Flewed Out Fascist with Mayor Ras Baraka

This week hosts Tiffany Cross, Angela Rye, and Andrew Gillum speak with the Mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka. The Mayor made headlines last Friday after he was arrested by ICE while protesting a new ICE detention facility in his home city. 

 

Mayor Baraka’s arrest comes in the context of Trump’s sprawling campaign of retribution against his “political enemies.” From law firms, to judges, to universities and elected officials–Trump is weaponizing the federal government against anyone he perceives to have wronged him. The legal attacks are often effective even if his administration doesn’t win the case…  

 

Today our hosts discuss government retaliation. The chilling effect of these attacks could have long term impacts on free speech, the application of justice, and our ability to govern. 

 

Mayor of Newark, New Jersey, Ras J. Baraka is a Newark native, poet, and educator. Under his leadership, Newark achieved a 60-year low in crime, replaced 23,000 lead service lines, and reduced homelessness by 57%. A member of Alpha Phi Alpha, Ras is a lifelong advocate for equity and opportunity. He’s now running a campaign for Governor of New Jersey. 

 

If you’d like to submit a question, check out our tutorial video: http://www.instagram.com/reel/C5j_oBXLIg0/ and send to @nativelandpod. 

 

We are 537 days away from the midterm elections. Welcome home y’all! 

 

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We want to hear from you! Send us a video @nativelandpod and we may feature you on the podcast. 

 

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Watch full episodes of Native Land Pod here on YouTube.

Native Land Pod is brought to you by Reasoned Choice Media.

 

Thank you to the Native Land Pod team: 

 

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. 

Theme music created by Daniel Laurent.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Native lamdpod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with
Recent Choice Media.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome, Welcome home. Y'all. This is episode seventy nine of
Native Lampod where we give it to you straight, no chaser.
I am here as your host and with my fellow
co host, I'm Tiffany Cross here with Angela Rye, who's
running late but she will join us shortly. And Andrew
Gillham and I'm not running it. You're not running late, Andrew.
How you feeling, I'm good, I'm good friend, Good to

(00:29):
see you you too.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
What they serving a Denny's did it?

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Very funny? So Andrew is trying to say, it looks
like I'm in a Denny's background, but I'm actually in
a DJ booth in a pretty cool location by the way.
But before we even get too deep into that, what
we're talking about today, oh Frian, Oh friend, I know that, okay.
So basically Andrew is saying that because what we're going

(00:54):
to get into today, and y'all brace yourselves, as we've
been here before, is government retaliation. So we're going to
be talking about government corruption, which Andrew, you know about
government retaliation. Uh, I think they're acting corrupt as they're
going after people. I'm really excited that we exactly really

(01:16):
excited that we have Mayor ros Baraka, who is also
running for governor of New Jersey. So when Angela gets here,
she'll tell us more about securing him as a guest.
But you guys perhaps saw this week that he had
a tussle, he was arrested essentially by ICE agents, right right, targeted.

(01:38):
Targeted is probably a more and with more intention to
say that that happened to him, which is awful. So
I don't know. It's just making me really uncomfortable, Andrew,
to be honest with you, because it feels like people
are waiting for some imaginary line for this government to cross,

(02:00):
and that line has been crossed already. And I wonder
like people have to show up to your house and
drag you out for you to say, oh shit, this
is a serious problem.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
You're close to it, Tiffany, you're close to I think
what has to happen, which is it's one thing to
see it on television. It's one thing to see a
doctoral student who simply co signed a not even physically signed,
just basically say what they said to the student Senate,
the elected student representation who passes a resolution, and she
says that's good, and what do they do. They ghost

(02:31):
her right off the streets. And so it's one thing
to watch it. It's a whole nother thing entirely to
experience it. And I don't think folks are going to
I don't think it will hit them over the head
like it's hit us over the head until you are
in close proximity to the government taking similar actions against

(02:51):
you or somebody you care about. I'm convinced of it,
just because otherwise we would have all been abhorred by
what we've seen, all of us would have taken to
the streets based off of what we saw happen, excuse
me in Massachusetts over at Tuffs, but we didn't. We
didn't because it wasn't us. It makes me, it makes

(03:15):
me fearful for all of us, but it also makes
me mostly concerned for everyday people, regular Americans, who are
not noticing what is exceptional about this moment. And I
don't use the term exceptional as a positive. Exceptionally bad
is what we're experiencing. You know.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
I'm curious because we'll talk about this more when the
mayor joins us. But the very issue why he was
even there to protest is that there was this private
prison there that is not regulated, and he was there
to investigate. As the mayor of his city. He was
there to investigate, to look into it in this private

(03:57):
prison where they are housing undie documented migrants and so.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
And I actually think he was looking into the fact
that it is not I don't believe it has achieved
the necessary licensing. Now we can ask him, of course.
My guess is is that over any building that goes
up in Newark that the mayor and council and their
staff have a sayer over whether you're meeting code, did

(04:25):
you meet fire code, did you meet building inspections and
other codes. Now I could be wrong because I haven't
gained this from him directly, but we can, of course
ask today. But if the mayor's job is to ensure
that every building that stands in his community is safe
to occupy for business, then it seems to me he
would have been well within his right. He or his

(04:46):
code enforcement officials well within the right to not only
be at the premises but in the premises to ensure
that they are complying with local, state, and federal law,
but very specifically.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
Right, and as a former mayor yourself, you know all
too well the responsibility he has. But I also if
we're at the point in this country where we're arresting mayors,
you know, I just where do we go from here?
And I think the point I was trying to get
to earlier is the idea that there are way too

(05:22):
many of us in our community, in the black community,
who said, well, that's who they voted for, So you know,
I'm minding my black business. That ain't it?

Speaker 3 (05:31):
Like?

Speaker 1 (05:31):
That?

Speaker 4 (05:31):
Is not it?

Speaker 1 (05:33):
Number one? I think we have to have a little
more intellectual curiosity about the voter data. Too often we
are spoon fed and narrative by lazy ass reporters from
mainstream media who have not disaggregated this data. When you
look at the different communities, particularly in the Latino community,
there is no community of color who voted overwhelmingly for

(05:55):
Donald Trump. Every community of color voted overwhelmingly for Kamala
Harris in the Latino community. When you disaggregate, because again
the white man came along and said, all of y'all
qualify as Hispanics we're putting all of you all in
that category. But in truth, these are people from different
countries of origin, different backgrounds. It's like if they said,

(06:15):
all of y'all, you know black folks are the same,
and you have somebody from you know, Tallahassee, you got
somebody from the Dirty South, somebody from you got somebody
from Jamaica, and somebody from Kenya. You got you know,
the black Brits, a black Parisian, and all of us
are supposed to represent one and I think we have

(06:35):
to have we just have to look at this a
bit differently. And so, yes, the Trump administration was able
to make inroads among Latino men where he was able
to peel off a significant portion of Latino men to
vote for him. Once we acknowledge that, then we have
to look at the rampant disinformation campaigns that were running

(06:58):
in Spanish language to that community. We also have to
acknowledge the anti black sentiment that exists in all communities,
even black communities sometimes okay black, but communities everywhere. So yes,
I hear the outrage, I understand it all, but I
just want to say, when you look at who, then
people's understanding of socialism you know, if you have fled

(07:21):
a socialist country, you don't necessarily understand the nuance difference
when American politicians are saying things about socialism. But even
when you it's like somebody saying, you know, if something
happened to a black man, it's like, well, he didn't
vote for Kamala, and it's like no, that was the
narrative that the mainstream media was trying to feed you all.

(07:41):
But we knew that, ain't it. Black men are overwhelmingly
voting for Kamala Harris. But again, he was able to
make certain in roads with a small sect of black
men a larger sect of Latino men. My point in
saying all this is I'm sounding the alarm because if
you're sitting on the sideline saying this ain't my problem,
my mind, in my black business, where do you think

(08:03):
they're going next? Do you think they're going to stop?

Speaker 3 (08:07):
Right?

Speaker 4 (08:07):
They right?

