May 6, 2025 • 33 mins
On our last main episode, Angela Rye pointed out that “apathy” won the last election. Trump won the popular vote with 77+ million votes. However, nearly 90 million voting-age Americans did not vote at all.
On today’s SoloPod, Angela speaks with one of those non-voters to talk through his decision. It turns out “apathetic” is the last word we’d use to describe him.
Our guest, Reginald Henderson, is an entrepreneur, community advocate, and facilitator from Dayton, Ohio. He is captivated by design, loves to explore and experiment, and appreciates the intersection of beauty and function that is essentialism. Reginald currently manages his family-owned pest removal business: Ladybug Services.
Want to ask Angela a question? Subscribe to our YouTube channel to participate in the chat.
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Angela Rye as host, executive producer and cofounder of Reasoned Choice Media; Tiffany Cross as host and producer, Andrew Gillum as host and producer, and Lauren Hansen as executive producer; Loren Mychael is our research producer, and Nikolas Harter is our editor and producer. Special thanks to Chris Morrow and Lenard McKelvey, co-founders of Reasoned Choice Media.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Native Landpod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with
Reason Choice Media. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome home, Everybody.
This is Angela Rai. I'm your host and a co
host of Native Lampod. Today we are doing something a
little different. We spent a lot of time talking on
(00:21):
the podcast over the last several months about apathy and
the place that it has in our community, around voting
in particular, and then turnout on the last election. I
think Andrew and I got into a discussion about who
won the election last time, and my argument was that
since more than ninety million people sat at home of
(00:45):
voting age, that they are the ones who in fact
won the election. Now, I don't want to just focus
our attention on apathy of whether or not somebody voted
in the past, whether or not they voted in twenty
twenty four or before. I really want to focus on
how apathy is showing up for us now and whether
(01:05):
or not there's enough of a wake up call for
us to do something different in this moment. So today
we have joining us someone who Lolo knows. I believe
his name is Reginald Henderson. He's an entrepreneur, a community
advocate and facilitator from Dayton, Ohio, and so in amendment,
(01:27):
we will spend some time talking to about his involvement
in the community, about ways that he thinks we should
be leaning in outside of voting, and really trying to
figure out a path forward for all of us, for
all people of color, particularly in a system that some
of us feel like doesn't frankly serve us enough. So
do you engage, do you engage partially? Do you not
(01:50):
engage at all? Those are some of the questions that
I want us to talk through as we deal frankly
with the fight of our lives. So with that, if
we can invite reginald up, I would love to start saversation.
Your headphones in.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I do have the actually Vijus one dead, That's why
can I grab a different pair of headphones? Is that
all right? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:16):
You can lock him off for just a second, Nick,
and let me just keep going. Thank you. So yes,
I think that one of the things that we're seeing.
We're doing the State of the People Power tour right now.
We've been to Atlanta, we have been to Raleigh and
to Durham in North Carolina, and we have also been
to Birmingham, Alabama, and in this on these different tour stops,
(02:41):
we're meeting all kinds of people. I talked about some
folks that we met in Atlanta, including a teacher who
I'm desperately trying to find. I found some folks that
are able to help her. She was talking about living
out of her car. And we met someone named ray
Lewis who was formerly incarcerated in Birmingham. He talked about
(03:02):
his journey and what he's doing now to ensure that
young folks don't meet the same fate. When I tell
you all that ray Lewis and his remarks are penetrating
the hearts and minds of people all over this country.
It wasn't just mine. Dewana Thompson and I were standing
next to each other near the stage sobbing. His words
impacted us severely, but they're also impacting many others. When
(03:26):
we think about what this tour is really all about,
it is not just to meet people in their apathy,
because everybody's not apathetic. It's not just to meet people
in their exhaustion, because everybody's not exhausted. But it's to
meet people across the intersections of life where we all
find ourselves sometimes overlapping, sometimes not overlapping at all. As
(03:48):
a part of our coalition right now, there are organizations
who have never worked together. There are organizations that are
tired of working together. Is organizations that got mad at
each other and fell out in nineteen ninety seven. We're
doing all of that. I think it's really really important
for us to understand why this work matters. And when
you hear about stories like Ray Lewis in Alabama, you
(04:08):
understand why. So when he's talking about, you know, gun
violence in the community, not really knowing his father, all
of these different things that many of us have as
our personal experiences, as some others of us, me included,
don't have in our personal experiences. I had a conversation
with my friend and brother Wallow earlier, who was talking
(04:30):
about the ways in which sometimes we talk past each other,
because the folks who are on TV making decisions and
policy recommendations about what folks like Ray and Wallow need
have never had a conversation with Ray and Wallow. So
those are the kinds of barriers that we're trying to
dismantle and ensure that we are pushing through on this tour. Today,
(04:52):
I'm happy to report that our black Papers, vertical of
the State of the People Power Tour in our Collection
at Large has released the first five papers. They're available
on State of THEPPL dot com slash black Papers. These
are policy ideas on everything from education to entrepreneurship. We
(05:13):
want you all to get you to have your voices
heard as we get ready for our journey leading up
to Juneteenth in Baltimore. We want to hear from you.
What policy areas did we miss, What areas do you
feel like we're not really scratching the surface on or
we don't have your opinion represented, your recommendations represented. We
want to hear from you. We want to hear from
(05:34):
you at these various tour stops. We have New Orleans
coming up on Thursday and Friday. Jasmine Crockett, a tremendous congresswoman,
will join us on the ground in New Orleans. D
One is back. I'm hoping he's gonna he got another
rat for us, so too, and we have many others.
B Simonas coming Meal Washington and Gary Chambers have worked
(05:54):
tirelessly on that tour location. In New Orleans, we have
an we have a partnership y'all with Operation Restoration, that
is giving ten thousand dollars to folks who have a
demonstrated need a cutoff notice provided for utility bills to
be paid for. Right, We're going to cover utility bills
(06:16):
as long as we have the resources to do that,
and people will be selected based specifically on need. We
don't want to run a foul of any rules or
laws in Louisiana. So with that, I want to try
to see again if Reginald is back to join us
and we can continue our conversation. So Reginald, I just
wanted to say, first of all, thank you so much
(06:37):
for making the time. Our conversation last week on the
podcast was about apathy and people who didn't vote in
this last election and why. So I do want to
start there, but at some point we got to move
past the election figure out where we go from here.
But I do want to start there and hopefully we
can get through with no echo.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
So they did not vote last election, as well as
the election beforehand. Because I did a lot of studying
on black revolutionary politics in the midst of COVID and
before that I had been very engaged and just what
I had been learning about the systems, about the ways
in which it has negatively impacted not just Black people,
(07:22):
but people at large. Tried to find different ways in
which to be engaged, and in those readings and in
that study, I was able to find those different ways.
