October 19, 2022 • 37 mins
While campaigning to become the first Black woman governor in United States history, Stacey Abrams linked up with Questlove Supreme in Atlanta, Georgia, for a live QLS taping. Stacey tells Team Supreme what is at stake with this crucial election and why voting early is imperative. Stacey recalls her early days of activism and bringing light to important issues. She also discusses her favorite TV shows and music and how she has overcome challenges with public speaking.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. Suprema Supremo
Role Canthum s.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Upremo Supremo role called Supremo Sun Sun Supremo role called Supremo.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Suck Suck Supremo role.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
There's new delaying. Yeah hear what I'm saying. Yeah, Abrams
in twenty eight. Yeah, and I'm not playing roll president.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Primo Supremo role called Supremo Supremo role call.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
My name is Fante.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
Yeah, and I'm showing love yeah to Stacey Abrams. Yeah,
first black woman go ro call Supreme su su subrivo,
roll down Supremo Supremo.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Role car Supreme. Yeah, and we're the freshest. Yeah, I'm
Sugar Steve. Yeah and I approved this message.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Suprema so Supremo roll call Supremo Supremo role called.
Speaker 5 (01:11):
It's like yeah with Stacey a Yeah, and we're all
about to listen. Yeah, so what she got to say?
Speaker 4 (01:18):
Roll call Supremo Supremo, roll call Supremo Supremo role call.
Speaker 6 (01:27):
My name is Stacey.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (01:29):
I tried to win. Yeah, it didn't happen the first time. Yeah,
so I'm doing it again.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Supremo roll called Suprema, I need an airhorn. Primo roll call, Supremo, Supremo.
Roll call, Supremo, Supremo, roll call.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Yo, you made a better guest verse than some musicians
will thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
That was Yeah, that was That was definitely top five
in the six year history. Everyone's like, oh, I don't know. Oh, yes,
I am Michael Jackson. Okay, so, ladies and gentlemen, we
are being given the honor of having a sit down
with the human being that I credit for literally holding
(02:22):
our democracy in place. You know, I'm trying not to
be a hyperbolic or that extra pressure, but you know,
I'm speaking facts right now, and much like my beloved
state of Pennsylvania, Georgia is going to be a fight
to the finish, and you know, for the two percent
of you that have your head in the sand, November
(02:44):
eighth is a crucial date for not only Georgia, but.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
For this country and for history.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
I feel like it's our due diligence to offer our platform.
And yes, like normally this is a platform for musicians
and artists like or whatever, but I think it's our
due diligence to give our guests today the platform because
I often feel like people who listen to us often
like people who are creatives, they're sometimes, you know, very indifferent,
(03:14):
or I hear like, well, you know, I'm beginning the
political stuff or whatever, or they just simply feel like
maybe the trickle down effect won't affect them that much
than it already has. And I can't stress to you
find folk enough that, Yeah, I know there's fatigue, and
you know, but we have to fight this good fight.
(03:36):
And I'd rather us be fatigue than to be lying
on our backs and then wondering what happened months after
the fact. And I believe in our guest today because
she is about that action. And you know, it's like
the wild West out here, and it's time to get serious.
And I want, yeah, I want you people to take
(03:56):
time out to really get yourselves familiar if you aren't
already with the person. Yes, and I said in my verse,
I do believe that, you know. First of all, I
believe in her affirmation that yeah, she is going to win.
Speaker 5 (04:09):
But you know, I believe that President.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
I'm talking to the future president right now not to
put a pressure on.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
You, but that fix Georgia.
Speaker 6 (04:18):
First, let's work on this job.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Yes, Yeah, one, one step at the time.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
So you know, our guest today running for governor and
I just found out will successfully be the first African
American governor ever. We're still dealing with first female yeah yes,
first female black governor in the United States, and future potus.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Let's have it. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Stacy Abrams.
Speaker 6 (04:49):
Thank you so much for having me, Am.
Speaker 5 (04:51):
We made it.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Yeah, you know, it's weird because you know, I know
that you know, living a life in which you're trying
to correct history and right wrongs and whatnot. And you know,
I often feel as though like introductions like that do
nothing but add more pressure to the person than it
already is. But just in general, I want to know
(05:14):
for you, not how exhausting is it, but just on
the every day of knowing that pretty much most of
us are looking at you specifically to you know, at
least hold this country in place as the adhesive that
we want it to be, because if it doesn't happen,
then a lot is going to change. But I mean,
(05:35):
just for you in general, like I'll offer you the
platform to answer this question, like why do you feel
that you're qualified to be the person to.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Save us.
Speaker 7 (05:47):
There is an urgency that I feel every day, in
part because of what I know about what the world
can be and what I know about what it is.
I grew up with five brothers and sisters. My parents
were working poor, but they took us out to volunteer
because my dad's succinct way of saying it was having
(06:07):
nothing is not an excuse for doing nothing. But what
that grounded in me and what my mother, who would say,
you know, no matter how little we have, there's someone
with less. Your job is to serve that person, is
that It's not just about material. It is about it's
about advocacy, it's about efficacy, it's about access. And when
you've seen people who should have had but were denied,
(06:31):
if there is any degree of empathy in you, you
feel compelled to do something well.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
For me.
Speaker 7 (06:36):
It's a systemic issue. I grew up in Mississippi. I
came of age in Georgia. I've lived in Texas. I
went to the North but it was cold, so I
came back. But we're in the North, so I was
born in Wisconsin. I barely remember that. Oh yeah, I
remember cheese curds and cold. And then I went to
law school in Connecticut, so I went to Yale, and
in both places, their challenge is everywhere. But in the
(06:59):
South we've been gaslighted into believing these are permanent issues,
and I know it's not. So I know that the
South not only has something to say, but we can
demonstrate a capacity that we have been fooled into believing
isn't our right. And as someone who's gotten people to
(07:20):
listen sometimes, I'm really good at asking people to do things.
I'm pretty good at organizing stuff. My responsibility is to
keep pushing until I can't push any further. And so yeah,
I appreciate the plout. It's I see myself more as
an avatar for all the other people who are trying
to do this work but don't get the access I've gotten.
I'm louder than a lot of people, and I'm more
(07:43):
relentless than many because I don't know how not to
do this. I don't know how you sit still when
you see the issues before us. And I know that
democracy is how I mean you use the right word.
It's the adhesive, but it's also the toolkit. And so
for me, this heart has to be done. And if
not me, then you know.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Who Okay, so I'm one of those people who's definitely
guilty of you know, I'll watch MSNBC or something, shake
my head like somebody I do something like if anything.
I think in the last three years, I was the
king of Man. I was somebody with da da da
da da, and then I find that I'm the person
(08:23):
that's called to do that.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
For you, what was the pivotal moment, like back when
you were at Yale and I'm uman right before that? Yeah, right, okay, Well.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
I mean back when you were in college where what
were your lofty goals in life?
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Like are you imagining.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
That some fifteen sixteen years later that you'll be in
the position that you are now or were you just like, Okay,
I'm gonna be a lawyer or da.
Speaker 7 (08:49):
Da da da, or I had like twenty seven majors
in college. I was physics and philosophy, with a minor
in theater. Oh finds out. I liked star Trek, but
not differential calculus. And when you can't stay awaken in pistemology,
it's probably not the thing to do when there are
only four people in the classroom. I like acting, but
not enough to make it my life's work, and so
(09:10):
I flitted through a bunch of other things, but what
was the through line for me was activism. The pivotal
moment for me when I realized that it wasn't just
an inherited property from my parents, it was part of
my DNA. When the Rodney King decision came down in
nineteen ninety two, I was a freshman at Spelman. I
organized students to protest. They locked down our campus. I
(09:32):
was at the AUC and if you if you know Atlanta,
they locked down I twenty so you could not get
off of the interstate and come to to the University center.
So Spellman, Moorhouse, Clark Atlanta, Morris Brown ITC and More
School of Medicine. And then they tear gassed us. They
tear gas the entire area. And this was under a
black mayor, and.
Speaker 5 (09:50):
This is Spelman, and that's even deeper, like wow.
Speaker 7 (09:53):
But the schools were juxtaposed next to some of the
oldest housing developments in the nation. And so the issue
was we weren't, you know, elite students and poor communities.
