March 28, 2025 • 21 mins
Part 2 looks at the Black community's approval of Trump and the Democratic party.
New data (brought to us by our guest and President of HIT Strategies Terrance Woodbury) shows the Democratic party losing support from what has historically been its most reliable voting base: Black folks. Meanwhile, Trump’s approval has doubled since 2017. What gives? And where do we go from here?
Civil rights advocate Gary Chambers has some answers, as do our hosts Angela Rye, Tiffany Cross, and Andrew Gillum.
If you’d like to submit a question, check out our tutorial video: www.instagram.com/reel/C5j_oBXLIg0/
Welcome home y’all!
—---------
We want to hear from you! Send us a video @nativelandpod and we may feature you on the podcast.
Watch full episodes of Native Land Pod here on YouTube.
Native Land Pod is brought to you by Reasoned Choice Media.
Thank you to the Native Land Pod team:
Angela Rye as host, executive producer and cofounder of Reasoned Choice Media; Tiffany Cross as host and producer, Andrew Gillum as host and producer, and Lauren Hansen as executive producer; Loren Mychael is our research producer, and Nikolas Harter is our editor and producer. Special thanks to Chris Morrow and Lenard McKelvey, co-founders of Reasoned Choice Media.
Theme music created by Daniel Laurent.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Native Land Pod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership
with Reasoned Choice Media.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Well come, well come, well come, well come, well come, welcome.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Welcome home, everybody. Let's get to part two of our conversation.
If you tuned in on Thursday of this week, you
know we had a very intense and warm, full conversation
about the dynamics of black men and black women and
how it penetrates our politics and where we are today.
We're going to pick up now with part two of
that conversation, and just so you're not confused, we want
(00:29):
to bring you up to speed on where we left
the conversation yesterday, so you'll hear a few moments of
talk from a Thursday's episode as we bleed into this
week's mini pod. Drop us a comment, let us know
what you think.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
So when we heard all throughout the cycle, voters want
to know, but who is Kamala? And I think a
lot of us read that as it's because she's black,
And I don't think it was that simplistic. I think
black people wanted to know who is she, just like
we wanted to know who is he? With Barack Obama,
who had a experience that I can't even relate to
(01:02):
as a black person having grown up in this country,
and so that thirst is real. And if there were
takeaways from it is folks are gonna they want to
be able to trace you. They want to track you
and trace you so that they know for the decisions
that have yet to come, that they instinctually feel that
you've got some options that you're going to consider, even
(01:23):
if you're not considering them out loud before you make
a decision. And I want to know that for as
a black person, that you're gonna have an experience in
this country that will have some resonance with mine. Yeah,
so that when you're confronted by the question, that you're
going to have some sensibilities and sensitivities that reflect my
lived experience to and not just theirs.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
And that is such a great point because now we're
at a point in this country's history where people are like, well,
the real fighters please stand up, Terrence. I know you
have some data to talk about where we are now
and where folks expect us to go from here, particularly
through the lens of black voters. Because this is all
Black Everything podcast, So let's go ahead and get into that.
Speaker 5 (02:06):
Yeah, for sure, Angela.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
You know, we along with understanding where black voters were
in twenty twenty four and why they voted the way
they voted, we are we've been curious about where black
voters are now, how they feel about some of Trump's actions,
how they feel about how Democrats are responding to those actions.
And we see a couple of very important trends. Number
one is that a majority of black voters do not
(02:28):
agree with the way that Democrats are responding to Trump
and Congress. Only forty six percent of Black voters agree
approve of the way that Democrats have been responding to
Trump and Congress forty six percent of the most loyal
voters in the Democratic coalition. This represents a christ like
(02:50):
black vote. Democrats are not where their electorate wants them
to be. And then the second question over here that
we got from Data for Progress asks the question, which
of the following statements is closest to your opinion on
how Democrats in Congress should approach the Trump administration. Twenty
two percent of Black folks say that Democrats should keep
their heads down and allow Trump and Republicans to expose
(03:13):
themselves as failures. Twenty two percent say just let them fail.
But seventy eight percent of black folks, the overwhelming majority,
want to see Democrats fight like hell. And so that
is some of the frustration that we are picking up,
the righteous indignation from the seventy three million Americans that
(03:33):
voted know to Donald Trump and that want to see
what we've been describing as less of a minority party
and more of an opposition party. Opposition is action, It
is an active resistance to what is happening, and Black
voters and Democratic voters want to see more of that.
(03:55):
On the next LODT, you'll see the impact of this, right,
You'll see that when we just asked you just pure
approval rating, do you approve or disapprove of the job
that Trump is doing and the job the Democrats are
doing well on the left there you'll see and if
I'm just going to give just the black perspective, which
is all way at the bottom. In the first quarter
of Donald Trump's first term in twenty seventeen, only fifteen
(04:18):
percent of black folks agreed to what he was doing
fifteen percent. Today, in the first quarter of the second term,
thirty three percent of black folks approve of the job
that Donald Trump is doing.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Are we watching the same movie?
