October 22, 2020 • 52 mins
Baratunde digs into the feeling of disconnect and neglect felt by the black community in Milwaukee during the 2016 election and learns from Angela Lang, Executive Director of Black Leaders Organizing Communities (BLOC MKE). They are changing what it means to get people politically engaged in their community, and it doesn’t start with knocking on doors, begging for votes two months before an election! Quentin Palfrey also weighs in on how data scientists and lawyers are uniting on the ground to stop voter suppression, especially targeting communities of color.
Show Notes + Links
We are grateful to Angela Lang and Quentin Palfrey for joining us.
Follow @angela_lang and @blocbyblocMKE on Twitter. You can learn more about the BLOC MKE at https://www.blocbybloc.org/ and in this press piece here.
Follow @qpalfrey and @protectthevote on Twitter. You can learn more about Voter Protection Corp at https://www.voter-protection.org/.
We will post this episode, a transcript, show notes and more at howtocitizen.com.
Please show your support for the show in the form of a review and rating. It makes a huge difference with the algorithmic overlords!
HERE IS WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW. ACTIONS FOR THIS EPISODE.
INTERNAL ACTIONS (Actions that help you reflect and explore your emotions and experiences related to these topics or personal actions that don’t involve others)
What does it mean for your community to thrive?
This is the question BLOC asks the people of Milwaukee, and we want you to answer it for yourself. Yes, it could be speedbumps. It is probably more. Think about it. Write it down.
Real change starts by doing the hard internal work. Let’s keep it up!
In June, many of us participated in Black Lives Matter protests, posted BLM messages on our instagrams and bought all the books on how to be anti-racist. Have you read the books, continued to share content from organizations, activists, artists, and business owners within the Black community since then? Time to revisit and re-engage.
EXTERNAL ACTIONS (Public actions that require relationships and interaction with others)
Support BLOC MKE
As a grassroots organization, they need our support to be able to go deep in engaging their community in and out of election cycles. You can give to their non-partisan or partisan arm at https://www.blocbybloc.org/donations.
Volunteer to be a Voter Guardian in Milwaukee.
BLOC MKE is training people to monitor the polls for intimidation and are trained to de-escalate situations in lieu of calling the police. You can message them if you’d like to be trained and help ensure people feel free and safe to cast their ballots. Contact them at https://www.blocbybloc.org/contact/ and mention Voter Guardian and How to Citizen in the subject line.
Volunteer to be a poll worker.
Sign up to be a poll worker through Voter Protection Corp at https://www.voter-protection.org/be-a-pollworker. The more poll workers the better to help reduce long lines.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to How to Citizen with Baritun Day, a show
where we reimagine the worst citizen as a verb and
remind ourselves how to wield our collective power. I'm Baritone Day.
This year, the name Abrahm x Kendy has become very popular.
(00:29):
You might remember that period this summer when the top
selling books in the US went from how to Bake
sour dough Bread to how to be an Anti Racist.
Dr Kendy wrote how to be an Anti Racist, But
before the coronavirus landed in the US way back on
January seven of this year, I was focused on another
(00:52):
piece by Dr Kendy, an article in the Atlantic called
The Other Swing Voter. Here's an excerpt. The common conception
of the swing voter is one who shifts between voting
Republican and voting Democrat. The center right or center left.
Voters are typically white and older. Meanwhile, people of color
(01:12):
and young people and especially young people of color, are
more likely than white people and older people to swing
between voting Democrat and not voting or voting third party.
These are America's other swing voters. Othered because they are
typically young and not white, Othered because they are hardly
recognized at the table of political agency, othered because they
(01:35):
are primarily recognized at the table of political shame when
they don't vote, other because Americans refuse to recognize how
voter suppression and depression affect their agency. I wanted to
talk about these other swing voters and since new infrastructure
(01:56):
has allowed grassroots organizations to engage these voters or non
voters in new ways that include building long term relationships
and investing in the political education of people we all
too often ignore. This election could see the largest percentage
of voter turnout ever, and that's due in large part
(02:17):
to the work of organizations like Voto Latino, run by
Maria Terressa Kumar, who we had on this show in
episode ten. It's also due to the work of smaller groups,
local groups on the ground, groups like Black Leaders Organizing
Communities a k A BLOCK in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I got
a chance to speak with Angela Lang Blocks executive director,
(02:40):
who's been laying the foundation in Milwaukee since I wanted
to understand what has changed between and today, why Block
has had such success in engaging with non voters in
their community, and how they're preparing for November three and beyond.
(03:01):
My name is Angela Lang and I am the founder
and executive director of Black Black Leaders Organizing for Communities
based in Milwaukee, and we are a year round civic
engagement organization making sure that people understand the political process
and how to get involved and understand the agency that
they have to make a change in their own community.
Can you tell me the story of why you created
(03:23):
block and why whatever existed didn't feel like enough to you? Yeah? So,
in Seen, it was a heartbreak for us one the
outcome of the election, but then also in the weeks afterwards,
everyone was pointing the finger at us, specifically black folks,
and if you know, if those blacks would have just
shown up, we wouldn't be in the situation. Those were
(03:45):
exact quotes of what we were hearing, the microaggressions, the
problematic language, and it was very frustrating to hear when
you say that you're talking about those blacks in Milwaukee specifically,
or Wisconsin or Milwaukee specifically. But I think people generally
we're targeting the black community and the black vote in
the state of Wisconsin, but a lot of times people
(04:05):
know that they're they're using code for specifically Milwaukee, which
is the largest concentration of black folks in the state
of Wisconsin. And so it was incredibly frustrating and hurtful
to know that we are some of the most disenfranchised
and least engaged, but yet we were to blame for
the outcome of this election, and it was important for
us to not wait for a candidate, a party, or
(04:26):
an elected official to engage us. We were going to
do that work ourselves, and that we were going to
train folks from the community to have conversations about political process,
how to get involved, what's the difference between a state
senator and a U. S Senator, and the difference between
city government and county government, and how can we actually
make a change based off of the issues that we
care about. And so we wanted to really kind of
(04:47):
build something that I think was missing a little bit
in twenty sixteen. And so we've been working, you know,
the last almost three years for this moment. But we're
so much more than elections. We want to make sure
that we're engaging people in between election cycles, caring about issues,
bringing community members together. Last summer, we were able to
do a lot of cookouts, a lot of barbecues, just
(05:09):
to bring neighbors together, to talk about their issues, just
to do something positive in the community. How did you
get into this work? To Angela, what's your bag? I
didn't intend to. I will say that my family knew
long before I did. Always thought I was going to
be a doctor. I said, I wanted to do doctors
without borders. That's when I entered college. As in my
(05:30):
undergrad I was like, I'm gonna be a pre med major.
And I've always been fond of politics, always been like
more active. I was the nerd. I was class president
of middle school, right. I was that like nerdy Parson
middle school class president's duties. Oh you organized the dance,
you organized the canned food drive, you do that type
(05:51):
of stuff. And I was always really interested in it,
but I didn't think I would make a career out
of it, and I didn't know what organizing was. And
then I was doing a lot of nonpartisan work on campus,
a lot of you know, know your rights, making sure
that students have the correct idea to vote, a lot
of just nonpartisan voter registration. And then in when Scott
Walker was elected governor, that really kind of shifted things.
(06:14):
Folks remember there are lots of protests in the Capitol.
We slept over in the Capitol. I was still remember
that cold linoleum floor in Madison. I remember protesting not
just for student rights, but for rights of workers and
collective bargaining, and seeing the student movement kind of really
converge with the labor movement. And that's really where I
got a crash course and organizing. My first job out
(06:35):
of college was for the Service Employees International Union. When
I was at SCIU of the whole goal was to
get in the door, have a conversation, and to learn
how people view themselves politically too, And I learned a
lot that people were like, oh, I'm not political, but
yet Yeah, just had a forty five conversation about how
child care should be free, how yes we should raise
(06:56):
the minimum ways. I want to talk about black folks
and assumptions with elections because my observation experience has been,
you know, a politician rolls through every four years, maybe
every two in this sort of church plate passing mode,
and you deposit your votes here please, And you have
(07:17):
been using this phrase of year round engagement. How is
blocks model different from the type of voter mobilization we're
used to seeing, experiencing, or reading about in terms of
the black community. Yeah, I think in a lot of senses,
our level of engagement is incredibly different. We're trying to
swipt this model on its head. I think a lot
(07:37):
of times candidates, as you mentioned, come in a couple
of weeks or a couple of months before an election
and say, hey, vote for me, and we haven't seen
you since the last time you said hey, vote for me.
We don't know what you did, we don't know why
you actually deserve our votes. And so we're trying to
flip that model and say you want our vote, come
get our vote. We want to make sure that you're
talking to us, you have an understanding of our issues,
(07:59):
and you're engaged and having a deep, meaningful conversation and
building that trust in our community. And that's not something
you can do a month or so before an election.
And so what we try to do is that we
want to kind of center that community power. And something
that we also try to note as well is that
there are people who haven't had their voting rights restored
yet unfortunately, but they deserve a conversation, They deserve you
(08:21):
listening to their issues just like anyone else should. And
so I'm proud to say that in twenty nineteen, we
had three presidential candidates visit us and knocked doors with us.
We had folks engaged with us in twenty nineteen because
they understood that you cannot just come in in October
of making your first rounds of introductions to us and
thinking that's going to be enough. What is it like
(08:44):
for the black Milwaukee resident to have a full year
before an election or even more, someone knock on their
door and ask them what their concerns are, what their
dreams are, what their fears are. I think it's a
huge difference. There are times that people don't even get
that door knock, let alone if they do one that
asked them what they care about, what their hopes are,
(09:05):
what their dreams are, what it looks like for our
communities to thrive. There are folks shortly after we've started
knocking in that said, I've lived in this house five
ten years, and you're the first person to knock on
my door. We exclude people so much because they're not
seen as the regular voter, and they just don't get
that touch at all. And we want to make sure
(09:25):
that we're spending our time talking to the folks that
are being left behind being able to have those conversations
on a year on basis, And I tell folks that
we have to have three separate conversations. On one hand,
we want to turn a non voter into a voter
after you know, we have that really big conversation that's
not an easy conversation. Then we want to make sure
that people understand the political process and where they fit in.
(09:48):
They understand why they're voting for someone for the State
Supreme Court because they understand what the state Supreme Court does.
We want them to understand the broader process. And then lastly,
we want them to vote for the candidates that we've
and are advocating the most for our communities. So these
are three separate conversations that we can't start to have
around this time. You know, three weeks before an election.
