The Unsent Tweet Folder

"This week, Linqua Franqa dishes about the decennial redistricting process, all the local political dirt in their unsent tweet folder, and their implications for politics of various scales and contexts. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
You are now listening to Waiting on Reparation A production.
I heart radio A. What is going on? Might check?
The mic sounds nice, the mic sounds nice, and I
got some lights that's may have been true at some
point in my life. Let's be a dope of knife

(00:25):
and he's the dope of knife and I'm drinking some
wine that didn't want that didn't rhyme at all. Are
you doing? Are you doing? I'm good, I'm good. What's
going on? Everybody? You're listening to Waiting on Reparations? The
show where we talk about hip hop, politics and the
things in between, ship that connects them, YadA, YadA, YadA.
You know the whole drill. You know the whole drill.
So it has been quite a week going. And I

(00:48):
woke up on I think it was like Saturday or Friday,
might even been Sunday. But I woke up one of
these days and I looked on Twitter. The fucking World
War three was trended. So I was just like, oh, ship,
and what the hell is going on? And it's kind
of is it the water Wars? I mean, finally fighting

(01:09):
over you know, basic human rights and resources? Well, I mean,
I don't know if that's no, that's not it yet,
that that's gonna be Damn, that's crazy, that like kind
of on the brink. But it ain't even about it said,
it's not even the resource wars yet. But anyway, so
long story short for Lehman's uh, that's all I am.

(01:31):
But um, Russia is building up it's true presence with
over a hundred thousand troops on the border of the Ukraine,
and it's got a lot of international figures pretty much
expecting that Russia is going to invade the Ukraine. The
Ukrainian president recently, just like I think a few hours ago,

(01:54):
gave a speech to the citizens of the Ukraine just
kind of trying to calm their fears and let them
he's he's telling the Ukrainians that the invasion is not imminent,
so you know, he's doing his due diligence of calming down.
As here's President Biden um had a press conference recently

(02:15):
where he was explaining the situation and what he says
the US stances, and people were saying it was kind
of a blunder, but I didn't really I didn't really
see it that way. But pretty much what Biden was
saying is Look, there's parts of Ukraine that consider themselves
to be Russian, you know what I mean, and they

(02:36):
actually want the Russians so department. So you know, he's
saying if if what Russia does is they go in
and they like annexed those parts. I mean, yeah, it's
not it's not what the US wants. But what are

(02:56):
you supposed to do? You're gonna like start, you know
what I mean? Like that's what he called like a
minor incursion. When I get, I get, I understand what
he means in that, I don't understand what is about
that is like what we it's supposed to be like, no,
whatever they do, we're going to war? Like is that
supposed to be so? Like? So, I mean pretty much.

(03:17):
You know the Hawks are trying to get Biden too,
you know, go all in with ridiculous sanctions that I
guess you know, if you read it a certain way,
would mean war or would baccarush into a corner. It
doesn't look like that's what the White House policy is,
but either way, it's It's got enough people tweeting about

(03:37):
World War three and the start of World War three
that I kind of wanted to know what your thoughts
were just on that general issue, because we didn't get
to touch on it last week, but we wanted to.
I don't know, man, I'm so caught up trying to
stay alive in this bitch man, this this is crazy.
We're gonna get into a lot this week. But I mean,
I didn't actually know. I mean, I guess I was
vaguely familiar of the fact that there were portions of

(03:58):
the Ukraine that do consider themselves to be Russian, and
I think that does raise really interesting implications for what's happening,
particularly with regards to the US's involvement and really trying
to protect their interests potentially in the region more so
than like necessarily m advancing the interests of the people
who live in those regions of the Ukraine. Yeah, that's

(04:20):
something I think, Well, well, it's kind of a given
given US foreign policy, but like, I mean, yeah, I mean,
it's it's one of those situations that I feel is
like actually quite nuanced, you know what I'm saying. I
don't know exactly what the perception of it is in
leftist circles, but you know, I know there is a
school of thought that you know, people kind of have

(04:42):
like World War two brain where it's just automatically assumed, well,
if Vladimir Putin takes over these parts of the Ukraine
or even goes into the parts of Ukraine that definitely
don't want them in there, that it's a definite sign
of like expansionists ambitions, you know what I mean, and
that if you let him do this, then what's gonna

(05:02):
stop him? But I don't necessarily know if that's the case,
you know what I mean. I mean, I don't I
don't think that's a given. Yeah, I don't think everybody
is like on a world domination Hitler tip, you know
what I mean. But at the same time, you know,
like China and Ukraine and Russia like running war game simulations,

(05:23):
you know what I mean, on some on some real
like set in the stage ship there is there is
the big you know, the elephant in the room, which
is like in the modern world, are two superpowers actually
gonna go to war over the Ukraine? I personally don't
see it, you know what I'm saying. I mean, they
shot my fucking friends Ferdinand. Yeah, but that was back

(05:47):
in so much. This is so much because I mean, look, man,
if if if we were. If things improved, I would
if anything, the military industrial complex has been become far more.
I wouldn't say things have improved, but much more. Or
is at steak, And that's what a lot of people
don't consider, Like you know, even eys gonna even in
fucking drones and kill all their children, like you, first

(06:09):
of all, this is like, I mean, it's steak for us.
After all, our troops are safe, God bless you. There's
eleven year old fire bomb, you know, So first you
gotta you gotta take it from the standpoint of let's
say that the nukes are off the table, right, which
if if two superpowered nuclear powers got into a war,
I mean, that's like mutually assured destruction if we're talking nukes.

