the for the benefit of the people. But yet they
are still ever changing, right, Because if they weren't ever changing,
the Supreme Court wouldn't be such a big deal. All
these these issues with US holding making sure the Supreme
Court is fair and balance and whatnot wouldn't be such
a big deal because they're constantly making rulings over things
(31:34):
that are ever changing. Abortion is ever changing, right, same
thing with the Voting Rights Act, Like they're just I mean,
there's a whole case of things. L G. B. T
q I writes like these are new things that they
had to create new laws and you know, rewrite certain
things don't you think we're in a constant kind of
rewrite in a way, it's just on who's rewriting at
(31:56):
the time. Yeah, because there you go, there you go.
Now that's a word who is doing the writing? Yeah,
the rewriting is not the issue. It's who's doing the
writing is the issue. And does that reflect those people
who are living in this country? And does that reflect
the best interests of the people who are living in
this country or the people who are less likely to
(32:16):
have an optimum experience in this country. So it's like
it's really more so about like who we're trying to
serve and are we serving them well? And that question
is gonna be ever changing because the landscape of the
country will be different over time. The country will not
look exactly the same that the way it did in
nineteen twenty. Right, That's why your cabinet should not look
(32:38):
like the same cabinet from a president in the twenties,
i e. Donald Trump's cabinet for the last four years. Right,
And let's just be fair, the nineteen twenty cabinets shouldn't
have looked that way either. No, but right, so you're
talking about nineteen twenties and that that's like the year
that women got the right to vote, the right to vote, correct,
twenties something around that time. So at that time, our
(33:02):
leadership wasn't reflecting its people right, even with the women.
You say the white should have been more white women,
It should have been more black women, should have been
more Native women. I'm tying frond the gate from the
onset of this country, like the country is very young,
and then on top of that, from the onset of
the writing of the constitution is written by flaming racists,
(33:24):
you know. So, and so as of today, we just
actually started to be able to say that, and we
just started to be able to say that, so things
are so much in their infancy stages and and thus
getting to the point where we can have conversations and
decisions and leadership that reflects the conversations and decisions that
we're making personally in within our communities, and that leadership
(33:45):
reflects that. That's new. Think about this, y'all. Juneteenth just
came into the mainstream and twenty that's when corporations was like, oh,
that's the thing, Like, oh, we can sell you all
some ship on this day. It is young, but we're
talking about you know, my great grandmother's time, my grandmother's time,
my mother's time, my time, you know. Yeah, not to
(34:20):
be backing off of Baldwin, but I the bourbage does
have to change. Yeah, and change. We're in a state
it will change. It even has to change. And we
as a society have to pay attention to who we're
putting in office and why we're putting them in office.
(34:44):
It gets dangerous. It's just like with pastors, you know,
or or any kind of religious figure. It's the why
you're here that counts, not that you're here, it's the
why what is your purpose now? Is before it was
just we needed to be in the room. It's funny
you say that, Jill, because you made me think of
like a race that we had out here for district
(35:05):
attorney against this woman, Jackie Lacey, who's a black woman, right,
And so at some point it was just like, yeah,
a black woman district attorney that should be in the conversation, right,
but this black woman is not really for black lives matter.
They've and protesting at her house in front of her
house this whole time, and all this other stuff. So
now we're getting to a point to where like we've
discussed before. There are layers to us as a people.
(35:27):
Right she black, or she might not be for you, right, Yeah,
this this reminds me of conversations we had about Kamalade
Harris before before the election. What was just like, yeah,
come on, guys, we can't be so not that we
should ignore representation. Representation is a big deal, but not
that we should ignore representation, but that we should be
(35:48):
able to critique representation. We shouldn't be able to have
um to to to think critically about it and to say, hey, hey,
this is it's not just about having someone there. It's
just about it's about the align with our values and
the values of those who are most vulnerable amongst us.
