LIVE in Atlanta: NLP Town Hall at The Gathering Spot

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Native Land Pod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership
with Resent Choice Medium.

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

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome home. Y'all, Welcome to episode forty eight of Native
Lamb Pod. It's so good to be home. We're coming
to you live from the atl Shorty.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
We are live in.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Atlanta for spell House homecoming. Well that's part of the celebration.
We got another celebration. I'll tell you all about it later,
but it's so good to be here Atlanta. And we
have a live audience here. So we're gonna kick off
the show right away and bring in my co host.
I'm Tiffany Cross here with Andrew Gillham and the fabulous
Angela Ry. What's up Angela fabulous tore in a mood today, y'all.

Speaker 4 (00:40):
So we just came in here, and Andrew is I'm.

Speaker 5 (00:44):
In a spirit of unity for all HBCU.

Speaker 4 (00:46):
I don't know, Just so.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
We're really clear.

Speaker 6 (00:48):
Andrew came in here represent his set, this ganggang all day.

Speaker 4 (00:51):
He said, to hell with.

Speaker 7 (00:55):
Comings, and you're from an HBC. You you reap your HBC,
You not the HBC.

Speaker 6 (01:00):
I just am saying, I am us, Are you evoking
my birthday weekend an honorary rattler, shout out to all
the HBCUs.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
But we do want to honor Spellman and Morehouse. How
many people want to Spellman the more House in the audience?

Speaker 8 (01:23):
Kay?

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Okay, y'all, well can they hall in the yard right now?
But we got a few folks in here, so thank
y'all for being here.

Speaker 4 (01:29):
Yes, Well, we have such a great show today.

Speaker 6 (01:32):
The one thing that I want to just highlight in
this moment is the election. We did a Professional Development
Program call with the group of young people that we
train and shout out to the Professional Development program students
are here, Janey and Kirsten and then Lolo who is
a graduate of that program who is our booking producer,
research producer, Utility player m VP, and I want to

(01:57):
just acknowledge we did this call. We talked about how
were feeling about the election, what are the vibes? There
were tears shed, there was a conversation had about what
folks were really feeling the angst. We have a student
who talked about being in an area where they are
actively recruiting for the KKK in North Carolina. Yeah, and
it's just it's fascinating to see the dichotomy of existence

(02:21):
right now, like there couldn't be a stark contrast.

Speaker 4 (02:24):
You think there might be some active KKK members in here.

Speaker 5 (02:27):
No, I want to know how feel feeling about the upcoming.

Speaker 4 (02:34):
A member of the KKK raise your about to go down?

Speaker 9 (02:39):
Why are you pointing me?

Speaker 5 (02:39):
Oh, I'm gonna say anything.

Speaker 7 (02:41):
I think I would love to know of the group
that is as symbol here, how many of you all
are feeling confident right now? By showing hand, it's pretty
confident about the outcome that you desired. Okay, that are
at the opposite end of that, which is not very
confident about the and then always feeling sort of in

(03:01):
the middle like I'm nervous.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
I'm nervous.

Speaker 5 (03:03):
I believe I'm nervod God, You're gonna come through.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
So not what I mean. About a third of the
room said they feel confident about what do y'all think?
About sixty percent of the room said they're not confident,
and the remainder said they you.

Speaker 6 (03:18):
Know, I don't know add it up, but y'all thirty seven.

Speaker 4 (03:24):
That's great, tips up to one and fifty.

Speaker 7 (03:27):
But I think about a third is split across the
across the space.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
I feel confident, y'all gonna just tell y'all, I feel confident.
I feel like the sheer will of black women are
going to carry her across the line. I believe and
trust in our counterparts, our brothers. I know y'all gonna
be right there with us to carry her across the line.
I think it's just time. It's time. And I'm not
consuming polls that come out every five minutes and one
say this and one say that every day. I'm not

(03:52):
consuming this media narrative that's been trying to divide our community,
if you because none of that matters. If we just
focus on what we have to do, and we get
out the vote, and we cast our ballots and we
make sure big Mama and Untie and cousin and little
JJ and everybody else cast their ballots, I just feel
like we're gonna win. I really did.

Speaker 7 (04:08):
I think the I think when we started looking at
polls and reading everybody else's opinion about what's going to
have in the election, we should turn on a new default,
which is when you have that instinct to do it,
text the relative who you're relatively unclear about whether or
not they're going to vote. Uh, pick up the phone.

Speaker 10 (04:25):
Call.

Speaker 5 (04:25):
I know, it's very strange when your phone rings. I
feel strange.

Speaker 11 (04:29):
I'm like, who is calling?

Speaker 5 (04:31):
Yeah, because there are other ways to communicate.

Speaker 4 (04:33):
But neither he don't communicate those ways.

Speaker 5 (04:37):
Pick up the phone and call somebody.

Speaker 7 (04:39):
But because it doesn't really help us, it doesn't ease
our nerves to read these polls.

Speaker 5 (04:43):
It doesn't.

Speaker 7 (04:44):
It doesn't frankly, further inform us when reading everybody's opinion,
because it's just that an opinion. And if we're that
concerned and we think that democracy is that much at stake,
let's text somebody and make sure they get out to
vote on election day instead of in that spiral, because
it can take you down reading some of the stuff.

Speaker 12 (05:04):
Georgia.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
I think Georgia. I'm so proud of Georgia because Georgia
is officially a purple state. And I get tired of
people saying, well, you know, the South is read and
the South is Republican, and I always say it only
is till it ain't. And I think the people in
Georgia have shown this new coalition of voters that you
know what I love about this area is black folks

(05:26):
ain't the niche vote. Black folks are the base vote,
so you need to pass through black folks to advance
in a lot of elections. And I hope that this
casts a wide shadow of influence over the rest of
the country, as by twenty twenty or twenty forty four
there will be no racial majority. So I think this
is a good habit for us to get into owning
our own political power and flexing the muscle this time around.

Speaker 6 (05:49):
So normally at the top of every show, you all know,
we say welcome home, y'all, and we are in a
city that well, tip can claim it. You can kind
of claim it, but you do the people out today
where I know you're rather but there's somebody, there's somebody
who's here who can absolutely not only claim it, but
also welcome us home. That is none other than the

(06:11):
fifty ninth Mayor of Atlanta, Cassine Reid, who has joined us.
So we were welcome Mayor Reid, former mayor, some of
y'alls forever Mayor. We want to we want to welcome
him home so he can walk up us home right back.
And also can we give a shout out to Ryan
at the gathering spot.

Speaker 4 (06:28):
Ryan Wilson.

Speaker 6 (06:28):
We love you, Thank you for welcoming us home. Thank
you for everything you're doing in this election. Ryan is
gonna come up to Ryan, come up. Why don't you
go ahead and come up now, cause that's where I
record every just so you guys. Let me tell y'all
how down for the cause. Ryan Wilson is. We were
trying to figure out a studio space in DC for
the podcast.

Speaker 4 (06:48):
I'm about to go to them under the busch.

Speaker 6 (06:49):
iHeart told us that they had a studio that we
could use, and they were not ready.

Speaker 4 (06:53):
They couldn't do it.

Speaker 6 (06:54):
And I was like, Ryan, don't y'all have a space,
And Ryan was like, not only do we have a space,
Tiffany is going to be welcome to record there every
single week and he has done that. And so we
are so grateful for you for the gatherings by family.
So welcome home, y'all. We would like to get all welcome.

Speaker 13 (07:12):
Mare Well, I mean, I heard the conversation before I
came up on stage. Let me just tell y'all we're
gonna win, So I'm gonna start with that. So it's
very important that folks in my space and everybody talk
about that. The Republicans are running a confidence game on us.
They did the same thing in twenty when Biden was running.

(07:34):
All the consternation, all of the flooded poles. Trump got
beat in twenty twenty two, there was a red wave,
all the consternation, all the talk, all the chatter. These
people are running on a forty seven percent platform. They
can't be there straight up. So if we get out
here straight up and go do it, we're talking about

(07:55):
on ourselves on this stage. Let's beat these people. We
need to finish this. And I don't want us to
feel like this isn't in our hands. It's totally in
our hands. But I do want us to go a
step further than just saying, you know, we're gonna get
our folks who we know should vote. All of us
were involved in re electing President Obama, all of us.

(08:17):
I remember all of you on the trail, and that's
the election that meant the most of him because everybody
thought he was gonna lose because the unemployment was above
seven percent, and no president had.

Speaker 11 (08:29):
Been elected with unemployment being.

Speaker 13 (08:31):
Above seven percent, and the Republicans did everything they could
to keep unemployment above seven percent. They wouldn't send money
to Florida that ninety five quarter. They wouldn't take money
in New Jersey with Chris Christy, right, and we beat
them because we stayed at it. And so rather than

(08:51):
saying that that we're gonna focus on getting ourselves to
the polls, let's really make a list. Because Obama won
by tens of votes across thousands of precincts.

Speaker 11 (09:02):
It's the same game.

Speaker 13 (09:04):
So we need to identify five people, ten people, fifteen people,
twenty people, and let's get real about it. They're real specific,
actually calling them, make sure that they actually vote. Every
person that you've ever done a favor for, anybody that
owes you some money.

Speaker 5 (09:22):
They may not answer.

Speaker 11 (09:22):
You know how it? Yeah, you know what I mean.
Y'all know how it is when people owe you money.

Speaker 13 (09:27):
Right, anybody that you've done something for, call them and
tell them you need help.

Speaker 11 (09:32):
Our democracy is at risk.

Speaker 13 (09:34):
And you got a woman in Kamala Harris who's doing
every single thing she's supposed to do, every ridiculous hurdle
they've placed in front of her. She's not talking to
depress enough she needed to do to debate, She's not
talking to ordinary. Everything she's done, she's doing it, and
so when I got the call to be with this
extraordinary group of people, I stop whatever I'm doing.

Speaker 11 (09:57):
Every time you get a chance to talk talk.

Speaker 13 (10:01):
Last night, we had one hundred people in the yard
in the backyard, and then Casey from Jodas showed up and.

Speaker 11 (10:07):
It became a whole nother thing.

Speaker 13 (10:09):
Right, Oh yeah, yeah, he's saying forever my lady and
killed it.

Speaker 3 (10:13):
Y'all know.

Speaker 13 (10:14):
But the point I'm making is, y'all, we can do
anything for twelve days. Black people can do anything for
twelve days. Give it to this woman, give it to her.

Speaker 4 (10:27):
I want to come to you, Ryan, and then I.

Speaker 11 (10:30):
That's my welcome, y'all.

Speaker 4 (10:31):
Yes, that's it.

Speaker 6 (10:33):
That is a good welcome because the welcome is action oriented.
We also close every show with a.

Speaker 4 (10:38):
Call to action. So we'll start at a call to action.
We'll take that. Ryan.

Speaker 6 (10:42):
You have also not only utilized this space as a
galvanizing and an organizing space for this election, but you've
also gone out to talk to other entrepreneurs just like
yourselves in business and like yourself and business leaders talk
about the importance of getting folks to focus on the
economics of this election, because that's what a lot of
folks are talking about at the kitchen table.

Speaker 5 (11:02):
Look, look, I agree with the mayor.

Speaker 11 (11:05):
Can join hear me? I agree with the mayor.

Speaker 14 (11:07):
We have to do everything possible to make sure that
we do everything possible before this election. I simply just
cannot look at election night and know that we didn't
leave it all on the field. So we're going everywhere.
Right after this conversation. I'm going to the airport and
I'm going to Durham right because they're small business owners there.
We're going to talk about what's at stake. We're going
to talk about what we need to do to make

(11:27):
sure that we bring everyone else out to make sure
that they vote at the end of the day, y'all
I am. I'm optimistic because I know what we can
accomplish when we come together to make things happen. So
these next couple of days, you asked me a question
about the economy, and that's what these discussions are about.
For a long time the mayor mentioned this. There was
this conversation of like, well, where is the policy, right,

(11:48):
we don't have enough policy. Well, look, there's been a
lot that's been put on the table that we've got
to make sure people know about. So things like the
tax exemption moving from five thousand and fifty thousand game changer.
Simple things that are in some of these white papers
talking about removing red tape would be a game changer
for small businesses. So all in all, once folks get
the information, what we're finding is that they see that

(12:10):
the contrast is very clear, and then they go vote.
I will ask everyone, if you have not voted already,
please go get that out the way.

Speaker 11 (12:18):
And that's partially to make sure.

Speaker 14 (12:20):
That we're counted right, but it's also to make sure
that down the stretch you're not diverting resources to go
have to knock on your door again when we need
to be going to knock on somebody else's door that
might not vote right. So early voting, if you're here
in Georgia, you have.

Speaker 11 (12:33):
Until the first.

Speaker 14 (12:34):
Please go vote now and then do like the mayor say,
go get somebody else.

Speaker 6 (12:51):
So I want to take this moment now. There's somebody
that many of us listen to most mornings, and if
you don't listen to you most mornings, if you're like me,
you might change your ring tone. You might need a
little gospel song to get you ready. She has a
radio show called Get Up with Erica, and she is
a legendary gospel singer.

Speaker 4 (13:09):
We're bringing Erica Campbell to the stage to join us.

Speaker 15 (13:15):
Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello, Testing one two, testing one two.

Speaker 16 (13:21):
Okay, we're good.

Speaker 1 (13:23):
Hey, Welcome home America.

Speaker 4 (13:24):
Thank you, welcome home.

Speaker 16 (13:26):
I'm glad to be here.

Speaker 1 (13:27):
Thanks for being with us.

Speaker 16 (13:28):
Absolutely honored, Absolutely honored.

Speaker 4 (13:30):
I want to have this.

Speaker 6 (13:32):
We do family talk a lot on our podcast, and
there was something I haven't even talked to y'all about
this yet.

Speaker 4 (13:38):
I was crying about this, I know.

Speaker 6 (13:40):
So there's a gospel artist named La Craye who I adore,
and he recently had I just heard some grown so
y'all might have cried too. So he recently had a
conversation with a Republican and a Democrat on his podcast,
and they were talking about the choices in this selection,
which I really don't believe there are any, but they
were talking about the choices. The Republican gentlemen focused more

(14:02):
on economic issues as we were used to, despite probably
being left out of Trump's plans. I digress, and the
other gentlemen talked about all of the hypocrisy that you
see across the aisle, Lucree said something and I didn't
watch the whole piece, so let me acknowledge that first,
because I hate when people do this to me.

Speaker 4 (14:18):
But I'm about to do what I hate.

Speaker 6 (14:20):
He talked about the other side championing killing the unborn,
and I think that we really have to have an
honest conversation with our folks about what really is on
the line and what we're talking about, because that hyperbolic
rhetoric is so dangerous right now. So I want to
come to you, Erica about how you're threading that needle.
I know you've been working hard for the Harris campaign.

(14:40):
You have a conference today, and you stopped what you
were doing to come see us before you're a conference,
So thank you.

Speaker 4 (14:45):
You're really laying it all online.

Speaker 6 (14:46):
Can you weigh in here and what you think we
can do to really make sure church folks understand that
this is still a very clear contrast.

Speaker 15 (14:54):
I understand at the core of what abortion is people
calling it murder.

Speaker 16 (14:59):
Okay, I get that, But.

