September 26, 2025 • 18 mins
Rep. Marilyn Strickland (D-WA) believes that Trump administration policies are an assault on the African American community and explains why it is important for Democrats to take back the House of Representatives in the 2026 Midterm elections.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good afternoon. I'm Andrea Coleman with a Black Information Network
at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's fifty fourth Annual Legislative Conference,
and we are talking now with Congresswoman Maryland Strickland, who
represents Washington's tenth congressional district. Congresswoman Strickland, thank you so
much for joining us.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Well, thank you for having me here again.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
You know, when I think of you, I think of
that quiet leader or the leader who is ferocious and
so powerful and getting things done, and such a gentle
and kind and quiet way, but.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
So effective, so effective.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
What is on your heart as we gather for this
year's ALC So the theme of this year's conference is
made for the moment, And even when we were planning
this conference a year out, we did not know what
this moment would be or the state of Black America.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
And I think about the challenges that this administration is
posing to our community.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
It's only been nine months.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
And I think about the firing of government employees or
civil servants, as I like to say, and I remind
folks that a lot of us were told back in
the day, get yourself a good government job. You'll get
good pay. You'll get benefits, you get a secure retirement.
But I remind folks too, that that was a reaction
(01:24):
to the fact that discrimination was alive and well in
corporate America. So a lot of us could not get
jobs in the corporate world. So government was a place
where we could join the middle class, stay in the
middle class, own homes, and retire with dignity. And if
you look at the firings of people, the dismantling of
the Department of Education, all the things that are happening
(01:45):
with this administration, that, honestly, it just feels like anti
blackness as part of that agenda, which was really part
of Project twenty twenty five. So this moment that we're
in right now really requires us to not be afraid top,
but to be very strategic and intentional about how we
combat this.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
So when you look at the impact it's having on people, however,
are you surprised though, at its intensity? Because we're looking at, again,
hundreds of thousands of black women losing their jobs, and
just the impact on the black community alone has just
been so immense and so quick and so swift, and
(02:25):
so it seems to it carries this underlying sense of
intimidation and helplessness. Are you surprised to see everything happening
so fast?
Speaker 3 (02:35):
I knew how bad it would be when I looked
at Project twenty twenty five. I just never imagine the
swiftness and the ferocity of it. It feels like every
day there's something right. So look at the healthcare crisis
that we're facing right now. They want to cut a
half trillion dollars from Medicaid. And some people think that
Medicaid customers are people.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Solely who are on the lowest end of the income SCA.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
There are working families who rely on Medicaid, disabled children,
and premiums are about to go up dramatically, and kicking
people off of healthcare affects their pocketbook what they can
spend on housing and food. I think about again, I
talked about dismantling Department of Education. I think about the
US military. I sit on the House Armed Services Committee,
(03:21):
and Pete Hegseth, the unqualified Secretary, showed up in a
committee and said, DEI is dead. Forty percent of the
people who serve in the military and enlisted are people
of color. They have a new rule now where they're
not going to allow people who have razor bumps to
wear beards here. So all the things that we have
(03:43):
done as black people to get into the middle class
and to build a life, they're trying to take it
away from us.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
My family got into the middle class because my father.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Served in the military for twenty years, and so it
feels like there's an assault on us. And I remind people,
when you assault the African American community, when you assault
our economic well being, you were assaulting the entire country,
regardless of your background.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Going into next year's midterm elections, how important is it? Well, first,
what kind of opportunity do the midterm elections present for us?
Speaker 2 (04:18):
You know, I wouldn't even call it an opportunity.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
I call it a must win because remember the Republicans
controlled the White House, the US Senate, and the US
House of Representatives, even though in the House that margin
is very small. So taking the House back is probably
the one firewall that we have to mitigate this particular administration.
