State of Emergency… AGAIN. Guest: Rev. Mark Thompson

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Tamika D. Mallory and it's.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Your boy my son in general.

Speaker 1 (00:03):
We are your host of t M I.

Speaker 3 (00:05):
Tamika and my Son's Information, Truth, motivation and inspiration, New.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Name, New Energy. What's going on?

Speaker 4 (00:14):
My son?

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Lennard and Black Blessed? Almost fifty?

Speaker 1 (00:20):
This is true. You're almost fifty. You have days to
be fifty. You are fifty.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
My black Fly galer is coming.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
It's not a galla, it is it's a gallon's it's
a it's a it's an extravaganza.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Yeah, please don't say it's a.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Black fly extravaganza.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
Please don't say anything to anybody about a galla blackfly extrava.
Because when I said we should have a gala, you
told me no, because you don't you that's too old.
What that as? Sixty?

Speaker 2 (01:01):
There you go.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
That's because I told you let's do it in a
ballroom and you said no, sixty. See, so there's that. AnyWho,
You are going to be fifty very very soon. I
think I was thinking I'll be forty six right behind you.
We've lived a little bit of time now, you know,

(01:25):
there's some decades on us. And as we watch all
the things that's happening in America. It's like, I don't
know sometimes about you know, what will we really be
able to count as the progress of our generation versus

(01:46):
the progress of previous generations. Now, generations overlap, right, there's oblap.
And that overlap is, you know that some of our leaders.
You just had Reverend Jackson pass away very recently, God
rest his soul. And before he passed away, there was

(02:08):
a few years that he wasn't very active and out,
you know, in the community, and still you know, taking
very important meetings and having important conferences, so on and
so forth. And so there's an overlap because we were
old enough to see it and to witness his work,

(02:29):
but young enough that they were still considered to be
the leaders. And all of us are doing the work
leaders in our own right. But it's different, it's very different.
And I think now it's shifting. The culture is shifting.
The time is there's a turnover that has taking place
right before our eyes. And I wouldn't say that that

(02:51):
turnover is happening because of people dying or any of
that or aging out. I just think that the world
is shifting. As the world shifts, it's going to require
new energy it's going to require that there is an uprising,
if you will, of new voices, including people who are

(03:12):
newer than us, you know, who are in the place
now where they have to take their rightful space in
this work. And so, you know, I think about fifty,
we're still young. You're still obviously kind of young, kind
of I'm young, very young, you you know, it's whatshy

(03:32):
washy at this point, fifty is getting serious. But it's
also it also these birthdays that we're approaching now, to me,
they're coming with even more responsibility, even more of a
demand on us to like step into our calling, you know,
and to even though I feel like I've always some

(03:55):
in some ways, or at least in the last twenty
years of my life, I've been heavily into my calling.
But I think I'm now beginning to see through the
lens of the severity of what's going on in the world,
just how much deeper we have to get and what
the debt that it will take to reach what I

(04:20):
would say is God's calling on my lege. You know,
it's just a it's a new it's a new feeling
for me.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
Me.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
I always say that I believe that we were made
for such a time as now.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
You know, I feel the same thing.

Speaker 3 (04:37):
I feel like, especially in this moment, I feel like
there's so much energy and so many things happening, and
there's an understanding and a passion that I have that
has to be manifested into something more than just inside
my head inside my heart. Right So I know there's
something that I have to be doing, and and I'm

(05:00):
just waiting for God to give me exactly the sign.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
You know.

Speaker 3 (05:04):
I'm going to continue to be active in the ways
that I am, you know, because I know it's necessary
and it's imperative, but I also know that it's something else,
you know. So it's just like just constantly just doing
the work that I'm here to do, you know, leading
in whatever capacity I am I can, you know, being

(05:26):
a voice, being the heir, you know, learning, educating, at
the same time, you know, trying to definitely just deal
with and and base my all most of my work
in our youth, you know, because I know how important
is our youth are, you know, our greatest resource and

(05:48):
we have to pour into them, so you know, that's
one of the bases. But I just also believe, you know,
we've been having a conversation just about men, you know,
and we you know.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
I just think that there is there has to be
a shift, has.

Speaker 3 (06:03):
To be a shift in a way that men are
thinking men to categorize, you know, what we call our culture, what.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
We call manhood, what we call you know, just everything.

Speaker 3 (06:14):
I think there has to be a shift because I
think there's so many things have been distorted, you know.
So that's the space I'm in at fifty. You know,
you do you have to do reflection, do self reflection,
and just do reflection about everything around you in general.
So that's what I feel like, you know, I have
to just get focused on that aspect right now.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
Absolutely. I would just say it's interesting that even though
I'm the same age and even younger than other people
in this work, I have so many more years and
so much more experience and like tracks on my back,
and so I feel like an old lady like down

(06:56):
the road, go on down the road. Like that's literally
how I feel. And it's not that serious.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
We still got to keep right because you only as
old as you feel.

Speaker 4 (07:08):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
We still have life, youth, We still have the ability
to celebrate, to grow, to dream, and I think that's
what the moment calls for, is that we've got to
be able to dream of what this world would be
like if it was the place that we created, you know,

(07:29):
what we designed. And as we reach the two hundred
and fiftieth year of America, it's interesting that it coincides
with the gutting of our voting rights and the people
being pushed out of the workforce and wars happening that
have absolutely impacted our ability to thrive. Right like that

(07:55):
those wars, all the wars that's taking place around this nation,
have created severe economic consequences. So like, while you trying
to think about buying your house or growing your businesses
or doing these things, some people will be able to

(08:17):
do that, but there's so many of our people that
won't have those opportunities, not anytime soon, because we've been
set back so far. So it's like, you know, you,
on one hand, you want to live life, enjoy, you
want to experience, but on the other hand, you are

(08:38):
carrying to me, to me, those of us who are
in positions of leadership I'm only speaking about, we're carrying
a very heavy baton and it's almost like somebody is
pressing it down you know, while you holding it, it's
like school days when they was on the pledgures. Aren's
like trying to make it heavier and while and so

(09:01):
that sometimes that makes me get into this old lady mode.
But we're actually young and we still have a lot
of life and hope, and we do have to have
the spirit of dreaming so that we can see past
the current circumstances. Because I'm sure that our forefathers and

(09:21):
our ancestors they had to dream in order for it
to be yes in question like that. So let me
get my thought of today. You know, my thought of
the day today is it's a state of emergency. The
whole show is it is a state of emergency. That

(09:42):
you got your State and the People Power.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
Tour because state of emergency, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
Your State of the People powered to a paraphernilia merch
on and well what would that be cause not really
merchan it is parapernilia and it is merch for what
would it really be called attire? You've got State of
the People Power Tour attire on today. I'm sure Angela
Rye and others who Holly Holiday and Rev. Mark Thompson

(10:10):
and all the people who are part of coordinating or
in Dwanna Thompson and Emil who are part of organizing
the national State of the People Power Tour experience, that
they would be so happy to see you still rocking
your gear because, as you said, that happened as a

(10:31):
result of the state of emergency, and it has gotten
works and we knew that. We knew that, we knew it,
and that's the reason why we hit the streets. It's
the reason why we were organizing out there within communities
while we went out to sound the alarm to our people.
Wake up, Wake up, everybody. There's trouble. There's trouble in
the fields, there's trouble in the streets, there's trouble in

(10:54):
the suites. There's trouble everywhere. And it brings me sort
of to my thought of the day when in a
state of emergency, right, there is a siren that is
supposed to go off that alerts everybody that there is
trouble so that people can wake up and know not

(11:18):
to sleep in your house while the block is burning down, right,
they come through, they put sirens on. That's the reason
why we have the smoke detectives in our homes. It
is the reason why there are mechanisms that are built
into our society actually that is supposed to tell you

(11:41):
when there's a state of emergency. The media is a
part of it. All of us are a part of
that that we have to sound and alarm when there's danger.
And what comes to mind to me in this moment,
Section two of the Voting Rights Act has been gutted
by this Supreme Court. We're gonna talk about that a

(12:02):
little bit more with our guests that's coming up today.
The seriousness of it. I'm not sure that everybody, which
there's never been a time that everybody got it. More
people in our past understood the significance of the Voting
Rights Act. And if you are someone who is closer

(12:24):
to the time of Jim Kruh, which there are some
that would argue that Jim Crow never really truly one
hundred percent ended right, that they're still remnants. But the
children of Jim Crow have risen. They are alive and well.

Speaker 4 (12:42):
And the Voting.