Speaker 15 (15:00):
If Jesus was here, what would he say to a
woman who had to choose? He wouldn't tell her what
to choose. The Bible says I've placed before you life
and death. So it is your choice. So if God
lets me choose, how dare a government tell me what
I can do with my body even.

Speaker 16 (15:16):
If I'm doing the wrong thing.

Speaker 15 (15:17):
So some people do choose to do the wrong thing,
they'll stand before God, not their government. And I think
that it is our job to remember that the government
is not my pastor. And if you got faith, no
matter what the economic strategy is, God still supplies all
my needs according to His riches in glory. Some are
already operating on a different level. So I don't feel
like even excluding somebody from the LGBTQ community if we

(15:40):
just honest about it.

Speaker 16 (15:41):
And I know I'm gonna get in trouble for this.

Speaker 15 (15:43):
They already go to our churches, they already sing, they're
already here, So what is it that you're really talking about?

Speaker 16 (15:49):
Right?

Speaker 15 (15:50):
And so I just think that it is very hypocritical
because in my mind, when you think of when Jesus
was here, who was it that was.

Speaker 16 (16:01):
Bashing him the most?

Speaker 15 (16:02):
The religious we're better. You're supposed to be followed this law, followed,
this rule. This says that you're religious. So if you
have this unrealistic list of what it means to be
a Christian, and you say we are the party of Christians.
How dare you imply that somebody that doesn't agree with
you is lacking faith. I just think it's absurd, and
I just think if God lets me choose, even if

(16:22):
I choose the wrong thing, it's still my choice and
not yours.

Speaker 7 (16:26):
Thank you, miss Erica for taking time being with us.
May I want to circle back around on this expectations
game because you mentioned some of the flooding of the
poll I don't know if you all had read about
the fact that a lot of these outlying Republican polling
firms have been dumping their polls into the mix here
at the last minute as a way to affect the

(16:47):
polling averages. So when you have national polling averages, it's
not just one poll. They take the poll of all
the polls, and so what you're getting is a bunch
of trash polls from Republicans affecting what have been some
legitimate polling that has happened as way to I think
impact What the mayor pointed to, which is expectations, and
what I'd love you to pick up is why are

(17:09):
they trying to control the expectations game. If the election
may be pointing more toward Harris win, why would the
Trump folks be attempting to control expectations.

Speaker 13 (17:19):
Because hope requires courage, and people like to be a
part of winning things. And you know, when you're in
the home stretch and you feel something that's real, you've
been in real campaigns, it energizes.

Speaker 11 (17:31):
It's a force multiplier.

Speaker 13 (17:33):
But if you're down, if you're concerned, if you're worried,
you're less active to go be the best version of yourself.
So that's why whenever I go, Ryan and Out are together.
The other night, I opened by saying we were gonna win,
and you can feel the room change just hearing. It's
a force multiplier. And so I think that going into

(17:56):
the last twelve days, all of you all have been around.
The Vice president knows she feels amazing. And these people
run a confidence game. They can't beat us straight up,
but they're in.

Speaker 11 (18:10):
Georgia and we know how to vote.

Speaker 13 (18:13):
Raphael Warnock won three elections in a row for the
United States Senate, and the Jewish gentleman named John Arsoff
is the other United States Senator. So they can talk
that talk to us but we know what we're doing.
So I think and the reason I'm here today is
to focus on the execution because it's that.

Speaker 11 (18:34):
Small margin, and to let people know.

Speaker 13 (18:37):
When we walking around barbershops, some beauty Pauls tell her
we're gonna win and take people on. And when people
talk crazy, talk crazy back, because you know they're folks
that aren't watching this podcast.

Speaker 10 (18:54):
You know.

Speaker 13 (18:55):
I'm in the barber shop the other day. The guy's
talking about Trump on the economy. I'm like, my guy,
there're more black people working to day that have ever
worked in the history of the United States of America.
My guy, black wealth is being increasing. My god, there's
a black woman on the Supreme Court. My guy, who
are you talking?

Speaker 11 (19:13):
What did Trump do? It changes the room.

Speaker 13 (19:18):
And I'm not on the bandwagon a bashing black men,
but I am on the bandwagon are telling black.

Speaker 11 (19:24):
Men we own sisters. Stop it. You don't even need
to get deep. We own sisters.

Speaker 13 (19:31):
The President Obama, the President Obama ran black women, wasn't
talking about even.

Speaker 11 (19:43):
So let's not have a sophisticated conversation. I got a mama,
I got a daughter.

Speaker 13 (19:50):
I know what a black woman being president of the
United States is gonna do to my daughter's brain. And
you talking about Trump ain't for you, and so I
think it's on us Andrew, my brother mayor right to
be out here at it. We ain't got nothing more

(20:10):
important than this. Over the next twelve days, I don't
care who you are. This country's gonna be changed in
a way that we can't even conceive. You had a
man run for president of the United States of America
who stood up on TV in front of a group
of people who claimed to be Christians and said, if
we get this election.

Speaker 11 (20:27):
Over with, y'all won't have to worry about voting anymore.

Speaker 13 (20:29):
Right, Come on now, So Atlanta, Philadelphia, Detroit, Mech's going home.

Speaker 3 (20:41):
Yeah, yeah, for real, Right, he.

Speaker 11 (20:45):
Did his time.

Speaker 13 (20:47):
I'm for all of the talk. When they marched Kwame
kill Patrick out of when Trump free Kwame kill Patrick.
He was trying to do what trying to influence an election,
So for all, I'm with all of the process.

Speaker 11 (21:07):
So that's what I came here to be, you know,
I'm for it.

Speaker 13 (21:09):
I got three more of these today.

Speaker 4 (21:13):
Thank you for your service, mister Mayor. Tim.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
I just wanted to pick up on what you said
because I appreciate your words that black men old sisters,
but I just want to say, brothers, you owe yourself.
You owe yourself because black women, when we win, y'all win.

Speaker 4 (21:29):
We are one.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
They can't deny us in her policies. She had a
whole policy roll out just for y'all. You ain't doing
us a favor by voting for her. We are locked
arms as a community. There is no other community on
this earth like black folks. When they try to divide
us and talk about how violent we are, all these
things ain't no. You dropped me in any neighbor. I

(21:51):
can go to all y'all's house with Thanksgiving and I
know the rules. You know that matters. You know, black women,
we could have a whole conversation and not utter a word.
Y'all know you get that. Look right, see was already
on cue exactly those things matter. So I love your
words may or read, but I just want to make

(22:12):
that clear to brothers. All this talk about black men
doing this black man, I've never believed it. I never
doubted y'all for one second because I know y'all, because
y'all are mean. I want to.

Speaker 4 (22:23):
Ask you all before you before you head out what
your most.

Speaker 6 (22:29):
Significant issue was. If you had the privilege to be
a single issue voter in this election, what would be
your most important issue.

Speaker 14 (22:40):
We talk a lot about small business here, and there's
some real important reasons why. Right, ninety six percent of
our businesses don't employ anybody. Forty five percent of black
folks in Atlanta have delinquent debt. And I got in
trouble for saying this a couple months ago, but it's
the truth. If you think about it, right, this is
spell Houses homecoming weekend, and it's an important occasion. Shout
out y'all.

Speaker 11 (22:59):
The didn't let me.

Speaker 14 (23:00):
But when you think about it, no matter where you graduate,
right PWR or HBCU, unfortunately you were probably going to
work at a PWI. And that's because too many of
our businesses don't employ anybody. Right, So the research is
very clear. Right, if we were to get more businesses
in our community to a place where they were employing

(23:22):
more people in our community, that that is and to
expand the pie moment, that's good for everybody. So that's
what we're talking about in this election. We've got to
get access to capital to our businesses. We've got to
make sure that we're not just talking about starting, but
we're also talking about scaling, knowing that if we do
that effectively, our neighborhoods will be better personally. You will
see the impact, right because in this city, I know

(23:42):
a lot of people were doing really well. All of
those people are still going to go to a table
in a couple of weeks where statistically there's going to
be poverty at the table. So we've got to get
to a place where we have the opportunity. I heard
from one of our investors one time. He was like, look,
there's only two ways to make money in America. You
have to own something or you have to invest in something.

(24:04):
Most black folks are not doing either one of those
two things right now. So it's hard to put it
down to one issue, but it connects to so many
of the other things that we're trying to combat every
single day because our businesses are too small.

Speaker 11 (24:17):
I love y'all.

Speaker 14 (24:18):
I'm actually about to go talk about the same thing
in North Carolina. So if you know anybody in Durham tonight,
tell them that we're doing what we're called Economic Freedom Talks,
and we're having this discussion talking about what's on the table,
but come back and see to GGS. I appreciate y'all, y'all, thank.

Speaker 4 (24:31):
You, mister Mayor.

Speaker 6 (24:33):
I'm gonna come to you because I got a two
parter for you, Erica before you go to this conference.

Speaker 11 (24:36):
Yes, mineus. I like living in the democracy.

Speaker 13 (24:40):
I like being able to vote, and going to Tiffany's point,
the fact of the matter is, just when we about
to be able to run stuff, they want to change democracy.
So as the country moves towards being where no one
has a majority, right, we want to change the game.

(25:01):
So I'm voting for a democracy fairer is harder. The
more rights people have, the harder it is. And they're
offering a Hitler based alternative.

Speaker 11 (25:13):
Thanks, So that's mine. I like democracy, I like being
able to vote.

Speaker 4 (25:19):
I love that.

Speaker 15 (25:20):
I would say education, I would say, why aren't we
teaching taxes in high school? Why aren't we talking about
economics and you know, while we teach government and the
different branches, and they don't even teach that anymore. They
don't write in cursive anymore. Like there's so many things
that they don't teach that would equip them to.

Speaker 16 (25:38):
Be prepared for what is to come.

Speaker 15 (25:40):
Why aren't we teaching them empathy and compassion and different
things like that in our education system which is so broken.
I went to public school, so I get it, and
my kids are even in public school. With all that
I do, and so when I see things, I say things.
So I would be voting for education.

Speaker 6 (25:54):
So the last question I every year, and I know
you guys have to run off. I just have been
watching the souls to the polls efforts. Yes, I've been
watching faith leaders fight. We just talked about one of
the discussions that's not most recently. I would love for
you to issue just a call to action for believers
at home and for those in the audience to that.
I think all these folks are going to vote, have

(26:14):
already voted. But what's the thing that you're saying. This
is what I need for you to do as you
get ready to take your faith behind to the polls.

Speaker 16 (26:23):
Yes, yes, I stay behind you.

Speaker 15 (26:25):
I would say, if you have a church and your
church is in a community and that community is struggling,
you need to vote. If your parishioners are struggling financially,
you need to vote. If you're seniors in your church
are struggling with social security and don't have what they need.

Speaker 16 (26:40):
You need to vote.

Speaker 15 (26:41):
So you need faith, but you also need to take
that faith and put in an action outside the church.
You don't become a believer to just sit in the
building you come in to. You become a believer to
go out to the world to teach people, to help people,
encourage people. And so that's why believers should vote. Take
your faith, feel self to the polls and vote.

Speaker 1 (27:01):
Can I ask real quick that one quick question before
the mayor leaves. I think there is a growing concern
out there in the country, especially among black folks, that
when Vice President becomes President elect Harris, how insufferable will
Howard alumni be across the.

Speaker 11 (27:19):
Oh my god, you already know, you already know.

Speaker 13 (27:23):
I mean, you won't be able to go nowhere without here.
You know, you know it's gonna be terrible. We'll discuss
this good.

Speaker 5 (27:34):
All over the catcher.

Speaker 6 (27:36):
You will take y'all being insufferable for our freedom while
we are thank you much to see read into Erica
Campbell having wonderful conferences.

Speaker 9 (27:48):
Everybody, welcome y'all.

Speaker 6 (27:59):
Okay, while we're transitioning, we have our next panelists coming
up from the A. C.

Speaker 8 (28:04):
O U.

Speaker 6 (28:05):
I want to just remind you all that you are
welcome to come to this center mic to raise any
question or comment to the audience, so feel free, or
to our panelists into each other to the audience, so
feel free to come up. When you do come up,
make sure that you say your name and where you're
from in true n LP fashion. Joining us now is
Andrea Young, who is the executive director of a c

(28:27):
o U in Georgia. She is doing some tremendous work
which we are going to hear about. And one of
my favorite things is the legacy that is sitting before us.
This is the daughter of Ambassador Andy Young. So thank
you so much for joining us.

Speaker 3 (28:40):
Listen, oh, listen to all that.

Speaker 4 (28:41):
If everybody's excited about that, I love it.

Speaker 10 (28:44):
And I hate to say about another Howard, So yes,
the Howard people.

Speaker 12 (28:49):
To say nothing to you.

Speaker 10 (28:53):
Here, right, Howard is here, So yes. And and that
was our you know, one of our mayors. You know,
we've had black men for a long time in the city.
That's kind of how we roll so and all about
empowerment and as he said, democracy, because democracy is how
we got here.

Speaker 7 (29:10):
Yes, No, I was just gonna say Speter. First of all,
thank for the work that you do. I'm a monthly
member contributor.

Speaker 5 (29:15):
Thank you so much, of course.

Speaker 7 (29:17):
But you all, we've been saying for a long time
the most important election, the most important election. I gotta
imagine that when we're faced with the potential of a
fascist on the other side, that for the ACLUES, this
has really.

Speaker 5 (29:28):
Got to be.

Speaker 7 (29:29):
You know, we're at a death con you know, death
Con five at this point, and you.

Speaker 10 (29:33):
Know, just to say we are meeting NonStop and preparing.

Speaker 12 (29:38):
We have all the legal papers ready.

Speaker 10 (29:41):
You know, we saw you know, what happens in twenty twenty,
and you know we are prepared and we're working, you know,
in advance. I mean here in Georgia and in every
battleground state, the ACLU is working to make sure people
can vote unhindered. You know, that they don't change the
in the middle of the game, and that afterwards the

(30:03):
votes get counted, they get certified, they get sent up
to Washington, you know, to to be for the Electoral College.
So we're working on all fronts, all across the country,
and especially with the focus on the battleground states.

Speaker 7 (30:18):
We love that and I would just ask for the
ACOU what would you all what do you fear most
in the changing of our democracy should there be a
Trump two point zero.

Speaker 10 (30:29):
Well, you know, I came to Georgia during segregation, so
you know, I don't have to imagine I remember, you know,
because really, you know, Langston Hughes said Jim Crow is
a fascist regime, right, so we know and our grandparents know,
you know what, you know what this could look like.

Speaker 12 (30:51):
And you know, the ASILU.

Speaker 10 (30:53):
Was very involved in stopping the family separation policy. You know,
so people who will do that, we don't know how
low they can go.

Speaker 4 (31:05):
I want to ask you.

Speaker 6 (31:07):
You all have been instrumental in the state election board's
recent hand counting rule, and you all are fighting the
good fight, whether we know it or not. I would
love for you to talk a little bit about that.
We talked about it on our podcast as well. Thank
you to hear from someone on the front lines. I
think is really really important to our listeners.