And I do think we have a good chance to
(04:41):
take the Senate back too.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
But you know, I.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Remind folks, in the twenty twenty four election, ninety five
million people didn't vote, and there was a very intentional
effort on social media and the MAGA ecosystem to keep
our people from voting. And it's not voter suppression in
the context of we're closing precincts. It's telling people, giving
(05:06):
them bad messages, telling lies, and having young people say, well,
my vote doesn't matter or anyone. And so again, ninety
five million people didn't vote in the last election. That
is breathtaking.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Yeah, when you look at the redistricting effort that's taken
place in Texas and now kind of starting to move
across the country, how damaging do you see that being?
Do you think it's going to be effective and whatever
that strategy is trying to accomplish.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
You know, I think about what happened in Texas with
the redistricting and coming back to you know, my statement
about anti blackness.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
The people who seats are in jeopardy are African American.
I think there's a Latino moment and.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Trying to number one, take away our representation and against
the Voting Rights Act because these are you know, these
are vra can these are VIRA seats. What's said that
we have to have representation and then California deciding to
respond in kind and there's a big election in California
in November to really answer what Texas did, and it's
(06:06):
going to set off a chain reaction because then Florida
will be next, and then a blue state will be next, and.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Overall, this is not something that's desirable.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
But we do not have the luxury of wringing our
hands and saying we can't do anything. So I applaud
Gavin Newsom, mayor may governor Gavin Newsom for taking this step.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
And you know, we'll see how the Republicans respond. I
will say this.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Though, Texas and the and we're suing about what they
tried to do in Texas. We have a pretty strong
case legally at the lower court. Yeah, the challenges if
this goes to the Supreme Court, god knows what they'll do.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
What's going on there. Are you surprised by some of
the rulings.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
You know what happens is in the lower courts, things
tend to rule in our favor, So all the illegal
things are doing, whether it's tariffs or all the terrible
things are doing. When it goes to court, it tends
to rule in our favor. Then they appeal and take
it to our higher court and that's where the game
has been rigged. And I come back to you know,
this Supreme Court, right, think about the Supreme Court. It's
(07:07):
supposed to be people who are interpreting the Constitution, not
bringing politics into it, and some of the things that
are doing are just unconscionable. If this goes to the
Supreme Court with the Voting Rights Act and they do
not act right and rule the wrong way.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
This will be the legacy of this Supreme Court. And
it's shameful.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
It's amazing too. What is dismantled. Yes, if that were
to happen, absolutely, yeah. Do you do you think we
realize what's at stay?
Speaker 2 (07:32):
I don't think we do.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
And that's a really good question because you know, what's
everyone doing right now. We're just trying to live our
daily lives. Yeah, trying to go to work if we
got laid off, We're trying to find a job. We're
trying to take care of our kids, our elders, just
get through the day.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
And a lot of people outside of what I call
the Washington, DC.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Bubble or political bubble, really don't know what's happening, and
they really won't know until it affects them directly. And
so for THEO of us who are elected officials, we
pay attention to every single election in every cycle, whether
it's local, state, or federal. But to your average person,
they're just trying to live their lives, and so it's
up to us to educate and to fight back against
(08:14):
the lies that are on the internet and the ecosystem.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
What happens if things remain the same, if the House
of the GOP or the Republicans maintain control of everything
they have. Now you go through that mid term election
cycle and nothing changes, what happens they.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Will continue their march of what they're doing to implement
Project twenty twenty five. They will continue to try and
undermine the credibility of all of our institutions, whether that's
state government, local government, voting rights, all those things, because remember,
what they're trying to do is disrupt trusted institutions and
(08:52):
have people question their validity. The conversation they're having about
not allowing mail in voting, they know they can't get
rid of mail in voting, but they're trying to undermine
people's trust and election results, so it makes them easy
to say, oh, lo, they cheated, and so I think
there is a big misinformation campaign that is taking place,
and honestly, it's been in play for twenty years, and
(09:15):
so we have to work very hard to inform people.