And while I haven't been as active in those ways,
I am familiar now and can move accordingly.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
When you talk about black revolutionary engagement, I'm curious to
know how you see yourself changing the system. Now. If
voting isn't the apparatus, what is the apparatus that you're
using to support societal change, particularly for black folk.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
So I think that all change really starts at the
home or on a very small level. And so the
stuff that I'm doing, you know, in the community, as
far as being advisors on youth programs or you know,
helping business owners build their businesses, or even if it's
just giving somebody who's homeless money or whatever on the street.
(08:25):
When it comes down to changing the world, I think
we have to first look inward and then work outwards.
So I'm not really looking to change society. I don't
think society is going to change because it took us
over you know, three hundred four hundred years to get here,
and so it's going to take us just as much
time to get out. So I'm just looking to change
my community, one person at a time, if possible.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
If it takes that long to change society, three hundred
four hundred years, what do you think is that the way? Like,
what's the means to the end? When you consider the change?
What is what's the means to the end?
Speaker 2 (09:00):
For me? I think we have to reevaluate the value
system that we have worldwide, and it's capitalist structure that
we are living in. It's all about greed, individuality and individualism,
not even individuality greed. What can I do to win
(09:21):
for myself regardless of what anybody else is doing? And
I think if we reevaluate the values to be more communalistic,
to be more about partnership, to be more about a
cooperative economics, I think we can find models that already exist,
but models that would propel us into a future that
is more equable.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
I hear what you're saying. I guess my question would
be when you when you consider the fact that you
work to give money to the homeless, when you work
to provide support for youth, programs when you work to
provide infrastructure and support for small businesses. I remember being
in law school and thinking, Okay, I can change circumstances
(10:06):
one client at a time if I go into the courtroom,
But if I go into policy making, I can change
circumstances for a community on a macro level. So when
you balance your micro level contributions versus macro level policy changes,
talk to me about why you wouldn't see the need
for that, Like if a kids program like Headstart is cut,
(10:27):
which is on the chopping block right now, if homeless
programs are being cut, those grants are being stripped away,
and people will rely on people like your twenty dollars
or your one hundred dollars to buy them meals that
week more so than if they had an opportunity to
go and live somewhere, which is a part of a
policy idea. How do we create macro level change for
(10:49):
these folks if not through policy changes.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Yeah. So, I think that policies are just rules, and
rules are made by people with power to control people
who don't have power. And I also don't agree that
because of policy is put into place that is actually
going to be executed and so no matter what policy
is in place, if the people who are executing the
(11:13):
policy are not following it or are not being punishing
when they don't, then any policy that's made is kind
of futile. And so when I think about the macro
level changes that could happen, I think we have to
look first at the economic system that is funding the policies,
the political regimes, the systems and institutions which exists. And
(11:41):
you got to look at these corporate corporate businesses who
are fueling a lot of the activity. And so if
we could find a way too, and I talked about
capitalism earlier, you know, who controls the means of production,
who controls controls the means of producing goods, and we
can reevaluate at on a large scale, then maybe we
(12:02):
can come to something that makes a little bit more
sense for the general masses. But just policy I don't
think has enough strength to be able to have real
and sustainable change long term.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Or have you been made aware of like the drinking
water crisis in Flint and Jackson, those are policy based issues.
When you look at Alabama and the rule that was
just rolled back around or when they had federally that
is a policy based issue. When we look at you
(12:41):
have friends that have student loan debt, those student loan debt.
Now the federal government has just been allowed to go
after all of these student loan borrowers who are currently
in default. That's a policy based issue. Do you support reparations? No,
not in a.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Way it is traditionally talked about, and just to comment
on what you were talking about. While those are policy
made by policy, they're also backed by I think the
real change happens in the people. The real change happens
in the system. The real change happens in the institutions
that exist, not in the policies. Because we see it's
(13:21):
a legal you see every day that you know, black
men specifically or black people are getting killed by police
every day. Yet the punishment or whatever is happened, the
repercussion of that does not look the same across the board.
So even if there was a policy made, or if
whatever policy existed, like I keep saying, like I said before,
the execution is not consistent then or it is working
(13:42):
for a certain entity or certain group, then it's going
to be skewed every time.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
So how does the execution change? What do you think
that like, if you're going to say, like, oh, well,
this is not across the board the same. The reason
why it's not across the board the same is because
some folks, especially of police officers, who are killing at
the municipal or state level, those policies dictate the outcome
of their punishment. Just like federally, when there was this
(14:20):
law enforcement database that now this administration has overturned and
completely gotten rid of, So there's no federal place to
hold law law enforcement accountable and to see where they
have run a foul of the rules, been abusive, or
killed in another jurisdiction. That database is gone a policy.
So when you're saying, well, the execution is flawed, I
(14:42):
agree with you. The execution is flawed. How do we
change the execution.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
By changing the values and the culture of the people,
Like we have a fear based economy, a that's like
our fear losing my life, or our fear not being
able to pay rent, or our fear not being able
to have food or send my kids to a decent school.
Like we live in a fear based system where I'm
scared of the next person because everybody now is allowed
(15:10):
to have a gun or this person over here has
all the clothes and I don't have any like it's
so and jealousy comes in play too, But fear, I
think has to be eliminated by creating real conversations amongst
everyday people. That's why I said it all has to
start at home, which you're teaching your kids, what you're
teaching the people that are around you in your community.
(15:32):
Because if we can't have a value system that's based
on trust, that is based on you know, mutual respect,
that is based on cooperation, then you get into situations
where a policy may come into place and nobody is
really abiding by that policy or even paying the tipst.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
When you talk about a value system that's put into place,
how would you see that value systems being spread beyond
your home?
Speaker 2 (16:07):
That's a good question right now. I would say it
would have to be dominated in the media. If we
wanted to be mass massly spread. It can't be co opted,
so it would have to I don't know, it would
have to be coming from some pretty serious people with
a lot of funds back and once again, corporations run
(16:27):
the media. But if you want to reach the masses
in any way, I think social media, digital media, radio,
whatever those are to those places will have to be
especially the influencers will have to be pushing that agenda,
pushing that narrative. And if not that way, then the
organizing amongst the masses will have to happen in a
major way that we haven't really seen since the sixties.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
So what's interesting, Reginald is you said that it would
need to be spread through the media, and you would
need a lot of support. And how would you quantify
that support?