Speaker 6 (04:31):
What is wrong with these people?
Speaker 4 (04:33):
We have work to do that It is so much
worse this time, much worse.
Speaker 5 (04:38):
It's so much worse.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
We have work to do connecting the dots for black
folks on how the actions that he's taking are actually
hurting people, How tariffs will raise the price on goods
that Americans already can't afford. How he's cutting FAA while
planes are falling from the sky and cutting National Weather
Service while weather emergencies are killing people.
Speaker 5 (04:56):
We have to connect these dots.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
He's not just cutting jobs in Washington, he's cutting programs
that protect and secure our communities.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Its interrogated it though just a little bit further. If
government is the object of a lot of your pain,
the letters that you get from the government, when you
interact with it, your whole time is longer. When you
do get a check, it ain't as big as you
want it to be.
Speaker 6 (05:23):
And then they're coming back around to collect that from you.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
If and you hear that they're shut down, you know,
and you hear that there are going to be layoffs
for this, for this center of people, this population of
people who you haven't felt served by I'm not certain
that you're going to have a big cheerleading squad there
if you see that the first departments that are being
shuttered in the government are serving international purposes, when a
(05:48):
lot of us are saying, I need street lights, we
need running water that I can trust my kids to
drink because it isn't toxic. If we draw these things
back to the themes that I think all of us
have heard our and our places and in our spaces,
it doesn't alarm me that the thing that you hear
(06:10):
about is we donna cut government jobs. That's good, and
you might get some checks back for the savings that
we may achieve.
Speaker 6 (06:18):
That might be good too.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
And that of all the things that they're going after
and that they're attacking, they seem to be attacking the
stuff that ain't serving me anyway. Now, whether or not
any of that is all the way true if we
were to fully interrogate it, which I don't believe it
to be the case, but these are real themes for
us fight with Mexico.
Speaker 6 (06:35):
When I believe Mexicans are taking my job, go fight them.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
That's good, so good.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Yeah, So I think it isn't that our people are
off the reservation because we don't have to know all
the details to know what we're being screwed or where
somebody else is. I just think everybody were all the
way round because you're screwing more lasting and more painful
than the one I'm gonna give that guy, And I
think a lot of folks might.
Speaker 7 (07:04):
If you're a guy in Chicago where Greg Avid bust
people in and now housing is an issue for you,
and jobs are an issue for you because of all
of these migrants, and you see that Trump is bringing
in somebody to take the migrants back out. Those people
are not upset at Donald Trump today, okay, And I
think that there is a reality that we have to
(07:25):
wrestle with that the Democratic Party's failures on messaging is
biting them in the ass day. To Andrew's point that
you got to fight at every round of the fight,
George Foreman and I LEI when that fight happened in
that day, Ali went rounds and rounds with him to
wear him out till.
Speaker 6 (07:45):
He could knock him out.
Speaker 7 (07:46):
Because at the end of the day, I have to
be in this with this big joker who's got more.
Speaker 5 (07:52):
Size than me, more ability than me.
Speaker 7 (07:53):
Right now, but I got to box you every round
when you got ha Keen Jeffries down there making excuse
us for Chuck Schumer right now, that's not helpful for
Black America to believe that the Democratic Party is on branding,
on message. If either your tone death and not comprehending
what is going on in the communities and the underbeluy
of this country, or you are just so committed to
(08:15):
your way of doing that you think that.
Speaker 5 (08:17):
You're committed to losing. Because we have been committed.
Speaker 7 (08:20):
To a strategy of niceties and getting along to go along,
and people are sick of.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
That shit, and we're standard bearers for the status quo
of everything that has frankly had the Justice Department, you
can I mean, I couldn't tell you honestly how I
feel about it, because it'd be very personal and probably
irresponsible for the largest scheme of it. But if a party,
one party is saying we represent the status quote and
that we keep all things as they are or else,
(08:48):
this is an attack on democracy and the way it
shows up in your life. So we need to keep
justice and keep people who are going to disrupt that
out of there. It's like no justic has been bad
for us since they created it. Yeah, been what's created
to terrize our leaders. You talked to me about a CIA.
You know this, and that all of those I consider
not just enemies of the state, but enemies of my people.
(09:09):
Is what a lot of folks you all conclusion on.
And all I can derive from your message is that
you are the standard bearer for the status quo government
as is more of it.
Speaker 6 (09:19):
I so good we're starting with that.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
I think it's a travesty that Andrew is not on
somebody's thinking because I think that perspective is so key Andrew.