And I still come back to this, I think about
getting people to vote. I was at the gospel extravagancel
last night hosted by Jim Clyburn, Benny Thompson, Troy Carter,
and Sandford Bishop. And when Jim Clyburn got up and
talked about the choir from South Carolina that he brought,
(09:37):
they are going to deploy them around the state of
South Carolina for voting demonstration, voting turnout. So we are
getting ready to go to battle. We're in battle right now.
But I think you're going to see a level of
engagement and participation from the Black community like you've not
seen since the Obama years.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
And you know, I sometimes joke with.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
My staff and my husband, I say, well, black people
got to save a man America yet again.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Talk a little bit.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
I was just looking at when preparing for, of course,
the interview. I was looking at, you know, the committees
you serve on and so forth, and you're also part
of the Korean and Asian Pacific kind of coalitions and
caucuses so how important is it for these communities to
come together for ally shift? I think is the term
(10:25):
that's kind of floating around now in terms of kind
of going neighbor to neighbor.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
So you know, so I'm half.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Black and half Korean, so I belong I'm Secretary of
the Congressional Black Caucus, but I also serve as chair
of Aspire Pack, which is the Age of Pacific American
political arm of that caucus.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
And we often have we often have.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
We often make statements to the press together about something
that affects minority community. So the term is tricaucus. It's
the Black Caucus, the Latino Caucus, and the Asian American Caucus,
and everything from voting rights to economic development, getting rid
of the Minority Development Agency, all these things, we often
come together. And sometimes it's a quad caucus. It's the Black, Asian,
(11:09):
Latino Caucus, and the LGBTQ Caucus. And so every now
and again we will come together. But you know, I
often say this, we are so much stronger when we
work together. And let me give you an example.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
When Raphael Warnock was running.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
In a very tight race to become a US senator,
the Asian American Caucus sent a large group of volunteers
and Congress members to Gwinnett County because there's a large
Asian American population and it's growing, and the Asian American
vote is often the difference between winning and losing. We
(11:45):
call it the margin of victory, and so there is
an opportunity for us to all work together understanding that
we're not a monolith. Everyone has different perspectives and at
the same time, everything that is happening with this administration
is putting.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Our communities at risk.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
So I do everything I can for us to unite.
Our chairs all know each other really well. But this
is a time, this is again we're going to have
to ask ourselves. Are we all going to be made
for this moment?
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Yeah? That's really really good.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
I do want to ask you about a couple of
things too. You serve on some really powerful committees, one
being the Infrastructure of Transportation Committee. We know there was
a court case that was or at least a case
that was going through the court last year or so
that really would determine what would happen for black vendors
and black business owners in that transportation space. And now
(12:34):
with a rollback of Dee and I there are a
lot of people business owners who were involved in that
transportation pipeline that are being shut down and shut out.
How severe I guess an impact are these rollbacks in
that transportation space for black businesses?
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Yeah, I mean the anti DEI effort of the Trump
administration is going to hit hardest with the economic well
being of the black canity. Again, three hundred thousand Black
women have lost their jobs, the highest number of any group.
And so as we look at these things that are
happening with contractors who are trying to get work, here's
(13:12):
one thing I've said, and I tell folks, you have
to do what you need to do to survive. So
they look for specific language related to diversity, equity and inclusion.
You can call it by another name and you can
still get the work. There are a lot of nonprofit
organizations that do things in the DEI space or have
it as part of their mission. Some of them have
(13:34):
just taking the language out and they're still qualifying for
grants and work. And so part of me believes that
the anti DEI attitude of this administration is throwing red
meat to their base. Right, a group of people who
feel aggrieved and when they think about diversity, equity and inclusion,
it's a zero sum game because they think something is
(13:55):
being taken away from someone, namely them. And so I
tell people, be smart, be strategic. If you need to
in your mission statement or talk about who you are
in the context of opportunity or something or safety, use
that you can still do the work.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
You can still do the work. That's really good to know. Yeah,
you can still do the work.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
And I say this because there are certain search words
they look for, and so again they're bizarre session with DEI.