And that's fair. We just got to the point where
(36:10):
we can do that, right because we wanted to be
in Yes, yes, just got to that point. I say
that to say, Jill, sometimes we got to remind ourselves
to be persistent, be active, but also at some point
be patient with our movement, like I mean, and acknowledge
that we have had movement in progress in this small
(36:31):
amount of time, not to say we stop and we
slow down, but also just give yourself a little bit
of credit. A little bit of credit. I'm saying that
from now on, I'm gonna wear I'm gonna wear some
kind of slipper when I come down the steps, because
slid in the fuzzy socks and bust my ship, you
(36:52):
know what I'm saying. From the point moving forward, Yes,
my person lead am going to make it a point
to pay attention to who's in office. In my vocality,
there's a chance for me to vote that, I'm going
to do it because what happened is a whole racist,
(37:17):
negative asshole who had no no relationship with with people
with the with regular human beings in this world, no
relationship with them whatsoever, became president of the United States. Yeah,
and it happens because it happens on the local level. Two,
(37:39):
I'm with you on that. I will say this too.
In addition to paying attention to local politics, there's a
there is a section of people that go absolutely ignored
by people who are generally voting, and that is your
community activists. It's like there's a disconnect there, you know,
in terms of listning to the work, listening to what
(38:01):
they have to say, and listening to the work that
they do. Because the work that they do is directly
tied into service and the service of the people in
the community who are the most vulnerable. If you are
only really looking at the platform of you know, politicians
when they come up for office, you know, how can
(38:21):
you really I mean, you're looking at their platform. They're
saying that's what they believe in. But the local activists
and the community folks, they're keeping those people honest. And
I'm saying, no, we don't know you well. You when X,
Y and Z happened. Because I'll say this about a
local a local election that happened here in this neighborhood.
I want to say that the people were I remember
(38:43):
a certain person was running and I called my elder.
I was like, she ain't talking such as such, you
know her? She was like, oh no, I did three events.
I invited all the candidates. That person never showed up.
That person never showed up. I don't know who that
person is. I'll call, make another couple of com phone
calls and I'll tell you. So it's like it's that
kind of thing, is that we have to be able
(39:04):
to communicate with each other and those who are doing
community work and service when they understand some things that
we don't those of us who are getting up going
to work every day, minding our business, doing X, Y
and Z. We're not doing that work. That's not our ministry.
But we owe it to them and the work that
they do to take their word for it. And I
think there's a bit of a disconnect with that its
(39:24):
at the local level. On the local level, however, I
do want to pick up Black Lives Matter in a
way because I feel like they have at least this
election became a great kind of McDonald's sense of that
being that Glass Roots organized the exactly. And I say
that to say that they gave it was a time
when I'm looking at I told John and Cally, it's
(39:46):
a large study book for the ballot, so many things
you have to vote on, right. But what Black Lives
Matter did was they made themselves, uh, the central person
for all local elections and gave you a checklist of
kind of like at least who rose with them? Right.
So then on a local level, which was like, okay,
so you roll with them? Now I decide do I
(40:06):
roll with you? Because of this and because of all
these other things that I know. So I also say
that to say that Asia, I think that too, is
a process that we're in the midst of that. I
want to acknowledge that we might have been not so
progressive about four years ago, but I think that what
Donald Trump has done has made us forced us to
be more part of the situation where we didn't understand
(40:27):
the power of our territories, our states, the electoral college,
our local the registrars, you know, the importance of the
person who actually is in charge of voter registration in
your local municipality. Like thank you to to to my
girl Stacy Abrams, because she brought that up. So again,
I just I'm acknowledged. I want to acknowledge that we
(40:47):
learned and we're getting there. We're watching more MSNBC and
we trust them. Believe those people who were organizing under
BLM locally, they were most definitely the same folks that
have been organizing all the law with their own organizations
and their own stuff. They just happened to also be
a part of BLM or come together under BLM. Believe
(41:08):
you me that the folks that have been on the
ground are the same people that were on the ground
ten years ago. They're the same people that were on
the ground five years ago. These are the same folks.
So I think it's just important to remember that when
we when we're mad at people, we talk about you
too woke for your own good and I don't know
about that. Think about that these people they've been on
the ground years before. You knew who they were years before.
(41:31):
And one thing I will bring up was, and when
we see progress, when we see something and say, oh,
that's progress, what you see is organizers. What you see
is their work. So what you are seeing is that
that's not the politician. Those are the organizers who have
made that a point that that politician make that a
part of what they're doing. The politician is the person
(41:53):
who follows the directive of the organizers who are connected
to the people. Think about how far we come to
this that our work. Community organizer was a bad word.