Speaker 1 (12:44):
Rights Act, and particularly Section two was so important because
it provided protections for black people so that we would
have proper representation in government, it's said, and now the
Supreme has said that can no longer be there's trouble

(13:05):
in the land. The alarms have to be sounded everywhere
you go. We need to be telling people as soon
as we walk through the door, Hey, do you know
what happened with the Supreme Court? Do you understand that
when you talk about Jim Crow, that the Voting Rights
Act and specifically Section two was there to end to

(13:30):
stop Jim Crow. That was a mechanism to fight the laws,
oppressive laws and abuse against our people. And now they
have decided that Donald Trump's Supreme Court, his Supreme Court
is no longer a Supreme Court that is separate in apart,

(13:54):
that has a level of independence from Donald Trump. They
are it's clearly working directly with this administration to fulfill
a mission, and that mission is Project twenty twenty five.
And so the alarms have to be sounded around the
country in every place, not just in the South where

(14:17):
we have significant, significant and critical issues around seats that
we can lose in the very near future of black
elected officials, where those districts will flit and most likely
they will flit to Republicans. The alarms need to be
sounded that it's not just in the South, but it's

(14:38):
also in the North, there's work that needs to be
done around this entire nation to protect us as black people.
And so when I'm out and this is really the
heart of my thought of the day when I'm out places,
and trust me, I'm one of those people no matter

(14:59):
what's going on, I'm still always for We could be
at a Marshanal rally, we could be in the worst situation,
and I'm saying, now, let's go get something to eat
at a good restaurant and try to decompress. Because I
learned a long time ago that burning yourself down is
not healthy and it's actually not revolutionary at all. That

(15:22):
we have a responsibility to take care of ourselves as well.
And so I believe in enjoyment and holiday and fun
and opportunities for us to fellowship with one another. But
it concerns me that many of us are walking around
with no balance at all. We're enjoying, we're celebrating, we're

(15:45):
having a good time, you know, we don't want to
focus on it. We're trying to turn the news off.
We don't want to hear about these things. And meanwhile,
any single thing that our families or parents or ancestors
are elders thought for that. We have enjoyed the fruits
of that. It is literally being rolled back with a

(16:08):
nine hundred page document that they are going through line
by line and trying to erase us. The Save Act,
as we've talked about on this show, is waiting in
the wings that will ultimately be a voter suppression effort
against women who do not have their ID and their

(16:30):
birth certificates matching because they were married. They say over
sixty percent of women, all women have that issue. Black
people only thirty nine percent of us have passports. And
yet that will be another form of ID that they
will be demanding in order for you to register, to
change your registration if you get kicked off the voting roles,

(16:52):
you'll have to your grandmother will have to produce certain
types of documentation. This stuff is very serious. As they
do that, and I move around and go to conferences
and events and whatnot, I'm not saying that those things
should shut down, but I am saying that the alarm
needs to be sounded and we should be stopping in

(17:13):
the room to say, hey, let's spend thirty minutes talking
about our rights and what we need to do in
order to restore our rights. And I'm not saying, you know,
the big speaker, right, it's important that we hear from
a Tamika Mallory, a bishoply A Doughtrey, A Kamala Harris
is bigger than you know. She's the device, was the

(17:35):
vice president, all of that, and we could go on
with the names of all the people that can take
the stage. But I'm talking about engaging everyday people who
are around us, everywhere we go, even if we don't know,
trying to learn, even if we don't have the information,
forcing ourselves to stop and slow down and say, do

(17:57):
you know about it? What can you do? Are you registered?
Who in your community do we need to tell? Should
we come by on a Saturday? Maybe we can work together.
We better do that because the state of emergency is critical.
It is critical, and it's scary when people are calling

(18:18):
out giving the warnings and a lot of people are
turning their back saying that's not my thing. I'm not
into politics. And meanwhile, everything that's going on around us
is political, and it has the ability to literally wipe
out black wealth, to wipe out black entrepreneurship, to wipe
out our black education because they are taking away our

(18:43):
or banning us from even learning about ourselves and from
teaching other people about our history. This stuff, it is
critically important, and I'll let you respond to it as sure. Sure, absolutely,
one hundred percent, we have to do for self, but
there is an intentional focus on finding ways to disrupt

(19:09):
to do for self model as well. There's none of
us that are exempt from the moment that we're in.
It's a state of emergency and the alarms are sounding.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
It's definitely a state of emergency. But what they've done,
they've successfully done, is they've divided us, and they fractured
us into silos, into individualism, to where everyone for the
most part, you know, there are definitely sectors of us
who understand the seriousness and understand that, you know, the
best possible way for us to win is through our

(19:46):
unity and our shared interests and understand understanding that we
have shared interests. But they've fractured us in so many
different parts to where we don't even we don't even
identify under one culture. And I always say all the
time time, we we black people are trauma bonders. We
bond in trauma.

Speaker 3 (20:05):
We only react, and we just like George Floyd when
we we because we are so connected through the blood.
It's like watching your your blood brother or your blood
sister or somebody in your family being harmed.

Speaker 1 (20:17):
So it's not trauma what we're experiencing, or is it.

Speaker 3 (20:21):
I think it is trauma, but what it is, it's
not publicized trauma.

Speaker 2 (20:26):
Right.

Speaker 3 (20:26):
So it's like they say, if you put a frog
inside a pot and you ball it at you know,
at fifty to sixty degrees, it'll ball itself to death
because it won't even realize that the heat is killing them.
So this is what happens is that they systematically do
things to us that they'll say, okay, we'll change this law,

(20:47):
and then they'll throw something that you to where we're
worried about who's making in clay with right, they'll change
this law and then we'll have another distraction so that
you don't focus on that. They were like, oh this
is going on. I ran and Trump is throwing stuff
on truth, so truth so that you can pay attention
to that. And even though those things are serious things.
But the way that they disenfranchise black people, we don't

(21:09):
even realize it because laws are being changed every day
that people the average everyday person doesn't realize that it
really is gonna affect him or her until it's time
to go to the battlet box, until they go and say, yo,
it was a thousand of us came. Everybody came out
to VOHU, how did we lose by this many votes?
What do you mean that we lost? But I ain't

(21:30):
even see no white people in my community? How they
hell did this purpose? And you're not gonna understand that
because of Jerry Mandarin, that yeah, your voting spot is
just the black people, but you not voted for just
your area. The people that's voting for your area don't
even live nowhere near you. They're not even governed by
the same thing, but they able to control your whole community.

(21:51):
And when you start realizing that and you start saying,
then we're losing representation. And these people right here was
making sure that the school. I know this lady because
she was on the school board. Then she went to
be the chairwoman to do this, and I watched her
growth through the I know that she actually kids from
my community. I don't even know who these people are
that keep getting voted in. And when you start seeing

(22:12):
those things and you start seeing how your community drastic
change because you're not the demographic that they focus on anyway,
because you didn't get them into office. So then you
start realizing that nothing is really happening in the community
and it's actually going backwards.

Speaker 2 (22:25):
Then you're gonna be like, wow, this is really this
is really what they just.

Speaker 1 (22:29):
Did and then beat it to speak to that. I
was riding from New York City to Atlantic City, which
is about two and a half hours with councilwoman round
Tree from Newark, right, and you know, she's no joke.
She's bold, bodacious, you got a mouth like me, but more.

(22:49):
The entire ride, that woman was on the phone helping people.
As a councilwoman. There was a woman who had rats
in her wall. She was on the phone getting the
hurt people from whatever department to do whatever, to condemn
the apartment, to move the lady. Then there was a shooting,
then there was another issue. The entire two and a

(23:11):
half hours, that's what she was doing. You could touch her,
people calling her on her cell phone. It's right, and
she was fixing problems in real time. It's RCT because
people in Nork hold you accountable. See, it's different from
other places where two people show up to vote, so
they elected officials. Because I can tell you right now,
somebody's gonna be like, they don't do that in my neighborhood.

(23:34):
They can't even find ignorit them people be showing up,
they'd be voting, They rally and they have something to
say about their elected officials, and they elected her. But
if you go about what you said, if you jerrymanded
the district and put the people of Nowork together with
other folks from other communities and let them vote where

(23:54):
the majority is the five hundred thousand other people versus
two hundred thousand people who are in this smaller place,
they're gonna pick the representatives. You think you're gonna be
able to get around you on the.

Speaker 3 (24:06):
Phone, Not at all, No, because you're not. First of all,
you're not there voting base, you're not he not they
don't care for you. You're not even in their community,
and they don't even understand what's going on in your
community to actually change. So they just think we're just
gonna fix the things that we know people should need,
but not understanding that in our communities we have very

(24:27):
distinct needs. Black people have very distinct realities needs culturally,
you know, financial, all types of things, and if we
don't have representation from our community with people that understand that,
then they won't it won't get fixed, you know. And
that's that's that's just the reality that we're in right now.
So everything you said is very serious. We are definitely

(24:47):
in a state of emergency, and I think we I
it's it's time for some of us to sound that alone.
You know.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
I think we have to sound that along. We have
to be loud, we have.