Speaker 12 (31:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (31:29):
So, you know, the ACLU is working on the right
to vote twenty four to seven, three hundred and sixty
five days. We don't just do it in election years.
So we've been monitoring the election boards every month when
they meet. We have volunteers that go we monitor the
state election Board. We go in the legislature to try

(31:49):
to keep them from changing the rules. So they change
the rules to make the state Election Board essentially a MAGA,
you know, advocacy group, and uh, we had to. They
came up with about seven rules that would have made
it easy to prevent certification of the of the vote
in Georgia. So we you know, we sued and were

(32:14):
able to actually get to rules. Two different judge judges
ruled Judge mcberney and Judge Tom Cox, who uh, who's
basically smacked down seven of them and said they were
out acting outside of their authority.

Speaker 12 (32:29):
And so the.

Speaker 10 (32:30):
Rules that were in place during the primary will pretty
much be the rules under which we are operating this election.
But it takes relentless, relentless effort to you know, as
the church folks say, the devil is busy, and so
it takes a relentless effort to to to keep access

(32:53):
to the to the ballot. So at the a c
l U, we believe voting should be easy for for
everyone and and you know, everyone votes and you accept
the result.

Speaker 12 (33:02):
That's democracy.

Speaker 10 (33:04):
Now that Georgia only fifty two percent of Georgia voters
self identify us white. So, as Mary Reid said, you
know now that you see, you know, this real opportunity
for you know, we've already elected you know, Senator Warnock,
Senator Astov statewide that are folks who are pro choice,

(33:26):
pro democracy, interested in criminal legal reform, uh, you know,
interested in you know, access to capital for you know,
communities of color. Now that we've elected those kinds of
leaders that you know there is that possibility.

Speaker 12 (33:42):
Let's keep this going. And and politics.

Speaker 10 (33:46):
Is how you and voting is how you make the
folks who make decisions be responsive to your priorities.

Speaker 12 (33:52):
I want to.

Speaker 1 (33:53):
Ask some some local issues here. I really appreciate the
point you made about Atlanta having black mayors. Atlanta always
has a black mayor, and it's been shaky a few
times a few elections. But my mother worked for Bill Campbell.
My grandmother grew up not far from here. I went
to elementary school, middle school, high school here, So this
city means a lot. I haven't lived here in over

(34:15):
twenty five years. When I left, it was not the
demographics that I see now. Atlanta is important because I
think it's a message to every city in Mississippi, every
city in Alabama, every city in Arkansas. What have you
seen happen here that harnesses black power in a way

(34:35):
where we are flexing this political muscle now that other
cities perhaps can mimit.

Speaker 10 (34:40):
So I think, you know, one of the things I
look at is in the in terms of the agency
of the black community is what Manor Jackson's grandfather called
the book, the ballot and the book. Right, So we
have the education, you use your political power, and you
use that for economic power.

Speaker 12 (35:02):
And while you know, as they.

Speaker 10 (35:03):
Said, we're not where we need to be, and of
course all of this has been taking place. You're working
against a state, you know, that doesn't believe in even
medicaid expansion. You're working against the federal government that has
withdrawn resources for housing. You know, there's no such thing
as welfare, the kinds of things that used to sustain

(35:25):
people and allow them to move up. So we're working
against you know, some very difficult national and state trends.
But it's that kind of understanding. But one of the
things you do with your political power is, as Ryan said,
you you want to create the opportunity for economic power.
But at the same time, if you have economic power.

(35:47):
You know, Black folk have always created wealth, but we
don't keep it unless we have the political power to defend,
defend our businesses, defend our communities, you know, and defend
our access to you know, our ability really to prosper
because you know, in the in the south, uh, you know,
if you get too upp aty, somebody will come, you know,

(36:07):
burn your stuff down in the past.

Speaker 6 (36:09):
Right, you know, one of the things that we address
at the top is the inks that some folks are
feeling about this election. You're doing the work that would
hopefully prevent us as a collective from experiencing that type
of inks. What can this audience do? And you all
are still welcome to ask questions. I am very surprised
because normally NLP fan be all up into mic and

(36:31):
in the camera. So please ask questions with this genius
we have seen here, this wonderful attorney. So I would
love to hear what you think folks can do to
prevent that inks? Well, how can they support a c
O you What are the things that we should be
doing right?

Speaker 10 (36:45):
Well, as Andrew said, we do we we do take
individual donations and you know, our monthly supporters, and it's
actually because we are supported by individuals, not by big
mega We don't get corporate government, which means we are
independent and we work for the people. And you know

(37:07):
we will you know, we will persist, but people have
to vote right, we and we have to talk people
through their anxieties and concerns. You heard, you know, some
of the things Cassim had to say that, you know,
we have to help folks understand that while Trump put
his name on the check, it was the Black Caucus
that got that check, right, it was it was the efforts.

(37:31):
It was you know, he he he wasn't trying to
give that money to votes. You have to help people understand.
I think President Obama said, you know that was my
economy that you inherited, right, help people really understand that.

Speaker 12 (37:48):
What the realities are.

Speaker 10 (37:49):
And there is a lot of disinformation, a lot of
very intentional we know we've heard that you know, Russia,
China and Iran are all trying to throw this to
Donald Trump. Why is that? You know, we are the
example of a multi racial, multicultural democracy. There's so much

(38:11):
more that we can do and we're not you know,
as we said, let's you know, we have you know,
understand so really talking to people, meeting with them where
they are asking them what is really important to them.
Sometimes people think that, I don't know, have they heard
about the one million public servants that got loan forgiveness?

Speaker 4 (38:36):
Uh?

Speaker 10 (38:37):
And of course, you know, reproductive rights understand that that
when they when they.

Speaker 12 (38:43):
Struck down Roe v.

Speaker 10 (38:44):
Wade, they didn't just say you can't have an abortion.
They also struck down the law that says the government
can't sterilize you.

Speaker 12 (38:52):
Right.

Speaker 10 (38:53):
And so this thing of reproductive choice and freedom goes
both ways. Right, if the government can tell you that
you have to continue your pregnancy, they can tell you
that you can't have a pregnancy. And we know that
this has happened to Black women in the past.

Speaker 12 (39:09):
You know, So.

Speaker 10 (39:10):
This this thing when we talk about reproductive justice. You know,
Black women disproportionately die from maternal uh. You know, maternal health.
Infant mortality is still was too high in our community
before Roe v. Way.

Speaker 12 (39:28):
Now that they've struck down Road v.

Speaker 10 (39:30):
Way, they are undermining the ability of women to get
reproductive health care. We see maternal mortality and infant mortality
going up in you know in you know this very
not because the ability isn't there to save people's lives,
but because the government is saying and tying the hands

(39:52):
of physicians when they are trying to deliver health care.

Speaker 1 (39:56):
You have a question. Yes, yes, Brandon Carter.

Speaker 17 (40:01):
I live here in Atlanta, and my question is a
lot of people feel that Trump's presidency was retribution for
Obama's election twenty twenty.

Speaker 11 (40:11):
We know January sixth.

Speaker 17 (40:13):
Was retribution for Biden's and then all of the court
of all of the laws that were passed was because
of that.

Speaker 11 (40:21):
Do you feel that there's going to be a retribution win?
Harris wins.

Speaker 10 (40:26):
Now if we keep voting, you know, I mean people,
you know, there was a big outpouring. People came out
and voted for Obama, and you have to keep it going.

Speaker 12 (40:36):
So we talk.

Speaker 10 (40:37):
We also at the ACLU have a saying called Hope,
Vote Advocate.

Speaker 12 (40:42):
You know, voting is the beginning.

Speaker 10 (40:44):
You then have to advocate, you know, for the things
that you want your elected officials to do, and we
have to keep voting. I think Spelman has a thing
about for donations, like every woman every year like don't.

Speaker 12 (40:56):
Just give on your you know, your alumni year.

Speaker 10 (41:02):
And it's the same thing we have to vote every year.
We can't just vote every four years. We didn't we
even with Obama, he didn't keep the Congress that he
needed to let him continue his agenda.

Speaker 12 (41:14):
So we we are.

Speaker 10 (41:18):
I mean, the only reason this is even a discussion
is because we have the electoral college, which is rooted
in you know, the defensive slavery. But if you look
at the popular vote, you know Hillary won the popular vote, right,
and so based on the popular vote, George Bush shouldn't

(41:38):
have been president and Trump shouldn't have been president if
we had a system where the popular vote winner was one.

Speaker 12 (41:47):
So yes. So the thing is is that we just
have to keep at it.

Speaker 10 (41:50):
There will always be pushback, but the but I think
the people who believe in a fair and just and
multiracial America, I believe are the majority. But we have
to believe it and we have to keep voting like it.

Speaker 1 (42:06):
Thank you so much for you. I think there will
be retribution. I get your point about keep voting and
political retribution, but I am fully raised for political violence
in this country. When President Kamala Harris wins, I think
we've already seen evidence of that, and as black folks,
we already know how violent white people can be when
they don't get their way, So I'm very raceed for

(42:26):
what will come next.

Speaker 7 (42:27):
I also think there'll be political policy retribution. I think
the Senate is probably going to go Republican. They already
stole the Supreme Court seat from Obama a year out
from the election, yet they gave one four or three
to Trump and one within weeks a few months of
the election. I think they're going to be poised to

(42:47):
prevent her from moving her agenda on day zero. The
people who we are in bed with for the purposes
of getting her elected, these former Trumpers who are now
never Trumpers or whomever. I mean, they've already got the
opinion pages written for when she gets there. This is
what we thought we would get. She's more liberal than
we expected she, you know, so I think we should

(43:10):
gear up for that to the point, which is why
we have to keep voting and keep supporting her, because
that is already I think.

Speaker 10 (43:19):
But you know, Beyonce is going to Texas now, Colin
already is.

Speaker 12 (43:22):
You know, uh.

Speaker 10 (43:28):
In Florida, the you know, abortion issue is on the ballot.
That has always brought out, you know, voters who believe
in in freedom. So you know, I, uh, you know,
I'm an optimist till they till they capt the votes.

Speaker 4 (43:45):
Hear that, and we have another question, and tell us
your name and where you're from, sir.

Speaker 18 (43:53):
Afternoon, Welcome home, y'all.

Speaker 11 (43:55):
My name is Earl West.

Speaker 18 (43:56):
I'm from Seattle, Washington, twelve six.

Speaker 19 (44:03):
Garfield class of eighty four, same as your brother.

Speaker 4 (44:05):
Same as my brother and my daddy, my brothers. Have
you talked to him, I haven't talked to him.

Speaker 9 (44:11):
I have talked to him.

Speaker 18 (44:13):
I was with your father at our one hundred year
reunion up in Seattle, so I do have a picture
of that. But my comment in question, my comment will
probably will lead to a question.

Speaker 19 (44:25):
But uh, just the other day I was over at.

Speaker 18 (44:31):
A black owned boutique and in line talking to some
brothers the importance of voting, and one of them was
a libertarian, which was confusing to me because you had
a black owned boutique.

Speaker 11 (44:45):
Ironic.

Speaker 18 (44:46):
But it's more of information and how information is being
gathered and distributed and where we can find it information
because I'm having to combat the information out there just
by talking to some of the brothers, because I don't
believe that the black man thing is real because I
have moms, sisters, aunts and every nephew's nieces. So I

(45:12):
have to vote as a as the poet and lyricists
and UH sports expert once said, we vote based on
harm reduction, you know so sports knowledge. You know, I
got you you know so, So the way I vote
is based on what I have in my family. But

(45:35):
is there a way as far as getting the information
out and making sure that I'm speaking the truth to
these young brothers to make sure I am pointing them
in the right direction, because I see that a lot
sometimes everywhere I go, I make sure that I vote.
I tell the people that work for me, you take

(45:56):
the day off, go vote whatever you need to do.
So if there's a way that I can get that
information and get that information to the people, that would
be a good thing for me.

Speaker 4 (46:09):
I love for you to answer.

Speaker 10 (46:10):
You know, our website a c l uga dot org
has all the information about you know, links to where.

Speaker 12 (46:17):
To vote, how to vote.

Speaker 10 (46:19):
You know, we have talking you know, different issue on points,
but particularly right now, it's just the you know, getting
the getting the where to go. And I appreciate your
point about harm reduction because you know, we do a
lot of that right now. And uh, and it's real, right,
it makes a difference.

Speaker 19 (46:39):
And why don't I see like.

Speaker 18 (46:43):
The comments that JD Van said about Trump on the
air twenty four seven? You know, I mean, there are
some things that I think we should be saying and
seeing that though Republicans have said about this guy, and.

Speaker 19 (46:56):
Why don't we see these things twenty four seven?

Speaker 11 (46:58):
It just baffles.

Speaker 6 (46:59):
Me, you know, I'm gonna tell you, Leonard and I
did CNN last night, and yeah, they ended up going viral,
and part of it was honestly a continuation of the
conversation we had on our podcast. We talked about fascism
and if Andrew, of course, you've already mentioned today that
Jim Crow is a form of fascism, and so one
of the things that I brought up was I remember

(47:22):
being on air, and this is getting to to your point,
being on air, and I said that Donald Trump was racist.
It was one of the first times I think that
it's been said on cable news. And Anderson was moderating
the conversation.

Speaker 4 (47:35):
He was like, well, what are you basing that on?

Speaker 6 (47:37):
I'm like his history, So I started running things down.
But it was a very tense moment on air, not
just with Anderson, but with the whole panel, because oh,
you can't say that, I dare say that, Yes I can.

Speaker 4 (47:48):
Here are all the facts.

Speaker 6 (47:49):
So I brought up the point that when Kamala Harris
was asked at the town hall if she thought Donald
Trump was a fascist, not is he a fascist, but
if she thought he was a fascist, it got so
so much more press attention than the fact that her
chief of staff, the former Department of Homeland Security secretary,
said that he is a fascist and defined the terms.

Speaker 4 (48:10):
So that is one of the things that we should
be saying.

Speaker 6 (48:12):
I also want to acknowledge we are saying in a
lot and that's why we did our podcast the way
we did. We went through and defined what fascism is,
examples of fascism. These guys go overseas a lot more
than me and their commentary. I stay domestic as much
as I can. It's enough going on over here. But
they are brilliant at this. They talk about the ways
in which we've seen fascism historically and through other parts

(48:34):
of the world. We have to emphasize that people are like,
it can't get worse, Yes it can.

Speaker 4 (48:40):
It absolutely can so well.

Speaker 1 (48:42):
I want to say about the news urn because I
think that's a significant thing. You know, that's my constant
beef the cable news. Y'all have seen like they have
centered a shrinking demographic. They center the interest and comfort
of conservative white folks. They have no interests in centering us,
and that's why we've seen their numbers continue to decline

(49:05):
over the years, and media has become more democratized so
other people have a voice. The sad part about that
is that opens up a door for a lot of
misinformation and disinformation, and so we don't see a lot
of the just actual facts because they have a vested
interest in feeding you all this narrative where you have
angst around this election. So what do you do when
you wake up? You want to put on CNN and

(49:25):
watch that all day to see what this poll said
at eleven o'clock. Maybe it's gonna say something different at noon.
They have turned the news platform into reality television. Let's
go find somebody to say it's raining outside, and then
let's go find somebody to say it's sunny outside, as
though they themselves are not reporters to say, we can
demonstrably say it is a sunny day, it is not raining.
They treat both of these sentiments and statements as though

(49:47):
they are facts when they are clearly not. There's also
a comfort right, less than six percent of all newsroom
staff is black. And so when you have all of
these people and they say, well, my my grandmother voted
for Trump, she likes Trump, and she's not a bad person. Ps.
Yes she is, my auntie, my mom, my dad did

(50:09):
all these things she's not about. Yes they are. And
so they extend humanity to these folks in a way
that they can never extend to us. We can get
shot right on camera and they still got to be
the perfect victim. It's still a question. We have to
die in spectacular ways to pierce the white narrative of
what's happened to us. But when it comes to their policies,

(50:31):
their platform, they got all the humanity in the world.
So I discourage people. Really, I am more of a
reader now than I am a watcher. Watch Joy Ree
please every night on MSNBUC at seven pm. She is
holding it down. But outside of that, I don't see
a lot of truly intellectual discourse from these people who
get so many of our eyes and our viewership and

(50:53):
our dollars.

