Cuss & Discuss: 100 F#@king Days of Trump

In our inaugural episode of Cuss & Discuss, host Auburn Wideman and guests, Diamond Stylz, Cultural Anthropologist and owner of Marsha’s Plate Media, Councilmember Andrea Jenkins, City of Minneapolis Councilmember, and Ashlei Blue, North Carolina State Director, cuss and discuss about Trump’s first 100 days. 

 

Each guest shares their unique perspective on how they’re viewing and navigating this overwhelming political climate while still finding room for joy and energy for continued resistance. 

 

About our guests: 

Diamond Stylz, Cultural Anthropologist and owner of Marsha’s Plate Media

Diamond Stylz is one of the leading Black voices. She is a 20-year veteran, GLAAD award winning activist of the trans community.  She is the host and creator of the award wining Houston Based podcast, Marsha’s Plate , a weekly exploration of politics and pop culture from a trans-pro-black feminist lens that has garnered over 1.5 million streams. She has appeared on CNN, ABC, BET and The Root, among others, and has written for a myriad of websites, magazines, and blogs.

 

Councilmember Andrea Jenkins, City of Minneapolis Councilmember

Jenkins moved to Minnesota to attend the University of Minnesota in 1979. She worked as a Vocational Counselor for Hennepin County government, for a decade. Jenkins worked as a staff member on the Minneapolis City Council for 12 years before beginning work as curator of the Transgender Oral History Project at the University of Minnesota's Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies.

 

Ashlei Blue, North Carolina State Director, America Votes

In her spare time, she is an avid songwriter, amateur storm chaser (#KashDoppler) and snack connoisseur. She also enjoys hiding in the woods with her partner, Kara, plotting about healing democracy. 

About SONG Power: 

SONG Power is the  power-building and advocacy arm of Southerners on New Ground (SONG). SONG is a 30 year old South organization rooted in multi-issue justice movements that unite across ability, age, class, immigration status, gender, race and sexuality. 

 

We conjure the beautiful alchemy of queer magic – traversing the South looking for those who are looking for us, for our beloved community who is yearning for a new south, for liberation in their lifetime and a life that allows them to live free from fear. 

This vision of a new south fuels us, entices us into movement, and inspires future visions of liberation, tearing down old monuments and erecting new ones that sing the praises of our ancestors and beacons us toward a new day. We organize not from a place of fear and despair but from a place of joy, love, and hope. 

 

Learn more about SONG Power at unleashpower.org

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to the first episode ofSong Power's new podcast, Cuss and

(00:04):
Discuss, where we are gettingtogether to cuss and discuss about
these times, give people someanalysis, give people a place to
kind of happen, figure out what'sgoing on, find some meaning, find
a place that they might not knowabout to organize a crack that we
don't see.
Really just give an overview of
these times.
I'm so excited to have y 'all with
me.
I have Andrea Jenkins, City of

(00:25):
Minneapolis City Council member.
We have Diamond Stiles, a cultural
anthropologist and creativedirector of Marshall's Plate
Media.
And we also have Ashley Blue, the
North Carolina State Director forAmerica Vote.
I'm going to give each of ourlovely guests a chance to
introduce themselves, and I willfirst pass it to you, Diamond.
What's up?My name is Diamond Stiles.
I am the creative director atMarch is Play Media.

(00:47):
I'm also a Harris Countycommissioner here in Houston,
Texas, and I am a film director.
I am just so many consultants.
I'm so many things, but, you know,I am a sister, a lover and a
friend to many, many, many people.
Yeah.
Hey, everybody.
My name is Andrea Jenkins.
I am a Minneapolis City Councilmember.
You know, some people introducedme as the first black trans woman

(01:13):
to be elected to public office inthe county.
And I want to preface that bysaying the first out black trans
woman.
Right.
Because.
We know that there have been Black
women who haven't had theopportunity to be their fully
authentic self, but still occupyspaces of power.
And so just want to make thatacknowledgement.

(01:34):
But I'm a poet, a writer, anactivist, a disability justice
activist.
I've been advocating for trans and
gender nonconforming people'srights.
Over three decades, I am an oralhistorian.
I conducted the largesttransgender oral history project
so far in the world.

(01:56):
And, you know, we interviewed over
196 voices of transgendernonconforming people.
And that's documented at theUniversity of Minnesota.
Yeah, I'm just happy to be herewith you all to cuss and discuss a
little bit.

(02:17):
Hey, I'm Ashley Blue.
Yeah, my day job, North CarolinaState Director at America Votes,
where I do my best to create astatewide strategy to help
progressives win here in NorthCarolina.
And we run the independentexpenditure work for many of those
organizations here.
Outside of that, I'm just here.

(02:38):
Regular Southern girl fromFayetteville, North Carolina, and
from anybody who or anybody whoknows where that is.
I'm just really excited to be hereand share space with some
wonderful people.
My expertise is organizing here in
the South.
I was born here and raised here.
And so I take this work to heartbecause this is where my family

(03:03):
is.
And, you know, change really does
spark here in the South a lot oftimes.
And so.
Just really proud to be a part of
that legacy of organizers here inthe South, just trying to get
things done.
So, again, happy to share space
with you all today.
Thank you so much for being here.
Let's get into it.
So the first 100 days of the Trump

(03:24):
presidency and so much could besaid, so much has happened.
The idea of flooding the zone, ofcreating distractions, of just.
Putting so much on people that itoverwhelms them is happening.
It is working.
But from your vantage point, give
us an overview of what hashappened in the last 100 days of
Trump's presidency.
What are you seeing?
What's happening in your neck ofthe woods?

(03:45):
How's it affected your people?Let us know and let's kick it off
with Ashley.
Yeah, you know, it's interesting
here in North Carolina.
We. Had a rough election night
like the rest of the country.
We wanted the vice president to
take a win and we were about threepoints shy of that.
But the other part of the dynamicshere in North Carolina is that we

(04:07):
won a lot of our other statewideraces.
We were able to keep ourDemocratic governor seat blue with
our new governor, Josh Stein, whowas previously our attorney
general.
We were able to get the lieutenant
governor seat.
We were able to get the attorney
general, the superintendent ofpublic instruction and our Supreme
Court race, which many of y 'allmight have heard about where

(04:31):
Allison Riggs won the race by alittle more than 700 votes and it
has not been certified yet.
So we are the last race in the
country that has not beencertified from the November
elections.
We've got an interesting dynamic
here where we've got a lot ofDemocrats in statewide leadership.
But the the the orange man run onepretty big here in North Carolina.

(04:56):
And so what we're seeing happeningright now is that we've got a
budget that our state legislaturewill have to vote on.
We've seen a power shift asRepublicans maintain an advantage
here in North Carolina.
They've basically taken over our
state legislature.
and inserted themselves into a ton
of processes that legally weren'tunder their purview.

(05:17):
So one of the few statewide seatswe lost, which was the state
auditor, is now in control of thestate board of elections.
And that was, you know, a changethat we were not expecting.
And so now our state board ofelections will be under the thumb
of Republicans.
And so we're dealing with those

(05:38):
dynamics where.
We saw the fascism coming down the
line and we all came to theagreement that we were going to
enact a plan called Operation SaveOurselves, where we knew we're in
the South.
We knew we were the last state
with abortion access here in theSouth.
And if we didn't maintain that andget a lot of our folks elected,
that people would lose hope and alot of people would get hurt.

(06:05):
If y 'all remember aroundSeptember of last year, there was
a guy named Mark Robinson, who wasour lieutenant governor, who was
running for governor and wasexposed for being a black Nazi and
a bunch of other wild things via aCNN explosive story.
And so that was one of the reasonswhy we were able to win big.
But, you know, he was runningaround saying some of the craziest
things and offended everydemographic.