(10:09):
It takes a lot to move people from being a
non voter to a voter. There are people that say
that they are skeptical, they don't think that their voice
or their vote even matters. Those are big conversations, and
we don't believe that you should shame people for not voting.
There is a reason, and we want to get to
the core of that reason. Let's have the conversation, why
are you a non voter? Why do you think it's
(10:30):
important for you to have your voice heard? Are there
other ways that we can get you to be civically
engaged so you see how the process works and hopefully
at some point that process for you does include voting.
And so we want to meet people where they're at
and have those honest conversations. And I think that's something
that a lot of times organizations don't have time to
do or just don't prioritize how they're having those conversations.
(10:51):
What have you learned as the main reasons people remain
in that non voter category and would have been some
of the more active ways of helping move them into
the voter category. Yeah. I think the biggest thing that
I've learned over the last several years, even before I
joined Block, is that people aren't apathetic. And I think
there's this idea that if you don't vote, then you
(11:13):
must not care, you must be apathetic. And there hasn't
been a person that I talk to you that said
I'm apathetic. I just don't care. They have issues that
they care about. They may not see how those issues
relate in a broader political sense of voting, But everybody
cares about something and it's on us to make sure
that we're getting to the heart of what that is.
And I think, you know, that's something that's very beautiful
(11:36):
and special, and I tell people all the time this
is my favorite part of the job, is that I
get a chance to be able to bear witness and
play a small role in that light bulb going off
on people understanding the agency that they have in a
political system that often tells us that we don't have
any to have people understand how to make their voice
heard in the city budget hearing, for example, or to
(11:58):
you know, sit in front of a presidential candidate and said,
what are you gonna do for my community? You need
to listen to me. And they may not even have
their voting rights restored yet, but they still have that
power and are able to claim and take up that space.
And I think that's really what's super important for us.
And I think that's something also too that I'm very
proud of as well. What's on the minds of the
(12:19):
people in the black Milwaukee community. What are the issues.
What are you learning when you knock doors and engage
with folks. Yeah, I think what's the most fascinating about
this particular cycle is that people are experiencing the effects
of the federal government and know that the federal government
is to blame for some of the issues that they're
experiencing right now. If people are having a hard time
(12:41):
dealing with the effects of COVID, whether that's financially or
that's due to mental health, they know who to blame.
And I think a lot of times the federal government
feels very far removed from our issues. We don't always
feel the impact right away unless you're paying attention very
closely and watching c SPAN all day every day. But
people know now when those benefits ran out, they knew
(13:02):
it was Congress that was stalled and not able to
pass another package to extend those unemployment benefits. If there's
another you know, stimulus and people are able to get
another check, people know it is their congress person that
is doing these negotiations. In addition to this current administration,
so we're actually watching things play out in real time
(13:23):
in ways that we haven't really seen before. So a
lot of the issues, whether it's financially or anything that's
related to COVID, I think is immediately on folks mind.
And also, you know, people care about things like healthcare.
You know, I think a lot of times people don't
think of healthcare as a black issue. And I tell
folks all the time, like, yes, you know, mass incarceration
is something that is intimately connected to our community in
(13:46):
ways that are different from other communities. But we also
care about education and things like healthcare and those quote
mainstream issues, We also care about them as well. You
use this phrase earlier, and I think maybe it's a
question you ask people what would it mean for your
community to thrive? Could you tell me about the origin
(14:06):
of that question. I've done door to door just for
some context. I've been sent out by campaigns and I
get a checklist and it's like, what do you think
about this? How would you rate your feelings. I'm like
a door to door poster and I've never been asked
to ask someone what would it take for their community
to thrive? So what's the origin of that question and
(14:27):
what are you learning in terms of the answers? Yeah,
we knew immediately based off of that we wanted to
do things differently, and one of those things was really
digging deep in and building trust. And that also means
getting to know what people care about. I think there's
a lot of times we run poles, you know, we
think that we know we're making these assumptions, Oh, we
(14:47):
know the black community they only care about criminal justice
because half of them are locked up, right, Like, we
make these assumptions all the time without actually asking people
what do they care about. We try to sell them
on things. We knock on their door and say, hey,
you know, vote for this person and sign this petition,
come join me doing acts. But how many times do
we knock a door and say, hey, what do you
care about? And so we knew that we needed to
(15:10):
build trust as a new organization, and we wanted to
establish those relationships. So we started when we knocked doors
in November of seventeen and we just opened up with
that question what does it look like for the black
community to thrive? And people were looking at us crazy,
they were skeptical. They were like, what do you really want?
Why are you really here? And we said, no, we
(15:31):
want to hear about what are the issues that matter
to you the most? And people struggle because they weren't
used to even thinking about thriving, let alone ask that
question from a stranger. A lot of times in our community,
we're trying to survive day to day, hoping that interactions
from the police don't end up in us being murdered.
That we can you know, like last that extra hundred
(15:52):
dollars to provide for our family until we get paid
on Friday. You know, those are those things, and so
it provides us an opportunity to to say about our dreams,
to think about the world that we want to live in.
And there are times people say, well, I think we
need a speed bump, and we're like, okay, let's get you.
Let's speed bump. I don't know if that's thriving, but
let's get you that speed bump, and let's have a
conversation that you feel that your community isn't being invested
(16:15):
in the same way that other suburbs are. Maybe that's
a bigger issue. Let's have that conversation as well, in
addition to getting you that speed bump. So we've heard
everything from really micro level issues to really macro level
issues and how people really want to get involved and
advocate for their their neighborhoods too, and once you unlock that,
once you've got people sharing their dreams and their hopes
(16:36):
and their thrive manifestoes, what happens with all that energy. Yeah,
So one of the big things that translated out of
that was our our now Block agenda. So we have
been having these conversations in the field for so long.
Last year we said we wanted to make sure that
we're consolidating what we're hearing. So we started to kind
of hear some different themes around healthcare, around transportation, education,
(16:59):
and last fall, almost about a year ago, we had
a series of people's assemblies and there are ten different
issue areas and themes that we've heard, and we had
butcher paper everywhere. We had our team facilitate small group
discussions on the Saturday, and we said, okay, as it
relates to education, what do we want to keep, what
do we want to amend, what do we want to
make better? What do we need to protect? And we
(17:20):
just captured as much of the conversation as we could.
Our political director went back compiled it into a draft agenda,
and then we came back with the same group a
couple of weeks later and said Hey, it's now on paper.
What does this look like? What does this feel like?
Does this feel good? Do we need to make any edits?
And we ratify it as a community and it's meant
to be a living document to grow and change as
(17:41):
the needs of the community change. But that was one step,
and that's really kind of is how we're centering our
our policy work. Blocks started knocking on doors in November,
which is well ahead of the typical timing for a
election cycle. What position are you in now? How does
(18:03):
Milwaukee and Black Milwaukee look from a voter engagement perspective
versus four years ago? I think that we are in
a better position. There's infrastructure that exists now that didn't
exist in whether that is you know, groups like ours
leaders igniting transformation, A lot of other groups are doing
that work. And we also used the last four years
(18:24):
as different benchmarks and tests we played in every single election,
whether it was the state Supreme Court that no one
really you know, paid attention to in or whether it
was the Shareff's race that was getting overlooked in the
midst of a really crowded gubernatorial primary. We wanted to
make sure that we were talking about the down ballot
races that seem to be forgotten, and we've had fellowship
(18:47):
programs who were able to train hundreds of people between
then and now about the deeper political process and having
folks turn out in ways that they haven't turned out
before to see, you know, so many people turn out
and testify as a city budget hearing that typically are overlooked,
you know, was a testament that more people are paying
attention and more people are pushing back and asking questions
(19:10):
and making sure that their voices are heard. So I
think a lot has happened in the last four years
just in our world, in our city. And then I
also think that there's just a lot of infrastructure that
has been working very, very hard to connect with our
community to make sure that people are active. We were
really excited shameless plug. Last week, MSNBC actually did a
profile on two of our lead ambassadors who did not
(19:33):
vote in and not only are voting this year, their
whole job now is to organize other people to vote.
You use the word ambassadors to refer to people who
work with the organization. What is your training model, how
do you get done, what you get done, and and
how different is it from the other groups. You've been
a part of our seen Yeah, we really really value
(19:54):
leadership development. We want to make sure that we're digging
deeper having quality type of conversations. And and I've worked
for organizations where someone will come in, apply for your job,
fill out an application, get interviewed, do a brief training,
and we send them out on doors within an hour
from applying to being out on doors. We're pushing people
out because we need to hit as many doors as possible.
(20:16):
I know some folks that wouldn't even pay for chairs
in their offices because they wanted people to be in
and out so quickly. We are very different. We wanted
to make sure our team is fully educated. We wanted
them to have more meaningful conversations on doors. So instead
of saying, hey, we vote for the sheriff, we're saying, hey,
do you know what the sheriff does? Do you know
their jurisdiction. We're able to do some of that political
(20:39):
education on training, which means we're constantly role playing. We're
constantly workshopping any issues that we're having or we're hearing
in the field. We're constantly educating ourselves. If there is
an ad that came out we talk about it, we
analyze it. If there's a poll that comes up, we
analyze it because we want to raise everyone's consciousness as well.
And so we put our team through at least thirty
(21:01):
hours of training before they're even knock a door. Um
Zo thirty hours three zero. And like I said, I've
been a part of canvas programs where you're in and
out within an hour. You know, you're trying to get
people to vote for your candidate, but we're not talking
about the issues. We're not talking about the jurisdiction, the
roles and responsibility of that office. Why should I just
(21:23):
tell people to vote for a U. S. Senator if
they don't have any concept of what the U. S.
Senate does and how it directly impacts their lives. And
so we want them to be able to have those
types of conversations because we want to be able to
build the awareness and the analysis in this culture of
civic engagement in our community, and that an election is
a tool to do so. But really it is, it's
(21:43):
just one pathway. We want to make sure that people
understand their civic engagement rights and how to be a
part of it on a year round basis. Whether it's
the city budget hearings, or it's voting or anything in between,
and so we take that extra time. I think that's
something that we are really proud of by digging d
been having fellowship programs, We've been doing Civics Jeopardy via
Facebook Live. That's one of the ways we train our folks.
(22:06):
And there's different categories, you know, legislative, judicial, block history,
and that's how we kind of keep our stuff fresh
and keep it fun. So it's not just dry trainings
who were constantly able to keep each other on our toes.