Speaker 5 (50:53):
So just two quick things. One on Partifany's point on
the media.

Speaker 7 (50:57):
One of the strategies with fashion in its earliest stages
is the assassination of facts so that no one becomes
the arbiter of what is true in what is false.
And now you don't have a source that we can
call a main source, because everybody's a main source.

Speaker 9 (51:14):
The stuff you.

Speaker 7 (51:14):
Get on your feed, the stuff through social media, somebody's
snapchat video to you becomes a primary source. So the
assault on facts is number one. And who introduced that
in large form, Donald Trump, when they began with alternative facts.

Speaker 5 (51:28):
Oh, that's just another way to see it.

Speaker 7 (51:30):
And we adopted that there are now alternative facts as
a legitimate form of describing another set of facts not
true fascism.

Speaker 5 (51:38):
And then to the point of when we speak.

Speaker 7 (51:40):
About Iran and Russia foreign actor's intrusion in our elections,
it's not that they're sending missiles and bombs and folks
into our country. They're taking what exists in our country
as natural rifts between communities, between a people's and then
they are exploding those rifks and what push notifications you

(52:03):
get what information, what shows up as as whatever in
your Instagram and you're like, I ain't followed this person,
but they're still showing up in your in your fees.
That's the they have. They have sophisticated technology where they
are they are deliberately interfering with what you see on
your screen. So when we talk about black men, they're
not making it up. What they hear, what they heard,

(52:26):
what they thought were facts. It is being deliberately sent
to them in oversaturated form so that it becomes a
fat the truth.

Speaker 6 (52:34):
Absolutely, I want to give you the opportunity to any
partnering words. I know you have to go and we're
bringing up our next panel, but before you do, yeah,
I just.

Speaker 12 (52:42):
Went, well, thank you for doing this. I'm you know, I.

Speaker 10 (52:47):
You can't say enough about how important this election is.
And one of the things, you know, one of the
things we do, of course, is defend the right to
free speech and the right to protest, and so understand
that we can disagree with the president Harris, you won't
be able to disagree with the President Trump. And he's

(53:08):
already promised to send the military, to send the National
Guard after people who don't agree with him and support him.
So if nothing else, you know, understand that the freedoms
that we had to fight for the kind of demonstrations
that we saw with the George Floyd, the Women's March,

(53:31):
we had to fight for the right to do that,
and that is also a right along with reproductive rights,
along with voting rights.

Speaker 12 (53:38):
That are on the ballot right now, because voting is.

Speaker 10 (53:42):
Happening in Georgia, North Carolina right now. So please participate
and take five friends.

Speaker 4 (53:54):
From Aco you.

Speaker 6 (53:55):
We are so grateful for your partnership and for being
here today.

Speaker 4 (53:59):
Thank you so much, thank you.

Speaker 1 (54:00):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (54:07):
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.

Speaker 6 (54:12):
We now have the opportunity to welcome to the stage
some additional women champions and queens joining us from the
UH from from Georgia. She is a Democratic Member of
Congress and a CBC member, so she's CBC fan. This
is Congresswoman to Kima Williams. We also have someone who's

(54:37):
becoming a legend before our eyes, fighting the good fight
to ensure access to capital and equity for businesses and
business owners who look like us, as Arian Simone from
the Fearless Fund.

Speaker 4 (54:51):
She got some fans in here and certainly not look
at them and.

Speaker 3 (54:59):
You're look at this.

Speaker 4 (55:00):
I knew it, no problem. We love y'all. Y'all got
to set down now.

Speaker 6 (55:05):
We also have joining us our good friend and sister
Kimberlee Blackwell, who runs a Marsham marketing company PMM agency
and is a business strategist extraordinaire dimples. Hello everybody, Hello,
thank you all for joining us.

Speaker 4 (55:23):
Nikim, I want to start with you.

Speaker 6 (55:24):
You sit on financial services, you are dealing with kitchen
table issues every day, and Committee. I know that we
did a round table with you with Arian. I want
you to talk about the fight that we're up against,
particularly if Democrats don't take over the house. What does
it look like for people who are just trying to
make ends meet, who are trying to access capital, who

(55:46):
think DEEI doesn't mean didn't earn it, but actually means diversity,
equity and inclusion are abundantly important.

Speaker 20 (55:53):
Absolutely well, hellover one and welcome to Georgia's fighting fifth
Congressional District. I am Congresswoman Nikima william and so happy
to be here having this conversation with people that I've
been in this fight with and it is still ongoing.

Speaker 12 (56:06):
Y'all.

Speaker 20 (56:07):
So, as a member of the House Financial Services Committee, y'all,
I've been in Congress for two years, well, two sessions,
two terms, and my first year in Congress, I was
appointed to the very powerful House Financial Services Committee, and
one of my subcommittees was the Subcommittee.

Speaker 4 (56:24):
On Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Speaker 20 (56:28):
And I served on that committee for two years under
the leadership of my chairwoman, Joyce Baty, and then, y'all,
I got re elected to my second term in Congress
and Democrats were no longer in control. And the first
thing that they did in our organizational meeting is.

Speaker 4 (56:43):
They got rid of the entire subcommittee.

Speaker 20 (56:45):
So there is no longer a subcommittee on diversity equity
inclusion in the House Financial Services Committee. And we looked
at our chairman and we asked, well, what was this about,
and he said, well, we're going to include it in
everything that we do. But we all know that means
it is not going to be included in nothing. And
then we are under attack at every angle. And I'm

(57:06):
sure you'll hear more about that shortly, But in the
House Financial Services Committee, where everything that you can think
of that impacts us building generational wealth and our financial
well being in this country, especially as black people goes
through that committee. Housing is in that committee, every banking
industry that you can think of, not just traditional banks,

(57:28):
but fintech, and now we're writing the rules of the
road when it comes to digital assets and what that
looks like. All goes through this committee with no lens
for DEI because that entire committee was gotten rid of.
So as we're going through this election cycle, we got
eleven days, but who's counting? I am but eleven days,

(57:49):
and here in battleground Georgia, we understand.

Speaker 4 (57:51):
What's at stake.

Speaker 20 (57:53):
So when we talk about our freedoms being on the ballot,
it includes our economic freedom. It includes our ability to
build that general racial wealth so that we can close
the racial wealth gap that is so persistent in this country,
even here in Atlanta, where we are the mecca for
black people coming to build wealth. I moved here from
rural Alabama. Shout out to my HBC utility of college.

(58:17):
Moved here after college looking for the opportunity that I
knew the leaders before me, like my predecessor. I don't
know if Andrew is still here, but Ambassador Andrew Young,
who held the seat before Congressman John Lewis, and so
moved here looking for this opportunity and now knowing that
my city is leading the country in the racial wealth gap,

(58:37):
and there are so many forces trying to keep us there.

Speaker 4 (58:41):
But we know that in eleven.

Speaker 20 (58:43):
Days we have options on the ballot. We have work
to do to make sure that we are victorious.

Speaker 4 (58:49):
And when I.

Speaker 20 (58:50):
Show up to the polls, because I haven't banked my
vote yet, but I have a plan. So when I
show up and cast my vote, my vote for Kamala
Harris is a vote for our future, a vote for
our economic freedom. Because when we're disbanding committees like DEI
in the House Financial Services Committee, it is quite telling
where the Republicans in this country are and what they

(59:10):
think about us being able to close that racial wealth
gap and build generational wealth within our communities.

Speaker 7 (59:16):
Thank you for that, congress Woman, and we're extremely proud
of you. Another person we were proud of is Arian,
the rattling community all over but I think all over
the country we've born witness to your fight. And I
say your fight, but I know it's your fight on.

Speaker 5 (59:31):
Behalf of all of us. Right. We hope to see
you in Detroit last week. What up?

Speaker 21 (59:36):
Though?

Speaker 5 (59:36):
We were there and your.

Speaker 4 (59:37):
Home is every Can y'all leave the mic sign because
this is a very interacting podcast. Let's leave the mic sign.

Speaker 22 (59:45):
You guys are going to every city I've lived in. Yes,
my hometown Detroit, my home here and fam.

Speaker 5 (59:52):
You the real home.

Speaker 4 (59:53):
Yes, he's not biased, but.

Speaker 7 (59:57):
Arian, I want you to talk about a lot of
us that follow the ebbs and flows of this fight.
I'd love for you to give this audience and our
listenership an update on where we are as relationship protecting
women's accesship.

Speaker 3 (01:00:09):
I'm Marian Simone.

Speaker 22 (01:00:10):
I'm CEO of the Fearless Fund, where the nation's first
venture capital fund that's built by women of color for
women of color. And literally we had opposition way before
a lawsuit. So I want people to understand that when
people see that this lawsuit is over, they're like, oh,
she can breathe. Yeah, to an extent. To an extent,

(01:00:31):
the opposition still exists. Women of color are the most
founded entrepreneur demographic, just the least funded, receiving only zero
point three nine percent of venture capital funds. The industry
has ran ninety two percent white male. Now that doesn't
even include any other men, like as far as other races,
ninety two percent white male. So that just shows you

(01:00:53):
due to the numbers, there's opposition.

Speaker 4 (01:00:56):
Way before a court case.

Speaker 22 (01:00:59):
Right now, our case is permanently dismissed. Thank god, that's
a collap.

Speaker 16 (01:01:05):
Thank you, Lord said.

Speaker 22 (01:01:07):
Thank you Lord, because she was in plenty of meetings
with us and plenty of the late nights strategizing. So literally,
even as soon as this week, we've been dealing with
people trying to shut our fun down conversations Angela, I
have you have to even inform you of this is
still a situation just because you don't see it in
a lawsuit. The enemies of equity and equality are real,

(01:01:31):
and they have a problem with us running this business.
Prior to the Fearless Fund existing, a black woman's average
fundraise was only thirty thousand dollars. And we are still
cutting seven figure checks. We came on the scene cutting
them and we're still cutting them, and it is very disruptive.
It's just very disruptive. But right now, legally we're good.
But honestly, this is not a matter of where the

(01:01:53):
private sector should be having to defend this.

Speaker 4 (01:01:56):
This is more of a policy issue.

Speaker 22 (01:01:58):
That's what it is at its core, which is why
I was so excited when.

Speaker 3 (01:02:02):
Kind of Swimming Williams was on the panel. I said,
wait a minute.

Speaker 4 (01:02:05):
I showed him out to do list. I said, at
the top of it was, I said, you're on my
call is today.

Speaker 3 (01:02:10):
I said, we'll chat right after this.

Speaker 4 (01:02:12):
But really it's because that's what it is. It's a
policy issue.

Speaker 22 (01:02:16):
There was a time, as we all know, when slavery
was legal, you know, but that doesn't mean it's right.
So we have to fix some of our policies in
order to protect marginalized communities so that everybody can achieve
the American dream er.

Speaker 1 (01:02:28):
I just want to pick up on something that you said,
because I think it's so important to understand those numbers
when it comes to when you have a business idea
and you go to get funded. There was research that
came out, I think twenty eighteen on rate my VC.
So you talked about the numbers of who is on
the other side of that table. The number of black
people at that time who were vcs was less than
point two percent, and those white boys were they were

(01:02:52):
making it rain on anybody with an idea, and you
watch their businesses crumble time after time, black businesses had
to struggle and they were thriving. This research found that
because of black businesses getting denied, that the United States
missed out on multi billion dollars in economic opportunity. Racism

(01:03:13):
does not pay. So thank you for what you do.

Speaker 22 (01:03:16):
And I'll think one second, and I know we got
to get to Kim, but I want people to understand
how this industry actually works. So the largest investor in
private equity and venture capital the industry I work in,
are pension funds. I work in a sixty two trillion
dollar industry. So on the ground floor you have pension funds.

Speaker 6 (01:03:36):
You say that number again, sixty two trillion dollars, trillion trilli,
not billions trillions.

Speaker 22 (01:03:42):
So on the ground floor you have these pension funds
that are the largest investors. You're talking teachers, you're talking firefighters,
you're talking police officers, ground floor right here. Then that
money goes up to the sixty two trillion dollar industry
that is controlled by ninety two percent white men. That
then goes into the white startups, and it very rarely

(01:04:04):
makes us all the way down in a circle back
to the people of color who are very much, so
highly populated, and the teachers, the police officers, and the
fire workers and everybody else where this money was made
off of. So if you know any public workers or
anybody with pension funds, you'd tell them, Hey, if you're
going to put my money somewhere, it has to come
back to my community.

Speaker 14 (01:04:37):
You know.

Speaker 4 (01:04:37):
Kim. I love that arian You said that it is
a public policy issue, and it is.

Speaker 6 (01:04:43):
But one of the things that we know is that
public policy doesn't change without pressure. So I love that
you're up here, Kim, in part because of your own
role on boards. The important role that boards played. That
is also politics, right y'all are voting members of an
entity that control how dollars are spent for a corporation.
Please for a moment talk about the very significant role

(01:05:04):
that board members play in shifting corporate policy and how
that impacts groups like what Arianne has started with Fearless Bud.

Speaker 23 (01:05:12):
Okay, so one, thank you all for having me. I
will tell you that in the same way that we
have public policy, there's governance. As Angela mentioned in the
cor in Corporate America and the Private Spector. I'm a
twenty five year old year young founder founded my business
right out of college scaled it to a multimillion dollar enterprise,

(01:05:35):
Thank you Jesus. But what that being said, some of
my primary partners are of Corporate America. And so when
you look at where and how we are discussing DI now,
and I'm gonna kind of throw a little bit in
here that might be kind of an interesting twist because

(01:05:56):
while I certainly believe in the commitment to d unequivocally,
I want us to also remember it's chestnut checkers, and
sometimes I think that we need to make sure that
we're looking at the commitment rather than the merchandising. And
so for me to your point as it relates to duty,

(01:06:18):
when I'm sitting in a board seat or when I'm
advising to chairman of Fortune one hundred of the C suite,
we are looking at it from a standpoint of inclusion
and commitment. I don't need to necessarily see DEI. I
don't need to see those words. I do need to
see the business plan. I do need to see the accountability,

(01:06:42):
and most importantly, I want us to be able to
show the business value to where and how those things
are reached. Because I'm going to tell y'all in anything
by way of what doesn't get measured won't matter. So
for me, it's about how are we accounting to to
the metrics and measurement and outcomes, because what we know

(01:07:06):
is that inclusion is good business. This week in Atlanta
is the National Minority Supplier Development Council Conference. I'm certified
as a minority women business enterprise. I'm certified as a
women's business enterprise. With that said, Magic Johnson hosted something
this week with that. He had Tony Wrestler, one of

(01:07:30):
the owners of the Hawks, who stood before as the
title sponsor, to say that in all of his enterprises
he's looking at where and how inclusion is good business.
When you talk to Derek Johnson and others, again, I
want us to look at where and how we play
the game. You know, Angela introduced me as a strategist,

(01:07:53):
and all.