(06:31):
But even if we're not talking nukes, let's say, let's
just say there's like a general agreement, Hey, we're gonna
go in the war and no one's gonna use nukes.
Are not going to turn this into a cold war situation.
We're just gonna have a conventional war with each other
and ship like that. Like that's the end of the
world too, you know what I mean, Like, and you
know what, I don't know if you've seen don't look
up yet. There's been a lot of don't look up discourse. Okay,

(06:52):
So like it can apply to so many scenarios. So
you know, motherfucking Lockheed Martin and rape Theon and Haliburton
are like, you know, like slobbering and chopping up the
bit like, oh, yeah, we pulled out of Afghanistan. All
these private contractors and Blackwater motherfucker's are like my stock
prices are falling, so they're like super stock that we

(07:12):
might go into another war to just to benefit their
goddamn bottom line, sacrificing the lives of our you know,
military service people, um you know how many countless casualties,
but in the Ukraine and other regions, you know, because
like oh we can't, you know, we can't. We can't
avert disaster. We gotta make sure, like our shareholders. If

(07:35):
this was like the usual type of war scenarios that
we've been doing for the last thirty years, where it's
with countries that don't stand a chance of like bringing
that shipped to our shores, then yeah, like yeah, the
Lockheed Martin guys, yeah, you know what I'm saying. But
a war with Russia and like China and ship. Yeah,

(07:57):
like people don't. I literally don't think they care. I
they could. I think they could even be like in
their private boardroom meeting, uh you know, doing cocaine off
of a glass table or whatever, like well you know
there is a chance of mutually a destruction. They were like,
but I could become a trillionaire. Yeah, but that's that's
like they don't give a fun. I mean, you know what,

(08:18):
I agree, they don't give a fuck. Like I don't
know if I don't. I'm not putting the I'm not
saying that they don't wouldn't want this because they're like
good guys and they give a fuck. But just like
that creates a scenario where there's nowhere to spend your money,
you know what. I'm like, people don't even even world

(08:42):
left exactly, even if you even if we want to
bring it home and let's like take the Russia element
out of this and just like focus on our own
domestic ship. You know how we've been talking about the
January six stuff and talk of civil war and civil insurrection.
Even if America itself were to like experience some like

(09:03):
like serious extreme widespread political violence that like toward the
country apart. The world is fun. America provides most of
the world's food, you know what I mean, like these
like like like like like the when the superpowers are
getting into it, I'm gonna need to see your research
on that. Let's let's look that up. Let's look that up. Bro.

(09:24):
If like a fucking nuke drops in the middle of Montana,
they're just gonna use that as an opportunity for disaster capitalism,
privatize all the services, like leave people to you know,
just you know, be languishing on rooftops trying to wave
down helicopters while their skin melts up from radio action,

(09:44):
radioactivity pulsing through their bloodstreams, and some guy's gonna make
money off of it, and like, oh, we'll have a
national day of morning and like you know, there's a
hashtag will trend and let just leave everyone to die for.
So the four country the four countries that produce the
most food are China, India, the US, and Brazil. Bro.

(10:07):
So yeah, China, India, come on now, I'm come on,
I'm saying, I'm saying, Okay, we're in the top five.
All right, we in the top five that I will
concede I mean, I mean, all I'm saying is that
this this particular situation in the Ukraine. The reason that
I don't think it's gonna get hot personally, and like, okay,

(10:28):
so we're even we're jumping the gun on this, you
don't even think it's gonna get like that. I don't.
I don't think it's gonna get to I mean, I'm
just I'm just stating the reasons why I don't think
it's gonna get hot, because like if it were to
get hot between the players that are involved in this,
it's like game set match, Like everything's done, you know
what I mean, Like everything's done. Everything that everybody's fighting for,

(10:49):
everybody's individual issues that everybody's over. That ships out the window.
But you know what I mean, and I don't and
that goes for everybody, whether you're on the right side
of ship or the left side of ship or in between.
Like everybody's ship is done. The world has like a
whole new thing to deal with. If that's the case.
And with that, that's why I don't think the the

(11:12):
usual powers that be necessarily want that to go down. Yeah,
you know what I'm saying, Like that's that's a bit too,
Cobra commander, like the world will be destroyed. It will
be that's just imagining. I'm just imagining if like yeah,
like I was saying, like a new drop in the
middle of like Sam Sacramento, Like what fucking Jinsaki would say, like, well,

(11:38):
you know, just hit the gym, have a mark, you know,
place the whortle. It'll be okay, get back to work on.
What do you say do kickboxing? Kickboxing? Alright, so what
do you what are we talking about? What I just
wanted to touch on that. So this so this week,
my Twitter followers, what we're called that, I made a
pack to unleash my un sense tweet folder um and

(12:03):
a cathartic move to sort of process some of what
has been happening in the local political scene. And so,
in lieu of trying to adhere to the character limit
on Twitter to tell you about some of the function
that's been happening behind the scenes in local politics, I've
decided to unload a lot of those um fun reminiscences

(12:25):
on this week's episode of the podcast, and as well
talking a little bit about what the broader implications are
for these things in politics generally and what kind of
the questions it raises that we can consider in a
variety of context. Okay, yeah, so we're gonna be back
with that after the jump. Okay, so we are back

(12:49):
and we're gonna get into this. So Mariah, you know
we're you're talking about the unset tweets and you know
that people who've been following you on Twitter, they know
what's up. So why don't you explain to the listeners
exactly what the set up for the scenario and what
we're about to do. Is sure, I'll give a you know,
a brief introduction into how we even got to where
we are to today with the current political turmoil around redistricting,

(13:13):
which you know, let's start nationally and kind of zoom
in so you know, with the denial census count, it
then requires us to UM shift around what our districts
look like at the federal, state, local level UM in
order to ensure that one vote for one person, you know,
equal representation, etcetera. So as you under as you imagine

(13:35):
as a part of UM, you know, the fascist attempts
at taking over and consolidating their power and government. A
lot of places that are currently Republican held that are
trending blue places like Georgia. They're attempting to you know,
dilute progressive voting power by using gerrymandering to um create
district maps that ensure them you know, black folks, young