But it hurts our community disproportionately. But there are ways
if you're smart and thoughtful, to work around it and
still have opportunity.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
I'm not saying that it won't affect people, but be smart,
be strategic, and think about how you communicate. That's really good.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
How can business owners learn more about the language and
how to tweak or change whatever may be an issue
for them, you.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Know, I mean, how you can learn more. I would say,
talk to your members of Congress because we all have
this same message, you know, And I will tell you honestly,
you know, there are some businesses say we're never going
to apologize for DEI, we're not going to remove it.
And I'm like, that's your decision. And for some of
these smaller businesses, if they don't get these contracts, or
some of these nonprofits, they want to shut their doors,
and even local government because they rely on federal funding
(15:04):
so much. I said, so be intentional and be strategic
about how you're doing your work. You can do your work,
you can call it something else, and you can still
maintain the principles of diversity, equity, inclusion. And I tell
people there's a reason Corporate America adopted that. It's good
for your bottom line, it's better for decision making.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Yeah, that's really good.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
How did we get here, Congress Ham and Strickland. I mean,
it's this Project twenty five understand or twenty twenty five
reportedly has been in the works for you know, ten
twenty years.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
How are we just.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Now waking up and saying, oh, hold on a moment,
this was a real thing.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
So you know, Project twenty twenty five is a nine
hundred page manifesto, so asking people to read it last
year was probably a pretty tall order.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
And you had a lot of us talking about it.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Vice President Harris talked about it those of us who
went to forums talked about it. But you know, the
how did we get here conversation is really fascinating to
me because I think of today's iteration of man, which
is basically the evolution of the Tea Party. The Tea
Party came to be because a group of people in
this country lost their damn minds that we elected a
(16:11):
black president. And not only did we elect him, we
re elected him when unemployment was seven and a half percent.
And I just think for them, they view the world
as a zero sum game when they look at the
population shifts happening not just around the world but here
in the United States, when they see people rising to
positions of authority and leadership, and this is what this
(16:32):
is often about. For some people, power and authority only
belonged to a small group, and it does not look
like us. And so when I look at the facts
of what happened, a lot of white folks voted for
Barack Obama, A lot of actually a lot of what
I call old school conservatives liked him. But you had
a group of people, Remember there was a gentleman the
(16:53):
Sun who said, we're going to make Barack Obama a
one term President, we're going to block everything he does
and make it hard for him. They failed, and we
got the Affordable Care Act passed. But I just think
that was really the genesis. The Tea Party was a
genesis of maga. And here we are today and look
at how hateful and divisive and insane some of this
language is. Before they kind of whispered it because it
(17:14):
was impolite and made you look ignorant. President Trump has
given them permission to wear it loud and to wear
it proudly.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
And in some way, so it is bringing the community
back together. It feel like we're stopping and saying, wait,
hold on a moment.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Yeah, I kind of.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Like this is the space a little better than that.
So there may be some not benefit. I'd never say
this benefit, but I think it seems, especially for our
congressional leaders, when I hear you guys speak, the hope
that you're bringing to the space really is appreciated.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
What we have to bring home to this space. And
you know, this country has been through difficulty before. I'm
not going to say we've been here before, not in
modern times, because it's been different, but well, we don't
have the luxury of being divided We don't have the
luxury of arguing amongst ourselves. We have an all hands
on deck situation. You're not going to get perfection from
any candidate or anything. But at some point we have
(18:01):
to ask ourselves, what is happening right now is not acceptable?
Something else is better, and that's how we have to
treat this.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
It's very good.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Congresswoman Strickland has been a pleasure talking with you always
as always, and by the way, I've recently been able
to visit your state and it's absolutely gorgeous and beautiful,
and the people are pleasant and kind. It's just absolutely
a breath of fresh air.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Great. Well, thank you so much for having me on again.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
You're more than welcome. I'm Madrea Coleman with the Black
Information Network at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundations fifty fourth
Annual Legislative Conference. We've been talking with Congresswoman Maryland Strickland,
who represents Washington's District ten, and we'll have more conversations
with our congressional leaders and other leaders coming up.