Speaker 1 (08:08):
That's a good point I'm saying, going and you're right
and correcting me saying they are here. If they are
disappearing people who don't look like us, do you think
they're going to stop at us? Like this? Quite frankly
is our collective.

Speaker 3 (08:21):
They've been disappearing us. Right, this is not know this story.

Speaker 1 (08:26):
This whole thing that we've never seen this, we've seen
this before, like we we know.

Speaker 3 (08:31):
If you're so, you're so right. And I guess for
me it's I don't care about the data and who
voted for whom in this regard he was elected, Okay,
But just because you get elected, you don't own the Constitution.
The Constitution is a predecessor to you by centuries, not
as many as a lot of Americans like to walk

(08:52):
around here thinking we are, but by centuries. The Constitution
predates you and has been attempted to have been made
more perfect along the way. It will, hopefully if we
do our job. As the framer said, a republic, if
you can keep it well. Part of keeping it is
making sure this man doesn't run away with the Constitution
flanking himself in it, as if that means he can't

(09:15):
be a complete destroyer of it. And that's what we're
seeing right now. So yes, they elected him, sure, but
guess what, there are some fabled and some staid documents
that actually outlasts who the individual occupant is of the office,
and based off that by itself, No, you don't get

(09:38):
to rough run, shot run, rough shot over my rights.
My rights were here before you those that I have,
and I hope the game more in the future. But
right now, what you're not gonna do is you're not
about to rip them away from me and watch me
act on like a bystander as if I don't have
a say in the thing. We do have a say,
and it requires us standing up. The Framers were smart

(10:00):
to say if you can keep it, because it puts
the responsibility back on us as voters, as citizens. Forget
voters as citizens, it's to hold them to account. It's
a higher call.

Speaker 1 (10:10):
We can't keep it. I mean, that's the conclusion. We
cannot keep it, and I that doesn't mean that we
don't fight, but we can't keep it. But I'm curious
your thoughts, Andrew, when it comes to this attitude of people,
you know, like just shoulders shrugg Well, the Palestindians had,
you know, their protests vote in Michigan, so I'm not

(10:31):
gonna get in that fight, and Latinos voted for Trump.
I'm not gonna get in that fight when the data
just doesn't support any of that. But I do understand
the frustration, but to me. It feels like the white
man sitting back laughing at all of this while we're
in fighting. We're barely fourteen percent of the population. This
is not a battle that can be won without allies,
and allies are made, they are not born. So I

(10:51):
do think this is a collective fight, not as some
self sacrificial lambs in service to a country that harms us,
but in self serving people who understand I cannot battle
this goliath of a corrupt United States government that has
already fall into a dictator. I cannot battle it and

(11:12):
survive it by myself. But what do we say to
people to convey that message? Because every time we post something,
a lot of the comments on NLP, on our socials,
on YouTube, a lot of it is like, well, that
ain't my fight, And it's really disheartening because it's like
it's gonna be. It is your fight, you just don't
know it yet.

Speaker 3 (11:31):
Anyone who draws that conclusion is a ghost walking. You're
not living in this real, lived, you know life that
you and I are experiencing right now. Because if I
know Black folk better than nearly any people, they understand
that when the worst is done to a group, unlike

(11:55):
us that whatever is coming our way is going to
be multiples worse they You know, we used to grow
up with the saying, if America catches a cold, black
people catch you know, the flu. Now we can say
ko covid.

Speaker 5 (12:08):
Right.

Speaker 3 (12:08):
But but but in truth, I don't know that we
have I don't know that we have the shorthand language
to describe how overwhelmingly negatively impacted we are when the
country turns fascists, when the nation turns more racist, when
the racist, when the when the nation headed by Donald

(12:30):
Trump turns against white people and us. Yeah, just know
that whatever is about to be served up to us
is going to be multiples worse of what everyone else
is getting. And the reason why I included, you know,
a white majority in that and that example, Tiffany, is
because the white majority is experiencing the ebbs and flow

(12:51):
of Trump's terror, crayon battle whatever he thinks he's his
his barbies. Maybe this year your kid instead of getting
many barbies, they get to now he about to take
a four hundred thous four hundred million dollar playing but
but for free, as as a sitting president, you know,
be damned monuments the moment. But in this case, I'm like,

(13:13):
I got an.

Speaker 1 (13:15):
I said it, you would have clown me. But I'm
going to be mentioned.

Speaker 3 (13:18):
I got there. I got there with a little help.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
But you know, can you just take a quick second
and explain the emoluments clause you want to, But I just.

Speaker 3 (13:30):
Want what Tiffany just said. That word right there, monuments
is the is at the very beginning our constitution calling
out the fact that you cannot take gifts from a
foreign power. In fact, presidents should not take gifts. Uh. Period.
Neither Supreme Court justices if I were being completely honest.

Speaker 5 (13:52):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (13:53):
But but the folks in Saudi the Far East and
the Middle East, what they know well is they know
Donald Trump's language well, and that language is a language
of uplift, of flattery, of complementing, of flatter. Better word,
the flattery, the gifts, the the the exertions that you

(14:17):
make that remind them of their station, or at least
the perception of.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
This we got a president has been flued out basically
by the Qataris. And the fact of the matter is
Pam Bondy of this country's US Attorney General, has advised
him that legally he can accept this because they're trying
to do it under the guise of it's a donation
to the Department of Defense. I don't believe for one second,
if this president should ever voluntarily leave office, I don't

(14:42):
believe for one second that he's going to leave this
plush ass plane behind. We should also point out that
Pam Bondi, before taking this role, previously lobbied for the country,
right exactly, so I yeah.

Speaker 3 (14:56):
And she's also the personal you show you you gave
her a prom the US Attorney general. She is clearly
the personal attorney for Donald Trump. Guys, yes, and the
and the and and and the description of attorney general.
But the Attorney's General is America's attorney But all she
seems to do is cap for him.

Speaker 1 (15:15):
It's frightening and this but this is what I mean, Andrew,
because all of these things are kind of over a
lot of people's heads, you know, like, I'm not waking
up panic because Donald Trump took a plane from Qatar.
I'm not, you know, in a panic because he seems
to be personally profiting off of his Middle East trip.
All of those things seem like distant problems. And I

(15:38):
think that people will start paying attention when this problem
knocks on your front door. What they don't understand is
that problem is here, like like knocking that right now.
That problem is knocking at your front door. When they
talk about the Medicaid all of it, you know you
have been impacted by it. I embracing myself to be

(15:59):
impacted by they're looking at SNAP benefits. I think about
the people in my family who get SNAP. I mean
they're real tangible things. The cuts to NIH, people will
die if they haven't already. Somebody should be I hope
a journalist projects and one of these j schools need
to keep a running tab on how many deaths this president.
You can start with COVID, you can start from twenty sixteen.

(16:21):
How many deaths this president is responsible for at this point.

Speaker 3 (16:25):
Yeah, I'm scare. Yeah, if you said something and I
didn't want to let that thread go, which was people
don't understand, you know, when they see the four hundred
million dollar jet going, I would beg to offer that
people do no grift when they see it, they see
him grifting. The problem is is that people's opinions of

(16:47):
what politicians are and what they do is has been
reshaped and frankly reshaped and in many ways by Donald Trump.
But I won't put that solely at his feet because
they've been corrupt people before. But they see him acting ruptly,
they see him as as as a felon in the
White House, and so things that run up against law,

(17:10):
you know, become gray. Used to be black and white. Now,
by the way, if it were me, it's going to
be black or white. If it were you, it's going
to be black or white. But he gets the grace
of gray, right, so they just they suspend with it.
So I think our job becomes not letting it go.
I think we still have to, you know, sound the
trumpet on those things. But I think you're right to

(17:31):
go in the direction of how we make the consequences
plain for what you're going to experience in your everyday life. Now,
you don't need me to tell you at home that
you can't do without Medicare you need me at home
to tell you that you know? And maybe you've got
personal health insurance and your kids, but think about your parents,

(17:51):
your brothers and sisters in them, the folks that can
care about who may rely on these systems to get by.
What are they doing? No, they're not taking it away
what they're doing is a change the criteria. And by
changing that criteria, when you go in this next time
and you're like, I was eligible last time. Oh no, no, no,
there's an update. There's a part Z to the plan.
Then Part Z says, if you have a job and

(18:13):
you make minimum wage, nah, you don't qualify regardless how
much you earned from week to week, month to month,
year to year.