Speaker 3 (25:01):
To be angry, and we have to we have to
mobilize in the manner in a way that it's something new,
you know, because the same old tactics, like we say,
we need something different, we need something different.

Speaker 2 (25:13):
I mean there's strategy and a tactics that's different.

Speaker 3 (25:16):
But it's that that captivates the minds, that shows, you know,
the people in charge that are in power right now
that they can't just have unmatched power and unchallenged power,
unchecked power.

Speaker 2 (25:30):
We got to show them.

Speaker 1 (25:33):
I agree with you one hundred percent that I you know,
I don't I I don't think all the tactics have
to be new, because I think there are some things
that work that we can rely on. But I do
think that new energy right listening to our young people
who are at the heart of all of this, because
that's what they want. They want blood from our young people, right,

(25:57):
That's what a lot of this online algorithm pushing negativity
to us and mess it's all about. It's that they
know that's a generation that gets distracted much quicker. That's
why they didn't want TikTok to continue to teach young
people about Israel, Palestine, about American history. That's why they

(26:17):
banning books they have, Sir pat They said, we're gonna
try to shut y'all down by shutting down your funding streams.
Black women, y'all got too much going on. Let's get
y'all out of here. Y'all don't need no jobs.

Speaker 3 (26:31):
We'll will will.

Speaker 1 (26:32):
Some of you will still have jobs because we need
you to spend. But all those places and spaces where
you have the ability to push money and resources to
other people and hire people and and shape culture and
talk about blackness and all that that's out you out
of here. No sponsorship, dollars from corporations, none of that.

(26:53):
All of that's gone. Then we're going to focus on
your children, don't focus on your children, and we're gonna
stop y'all from voting because we know. I mean, the
man is writing the stuff out. Clearly Trump is on
it social media. He's writing it out. He's saying, we

(27:15):
got to do what we gotta do if you gotta
vote twice whatever. He's saying the ship that he said.
Their whole thing about voter fraud was that people were
voting twice. Remember that that was the whole thing they said,
it was voting twice. Now you're saying you might have
to you might have to do whatever you gotta do
to the legislatives so that they will he he's encouraging them.

(27:41):
Just like he encouraged that he wanted some extra votes
to help him win the election, he is now encouraging
people to break the law in order to flip these
seats so that they can control this nation. And it's
not just because he wants certain type of all that.

(28:01):
It's not because he just wants personal power. It's because
they have a doctrine. It's nine hundred pages, and they
have waited a long time to be able to put
that doctrine in place, and they are by a fine too.
Cone going down nine hundred pages, and he said it

(28:23):
loud and clear. One time he said, well, he said that,
But what he said that, I'll watch you write it.
I write it, he said all the time. He said,
I love the uneducated.

Speaker 2 (28:37):
The poorly educated, the poorly educated.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
It's what he said because he knows that those are
the people who will actually believe that something he's offering
them is worth a damn because they already so far
destitute a lot of our people, and the people the
like they hurting, they struggling. So if you listen to

(29:04):
Trump tell you that you're gonna pull yourself up, We're
gonna help you.

Speaker 2 (29:08):
We're gonna you know.

Speaker 1 (29:09):
It's about individualism, forget about all of that togetherness, right,
You might believe that if you're not educated enough to
understand one what they're saying and to the history of
where it comes from. And I keep telling people all
the time that if you want to understand the seriousness

(29:30):
of the moment we're in, it's not even to look
at the actual incident or whatever situation occurred. Is to
try to figure out the intentionality, what is the intention
behind their actions, Because once you understand that, then you
know everything they do is a part of a shedll game.

(29:52):
So for the last few days, you know, everyone everywhere,
at least you should has been getting together to talk
about the Voting Rights Act and what has happened with
the Supreme Court. We had an opportunity to sit and
talk with our friend, Reverend Mark Thompson, who's coming up now.
You know, Mark Thompson is our smart friend. He is

(30:14):
the person who we call on to help educate us
and help to keep us aware and also connect history
to where we stand in today's times. And we're excited
to have this conversation. It's a terrible conversation to be having,
but I would say excited because we always know there's

(30:35):
a way to fight back. And as we watched this
country through as I would say, Donald Trump's Supreme Court,
because we no longer have independent agencies and departments and
courts that are operating outside of or at least the
Federal Court, the Supreme Court operating outside of Donald Trump.

(30:57):
He definitely him Key and his adminis are setting the
tone for so much of what's happening around the country.
So let us bring on someone who needs no introduction
to this show, the Reverend Mark Thompson of Make It
Plain his own showed that if you're not watching, you
should be because that's where you're going to get all
the good details about all of this stuff that's happening

(31:20):
in this time. Reverend Mark Thompson, thank you for joining us.

Speaker 4 (31:23):
Thank you, Tamika and Mice.

Speaker 5 (31:26):
This is a turbulent time we're in and we've got
to be prepared for it.

Speaker 1 (31:33):
Right, that's right.

Speaker 3 (31:36):
So Mark, for those who are under a rock or
some people who just not paying attention to what's going
on in America, what exactly happened with this voting rights bill.

Speaker 5 (31:47):
Well, first of all, I think we ought to get
grace to those who are under those rocks and not
paying attention because people are really overwhelmed.

Speaker 4 (31:53):
Let's keep in mind, there's this scio.

Speaker 5 (31:55):
There's a psyop that's being run on everybody, and it's
flash bangs every day we every day we wake up
or every night we go to sleep, there's another major
news piece just to keep the flood the zone and
keep us all confused, which is a tactic of Russian intelligence.

Speaker 4 (32:10):
So we get that, but this stands.

Speaker 5 (32:13):
Out, this is very, very different what happened last week
with the Supreme Court and the Voting Rights Act, and
we really need to if we're going to focus on
one thing, it ought to be this one. Democracy began
genuinely in this country in nineteen sixty five, no earlier

(32:33):
than that. Even after the Civil War, we got the
fifteenth Amendment, thirteen fourteenth and fifteenth amendments, but they were
enforced very very briefly during the period of reconstruction that
ended and then became the Redemption movement, the redeeming of
the South, which coincided, which was with what was the

(32:54):
Nadir and people. I look up that term nay deir.
That was the moment in this country between the late
eighteen hundreds in the nineteen twenties when race relations in
this country was at its lowest point. It's a very
common historical term. You look up nay dear, you'll understand it.
And the loss of voting rights goes hand in hand
with it. With the loss of voting rights, the loss

(33:16):
of thousands of African American elected officials throughout the South, local, statewide,
and even in Congress, some of whom were formally enslaved people.
That was the power those reconstruction amendments had and they realized,
wait a minute, we can't have the folks we formerly
enslaved actually voting and holding elected office redemption the NY Deer.

(33:40):
The loss of voting rights coincided with violence, the birth
of the KKK, lynchings, Jim Crow, and segregation up to
nineteen fifty four. But even after Brown versus Board, we
still don't have a right to vote. It wasn't even
after Montgomery, even after Birmingham, still no right to vot vote.

(34:01):
It wasn't until Selma in nineteen sixty five that we
won that right to vote. And by doing so, not
only did we win the ballot for African American men,
but women as well, because in the thirteen fourteenth and
fifteenth amendments, women still couldn't vote right. So we won that,
and the Voting Rights Act of nineteen sixty five led

(34:24):
to voting protections for people of color, for women, And
we can't discount this, this is important. Before then, there
were no provisions for people to vote who had disabilities.
So the Americans for Disabilities Act married to the Voting
Rights Act. You got to have ramps or curbside for
people to even go vote. So some of y'all who

(34:45):
think this ain't about you understand that even your protections
as someone who might have to use a wheelchair or
walker or leg braces to go vote is in jeopardy
as a result of this Supreme Court decision. So it's
across the board. We are are in danger of going
back to that period of the NADEA. And I know
people think, oh, that's not never going to happen. It

(35:07):
can't be that bad, y'all exaggerating. Uh, we didn't think
this was going to happen. Some folks actually thought they
weren't going to reverse road, but they did. So this
is important and we need to wake up to it.

Speaker 3 (35:22):
So, like I said, like you just said, people think
it's nothing really happening. What do you say to those people,
like why tell the Explain to them why this is important.

Speaker 2 (35:32):
Tell them. Explain to them how it really is going.

Speaker 3 (35:34):
To directly affect black people, Because they were like, this
ain't gottenhing to do black people? This and them, this
ain't really gotten to do a black people this and that.
Explain to them.