(42:14):
Remember when they called obamaaction, he ain't nothing but the
community m hm. And that works on that works on
the Trump side too. Somebody brought this up the other day.
I was watching a panel and they said, yeah, we
have to remember that they were organizing their asses off
same thing. So we have to be clear that this
(42:34):
same action is happening on the opposite end. As well.
And remember, please, good people that being a citizen um,
some of us are just born into citizenship. But it's
also a responsibility, yes, ma'am. And it is also um,
it's a privilege, depending on how you look at it
(42:57):
or why you look at it, but it's a response
ability and a privilege. So pay attention to the people
in your community. When you hit eighteen and you're old
enough to vote, UM, pay attention to the community that
you're in, on every possible level wherever you can have
a voice, making a point to have it, because what
(43:17):
we don't want is another um hate monger um of
any kind of any race in the presidency ever again.
Coming up next on the show, What's on Your Heart
(43:40):
an occasional segment where we're checking with people re respect
about how they're really feeling. Hold on, y'all, waitment, I
think somebody's calling. That must mean it's time for Lots
on your Heart? All right, So here's the deal. When
we first started this show the j dot Ill Podcast,
(44:00):
Jill Scott made it a point to let me an
Asian know that she wants all kinds of different voices
to be represented on this show. Now, of course, the
first person that I thought about was my cousin, Dr
Angel Loved Miles, who has a PhD and women studies
and some other things that I really can't pronounce. But
it's also a beautiful black woman who was born with
spina bifida, who has surpassed all kinds of gold records
(44:23):
and whatever she is, we are. She is the pride
of our family. Uh so I wanted to bring And
she's also a Philly girl, so with all, a Philly girl,
a German. So, with with all that being said, Dr
Angel Love Miles, how are you good? You know, just
(44:43):
Jill Scott in Asia, so I know all about your
First of all, it kills me when her cousin got
a whole PhD. My cousin is a wrestler. I'm like, see,
that's how black folks do you. They're like, oh, you know,
I'm just gonna call my cousin. You know, she's just
you know, just dope, you know. But but you know,
(45:09):
not people. I'm lucky and blessed. But you know, and
it's funny because as me and Angel we were talking
today and she was talking about how she is connected.
She's fans of both of y'all. She's gonna be real
humble and not say that. But I was like, you know,
he should from kindred On here too. So I kind
of wanted Angel to tell her own story in a way,
and you know, kind of introduce yourself to not only
the listeners, but to Asia and Jail as well. Okay, Um, well,
(45:33):
like like you said, my my big cousin, um Angel
from Philly, from Germantown, Philadelphia, I grew up going to
a school for kids with physical disabilities, um, and Philly
called Widener Memorial School. And if I'm not mistaken, jil,
you went to Girls High. So so Widener's right behind
(45:54):
Girls High. Yeah, and I don't you know a lot
of people don't notice that. And I went to Girls
High part part time. UM. So it's called at the time,
they called it mainstreaming. And so I went to Widener
part of the day and I would go to Girls
High the other part of of the day. Um. And
when when I was in high school, I was in
Girls I went to Widener really from kindergarten fourth grade.
(46:15):
I only went to Girls High like maybe my sophomore
year to to my tudor to my senior year. And
so but I also you know, I'm a black girl,
so um, and I grew up in low income housing
um in Philly, and um, you know, dealt with the
typical Philly issues of you know, being poorant just drama,
(46:36):
drugs and addiction in my family and all that stuff. Um.
And so somehow, in spite of and also because of
all those things, I was able to go to college
and I would depend state which was like not like
Philly at all, main campus uh overwhelmingly majority white, like
(46:56):
no disabled people. Um. And that was really hard because
I went to a school for disabled kids my whole life,
where everything was made for us and it was like
normal to be disabled, and suddenly like nothing was made
for me, and um, I had to talk to the
teachers and like asked them to accommodate me, where like
I never had to do that before. Like things were
(47:17):
just accessible, Like if my wheelchair broke down, but there
was a Brave shop and I could just go to
the Brave Shop and get my chair fixed. Um. They
even had we even had like a a wheelchair um
um swing in our in our in our in our playground.