Speaker 1 (18:20):
And not just medicaid, like I said, snap benefits, like
all of it. Absolutely, we're going to take a quick break,
gotta pay some bills, but we're going to pick this
conversation up on the other side. I do just want
to say a quick little announcement that Angela is in

(18:42):
the building, so she's going to be joining us shortly.
She's caught up in New York traffic. As you guys know,
the State of the People tour is happening, and yes,
and so she got to be in New Jersey this
week with the Mayor ROSBROCKA will be joining us shortly.
So she got caught up in a little bit of

(19:02):
New York City right on cue right, she must have
heard me say her name, yes, but but the audience
can see that she is at least here. Literally, I
was just saying, Angela is in the building.

Speaker 6 (19:17):
Uh, yes, I'm so sorry.

Speaker 1 (19:24):
We in it, We in it. I was just saying
that you were the State of the People tour is going,
you're in New Jersey or you were in New Jersey
this week with the mayor, and so you hit a
bit of New York City traffic. So just to catch yeah, well,
just to catch you up. We were just talking about surprise,
surprise government corruption, Yes, and we were. We got a

(19:50):
little bit into Donald Trump, excepting the plane from uh,
the government of Qatar. Kyle or Howard say, which is
ridiculous and direct violation of the monument's.

Speaker 3 (20:02):
Clause or a monument Andrew.

Speaker 1 (20:05):
I did not say. But Andrew was trying to say, Yeah,
he was a violation of the monuments, all the monuments.

Speaker 3 (20:13):
Not just one of the monument's clause, but the.

Speaker 4 (20:18):
Clause.

Speaker 6 (20:20):
There's one thing we can there's one thing we can
count on. We can count on him to be in
violation at every clause. It was and wasn't he You know,
this man has eighty eight indictments. Uh, well had eight
eight indictments at the time he was running for president.
I don't know how many they shed since then that
they decided to get off. But listen here, I I

(20:44):
just nothing surprises me anymore. And I think the frustration is,
you know, when you tell kids, hey, guys, if you
just follow the rules and you're you know, you do
the right thing, good things will come to you. And
I can't tell you how many people we meet on
this tour. How many people are doing the right thing

(21:05):
every single day and they don't get a break.

Speaker 4 (21:07):
But this guy, this bully, this you know again, we
get I.

Speaker 6 (21:10):
Don't know about y'all, but I learned about put downs
from Miss Lindsay in the second grade. And he can
put down and he still comes up right. As it
is fascinating and remarkably unfair. And when kids now say
it ain't fair, what are we gonna tell them except
for their right something I wanted to do.

Speaker 3 (21:26):
It depends on who the kids are right. Because that's
the conclusion I draw about this man, is that lett
none of us make the mistake of believing that we
would get the same second, third, fourth, fifth chances. I
mean to the point that you're making the folks you're
encountering on this tour who are putting their shoulder to
the wheel every day, day and day out, on off days,

(21:48):
on breaks, if there was such a thing that they're
putting it in. And we can't make sense of how
it is that we end up at the back of
the line every single time. But the people who are
skipping the line, who are not not not taking the test,
but having it taken for them, grades put in before
you sit for it, you know, and and and and

(22:09):
it seems that every advantage seems to fall their way.

Speaker 1 (22:15):
Didn't get away in because I wanted your opinion on this, Angela.
I was saying you and I talked about it a
little bit this week about all the people who the
very reason that Mayor ros Broko was even at this
private prison because it's a place where they are Andrew
gave us great context. But it's a place where they

(22:36):
are housing undocumented according to the government. I don't trust
everything they say, but according to them, it's a place
where they're housing undocumented immigrants. And I brought up the
fact that we hear so many times and comments on
our page and just for me in conversation with people, well,
that ain't my problem my mind, in my black business.
That's who they voted for our mind in my black business.

(22:56):
And I have to remind people all the time undocumented
immigrants cannot vot vote, they did not vote. And then
when you look at the data, every community of color
voted overwhelmingly for Kamala Harris, including the Latino community. Donald
Trump was able to make inroads and gains among Latino men,
but the Latino community as a whole, But even that aside,

(23:16):
it's got to be our fight. So I'm just curious
on the state of the people tour. When you encounter people,
I'm sure you might hear similar things, but what is
your message to people who have that attitude?

Speaker 6 (23:29):
You know, I'm glad you asked that. I want to
give doctor David John's a plug here. Yes, David John's
is running our black papers process. The black papers now,
I think we have over twenty eight black papers that
will be dropped throughout this tour. And just yesterday our
immigration paper was released. So the Black Black Lines for

(23:52):
Just Immigration spoke on our panel in Newark. I know
I said yesterday, but what I meant to say was
this week, earlier this week, as Tiffany would have us
to say. And so what I think is important is that.
You know, there's not a single policy area in this
country that doesn't touch a black body. You know, folks

(24:13):
are like, oh well, especially some of the folks who
were just relentless on social about you.

Speaker 4 (24:19):
Know, well, why are we doing this?

Speaker 6 (24:20):
You know, we're not immigrants who were forced here, that
is true, but many of us have in our lineage
Haitian ancestry, Guyanese ancestry, some type of Caribbean ancestry, Afro
Latino ancestry, straight from the continent ancestry, right right, Because that's.

Speaker 4 (24:38):
Really what that boils down to.

Speaker 6 (24:39):
Even when we talk about Brazil, Brazil which was the
largest receiver of enslaved people in the Bellius ships. So
when we think about the many layers, all the many layers,
it impacts us. And even if somehow remarkably for five
generations you don't have any immigrants, let's say that's the case.
You have somebody in your community who you every day

(25:00):
at the grocery store, or who drives the school bus,
or who cleans the house, or who is the nanny
is somebody's children, or who is a healthcare worker, or
who is a construction worker, or who is an everyday
citizen just mining their business walking down the block.

Speaker 4 (25:16):
It touches you, and.

Speaker 6 (25:18):
It is going to change the fabric of many people's
neighborhoods in ways that they have no idea. So long
as we continue to say, well, this doesn't apply to me,
and maybe immigration doesn't apply to you, but these tariffs do.
Maybe these tariffs don't apply to you, but how healthcare
does and prescription drugs costs, Like, there's no way that this,
the oppressive regime that we now find ourselves under, is

(25:40):
not going to touch you in a very real way,
especially when we say, well, the safest people that we
can count on right now, we know if you're an
elected office, you're in a safe place. No, not even
on the soil of a you know, a private prison
right on the outside. Mayor res was on the outside
and now we're gonna hear from him, but on the
outside of this prison and on city land, and they

(26:04):
still found a way to say that he was trespassing.
There are people who they are holding in in that
private prison who are allegedly in violation of their immigration status.
They are painting it out. Do you guys remember that
show America's Most Wanted.

Speaker 1 (26:23):
I was a producer on that show. Yes, I remember
it very much.

Speaker 4 (26:26):
Yeah you should.

Speaker 6 (26:26):
You should remember it so Tiff when they used to
hold up the mug shots and the music that comes
on on the music I Traveled.

Speaker 1 (26:35):
I work with guys over I was producing for Travel.

Speaker 4 (26:39):
If you want to, I just want to.

Speaker 6 (26:45):
Whatever it is. If you want to tell the story,
you can. I'm just saying there was a dramatic effect
about it. And these people have dropped us right into
an episode of America's Most Wanted.

Speaker 4 (26:58):
Every time Christy Noam comes on with.

Speaker 6 (27:00):
Her makeup done and a bulletproof vest child like, that's
what they're doing. They're trying to create this dramatic series
of America's Most wanta and it is at the expense
of the child who's not gonna get to work, get
to school the next day because they just thole her mama. Yeah,
they're abducting humans, that's what's happening right now.