Good afternoon. I'm Andrea Coleman with a Black Information Network
at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's fifty fourth Annual Legislative Conference,
and we are talking now with Congresswoman Maryland Strickland, who
represents Washington's tenth congressional district. Congresswoman Strickland, thank you so
much for joining us.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Well, thank you for having me here again.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
You know, when I think of you, I think of
that quiet leader or the leader who is ferocious and
so powerful and getting things done, and such a gentle
and kind and quiet way, but.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
So effective, so effective.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
What is on your heart as we gather for this
year's ALC So the theme of this year's conference is
made for the moment, And even when we were planning
this conference a year out, we did not know what
this moment would be or the state of Black America.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
And I think about the challenges that this administration is
posing to our community.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
It's only been nine months.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
And I think about the firing of government employees or
civil servants, as I like to say, and I remind
folks that a lot of us were told back in
the day, get yourself a good government job. You'll get
good pay. You'll get benefits, you get a secure retirement.
But I remind folks too, that that was a reaction
(01:24):
to the fact that discrimination was alive and well in
corporate America. So a lot of us could not get
jobs in the corporate world. So government was a place
where we could join the middle class, stay in the
middle class, own homes, and retire with dignity. And if
you look at the firings of people, the dismantling of
the Department of Education, all the things that are happening
(01:45):
with this administration, that, honestly, it just feels like anti
blackness as part of that agenda, which was really part
of Project twenty twenty five. So this moment that we're
in right now really requires us to not be afraid top,
but to be very strategic and intentional about how we
combat this.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
So when you look at the impact it's having on people, however,
are you surprised though, at its intensity? Because we're looking at, again,
hundreds of thousands of black women losing their jobs, and
just the impact on the black community alone has just
been so immense and so quick and so swift, and
(02:25):
so it seems to it carries this underlying sense of
intimidation and helplessness. Are you surprised to see everything happening
so fast?
Speaker 3 (02:35):
I knew how bad it would be when I looked
at Project twenty twenty five. I just never imagine the
swiftness and the ferocity of it. It feels like every
day there's something right. So look at the healthcare crisis
that we're facing right now. They want to cut a
half trillion dollars from Medicaid. And some people think that
Medicaid customers are people.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Solely who are on the lowest end of the income SCA.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
There are working families who rely on Medicaid, disabled children,
and premiums are about to go up dramatically, and kicking
people off of healthcare affects their pocketbook what they can
spend on housing and food. I think about again, I
talked about dismantling Department of Education. I think about the
US military. I sit on the House Armed Services Committee,
(03:21):
and Pete Hegseth, the unqualified Secretary, showed up in a
committee and said, DEI is dead. Forty percent of the
people who serve in the military and enlisted are people
of color. They have a new rule now where they're
not going to allow people who have razor bumps to
wear beards here. So all the things that we have
(03:43):
done as black people to get into the middle class
and to build a life, they're trying to take it
away from us.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
My family got into the middle class because my father.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Served in the military for twenty years, and so it
feels like there's an assault on us. And I remind people,
when you assault the African American community, when you assault
our economic well being, you were assaulting the entire country,
regardless of your background.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Going into next year's midterm elections, how important is it? Well, first,
what kind of opportunity do the midterm elections present for us?
Speaker 2 (04:18):
You know, I wouldn't even call it an opportunity.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
I call it a must win because remember the Republicans
controlled the White House, the US Senate, and the US
House of Representatives, even though in the House that margin
is very small. So taking the House back is probably
the one firewall that we have to mitigate this particular administration.