Speaker 4 (35:42):
Please No.

Speaker 5 (35:43):
I actually I had a caller call my show Money
and say those very words. Man, We've been through this before.
What's the big deal this has always happened to us,
and there was many times a school of thought that
this just is always going to be our situation. But
to me, that becomes sort of an escapist mentality. You know,
you can't wait.

Speaker 4 (36:03):
On things to change or think they're just going to
change through osmosis.

Speaker 5 (36:07):
We've got to do what's But if you got to
feed your family, you're gonna go figure out way to
do that. You're not waiting for somebody to show up
with a check for you, right, You've got to do
what's necessary. If you want to learn, you do what's
necessary and go to school. If we want to be free,
we have to do what's necessary and organize, and so

(36:28):
there's no excuse for that. And sometimes, you know, one
of the things I've noticed too, and I would invite
others to do the same. When people have a certain
opinion about things, ask them to ask themselves where and
when did they develop that opinion? Because right now, and
if we all carefully reflect within ourselves, a lot of

(36:49):
opinions and positions and access to information we have have
is curated for us. Right So whatever I do that
to people, they get they stop, you know, because it's
sort of a challenge, when did you come to that
conclusion that this is not that important?

Speaker 4 (37:09):
Where did you see that?

Speaker 5 (37:11):
And let's face it, not just young people, middle aged folks,
some seniors, especially seniors who are susceptible because they put
disinformation in our timelines all the time. And members of
my family after to call me every day it is
it's real. Said, no, it's not real. We are disinformed.
And so that's the first thing we must do is
acknowledge the truth from the disinformation. But the fundamental truths

(37:36):
is that the Voting Rights Act was is the crown
jeweler of the civil rights movement.

Speaker 4 (37:41):
Even doctor King said that.

Speaker 5 (37:43):
Ronald Reagan even said that nineteen eighty two, quoting doctor
King when he signed the reauthorization. So right now today
Southern states can redraw their districts and draw out African
American voters in any district they want to. That is
what the Supreme Court decision. That means we could lose

(38:05):
the Congressional Black Caucus, just like we did the first
Congressional Black Caucus we lost during reconstruction.

Speaker 1 (38:13):
There's so many things that I want to ask, but
I want you to do one thing, which is to
explain to people the difference between misinformation and disinformation, because
you said that, and there is a difference, but it's
not much of the difference, but there is a difference
that I think it's important for people to understand.

Speaker 5 (38:34):
Well, my understanding to me, and I think I hear
this missing. People use them often interchangeably, but I think
technically misinformation is something that's that's accidental. Disinformation is something
that's deliberate, targeted to do that to people. But again
it's a thin line, and I don't knock people using

(38:54):
them there changeably as long as the point gets across.

Speaker 1 (38:58):
Well, I think the way I'm sorry to me to
cut you off, I would say that the reason why
that's important is because I think it is misinformation when
you begin to repeat things that you've heard and you
repeat it as if it's true. So you're now on
the podcast or the panel or the in your household,
the conversation, and you start saying things that you've heard

(39:23):
like this doesn't mean anything. Voting rights doesn't impact us.
You know, my vote doesn't count. That's misinformation. But the disinformation,
if you and I are right about it being intentional,
is the sourceful where it comes from. That you got
this from a place that was not It wasn't a mistake.

(39:45):
They planted it. They are selling you this information and
now you are repeating it, which makes you a person
who pedals in misinformation. And I think that's important for
people to understand because sometime folks get upset when you
say that they are spreading misinformation. It's like, you know,

(40:05):
I didn't. I'm not sitting up here, you know, intentionally
trying to misinform people. But if we are not properly
researching what we are saying in this time, there was
a time when you could listen to somebody on the
internet and this is a long, long time ago, and

(40:26):
pretty much some of it, especially if it was a
news article, if I was part of you know, mostly factual.
Today it's the opposite. It is the opposite that there
is so much. There is so much I don't want
to use word disinformation again, there's so much co mingling

(40:48):
of facts until you actually have to do your own
research before you repeat things, because you have to be
able to cut through what is truth on what's not.
And where I found that to be a good example
of it is with Israel Palestign. When you read articles

(41:08):
there's some facts and then there's some stuff that cole
mingles the facts. And the next thing, you know, if
you all confused, but you can be believing things that
it sounds right and it may be true, but the
context that is being put in is done purposely to
deceive you. And I'm going through this because I hope

(41:29):
that when they clip this part, they will put it
out so folks will understand the seriousness of knowing what
we are reading and what we are consuming in this time,
because I think that one of the smartest tools that
they're using against us, Mark is disinformation. I think God
is the thing that is dividing us and keeping us

(41:52):
confused about whether or not we should be fighting for
our rights. And the next thing I want to say
is that you mentioned that the Congressional Black Caucus could
be eliminated. There are a group of people who will
watch that and say they should be because they ain't
worth the salt on your chicken. Now, some of them
are not, some of them are not. That's me saying that,

(42:15):
not Mark Thompson. But there is a function that the
Congressional Black Caucus, a role that they have played for
many years. And like Terry Sewell in Alabama. When I
think about Terry Sele her seat being eliminated, that is

(42:36):
devastating because I have watched her on the floor as
well as walking the halls of Congress and uniting with
us on major issues for black folks right and now
her seat could be gone. And I want you to
help people understand why just eliminating many of a large

(43:02):
group of people who focus on our issues. What are
the dangers of that? Why is it not okay to say, well,
we could just elect anybody and they'll push our issues.
What do you think about that?

Speaker 5 (43:15):
Well, first of all, as I learned from one of
my mentors, Congressman Walter Foiroy, who was doctor King's as
COLC lobbyists when he was alive, before he was in Congress,
he said, politics is about who gets what, when, where
and how. Now everybody can fill in those blanks. What

(43:37):
do communities need? What do we as individuals need? We
need jobs, we need health care, we need subsistence, we
need access to buy homes in some cases even rent
apartments affordably. That's what politics dictates. And if we don't
learn that, don't do politics. Politics or someone else said

(43:57):
politics is going to do us politics, doing us right now,
and so for those members of the Black Caucus and
other elected officials, because to be clear, now I mentioned
the Black Caucus, but they can redraw districts in such
a way even to eliminate allies from other races and
other constituencies who are progressive, sometimes more so than Black

(44:21):
caucas We want progressive representation in Congress, all of us do,
in whatever form God sends us. That is what we want.
This decision could affect all of those types of seats.
So that's why this is important and why this is
so impactful. But here's the other thing that we need

(44:42):
to keep in mind. As a black electorate, you have
no successful democratic elections without the Black vote because we
are the swing in districts where we are not even
the majority, we make up the difference for candidates to
win office. And so the problem with our political system.

(45:06):
Unlike other systems in the world, in some countries who
colonized our people and participated in slave trade, there's more
fair representation. Democracy is a multiracial a multiracial democracies are
multi party and their proportional.

Speaker 4 (45:28):
So if we had a Tomi.

Speaker 5 (45:31):
Party, for example, and we only got three percent of
the national vote, we get three percent of the seats
in the legislature. You see what I'm saying. That's not
nothing here. Two parties only only, and that's it, and
it's pretty much winner take all under that rubric And
in that type of system we're boxed in. First we

(45:52):
were members of the Republican Party, the Party of Lincoln,
and then after nineteen sixty five because of the Dixiocrats
who opposed the voting rights of Republicans. Then at that
time we took over the Democratic Party and pushed out
of the Dixiecrats. So we're already, even without this ruling,
not in the best political posture of political power, be

(46:15):
that the case two party systems. Most of us in
the Democratic Party, which is the only one that even
seems to have an inkling.

Speaker 4 (46:24):
Of interest in our issues. This is a devastating ruling.

Speaker 5 (46:28):
It helps to with Donald Trump's efforts and the Supreme
Court's efforts to create that three three three dirty word
of three words. When we look at other states and
other countries around the world. America criticizes it, but that's
what we're getting de facto here, a one party state.

(46:49):
Whow okay, that's the thing tatorship. That's we decrade it
all over the world. Some of us are even so
sophisticated top brainwash we are. We look at other countries
and see news on that's a one party state.

Speaker 4 (47:02):
Cuba. Oh, that's terrible. We're doing the same thing here.
It looks better.

Speaker 5 (47:07):
It's got more bells and whistles, and there's the illusion
that it's not. It's the same thing. It doesn't call
itself comic or Cuba's communist one party state. No, this
is a one party racist state run by minority. Let's
put our brains on, y'all. When a minority is running
a majority, what's the word for that. It's called apart time.

(47:27):
That's easy, you say, apart time are PARTI is terrible.

Speaker 4 (47:31):
Minority running a majority. Same thing here.