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Quantify as far as like whether dollars or time or.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
You know, the number of people who you would want
to support this policy, this value system. How would you
shore up support, How would you ensure that people have
bought into your value system?
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Yeah, you would have to quantify. It would be about
the numbers. This is we're playing a numbers game for real,
Like you mentioned that ninety million people who do not
who did not vote, like this is this is a
masses game, a lot versus the many, I mean the
few versus the mini. And so in order to spread
that there ask the question one more time.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
I'm sorry, So this this is what I'm going to
answer it for you. What you have backed into, Reginald
is you need buy in from the masses for a
value system. The way that you would determine if you
had buy in is people signing on to a pledge
agreeing that they would take that value system into their
home or their community. Oh you want to fight that
(18:01):
because you know where this is going, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
I wouldn't say so. It's more about that action. Like
you can put anything you want on paper, you can
put it on somebody refrigerator, you can make them sign
a contract. But that don't mean I want to pay
this bill. That don't mean I want to stick with
this company. That don't mean anything really if it's on paper,
it's about that action. And so if going back to metrics,
how do you quantify it? That's where that's where you
were acting. It would have to be I can't. I
(18:27):
don't have all the answers, So I'm not going to
sit here and say I do. But it would have
to be actual engagement and ways outside of voting, and
ways outside of the traditional system. And we will have
to identify what those ways are so that people can
know what exactly to be doing to help move the
needle forward. Because I feel like voting is like the
last thing like the last resort. Really, it's so many
(18:48):
more ways on what you completely be completely politically engaged,
and so we have to name those and then like
have a system on which people can you know, say,
baby are actively participating.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
I couldn't agree with you more. I think voting is
the most That is the minimum threshold, that should be
the baseline thing, and after that we have to engage
far beyond that. So right now we're rolling out these
black papers that are ideas and recommendations for how black
people can be sustaining ourselves moving as a collective. And yes,
(19:22):
it encourages policy changes because whether we like it or not,
policy impacts our day to day all the time. Whether
we engage and we call it an elected official, whether
we told them to vote a certain way or not,
these things impact us every single day. So when you
talked it about a value system, I loved it because
even the Black Panther Party had a ten point plan,
(19:43):
their buy in was secured by the number of people
who read it, supported it, and moved in accordance with
that plan. Whether we proactively vote in a system that
we don't like or not, everything is governed by politics
and policy. Every there's no way we can get away
from it. So in my mind, I would say, we
(20:04):
can still be building towards the ideal, But how do
we boycott the thing that is? When we boycott the
thing that is, we're in harm's way. You said it
best earlier. You're like, well, all of these things can
just be thrown out it like with the stroke of
a pen. Basically, that's what's happening right now. We are
down to defending the fourteenth Amendment, which is birthright citizenship.
(20:26):
It is the very thing that dread Scott died trying
to ensure that he would have access to that enslaved
man from Missouri. So when you talk about that, like
whether or not we're seen as human beings is a
political and policy based decision, I be damn if I
let a white person decide that for me. Ever again, right,
(20:47):
I'm a fight tooth and nail to make sure you
see my personhood, to make sure you see the person
that the people in my family, and make sure you
see the person of the people in the culture. That
is the least I can do. That is my most
reasonable service.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
If I could just say, I think one of the
problems that we have in the society is that the
measuring stick in which we are measuring ourselves is through
the lens of whiteness, because we live in a white supremacy,
and so I think as a part of that value system,
we have to learn to have so much confidence in
(21:23):
ourselves that we don't really need.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
And this is where it's gonna get real sticky, because
like you're, you're, you have to literally create people who
are not create people. You have to commit class suicide,
political suicide. You would have to like get rid of
all the things that you know and love because they
are have been like given to us essentially, they have
(21:47):
been given to us by the people who are empowered,
to people who have access, to people who have access.
And until we learn to get until we learned to
measure ourselves from our own from our own stick, we
always want to be looking at the white rule, the
white whatever as the way in which we should be going.
But I personally don't agree with that. And then also
(22:13):
the goal is liberation, and I don't think that the
powers that be on either side have when I say
either side democratic or republic, has given a convincing enough
argument to people who don't vote or people who are
disengaged with the traditional voting system to say, to make
them feel the urgent call to act. It's so many
(22:35):
things that people are dealing with in a material world
that all of the stuff that they're talking about, the
political mumbo jumbo that they're talking about, doesn't even hit
home because it doesn't resonate with what I got to
deal with today. And I hear you saying that it
influences us every day, but to a regular person who
is not connected, we don't really see it. We're just
getting through because that's what we got to do.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
You know.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Today we got to pay our suit the loans. That's
just what it is. To rock with it and not
saying we shouldn't do something about it. But even before
we had the right to vote, we were doing stuff,
you know, and that action I think we have lost
before it again, like we had before we got the
right to vote, we were politically active, and so how
can we get back to that. I think people would
be more resonate, would more resonate.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
With I appreciate what you're saying. I think that some
ancestors will be rolling over in their graves at the
idea of we are trying to get something that was
given to us. These people died, fought like ensured that
we had not just the right to vote, but the
(23:38):
right to work, the right to be seen is fully human,
the right to our freedom. It's always been about abolition
and liberation in this country. It's sorry you came off you.
You need to say something middle my thought.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Go ahead, I'm sorry. I just want to say, seen
as human by whom that's what really matters. If we
were seeing it. If we're not seeing as human by ourselves,
then we got a real problem. But if we're looking
through somebody else's eyes like I was saying, then then
that's why we get to the situation. Man. And I'm
sorry to cut you off.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
We were brought here by force, right, so it is
incumbent that the same people who brought us here by force,
violently stripping us away from our families, see our humanity
because they didn't see it when they took those actions.
That is required. So long as we stay here now,
if we decide we want to go someplace else and
build something else, that's fine too. There are a lot
(24:29):
of black folks that have gone that have done that,
got dual citizenship and all the rest But if we
have to coexist with folks regardless of that they're indigenous,
Asian folks, brown folks, white folks, we have to all
commit to seeing each other's humanity otherwisewise, Reginie, just let
me finish. Otherwise, the humanity does not work, The coalition
(24:52):
does not work. Nobody is safe in an environment where
people cannot appreciate the other person's humanity. That's one. Two.