And I do think we have a good chance to
(04:41):
take the Senate back too.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
But you know, I.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Remind folks, in the twenty twenty four election, ninety five
million people didn't vote, and there was a very intentional
effort on social media and the MAGA ecosystem to keep
our people from voting. And it's not voter suppression in
the context of we're closing precincts. It's telling people, giving
(05:06):
them bad messages, telling lies, and having young people say, well,
my vote doesn't matter or anyone. And so again, ninety
five million people didn't vote in the last election. That
is breathtaking.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Yeah, when you look at the redistricting effort that's taken
place in Texas and now kind of starting to move
across the country, how damaging do you see that being?
Do you think it's going to be effective and whatever
that strategy is trying to accomplish.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
You know, I think about what happened in Texas with
the redistricting and coming back to you know, my statement
about anti blackness.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
The people who seats are in jeopardy are African American.
I think there's a Latino moment and.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Trying to number one, take away our representation and against
the Voting Rights Act because these are you know, these
are vra can these are VIRA seats. What's said that
we have to have representation and then California deciding to
respond in kind and there's a big election in California
in November to really answer what Texas did, and it's
(06:06):
going to set off a chain reaction because then Florida
will be next, and then a blue state will be next, and.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Overall, this is not something that's desirable.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
But we do not have the luxury of wringing our
hands and saying we can't do anything. So I applaud
Gavin Newsom, mayor may governor Gavin Newsom for taking this step.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
And you know, we'll see how the Republicans respond. I
will say this.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Though, Texas and the and we're suing about what they
tried to do in Texas. We have a pretty strong
case legally at the lower court. Yeah, the challenges if
this goes to the Supreme Court, god knows what they'll do.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
What's going on there. Are you surprised by some of
the rulings.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
You know what happens is in the lower courts, things
tend to rule in our favor, So all the illegal
things are doing, whether it's tariffs or all the terrible
things are doing. When it goes to court, it tends
to rule in our favor. Then they appeal and take
it to our higher court and that's where the game
has been rigged. And I come back to you know,
this Supreme Court, right, think about the Supreme Court. It's
(07:07):
supposed to be people who are interpreting the Constitution, not
bringing politics into it, and some of the things that
are doing are just unconscionable. If this goes to the
Supreme Court with the Voting Rights Act and they do
not act right and rule the wrong way.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
This will be the legacy of this Supreme Court. And
it's shameful.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
It's amazing too. What is dismantled. Yes, if that were
to happen, absolutely, yeah. Do you do you think we
realize what's at stay?
Speaker 2 (07:32):
I don't think we do.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
And that's a really good question because you know, what's
everyone doing right now. We're just trying to live our
daily lives. Yeah, trying to go to work if we
got laid off, We're trying to find a job. We're
trying to take care of our kids, our elders, just
get through the day.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
And a lot of people outside of what I call
the Washington, DC.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Bubble or political bubble, really don't know what's happening, and
they really won't know until it affects them directly. And
so for THEO of us who are elected officials, we
pay attention to every single election in every cycle, whether
it's local, state, or federal. But to your average person,
they're just trying to live their lives, and so it's
up to us to educate and to fight back against
(08:14):
the lies that are on the internet and the ecosystem.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
What happens if things remain the same, if the House
of the GOP or the Republicans maintain control of everything
they have. Now you go through that mid term election
cycle and nothing changes, what happens they.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Will continue their march of what they're doing to implement
Project twenty twenty five. They will continue to try and
undermine the credibility of all of our institutions, whether that's
state government, local government, voting rights, all those things, because remember,
what they're trying to do is disrupt trusted institutions and
(08:52):
have people question their validity. The conversation they're having about
not allowing mail in voting, they know they can't get
rid of mail in voting, but they're trying to undermine
people's trust and election results, so it makes them easy
to say, oh, lo, they cheated, and so I think
there is a big misinformation campaign that is taking place,
and honestly, it's been in play for twenty years, and
(09:15):
so we have to work very hard to inform people.
And I still come back to this, I think about
getting people to vote. I was at the gospel extravagancel
last night hosted by Jim Clyburn, Benny Thompson, Troy Carter,
and Sandford Bishop. And when Jim Clyburn got up and
talked about the choir from South Carolina that he brought,
(09:37):
they are going to deploy them around the state of
South Carolina for voting demonstration, voting turnout. So we are
getting ready to go to battle. We're in battle right now.