(13:55):
folks really, you know, high highly compacted urban areas you
know don't have the same say as folks in rural areas.
And so you know it comes around every ten years.
So we ourselves here in Athens have the opportunity to
recommend a map of the local county commissions districts to
the Stay House Legislature for approval UM. And so you know,

(14:17):
we have some guidelines that we had to adhere to,
trying to get it within a certain um distribution so
that you know, no district has too many more, too
too many less voters in another district to ensure that
you know, one person, one vote, principal um. You know,
basic fairness. You know, no UM, no cracking or packing
of um of communities of color, So you can't like

(14:39):
split the community of color in half in order to
divalute their vote, or pack communities of color together to
ensure that they don't influence surrounding districts and then risk
getting representation that is fair for them, um you know,
passed with a subsequent election. So make sure you know,
communities of interests and communities of color are kept together

(15:00):
as well. Another basic guiding principle is that you don't
you know, you don't. You want to have minimal disruption
to sitting in company. So the folks that were Democratic
elected in the last voting cycle kind of wanna leave
them alone, leave them in their districts, kind of build
it around, right. So we worked with our local Board
of Elections office to create maps that did all of

(15:21):
these things, and they did. They did an excellent job
on a very tight timeline. A part of the Republican
strategy in order to send everything into chaos was releasing
our census data like five months late, so that we
didn't even have the numbers on how the population had
changed to make maps until like two or three months
before we had to get it to the state House legislature.
So on a very tight turnaround, our Board of Elections

(15:43):
office and our mapping staff you know, came together with
the maps. But they were great, and they were pretty good.
You know, like, hey, they ain't you know, shipsh it
around too much. Got that distribution protected those communities like
they were supposed to according to principles, but in order
for it to be considered by the Republican state legislature,

(16:03):
it had to have the unanimous consent, the unanimous approval
of the local county commission. Right. So a couple of
like sleeper self Republicans on the commission, Democrats formerly including
the former interim executive director of the Georgia Democratic Party,
just like wordlessly or with very little cover, just voted

(16:25):
against the map, effectively showing that they're in full collusion
with you know, Republicans. These new districts of the Republicans
had drawn consolidate their power such that getting them out
of office would be incredibly difficult. Um. And so they
sitting back, sitting pretty feeling good about the fact that
the progressives who have come in and you served, their

(16:46):
power are going to be out soon, and that they
themselves have protected from you know, the will of the
people out seeing them for naturally representing or trying to
fight for what the people need. So that's where we're
at right now. It's um, it's been it's been a lot,
been a lot down here, a lot of turmoil, and
so that caused me to then revisit my unsent weep

(17:11):
folder on Twitter and pick out some of the spicy
stories that I wanted so much to tell people about,
but I've kept to myself in the name of you know,
getting along and you know, seeing Kumbaya, etcetera. But you know,
I got nothing for smoke with these people now, so
I'm excited to reveal to the world some of the

(17:32):
behind the scenes stuff that um I have zipped my
lips about over the years. And once started with one
of my favorite stories of Alison right um so back
might have even been Honestly, some of her only black
constituents came to me for help getting their street name
changed after Ariel thump Acalaway, young woman think four years

(17:55):
old when she was shot and killed, also eight months
pregnant back in the summer of two thousand nineteen. So
they wanted to change the street to thumb Ab in
honor of her. Um So I helped out, you know,
like help me get the process started with the petition
and working with the planning department, et cetera. And when
Alison found out, she was super pissed because once again
I usurped her authority and Um straight up asked. He.

(18:19):
I was like, well, why do you think your black
instituents are coming to me and not you, which did
not make her any happier. But it makes sense to
me now because as a part of that process, she
at some point along the way decided that dumb app
was not an appropriate name to change the street too,
and so she made an alternate suggestion against the wishes

(18:44):
of the deceased woman's mother, who like, literally I was
out of it. I saw her. She like grabbed me
by the shirt and was like, you gotta make a
thumb app right, We gotta make that happen, despite the
fact Alison was trying to push this ship through against
her wishes and Um at the one point I was
out to, you know, dinner drinks with one of the
organizers evolved and he said to me, Allison would probably

(19:04):
like something have better if it had hard arm and Uh. Anyway,
the new district takes all those black people out of
her district. It's now something white, which I'm sure she
is incredibly glad about. And this lady like Jesus so

(19:24):
like she she. Um was really pissed also late late
last year about the fact that the commissioners had requested,
um a raise for ourselves. Could we only make like
fifteen grand a year? I end up spending like thirty
forty hours a week on this. Um, I've just been
incredibly broke um since I left my job at the

(19:48):
University Georgia. So like, whatever, you know, just bring it
up to a living wage. We gave everybody else a
living wage, only people in the government not making living wage.
Let's just bring it up to something fair, right. So
she was upset about this because she's rich and doesn't care,
and so she went to like a bridebart adjacent like
state newspaper and was complaining to them like, wham a landlord,

(20:11):
my job so hard, I exploit unners for passive income. Well,
I'm so busy being a mother, Like her son isn't
a whole ass adult. And she even told us that
he was downtown on May thirty one when the cops
tear gas the folks peacefully occupying College Square. So her

(20:31):
being somewhat of a raggedy back the blue as person, Um,
I don't know how much about time they really spend together. Um,
but yeah, not great, not a great person in general.
And then we got my campy who people don't know
this about a year and a half ago killed our
attempts to buy an apartment building for the homeless behind

(20:53):
closed doors, UM just complaining about how expensive it was
gonna be, and then the following summer last summer just
walked out of discussions about homelessness out of retreat, didn't
even bother to you know, sit there and listen to
staff discuss our options for what we can do to
deal with the fact that like two hundred people in
the city are sleeping outside, not to mention the easily