(06:25):
Here in North Carolina, what wewere screaming for well over a
year was, hey, like, you know, theMAGA wave is very real.
And if we are not reallythoughtful about how we avoid
extremism, it'll creep into ourlocal races and, you know, affect
us at home.
And it's not so much a thing
that's just in D C., right?
It's a thing that's right up thestreet from you.

(06:48):
So we're dealing with the dynamicsof that and just trying to hold
the wall against fascism.
completely knocking the walls down
here in North Carolina.
And in the meantime, you know, the
Black people around me werefocusing on joy and self -care and
trying to figure out how do wemaintain in the midst of this.

(07:09):
So that's how the first 100 dayswe kind of felt here in North
Carolina.
What about y 'all?
Well, I don't know.
The first 100 days, I guess if I
think about it from a personalperspective, I mean, it literally
feels like an attack on Everysingle part of my being as a black
person, you know, our history isbeing erased.
The programs that, you know, many,many, you know, black and brown
people depend on from Head Startto Medicare.

(07:30):
HIV AIDS funding is being strippedaway.
Research for all kinds of chronicillnesses is being dismantled.
Yeah, like every every single partof our society and not to mention
the economic impact of thedisastrous.
you know, trade policies that arebeing enacted, you know,
ridiculous tariffs that benefit noone and actually raises the cost
of living for all Americans.
And I know, you know, that as

(07:56):
Ashley kindly referred to him asthe orange person, I would call
him a fucking idiot.
But, you know.
Since we're cutting anddiscussing.
Right.
You know, that is the reality.

(08:17):
You know, but I live in whatpeople will probably call a blue
state.
Right.
Minnesota.
You know, I'm on the board, I'm on
the city board, right, ofMinneapolis, and we are a

(08:42):
welcoming city for trans peopleseeking trans and not conforming
health care, for people seekingreproductive health care.
People can come to Minneapolis andaccess safe and affordable medical
services.
Why should you have to move from

(09:04):
Florida or Arkansas or Texas or,you know, 25 other states in order
to be able to live your true andauthentic self?
I'm deeply, deeply disturbed aboutthe erasure of black history and

(09:27):
black life.
It is.
I mean, they're taking names outof.
The history books, they're takingblack generals pictures off the
walls, like literally erasing ourhistory and culture.
But, you know, like BrigadierGeneral Harriet Tubman told us,
you know, if it gets cold, keepgoing.

(09:51):
If you get tired, keep going.
If you get hungry.
Keep going.
We are not going back.
And, you know, while it has beendisturbing, it's really beautiful
to see people coming together.
I have really tried to situate

(10:14):
myself in black joy as well.
I had the great opportunity to
listen to.
John Batiste the other night, who
is a musical genius.
And he took us from like the
battle hymn of the Republic allthe way to Imagine to some Lauryn

(10:41):
Hill.
I mean, you know, just black.
beautiful joy in music.
So, you know, that's where we have
to live.
We have to remember that we got
each other and, you know, know,that we've been through some

(11:02):
really, really difficult times.
When I talk to young people, I
have to remind them and remindmyself that what is different.
in other times is that we now haveinfrastructure to be able to fight

(11:22):
back.
Four years ago, there were no
transgender organizations.
Now we have institutions that have
been around for decades that areadvocating on behalf of
transgender non -conformingpeople.
We can fall back on the NAACP andthe Urban League and other

(11:44):
institutions in our communities,the ACLU and, you know, Planned
Parenthood, groups that are comingtogether and fighting back and
linking issues and concerns,disparities, et cetera.
And SONG is probably one of theorganizations.
that has really seen theseintersections and have been able

(12:07):
to connect them in ways to moveprogress forward.
So, yeah, that's how these first100 days have been hitting me.
Lord have mercy.
Makes me think of a meme that's
going around about Harriet Tubman.
It was like, why Harriet Tubman

(12:28):
never smiles?That ain't shit.
It was funny.
What do you know about you,
Diamond?What are you seeing in these first
100 days?Oh, gosh.
So this has been a very scaryexperience for me as a Black trans
Texan.
This is a red state and I'm all

(12:51):
the way here in Houston.
And while we have a strong, large
queer community, it does.
I can't help but feel a fear of
being in a situation where likeyou're a frog and slowly boiling

(13:14):
water where the water is tipping.
And if you're a frog, your body
kind of adjusts to thetemperature.
And I think of that as people weknow how to, as somebody who grew
up and came out in 1994, I've beenin a world where people were all

(13:38):
against.
We didn't have these kind of
forward steps and advancementsthat we are getting stripped away
from us now.
I remember that time where, you
know, we knew how to makeadjustments.
And so like that frog, our body isadjusting to these rising
temperatures.
But also it makes me think about
the queer people that were dealingwith the Holocaust when it first

(14:03):
was coming to Berlin and differentplaces.
If you listen to them, they say,God, we didn't leave because we
didn't know it was going to gothis far.
And so making the decision on whento leave a red state, when to
stay, when to.
And then when you go to these blue
states, the cost of living is sodamn high that it's hard to afford

(14:24):
on somebody's salary who doesn'twho's not used to, you know, who
just doesn't have a salary thatfits that kind of market.
And so it's kind of scary for mepersonally.
I also I see what's happening withour immigrant comrades.
He is literally sending them whenwe talk about.
Yes, I see a. community comingtogether, but I also see
communities being broken apartbecause he's sending people to

(14:46):
prison and detention centerswithout due process and breaking
up families for bullshit reasons.
And so, you know, this is causing
family trauma and, you know,adding to the economic instability
that we see happening around thecountry.
But then me as a trans person, allmy trans siblings that these
actions and attacks that he'sdoing that span across sectors

(15:07):
like Health care, education,housing, just civil rights in
general.
We hear there was a bill.
It didn't we beat it and it didn'tget much support.
But just the fact that they filedit, there was a bill that
criminalizes the trans identity asgender identity fraud.
And so that literally is somethingthat just me being an existing as
a trans person.
They were trying to criminalize it

(15:27):
here in the state.
And so, yes, it's getting quite
scary.
Even ban in the trans military.
All these things, all the attackson people, the division and the
silos, when I think aboutreproductive justice, when I think
about trans health care, when Ithink about voter suppression, all
these things are about bodysovereignty, what they're allowing

(15:47):
you to do with your own body.
And that brings us all together.
And I wish that it brought us alltogether to kind of get out of our
silos and really build communityacross, you know, people that are
on the same side.
And so, yeah, it's kind of scary.
But, you know, as somebody whogrew up in a time when we didn't

(16:11):
have those rights, I feel like I'mbetter fitting as a mature, wise
woman now.
Shine bright like a diamond.
Shine bright like a diamond.
Yeah, you better preach, girl.
So, what you just said makes youthink about kind of what our next
topic is about.
But, like, there's so many places
that we can connect right now onorganizing politically as a

(16:35):
community.
Like, there are so many points of
intersection.
Where are y 'all seeing the
opportunities?Like, where are the cracks that we
can exploit?that we can kind of dig our people
into, that we can organize around,build community around?
Like, what are y 'all seeing asthe opportunities that we can take
advantage of during these times?Granted, they're very scary, but

(16:56):
this is our time to fight back andto resist.
And so where are y 'all seeingthose opportunities?
I think this is a time to becreative.
This is the time that you trythings that you've never tried
before to get an enroll,especially when it comes to moving
resources.
If you know you have a big pot,
lump sum of money or connection topeople, move that damn money.