When I was talking about our folks like trying to conform,
to fit, to do whatever with white folks, that's not
it at all. It is that we have built systems
that we've never been properly credited for. From the United
(25:13):
States Capitol Building to the White House to everywhere else,
we have built these systems, and the systems still haven't
properly served us, and they won't so long as our
folks continue to say we are better off outside of
these systems, all the while not having the resources, human capital,
whatever else to build those systems. So, while we are
(25:35):
building a separate agenda or an agenda in addition to
that will properly serve, properly serve and meet our needs,
we still have to understand what we're up against Now
you're saying, well, if we got to pay our student loans,
so be it. A lot of our folks can't afford
to do that. There are black women who are graduating
in larger numbers than black men right now from college
(25:56):
who took out an exorbitant amount of student loans and
now cannot pay them back. Some of them are sitting
members of Congress. Summarally was just in an oversighting government
reform met talking about that. So for me, I don't
see it as to me, it's a privilege. I don't
have to not engage politically, to not support the people
who think like me, support me, and sound like me
(26:18):
on policy on the hill. I don't want these random
people speaking for me and doing for me. I want
people who understand my experience and whose experience I can understand,
speaking and working on my behalf. I don't have the
opportunity or the luxury to sit out that process, but
I am going to keep building something else that I
think better serves us.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Yeah, I agree, I think both happen simultaneously. I just
don't think that in large scale, the outside agenda is
being created and so it's everybody. A lot the people
who are actively engaging in a traditional way. Are like
trying to get all these people to get active in
this way. But it's got to be working. You gotta
work both sides, dual citizenship on both sides. I think
(27:03):
that society, like I think that we are too, We
are into deep Like, how can we expect somebody who
enslaved does see talking specifically about black people here, How
can we expect somebody who enslaved us, who pillaged our village,
who raped and murdered and killed us. How can we
(27:25):
expect that same person to then look at us as
human even if it's hundreds of years later, Like the
system that created the idea to take over those lives,
to ruin those lives, to even call those lives not
even not even three fifths like all of that stuff.
Who Why would we expect anybody who has that mindset,
or a system that has that at its core, to
(27:46):
ever then turn around and say, hey, we respect you though,
we want you to be a part of us. And
even if they did say that, you got I think
what we haven't done enough is create the agenda to
offset the manipulation that happens doing part of the systems
that created the situation that we are already a part of.
So like, where's the counter for us, where's the countermeasure?
(28:07):
Where's the old gotcha? You know, we don't have in
the black community or even empowers communities or you know,
the low income community. We don't have that gotcha to
be able to push back against the powers.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
That be, Reginald, and with that, I would thank you
for your time. I'm going to say this in response
to you, and I'm going to encourage you to look
these things up, because that's not true. Black people have
been organizing around a liberation agenda since we got here.
They did it every single year. They started in the
Ami Church for the most part, meeting to talk about
our freedom agenda every year until the emancipation. Right around
(28:45):
the emancipation, there's a reason why they gave us Special
Filled Order number fifteen, and it was after the organizing
of nineteen ministers led by Garrison Fraser in eighteen sixty
five that would have ensured that we had forty eight
and a mule that Special Filled Onder number fifteen. That
was an agenda item that was very very clear. Frederick Douglas,
(29:06):
Harriet Tubman, all of these people worked around an agenda
for our freedom the Black Panther Party Ten Point Plan Gary,
Indiana in nineteen seventy two. The National Black Political Convention
agenda is one that was pushed nineteen seventy one. The
Congressional Black Caucus met with Richard Nixon with sixty one
recommendations for how black people could could better live and
(29:30):
be liberated in this country. Tavis Smiley had the Covenant
with Black America. Every single year the National Urban League
published is the State of Black America. We are right now.
As I said at the top of this program, introducing
it for all black folks to pay attention to, to
engage with, and hopefully share black papers. It will be
twenty eight black papers on agenda items that we need
(29:53):
to better survive, to thrive in this country and to
move forward. So I got to disagree on we don't
do it, we do it. Oh, and I forgot Black
Futures Lab that every year or every four years, they
do the Black Census where they collect data from black people.
This past one a little almost two hundred and fifty
thousand Black people engaged around that census, and then their
(30:14):
sister organization of which I'm a proud board member Black
to the Future Action Fund submitted an agenda called this
Black Economic Agenda twenty twenty four. So we do these things.
We need y'all to read up on these things. Sign on,
let us know what we may have missed. Lolo, send
me a couple of questions I want to get to.
I do want to thank Reginald so much for his
(30:34):
time in conversation a day. It is through those conversations,
y'all that we figure out where our gaps are and
we get on the same page. If yoll losin, can
you highlight elections on the ballot this year and what's
at stake more locally, We're going to do that on
another podcast, if you would, If y'all losin that in
as a video so that my colleagues can also engage.
(30:56):
I'm not quite at the ballot. I'm still at our
power before we get to the ballot box. That is
where I agree with Reggie right now. I am not
discouraging people from voting, especially in your upcoming elections, but
I am highly encouraging you that in addition to voting,
you are leaning into your collective power and building around
a collective agenda. Dad said, how can we have confidence.
If we don't have basic rights to see, how can
(31:18):
we have faith in a system that constantly is preached
it's broken, it is broken, but that you are the bomb.
You got a band aid, you got you got some stitches.
You gotta be the one that sold the thing back
together again like we've always done. Asked failing and bluhmer
a little bit about that, Aya said, I hear you, Angela.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
I do.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
I think he is asking why should we fight for
a system that does not value us? Again, my sister,
we agree with that. We do need to come together,
and I agree with Reggie. I'll look forward to continuing
to build with Reggie the system that we do, in
fact deserve. I just don't believe we can throw out everything.
What y'all going to do to serve veterans, What y'all
going to do to ensure these kids are being educated
with the same standards, What you're going to do to
(31:58):
ensure that the justice system is serving us more than
it is harming us. Those are the things that I
don't want to throw out because we have to make
sure that they are fixed. We have to make sure
that we're starting from something. What social Security plan y'all
got right. So if we had to start everything from scratch,
understand that that means that a lot, a lot, a
(32:19):
lot is at stake and we would have to build
everything from the ground up. I don't know if y'all
are thinking that through all the way. Health and Human
Services making sure that vaccines are consistent across the board.
Education the thing they're trying to dismantle right now. How
you gonna make sure HBCUs and land grant colleges and
your kids hand start all get funded? Are you thinking
through all of those things when you want to throw
out the system. Where as your system begin? What departments
(32:42):
are you going to have? Commerce? Are you going to
have veterans affairs? Are you gonna have Homeland Security? How
you go tell me what we're doing? Right? We got
to think through this. I'm not arguing for the broken system.
I'm arguing that it's easier to mend what is broken
than to start from scratch. Anyway, we're over time. We
appreciate you, y'all. Thank you so much again to Reginald.
