In-Depth Conversations with Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley: Black Women, ICE, and Activism

In this episode of TMI, Tamika D. Mallory and Mysonne sit down with Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley to discuss a series of pressing issues. They explore the detrimental impact of ICE on marginalized communities and call for its abolition. They discuss the importance of protests and activism, especially within the black community. They also discuss the alarming unemployment rate among black women and the intentional policies leading to this crisis. Through personal stories and powerful dialogues, this episode delves into the systemic challenges faced by black individuals in America and underlines the need for collective action and resistance.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Tamika D.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
Mallory and it's your boy my son in general, we
are your host of T m I T Mika and
my song's information, truth, motivation and inspiration name new Energy.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
What's up my song?

Speaker 3 (00:15):
Like?

Speaker 1 (00:15):
How you doing today?

Speaker 3 (00:16):
I'm black, blessed and holly favored t mek A D Marry.
How you feeling doing good?

Speaker 1 (00:21):
I'm just you know, life is happening. That's it. You
see my new Uh? What is this my new background
that Janis created. I'm so excited about it.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
Yeah, they look cute. I need one. I gotta get
me especially made one.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
It's in the chat.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
That's yours. No, I need this is.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
We're going to have different backgrounds, TM I. I need
customing out.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
I need a custom background for me.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
That's not how it works. If you want to change
your background, then I have to change mind.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
You you're not at the same place. We got to
custom looks. I got a different background, now you got one.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Yeah, but no, the TM my logo it's anyway.

Speaker 4 (01:05):
I'm not.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
I would love to have the tea of my logo.
But I just want a different wall. Let my wall
be bricks or something like out.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
Of the hood.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
We'll get fool you go to the bricks. You see
how I'm not. I'm not married to one day.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
This looks good for you. I'm just trying to say
o me or just work for me.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
It's not saying it don't look good for me, but
I just like that as yours, and I would like
to have me accustomed background.

Speaker 3 (01:29):
That's it.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
For those people who are listening and not watching. We
have new backgrounds so that we can be out in
the world and not have the people walking by and
all of the craziness that goes on. Y'all know that
it is about to be mid term elections and we
don't have time to sit at the house or in

(01:50):
the studio in one place. We got to move around, honey,
because the people need to be at the booth voting
in a few months. And know we cannot wait until
two weeks and three weeks before an election to get
folks out there. So we are on the road, were
on the move outside. I am coming to y'all live
from Memphis, Tennessee, and I'm gonna tell you my son,

(02:11):
I well, as soon as I land in Memphis, the
first thing I want to do is get the breakfast
and then after the breakfast, I want to go for lunch.
They have this great hummus spot, and hummus is actually
good for you, but it's all the stuff you throw
on this hummus that messes it up. And then after
the hummus, then and later on I like to have

(02:32):
the greasy ribs and just all the good stuff. And
I just can't do that because I changed my life.
And so it's interesting drinking water instead of getting me
some good old iced tea. It's Memphis. They got the
best iced tea.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
Get you, Tomaga.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
AnyWho, let's get this show gone. We have a big
guest coming on today and I'm excited to have her.
So we don't have a lot of time, but I
did want to just talk about. First of all, it's
two things that I think we need to mention before
we get into the show. Number One, congratulations to Tianna Taylor.

(03:20):
You know, I have had the pleasure of being in
space with Tianna Taylor many times at this point. You know,
now even her mom, who I just love, I adore
all of them. Now she's actually a personal friend of yours.
And while I can't say we're personal friends, I can
say that she's a good sister, that every time I

(03:42):
see her there is nothing but love, and she's just
so special and so kind, and she's just a regular girl,
like you know, just and it's so many of us
that's like that. I was at a premiere event that
Sherry Shepherd invited me to my other sister who I
loved so much, and Tiana was there. Taraji was also

(04:04):
when they were in a movie called Straw, and so
this was the premiere and everybody Beverly Bev Smith and
Tamriy Hall and who else Noty was there. I mean,
the list goes on and on. In fact, I was
looking in the room like, Okay, they invited me. And
I do that all the time, and I know people
would be like, what do you mean, is it whatever?

(04:26):
But I always say it. And so that's just part
of how God keeps me humble that I realize it
is an incredible honor for that type of group to
invite me and have me in this small space that
didn't have more than sixty people. And there are people
I'm sure I'm forgetting, but while I was in the
room and I was talking to all of these different women,

(04:49):
I just was so my heart just was so big
on how nice we were to one another, right. And
some people will say, well, they was just like that
because you it was you. No, actually that's not true.
I've been in a lot of spaces where I leave
feeling like why did I go there? You know, these
people didn't make me feel good. They're rude. You go

(05:09):
to speak to them and it's like, what you know,
maybe when they figure out who you are, they're a
little bit nicer, but you know, I don't like that.
I'm not a person if you're not going to be
nice to everybody in the room, or at least be cordial.
I don't all of a sudden start trying to be
cool with me when you realize, oh that's to Meeka
Mallory or somebody has to say that. Johnny noon Az,

(05:31):
the historic photographer, is the best at going to people saying,
wait a minute, what do you mean you need to
take picture with Tamika, you know, and he'll be talking
to like, I don't know over and telling them like, no,
she's the plug, She's the one you need to talk to.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
Right.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
And So I've been in spaces where I've been introduced
into or introduced to people and then the energy shifts,
and that turns me off completely because I'm just not
that type of person. But in this room, not one
person made me feel like we weren't all just sisters
and all on the same level. No matter your financial

(06:08):
status or how much how many followers you have, or
how many you know, or how many screens you're on,
they we all felt like it was a real sisterhood.
And Tiana, I can just I know she's the very
guarded person, but she was just so beautiful and sweet
and kind in that room. And I just remember thinking

(06:29):
that day that the universe owes her so much, like
the universe just owes her a rain down of of
not just success because she already has that, but just
blessings on blessings on blessings her her mother, her family,
and so to see her up there in her real
She didn't go up to the stage at the Golden

(06:51):
Globes and act like, yeah, that's right, I know that's
what's up. It's me. No, she went up there with
so much humility, tears, everything, just pouring herself out and
it made me real proud to be a Harlem girl.
And it just made me proud to know that they
are still sisters like her who are out here treating
people right. And even though things might not always work

(07:13):
out as you wanted to, she's still showing up in
the world as a powerful and beautiful force. And so
I'm really proud of her. Congratulations and just God blessed
on her journey. The universe is paying her back for
what she has deposited.

Speaker 3 (07:28):
Man, you know, you know that's like my little sister.

Speaker 4 (07:31):
Man.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
You know, I had to the pleasure of going on tour.
Shout out to my brother Game. He took us on
tour years ago, and we were on tour for like
almost two months together, and during that we just grew
up bond Like I just made sure that she was safe.
You know, we would connect on music, we talked about
certain things, and she always been a talented individual and

(07:54):
a real down to earth individual. So why can't her
constantly just blossom and bloom into this person I always
knew she was gonna be because she knows everything about
entertainment from music to choreography to just pays attention to
detail like she used to be there before doing her rehearsals,

(08:15):
like she was always professional and at a young age
and she wasn't even twenty twenty one years old at
that time. So just watching her growing to this, and
every time I see her, it's the same love. She
comes up to me, hugs me, my brother, we talk,
you know. So I am so proud and happy for her,
like I should. I literally shed a tear.

Speaker 3 (08:34):
When I watched.

Speaker 2 (08:35):
I did, and I seen her give that you know
that speech, because that is Tiana for real.