(17:18):
Move that to people who are on theground doing the work, doing what
they need to do.
This is a time where just like
they are trying to bend and twistthe rules, we need to be bending
and twisting to do things in a waythat helps our people with

(17:38):
integrity.
Yeah, I think that this is a time
to really kind of be creative andthink out the box and try it and
see.
Just like they're throwing stuff
on the wall to see what can stickwith their base.
We need to be throwing stuff onthe wall to see what can stick
with our base and our communitythat we are serving.
I'm going to plus one that Ithink, you know, I think there's

(18:01):
two things.
One, we need to experiment.
We need to think outside the box.
I think we also got to get some
discipline, you know, when we comeback around.
this next go around.
I think, you know, I think what
we've done a really good job ofarticulating today is just how
scary things are, especially beingBlack and queer.
Like, there's so much that, youknow, we have to account for in

(18:22):
our own safety.
And I think this time last year,
that seemed far -fetched, right?So now, you know, here we are
sitting in May and it's like,Listen, honey, I had to escalate
my marriage because I don't knowif it's going to be legal at the
end of the year.
Right.
Like I'm making plans for, youknow, can my trans stepson still
have access to his medication?He doesn't live in a state.
He lives in D .C.
That's a tool of the federal
government now.

(18:42):
Right.
So, like, what do we do?What do we do when, you know, we
can't even organize the way weused to or you just want to.
pick up and go meet in aparticular state and we all do
conferences.
Now we got a plan to make sure
everybody gets there safely andback.
Right.
And so where are the opportunities
in that one?I think black people are doing an

(19:02):
excellent job of how do anexcellent job of finding a way to
maintain our joy in the midst ofchaos, which seems like it is
impossible.
But I do see and feel all of us
trending in that direction.
And that is like that conversation
was immediate.
Like, As soon as Kamala lost, we

(19:24):
was like, y 'all got it.
We're going to work on ourselves.
We're going to work on our family.
We aren't going to pour as much
into the collective we as we areinto our individual.
And I think the opportunities thatare showing up in the midst of us
that are working in the politicalspace are in the arts.
You know, we've got a lot of greatart that has come out over the
last year for Beyonce finallygetting her Grammy for Cowboy

(19:46):
Carter and proving that Blackpeople.
have roots in country andbluegrass to Kendrick reminding
people who are not like us that weknow that you are not like us to
this new movie centers where weare talking through our connection
with the ancestors and religionand, and how that shows up in our
everyday practice.
I think that is where.
you are not this new movie centerswhere we are talking through our

(20:06):
connection with the ancestors andreligion and, and how that shows
up in our everyday practice.
I think that is where.
I think those are the things thatare kind of keeping us afloat
right now, because, you know, alot of what's coming at us in the
government, we can't predict.
And so we're just on our toes.
And I think this is a moment whereif we lean into the art, if we

(20:28):
lean into the creativity, if welean into the non -traditional,
then our pathway to healing andour pathway to safety will become
a lot more evident.
A thing that me and my wife talk
about a lot is like we integratedtoo much.
Right.
And I keep pointing people back to
that quote from Martin Luther Kingwhere he says, I fear I have
integrated my people into aburning building.

(20:49):
And, you know, we have to go backto go back, go within ourselves
and we need to go back into ourcommunity because what we lost.
And the wave of integration is ourownership of cultural spaces.
Like now, where do we go?You know, how do our HBCUs hold on
to that history that CouncilMember Jenkins is talking about as

(21:10):
they get erased and federalfunding gets taken away?
How do those historically blackcolleges and universities maintain
that history?Because that's like those are
going to be our final lighthouses,really, as resources get pulled
away from us in our community.
So I think the.
The opportunities are in the in-between.
It's not so much the verypolitical, strategic things that
we need to do right now.
It's more about aligning with each
other spiritually and getting thevibes right as we get ready to go
into war next year.
Certainly being creative, Black
joy, you know, when...
After election night, I thought
about my own sort of politicalfuture and how I want to proceed

(21:33):
moving forward.
And I announced a couple of months
ago now that I will not be seekingre -election.
You know, I am going to take thistime to focus.
on myself and the focus on my lifeas an artist, as a writer, as an
activist, and really, you know,try to reflect on the past, but
also think about, you know, how dowe meet this moment?

(21:57):
How do we create?I think, you know, I'm so glad,
Ashley, you brought in this wholeconcept of how arts.
is a catalyst for change and howit has historically been a part of
what has gotten us through really,really difficult, challenging
times.
I even, I was doing an interview
this morning about George FloydSquare, the five -year anniversary
that's coming up.

(22:18):
And, you know, I had to reference
Get Out.
The guy said he, you know, the
reporter said he wanted to pick mybrain.
And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no,no, no. You can't pick my damn
brain.
Like, no, we ain't having that.
We are not going into the sunkenspace with you, my friend.
So, you know, you can, I can giveyou my perspective.

(22:41):
I can share my thoughts andviewpoints, but you cannot pick my
brain.
And, you know, I think.
Those cultural moments, I thinkGet Out was probably the most
accurate depiction of what itmeans to be a Black person in

(23:01):
America that I have fullywitnessed to this date.
And I will be 64 years old inabout four days.
and culture continues to move our,you know, this work forward.
And I think, you know, that's thespace I'm going to try to occupy
in this next chapter of mine.

(23:23):
And really, you know, because...
In the political space, yes, wehave to have policies and, you
know, legislation, et cetera,laws.
But, you know, I have a reallydear friend, Dean Spate, who is a
trans writer and activist andattorney.
And he reminds us that, hey.
You know, in 1954, you know, the

(23:46):
Supreme Court said that blackschools should be separate but
equal and we should desegregatethese schools.
And right now in 2025, those sameschools are as segregated today as
they were in 1954.
So if policy and legislation was

(24:08):
the full answer.
we would be living in a much
greater society.
But laws can be changed.
Executive orders can be written.
So how do we change people's minds
and hearts?And that's the work, that's the
sole work that I want to try topour into.
Where do I see opportunity?Because I think that was the
question.
And I certainly think that all of

(24:30):
my diatribe up to this point hasbeen kind of pointing that out.
But I think the fact that nobodyis being left out on this
onslaught is an opportunity.
Because, I mean, they coming for
everybody, right?Everybody.
You ain't going to have no money.
You ain't going to have no job.
They're firing white people.

(24:50):
They're putting judges in jail and
shit.
So everybody is being impacted.
I mean, nobody's going to get awayfrom these terrorists.

(25:10):
Not even Elon Musk.
He's like, whoa, Donald, wait a
minute, man.
What is he doing?
I just lost $8 billion over here.
So the fact that everybody is

(25:31):
being impacted, I think could bean opportunity for resistance.
resistance.
I think about you telling that
reporter, look, I have boundaries,Joe.
I ain't even going to play withyou today.
That's a place that we can startwhen it comes to changing hearts

(25:56):
and minds.
For the past, shit, five years,
but definitely for this electioncycle, I've been going down these
fucking rabbit holes of... podcastarguments and low vibrational
conversations in the gender warsand who gets a plate first and all
this bullshit that, you know, caneasily entice you because it's

(26:21):
rooted in these kind of sexist,racist and blah, blah, blah.
It can easily entice you down thisrabbit hole to kind of prove these
people wrong.
Like you sound dumb.
You don't know the education.
Let me show you the stats.

(26:45):
And really, but they have nofreaking intention to change
because they are invested in whitesupremacy.
They're invested.
in misogyny.
They're invested in misogynoir.
They're invested in transphobia.
They're invested in all of thesethings.
You can show them all the facts inthe world.
It does not matter.

(27:06):
They have done so well in
brainwashing these people to thinkthat these individual silos of
people are the enemy.
That they're not even they're
ignoring the big picture of thepeople who are actually stealing
their money, who is actuallycausing the economic instability.
And so I think making sure that weare not finding finding ourselves

(27:36):
in situation and hold thoseboundaries like, yo, I'm here to
tell you my perspective, but I'mnot about to go down this rabbit
hole.
And I know this is not this is not
going to move you in any kind ofdirection.
Now, when we talk about that kindof movable middle, yes, it is

(28:01):
worth your time to move them.
But when we're talking about
people that you know.
are your enemy that are not going
to move over.
Don't spend your time and energy
focusing on them.
I'm with you on that.
That's pretty much half of thepeople, right?