Shout out to Reginald for coming on being so brave
(33:04):
telling the truth about his story. We hope that you
all will continue to do the same. Please make sure
you send us your videos at Native lamppod on Instagram,
that you follow and subscribe us here on YouTube, and
that you also make sure that you subscribe to our
podcast channel. We're available wherever you get your podcasts. We
thank you so much. Tomorrow will tell you how many
(33:25):
days left until the next election. Until then, welcome home, y'all.
Native Lampod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with
(33:46):
Reason Choice Media. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
Native Landpod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with
Reason Choice Media. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome home, Everybody.
This is Angela Rai. I'm your host and a co
host of Native Lampod. Today we are doing something a
little different. We spent a lot of time talking on
(00:21):
the podcast over the last several months about apathy and
the place that it has in our community, around voting
in particular, and then turnout on the last election. I
think Andrew and I got into a discussion about who
won the election last time, and my argument was that
since more than ninety million people sat at home of
(00:45):
voting age, that they are the ones who in fact
won the election. Now, I don't want to just focus
our attention on apathy of whether or not somebody voted
in the past, whether or not they voted in twenty
twenty four or before. I really want to focus on
how apathy is showing up for us now and whether
(01:05):
or not there's enough of a wake up call for
us to do something different in this moment. So today
we have joining us someone who Lolo knows. I believe
his name is Reginald Henderson. He's an entrepreneur, a community
advocate and facilitator from Dayton, Ohio, and so in amendment,
(01:27):
we will spend some time talking to about his involvement
in the community, about ways that he thinks we should
be leaning in outside of voting, and really trying to
figure out a path forward for all of us, for
all people of color, particularly in a system that some
of us feel like doesn't frankly serve us enough. So
do you engage, do you engage partially? Do you not
(01:50):
engage at all? Those are some of the questions that
I want us to talk through as we deal frankly
with the fight of our lives. So with that, if
we can invite reginald up, I would love to start saversation.
Your headphones in.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I do have the actually Vijus one dead, That's why
can I grab a different pair of headphones? Is that
all right? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:16):
You can lock him off for just a second, Nick,
and let me just keep going. Thank you. So yes,
I think that one of the things that we're seeing.
We're doing the State of the People Power tour right now.
We've been to Atlanta, we have been to Raleigh and
to Durham in North Carolina, and we have also been
to Birmingham, Alabama, and in this on these different tour stops,
(02:41):
we're meeting all kinds of people. I talked about some
folks that we met in Atlanta, including a teacher who
I'm desperately trying to find. I found some folks that
are able to help her. She was talking about living
out of her car. And we met someone named ray
Lewis who was formerly incarcerated in Birmingham. He talked about
(03:02):
his journey and what he's doing now to ensure that
young folks don't meet the same fate. When I tell
you all that ray Lewis and his remarks are penetrating
the hearts and minds of people all over this country.
It wasn't just mine. Dewana Thompson and I were standing
next to each other near the stage sobbing. His words
impacted us severely, but they're also impacting many others. When
(03:26):
we think about what this tour is really all about,
it is not just to meet people in their apathy,
because everybody's not apathetic. It's not just to meet people
in their exhaustion, because everybody's not exhausted. But it's to
meet people across the intersections of life where we all
find ourselves sometimes overlapping, sometimes not overlapping at all. As
(03:48):
a part of our coalition right now, there are organizations
who have never worked together. There are organizations that are
tired of working together. Is organizations that got mad at
each other and fell out in nineteen ninety seven. We're
doing all of that. I think it's really really important
for us to understand why this work matters. And when
you hear about stories like Ray Lewis in Alabama, you
(04:08):
understand why. So when he's talking about, you know, gun
violence in the community, not really knowing his father, all
of these different things that many of us have as
our personal experiences, as some others of us, me included,
don't have in our personal experiences. I had a conversation
with my friend and brother Wallow earlier, who was talking
(04:30):
about the ways in which sometimes we talk past each other,
because the folks who are on TV making decisions and
policy recommendations about what folks like Ray and Wallow need
have never had a conversation with Ray and Wallow. So
those are the kinds of barriers that we're trying to
dismantle and ensure that we are pushing through on this tour. Today,
(04:52):
I'm happy to report that our black Papers, vertical of
the State of the People Power Tour in our Collection
at Large has released the first five papers. They're available
on State of THEPPL dot com slash black Papers. These
are policy ideas on everything from education to entrepreneurship. We
(05:13):
want you all to get you to have your voices
heard as we get ready for our journey leading up
to Juneteenth in Baltimore. We want to hear from you.
What policy areas did we miss, What areas do you
feel like we're not really scratching the surface on or
we don't have your opinion represented, your recommendations represented. We
want to hear from you. We want to hear from
(05:34):
you at these various tour stops. We have New Orleans
coming up on Thursday and Friday. Jasmine Crockett, a tremendous congresswoman,
will join us on the ground in New Orleans. D
One is back. I'm hoping he's gonna he got another
rat for us, so too, and we have many others.
B Simonas coming Meal Washington and Gary Chambers have worked
(05:54):
tirelessly on that tour location. In New Orleans, we have
an we have a partnership y'all with Operation Restoration, that
is giving ten thousand dollars to folks who have a
demonstrated need a cutoff notice provided for utility bills to
be paid for. Right, We're going to cover utility bills
(06:16):
as long as we have the resources to do that,
and people will be selected based specifically on need. We
don't want to run a foul of any rules or
laws in Louisiana. So with that, I want to try
to see again if Reginald is back to join us
and we can continue our conversation. So Reginald, I just
wanted to say, first of all, thank you so much
(06:37):
for making the time. Our conversation last week on the
podcast was about apathy and people who didn't vote in
this last election and why. So I do want to
start there, but at some point we got to move
past the election figure out where we go from here.
But I do want to start there and hopefully we
can get through with no echo.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
So they did not vote last election, as well as
the election beforehand. Because I did a lot of studying
on black revolutionary politics in the midst of COVID and
before that I had been very engaged and just what
I had been learning about the systems, about the ways
in which it has negatively impacted not just Black people,
(07:22):
but people at large. Tried to find different ways in
which to be engaged, and in those readings and in
that study, I was able to find those different ways.
And while I haven't been as active in those ways,
I am familiar now and can move accordingly.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
When you talk about black revolutionary engagement, I'm curious to
know how you see yourself changing the system. Now. If
voting isn't the apparatus, what is the apparatus that you're
using to support societal change, particularly for black folk.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
So I think that all change really starts at the
home or on a very small level. And so the
stuff that I'm doing, you know, in the community, as
far as being advisors on youth programs or you know,
helping business owners build their businesses, or even if it's
just giving somebody who's homeless money or whatever on the street.