And I just I'm going to probably annoy Angela and
Andrew because I say this every episode, I have to
say I don't Yes. Messaging by the Democratic Party was
a huge failure. Messaging in journalism and media was also
a huge failure that they were not giving people information,
that they treated the news coverage and fact finding as
(09:44):
though it was entertainment. You bring on a clan member
and a nation of Islam and then say let's get
ready to rumble and put that out as entertainment for people. So,
if you didn't have a reliable source of information where
you got your information was from podcast Bros. Was from
your instagut fee, which was devastating and disappointing to our
our democratic process. Gary, you said something, and I'm looking
(10:06):
for a little bit of hope here. I will give
it to Angela every week. I think does a good
job of like trying to not even her intention, just
naturally trying to give me hope because she knows I'm
pretty flat lined. And her trauma response, I think is
I'm gonna act, I'm anna move, and mine is I
just kind of feel petrified. When we were together, you said,
(10:28):
y'all keep talking like it ain't gonna be another election,
And there are forty nine and a half million black
people out there who believe that. Andrew wanted to get
into what's happening in Georgia. What's happening in Georgia with
the executive order and purging voters from the roles and
making it more difficult for votes to be counted is
going to have. It's been happening all across the country,
and we'll continue to see more of that. I do
(10:50):
not believe that we will see another free and fair
election when it gets to midterms, and particularly not beyond that.
What do you say to that, because you are passionate
and I know you have an election in Louisiana. I
want to talk about it. Yes, yeah, so I'm kicking
the bally. You give me some hope, brother, if you can,
(11:19):
since that.
Speaker 7 (11:19):
We have never had fair elections. We have never had
falu elections. They have never been appeared in history of
this country where black folks have lived in a space
of faction.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (11:30):
I live in South Louisiana where we're still fighting for
a congressional district that we drew in nineteen ninety, got
kicked out by the Supreme Court, fighting in the Supreme
Court in twenty twenty to get it again, got a
congressman elected to it, and they're trying to kick him
out again. So this has never been a fast system
to us. The reality, though, is we.
Speaker 6 (11:49):
Make it fairer by us strugcture.
Speaker 5 (11:52):
We make it fairer.
Speaker 7 (11:53):
It is on us, and I think that some of
us want to absolve ourselves from the responsibility that we
have in this hour to carry this burden. I don't
enjoy this burden, but it is our burden to bear.
And for me, the hope is in you. The hope
is in Angela The hope is in Andrew, The hope
is in Terrors and all this badass data he's given
(12:16):
us to inspire and motivate black people to get up
and claim their power. To let black folks know that
if you are in Georgia, you are in the third
blackest state in America, and they trying to take you
off the roads.
Speaker 5 (12:28):
And the only way they can write you off is
if you let them.
Speaker 7 (12:31):
And that is our job in this hour to be
the beacon of hope and light and truth to our people.
The only way they are successful is if we lay down.
That is the only way they will be successful. Will
they restructure the government, Yes, it needs to be restructured.
Speaker 5 (12:46):
We get to come back and take it back.
Speaker 7 (12:48):
I believe we are in a dawn of a third
reconstruction of sorts.
Speaker 5 (12:52):
In this country.
Speaker 7 (12:54):
And I think that as we navigate that, the question
for us is what do we want fairness to look
like for the next hundred years? Because every time there
is a great I heard Sean King say this, and
this is somebody else who's been decimated by speaking truth
in these hours, right, Sean King talked about the peaks
(13:16):
and the valleys, right, and that following every peak for
us as a people, there'll be a deep valley, and
how we dig ourselves out of that valley and move
ourselves forward is the question. I think that the organizing
we're seeing in this hour was not happening prior to
this level of.
Speaker 5 (13:35):
Pain and frustration.
Speaker 7 (13:37):
And the reality is every time we've seen great upheaval
in progress for our people is because of the shared pain.
Speaker 5 (13:45):
That we were in.
Speaker 7 (13:46):
The shared pain of slavery brought us through the revolution
that created that first reconstruction in this country. The shared
pain of jimcro and the civil rights being denied to
us created the upheople that happened in the sixties. The
shared pain that endures between black folks today and working class,
poor white people in America will change this country for
(14:09):
the next hundred years. And while I don't like the
things that are taking place, I take it as a
badge of honor that I get to be in the
field with.
Speaker 5 (14:16):
You all today.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Like right back at you, Gary, thank you for that.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Can I respond to some of that, man, because I
just I'm so appreciative to the work that Gary's doing
in Louisiana. I believe this, and I'm pretty sure I
got this from Gary. It's a quote I've been saying
for so long, I don't know who I got it from,
so take credit for it if I got it from you, Gary.
Speaker 5 (14:33):
But the truth is that the South are not red states.