Speaker 1 (08:42):
Yeah. She started out by saying, Praise be to God,
and I was like, that's it. Like, as long as
you know that, there's nothing you can't go wrong once
you know from which your help is coming. I guess
I know they say it a different way, the Holy
People got it right, But the bottom line is when
you know that God is the one, then you understand

(09:05):
you're connected to a source. And she is definitely connected
to a source. And so you know, again, just super proud,
super proud, super proud of our dear sister and your friend.
So the other thing, I know, we're gonna talk a
little bit more about this, but I thought that it
would be important for us to acknowledge the murder of

(09:27):
two individuals in the last week by ice. I don't
they say they agents. I don't even know what you
call these people, but by ice, I guess we'll just
leave it there. And that is, of course Renee Good
and then Keith Porter. And you know, Keith Porter was
killed in California on New Year's Eve by an ICE

(09:48):
person who they say was acting like a police officer.
There's a lot of details to this story, and I
was told the other day that some of what I
know is not accurate on media reports. So I don't
want to mess up by trying to give too many
details about all that is surrounding Keith's What happened to Keith.

(10:11):
His mom was at a press conference that I didn't
get a chance to watch because I saw it as
I was dozing off to sleep last night. So I'm
gonna go back and I'm gonna find it. I've already
posted some stuff in collaboration with BLM Los Angeles, led
by Malina Abdullah, and I'm going to continue to do
that because we have to make sure that Keith Porter's

(10:32):
story rises to the level of an international news story,
right like we need to make sure that people all
over the world know that a black man was killed
on New Year's Eve by an off duty ice person who,
as I said, was supposedly acting as if he was
a police officer, and I don't even know what that means.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
And again I heard he was actually even off duty.
He wasn't even working an.

Speaker 1 (10:57):
Right, he was off duty. Yeah, So and that's why
I'm saying, I'm gonna go back and I'm gonna dig
into all the details of what happened to him and
really make sure that on this show we give Keith
Porter the type of respect that he should receive. So
by next week, we actually need to try to have
Melina Abdullah or a family member or someone on who

(11:19):
can just talk to us about what happened to Keith
Porter and his life. At the same time, we know
way way way, way, way way details about what took
place with Renee Good. And I found it interesting that
someone thought it made sense to release additional footage of
the footage from the ice person's camera of them filming

(11:44):
the incident. And I don't know if they thought they
ate by posting that, but actually it just reaffirmed what
we already knew, which is that she wasn't in a
contentious fight with the officer. She was actually just kind
of telling them like you you know, basically, you ain't
shit and I'm out and that's it. And she was
moving away. I'm sure that when her side door, which

(12:06):
her wife clearly opened, when it opened, her attention kind
of went to the side, which is the thing side
that she was driving out, you know, where she was
driving out and those officers was just like the wild,
wild West, and so you know, I noticed it. I remember,
I remember you mentioning a couple of days ago, which
again I haven't haven't been that tapped in, but I

(12:27):
remember you mentioning that the officer had been something happened
to him before.

Speaker 2 (12:33):
You already said that the officer had gotten into a
situation to where a car dragged him and he had
to get twenty stitches in his leg.

Speaker 1 (12:42):
The ice person, the ice crossing. Yeah, so he already
was dragged recently, which means that he probably has PTSD also,
so he should definitely not even be working and forgat PTSD.
Although I'm a given PTSD, right because if you drag me,
I'm going to have a little bit of PTSD. But
I'm not evenna give him that. I mean, I'm gonna
put that to the side. And again I'm still gonna

(13:04):
say there's some PTSD associated with the car and the
dragon or whatever, but also anger. Right, So, like you're
starting off with being pissed off, you're calling somebody a
fucking bitch, you already are going through whatever you're going through.

Speaker 3 (13:19):
But the thing is he called her a fucking bitch
after he shot.

Speaker 2 (13:22):
Her, right, So it wasn't like he was angry and
then he shot her. And once you shoot somebody, the
level of empathy and compassion on damn, I just shot somebody,
even fear or like like.

Speaker 3 (13:34):
Wow, I shot somebody. This person might not be alive.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
The fact that you shot this person and then had
that level of anger, that means that that it was intentional.
That means that you had a level of aggression that
you didn't even subside after you knew that you had
shot this person. It's just unreal to me. That's crazy
to me.

Speaker 1 (13:53):
Yeah. See, I don't think that when he said it matters.
I think that he said it is all you need
to know about his mindset. And again, the anger that
is associated with the job, the fact that people hate you,
they don't respect you. You know that what you're doing
is one hundred percent wrong, all of that stuff wrapped

(14:16):
up together, and then you have these two women who
are clearly telling you that basically you're an impotent piece
of trash just by the mere fact that you're even
out here doing this BS job, that you're doing all
of that stuff, and you was just recently dragged like
you probably are not the person who needs to even
be working in this environment and having this role, and

(14:38):
so all of that wrapped up in a bow to
me just tells me more and more about how worse
this thing can get, because he's not the only one.
And I just wanted to save this for the record.
I remember reading the KKK's dismantled. I guess it was

(14:59):
when they were dismantling, right, So when the KKK was dismantling,
there was some kind of doctrine that kind of went
out to the members to say, we can't do what
we're doing anymore, because you know, we've been found out, criminalized, demonized,
and so you know we can't do this. But what
we want you to do is to go out and
take jobs in fire departments, police departments, you know, go

(15:21):
out and spread out and get in law enforcement and
other places of power, so that you can pretty much
still carry out the same mission, but it won't be
under this banner of the KKK. And that is exactly
precisely what is happening with ICE right now, is that
people who have the ideology that they are above the

(15:41):
rest of us, and that immigrants and black people and
brown people and people who come from vulnerable communities can
be mistreated and they can in fact inflict upon them
white supremacy, which, by the way, it doesn't matter if
you're black. You can still carry out the principle of
white supremacy. And they are getting away with that and

(16:03):
being rewarded from it with billions of dollars or being
rewarded for it with billions of dollars because of the
same mindset that we might not be able to just
go around and kill them on the street, even though
they're still doing that, But what we can do is
go and embed ourselves in places of power, and ICE
has become the new home of an area, an institution

(16:27):
that KKK like minded individuals, no matter the color of
their skin, can join and go out and terrorize communities.

Speaker 3 (16:36):
This is true, and it's actually sad.

Speaker 1 (16:39):
It's more than said, it's a crisis of epic proportions.
So let me hurry up and get to my thought
of the day. So, you know, I have had a
conversation with somebody recently about the ice raids and specific

(17:00):
what's happened in Minneapolis. And you know, this is a
person who has in the past been supportive of Trump.
But you know, she called me and surprised me, saying
something here, it just ain't right, like I'm not feeling this,
And I of course went to the first place which
I had to say, you should not be here, and

(17:20):
that is because so many people, including you, were folks
that either didn't take it seriously or you believe that, hey,
it's bad, but it's not. It's bad. But you know, Trump,
he is not gonna be able to get away with
all of that stuff because constitutionally, you know, it's just

(17:41):
it can't happen. And now he's showing you that he's
not following the constitution, he's not following laws, and in fact,
things are getting worse and worse, and it's quicker and quicker.
And so we had this conversation where I realized that
a lot of people are starting to come to their senses.
But at the same time, her husband, who happened to
be there, said to me, you know, I'm just thinking

(18:05):
that while I do see some of what is wrong
with this situation, I don't understand why we have to,
as black people, even engage because they're not necessarily doing
things in our community. Right, it's not necessarily in our community.