I want to know more about Civics Jeopardy. How often
do you do that? So every Friday in October, but
we've been Facebook living it. Last week was our first
(22:28):
week and we're gonna be having some special guests as well,
some local elected officials to kind of help out and
to be you know, a guest host and to read
some of the issues and some of the questions. So
it's something that we we do want a regular basis
and it allows us to be able to have fun
as well as kind of you know, stay fresh on
some of the dates and everything that keeps changing. Civics
(22:48):
is not easy to keep up with when they constantly
keep trying to change the rules. So this is a
good way to stay on top of it. Is that
open to the public. Anybody can tune into your Facebook
page and watch Dame. Yes every Friday, I say, around
new but we're give us to like twelve fifteen. We're
running a little bit behind, a little bit on some days.
But yeah, check out our our Facebook live We had
the first one just air and you can still check
(23:08):
out our live video. Oh thank you for that. I
was reading Milwaukee Magazine the other day, as I do sometimes,
and I saw a quote from you in there where
you said, I tell people all the time, Milwaukee breaks
my heart and inspires me every day. Can you expand
on that. I've never lived anywhere else. I'm born and
(23:29):
raised in Milwaukee. I was one of those teenagers I
wanted to move far away full disclosure. As much as
I've got Milwaukee, there was a point in time where
I wanted to leave. I wanted to be that eighteen
year old that went to the big city, and that
went and moved to New York and you know, became
a doctor and went to Columbia, and that did not
work out. I had a route awakening. I was humbled
(23:50):
greatly that Columbia, being my dream school, I didn't get
into and I didn't know what to do. I was
really devastating because it was really banking on going to
New York and I stayed in Milwaukee, and it was
the best decision that I made, And it is now
a conscious decision of why I stay here. And I
think it's because there's so many resilient people. And I
(24:11):
tell folks all the time, like, I could leave, but
I don't know if I would feel as comfortable organizing
somewhere else. It's very intimate, it's very personal all the
the challenges that we're experiencing. It hits different when you're
born and raised in the same place that you're doing
your organizing and to see all the challenges you know,
(24:31):
home to one of the most incarcerated zip codes, Wisconsin
being the worst place to raise a black child, all
of those things, I'm like, how do I still live here?
But at the same time, there's so much work to
be done. I'm not arrogant enough to think that I'm
solely the sole person to fix those issues, but I
want to do what I can because I feel like
Milwaukee helped raise me, and I feel like there's just
a lot of resilience and a lot of beautiful people,
(24:54):
and there's a lot of potential that I think is
untapped in Milwaukee, and I want to make sure that
it is the best place that it could possibly be
for everyone, including a black community. So meanwhile, groups like
(25:19):
Block based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and others in cities across
the country have been doing the very hard work to
turn non voters into voters. They're helping people see how
the political process connects to things they care about. And
I loved that they started on this election three years ago,
going door to door asking people what it looks like
(25:40):
to thrive, creating a community vision and manifesto. While groups
like Block invite more people into the political process, others
are working to make sure they can actually cast those
votes and have them counted. We have the fortune of
speaking with Quentin Palfrey about efforts to protect our right
to vote. He's the chair of Voter Protection Core, a
(26:01):
grassroots organization that was founded after by data scientists and
lawyers to help protect and defend people's rights to vote,
especially communities of color. So the Voter Protection CORES was
launched last year, and this is my fifth presidential cycle
working on voter protection issues. And over the last few cycles,
(26:24):
we've learned some things about some of the problems that
can come up in elections. And so last year a
bunch of us who were involved in the Obama campaign
and the Carry campaign and Clinton campaign got together and said,
you know, maybe we ought to get out ahead of
some of these problems. Maybe we ought to try and
solve the things that can be solved in advance, and
(26:44):
maybe we ought to combine some of the legal expertise
that we have in the voter protection community with some
data expertise. So we formed a partnership with the Carnegie
Mellon University and tried to look at the places where
voters faced most obstacles and started to target some of
our activities towards the places that were most likely to
(27:06):
be a problem in the elections. So essentially, what the
Voter Protection Core is is a network of lawyers and
data scientists who are trying to identify the obstacles that
voters face to registering, voting and having their votes count,
and then try to head off those kinds of problems
you mentioned protecting people's registration, there's sort of voting activity
(27:30):
and the count. Can you dive into what exactly you're
trying to protect In our country, we have a shameful
legacy of racial bias in our elections. Communities of color,
younger people, people who tend to move around a lot,
tend to run into problems in our system that aren't
faced by other people in the system. So think about
(27:51):
this spring voters waiting for four or five hours in
a number of African American communities during the primaries. That's
been endemic to our system for a long period of time.
Voters of color have faced voter purges for many years,
face voter suppression, have faced legislation that aims to make
it harder for them to register and vote. And so
(28:11):
we've got these really shameful inequalities in our system. Some
of them are caused by intentional voter suppression. So, unfortunately,
we now have a president and some allies who have
weaponized lies about voter fraud in order to make it
harder for people to vote, and particularly communities that the
president as allies think will will not vote for them
(28:34):
in the election. Um, so they're using voter suppression as
a campaign tactic. So your organization is a network of lawyers,
of data scientists, it's a nerd network. It's an exactingly
powerful network of thoughtful people. And you're on the ground
in a bunch of places. What are you seeing on
the ground? Where are you seeing it that concerns you
(28:57):
the most? So I think that you have to understand.
And the people are voting in a bunch of different ways,
and so the challenges come up in different context. So
I'm very interested in making sure that in person voting
works well because we've seen that African American students, the homeless,
and Native Americans have a tendency to use in person
voting options at a higher rate and to be disproportionately
(29:21):
impacted when there are long lines or when they're polling
place closures. So one of the things that we've spent
a lot of time doing is making sure that there
are enough poll workers, because we know that when their
poll workers shortages their long lines, we know that when
their long lines, the vote is suppressed. So making sure
that there are enough poll workers to avoid the kind
of debacle we had, for example, in the African American
(29:43):
communities in Milwaukee during the primaries, or that we've seen
repeatedly in Georgia, that we saw in the Vada, that
we saw in Philadelphia. We need to make sure that
there are enough election officials so that people can wait
in shorter lines. We need to make sure that they're
not shutting down polling places. I mentioned Milwaukee in their primary.
They went from a hundred and eighty polling places in
(30:04):
the primary to five in this election, and you saw
people waited in really long lines. Some people may have
contracted coronavirus as a result of voting. Those are very
bad outcomes. We need to make sure that we keep
the polls open. On the vote by mail side, vote
by mail is an extremely effective way for people to vote.
Every serious scholar who's looked at this from the Brennan Center,
(30:27):
the Bipartisan Policy Center, from the Voter Protection Course has
concluded that this is a safe and effective way to vote.
But not all of the states that are ramping up
their vote by mail system know how to do it
well yet. So the states that have done it well
historically are really good at it, but some of the
states that are starting for the first time are rejecting
a lot of ballots for really stupid reasons, and a
(30:51):
lot of voters who are casting valid ballots are running
into rejection rates that are much higher than they ought
to be. What's a high rejection rate. Well, so, in
the states that do a good job of administering elections
vote by mail, the rights rejection can do less than
one percent. And you know, we have this tradition in
(31:12):
the voting law community of honoring the intent of the
voter and not rejecting a validly cast ballot because of
some minor procedural requirement. In the New York primary, almost
one in five ballots were rejected. It's almost ballots were rejected.
We're seeing in Philadelphia and in Pennsylvania rejection of ballots
(31:33):
because they're called naked ballots. People didn't use the proper envelopes,
and you know, we were worried that more than a
thousand people could be disenfranchised because of a really foolish
question around like which envelope did you use? So I
think those are the kinds of things we need to
teach election officials how to do better over time. But
to your initial point, you know, some of those things
(31:54):
are no longer fixable, and so what you have to
focus on now is teaching voters how to do it
and making sure that we bring down those rejection rates
just by making through voter education. What has you the
most excited or hopeful in terms of our ability to
preserve the legitimacy of our electoral system. I'll say two things.
(32:18):
The first is the one that I started with, which
is this notion that we actually are starting to have
new candidates, new voters, new people involved in our elections.
It's been really exciting to see an emergence of much
more diverse voice, of younger voices, more gender balanced candidates,
new voters. There's a real energy and if you sort
(32:40):
of think about where our country is going, you know,
the views of younger people, even in the red est states,
if you look at the demographics of some of the
states that have been traditionally I think the future is
progressive and the future is more diverse and more gender balance,
and I think that that's really exciting. We are in
an election period where people are already voting, so the
(33:03):
idea of election day is more like election season, and
I think of November three as a voting deadline, not
a voting day. What is your advice for how we
can prepare ourselves what we should expect at the end
of November three. I think you're entirely right that because
(33:24):
of the pandemic and because of some of the changes
that we've made to our election system, we should be
thinking about this as an election period, not in election day.
And one of the things that I think we ought
to do is change our view of what election night
is going to look like. So we have this picture
that somebody is going to stand up in front of
these maps on cable TV, and we're gonna watch it,
(33:45):
and then we're either going to be very happy or
very sad by the end of the night, but we're
basically going to know how the election is going to
turn out. And that's not the way it's going to
be this year, because there are a lot of states,
for good reasons, that are going to accept ballots that
are postmarked on election day but received a couple of
days afterwards. And I think it's gonna be really important
for us to shift our view and say, actually, we
(34:07):
should wait, we should be patient, we should not declare
victory or defeat until all of those ballots are counted.
I also think that there's good reason to suggest that
a lot of the Trump voters are going to vote
in person, and those votes are going to be counted earlier,
and that the Biden vote is going to be a
little bit more spread out, and so some of the
votes that are going to be counted in the days
(34:28):
after election day may well be for Biden and harrass,
and so the narrative across the week may shift a
little bit. I think that we should be very vigilant
against Donald Trump and the Turr in general, Barr and
some of their allies saying, actually, election results are final
immediately if they look a little bit more pro Trump
(34:50):
than the polls have looked, because that's actually to be expected.
And there's been some some talk of this notion of
a red mirage. But I think that the way to
think about that is that we ought to be patient
and count all of the votes. That's important in the democracy,
and wait until all of the votes are counted before
we form an assessment as to who won. What can
(35:11):
someone do who hears this isn't a lawyer or an
election lawyer or a data scientist to leave it all
in the field in this area? What does that mean? So?
First of all, there are lots of ways for you
to get involved with our organization. It's voter dash Protection
dot org. We'd love to have your help. But more broadly,
I think that you should think about using your time
(35:33):
and your money to make sure that this election reflects
your values. And using your time, I think means helping
to get out the vote. It means helping to recruit
poll workers or to monitor at the polls. There are
opportunities within both the nonpartisan sector there's the Election Protection
Coalition and within the campaign, within the Biden Harris campaign
(35:54):
to to work as a poll monitor. And if you
have resources, I do think that this is a time
to dig deep and contribute those resources to organizations or
campaigns that reflect your values. Oh that is a simple
and hard to ask, but very important one. Quentin. I
want to thank you for your time. There's been a
(36:14):
terrific conversation. I really appreciate you having me on. Many
of the voter suppression tactics and scenarios that Quentin and
Voter Protection Corps are fighting exists at just one level
(36:35):
in the system, but this is and as we know,
there are many levels, which means Angela and Block have
found themselves preparing the black community for things she never
thought she would have to consider. A lot of us
are seeing headlines and images of what the situation on
(36:56):
the ground is in Wisconsin and in Milwaukee, long lines.
