On This Week’s Episode of “How to Be a Dictator”

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

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome, Welcome home. Y'all. This is episode ninety two of
Native Lampod, where we give you all things politics and culture.
We are your hosts Angela Raie, There's Andrew Gillien and
Tiffany Cross. What's going on, y'all? What are we talking
about today?

Speaker 3 (00:23):
I think we got to talk about DC. As you know,
I'm here in the nation's capital and it is on fire.
It is on lockdown, and it's giving twenty twenty vibes
post the uprising, I'll say, after George Floyd. So I
definitely want to get into that.

Speaker 4 (00:44):
With a direct target on the backs of black mayors.
It appears all across the country. Angela, tiff good to
be back with you. Welcome backstate side. Sis. We also
got to get into this redistricting, which I think is
monopolizing a lot of national conversation, and I think we
got to level it so that people know where they
fit into it.

Speaker 5 (01:04):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
I think the other thing that's very important is to
your point, Andrew, we are welcoming tip back, and I
think her journey to the Motherland helps us to realize
that our politics are not in fact flat. They touched
the globe and we, especially as the people, got to
be connected. So I can't wait to get this update
from Tip. I would say a quad, but but that
ain't it when you say, yeah, everybody.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
Spoke French and ingala, So I'm.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Andrew what we say all the time, welcome.

Speaker 4 (01:42):
States.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Step off message anyway, I wanted if you guys don't mind,
I just want to do a quick shout out. Right
before we started the show. Uh, I learned that a
good friend of mine, who I've known since middle school,
was killed tragically in a car accident. His name is
Teddy Huger. I just want to dedicate this episode of
Native Lamppod to him and his family. He hard to

(02:06):
have his baby girl, and I think she's three now,
so I just want to send leve to his family.
It's a reminder for everybody at home that life is
indeed short and we are living in some trying times,
and in the midst of all that, on a macro level,
people are also suffering and grieving. So I just wanted
to learn to everyone Greeving loved ones today. Thanks time.

Speaker 6 (02:37):
Reporting live from Washington, d C. I'm right outside of
Metro station, so if you're here, trained my apologies. I
just want to give you all the update about the
situation on the ground here in Washington, d C. So,
as you guys know, for the past couple of days,
this administration has been agitating local Washingtonians with the federalization
of our police force, with the deployment of National Guard.
He's doing everything that he can to a rode our

(02:58):
local autonomy. Our council members are taking issue with the
fact that section seventy forty of the Home Rule Act
was invoked, effectively giving the executive control over our public
safety functions and our decision making functions in the city.
But the thing is, Donald Trump issued this order under
the guise of a public safety emergency. But what we
know to be true here on the ground is that
there is no public safety emergency now. Outside of the

(03:20):
thing that went viral where Elon's doge boy got beat
up downtown last week, crime is actually down here in DC,
violent crimes especially, and so it's important to note that
this is not done for public safety. If this was
done for public safety, you would have to wonder how
that kind of decision making could be coming from the
same person who decided to release the insurrectionists that wek

(03:43):
havoc on this same city. I mean, if you prioritize safety,
why would you do that? Or if you truly care
about safety, where is the unredacted Epstein list. I mean,
there's so many things that could promote more safety than
coming and eroding the autonomy of a duly elected black
legislature here in the form of our city council and
our mayor. So we know it's not safety. We know
it's a graph for control. We know this is a

(04:04):
test for fascism to see how far will be allowed
to go. And so to my folks that are outside
of DC, turn our voices up.

Speaker 7 (04:11):
Most people don't.

Speaker 6 (04:12):
Care about DC because they don't see it as out
of side, out of mind. They think we're just the politicians.
We are a real city with real people and real experiences.

Speaker 5 (04:21):
That are being affected by this.

Speaker 6 (04:22):
And to my folks in the city, let's stay educated,
because I mean, the reality is there's only but so
much you can do to push back against the unchecked
powers of the President of the United States. And we
didn't do that to ourselves. The GOP capitulated, they kiss
his ass and give.

Speaker 7 (04:36):
Him everything that he wants.

Speaker 6 (04:37):
The Democrats are right there sort of bowing down. And
so for us as community members here in DC who
have the most to lose, it's important to look out
for each other. I know, I just helped somebody get
de arrested yesterday, or diffuse the situation rather where cops
were just surrounding the guy and had no cause to
arrest him. And so just our vigilance can save us.
I saw folks interacting with that t app and having

(04:59):
all the details to share about folks, let's share some
things about the presidence of.

Speaker 5 (05:02):
These federal agencies in our city.

Speaker 6 (05:04):
Let's insulate ourselves and make sure that we're safe.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
And so that's all.

Speaker 8 (05:07):
I have.

Speaker 6 (05:08):
Hope to be joining you on the show soon, but
in the meantime between times, pray for DC.

Speaker 7 (05:12):
Free DC.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
That is from ty Hobson Powell, who has been on
the show with us before. In addition to that really
incredible update, those encouraging words, we have got another, Andrew
gillim Tiff. We got a new word in our yeah,
in our vocabulary, it is de arrested. I am gonna
make sure that I get some people de arrested in
this moment. I love that time.

Speaker 4 (05:34):
I think he was going to words de escalation, de escalty.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
But yeah, it's fine, but I like the arrest I
would like the arresting people.

Speaker 3 (05:40):
Well, he was you want to come to he was
one of the three young people. Yeah, do we know
remember how old he was?

Speaker 1 (05:49):
He's in his early thirties. But you know at Grandma's house,
you sit at the young young people's table. Yeah, until
you're forty five. I'm forty five, so I think I
get graduated up in October. T if I want to
come to you, Because we actually did my solo pod
yesterday on the same issue. We had mother ms Corey A.
Korra masters Berry on, we had Tony Lewis, who's a

(06:14):
prolific activist and author in DC, and we also had
Dion Reader. But I want to come to you because
you live in the heart of the nation's capital. What
are you scan tif, how are you feeling and how
do you encourage residents to respond in this moment?

Speaker 3 (06:26):
Well, I one, I see a lot of pushback from
the residence, a rainbow coalition of pushback. I've even stopped
and chatted with a few people, and a lot of
white men have been very vocal, and I would say
even provocative when it comes to the increased presence of

(06:46):
law enforcement. And when I've asked, you know, why are
you yelling? What's your interests? And they say, I have
a lot of privilege here, and I plan to use
my privilege as much as I can to disrupt what's happening.
And you can see that very blatantly in how they're
approaching the residents of the city. Where I happen to live.
I'm surrounded by public housing, and in these public housing units,

(07:09):
it's community, you know, like the old folks sit out
there and play cards, the old men hang on the corner,
and all of that is gone. Then there are people,
you know, who are out there doing things that are
not community minded. They might be criminal. And you know,
Trevor Noah writes this in his book Born a Crime.

(07:31):
And you know, this is something that I'm privileged to
be able to have this conversation with you all, because
there's a nuance that's lost in legacy media, and there
are certain rules, regulations and understanding to neighborhood politics. You know,
I want to say hood politics, but neighborhood politics, that
your intention is not always to break the law. So

(07:52):
if like, there's always a dude he's gone now I
don't know where he is, but he's in a wheelchair
and he sits behind my building and he sells Lucy's
And yes, technically he's breaking the law, but this man
doesn't deserve to be slammed to the ground. This is
how we lost Eric Gardner. He didn't deserve to be choked,
you know, So there are there is something about living
in a black city. You had on Coorra masters Berry

(08:12):
and I just am heartbroken at so many younger people
don't know Marion Barry anymore, but Mary and Barry was
about that life and he was on the front lines
of these types of things. And I imagine if we
had a mayor like Marion Barry. Right now, there is
footage of him and an amazing documentary on HBO where
he's protesting. He's joining the protesters and a police officer
approach approaches him and he loves him dead in the

(08:34):
face and says, I wish you mother would put your
hands on me. I just feel like, yes, you know,
his legacy has been reduced. But let me just offer
a little bit of information. Ty did such a great job.
The Trump administration has deployed the National Guard through the
end of September. As Ty said, this is only allowable
under section forty of the DC Home Rule Act with

(08:55):
Congressional seven forty forgive me for the DC Home Rule Act,
with of course, the approval of Congress. Nothing meets that standard.
He talked about crime being down, It's true. Crime is
down twenty six percent after a thirty five percent drop
in in twenty twenty four. Overall crime is down a
seven percent, and that's according to the Metropolitan PD. This

(09:17):
this for the people who are outside of DC who
are not as plugged in. Believe me, this is coming
soon to a city near you. He's threatened this to Chicago, Oakland, Baltimore.
DC does not have voting representation in Congress. We don't
even control our own National Guard, unlike Puerto Rico and
other territories. So the President is overriding the will of

(09:41):
residence here. And I just want you all to get
an up close and personal peak of what that looks
like and what could be happening in your very neighborhood.