They are oppressed states.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Right there are three states in the South that are
in fact blacker than Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, where we
do have an opportunity to replace the blue wall across
the Midwest with a black ass wall across the South
that is more durable, and that changes the political map
that we've been fighting on. The second thing I want
(14:58):
to say is that you know, black folks don't want
to and I've been saying this since twenty twenty two,
when we first when Democrats first started running on defending democracy.
Black folks don't want to defend the system that has
failed them. Right now, we can recruit black people into
fixing democracy. And I think right now he's broken it
substantially enough that we can recruit some folks into it.
(15:19):
Because there are some levers of our democracy, the things
that protect us separation of power and rule of law,
that ain't nobody above the law, Free and fair elections,
and peaceful transfer of power. He has broken all of
this shit. He has broken rule of law, broken peaceful
transfer of power, broken independent media, broken free markets. We
(15:42):
now have to recruit our folks. And it was Barbara
Jordan who said in a I'm sorry Benjamin Franklin who
first said that if we have a democracy, we can
keep it. I would say, in this moment, we have
a democracy if we can take it back. And the
Barbara Jordan quote that is as fires me in this
moment with something she said during her Nixon Nixon impeachment
(16:04):
speech where she said, for the first two hundred years,
black folks weren't included in we the people. Because that's
exactly right, and because we were not included in that constitution,
I had to fight and toil and sacrifice to be included.
That is what makes us in the best position to
defend it.
Speaker 5 (16:21):
And that's where we are. We got to recruit our
folks to defend this thing and take it back.
Speaker 6 (16:25):
And thank you, Terrence.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
And maybe that's where we go from here, which is
maybe we close with some of the inspirational words or
quotes that maybe give us hope here. Gary, as you
were talking about the peaks in the valleys, which I
think we all understand. I was reminded of something my pastor,
then now Bishop McAllister said, which is Andrew never ever
(16:46):
ever buy real estate.
Speaker 6 (16:48):
In the valley. And what he meant is, when you're.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
In the valley of your life, whatever the circumstance is,
when you're in that down trop don't camp out.
Speaker 6 (16:56):
It's temporary.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
So with despair or absence of hope, we may be
in the valley, but that's not a time to buy
real estate.
Speaker 6 (17:03):
There's not a time to camp out.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
You spend that time struggling on and strategizing on the
get out of the valley and not camping out there
on real estate.
Speaker 6 (17:14):
That you buy when you're in that deep dark place.
So hopefully more more of us will do that. Angela,
I am.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
I'm so grateful for you all joining us today. Clearly,
this is just the beginning of a conversation that we
scratch the surface on, and it needs.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
To be many more.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
So I hope y'all will come back over and over
again and that we can keep broadening this. I will say,
just in full disclosure. Part of the reason why I
wanted to ensure that you all could be here as
a conversation that Tif and I really have been having
all week and talked about it with Andrew this morning.
We saw some in a space we were recently all in.
(17:49):
We saw some of the tensions that exist and until
we start to unpack them and pull them apart. The
pain that Tif reference, the pain that you reference, Gary,
the lack of trust that exists, the the many layers
that are black people that we can appreciate but also
have to understand that at some point. Yet it's as
much as I don't like a melt about, we got
to melt for our power because that's where the math
(18:10):
is in the melt. So I hope that we will
continue to push against our own biases, you know, try
to uncover our own blind spots and really figure out
where we can meet our folks in the pain, in
the trauma, and then also in the triumph, because we
deserve it. This is absolutely the place that we built,
and so it absolutely must serve us, and we should
(18:31):
stop at nothing less. So I appreciate y'all, and I've
defer to my sister Tip.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
I just echo everything you said, Angela and Gary and Terrence.
I really appreciate your boldness. Gary, I appreciate that you
lead with authenticity. I love the ad that you did
when you ran for Senate with the blunt in the
middle of a lot of reasons, for a lot of reasons,
(18:59):
but I will say because I think so many people
are afraid to lead with their convictions, and I wonder
what would have happened had Vice President Harris run a
campaign that led with her convictions instead of trying to
walk the middle of the road and appeal to people.
To your point, when your black folks is your base,
that's who you take care of, but they have such
(19:21):
a heart on for white folks, and I just I
think we will continue to see people who try to
walk that middle of the road become political roadkill increasingly. Terrance,
your data is so crucially important to how we march forward,
and you've both given me a little bit of hope today,
a little bit of fight today, and I'm writing a
lot about this. I'll be following up with both of
(19:42):
you guys to get your input, just to make sure
that I'm on the right side of history as I
try to capture this moment and what's happening between black
men and black women. So I thank you, and I
want to shout out our brother Andrew, who's our resident
black man on the panel. I feel like we have
I like Andrew and I have a lot of philosophical
(20:03):
conversations whenever we have the pleasure of being in the
same city, in the same vicinity, and so I think
a lot of this touched on some of the conversations
we have, and it touched on a lot of aspects
of my personal life, you know, as I'm navigating some
of these opinions and the mirror that some black men
have been to me. So it's just been a really helpful,
thriving conversation that I hope dwarfs some of these podcasts
(20:27):
Bros conversation and some of these social media clips that
go viral with black men and black women talking about
why they can't stand each other and who did who wrong.