(21:17):
thousands that are sleeping on couches like hotels. We've been
in the cars that like, you know, they're not unsheltered entirely,
but they still don't have a house place to live. So,
you know, last year, my colleague and I, Jessie who
put together this resolution calling for all sorts of UM
interventions to help people get and stay housed, including the
creation of UM sanction homeless encampment. First step, that's got

(21:41):
a bunch of wrapping around services, got like you know,
medical folks and social worker folks, etcetera that come there
and help people and they'll give you a tent. There's
like you know, a little warming things and all that.
Um So, even after killing our attempt to get a hotel,
not participating in discussions about homelessness at our treats, not

(22:01):
showing up to the retreats at all, or most of
the meetings. Frankly, one time Allison and him got caught
coming out of mellow mushroom as the rest of us
left City Hall after a meeting. So after just all
that negligence and abandonment of you know, dereliction of duty
when it came to the meeting we're supposed to approve
the encampment, he wanted to buy hotel rooms for the

(22:24):
homeless instead just completely made it up on the spot
in bad faith, which would have been more expensive and
temporary compared to just getting the building in two thousand nineteen,
two thousand twenty. Bro. So, I mean his opposition to
building the encampment with bullshit like what else were we
supposed to do? Like you know this? And I think, okay,

(22:45):
all of this speaks to a couple of things. I'm
gonna get back to the idea of us housing his
healthcare in a little bit, but I first want to
start off by identifying that Mike Hammy was the former
interim executive director of the DEMS, voted against the map,
and because he has lost prominence, he is no longer
considered a progressive on the commission because new ideas of
what progressive and what left means haven't merged in his

(23:07):
twelve years in office, where he is mermaid's stagnant, and
he just really is in this job because he wants
people to listen to him and feel important and feel powerful,
and he doesn't right now, and so he's fought against
everything that we've tried to do, including getting homeless people
some former shelter and including maps that would honor the
will of the voters and allowing our current democratically elected

(23:29):
representatives to give a you know, give a shot of
remaining in office. And I think it's also mirrors national
trends and that it's coming back to housing. Mike Allison
and Vida Thornton, who I have not had smoke for
yet in this conversation, but I'm about to come for,
also delayed our eviction defense program that you know, Tim

(23:51):
Denson and myself and Jessie Pool have been working on
since like the like December of UM just like for
months and months and months and just creating reasons not
to do it, and so finally we get passage for
approval of it. Um. And this whole time, like constituents

(24:11):
of minor getting evicted straight up getting put out on
the street in the rain, don't even have enough money
for you haul to get their stuff moved anywhere. UM.
And one such woman, UM was like in her seventies,
she got evicted of her home, from her home of
forty years. In late November, Um was found sleeping on
her former porch by some of her neighbors, who also

(24:33):
told me that she was still collecting Social Security checks,
but without a place to live, she'd just been drinking
her all of the money away. Such was her abject suffering.
And then in early December, after having you know, reached
out today but as asking people to look for reached
out to homeless service providers asking her to you know,
asking um if they had seen her turn out finally

(24:54):
home one of the one of my homies that works
with a homeless out of that she died. She had
been found dead. And so it's not just like a
petty oh I don't like this person, I don't like
that person. So that you know, I'm influencing these decisions
that ultimately don't matter. Take it around the edges, like

(25:15):
literally their obstruction as caused people to die. I think
also off you know, I talked a lot about this
program called Cure Violence on the show, which I've been
you know, researching and reaching out of stakeholders about and
sending emails about for months, and like, I don't, I don't, like,
kids are out here dying, and no one, like no

(25:36):
one will even respond to my emails about it. Like, um,
I got a HOMEI that was working with last summer,
you know, kitting kids jobs at this little car wash
so they have like something productive to do that it's
not running the streets. And he told me last weekend
the two of the kids that we've been working with,
one of them have been shot and killed. The other
one was in jail. And so the impacts of this

(25:56):
are very, very real. And I don't think that folks
who you know, are wealthy, you know, who like are older,
who are whiter, who don't really have to like live
this pain, in this trauma of seeing what's happening to
people out here, don't realize how they're this shittiness just
being like just being sticks in the mud is killing

(26:19):
a people. But um, I also want to come back
to a recurrent theme and some of the stories here.
We talked about a big sham, and we talked about
chronic calmlessness, and an idea that has become mainstreamed in
the pandemic is how housing is healthcare or else get back.
I thought that heart was good. I want to also
come back to Wi Bea Thornton for a second. Chris Um,

(26:43):
my friend I Ramy State from Pong Bought brought up
into thousand eighteen when she was first running for office,
how we understood how people could like her and support her.
But she's really good at evading accountability. And I think
that is incredibly true of the ways that she has
sud lee, slowed down, interrupted, or just otherwise it on

(27:05):
the wrong side of a lot of what we've tried
to get done. She'll do things like motion to approve
something and then vote against it um or say hey, I, UM,
I'm gonna vote for this, but I don't really like it,
or um you know, I like, I respect what you're
trying to do, and then voting like vote against it,
like just utter chaos. But in a way such that

(27:27):
it's hard to pin down why she is terrible. Um,
I think that, you know, as I said before, I
think so. I think that she's one of those I
think that she's one of those folks that like materially
shows up for people. She's the one that will bring
your kids Easter baskets or pop open the trunk of

(27:47):
her car and give you cold cold weather clothes in
the winter. But like she has no like cohesive vision
or idea or like interest in advancing concrete proposals her
how to address the very serious suffering in our communities.
And part of the reason why I think this is
true and honest, honestly kind of empathize with her, even

(28:09):
though I like, deeply, deeply dislike and distrust her and
always have UM, is that she's met so before that
she was on the school board for sixteen years, right,
and has probably her whole life had to like fight um,
white people about getting things for our communities in the
halls of power, and which she has sat, where she
has oftentimes been without allies, UM, let alone people other