(18:25):
And on top of everything else, they said, they said,
they said, and they said, they said, I don't see
black people whatever that means, because the young man that
I posted the other day is just as black as
anybody else that I know, just because he's Somalian, He's
still black. But any who they said, you know, he said,
he said, and they voted for Trump. You know, the

(18:49):
numbers show that people of various racial groups voted for Trump.
And so he sent me this list, which of course
som Allians wasn't on it, because who's tracking that community specifically,
they're sort of in the forgotten or the you know,
the uncounted, even those who are of course American citizens,

(19:13):
which would be the only people that could vote. But nonetheless,
that's not one of the big groups that is counted
in the data that he shared with me. And of
course I've seen this data, but he made sure to
make the case that, you know, people of Latin descent,
people from again various racial groups, and I'll read some

(19:33):
of it to you, that these are people who supported Trump,
and that we, as black people, as some people would
say just to say Black Americans, that we were the
strongest group against Trump, and therefore anybody any all these
other groups like sort of like you deserve what you get.

(19:53):
And of course I push back on that one hundred
percent that I don't believe that anybody gets that they
just being mistreated, because the government's job is not to
siphon all who voted for them and treat them different
based upon who voted for you. The government's job is
to treat all people, all people equally, and to make

(20:17):
sure that all of your policies and everything that you're
doing is there to benefit all people. Right, and so
we're not going to do well. We can treat certain
people a little bit better than others. So I wanted to,
just from my thought of the day, get into this
idea that because certain groups voted overwhelmingly, or at least

(20:45):
a little bit more than Black folks for Trump, that
we are in a position to sit back and watch
all of this stuff play out and not do anything
about it. Understand, so many people are frustrated because we knew,
we said, we went out, we walked the streets, we

(21:06):
talked to people, we organized, we posted things, We begged
folks not to allow Donald Trump to become president. And
so a lot of people are grieving, and people are
feeling like, you know, I did everything that I was
supposed to do, and all I needed you to do
was to stand with me against these folks. Regardless of
whether you love Kamala Harris or not. I bet you

(21:28):
there are many people who wish we had Kamala Harris
as president right now, at least for the purpose of
us having somebody with a little bit of sense that
we could communicate with and fight against appropriately. But instead
we're in a war against the ring master of the KKK,
right And I know why people are frustrated. I listen

(21:49):
to it every day and I understand it. And I
know people are trying to rationalize the idea that black
folks will have to go out there in this world
and get into a contention relationship which we already have,
or at least to walk down this death road, because
that's what it is. Of being out there protesting and

(22:11):
standing up against this beast that we are dealing with,
and not one person, but an entire administration and a
party and some of our members of the Democratic Party
who believe in this ideology of white supremacy that has
been killing us since the beginning of our time here
in this damnation. It's not new, it's the same thing.

(22:35):
And people are tired of black folks having to walk
that road because when we walk it, our people die,
They kill us. That is what happens. And so I
get it, but I want to leave folks with this
word that our children are being traumatized by what they
are seeing, like the world is being reshaped in a way,

(22:59):
and actually us, we here in America, are being reshaped
in a way that we will never be able to
come back from or to rewrite this. This where we
are in this moment, this nation is being dismantled, and
not dismantled in the ways in which we've said we

(23:20):
got to tear it all down and build it back
up again. That's a different mindset. It is being reconstructed
in a way that what they are attempting to do
is to put themselves back in the most dominant position
in our society and to make all of the rest
of us a second class, third class, fourth class citizenship

(23:43):
to white men. The President is out talking about reverse racism.
He is speaking to this idea that white people who
couldn't get jobs, or were turned away, or they didn't
get into a school, that they were being that they
were being oppressed. Right this is what the President is
speaking about right now. This is white supremacy that is

(24:07):
playing out in front of the world. He is standing
on stages speaking to reverse racism. When we know, good
and damn well, that has never ever been a thing
that has existed. So while you may not see a
person who doesn't necessarily look like you being attacked or
a Renee good being shot to death in the face

(24:29):
as you, you don't see it as resonating exactly with
your life. What you need to know is that the
role we're traveling down is gonna come so quick to
where one day you wake up and say, oh, my Lord,
didn't know it impacted me, and yet it had everything
to do with me and my children. My children are traumatized,

(24:49):
their lives have been changed, and they now have less
rights than what we had, and we now are in
a place where we're gonna have to rebuild with our blood,
sweat and tears, and yes, we should rebuild. We definitely
can't ever go back to where we were, but we can,
and I believe that we are in a situation where
the rebuilding is not going to be what people think.

(25:12):
It's going to be us fighting for a release from
bondage in this nation, because that is what they are
trying to do. We are too powerful, we're entrepreneurs, we
have black families, we have too many things that they
never wanted us to have. And if there's a Project
twenty twenty five, the underlining mission is to figure out
how they can dismantle what black people have created, even

(25:35):
against all the odds. So my thought of the day
today is that we don't get to set anything out
because what happens to America happens to black people the most.
And when the system crashes, it crushes us at the bottom.

Speaker 2 (25:49):
You ain't said nothing but a word, and you know,
just to piggyback off of what you said about this
reverse racism farce, you know, the numbers is data like
math is math.

Speaker 3 (26:01):
You can't out talk math.

Speaker 2 (26:03):
You can't put words and The reality is when you
go to most of these major corporations and you look
at the people being hired, the majority of white people,
the majority of white men. They've always been the majority everywhere.
So to say that because schools and corporations have implemented
structures and systems that made it mandatory that qualified black

(26:25):
individuals got jobs, right, you got others black and others
black and other individuals got interviews and jobs, and will say, Okay,
now you have to make sure that you have at
least ten percent of these people have to be because
we know that if they make up thirteen to fifty
percent of population, it got to be ten percent of
the mass qualified.

Speaker 3 (26:43):
So we want you to make.

Speaker 2 (26:45):
Yes exactly, there was nowhere near enough, so we know
that you're still had eighty percent and eighty five percent
of the job. So when you when you have this
false narrative and you keep on pushing because that's what
they said, if you, if you, if you listen to
the media that have you love an oppressor and hating
the people that's oppressed, and that's what we are really
in that day. I never thought that I would see

(27:08):
it to the level that I see in now ignorance,
misinformation and just false propaganda is taking over this social
media and the media, and it's moving so fast that
it's so many people's fewling it. And these people have
a machine and it ain't know what they're doing. So
you know, what you said is one hundred percent on point.
And I'm just telling people pay attention, do your own research,

(27:29):
because numbers.

Speaker 3 (27:30):
Men lie, women lie, but numbers don't.

Speaker 1 (27:33):
Absolutely. I didn't get a chance to read the numbers
in terms of all of the stats of who voted
which way. But at some point in my mind, I'm thinking,
that's not even what we're talking about. That's not even
relevant to the issue here. It's more so about us.
I need it. Though Black folks are tie it. We're tied,
we're tired, we don't can't.

Speaker 2 (27:55):
The thing is as much as we tire, and I
tell black folks we can't see other oppressed people and
think they're the problem, there's no way that.

Speaker 1 (28:03):
You might at least start with that, at least at
least start with that, at least.

Speaker 2 (28:07):
Not when I walk out my door and I see
this little Mexican person on the corner and they're selling
Icey's or they selling products or they doing this. I
don't feel like they've taken anything from me. I don't
see them as the problem. I want to know why
do they have to be out there on the corner.
Why if I don't have the proper job, why am
I not a job? Because these people.

Speaker 3 (28:26):
Are not my problem.

Speaker 2 (28:27):
But somehow they've they've tricked us to believe that a
person that came here for another life and that we
control the world because they said that you can't travel here.
People shouldn't even be able to travel to different places
to where they can thrive and survive and live because.