You read about various efforts to make it harder to
vote this time in particular, what are you seeing in
terms of the challenge of voting in the pandemic especially,
and and how are you all trying to overcome any
of those new obstacles. We're anticipating, you know, any potentially
(37:16):
long lines, so we want to make sure that folks
are early voting or voting absentee. We also just don't
know what's going to happen on election day. We've seen
in presidential elections if there's long lines, people have to
wait a while. But we're also preparing for any voter
intimidation that's going to happen at the polls. Realistically speaking,
we heard the president talking about having his supporters poll watch,
(37:37):
and pole observed. We also know that his supporters can
be incredibly violent and incredibly dangerous, so we're preparing for
those things. But ultimately people were asking, hey, you know
we have five polling places open in April. Are we
sure that's not gonna happen no November. People have been
making plans since our disastrous election in April, and people
are like, okay, basically, come hell or high water. I
(37:59):
couldn't vote in April, but I'm going to vote in November.
And we saw people starting to make plans sense then,
and I think people are really fired up and people
will feel very very strongly about making sure that they
make a plan, they make a backup plan, and they're
making sure that their voices are heard. It's like disaster prep.
That's that's really it shouldn't be that way, But to
(38:22):
deny it is to not be prepared. I want to
touch on this political violence point with you because you've
got Kenosha, which the country is very familiar with in
terms of written house. You've got wad with Toosa and
and recent incidents with the police killing someone in folks
you know, going out to protests and being hit with
more violence from the police. And then you mentioned the
(38:45):
president and his support is being willing to use violence.
How do you prepare your communities to protect themselves in
a political environment that often goes beyond tough talk to
actual violent action. Yeah, that's a really good question, one
(39:07):
I didn't anticipate to have to do when I was
making my New Year's resolutions and preparing for the year.
You know, the amount of meetings and conversations I've had
about white militia folks, it's been astounding, It's and I
didn't expect to be having these types of conversations. We're
working with our folks from our national affiliate, the Center
for Popular Democracy, to do what we're calling voter guardian trainings,
(39:31):
making sure people understand the basic ins and out casting
a provisional ballot in case there's any you know, logistical
issues that come up with people casting their ballot, but
also being prepared to de escalate if any conflict arises,
making sure that if there is a conflict, the first
line and defense isn't to call the police. Is there
a way that we can deescalate, you know, internally, so
(39:52):
people can stand in line and to make their voice
heard safely. We're talking about all those things. We have
those trainings, our team and I know my myself personally
have gone through easily ten hours of digital security training,
which can be kind of frightening and kind of triggering
to think about, how do you keep yourself safe, understanding
(40:12):
that white militias and the Proud Boys are on standby,
and to do this work. You know, you don't want
to freak people out, but you want to be honest
that this work goes and disrupts the status quo. And
anytime you go against the status quo, we've seen what
that looks like in history. So trying to prepare our
folks and saying, you know, we're on the right side
of history, but that also means it comes with some challenges,
(40:35):
and sometimes it feels like there's a target on our back,
and it's been really tough. You know, honestly, the last
couple of months and thinking about those things have been
incredibly difficult. And it's strange to know that there's a
you know, a threat on your organization or there's a
threat to you personally, just given the fact that you
just want to empower people and just make sure that
their voices are heard. So it's it's been a challenge
(40:58):
and one that we're trying to navigate, I think in
real time, and you know, everyone's priority is making sure
that we're we're keeping everyone safe and we're still you know,
doing the best that we can to speak true to
power to just like our ancestors have done in our
civil rights icons as well. We have a view on
this show that the word citizen is less useful as
(41:20):
a legal status than it is as a verb and
a steat of actions. That we citizen, it is to
citizens our purpose here. How would you define the word
citizen if you were to interpret it as a verb? Yeah,
I would define citizen as a person without boundaries, right.
I think a lot of times people here citizen and
they always think of geographical boundaries. But what does it
(41:41):
mean to be a citizen of the society and as
a citizen of this world and want to contribute in
a way that you are able to be liberated and
free and live your true and full self while also
being able to participate in a representative, participatory democracy without
any challenges or barriers. Do you want your voice heard?
(42:04):
Your voice matters just as much as you know a
billionaire who builds their wealth off of the backs of
the working class. At the same time, you are able
to make your voice heard and live freely and in
a way where your rights, your body, who you love,
how you express yourself isn't regulated through the government that
(42:25):
doesn't look like you, that doesn't represent you, but decides
to tell you what you should do with your body
and your expression. To me, that's what it means to
be a citizen of this world and of the society.
People want to help Angela. I get asked a lot.
I live in New York or I live in California.
What can I do? How can I make sure that
(42:45):
every vote is kind of How do I support Wisconsin?
What do you say to people who want to help?
Do you have specific things you need people to do,
whether they live in Wisconsin or not. Yeah, so there's
a couple different ways we tell folks that they could
be helpful. One, I would be a bad executive director
if I didn't make a fundraising pitch. There's ways that
people can support us on our website. We have both
(43:07):
nonpartisan and partisan capabilities, and we divide up our donations
appropriately in that way too. You know, are there folks
that you think that we should get to know? Do
you have a rich uncle, does your brother make a podcast?
And do you think that I'd be a great guest?
Or are there other organizations you know, either locally or
nationally that you think that we should be collaborating with
(43:27):
we'd love to be able to get connected to other folks.
And then lastly, is that in this time where everyone
is having difficult conversations or I hope everyone is having
difficult conversations, being able to center and amplify the work
and lived experiences of our community and so being able
to amplify and share our content one so more people
(43:48):
can hear about us. But too, I think we're all
being collectively gas lit about some of these situations that
we're in. People think that racism is still not a
problem in our country, and people respond, but when you
say black lives matter, and so by being able to
really center and amplify the lived experiences of our community
through our social media is also helpful if people want
(44:10):
to to help out specifically on election day, you know,
we want to make sure that we have enough voter
guardians at polling places to de escalate where possible, So
feel free to send us a message. We're putting all
those plans together, so people can d m us on Facebook, Twitter,
and Instagram, or you can send us a note through
our website at block by block dot org and that's
Bloc b y Bloc Data Org is there anything else
(44:35):
you want to make sure to mention or to address
with this moment. I think the only thing that I
would mention is that we're living in these really dark, troubled,
unprecedented times and we just need to show up as
real people and allow ourselves the grace to feel what
we're feeling, to know that is not normal. To have
(44:58):
conversations about white militia are not normal. To have people
openly killing and shooting protesters at seventeen years old is
not normal, and we should never get used to this.
We have a choice to really decide who we want
to be as a country and how we show up
in this work. You know. I think shortly after the
murders of Brianna Taylor and George Floyd, people were buying
(45:20):
the book White Fragility. People are buying all these books,
and I hope that people are reading them. They're doing
the work, and they're not just collecting dust after they
posted them on Instagram claiming to be woke, but are
actually doing that tough work. Because this moment that we're
in is what happens when privilege goes unchecked for years
and decades, and this is our moment to really create
(45:42):
a vision of a world that we want to live in,
and we get to start over. We get to reimagine,
you know, what safety is, maybe without the police, and
we get to really kind of dream without any limitations.
But that means that we have to do that work
as well internally, all right, in terms of that content,
I know I'm checking out Civics Jeopardy. First of my
(46:04):
thank you Angela for the time, thank you for the
insight um and and thank you for the work that
you're doing and that you're a part of. Thank you,
I appreciate it, and thanks for having me on to
tell our story too. Thank you to Angela Lang and
Quincon pow Free for joining us. You can follow Angela
and Block by Block on the social She is Angela
(46:27):
underscored Lange. The organization is Block by Block m k E.
That's b l oc b y Bloc m k E.
That's on Twitter. You can also find them on the
regular Free and Open Internet at block by Block dot org.
Again that's bloc b y bloc. Follow Quincon and the
Voter Protection Core on Twitter, q poal free and Protect
(46:51):
the Vote or the respective handles, and again you can
visit that website don't forget about websites, y'all, voter dash
Detection dot org. As always, we post this episode extra
notes transcript developed by robots at how to citizen dot com,
and as always, we ask you to leave a rating
(47:13):
or review wherever you are listening to this podcast because
it helps introduce people to us. Here are the actions
the moment you've been waiting for. What is barrattune they're
gonna ask us to do? All? Right? First up internal actions,
and by internal as a refresher, we mean that these
are actions that help you reflect on yourself, explored your
(47:35):
emotions and your experiences. Or there are actions that are
personal and don't necessarily involve other people. Got too up
for you this time? First answer this question, it's the
block question. What does it mean for your community to thrive?
Could be speed bumps, probably more, think about it, write
(47:55):
it down, think about it and more. The second internal
action we want to return to June. Remember when we
were all black Lives Matter and hashtag and turn my
I G Square black. We bought a lot of books
on anti racism. Have we read them? Now is a
(48:16):
good time to check back in doing some of that
internal work to make this Land, More Free, and more fair.
Read those books. Support the organizations you said you would
support the black community in the way you said you would.
This is a good time to revisit and re engage
on the external actions. These are public facing for the
(48:39):
most part, they involved other human beings. Interactive three for
you here one just support Block in Milwaukee blocked by
block dot org slash donation. This is the sort of
group that actually makes change happen, and I, for one,
am very frustrated and annoyed at certain elements of the
(49:01):
nonprofit political philanthropic world that just pile money and resources
on the people who are not in the community, who
do not know what they're talking about. But because they
worked on some campaign eight, ten, twelve years ago, they
still get all the goods. Let's support Angela and her
team at Block again blocked by blocked out org slash
(49:23):
donations in Milwaukee. If you are there or no people there,
encourage them or yourself. Become a voter guardian again. This
is a Block's website. These are people who are going
to monitor the polls for intimidation, and they're trained to
de escalate situations instead of calling the police. So it's
(49:44):
like a two fer. We know that the President is
out here encouraging a level of nonsense and tom foolery
at the polls, and we don't want to encourage conflict
around that. We want to de escalate. Again. I trust
Block to do this the right way, so support them
and their efforts in Milwaukee to do the same. Finally,
(50:06):
volunteer to be a poll worker. Where we've asked before,
we will ask again. You literally can't have too many
in a pandemic. More poll workers means shorter lines and
also shorter shifts for poll workers, reducing everyone's exposure. Voter
Protection Corps is running a program to encourage people to
do this, so check out voter dash Protection dot org
slash be a poll worker. If you do any of
(50:29):
these things, let a brother know. Shoot me an email
action at how to citizen dot com mentioned in the
subject line voting or making our presence felt, which is
the title of this episode, And whether you tell me
personally or not, tell somebody, tell a friend, tell a
family member, do that old school chain email. Have you
voted yet? Send it on to ten people and tell
(50:51):
them what you did. In this particular episode, we encourage
you to the hashtag how to Citizen if you take
it to the socials and you can email us broadly
comments at how to citizen dot com. If there's an organization,
a person and effort you think fits in this show,
we want you to let us know. You can visit
my website, sign up from a newsletter, find out about
(51:13):
upcoming events. It's all the how do citizen dot com.