Speaker 16 (01:07:53):
Of this becomes strategic.

Speaker 23 (01:07:56):
Sometimes we are a little bit lost in the tactics
of things and we need to stay at the macro.
But with Angela's comment, we have to have seats at
the table. And after George Floyd, you did see a
spike and increase by way of representation of many on
boards whether it was women, black Latino, and I want

(01:08:18):
to say this to our Latino brothers and sisters too.
You know, you talk about where and how we are
underrepresented and under marginalized. When I'm going out and doing
campaigns as it relates to building business strategies for corporations,
it's harder sometimes to find.

Speaker 4 (01:08:37):
Them in the leadership seats.

Speaker 23 (01:08:40):
So you know, we have to look at this as
a collective force and get out of the game of
marginalizing all these different verticals and understand that the power
is really in the collaboration and making sure that the
representation and the accounta But because you can't go in
there scared, see you and those folks who on me

(01:09:00):
and I operate from a spirit of humility, but I
also understand where and how when I'm in the room
and at the table, operate from the side of making
sure that right is discussed.

Speaker 4 (01:09:12):
I don't have to lead.

Speaker 23 (01:09:13):
They can see that I'm a black woman, but we
need to discuss in the sense of business and what
is right and be able to show that as business leaders,
and that's how we begin and continue to move the needle.

Speaker 1 (01:09:26):
I appreciate you bringing up the Latino community Kim, because
we have had this discussion on our podcast routinely what
we see happening in some communities across the country. I
hate to see any of us use the white man's
the oppressor's tools or language. This country has not been
kind to any community of color. In twenty forty four,

(01:09:50):
there will be no racial majority, so we can win
together or we could lose divided. And I think we
have to acknowledge that one we talk about this as well.
The Latino community for the first time has eclipsed to
Black community in terms of eligible voters, not registered voters,
but eligible voters, of course, and I will acknowledge their

(01:10:10):
anti black sentiments in every community, but more often than not,
we are trying to work together. So I just as
they make migrant crime an issue, which is not an issue.
It's significally going. This is a lie of fallacy when
they try to divide us, when they make us fight
over resources, we're literally fighting each other over crumbs while

(01:10:30):
they're sitting across watching that happen, eating a steak. So
I just want to make sure when you hear those
kinds of sentiments, please combat it, Please say that that's
not our enemy. That's our ally and the fred Hampton approached,
that's why he was so powerful and killed by the state.
The fred Hampton approach said, let me go tell you everybody,
including poor white people, how we can work together. So

(01:10:53):
shout out to you for acknowledging saying that you had
a question, so right, you didn't have a another guy,
I had a question. I went back to a seat.
So I want you to think, y'all.

Speaker 4 (01:11:03):
We have to get through this guy into it.

Speaker 1 (01:11:05):
But come on, come on up.

Speaker 23 (01:11:07):
The only other thing I wanted to add because I
think as we look at the segmentation and I'm wearing
this sweatshirt today that represents all of the black female
leaders as it relates to Fortune one hundred CEOs and
they sit and lead as directors of some of the
largest global brands that we know. It's also understanding too,

(01:11:28):
let's not leave out white women. And I say that
because we haven't really talked about that as much.

Speaker 22 (01:11:36):
No, they laughing as this there's a podcast.

Speaker 5 (01:11:39):
You haven't been interrupted yet. I'm impressed. Well, you said, you.

Speaker 23 (01:11:46):
Know, we have to look at and she used the
word ally. In my world, and especially in the space
of business, I'm looking for accomplice, you know, because to me,
you gotta be willing to go out there. And I
was reading some articles and there's all this stuff out
there about where and how you know, Jamie Diamond is

(01:12:09):
privately supporting candidate Eggs and Bill Gates just gave fifty
million to you know, candidate Eggs and all of these
things being said, there is a principle in courageous leadership, right,
and I think too as we look at where our
great sister Jotikah Joetaica Edie sparked this whole catalyst around

(01:12:33):
building community. To your point, Tiffany, we really need to
hone in. They started the you know, white women for Kamala.
You know same white women are underrepresented in leadership in
corporate America. We need to find those commonalities to look
at it for in the standpoint, by way of policy

(01:12:55):
and by way of protocol and where and how we
are changing thing systemic, inequities systemic and that's work, and
that's work that means that we have to do it together.

Speaker 4 (01:13:07):
We better find them commonalities.

Speaker 6 (01:13:08):
After they find this chastising real quick, let me come
here for this question, all right, So then yeah, just
say your name and where you're from. And then y'all
we are over time on this panel.

Speaker 4 (01:13:18):
We love y'all. We're gonna keep talking about this, but
I do want to come here.

Speaker 11 (01:13:21):
How y'all doing.

Speaker 24 (01:13:22):
My name is Mario Raised, originally from the Bronx New York,
calling Atlanta home in.

Speaker 9 (01:13:26):
New York's everywhere home to Atlanta.

Speaker 11 (01:13:29):
Thank you.

Speaker 24 (01:13:30):
I actually sit really knee deep in the trenches in Atlanta.
When it comes to black men, I'm a board member
here at TGS, I'm a board member with on Google,
I'm a board member with black Man Lab, and I
see about one thousand men faces weekly.

Speaker 11 (01:13:46):
And one of the.

Speaker 24 (01:13:47):
Things that has come up time and time again, so
I'm gonna respectfully disagree with you brother that you guys
have to fight very hard for the black male vote
and it's because they feel betrayed by the Democratic Party.
They don't feel like they represent them. And I also
feel like this they've been taking for granted. So how
can I, sitting in front of them, combat a lot

(01:14:08):
of the misinformation that they've been fed time and time again.
And just a follow up comment, I am Afro Latino.
You know Bronx Bodiquehaile all day that being said, I.
Colorism is pervasive in every community, of course, and I
have to constantly remind my Latino brothers and sisters that

(01:14:30):
just because their skin may be lighter don't mean that
white privilege extends to them.

Speaker 9 (01:14:34):
And I'm often combatd with that.

Speaker 24 (01:14:37):
Furthermore, especially obviously black women, notwithstanding a lot of women
in the Caucasian and Latino community are scared and don't
believe America is ready for a female president.

Speaker 9 (01:14:51):
And I look at that kind of as cutting your nose.

Speaker 24 (01:14:54):
Off despite your face, right, And I guess my biggest
question first is how do I come back to misinformation?
Is there just a simple website where I could.

Speaker 1 (01:15:05):
See Well, I want to ask you, because you said
black men feel betrayed by the Democratic Party. I want
to be clear. We are not mouthpieces for the Democratic understand,
but I am.

Speaker 4 (01:15:13):
A sure woman of our state Democratic woman to ever
hold this position.

Speaker 20 (01:15:19):
And I hired the first black man to ever be
the executive director of our state Democratic Party. And Kevin
raise your hand, Kevin is here with us today.

Speaker 4 (01:15:29):
Are not overlooked on our watch.

Speaker 20 (01:15:31):
I am married to a black man, I'm raising my
nine year old son to be a black man, and
this is something we're in this together. I hear it
all the time, and my pushback is, we're showing up
to do the work, and it shows in the work
that we're doing, not just the word of mouth that
you'll hear in an election cycle. And I hear you, Angela,
We're over time, and so I would love to connect
you with Kevin so that we can get you those resources.

Speaker 24 (01:15:53):
Said something really specific that I want to touch on.
You said, you show up and a lot of times,
these great handles show up behind the gate, so people
can't afford the gathering spots, so they're not privy to
this conversation.

Speaker 4 (01:16:07):
And Ryan opened it up for everyone.

Speaker 20 (01:16:09):
So shut up to Washington Park on two days ago
with the community for a barbecue and ballacy that with
that the story not showing up here at the gathering spot,
I mean open events for the community.

Speaker 4 (01:16:21):
I represent this community. I live in Southwest.

Speaker 20 (01:16:24):
Atlanta, and every day I am leading into in this
community for the people that I serve.

Speaker 4 (01:16:28):
And I know that I cannot do this alone. It
takes whole communities and.

Speaker 24 (01:16:32):
That includes this is such a big disconnect, and I
would like to say I would like to offer myself
to help men that thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:16:38):
I shouldn't do black men feel because I think this
is such an important point you're making. I want to
hear what do black men feel that they've been left
out of or disrespected.

Speaker 24 (01:16:46):
By, but from the Democratic Party. I want to hear
everything about, you know, financial progress, the way that the
nuclear family is now propagated by because they feel this
LGBTQ agenda that's being hijacked by the Democratic Party. These
are conversations that I've heard seriously, and a lot of

(01:17:07):
times black men say.

Speaker 9 (01:17:09):
What I've heard also is that they will hold their vote.

Speaker 24 (01:17:13):
In protest, which obviously, again is cutting your nose despite
your face. So I want to be out here as
a mouthpiece to help bridge these gaps in communication and misinformation.

Speaker 11 (01:17:24):
So that's just the first of all.

Speaker 5 (01:17:26):
Everything you said, it resonates.

Speaker 4 (01:17:28):
And the resident black man on the stage.

Speaker 7 (01:17:34):
We're not a monolith and we shouldn't be fighting a
battle against what one person's experiences versus your own. And
that extends to you, which is, uh, you're not every
black man. Uh uh bronx bodiqua is what you said.
But I know this much, there's not the gentleman that
you're coming into contact with aren't lying about what they

(01:17:55):
feel their experiences with the Democratic Party.

Speaker 5 (01:17:58):
They're speaking it as they have experienced it.

Speaker 7 (01:18:01):
And the truth is is that until Kamala Harris, I've
never seen a president of the United States or candidate
put out an agenda specifically for black men. Never ever
within the Democratic Party, it's been a third rail by
and large that the campaigns and candidates haven't gone to
put black men first. In to name it, my philosophy

(01:18:23):
with when you don't call something a thing, it ain't
a thing.

Speaker 5 (01:18:26):
It is. How I tell you, one of my kids
are at the pool.

Speaker 7 (01:18:28):
If everybody's watching, ain't nobody watching, which means I have
to name it.

Speaker 5 (01:18:32):
I'm watching my three children as they play. So what
I would say is that, yeah, we have problems within
the Democratic Party.

Speaker 7 (01:18:39):
Yes there are champions who are trying to change that,
but Kamala Harris, as a candidate standalone right now for president,
has prioritized us and she's done it over the black
man president.

Speaker 5 (01:18:49):
And I say that with.

Speaker 7 (01:18:50):
Respect of Barack Obama, because when he was asked what's
the black agenda, he said, my agenda for America is
the black agenda. And guess what there's an a black
person I know that didn't benefit from health care when
he changes.

Speaker 5 (01:19:02):
So in some ways he's right.

Speaker 7 (01:19:03):
But also in some ways the third rail wouldn't allow
him to call out Look at what he said, what
about Skip Gates coming in contact, He had to have
a bear summit.

Speaker 5 (01:19:11):
It still came up on the short end of that.

Speaker 7 (01:19:14):
Look at what happened with Donald Trump, what he called
him out is not an American, he's Birtherism and all
that shit. It broke my heart when the President of
the United States, at least his public birth certificate.

Speaker 11 (01:19:23):
Broke my heart.

Speaker 7 (01:19:24):
It still does when I think about it. Right, So,
but the point is that we are making progress. We're
in We're not the perfect, but we are in the
pursuit of the better, in pursuit of the perfect. Kamala
Harris is not the person we are to take our
angst out on. She actually is in alignment with what
it is that we believe ought to be the case.
And we also shouldn't take our anks out against LGBTQ folks,

(01:19:45):
black women, and the other folks that they tend to
put us hit us against, because that's all deficit mentality.

Speaker 5 (01:19:52):
That's what white people have gifted us.

Speaker 9 (01:19:54):
I agree with your whole heartedly.

Speaker 24 (01:19:55):
And one of the things I've noticed that the squeaky
wheels get the greased so they're the loudest. The those
complaints are resound louder than the solutions and the actual policies.
And a lot of times we speak in echo chambers.
We speak to those that understand, that communicate on a
certain level, versus the brothers that feel like because they

(01:20:16):
can't understand and there is that disconnect, they automatically feel abandoned.

Speaker 7 (01:20:21):
But that's why we're talking with you, because the attention
is is that you may have access to rooms that
they won't have, so that you can take information back
that they otherwise won't get access to. And I'll just
simply say, there isn't a There is not a single
website you can go to and get all of the debunking.

Speaker 5 (01:20:36):
It all depends on what the attack is.

Speaker 4 (01:20:38):
That one.

Speaker 5 (01:20:39):
It all depends on what the attack is. But I
guarantee you.

Speaker 4 (01:20:42):
You cancl you toe.

Speaker 6 (01:20:43):
But sorry, Andrew, really quick, I wasn't talking about acl
There's a gentleman.

Speaker 4 (01:20:48):
I don't know where he went. His name is Evan.
He oh, Evan, where do you mean, I've been telling
you to come up in Evan. I texted you and
said come up here, Evan. Evan talked to this. What's
your name?

Speaker 11 (01:20:57):
Brother, Mario?

Speaker 6 (01:20:58):
Mario Evan is working on a Fullton County specific website
that deals with misinformation and how to combat is can
you Wave Evan?

Speaker 4 (01:21:08):
He works for congress Woman macmeth as well.

Speaker 6 (01:21:11):
But the reason why this is important, what happened with
Nakima is important. What happened with Andrew and what he's
saying is important. Nakima and Andrew have had to take
on the party themselves. This isn't just like, let's be honest,
because we can't. What we can't do is win them
over with lies. What the honest truth is. Democratic Party
got just as many racists in it as the Republican Party.

(01:21:33):
They also got fascism and other Now the folks, at
least on our side, I think, are at least amenable
to changing, in part because nothing, no power does it
concedes nothing without a demand. They've been demanding. He demanded
when he was running for governor. He demanded as mayor,
he demanded as a commissioner, that those are the kinds
of things that happen if we don't get in the

(01:21:54):
room and say, oh no, no, this is going to
change on my watch, it won't.

Speaker 4 (01:21:58):
Now.

Speaker 6 (01:21:58):
I submit to you that it's a hell of a
lot easier to do it within the Democratic Party than
to be having that fight with the Republican Party.

Speaker 4 (01:22:05):
We gotta be well.

Speaker 9 (01:22:06):
Things was much better under Jim Crow.

Speaker 4 (01:22:09):
Okay, y'all know who I'm talking. Mom will leave me alone.

Speaker 9 (01:22:11):
I'm not gonna hijack.

Speaker 1 (01:22:13):
I appreciate your question. Thank you for that.

Speaker 4 (01:22:15):
We gotta you, guys, We gotta really get to this. Yes,
Evan talked to him, and come really quick, tell us
about his website.

Speaker 1 (01:22:21):
Okay, and then oh yeah, we'll go to your question
as soon as you're gonna tell us about.

Speaker 4 (01:22:24):
This because it was about this.

Speaker 1 (01:22:25):
Yeah, informational quick, go ahead.