Speaker 3 (28:44):
They told you that.

Speaker 2 (28:45):
That's that's that is the mindset of white supremacy. White
supremacy makes you think that the white people who in
control own this country.

Speaker 3 (28:53):
So that you get to dictate where people travel.

Speaker 2 (28:55):
They can't go nowhere, they can't eat, they're not supposed
to be able to live. All these things are not
supposed to be able to happen because the white people
told you that they drew a line and the saying
somewhere so other people can't go there. That's what that
they they have imaginary control of the world. These people
have divided this world up into who and what they

(29:15):
wanted to be. Hey, you believe that ship, I don't
man if I should be able to go wherever I
want in this world comfortably. God created the whole world.
He didn't create no division amongst these people.

Speaker 3 (29:27):
Did that. That's what white supremacy got you thinking that
I do when.

Speaker 1 (29:31):
You say people are like, oh, well you know I'm
from here, No we're not.

Speaker 4 (29:40):
We're not.

Speaker 2 (29:41):
Just it doesn't even add up. You can't be from here.
It just doesn't, none of it. None of us is
from here. So that's what I'm trying to say when
we keep having this conversation. It's so rooted in white supremacists.

Speaker 3 (29:51):
Thinking.

Speaker 2 (29:52):
White supremacy made you believe that people control things that
they never controlled. You didn't control God's earth. You don't
have control over this. You don't have dominion over no
other person. Like the fact that people think that that
we live in a society with that that is rule,
and we have adopted that that we we've adopted it
so much that we think we have superiority and in

(30:15):
dominion over land where people should be able to survive.

Speaker 1 (30:21):
Unreal. So we are joined today by my sister, my friend,
and someone who has been a fighting resistance leading force
in our congress. You know, not everybody in elected office

(30:41):
is ready to do the work that this sister is
doing and bringing the type of attention to herself that
she has been receiving. It's not always good, it doesn't
feel good. But Congresswoman Ayana Presley, who is of Massachusetts,
she really is from Brooklyn in my mind, but fact

(31:02):
you're representing giving Massecusett absolutely in the seventh Congressional district.
Thank you so much for joining us, but more than
being here on the TMI show, thank you for standing
for what's right and for being a powerful sister every
single day of your life. We just honor you and

(31:24):
we thank you so much.

Speaker 4 (31:26):
Thank you to me, I appreciate you so much. And
we're talking offline, and I just said, you know you're
you're in divine alignment for a divine assignment, So we
just thank you for saying yes as well and bringing
your gifts to the resistance, you know, beyond the headlines
and what is trendy.

Speaker 1 (31:42):
Yeah, Well you've.

Speaker 4 (31:43):
Been so consistent and for that we thank you.

Speaker 1 (31:45):
So all right, well let's get into it because there's
a lot of stuff that's going on here, and my
son said, he got all kinds of questions because he don't.

Speaker 3 (31:55):
I don't understand nothing that's going on, but.

Speaker 2 (31:59):
I swear I wanting to understand because in my what
I've learned, in the intellect that I've had, this supersedes that,
or it makes me believe that what I've learned doesn't
even matter, right, because we live it in the era
of misinformation so much that people just say anything, and
I'm getting tweeted and I'm getting dm look at this,

(32:21):
look at this, and I'm like, where did you even
get this information from? Who told you this? This is
not real at all. There's no way that you believe this,
But it's so many people that believe certain things.

Speaker 3 (32:31):
How are you doing today, Quaen?

Speaker 4 (32:35):
Yeah, you know, in this moment, I am okay, And
I will tell you I think the hard part Now,
I've been in Congress for eight years. Before that, I
was on the city council for eight years before that.
I was an aid for sixteen years, you know, been
an activist, worked in service industries, done a lot of

(32:56):
different things, the work of movement building and a littoral politics.
I did not get into that work to just mitigate
harm I didn't join movement work just to soften a blow,
you know. I want to do that radical work that
gets to the root cause of injustice, of inequities, of

(33:19):
anti blackness. And that's why I ran specifically on the
federal level, because it has been the contributor to so
much harm. So I know people's eyes tends to glaze
over when you talk about policy, but policy is personal.
Policy is animated in the lives of people every day.
And as you see with the decisions made by our

(33:41):
Supreme Court and at the White House by executive action,
policies determine who lives, who dies, who survives, who thrives.
These are not just static documents that live on a shelf.
So how am I doing. I'm weary but un results

(34:01):
because what I want to get back to the work
of advancing progress, not just softening the blows. I want
to change and save lives. Yeah, so I think some
days I'm struggling by the weight of it because it
seems no matter what I do, the response feels woefully
inadequate for a moment that is so dangerous.

Speaker 1 (34:29):
I saw a mean that's been floating around that says
we are severely underreacting to where we are in this moment,
and it seems like no matter what we do, it's
like I'm streaming into the atmosphere. Hey, everybody, I know,
black women are tired. Black folks. We went out, we voted,

(34:51):
we did all the things, and people didn't stand with
us ten toes down, and so folks are stressed, aggravated, frustrated.
I understand all that, and I support you and I
stand with you those people who feel that, nevertheless, this
stuff that we're dealing with, this neo Nazi, white supremacist mentality,

(35:12):
is going to end up impacting our children and our grandchildren,
and so therefore we don't have a choice in my mind,
but to resist. And resistance looks like supporting you and
some of the work that you're doing. It also looks
like hitting the streets. Do you think that people should
be out protesting and organizing and doing real visible resistance work.

(35:38):
Are you one of those people who says, you know,
maybe we as black people shouldn't do so.

Speaker 4 (35:45):
Yeah, I think our responsibility First of all, what I
know for sure, one thing's with short, two things with certain.
This is not just about how to survive the next
three years is shaping the next one hundred years, and
so you know that to be true, that is not
work that can be left to two hundred and thirteen

(36:05):
Democratic members. You know, in the House of Representatives, that
has to be the work of everyone.

Speaker 1 (36:12):
Right, But you don't have.

Speaker 4 (36:13):
To be a congresswoman and move like a congresswoman. All
you have to do is everybody has to bring their gift.
So folks are in your DM raizionn asking you is
this reel is isn't it? You know, that is bringing
your gift to the resistance to make sure that people
are accurately informed because the other side, the fascists, have
made fiction more compelling than fact. So the first battle

(36:38):
is really a fight for truth. And so if you're
bringing your gift and making sure that you're extorting this
platform so that people are accurately informed, that's incredible.

Speaker 3 (36:49):
You know.

Speaker 4 (36:49):
I like to say, if I'm giving a speech and
somebody make sure the microphone works, that's bringing your gift
to the right. Right right, we're leading the march, but
we're fueled and nourished by brown bag lunch someone packed.
That's them bringing their gift to the resistance. If we
safely arrive at our destination because someone set up prayers
to cover us. Then that's you bringing your gift. So

(37:10):
it's that really is just all it is. But you
have to bring it. That's the thing, because we have
too much evidence that in action and indifference leads to insurrection.

Speaker 3 (37:23):
Y's right, it really does. And you know, you know
what's so crazy to me?

Speaker 2 (37:28):
I listen in awe of you every day, Like I
watch you and the way you deliver messages and then
just you just reading down your resume and the fact
that in this era right there are people that don't
have half the intellect that would say that this is
that you are low IQ and a DEI like to me, like,

(37:50):
it's like we live in a twilight zone.

Speaker 4 (37:52):
We do.

Speaker 3 (37:53):
It's really like living in a twilight zone.

Speaker 4 (37:55):
You're very smart. You questioned your intellect. You're like, it's
it wants you to deep program and unlearned everything you
knew previously because they've dismantled every norm that really did.