(08:25):
When it comes down to changing the world, I think
we have to first look inward and then work outwards.
So I'm not really looking to change society. I don't
think society is going to change because it took us
over you know, three hundred four hundred years to get here,
and so it's going to take us just as much
time to get out. So I'm just looking to change
my community, one person at a time, if possible.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
If it takes that long to change society, three hundred
four hundred years, what do you think is that the way? Like,
what's the means to the end? When you consider the change?
What is what's the means to the end?
Speaker 2 (09:00):
For me? I think we have to reevaluate the value
system that we have worldwide, and it's capitalist structure that
we are living in. It's all about greed, individuality and individualism,
not even individuality greed. What can I do to win
(09:21):
for myself regardless of what anybody else is doing? And
I think if we reevaluate the values to be more communalistic,
to be more about partnership, to be more about a
cooperative economics, I think we can find models that already exist,
but models that would propel us into a future that
is more equable.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
I hear what you're saying. I guess my question would
be when you when you consider the fact that you
work to give money to the homeless, when you work
to provide support for youth, programs when you work to
provide infrastructure and support for small businesses. I remember being
in law school and thinking, Okay, I can change circumstances
(10:06):
one client at a time if I go into the courtroom,
But if I go into policy making, I can change
circumstances for a community on a macro level. So when
you balance your micro level contributions versus macro level policy changes,
talk to me about why you wouldn't see the need
for that, Like if a kids program like Headstart is cut,
(10:27):
which is on the chopping block right now, if homeless
programs are being cut, those grants are being stripped away,
and people will rely on people like your twenty dollars
or your one hundred dollars to buy them meals that
week more so than if they had an opportunity to
go and live somewhere, which is a part of a
policy idea. How do we create macro level change for
(10:49):
these folks if not through policy changes.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Yeah. So, I think that policies are just rules, and
rules are made by people with power to control people
who don't have power. And I also don't agree that
because of policy is put into place that is actually
going to be executed and so no matter what policy
is in place, if the people who are executing the
(11:13):
policy are not following it or are not being punishing
when they don't, then any policy that's made is kind
of futile. And so when I think about the macro
level changes that could happen, I think we have to
look first at the economic system that is funding the policies,
the political regimes, the systems and institutions which exists. And
(11:41):
you got to look at these corporate corporate businesses who
are fueling a lot of the activity. And so if
we could find a way too, and I talked about
capitalism earlier, you know, who controls the means of production,
who controls controls the means of producing goods, and we
can reevaluate at on a large scale, then maybe we
(12:02):
can come to something that makes a little bit more
sense for the general masses. But just policy I don't
think has enough strength to be able to have real
and sustainable change long term.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Or have you been made aware of like the drinking
water crisis in Flint and Jackson, those are policy based issues.
When you look at Alabama and the rule that was
just rolled back around or when they had federally that
is a policy based issue. When we look at you
(12:41):
have friends that have student loan debt, those student loan debt.
Now the federal government has just been allowed to go
after all of these student loan borrowers who are currently
in default. That's a policy based issue. Do you support reparations? No,
not in a.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Way it is traditionally talked about, and just to comment
on what you were talking about. While those are policy
made by policy, they're also backed by I think the
real change happens in the people. The real change happens
in the system. The real change happens in the institutions
that exist, not in the policies. Because we see it's
(13:21):
a legal you see every day that you know, black
men specifically or black people are getting killed by police
every day. Yet the punishment or whatever is happened, the
repercussion of that does not look the same across the board.
So even if there was a policy made, or if
whatever policy existed, like I keep saying, like I said before,
the execution is not consistent then or it is working
(13:42):
for a certain entity or certain group, then it's going
to be skewed every time.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
So how does the execution change? What do you think
that like, if you're going to say, like, oh, well,
this is not across the board the same. The reason
why it's not across the board the same is because
some folks, especially of police officers, who are killing at
the municipal or state level, those policies dictate the outcome
of their punishment. Just like federally, when there was this
(14:20):
law enforcement database that now this administration has overturned and
completely gotten rid of, So there's no federal place to
hold law law enforcement accountable and to see where they
have run a foul of the rules, been abusive, or
killed in another jurisdiction. That database is gone a policy.
So when you're saying, well, the execution is flawed, I
(14:42):
agree with you. The execution is flawed. How do we
change the execution.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
By changing the values and the culture of the people,
Like we have a fear based economy, a that's like
our fear losing my life, or our fear not being
able to pay rent, or our fear not being able
to have food or send my kids to a decent school.
Like we live in a fear based system where I'm
scared of the next person because everybody now is allowed
(15:10):
to have a gun or this person over here has
all the clothes and I don't have any like it's
so and jealousy comes in play too, But fear, I
think has to be eliminated by creating real conversations amongst
everyday people. That's why I said it all has to
start at home, which you're teaching your kids, what you're
teaching the people that are around you in your community.
(15:32):
Because if we can't have a value system that's based
on trust, that is based on you know, mutual respect,
that is based on cooperation, then you get into situations
where a policy may come into place and nobody is
really abiding by that policy or even paying the tipst.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
When you talk about a value system that's put into place,
how would you see that value systems being spread beyond
your home?
Speaker 2 (16:07):
That's a good question right now. I would say it
would have to be dominated in the media. If we
wanted to be mass massly spread. It can't be co opted,
so it would have to I don't know, it would
have to be coming from some pretty serious people with
a lot of funds back and once again, corporations run
(16:27):
the media. But if you want to reach the masses
in any way, I think social media, digital media, radio,
whatever those are to those places will have to be
especially the influencers will have to be pushing that agenda,
pushing that narrative. And if not that way, then the
organizing amongst the masses will have to happen in a
major way that we haven't really seen since the sixties.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
So what's interesting, Reginald is you said that it would
need to be spread through the media, and you would
need a lot of support. And how would you quantify
that support?
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Quantify as far as like whether dollars or time or.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
You know, the number of people who you would want
to support this policy, this value system. How would you
shore up support, How would you ensure that people have
bought into your value system?