Speaker 6 (09:52):
You know, I was playing.

Speaker 5 (09:55):
You got your idea on your check?

Speaker 7 (09:59):
Uh no, I live? Okay, Cool, it's a cigarette.

Speaker 5 (10:03):
Did y'all get to call us up about right here? No,
So we're doing checks.

Speaker 7 (10:07):
Keep everybody safe down here, right.

Speaker 9 (10:08):
Have you ever you heard of the federal surge that
Donald Trump's putting out right?

Speaker 5 (10:12):
You didn't?

Speaker 9 (10:13):
You don't following three anything like that?

Speaker 7 (10:16):
All right?

Speaker 9 (10:16):
So yeah, Trump's Trump's got a federally He's kind of
coming together for seven days and going out trying to
stop the violent crime. Quality of life offense is smoking
drinking in public, right, can't happen outside.

Speaker 7 (10:30):
Right, most people know that.

Speaker 5 (10:33):
So we're contacting people trying to advise.

Speaker 8 (10:36):
Him to the wall.

Speaker 2 (10:38):
On your eggs because when you walked up at the
moment you walked up on your eggs, get.

Speaker 10 (10:42):
Well, it's smoke like the odor of marijuana front marijuana
in the air. Right, Just know, right, learn tea, tell
your boys, like yo, everybody's out from FBI to the police.

Speaker 7 (10:53):
So do your thing.

Speaker 9 (10:55):
Let him know, don't be smoking outside, don't be drinking
outside because Donald Trump's.

Speaker 3 (11:01):
I play that to say, this man is sitting in
his home on his front stoop in his home and
if you're listening, what you don't see. It's about six
or seven law enforcement officers from various agencies surrounding him
and another person. Some of the more violent videos have
been people literally fleeing, running when they see them approaching.

(11:26):
And to me, I'm curiously hear from you guys. This
is a litmus test on how much will we take now?
I don't know what it looks like to stand up
to this. I want us to survive, but I know
we can't roll over and take this. So how much
are we willing to take? Because the more and more
we accept this, the more and more we normalize this,

(11:46):
the more it's going to spread. So I don't know
what the pushback is, but it has to be something.
And right now I do see a lot of people,
I mean yelling at them. A friend of the show,
Booker Squared, welcomed police this way.

Speaker 8 (12:03):
What the whole. I can't imagine being a black.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
Person defending this ship. I can't imagine a black person.

Speaker 8 (12:17):
To an organization the play session. But that's just meant.
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (12:26):
Why they left them five black officers.

Speaker 9 (12:28):
And they're not dropped.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
I don't want to let you know.

Speaker 3 (12:35):
The Elizabeth Booker Houston, who was a friend of the show,
has been a guest on the show. That is her
welcoming uh the added law enforcement and it's a very
bodacious movie, right right. So I don't know she's.

Speaker 1 (12:49):
Been protesting the Heritage Foundation is before the the DC
takeover though, So yes, I didn't mean I just I
just wanted to clarify that. I think she's been insistent.
She've been out there.

Speaker 4 (13:03):
Your question, your point if I could, about how much
would we take and surviving whatever the experience is. I
really think the gentleman demonstrated well right, not escalating, you know,
the officer asking him for information while he sits on
his property, minding his business, not inviting an interrogation like this.

(13:26):
And the truth is is these kinds of situations don't
prevent violent crimes. What they, nine times out of ten
or ten times out of ten times will do is
take what might be a normal situation in a normal
neighborhood and escalated off of anything. It could have been
a refusal to give a license or get off the

(13:46):
porch and go inside and grab it and come back
and show me, and any hesitation could have been a
whole different kind of situation, and we all know what
those potential conclusions could have been. So law enforcement, on
one hand, should be serving the role of de escalation
of of of of how do you say down, I

(14:09):
mean just de arresting, right right right, but basically eliminating
anxiety in situations. And when you go out in your
face with that kind of show a force of law
enforcement and bless his heart, but a law enforcement agent
who's not really able to explain what the hell they
out there doing. I mean he says, we're here to
prevent crimes, and you know, in my opinion, you're here

(14:30):
to potentially provocate, provocate a situation that could could spiral
out of control. So it's where we how far we go?
Is one, survive each incident, survive each of these moments, folks,
as you're out there. But two, I think we have
to protest. I think we you know, it starts from
the top down and from the bottom up. You don't

(14:52):
have to wait for instructions for you from your mayor.
Your may or may not give those instructions to get
out and show your disapproval. But as we saw in LA,
the display of nonviolent disapproval pushed them back and made
them a little caddy about their appearance there because they
didn't belong. So I think people have to raise their

(15:13):
voices and show that this is not the role of
the federal government. You resist it. We understand that you
are on orders, but you right now represent this person
who's attempting to manipulate everything about what we think and
what we know to put in front of us a whole,
you know, situation that didn't deserve this, doesn't require it.

(15:35):
If you really care, put some money back in. Put
that billion dollars you took out of the budget from
local governments. Give that back to local law enforcement so
they can actually do the work of preventing crime instead
of this scapegoating to basically avoid talking about, you know,
a child molester and what his role is in that molestation.

Speaker 1 (15:55):
So I want to get into this really quickly. So
Donald Trump issued this executative memorandum to the Secretary Pete
Hegseth on Monday, calling for this DC takeover. What is
ordinary in these circumstances is that the federal government would
exercise its jurisdiction in Section seven forty to take over

(16:15):
the Metropolitan Police Department as well as bringing the National
Guard and other law enforcement entities from the FEDS in
a state of emergency. What I'm wondering is why it
wasn't a state of emergency on January sixth. What I'm
wondering is why it's not an emergency when ice is
raiding people's homes, separating families. I want to know why

(16:36):
it's not a state of emergency when crime was up
thirty percent. Again, it's dropped thirty percent. So I am
hoping that the mayor, that the Attorney General in DC
rely on these points when they go to argue the
subjective standard that Donald Trump is relying upon to interpret
Section seven forty, and they push back, why does that

(16:56):
matter right now? Andrew everything you're saying in LA. We
were on a panel in Tunica, Mississippi for the CBC
Institute the Mississippi Policy Conference. Nana Jumfi, who's been a
guest on our show, talked about LA being ready. They
were ready to protest, they were ready for what was coming.
What I think that, to Tip's point around a litmus

(17:17):
test too, is a lot of our folks are unready.
They did not know how bad this was coming. This
man that Tip just played sitting on his front porch
is like, what are you even talking about? Friend? Right Like,
he has no idea this is coming. So we need
some of the court actions taken so that we can
buy our folks time to organize. I wanted to say
that in closing because I know we have a very

(17:38):
important update to get to from Tip about her trip
to the Motherland. So I know we want to transition
into that, but want to leave it open for just
a moment, literally, a moment for any closing words from
y'all before we transition.

Speaker 4 (17:51):
If you get ready, if you stay ready, you don't
have to get ready. He listed the cities that are
at the top of the list. Y'all take this time
to get.

Speaker 3 (18:00):
Ready from the fire happening in DC to the fire
happening across the globe and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
I want to give you an update on what I
bore witness to their stay tuned that's coming up on
the other side of the spring. The one thing I

(18:27):
can tell you about visiting the Democratic Republic of Congo,
it's nothing to see every few feet a member of
the government in camouflage holding aks just everywhere all over
the corner so it was really interesting to be traveling
and then to come back to DC and see this through.

Speaker 1 (18:45):
Line of Wow, this is what.

Speaker 3 (18:48):
America is inching towards, and it's a frightening site. I
know there's a lot happening domestically, so I'm going to
be really quick, but I missed the show last week
and just wanted to to make a connection with what
happened in Africa and how it impacts us here. And
what I'll say is the very way how we're communicating

(19:09):
with each other now on our computers, our smartphones, electric vehicles,
all of these things are emblems of the modern world
and they all are powered from batteries that are powered
by cobalt. Cobalt is in the mineral rich country of
the Democratic Republic of Congo. It's mined by workers who
are laboring in slave like conditions. So every time we

(19:33):
use our computer, every time we answer our phone, every
time we're on our smartphone, every time we see an
EV or get into an electric vehicle, I want us
to remember there are black folks working in slave like
conditions to mine the cobalt right now, Because my question
while I was over there was, well, who is buying
who's the consumer. Of course, America is the largest consumer economy.