Speaker 1 (27:19):
Yes, and for what and shipping them to offshore torture camps.
And now they're because of course, this is kind of
the point that I think we're all making. It is
not going to stop at migrants. So now the next
conversation and but we have to tap into our humanity
that we give a shit about them too. We are

(27:40):
not big enough in this community, in this country to
fight this fight alone and inevitably, as we as black
people always know. Of course, now it's coming to us
because now they're in conversations with Rwanda and other countries
to ship American citizens who are incarcerated to foreign countries.
And who knows. And I'm be honest with you all,

(28:02):
if I were one of these leaders in Africa, I
would be like, yeah, send me all your your black
people in prison, Send them all because we're gonna build
an army. We will train them and build an army.

Speaker 4 (28:14):
Now this is the tip I want to cut.

Speaker 6 (28:17):
This is it because yo, and I tell you right now,
I'm gonna find every leader of an African nation I
can to be like, hey, we have a great idea.

Speaker 4 (28:25):
I stole tips.

Speaker 1 (28:27):
I want to start an initiative trying to tell you,
especially because we might be next that the right things
are going.

Speaker 4 (28:33):
We'll talk about that next week.

Speaker 1 (28:35):
So hell, y'all want to tune in next week because.

Speaker 4 (28:39):
You're definitely gonna want to tune in for this. They
have to get us, y'all. I get start.

Speaker 1 (28:45):
We can't tell you yet because we need.

Speaker 4 (28:46):
To talk to a lawyer.

Speaker 3 (28:47):
Yes, they see some of it, they need all of it.

Speaker 4 (28:51):
Andrew talking about they tried to come from what right?

Speaker 3 (28:55):
No, no, no, I don't. I don't believe that once
is enough.

Speaker 1 (28:59):
Yeah, you're right.

Speaker 6 (29:03):
If Tiff and Tiff and Andrew are heavy on this.

Speaker 3 (29:07):
No, I'm not the For me. It is still metaphorical,
which is like, in every way in which you should
be able to exist as a living, breathing human being
who draws breath. They want to suffocate that out what
that offers. They want to suffocate it. I'll never forget
last week during our conversation hearing hearing the term you

(29:35):
want to see a dead man walking? I was, you know,
this is what I'm because I was dead inside, was
our guess's response to us.

Speaker 4 (29:50):
Brother lewis right, Yeah, Ray Lewis.

Speaker 3 (29:55):
It just it chilled me. It chilled me. There are
a lot of us moving. We are moving through our spaces,
not awoke, not wake, not awoken, not woke. And I
don't mean it in the satirical way in which we
hear Republicans talk about it. I mean moving in and
out of space without any awareness of what we're doing,

(30:16):
where we are, what's happening in it.

Speaker 1 (30:19):
Yeah, you know, I think the point that I'm making
about death, it was I watched the series. Michael Harriet
actually showed me a clip and I thought it was
just a clip from the show American Gods that's not
on air anymore. But essentially it's about like if gods
were walking the earth among us, like if these Greek
gods were everyday people. And they show the scene opens

(30:42):
with slaves on a ship and the slave is praying
the capture the captive. He's praying, please, if you get
me out of this situation, I will speak your name.
I will pray for you. And then this god appears,
a black man in everyday clothes, and he starts telling
the men and the slave, this is what you're about
to go through, and he walks them through when you

(31:04):
get to America, this is what's about to happen to you.
He walks them through the plantation, Jim Crow, civil rights, reconstruction,
all of it. So he says, you want to get
out of this situation, kill every one of these mothers dead, drown.

Speaker 4 (31:17):
Them all a minute.

Speaker 1 (31:18):
But what was this?

Speaker 4 (31:18):
I need American.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
Gods, American gods and Orlando. Yes, it's off air now.
And I didn't watch the whole show. I just saw
this clip. Orlando Jones plays the god and so the
black man says, but Master, we will die too if
we do that, and he leans in real close to
him and says, mother, you already did. And I just thought, oh,

(31:39):
my God, like that is his point is make it
easy for the next like take out. And of course,
just for legal purposes, we are not advocating any violence
or killing anybody. I want to be really clear. We
want to be really clear. We are speaking metaphorically. But
what I didn't know that the great historian Michael Harriet
later emailed me, is this is actually a true story.

(32:03):
And they were enslaved from Nigeria who drowned themselves because
they would rather die than be in bondage. And they
were off the shore of Georgia, and they killed the
enslaves and drowned them, and they were singing something in unison,
and it was something like the water spirit carried us here,
and the water spirit will set us free. And they

(32:23):
killed all the enslavers and drowned themselves. I say that
to say again, not promoting any kind of violence. We
don't wish death on anybody. I say that to say
that it is time for radical thought because if they
are going to harm me anyway, then then what if
I'm at my rock bottom? Then what do I have

(32:44):
to lose? But anyway, I don't want to keep talking
because Angela, you had a great idea for the guests
this week. And first before we say that, I just
want to say I've apologize. I've been calling Angela Angela,
and I should address her as her proper title doctor ry.

Speaker 6 (33:01):
Doctorates to clear the record. I want to thank you
so much for the support. This is my second doctorate.

Speaker 1 (33:11):
But I'll save you.

Speaker 6 (33:14):
But also let me tell you something that really gets
on my nerves. This is a public service announcement to
black people throughout the land. When you get an honorary doctorate,
please don't start calling yourself doctor.

Speaker 4 (33:30):
I want to listen.

Speaker 6 (33:31):
And even if even if you got the doctorate from
the storefront church, right like, I respect you and that's great,
but like, please, the people that have earned a doctorate
and went to school to do this, like my mother
who is a doctor education, she's an d D, please
put some respect on their names.

Speaker 4 (33:52):
I will maintain counselor and attorney. Angela R.

Speaker 6 (33:56):
I shall not become a doctor, but I will take
it here. So now Tiffany and and you should only
address me as doctor.

Speaker 1 (34:02):
We are only gonna call you doctor.

Speaker 3 (34:04):
I got my own doctor.

Speaker 6 (34:06):
And to be clear, I would like for oh, so
Andrew's gonna be doctors, well mine needs to be doctor though.

Speaker 4 (34:12):
Okay it's a different I'm still I'm not undermine name.
It's d O C T A. Yeah, doctor.

Speaker 1 (34:20):
Okay, And now I want you to bring.

Speaker 3 (34:22):
I want you to get because I want to disassociate
myself from from Angela's comments about y'all and doctor y'all.
Doctor y'all are signature your email to doctor such and such.

Speaker 1 (34:36):
Okay. Just on the other side of this break, we're
going to pick up the conversation. But we'll be joined
by Mayor Ross Baraka, who's also running for governor of
New Jersey. So don't go anywhere you want to stick
around for this conversation. We'll see you on the other side.

Speaker 6 (35:01):
All right, everyone, Well, we are thrilled to be joined
by Newark's fortieth mayor. A good friend of this shows
is this is not his first time with Native lampod
Our good brother and friend.

Speaker 4 (35:12):
Mayor Rasbaraka, how are you doing.

Speaker 5 (35:15):
I'm good.

Speaker 6 (35:16):
I'm good, good, absolutely.

Speaker 3 (35:20):
Literally welcome, welcome.

Speaker 4 (35:22):
Yes, we are so happy to have you.

Speaker 6 (35:23):
We are going to run some sound from the Department
Homeland Securities Assistant secretary. She handles their press. Her name
is Tricia McLoughlin, and she had this to say about
the recent incident outside of the Newark Ice facility.

Speaker 7 (35:39):
There will likely be more arrests coming. We actually have
body camera footage of some of these members of Congress
assaulting our ice enforcement officers, including body slamming a female
ice officer. So we will be showing that to viewers
very shortly.

Speaker 3 (35:56):
Video members of Congress body slamming ice. That's correct, officials.

Speaker 7 (36:02):
That's correct, sir, It's disgusting.