We were all black, and we were all basically accused
of the same anger. And the problem was the protests
were real because the pain was real, and so I
helped organize students. Actually got into an argument with then
(10:16):
Mayor Maynard Jackson. He won the argument, but because you
couldn't argue and I was like, my cleanest tea shirts
are my nicest jeans.
Speaker 6 (10:23):
But he still won.
Speaker 7 (10:24):
But he later hired me to work in the newly
created Office of Youth Services.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Okay, let me ask something, because you know, I did
not go to college, like immediately got a record deal
and had a career. Always wanted to know when we
protest on a college campus, like what's the goal? Especially
when like the issue is three thousand miles away in
Los Angeles, Like how does that trickle to?
Speaker 6 (10:48):
So two things.
Speaker 7 (10:49):
One, what Rodney King's with a Verdict was evocative of
was the lack of justice from police. And that was
happening in Atlanta, that was happening in Georgia. And part
of it was where poverty exists, where racism exists, you
were going to find police misconduct. And there was also
the larger issue of simply the evidence of our eyes
(11:11):
being denied. Those things well, Rodney King was emblematic of
it was but he was only one example. He was
the first example that got caught on tape. But people
have those experiences everywhere, and that's why it was so inflammatory.
The protests I organized. We started this moment we watched
we marched from the AUC all the way to City Hall.
(11:32):
So to your point, I didn't go to a college
where protesting at the college made a license because we
all pretty much agreed the most effective protests leave the
safe spaces and go into the public spaces. So we
made sure that march went past the housing projects, went
past the liquor stores, all the way down to city Hall.
That's how I ended up getting into the Teta tet
with the mayor. But to your point, there are some
(11:57):
campuses where protest on campus is it's effective because if
you're at Harvard, you're talking about billions of dollars in
economic influence. If you're an AEC, the numeric, the monetary
and effect is the smaller, but the salutary effect is
bigger because you have people who may have been conditioned
to think that they were the exceptions to the rule,
(12:18):
who have to remind themselves that they are part of
the same fabric that people don't ask you, they don't
investigate did you go to Spelman, Why are you in
the auc Why are you in southwest Atlanta? They just
see someone who looks like something they've been taught to
be afraid of or taught to disregard. And this is
true for a lot of different communities of color. It's
true based on your economic situation and where protests comes in.
(12:40):
As protest moves beyond the space that you inhabit, and
it tells the rest of the world you've got to
pay attention.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
It's a bullhorn exactly.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
So do you consider that moment your first footprint in
political action?
Speaker 7 (12:55):
It was my parents will tell you, because my mom
and dad were in grad school here in uh in Georgia.
They had moved back to Mississippi at and I gave
out my phone number to tell people, you know, during
the protest.
Speaker 6 (13:09):
I'm like, if you're if you want to join us.
I didn't think through the.
Speaker 7 (13:12):
Fact that I was giving my parents home number out, know,
and and they pointed that out to me later on
as the phone started to ring. But for me, it
was it was it was both in a moment of
empowerment but a moment of ownership that I wanted to
be a voice for people who didn't know they deserve
(13:34):
to be in that march. They didn't know that they
deserved to have better And who'd been lulled into thinking
that because you had leadership that looked like you, that
they shared all of the same issues that you shared.
And that's just never true. That that notion of monolithic
power is just not real. And so even within spaces,
I mean, Mayor Jax is extraordinary mayor, but in this issue,
(13:55):
when it came to youth poverty, he had not done
what I thought needed to be done.
Speaker 6 (13:59):
So my job was to push that.
Speaker 7 (14:02):
And so for me it was it was a moment
of reckoning, Like did I actually believe the things I
was saying when I was safely on campus?
Speaker 6 (14:09):
And turns out yes I.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Did so at the time, were you like student body
president or like I don't know what the president's system
is for college?
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Not like I used to be president in my ninth
grade class, but I mean, like for you, So I wasn't.
Speaker 6 (14:22):
Then I eventually did.
Speaker 7 (14:23):
I was at that point, I was just an annoying
freshman in college who was and you were a freshman
I was my freshman.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Year, So how did you, like, isn't it hard for
a freshman to get the respect in the I was
relentless and were people like afraid of being suspended or
kicked off campus or yes.
Speaker 7 (14:38):
So one thing that happened part of I kind of
short short headed the story. But it was a few
phases when they were tear gassing the campus. This is
before social media, this is before cell phones, and this
is when you only had the television stations, the broadcast stations.
So I organized students in my dorm to call all
the broadcast stations. They were lying saying that we were
running amok. I'm like, no, we are angry in protest
(15:00):
both on the campus and out in the community, but
this isn't a riot, and they were miscommunicating what was happening.
So I had a bunch of friends call all the
stations and flood the stations. And the stations got wise
to us and said, well, who's calling, and so I said,
just tell them you're me. So you had like seventy
five Stacy Abrams is calling and that that amplified my voice. Again,
didn't think through the consequences when they sent the police
(15:22):
to come and get me to take me to this event.
I wasn't being arrested. But I was invited to the
simulcast because all of the television stations in Atlanta came
together because this was a crisis, and so the mayor
was there and I was invited as one of the
students to be there, and so that sort of that
lifted my platform a bit more than I expected.
Speaker 5 (15:40):
I ask, I'm so curious, just on as a student
as we're in this Spellman moment, I'm curious, did you
what was your full experience was in college? Was it
all work and no play and activism or but at
a pivotal time in Atlanta period like alymp post Olympics maybe,
so I was right before the Olympics, right before okay,
(16:00):
right before the Olympics. So can you talk about like
what kind of student you were in that way, like did.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
You have fun social life?
Speaker 6 (16:06):
Because I was a nerd and I'm an introvert. So
I heard this.
Speaker 5 (16:09):
That's why I was surprised. Firstman year you went all
out and started.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Well, I was that was happy supreme right, A bunch
of nerds and introvis. You mentioned Star Trek, So that
was the.
Speaker 6 (16:19):
Well next generation was out?
Speaker 7 (16:21):
So yes, your peak card girl, the card Jane Waite
like I do the whole universe see turn.
Speaker 5 (16:30):
Out card is everything?
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Like lu Luke who is Jean luc Every day I
find the this person I've known for thirty plus years
good even though she's still nineteen.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Good.
Speaker 7 (16:44):
So I this is probably the best example. When I
became student body president, part of your job is to
make sure that they are social activities. I got two
of my best friends. I created a position called the
Social Activity Coordinator, so I wouldn't have.
Speaker 6 (16:56):
To go to parties.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
So you wouldn't have to go.
Speaker 6 (16:59):
Yeah, So I would set up the parties.
Speaker 7 (17:01):
They would I would come at the beginning to say hi,
and I would come at the end to make sure
nobody stole anything.
Speaker 6 (17:05):
Otherwise I was back in my dorms.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
You would not go to Everybody was trying to get
to go out, and you were like, I have meaningful
things to do.
Speaker 7 (17:11):
I never went on spring break. What well, why would
you pay money to go sit in somebody else's hotel.
I mean, like I was, I had a dorm, I
could read anywhere, like.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Okay, so you said something, and I think you know.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
I try to pull as much personal inspiration information from
our guests that come on this show, but I'll ask
you yes, sir, because I feel like the one small
task that I'm holding myself back from actually crossing the
line to where you are, despite the fact that I'm
hosting my own podcast and.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Do other things.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
How do you get over the fear of speaking, because
I've seen you speak before it, you know, for an introvert,
you project well, I guess it's the acting help.
Speaker 7 (18:03):
But so, yeah, I grew up in the church, so
we had to do you know, Easter programs, manicipation, proclamature programs.
Never liked any of it. I'm afraid of you had
to read all of the stuff right right, you name it,
we did it. My fear isn't public speaking. I'm reticent
(18:25):
about being around lots of people. So when I was
in high school, I joined the debate team. I had
a psychosomatic case of laryngitis because it occurred to me
that I couldn't be I wouldn't be debating by myself,
that other people would see me do it. And suddenly
my voice didn't work. And went to see the nurse
and she's like, there's nothing wrong with you. Yeah, And
(18:47):
that's when I also learned what psychosomatic because what psychomedia
look like.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Artist often do that.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
And that's often an issue on the show, like when
people self sabotage their progress or whatever.
Speaker 7 (18:56):
Well, I had to get over it because I was
going to fail the class if I didn't. Actually, you
have to speak. But the way I get past it
is that it's not about me. It's about what they
need to hear. It's about what people need to know.