(28:21):
Like, let's get real.
I mean, these people in my
community keep telling me and I,you know, I'm still in a very
predominantly white community andmost of us are because America is
pretty much all white.
But at any rate, they're saying,
oh, we got each other, myneighbors.
And I'm like, wait a minute.
All these people that live around

(28:44):
me, they all white.
Like, when the shit go down, they
gonna come save me?me?
That's the question.
That's the question.
And if we pay attention to thepast, it's so the motherfucker can
know.
Exactly.
It isn't likely, friends.
The past is just this past fucking
election, right?Like, there is no way all these
people should be voting for afucking criminal.

(29:04):
A felon.
Girl, if anybody black, I mean,
well, you wouldn't even, I mean,Obama would be in jail, right?
34 convictions.
Like there's no way he would even
or the courts would be like,there's the courts would be like,
no, I mean, you can't run foroffice.
Go somewhere and sit down.
But they left this dude run and

(29:24):
the white people voted for him.
people voted for him.
Right.
I think that's the that's the
sinister part of white supremacyis two things that I just thought
of in that one.
Like.
The peel off effect.
Right.
So, you know, I think we were allfighting back this narrative that
was saying we were losing blackmale voters.
We were losing black male voterslike that was the narrative for
almost a year.
Right.
And I think we all did our best torefute that or do work to stop it.

(29:47):
But the opportunity there is thatone or two or multiple things
happen.
One.
The apathy of the election cyclecaused people to stay at home and
the urgency wasn't there to theygenuinely disagree with us.
Right.
And that's where the white
supremacy really is embedded inthe bullshit, because the reason
we lose our people to Joe Rogan'spodcast or Andrew Tate or

(30:08):
whatever.
Fuck ass white boy is doing a
podcast is because some of ourpeople actually do believe those
baseline concepts.
Right.
So we have no control over thepodcast industrial complex because
the people who are ultimatelygoing to talk about that stuff,
they're peeling off some of ourblack men and some of the more

(30:33):
toxic among us.
And so the opportunity there is
how many of those are cousins?You know, we have hotel cousins
just like they got MAGA cousins.
And so, you know, are we avoiding
them at Thanksgiving like thewhites are avoiding their
grandparents and uncles?Like, you know, we have to decide,

(31:02):
are they in the people who we needto let go and let God that Diamond
was talking about?Or is there opportunity there to
really dispel some of that deeplyrooted white supremacist bullshit?
And so.
I would call that out as another
opportunity because there's a lotspecifically amongst black men.
I think there's a lot of them whojust weren't feeling motivated,
didn't feel like the messaging wasfor them or either the candidates

(31:25):
were speaking to them.
And I think all of that is
valuable and we should explore,you know, what is that?
I think it was some sexism inthere, too, though.
And now that's the other piece ofit.
Put the legit there's there arelegitimate concerns.
And then there's just straight upmassage noir that there was
nothing that Kamala could havesaid that would have brought you

(31:46):
all over.
She gave you a whole black man's
plan that included cutting childsupport.
And they just wasn't with it.
Right.
And so I think we have to separatethe wheat from the chaff who
actually is looking to come withus.
The people who believe blackwomen, the people who understand

(32:09):
all of the stakes and not just.
What's hit in my pocket?
Because the thing about the whitesupremacy that I'm finding
fascinating right now is that thepolls that we're getting back are
saying that Trump supporters aresoftening how they feel about him,
we that the polls that we'regetting back are saying that Trump

(32:30):
supporters are softening how theyfeel about him, where they're
like, he's got to get thesetariffs under control, but I'm
still with him.
Or, you know, he fired me from my
job, but, you know, he's cuttingback on the pork.
They're still with him, likedirectly impacted and are still
with him.
You know, I think that is where we

(32:51):
are.
We're like, damn, you know, you
can that man can push you off ofthe bridge and you'll be in the
water screaming for your life andnot blaming him.
So who is going to actuallyremember that Chris Rock joke,
that Chris Rock joke, right?When he said, hey, I offered this
rope.
broke -ass white man on the
corner.

(33:11):
You know, I said, hey, you want to
trade places?You can get my money and you'd be
black, right?He said, absolutely not.
The white dude was like, yeah, I'mgoing to roll up with this white
thing just a little while longer.
I do remember that all.
So I want to say this.
I want it to be on record.
Y 'all heard it here first.

(33:33):
I think Trump is going to get
Diddy off.
Oh, absolutely.
Yeah.
That's his Black man plan for
2028.
I think that is absolutely on the
table.
Absolutely.
Or whoever else might getimplicated in that.
Right.
That will be his stimulus package
to us.
He will give us Black entertainers
that we actually don't give a fuckabout.
Exactly.
Don't let Diddy and R. Kelly go.

(33:53):
and try to work off of that.
You think he's going to let the R
go too?think he's going to let the R go
too?He's going to let R Kelly go too?
R Kelly's a very fine man, and thenext thing you know, he's going to
be free.
R Kelly got them New York charges,
so he might still be locked in,but if the Orange Boy can get rid

(34:17):
of them federal ones, he reallywill.
Federal charges.
Mostly all of Diddy is all
federal.
You know, we see his game.
I see where he's coming.
I see where he's coming from.
Right.
I think another opportunity I see
is the youth.
I mentor.
I don't have any kids.
So my connection to kids through
the community is mentoring.
And I mentor eighth grade black
girls and just the youth overall.
Now, the teachers on TikTok are
right.
They cannot read.

(34:39):
They do not give a fuck aboutauthority.
Like they have, they don't careabout the norms.
They don't care aboutrespectability politics.
The things that are like soinstilled in some of these like
older generations, they do notcare.
Those kids are going to get usfree.
We just got to teach them how toread.
And that worries me because thiskind of goes back to what the
council member was saying.

(35:00):
As our history gets erased, like,
The few things we do have arewritten in cursive.
Like when you if you do yourancestry results, all those census
records are in cursive.
So when I'm looking at them, I'm
like, how is my nephew going tointerpret this?
He doesn't know what a capital Slooks like or a Q. So what are

(35:21):
they going to do?But I also think I'm also
exploring this thread like there'sa rabbit hole I go down sometimes.
the effects on Gen Z and the AlphaGen of not beating their ass when
they was little.
I think that's the thing.

(35:43):
the thing.
I think that is why they have no
fear of authority because didn'tnobody pop them.
Didn't nobody take their belt off,throw no shoe at them, like none
of that.
And I think because their
discipline process was different,the way that does show up in the
movement is they don't reallycare.
throw me in jail.
Like, I don't care.
I think the generations before hadto train for nonviolence.
And these kids seem like they onsome other stuff.

(36:05):
You know, they traded forviolence.
They actually are, they about it.
Yeah.
I do want to just shout out eighthgrade black girls.
I have a grand, a 13 year oldgranddaughter.
That's an eighth grade.
So shout out to my young sisters.
That's don't get us free.
Yeah.
They're going to do it.

(36:25):
They're going to do it.
They have such an interestingperspective.
So like, if you haven't talked tolike a 13, 14 year old in a while,
do it.
Like even their perspective on
race, how they see the world.
They're not in the culture.
Like there's no collective cultureanymore, even for children.
So they're not like participatingin the same things or not.

(36:48):
They have such interestingviewpoints on the world.
And so I think we could get themtogether.
We can get them all together,teach a little something.
Those, that generation, they'regoing to get us free.
They're the ones.
So what are y 'all seeing the next
100 days looking like?It is very shaky.
We know that there's going to be aramp up of more ice raids.

(37:12):
There's going to be a ramp up ofjust, it looks like we're on the
crash course towards a recession.
It's going to be the summertime.
The kids are going to be out ofschool.
What are the next 100 days lookinglike?
I think, again, what are we seeingacross the board?
What are things that we're seeingpersonally?
And then the good and the bad.
Are there glimmers of hope you see
for the next 100 days?What is it looking like?