And I'm on Instagram at Barrattune Day. I'm on Patreon
slash Barrattune Day. You can even text me right now
two o eight nine four eight eight four four drop
the worst citizen in I text out that are the
first people to learn about the upcoming tapings of the show.
They get the zoom link a little earlier because honestly,
(51:34):
it's just easier for me to text it out than
spending up the whole email list thing, which comes, you know,
a day and a few hours later. All Right, that's it.
How This Citizen with barrattun Day is a production of
I Heart Radio Podcasts. Executive produced by Miles Gray, Nick Stump,
Elizabeth Stewart and Barrattune Day Thursday produced by Joel Smith,
(51:55):
edited by Justine Smith. Powered by you
Welcome to How to Citizen with Baritun Day, a show
where we reimagine the worst citizen as a verb and
remind ourselves how to wield our collective power. I'm Baritone Day.
This year, the name Abrahm x Kendy has become very popular.
(00:29):
You might remember that period this summer when the top
selling books in the US went from how to Bake
sour dough Bread to how to be an Anti Racist.
Dr Kendy wrote how to be an Anti Racist, But
before the coronavirus landed in the US way back on
January seven of this year, I was focused on another
(00:52):
piece by Dr Kendy, an article in the Atlantic called
The Other Swing Voter. Here's an excerpt. The common conception
of the swing voter is one who shifts between voting
Republican and voting Democrat. The center right or center left.
Voters are typically white and older. Meanwhile, people of color
(01:12):
and young people and especially young people of color, are
more likely than white people and older people to swing
between voting Democrat and not voting or voting third party.
These are America's other swing voters. Othered because they are
typically young and not white, Othered because they are hardly
recognized at the table of political agency, othered because they
(01:35):
are primarily recognized at the table of political shame when
they don't vote, other because Americans refuse to recognize how
voter suppression and depression affect their agency. I wanted to
talk about these other swing voters and since new infrastructure
(01:56):
has allowed grassroots organizations to engage these voters or non
voters in new ways that include building long term relationships
and investing in the political education of people we all
too often ignore. This election could see the largest percentage
of voter turnout ever, and that's due in large part
(02:17):
to the work of organizations like Voto Latino, run by
Maria Terressa Kumar, who we had on this show in
episode ten. It's also due to the work of smaller groups,
local groups on the ground, groups like Black Leaders Organizing
Communities a k A BLOCK in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I got
a chance to speak with Angela Lang Blocks executive director,
(02:40):
who's been laying the foundation in Milwaukee since I wanted
to understand what has changed between and today, why Block
has had such success in engaging with non voters in
their community, and how they're preparing for November three and beyond.
(03:01):
My name is Angela Lang and I am the founder
and executive director of Black Black Leaders Organizing for Communities
based in Milwaukee, and we are a year round civic
engagement organization making sure that people understand the political process
and how to get involved and understand the agency that
they have to make a change in their own community.
Can you tell me the story of why you created
(03:23):
block and why whatever existed didn't feel like enough to you? Yeah? So,
in Seen, it was a heartbreak for us one the
outcome of the election, but then also in the weeks afterwards,
everyone was pointing the finger at us, specifically black folks,
and if you know, if those blacks would have just
shown up, we wouldn't be in the situation. Those were
(03:45):
exact quotes of what we were hearing, the microaggressions, the
problematic language, and it was very frustrating to hear when
you say that you're talking about those blacks in Milwaukee specifically,
or Wisconsin or Milwaukee specifically. But I think people generally
we're targeting the black community and the black vote in
the state of Wisconsin, but a lot of times people
(04:05):
know that they're they're using code for specifically Milwaukee, which
is the largest concentration of black folks in the state
of Wisconsin. And so it was incredibly frustrating and hurtful
to know that we are some of the most disenfranchised
and least engaged, but yet we were to blame for
the outcome of this election, and it was important for
us to not wait for a candidate, a party, or
(04:26):
an elected official to engage us. We were going to
do that work ourselves, and that we were going to
train folks from the community to have conversations about political process,
how to get involved, what's the difference between a state
senator and a U. S Senator, and the difference between
city government and county government, and how can we actually
make a change based off of the issues that we
care about. And so we wanted to really kind of
(04:47):
build something that I think was missing a little bit
in twenty sixteen. And so we've been working, you know,
the last almost three years for this moment. But we're
so much more than elections. We want to make sure
that we're engaging people in between election cycles, caring about issues,
bringing community members together. Last summer, we were able to
do a lot of cookouts, a lot of barbecues, just
(05:09):
to bring neighbors together, to talk about their issues, just
to do something positive in the community. How did you
get into this work? To Angela, what's your bag? I
didn't intend to. I will say that my family knew
long before I did. Always thought I was going to
be a doctor. I said, I wanted to do doctors
without borders. That's when I entered college. As in my
(05:30):
undergrad I was like, I'm gonna be a pre med major.
And I've always been fond of politics, always been like
more active. I was the nerd. I was class president
of middle school, right. I was that like nerdy Parson
middle school class president's duties. Oh you organized the dance,
you organized the canned food drive, you do that type
(05:51):
of stuff. And I was always really interested in it,
but I didn't think I would make a career out
of it, and I didn't know what organizing was. And
then I was doing a lot of nonpartisan work on campus,
a lot of you know, know your rights, making sure
that students have the correct idea to vote, a lot
of just nonpartisan voter registration. And then in when Scott
Walker was elected governor, that really kind of shifted things.
(06:14):
Folks remember there are lots of protests in the Capitol.
We slept over in the Capitol. I was still remember
that cold linoleum floor in Madison. I remember protesting not
just for student rights, but for rights of workers and
collective bargaining, and seeing the student movement kind of really
converge with the labor movement. And that's really where I
got a crash course and organizing. My first job out
(06:35):
of college was for the Service Employees International Union. When
I was at SCIU of the whole goal was to
get in the door, have a conversation, and to learn
how people view themselves politically too, And I learned a
lot that people were like, oh, I'm not political, but
yet Yeah, just had a forty five conversation about how
child care should be free, how yes we should raise
(06:56):
the minimum ways. I want to talk about black folks
and assumptions with elections because my observation experience has been,
you know, a politician rolls through every four years, maybe
every two in this sort of church plate passing mode,
and you deposit your votes here please, And you have
(07:17):
been using this phrase of year round engagement. How is
blocks model different from the type of voter mobilization we're
used to seeing, experiencing, or reading about in terms of
the black community. Yeah, I think in a lot of senses,
our level of engagement is incredibly different. We're trying to
swipt this model on its head. I think a lot
(07:37):
of times candidates, as you mentioned, come in a couple
of weeks or a couple of months before an election
and say, hey, vote for me, and we haven't seen
you since the last time you said hey, vote for me.
We don't know what you did, we don't know why
you actually deserve our votes. And so we're trying to
flip that model and say you want our vote, come
get our vote. We want to make sure that you're
talking to us, you have an understanding of our issues,
(07:59):
and you're engaged and having a deep, meaningful conversation and
building that trust in our community. And that's not something
you can do a month or so before an election.
And so what we try to do is that we
want to kind of center that community power. And something
that we also try to note as well is that
there are people who haven't had their voting rights restored
yet unfortunately, but they deserve a conversation, They deserve you
(08:21):
listening to their issues just like anyone else should. And
so I'm proud to say that in twenty nineteen, we
had three presidential candidates visit us and knocked doors with us.
We had folks engaged with us in twenty nineteen because
they understood that you cannot just come in in October
of making your first rounds of introductions to us and
thinking that's going to be enough. What is it like
(08:44):
for the black Milwaukee resident to have a full year
before an election or even more, someone knock on their
door and ask them what their concerns are, what their
dreams are, what their fears are. I think it's a
huge difference. There are times that people don't even get
that door knock, let alone if they do one that
asked them what they care about, what their hopes are,
(09:05):
what their dreams are, what it looks like for our
communities to thrive. There are folks shortly after we've started
knocking in that said, I've lived in this house five
ten years, and you're the first person to knock on
my door. We exclude people so much because they're not
seen as the regular voter, and they just don't get
that touch at all. And we want to make sure
(09:25):
that we're spending our time talking to the folks that
are being left behind being able to have those conversations
on a year on basis, And I tell folks that
we have to have three separate conversations. On one hand,
we want to turn a non voter into a voter
after you know, we have that really big conversation that's
not an easy conversation. Then we want to make sure
that people understand the political process and where they fit in.
(09:48):
They understand why they're voting for someone for the State
Supreme Court because they understand what the state Supreme Court does.
We want them to understand the broader process. And then lastly,
we want them to vote for the candidates that we've
and are advocating the most for our communities. So these
are three separate conversations that we can't start to have
around this time. You know, three weeks before an election.
(10:09):
It takes a lot to move people from being a
non voter to a voter. There are people that say
that they are skeptical, they don't think that their voice
or their vote even matters. Those are big conversations, and
we don't believe that you should shame people for not voting.
There is a reason, and we want to get to
the core of that reason. Let's have the conversation, why
are you a non voter? Why do you think it's
(10:30):
important for you to have your voice heard? Are there
other ways that we can get you to be civically
engaged so you see how the process works and hopefully
at some point that process for you does include voting.
And so we want to meet people where they're at
and have those honest conversations. And I think that's something
that a lot of times organizations don't have time to
do or just don't prioritize how they're having those conversations.