Speaker 2 (38:06):
So I want to get into this report that you
you released saying that eighty five percent of the pardons
and clemencies that Trump has given out has gone to
white men, you know, and I and I've been telling
people that as well. And one of one of these
pardons that he given out to the drug lord Juan
Orlando Hernandez from Honduras is mind boggling to me, Like,

(38:31):
please try to try to give me some understanding of
what we're dealing with.

Speaker 1 (38:35):
Yeah, now that he's not white, but that's not the point.
It's still it's still the people who need the pardons
the most are people.

Speaker 2 (38:45):
Who have been inflicting inside out, that have done things
in our community, that have shown that they are facilitated,
that have right have shown those things. Those aren't the
people that's getting partners right.

Speaker 3 (38:57):
Now, were getting people.

Speaker 1 (38:59):
No, I was just decided to me to cut you off,
but I was just going to say that one of
the claim to things of the first Trump administration was
that they were pardoning well known black people, rappers and
you know, others like that. But we were arguing all
the time with black people like, nah, he parted my man,

(39:20):
he parted my man. You got to understand. And so
that's not happening this time. And you know, your report
kind of lays out where their focus has been. So
I think the Honduras president is a different issue. But nevertheless,
still the people who are from our community who are
wrongfully convicted and all, there seems to be no focus
on that. So why don't you talk about the report?

Speaker 4 (39:42):
Yeah? I mean so, first and foremost, I started doing
the work of fixing our broken clemency system when Biden
was in office, working in coalition with a number of advocates,
saying when you have the power, you have to use it,
and pushing President Biden to use the tool of pardon
and commutations in clemency, and in doing so, lives were saved,

(40:06):
weren't commuted, and people were reunited with their family members.
So that is an example of using all of that
power and storting it for good. One of the things
that shows shocking, so shocking with these folks is that
they have the majority in the House that it was
very thin. They have the majority in the Senate, and
they have the White House, and they have the courts

(40:28):
for all intents and purposes. Why would you have all
that majority and choose to use it for harm? That
is the really mind boggling part. We're not idiots, we
get that elections have consequences.

Speaker 1 (40:40):
You have the power, cool, but why do you.

Speaker 4 (40:43):
Want to start it for harm. And then also, so
the reason why I did this reporter is because I've
been working in this space for a long time. Secondly,
I wanted to call out their hypocrisy because you can't
say that you care about fraud in Minnesota, but then
you are pardoning George Santos, who frauded the people to

(41:03):
the tune of three hundred and seventy thousand dollars. He's
using clemency to do things like parting corporations that has
never happened the first time. The Bitmex Corporation a crypto
corporation and they had fines to the tune of one
hundred million dollars. Right, and then the drug lord that

(41:25):
you're talking about again, So we know what's happening in
Venezuela has nothing to do with drugs, and it's about
quale and regime change, just like the state sanctioned violence
taking place in our streets by the thugs mass thugs
of ice has nothing to do with public safety. So
you know, they think of they just say a thing
enough times that makes it true. That's a little Jedi

(41:47):
mind trick. But sunlight is the best disinfected and so
what I'm doing is saying, Alice Johnson, who is the
zaw being, the White House, the parties are who herself
isn't a example of redemption and what can happen when
clemency is used.

Speaker 1 (42:06):
Righteously, properly, properly.

Speaker 4 (42:09):
I am appealing to her and to this White House
to say, use the tool of clemency to benefit those
who have been harmed the most by mass incarceration. And
then on the clemency system, I mean the application process,
the backlog. There's seventeen thousand individuals in limbo. And it's

(42:29):
not just you know, my father, you know, was incarcerated
for about fourteen years, so it's you know, it's not
just that individual's life that's in limbo, it's their entire
filmin And let me tell you my father. My father
is a brilliant man, and he would want me to
tell you fine as hell too. Okay, you know, he's

(42:51):
a brilliant man. And he struggled with substitute disorder, with
a heroin addiction. He committed crimes to support that addiction,
was in and out of the criminal legal sism for
fourteen years. But he was gifted, like Menza, gifted, was incarcerated.
He attained two advanced degrees, came out, earned a pH d,
became a dean Evil College, an associate professor, and a

(43:14):
published author. And the most important thing, twelve years ago,
walked me down the aisle to the love of my life.
And I had not always known that would be our
story because we were for many years. But the point is,
my father has made incredible contributions to society, and there
are so many people behind the wall with that kind
of brilliance that is dying on the vine who to

(43:39):
be reunited with their families. And so I'm calling out
the hypocrisy of this administration. I'm calling on them to
use the tool of clemency partners and commutations, to use
them righteously to benefit those individuals and communities that have
been most harm by mass incarceration.

Speaker 1 (43:56):
And that doesn't mean you're saying that white folks shouldn't
receive pardons and clemency and all of that as well,
right Like there's some cases, I'm sure, But what we're
saying is that what we're seeing across the board from
the Trump administration and with his words today where he
is talking about white discrimination or discrimination against white people

(44:19):
in reverse racism, what we're seeing is a real, surgical
and intentional halfway towards more white supremacy.

Speaker 4 (44:30):
Right.

Speaker 1 (44:31):
And when I say white supremacy, people think about laws
and rules, I'm talking about supremacy, meaning that they are
attempting to return this nation to a place that is
nineteen sixty nineteen fifty, where we are second class citizens
who are begging for our rights versus having the freedoms

(44:55):
that we enjoy today, which is not even enough. To
your point, we're not even trying to stay here. We're
trying to go there. We're trying to go to a
better place, and they are trying to roll back. When
they said make America great again, words matter, and they
meant that it was a mantra that wasn't just some
cool thing to, you know, dance to and let me

(45:15):
not do the dance because the dance supposedly got mort Maduro,
the Venezuelan president, picked up because they said they talk
didn't like him doing the dance. But it's just a
dangerous tom. I do want to make sure that before
we go that we have an opportunity to talk about

(45:35):
black women and the unemployment rate. Now, it's interesting that
you were lobbying or advocating for a Chapman Powell of
the Federal Reserve to make a statement about the black
women unemployment rate and to release a report and to

(45:56):
do something about it. And while you may have responded,
it clearly did not rise to the level that we
need in terms of the type of intentionality and alarm
that you know of what we're dealing with. And now
he's under attack. So it's like so many things happening
at once. I have no idea how you navigate all

(46:16):
of this, but you do it, and you do it well.
So let's talk about where we are now. There's no
new jobs report, so they are intentionally holding the numbers
on all people. Am I right about that?

Speaker 4 (46:28):
Or do you feel like we are some December numbers?

Speaker 3 (46:31):
Oh? Oh, what do you?

Speaker 4 (46:32):
Yeah, we do have some December numbers of December numbers.
And so black women's unemployment went from I think seven
point one to seven point three percent, and black men's
unemployment is still over six percent. And overall unemployment for
everyone but US is at four point three.

Speaker 3 (46:47):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (46:47):
Wow, And it's really interesting how you started out with
Chairman Pala. You said you you were lobbying him for
the Fed to do their job right, because I'm very
big on that. You know, it's like push people in
the roles that are already in to do their job.
That's the Federal Reserve has a statutory mandate of maximum employment.
And so you have a five alarm fire and a

(47:09):
crisis like hundreds of thousands of black women, Black women
families and futures being disrupted because black women seventy percent
of Black women are the.

Speaker 1 (47:19):
Primary caretakers of our families, you know, in their in
their families.