I hope that we've tackled this with a lot more
depth and grace and input and purpose.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
So thank you to be continued everybody, and again, Terrence
and Gary, we just want to say welcome home.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
Thank you, thank you so much for having us on
the podcast.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Native Land Pod is the production of iHeartRadio in partnership
with resent choice Media. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Native Land Pod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership
with Reasoned Choice Media.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Well come, well come, well come, well come, well come, welcome.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Welcome home, everybody. Let's get to part two of our conversation.
If you tuned in on Thursday of this week, you
know we had a very intense and warm, full conversation
about the dynamics of black men and black women and
how it penetrates our politics and where we are today.
We're going to pick up now with part two of
that conversation, and just so you're not confused, we want
(00:29):
to bring you up to speed on where we left
the conversation yesterday, so you'll hear a few moments of
talk from a Thursday's episode as we bleed into this
week's mini pod. Drop us a comment, let us know
what you think.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
So when we heard all throughout the cycle, voters want
to know, but who is Kamala? And I think a
lot of us read that as it's because she's black,
And I don't think it was that simplistic. I think
black people wanted to know who is she, just like
we wanted to know who is he? With Barack Obama,
who had a experience that I can't even relate to
(01:02):
as a black person having grown up in this country,
and so that thirst is real. And if there were
takeaways from it is folks are gonna they want to
be able to trace you. They want to track you
and trace you so that they know for the decisions
that have yet to come, that they instinctually feel that
you've got some options that you're going to consider, even
(01:23):
if you're not considering them out loud before you make
a decision. And I want to know that for as
a black person, that you're gonna have an experience in
this country that will have some resonance with mine. Yeah,
so that when you're confronted by the question, that you're
going to have some sensibilities and sensitivities that reflect my
lived experience to and not just theirs.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
And that is such a great point because now we're
at a point in this country's history where people are like, well,
the real fighters please stand up, Terrence. I know you
have some data to talk about where we are now
and where folks expect us to go from here, particularly
through the lens of black voters. Because this is all
Black Everything podcast, So let's go ahead and get into that.
Speaker 5 (02:06):
Yeah, for sure, Angela.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
You know, we along with understanding where black voters were
in twenty twenty four and why they voted the way
they voted, we are we've been curious about where black
voters are now, how they feel about some of Trump's actions,
how they feel about how Democrats are responding to those actions.
And we see a couple of very important trends. Number
one is that a majority of black voters do not
(02:28):
agree with the way that Democrats are responding to Trump
and Congress. Only forty six percent of Black voters agree
approve of the way that Democrats have been responding to
Trump and Congress forty six percent of the most loyal
voters in the Democratic coalition. This represents a christ like
(02:50):
black vote. Democrats are not where their electorate wants them
to be. And then the second question over here that
we got from Data for Progress asks the question, which
of the following statements is closest to your opinion on
how Democrats in Congress should approach the Trump administration. Twenty
two percent of Black folks say that Democrats should keep
their heads down and allow Trump and Republicans to expose
(03:13):
themselves as failures. Twenty two percent say just let them fail.
But seventy eight percent of black folks, the overwhelming majority,
want to see Democrats fight like hell. And so that
is some of the frustration that we are picking up,
the righteous indignation from the seventy three million Americans that
(03:33):
voted know to Donald Trump and that want to see
what we've been describing as less of a minority party
and more of an opposition party. Opposition is action, It
is an active resistance to what is happening, and Black
voters and Democratic voters want to see more of that.
(03:55):
On the next LODT, you'll see the impact of this, right,
You'll see that when we just asked you just pure
approval rating, do you approve or disapprove of the job
that Trump is doing and the job the Democrats are
doing well on the left there you'll see and if
I'm just going to give just the black perspective, which
is all way at the bottom. In the first quarter
of Donald Trump's first term in twenty seventeen, only fifteen
(04:18):
percent of black folks agreed to what he was doing
fifteen percent. Today, in the first quarter of the second term,
thirty three percent of black folks approve of the job
that Donald Trump is doing.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Are we watching the same movie?
Speaker 6 (04:31):
What is wrong with these people?
Speaker 4 (04:33):
We have work to do that It is so much
worse this time, much worse.
Speaker 5 (04:38):
It's so much worse.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
We have work to do connecting the dots for black
folks on how the actions that he's taking are actually
hurting people, How tariffs will raise the price on goods
that Americans already can't afford. How he's cutting FAA while
planes are falling from the sky and cutting National Weather
Service while weather emergencies are killing people.