(37:37):
Can I just say I'm waiting forthis real ID rollout to implode?
I don't know what the DMVs looklike where y 'all live, but these
lines are wrapped around thecorner.
And I don't know that peoplereally took seriously that they
won't be able to traveldomestically without a passport or
the real ID.
So that's the thing I'm looking at

(37:59):
to see, like, how does this affectthe rich whites who are planning
their trips to Cancun?planning their spring break trips
to Palm Springs or Miami.
Like if they don't have their IDs
and their passports, what's theirpushback going to be to some of
this, some of this bureaucracythat's really trying to keep us at
home.
And I'm wondering what their

(38:19):
response is going to be to that.
Are they going to be complicit or
what?So that's one thing I'm interested
in.
I think the other part, you know,
I really hope people getthoughtful about.
I hate to say doomsday prepping,but I think we all know that
moment before the pandemic wherewe were like, oh, shit.

(38:40):
I need to go get some extra toiletpaper.
I need to go get some non-perishables.
Like we're squarely in thatmoment.
And Auburn, I think to your point,like, I think we're in the middle
of the recession.
I think we're on our way to a
depression.
I don't know if, you know, as far
as the numbers are.
far as the numbers are.

(39:00):
Yes.
Like now for the rest of the
country and the average, I don'tknow what number it needs to be
for us to like be classifiedofficially there.
But the pinch is very real.
And so I'm wondering.
How are we going to prep for theshortages that are coming around
this time?I think we have had more of a

(39:20):
warning than we did in 2020.
So I'm just, you know, really
hopeful that it doesn't impact usas badly as it did then.
But, you know, hopefully, youknow, all black and brown
communities are preparing to kindof move around that so we don't
get caught off guard again.

(39:41):
You know, I think these next
hundred days are going to bereally, really challenging.
There won't be a lot of stuff onthe shelves to buy because it's
just not coming here.
They're not sending it.
And then the stuff that we aregoing to have is going to be
extraordinarily expensive.
So, and people don't have jobs.
And, you know, the, yeah.

(40:01):
it's going to be really, really
big reality check in these next100 days around the economy.
Because right now, and I agreewith you, Ashley, that I think,
you know, black and browncommunities are really feeling the
economic stress.
And, you know, a lot of brown
people, particularly, you know,South of the border immigrants,

(40:24):
but African immigrants as wellare, you know, fearful of these
immigration policies.
And to be quite frankly, we all
should be because they're notdiscriminating about who they
kicking out of the country.
So. I don't see the next 100 days
as offering a whole lot ofopportunity other than, you know,
the joy that we can bring toourselves with Pride coming up and

(40:49):
Juneteenth and, to ourselves withPride coming up and Juneteenth
and, you know, all of these sortof... opportunities for us to
connect with each other around,share identities, et cetera, I
think is, you know, what can kindof help us move through some of
this stuff.
I think for me, I'm worried about
not being prepared.

(41:10):
prepared.
for what's to come.
I mean, people are talking about
Great Depression level stuff, andI'm seeing the divestment from
marginalized communities.
I'm seeing the divestment from
housing.
I'm even seeing recently they blew
the top off of overdraft feelimitations to where the banks are
going to be able to knock oursocks off with overdraft fees.
And so who is that going toaffect?
immediately, people who are poorwith their bank accounts.
And, you know, because sometimesyou got to swipe just to get

(41:31):
something and those overdrive feesis going to go out the roof.
They just did that.
And then today, when we think
about this is the day that theadministration said, the new
executive order said that theywere going to start garnishing our
wages for these loans.
Like this is the day.
And I recently just got an alertfrom my credit card.
My credit score has went downbecause those late payments on

(41:53):
that student loan, thoseparticular student loans has now
hit my account.
So then if I have to, if I get so
hung up on where I can't pay myrent, I'm going to have an
eviction and my credit score isgoing to be low.
And it's just going to spiral medown this whole, whole pit of
despair and not just emotionaldespair, actual economic despair.

(42:16):
Then what are going to be thesafety nets?
They have already demonized transpeople.
Can I go to a cisgender women'sshelter?
Can I go to and be safe at a men'sshelter?
Can I go to they recently havingconversations about kicking the T

(42:37):
off the LGBT and.
And so am I going to be even safe
in those kind of spaces with thisdivestment from marginalized
people that we're doing?And so it just it has me wary not

(42:58):
only from the clear.
anti -Black white supremacist
administration that we have, butalso the interpersonal
relationships and community,because I even I'm seeing a lot of
my own people moving to the right.
I'm seeing trans femme attack non

(43:22):
-binary people.
I'm seeing cis women arguing back
and forth about fucking periods.
and not having a period, not being
able to have kids with transwomen.
And I'm just seeing these reallysilly, arbitrary lines of our

(43:42):
community just get exacerbated.
And so it makes me wary what
happened, not only on a biggerscale with the administration, but
on an interpersonal scale.
It definitely makes me scared and
not feel as community connected asI once did maybe like 10 years

(44:04):
ago.
I need the cis girls to stop
arguing about periods because theway these tampon prices are set
up, none of us want to deal withthis shit.
That's so fucking dumb.

(44:25):
It's insane.
I think also about I'm from thecoast.
I'm from Charleston, SouthCarolina, and I think about
climate catastrophe and coupledwith the fact that there's going
to be shortages and how are wegoing to be able to like prepare
for storms, recover from storms?like we saw even last year storm

(44:47):
hurricanes going places hurricanesnever been before in the mountains
and so like even communities arelike all the way unprepared and
like what does it mean for us tohave no communication like no
internet no electricity so justthinking about like these basic
survival skills plus like what yousaid diamond about like i'm also
seeing like a breakdown of likeinterpersonal community like
relationships in the way that likeIt is making people feel like they

(45:09):
have to choose sides and be on theright side to avoid, you know,
persecution.
And we see how free speech is
being criminalized.
So people are like, well, they're
trying to separate themselves andbe, you know, everybody's trying
to find a way that they can be themodel citizen.
When I think you said earlier,Councilmember Jenkins, everybody's

(45:31):
getting affected.
And so how do we like bring that
together and like show peoplelike, listen.
We all live together.
Somebody got to learn how to use a
chainsaw.
Somebody got to learn how to build
some stuff.
Like we got to get our supplies
up.
So I'm thinking like, what is, how
is the summer climate catastrophesalso going to like really

(45:51):
exasperate these times that we'rein and like push people further
from each other, both like in likephysical disaster, but also like
in their personal relationships.
I'm real stressed about hurricane
season.
real stressed about hurricane
season.
Me too, friend.
I mean, we get beat up all thetime in the Carolinas.
And what's fascinating right nowis that, you know, as the

(46:13):
resources get taken away fromFEMA, the pocket of North
Carolinians that was hit byHurricane Helene, those are all
those mountain folks are all Trumpvoters.
Like, I mean, hardcoreconservatives.
And he's taking resources away andthey still with him.
And it's really fascinating forpeople who lost their homes.
There's no road.
to get to one side of town from

(46:35):
the other.
Some of those folks are still
staying 10 toes down as resourcesget stripped from them.
And so we're getting into thisvery dystopian place where it's
like, yo, you have to let go ofyour oppressor because those folks
aren't going to see resources movequickly at all.
And what will happen here in NorthCarolina is they're going to blame
the few Democrats we have incharge rather than.

(46:59):
the federal government that'sreally cutting that off.
And, you know, it blows my mindhow we got to this place.
And I don't know how we get out.
I think the fact that everybody's
going to be affected is probablythe only, you know, thing that
we'll all have to share and beable to point to.