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Yeah, you would have to quantify. It would be about
the numbers. This is we're playing a numbers game for real,
Like you mentioned that ninety million people who do not
who did not vote, like this is this is a
masses game, a lot versus the many, I mean the
few versus the mini. And so in order to spread
that there ask the question one more time.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
I'm sorry, So this this is what I'm going to
answer it for you. What you have backed into, Reginald
is you need buy in from the masses for a
value system. The way that you would determine if you
had buy in is people signing on to a pledge
agreeing that they would take that value system into their
home or their community. Oh you want to fight that
(18:01):
because you know where this is going, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
I wouldn't say so. It's more about that action. Like
you can put anything you want on paper, you can
put it on somebody refrigerator, you can make them sign
a contract. But that don't mean I want to pay
this bill. That don't mean I want to stick with
this company. That don't mean anything really if it's on paper,
it's about that action. And so if going back to metrics,
how do you quantify it? That's where that's where you
were acting. It would have to be I can't. I
(18:27):
don't have all the answers, So I'm not going to
sit here and say I do. But it would have
to be actual engagement and ways outside of voting, and
ways outside of the traditional system. And we will have
to identify what those ways are so that people can
know what exactly to be doing to help move the
needle forward. Because I feel like voting is like the
last thing like the last resort. Really, it's so many
(18:48):
more ways on what you completely be completely politically engaged,
and so we have to name those and then like
have a system on which people can you know, say,
baby are actively participating.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
I couldn't agree with you more. I think voting is
the most That is the minimum threshold, that should be
the baseline thing, and after that we have to engage
far beyond that. So right now we're rolling out these
black papers that are ideas and recommendations for how black
people can be sustaining ourselves moving as a collective. And yes,
(19:22):
it encourages policy changes because whether we like it or not,
policy impacts our day to day all the time. Whether
we engage and we call it an elected official, whether
we told them to vote a certain way or not,
these things impact us every single day. So when you
talked it about a value system, I loved it because
even the Black Panther Party had a ten point plan,
(19:43):
their buy in was secured by the number of people
who read it, supported it, and moved in accordance with
that plan. Whether we proactively vote in a system that
we don't like or not, everything is governed by politics
and policy. Every there's no way we can get away
from it. So in my mind, I would say, we
(20:04):
can still be building towards the ideal, But how do
we boycott the thing that is? When we boycott the
thing that is, we're in harm's way. You said it
best earlier. You're like, well, all of these things can
just be thrown out it like with the stroke of
a pen. Basically, that's what's happening right now. We are
down to defending the fourteenth Amendment, which is birthright citizenship.
(20:26):
It is the very thing that dread Scott died trying
to ensure that he would have access to that enslaved
man from Missouri. So when you talk about that, like
whether or not we're seen as human beings is a
political and policy based decision, I be damn if I
let a white person decide that for me. Ever again, right,
(20:47):
I'm a fight tooth and nail to make sure you
see my personhood, to make sure you see the person
that the people in my family, and make sure you
see the person of the people in the culture. That
is the least I can do. That is my most
reasonable service.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
If I could just say, I think one of the
problems that we have in the society is that the
measuring stick in which we are measuring ourselves is through
the lens of whiteness, because we live in a white supremacy,
and so I think as a part of that value system,
we have to learn to have so much confidence in
(21:23):
ourselves that we don't really need.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
And this is where it's gonna get real sticky, because
like you're, you're, you have to literally create people who
are not create people. You have to commit class suicide,
political suicide. You would have to like get rid of
all the things that you know and love because they
are have been like given to us essentially, they have
(21:47):
been given to us by the people who are empowered,
to people who have access, to people who have access.
And until we learn to get until we learned to
measure ourselves from our own from our own stick, we
always want to be looking at the white rule, the
white whatever as the way in which we should be going.
But I personally don't agree with that. And then also
(22:13):
the goal is liberation, and I don't think that the
powers that be on either side have when I say
either side democratic or republic, has given a convincing enough
argument to people who don't vote or people who are
disengaged with the traditional voting system to say, to make
them feel the urgent call to act. It's so many
(22:35):
things that people are dealing with in a material world
that all of the stuff that they're talking about, the
political mumbo jumbo that they're talking about, doesn't even hit
home because it doesn't resonate with what I got to
deal with today. And I hear you saying that it
influences us every day, but to a regular person who
is not connected, we don't really see it. We're just
getting through because that's what we got to do.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
You know.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Today we got to pay our suit the loans. That's
just what it is. To rock with it and not
saying we shouldn't do something about it. But even before
we had the right to vote, we were doing stuff,
you know, and that action I think we have lost
before it again, like we had before we got the
right to vote, we were politically active, and so how
can we get back to that. I think people would
be more resonate, would more resonate.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
With I appreciate what you're saying. I think that some
ancestors will be rolling over in their graves at the
idea of we are trying to get something that was
given to us. These people died, fought like ensured that
we had not just the right to vote, but the
(23:38):
right to work, the right to be seen is fully human,
the right to our freedom. It's always been about abolition
and liberation in this country. It's sorry you came off you.
You need to say something middle my thought.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Go ahead, I'm sorry. I just want to say, seen
as human by whom that's what really matters. If we
were seeing it. If we're not seeing as human by ourselves,
then we got a real problem. But if we're looking
through somebody else's eyes like I was saying, then then
that's why we get to the situation. Man. And I'm
sorry to cut you off.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
We were brought here by force, right, so it is
incumbent that the same people who brought us here by force,
violently stripping us away from our families, see our humanity
because they didn't see it when they took those actions.
That is required. So long as we stay here now,
if we decide we want to go someplace else and
build something else, that's fine too. There are a lot
(24:29):
of black folks that have gone that have done that,
got dual citizenship and all the rest But if we
have to coexist with folks regardless of that they're indigenous,
Asian folks, brown folks, white folks, we have to all
commit to seeing each other's humanity otherwisewise, Reginie, just let
me finish. Otherwise, the humanity does not work, The coalition
(24:52):
does not work. Nobody is safe in an environment where
people cannot appreciate the other person's humanity. That's one. Two.