(19:57):
China at this point accounts for sixty percent of all
global cobalt processing, which turns into lithium ion batteries. The
mining industry has ravaged the landscape of the DRC. So
as you see the images being played right now of
bloody hacking of limbs, it is internal conflict because the

(20:23):
rebels have tried to seize control. And you have to
this place should be Wakanda, This should be the wealthiest
when you think about how it is powering the insant right,
this is literally vibranium that is powering the world and
the people there. Here you can be impoverished and still
have a microwave, You can still have a refrigerator and
be well below the poverty line. When I say poor there,

(20:44):
I mean they literally have dirts and that's it. And
so they're trying to survive. So I even had to
understand somewhat of the rebels as horrific and barbaric as
it was, that they too are trying to survive. Millions
of trees have been cut down, the air of the
mining area. Areas are hazy with grit. The water has
been contaminated with toxic effluence from the mining process. Cobalt

(21:07):
is toxic to touch and breathe. There are hundreds of
thousands of poor Congolese people touching and breathing it in
every day. You'll see young mothers with babies straped to
the straped to their backs, breathing in this dust. Trump
administration did just recently cut a deal between Rwanda and
what we mostly know of this conflict is the Rwandan

(21:27):
conflict that we all remember a lot of us. Yes,
it became humanized to us in the movie Hotel Rwanda.
And so recently Trump signed a deal because Rwanda was
supporting a group of the rebels. It's really complicated, we
don't have a lot of time to get into it,
but essentially Rwanda was supporting a group of the rebels
and the Trump administration came in and tried to coordinate

(21:49):
this peace deal. But I would just say these piece
deals do not always benefit the people there. The nearest
example is Angola recently cut a deal. We're trying to
build infrastruture in exchange for their oil, but the Angolans
are not really benefiting from that. And the United States
has a deep history in the Congo. Patrice La Mumba

(22:10):
was their beloved leader. He was the equivalent to our
Barack Obama. And he was murdered with the support of
some local people, Congolese politicians, the Belgians who ravaged this
country for decades, literally cutting off young children's arms. So
many people there without limbs because they worked in the
rubber plantations that the Belgians powered. But he was murdered

(22:33):
with the tacit support of the United States government and
the malign neglects of the United Nations. So I just
wanted to share this so we could see that what
happens in Africa not only powers the globe. Specifically, what's
happening in the Congo not only powers the globe, but
the conflict there we have to care about. And it's

(22:57):
a beautiful country because you'll see on the screen now,
you know, had this beautiful brunch, and you know the
vegetation is there, and people Black people are beautiful in
every language. They're speaking French fluently and flowing effortless between
English and French. And you know, the skin looks like silk,
and they're attired. I mean, they just move and look
like royalty to people who are lucky enough to live

(23:17):
that way. It's a lot of corruption there and so
I just wanted to update people on what's happening there.
We will dig more into this in the show. I
would love to have a representative from the Congo or
journalist who covers the Congo. Larry MacDowell does amazing work
for CNN covering the entire continent of Africa. So in
the future we'll talk about this more and how what's
happening in Africa impacts us. But it's a lot of corruption,

(23:41):
a lot of dictatorship, and I'm sad to say that
America is falling right in line with a lot of
what I've seen overseas and a lot of countries that
are that are are falling or leaving their their democratic process.
So thank you all for giving me the time to
talk about it. It's a lot more to say, but

(24:03):
I will reserve it when we have on an expert
and not somebody like me who just went to be
on ground to learn. But I do want to thank
the people for inviting me there for the genocost event,
which honored the people who I thought this was something
that happened decades ago, but the conflict and the murders
are still happening, So my sincerest thank you to the

(24:25):
organization that brought me there. I had the opportunity to
meet with the President and First Lady and it was
a very humbling, sad experience. But we'll talk more about
that later because I know we have exciting guests to
get to today to get into our next topic.

Speaker 1 (24:39):
No, thank you so much tip for the share, for
the update, and for holding all of us accountable to
stay informed about these very critical issues. We can't talk
about war and genocide in one part of the country
and not talk about it on the continent.

Speaker 3 (24:51):
That was the pokay, that was my frustration the angel
up because obviously what's happening in Gaza is heartbreaking. It's awful,
like children are being stopped, and the world, well, America
has been gripped by those images. And when it happens
in Africa year after year after year, largely due to
Americans meddling in politics and European countries raping and pillaging

(25:13):
the continent, we look at it like, well, those are
black babies in Africa, that's where it's supposed to happen.
Those black babies in Africa, though Africa as a country
and not a whole continent. But those black babies over there,
that's normalized, like that's how they're supposed to live. But
when it's somebody else that looks a little closer to white,
it's impossible to think. It's like when the Ukrainian War

(25:34):
took off. So those lives matter, those children. If we're
so concerned about sexual abuse and the Jeffrey Epstein List,
then let's be concerned about sex trafficking in Africa. Let's
be concerned about these children being mutilated. If we're concerned
about children starving, let's be concerned about the young people
in Congo who have nothing. So thank you for that.
I don't want to go off on a whole tangent again,

(25:54):
but that's so true.

Speaker 1 (25:55):
That's exactly. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (25:58):
I just if I could just say to thank you
for reminding us of how mineral rich the continent of Africa,
being the most resourceful of all the continents. And a
lot of times when I hear non people of color
talk about the continent, and they like to describe these
these fights of people of color against people of color,

(26:20):
and they completely underestimate our intelligence by by suggesting that
this is just some black on black crime or some sort,
when we know that it is the supply lines that
is fueling the rest of the world that you, largely
European nations are protecting and are aligned with. Many of

(26:40):
these groups have to protect that supply line, profiting from
it exactly those situations and so just thank you for that.
And we all we don't have to compare how terrible
these situations are, but we absolutely need to pay attention,
especially when it reflects us where we come from in

(27:01):
the richness of the land.

Speaker 1 (27:04):
Absolutely, and we are again so grateful. Tip for your
journey next time, take us with you and we will
definitely keep you all informed. We ourselves are going to
be accountable on these issues and make sure that we're
educating and learning at the same time. Here on Native
lampod As you all know, there is a hot topic

(27:27):
percolating all over the country. People thought it began in Texas.
It did not begin in Texas. Someone, are you Louisiana
somewhat argue North Carolina, But what we know now is
that it is far beyond the bounds of the state
lines of Texas joining us today though, are Congressman Mark Vezi,
who represents texas thirty third Congressional District. State Representative Jelanda Jones,

(27:51):
who was also a guest last week on My Solo pod,
representing Texas's one hundred and forty seventh State District legislative district,
and Congressman Emmanuel Cleaver the second. Some of them call
some people call him rev. I call him boss. He's
the CBC chair from when I was the executive director
of the CBC, but also now in the crosshairs. Don't collapse,

(28:12):
rup for this part. In the crosshairs for in the
redistricting battle in Missouri. He is the one district Loan
District that is protected or was at least by the
Voting Rights Act, and now they are targeting the Republicans
in Missouri are targeting Congressman Cleaver's district. So welcome to
our show. We say welcome home, y'all, and we thank
you so much for joining us. Tim Or Andrew, I'm

(28:34):
gonna let you kick it off.

Speaker 4 (28:35):
No, I actually have a shirt on Representative Jones that
I wore for you. It says move with faith not fear.
But Pastor and Congressman VC, it applies to all of you,
But we've been so hardened by you, Representative Jones and
your in the delegation from Texas for showing what active

(28:56):
and responsible resistance looks like. Your fight, I think is
powering so many of us around the country who are
confronting these issues as well. I know that this issue,
you know, confronts the country, the entire landscape, and right
now we may be looking at what I you know,
I believe is sort of the armoring up, or maybe

(29:19):
it is the ratcheting up between states as democratic states
start to respond to what some of these conservative states
are doing. I love if you all could kick it off,
beginning with you, a Representative Jones. We're telling us what
does the ground game look like if this actually does

(29:41):
become a ratcheted up situation of d versus our states
redistricting mid dissenial to basically confront and counteract what Republicans
are doing to change the rules of the game so
that they can cheat their way to re election.

Speaker 8 (30:02):
So the ground game in this systance looks like each
state that's a democratic state going in and quite frankly
redistricting out Republicans because that's what they're doing with us
and it's surgically precise. They are literally finding where there
are concentrations of black and brown people which are organically

(30:24):
majority minority, and they are somehow trying to say that
it is a coalition district. And so the districts currently
weren't drawn because their coalition district. The districts were drawn
because black people and brown people are just living by
each other, and they somehow said that that's illegal. And
so now they are dividing us, they're cracking us, and
they're packing us in other districts that are majoritarily Anglo.