So like everything was like made for us. And then
(47:37):
all of a sudden, like life was like never will
never be like that again. I had to face reality
that like I live in a dominant, non disabled world
and that um, and that I have to get everybody
else to adjust to me. So so I did that
in addition to adjusting to race and racism at Penn State,
(47:57):
which was like I knew racism and said, of course,
but like um, and I was, you know, I was
exposed to white people growing up, but there I was
exposed to white people who weren't used to black people.
Like if for white people, I grew used to black people,
so like they grew with black people. Uh. Particularly my
stepfather was white. Uh and like, yah knows that he's
(48:18):
not an everyday black man, me white man. So I
called him black man by an accident because he grew
up around black people and people would be like, oh,
you know the well that light skinned brother right there,
and I'm like, no, my my dad is white. He's
like real. So anyways, I grew up you know, um
(48:38):
with that and anyway, UM, to make a long story short,
I went to UM Penn State, graduated, I pursued my
masters and then my PhD. Because I wanted to know,
like when I went to college. I was like, where
did everybody go? Like like I grew up with like
a really diverse community, Like where everybody go? Like why
(48:58):
am I, you know, the only black disabled women and
like all my classes at least with apparent disability, because
there are people with on apparent disabilities. I wanted gods
at but there were no people that like we're openly
saying that they're disabled and ever physically disabled and a
person of color. UM where I was and my friends
that I grew up with who were disabled and often
(49:20):
people of color, they were unemployed, they were chilling at
home their parents, living off of their soul security. And
I was like why, Like we all had dreams and
goals just like everybody else. So I researched it UM
and I went to grad school and I got a
PhD here and like that's like the skip like skipped
(49:41):
to the end. There's like a whole lot in between it.
And it's in women's studies UM, and you know I
it's so it's a radical uh degrees. Everybody's like women
studies like are you a kind of college or whatever? No, No,
I'm not interested in UM, but really just it's just
(50:05):
studies like gender basically as a as a category and
like gender and relationship to other other social identities. So
it really is just a way of like looking at
identity and inequality in general because in challenging like dominant ideology,
so so challenging dominant world views that and dominant usually
(50:27):
is like male, white, um sis, hetero sexual um. Just
challenging all those like dominant identities and really instead centering
like marginalized identities and thinking about intersectionality and feminism and
all that stuff. So so all that good stuff. So
I really wanted to. Um, my grandparents had master's degrees
(50:50):
and they taught me that, Like they got it at
a time when it's really hard for black people to
get master's degrees. Um and uh, because they were black,
they weren't able to economically benefit from their degrees the
way that they should have. So that's why I like,
in spite of their degrees, when my mother was in
(51:10):
college and that my father, I'm like like his uncle,
and I had my brother and then me, Um, we
still wound up and subsidized housing because they didn't have
wealth to transfer to to the family like they would
have if my my my grandparents would have been white
but anyway, they had taught me that education should make
(51:31):
you better to people, not better than people. Right. Let
me just say that growing up in North Philly, Um,
I really think it was although we had we had drugs,
we had violence, we also had a really gigantic group
(51:55):
of people who were just people. So I don't recall
feeling of heaviness about someone being uh bold or or
or gay or a person with disabilities. I don't recall, Um,
(52:16):
we we knew who the crackheads were, like, oh that song,
so they don't crack you know what I mean. It
was kind of like we were very accepting of everything
that everybody was and if you like the person, you
like them, and that's just what it was. If you didn't,
you didn't for whatever reasons that were yours. But I
don't remember feeling of heaviness um in my neighborhood anyway
(52:40):
about people being themselves. And I think that that's really
what all all we want is for people to be
the you know, be themselves without having to carry whatever
boxes and bullshit that this society places on us. So
here's the question, Dr Miles, what is on your heart?
(53:01):
You know? Pieces on my heart? You know, I'm just
really trying to think about, you know, how can we
get to peace because I believe that it's achievable, and um,
I have to have hope that that it's achievable. And
I think that there are groups in power that want
us to believe that it's not, um, you know, and
(53:21):
so I think that that's something that's really all my heart.
You know, love is all my heart, you know. UM.