(47:20):
But my question is, is that enoughto bring people over or to see
that, you know, they're voting?against their own best interest.
I'm not sure.
I'm not convinced.
And that's just because I live inthe land of Dixiecrats.
So I got a lot of questions abouthow that'll shape out for us.
Yeah, I'm really frightened forcommunities that do experience

(47:42):
these weather catastrophes.
FEMA is being dismantled and You
know, the funds are being cut.
And I mean, this fucking idiot is
acting like our money is his bankaccount.
idiot is acting like our money ishis bank account.
Right.
It's scary.
And I just forgot about themstudent loans until Diamond said
that.
It took me from a high 700 to a

(48:03):
high 500.
from a high 700 to a high 500.
No. Let me go check my Experianalerts.
I already got me a house and acar, so I ain't really trying to
buy no more big ticket items.
Toilet paper only, trying to buy
paper only, friend.
I don't give a fuck if my credit
score is 200.
I don't give a fuck if my credit

(48:23):
score is 200.
Lucky.
Oh, God.
Lucky.
Yeah, because I mean, what me andmy wife are talking about, we're
trying to, you know, we'reconsidering moving to Durham
because it is black people as amajority on their town council.
I'm sorry, on their city counciland on their county commission.
And I feel that like wanting to bein a black community where more
black people are in leadershipbecause, you know, when.

(48:44):
When we get to that point, whereit's us versus them, or if we get
to that point, if we're reallylucky, we can avoid it.
But if we get to that point,you're going to be looking to
people who have similarexperiences as you to kind of push
back on this stuff.
But my God, they're coming at all
angles, for sure.
Let me ask out this.

(49:05):
Is there something that...
And maybe this is me not being
educated about the history, butthere's something that feels like,
you know, when we were havingthose kind of educational moments
in the 90s and the 80s about HIV,when it felt like the whole world
was against the queer communityand we had to kind of have those

(49:28):
little parties at home where.
we had where it was really intent
to galvanize and educatepolitically, educate people.
And it would be just small groups,but many people were doing it
around the country to educateabout HIV or, you know, just any
kind of moment where Black PantherParty is doing these little
moments to educate people.

(49:48):
It felt like in that time that it
could be possible that we can usethose strategies that we learned
then now.
But also, I don't remember.
I'm not old enough and nobody wasalive when I was old enough to
have political conversations likein my family for me, who actually
lived through like the 20s and 30swhen it was a Great Depression and

(50:11):
how it fell economically so badbecause 80s, 90s.
Yes, we had to organize people andteach and educate people, but it
didn't feel like the economicswere so bad that in a way that.
a Great Depression would affectus.
We're talking about peoplestarving.
We're talking about, you know whatI'm saying?
Are those things applicable tonow?
And how are we talking to ourelders to get some of that
organizing logic?What was happening then to not get

(50:35):
the community hit so hard?I wonder if it's because one of
the periods in history wonder ifit's because one of the periods in
history we've been studying a lothere is reconstruction and how we

(51:01):
built up to this point.
And then reconstruction was
completely dismantled.
And then basically from the end of
that until now have all been usfighting for civil rights and
trying to maintain them throughlaw.
And I wonder if because of themassive dismantling that happened
after reconstruction, that ourmedia ancestors after that late

(51:25):
1890s period were already, they,they were already there where the
recession was going.
They were already there.
And so the impact of it maybewasn't as difficult.
What I do know, and I'm interestedif your families had the same
experience, I would say both sidesof my family, one side from very
rural Alabama, the other from veryrural North Carolina, have takes

(51:48):
on like sustainability that kindof has stuck around from
generation to generation.
Like on my dad's side of the
family, we are one of the thingsthat they're very serious about is
how to make gravy and biscuits.
And then all you need is flour.
And if you don't have anythingelse in your home, you don't have
any meat, you can make somebiscuits, right?
If you have the right material.

(52:09):
So you'll never starve type of a
thing.
My grandmother.
talking to me about raisingchickens this week and like how
they maintain chickens and hogswhen she was growing up in the in
the 50s and 60s.
And so I'm wondering if the
impacts weren't we were alreadythere in a depression before the
rest of America got there.
And we had adapted to it in a way

(52:30):
where we found a way to survive sothat, you know, those things kind
of just became embedded in ournormal day to day.
Or as family practices rather thanthis was just a bad period of time
that we had to survive.
Yeah.
And do we have those skills andthose talents now in our middle
age and younger people?Do we even have those skills?
I'm like, I talk to my friends andI'm like, and when I say that I

(52:56):
know how to.
cut and clean a chicken and tend
to a garden.
They like, bitch, what?
We need to be on the survivalthing.
I'm like, but I got taught by mygrandmother and Mississippi rural
family people I was raised aroundthat taught me how to do these
things.
And there's some people who
literally been in cities forgenerations.
And it was like, we didn't reallyneed to have those lessons.

(53:18):
How are we getting those?I don't know if we have that now.
And so I think this is a perfecttime.
as far as opportunities to reallygo and check with our elders who
have those kind of skills.
Because, I mean, they're like in
their 90s and 100s, right?Yeah.
Well, I have a youngergrandmother.
My grandmother is now in her late70s.

(53:40):
She was born in 47.
But, you know, when I asked her
about the Civil Rights Movement,because my family group was 45
minutes from Montgomery.
And so, you know, she was in high
school.
during a lot of the boycotts and
the marches.
And so my question for her and a

(54:00):
family where she had 20 othersiblings, because my grandparents
had 21 kids, how were y 'allaffected by that?
And she said, we weren't.
Montgomery was too far away.
So that was some city businessthat they were taking care of.
And our community was segregated.
So we only dealt with white people
when we went into town.

(54:21):
So when you think about the day to
day, how did you move around whitepeople?
They didn't.
Right.
And again, that goes to thesegregation of it all.
So my hope is that as theseresources are taken away or as we
become more segregated by naturebecause this shit is happening,

(54:41):
you know, do we have the safespaces to go to with each other?
Because there is no mom and popstore.
You know, the black ownedrestaurants in the community
aren't everywhere like they usedto be.
So you could go and see yourpeople.
You know what I'm saying?So I just hope we can find or

(55:04):
create those spaces right now.
Yeah, I think it goes back to what
you said about, like, there's aseparation of, like, older folks
that have always been in thecountry.
My grandma said the same thing.
I was like, well, how was
segregation?She was like, you see where I'm
from.

(55:24):
You think there was white people
out there?That's why they survived.
That's why they're still here.
Like, we lived on a farm.
Outside of town, we were a familyof 11 people.
We lived next to our familymembers.
We had, we grew stuff.
We like didn't have to deal with
that.
So I do think that is an
opportunity.
I think you do see like in a, I've

(55:45):
seen an emergence lately of likeblack farmers and just like
homesteading.
And maybe it's my TikTok for you
page, but there's a lot of blackpeople moving towards like, let's,
let's get back to figuring out howwe work the land.
And I'm from, You know, the coastof a big like fishing and
shrimping and crabbing.
And like, let's get back to

(56:06):
learning those skills whereeverybody has them.
Like growing up, all the kids knewhow to hunt.
All the kids learned how to likecut chickens and clean chickens.
And so I think, yeah, getting backto that.
But we can't because we arguingabout gender roles on the podcast.
Maybe we could be learning somenew skills for real.
could be learning some new skillsfor real.
OK, so we're going to move to.

(56:26):
our next segment where everybody's
going to get a chance to get arant off.
If you have a rant on your heart,you don't have to have one, but if
you do and you want to use thisplatform to get a rant off, you
can get your rant off.
Pick a good one.
That's hard.
There's so many you can do.
I got one.
I'm really...