(28:32):
people of color. And so even in instances where she
has allies, the most progressive supported her in two thousand
and eighteen. And even when she had these allies, she
doesn't know how to do anything but fight. She doesn't
know how to do anything but complain. She doesn't doesn't
know anything but how to obstruct UM. And so she

(28:54):
doesn't realize that she is getting in the way of
the things that she wants. I believe that she wants
people to stay house. I believe that she wants criminal
justice perform. And as far as you know, those things
are auxiliary to her importance, her sense of self importance
and like importance to her to keep power and feel

(29:14):
powerful and feel important like all of these guys I'm
talking about UM. And so I find that very interesting
and very sad. UM. But you know, for example of
like her just not having a coherent politics at all,
you know, jump back in my mind two thousand nineteen
when we were trying to pass them in town resolution,
which I've spoken of often UM on this Okay, let

(29:37):
me actually let me go back. So I think that
it's an underappreciated thing, the way that trauma influences UM,
the ways that the black miss leadership class UM gets
in the way of our own agenda. UM, and that
like when you get beat up and beat down and
shoot on for so long it's really hard to like

(29:57):
advance like a Coe so vision of how to improve
things when you all you know how to do is
how to fight. And as well, we got a lot
of you know, black leaders of the community that are
stroyed up Republicans that the Republicans have always been in
power in this state and have cash in on our
community's poverty in order to secure their seats in the

(30:18):
political hierarchy. Um. And so you've got those people out
here who are middle class, completely detached from like the
root causes of issues in our communities. Um, talking about
like how financial literacy is gonna save the people. It's like,
you can't budget if you ain't got no budget money,
you ain't got money to budgets or excuse me. Um.
And then you have people like a Vita who just

(30:40):
like I've never had a plan, Who've never ever had
a plan for how to fix things, but will show
up at your church and like bring all the kids
candy and so like people trust her, people like her, etcetera.
And as well, I think her Raelian against the government
in an interesting way, UM also increases their popularity among
people who do not trust the government. It so saying like, well,

(31:01):
y'all are standing it my way, and I don't only
like what you're trying to do, and y'all don't do this,
and y'all don't do that, even though y'all concludes you ma'am, Um,
you could advance piece of policy, not anymore because nobody
trusts you and nobody likes you because you've blown it utterly.
But um, rather than do that, she fights against us

(31:23):
as a way to like consolidate her power in in
communities where there is deep distrust of the government. UM.
So yeah, we've got all these issues out here, um,
and no real vision for how to fix things or
change things. Um. For example, Um, people don't know this.
But when we were fighting for the Lindontown Resolution to

(31:45):
you know, get redress and recognition of the harms of
the displacement of black communities, specifically the Lindtown community in
the nineteen sixties, in a close warm meeting with staff
and activists about trying to pass this resolution, Peta Thornton
said that she would never sign on to a document
condemning white supremacy. Now, I I've heard from people since

(32:09):
then who just think that she didn't know what supremacy meant. UM.
But this is, this is what I'm talking about. When
pressed by the people to take action, she just gets
incredibly defensive and shuts down rather than like engage in
good faith with with what people are trying to say. Okay,
let me jump let me jump back actually and talk

(32:31):
about my candy. So I think the situation I can
be UM has national parallels in that age is just
a moderating force. I feel um he was one of
the left most folks on the Commission early in his tenure,
and now he's become a moderate qua conservative UM. And
so you see the way. Similarly, what happened in Nevada

(32:54):
with the State Democratic Party when UM Democratic Socialists won
elections and took over leadershi ship of the party, the
exist you know, the existing um UM folks in power
just all Quinn transferred all their money out of the
account because even Democrats don't like having their power challenged.

(33:15):
It's two thousand twenty two. In like another ten years,
we're gonna be the majority of this bitch. Like I'm sorry,
you just gotta get with the fucking program. Like we
out here, we we you represent these people don't be
out here telling a woman whose daughter died, like, well,
I don't know if that's like, you know appropriate, shut
the funk up and been to the will of people.

(33:35):
That's our job. But yeah, I mean it's really interesting because, um,
so we tried to pass like raises for ourselves this
year and not ourselves in the sense of like me directly,
we wouldn't kick in until next year. But we make
like fifteen thou dollars years. This is a part time job,
even though we manage a budget of hundreds of millions,
tens of their yeah, tens of thousand of people. I

(33:55):
put you know, like I put in like thirty hours
a week every week because like fucking care. But then Alison, right,
my candy, Um, we're like, I don't know they went
to this right part adjacent local outlet to like decry
are like wanting to get racist for ourselves, And in
this article she was like, I'm a landlord and I'm
a mother. You know, I have more important things that

(34:18):
I have to do, and so I don't put a
lot of time into this job. So like, I don't
see why other people have to. So a couple of points, bro,
like that that is not that is a reason. That
is effectively what she said. Yeah, she's a landlord and
a mother, so like and you know, I couldn't have
possibly imagined, you know why I'm not parents or anything

(34:43):
and not finding a way to like put in the
work that people deserve. All right, Yeah, like what do
you think you don't think the people deserve the most
energy that you could put into making this making nobody
made you run. Nobody made you run. Nobody, you know,

(35:03):
helping me held a gun to your hand, made you
run a ship. But like she's all be like wham
a lay in lam a job so hard, like sploit
renters for passive income when I'm so busy being a mother.
Your son is a whole ass adult. He's like years old,
so people don't know that. Who is so Mike Canby. Yeah,
so he's been a commissioner for like twelve years, former

(35:25):
interim executive director for the Georgia Democratic Party. He owns
like a cleaning business. Like you know, he's like a
very I mean, I would describe him as like a
pretty bland white dude. He has somewhat of some charisma,
but you also sort of like a bull in a
China shop, just getting real aggaro if you don't like,
you know, like care for his pets like low key.