I can get past the You can't sublimate it, but
you can work around it.
Speaker 6 (19:14):
And I think you do that.
Speaker 7 (19:15):
You do that, you find yourself in public spaces speaking,
You give yourself a script, you give yourself an objective.
And for me, the objective is changed. It's getting people
the things they need. And if my discomfort gets them
to what they need, then I'm willing to do it.
It is never fun, I have never I don't enjoy it,
(19:35):
but I'm good at it. And the consequences of inaction
to me are worse than the consequences of action. And
so for me, the cost benefit analysis is, you know, Stacy,
stop having a laryngitis and go ahead and do your job.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Okay, speaking of inaction, and let's cut to the chase here,
November eighth is coming up. Yes, and you know, I know,
specifically my specific demographic, which is black men means.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Ye and yeah nineteen.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
First of all, I'm very shocked at the statistics that
we I mean, I'm I'm shocked, and I'm not shocked
because I know that we're the first to complain about
something and really the last, you know, to really want
to do the groundwork, if you will. So you know,
I'm finding out that black men vote the least or
(20:33):
probably feel the least represented, or you know, and I know,
I got many uncles and cousins and friends. Ain't nothing
going to happen and they ain't run for us, or
they the FEDS or they the ops or whatever. So
for you what you're facing in Georgia, and that will
subsequently affect because you know, if KIMP does remain in power,
(20:55):
then I know that laws are going to be implemented.
I'm already pissed about this whole, Like we can't give
water to people or aid to people.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
So just in general, like use this platform to explain
to us what is at stake?
Speaker 7 (21:08):
So you said, how does that happen and what's at stake?
We have a governor who ran his first campaign on
rounding people up and pointing weapons at people and saying
that he was a politically incorrect conservative, he was a
trump conservative. And then people because he didn't commit treason
once in twenty twenty, he didn't commit treason by he
(21:32):
did what every other governor in American history has done,
and he certified the election. He's been given praise and lionized. See,
and that's part of the challenge. The memory is short
and we are and so he gets credit. Now what
people are aren't paying attention to. And this goes to
(21:52):
the issue with so black men have Let's be clear,
they vote, but it's the vote share. So vote share
is the proportion you have in the population versus the
proportion you have in turnout. Black women have the highest
vote share. We vote our numbers. The next group is
white women, the group after that is white men, then
black men. So the issue is not that black men
(22:13):
don't vote, it's that their power in their vote is
under so they fight below their weight class. And so
the goal that I have is not to say that
black men, no one and no one should suggest that
black men don't vote. It's that they don't they fight
below their weight class, and if black men fought their
full power, it changes things. But there are legitimate reasons
(22:35):
it doesn't happen, especially in Georgia. Georgia had at one
point the fourth highest incarceration rate in the nation, and
it was predominantly black men. And Georgia, like Florida, nearly
permanently franchises black men, and those who aren't permanently disenfranchised
are flooded with so much misinformation they don't know they.
Speaker 6 (22:52):
Have the right to vote.
Speaker 7 (22:54):
Then you have communities that when you have generational poverty,
generational stereotypes, and generational disa investment, no government doesn't work.
You've seen people who look like you get elected and
do nothing. But the reason that often is true is
that we tend to elect in Georgia and in the South,
we elect black people at the local level. And we
know we finally started to make some progress at the
(23:15):
federal level, but state government is the intervener that stops
many good things from happening. Governors matter, especially now. Right
standred Ground was signed by a governor. That's why Trayvon's
murder went unavenged. The treatment of black women as parasites
through the social safety net that happened under a governor
(23:36):
in Wisconsin. Mass incarceration did not start with the ninety
four crime billets started with three Strikes Are Out, which
was signed by Governor Pete Wilson. In California, Jim Crow
never had a single federal law. It was all state
governors in nine southern states. And so we legitimately, especially
black men, legitimately protest the lack of delivery. But we
(24:00):
don't understand that the delivery system is the state, not
the local government. In the state of Georgia, the governor
decides how much money get spent. The governor sets the budget,
the governor signs the laws. In the city of Atlanta,
in two thousand and three, I helped write the first
living wage law for the state of Georgia. The Mayor
of Atlanta as signed that law. By the following January,
(24:22):
that law was illegal in the entire state. They made
it illegal for a local government to pass a law
for living wages. On call scheduling hurts a lot of
black men who want to be a part of their family.
Hurts a lot of people. But you're on on call scheduling,
you want to be able to plan your day.
Speaker 5 (24:38):
Yeah, I'll say, what is that.
Speaker 7 (24:39):
The Secretary of State, the person currently a Secretary of
State as a state legislator, passed the law that says
that no one can, no local government can require that
on call scheduling actually respect the humanity of a person working.
The governor Brian Kemp, in the midst of COVID, passed
the law saying that you couldn't sue your employer for
not protecting you from COVID. Didn't do a thing to
(25:02):
demand that you could access to PPE, but he did
make it impossible for you to file a lawsuit against
the when he reopened the state, when they forced you
back to work, they could make you come to work,
but it didn't have to protect you when you got there.
Speaker 6 (25:14):
That's this governor.
Speaker 5 (25:15):
So that's why I'm confused in states, because.
Speaker 7 (25:17):
Most people don't understand they all they know is that,
well he reopened the state. Yeah, thirty eight thousand people
are dead.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (25:24):
I was literally having this conversation with because I was like,
I want to have a conversation with some young folks
that actually live here. And I was talking to two
young folks behind the camera and we were talking about
Georgia is a little is different in the sense, and
they're from Chicago and Detroit respectively, and now their residents.
But speaking to a I spoke to Rego Wade yesterday
and I said, I don't understand why the polls say
that things are closed. When y'all was here, y'all saw
(25:48):
not even I mean COVID that's nice, but we saw
with the injustice that happened to Stacey in twenty eighteen.
And he said to me, he said, yeah, but politicians
always cheat, And I was like, well, yeah, but that
was the whole world watched it, and it was just
a matter of fact, like Georgia kind of. I felt like, Okay,
you know what this is. This is some Georgia excuse
my language, shit in a way, some South shit where
(26:10):
things go a little differently in the Northeast.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
You mean in terms of moving the goal post.
Speaker 5 (26:14):
Yeah, like it couldn't be so blatant. And we would
never have let a man like that only be governor
again and re Going again think he has a chance again.
Speaker 7 (26:22):
The law he passed that is voter suppression two point zero.
This law not only says you can't have water or food,
he's outsourced voter voter purging. Sixty four thousand people have
had their voter registrations challenged because he and Brad Rasenberger
put in place a law that says that you can
any person can walk into a county board of Elections
(26:44):
and say I don't think that Amir has the right
to vote, and you have to prove that you have
the right to vote. They don't have to have any evidence.
And it used to be that if it looks fishy,
the board of elections can say this is this is crazy,
We're not going to do. They now have to process
every single challenge and in Gwinnett County alone, thirty seven
(27:05):
thousand voter registrations were challenge heard.
Speaker 5 (27:08):
About Gwennett County, I heard it's a problem, right.
Speaker 7 (27:09):
It's no, But this has happened across the state. But
this is the same state where because of Brian Kemp's
law s B two two four, different boards of elections,
the people who control where the polling is, if you
get your if your name's there, they kicked all of
the black people off of the board and it is
legal in Georgia for them to do so. Brian Kemp
did that. But the reality is, and this goes just
(27:31):
to the larger issue, not only black men, but of
the urgency of this election. If this is what they're
willing to do. Now, imagine when he is a lame
duck governor who can't run for office again, when he
has six he has nothing to lose. He's got his
way billion dollars.
Speaker 5 (27:46):
He already took our bodies away from us and the
right to.
Speaker 7 (27:49):
He's got six billion dollars at his disposal. We have
a surplus once you pay every bill. We've got six
billion dollars sitting there. He has told us his intention
is to give this money to the wealthy. And so
part of the goal of today, and I appreciate this conversation,
is that most people are so legitimately consumed with their
(28:11):
lives and with their fears and with their realities that
politics feels like an extra burden. I like to say politics.
You may not be into politics, but politics is into you.
And it is a stalker. And we have to understand
that stalking usually turns into something grave and terrible that
(28:32):
you will one day see on lifetime movies.