Speaker 5 (47:33):
Minority in the House, minority in the Senate, minority in
terms of constituency. The majority of people in America people
of color, The majority of people in America are women, minority,
the Supreme Court.

Speaker 4 (47:44):
All of that run by minority of people.

Speaker 1 (47:49):
You know, when you go, let me just underscore another thing, Mark,
I knew that the Voting Rights Act gave women the
right to vote, but I didn't know about the Disability
commit but it came.

Speaker 4 (48:01):
It came later.

Speaker 5 (48:02):
So there were other acts that and amendments that built
onto the.

Speaker 1 (48:07):
Voting Rights built onto it provided it opened the door
for everybody, anybody who was disenfranchised under the Voting Rights Act,
they started to gain their rights. So that makes me
think about why this is not just a black issue, right,
And I think it's important to hear from you on

(48:28):
that because there are some people who are sitting in
their houses, white women, because you didn't say that it
gave black women the right to vote. You said that
it gave all women the rights of vote right, so women,
the disability community, and I would imagine we may not

(48:50):
have the list today, but there are many other communities
and factions, if you will, who threw the Voting Rights
at they were able to either sh strengthen and do
a secure their rights, you know.

Speaker 5 (49:03):
And to be very specific, the chief in the Voting
Rights Act were in section five and section two mm
hm and and and I do, well, how much time
do we have to meet Tomka?

Speaker 1 (49:15):
You got We got a couple of minutes.

Speaker 5 (49:16):
So so I want people to understand something that that
this like Roe they fought fifty years of reverse row.
They've done the same thing here when Bush Vigor was
in Florida. The people who are on that team to
help Bush. That's why it's not just Trump. Three lawyers
in Florida who worked on that case, John Roberts, Bret Kavanaugh,

(49:40):
Amy Coney, Barrett. In two thousand, y'all right.

Speaker 4 (49:44):
This four.

Speaker 1 (49:46):
What's his name, Cap Cavanaugh, that's right, became a Supreme
Court justice.

Speaker 4 (49:52):
Before Roberts and Amy. This is a thousand I.

Speaker 1 (49:56):
Was saying Kavanaugh because you know, we had a whole
movement to stop but yes, before the three of them.
So they were rewarded for the work that they did
in Florida, is what you're saying in two thousand.

Speaker 5 (50:09):
Well, but now in eighty two, Roberts was working in
the Reagan White House. You have to reauthorize the Voting
Rights Act every twenty five years. Now, some people didn't
understand that. Well, the reason where that was, and this
is where section two and section five come in. Section
five required preclearance mice if your state had a history

(50:31):
of discrimination, if you made voting changes in your state,
you had to be reviewed by the Department of Justice.
All Right, Some rolled off of that police clearance. Some
stayed on, just depending on what you had done over
the past twenty five years.

Speaker 4 (50:44):
All right. Section two was the same.

Speaker 5 (50:48):
It allowed you to draw districts to expand the ability
of minorities, even though we are minorities so much anymore.
It's people of colored for minorities to have expanded voting rights.
All right, that's what section two and section five were.
Maybe Roberts in the Reagan White House fought Reagan himself,

(51:08):
don't reauthorize and lobby Congress not to reauthorize. Congress reauthorized
it anyway. And Reagan, just like he would have to
do with the Martin Luther King Holiday bills, signed the bill.
He didn't try to stop it. He didn't try to
veto it. That Robert that went against roberts advice. He

(51:31):
vowed then, this is eighty one, eighty two. He vowed
then and over the past forty years or more that
he would strike down the Voting Rights Act. So Bush
appoints him to Florida to fight the recount, which he
does successfully alongside Brett Cavanaugh and Amy Coney Barns. All Right,

(51:51):
so Roberts is rewarded. He's appointed to the Supreme Court
in two thousand and five, and I think the year
lady even became Chief Justice. All right, Trump rewards amy Cony,
Barrett and Cavanaugh and puts them on the court as well.
And that accomplished a couple of things for all concerns

(52:15):
the three of them, Roberts, cavanar Barrett. And this intersects
these these walls sharing. There were two firms, law firms involved,
and there was an intersection. It's very incestuous between those
three Roberts, Cavanaugh, Amy Cony, Barrett, James Baker, Ted Cruz,
and Kennis Starr. All right, so one of the same

(52:37):
firms where Kavanaugh was negotiated in two thousand and seven
the agreement, the non prosecution agreement for Jeffrey Epstein. So
when his wife case, yeah, come on now with no
This was in seven. So Kavanaugh gets appointed for two things.
He helped to prevent the secution of Jeffrey Epstein and

(53:03):
was involved in blocking the recount in Florida. So he's
got all feathers in his cap, all right. Wow, So
when when in twenty twenty in last October in twenty
twenty five, in Epstein's wife wife's petition reaches the Supreme Court,
Roberts Cavanaugh and Amy Cony Barrett did not refuse themselves
and are able to further protect the whole Epstein fiasco.

(53:26):
Now throw that out there, because I think if we're
organized necessarily in point, because one thing that even his
supporters Trump ain't over is the whole Epstein deal. They
still kind of like, I don't know about this, but
I'm showing you the intersection, how this works, how naive
we are.

Speaker 4 (53:43):
Rarely is it just about us. Let me tell you something.
We're gonna knock out this boat, right Sack, I got
this Epstein thing. You got it.

Speaker 1 (53:51):
He's tied it right on back.

Speaker 2 (53:52):
See.

Speaker 4 (53:53):
So now now watch this. Remember when Trump speaks before Congress.

Speaker 5 (53:58):
When he comes back this second time, he walks up
to Kavanall, gives him a gives him a fist pound
mice and said, hot, Mic, I'll never forget what you did.
Kavanall looks harrif at because he knows he wasn't supposed
to say that out loud, you understand. So these are
the deals that were cut. Bush is not innocent in this. Bush,

(54:19):
James Baker, A lot of people know Kennis Star from
the Clinton investigation.

Speaker 4 (54:25):
Also stopped the Epstein deal.

Speaker 5 (54:28):
That's it, so so, And then we can take it
back to Daddy Bush and Clarence Thomas, because Clarence Thomas
was outspoken against voting rights even before John Roberts.

Speaker 1 (54:37):
Now to your point, well, I know, man, we could
stay here all night. But to your point again, and
what I was building on around this being bigger than
just a focus on black folks. Yes, there is absolutely
a state of emergency for black folks. There's an attack
against us. They don't set it on they said it

(55:00):
as they saying good. They said it on us, and
it's on right. Yeah, when I think about the Save
Act that's waiting over here in the wings, they're trying
to get that passed, right right, this is another you
bought in Epstein. And if people take the time to
listen and tire these things together. It is mainly women

(55:24):
who are upset, White women led by Margie tailor Green
in them who are upset about the Epstein files. I'm
not saying that they are not men.

Speaker 4 (55:35):
There are.

Speaker 1 (55:35):
We've seen what's his name, Rocanna and others out there
who've been talking about so men. I'm not saying or
not but women are pissed off about the Epstein files, right.
I see it all the time, and it just so
happens that a part of the Save Act that will
oppress women specifically is because most when they say sixty

(55:59):
nine nine percent of women do not have a license
and an I mean a Verth certificate and an Idea
license that match. The names are different because they didn't
change diverse certificate to match their married name. And so
they're trying to disenfranchise. To your point, Mark, because the

(56:21):
intentionality around all this stuff is important, Masana. I talked
about this on the show yesterday or today whatever that
we talked about it that when you understand not so
much what they're doing, but the intention behind why they're
doing it. They didn't just wake up and say, oh,
you know, we just don't like black people, so we

(56:43):
just gonna try to take away their rights to vote. No,
they know that the majority of us vote a certain
way and that we will never ever as a people
in mass support them their foolishness, and in many ways,
at least for now, the Republican Party, so they need
their distant they're trying to disenfranchise as a part of

(57:04):
a business model which is a means to get to
their end, which is Project twenty twenty five. So we
have to really I think people who say this don't
have anything to do with me. They're really thinking to narrow.
You've got to broaden your view so that you can

(57:26):
understand all of this stuffs from a larger context and
know that they are targeting certain communities because when they
say make America great again, they are talking about a
white man being at the head of not just the household,
the country, the job, corporate America and everywhere else, and

(57:47):
the rest of us, including white women, will be subservient.

Speaker 4 (57:51):
Well, and let me be very very very specific.

Speaker 5 (57:52):
Nineteenth Amendment gave women the right to vote in nineteen twenty,
just like the Reconstruction amendments for us. And that's the
thing about this democracy to y'all, that's that's tissue paper.
Then how you get an amendment and you have to
enforce it, That's right, all right? Why is that necessary?