Speaker 4 (47:30):
And to your point, you said you were lobbying him,
and now he's being attacked, Well, that actually speaks to
why we're what's happening with black women is that we're
the canaries in the coal mine. Mcally bear the brunt
of the harm, but the harm is coming for everyone.
And so this is what happens in this Trump administration. Right,
So people think I'm going to be exempt from the harm.
My whiteness can save me, I'm going to be exempt

(47:50):
from the harm, my geography can save me. I'll be
exempt from the harm because I'm a citizen. I'll be
exempt from the harm because I'm wealthy. They might have
a little bit more connections actually, But you know the
point is this harm, this tsunamius of harm is coming
for everyone, and so with black women, what we're saying
is this is a devastating economic indicator of what is
to come for everyone. And if this were happening for

(48:12):
white women, you will be talking about three million plus
white women that are suddenly out of the labor for us,
and we know there would be a plan. So what
we're saying is, do your job and develop, analyze the data,
come up with a strategic plan of action, and then
implement it. Now, he did respond. So I asked him
for two things in the initial letter. One defind Liza

(48:33):
Cook Okay, one of the governors in the Federal Reserve
Board who was being attacked by Trump, who every day
is you know, weaponizing his Department of Justice against black women.
And then the second was to do their job, maintain
their independence because they're not meant to be a political entity,
and secondly, maximum employment, analyze what's happening to black women,

(48:54):
and come up with a plan. He wrote back it
was insufficient, he said, they're tracking it and all that.
And so now we're at him to come and brief
the Congressional Black Caucus. So we want to report, but
we also want you to come and present to the
Congressional Black Caucus. And I know, I know we're getting
titled time, but the point is that this is about
Black women, black families, black futures, and it has devastating implications.

(49:20):
Black women comprised twelve percent of the federal workforce, which
he took a sledgehammer to, and they have defunded and
dismantled diversity, equity, and inclusion. And in the private sector,
most black women held those jobs. So it's it's completely devastating.
So can you.

Speaker 1 (49:36):
Speak to this three million number that you just stated,
because myself and you know, we're in a group of women,
black women who are very concerned about this at the
highest levels. From Melanie Campbell of the National Coalition on
Black Civic Participation in the Black Women's Roundtable, Leo Bishop,
Leo Daughtrie of anyway, Leo Daughtry has so many positions,

(49:59):
I start trying to if you're not trying to explain
it issue. It's a coalition of people Vlisia Butterfield Jones
who is doing the work of trying to help put
resources in the pockets of these women like real, hand
in the hand, here's money for your rent. And we've
been saying that the three hundred thousand number that we've
heard over and over again, it has been sort of

(50:21):
you know, in every article people are talking about three
hundred thousand black women have been pushed out of the workforce.
We know that number is a grave undercount, grave undercount.
It's obviously more than that. I saw somewhere maybe around October,
that people were estimating around eight hundred thousand women. But
I just heard you say a number that I would

(50:41):
like for you to just talk about a little bit more,
because clearly you have more data and understanding than those
of us who are you know, are not in your
not at all.

Speaker 4 (50:50):
I'm just saying it's the equivalency. So it was about
so I don't know what was in July to September.
Maybe we have three hundred and twenty thousand black women
that had been right right, and then you know, they
fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because
they didn't like the day that they were coming up with.
Then we had the government shutdown. We didn't have any numbers.

(51:11):
Then we came out of the shutdown, and the numbers
had skyrocketed, and that continues to happen with the December
numbers that were just released. And so basically what I'm
saying is that at the rate with which Black women
are being pushed out of the labor force, if white
women were being paid at this rate and at the
number that we currently are aware of aware of it

(51:35):
is undercounted, you would be talking about the equivalent of
three million white women. So that's like the entire you know,
labor force of white women. I don't know it's either
for Ohio or Pennsylvania. I don't remember context. But the
point is you will be ringing all types of bell firms.
I just think the in the normalized anti blackness, in

(51:57):
the pain and struggle of black folk and black women,
that it is so the pain of black women is
so unremarkable. It's so it's unremarkable to people. Black women
dying of sepsism and you know, parking lots because doctors
won't treat them or didn't believe their their pain. Black
women unable to you know, provide for their families or

(52:19):
will be caregivers. Black women not being you know, paid
culparable to our you know, to our peers. I mean,
I could go on and on. So the point is,
if this was three million white women, there'd be a
plan of.

Speaker 1 (52:30):
Action, right right.

Speaker 4 (52:32):
So we're saying, I need you to match the energy
whatever you're doing for everybody else, we need you.

Speaker 1 (52:37):
To do do the same thing. And instead it's intentional
and so it's going in the opposite direction, which means
it's more and more and more of us who are
being pushed out. And it's not because we're not qualified.
It's not because you know, there's just no money and
all the things we've heard, everything the economy just no
Actually it is an intentional destabilization plan for the black community.

(53:01):
And anybody who cannot see or does not understand that
is I don't know what you're paying. He said he
loves the uneducated, or the uneducated love him so and
I know this is not your words. The congress woman
did not say that. I am saying that that's what
the President of the United States said. So there are
people in high places who clearly don't I don't know

(53:24):
why they're not getting to your point that this is
going to connect eventually to the entire economy. It does
not stay contained everybody that I know, you know, my jeweler,
the guy who owns a restaurant in my community, and
the restaurant owner is actually like, you know, he's a

(53:44):
political as they say, so he could be Trump, he
could be Calmon, he could be you know, he's all
over the place depending on his values and his needs,
and he's like, yo, I don't know what's going on
with money, Like people are not spending for because when
black women are, when our economy is not properly fueled,
the rest of society suffers.

Speaker 4 (54:07):
Thank you for illustrating that, because even though I would
like for people to just care about the black family
and how this is devastating to the black family, there
is a residual impact because it means the dollars that
we use to tie the church are not happening. The
dollars that we stored for philanthropy are not happening. The

(54:27):
dollars that we invest in our beauty and our maintenance
are not happening. The dollars that we spend in at
the dry cleaners, at a restaurant, at a coffee shop
are not happening. So it does have implications for everyone.
But I also mean that these unemployment numbers will continue
to rise for everyone. Black folks build them runt, right,

(54:51):
because it's always been true. When everyone else catches the cold,
black folks cats pneumonia. So that's always going to be true.
But make no mistake about it. The harm is coming
for everyone. And so what is the path forward as
we close here, It's the acknowledgment that our freedoms, that
our destinies are tied. A moment for solidarity. This is

(55:11):
a moment for stamina. I have been to your point
about what can people do and this I mean be
thoughtful about where you storage your dollars, boycott that you've
been a leader in and a part of I've been
so impressed with that because I think we admire what
our ancestors did, but we don't have the same stamina. Yes,
our faith is shallow, god to short lived because folks

(55:34):
don't want to be inconvenienced. So the fact that that
has gone on this long is really a testament to
your leadership and your commitment and that of the movement.
And this has to be a movement. I'm sorry, the
thanks are too high and no one can be on
the sidelines.

Speaker 2 (55:49):
So Madam congress Woman you know, we've here, we've heard
your call to abolish ICE, you know, and and the
light of what's been happening, you know, the death of
Renee Good, the young man who was also okay, this
is what hold On want.

Speaker 4 (56:06):
To say, Porter, No, I got you okay, Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (56:09):
Yes, the death of Renee's Good, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (56:12):
Exactly, and the death of mister Porter, like it seems
like ICE is completely out of control, like it there's
no I don't even understand how they got this crazy,
you know. Now every video, every day I see a
video where the way that they are addressing just average
citizens is just unreal.

Speaker 3 (56:32):
Can you speak to that?