Speaker 3 (36:05):
Here are you lying, Andrew?

Speaker 6 (36:07):
Just one moment, let us the mayor was there. Mayor
the mayor was there, Mayor Rasrocker. We have seen footage
from multiple angles, and I would love to see when
or hear about when you saw congressman body watch of
COVID lift somebody up overhead and throw them down to
the ground.

Speaker 4 (36:25):
Do you have that footage? Have you seen that it
doesn't exist.

Speaker 6 (36:29):
Okay, I didn't think so, all right, tip it, Andrew.

Speaker 3 (36:33):
Yeah, it don't exist because it didn't happen, right, correct.
Y'all know the first thing we would have seen on
the news had that been true, would have been whatever
that video is. But they just lost so hard, Mayor.

Speaker 5 (36:45):
Completely man, and they're so used to it. They're comfortable
in line. You know.

Speaker 3 (36:49):
I'm telling you, brother, you needed this like you needed
a hole in your head. You're in the middle of
the race to become governor of the Democratic nominee for
governor of New Jersey. Your heart in some ways, I
know your head. I went back and watched one of
your latest debate, and your race reminds me of the

(37:09):
five way primary we had down here in twenty eighteen.
And if that foretells anything, brother, the future is bright.
Just do it slightly differently and bring it all the
way home in the general election. I do want to
ask you, Mayor, were you taken aback when you were
asked during the last debate about whether or not you'll

(37:30):
be able to work with federal officials and law enforcement,
given that you had been arrested just shortly before the
debate while doing your job as the mayor of your
city inspecting this facility. Did that throw you a jar?
And is that in any way representative of the way

(37:52):
in which you've run this race and the way the
media has covered it?

Speaker 5 (37:56):
Right? No, I mean they love to portray us at
as these kind of thugs, as folks that you know,
cannot work with with folks that we're angry, we're overly radical,
and this is the reason why we can't govern and
be elected. But my record in Newark is clear what
we've done around public safety, reducing crime and violence about

(38:17):
sixty one percent. The city hasn't had this less amount
of violence since John F. Kennedy was the President of
the United States. I mean, we're doing a great job
with community violence intervention workers, working with the police. But
that's the way they try to pigeonhole us and you know,
barricade us into their caricatures of what they think we are.
You know. So, but if you could see the videos

(38:39):
clear that they let me in the gate, right, they
let me in the gate. It's like entrapment almost, right,
they let me in the gate. Then they arrested me
after I leave the gate.

Speaker 1 (38:51):
As another great mayor would say, mister mayor, let me
let me ask you. We saw the footage, and first
of all, we're just happy to see that you are
safe and release because so many people are not. So
many people are kidnapped and being disappeared by this government,
which is really frightening. We talked a bit before you
joined us about the fracture in some of the communities.

(39:14):
You know, there are some people on the black community
who feel like, well, these you know, illegal ice attentions
ain't my fight, it's not my problem. And they're even
pre Trump. There have been infighting among communities of color,
fighting for resources, which is something you would certainly confront
as governor of New Jersey given the diversity of that state.
I'm curious what you would say to black constituents who

(39:38):
may feel like I want you to be the governor
for me. If you're taking up this fight, how can
you be the governor for me? How would you counter
that ill informed sentiment?

Speaker 5 (39:49):
Right? But this fight is our fight. I mean, the
attack on due process is our fight. The attack on
the fourth Amendment, fifth Amendment of Constitution, of fourteenth Amendment,
these are our fights. The fourteen Amendment was created post slavery,
This is directly our fight. And the first people that
are going to be attacked the minute we allow them
to roll the fourth and fifth Amendment is us. We

(40:11):
have already been attacked, but this does is open the
door and leave us more vulnerable than it did already.
We have to fight for people who are struggling around
the same things we're struggling around, and we have to
see our commonality there. And it's up to us as leaders,
as writers, as journalists, as put folks out in the
front so to explain that to people so they can
understand clearly that this fight is our fight.

Speaker 6 (40:34):
I got to ask you, given everything that's happened me
or we were in New Orleans at the time on
the State of the People tour, and of course you
joined us this week. You're so grateful for your remarks
and your courage, but I'm curious to know, given everything
that's going on, the fact that now you were arrested.
I believe that they are trying to charge you with

(40:56):
a misdemeanor of trespassing. Have you heard from the Department
of Justice on this case and what the next steps are?

Speaker 5 (41:05):
Yes, I have. I mean, we supposed to have a
hearing tomorrow. They're trying to turn it into another kind
of hearing. They're now saying the charge is too small
to have a preliminary hearing. They didn't say that when
they were fingerprinting me and taking my pictures, but on
making me do PTI that morning, you know, going through
this asking me questions, do I have mental illness, do

(41:29):
I take drugs? All this kind of stuff. So now
they're saying that the charge is too small, but we
still have to go through the process. And you know, ultimately,
I think they know that they made error here and
they want to fix that, but they want us to
acquiesce in the process. That's what's taking this thing so long.
They know they need to drop the case, but they
want me to bend the knee before that happens. And

(41:50):
they'll be waiting until they're blue in the face, until
the cows come home. As my grandfother would say, if
they expect that to happen, what does that mean, Well,
it means that they want me to uh, you know,
bow to them, to acquiesce, to say that we were
wrong to uh basically come to them and uh kind
of beg them even Uh it's it's it's it's it's

(42:12):
ridiculous because I didn't do anything wrong. I violated new laws.
The land I was on, even when the property I
was on anyway was not even federal property. It's not
federal property, so they don't have any charge for federal trespass.
I mean, I just it's just incorrect.

Speaker 1 (42:25):
I want to be clear. You're are you saying that
someone from the administration came to you and said if
you say these things, if you say that you were wrong,
then they would well be helpful to you.

Speaker 5 (42:37):
Well, they're talking to our they're talking to our lawyers, right,
and the lawyers are giving me all kinds of options.
And obviously these options I have to come from somewhere, right,
So they're given me all kinds of options of what
it is that we can do, what's possible, what's plausible, uh,
and and and what's reality. The fact is uh that
it's it would be silly for them to take this
all the way through into logical and Uh. It's a

(43:00):
misdemeanor of class T misdemeanor. First of all, the maximum
is thirty days in jail, four hundred, five hundred dollars fine.
I don't know any judge that's going to do that,
or any federal prosecutor that's going to prosecute this case
after they see the evidence. The Brady log of demands
that they give us all the evidence that they have.
If they turn over the guard who let me in

(43:20):
the door in the first place, the gate in the
first place, that ends the fact that I came on
the property, that I busted in, that I forced my
way in, that I was not invited in because I
was invited in.

Speaker 4 (43:31):
For clarity, were you on were you inside the gate
when they handcuffed you or were you outside the gate?

Speaker 5 (43:38):
I was outside the gate. They told me to leave.
After going back and forth with me and the congress people,
I left. There's a video of body watching colon and
holding my arm. We're walking out very peacefully, very calmly.
The agents are around me. We leave the gate. They
stay inside so they could go do their tour. But
the tour didn't happen because a special agent in charge

(44:01):
got a phone call and that's also on a video,
and then they huddle up and leave and come and
get me.

Speaker 6 (44:09):
Yes, And I think that's important for yeah, if I
want people to understand that he was not on the
private prison by the way, the private prison side. When
this all happened, he was on that was city land, correct,
mister mayor, Yeah.

Speaker 5 (44:24):
Yeah, I was on the opposite side of the gate, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (44:27):
In the city correct, right exactly.

Speaker 6 (44:31):
So you said that they want you to acquiesce there
might be a mayor that is geographically close to where
you now are, also mayor that we might look to
as an example of what not to do.

Speaker 4 (44:44):
Since Mayor raz is two class, he to do this,
I will name him.

Speaker 6 (44:47):
That is Mayor Eric Adams, So that's who they probably
want him to behave like, but he won't do that
because this is a mayor of the people.