(58:14):
So nineteenth Amendment still women were not being allowed to
vote as a part of Voting Rights Act of nineteen
sixty five, which enabled our voting rights.

Speaker 4 (58:27):
In the amendments that weren't enforced.

Speaker 5 (58:29):
The voting Rights Act of nineteen sixty five also made
it lawful to enforce the Nineteenth Amendment.

Speaker 4 (58:36):
Up to that.

Speaker 5 (58:37):
Time, there were no amendments for voter protections for people
with disabilities. In fact, if you had a developmental disability
before the Voting Rights Act of nineteen sixty five, okay,
they most certainly use those literatary literaary literacy tests on

(58:57):
you to everybody, how many count recite the Constitution? How
many jellybeans in this job jellybeans? How many bubbles in
the bar? So, how high is up? They did that
specifically to people who will perceived to have developmental disabilities.
So the Voting Rights Act of nineteen sixty five was
the catch all. This was sacred.

Speaker 4 (59:19):
This was the catch all for everything.

Speaker 5 (59:21):
And so that is why this jeopardizes everyone before us.
And you're right, you know, women, I mean, I think
we have to join and just say this and then
I'll stop. We have to communicate today in a way
that also is inviting the people.

Speaker 4 (59:41):
Understand. That's why I just shared those connections. I saw y'all. Listen,
everybody said that to they stopped it. What people? What
are people doing now?

Speaker 5 (59:49):
They're watching Netflix and everything and they like drama, and
it just dawned on me just this morning.

Speaker 4 (59:55):
If we're gonna get some money together.

Speaker 5 (59:56):
I don't know what people gonna blow money on, but
maybe we ought to produce a a short documentary that
shows these connections. People would look at that, you know,
because that's how people see and receive information these days. Here,
here's a little documentary. This is who this is, who
appointed this person up to today, and how we've gotten

(01:00:17):
to the point where we are. Because you're right, women
are concerned about this pedophilia story. Young people, people, people
are children's age Tamika are like, what's up with this pedophilia?
That is what's getting And if you say when the
same pedophile cabal that is covering this up also simultaneously

(01:00:39):
is gutting the Voting Rights Act and our voting rights
across the board, I think that also raises a level
of curiosity, and you incite people because you want people
to ask sometimes their own question. You want to inspire
people to ask questions. Maybe we haven't thought about it. Women,
Marti Meik and Mice just told us that these folks
did the pedophile thing.

Speaker 3 (01:00:59):
And it did.

Speaker 4 (01:01:00):
What's up with that? And we don't know. One of
the things about Malcolm X.

Speaker 5 (01:01:03):
Sometimes you would ask Malcolm Mix a question on film,
he was never afraid to say, I don't know. So
if you asked why pedophiles stopping voting rights, I don't know.
But that's not a bad answer, because we need to
build and encourage a movement that's asking more probing questions
using our third eye as a people, and then we

(01:01:24):
learn ourselves. But I think that's where we I think
that's where we have to go and and otherwise, this
is not a democracy, y'all.

Speaker 4 (01:01:33):
We talk about race.

Speaker 5 (01:01:34):
Yeah, we get that, we've been through this before, but
we're telling you as black folk and want a democracy
in with or without us, is not a democracy today.
If the dude, if he leaves office, that's a whole
other question. And I've said that to people too. Some
of our friends to Meika were y'all, Mark, he can't
do it. He's not gonna do that.

Speaker 4 (01:01:53):
He just got rid of voting rights that he will
do anything. The man, y'all.

Speaker 5 (01:01:59):
And I'm folks that can't deal with some folks just
compartment I can't deal with that right now. The man
might not be he may there may not be an
election or to really upset the Alpa card get the
Red States to put him back on the ballot. So
then that goes to the Supreme Court. What do you
think Supreme Court is gonna do? They're going to another

(01:02:19):
find amendment on term limits. There's a cast twenty two
and that no pun intended because then Barack Obama and
Bill Clinton, everybody, I said, what hey, we run it
again too, Let's get it all so so. But but
you see how that it's still even under those circumstances.
It creates a level of chaos. And that's what you

(01:02:41):
want if you're an employee of a foreign nation. It
wants to scuttle and undermine and on reciprocity mice because
that's what you did to their country in ending the
Soviet Union. You trick them into a war in Afghanistan,
pay Osima bin Laden to take and the new Jai
Jadeen to take out the Soviet army, to collapse the

(01:03:04):
Soviet Empire. So some folks don't get back time, We're
gonna mess mess up what's going on in American cause
a lot of confusion and make it possible for people
not to vote. So you know, we gotta have, As
Malcolm said, we have to think globally but act locally
and understand these things and be involved in the world
and how it impacts us every single day.

Speaker 2 (01:03:28):
It's very telling. You know, when I listened to you,
I was actually looking.

Speaker 3 (01:03:33):
I was trying to find something that we had in
the chat this morning. And as we talk about how
black people are being disenfranchised, we can't ignore that Project
twenty twenty five is actually being implemented. And as we
talk about it being implemented, it was brought to my
attention that one of the authors of the Project twenty

(01:03:56):
twenty five also studied African American history, had to be
in African American history, and actually wrote a book called
African American Issues.

Speaker 2 (01:04:06):
Kevin D.

Speaker 3 (01:04:06):
Roberts look it up and I searched it, and I'm like, wow,
these people have been studying us like this is not
a game. These people have study Blacks. They study the
issues that we have, they study the trends that we've had,
and they've implemented things to disenfranchise us.

Speaker 4 (01:04:21):
To keep us.

Speaker 1 (01:04:22):
Study our conflict exactly.

Speaker 3 (01:04:25):
They know how to create conflicts among stuff. They know
the simplest things, they know the trigger words, They know
the things that have men and black men and black
women at each other's throats. They know the thing that's
going to have progressive males and progressive blacks against those
of us who are more a little more conservative. They
know how to trigger the conservative issues inside it. They

(01:04:46):
know how to do all of these things. So we're
playing checkers when these people are playing chess. We so
behind the eight ball that it's kind of scary. But
I want to ask you what is the next steps
from here?

Speaker 4 (01:04:57):
Mark?

Speaker 2 (01:04:58):
What do we do next?

Speaker 5 (01:05:00):
Well, we've got to really do a reset on our
agenda as a people. I think that social media is fine,
but there's a lot we need to do offline, and
we need to hold some of us accountable as to
what we are and are not doing.

Speaker 4 (01:05:18):
We've we've gotten comfortable, and that's what remind everyone.

Speaker 5 (01:05:22):
This is probably twenty twenty five, but as I just
laid out, this began going forty years ago, back with Reagan.
We're gonna get rid of voting rights that from the
moment Row was decided, that movement started. Our enemies have
the patience to implement their agenda against us over decades.

(01:05:43):
We tend to be instantaneous. So the discipline is going
to take to fight this over decades the way they
fought us.

Speaker 4 (01:05:54):
We just we just haven't acted on that. And I
get it.

Speaker 5 (01:05:58):
I think you know, the celebration of the victories we've won,
the celebration of the first black president, but that should
not have lulled us to sleep. And we allowed that
to lull us to sleep. And that's everybody's fault, not
just those who are in leadership. I mean, that's just
the culture that we have bought into.

Speaker 4 (01:06:20):
Were good.

Speaker 5 (01:06:20):
Oh look what we got, uh, And it's like that.
We've got to figure out a way to snap out
of it. That's what we all have to be singing
from the same hymnal and saying, we've got to be
in spaces where we are learning three steps.

Speaker 4 (01:06:32):
Educated, Organize, Mobilize.

Speaker 5 (01:06:33):
First of all, we have to educate ourselves about what
is really going on, and a lot of that starts
locally in some of your local states. And then organize,
join in the organization. If it isn't one, if the
one of the old legacy organizations ain't doing it, form
another one or take over the legacy organization. I'm gonna
get some calls about that, but I don't care. I'm

(01:06:54):
gonna be real with y'all. The NAACP, which still has
the largest infrastructure of any civil rights organization, its strength
was in its local and state chaplains. It was never
in the national Those are the ones that made a difference.
Medgar Evers, that's what made the difference. And to be
very honest with you, there were those at the national

(01:07:15):
level that were threatened by the local and states, like Medgarverge.
That's why they allowed him to be killed. So, folks,
all politics ultimately is local. Watch this your boards of elections,
local appointees by local elected officials or state elected officials.
Districts are drawn by the states and the state legislatures.