You know, I have someone that I really love who
voted for Trump, and it's really tearing me apart. Like
this person is a person of color, this person is disabled,
and someone I really love that I actually had a
(53:42):
relationship like amate relationship with at one point, and I
just cannot figure it out and it's really turning me apart.
And I'm like, do I cut this person off? It
is that the way do I handle it? Because are
they harboring some type of hate that I don't know about?
Someone like but when I'm with them, like I don't
experience any of that, like, you know, I just experienced kindness,
(54:03):
and so you know, I have to believe that like
love will help us overcome these differences. Like I don't
think that, um, but just cutting people off will solve it.
And I'm just hopeful like that because I'm not perfect either. Um,
(54:23):
and there are some other your areas that you know,
I may be harming someone. So I'm trying to figure
out how to have grace but also like standing my principle,
stay to my principles, and so that's really hard. Um.
But I and I also want to close to say
that like you know, you're on my heart, Asia, You're
on my heart, Jill, Like, oh, like, yeah, you're in
(54:46):
my heart because you're my family. Um, and UM, I
wanted I couldn't be remissed without like sharing you know,
like how Jills like music like has impacted me how
it particularly um has helped me get through graduate school
and overcome so many of those barriers. And so you
(55:09):
know when you say like and beautifully human, like I
am here, like I am a wealth unfathomed and if
you don't recognize my presence, I am here. Um, if
you don't recognize me, I am here, like I felt
I am a source of power, Like I felt that
way in my soul as a black woman because I'm
and it was a black woman's disability because I'm ignored
so much and and I'm I've treated invisibly so much.
(55:33):
And so you know, when I grew up in Germantown, Yes, people,
there was some part where like everybody was accepted in
some ways, but there were a lot of ways where
like I was ignored, I was chased, I was spit
on by black people. I was teased, um unrelentingly. UM,
I was excluded. I wanted to be on drill team
(55:54):
so much. I want to be on drill teams so much,
but they would not let me be on their parents
and kids because I was disabled, um, and just treated
me like like my disability was contagious. UM. So I
experienced that, but I also experienced an immense kindness UM
from from the same community. So we have both in
our community. We have to you know, when Joe Biden
(56:16):
talks about um, you know that this is not who
we are. When he talks about his um. When he
did a speech and he said, like it's accepted, species
is not who we are. We're Americans, and um, he
needs to acknowledge that it is who we are. We
are like we are, we are both, we are as Americans,
like we are both you know, the our our worst enemy,
(56:38):
you know, and our best friends, and we can't keep lying.
So he did for the first time actually any president
of any president or president left actually mentioned disabled people
in his speech, which is not he shouldn't get a
big cracker for. But he did that because of the
work that we did, because we organized disabled people or
(57:00):
and ize and um and and got on and we
helped elect him. So so we have we fought really
hard for that because we're twenty percent of population and there,
and the Democratic Party is just starting to really say like, oh,
if we get these folks to organize, like maybe they
have some power. So so I wanted to like, you know,
(57:20):
talk about about that and everything and un understanding that
what was behind that. So I'm just like, because it's
so important and so poignant that to to bring us
back to the fact that, yes, when you see these
things happen, there is work behind that. There's organizing behind that.
When you see something, it didn't just fall out of
(57:41):
the sky. There are black women, there are black people.
There are black people from all kinds of intersections, all
kinds of spaces that are organizing to make sure that
those things happened. It's not the empty moment. It's a
moment that black people worked and and and strive to
get and that that's not even off. Yeah, and it's
(58:02):
like and not just buy people, but like margin life
people in general, like disabled people, like LGBTQ people, like
like disabled people, like a lot of times people treat
us like, um, like things were a charity, like just
like given to us, Like oh, wasn't that nicely? You know?
Um that um that they that the America gave us
ramps and automatic doors, and it's like, no, they don't know.