Speaker 6 (28:34):
And so we've got to push back.
Speaker 7 (28:35):
In my job, my interest, my intensity is because I
know what the consequences are if we don't do it,
But I also know what the possibilities are if we do.
We can invest in people, We can restore bodily autonomy.
We can make certain that black men and black people large,
but black men in particular get re enfranchised and actually
have an active role to play in their futures instead
(28:58):
of a governor who thinks that restoring mass incarceration is
an okay thing to do for.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Cats like me on the sideline that we want to
do something. Now, last year, you know, I raised money,
went out on the streets, I mean even hand it out,
what like I would go to polling places and all
those things.
Speaker 5 (29:16):
What can we do and not celebrity civilians because we
all want to.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
We I just meant, like flesh and blood people, Okay,
what can we do to help alleviate the situation that
I know is going to be problematic?
Speaker 6 (29:33):
So number one, feel free to give me money.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
But here's why No, but here's why take all my money.
Speaker 7 (29:38):
I'm running the So our campaign has the single largest
voter engagement apparatus in the state. That means going into
the places that most people don't go to get to
the voters most people ignore that's what that's what we do.
But it takes money because I actually pay every canvasser
twenty dollars an hour. We don't we pay a living
wage to our canvass.
Speaker 5 (29:56):
Yes, I was still ne for free in a college town.
Speaker 7 (29:59):
But when you to go to a small place, when
you've got to go to Colquit County, or go up
to Dade County, or you're in Clayton County and you've
got to knock on all these doors in these apartment buildings,
this is a job and people need to take it.
So we need volunteers. But before we get volunteers, I
need people who I know can show up to work
every single day, so your investment is in that work.
Speaker 6 (30:18):
Number two.
Speaker 7 (30:18):
I need volunteers, I need folks to reach out to
their communities, but I also need people to talk about
this on social media. The other side is spending a
lot of time pretending this doesn't matter. Every negative narrative
you here, they amplify it. They will tell a lie
a thousand times until it sounds like the truth. We
tell the truth one time and we shut up with
no one says amen. I need us to talk about
(30:40):
what is at stake. And who is, who these people are,
who my opponent is, and who I am. And we
may not agree on everything, but if you look at
the totality of my work, I show my work. And
so think about if you've got a guess who's going
to do a better job, the guy who's told you
he doesn't care about you, or the woman who's shown care.
(31:01):
But I need folks to be talking about this. In
eighteen there was a national conversation. This time it's been
a bit more muted because we've been dealing with so
many things.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
I was gonna say, Yeah, how do you think the pandemic?
Speaker 6 (31:13):
How you think that is a shit pandemic?
Speaker 7 (31:14):
COVID inflation, racial violence. People are tired and you you
laid it out very well, Ameir. People are exhausted. But
pain doesn't care about your exhaustion. Politics doesn't care about
your exhaustion. Our responsibility is to show up anyway, because
the consequences are going to visit us whether we invite
them or not.
Speaker 5 (31:34):
Okay, so let me ask you this as your sister,
and it's funny. I do another podcast with two sisters,
Jill Scotten in Asia from Kinju the Family Soul, and
were always talking about self care. I need to know,
Stacy Abrams, what is your self care ritual? Do you
do have something daily? What do you do for self
so that you can go out and give all this
energy to all these people because it costs.
Speaker 6 (31:58):
I watch an inordinate amount of television and I read books.
Speaker 5 (32:01):
Rest.
Speaker 7 (32:02):
When I say I watch a lot of TV, it
is a bit absurd. Right now, I'm watching Eureka because
I didn't watch Eureka when it came out before. I
love it, so I'm on season five and very sad.
I've heard it's really good. I'm waiting for The Equalizer
to come back because I love Queen Latifah. I watch
all of the fbis. I think they're twenty seven of
them now, yeah.
Speaker 5 (32:21):
I watch you on Law Order.
Speaker 6 (32:22):
You got to decide, Well, well, no, I'm Onlaw Order.
Speaker 5 (32:25):
Yeah the new season?
Speaker 7 (32:27):
Well yes, so I know they did all three of
them on the twenty second, but I haven't haven't had
a chance to watch it.
Speaker 5 (32:31):
But yes, do you watch the first Lawn Order?
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Because I watched Hey, I was a dead body on that.
Speaker 5 (32:36):
No you was on SBS. Yeah, yeah, yeah, SPU is
the tight.
Speaker 7 (32:40):
I watch all of the Lawn I've watched Law and
Order UK. When I say I watched TV, I am
K there's a Law and Order UK.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
Yes, And is this thing have an accent?
Speaker 5 (32:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (32:54):
You know what, I'm putting it out there. You organized
an outcast union, they will come.
Speaker 6 (33:04):
Well, I think I'm talking to the person who can
make it happen.
Speaker 5 (33:07):
He's talking to you.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
I'm talking to uh, you know what someone should get out.
Oh boy actually lives five minutes away from me.
Speaker 6 (33:19):
I'm just saying that, don't have boy in his name.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Yeah, the one that does boring. He goes fishing in
Long Island like four days a week. So yeah, I'll
call him.
Speaker 5 (33:30):
But what are you listening to? Stacy?
Speaker 7 (33:31):
I'm curious, my my, So, I have a sixteen year
old niece who now lives with me. Okay, no, so
I don't want to tell you what I listened to
because everything I say out loud she cringes at So. Yeah,
most of our musical tastes are frozen from when we
were basically between the ages of ten and twenty five.
I have expanded my universe since then, but when it
(33:54):
comes back to just the core narrative. But I'm curious,
who do I listen to right now, I just had
to do some I just did a photo shoot, which
that sounds so bougie. But anyway, so they play music
because well it's awkward to do this stuff, and so
they play music to relax you.
Speaker 6 (34:10):
So it was tribe called Quest. It was Whitney.
Speaker 7 (34:17):
There was a new addition, of course. I also love
Van halen Stone Temple pilots. There was some Fiona Apple. Yes,
I listened to a broad range. There was and I'm
not just pandering. There were some roots.
Speaker 5 (34:33):
So when's the last time you had to go to
a show? Like, was the last time you had time.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
To go to a show?
Speaker 7 (34:38):
Well, last night I was at Alicia Keys concert for
fourteen seconds so she could say.
Speaker 5 (34:42):
Hi and listen to thank you?
Speaker 1 (34:44):
That that was it?
Speaker 5 (34:45):
Yeah, yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 6 (34:46):
So once two step any by Missy Elliott. You just
get me high.
Speaker 7 (34:50):
And I have a deep, end abiding commitment to all
of the fun songs done by Ludacris.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
I'm a person. Yeah, I got he.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
Look, this is fun one because it feels like this
is a ten minute episode of Question of Supreme, even.
Speaker 5 (35:06):
Though I know that we've it was longer than Michelle Obom.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Yeah, I was about to say, can you come back
after you win?
Speaker 6 (35:13):
I can thank you, thank you, No.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
I really appreciate it, and you know you're you're an
inspiration for it for a lot of us on the
sideline that like someone should do something, and can I.
Speaker 6 (35:25):
Give people one more thing to do?
Speaker 7 (35:26):
Yes, I need people to vote early starting October seventeen,
vote early, So Georgia has three weeks of early voting,
and the reasoning people to vote as early as they
can early voting because we know suppression is on its way.
We know they're making it hard to get absentee ballots.
They're making it hard to know your polling places. They've
changed the rules, and if you go to the wrong
polling place and you're in line for four hours and
you get to the end and it's the wrong polling place,
(35:48):
they will not accept your ballot. Yes, it's called a
provisional ballot. So the way to the way to overcome
voter suppression is not to let it win by staying home.
It is by overwhelming the poll with our presence. But
we need to show up early. We get there the
first week, we get all of the we know all
the problems. We can get as many things out of
the way, and so we're really just dealing with the
(36:09):
biggest issues, but with fewer and fewer people. As we
get close to election day, show up early. If we
show out on the week of October seventeenth, there's no.
Speaker 6 (36:17):
Stop in us.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
There he goes the big pay back.
Speaker 5 (36:21):
I don't live here.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
I'm taking a cue from Unfinished Business in EP Yes, finished.
This is the big payback for our guest today, overdue
Stacy Abrams, Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Yes, future.
Speaker 3 (36:38):
On behalf of no. You know I believe in affirmation
and putting it out there. I won't be happy to
show Steve like paid Bill. You missed another classic and fine.