(01:07:39):
What did we do and this is mathematically true when
Barack Obama was on the ballot twice and even in
those midterms, black folks somehow made decision. But we don't
need even vote down ballot. We love him, We're just
gonna vote for president. And we were decimated at the
down ballot level because people they forgot all about voting

(01:07:59):
down valley. At the state level, read districting and jeremandering
is done at the state level and then some of
us are going to have to have the courage to
run for office ourselves, and some of us are going
to have to have the courage not to run and
support those who should.

Speaker 4 (01:08:16):
We have to make it. We don't need fifty black tea.

Speaker 5 (01:08:21):
Yeah, money down, that's right, that's right, and you're what
you do best.

Speaker 1 (01:08:27):
Like I don't want to get myself in trouble for
speaking on an elder, but I think that doctor West
would have done Cornell West would have done a really, really,
really powerful thing by helping us get Kamala Harris elected.

(01:08:48):
I truly do think that there came a point where
I'm not I think everybody has a right to run.
So we were never gonna say you don't have the
right to run. But when you know, oh, what's that state,
and you also know that there is no path, there's
just not there's just no path, because they'll kill you
before they let before they let Cornell West, Mark Thompson

(01:09:12):
to Minka Mallory, my Son, Lennon or anybody, don't take
us out of here. Man, you be driving down the
street and boom, there it is done. As you know,
I'm not even gonna say what you always tell me Mark,
but anyway, but I ain't even gonna say it, but
he would have he because he had a group of

(01:09:33):
people who really really support him, like me, I would
have voted if if there was a way for Cornell
West to win, he would have been he would have
got my vote one hundred percent, one hundred times. My mom,
but my daddy, my family members, the folks were voting
for survival.

Speaker 4 (01:09:52):
That's right, that's right, and.

Speaker 1 (01:09:54):
We really you know, anyway, I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:09:58):
All of that.

Speaker 5 (01:09:59):
And just just a couple other areas boards of elections, redistricting,
school boards they're knocking out, but there's no a national
school board. Local that's what determines what our children are
being educated about in reading. Ask your your child in
a public school right now? Have they ever heard of
the term they dere right? That's got to be taught

(01:10:21):
in school. And then police police are governed locally. Those
areas what we're most getting it police killing us. Books
being banned are redistricting of our boards of elections in
terms of when how late polls are open, that kind
of stuff, uh, mail in voting. Those affect you on

(01:10:41):
the local level. And see even Instagram is not a
local medium. So no matter what to me, can I
post and three of us post some on Instagram date
everybody in the whole world.

Speaker 4 (01:10:52):
Might see it.

Speaker 5 (01:10:53):
But if we need a targeted group in Milwaukee to
see it, yeah, we can't target Milwaukee on Instagram. You
see what I'm saying, y'all, So so so you've got
to get involved locally. And if y'all attendants, and I
say this as a minister, if y'all in some church
with some preacher is not saying what I'm saying, not exactly,
but if you just talking just in general.

Speaker 1 (01:11:13):
And not even bringing it up.

Speaker 5 (01:11:14):
Now, even bring it up, you got to do something
about that. Not frankly, some preachers can't do it because
they serve congregations. They don't want to hear it. You
be the one in the congregation to change You change it.

Speaker 4 (01:11:25):
If that in the.

Speaker 5 (01:11:26):
Local INAA CP don't want to do nothing, you join
it invited, because then the BLAP has elections every year too.
If you can't form another organization, get in those organizations yourself,
organizing those organization organizations and take them over so they
can be motivated to do the right thing. That's that's
those are ultimately the next steps, and that's not and

(01:11:48):
that's still not going to solve everything tomorrow. Right now, today,
this is a midterm season. We all have to vote, Harry.
We all have to put a Congress and a Senate
in place that will restore the Voting Rights Act with
even more stress.

Speaker 4 (01:12:07):
And I know people have issues with Democrats. I get it.

Speaker 5 (01:12:10):
I do too, uh uh and I you know people, Yeah,
I say this people, you know you used.

Speaker 4 (01:12:15):
Well that's all we have right now. But I got
my bona fides I was.

Speaker 5 (01:12:18):
I was the last Negro to co found the most
recent black political party in this country. They have ballot status,
so I ain't scared of that. You know, Rem Jackson
agree with me. I said, let's leave Rem Jackson, Let's
let's blow it up. And that's what it would have done.
Nobody wanted to do that at that time. But right
now that's what we got. Our only hope is to

(01:12:40):
not just the same old, same old Democrats, but to
elect Democrats that will restore the Voting Rights Act and
pass laws that the Supreme Court cannot overturn.

Speaker 4 (01:12:53):
That's real practical.

Speaker 5 (01:12:55):
If I don't pay con Edison today, my life's gonna
get turned off. If I don't people out right, if
I don't get these folk in power and then make
them use them, and some of them are getting it
because some of them we didn't really know this was
going to affect white women. Duh oh, get them there
to do what they're supposed to do.

Speaker 4 (01:13:17):
But on stead stop there.

Speaker 5 (01:13:19):
Gradually we rebuild a party if we don't build a
political will to reshape the political system. So we actually
do have multiple parties with proportional representation and national legislature
that's larger and doesn't have representatives Congressman my Sign Lennon

(01:13:41):
represent five million people that should be split between three, four, five,
six of us can follow what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (01:13:47):
That's what happens in other countries.

Speaker 5 (01:13:48):
We went, we went to jail for a part time
in South Africa, and that democracy is barely thirty years old.

Speaker 4 (01:13:54):
They do that better than us.

Speaker 5 (01:13:56):
They had proportional representation in most party and and fought
for that, and we still slumming with this democracy over
the year.

Speaker 4 (01:14:06):
Come on, y'all, wait, that's that's really and again that's
not overnight. Some of us.

Speaker 5 (01:14:12):
You know, I don't know what's gonna happen to the
three of us but we've dedicated our lives of this.
I know everybody can't do that, but every little bit
you can give, every part of your day or part
of your month. You may not be able to do
this full time like we do it, but anything you
can give is what we need at this hour. And
if you can't give it, get your friends, get your
family members, get your church members, your moths members. We

(01:14:36):
cannot forget who we are and the charge to keep
that we have as a people.

Speaker 3 (01:14:43):
Damen as always say, we don't have the right to
do nothing.

Speaker 1 (01:14:48):
Thank you, Warktops, Thanks Mark, appreciate you.

Speaker 3 (01:14:56):
Shout out to the Reverend Mark Thompson for always giving
us some insight about really what's going on in politics.
Like you said, he's one of our real smart friends.
So if you don't know and you're not paying attention,
make sure that you tune in to Make It playing
with Mark Thompson, and you know his show has been
He's been politically savvy and understands civics to level that

(01:15:18):
he teaches us all the stuff, so he's I will
go to person, So make sure that you tune into him.

Speaker 1 (01:15:23):
This show is really really good too. He's been having
on Make It playing a lot of people who white, black,
all races, who understand very very clear details of a
lot of things around surrounding the movement. So if you're
somebody like me who has to ask questions sometimes like

(01:15:44):
what does that mean? And I have abandoned the fear
of asking. I was, you know, scrolling the other day
and I saw the young lady Brandy, the Millennial Manager.
She does all of these videos she saw about a
lot of issues. She's very funny. She used a lot
of profanity. I love it. But she also is always

(01:16:06):
dropping knowledge and she was talking about the red pill content.
The red pill content. So normally or not normally, but
in the past, some years ago, I would just maybe
ask other people, maybe DM the person, you know, I'll
be feeling embarrassed, like I'm supposed to know.

Speaker 2 (01:16:27):
I don't do that no more.

Speaker 1 (01:16:28):
I guess that's what forty six brings you. I wrote
writers of comments what is red pill content? And they
kindly wrote back and explained to me that it's about
the you know, the podcast bros and the YouTubers who
mask themselves as what is super strong, super masculine self

(01:16:50):
help pages. But then you end up finding out that
they're also MAGA supporters, and so I was, you know,
so I got my information, but I asked and they
told me.

Speaker 2 (01:17:00):
So.

Speaker 1 (01:17:01):
I think, you know, Mark, for some people who are
listening and who might feel like I really don't understand
this stuff. It's not that I don't want to talk
about it, it's not that I don't care about it,
But where do I get information? Mark Thompson show us
one of those faces you can get that.

Speaker 2 (01:17:14):
He definitely is. And for my I don't get it.

Speaker 3 (01:17:18):
Like you said, people say I don't understand this stuff,
and I sometimes I just want to tune out right,
and we got to have some good time and being
a My roots is in hip hop.

Speaker 2 (01:17:28):
I love hip hop, I love creating hip hop. I
love listening to hip hop.