(10:51):
What have you learned as the main reasons people remain
in that non voter category and would have been some
of the more active ways of helping move them into
the voter category. Yeah. I think the biggest thing that
I've learned over the last several years, even before I
joined Block, is that people aren't apathetic. And I think
there's this idea that if you don't vote, then you
(11:13):
must not care, you must be apathetic. And there hasn't
been a person that I talk to you that said
I'm apathetic. I just don't care. They have issues that
they care about. They may not see how those issues
relate in a broader political sense of voting, But everybody
cares about something and it's on us to make sure
that we're getting to the heart of what that is.
And I think, you know, that's something that's very beautiful
(11:36):
and special, and I tell people all the time this
is my favorite part of the job, is that I
get a chance to be able to bear witness and
play a small role in that light bulb going off
on people understanding the agency that they have in a
political system that often tells us that we don't have
any to have people understand how to make their voice
heard in the city budget hearing, for example, or to
(11:58):
you know, sit in front of a presidential candidate and said,
what are you gonna do for my community? You need
to listen to me. And they may not even have
their voting rights restored yet, but they still have that
power and are able to claim and take up that space.
And I think that's really what's super important for us.
And I think that's something also too that I'm very
proud of as well. What's on the minds of the
(12:19):
people in the black Milwaukee community. What are the issues.
What are you learning when you knock doors and engage
with folks. Yeah, I think what's the most fascinating about
this particular cycle is that people are experiencing the effects
of the federal government and know that the federal government
is to blame for some of the issues that they're
experiencing right now. If people are having a hard time
(12:41):
dealing with the effects of COVID, whether that's financially or
that's due to mental health, they know who to blame.
And I think a lot of times the federal government
feels very far removed from our issues. We don't always
feel the impact right away unless you're paying attention very
closely and watching c SPAN all day every day. But
people know now when those benefits ran out, they knew
(13:02):
it was Congress that was stalled and not able to
pass another package to extend those unemployment benefits. If there's
another you know, stimulus and people are able to get
another check, people know it is their congress person that
is doing these negotiations. In addition to this current administration,
so we're actually watching things play out in real time
(13:23):
in ways that we haven't really seen before. So a
lot of the issues, whether it's financially or anything that's
related to COVID, I think is immediately on folks mind.
And also, you know, people care about things like healthcare.
You know, I think a lot of times people don't
think of healthcare as a black issue. And I tell
folks all the time, like, yes, you know, mass incarceration
is something that is intimately connected to our community in
(13:46):
ways that are different from other communities. But we also
care about education and things like healthcare and those quote
mainstream issues, We also care about them as well. You
use this phrase earlier, and I think maybe it's a
question you ask people what would it mean for your
community to thrive? Could you tell me about the origin
(14:06):
of that question. I've done door to door just for
some context. I've been sent out by campaigns and I
get a checklist and it's like, what do you think
about this? How would you rate your feelings. I'm like
a door to door poster and I've never been asked
to ask someone what would it take for their community
to thrive? So what's the origin of that question and
(14:27):
what are you learning in terms of the answers? Yeah,
we knew immediately based off of that we wanted to
do things differently, and one of those things was really
digging deep in and building trust. And that also means
getting to know what people care about. I think there's
a lot of times we run poles, you know, we
think that we know we're making these assumptions, Oh, we
(14:47):
know the black community they only care about criminal justice
because half of them are locked up, right, Like, we
make these assumptions all the time without actually asking people
what do they care about. We try to sell them
on things. We knock on their door and say, hey,
you know, vote for this person and sign this petition,
come join me doing acts. But how many times do
we knock a door and say, hey, what do you
care about? And so we knew that we needed to
(15:10):
build trust as a new organization, and we wanted to
establish those relationships. So we started when we knocked doors
in November of seventeen and we just opened up with
that question what does it look like for the black
community to thrive? And people were looking at us crazy,
they were skeptical. They were like, what do you really want?
Why are you really here? And we said, no, we
(15:31):
want to hear about what are the issues that matter
to you the most? And people struggle because they weren't
used to even thinking about thriving, let alone ask that
question from a stranger. A lot of times in our community,
we're trying to survive day to day, hoping that interactions
from the police don't end up in us being murdered.
That we can you know, like last that extra hundred
(15:52):
dollars to provide for our family until we get paid
on Friday. You know, those are those things, and so
it provides us an opportunity to to say about our dreams,
to think about the world that we want to live in.
And there are times people say, well, I think we
need a speed bump, and we're like, okay, let's get you.
Let's speed bump. I don't know if that's thriving, but
let's get you that speed bump, and let's have a
conversation that you feel that your community isn't being invested
(16:15):
in the same way that other suburbs are. Maybe that's
a bigger issue. Let's have that conversation as well, in
addition to getting you that speed bump. So we've heard
everything from really micro level issues to really macro level
issues and how people really want to get involved and
advocate for their their neighborhoods too, and once you unlock that,
once you've got people sharing their dreams and their hopes
(16:36):
and their thrive manifestoes, what happens with all that energy. Yeah,
So one of the big things that translated out of
that was our our now Block agenda. So we have
been having these conversations in the field for so long.
Last year we said we wanted to make sure that
we're consolidating what we're hearing. So we started to kind
of hear some different themes around healthcare, around transportation, education,
(16:59):
and last fall, almost about a year ago, we had
a series of people's assemblies and there are ten different
issue areas and themes that we've heard, and we had
butcher paper everywhere. We had our team facilitate small group
discussions on the Saturday, and we said, okay, as it
relates to education, what do we want to keep, what
do we want to amend, what do we want to
make better? What do we need to protect? And we
(17:20):
just captured as much of the conversation as we could.
Our political director went back compiled it into a draft agenda,
and then we came back with the same group a
couple of weeks later and said Hey, it's now on paper.
What does this look like? What does this feel like?
Does this feel good? Do we need to make any edits?
And we ratify it as a community and it's meant
to be a living document to grow and change as
(17:41):
the needs of the community change. But that was one step,
and that's really kind of is how we're centering our
our policy work. Blocks started knocking on doors in November,
which is well ahead of the typical timing for a
election cycle. What position are you in now? How does
(18:03):
Milwaukee and Black Milwaukee look from a voter engagement perspective
versus four years ago? I think that we are in
a better position. There's infrastructure that exists now that didn't
exist in whether that is you know, groups like ours
leaders igniting transformation, A lot of other groups are doing
that work. And we also used the last four years
(18:24):
as different benchmarks and tests we played in every single election,
whether it was the state Supreme Court that no one
really you know, paid attention to in or whether it
was the Shareff's race that was getting overlooked in the
midst of a really crowded gubernatorial primary. We wanted to
make sure that we were talking about the down ballot
races that seem to be forgotten, and we've had fellowship
(18:47):
programs who were able to train hundreds of people between
then and now about the deeper political process and having
folks turn out in ways that they haven't turned out
before to see, you know, so many people turn out
and testify as a city budget hearing that typically are overlooked,
you know, was a testament that more people are paying
attention and more people are pushing back and asking questions
(19:10):
and making sure that their voices are heard. So I
think a lot has happened in the last four years
just in our world, in our city. And then I
also think that there's just a lot of infrastructure that
has been working very, very hard to connect with our
community to make sure that people are active. We were
really excited shameless plug. Last week, MSNBC actually did a
profile on two of our lead ambassadors who did not
(19:33):
vote in and not only are voting this year, their
whole job now is to organize other people to vote.
You use the word ambassadors to refer to people who
work with the organization. What is your training model, how
do you get done, what you get done, and and
how different is it from the other groups. You've been
a part of our seen Yeah, we really really value
(19:54):
leadership development. We want to make sure that we're digging
deeper having quality type of conversations. And and I've worked
for organizations where someone will come in, apply for your job,
fill out an application, get interviewed, do a brief training,
and we send them out on doors within an hour
from applying to being out on doors. We're pushing people
out because we need to hit as many doors as possible.
(20:16):
I know some folks that wouldn't even pay for chairs
in their offices because they wanted people to be in
and out so quickly. We are very different. We wanted
to make sure our team is fully educated. We wanted
them to have more meaningful conversations on doors. So instead
of saying, hey, we vote for the sheriff, we're saying, hey,
do you know what the sheriff does? Do you know
their jurisdiction. We're able to do some of that political
(20:39):
education on training, which means we're constantly role playing. We're
constantly workshopping any issues that we're having or we're hearing
in the field. We're constantly educating ourselves. If there is
an ad that came out we talk about it, we
analyze it. If there's a poll that comes up, we
analyze it because we want to raise everyone's consciousness as well.
And so we put our team through at least thirty
(21:01):
hours of training before they're even knock a door. Um
Zo thirty hours three zero. And like I said, I've
been a part of canvas programs where you're in and
out within an hour. You know, you're trying to get
people to vote for your candidate, but we're not talking
about the issues. We're not talking about the jurisdiction, the
roles and responsibility of that office. Why should I just
(21:23):
tell people to vote for a U. S. Senator if
they don't have any concept of what the U. S.
Senate does and how it directly impacts their lives. And
so we want them to be able to have those
types of conversations because we want to be able to
build the awareness and the analysis in this culture of
civic engagement in our community, and that an election is
a tool to do so. But really it is, it's
(21:43):
just one pathway. We want to make sure that people
understand their civic engagement rights and how to be a
part of it on a year round basis. Whether it's
the city budget hearings, or it's voting or anything in between,
and so we take that extra time. I think that's
something that we are really proud of by digging d
been having fellowship programs, We've been doing Civics Jeopardy via
Facebook Live. That's one of the ways we train our folks.
(22:06):
And there's different categories, you know, legislative, judicial, block history,
and that's how we kind of keep our stuff fresh
and keep it fun. So it's not just dry trainings
who were constantly able to keep each other on our toes.
I want to know more about Civics Jeopardy. How often
do you do that? So every Friday in October, but
we've been Facebook living it. Last week was our first
(22:28):
week and we're gonna be having some special guests as well,
some local elected officials to kind of help out and
to be you know, a guest host and to read
some of the issues and some of the questions. So
it's something that we we do want a regular basis
and it allows us to be able to have fun
as well as kind of you know, stay fresh on
some of the dates and everything that keeps changing. Civics
(22:48):
is not easy to keep up with when they constantly
keep trying to change the rules. So this is a
good way to stay on top of it. Is that
open to the public. Anybody can tune into your Facebook
page and watch Dame. Yes every Friday, I say, around
new but we're give us to like twelve fifteen. We're
running a little bit behind, a little bit on some days.