(56:46):
How investigating can multiracialcoalitions actually work?
And there's so much that goes intothat.
And part of what goes into that isthat white people really have to
lean out of some conversationslike we just don't need your
input.
So I'll give you an example.
We got some internal beefhappening in our state
legislature.
And, you know, one of the cool
things we get to celebrate here inNorth Carolina is that even though

(57:10):
we're in the minority.
In our state house, in our state
Senate, black people are incharge.
And we have a very large blackcaucus in comparison to the before
times.
Right.
And so one of the things thatwe're talking through is how do we
build community and not allowpeople to turn us against each
other where we're.
arguing over small negotiations

(57:30):
and not what's good for thecollective or, you know, how do we
keep people safe in certaincommunities?
And so if I could rant about onething, it would just be white
people stay out of our business.
The example here in North Carolina
is, you know, we've got a blackleader who people are calling into
question and they're thinkingabout primarying this person.
And And some of the whiteestablishment that's frustrated, I

(57:51):
have now heard, you know, havedrafted a letter to the editor
that they want a black person tosign off of because they don't
feel that coming from a whiteperson, it sounds right.
But they want to find the rightblack person to put their name on
it.
And my response to that was, how
the fuck is that helpful?How is it helpful for a white

(58:12):
person to write an op -ed and thensay it is in a black voice and
have a black stakeholder deliverit?
Knowing that they didn't craft it,knowing it didn't come from them
authentically, that's not movingthe needle.
And, you know, while some of thethings that they're calling into
question are legitimate, that is areally fucked up way to go about
accountability.
And it really boils down to this
is a black conversation that needsto be held in the black community

(58:32):
and white people need to mindtheir business.
And I think this will show up.
For those of us who are Black
strategists or people that aremoving political work or people
that are organizing, well, we'llsee more of this.
And I think we're going to have toreally stand 10 toes down on when

(58:53):
our white allies or friends orwhoever need to get the fuck out
of the room and let us close thedoor.
Because sometimes it just needs tobe a conversation amongst Black
people.
Sometimes it just needs to be a
conversation with Latine people.
Sometimes it needs to just be a
conversation with queer people.
in the room.
And it doesn't matter if you're anally, if you're not a part of that
community, it's very hard for youto get into the nuances of where

(59:15):
people stand.
And so I would just articulate
that, that those white people whoconsider themselves allies, who
are still very much trying toinvest in DEI or racial equity
work, let Black people handleBlack people business.
We'll let you know when we needyour help.
And the way it's looking rightnow, we really only need y 'all to
move the money, which is how thisconversation started.
So, Diamond, thank you for namingthat.

(59:37):
Y 'all go get that money, move themoney to where it needs to go and
let us handle the interracialdynamics that can only be solved
amongst each other.
I think that's my rant for the
day, Auburn.
OK, what is the obsession with
trans people?Particularly trans children who
just want to play on their localsoccer team.
children who just want to play ontheir local soccer team.

(01:00:01):
In the state of Maine, there'sonly like two kids.
So y 'all tripping over two littlekids that want to play sports with
their friends.
It's ridiculous.
You know, somebody mentionedearlier on this podcast, Mark.
The dude from North Carolina whowas the governor, yeah, Mark
Robinson, you know, he's obsessedwith black trans women and not in

(01:00:24):
the ways in which he speaks aboutthem negatively.
I mean, this dude is all abouttrans girls, but he cannot.
except that reality withinhimself.
And so people need to get overtheir fear of facing their own
gender shortcomings, genderidentities, et cetera.
And in fact, we need to blow upthis whole concept, notion,
reality of gender and how itexists in our society today.

(01:00:47):
It is a social construct.
construct that has outlived its
usefulness.
If men could be more in touch and
have the opportunity to really betheir fullest selves, we would not
be dealing with the toxicity thatexists in our culture today.
So stop demonizing trans children.
Stop fetishizing.
Trans women and get in touch withyour own gender reality.
in touch with your own genderreality.

(01:01:08):
Oh, gosh.
What has been quite annoying me
lately is this growing dialoguearound men's loneliness and is
framed as this crisis.
But it's also true that this kind
of situation didn't kind of.
appear out of nowhere.
Many of the social dynamics thatisolate men are product of a

(01:01:31):
system and norms that menhistorically and collectively help
to build and uphold.
When we think about emotional
stoicism, when we think aboutdominance over women and the
people around them and rejectionof vulnerability, I think y 'all
made this bed and y 'all sleepingin it.
Y 'all becoming worse people.
Y 'all are saying disgusting
things like your body, our choice.
Y 'all are just doing so many
toxic things and y 'all expectpeople to run and try to be with

(01:01:53):
you and fix and be sympathetic andbe empathetic to your situation
around loneliness.
You are creating your own damn
loneliness because you don't knowhow to see people as human beings.
I just saw a guy the other daytalking about, if I don't lie to
you, I won't get what I want.
These type of things of not having
any type of respect for yourselfand the people around you is

(01:02:14):
creating your own loneliness.
Get it out your mind.
There's generations of men whotaught this like emptiness and
discouraged friendships behindsurface levels.
It's just so many things.
While I think it's worth
distinguishing between.
holding individual accountable and
addressing wider systematicissues.
I think we are healthier.
In healthier societies, we look at
causes and potential solutions.
And so I want solutions, but I
also want you to acknowledge thatyou made this bed your fucking

(01:02:36):
self.
And we are not bringing you
solutions to keep the samebullshit systems.
afloat.
We want to break them down and
create new ones that has a balanceof you not only caring for
yourself, but you caring for ustoo.
As women, as people, asmarginalized people, as poor
people, whoever that this toxicshit y 'all have been selling has
been putting on a pedestal.
We got to fix that and make it in

(01:02:57):
a way that also sees you as ahuman being where you can cry,
where you can be your sexy selfand like what you want in the
bedroom without being full ofshame and killing people because
you're shamed.
All those kind of things.
We want it to be balanced and wewant it to be healthy for you and

(01:03:17):
us.
And so you got to help us do that
work if you want to be incommunity with us.
Period.
So I'm tired of talking about your
loneliness when y 'all arebuilding y 'all burning bridges,
like start building bridges, startlearning how to swim, start start
taking care of the people that youwant to take care of you.

(01:03:37):
And that reciprocity is going toequal a better stance with men.
to equal a better stance with men.
Period.
OK, so we are coming towards theend of our episode.
This has been so fun.
This has been great.
So, you know, we got our rantsoff.

(01:03:57):
We did a little cussing.
Let's end with a little sweetness,
a little aftercare.
So just one thing that's bringing
you joy in this moment.
I'll kick us off.
My favorite meme right now is theworld is falling apart and Black

(01:04:28):
people don't found fans.
Thank y 'all.
As soon as the world startsfalling apart, we got a new trend
to keep us going.
trail rides and being a country
girl and seeing people out andboots on the ground.
He is right from like, he's fromColumbia.

(01:04:53):
He's from up the street.
He was just here shooting his
music video.
Him, Miss Shirley was here.
So just seeing black peopleoutside, getting to their roots,
getting the music, just beingblack people, having a good time.

(01:05:14):
That has been my joy in thismoment.
I probably learned 45 new linedances in the last 100 days.
the last 100 days.
Auburn, did you see Kamala do the
boots on the ground last year?I did see Kamala doing boots on

(01:05:42):
the ground.
did you Getting your boots on the
ground.
the ground.
I know that's right.
I just got hip to boots on the
ground like about a month and ahalf ago, man.
It made it to Minnesota.

(01:06:05):
It made it to Minnesota.
Let's go.
No, No, it did not.
It did not make it to Minnesotayet.
I was like, I think I was at, Iwas somewhere.
Where was I?Oh, I was at the Democratic
National Convention in D .C.
No, the national.
What do we call it?The convention?

(01:06:26):
It was the Democratic.
It wasn't the DNC convention.
It was for the new leaders, forthe new leaders, right?
Yeah, it was.
Victory Institute.
It's the Democratic.
When all the council members come
together from all across thecountry.
But at any rate, we got on, it wasthe black group and we had our

(01:06:49):
caucus meeting and we all got onthe bus to go to the party and
they started playing this song,Boots on the Ground.
And I'm like, but that's the nameof the band, right?
Boots on the Ground or the singer.
Is that his name?
That's the name of the song.
name?
That's the name of the song.
That's the name of the song.
Okay.
Well, I got turned on to it and

(01:07:11):
everybody on the bus was just likeall into it, clapping, yelling,
singing.
Then when we got to the party,
they were doing the line dancesand all of that stuff.
And I'm like, whoa, this is a newthing for me.
You know, I'm used to the electricslide.