Speaker 5 (04:56):
We have to connect these dots.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
He's not just cutting jobs in Washington, he's cutting programs
that protect and secure our communities.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Its interrogated it though just a little bit further. If
government is the object of a lot of your pain,
the letters that you get from the government, when you
interact with it, your whole time is longer. When you
do get a check, it ain't as big as you
want it to be.
Speaker 6 (05:23):
And then they're coming back around to collect that from you.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
If and you hear that they're shut down, you know,
and you hear that there are going to be layoffs
for this, for this center of people, this population of
people who you haven't felt served by I'm not certain
that you're going to have a big cheerleading squad there
if you see that the first departments that are being
shuttered in the government are serving international purposes, when a
(05:48):
lot of us are saying, I need street lights, we
need running water that I can trust my kids to
drink because it isn't toxic. If we draw these things
back to the themes that I think all of us
have heard our and our places and in our spaces,
it doesn't alarm me that the thing that you hear
(06:10):
about is we donna cut government jobs. That's good, and
you might get some checks back for the savings that
we may achieve.
Speaker 6 (06:18):
That might be good too.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
And that of all the things that they're going after
and that they're attacking, they seem to be attacking the
stuff that ain't serving me anyway. Now, whether or not
any of that is all the way true if we
were to fully interrogate it, which I don't believe it
to be the case, but these are real themes for
us fight with Mexico.
Speaker 6 (06:35):
When I believe Mexicans are taking my job, go fight them.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
That's good, so good.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Yeah, So I think it isn't that our people are
off the reservation because we don't have to know all
the details to know what we're being screwed or where
somebody else is. I just think everybody were all the
way round because you're screwing more lasting and more painful
than the one I'm gonna give that guy, And I
think a lot of folks might.
Speaker 7 (07:04):
If you're a guy in Chicago where Greg Avid bust
people in and now housing is an issue for you,
and jobs are an issue for you because of all
of these migrants, and you see that Trump is bringing
in somebody to take the migrants back out. Those people
are not upset at Donald Trump today, okay, And I
think that there is a reality that we have to
(07:25):
wrestle with that the Democratic Party's failures on messaging is
biting them in the ass day. To Andrew's point that
you got to fight at every round of the fight,
George Foreman and I LEI when that fight happened in
that day, Ali went rounds and rounds with him to
wear him out till.
Speaker 6 (07:45):
He could knock him out.
Speaker 7 (07:46):
Because at the end of the day, I have to
be in this with this big joker who's got more.
Speaker 5 (07:52):
Size than me, more ability than me.
Speaker 7 (07:53):
Right now, but I got to box you every round
when you got ha Keen Jeffries down there making excuse
us for Chuck Schumer right now, that's not helpful for
Black America to believe that the Democratic Party is on branding,
on message. If either your tone death and not comprehending
what is going on in the communities and the underbeluy
of this country, or you are just so committed to
(08:15):
your way of doing that you think that.
Speaker 5 (08:17):
You're committed to losing. Because we have been committed.
Speaker 7 (08:20):
To a strategy of niceties and getting along to go along,
and people are sick of.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
That shit, and we're standard bearers for the status quo
of everything that has frankly had the Justice Department, you
can I mean, I couldn't tell you honestly how I
feel about it, because it'd be very personal and probably
irresponsible for the largest scheme of it. But if a party,
one party is saying we represent the status quote and
that we keep all things as they are or else,
(08:48):
this is an attack on democracy and the way it
shows up in your life. So we need to keep
justice and keep people who are going to disrupt that
out of there. It's like no justic has been bad
for us since they created it. Yeah, been what's created
to terrize our leaders. You talked to me about a CIA.
You know this, and that all of those I consider
not just enemies of the state, but enemies of my people.
(09:09):
Is what a lot of folks you all conclusion on.
And all I can derive from your message is that
you are the standard bearer for the status quo government
as is more of it.
Speaker 6 (09:19):
I so good we're starting with that.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
I think it's a travesty that Andrew is not on
somebody's thinking because I think that perspective is so key Andrew.
And I just I'm going to probably annoy Angela and
Andrew because I say this every episode, I have to
say I don't Yes. Messaging by the Democratic Party was
a huge failure. Messaging in journalism and media was also
a huge failure that they were not giving people information,
that they treated the news coverage and fact finding as
(09:44):
though it was entertainment. You bring on a clan member
and a nation of Islam and then say let's get
ready to rumble and put that out as entertainment for people. So,
if you didn't have a reliable source of information where
you got your information was from podcast Bros. Was from
your instagut fee, which was devastating and disappointing to our
our democratic process. Gary, you said something, and I'm looking
(10:06):
for a little bit of hope here. I will give
it to Angela every week. I think does a good
job of like trying to not even her intention, just
naturally trying to give me hope because she knows I'm
pretty flat lined. And her trauma response, I think is
I'm gonna act, I'm anna move, and mine is I
just kind of feel petrified. When we were together, you said,
(10:28):
y'all keep talking like it ain't gonna be another election,
And there are forty nine and a half million black
people out there who believe that. Andrew wanted to get
into what's happening in Georgia. What's happening in Georgia with
the executive order and purging voters from the roles and
making it more difficult for votes to be counted is
going to have. It's been happening all across the country,
and we'll continue to see more of that. I do
(10:50):
not believe that we will see another free and fair
election when it gets to midterms, and particularly not beyond that.