But yeah, check out our our Facebook live We had
the first one just air and you can still check
(23:08):
out our live video. Oh thank you for that. I
was reading Milwaukee Magazine the other day, as I do sometimes,
and I saw a quote from you in there where
you said, I tell people all the time, Milwaukee breaks
my heart and inspires me every day. Can you expand
on that. I've never lived anywhere else. I'm born and
(23:29):
raised in Milwaukee. I was one of those teenagers I
wanted to move far away full disclosure. As much as
I've got Milwaukee, there was a point in time where
I wanted to leave. I wanted to be that eighteen
year old that went to the big city, and that
went and moved to New York and you know, became
a doctor and went to Columbia, and that did not
work out. I had a route awakening. I was humbled
(23:50):
greatly that Columbia, being my dream school, I didn't get
into and I didn't know what to do. I was
really devastating because it was really banking on going to
New York and I stayed in Milwaukee, and it was
the best decision that I made, And it is now
a conscious decision of why I stay here. And I
think it's because there's so many resilient people. And I
(24:11):
tell folks all the time, like, I could leave, but
I don't know if I would feel as comfortable organizing
somewhere else. It's very intimate, it's very personal all the
the challenges that we're experiencing. It hits different when you're
born and raised in the same place that you're doing
your organizing and to see all the challenges you know,
(24:31):
home to one of the most incarcerated zip codes, Wisconsin
being the worst place to raise a black child, all
of those things, I'm like, how do I still live here?
But at the same time, there's so much work to
be done. I'm not arrogant enough to think that I'm
solely the sole person to fix those issues, but I
want to do what I can because I feel like
Milwaukee helped raise me, and I feel like there's just
a lot of resilience and a lot of beautiful people,
(24:54):
and there's a lot of potential that I think is
untapped in Milwaukee, and I want to make sure that
it is the best place that it could possibly be
for everyone, including a black community. So meanwhile, groups like
(25:19):
Block based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and others in cities across
the country have been doing the very hard work to
turn non voters into voters. They're helping people see how
the political process connects to things they care about. And
I loved that they started on this election three years ago,
going door to door asking people what it looks like
(25:40):
to thrive, creating a community vision and manifesto. While groups
like Block invite more people into the political process, others
are working to make sure they can actually cast those
votes and have them counted. We have the fortune of
speaking with Quentin Palfrey about efforts to protect our right
to vote. He's the chair of Voter Protection Core, a
(26:01):
grassroots organization that was founded after by data scientists and
lawyers to help protect and defend people's rights to vote,
especially communities of color. So the Voter Protection CORES was
launched last year, and this is my fifth presidential cycle
working on voter protection issues. And over the last few cycles,
(26:24):
we've learned some things about some of the problems that
can come up in elections. And so last year a
bunch of us who were involved in the Obama campaign
and the Carry campaign and Clinton campaign got together and said,
you know, maybe we ought to get out ahead of
some of these problems. Maybe we ought to try and
solve the things that can be solved in advance, and
(26:44):
maybe we ought to combine some of the legal expertise
that we have in the voter protection community with some
data expertise. So we formed a partnership with the Carnegie
Mellon University and tried to look at the places where
voters faced most obstacles and started to target some of
our activities towards the places that were most likely to
(27:06):
be a problem in the elections. So essentially, what the
Voter Protection Core is is a network of lawyers and
data scientists who are trying to identify the obstacles that
voters face to registering, voting and having their votes count,
and then try to head off those kinds of problems
you mentioned protecting people's registration, there's sort of voting activity
(27:30):
and the count. Can you dive into what exactly you're
trying to protect In our country, we have a shameful
legacy of racial bias in our elections. Communities of color,
younger people, people who tend to move around a lot,
tend to run into problems in our system that aren't
faced by other people in the system. So think about
(27:51):
this spring voters waiting for four or five hours in
a number of African American communities during the primaries. That's
been endemic to our system for a long period of time.
Voters of color have faced voter purges for many years,
face voter suppression, have faced legislation that aims to make
it harder for them to register and vote. And so
(28:11):
we've got these really shameful inequalities in our system. Some
of them are caused by intentional voter suppression. So, unfortunately,
we now have a president and some allies who have
weaponized lies about voter fraud in order to make it
harder for people to vote, and particularly communities that the
president as allies think will will not vote for them
(28:34):
in the election. Um, so they're using voter suppression as
a campaign tactic. So your organization is a network of lawyers,
of data scientists, it's a nerd network. It's an exactingly
powerful network of thoughtful people. And you're on the ground
in a bunch of places. What are you seeing on
the ground? Where are you seeing it that concerns you
(28:57):
the most? So I think that you have to understand.
And the people are voting in a bunch of different ways,
and so the challenges come up in different context. So
I'm very interested in making sure that in person voting
works well because we've seen that African American students, the homeless,
and Native Americans have a tendency to use in person
voting options at a higher rate and to be disproportionately
(29:21):
impacted when there are long lines or when they're polling
place closures. So one of the things that we've spent
a lot of time doing is making sure that there
are enough poll workers, because we know that when their
poll workers shortages their long lines, we know that when
their long lines, the vote is suppressed. So making sure
that there are enough poll workers to avoid the kind
of debacle we had, for example, in the African American
(29:43):
communities in Milwaukee during the primaries, or that we've seen
repeatedly in Georgia, that we saw in the Vada, that
we saw in Philadelphia. We need to make sure that
there are enough election officials so that people can wait
in shorter lines. We need to make sure that they're
not shutting down polling places. I mentioned Milwaukee in their primary.
They went from a hundred and eighty polling places in
(30:04):
the primary to five in this election, and you saw
people waited in really long lines. Some people may have
contracted coronavirus as a result of voting. Those are very
bad outcomes. We need to make sure that we keep
the polls open. On the vote by mail side, vote
by mail is an extremely effective way for people to vote.
Every serious scholar who's looked at this from the Brennan Center,
(30:27):
the Bipartisan Policy Center, from the Voter Protection Course has
concluded that this is a safe and effective way to vote.
But not all of the states that are ramping up
their vote by mail system know how to do it
well yet. So the states that have done it well
historically are really good at it, but some of the
states that are starting for the first time are rejecting
a lot of ballots for really stupid reasons, and a
(30:51):
lot of voters who are casting valid ballots are running
into rejection rates that are much higher than they ought
to be. What's a high rejection rate. Well, so, in
the states that do a good job of administering elections
vote by mail, the rights rejection can do less than
one percent. And you know, we have this tradition in
(31:12):
the voting law community of honoring the intent of the
voter and not rejecting a validly cast ballot because of
some minor procedural requirement. In the New York primary, almost
one in five ballots were rejected. It's almost ballots were rejected.
We're seeing in Philadelphia and in Pennsylvania rejection of ballots
(31:33):
because they're called naked ballots. People didn't use the proper envelopes,
and you know, we were worried that more than a
thousand people could be disenfranchised because of a really foolish
question around like which envelope did you use? So I
think those are the kinds of things we need to
teach election officials how to do better over time. But
to your initial point, you know, some of those things
(31:54):
are no longer fixable, and so what you have to
focus on now is teaching voters how to do it
and making sure that we bring down those rejection rates
just by making through voter education. What has you the
most excited or hopeful in terms of our ability to
preserve the legitimacy of our electoral system. I'll say two things.
(32:18):
The first is the one that I started with, which
is this notion that we actually are starting to have
new candidates, new voters, new people involved in our elections.
It's been really exciting to see an emergence of much
more diverse voice, of younger voices, more gender balanced candidates,
new voters. There's a real energy and if you sort
(32:40):
of think about where our country is going, you know,
the views of younger people, even in the red est states,
if you look at the demographics of some of the
states that have been traditionally I think the future is
progressive and the future is more diverse and more gender balance,
and I think that that's really exciting. We are in
an election period where people are already voting, so the
(33:03):
idea of election day is more like election season, and
I think of November three as a voting deadline, not
a voting day. What is your advice for how we
can prepare ourselves what we should expect at the end
of November three. I think you're entirely right that because
(33:24):
of the pandemic and because of some of the changes
that we've made to our election system, we should be
thinking about this as an election period, not in election day.
And one of the things that I think we ought
to do is change our view of what election night
is going to look like. So we have this picture
that somebody is going to stand up in front of
these maps on cable TV, and we're gonna watch it,
(33:45):
and then we're either going to be very happy or
very sad by the end of the night, but we're
basically going to know how the election is going to
turn out. And that's not the way it's going to
be this year, because there are a lot of states,
for good reasons, that are going to accept ballots that
are postmarked on election day but received a couple of
days afterwards. And I think it's gonna be really important
for us to shift our view and say, actually, we
(34:07):
should wait, we should be patient, we should not declare
victory or defeat until all of those ballots are counted.
I also think that there's good reason to suggest that
a lot of the Trump voters are going to vote
in person, and those votes are going to be counted earlier,
and that the Biden vote is going to be a
little bit more spread out, and so some of the
votes that are going to be counted in the days
(34:28):
after election day may well be for Biden and harrass,
and so the narrative across the week may shift a
little bit. I think that we should be very vigilant
against Donald Trump and the Turr in general, Barr and
some of their allies saying, actually, election results are final
immediately if they look a little bit more pro Trump
(34:50):
than the polls have looked, because that's actually to be expected.
And there's been some some talk of this notion of
a red mirage. But I think that the way to
think about that is that we ought to be patient
and count all of the votes. That's important in the democracy,
and wait until all of the votes are counted before
we form an assessment as to who won. What can
(35:11):
someone do who hears this isn't a lawyer or an
election lawyer or a data scientist to leave it all
in the field in this area? What does that mean? So?
First of all, there are lots of ways for you
to get involved with our organization. It's voter dash Protection
dot org. We'd love to have your help. But more broadly,
I think that you should think about using your time
(35:33):
and your money to make sure that this election reflects
your values. And using your time, I think means helping
to get out the vote. It means helping to recruit
poll workers or to monitor at the polls. There are
opportunities within both the nonpartisan sector there's the Election Protection
Coalition and within the campaign, within the Biden Harris campaign
(35:54):
to to work as a poll monitor. And if you
have resources, I do think that this is a time
to dig deep and contribute those resources to organizations or
campaigns that reflect your values. Oh that is a simple
and hard to ask, but very important one. Quentin. I
want to thank you for your time. There's been a
(36:14):
terrific conversation. I really appreciate you having me on. Many
of the voter suppression tactics and scenarios that Quentin and
Voter Protection Corps are fighting exists at just one level
(36:35):
in the system, but this is and as we know,
there are many levels, which means Angela and Block have
found themselves preparing the black community for things she never
thought she would have to consider. A lot of us
are seeing headlines and images of what the situation on
(36:56):
the ground is in Wisconsin and in Milwaukee, long lines.