But I think you're going to see a level of
engagement and participation from the Black community like you've not
seen since the Obama years.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
And you know, I sometimes joke with.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
My staff and my husband, I say, well, black people
got to save a man America yet again.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Talk a little bit.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
I was just looking at when preparing for, of course,
the interview. I was looking at, you know, the committees
you serve on and so forth, and you're also part
of the Korean and Asian Pacific kind of coalitions and
caucuses so how important is it for these communities to
come together for ally shift? I think is the term
(10:25):
that's kind of floating around now in terms of kind
of going neighbor to neighbor.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
So you know, so I'm half.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Black and half Korean, so I belong I'm Secretary of
the Congressional Black Caucus, but I also serve as chair
of Aspire Pack, which is the Age of Pacific American
political arm of that caucus.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
And we often have we often have.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
We often make statements to the press together about something
that affects minority community. So the term is tricaucus. It's
the Black Caucus, the Latino Caucus, and the Asian American Caucus,
and everything from voting rights to economic development, getting rid
of the Minority Development Agency, all these things, we often
come together. And sometimes it's a quad caucus. It's the Black, Asian,
(11:09):
Latino Caucus, and the LGBTQ Caucus. And so every now
and again we will come together. But you know, I
often say this, we are so much stronger when we
work together. And let me give you an example.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
When Raphael Warnock was running.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
In a very tight race to become a US senator,
the Asian American Caucus sent a large group of volunteers
and Congress members to Gwinnett County because there's a large
Asian American population and it's growing, and the Asian American
vote is often the difference between winning and losing. We
(11:45):
call it the margin of victory, and so there is
an opportunity for us to all work together understanding that
we're not a monolith. Everyone has different perspectives and at
the same time, everything that is happening with this administration
is putting.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Our communities at risk.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
So I do everything I can for us to unite.
Our chairs all know each other really well. But this
is a time, this is again we're going to have
to ask ourselves. Are we all going to be made
for this moment?
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Yeah? That's really really good.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
I do want to ask you about a couple of
things too. You serve on some really powerful committees, one
being the Infrastructure of Transportation Committee. We know there was
a court case that was or at least a case
that was going through the court last year or so
that really would determine what would happen for black vendors
and black business owners in that transportation space. And now
(12:34):
with a rollback of Dee and I there are a
lot of people business owners who were involved in that
transportation pipeline that are being shut down and shut out.
How severe I guess an impact are these rollbacks in
that transportation space for black businesses?
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Yeah, I mean the anti DEI effort of the Trump
administration is going to hit hardest with the economic well
being of the black canity. Again, three hundred thousand Black
women have lost their jobs, the highest number of any group.
And so as we look at these things that are
happening with contractors who are trying to get work, here's
(13:12):
one thing I've said, and I tell folks, you have
to do what you need to do to survive. So
they look for specific language related to diversity, equity and inclusion.
You can call it by another name and you can
still get the work. There are a lot of nonprofit
organizations that do things in the DEI space or have
it as part of their mission. Some of them have
(13:34):
just taking the language out and they're still qualifying for
grants and work. And so part of me believes that
the anti DEI attitude of this administration is throwing red
meat to their base. Right, a group of people who
feel aggrieved and when they think about diversity, equity and inclusion,
it's a zero sum game because they think something is
(13:55):
being taken away from someone, namely them. And so I
tell people, be smart, be strategic. If you need to
in your mission statement or talk about who you are
in the context of opportunity or something or safety, use
that you can still do the work.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
You can still do the work. That's really good to know. Yeah,
you can still do the work.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
And I say this because there are certain search words
they look for, and so again they're bizarre session with DEI.