Speaker 1 (44:55):
As Eric Adams was offered uh an exit ramp by
this administration and now he has become an acolyte and
mouthpiece for this administration after his entire office was arrested.
I can't remember all the charges, but I believe it
was bribery. He was, you know, involved in making deals

(45:16):
with the foreign countries, including Turkey, so just our viewers know.
But mister Mayor, it seems like they were targeting you specifically.
Of all the people who were there, it seems like
they wanted to arrest you. One do you feel like
you were targeted. Two. If so, why and how concerned
are you? Because you're you're speaking about well, you know,

(45:37):
it's clear that the video, we all know facts, but
in a society where facts don't matter, I'm just wondering,
how concerned are you about this court date this week
and by the time the show airs, you will have
already been in court.

Speaker 5 (45:52):
Yeah, I mean, obviously you're concerned. I was concerned about
being arrested. I don't know what these people are gonna
take me, what they're gonna do. I don't know who
you even the track record of what these people have,
they disappearing people, But I don't know what's going to happen,
you know, you know, so I am concerned about the
outcome of this. I mean, I know we have a
very good team of lawyers, and you know the public

(46:13):
is watching, so that that helps us right to keep
it public and have it as a very public event.
I think they arrested me because I'm the mayor right
as mayor of the state's largest city, and it's not
about me personally. It's about them flexing their muscles. They
want to arrest judges, mayors, so forth, and so on.
To prove a point that you know, they're strong, that
they could do what they want to do. Nobody's going

(46:33):
to defy them, and no matter who you are, what
your position of status is, we're coming to get you.
So I think they wanted to get the person they
thought that was in charge that day, and that that
happened to be me, right, and so they came and
got me, and you know, the US Attorney and I
had words back and forth publicly on social media. I mean,
it wasn't too bad, but you know, they don't like

(46:56):
to be called out. But at the end of the day,
this was their opportunity to show me. As you know,
as people say, that's what they did. They came out
and showed me. They took locked me up, cuffed me
and took me in, took me into a seal.

Speaker 3 (47:11):
Mayor. They did more than show you, They showed all
of us. And I think that has in part the
intention that by going after what we as the community
believed to be those who are the leadership voices and
therefore are beyond you touching them, roughing them up, putting
handcuffs on them over public demonstration, We're going to go

(47:33):
after the very thing that you think is untouchable, the
very person who you think who you call your leader
and who is your elected leader, and bring that person
to not just heal, but to humiliation is in part
there is in part their goal, which is really why
I wanted to and I have a question about Governor,
but I didn't want to skip over because I've been

(47:55):
there with them before, that process of submitting yourself through
arrest and the dehumanizing lens that that goes to in
the mind games that it can play with you if
you are not steadfast and unmovable and and and and
your positionality here. But if for the average person out there,

(48:19):
how can you deepen into this this knowing that we
all have that if they can do that, Dura may
erasp Baraka, who am I? Why should I protest? If
that can be done to him, can it be done
to me?

Speaker 5 (48:33):
Yeah? I absolutely can. But the reality is our collective
power is greater than our individual power, right, and that
we have to be together. And this is a moral moment.
I've been saying that, you know, this is a moment,
you know when when Jim Crow is happening and people
were being denied opportunity to vote and being killed in
the South, or trying to organize people to vote. When

(48:54):
Mega Evers was shot in his wife's arms, or four
little girls blown up in the church in Birmingham. People
had to speak up, they had to say stuff right.
It was their moral moment, and people from all nationalities
or religions. Some of them made comment and did even
more than that, and some did nothing right. The history
is going to judge those people. It's the same now
what happens now. You know, when Irish Americans came here,

(49:16):
they went through the same criminalization of the humanization. When
Italian Americans came here, they did the same thing. Jewish
Americans as well. This is not a new tactic for
these kind of despots and authoritarian folks. And you know
what happens to people of color, it's always a lot worse.
So at the end of the day, we could sit
around and watch what's going on, or we could use
our platform to fight back. And that's what we're supposed

(49:39):
to be doing in a collective way.

Speaker 3 (49:41):
Mayor, how are you feeling about the run for governor
where we're what three were about two three weeks out
from voting. Clothes give our listeners a sense of how
you're feeling on the ground and also what they can
do at this point as you close in on election.

Speaker 5 (49:57):
Day, it's fourth quarter, we got the third seconds left.
Is the tie game and we got the ball. That's
really what it is. Either we're gonna score or we not.
And it's simply that you know, the race is so close,
it's gonna boil down to who gets their voters out
to the polls that day. Whoever's ground game is more
complex efficient I should say, stronger money in the ground,

(50:19):
having their people out, pulling their voters out, those are
the folks that are gonna win. Nobody's gonna win with
more than thirty percent of the vote. Somebody's gonna win
with twenty four to twenty five percent of the vote.
That's about two hundred thousand people if that. And so
it's gonna take a real operation on the street to
get people out. And what that means is that we
can't afford to stay home like our family members. We

(50:39):
have to do relational voting like everybody in our circle.
You call the people you know, You talk to the
people you know and make sure that they vote in
their family members vote. I mean, if that's something that's
less complicated then going out with a team of people
knocking on doors and doing all this stuff. You can
sit in your home and call everybody on your phone
and make sure they vote and put it together the

(51:01):
night before the day of start building that right now.
And I'm a member our five fraternity and they always
ask me what can we do? I said, make sure
every out for in New Jersey votes for Rasbarrock on
June tenth, and their wives and their children. That's enough
to let everybody else do that as well.

Speaker 6 (51:20):
I want to get into a little bit of platform
because so much as this has been a distraction to
the race that you're running, like you anticipated going to
stand up for constituents and folks who have been living
in Newark and hardly expected to ever be seeing the
inside of a detention facility in the middle of a
gubernatorial run, and so on.

Speaker 4 (51:38):
Platform.

Speaker 6 (51:39):
One of the things that came up at our State
of the People tour stop in Newark was the wealth
gap for black folks versus white folks in the state
of New Jersey. I believe they said black folks, white
folks who are around six hundred thousand in New Jersey
versus like seventeen thousand for black families in New Jersey.
What are your plans, mister Mayor, to close the wealth

(52:02):
gap in the state.

Speaker 5 (52:04):
And that's actually doubled by the way, so it was
about three hundred thousand doing COVID, So it's doubled in
a very short period of time. And at the base
of that its home ownership and investment in small businesses.
And you know, African American businesses are usually sole proprietorships
in this state, and they get less than one percent
of support from state dollars in New Jersey, So black,

(52:25):
brown and women businesses get very little to no support
from the state. I would say we need first a
diversity procurement officer to make sure that every department in
the state is procuring dollars and businesses from black and
brown and women businesses, specifically black businesses in these communities
that are being underrepresented and left behind. We also have
been talking about a public bank that is not a

(52:47):
commercial bank, but an investment bank where we put our
dollars and we force cra dollars to be as well,
and we do deliverate an intentional investment in home ownership
capital loans for people to begin their own homes, begin
to invest in businesses so they grow, so they can
hire more employees, so they can move from one city
to multiple cities, to put money in people's pockets and
invest in communities that have been left behind, have barriers

(53:08):
in their way because of race and because of class.
And that's what we want to do in any immediate sense.
And we want to help finance these chambers of commerces,
especially that African American Chamber of Commerce, so they can
help these businesses with back office paperwork, so they could
bid for contracts, so they can stand on their feet,
so they balance sheets are good. All of that is important.
Teaching them how to bond so they could compete in

(53:30):
a larger way with other businesses. But we have to
infuse capital in these communities because that's what we're missing.

Speaker 3 (53:36):
Yeah, Mayor. One of the things that I've read that
you're facing, and I know I faced the same thing
where some of your opponents or supporters of your opponents
would say the Republicans are craving Razbaraka as the Democratic
nominee because they feel like they can beat them. I
remember being asked that and say, my opponents, of course

(53:57):
have no interest in that narrative being pushed. You know
before I answer, But obviously that is an easy narrative
to push when you're the first, when you were attempting
to rise against the grain and to you're not. You're
not running for governor to become the first. You're running
for governor to be of service to the people you

(54:19):
care about. But of course you were, you were. You're
breaking some barriers to be successful in the Democratic nominee.
What's your best pushback on? Of course, the Republicans want
me because I'm weaker.