Speaker 25 (01:22:28):
Oh hello everyone, Hello, wonderful panel. Apologies for being late.
I kind of got lost in viewer mode. Love you, guys.
I I am with Watch the Vote at L is
a collaboration between the Black Cross founded by Gail Brooks
and George the Georgia Institute of Technology for their specific
school for People and Technology. So what we have been

(01:22:50):
doing is we have created a system where We use
both machine learning and humans to track all the social
media sites, so not just Facebook, not just Instagram. We
also have accounts on True Social, We also have accounts
on TikTok And basically what we'll be doing is we'll
be doing real time fact checking on any tweet, any video,
or any type of source that's sharing misinformation specifically for

(01:23:14):
the Fulden County area, so we will be sending it
directly to Fulton County's communications team. This project started because
you know, eighty five percent of people this election feel
like very scared of misinformation and a plug for the podcast.
I actually got inspired to be a part of the
project and helped start the project because of this podcast.
I think on your third episode, miss Rye played a

(01:23:35):
video about Biden being an AI deep fake, and I
ended up calling my friends at tech in Fulden County
and we were able to get it together. But yeah,
so follow us at watch the v ATL if you
want Fulton County specific information, we'll have it in real time.
We're also looking for partners so other people that when
we have these reports about misinformation, we can get it
shared out widely as a way, you know, kind of

(01:23:57):
taking a medical approach and a quarantine approach to it.

Speaker 1 (01:24:00):
So thank you, thank you, Welcome home, Welcome Home.

Speaker 26 (01:24:07):
My favorite podcast is twenty twenty four.

Speaker 11 (01:24:09):
I love you guys.

Speaker 26 (01:24:10):
As a certified financial social worker, I appreciate all the
great work that you ladies do. I want to talk
about picking back a conversation before as a social worker.
My name is Basilisa Moreno. I'm also a Bronx bodyco
I live in Delaware. Now we talk about I had
the unfortunate having conversations of.

Speaker 9 (01:24:34):
Working explaining.

Speaker 26 (01:24:39):
Severely mentally ill clients back in twenty eighteen when Donald
Trump cut food stamps. But why don't we talk about that?
Why don't we use the language in twenty twenty when
his disastrous COVID response and say he's got blood on
his hands, He's killed a million people, one of them

(01:25:02):
being my mom, one of them being ten clients when
I worked in New York City. Why don't we have
these conversations. Why don't we have the conversations of people
are actually experiencingly like worse after COVID and the aftermath
of COVID. That's one of my biggest problems with the
Biden administration, as much as.

Speaker 5 (01:25:23):
I was riding with bout it all the way.

Speaker 26 (01:25:26):
Until election day and now the Harris, I'm still all
the way. I still have the image in my hand
as a Bronx bod Equa and him shooting fake ass
free throws on the island, Like what the hell are
you doing? We don't even have electricity having to call
my family or try to reach my family. They don't
even have electricity, and having like guys I went to

(01:25:49):
high school with that are Hispanic and like voting for
Trump high school friends who are black brothers that went
to high school, we're voting for trouble. Like what are
y'all doing? Fellow social because licensed social works that called
them out. I was like, you need to have your
license revoked if you vote that for that guy.

Speaker 5 (01:26:09):
What are y'all doing?

Speaker 26 (01:26:10):
Why don't we have these conversations? That's all I wanted
to say, thank you, thank you, and.

Speaker 1 (01:26:15):
Our condolences on the loss of your mother and our
gratitude for the work that you continue to do.

Speaker 7 (01:26:20):
So thank you for having those conversations, smartpactful.

Speaker 9 (01:26:24):
From you ladies.

Speaker 6 (01:26:26):
We gotta do a part two or this. We did
not have enough time, and yeah, we talked me so
much time. But thank you all so much. We're gonna
getting your sister just in one moment. Thank you all
so much.

Speaker 4 (01:26:35):
We are gonna bring up now if we can't give
a round of applause. First to the Keema, Thank you, Arian,
thank you for your work.

Speaker 9 (01:26:42):
Queens.

Speaker 4 (01:26:52):
We got a few more queens. They're joining us on
the stage.

Speaker 6 (01:26:55):
We have Alicia Garza, who is the founder of Black
Futures Lab. We have Latasha Brown, co founder of Black
Voters Matter, and Aaron Haynes, a podcast host called The
Amendment and also as they hug and kiss and not
walk up here, Aaron is also editor at Large of
The Nineteenth.

Speaker 4 (01:27:16):
They're gonna just say my time. I'm gonna take my time.
Y'all want late.

Speaker 6 (01:27:20):
Oh, they're gonna walk over here and also disrupt apartment
last time, y'all come over here and hug.

Speaker 4 (01:27:25):
Just stay till the end, Praise the Lord. Y'all gonna
keep going.

Speaker 6 (01:27:28):
Okay, all right, you know what's just ask your question
because they're not even sitting down Jesus, Yes, ma'am, you're naming.

Speaker 12 (01:27:36):
Where you're from.

Speaker 1 (01:27:37):
Wait, wait, wait, before Albert Sanders, Albert Sanders is leaving.
I just want to give a shout out to Albert Sanders.
Real quick, Albert.

Speaker 4 (01:27:46):
Sanders, we shouted you out on the podcast with Jibber Sanders.
What are you doing to make sure that black people
vote this selection? All the things he said, except and
running out of the podcast. Okay, we'll still send us
your notes my friends.

Speaker 27 (01:27:58):
Okay, yes, ma'am, Okay, I was trying to lower this.
I'm so sure it was a little tall for me,
so you'll fix it. So my name is Littoria Whitehead.
I'm originally from Jacksonville, Florida, but I've been here for
a little over twenty years and I'm not a family rattler,
but I'm a cau Clarkland University panther a long time.
Oh okay, okay, So my question was actually for the

(01:28:26):
wonderful congress woman. I wanted to know in her opinion,
do you think we're talking enough about environmental injustices during
this election cycle, which is connected to jobs and poverty
and transportation and housing as well. And we do talk
about climate change climate justice, which is under the umbrella
of environmental justice, I would argue, but I think that

(01:28:49):
a lot of people think that the environment is something
so pristine and out there, and it's not. It is
connected to your child getting asthma and the pollution in
your environment in Flint case study. And so when you
look at the environmental injustices, these disparities, these are the
majority of people of color and low income populations. So

(01:29:12):
that's a part of our everyday lives when you walk
out your door, your grocery stores, what you don't have
and what we call the built environment. And I think
a lot of people are not directly connected to that.
And I'm just wondering what you thought about this election
cycle that we are we talking enough about what we
call environmental injustices.

Speaker 4 (01:29:32):
And I'm so happy to.

Speaker 14 (01:29:32):
See all of you.

Speaker 1 (01:29:33):
We definitely talk about it, Welcome home. We definitely talk
about it, but it's not under the headline environmental justice.
But with that hurricane coverage, that is environmental justice yesterday.
There are over one hundred and thirty five million people
in this country who mostly look like us, who do
not have access to clean drinking water. If there were
one hundred and thirty five million white folks who didn't

(01:29:55):
have access to clean drinking water, it would be breaking
news to this day every day until it's result when
we talk about uh, like heavy rains and flooding, even
outside of hurricanes, is weather that is environmental injustice. So
we may not be using those terms, which we definitely
should be, but we definitely in news, they definitely talk
about it. They don't talk about issues that impact us disproportionately.

(01:30:18):
That's the challenge.

Speaker 16 (01:30:19):
Yeah, and that is the piece.

Speaker 12 (01:30:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:30:21):
Yeah, we have three lovely guests who have joined us. Natasha,
part of your work, you think about Black Voters Matter
and how you all started Hurricane Katrina. And I think
this goes hand in hand with what Tip was just
bringing up. And tell me your name against sister Littoria,
what Latoria was just addressing with environmental justice, talk to
us about the important work that you all are doing

(01:30:44):
every day, sis what you're hearing on the ground. We
got into a good conversation with this brother earlier, as
with Mario.

Speaker 21 (01:30:49):
I just want to say, hey, y'all, we welcome to
the Atlanta So two things I wanted to say really
related to what you just the system on what you
just shared.

Speaker 28 (01:31:02):
One, well, let me let me let me do it
backwards so we don't hear a lot about environmental justice.
Part of my organization is doing work. We have a
campaign that we're doing called the Block is Hot, and
that's our environmental justice because we've got to connect environmental
justice for many people, it feels or when you start
talking about the environment, particularly the six major environmental organizations,

(01:31:25):
they made it where it was like the protection of
the trees, and we need trees, right, But people in
their day to day lives they're like, yeah, I understand
the trees, but I'm like I'm suffering. And so part
of our organization we've done work and continue to do
this work. We did this Block is Hot because down
in South Georgia, people had electric bills that were six, seven,

(01:31:48):
eight hundred dollars and they didn't make the connection of
how the climate change is impacting them and impacting their pocketbooks.
And so that's why we did this particular kind of
education campaign around it. The connection to Hurricane Katrine. I'm
from the Guff Coast a lot of my life and
so part of before Black Govters Batle.

Speaker 3 (01:32:07):
Was started, Black Voters Battle was started.

Speaker 28 (01:32:09):
It wasn't necessarily organization, but we did a lot of
hurricane relief because ultimately, what is happening in the Guff
coast is that the guff water. As the water is
getting warmer and warmer, you're having more intensified storms. And
so you're going to have a more frequency of storms
and they're going more intensified. And I know my brother
Andrew can speak to that. But the second part that

(01:32:31):
I wanted to raise to your point is part of
right now, if I were to ask people kind of,
let's look at the top three issues that are dominating
the political landscape, what we're not really realizing is that
many of those issues have already been predetermined by some folks,
and we're hearing.

Speaker 5 (01:32:49):
It over and over and over and over again.

Speaker 28 (01:32:52):
And one issue would be how they framed abortion. You
would think that everybody in America get up every day
thinking about, oh my god, what is about abortion?

Speaker 9 (01:33:02):
Right now?

Speaker 28 (01:33:03):
That's a real valid issue, right, but it is framed
because it really was an artificial issue in terms of
frame to actually take downv way, but it was also
to listit a particular kind of emotional response from folks,
right so that people make a divided line on this
particular one issue. And I'm saying that because oftentimes the

(01:33:24):
issues that we're hearing are not issues that you're hearing
from the ground.

Speaker 4 (01:33:27):
Or that people are really making their main issue.

Speaker 28 (01:33:29):
I can talk to people on the ground right now
for five minutes, and I can tell you they listen to.
I can almost tell you what podcasts they listen to.
I can tell you what network they listen to. I
can tell you whether they read or not right.

Speaker 9 (01:33:39):
And so part of.

Speaker 28 (01:33:40):
It is because oftentimes what we're seeing as issues and
what we're responding to, we're responding to because those there
are folks who are planting particular kind of ideas and
issues and priorities of ideas and issues. The black male
thing right around, black men are going to have this
exodus one. It's racist as hell. I'll tell you in
terms of just the very foundation of that, and I'll

(01:34:01):
tell you why I say that. What's really interesting about
that is that it's it's it's framed as with us
as if all of a sudden, because what we white
folks will do is they'll columbus us when they discover something,
then all of a sudden, it just created. It just
was founded, right, So, oh my god, the black men
are upset and they're a disillusion hell. Black men have

(01:34:22):
been upset like what you're talking about this ain't the
first election cycle, right, This ain't the first time we've
been disillusioned. Matter of fact, black folks in general don't
necessarily excited about politics in America. That's not what we're
excited about. We know all of them, like we just
we're doing the best we can a survive. We're clear, right,
And I'm saying that because I think it's framed as
if it's like, you know, Columbus discovered America, right, even

(01:34:45):
though the folks was already here, like.

Speaker 16 (01:34:47):
Oh there's black disillusionment.

Speaker 28 (01:34:49):
Oh it must be because of Kamala Harris, And then
that becomes the narrative, that is, and then it's becomes
an analysis about black men and this this black I'm
at the top of the ticket. If there was real
genuine interest, you would really get to the bottom of
an analysis of why black men are frustrated, right, and
why it is valid for them to frustrat it. But

(01:35:11):
you want to talk about d you want to talk
about is coma. And then unfortunately, because of us don't read,
some of us don't read, and some of us are
really getting our information in our thoughts not really having
a critical analysis. We're taking what they're saying, and then
we're responding. Now, now you got black folks.

Speaker 4 (01:35:26):
Running around saying that stop.

Speaker 28 (01:35:28):
It, y'all, stop it, right, unless you're literally talking to
people and really doing this work and getting down to it.
Part of what we do a black vote is matter.
Part of our work is really around listening. When we
first started, for seven months, Cliff and I it was
the only two we literally went to seven states and
listen to folks. And so I'm saying that, and normally

(01:35:48):
I hate to say it, but this is the truth. Normally,
the first answer people give us.

Speaker 16 (01:35:52):
Ain't never the real answer.

Speaker 5 (01:35:54):
It's really not.

Speaker 28 (01:35:56):
People would give you the quickest answer because we like
to perceive.

Speaker 11 (01:35:59):
As we're small and we thoughtful.

Speaker 28 (01:36:01):
And so when we hear people on TV, when we
see folks on the podcast where we read something, then
if I give you I just heard over and over
and over and over again that black men don't want
to support this system. So I've heard that over and
over again. I'm not really sat down and had an
analysis or even really sat with that for a minute.
So when you come to me and put a microphone

(01:36:22):
in my face, guess what I'm gonna say. I'm gonna
repeat the same thing that I've heard, I've seen on
the internet that I've heard because I'm not really using
a critical analysis or thought around that. I'm raising that
because I think sometimes we're perpetuating something that really is
not rooted in the real analysis. Is riddy And what's
the quickest and the easiest kind of pundit point that

(01:36:42):
we've gotten that some of this stuff has been placed
in this in the some of this, y'all, all of
these polls coming out from folks that we don't even know.
You're doing a sampling pole of millions of folks with
two hundred people come.

Speaker 9 (01:36:55):
On, right, And so a lot of that.

Speaker 28 (01:36:58):
There are poles, There are information that's literally being injected
in our communities. And then we respond, we take it,
we run with it, because what they're really doing is
exploiting our pain, because the truth of the matter is
we are disillusion The truth of the matter it is
black men are upset, but they being upset now y'all
just paying attention, and all of a sudden they just
got upset because you're paying attention, right, and you're paying
attention because you're forced to pay attention because now you're

(01:37:21):
face to deal with gender and race. We've never had
a circumstance in the presidential election that we had to
deal with gender and race, dealing with gender and race
just at the very just the best of the fact
that there's a black woman at the top of the ticket.
So my point is we've got to have a little
bit deeper analysis around when people are coming to us
with that information, what's the source of it, and why

(01:37:42):
are you bringing it to me?

Speaker 9 (01:37:43):
Because now all of a sudden, you care about black
men being.

Speaker 4 (01:37:45):
Upset, and so that's the thing.

Speaker 6 (01:37:47):
I want to go here for a moment, and at
LEASTI I want to come to you because there's also
another issue, the folks who dedicate their time and efforts
and their own resources to ensure that black voices, Black
voices are heard and black people are listening to to
what LB was just saying, I think it's so important

(01:38:08):
you founded Black Futures Lab to do just that. There
was a black Did you guys hear about the Black census?
Raise your hand if you heard about the Black Senses?