What do you say to that, because you are passionate
and I know you have an election in Louisiana. I
want to talk about it. Yes, yeah, so I'm kicking
the bally. You give me some hope, brother, if you can,
(11:19):
since that.
Speaker 7 (11:19):
We have never had fair elections. We have never had
falu elections. They have never been appeared in history of
this country where black folks have lived in a space
of faction.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (11:30):
I live in South Louisiana where we're still fighting for
a congressional district that we drew in nineteen ninety, got
kicked out by the Supreme Court, fighting in the Supreme
Court in twenty twenty to get it again, got a
congressman elected to it, and they're trying to kick him
out again. So this has never been a fast system
to us. The reality, though, is we.
Speaker 6 (11:49):
Make it fairer by us strugcture.
Speaker 5 (11:52):
We make it fairer.
Speaker 7 (11:53):
It is on us, and I think that some of
us want to absolve ourselves from the responsibility that we
have in this hour to carry this burden. I don't
enjoy this burden, but it is our burden to bear.
And for me, the hope is in you. The hope
is in Angela The hope is in Andrew, The hope
is in Terrors and all this badass data he's given
(12:16):
us to inspire and motivate black people to get up
and claim their power. To let black folks know that
if you are in Georgia, you are in the third
blackest state in America, and they trying to take you
off the roads.
Speaker 5 (12:28):
And the only way they can write you off is
if you let them.
Speaker 7 (12:31):
And that is our job in this hour to be
the beacon of hope and light and truth to our people.
The only way they are successful is if we lay down.
That is the only way they will be successful. Will
they restructure the government, Yes, it needs to be restructured.
Speaker 5 (12:46):
We get to come back and take it back.
Speaker 7 (12:48):
I believe we are in a dawn of a third
reconstruction of sorts.
Speaker 5 (12:52):
In this country.
Speaker 7 (12:54):
And I think that as we navigate that, the question
for us is what do we want fairness to look
like for the next hundred years? Because every time there
is a great I heard Sean King say this, and
this is somebody else who's been decimated by speaking truth
in these hours, right, Sean King talked about the peaks
(13:16):
and the valleys, right, and that following every peak for
us as a people, there'll be a deep valley, and
how we dig ourselves out of that valley and move
ourselves forward is the question. I think that the organizing
we're seeing in this hour was not happening prior to
this level of.
Speaker 5 (13:35):
Pain and frustration.
Speaker 7 (13:37):
And the reality is every time we've seen great upheaval
in progress for our people is because of the shared pain.
Speaker 5 (13:45):
That we were in.
Speaker 7 (13:46):
The shared pain of slavery brought us through the revolution
that created that first reconstruction in this country. The shared
pain of jimcro and the civil rights being denied to
us created the upheople that happened in the sixties. The
shared pain that endures between black folks today and working class,
poor white people in America will change this country for
(14:09):
the next hundred years. And while I don't like the
things that are taking place, I take it as a
badge of honor that I get to be in the
field with.
Speaker 5 (14:16):
You all today.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Like right back at you, Gary, thank you for that.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Can I respond to some of that, man, because I
just I'm so appreciative to the work that Gary's doing
in Louisiana. I believe this, and I'm pretty sure I
got this from Gary. It's a quote I've been saying
for so long, I don't know who I got it from,
so take credit for it if I got it from you, Gary.
Speaker 5 (14:33):
But the truth is that the South are not red states.
They are oppressed states.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Right there are three states in the South that are
in fact blacker than Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, where we
do have an opportunity to replace the blue wall across
the Midwest with a black ass wall across the South
that is more durable, and that changes the political map
that we've been fighting on. The second thing I want
(14:58):
to say is that you know, black folks don't want
to and I've been saying this since twenty twenty two,
when we first when Democrats first started running on defending democracy.
Black folks don't want to defend the system that has
failed them. Right now, we can recruit black people into
fixing democracy. And I think right now he's broken it
substantially enough that we can recruit some folks into it.