(35:48):
But what people don't know is that so Mike Hamby,
So we attempted like a year and a half ago
to buy an apartment building for the homeless, so like
have a place where they can all have their own
apartment UM and have like wrap around services so like
mental health folks and folks help them with job applications
and all that ship. It would all be combined in

(36:10):
one place to help get people up street UM, and
my can be killed. Our attempts to buy that building
UM in behind closed doors came up with some excuse
about what I was too expensive or like something like that.
And then you later, like the last summer walked out
of our discussion about homelessness out of retreat. He didn't

(36:33):
even bother to hear from staffs about our options for
like dealing with with you know what, like how do
how do we address the situation homelessness summer community in
our community? And then this motherfucker like so we were
like what do we do what? Like we got people
living outdoors, we got people overdosing and killing themselves throwing
themselves in the river. We got sexual assaults happening, and

(36:54):
robberies and all this stuff. Like these people need supports
because they're suffering like incredible, incredible, just levels of desperation
out here. So myself and my colleague Jesse Whol trying
to put together this resolution to lay out what we're
gonna do, and it included creating an encampment. I think
I'll talk about the still on the show before where
people could like have their we provide them with tents,

(37:17):
give him a warming center, you know, give him a
place to cook, give him WiFi in places to charge
their phones, and then have the service providers come there
to help like support them and the you know the
kind of stuff. Make sure they get job up TRANSI
transition out of it. Yeah, as an interim stat because
our attempts to buy a place that we could like

(37:38):
help them live in, like a physical home building like
got shot down. So this sniveling little bitch came into
the like you opposed it the whole time. Opposed it.
Opposed it a post and a post it would prefer
for the homeless people to keep you know, shooting up
and dying and jumping in the river to kill themselves,

(37:59):
I guess. And at that meeting where we voted to
finally approve this ship, he tried to make like a
substitute of medment, asked thing too um like put him
in hotels or something like where It's like, you ain't
never cared about this, you ain't never once actually engaged

(38:19):
in good faith around these issues. I don't see you
out here talking to people like maybe I go above
and beyond and I do. I'm not trying to say
that you know he should because do you do you
think do you think it? Do you think there's like
a chance that could make him have a change of
heart if he saw it firsthand? Or no, he's called

(38:41):
hiss called desires nah nah nah. I'm I'm like, you know,
it's like I don't want to say I'm shocked, but
it's like the biggest sense that I'm getting is how
And maybe it's because you know, like you're you're my homie,
and I've known you so long and I've lived with
you and seen like how much work that you put

(39:04):
into the ship and how much you care. It's just
I don't know, it's like I'm taking it back, you know,
by the lack of urgency that it seems that these
motherfuckers have, you know what I mean, even when you
try to deal with things urgently in this ship. This
is the other thing that maybe has brought her implications
for government in our expectations, etcetera. And the need for urgency,

(39:25):
the need for people to apply constant pressure, because even
when you are going full fire and all cylinders trying
to push it through, it's gonna take a year minimum
to get something done to every people have been out here, yeah,
suffering for like a year since we first started our
discussions about creating this encampment, and like we're still trying
to make it happen still. It's like so it's like

(39:46):
every day that passes that y'all aren't doing something on
y'all's end, it's just extending the time that when you know,
I mean, it's sustending the time that it's gonna take
for ship to eventually get done. When stuff don't you
know what I mean, people do start moving on it, right,
And if that's what happens with stuff that we're regarding
incredibly urgently, like say goodbye to your hopes. So ship

(40:08):
that like nobody is building a movement around or applying
political pressure for you know, we saw that. I mean, like, okay,
let's move a little bit faster than some things that
I've described here in the local government. But think about
the COVID tests. People had to bully the ship out
of Jen Psaki and President Biden and ordered for them
to even take seriously that they should send test to

(40:31):
people in their homes. And even with that relentless heckling,
they only said they're only sending like forward tests to everybody,
did they you know, took a while for them to
roll out. People in dorms, apartment buildings, other sorts of
like shared housing aren't able to get them because of
the way the system is set up. So like even
when you pound the door screaming at the top of

(40:52):
your lungs to do something, you end up getting a
half ass response. You end up it's delayed response. Like
and so I just I really grapple a lot with
like the the lumbering nature of governments. Because they are
such large institutions, there's always institutional inertia where they're so
used to doing things the same way that shifting course

(41:13):
is so difficult for them, um not to mention like
entrenched political power where it's really hard to like cry
out that people who have always been making these decisions
and never taking seriously the needs of the people, and
so like, you know, I want to give people hope.
I want to give people hope. I do believe that
we've got done good things through government, but I'm losing

(41:33):
faith sometimes when I see ship like this bad actors
who like just refused to take seriously the urgency of
the concerns of people in the community, and then just
like the grimingly slow, sand filled gears that churn and
churn like snails pace to address these like incredibly urgent

(41:53):
issues that we other than other than they're just being
like a fucking rennists and ship of progressive or even
just like passionate people, you know what I mean, just
completely taking over the ship. What are some things that
that people can do in their local governments or you know,

(42:15):
or even in in in more national government, but just like, what,
what are some things that people can do to maybe
spurn along some of these gears and get them moving faster?
Is it? Is it really just applying pressure with things
like calling before Yes, it's absolutely so. Before Progressive took
power here, there was a very strong, mobilized United Left

(42:37):
movement to push for things like in a non discrimination ordinance,
to push just push for a variety of things and
apply such pressure that folks couldn't ignore it. They had
to they had to address it. They couldn't turn away,
they couldn't you know, put on their earbuds or whatever
and listen to some you know, donkey brain but um.