(58:23):
They don't teach the disability rights movement, like they don't
know that disabled people chain themselves to buses, Like they
don't know that disabled people put sledgehammers to to curbs,
like that we that we we father they wouldn't let us,
um have you know, our own to be integrated into schools,
that it was legal to just segregate disabled people into
(58:43):
schools and utial schools like the school that I went to,
where there there was really no reason why I shouldn't
have been able to go to girls high all day
long when I went to Penn State. But there's this,
but there's this belief that um, you know, because I
was disabled, that I needed something special. Um, and clearly
I didn't, because I mean, I'm I moved to Chicago,
(59:05):
I live in Chicago now, like I've been to Japan,
I've been to Australia. So clearly I could have been
a girls high. And so it's like society has to
change the way that they think about because we put
limitations on people with disabilities that are more limitating than
our actual conditions themselves. And so when Jill Scott says
living my life like it's golden, like that is a
(59:27):
power that is an empowering thing for a disabled person
to say, because our lives are not viewed as valuable like, um,
you know, so when I say I'm happy, people are like, well,
how could you be happy? You're disabled? You were born
like you. People say this to me all the time.
They congratulate me for being outside, like look at you outside.
(59:49):
You know, do you have a do you have a
certain like tool bag of cuss words that you have
to that you have for people, because I just need
to know because I'm just saying people out on a
regular People have said that they start praying for me automatically,
Like one lady was like, you're out of that chair, girl,
(01:00:12):
like if you just demanded and my mother said I
should have got up, Like it's because I can't. Well,
so it just started mess with Like I didn't think
about it, you know, but I should just start playing
with people. But um, just for fun. But you know,
and I like to laugh about it, but it's really
not okay, it's a it's a type of street harassment,
like you know about street harassment for women being sexually
it's disable people get street harassed. People randomly asked me
(01:00:36):
can I have sex? Like when I was a teenager man,
just like okay, well how do you do it? Can
you do it? Dada? Less than the first of all,
that's done of your business, but like secondly, like what
you know, it's just so we need to want to
educate people about disability. People don't learn about it in school,
and so the conversation is important. Angel. That's why your
(01:00:57):
voice it's important. Angel. You know one thing about this
kind of work, and people like yourself. I feel like
the more that I listen to you, the more I
understand how to treat people better. Like you said, education
should make you better to others, not better than others.
And I feel like the more that I interacted. I'm
always telling people like, why are we not listening to
(01:01:18):
our organizers? Why are we not listening to our advocates
and activists. These are the people who are most in
touch with who we are at our core. These are
the folks that are talking to people who are the
most affected by all the things that are going on
because they don't get an opportunity to speak in a
way where everybody gets to hear it, and that is
(01:01:40):
an issue and is an issue. I thank you so
much for being with us, Doctor Miles Angels Love Miles.
How do you eat an elephant? One by it time? Hey, y'all,
(01:02:09):
I'm Eves, a producer on the show, and I'm here
to bring you the resource of the day. As all
of the women on the show mentioned, the organizers in
your community are out here putting in work. Let's give
them our support and acknowledgement. Jill, Layah, and Asia all
have love for Philly, and Asia has a recommendation for
y'all based in the city. Check out the Black Philly
(01:02:29):
Radical Collective, which includes the organization's Philly for Real Justice,
Black Lives Matter Philly, the Abolitionists Law Center Philadelphia, and
many more. I'll drop a link to the collective's website
and the description. And for those of you outside of
Philly research the anti racist abolitionists and progressive organizations and
(01:02:49):
causes in your area. Thank you so much for sening
and um you know you can always leave your comments
where we're open to that. Always. Thank you for listening
(01:03:11):
to Jill Scott Present j dot il the Podcast. This
podcast is hosted by Jill Scott, Laya st. Clair, and
(01:03:33):
agent Gayden Dance Flare. Its executive producers are Jill Scott,
Seawan g and Brian Calhoun. It's produced by Laya Sat
Claire and me Eve Steph Cooke. The editing and sound
design for this episode we're done by Taylor Chakom. Just
like so many reasons why this ship happened, that for
(01:03:54):
us to prevent it? What about them seventies six million people,
if that's real? If that's real? Because now we know
that other countries can be involved in our elections and
maneuver our elections. This is the problem with having so
much information, y'all's too much, so you don't know what's real.
You don't know what's real. So many you know, and
(01:04:16):
there's the truth and then it's my truth. I have
my truth, I'm standing in my truth. All of those
things we don't know what truth is anymore. J dot
Ill is a production of I heart Radio. For more
podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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