(30:47):
And so the only way Trump gets five seats is
if they go in with precision and divide up black
and brown neighborhoods as racist. And it's important we call
it what it is, and I see it as self defense.
I think Nancy Pelosi called itself. It's self defense for
the preservation of representation by black and brown people to

(31:08):
elect the representatives of their choice, plain and simple. And
so if you've been in a fight, you have to
use the tactics that your opponents are using. There's no
way they can expect for us to fight with both
hands behind our back when clearly Trump and the billionaire boys,
and those people literally don't respect the Constitution. They don't

(31:28):
respect historic districts in Houston. I know that Congressman VC
can probably explain to you how his stronghold is Tarrent County.
It's been in thirty three and they some kind of
way tried to carve out Tramp County out there to
make him weaker in his district. I'll let him talk
about that. And so it looks like guerrilla warfare, it
looks like hand to hand combat. It looks like we

(31:50):
need to stay where we are so that they can't
get a quorum. Because at the end of the day,
there's eighty eight Republicans in Texas in the House and
the Democrats and sixty two never beat sad eight. So
the only tactic that we have is to get ghosts
where they literally can't conduct business, which is what our

(32:11):
quorum break is. So that's what it is. It's living
in an uncomfortable state. This is not normal for me
to be hiding, for me to be Washington, who I
talk to on the phone, for me to stay in
my where if I'm staying, I'm not telling you that,
for me to be concerned that the FBI are hunting
us like we are criminals for something that's not criminal,
and it's not even federal, so none of this is normal.

(32:34):
But for us, it's necessary for us to just hold
the line and deny them a quorum because it's all
we have to do at a minimum, until California like
drops their maps or something so that we can see
your Texas. If you go forward, we're gonna do that too.
You think you're the biggest, like you're the badgest bullets
on the block where you ate, and that's that's what

(32:55):
it is.

Speaker 1 (32:55):
That thank you so much for Fendarie.

Speaker 3 (32:57):
That is the biggest coming out this week that governor
California Governor Gavin Newsom has said that he will draw
congressional maps that will end Trump's presidency, quoting him, he
has yet to offer any details on that, but certainly
the American public is waiting with baited breath. You kicked
it to Congressman Mark VC, so i'll pick up with you,
Congressman VC.

Speaker 11 (33:18):
One.

Speaker 3 (33:19):
I think for the people who may not understand the
seriousness of this, which I understand because we're blitzed every
day with fifteen things that are urgent, and we're asking
people to care about these fifteen things and to fight
these things. Right now, DC residents are worried about their
children getting to and from school safely. The same in Texas.
You know, there was a fifteen year old student who

(33:44):
was disabled who was detained by Ice because of a
mistaken identity. So while we have all that going on,
we see our core democratic institutions eroding before our eyes.
And now, even though the redistricting issue has been in
the limelight for years, you know, predating the Trump administration,
why should people care? Like, what is the sense of urgency?

(34:08):
Make it plain for people that if you're sitting in
your apartment in New York City, or you're sitting in
Seattle or Chicago, what is the sense of urgency why
we should care about this issue.

Speaker 12 (34:20):
I mean, there are so many reasons why you should
care about this issue, and the first one is that
to me, what's happening is Trump is clearly trying to
consolidate as much power as he possibly can. And this
is just another example. Whether you want to look at
what's going on at the Smithsonian, you know, him appointing
himself the head of the Kennedy Center, where he's going
to try to you know, be the czar of anything

(34:43):
out of the federal government that deals with the arts.
He's trying to consolidate as much power as he possibly
can uh, and he's going to continue to do this
with ice. He's going to continue to do this with
the firing and the federal workforce and these and these
doge layoffs. And I really do think that he is
trying to move us towards a place that we have

(35:04):
not seen when it comes to how the US government works.
This whole idea that he's going to take another census
in a couple of years would to me be the
beginning of him trying to put together a group of
legislators that are Republican and one hundred percent beholden to
him that would absolutely allow him to stay in office

(35:28):
if that's what he chooses to do on January sixth,
twenty twenty nine, where he absolutely could not be removed.
And so I think that we're in a very dangerous
situation right now, and what he's trying to do is
not healthy, is not helpful. I think for those of
us that have followed voting rights for a long time

(35:49):
that this could also be the end of the voting
rights Act. There's something that has not been talked a
lot about when it comes to the Texas Map and
one of the congressional districts that they dismantled Jelanda Jones
Neck of the Woods in Houston by Silvia Garcia. It
was a sixty three percent Hispanic voting age population district

(36:10):
and now it's been down to about forty four percent
Hispanic voting age population, and that is a clear violation
of the Voting Rights Act. If anything is over fifty percent,
it is supposed to be a protected district. And so
now that's been dismantled. My guess is that Texas is
trying to set themselves up to be and Greg Abbott

(36:32):
more specifically, is trying to set himself up to be
the person that took down the Voting Rights Act and
specifically took down Section two of the Voting Ranks action
that would have a huge impact not just on Texas
and congressional seats, but that would have a big impact
on state legislative seats, on county commissioner seats, on city
council seats, and it would really hurt the black community

(36:55):
probably more than anybody else.

Speaker 3 (36:57):
Ierson can I just I want to last really quickly
because our viewers may not understand, you know, everything that
you said again because there we're flooded with so much information.
So one you talked about Donald Trump and the senses.
So just so our viewers know, Donald Trump has instructed
the Commerce Department, which is of course where the censes live,
to immediately begin working on a new sensus. And we

(37:19):
don't know what that means. Again, he says these things
and has offered no details on what might include that.
But the concern is who counts within that census, and
why that matters is because that can determine budgets, that
determines resources that come to your community. But what we're
talking about today, why that matters is because every ten
years after the census, states redraw the boundaries of congressional

(37:43):
and state legislative districts, which, if he has his say,
it will not be an honest account and it could
be redrawn in a way that is racist. Gerrymandering, sadly
is not illegal. Racist gerrymandering is, and so we have
seen in North Carolina. Andrew will correct me, Andrew and
Angela correct me if I'm wrong. But the court when
they were looking at North Carolina said it was done

(38:04):
with surgical precision to exclude voters of color. So you
have a process where you have politicians picking their voters,
not voters picking their choosing their politicians. So I just
wanted to give our viewers some context there.

Speaker 1 (38:19):
And I know we want to make sure we get
some ample time to hear from you all.

Speaker 7 (38:25):
Two.

Speaker 1 (38:25):
Congressman Cleaver had a technical difficulty, but it's coming right back, okay.
I wanted to come back to you, Congressman BC, because
there's something very, very critical that we are kind of
not talking about proactively in the press, and you brought
it up about Sylvia Garcia's district. These are sinister acts

(38:46):
because the president is trying to figure out how to
get a majority, but not just politically. He's doing it
the same way that he removed the Martin Luther King
bust out of the Oval. He's doing it the same
way that they attacked DEI, which is diversity, equity, and
inclusion for those of you who are not following it
at home. He's doing it the same way that he

(39:07):
calls those of us who he decides to attack black
journalists low IQ. This is absolutely racist at its core.
Can you talk about how this racist jerry manderin practice.
Because jerry mandering in and of itself is not bad.
We'll get into that later. Redistricting in and of itself
is not bad every ten years. But why all of
a sudden, when he needs a majority of white supremacists

(39:30):
in the House of Representatives in state legislatures all over
the country, now you find yourself also in the cross
hairs of that. Why should people pay attention to this,
Why should they focus on this, and why should they
make it a priority given what Tip just said about
everything else that we have to carry.

Speaker 12 (39:47):
Yeah, absolutely, people should care about this for a lot
of different reasons. Let me give you an example. One
of the things that my Republican colleagues will absolutely not
do is that they will not when we have the
appropriations process, they will not ask for community funding project money.

Speaker 5 (40:03):
They refuse to do it. And I just got a YMC.

Speaker 12 (40:06):
Reopened in one of the black communities in Fort Worth
in my district, and the way the lines are withdrawn,
that district would now be represented by a member of
Congress in the North Texas delegation that's hardcore rural Republican,
and he would never ask for community funding project money
so that YMC could be open to serve low income families.

(40:26):
He just would not do it. And so all of
a sudden, if you can draw these districts in like
you said, sturgically remove us from areas and make it
to where our votes won't count, then you will have
a bunch of members of Congress representing our communities that
won't do things that we believe are important and bring
tax dollars back into our communities to help uplift our neighborhoods.

(40:47):
And just that alone could be something that I think
could have profound implications on our communities as well as
a continuation of people just being able to be five
from a lot from the federal workforce, and many people
that work at many different agencies are from the African

(41:08):
American community, and the list goes on and on and on,
and so people need to realize that it's not really
just about him trying to elect more Republican Congressmen. It's
about him trying to elect more congressmen that are going
to completely neglect the African American communities and put together
majorities in the House of Representatives that will not advance

(41:28):
legislation that is collectively in our best interest and it's
very real what they're trying to do.

Speaker 1 (41:36):
Yeah, and Andrew, I want to make sure that you
weigh in here too. But there's one thing that I
really want to say to Representative Jones and to all
of your colleagues. Thank you all for bringing a fight
that the nation could see themselves reflected in. I know
that some of your colleagues now are kind of wavering,
trying to figure out if they have the willpower, the desire,

(41:58):
the funds right to even stay out in this fight.
Can you talk about what people can do at home
to encourage those who are wavering, who are worried about
their families, like legitimate issues, but who are worried about
how they continue this fight. What happens when the next
special session is called? Where do we go from here?