This is quest love and thank you again, Stacy as Hardiness.
We'll see you next time.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Thank you. West Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
What's Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. Suprema Supremo
Role Canthum s.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Upremo Supremo role called Supremo Sun Sun Supremo role called Supremo.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Suck Suck Supremo role.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
There's new delaying. Yeah hear what I'm saying. Yeah, Abrams
in twenty eight. Yeah, and I'm not playing roll president.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Primo Supremo role called Supremo Supremo role call.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
My name is Fante.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
Yeah, and I'm showing love yeah to Stacey Abrams. Yeah,
first black woman go ro call Supreme su su subrivo,
roll down Supremo Supremo.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Role car Supreme. Yeah, and we're the freshest. Yeah, I'm
Sugar Steve. Yeah and I approved this message.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Suprema so Supremo roll call Supremo Supremo role called.
Speaker 5 (01:11):
It's like yeah with Stacey a Yeah, and we're all
about to listen. Yeah, so what she got to say?
Speaker 4 (01:18):
Roll call Supremo Supremo, roll call Supremo Supremo role call.
Speaker 6 (01:27):
My name is Stacey.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (01:29):
I tried to win. Yeah, it didn't happen the first time. Yeah,
so I'm doing it again.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Supremo roll called Suprema, I need an airhorn. Primo roll call, Supremo, Supremo.
Roll call, Supremo, Supremo, roll call.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Yo, you made a better guest verse than some musicians
will thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
That was Yeah, that was That was definitely top five
in the six year history. Everyone's like, oh, I don't know. Oh, yes,
I am Michael Jackson. Okay, so, ladies and gentlemen, we
are being given the honor of having a sit down
with the human being that I credit for literally holding
(02:22):
our democracy in place. You know, I'm trying not to
be a hyperbolic or that extra pressure, but you know,
I'm speaking facts right now, and much like my beloved
state of Pennsylvania, Georgia is going to be a fight
to the finish, and you know, for the two percent
of you that have your head in the sand, November
(02:44):
eighth is a crucial date for not only Georgia, but.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
For this country and for history.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
I feel like it's our due diligence to offer our platform.
And yes, like normally this is a platform for musicians
and artists like or whatever, but I think it's our
due diligence to give our guests today the platform because
I often feel like people who listen to us often
like people who are creatives, they're sometimes, you know, very indifferent,
(03:14):
or I hear like, well, you know, I'm beginning the
political stuff or whatever, or they just simply feel like
maybe the trickle down effect won't affect them that much
than it already has. And I can't stress to you
find folk enough that, Yeah, I know there's fatigue, and
you know, but we have to fight this good fight.
(03:36):
And I'd rather us be fatigue than to be lying
on our backs and then wondering what happened months after
the fact. And I believe in our guest today because
she is about that action. And you know, it's like
the wild West out here, and it's time to get serious.
And I want, yeah, I want you people to take
(03:56):
time out to really get yourselves familiar if you aren't
already with the person. Yes, and I said in my verse,
I do believe that, you know. First of all, I
believe in her affirmation that yeah, she is going to win.
Speaker 5 (04:09):
But you know, I believe that President.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
I'm talking to the future president right now not to
put a pressure on.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
You, but that fix Georgia.
Speaker 6 (04:18):
First, let's work on this job.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Yes, Yeah, one, one step at the time.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
So you know, our guest today running for governor and
I just found out will successfully be the first African
American governor ever. We're still dealing with first female yeah yes,
first female black governor in the United States, and future potus.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Let's have it. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Stacy Abrams.
Speaker 6 (04:49):
Thank you so much for having me, Am.
Speaker 5 (04:51):
We made it.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Yeah, you know, it's weird because you know, I know
that you know, living a life in which you're trying
to correct history and right wrongs and whatnot. And you know,
I often feel as though like introductions like that do
nothing but add more pressure to the person than it
already is. But just in general, I want to know
(05:14):
for you, not how exhausting is it, but just on
the every day of knowing that pretty much most of
us are looking at you specifically to you know, at
least hold this country in place as the adhesive that
we want it to be, because if it doesn't happen,
then a lot is going to change. But I mean,
(05:35):
just for you in general, like I'll offer you the
platform to answer this question, like why do you feel
that you're qualified to be the person to.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Save us.
Speaker 7 (05:47):
There is an urgency that I feel every day, in
part because of what I know about what the world
can be and what I know about what it is.
I grew up with five brothers and sisters. My parents
were working poor, but they took us out to volunteer
because my dad's succinct way of saying it was having
(06:07):
nothing is not an excuse for doing nothing. But what
that grounded in me and what my mother, who would say,
you know, no matter how little we have, there's someone
with less. Your job is to serve that person, is
that It's not just about material. It is about it's
about advocacy, it's about efficacy, it's about access. And when
you've seen people who should have had but were denied,
(06:31):
if there is any degree of empathy in you, you
feel compelled to do something well.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
For me.
Speaker 7 (06:36):
It's a systemic issue. I grew up in Mississippi. I
came of age in Georgia. I've lived in Texas. I
went to the North but it was cold, so I
came back. But we're in the North, so I was
born in Wisconsin. I barely remember that. Oh yeah, I
remember cheese curds and cold. And then I went to
law school in Connecticut, so I went to Yale, and
in both places, their challenge is everywhere. But in the
(06:59):
South we've been gaslighted into believing these are permanent issues,
and I know it's not. So I know that the
South not only has something to say, but we can
demonstrate a capacity that we have been fooled into believing
isn't our right. And as someone who's gotten people to
(07:20):
listen sometimes, I'm really good at asking people to do things.
I'm pretty good at organizing stuff. My responsibility is to
keep pushing until I can't push any further. And so yeah,
I appreciate the plout. It's I see myself more as
an avatar for all the other people who are trying
to do this work but don't get the access I've gotten.
I'm louder than a lot of people, and I'm more
(07:43):
relentless than many because I don't know how not to
do this. I don't know how you sit still when
you see the issues before us. And I know that
democracy is how I mean you use the right word.
It's the adhesive, but it's also the toolkit. And so
for me, this heart has to be done. And if
not me, then you know.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Who Okay, so I'm one of those people who's definitely
guilty of you know, I'll watch MSNBC or something, shake
my head like somebody I do something like if anything.
I think in the last three years, I was the
king of Man. I was somebody with da da da
da da, and then I find that I'm the person
(08:23):
that's called to do that.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
For you, what was the pivotal moment, like back when
you were at Yale and I'm uman right before that? Yeah, right, okay, Well.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
I mean back when you were in college where what
were your lofty goals in life?
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Like are you imagining.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
That some fifteen sixteen years later that you'll be in
the position that you are now or were you just like, Okay,
I'm gonna be a lawyer or da.
Speaker 7 (08:49):
Da da da, or I had like twenty seven majors
in college. I was physics and philosophy, with a minor
in theater. Oh finds out. I liked star Trek, but
not differential calculus. And when you can't stay awaken in pistemology,
it's probably not the thing to do when there are
only four people in the classroom. I like acting, but
not enough to make it my life's work, and so
(09:10):
I flitted through a bunch of other things, but what
was the through line for me was activism. The pivotal
moment for me when I realized that it wasn't just
an inherited property from my parents, it was part of
my DNA. When the Rodney King decision came down in
nineteen ninety two, I was a freshman at Spelman. I
organized students to protest. They locked down our campus. I
(09:32):
was at the AUC and if you if you know Atlanta,
they locked down I twenty so you could not get
off of the interstate and come to to the University center.
So Spellman, Moorhouse, Clark Atlanta, Morris Brown ITC and More
School of Medicine. And then they tear gassed us. They
tear gas the entire area. And this was under a
black mayor, and.
Speaker 5 (09:50):
This is Spelman, and that's even deeper, like wow.
Speaker 7 (09:53):
But the schools were juxtaposed next to some of the
oldest housing developments in the nation. And so the issue
was we weren't, you know, elite students and poor communities.
We were all black, and we were all basically accused
of the same anger. And the problem was the protests
were real because the pain was real, and so I
helped organize students. Actually got into an argument with then
(10:16):
Mayor Maynard Jackson. He won the argument, but because you
couldn't argue and I was like, my cleanest tea shirts
are my nicest jeans.