Speaker 5 (54:32):
Yeah, what they think being black is a weakness. I don't.
They think being from Newark is a weakness. I don't.
I think it gives me the acumen and the skill,
the record to be able to solve very difficult and
complex problems that they have no idea how to solve.
I think because I'm closer to the problem, I'm closer
to the solutions. My messaging appeals to everybody up and

(54:52):
down the state of New Jersey because everybody is in
the same situation, and Democrats have been afraid to talk
the way I've been talking, which is why we're punching
high above our weight. Because the message that we're telling
people is that the economy is broken and we can
fix it. That it has to be more inclusive and
not exclusive. That we can lawyer your taxes, lawyer your costs.

(55:13):
That we can make the wealthy paid their fair share.
Everybody wants to hear that. And we can do this
by leaning into diversity, equity, inclusion, not running away from it.
That we can make the state more democratic by doing
In fact, diversity, equity and inclusion is going to make
our economy stronger, right, And we have to make a
relationship between those messages. So we've been talking about the
same thing all of us have been talking about nationally. Wages,

(55:36):
work and wealth. I mean, those are the three things
that we're pushing in this state and in this country. Right.
We need better wages, we need increased opportunities for work
in our communities, and we need a pathway to wealth
here and all Americans want that. You know, we just
have had the greatest obstacles in our way. And remove
our obstacles. Everybody obstacles get moved, and history has proven.

Speaker 6 (55:57):
That, Mayor raz I'm going to bring Tiffany Drew into
our text. The one thing that we talk about the
most historically is the nineteen seventy two Gary and Dianna
National Black Political Convention. I'm bringing that up with intention
because you represent a largely black space in Newark that

(56:17):
is becoming increasingly more black and brown. But we also
know historically that when we do for us, it benefits everybody.

Speaker 4 (56:24):
So when you reflect.

Speaker 6 (56:25):
On what your dad was building in nineteen seventy two
and Gary and what you have continued to build as
in elected office, but taking that pledge, even though you
didn't sign it, you have definitely held true to the
tenets of that convention. What do you think are the
three areas that we need to be implementing? One in
New Jersey, but nationally, if we could as a people,

(56:45):
what should we be.

Speaker 5 (56:46):
Doing based on what they've said there?

Speaker 6 (56:51):
So, yeah, So when you think, like DC statehood, wages,
all of the things that they brought up in seventy
two and that agenda, what are some of the things
that you're like, if we did these three things, we
would be a hell of a lot further than where
we than where we are.

Speaker 5 (57:04):
I think reparations is clearly one of the top three
on that list. I mean, I think that's incredibly important,
and all that means is to make sure we remove
obstacles out of long historic obstacles out of people's way
and give them the opportunity to perform, to give them
a chance at bat, whether it's in the form of
education or earned income tax credits, or opportunities for capital

(57:25):
to purchase homes, to destroy that wealth gap, to be
able to grow in terms of their business. And I
think that that's clearly one of the things I remember,
you know, Queen mothermore passing out flyers and that thing.
We need reparations. We need reparations. That's that's clear. People
have been talking about that for a long time, and
I think some form of that has to happen, and

(57:46):
some discussions around what that looks like in states are
talking about it, and we need to make that a
national push, and we need to say what we mean
when we say reparations and what and what we actually want.
It's not enough to say reparations in a theoretical sense.
We have to say it in a really digmatic and
material way. What are we talking about, uh? And and
who should get it right? And that's that's real and
and I think that's incredibly important UH as well uh,

(58:10):
a pathway there. There was a big fight in there
to me about you know, unions and and unions were
walking out because there's a whole struggle even today about
unions and their inclusion of black and brown people, uh
in those unions. And I think the trade unions and
our ability to get engaged in helping build the communities

(58:31):
that we actually live in is very very important. And
we need to sit down with these trade unions and
figure out how to make sure that young black and
brown boys in these communities have immediate, quick and deliberate
access into these unions to help build their communities. That
absolutely positively needs to happen right away because these are
good paying jobs. The building is not going anywhere. We

(58:54):
need more. In fact, there's a gap, a hole in
construction trades. As you know, they need to high more people,
and so we have a lot of people that are
available to be hired, you know, that's for sure. So
I think that's incredibly important for us. You know. I
also add DC statehood is important too, and I would
add that, you know, because it gives us more representation,

(59:16):
you know, you know, prayerfully, it allows us on another
senator right to more senators. It allows us an opportunity
to have more influence nationally and what's going on in Congress,
and we desperately need that now more than ever before,
you know. But ultimately I think that all of us
we need a real convention like that again, like across

(59:38):
these states. We need a convention that brings us all
together where we brainstorm these issues in a very real
way to talk about a pathway forward because a lot
of people are doing their own thing and it's time
for us to do something collective.

Speaker 4 (59:51):
Well, hopefully you'll come on June nineteenth through the twenty first.
We're going to do that with State of the People.
You know, I talked to Larry Ham yesterday, so.

Speaker 6 (01:00:00):
Hope that you'll be able to come and hopefully, mister
mayor with good news on the other.

Speaker 4 (01:00:05):
Side of an election.

Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
Yeah, that's right, Thank you governor for joining us. I'm
predicting good news, So thank you governor for being here.
And I just want to want to take a quick
note to our viewers that even if you don't live
in New Jersey, in this environment we're in, governors are
on the front lines to push back against this administration.
And so I don't live in New Jersey. But I'm
deeply invested in your race, and we all need to

(01:00:28):
be deeply invested in these races as a people. So
thank you, and I'm sure that Alphus will appreciate that
shout out you gave them.

Speaker 3 (01:00:37):
Good luck mayor soon to be go.

Speaker 4 (01:00:39):
Yes, thank you so much.

Speaker 5 (01:00:40):
Thank you.

Speaker 6 (01:00:40):
And with this case, yes, yeah, how do you catch
you trying to catch an election?

Speaker 4 (01:00:46):
You catch a case like yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:00:49):
Believe me that he's exhibiting the kind of courage that
any of us should want in a governor.

Speaker 5 (01:00:54):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:00:55):
I mean, he didn't point it out for himself, but
at the time that he was arrested, the had already
been there days before, doing the same thing, day after day,
bringing attention to this illegally operating facility in his city.
So when no cameras were there, when the threat of arrest,
did you know, seemed you know, much less real than

(01:01:17):
it actually became, he was standing in the gap. And
I think that's the kind of that's the kind of
leadership you want. And I think, ladies, beautifully, I loved
that he really sensed his argument in one of economics. Uh,
you know, we drove him in other directions to talk
about things that we wanted to hear his voice on

(01:01:38):
the record on. But he was talking tax breaks, tax incentives,
home ownership, wealth building strategies, ensuring that you know, startup
equity is available, you know, to all people across races
and genders. That I think that's a powerful salient message,
one that the party nationally needs to get with. But

(01:01:58):
but I really love home home base for him, which
sounds like helping people get the resources they need to
provide for themselves and their family and beyond.

Speaker 4 (01:02:08):
Well, I I I want to just tell y'all.

Speaker 6 (01:02:12):
So I went to Fox News, I know, but I
wanted to look on here because they have an article
about Mayor RAS's speech and it says Newark mayor compares
self to biblical hero in wake of ice protest arrests.
This is our David moment. These jack asses call this

(01:02:32):
thing a political rally, are and completely misrepresent No surprises there.
What his point was. He was saying that this is
our collective David moment, and if all we have is
a few smooth stones in a slingshot, we could take
it on now. If people don't understand how the United
States government functions as a goliath in the face of

(01:02:56):
every David. Whether you're you're David because you're hungry, or
you're Dad because you're incarcerated, or you're David because you're
an immigrant and you're not protected, or you're the child
of one and you're a dreamer.

Speaker 4 (01:03:07):
You're a David because.