Speaker 4 (56:34):
Yeah, my son. So here's the thing. So I've been
in Congress now for eight years. When I ran in
twenty eighteen, I was one of the candidates that you know,
ran on the need to abolish this rogue, racist agency.
So that's why I do believe that Congress should be
using its power of the purse and the appropriations to

(56:55):
rain in ICE, because I do not believe it is
that an agency that can be real. This is you know,
deeply systemic and cultural. The most violent instances that we
have seen are those that capture you know, our attentions
and break our hearts. But there are violations and constitutional
abuses and violations of human rights that are recurring every day,

(57:19):
not just in our streets, by these masked thugs who
have been emboldened and empowered both by federal funding and
also with the rhetoric of Donald Trump. Know that what
they are doing has nothing to do with public safety
and everything to do with public terror. They are sowing chaos,

(57:42):
They are terrorizing communities, They are separating families. It doesn't
matter if you're a citizen. It doesn't matter if you're undocumented.
It doesn't matter if you're black, brown, white, It doesn't
matter if you're young or old. This terror is coming
for everyone as long as we fund this and empower this.
And so my heart goes out to Renee Good's family.

(58:04):
She was an artist, a mother, a wife, a community
activist who cared about her neighbors, who was a gun down,
unarmed in a residential community, shot three times in her car.
My heart also breaks for so that was Renee Good
in Minnesota. There's a black man who was loved by
many and cherished by his community, Keith Porter in Los Angeles,

(58:29):
who was also killed by ice and then Silvario Gonzales
in Chicago, a father beloved killed by ice, and then
behind the walls my son. There have been at least
thirty people who have lost their lives while they have
been detained in ice facilities. I want to close and

(58:49):
say this to my black brothers and sisters. If you
care about mass incarceration, then you should care about mass kidnappings.
I can't call them mass deportations because how they're doing
it is unlawful and there's no due process. But these
are all a part of the same two sided evil

(59:12):
coin of white supremacy and for profit benefit. The same
corporations that benefit from mass incarceration of poor folk of
black folk are the same corporations that are incentivized to
detain and to wearhouse the undocumented and increasingly many citizens

(59:36):
in these ice detention facilities. It is all connected, It
is all profit driven, and it is inhumane and it
is cruel. So if you care about mass incarceration, you
have to care about these mass kidnappings. And that's why
I do believe Congress has to use the power of
the purse. We need to in our appropriations process rain

(59:59):
and E. It cannot be reformed. It is a racist, rogue,
lawless entity that is making all of us less safe.
I mean, I'll ask people watching, do you feel more safe?

Speaker 2 (01:00:13):
Yeah, that's the question that I want to hear the
answer to. But as we close, I just want to
say thank you for what you do and I pray
over you all the time because I know that you fight,
and I hope that you're doing everything necessary to relax,
to get mental health. Because I know that I deal
with Tamika on a regular basis, and I know the

(01:00:34):
amount of pressure that she deals with. I know the backlash,
the death threats, and I know that you're experiencing those
same things. So I just want to say that we.

Speaker 3 (01:00:43):
Pray for you, We pray over you.

Speaker 2 (01:00:45):
You know, in the moment that Tiana Taylor just won
this award, it's one battle after another. Black woman always
have a battle after another. So I want you to
know that we're here to protect you and we love
you and continue to be great.

Speaker 1 (01:00:57):
Thank you so much, Congresswoman. I appreciate you for standing
up for black women. It makes me emotional because who's
going to fight for us? You know who's going to
be there for us? And I know your colleagues have
joined you in these conversations, and so we're not saying
that no one is there. I don't ever want to
make people feel like the work that they are doing
is not important. But you are. You've been a leader.

(01:01:18):
You're sticking your neck out, as they say, in a
way for us and for our communities that will go
down in history. And so I just thank you for
standing up for me, and like it's personal. You know,
I can feel it personal to me because I know
that when black women are impacted, our families struggle in
a big way. And I also want to make sure

(01:01:39):
that black men know you're a part of this conversation
because six percent of black men unemployed is devastating to
our families, to our community, to our children. And so
it's not that we're only talking about black women. We're
just leading with what we know have been an intentional
dismantling of our communities. But black men are also a

(01:02:00):
part of the conversation.

Speaker 4 (01:02:02):
Yeah, thank you for saying that. But that's why the
movement is black women, black families.

Speaker 1 (01:02:06):
Black features.

Speaker 3 (01:02:08):
That's right.

Speaker 4 (01:02:09):
Thank you for having me. I hope it won't be
the last time.

Speaker 2 (01:02:12):
Thanks definitely won't appreciate you, thank you their hearts.

Speaker 3 (01:02:17):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:20):
Once again. I want to show love to congresswomen. Aleanna Presley,
you know that what she does is just amazing and
that interview.

Speaker 3 (01:02:27):
Just watching y'all, I didn't even really have to ask
no questions.

Speaker 2 (01:02:30):
Just watching two powerful black women who just understand and
identify with the call and the seriousness of now just.

Speaker 3 (01:02:39):
Talk about it was enough for me. Just being there.
I could have been a fly on the wall.

Speaker 1 (01:02:43):
Like I always say, I think the conversation is so
important because she's actually leading her alongside Jasmin Crockett. I mean,
the black women are up there tearing it up every day,
every day, and that's why I don't That's why I
am constantly in defense of them, and why I don't

(01:03:05):
stick and allow people like Stephen A. Smith and others
to speak ill about these women. Not that they shouldn't
be critique, but you need to be very mindful and
careful of what you say and how you say it,
because there are certain ones of us that are doing
the job of manny, like certain black women are out
here doing job the job of so many others that

(01:03:28):
should be speaking of that should be speaking out and
instead we find ourselves most comfortable with critiquing the work
of black women and critiquing how they speak, what they wear,
where they go, you know, where we go, and how
you know, and and and and being sort of like

(01:03:49):
the what's the word I'm looking for the judge of
everything we do. And yet we're putting our lives on
the line in ways that other peopeople can't claim. And
so I feel we have to defend the honor of
Black women like Congresswoman Ayanna Presley. She needs to support

(01:04:11):
and you know, we want to not just pray for her,
but to actually stand in the gap and make sure
that whenever somebody has anything negative to say about our sister,
that we put her record out there to show that
what she's doing on behalf of our communities will again,
because I keep saying it go down in history as
being the work that was done to save our people

(01:04:34):
and to create a better world and society for our children.
She said something today that I thought was so important,
which is that she's not here to soften the blow.
She's here for progress. And that's what we're talking about
every day.

Speaker 3 (01:04:46):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:04:47):
I say all the time, there's a few of us
who were built for a time such as now, and
she's one of the fighters on the front line, taking
the blows, taking the fire, but always speaking truth to power.
And what Congresswoman Presley said about Ice is an excellent
segue that brings me to my I don't get it

(01:05:07):
now with this whole situation where Ice the lady losing
her life. I put up another video with a young
man who was in his car who was being harassed
by Ice. They numerous videos that another young man beat
one thrown out his car.

Speaker 3 (01:05:20):
And the common.

Speaker 2 (01:05:23):
You know comment that I keep hearing is those ain't
black people, those are Somali people, or those just Haitian people,
or those is Mexican people. And what I don't get
it's how have we allowed these people to separate us
based on the language that we speak or the island

(01:05:44):
that the ship that the slave ship that we was
on dropped us off to, Like, how.

Speaker 3 (01:05:48):
Are we so divided?

Speaker 2 (01:05:49):
I never hear white people talk about, well, those are
European white people, or those are from the Ukraine white people,
those are rush I never see them separate, I never
see them each other.