Speaker 3 (01:38:17):
So this okay, so.

Speaker 4 (01:38:19):
A lot of people in here, how many of y'all
took the Black Senses don't lie. I'm gonna find out.
I'm gonna look up your names on it. I'm just winning.
I'm not gonna do that.

Speaker 6 (01:38:27):
But I think that it's important to just pause here
for a moment to acknowledge that when black people do
things for black folks, to ensure that black voices are
heard and that black people's needs are met on a
policy level, we don't damn participate. Okay, Hello, lights, Alicia,
can you just weigh in on this.

Speaker 4 (01:38:45):
I think it's important that'sring me in. Wait, hold on?

Speaker 9 (01:38:48):
Can her mic?

Speaker 4 (01:38:48):
Can we please turn all these mics on? All right now?
Please no hell because you can hear me.

Speaker 1 (01:38:55):
Okay, all right, like hold it like this?

Speaker 5 (01:38:58):
Okay, there you go that.

Speaker 4 (01:39:00):
Sorry, y'all, I'm.

Speaker 1 (01:39:01):
Gonna get real.

Speaker 4 (01:39:02):
Eric being rock, Come on, hi, y'all get afternoon.

Speaker 5 (01:39:06):
All right.

Speaker 29 (01:39:07):
We can talk about the Black Census, we can talk
about the Black Futures lab.

Speaker 4 (01:39:11):
But I just want to.

Speaker 29 (01:39:12):
Say thank you, Natasha, because I think there is both
a conversation about what we need to be doing with
each other to stay connected, to stay focused, and to
stay unified. There's also a conversation about what onslaught we
deal with every single day. And that misinformation disinformation stuff

(01:39:33):
is a real thing and we all getting caught up
in it. So I want to appreciate you for raising that,
and I want to appreciate you for raising it and
saying not what you're going to do about it, but
what can we do about it? I think you know,
when we talk about the environmental racism thing, which where
I want to sit that we got people out here

(01:39:55):
saying there was no hurricane.

Speaker 3 (01:39:59):
No, no, we literally we.

Speaker 29 (01:40:00):
Have people out here saying that that was made up too.
So I want to sit us inside of like a
powerful vision for how we get free by having each
other's back and staying connected. And that's really what the
Black Futures Lab is about. I started that organization to
be a political home for black people, to be a

(01:40:22):
space where black folks can come, not have to know everything,
not have to be you know, rocket scientists.

Speaker 3 (01:40:29):
But be able to get in a place where.

Speaker 29 (01:40:31):
You can get informed, where you can fight together for
the things that we want and the things that we
need on our terms, not created by somebody else's agenda
for us. And the Black Census was our first project
that was an opportunity for us to say, Okay, the
Democratic Party is not going to speak for black folks.

Speaker 16 (01:40:53):
We can speak for ourselves.

Speaker 29 (01:40:55):
We reach two hundred and eleven thousand black folks with
that Black Census. That's the largest survey of black people
that's ever been done in this country's history. Let me
say that again, that's ever been done in this country's history.
But at two hundred and eleven thousand black people, can
you believe that we've never done that before? That We've

(01:41:17):
never talked to two hundred and eleven thousand black people
from all fifty states, inside of jail, in prison, outside
of jail in prison, all kind of backgrounds that you
can think of. Can you imagine that we haven't done
that before? And from that survey, what we did was
we didn't tell you what to say, how to say it, whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:41:37):
We just asked, what do you care about?

Speaker 29 (01:41:40):
How do you see these people, how are you relating
to these people?

Speaker 3 (01:41:43):
What are the issues that you care about?

Speaker 29 (01:41:45):
And I can tell you we said a year ago
the number one issue for black folks.

Speaker 3 (01:41:50):
Is the economy.

Speaker 29 (01:41:52):
We said this a year ago, we said it four
years ago, and people like, what is the most important
issue for black people?

Speaker 10 (01:41:58):
Is it?

Speaker 29 (01:41:58):
We We were like, no, it's the economy, second most
important issue for black folks, gun violence, third most important
issue for black folks. Housing, affordable, accessible, quality housing. Now,
those aren't the sexy things that people like to talk about,

(01:42:20):
but those are the things that we go to sleep
thinking about every night, and those are the things that
we wake up thinking about every day. And so then
the question becomes, okay, well, now you've got that information,
what do you do with it? Well, we turned it
into a policy agenda. We turned it into a Black agenda.
We've done it twice. Now, go to Blacktothefuture dot org

(01:42:41):
and you can see the Black Agenda that was designed
from the Black census. That is all stuff that we
said we care about. And then what we did was
we just dug in and said, okay, well, what laws
can you make around this? Okay, laws about how we
care for each other? How many y'all are caring for
parents and kids? Okay, that's a lot of us parents

(01:43:04):
and kids. Okay, there's a lot of us out here
right who are trying to figure out how do I
pay my mortgage, how do I even get a place
where I can rent. There's a lot of us out
here actually talking about abortion but it's not our tenth
issue because the way we're talking about it is, I
got to have money to raise a family. I got

(01:43:26):
to have money for health care. And then when we
go and try to access health care, there's.

Speaker 3 (01:43:32):
Just one clinic with one doctor.

Speaker 4 (01:43:34):
When we go and.

Speaker 29 (01:43:35):
Try to access health care, right, we can't get it.
Why Well, the governor in this state don't want to
accept federal dollars so that the rest of us can
have health care.

Speaker 4 (01:43:46):
That's a real thing.

Speaker 29 (01:43:48):
So we started this project in this organization to fight
for us on our terms. We don't always have to
be a part of the conversation that people shape. For us,
always have to be inside of that comment. Do you
like Kamala or do night like Kamala? That's not the
conversation that people are having. The conversation people are having

(01:44:09):
is why is gas so high? Why can't I get
toilet paper at the supermarket? Why is there no supermarket
in my neighborhood. So we got to stay in the
right conversation.

Speaker 4 (01:44:19):
We got to stay in.

Speaker 29 (01:44:19):
The right story, and the Black Futures librially helps to
try to do that.

Speaker 4 (01:44:23):
Speaking of stories, you gotta go ahead.

Speaker 1 (01:44:26):
No, I was a saying thank you, thank you.

Speaker 4 (01:44:28):
I'm not doing a good job at it today. I'm
like we over time, Aaron.

Speaker 6 (01:44:32):
I want to come to you because Alicia brought up stories,
just so you all know that the three down there
and Tiff and I Andrew can be honorary since he
got his Rattler shirt on, and we do claim our brothers.
We do not disconnect from our brothers, but we represent
half of the Machetes.

Speaker 4 (01:44:49):
For those of whose listening a podcast, you heard.

Speaker 6 (01:44:51):
About us Ganggang all day, Aaron, So I want to
come to you. Speaking of stories, Aaron is one of
the funniest writers in history, right, It's the best funny
text and tweets and all the things. I can't wait
till she go to Hollywood and breaks away from the nineteenth.

Speaker 4 (01:45:06):
You should be a Hollywood writer. She really is that good.

Speaker 6 (01:45:10):
So if she's unfiltered today, y'all might get some of
it in her answered, Aaron, you're talking to Mike.

Speaker 4 (01:45:17):
Why you whisper it?

Speaker 3 (01:45:17):
I'm like, but are you reading the journalism?

Speaker 10 (01:45:19):
No?

Speaker 30 (01:45:19):
I mean yes, I'm hilarious, but I mean I got
a newsletter, I got a podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:45:24):
I'm not hearing these elections story.

Speaker 4 (01:45:25):
When you were hugging. You didn't hear any of it,
but I did say all of that in your intro. Man,
So I want to come to you though, speaking of
the stories.

Speaker 3 (01:45:33):
I'm writing stories when I'm not cracking jokes. It's true.

Speaker 4 (01:45:37):
Yes, she writes the stories, all the stories.

Speaker 6 (01:45:39):
So can you tell me the headline that you envision
writing the night of the election.

Speaker 3 (01:45:47):
I can tell you the headline she would have.

Speaker 4 (01:45:52):
Let me get to my question.

Speaker 30 (01:45:53):
You see the headline that the headline that is in
my mind that I cannot write on election day.

Speaker 3 (01:45:58):
And this is regardless of who is y'all aint gonna
believe this shit.

Speaker 12 (01:46:03):
Either way.

Speaker 3 (01:46:05):
Either way, it goes like that could.

Speaker 30 (01:46:08):
Be a headline that someone could use. I don't know
if it's going to show up somewhere. If it does,
just know you heard it here first. No, but I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:46:20):
That's actually a real thing.

Speaker 12 (01:46:22):
Actually, that's where I'm at.

Speaker 3 (01:46:23):
That's where I'm at.

Speaker 12 (01:46:23):
Today's out people, That's where I'm at.

Speaker 3 (01:46:27):
But no, I mean, look, I think.

Speaker 30 (01:46:31):
I am reminded listening to both Alicia and Latasha. We
have to listen to voters in this moment. I love elections,
I love covering elections. I love you know, covering candidates,
but hearing from voters about the things that they care about,
about what their daily lives are like, and how that
is impacting how they may or may not participate right

(01:46:52):
at the ballot box, Like that matters, and that is
not what we are seeing in too much of our journalism,
which is literally the reason that the Night eighteenth exists.

Speaker 8 (01:47:00):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:47:01):
We started our newsroom.

Speaker 30 (01:47:02):
Four years ago, a week before the Iowa CAUCUSUS this
is now our second presidential election, and listening to voters
about the things that.

Speaker 3 (01:47:10):
They care about.

Speaker 30 (01:47:10):
Yes, we'll tell you that the economy is the top
issue for people that we are centering, women, people of color,
LGBTQ plus people, the disabled community, the caregiving community, listening
to those people about the things that are affecting their
daily lives.

Speaker 3 (01:47:26):
And also, what do.

Speaker 30 (01:47:28):
You mean when you say the economy is your number
one issue? Because that looks different for different people. We
have an economy, we have an environment and gender reporter.
Why because we know that gender is I mean, people
are disproportionately impacted by gender as it comes to the environment.
Everybody's environment is not created equal, right, and your environment

(01:47:49):
sucks in a lot of cases depending on where you live.
We're talking about hurricanes Hell, Flint, Michigan is still not solved. Right.
That is in centering to Latasha's point, not just nature
or buildings, which is what the majority of white folks
who are ps, the majority of the people who cover
the environment in journalism, that's what.

Speaker 3 (01:48:09):
They care about.

Speaker 30 (01:48:10):
People of color care about the people that are being
impacted by climate change. And so that's what we mean
we talk about. We can't talk about environmental justice for
a building, right, we need to talk about what that
means in terms of people. The reproductive rights issue that
Alicia mentioned right like that is we are talking about

(01:48:34):
reproductive rights is an economic issue. That is what we
are hearing from people. We are talking about abortion. What
does it mean when a clinic closes for people in
the LGBTQ community who are getting gender firm and care,
they can't get that care because that clinic has gone.

Speaker 3 (01:48:48):
Now, what does it mean when you have abortion?

Speaker 17 (01:48:51):
Man?

Speaker 30 (01:48:52):
People are flooding into other states, flooding into the er.
Now are people who may or may not have insurance
who need to show up at the r can't get
in because they can't be seen because this abortion ban
is sending people in droves to states where it's still
safe to get care.

Speaker 3 (01:49:09):
You don't know that kind of stuff.

Speaker 30 (01:49:11):
You wouldn't know a lot of that stuff watching cable
news right now, reading a lot of the stories in
some legacy traditional mainstream outlets, because those people are not
spending time with people on the ground, They're not hearing
from people on the ground, and so that matters. And
that is where the Nineteenth has remained focused in this election.

(01:49:34):
And that is I mean, like, we just have to
continue to talk about the issues. And that is beyond
election day. By the way, right as people are governing,
whoever we elect on November fifth, like, paying attention to
how they govern, making sure that they govern in the
interest of the emerging small d democratic majority of this
country matters And so those are the kinds of stories

(01:49:56):
that we are committed to tell. We know that race
and gender are not just a storyline of our politics
and democracy. They are the storyline. And so that is
that is what we are committed to. I'm sorry that
that wasn't funnier. I'll be funnier on that.

Speaker 9 (01:50:10):
You started.

Speaker 4 (01:50:11):
You start off funny, So do you guys know where
over time, so we really quickly.

Speaker 2 (01:50:21):
Well come, well come, welcome, welcome, welcome.

Speaker 6 (01:50:26):
Miss Lawrence, my good friend, Miss Lawrence is gonna ask
a question, make a statement. But we have Quentin James,
who is I'm here from the Collective Pack.

Speaker 4 (01:50:34):
What are you telling me?

Speaker 17 (01:50:38):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (01:50:38):
John Taylor is here as well. John Taylor is joining us, right?
Is that what's happening? Okay, ladies, I love you, we
need lady love you.

Speaker 1 (01:50:46):
We're out of here.

Speaker 3 (01:50:47):
Okay.

Speaker 12 (01:50:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:50:50):
When one of y'all say, we got two of them,
two of them got to sit down up like, well
all right, no, I.

Speaker 5 (01:50:57):
Don't say y'all can say that then stage, I'll move
to the neee he.

Speaker 4 (01:51:01):
Said, don't leave, but you just got to get off
the stage. Please. We love y'all. We need these shares
for John Taylor, who is the co founder of Blackmail Initiative. Y'all,
we have to be done in six minutes. What are
you telling me? But yes, and Quentin, nobody is obedient.
You can stay up here. Alicia says she's gonna stay
right here. Okay, I love you says that is just fine.

(01:51:23):
You are always welcome. They can they won Hi, John
and Quinton, Hello, Okay, so you're closing us out. What
y'all gouts say something to it?

Speaker 11 (01:51:34):
If you haven't, oh, I'll be real quick.

Speaker 5 (01:51:36):
My name is Quintin James.

Speaker 31 (01:51:37):
I'm the co founder and president of the Collective Pack,
also the Votes to Live Action Fund and Votes Live Foundation.

Speaker 11 (01:51:44):
I got a resource for you all.

Speaker 31 (01:51:45):
A lot of people are talking about who to vote for,
why to vote and all that, and that's really important.
I have a resource for you all. Please go to
vote to Live dot org. We're providing free ride share
vouchers folks to go and vote early round trip uber
go go early between now and election day. That's what
I'm here to say. All right, make your voice heard

(01:52:07):
however you think you need to do, but show up
and vote right now. We are running about three percentage
points behind in Georgia in terms of our black early
voting targets.

Speaker 5 (01:52:20):
So is this specific to Georgia or is it.

Speaker 31 (01:52:23):
It's in about ten states? But here in Georgia it's
live now some states don't.

Speaker 5 (01:52:29):
Can you say the ten? Just because yes?

Speaker 31 (01:52:33):
Again votes live dot org. We are running this program
in Florida, in Georgia and North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Texas, Arizona,
and Nevada and also Maryland. So any one of those
states go to votes who live dot org you can
get a free voucher to go and vote early between
now and.

Speaker 6 (01:52:52):
November fifth, John, you have are you're coming at this
from a unique man. Of course, we just had Latasha
Brown on the stage who also is involved in canvassing
efforts getting out and talking to our folks. Please talk
to the audience and to us a little bit about
some of the tremendous canvassing efforts that you're engaged in.