Speaker 6 (10:23):
But he still won.
Speaker 7 (10:24):
But he later hired me to work in the newly
created Office of Youth Services.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Okay, let me ask something, because you know, I did
not go to college, like immediately got a record deal
and had a career. Always wanted to know when we
protest on a college campus, like what's the goal? Especially
when like the issue is three thousand miles away in
Los Angeles, Like how does that trickle to?
Speaker 6 (10:48):
So two things.
Speaker 7 (10:49):
One, what Rodney King's with a Verdict was evocative of
was the lack of justice from police. And that was
happening in Atlanta, that was happening in Georgia. And part
of it was where poverty exists, where racism exists, you
were going to find police misconduct. And there was also
the larger issue of simply the evidence of our eyes
(11:11):
being denied. Those things well, Rodney King was emblematic of
it was but he was only one example. He was
the first example that got caught on tape. But people
have those experiences everywhere, and that's why it was so inflammatory.
The protests I organized. We started this moment we watched
we marched from the AUC all the way to City Hall.
(11:32):
So to your point, I didn't go to a college
where protesting at the college made a license because we
all pretty much agreed the most effective protests leave the
safe spaces and go into the public spaces. So we
made sure that march went past the housing projects, went
past the liquor stores, all the way down to city Hall.
That's how I ended up getting into the Teta tet
with the mayor. But to your point, there are some
(11:57):
campuses where protest on campus is it's effective because if
you're at Harvard, you're talking about billions of dollars in
economic influence. If you're an AEC, the numeric, the monetary
and effect is the smaller, but the salutary effect is
bigger because you have people who may have been conditioned
to think that they were the exceptions to the rule,
(12:18):
who have to remind themselves that they are part of
the same fabric that people don't ask you, they don't
investigate did you go to Spelman, Why are you in
the auc Why are you in southwest Atlanta? They just
see someone who looks like something they've been taught to
be afraid of or taught to disregard. And this is
true for a lot of different communities of color. It's
true based on your economic situation and where protests comes in.
(12:40):
As protest moves beyond the space that you inhabit, and
it tells the rest of the world you've got to
pay attention.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
It's a bullhorn exactly.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
So do you consider that moment your first footprint in
political action?
Speaker 7 (12:55):
It was my parents will tell you, because my mom
and dad were in grad school here in uh in Georgia.
They had moved back to Mississippi at and I gave
out my phone number to tell people, you know, during
the protest.
Speaker 6 (13:09):
I'm like, if you're if you want to join us.
I didn't think through the.
Speaker 7 (13:12):
Fact that I was giving my parents home number out, know,
and and they pointed that out to me later on
as the phone started to ring. But for me, it
was it was it was both in a moment of
empowerment but a moment of ownership that I wanted to
be a voice for people who didn't know they deserve
(13:34):
to be in that march. They didn't know that they
deserved to have better And who'd been lulled into thinking
that because you had leadership that looked like you, that
they shared all of the same issues that you shared.
And that's just never true. That that notion of monolithic
power is just not real. And so even within spaces,
I mean, Mayor Jax is extraordinary mayor, but in this issue,
(13:55):
when it came to youth poverty, he had not done
what I thought needed to be done.
Speaker 6 (13:59):
So my job was to push that.
Speaker 7 (14:02):
And so for me it was it was a moment
of reckoning, Like did I actually believe the things I
was saying when I was safely on campus?
Speaker 6 (14:09):
And turns out yes I.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Did so at the time, were you like student body
president or like I don't know what the president's system
is for college?
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Not like I used to be president in my ninth
grade class, but I mean, like for you, So I wasn't.
Speaker 6 (14:22):
Then I eventually did.
Speaker 7 (14:23):
I was at that point, I was just an annoying
freshman in college who was and you were a freshman
I was my freshman.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Year, So how did you, like, isn't it hard for
a freshman to get the respect in the I was
relentless and were people like afraid of being suspended or
kicked off campus or yes.
Speaker 7 (14:38):
So one thing that happened part of I kind of
short short headed the story. But it was a few
phases when they were tear gassing the campus. This is
before social media, this is before cell phones, and this
is when you only had the television stations, the broadcast stations.
So I organized students in my dorm to call all
the broadcast stations. They were lying saying that we were
running amok. I'm like, no, we are angry in protest
(15:00):
both on the campus and out in the community, but
this isn't a riot, and they were miscommunicating what was happening.
So I had a bunch of friends call all the
stations and flood the stations. And the stations got wise
to us and said, well, who's calling, and so I said,
just tell them you're me. So you had like seventy
five Stacy Abrams is calling and that that amplified my voice. Again,
didn't think through the consequences when they sent the police
(15:22):
to come and get me to take me to this event.
I wasn't being arrested. But I was invited to the
simulcast because all of the television stations in Atlanta came
together because this was a crisis, and so the mayor
was there and I was invited as one of the
students to be there, and so that sort of that
lifted my platform a bit more than I expected.
Speaker 5 (15:40):
I ask, I'm so curious, just on as a student
as we're in this Spellman moment, I'm curious, did you
what was your full experience was in college? Was it
all work and no play and activism or but at
a pivotal time in Atlanta period like alymp post Olympics maybe,
so I was right before the Olympics, right before okay,
(16:00):
right before the Olympics. So can you talk about like
what kind of student you were in that way, like did.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
You have fun social life?
Speaker 6 (16:06):
Because I was a nerd and I'm an introvert. So
I heard this.
Speaker 5 (16:09):
That's why I was surprised. Firstman year you went all
out and started.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Well, I was that was happy supreme right, A bunch
of nerds and introvis. You mentioned Star Trek, So that
was the.
Speaker 6 (16:19):
Well next generation was out?
Speaker 7 (16:21):
So yes, your peak card girl, the card Jane Waite
like I do the whole universe see turn.
Speaker 5 (16:30):
Out card is everything?
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Like lu Luke who is Jean luc Every day I
find the this person I've known for thirty plus years
good even though she's still nineteen.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Good.
Speaker 7 (16:44):
So I this is probably the best example. When I
became student body president, part of your job is to
make sure that they are social activities. I got two
of my best friends. I created a position called the
Social Activity Coordinator, so I wouldn't have.
Speaker 6 (16:56):
To go to parties.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
So you wouldn't have to go.
Speaker 6 (16:59):
Yeah, So I would set up the parties.
Speaker 7 (17:01):
They would I would come at the beginning to say hi,
and I would come at the end to make sure
nobody stole anything.
Speaker 6 (17:05):
Otherwise I was back in my dorms.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
You would not go to Everybody was trying to get
to go out, and you were like, I have meaningful
things to do.
Speaker 7 (17:11):
I never went on spring break. What well, why would
you pay money to go sit in somebody else's hotel.
I mean, like I was, I had a dorm, I
could read anywhere, like.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Okay, so you said something, and I think you know.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
I try to pull as much personal inspiration information from
our guests that come on this show, but I'll ask
you yes, sir, because I feel like the one small
task that I'm holding myself back from actually crossing the
line to where you are, despite the fact that I'm
hosting my own podcast and.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Do other things.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
How do you get over the fear of speaking, because
I've seen you speak before it, you know, for an introvert,
you project well, I guess it's the acting help.
Speaker 7 (18:03):
But so, yeah, I grew up in the church, so
we had to do you know, Easter programs, manicipation, proclamature programs.
Never liked any of it. I'm afraid of you had
to read all of the stuff right right, you name it,
we did it. My fear isn't public speaking. I'm reticent
(18:25):
about being around lots of people. So when I was
in high school, I joined the debate team. I had
a psychosomatic case of laryngitis because it occurred to me
that I couldn't be I wouldn't be debating by myself,
that other people would see me do it. And suddenly
my voice didn't work. And went to see the nurse
and she's like, there's nothing wrong with you. Yeah, And
(18:47):
that's when I also learned what psychosomatic because what psychomedia
look like.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Artist often do that.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
And that's often an issue on the show, like when
people self sabotage their progress or whatever.
Speaker 7 (18:56):
Well, I had to get over it because I was
going to fail the class if I didn't. Actually, you
have to speak. But the way I get past it
is that it's not about me. It's about what they
need to hear. It's about what people need to know.
I can get past the You can't sublimate it, but
you can work around it.
Speaker 6 (19:14):
And I think you do that.