(15:19):
Because there are some levers of our democracy, the things
that protect us separation of power and rule of law,
that ain't nobody above the law, Free and fair elections,
and peaceful transfer of power. He has broken all of
this shit. He has broken rule of law, broken peaceful
transfer of power, broken independent media, broken free markets. We
(15:42):
now have to recruit our folks. And it was Barbara
Jordan who said in a I'm sorry Benjamin Franklin who
first said that if we have a democracy, we can
keep it. I would say, in this moment, we have
a democracy if we can take it back. And the
Barbara Jordan quote that is as fires me in this
moment with something she said during her Nixon Nixon impeachment
(16:04):
speech where she said, for the first two hundred years,
black folks weren't included in we the people. Because that's
exactly right, and because we were not included in that constitution,
I had to fight and toil and sacrifice to be included.
That is what makes us in the best position to
defend it.
Speaker 5 (16:21):
And that's where we are. We got to recruit our
folks to defend this thing and take it back.
Speaker 6 (16:25):
And thank you, Terrence.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
And maybe that's where we go from here, which is
maybe we close with some of the inspirational words or
quotes that maybe give us hope here. Gary, as you
were talking about the peaks in the valleys, which I
think we all understand. I was reminded of something my pastor,
then now Bishop McAllister said, which is Andrew never ever
(16:46):
ever buy real estate.
Speaker 6 (16:48):
In the valley. And what he meant is, when you're.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
In the valley of your life, whatever the circumstance is,
when you're in that down trop don't camp out.
Speaker 6 (16:56):
It's temporary.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
So with despair or absence of hope, we may be
in the valley, but that's not a time to buy
real estate.
Speaker 6 (17:03):
There's not a time to camp out.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
You spend that time struggling on and strategizing on the
get out of the valley and not camping out there
on real estate.
Speaker 6 (17:14):
That you buy when you're in that deep dark place.
So hopefully more more of us will do that. Angela,
I am.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
I'm so grateful for you all joining us today. Clearly,
this is just the beginning of a conversation that we
scratch the surface on, and it needs.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
To be many more.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
So I hope y'all will come back over and over
again and that we can keep broadening this. I will say,
just in full disclosure. Part of the reason why I
wanted to ensure that you all could be here as
a conversation that Tif and I really have been having
all week and talked about it with Andrew this morning.
We saw some in a space we were recently all in.
(17:49):
We saw some of the tensions that exist and until
we start to unpack them and pull them apart. The
pain that Tif reference, the pain that you reference, Gary,
the lack of trust that exists, the the many layers
that are black people that we can appreciate but also
have to understand that at some point. Yet it's as
much as I don't like a melt about, we got
to melt for our power because that's where the math
(18:10):
is in the melt. So I hope that we will
continue to push against our own biases, you know, try
to uncover our own blind spots and really figure out
where we can meet our folks in the pain, in
the trauma, and then also in the triumph, because we
deserve it. This is absolutely the place that we built,
and so it absolutely must serve us, and we should
(18:31):
stop at nothing less. So I appreciate y'all, and I've
defer to my sister Tip.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
I just echo everything you said, Angela and Gary and Terrence.
I really appreciate your boldness. Gary, I appreciate that you
lead with authenticity. I love the ad that you did
when you ran for Senate with the blunt in the
middle of a lot of reasons, for a lot of reasons,
(18:59):
but I will say because I think so many people
are afraid to lead with their convictions, and I wonder
what would have happened had Vice President Harris run a
campaign that led with her convictions instead of trying to
walk the middle of the road and appeal to people.
To your point, when your black folks is your base,
that's who you take care of, but they have such
(19:21):
a heart on for white folks, and I just I
think we will continue to see people who try to
walk that middle of the road become political roadkill increasingly. Terrance,
your data is so crucially important to how we march forward,
and you've both given me a little bit of hope today,
a little bit of fight today, and I'm writing a
lot about this. I'll be following up with both of
(19:42):
you guys to get your input, just to make sure
that I'm on the right side of history as I
try to capture this moment and what's happening between black
men and black women. So I thank you, and I
want to shout out our brother Andrew, who's our resident
black man on the panel. I feel like we have
I like Andrew and I have a lot of philosophical
(20:03):
conversations whenever we have the pleasure of being in the
same city, in the same vicinity, and so I think
a lot of this touched on some of the conversations
we have, and it touched on a lot of aspects
of my personal life, you know, as I'm navigating some
of these opinions and the mirror that some black men
have been to me. So it's just been a really helpful,
thriving conversation that I hope dwarfs some of these podcasts
(20:27):
Bros conversation and some of these social media clips that
go viral with black men and black women talking about
why they can't stand each other and who did who wrong.
I hope that we've tackled this with a lot more
depth and grace and input and purpose.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
So thank you to be continued everybody, and again, Terrence
and Gary, we just want to say welcome home.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
Thank you, thank you so much for having us on
the podcast.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Native Land Pod is the production of iHeartRadio in partnership
with resent choice Media. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Hosts And Creators
Tiffany Cross
Andrew Gillum
Angela Rye
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com