But it hurts our community disproportionately. But there are ways
if you're smart and thoughtful, to work around it and
still have opportunity.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
I'm not saying that it won't affect people, but be smart,
be strategic, and think about how you communicate. That's really good.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
How can business owners learn more about the language and
how to tweak or change whatever may be an issue
for them, you.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Know, I mean, how you can learn more. I would say,
talk to your members of Congress because we all have
this same message, you know, And I will tell you honestly,
you know, there are some businesses say we're never going
to apologize for DEI, we're not going to remove it.
And I'm like, that's your decision. And for some of
these smaller businesses, if they don't get these contracts, or
some of these nonprofits, they want to shut their doors,
and even local government because they rely on federal funding
(15:04):
so much. I said, so be intentional and be strategic
about how you're doing your work. You can do your work,
you can call it something else, and you can still
maintain the principles of diversity, equity, inclusion. And I tell
people there's a reason Corporate America adopted that. It's good
for your bottom line, it's better for decision making.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Yeah, that's really good.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
How did we get here, Congress Ham and Strickland. I mean,
it's this Project twenty five understand or twenty twenty five
reportedly has been in the works for you know, ten
twenty years.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
How are we just.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Now waking up and saying, oh, hold on a moment,
this was a real thing.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
So you know, Project twenty twenty five is a nine
hundred page manifesto, so asking people to read it last
year was probably a pretty tall order.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
And you had a lot of us talking about it.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Vice President Harris talked about it those of us who
went to forums talked about it. But you know, the
how did we get here conversation is really fascinating to
me because I think of today's iteration of man, which
is basically the evolution of the Tea Party. The Tea
Party came to be because a group of people in
this country lost their damn minds that we elected a
(16:11):
black president. And not only did we elect him, we
re elected him when unemployment was seven and a half percent.
And I just think for them, they view the world
as a zero sum game when they look at the
population shifts happening not just around the world but here
in the United States, when they see people rising to
positions of authority and leadership, and this is what this
(16:32):
is often about. For some people, power and authority only
belonged to a small group, and it does not look
like us. And so when I look at the facts
of what happened, a lot of white folks voted for
Barack Obama, A lot of actually a lot of what
I call old school conservatives liked him. But you had
a group of people, Remember there was a gentleman the
(16:53):
Sun who said, we're going to make Barack Obama a
one term President, we're going to block everything he does
and make it hard for him. They failed, and we
got the Affordable Care Act passed. But I just think
that was really the genesis. The Tea Party was a
genesis of maga. And here we are today and look
at how hateful and divisive and insane some of this
language is. Before they kind of whispered it because it
(17:14):
was impolite and made you look ignorant. President Trump has
given them permission to wear it loud and to wear
it proudly.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
And in some way, so it is bringing the community
back together. It feel like we're stopping and saying, wait,
hold on a moment.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Yeah, I kind of.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Like this is the space a little better than that.
So there may be some not benefit. I'd never say
this benefit, but I think it seems, especially for our
congressional leaders, when I hear you guys speak, the hope
that you're bringing to the space really is appreciated.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
What we have to bring home to this space. And
you know, this country has been through difficulty before. I'm
not going to say we've been here before, not in
modern times, because it's been different, but well, we don't
have the luxury of being divided We don't have the
luxury of arguing amongst ourselves. We have an all hands
on deck situation. You're not going to get perfection from
any candidate or anything. But at some point we have
(18:01):
to ask ourselves, what is happening right now is not acceptable?
Something else is better, and that's how we have to
treat this.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
It's very good.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Congresswoman Strickland has been a pleasure talking with you always
as always, and by the way, I've recently been able
to visit your state and it's absolutely gorgeous and beautiful,
and the people are pleasant and kind. It's just absolutely
a breath of fresh air.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Great. Well, thank you so much for having me on again.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
You're more than welcome. I'm Madrea Coleman with the Black
Information Network at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundations fifty fourth
Annual Legislative Conference. We've been talking with Congresswoman Maryland Strickland,
who represents Washington's District ten, and we'll have more conversations
with our congressional leaders and other leaders coming up.
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