When I was talking about our folks like trying to conform,
to fit, to do whatever with white folks, that's not
it at all. It is that we have built systems
that we've never been properly credited for. From the United
(25:13):
States Capitol Building to the White House to everywhere else,
we have built these systems, and the systems still haven't
properly served us, and they won't so long as our
folks continue to say we are better off outside of
these systems, all the while not having the resources, human capital,
whatever else to build those systems. So, while we are
(25:35):
building a separate agenda or an agenda in addition to
that will properly serve, properly serve and meet our needs,
we still have to understand what we're up against Now
you're saying, well, if we got to pay our student loans,
so be it. A lot of our folks can't afford
to do that. There are black women who are graduating
in larger numbers than black men right now from college
(25:56):
who took out an exorbitant amount of student loans and
now cannot pay them back. Some of them are sitting
members of Congress. Summarally was just in an oversighting government
reform met talking about that. So for me, I don't
see it as to me, it's a privilege. I don't
have to not engage politically, to not support the people
who think like me, support me, and sound like me
(26:18):
on policy on the hill. I don't want these random
people speaking for me and doing for me. I want
people who understand my experience and whose experience I can understand,
speaking and working on my behalf. I don't have the
opportunity or the luxury to sit out that process, but
I am going to keep building something else that I
think better serves us.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Yeah, I agree, I think both happen simultaneously. I just
don't think that in large scale, the outside agenda is
being created and so it's everybody. A lot the people
who are actively engaging in a traditional way. Are like
trying to get all these people to get active in
this way. But it's got to be working. You gotta
work both sides, dual citizenship on both sides. I think
(27:03):
that society, like I think that we are too, We
are into deep Like, how can we expect somebody who
enslaved does see talking specifically about black people here, How
can we expect somebody who enslaved us, who pillaged our village,
who raped and murdered and killed us. How can we
(27:25):
expect that same person to then look at us as
human even if it's hundreds of years later, Like the
system that created the idea to take over those lives,
to ruin those lives, to even call those lives not
even not even three fifths like all of that stuff.
Who Why would we expect anybody who has that mindset,
or a system that has that at its core, to
(27:46):
ever then turn around and say, hey, we respect you though,
we want you to be a part of us. And
even if they did say that, you got I think
what we haven't done enough is create the agenda to
offset the manipulation that happens doing part of the systems
that created the situation that we are already a part of.
So like, where's the counter for us, where's the countermeasure?
(28:07):
Where's the old gotcha? You know, we don't have in
the black community or even empowers communities or you know,
the low income community. We don't have that gotcha to
be able to push back against the powers.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
That be, Reginald, and with that, I would thank you
for your time. I'm going to say this in response
to you, and I'm going to encourage you to look
these things up, because that's not true. Black people have
been organizing around a liberation agenda since we got here.
They did it every single year. They started in the
Ami Church for the most part, meeting to talk about
our freedom agenda every year until the emancipation. Right around
(28:45):
the emancipation, there's a reason why they gave us Special
Filled Order number fifteen, and it was after the organizing
of nineteen ministers led by Garrison Fraser in eighteen sixty
five that would have ensured that we had forty eight
and a mule that Special Filled Onder number fifteen. That
was an agenda item that was very very clear. Frederick Douglas,
(29:06):
Harriet Tubman, all of these people worked around an agenda
for our freedom the Black Panther Party Ten Point Plan Gary,
Indiana in nineteen seventy two. The National Black Political Convention
agenda is one that was pushed nineteen seventy one. The
Congressional Black Caucus met with Richard Nixon with sixty one
recommendations for how black people could could better live and
(29:30):
be liberated in this country. Tavis Smiley had the Covenant
with Black America. Every single year the National Urban League
published is the State of Black America. We are right now.
As I said at the top of this program, introducing
it for all black folks to pay attention to, to
engage with, and hopefully share black papers. It will be
twenty eight black papers on agenda items that we need
(29:53):
to better survive, to thrive in this country and to
move forward. So I got to disagree on we don't
do it, we do it. Oh, and I forgot Black
Futures Lab that every year or every four years, they
do the Black Census where they collect data from black people.
This past one a little almost two hundred and fifty
thousand Black people engaged around that census, and then their
(30:14):
sister organization of which I'm a proud board member Black
to the Future Action Fund submitted an agenda called this
Black Economic Agenda twenty twenty four. So we do these things.
We need y'all to read up on these things. Sign on,
let us know what we may have missed. Lolo, send
me a couple of questions I want to get to.
I do want to thank Reginald so much for his
(30:34):
time in conversation a day. It is through those conversations,
y'all that we figure out where our gaps are and
we get on the same page. If yoll losin, can
you highlight elections on the ballot this year and what's
at stake more locally, We're going to do that on
another podcast, if you would, If y'all losin that in
as a video so that my colleagues can also engage.
(30:56):
I'm not quite at the ballot. I'm still at our
power before we get to the ballot box. That is
where I agree with Reggie right now. I am not
discouraging people from voting, especially in your upcoming elections, but
I am highly encouraging you that in addition to voting,
you are leaning into your collective power and building around
a collective agenda. Dad said, how can we have confidence.
If we don't have basic rights to see, how can
(31:18):
we have faith in a system that constantly is preached
it's broken, it is broken, but that you are the bomb.
You got a band aid, you got you got some stitches.
You gotta be the one that sold the thing back
together again like we've always done. Asked failing and bluhmer
a little bit about that, Aya said, I hear you, Angela.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
I do.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
I think he is asking why should we fight for
a system that does not value us? Again, my sister,
we agree with that. We do need to come together,
and I agree with Reggie. I'll look forward to continuing
to build with Reggie the system that we do, in
fact deserve. I just don't believe we can throw out everything.
What y'all going to do to serve veterans, What y'all
going to do to ensure these kids are being educated
with the same standards, What you're going to do to
(31:58):
ensure that the justice system is serving us more than
it is harming us. Those are the things that I
don't want to throw out because we have to make
sure that they are fixed. We have to make sure
that we're starting from something. What social Security plan y'all
got right. So if we had to start everything from scratch,
understand that that means that a lot, a lot, a
(32:19):
lot is at stake and we would have to build
everything from the ground up. I don't know if y'all
are thinking that through all the way. Health and Human
Services making sure that vaccines are consistent across the board.
Education the thing they're trying to dismantle right now. How
you gonna make sure HBCUs and land grant colleges and
your kids hand start all get funded? Are you thinking
through all of those things when you want to throw
out the system. Where as your system begin? What departments
(32:42):
are you going to have? Commerce? Are you going to
have veterans affairs? Are you gonna have Homeland Security? How
you go tell me what we're doing? Right? We got
to think through this. I'm not arguing for the broken system.
I'm arguing that it's easier to mend what is broken
than to start from scratch. Anyway, we're over time. We
appreciate you, y'all. Thank you so much again to Reginald.
Shout out to Reginald for coming on being so brave
(33:04):
telling the truth about his story. We hope that you
all will continue to do the same. Please make sure
you send us your videos at Native lamppod on Instagram,
that you follow and subscribe us here on YouTube, and
that you also make sure that you subscribe to our
podcast channel. We're available wherever you get your podcasts. We
thank you so much. Tomorrow will tell you how many
(33:25):
days left until the next election. Until then, welcome home, y'all.
Native Lampod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with
(33:46):
Reason Choice Media. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your
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Hosts And Creators
Tiffany Cross
Andrew Gillum
Angela Rye
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