Speaker 7 (19:15):
You do that, you find yourself in public spaces speaking,
You give yourself a script, you give yourself an objective.
And for me, the objective is changed. It's getting people
the things they need. And if my discomfort gets them
to what they need, then I'm willing to do it.
It is never fun, I have never I don't enjoy it,
(19:35):
but I'm good at it. And the consequences of inaction
to me are worse than the consequences of action. And
so for me, the cost benefit analysis is, you know, Stacy,
stop having a laryngitis and go ahead and do your job.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Okay, speaking of inaction, and let's cut to the chase here,
November eighth is coming up. Yes, and you know, I know,
specifically my specific demographic, which is black men means.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Ye and yeah nineteen.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
First of all, I'm very shocked at the statistics that
we I mean, I'm I'm shocked, and I'm not shocked
because I know that we're the first to complain about
something and really the last, you know, to really want
to do the groundwork, if you will. So you know,
I'm finding out that black men vote the least or
(20:33):
probably feel the least represented, or you know, and I know,
I got many uncles and cousins and friends. Ain't nothing
going to happen and they ain't run for us, or
they the FEDS or they the ops or whatever. So
for you what you're facing in Georgia, and that will
subsequently affect because you know, if KIMP does remain in power,
(20:55):
then I know that laws are going to be implemented.
I'm already pissed about this whole, Like we can't give
water to people or aid to people.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
So just in general, like use this platform to explain
to us what is at stake?
Speaker 7 (21:08):
So you said, how does that happen and what's at stake?
We have a governor who ran his first campaign on
rounding people up and pointing weapons at people and saying
that he was a politically incorrect conservative, he was a
trump conservative. And then people because he didn't commit treason
once in twenty twenty, he didn't commit treason by he
(21:32):
did what every other governor in American history has done,
and he certified the election. He's been given praise and lionized. See,
and that's part of the challenge. The memory is short
and we are and so he gets credit. Now what
people are aren't paying attention to. And this goes to
(21:52):
the issue with so black men have Let's be clear,
they vote, but it's the vote share. So vote share
is the proportion you have in the population versus the
proportion you have in turnout. Black women have the highest
vote share. We vote our numbers. The next group is
white women, the group after that is white men, then
black men. So the issue is not that black men
(22:13):
don't vote, it's that their power in their vote is
under so they fight below their weight class. And so
the goal that I have is not to say that
black men, no one and no one should suggest that
black men don't vote. It's that they don't they fight
below their weight class, and if black men fought their
full power, it changes things. But there are legitimate reasons
(22:35):
it doesn't happen, especially in Georgia. Georgia had at one
point the fourth highest incarceration rate in the nation, and
it was predominantly black men. And Georgia, like Florida, nearly
permanently franchises black men, and those who aren't permanently disenfranchised
are flooded with so much misinformation they don't know they.
Speaker 6 (22:52):
Have the right to vote.
Speaker 7 (22:54):
Then you have communities that when you have generational poverty,
generational stereotypes, and generational disa investment, no government doesn't work.
You've seen people who look like you get elected and
do nothing. But the reason that often is true is
that we tend to elect in Georgia and in the South,
we elect black people at the local level. And we
know we finally started to make some progress at the
(23:15):
federal level, but state government is the intervener that stops
many good things from happening. Governors matter, especially now. Right
standred Ground was signed by a governor. That's why Trayvon's
murder went unavenged. The treatment of black women as parasites
through the social safety net that happened under a governor
(23:36):
in Wisconsin. Mass incarceration did not start with the ninety
four crime billets started with three Strikes Are Out, which
was signed by Governor Pete Wilson. In California, Jim Crow
never had a single federal law. It was all state
governors in nine southern states. And so we legitimately, especially
black men, legitimately protest the lack of delivery. But we
(24:00):
don't understand that the delivery system is the state, not
the local government. In the state of Georgia, the governor
decides how much money get spent. The governor sets the budget,
the governor signs the laws. In the city of Atlanta,
in two thousand and three, I helped write the first
living wage law for the state of Georgia. The Mayor
of Atlanta as signed that law. By the following January,
(24:22):
that law was illegal in the entire state. They made
it illegal for a local government to pass a law
for living wages. On call scheduling hurts a lot of
black men who want to be a part of their family.
Hurts a lot of people. But you're on on call scheduling,
you want to be able to plan your day.
Speaker 5 (24:38):
Yeah, I'll say, what is that.
Speaker 7 (24:39):
The Secretary of State, the person currently a Secretary of
State as a state legislator, passed the law that says
that no one can, no local government can require that
on call scheduling actually respect the humanity of a person working.
The governor Brian Kemp, in the midst of COVID, passed
the law saying that you couldn't sue your employer for
not protecting you from COVID. Didn't do a thing to
(25:02):
demand that you could access to PPE, but he did
make it impossible for you to file a lawsuit against
the when he reopened the state, when they forced you
back to work, they could make you come to work,
but it didn't have to protect you when you got there.
Speaker 6 (25:14):
That's this governor.
Speaker 5 (25:15):
So that's why I'm confused in states, because.
Speaker 7 (25:17):
Most people don't understand they all they know is that,
well he reopened the state. Yeah, thirty eight thousand people
are dead.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (25:24):
I was literally having this conversation with because I was like,
I want to have a conversation with some young folks
that actually live here. And I was talking to two
young folks behind the camera and we were talking about
Georgia is a little is different in the sense, and
they're from Chicago and Detroit respectively, and now their residents.
But speaking to a I spoke to Rego Wade yesterday
and I said, I don't understand why the polls say
that things are closed. When y'all was here, y'all saw
(25:48):
not even I mean COVID that's nice, but we saw
with the injustice that happened to Stacey in twenty eighteen.
And he said to me, he said, yeah, but politicians
always cheat, And I was like, well, yeah, but that
was the whole world watched it, and it was just
a matter of fact, like Georgia kind of. I felt like, Okay,
you know what this is. This is some Georgia excuse
my language, shit in a way, some South shit where
(26:10):
things go a little differently in the Northeast.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
You mean in terms of moving the goal post.
Speaker 5 (26:14):
Yeah, like it couldn't be so blatant. And we would
never have let a man like that only be governor
again and re Going again think he has a chance again.
Speaker 7 (26:22):
The law he passed that is voter suppression two point zero.
This law not only says you can't have water or food,
he's outsourced voter voter purging. Sixty four thousand people have
had their voter registrations challenged because he and Brad Rasenberger
put in place a law that says that you can
any person can walk into a county board of Elections
(26:44):
and say I don't think that Amir has the right
to vote, and you have to prove that you have
the right to vote. They don't have to have any evidence.
And it used to be that if it looks fishy,
the board of elections can say this is this is crazy,
We're not going to do. They now have to process
every single challenge and in Gwinnett County alone, thirty seven
(27:05):
thousand voter registrations were challenge heard.
Speaker 5 (27:08):
About Gwennett County, I heard it's a problem, right.
Speaker 7 (27:09):
It's no, But this has happened across the state. But
this is the same state where because of Brian Kemp's
law s B two two four, different boards of elections,
the people who control where the polling is, if you
get your if your name's there, they kicked all of
the black people off of the board and it is
legal in Georgia for them to do so. Brian Kemp
did that. But the reality is, and this goes just
(27:31):
to the larger issue, not only black men, but of
the urgency of this election. If this is what they're
willing to do. Now, imagine when he is a lame
duck governor who can't run for office again, when he
has six he has nothing to lose. He's got his
way billion dollars.
Speaker 5 (27:46):
He already took our bodies away from us and the
right to.
Speaker 7 (27:49):
He's got six billion dollars at his disposal. We have
a surplus once you pay every bill. We've got six
billion dollars sitting there. He has told us his intention
is to give this money to the wealthy. And so
part of the goal of today, and I appreciate this conversation,
is that most people are so legitimately consumed with their
(28:11):
lives and with their fears and with their realities that
politics feels like an extra burden. I like to say politics.
You may not be into politics, but politics is into you.
And it is a stalker. And we have to understand
that stalking usually turns into something grave and terrible that
(28:32):
you will one day see on lifetime movies.
Speaker 6 (28:34):
And so we've got to push back.
Speaker 7 (28:35):
In my job, my interest, my intensity is because I
know what the consequences are if we don't do it,
But I also know what the possibilities are if we do.
We can invest in people, We can restore bodily autonomy.