Speaker 3 (01:06:00):
I never see them.

Speaker 2 (01:06:01):
Say hey, they not white because they're from this country
or for that country they unify, and they're doing that
in this moment when you look, if you look at
what Ice is doing, I don't see where.

Speaker 3 (01:06:13):
They grabbing up the white immigrants.

Speaker 2 (01:06:14):
I don't see where they ambushing they going to the
communities where the Russians is or the Ukrainians is or
the Yugoslavians. I don't see where they're ambushing those communities
saying you speaking this kind of language, So we're throwing
you in the back of a bus, or we're throwing
you to the floor. We need to see your identification.

Speaker 3 (01:06:33):
How did we allow them.

Speaker 2 (01:06:35):
To separate us and divide us like that? How we
keep getting tricked out of our spot. I had this
conversation with a person here. That's all we foundation black
people were from here. Those people are not from here,
And I'm like, they don't care about that.

Speaker 3 (01:06:48):
They just care that they black.

Speaker 2 (01:06:49):
People, and that's the reason why they want them out,
because they want to get their numbers up. They want
to make sure that they completely dominate this country, and
they're making sure that they bring white people that speak
whatever language from whatever country they're letting him in here.
So why you don't see the play, Why do we
keep falling for the same play It's annoying to me

(01:07:09):
that people coming on page well, you need to know that.

Speaker 3 (01:07:13):
I know it's times.

Speaker 2 (01:07:14):
When Somali's first came here, we wasn't nice to them.
I know when the Africans first came here, we wasn't
nice to them. So of course we've been taught white
supremacy has has divided us from the beginning. We've always
had clashes with different people from different places, especially our own,
because we've been taught that. But we got to learn
something different because they're using the same exact playbook over

(01:07:37):
and over, and it just annoys me that we keep
falling for the same shit. For me, whether it's Somalian,
whether it's Haitian, whether it's Mexican, whether it's Darskin, anybody
who's melanated and pigmented are the people that they're attacking,
and those are the people I'm fighting for.

Speaker 3 (01:07:54):
So I don't know how we I don't know how
we done.

Speaker 2 (01:07:57):
Like when I was having this conversation with Individ, I
remember going to Ghana and we were talking to our
tour god who happens to be a pastor and actually
know a lot about the history and he explained to
us how a lot of us were dropped off on
different islands. Right, it's not that we're not the same people,

(01:08:17):
or they'd not come from our bloodline. When we left Ghana,
they took us to Spanish speaking islands, they took us
to the French speaking islands. They dropped us off on
different islands, and we act like we ignore that reality
and we are able. I can look at somebody that
looks like somebody in my family and they speak a
different language and say, well, they.

Speaker 3 (01:08:36):
Not black, Like how do we get brainwashed like that?

Speaker 4 (01:08:40):
You know?

Speaker 1 (01:08:41):
I mean, I think that all of us, you know,
this is one of those moments in history where as
you were just saying with the congresswoman, this is one
of the moments in history that all of us will
have to pay for. We're all going to have to
deal with the after effects of the moment that we're
in because at every part of our existence, right, there

(01:09:05):
have been people who made it okay or made excuses
for white supremacy. And so that's what you see happening now,
is that there are folks who are making excuses for
something that later on in life, this is going to
be written in history as one of the worst moments,

(01:09:26):
you know, in our time, in our history on this earth.
It is going to be just like the Holocaust. It
is going to be looked at as something at the
level of I want to make sure to give it
the right words. It is going to be deemed, if
you will, a humanitarian crisis. It is going to be

(01:09:51):
deemed the most egregious act of the twenty first century.
I mean, this is going to be something that in
history books and museums and what are those things? Documentaries
and people are going to be talking about what happened
in this time and your children will ask you, what

(01:10:14):
side did you stand on? Where were you during this
Did you agree that it was okay to snatch people
off the streets that don't harm us in any way,
shape or form. Did you do you or will you
be willing to say to your children that at this
point in our existence, we allowed ourselves to believe that

(01:10:38):
a person who owns a daycare center in Many in
Minnesota is worse than the person who's sitting in a
government office or in a corporation that is robbing our
communities blind, that won't even hire people who look like us,
and even if they do, the exploitation is so real.

(01:10:58):
These folks are in the process of a reconstruction era.

Speaker 4 (01:11:03):
And the sad.

Speaker 1 (01:11:04):
Part about it is that in every one of these times,
these periods in history, there are folks who believe that
they are going to benefit from white supremacy. They believe
that if they either stay below the radar, or if
they go along with the plan and they act like
or maybe truly do agree with it, they believe that

(01:11:27):
somehow it is going to save them, and that because
of a proximity to whiteness and or to this evil
bull craft that they have going on here, that they
will benefit and that their families will somehow be made whole.
And what we have found in history over and over
and over again is that it never works out that way. Instead,

(01:11:48):
the storyline will be told that we all either sat
back and participated in it, or sat back and did nothing,
or we participated in one of the most evil acts
of this time, that we are walking the face of
the earth, and I just won't be a part of it.
I'm like you, I'm going to stand and fight and

(01:12:10):
speak and struggle and be in this work. I want
my granddaughter and my great grandchildren to look at me
and say, Grandma, you were on the right side. You
were on the right side, You did the right thing,
and so you know that's the deal. Let me just say,
you know, we talked about some of the data earlier
in the show, and just to reiterate, the younger people

(01:12:34):
voted more than fifty percent, and people up to about
forty five years old voted more than fifty percent for
Kamala Harris. And then we know that in New York
City we had an overwhelming turnout of young people to
vote for Mom Donnie. So our hit, our success, and

(01:12:57):
the story of resilience and the story of justice is
buried in our children. It is it is planted rather
in our children. And for me, I know that the
young people will want to know where we stood in
this time. And I want to be, as I said,
on the right side of history.

Speaker 2 (01:13:16):
I want to be on the right side of history too.
And I want to give a shout out to Mark Ruffalo.
You know, I've seen a video where he was at
the Golden Globes and they were asking him questions and
everybody was happy, and he said, you know, I can't
pretend like what's going on in this world is not
going on. I can't pretend that a woman didn't lose

(01:13:36):
her life. I can't pretend that Ice agents on grabbing
people and kidnapping people up the streets. I can't pretend
that this economy and people can't pay their bills and
they don't have health care. I just can't sit around
here and pretend. I want to. I love all these people,
but we are really in a serious time and that
took a lot. You know, I've been around him a lot.

(01:13:57):
He's a good friend of our friend Julian Highfenberg, and
he's a good dude. And just hearing him say that,
seeing him stand in that moment when everybody else was
just you know.

Speaker 3 (01:14:08):
And they should be.

Speaker 2 (01:14:09):
You've worked hard, you're joined your the moment, and sometimes
you take that moment to enjoy and just get away
from the reality.

Speaker 3 (01:14:16):
But he wanted to center the reality of what we're
dealing with.

Speaker 2 (01:14:19):
And I just want to give him a shout out
because it was brave and it was it wasn't a
comfortable moment to do that.

Speaker 1 (01:14:27):
Absolutely well, that's pitched. I didn't see that, so I
got to check it out. I love you.

Speaker 2 (01:14:32):
Yeah, he's one of the real ones Man. Well, that
brings us to the end of another episode of TMI.
Make sure you follow us at TMI Underscore Show on
Instagram and TMI Show PC on YouTube.

Speaker 3 (01:14:45):
I'm not gonna always be right, Tamika D. Mallories and
I gonna

Speaker 2 (01:14:47):
Always be wrong, but we will both always and I
mean always be auth that IC