Speaker 6 (01:03:08):
You don't know if you're going to be able to
read the books you need to actually learn in your classroom.
You might be David because it's like the woman I
talked about who's a school teacher but sleeps in her car.
There are a gazillion David's in this country, and we
should not be trivializing that.

Speaker 1 (01:03:24):
Thankfully, the people, their audience is ninety four percent white.
They're mostly conservative people, so they're you know, I don't
know there, you can never I don't look for reason there,
you know, And I don't think a majority of sensible
people are looking at their website or consuming their their
news every single time. Big it could be.

Speaker 4 (01:03:45):
A kill it on numbers.

Speaker 1 (01:03:47):
And so because country is majority white.

Speaker 6 (01:03:49):
So if one of them happened, one of them, David's
happened to click on us over here, David's, I hope
that they hear the rationale was actually just said, there
are also entities that are black owned that do this
same kind of thing, And so in case they thought
they was gonna run this same point, that's why I'm
bringing it up because it's clickbait. In case you were

(01:04:11):
gonna run the same point, at least run the clip
back before you get your clickbait said.

Speaker 1 (01:04:16):
That's something I think that might be a good mini
pod if y'all want to do it, because what you
just said, Angela about black outlets picking up conservative talking points,
which they do from Fox, because I have seen them much. Yes,
and for me personally, like even when you were saying that,
I'm like, I don't care what white people reading, what
they think about, Like, I just don't have the energy.

(01:04:37):
Should we should we care? Should we be talking to
white folks? Y'all want to talk about that on Mini
pot or no care?

Speaker 4 (01:04:43):
Yeah, I definitely want to talk about it, because.

Speaker 1 (01:04:48):
Well, was that about that on Mini pot? But now,
so y'all be sure that they called it a political rally,
I'm mad as hell about that.

Speaker 4 (01:04:54):
That is not what this was.

Speaker 1 (01:04:56):
Well, luckily not to we don't share too many audience
men is with them. Okay, On the other side, of
his break. We got calls to action, and given everything
we talked about on this show, you want to stick
around for this one. Now it is time for calls

(01:05:19):
to action. Alls to action, and I want to know
what everybody's calls to action is? Do y'all want me
to go first? Y'allready? Who got one?

Speaker 3 (01:05:29):
Going with the hosts?

Speaker 6 (01:05:31):
Oh my god?

Speaker 4 (01:05:39):
Going with it? I was like, and to comfortable, pak
leave in?

Speaker 3 (01:05:45):
Are right now.

Speaker 4 (01:05:48):
Going with it? That would actually be in this song,
you know, arrative.

Speaker 3 (01:06:06):
To counter the Fox narratives here that's actually.

Speaker 4 (01:06:09):
Should be to Fox. We should call Fox. That call.

Speaker 1 (01:06:16):
That sound like it could be a big bobble song.
I feel that's about this. Don't still our idea if
y'all make that song, y'all.

Speaker 4 (01:06:22):
But you got it? What's your mumbo rap gonna be? Tip?
What's your mumbo rap gonna sound like?

Speaker 1 (01:06:26):
I gotta work on it. I'm not a good freestyler.

Speaker 4 (01:06:28):
It's a mumble rap. So you ain't got a thing
too art.

Speaker 6 (01:06:30):
It's gonna be like, what are you saying?

Speaker 1 (01:06:43):
Make that money for the rip?

Speaker 3 (01:06:47):
Hey? They got it's I'm wrong with us.

Speaker 1 (01:06:50):
I blame it on the New York Traffic Today. I
just brig get that info, then leave and does how
to make see I'm talking about No, I was in
the car. We were listening anyway she was.

Speaker 3 (01:07:10):
She was definitely checking messages because.

Speaker 1 (01:07:13):
Well, because Andrew said, gone away to hell, I'm about
to go with my call to action. I'll be quick.

Speaker 4 (01:07:20):
I'm not. You should make them go after that.

Speaker 1 (01:07:25):
Uh, this is my call to action, aside from y'all
still not using your headphones when you're public. There're driving
me crazy. I don't want to hear a conversation. But
this is the real call to action. For every single
time that you say, that's not my problem, I'm minding
my business. When you say, well, they voted for him,
so shoulder shrug, I would just ask, please don't consume

(01:07:46):
the spoon fed media narrative. That is a lie. Every
community of color voted overwhelmingly for Kamala Harris. You can
take a look and disaggregate the data for yourself. Us
try to have I want to encourage people try to
have some curiosity and not just take things that are
being fed to us, because that is with intention. They

(01:08:10):
can sit back and laugh while all the black and
brown folks are fighting with each other and they are
depending on apathy to keep If you're waiting for some
imaginary line for this fight to come to your door,
that line has been crossed. And this fight has to
be all of ours. At fourteen percent of the population,
we can't win it on our own. So I would

(01:08:30):
just ask us to reach deep into our humanity and
get into this fight. That's my CTA.

Speaker 6 (01:08:36):
I love it. Who nicks Okay, I will go. Mine
is more of a testimony, and it's a testament to
this show. And had I thought better about it, I
probably would have ran the clip back. But we had
a young man named Jaya who's sent in a question
about how to get involved after feeling hopeless in this moment.

(01:08:58):
And when I tell y'all, Jaia ran so much of
the Newark State of the People Power Tour event. He
was the rally stage lead. He was tremendous, and he
turned around on that stage yesterday and said, Angela, this
is because you told me to get involved. And I

(01:09:21):
am like, this is how it's done, like one mind
at a time, and that one mind being changed touched
hundreds of lives yesterday in Newark. So Jaia, I'm shouting
you out and all of the Jayas that have felt
that but didn't send in your question.

Speaker 4 (01:09:38):
We still will receive your questions.

Speaker 6 (01:09:40):
I just want you all to know we see you,
We thank God for you, and it takes young people
like you to really make the difference.

Speaker 3 (01:09:47):
You're here. He was like, put me in, coach.

Speaker 6 (01:09:49):
He was no, he didn't even wait to be put in.
He was just like, I'm drafted. What's good, I'm going,
let's go.

Speaker 3 (01:09:54):
He showed up.

Speaker 4 (01:09:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:09:56):
Well mine specific to person. Now, you said I heard.

Speaker 4 (01:10:02):
You, Well, you said I heard I.

Speaker 3 (01:10:05):
Heard that host, host, host, the the T, the S
and T silent. Well, bitch, that's a whole word. Excuse
me for the production break production, We gotta go. All right,

(01:10:29):
this is my day. If you see any of my people,
tell them happy Birthday. Between now and then, my wife
Jay celebrated her birthday, and my son David's birthday is
today as he celebrates with a broken arm. And on Monday.
This upcoming Monday, my twins will turn eleven.

Speaker 1 (01:10:43):
Happy Birthday, amazing.

Speaker 6 (01:10:48):
Believe Mother's Day and the happy belated Mother's Day.

Speaker 1 (01:10:52):
As always, we want to remind you guys, please please
please leave us a review and subscribe to native Land
Pod where on all the platforms and YouTube. New episodes
drop every Thursday and Friday. But also don't forget about
our solo pods on Monday and Tuesday. And if you
want to check out more, please tune into our girls
Jamail Hill on Politics and there's even another show off

(01:11:15):
the Cup. Those are the other shows on Reason Choice
Media Network. And of course don't forget to follow us
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or email lists on our website. You can check that
out at native landpod dot com. We are your hosts,
Tiffany Cross, Angelari and Andrew Gillum. Welcome home, y'all. There
are five hundred and thirty seven days until mid term elections,

(01:11:36):
assuming we will still have you one.

Speaker 3 (01:11:38):
Of the last morning plea.

Speaker 2 (01:11:39):
Thank you for joining the Natives attention with the info
and all of the latest Rock Gilliman Cross connected to
the statements that you leave on our socials. Thank you
sincerely for the patients reason for your choices clear, so
grateful it took to execute rolls Hick. Thank you for serve,
defending and protect the truth, even if pain they will
Welcome home to all of the Natives wait.

Speaker 3 (01:12:00):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:12:12):
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