Speaker 11 (01:53:11):
Absolutely, good afternoon, everybody.

Speaker 17 (01:53:13):
First of all, I'm John Taylor Black mel Initiative fun founder,
co founder Black Men Bill number of networks that we
do on ACRON around the country. In this moment, I
have about six hundred and fifty canvas was on the
ground right now. They've been kicking since July first. We
knocked over one hundred and fourteen thousand doors for the primary,
had over twenty two thousand conversations with voters in Georgia.

(01:53:35):
As of today, we have done nine hundred and five
thousand attempts on doors, not just in Atlanta, Columbus, Macon, Millageville, Augusta,
ALLBENNI majority of my crew we call them way In's.
They're young black folks on the ground under the age
of thirty. My director and number two of the organization
is twenty five years old. He's not here right now

(01:53:57):
because he's doing a voter or L's Voter or die
Bus tour with Marvin Ban and them. So the reality
is we've talked about one hundred ninety five thousand Black men,
women people of color across the state of Georgia. These
are black men and women and people of color who
are listed as infrequent, low propensity, low value voters. I

(01:54:21):
don't mean the not one hundred and ninety five thousand
people we talk to. That's them too, I mean the
six hundred and fifty canvassers that we employ. We are
proving that black men are not apathetic, we're not lazy,
we're not disengaged.

Speaker 11 (01:54:37):
Not only do we care, but we're critical thinkers. The
other thing, thank you.

Speaker 17 (01:54:41):
Tasha, because I love Natasha Brown like fat folks love cake.
It is one thing to drive a wedge into our
community and say black men and black women have a
problem with each other. It is another thing to tell
the lie that we don't show up for each other.
Latasha Brown been showing up since for brothers, since brother's

(01:55:03):
been here. Black men care about black women. We support
and respect the leadership of black women. We all came
from a sister. We know what it means to be
in right relationship with a sister. These brothers that are
on doors knocking having these conversations are not afraid of
what it looks like to have a black.

Speaker 11 (01:55:22):
Woman as president.

Speaker 17 (01:55:24):
My grandmama been telling me what to do my whole life,
and she ain't never told me wrong.

Speaker 11 (01:55:30):
Black women have great knowledge and wisdom.

Speaker 17 (01:55:33):
That is not the same as black men not trusting
systemically the problems that we face.

Speaker 11 (01:55:41):
In a country where it does not matter who's president,
we die. It does not matter who elected. We go
to jail.

Speaker 17 (01:55:47):
It does not matter who gets elected or appointed to Congress.
We still get arrested. No matter where I go, handcuffs
follow me. Not because I'm a danger, a threat, a problem, aggressive,
or any of those things. It's because the narrative is
that somehow I'm a problem. So no matter how articulate, beautiful, powerful,

(01:56:10):
intelligent we are, we find ourselves on the wrong side
and out in with this. Never in the history or
running have you ever seen six people in a foot race,
and the second person in the foot race is the
one that you boom.

Speaker 11 (01:56:26):
Well, that's what y'all do to black men.

Speaker 17 (01:56:28):
Not y'all in this room, but as a society structurally,
black men have been the second largest progressive voting block
since the inception of voting for us in this country.
Yet somehow we're always the reason and the problem.

Speaker 11 (01:56:42):
We don't win. It's not us.

Speaker 17 (01:56:45):
So our message is there's nothing wrong with black men.
As a matter of fact, there's everything right about us.
And when we connect with sisters, there's everything great about us.
And when we do the work that we do on
the ground, not only will we break a million doors,
but we will turn out. Because it's sixty seven percent
strong approval from our data, it's another fifteen percent week

(01:57:08):
to moderate approval.

Speaker 19 (01:57:09):
If you do maths.

Speaker 17 (01:57:10):
She broke eighty four y'all, less than five percent undecided.

Speaker 11 (01:57:16):
Y'all, I'm not telling you.

Speaker 17 (01:57:19):
About what some poster said. That's one hundred and ninety
five thousand conversations you could take.

Speaker 11 (01:57:23):
To the bank.

Speaker 4 (01:57:26):
Thank you so much. Really quickly, we have a former
Congressman Cedric Richmond here. Sedric, can you just join us
really quickly. We're having this really important black men moment.

Speaker 6 (01:57:36):
John, that was divine which you just shared. I just
want to acknowledge that as well. Thank you so much
for your work. Congressman Cedric Richmond for Congressman, also a
White House senior advisor. Be careful, please don't slide off
that stage.

Speaker 4 (01:57:48):
That scared me.

Speaker 6 (01:57:49):
He is a co chair of Kamala Harris's campaign, and
I just wanted you to give us some closing words
before we wrap up.

Speaker 12 (01:57:58):
Is you ever mine?

Speaker 11 (01:57:59):
First all, let me thank you all for what you do.

Speaker 32 (01:58:01):
Good to see Andrew and Tiffany and Tiffany, But I
was gonna say at some point I was gonna say
something specific about Andrew because we were talking about brothers
and knocking doors. I went down the campaign for Andrew
because I believe in him and his leadership and what
he has done. So thank you for everything in Tiffany
and Angela, y'all are my bantering partners. We argue like

(01:58:26):
sister and brother because we love each other like sister
and brother. Let me just thank you all for what
you're doing and thank you for having me. Look, this
is gonna be a close race. We always said it was.

Speaker 19 (01:58:34):
Going to be close. But the struggle in the fight
for us, it's what we've always done.

Speaker 32 (01:58:42):
I will tell you don't get too excited or interested
in polling because the first part of a poll is
you have to predict who's going to show up. And
they never predict we're going to show up. But when
you see people in this room like this, you know
we're going to show up. And I have since I've
been running for office since nineteen ninety nine, I have

(01:59:04):
one way of telling when we're gonna have turnout, high turnout.
I get older black men and black women come up
to me and whisper in my eart Cedria, what are
we gonna do about turnout. When they're doing that, it
means they're also calling their daughters and their grandkids and
they're saying, go out and vote, and you will see

(01:59:24):
that excitement. But what we've seen in this race is
just the climax of foolishness. We keep holding Kamala Harris
to some standard of she needs to be, you know,
at genius level.

Speaker 11 (01:59:38):
And she's running against it.

Speaker 32 (01:59:41):
Kids stuck in his terrible threes that just keeps making
stuff up. I mean it is when I say climax
and foolishness.

Speaker 11 (01:59:48):
It's crazy.

Speaker 32 (01:59:48):
This dude's on TV tumbo. I'm not going to tax
overtime pay. But in Project twenty twenty five they said
I'm gonna get rid of overtime. So you're actually right,
you're not going to overtime paid because you're gonna get
rid of it. He said, I have concepts of a plan,
and all of a sudden, no matter what Kamala Harris does,

(02:00:09):
they're just gonna keep moving the goalposts. But the truth
of the matter is we're not trying to please the
political pundits. What we're trying to do is answer the
Janet Jackson question of what have you done for me lately?
And the answer to that is, we've increased black wealth
by sixty and forty thousand new homeowners. We've created a
bunch of jobs, not black jobs, we created sixteen million jobs,

(02:00:32):
and we've closed the racial wealth gap.

Speaker 19 (02:00:34):
Now we still have a long long way to go.
And then the other question is what's in it for me?

Speaker 11 (02:00:40):
Why bother?

Speaker 32 (02:00:41):
And so when we talk about black males and we
talk about black women, we owe them answering the question.

Speaker 19 (02:00:50):
Why bother? And what's in it for me it is.

Speaker 32 (02:00:52):
There's nothing wrong with challenging your elected officials in saying,
what's in it for me, what's in it for my
common unity, what's.

Speaker 11 (02:01:00):
In it for my family?

Speaker 32 (02:01:01):
And so that's what you heard from black men, and
rightfully so they should ask, and rightfully so we produced
an agenda to answer their question because they deserve the
respect of knowing. And so in closing, that's why I
think it's gonna be a close race, but I think

(02:01:23):
we're gonna win, and in fact, I would not be
surprised if we won all of the battleground states. So
you know, I'm bullish on Georgia, and that's because I'm
a more house man. I'm bullish on North Carolina, especially
if you look at the Baffoon running for governor there.

(02:01:45):
I'm bullish on Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin. But guess what, We're
gonna go to Arizona, Nevada, and we're gonna win there too.
So I'm not telling you all to do like my
family's doing and start texting about out inauguration tickets and stuff,
because you never go by the drapes and cut the

(02:02:06):
grass before the closing. So we have to close this election,
and my grandmother would always say, the law will auter
your steps, but you got to move your feet. And
so come election day, we're going to have to make
us move our feet. And for those who didn't vote early,
we're going have to show up and show out on
election day and look, vote early. You know, back in

(02:02:28):
the day in Louisiana, we would say vote early and
vote often. And I want anybody accuse me of saying that,
I'm just telling you what the politicians used to say.
But the fact that you're here should give you some
comfort that we know the stakes of this election. And

(02:02:49):
I just want to thank this group for all of
the work they do, not just during election time, because
this is the easy time, but to bring real conversations,
real guest and facts and passion in and out straight
to the black community with no filter is important.

Speaker 11 (02:03:11):
And so thank you all for what you're doing.

Speaker 32 (02:03:15):
Look, offering yourself a public service is never easy, and
to do that, we do it for kids, families and
people will never ever know. But it's not about politics,
it's not about profits, it's not even about party.

Speaker 19 (02:03:33):
It's about purpose.

Speaker 32 (02:03:35):
And at some point somebody is going to be appreciative
that the Lord allowed me to walk this earth. And
that's how Kamala Harris feels. She wakes up every day
fighting and for anybody you know who really questions her,
she is HBCU through and through. Whoa slow down? I mean,

(02:04:00):
that's why I didn't name the HBCU. She is HBCU
threw and through and she can fight with the.

Speaker 19 (02:04:07):
Best of them.

Speaker 32 (02:04:08):
So, like my grandpa used to say, if you see
her fighting a bear, help the bear because she's gonna
be all right.

Speaker 11 (02:04:15):
So let's go out and help her. Let's win this election.

Speaker 1 (02:04:21):
That bear alone.

Speaker 11 (02:04:22):
I didn't say help for orange bear.

Speaker 19 (02:04:23):
I just said help no bears.

Speaker 22 (02:04:26):
Please.

Speaker 5 (02:04:26):
A beautiful place to end, y'all.

Speaker 7 (02:04:28):
I know it's felt like rapid fire, but can we
give it up for this closing panel and stuff conversation,
And we also want to thank our listeners who are
on the other side of these cameras.

Speaker 17 (02:04:40):
You know.

Speaker 7 (02:04:40):
Uh they say polls are predictive, but the only one
that matters, right is election day. Uh, those that are counted.
I remember being running fifth out of fifth the weekend
before the primary election in Florida and being one out
of five on election night at its close. So we
get to determine who who wins, who becomes the next president,
and we'll fight whatever fight is necessary. After that, y'all,

(02:05:03):
there's only one thing left to do is say.

Speaker 1 (02:05:05):
Wait, wait one second, we have another Oh we have
a special I thought say we had a bether guest.
We might have no ho, I think we do and
we don't. Maybe you guys don't know. But tomorrow is
Angela Rye's birthday.

Speaker 5 (02:05:17):
Happy birthday.

Speaker 1 (02:05:19):
Oh and some of our Machete sisters could not be
here today, but they could not let the day go
by without wishing her a happy birthday. So let's roll
that tape.

Speaker 8 (02:05:29):
Angie Rye, Happy birthday, girl, wishing you the most fabulous, fun,
fierce and phenomenal birthday ever because you deserve it, because
you are such a dear sister, friend, so genuine. So
they're not just for your people, but for the people.

(02:05:50):
So I just respect and love and adore you so much.

Speaker 1 (02:05:55):
You know, Hey, sister, I hope that you're having the
very best day.

Speaker 12 (02:05:58):
We love you so much.

Speaker 3 (02:05:59):
I'm sorry I can't be there in person to celebrate
your birthday.

Speaker 33 (02:06:02):
But Angela, you are chief of staff to the Blacks,
just like Tiffany says all the time, but you are
also chief of staff to so many of our hearts.
You make us feel loved and mothered, cared for, and
always thought about.

Speaker 9 (02:06:14):
We love you, We love you, We love you.

Speaker 3 (02:06:15):
Happy Birthday.

Speaker 34 (02:06:17):
I love you so much, sister. I think that you
deserve to be celebrated for your excellence every single day
of the year. But because today is your special born day,
I am celebrating you. I am saying I'm so bummed
I cannot be there, but I love you big, I
love you deep. I love you hard like we go together.

Speaker 12 (02:06:36):
So five, So God that you're aundlive.

Speaker 5 (02:06:40):
Hey, you look real great. So people are gonna hate.

Speaker 12 (02:06:42):
Hey, keep doing what you do because they really needed you. Hey,
this is your year.

Speaker 11 (02:06:47):
So that's toasting.

Speaker 4 (02:06:48):
Cheer wo.

Speaker 5 (02:06:50):
Website lady, other birthday.

Speaker 12 (02:06:53):
We love you, Angela.

Speaker 3 (02:06:54):
You are such a beautiful person inside and out.

Speaker 30 (02:06:57):
You do so much for the culture, for your family,
inspire assault to be better people, and I just pray
that you have the happiest birthday.

Speaker 8 (02:07:07):
I love you.

Speaker 35 (02:07:07):
What's going on Native lamp Pod family. It is your cousin,
doctor David J. John's Angela, Teresa Rye. I'm so very
thankful for the gift of you. I pray that this
next turn around the sun brings you an abundance of everything, love, joy,
everything that you've been dreaming of.

Speaker 11 (02:07:22):
And that's some because you deserve that and more. I
love you.

Speaker 19 (02:07:26):
I look forward to celebrating with you soon.

Speaker 1 (02:07:32):
Now we're doing that. We don't do that.

Speaker 5 (02:07:36):
Yeah, happy bir.

Speaker 36 (02:07:40):
Yeahe early happy Yeah, happy Boday.

Speaker 4 (02:07:53):
Okay, we gotta love you.

Speaker 1 (02:07:58):
Let yourday about.

Speaker 4 (02:08:00):
Twenty minutes, says somebody else got to be in this room.
You ain't got your goe.

Speaker 3 (02:08:08):
You got to get and we thank you you all.

Speaker 1 (02:08:11):
Welcome home, y'all. Thank you so much. That is go vote, go,
go vote.

Speaker 4 (02:08:17):
Thank you y'all. I love you, dee. Thank you. My
birthdays tomorrow so I'll do this all again tomorrow. Thanks.

Speaker 37 (02:08:23):
Thank you for joining the Natives intentional with the info
and all of the latest rock gulum and cross connective
to the statements that you leave on our socials. Thank
you sincerely for the patients. Reason for your choice is clear,
So grateful it took to execute rooms. Thank you for serve,
defend and protect the truth.

Speaker 3 (02:08:40):
He went the pace.

Speaker 11 (02:08:41):
We welcome home to all of the natives.

Speaker 3 (02:08:43):
We thank you Welcome Home, y'all.

Speaker 1 (02:08:46):
Welcome Native Land Pod is a production of iHeartRadio in
partnership with Reason Choice Media. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.

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Episode Transcript

Hosts And Creators

Tiffany Cross

Andrew Gillum

Angela Rye

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