(42:59):
And so we've us that. And now that progressives have
taken power, people like, hey, y'all got it from here,
and it's like, no, we don't got it. We need
you all to show up and continue to put pressure
on folks because there's so many plates spinning that sometimes
people just forget what's important. Sometimes people just lose sight
of like the suffering that people are living through. And
so I mean, ultimately that's what's needed. That's always been

(43:21):
what's needed. Anything astounding that we have accomplished, we have
only accomplished with intense community pressure to get done. And
so I've been really reflecting a lot on the need
for us to not only like mobilize people like existing
political actors in the community, but like lift up folks
that are really suffering directly from the housing crisis, from

(43:42):
the gun violence epidemic, um from underemployment and like wage
exploitation to be like, Yo, let's go hop in the car,
like Yo, we'll snag some zack s fees on the way.
Come to the commission meeting and tell them yourself what
the fuss is going on out here? Because like people
like they just don't even know how to engage and

(44:02):
nor why why would they believe in it if no
one has ever supported them in doing so and they
have never seen government, They've never seen Yeah, And that's
what has gotten back to me with the whole voting
rights thing, is that like for somebody who has never
voted anyway, because Republican presidents, democratic presidence, they've always been poor,
they have always been in and out of jail, they
have always been losing loved ones to gone violence. They

(44:25):
have they're hungry day after day, like without actual material
investment and like the people's needs. I don't, I genuinely
don't think that voting rights, the passage of like photographs,
other's legislation, it's gonna matter enough to like really really
boost turned out to a degree where like the will
of the people is truly represented, like in Biden canceled

(44:45):
student debt, or if he just like with the stroke
of a pen, like expunged marijuana. I guess he can't
do that with strongly pen, but he can reschedule marijuana
from a class A you know, prohibitive sus sence stroke
of a pen. You know it's directly after the d
a boom um, and you know, work to exponde people's
records something that they can feel, people would believe and

(45:07):
people would engage, but instead like so um, just moving
along a little bit. So I wanted to talk to
you about, you know, the entrenched like black I guess
ruling class or black political class. So let's how much
support do how much support or lack thereof do you

(45:30):
get from them on the things that you work on,
and then how does that extend a lot of these
A lot of these black leaders in the community are
Republicans or like crypto Republicans collude with them a ton, etcetera, etcetera,
because they have cash in on the community's poverty in
exchange for their place in the political hierarchy for decades.

(45:52):
Like they're comfortable, they're middle class, they're good they're separated
from the experience of like the truly down in the
dirt people that they claim to one help, and so
like they don't Yeah, they don't trust me because I'm
out here talking about the radical ship like setting people free,
like for real, not just performed, not just equity, not progress,
but like liberating people and bringing forward ideas that are
kind of scary and also usurping their authority because like

(46:14):
I ain't come and ask for their permission. I ain't
come and like you know, bend the knee and kiss
the ring about that ship, you find that that's like
something that they expect that they want, is the bending
of the absolutely hey, your dues, and it's like ship
like nah. So and this gets back to what I
was just saying about showing up for people materially. So

(46:34):
folks like the person I am about to talk about
next via Thornton, is this bitch who will like bring
you Eastern baskets like for your kids and like you know,
you pull up pop the trunk and like make sure
your kids have sweaters and ship like that, like showing
up for people materially in such a way that like
she has a lot of trust in the community, people
like you know, really think that she's somebody that you know,

(46:57):
she's a fighter, someone you can believe in because, like
you know, you will materially show up for you, but
not in systemic ways. She has no coherent like agenda
for how to fix any of the problems that she
like she has seen she is seeing, you know, is
more like putting band aids um things. And also something

(47:19):
I've realized about Elvita Thornton recently is that she was
on school board for sixteen years before she became a commissioner,
and so as like a black face in a high
in a high place, she has probably always been in
rooms that are majority white people and has had and
has legitimately had to rail against um like the function
that like the white you know, white supremacist power structure

(47:42):
has dealts the blows they have dealt on the community.
But this has then given rise to like a fucking
neurosis of hers where even when she is allied with folks,
because a bunch of progressives supported her when she ran
like pretty much like all my homies like thought she
was the ship. So yeah, a lot of people supported her,
you know, a lot of white progressives in this town

(48:04):
supported her in two thousand eighteen. This is gonna be
hard for people to hear, but um, because of like
white progressives, like white guilt about not actually knowing any
Black people and having no means by which to like
put roots down in the black community and actually get
to know people. Um. Like Vida Thornton came on the
scene and everybody supported her because they didn't want to

(48:26):
see him racist, even though it was abundantly claire that
she didn't have a coherent agenda, even though she did
things like get so drunk at Assets and Harmony, which
was like a music event that all the candidates were at,
you know, she had to be carried out and loaded
into a car. She couldn't walk. Um. And so I mean,
like these people, these people who were just like, oh,

(48:46):
black face in a high place, let's get behind them
so that we don't see him racist because we're so
scared and feel so guilty about white supremacy. Like you
have to get out into the community and actually get
to know black people, um, in order to like like
develop uh cohesive like political analysis of what's going on

(49:08):
and really understand what the needs are and also help
elevate leadership that will do the same. Um, I can't
imagine what it's like for white people. Actually I can,
and I don't have any like empathy for the fact
that I mean, I've had to begin rooms where nobody
looked like me my entire fucking life. So if you're
white and like you're nervous about going out on the
block and like dapping people up and giving out waters

(49:31):
or showing up at the food distro or going to
the churches, like fucking get it together, I'm sorry, go
to these places and get to know these people. Um,
because you know folks who say, like, oh, well, we
have to support her, She's the only one. It's like, Well,
if you collaborate with communities to uplift leadership, like the

(49:52):
Black the Ascendant Black Miss Leadership class won't be the
only option on the table. We could have a diversity
of political thought represented in the kinds of leaders and
the kinds of candidates that we have to choose from.
But because white progressives, I mean, there's a lot of
different reasons why not. But my smoke for the folks
that supported her in two thousand and eighteen, even though