Speaker 4 (42:17):
So let me say this.

Speaker 5 (42:19):
Right here, right now, we will we are.

Speaker 8 (42:21):
We can't tell you where we are right because we're
been hunted by the FBI. Let's be clear, for something
that's not even federal, and for something that's not even criminal.
I want you to let that sink in. We are resolute,
you know, and we are actually taking it one day
at a time. And here's why. Just yesterday the governor said,
because I think he's embarrassed that he hadn't been able

(42:42):
to force us to come back, and he hadn't been
able to find us that, oh, we're going to end
the special session on Friday. The special session was supposed
to end on Tuesday, you know, coming up. And so
now I won't believe the special session is in until
this officially ends, because it could actually be a way
to get us to come back, to capture us like

(43:04):
they get back in the Slavery days, to drag us
back to the plantation on the on the House floor.
So so we are resolute we ain't going nowhere.

Speaker 5 (43:14):
We'll deal with the.

Speaker 8 (43:15):
Second special session when he calls it. Now he's told
us he's gonna call it, and we know he's gonna
call it. We don't know if he's gonna call it immediately.
We don't know if he's gonna wait till Monday. We
just don't know. And so just continue to give us encouragement,
support us, support the TBC, the Texas Legislative Black Caucus.
That would be good for you to do, and so

(43:38):
and just keep talking about this, and you ask Congressman VC,
what should people other places feel like pay attention to
what's going on? Let me tell you why, because last
year in North Carolina, nobody knew what was going on.
Last year in North Carolina, they literally racially and illegally
and unconstitutionally jairmandered and they stole three seats. And right

(44:00):
now Donald Trump has a Congress with a three Republican
majority who rubber stamps all of his stuff. So you
wonder how what happened in North Carolina with something that
people didn't know about. So let me give us a
pat on the back that we let y'all know what
they're trying to do in Houston because we don't want
it to go under cover of darkness. And why you

(44:21):
think North Carolina might not have anything that affects you
or text us If he keeps the house in twenty
twenty six, we're going to have more of these bad policies.
So you know those eggs that used to cost six
dollars that now cost thirteen dollars, that's because they stole
them three seats in North Carolina. You know the Social
Security they're trying to take from us after we've paid

(44:41):
into it for our entire adult life. They trying to
take away our social security to give it to billionaires
for tax breaks. We earn that that's not a handout,
that's not welfare. You know how families are literally, us
citizens are literally being deported. They're coming up, covered up,
don't know who they are, don't even know if they

(45:02):
legitimate police, being shifted off the countries. That's because Trump
has a three Republican majority, so trust and believe. It
can get worse. And I think we've gotten comfortable, it
says a people, as black people in this country, because
we're so far removed from segregation, we don't realize how
we used to get lynch. We don't realize how we

(45:23):
used to have crosses burned in our yards. We don't
realize how we used to get assassinated. Martin Luther, King,
Malcolm X, metgr Evers, you name them in it till
who was a kid who ain't doing nothing wrong right,
We don't realize that it can be bad. We don't
realize that we had to go to separate schools. We
don't realize that we had to drink out of separate faucets.

(45:44):
We don't realize that stuff. You know why, because we're
taking it out of our books and we don't realize that,
and so we need to realize that it can get worse.
We used to have to pay poll taxes and it's
just been so far removed. And I really need for
black people to go back to the mentality that we
had during segregation, where we were it. We were get

(46:06):
each other, we were going to look out for each other.
We were going to make sure that we all were
supported and that we survived and that we thrived and
we didn't rely on other people. But my point is,
this is what they're trying to do. We just had
the sixtieth anniversary of the Voting Rights Act early either
earlier this week or last week, I can't remember the date,

(46:27):
and they trying to take us back to a time
when we didn't have the right to vote. And you know,
right now, there's not a lot We have twelve point
three three percent of the population in Texas black people do,
and most of us are concentrated in the Houston area
and the Dallas area, and so that's where the four
black congress people in Texas are elected, in Houston and Dallas.

(46:49):
And with this racist redistrict thing, They literally are potentially
putting Mark Nice against Jazz mcrockett. Why we can't have both,
Why they got to fight each other? Why does it
have to be a blood bath In Houston? We got
Al Green, you know, the one who shook his cane
at the State of Disillusion and said in Pete's Trump
and they escorted him out. Why has he been drawn

(47:09):
into CDA TE which is where Correnswiman, Jackson Lee and
Congressman Turner were. So they're literally going to wipe out
two black seats. And you've talked about Congresswoman Garcia. They've
literally diluted hers to where the Hispanics that they put
in her district don't vote as higher rate. And so
you think this can't affect you, It most certainly can,

(47:33):
and it will. And fool me once, Shame on you,
fool me twice. Shame on me. North Carolina was the
first fool And we know about it. Well now we know, no,
we have no reason to expect it. Trump is all
of a sudden going to respect black people or the
constitution of women, you name it. He doesn't respect anybody.
And so I'm asking you to please pay attention and

(47:54):
please hold us down because it is hard. We're away
from our families. I got a new baby, I miss her.
I'm my mother's caregiver, but my son and my sister
are taking care of our mother and grandmother because this
is something we just have to do for me. I
always thought if I live back in the day with
the Edmond Petterson Bridge and the Montgomery bus boycott, that

(48:16):
I would be there. So I know that I'll be there.
So just keep praying for us, keep fighting for us,
Encourage us, you know, because we literally are getting fined
five hundred dollars a day. Y'all. We make six hundred
dollars a month, right, and that's six hundred dollars a month,
which is seventy two hundred dollars a year. That's six
hundred dollars a month goes to pay for my retirement.

(48:37):
So my pension goes to pay for my health insurance.
And I also take out my dues because I'm a member,
a duced member of the Texas State Employees Union. And
six hundred dollars a month is not a lot of money.
Who can live off of that? And now they're threatening
to cut our budgets and they're saying we've abandoned our duties.
We have not abandoned our duties. I'm a district office
that's open right now. When my constituents had issues with

(49:01):
getting their medicaid or their Medicare, or they have problems
with their relatives who are who are incarcerated, or they
can't get Section eight housing, my office helps them.

Speaker 5 (49:10):
That's what we do.

Speaker 8 (49:11):
Out they're cutting our budget by thirty percent, So I
will stop venting about why you need to care about
what happens in Texas because it is going to affect you.
And if Donald Trump is able to hold on to
the House by targeting minorities, black and brown people, I
don't even know how we recover. If we lose those

(49:32):
two black seats, we ain't gonna get them back. We're
gonna be stuck. So please support us. It's really important
and let us know you know how you feel about
what we're doing. And people are tired of for the
most part, they say Democrats don't fight.

Speaker 5 (49:46):
Well we fight. We literally.

Speaker 8 (49:49):
We have literally got California, New York, in Illinois to say, hey,
if you pull the trigger in Texas, Donald Trump, we
got something for you. We can do the same thing
where we're at so we need for democratic governors to
do that.

Speaker 4 (50:03):
You're stiffening their spines. It's already been chuck full of information.
You don't want to miss the rest of our conversation
with these amazing elected representatives on redistricting. Stay tuned.

Speaker 1 (50:24):
We have another fighter who's joined us, Andrew. I know
you probably have a question. Conversan Cleever, I.

Speaker 4 (50:28):
Mean really great comments by everybody and a reverend Congressman Kleaver.
We early in the conversation, Representative Jones mentioned packing and
cracking and are those are terms of art as well
as as science, they have a meaning to them. Help
us understand, because I think this connection really has to

(50:50):
be made of the layperson might look at a map
and see someone draw a circle around it and say, well,
this is a district, and then go with adjacent to
it and draw another circle and say this is a district.
Tell us why it makes absolutely no sense or what
since you think it makes for communities of color, shared interests,

(51:12):
communities of shared interests. How it is that that is
the way in which don't take a layman's look at
these maps, understand what we have in common, and how
then we get drawn out of power and disempowered through
our vote. So when we hear cracking and packing these districts,

(51:34):
and I've seen it firsthand here in Florida where we've
lost now three CBC members out of the state of
Florida sets that were hard won by a consent decree
through the courts. So I've seen it happen. But talk
to us about what it means for black folks who
share common interests to be able to elect a representative

(51:55):
of their choice who will then go and advocate on
behalf of those shared in How does that show up
in this redistricting fight? Uh, the separation of our communities.

Speaker 7 (52:07):
Well, well, we thank you very much for the question.
I apologize for.

Speaker 11 (52:13):
But what we have in Missouri is dummy mandarin, uh
you know, and it is based on, uh, the pursuit
of pure power. Nothing legal uh should creep into the conversation,
is pure political power.

Speaker 7 (52:33):
And what they would like to do is is gather
all the.