We can make certain that black men and black people large,
but black men in particular get re enfranchised and actually
have an active role to play in their futures instead
(28:58):
of a governor who thinks that restoring mass incarceration is
an okay thing to do for.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Cats like me on the sideline that we want to
do something. Now, last year, you know, I raised money,
went out on the streets, I mean even hand it out,
what like I would go to polling places and all
those things.
Speaker 5 (29:16):
What can we do and not celebrity civilians because we
all want to.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
We I just meant, like flesh and blood people, Okay,
what can we do to help alleviate the situation that
I know is going to be problematic?
Speaker 6 (29:33):
So number one, feel free to give me money.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
But here's why No, but here's why take all my money.
Speaker 7 (29:38):
I'm running the So our campaign has the single largest
voter engagement apparatus in the state. That means going into
the places that most people don't go to get to
the voters most people ignore that's what that's what we do.
But it takes money because I actually pay every canvasser
twenty dollars an hour. We don't we pay a living
wage to our canvass.
Speaker 5 (29:56):
Yes, I was still ne for free in a college town.
Speaker 7 (29:59):
But when you to go to a small place, when
you've got to go to Colquit County, or go up
to Dade County, or you're in Clayton County and you've
got to knock on all these doors in these apartment buildings,
this is a job and people need to take it.
So we need volunteers. But before we get volunteers, I
need people who I know can show up to work
every single day, so your investment is in that work.
Speaker 6 (30:18):
Number two.
Speaker 7 (30:18):
I need volunteers, I need folks to reach out to
their communities, but I also need people to talk about
this on social media. The other side is spending a
lot of time pretending this doesn't matter. Every negative narrative
you here, they amplify it. They will tell a lie
a thousand times until it sounds like the truth. We
tell the truth one time and we shut up with
no one says amen. I need us to talk about
(30:40):
what is at stake. And who is, who these people are,
who my opponent is, and who I am. And we
may not agree on everything, but if you look at
the totality of my work, I show my work. And
so think about if you've got a guess who's going
to do a better job, the guy who's told you
he doesn't care about you, or the woman who's shown care.
(31:01):
But I need folks to be talking about this. In
eighteen there was a national conversation. This time it's been
a bit more muted because we've been dealing with so
many things.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
I was gonna say, Yeah, how do you think the pandemic?
Speaker 6 (31:13):
How you think that is a shit pandemic?
Speaker 7 (31:14):
COVID inflation, racial violence. People are tired and you you
laid it out very well, Ameir. People are exhausted. But
pain doesn't care about your exhaustion. Politics doesn't care about
your exhaustion. Our responsibility is to show up anyway, because
the consequences are going to visit us whether we invite
them or not.
Speaker 5 (31:34):
Okay, so let me ask you this as your sister,
and it's funny. I do another podcast with two sisters,
Jill Scotten in Asia from Kinju the Family Soul, and
were always talking about self care. I need to know,
Stacy Abrams, what is your self care ritual? Do you
do have something daily? What do you do for self
so that you can go out and give all this
energy to all these people because it costs.
Speaker 6 (31:58):
I watch an inordinate amount of television and I read books.
Speaker 5 (32:01):
Rest.
Speaker 7 (32:02):
When I say I watch a lot of TV, it
is a bit absurd. Right now, I'm watching Eureka because
I didn't watch Eureka when it came out before. I
love it, so I'm on season five and very sad.
I've heard it's really good. I'm waiting for The Equalizer
to come back because I love Queen Latifah. I watch
all of the fbis. I think they're twenty seven of
them now, yeah.
Speaker 5 (32:21):
I watch you on Law Order.
Speaker 6 (32:22):
You got to decide, Well, well, no, I'm Onlaw Order.
Speaker 5 (32:25):
Yeah the new season?
Speaker 7 (32:27):
Well yes, so I know they did all three of
them on the twenty second, but I haven't haven't had
a chance to watch it.
Speaker 5 (32:31):
But yes, do you watch the first Lawn Order?
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Because I watched Hey, I was a dead body on that.
Speaker 5 (32:36):
No you was on SBS. Yeah, yeah, yeah, SPU is
the tight.
Speaker 7 (32:40):
I watch all of the Lawn I've watched Law and
Order UK. When I say I watched TV, I am
K there's a Law and Order UK.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
Yes, And is this thing have an accent?
Speaker 5 (32:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (32:54):
You know what, I'm putting it out there. You organized
an outcast union, they will come.
Speaker 6 (33:04):
Well, I think I'm talking to the person who can
make it happen.
Speaker 5 (33:07):
He's talking to you.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
I'm talking to uh, you know what someone should get out.
Oh boy actually lives five minutes away from me.
Speaker 6 (33:19):
I'm just saying that, don't have boy in his name.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Yeah, the one that does boring. He goes fishing in
Long Island like four days a week. So yeah, I'll
call him.
Speaker 5 (33:30):
But what are you listening to? Stacy?
Speaker 7 (33:31):
I'm curious, my my, So, I have a sixteen year
old niece who now lives with me. Okay, no, so
I don't want to tell you what I listened to
because everything I say out loud she cringes at So. Yeah,
most of our musical tastes are frozen from when we
were basically between the ages of ten and twenty five.
I have expanded my universe since then, but when it
(33:54):
comes back to just the core narrative. But I'm curious,
who do I listen to right now, I just had
to do some I just did a photo shoot, which
that sounds so bougie. But anyway, so they play music
because well it's awkward to do this stuff, and so
they play music to relax you.
Speaker 6 (34:10):
So it was tribe called Quest. It was Whitney.
Speaker 7 (34:17):
There was a new addition, of course. I also love
Van halen Stone Temple pilots. There was some Fiona Apple. Yes,
I listened to a broad range. There was and I'm
not just pandering. There were some roots.
Speaker 5 (34:33):
So when's the last time you had to go to
a show? Like, was the last time you had time.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
To go to a show?
Speaker 7 (34:38):
Well, last night I was at Alicia Keys concert for
fourteen seconds so she could say.
Speaker 5 (34:42):
Hi and listen to thank you?
Speaker 1 (34:44):
That that was it?
Speaker 5 (34:45):
Yeah, yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 6 (34:46):
So once two step any by Missy Elliott. You just
get me high.
Speaker 7 (34:50):
And I have a deep, end abiding commitment to all
of the fun songs done by Ludacris.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
I'm a person. Yeah, I got he.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
Look, this is fun one because it feels like this
is a ten minute episode of Question of Supreme, even.
Speaker 5 (35:06):
Though I know that we've it was longer than Michelle Obom.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Yeah, I was about to say, can you come back
after you win?
Speaker 6 (35:13):
I can thank you, thank you, No.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
I really appreciate it, and you know you're you're an
inspiration for it for a lot of us on the
sideline that like someone should do something, and can I.
Speaker 6 (35:25):
Give people one more thing to do?
Speaker 7 (35:26):
Yes, I need people to vote early starting October seventeen,
vote early, So Georgia has three weeks of early voting,
and the reasoning people to vote as early as they
can early voting because we know suppression is on its way.
We know they're making it hard to get absentee ballots.
They're making it hard to know your polling places. They've
changed the rules, and if you go to the wrong
polling place and you're in line for four hours and
you get to the end and it's the wrong polling place,
(35:48):
they will not accept your ballot. Yes, it's called a
provisional ballot. So the way to the way to overcome
voter suppression is not to let it win by staying home.
It is by overwhelming the poll with our presence. But
we need to show up early. We get there the
first week, we get all of the we know all
the problems. We can get as many things out of
the way, and so we're really just dealing with the
(36:09):
biggest issues, but with fewer and fewer people. As we
get close to election day, show up early. If we
show out on the week of October seventeenth, there's no.
Speaker 6 (36:17):
Stop in us.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
There he goes the big pay back.
Speaker 5 (36:21):
I don't live here.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
I'm taking a cue from Unfinished Business in EP Yes, finished.
This is the big payback for our guest today, overdue
Stacy Abrams, Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Yes, future.
Speaker 3 (36:38):
On behalf of no. You know I believe in affirmation
and putting it out there. I won't be happy to
show Steve like paid Bill. You missed another classic and fine.
This is quest love and thank you again, Stacy as Hardiness.
We'll see you next time.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Thank you. West Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hosts And Creators
Laiya St. Clair
Questlove
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