(50:13):
I tried to warn people that she was shipped. I
saw through her the entire time. UM. The thing that
they need to understand as well, if that do a
little bit smoke for them, is that like you can't
be scared. You gotta get out there and talk to people.
You gotta get out there and talk to people. I
don't know, that's all I really got. I don't know
I got more ship. A lot of it was decontextualized

(50:34):
when I went back to my draftweets, where I was like,
I'm just like this could be this could have been
about anything, just like bishing about how much these people stuck.
But I wanted to bring up some concrete examples of
like the dirt they have done our community they're continuing
to do through colluding with um the Republicans. On January six,
they literally drop those maps in January like on some
anniversary ship Like, I mean, the thing is coincidence. They

(50:57):
knew what they were doing. What they literally for one
of the progressives they tried to oust, they literally drew
the border of his map to look like a dick,
to like poke into his poke into it like a
like another district, as like like a literal fuck you,
like we are fucking you here's the dick. Yeah, see this,

(51:18):
this is again. They know that they're playing three dimensional
chess man four dimensional seven. I don't know, man, They're
playing like they're trying to win, Like they don't give
a funk what the other side is gonna say. It's
that's twis really important to me. That's why I was
really important me to come like forward about a bunch
of the ship because like, I'm tired of like y'all
didn't realize I was playing nice before, I was playing

(51:41):
nice before. Those days are over. I ain't got nothing
but smoke for you. Like alright, So to close it off,
we're gonna do something a little bit different on this episode.
We are not going to just do the same old
rappi rap thing that we normally do because me and Mariah,
you know, our music as that goes, we we do

(52:03):
a lot more than just freestyle on the mic. At
the end of the show. We're both actually, you know,
working recording artists. So, Mariah, what do you got coming up?
So I'm very excited to announce that yesterday we told
the world that my new album Bell Ringer is coming
out on April, and we dropped the first music video

(52:24):
first single for the album. It's called Work. It is
um what I hope will be like the modern day
labor anthem. And so um we're gonna play that for
y'all as we close out today. Um, you know, go
check it out if you follow me on socials. Who
produced it? So this is produced by my homie Reindeer
games Um, who has been my DJ for many years
and um pretty much executively produced album. So yeah, give

(52:47):
a listen to this. This is work. Go check out
the music video. The link to it's going to be
in the the episode description. And yeah, hopefully this will
give you some inspiration to keep fighting because, like I said,
and we need mass movements of organized people of the
multi racial working class in order to fight this ship.

(53:07):
No matter what happens, you know, my homies might get
kicked out of office, I might get kicked out office, whatever,
Fascist takeover whatever, we gotta be ready to fight. And
so I hope this gets you all ready to fight.
Let's right in a communication, Workers of America, hen the
campus workers in Georgia three two six five, Big, it's

(53:33):
sire you won't people, Which sire you won't? Which side
you won't? Deepoo? Which side are you? Oh, which sire
you won't? My people? Which side are you won't? Which

(53:53):
side are you won't? People? Wich side? Are you won't?
Working ship? The boxes they swipper renne mopping ship, but
we're never talking and whipping the shopping cut They packed
the beer in the walkings and stick the weird little boxes,
keep kitching for just stopping the financial marketself. And they're

(54:13):
talking for over fifty fifty bucks and bear the cup
in the like sixty thrifty huts and get spent on
like sitting ducks, so they get sicker getting buck. So
you ever wanted to honor them? He's my ask for
all Mohammed and collected bargaining and mazonna target and fede
to walm Martin into parking hole food to we all
give what we are to get it workers one of

(54:35):
the company that rising in the arguments. So are you
with them? Are you lay loof you? Need Ham said,
I haven't see though, and play loof you need th
Ham said I've be't see though, and play hoof you.
Need Ham said I haven't see though. Ha My said
I haven't see though. Ham said, I haven't seedo. Which

(54:55):
side you are? My people? Which side you oh, which
side you won't? People? Which sire you all? Which side
are you o? People? Which side a you won't? Which

(55:15):
side are you won't? My people? Which side are you all?
Imagine a minute money into badverage. Women and men in
the tragic position of bringing and patrick and wages in't
count to the shackle by capitalism. Imagine a minute money
into badvers. Citizens planned in this vineage and watching the
kitchens and stack in the linen's called packers and windings
and tend it's a labor extracted for pettis or if

(55:36):
they're coordinated to address the sort of statement of it
an organization because sucking what that's what organized but does
and not even sort of its work. The cards taking
the power from horders of bucks, but bankers off showing
they because we're turning the value away, but of those
who created the blainess. So if you're data then telling
about waking up or leader earning back, if you sat
about burning, if you gotta curious turn and you had
it with passively like it, we got your back and

(55:56):
were happy to have you out on the picking line,
actively work and go way which side you need? Said,
I've been seen no help with you said you need,
said I've been seen help time said I've been seen.

(56:20):
Help you need, said, I've been seen, help you need, said,
I've been z side. Are you yo? That ship was fire.
You guys got to make sure that you go watch that,
press the light button, comment on that ship, and be

(56:42):
sure to look out for Mariah's new album, Bell Ringer
when that ship comes out in April one. But I'm
sure you're gonna we're gonna keep talking about this between
now and then. I'm sure she's gonna be dropping some
more stuff. I know. I know I'm on there too,
So you know, next town, next time I'm in town,
we might want to like shoot a little some video
things for that. Yeah, we might need to. We might

(57:03):
need to. Yeah. Alright, my name is Dope Knife, and
you have been listening to Waiting on Reparations. We are
out and we will see you guys next week. Peace.
Listen to Waiting on Reparations on the I Heart Radio app,
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