Speaker 11 (52:37):
Minorities they can, all the African Americans into one little
area and UH say, well, did you get angry? We
we We've got thousands of black people right here piled
in together. And that's exactly the danger because What happens then,
is they take away any They will reduce and perhaps

(53:01):
even take away the opportunity for African Americans, along with
progressive whites, brown people to be in a district where
they would have a voice with the person if I'm
not if I'm not in the fifth district, or if
somebody with progressive values are not or is not in

(53:22):
that in that district. Here, the people here have no voice. Yeah,
they can go out and vote, they have no influence.

Speaker 7 (53:29):
With the member.

Speaker 11 (53:30):
They can go to a town hall meeting. That member
who was elected in a dumming Mandarin district is going
to end up.

Speaker 7 (53:41):
Setting the.

Speaker 11 (53:45):
Here's or her agenda, political agenda, the community they want
to be on.

Speaker 7 (53:49):
In the most they take on actually a minority of
the people, uh you know, and.

Speaker 11 (53:59):
We are in Missouri are particularly vulnerable to this because
you know, my district right now is maybe twenty five
percent African Americans. And you know, if you take my
twenty five percent and put it in a district where

(54:19):
where they have eighty percent already white voters, I am
now just going to Washington and uh and and renting
a room someplace.

Speaker 7 (54:33):
Uh.

Speaker 8 (54:33):
You know.

Speaker 11 (54:34):
So we've got to have we and I know people
some African Americans here. We're having a meeting this afternoon
with all the state representatives. But I had even one
of them to say, well, if we get all of
the bad people in this district, we're going to be
more powerful.

Speaker 7 (54:50):
No, we won't.

Speaker 11 (54:52):
We're going to be important politically importent. H And so
we have a lot of educating to do with with
with people. And uh, you know, I just got off
the phone with Eric Holder uh to come and do
this when we first got started, and uh uh he
is preaching the same uh sermon if you will to

(55:15):
to all of us who are in Injebarty that don't
fall from for the okie doke.

Speaker 7 (55:21):
Uh you know, and start thinking.

Speaker 11 (55:23):
Well, you know, for example, I wanted to one of
the state representation said well, well we got some large
rumany black folks over in Reytown, Missouri, which is a
suburb of kas City. Let's put them over in the
Pith district too, you know. And and you know, on
the on the surface it may sound good, there ain't
no good in it. So we're in a situation where

(55:44):
it's flight or fight, and we are choosing fight. And
I think that has to be done all over the country.
We're going to do it here in Missouri where people
want to pick their voters instead of the voters picking
their people. Right.

Speaker 8 (56:00):
Can I say this?

Speaker 12 (56:03):
And I want in Julyan to touch on this a
little bit earlier, which I think is very important, and
I want to you know, first of all, before I
say this, I want to thank Gavin Newsom for doing
the redraw because the biggest mistakes that Democrat made in
two thousand and three when Tom Delay did did middicate
decade redistricting and also misused federal resources. I don't know

(56:26):
if y'all remember back in two thousand and three when
when Oklahoma still had a Democratic governor and they were
trying to do the mid decade redistricting, state legislators from
Democrat from state Democratic state legislators from Texas went to Ardenore, Oklahoma,
and no one knew where they were, and Tom Delayed
used an F sixteen to find the tail number of

(56:46):
the former Speaker of the House who flew his own plane.
They literally used government resources the same way how they're
misusing the FBI now. And when that happened, we didn't
do anything back. We did nothing and had we done
something back in two thousand and three, we wouldn't be
where we are today, because when a bully hits you

(57:06):
on the playground, you got to hit his ass back.

Speaker 5 (57:09):
And we didn't do that.

Speaker 12 (57:10):
And so now they're thinking that we're just going to
roll over and take it, and we're not anymore.

Speaker 5 (57:15):
We're fighting back.

Speaker 12 (57:16):
But if they go to Missouri and then they're talking
about going to Florida, we need to make sure that
our governors are hitting back.

Speaker 5 (57:24):
And right now there are too many excuses.

Speaker 12 (57:27):
People are saying, well, I can't because of our state
constitution says this, and that Florida has very strict.

Speaker 4 (57:33):
Rules after constitutional amendment, they have.

Speaker 12 (57:36):
Very strict rules in Florida. And I guarantee you I
don't know what the makeup is of the Florida Supreme
Court right now. Andrew can probably.

Speaker 4 (57:43):
Tell us all decide disappointees.

Speaker 12 (57:46):
I promise you, those Federalist Society judges in Florida are
not going to go by the rules. So why the
hell are we still talking about the damn rules? We
need for Jersey, we need New York, we need for Colorado, Angela,
your home state of Washington, we need for them to

(58:07):
draw some long, skinny lines like they did in Texas,
because no one in those cities need to be in
a Kamala Harris eighty four percent district. And they need
to put some of those Democrats in some of those
heavily packed districts in blue states and draw those Republicans out.
They need to draw their asses right out. And if

(58:29):
we if we're going to sit back and talk about
all the rule of law and and and you can't
do that and the Constance, and when they are eliminating
us and eliminating black seats.

Speaker 5 (58:42):
Then what in the hell are we even doing. We
got to fight back. It's now or never.

Speaker 1 (58:48):
Let me tell you. I know Mark is mad when
he cuts it in front of Connerson.

Speaker 4 (58:52):
Clear.

Speaker 1 (58:53):
That's good Mark, That's important. This is one of these
these moments where you have to call a thing a thing.
I think it's really really important. Even though my state
is not as diverse as it once was, there are
populations where people of color need to still have their
representatives and have a voice. We cannot lose sight of
the importance of calling this thing what it is. It

(59:14):
is racist. It is not just political. It may so
happen to be that our politics generally swing left, but
that does not make it just political. It is racist first,
and we've got to lead with that. And I think
that is so important. T If I saw you leaning in,
I don't want to tumble.

Speaker 4 (59:34):
Ref Jones. Can I pick up what Tiffany didn't want to,
just to say, you all have stiffened the spines of
some of these frankly super blue state Democratic governors who
previously before I mean when you sat there with Kathy
Hochl and I heard the words coming from her mouth,

(59:54):
you know, love all the Democrats at all, but I
just wasn't expecting it. You all have, you all have
taken the wool off, and I'm just I'm curious to
know how much of this you can share of your
conversations with some of the more timid of democratic governors
who are not recognizing that they must meet this moment

(01:00:18):
with a threat of mutual destruction. So if you go there,
we all die, right, the system blows up on everybody.

Speaker 8 (01:00:26):
It's a period victory, right. And it was interesting. One
of the reasons that I ended up saying what I
said with Governor Hoko that ended up going viral was
because one of the problems we have with our allies,
our allies who do not have melanin in them is
they don't want to say racist. They just don't want
to say it. And the truth is the Supreme Court

(01:00:49):
that's owned by Trump has said that political gerry mandarin
is legal, that if Republicans want to drive Democrats so
they can have more Republican seats, it's it's legal. So
if you lead with it's a political ger mandering, Repoltans
are trying to draw Democrats out, they can do that.
We have got to be smarter, and we need our

(01:01:11):
allies to call a thing a thing, call a spade
a spade, pull a race card when they're racist, and
they need to say it's racist gerrymandering. And at the
end of the day, what I've said and what I
said then was I need we need our white allies
to call it racist. Right, Black people vote at the

(01:01:33):
highest levels for Democrats, but we are the ones that
are the least protected by Democrats. I mean, we will
have white Democrats filibuster and pink shoes for however many
hours for a woman's right to their body. I'm gonna
need that same vigor and awareness to be brought to

(01:01:57):
racistly gairmandering out the right constitutional right of black and
brown people to elect a representative of their choice. And
to Congressman Cleaver's point, where you want somebody who is progressive,
let's just say progressive, and who's going to be able
to vote progressive things? If you Congressman bc U served

(01:02:20):
with Congressman Turner, and if he say nothing else, people
knew he was.

Speaker 5 (01:02:24):
From the faux FO, which is Acre's Hokers Home Right.

Speaker 8 (01:02:28):
So if you're not from Houston, Texas, you probably did
your research to figure out what is the faux fo?
What is Acres Holmes. When Congressional District eighteen came into
existence in nineteen seventy three, Acres Holmes has always been there.
Acres Homes, Independence Heights, and Acres Holmes came because the

(01:02:48):
homes were on Acres Right. And this is when black
people didn't even have land right. Independence Heights speaks for
itself is independent. Those were always in Congressional District aen
since nineteen seventy three when it was created. In this
new gerrymandered racist map, they have literally removed AGAs Home

(01:03:09):
from CD eighteen. They have removed Independence Heights from CD eighteen,
and put it in CD twenty nine with a latina, right,
So they basically we had a herd of black folks
who had common to share an interest, and we voted
our interests to get somebody elected. And let me tell
you who's who represented CD eighteen, Barbara Jordan, Mickey Leland,

(01:03:34):
Craig Washington, Sheila Jackson, Lee, Sylvester Turner. How do you
take away AGAs Holmes and you basically separated them from
the Herbard. I mean, if you look at those Animal
Kingdom shows, what happens when somebody gets separated from the herbit,
they get eaten, right, that no one's there to protect them.