Speaker 3 (01:17:34):
And just as of late, as I've just been going
through listening to music, two of my favorite artists are
Nas and Jadakiss. You know, I have a real, real
good personal relationship with Jadakiss. He's like a brother of
mine and me and Nas actually have a dope relationship,
you know, over the years, you know, he's expressed that

(01:17:54):
he is a fan of Mines and I'm just the
biggest NOAs fan he's probably my favorite lyricist of world time.
But for my I don't get it. It's kind of
like I don't get it, but it's it's a celebration
at the same time. You know, I never really got
why brothers like Nas didn't get the recognition that he deserved.

(01:18:15):
I didn't understand why Jadakiss wasn't perceived, especially in the
nineties when hip hop was in its essence.

Speaker 2 (01:18:25):
You know, they didn't receive the accolades. You know, Nas
wasn't getting Grammys, he wasn't getting all of the awards
that I think he should have got. He wasn't selling
amount of records that I believe he should have sold.
You know, Jadakiss either he wasn't getting the recognition. He
wasn't getting awards, he wasn't selling the records that I
think he should have sold. And I never got that.

Speaker 3 (01:18:44):
No, I don't get why they didn't, but I want
to highlight them now because you know, ever since the versus,
I watched Jadakiss actually start to receive his flowers.

Speaker 2 (01:18:57):
You know, I watched people actually recognize.

Speaker 3 (01:19:00):
Him as the a one top five dead of alive
artists and lyricists that I always know that he was,
and you know, and over there, I watch him on
Joe and Jaden's podcast. I watch him on stages and
in places that I've always felt he should have been.
You know, I'm watching ours, you know, with the casino,
you know, with his the brands that he's called. He's

(01:19:22):
opening a new restaurant. You know, he's still making music
at a high level. You know, and just he just
released the album with with Premiere. You know, him and
hit Boy have classic albums. So just actually watching two
of my favorite artists be celebrated properly, be etched into

(01:19:43):
you know, that hip hop hierarchy that I've always felt
it deserved. You know, I just never got why they didn't.
But it's actually to celebrate now that I'm proud and
happy to see them actually getting those accolades and be
celebrated properly. So shout out to them. You know, I'm
glad that were waking up. I never got why they
weren't celebrated when I'm glad that people were actually waking

(01:20:04):
up and seeing them as hip hop not just legends,
but just as hip hop royalty. You know, people actually
notice them as royalty now, you know, and I and
I Actually it was funny to me because I heard
somebody try to argue talking about that they didn't think
Nas was a top lyricist, and it made me think

(01:20:25):
of where he is right now, and it made me like,
how could somebody ever say something like that, And then
it made me think of also thinking about Jada Kiss.
So shout out to both of them for the amazing
bodies of work and what they meant to the culture
for so long and actually being celebrated and pushed into,
you know, the elevation that they always deserve. So I

(01:20:46):
just wanted to shout that out for my I don't
get it. I wanted to switch it a little bit.
I didn't get why they wasn't celebrated, and now I
wanted to celebrate them and say that we see you,
and we recognize you, and we appreciate the work in
the years of countless bodies of work in versus that
have transcended through time, you know, that have inspired artists

(01:21:11):
such as myself to even want to pick up a pain.

Speaker 1 (01:21:14):
I think that's so, you know, such a powerful point,
and I think we I was also thinking as you
were speaking that music is not all you know, especially
when you think about Nas and his investments. You know,
as of late, there are multiple investments that he's involved
with that will provide jobs and opportunities for people as well.

(01:21:35):
So you know, he's taken his career to the next level.
And I'm sure they both have investments that maybe we
never knew about. But oftentimes those things are about personal
wealth and you know, family wealth, generational wealth, and which
is important, very very important. But now with them being

(01:21:56):
acknowledged as you said, and people understanding them as businessmen,
not just artists but also businessmen, they'll have an opportunity
to extend themselves and make a pathway for other people,
not just to get into music, but just to survive,
just to you know, have opportunities and have opportunities to
be successful. So I see that to me as a

(01:22:19):
person who, yes, I love hip hop and I love music,
but for me, I'm not at the level to which
you are. So when I begin to see people transcending
from movies, you know, from entertainment and all the forms
you know, to building brands that will hopefully be everlasting,
That's where I'm like, Okay, Now that shows you what

(01:22:42):
the hip hop culture has been able to do. You
know that's beyond and outside and just entertaining people. So
there's that, and I'm glad you brought it up. And
I will say this to end the way we started.
We started on talking about you now our approaching just
days away from your fiftieth birthday, and to end it

(01:23:07):
with your I don't get it on the need to
recognize people who have been major contributors to our movements,
to our music, to our society. We have to say
the same thing about you as a person who is
an incredible, incredible artist, an incredible lyricists, an incredible writer,

(01:23:30):
that you also are one who has been in many
ways slept on and not always acknowledged in spaces for
your greatness. And you should be absolutely but we acknowledge it.
The people do everywhere we go. I always tell a
funny joke about that day when we were in London
running through the train station with our suitcases trying to

(01:23:51):
I don't know who told us take the train to
the airport, that that was better than taking a car.
So we went and we said, you know how to
take the train.

Speaker 4 (01:24:02):
So we went run it. You remember that, and we.

Speaker 1 (01:24:05):
Were running through the airport with our suitcases and as
we approached the turnstile, the man was standing there and
he was like, oh my god. His eyes opened up,
and I said, oh, yeah, you know, look at these
people in London knowing me. And I was walking over like, yes,
I'm her, that's right, and he was like, my son,
he does look right past me, like my.

Speaker 4 (01:24:28):
Son, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:24:29):
And and but that was a good feeling for me
because it let me know that what I see, other
people see it. And it takes Dwana Thompson, our good
assistant from WOTE Vote, to tell the story of all
the countries that we visited, all of us together, sometimes work,
sometimes play, but everywhere we've been, she's like, I cannot
believe me sitting in this restaurant and people just coming

(01:24:50):
over here to our brother. She loves you, but she
gets an opportunity to see how much the world loves
you as well. So also just know that greatness extend
beyond just the people we know and get to see
on the billboards and whatnot. Some people are in the
billboards of our hearts, and you are one of those
individuals who will always always be a giant in not

(01:25:15):
just our music, but our movement as well.

Speaker 2 (01:25:18):
Well. I appreciate that. Man.

Speaker 3 (01:25:20):
Shout out to everybody who's supported me over the years,
you know, and who's inspired me over the years. Reaching
fifty is going to be a milestone. Shout out to
everybody who supported me throughout the years, who showing love
for my craft, who then everything, like you said, throughout
this world, I've traveled and people have let me know

(01:25:42):
that I've inspired and touched them in so many different ways.

Speaker 2 (01:25:46):
So I appreciate y'all. Thank you for the love.

Speaker 3 (01:25:49):
Thank you Tamika for showing the supporch Thanks to the
whole team, my team for all the work that we've
done together in the way that you've you know, celebrated
me and made me feel wanted as in a partner.

Speaker 1 (01:26:02):
And so you know, we getting ready to celebrate you.
So you're almost fifty, you're an old man, but you're
not fifty yet. You're still forty nine. So we'll make
sure to circle back to this next week on the
TMI Show, talk more about what it feels like to
be all broke down and have all your joints and
your muscles and everything sore because you just dragging along

(01:26:24):
as an old man.

Speaker 2 (01:26:26):
Ain't nothing all about me, man, these young boys could never.

Speaker 3 (01:26:29):
Man forty nine, forty nine and three quarters of a quarter.

Speaker 1 (01:26:33):
Come on, man, quarters of a eight quarters of a quoter.
I almost dead. You're almost there. I see how you
feel when you wake up next week.

Speaker 4 (01:26:43):
We listen.

Speaker 2 (01:26:45):
Like I said, these young boys can never.

Speaker 3 (01:26:47):
And with that being said, we come to the end
of another episode of tm.

Speaker 2 (01:26:51):
I thank you for supporting.

Speaker 3 (01:26:52):
Shout out to Mark Thompson for coming up here giving
us that civic lesson that he always does. And make
thank you to all of the fans who continue to
support us six seasons in nothing. Belove, keep letting us
know how much you love us. Tell us what you
don't like, tell us what you do like.

Speaker 2 (01:27:10):
We're here for you.

Speaker 3 (01:27:11):
I'm not gonna always be right, Tamika d Matories, I
can always be wrong, but we.

Speaker 2 (01:27:15):
Will both always and I mean always, be authentic.

Speaker 1 (01:27:18):
Pace out. Listen to the TMI podcast on the Black
Effect Network, on iHeartRadio, or anywhere podcasts are available, or

Speaker 3 (01:27:28):
Catch the video version on YouTube at TMI show PC

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Tamika Mallory

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}State of Emergency… AGAIN. Guest: Rev. Mark Thompson