(01:07:32):
And, you know, I'm from Chicago,so we done made up a whole bunch
of little line dances and stuff.
But boots on the ground, that was
a new one for me.
It's a beautiful thing now.
Mm -hmm.
What's bringing you Joy Diamond?

(01:07:53):
Oh, gosh.
Really?
I love that y 'all brought up,Ashley brought up so many of the
films and the artists that arekind of doing these amazing things
out here.
That's really giving us joy,
giving us a break from reality.
I watched Sinner three times.
I loved it.
Ryan Coogler and that.
I just loved it.

(01:08:13):
And even the conversation, the
bullshit and the good, deep stuff,that conversation that is
sparking.
I really, really love it.
When I think about.
books that I'm loving when I
think, oh, we are here in Houston.
We are having a book fair.
So I wanted to show y 'all thechildren's group that I won a
GLAAD award, Becoming Who You Are,with tons of trans people's
stories in here, including mine,when I sued my high school to go
to the prom in a gown in 1999.

(01:08:36):
I know, that's great.
I know, I know, that's great.
And one.
And one, hey.
And one.
And then it tells it hired a bunchof queer illustrators.
So each story has a differentillustrator in it.
And so I'm so excited.
This has been bringing me joy.
What's been bringing me joy aboutit is that we are doing a band
book fair here in Houston in oneof the most conservative districts
at Barbara Bush's library.
And the library is there is

(01:09:05):
helping us do it.
library is there is helping us do
it.
And so we are really, really
trying to create moments of joyfor our children here in Houston.
And so that's me, us planning thaton the commission and just we're
so excited about it.
So, yeah, the art and the film and
even some of the more secular oneslike Handmaid's Tale and Wheel of

(01:09:26):
Time, just having really beautifulmoments in art right now for black
folks and for queer people.
Love it.
Yes.
What's bringing me joy in this
moment right now is just reallyhaving the opportunity to connect
with young people, with youth.
Man, I just recently had one of
the biggest honors of my life.
I was presented with an award, but
the award is named after me.

(01:09:48):
It's called Queer Space.
It's a place for young people togather and get mentorship, et
cetera.
But really just having the
opportunity to connect with youngqueer people.
I mentioned at the top of thecall, I was on Friday, Friday, I
did a panel around trans youth andthere were a number of young, you
know, doctoral students andcollege students.
that came up afterwards, queer,trans young people, and really

(01:10:09):
talked about, you know, how, youknow, my work has impacted them
over time, et cetera.
But just being able to be in
communication, in connection withyoung people, as you said, Auburn,
they give zero fucks aboutauthority and, you know, they are
out here like pushing theenvelope, you know, pushing me.
to do the right thing and to be,you know, on point in this
movement.
And that's bringing me joy.

(01:10:30):
You mentioned Diamond a couple ofthings, but earlier this year, and
I'm not sure if you were there, Ithink you were in Las Vegas at
Creating Change.
Yeah.
Man, there was this amazing ball.
that I'm still vibing on, you

(01:10:51):
know, all the death drops and thenew categories of, you know, sort
of non -binary realness.
Like we just keep growing and
expanding and creating newtraditions and new terms and new
identities.
And that is giving me life.
Well, thank you all for sharing.

(01:11:13):
I think one sharing space with
women like y 'all has been reallyhelpful.
Living in the hellscape is noteasy for any of us.
And the dichotomy of, you know,being on the Underground Railroad
and still choosing to live andfind joy in this moment is one of
the more radical things that wecan do.
So I appreciate y 'all sharingbecause that pours into me as
well.
Things that I am celebrating right
now.
Again, I just got married in Black

(01:11:33):
History Month to a beautiful Blackwoman.
So I am exploring Black love andwhat that means to be queer and in
love in the South and Black andjoyful and, you know, not letting
whatever this is put a damper onthat.
So that's number one.
Two, I think I've been.

(01:11:54):
My God, since the end of March tonow, I've been on 10 panels just
talking about what do we do next?And just the fact that people are
still fighting brings me joy.
I'm right there with Diamond.
I haven't seen Sinners about threetimes.

(01:12:15):
I'm trying to do another IMAXviewing if I can get there.
Damn, I am asleep.
The movie just came out like two
weeks ago.
Honey, come on now.
Come on, catch up.
Come on, catch up.
Because let me tell you, once yousettle into that storyline, it's
just so much to think about after.
And that's aside from the
vampires, which is what the storyis about.

(01:12:36):
So I've been exploring thatsoundtrack and the score a lot.
Diamond, I'm riding aroundlistening to Sammy and Ren.
Around the city or whatever thatmeans.
And enjoying, again, the art.
I'm leaning into the art right
now.
So shout out to Beyonce and
Kendrick.
They really got me through last
year.
And the creativity that they have
allowed themselves to dig intojust gives us something to escape

(01:12:58):
to.
So I'm really appreciative for
that.
I'm excited to hear and see more
art, like the things Diamond'screating in Texas.
That's incredible.
And council member, I hope you
have a wonderful birthday.
We should celebrate your birthday
before we get out of here.
You know, another year on this
burning rock, my dear.
Sending you all the love and
positive energy and hope all yourbirthday wishes come true.

(01:13:19):
Thank you.
Thank you, sweetheart.
What about you, Auburn?What is bringing you joy?
I love to call it euphoria becauseI know in our experience, people
like to focus on dysphoria.
What's bringing you euphoria?
That's what I say on my podcastall the time.
You know, I am trying to find thebalance of being tuned in, doing

(01:13:40):
my political work, my politicalpurpose, and being a hot girl
outside.
Um, and that's what's bringing me
joy.
I don't have any kids.
I don't have no plan.
I don't have no, no pets.
I have nothing to keep alive, butmyself.
So I'm like, I do my, I'm captainon my purpose, but what's bringing
me joy is like the sense, like nomatter what's going on, like

(01:14:03):
there's still outside is stillthere and being outside.
being outside with my queerfriends, doing queer stuff,
getting ready to have a hot queersummer.
Period.
So yeah, I think that's what's
bringing me joy.
Getting ready to think about my

(01:14:23):
trail ride outfits and my littleshorts and my little Beyonce
outfits.
So I'm thinking about all the
little clothes I'm going to wearthis summer.
That's what's bringing me joy inthese times.

(01:14:44):
And just like Ashley said, reallyhaving these conversations.
being able to be around otherBlack women, being able to, like,
feel aligned and know that, like,we are all out here doing our
thing, following our purpose,working for our people.
And that's, like, what's bringingme joy.

(01:15:04):
Like, the fact that there is nogiving up.
Like, there is no, like, ourpeople are not sitting down.
They're not commiserating.
Like, people are like, no, we're
still going to live.
We're still going to be up.
And that's why I'm glad to havehad, you know, the ability to

(01:15:26):
bring forth this platform sopeople can talk about the times,
but also like the joy.
And, you know, I got an old I'm an
old Southern lady, but I'm a youngone.
But I come from a line of oldSouthern ladies.

(01:15:46):
And I think about like mygrandma's song is like, you know,
this this world, they didn't giveme this joy and they can't take it
away.
And I think that's that's what's
feeling.
It's like at the end of the day,

(01:16:11):
Donald Trump didn't make me happy.
He didn't give me joy.
He can't take it away.
And so just doing my best to be a
light and for my people in thesetimes.
And that's like in the Southerntradition are all hearts and minds

(01:16:33):
clear.
We are wrapping up our first 100
days conversation.
We have forecasted what's going to
happen in the next 100 days.
We got primers of homework.
Councilmember Jenkins is going togo see sinners this weekend.
Period.
Gotta do it.
Gotta do it.
I might even get there before the
weekend, get there before theweekend, honey.

(01:16:55):
The week is still early.
And so I'm just so glad that y
'all chose to join us to have thisconversation.
And that's it.
That's the end of it.