(01:03:59):
And so this is series. And what they're doing is
they're going and they and what they have to do
in order to succeed is that they've got to go
to urban areas where we are concentrated. Because in Texas
wet from like racist towns. When we get older, the
first thing we do is go to the big city.
We go to Houston, we go to Dallas where we'll
see other people like us. Right, And so they've literally divided.

(01:04:23):
It's called it's a legal terminology cracked. They've cracked the
black community or cracked the Hispanic community and packed them
where they want them to go, to dilute, to dilute
minority power to go who they want. So this is
serious as a heart attack. And again, if you learn
nothing from me, if you get nothing from me from this,

(01:04:45):
is you. We've got to call a thing a thing.
I'm a trial lawyer for thirty years. Here's what I do.
I prepare for my I prepare for my opposition. Right,
how would I get me and I do that if
I'm a Republican lawyer.

Speaker 5 (01:04:58):
In this lawsuit that's going on.

Speaker 8 (01:05:00):
I'm gonna go find every Democrat who on TV said
that it was a powergraph or that Trump is trying
to hold on the power, or that Trump is trying
to get five seats. I'm gonna go and they gonna
be on the witness stand and I'm gonna say, aren't
you Andrew Gillum And you're gonna say, yes, ma'am, ma'am,
And have you been not an advocate to preserve to

(01:05:20):
get rid of these this Jerrymander And you're gonna say, yes, ma'am.

Speaker 6 (01:05:23):
I have.

Speaker 8 (01:05:24):
And did you not say was this on you on TV?
On CNN on this day you're gonna say, yes, ma'am,
and did you not say that this political jerimander And
you're gonna say yes, ma'am, I did because it is.
And I'm gonna say, so it ain't racist, right, and
you will say, well, yes it is, and they say
the thing what you say, so you lined in or
you line now. And every time our allies do not

(01:05:46):
have the courage to say that it's racist, you are
putting a nail in the coffin of black and brown
people to elect representatives of their choice, because that's exactly
what they're going to show. And under Chief Justice Roberts,
political jer man is okay.

Speaker 1 (01:06:02):
That's exactly right. And I want to Congress mc clevean.
I'm coming to you because this is a good time
for the benediction. I know congressm and VC has a
hard out and once, uh in twenty twelve at the DNC,
you told us to march on, boss, so I need
you to close this out bring us home. As Andrew
would say, well.

Speaker 7 (01:06:19):
First of all, thank you. What you guys are doing
is the Lord's work, and uh, thank you. We're fighting.

Speaker 11 (01:06:26):
I mean, this is a brazen effort to reduce the
voices of our people, and we've got to resist, uh
you know. And so this this is a dark moment
for our country and for our people. But we you know,
there is no law against fighting in the dark. So
uh you know, I think this is time for us

(01:06:48):
to punch for sunshine our darkness. And I had to
say to some people earlier today, when we're doing what
we're doing, it's not the hyperbird pabolic rantings of a
member of Congress trying to hold on to a threatened
house seat. This is about falling back into the moments

(01:07:11):
of our parents and grandparents, of their grandparents who brought
us this fall. And we've got to hold on to
the light right now so that when I when, when
when our children and their children, if the light is
still on, so we still have some light.

Speaker 7 (01:07:25):
We have to hold on to the light no matter what.

Speaker 8 (01:07:28):
Uh you know.

Speaker 11 (01:07:29):
Uh, my grandfather used to love to tell people about
down and walks at you. He uh he said, well
you probably don't want well yeah, uh, Visa knows what
walk settes. But uh uh you know he said that
the man took his son to the town. Uh and
uh he told his sons that you stand here on

(01:07:51):
the corner and I'm gonna uh, I'm gonna be back shortly.

Speaker 10 (01:07:57):
Uh.

Speaker 11 (01:07:57):
And if I don't make it through to night, you
got my little flash light here, so you use it.
And so some people came by and a little boy,
you know, away from the humane community.

Speaker 7 (01:08:10):
We are humane. We want you to have a homie
stand over here on the corner. You follow us. I said, no, no, no,
I can't go. I can't go. Why can't you go?
My daddy told me the way there.

Speaker 6 (01:08:20):
Uh.

Speaker 11 (01:08:21):
And so I said, all he's lost. He's gonna be
one of those statistics. So a little while later, another
group of people came by and said, look, you ny,
we're gonna take you down to the restaurant and buy
you some dinner and you can come back and down
in the corner.

Speaker 7 (01:08:35):
Whatever you want to do. We just we'll we'll do goodness.
We want to help you eating. So I thank you
very much.

Speaker 11 (01:08:40):
My daddy told me to stay here and then started raining.
People said, little boy, get out of the rain, get
out the right and now I'm gonna stay with My
daddy told me to stay no matter what. So when
a jaddy showed up later, it doesn't how to go
son and said, well, you know, started raining, as you
know it's done in the light, and I got scared,
but I remember that you told me to.

Speaker 7 (01:08:58):
Hold on to the light.

Speaker 11 (01:08:59):
And then I stood up and some women came by
and they wanted to take me and try to fix me. Said,
but I didn't go with them because you wanted me
to hold on to the light. Well, there are a
lot of things going to come our way, of people
trying to say, you know this is crazy, just surrender.
We gotta tell we're gonna hold on to the light
no matter what happens.

Speaker 5 (01:09:16):
We're gonna hold on.

Speaker 7 (01:09:18):
To the light, not just for us, but for generations
not even torn.

Speaker 11 (01:09:22):
We want them to know that there were some people,
some African Americans as we went into the twenty twenties,
who decided they were.

Speaker 7 (01:09:30):
Gonna hold on to the light. And then it is
because they held onto the light, we still have a life.

Speaker 4 (01:09:36):
That's all right. That's all right. And Congressman and future
Congresswoman Angela, I know you're gonna wrap this section, but
I just have one piece of advice, which is simple,
which is I don't know if it's gonna be you
congressmen and pastic cleverer, or if it's going to be you,
Representative Jones. But we need a convening of the Democratic

(01:09:57):
leaders of Houses and representatives and all of the states,
and or speakers or speaker designates in all the states,
because I don't want to turn on the television and
see Democrats and negotiating against themselves to hand over power
to Republicans, because we want to choose the higher ground
or the higher civil democracy ground, because we've already seen

(01:10:21):
where that leads us. You don't take a spoon to
the gunfight. You've already said it. But conversation can't be
had in public. It needs to be had, it needs
to be the fight needs to take place there. So
the game playan is we have to do what is
required in this moment to win.

Speaker 8 (01:10:41):
And I just want to make sure that whenever we
have this convening, as you said, we need to make
sure that we have black representation at the table.

Speaker 4 (01:10:49):
Absolutely, we have to that's all.

Speaker 1 (01:10:52):
That's all I want to talk to. I want to
talk to the black legislators, the black elected officials at
every level. I've been looking at Congressman William Lacy Clay's
book Just Permanent Interest, just to get inspiration for this moment.
They had a black elected officials convening before they even
did Gary in nineteen seventy two with the National Black
Political Convention. So we are way past time. We are

(01:11:15):
over time, not just for this podcast, but also for
this meeting. So Andrew, I appreciate you saying that State
Representative Julanda Jones always a pleasure, Thank you for joining
us today.

Speaker 4 (01:11:23):
Thank you, Thank you, representative.

Speaker 1 (01:11:25):
And that's what's is absolutely and as it always is,
the black woman held it now, she stayed the August tip.
That's what's happening.

Speaker 4 (01:11:34):
I love it. They were great, and Angela, your point
is is that, yeah, we do need a black meeting.
What I'm terrified of is the Democratic Republican in Colorado,
Democratic governor in Colorado.

Speaker 1 (01:11:46):
Who may Democratic republics all.

Speaker 4 (01:11:49):
I want to say, and I don't know what his
position is, but I don't want to see them doing
these interviews where these interviewers put them in the position.
Will they say, isn't it the right thing for democracy
to independent redistricting?

Speaker 7 (01:12:01):
Yes?

Speaker 4 (01:12:01):
When rules are fair, yes, but when they're cheating, when
they're cheating, we have to level the field. And I'm
terribly afraid that we're going to have too many of
our folks not willing to jump when the time comes,
and so they got to get it together, and they
need to do it behind closed doors.

Speaker 1 (01:12:19):
Well, and that's just it, you know. And I think
I was telling y'all this earlier. TI if I want
a hushk, I do want to hear your perspectives on
this too. When we were in Tunica this weekend, Congressman Thompson,
I actually handed him to. Mike Joy and I were
doing this fireside chat and we were talking about the
Freedom to Vote Act, where members were pushing for these
independent commissions. And these independent commissions work when people are

(01:12:45):
in integrity. They do not work when you're playing with
people who don't play by the same rule book or anything.
So Congressman Thompson was one of the only Democrats to
vote against this bill. Nancy Pelosi was on his head,
what are you doing? Why are you voting against this?

Speaker 8 (01:12:58):
He said, I.

Speaker 1 (01:12:59):
Don't will leave in these independent commissions. I want to
be right. I don't want to be fair. We're not
playing with people who want to be fair. And he
ended up being the property always is too.

Speaker 3 (01:13:10):
I mean, I to be honest, we've talked on this
podcast a few times about what does a twenty twenty
eight look like?

Speaker 1 (01:13:18):
And I think this is a preview for it.

Speaker 3 (01:13:20):
I was listening to them talk and I think this
is one tiny area that casts a wide net of influence,
but it's one tiny area where we can fight, where
we need to make our voices heard. I think we're
just looking at this is how they plan to cheat,
you know, this is how this will impact midst our elections.

(01:13:40):
This is going to impact the presidential elections.

Speaker 7 (01:13:42):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:13:43):
It's happening before our eyes. And it again feels like
we're being flooded because they're flooding the zone. Everything is
happening before our eyes. We are turning into a police
state before our eyes. Like literally out outside the window
where I'm looking at it's you know, DC has thirty
plus different law enforcement agencies here. This is going to

(01:14:05):
take place all across city. So it was nice to hear,
particularly Saint Rep. Jones, she's been coloring the airwaves and
you know with her fire and this is We talked
about how we came to know congress Woman Jasmine Crockett
because she too fled the state of Texas during a
crucial vote and people fell in love with her on air. Yeah,

(01:14:28):
so it's just nice to see us fighting somewhere.

Speaker 12 (01:14:30):
I am.

Speaker 3 (01:14:32):
Cautiously optimistic about what tangible impact this will have. I
also appreciate her point about allies refusing to say the
word racist, because to me, that makes you less of
an ally. And I've given this example before, but it's
like if you're at the airport and some you know,

(01:14:53):
white man comes up to you and he's like, excuse me, ma'am,
you need to get out of line. This is for
first class passengers only, and you they're like, well you
because I am in first class, and this whole you
know thing as symbols. And then when it's all over,
all the good hearted white folks come up to you like,
I just want to say, that was completely inappropriate and
we do not support that. I don't need that right now.

(01:15:14):
What I needed is for you, in the moment to
come up and say, wait a second, you will not
speak to this woman that way. That is not appropriate.

Speaker 1 (01:15:22):
That is allyship.

Speaker 3 (01:15:23):
The other one is an effort to make you feel
good about yourself. But the ally jumps in the fight
when the fight is happening, and cause of a thing
so I really like that that she called that out.

Speaker 1 (01:15:34):
Okay, everybody, well, right after this, we're going to get
to CTA's because you know, we have cost to action.
Would you all like to talk about on the mini pie?

Speaker 3 (01:15:51):
I have a story I would like to tell on
the mini pie, but I kind of want y'all's opinion.
But I told y'all a story before. But when when
she talks about that thing, I said, I want to
tell the story that I told y'all briefly before about
potential violence with some of these people. I told y'all, don't.

Speaker 4 (01:16:11):
Remember none of you or you're just making sure it's
not to be born.

Speaker 1 (01:16:15):
And not too boring. I don't know what I'm talking about.
I just I just I just feel like, I mean,
maybe and maybe this is me being the political nerd.
I just feel so drawn to this redistricting peace tip
because there are these these these fights that are going
to be waged on us, and I you know, my

(01:16:36):
math isn't great, but I just want to see how
the math is going to math. Like if Florida is
talking about taking more seats, Florida is twenty of the
twenty eight seats right now in Congress are Republican in Florida.
They're talking about Nebraska, now Missouri. Of course, we just
had mister Cleever on Andre and Indiana. You know, South Carolina,
they're threatening mister Clybird's seat. You know when they were

(01:16:58):
trying to draw another black districy not that long ago, Ohio, Texas, Louisiana,
And I don't know what's going to happen with Alabama.
Shamari just got there, So you want to I'm like, still,
I meant it, But I believe in a democracy.

Speaker 4 (01:17:11):
So I want to about the math. I want to
talk about how we survive mutual annihilation. But yeah, I
think I think what she's saying will carry us there.

Speaker 1 (01:17:27):
I also want to talk about when is Eric Holder
coming on, because I want him to defend these independent commissions.

Speaker 4 (01:17:32):
I think we can be for them and still set
it aside right now, which is why we should have
that conversation.

Speaker 3 (01:17:37):
I think there's some daylight between you guys on that. Okay,
So on the Mini I will tell a story when
I almost literally came to blows with this white woman.
I will tell that story. Yes, I will tell that
story on the mini pod, okay, And that will leave
us the fight of us coming to blows.

Speaker 4 (01:17:58):
Don't get what.

Speaker 1 (01:18:02):
Listen, I would like to de arrest you.

Speaker 4 (01:18:05):
Yeah, I definitely want to de escalate the matter.

Speaker 3 (01:18:07):
Yeah, okay, all right, well let's do our calls to action.

Speaker 1 (01:18:11):
Oh yes, that's important because I was definitely just about
to close out the show. But yes, we should do call.

Speaker 4 (01:18:17):
Uh, y'all could be prayed up. My two first children
are now middle schoolers as of this week. Uh so
uh praying up all the families who are dealing with
them the return to school, Thank you Jesus. But also,
you know, growing kids who who think they've grown and
ain't grown. You know that.

Speaker 3 (01:18:36):
Well, congratulations for surviving this far Andrew. It reminds me
of the episode of The Cosby Show where it's the
first day back to school and Ruby packed her own lunch.

Speaker 1 (01:18:48):
So congrats.

Speaker 4 (01:18:49):
That's exciting.

Speaker 1 (01:18:50):
Though in the time.

Speaker 3 (01:18:52):
All the parents days days are long and the years
a short.

Speaker 4 (01:18:55):
Juggling, so this time is gonna go by absolutely.

Speaker 3 (01:18:58):
Yeah, So that's a believe it back to school already?
Speaking of my goodness, I guess.

Speaker 1 (01:19:03):
So, TIV, what's your CTA?

Speaker 3 (01:19:06):
My call to action is to survive these encounters with
law enforcement I'm struck by what I'm seeing across the
streets of DC. And I know, we know, we collectively
know right now with certainty, that these interactions will continue
to expand he's already said he's coming to Chicago, Baltimore,
Oakland and other cities, particularly those were black mayors. So

(01:19:29):
it's fine for us to protest, it's fine for us
to not yield to authoritarianism, but please survive, know your rights,
and survive the encounter. Because I don't want any of
y'all to be a hashtag. I don't want us showing
pictures or bodycam footage of somebody whose anger got the
better of them. We have to be smart and strategic
with how we confront authoritarianism is particularly when it comes

(01:19:54):
to people who are armed and have been given immunity
to do whatever they want to to you. We got
to be smart about that.

Speaker 5 (01:20:01):
Son'll survive.

Speaker 1 (01:20:04):
Please survive. We need you to. My call to action
is actually I need you all to toorn your neighbor
and say fifty dollars well, thank you for your participation.
We are giving away a fifty dollars gift card to
some lucky winner for those of you who agree to
take our survey. We have an audience survey that you

(01:20:25):
all have seen a great promo from tip about online
if you follow us on Instagram. We also have a
clip of it up on our YouTube and it is
in our podcast as a promo. We want you to
weigh in. Tell us what you like about the show,
give us your feedback. We definitely want to hear from you.
You can check out the link in this episode's description.

(01:20:46):
And I really want to just say, you know, the
loonies might have said they got five on it. We
got fifty on it, so we've been beaten the loonies
up here right and a poster right, Oh yes, and
it's consolation prize for those of you who don't get
the f fifty dollars is a sign poster from us.
Some of you are all excited about it. I don't
know why, but we're gratefuls And as always, we want

(01:21:08):
to remind everyone to leave us a review and subscribe
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It's Politics with Jamil Hill Off The Cup with Si
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(01:21:29):
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on Native landpod dot com. We are your hosts Angela Raie,
Tiffany Cross and Andrew Gillum. Welcome home, y'all. There are
four hundred and forty six days until the midtermination one
of the last morning.

Speaker 2 (01:21:50):
Say thank you for joining the Native's attention to what
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Cross connected to the statements that you leave on our socials.
Thank you so for the patients Reason for your Choice
is cleared, so grateful and took to execute Road for serve,
defend and protect the truth even in paste Walcome home.

Speaker 4 (01:22:09):
To all of the Natives, We thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:22:25):
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Angela Rye

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}On This Week’s Episode of “How to Be a Dictator”