You read about various efforts to make it harder to
vote this time in particular, what are you seeing in
terms of the challenge of voting in the pandemic especially,
and and how are you all trying to overcome any
of those new obstacles. We're anticipating, you know, any potentially
(37:16):
long lines, so we want to make sure that folks
are early voting or voting absentee. We also just don't
know what's going to happen on election day. We've seen
in presidential elections if there's long lines, people have to
wait a while. But we're also preparing for any voter
intimidation that's going to happen at the polls. Realistically speaking,
we heard the president talking about having his supporters poll watch,
(37:37):
and pole observed. We also know that his supporters can
be incredibly violent and incredibly dangerous, so we're preparing for
those things. But ultimately people were asking, hey, you know
we have five polling places open in April. Are we
sure that's not gonna happen no November. People have been
making plans since our disastrous election in April, and people
are like, okay, basically, come hell or high water. I
(37:59):
couldn't vote in April, but I'm going to vote in November.
And we saw people starting to make plans sense then,
and I think people are really fired up and people
will feel very very strongly about making sure that they
make a plan, they make a backup plan, and they're
making sure that their voices are heard. It's like disaster prep.
That's that's really it shouldn't be that way, But to
(38:22):
deny it is to not be prepared. I want to
touch on this political violence point with you because you've
got Kenosha, which the country is very familiar with in
terms of written house. You've got wad with Toosa and
and recent incidents with the police killing someone in folks
you know, going out to protests and being hit with
more violence from the police. And then you mentioned the
(38:45):
president and his support is being willing to use violence.
How do you prepare your communities to protect themselves in
a political environment that often goes beyond tough talk to
actual violent action. Yeah, that's a really good question, one
(39:07):
I didn't anticipate to have to do when I was
making my New Year's resolutions and preparing for the year.
You know, the amount of meetings and conversations I've had
about white militia folks, it's been astounding, It's and I
didn't expect to be having these types of conversations. We're
working with our folks from our national affiliate, the Center
for Popular Democracy, to do what we're calling voter guardian trainings,
(39:31):
making sure people understand the basic ins and out casting
a provisional ballot in case there's any you know, logistical
issues that come up with people casting their ballot, but
also being prepared to de escalate if any conflict arises,
making sure that if there is a conflict, the first
line and defense isn't to call the police. Is there
a way that we can deescalate, you know, internally, so
(39:52):
people can stand in line and to make their voice
heard safely. We're talking about all those things. We have
those trainings, our team and I know my myself personally
have gone through easily ten hours of digital security training,
which can be kind of frightening and kind of triggering
to think about, how do you keep yourself safe, understanding
(40:12):
that white militias and the Proud Boys are on standby,
and to do this work. You know, you don't want
to freak people out, but you want to be honest
that this work goes and disrupts the status quo. And
anytime you go against the status quo, we've seen what
that looks like in history. So trying to prepare our
folks and saying, you know, we're on the right side
of history, but that also means it comes with some challenges,
(40:35):
and sometimes it feels like there's a target on our back,
and it's been really tough. You know, honestly, the last
couple of months and thinking about those things have been
incredibly difficult. And it's strange to know that there's a
you know, a threat on your organization or there's a
threat to you personally, just given the fact that you
just want to empower people and just make sure that
their voices are heard. So it's it's been a challenge
(40:58):
and one that we're trying to navigate, I think in
real time, and you know, everyone's priority is making sure
that we're we're keeping everyone safe and we're still you know,
doing the best that we can to speak true to
power to just like our ancestors have done in our
civil rights icons as well. We have a view on
this show that the word citizen is less useful as
(41:20):
a legal status than it is as a verb and
a steat of actions. That we citizen, it is to
citizens our purpose here. How would you define the word
citizen if you were to interpret it as a verb? Yeah,
I would define citizen as a person without boundaries, right.
I think a lot of times people here citizen and
they always think of geographical boundaries. But what does it
(41:41):
mean to be a citizen of the society and as
a citizen of this world and want to contribute in
a way that you are able to be liberated and
free and live your true and full self while also
being able to participate in a representative, participatory democracy without
any challenges or barriers. Do you want your voice heard?
(42:04):
Your voice matters just as much as you know a
billionaire who builds their wealth off of the backs of
the working class. At the same time, you are able
to make your voice heard and live freely and in
a way where your rights, your body, who you love,
how you express yourself isn't regulated through the government that
(42:25):
doesn't look like you, that doesn't represent you, but decides
to tell you what you should do with your body
and your expression. To me, that's what it means to
be a citizen of this world and of the society.
People want to help Angela. I get asked a lot.
I live in New York or I live in California.
What can I do? How can I make sure that
(42:45):
every vote is kind of How do I support Wisconsin?
What do you say to people who want to help?
Do you have specific things you need people to do,
whether they live in Wisconsin or not. Yeah, so there's
a couple different ways we tell folks that they could
be helpful. One, I would be a bad executive director
if I didn't make a fundraising pitch. There's ways that
people can support us on our website. We have both
(43:07):
nonpartisan and partisan capabilities, and we divide up our donations
appropriately in that way too. You know, are there folks
that you think that we should get to know? Do
you have a rich uncle, does your brother make a podcast?
And do you think that I'd be a great guest?
Or are there other organizations you know, either locally or
nationally that you think that we should be collaborating with
(43:27):
we'd love to be able to get connected to other folks.
And then lastly, is that in this time where everyone
is having difficult conversations or I hope everyone is having
difficult conversations, being able to center and amplify the work
and lived experiences of our community and so being able
to amplify and share our content one so more people
(43:48):
can hear about us. But too, I think we're all
being collectively gas lit about some of these situations that
we're in. People think that racism is still not a
problem in our country, and people respond, but when you
say black lives matter, and so by being able to
really center and amplify the lived experiences of our community
through our social media is also helpful if people want
(44:10):
to to help out specifically on election day, you know,
we want to make sure that we have enough voter
guardians at polling places to de escalate where possible, So
feel free to send us a message. We're putting all
those plans together, so people can d m us on Facebook, Twitter,
and Instagram, or you can send us a note through
our website at block by block dot org and that's
Bloc b y Bloc Data Org is there anything else
(44:35):
you want to make sure to mention or to address
with this moment. I think the only thing that I
would mention is that we're living in these really dark, troubled,
unprecedented times and we just need to show up as
real people and allow ourselves the grace to feel what
we're feeling, to know that is not normal. To have
(44:58):
conversations about white militia are not normal. To have people
openly killing and shooting protesters at seventeen years old is
not normal, and we should never get used to this.
We have a choice to really decide who we want
to be as a country and how we show up
in this work. You know. I think shortly after the
murders of Brianna Taylor and George Floyd, people were buying
(45:20):
the book White Fragility. People are buying all these books,
and I hope that people are reading them. They're doing
the work, and they're not just collecting dust after they
posted them on Instagram claiming to be woke, but are
actually doing that tough work. Because this moment that we're
in is what happens when privilege goes unchecked for years
and decades, and this is our moment to really create
(45:42):
a vision of a world that we want to live in,
and we get to start over. We get to reimagine,
you know, what safety is, maybe without the police, and
we get to really kind of dream without any limitations.
But that means that we have to do that work
as well internally, all right, in terms of that content,
I know I'm checking out Civics Jeopardy. First of my
(46:04):
thank you Angela for the time, thank you for the
insight um and and thank you for the work that
you're doing and that you're a part of. Thank you,
I appreciate it, and thanks for having me on to
tell our story too. Thank you to Angela Lang and
Quincon pow Free for joining us. You can follow Angela
and Block by Block on the social She is Angela
(46:27):
underscored Lange. The organization is Block by Block m k E.
That's b l oc b y Bloc m k E.
That's on Twitter. You can also find them on the
regular Free and Open Internet at block by Block dot org.
Again that's bloc b y bloc. Follow Quincon and the
Voter Protection Core on Twitter, q poal free and Protect
(46:51):
the Vote or the respective handles, and again you can
visit that website don't forget about websites, y'all, voter dash
Detection dot org. As always, we post this episode extra
notes transcript developed by robots at how to citizen dot com,
and as always, we ask you to leave a rating
(47:13):
or review wherever you are listening to this podcast because
it helps introduce people to us. Here are the actions
the moment you've been waiting for. What is barrattune they're
gonna ask us to do? All? Right? First up internal actions,
and by internal as a refresher, we mean that these
are actions that help you reflect on yourself, explored your
(47:35):
emotions and your experiences. Or there are actions that are
personal and don't necessarily involve other people. Got too up
for you this time? First answer this question, it's the
block question. What does it mean for your community to thrive?
Could be speed bumps, probably more, think about it, write
(47:55):
it down, think about it and more. The second internal
action we want to return to June. Remember when we
were all black Lives Matter and hashtag and turn my
I G Square black. We bought a lot of books
on anti racism. Have we read them? Now is a
(48:16):
good time to check back in doing some of that
internal work to make this Land, More Free, and more fair.
Read those books. Support the organizations you said you would
support the black community in the way you said you would.
This is a good time to revisit and re engage
on the external actions. These are public facing for the
(48:39):
most part, they involved other human beings. Interactive three for
you here one just support Block in Milwaukee blocked by
block dot org slash donation. This is the sort of
group that actually makes change happen, and I, for one,
am very frustrated and annoyed at certain elements of the
(49:01):
nonprofit political philanthropic world that just pile money and resources
on the people who are not in the community, who
do not know what they're talking about. But because they
worked on some campaign eight, ten, twelve years ago, they
still get all the goods. Let's support Angela and her
team at Block again blocked by blocked out org slash
(49:23):
donations in Milwaukee. If you are there or no people there,
encourage them or yourself. Become a voter guardian again. This
is a Block's website. These are people who are going
to monitor the polls for intimidation, and they're trained to
de escalate situations instead of calling the police. So it's
(49:44):
like a two fer. We know that the President is
out here encouraging a level of nonsense and tom foolery
at the polls, and we don't want to encourage conflict
around that. We want to de escalate. Again. I trust
Block to do this the right way, so support them
and their efforts in Milwaukee to do the same. Finally,
(50:06):
volunteer to be a poll worker. Where we've asked before,
we will ask again. You literally can't have too many
in a pandemic. More poll workers means shorter lines and
also shorter shifts for poll workers, reducing everyone's exposure. Voter
Protection Corps is running a program to encourage people to
do this, so check out voter dash Protection dot org
slash be a poll worker. If you do any of
(50:29):
these things, let a brother know. Shoot me an email
action at how to citizen dot com mentioned in the
subject line voting or making our presence felt, which is
the title of this episode, And whether you tell me
personally or not, tell somebody, tell a friend, tell a
family member, do that old school chain email. Have you
voted yet? Send it on to ten people and tell
(50:51):
them what you did. In this particular episode, we encourage
you to the hashtag how to Citizen if you take
it to the socials and you can email us broadly
comments at how to citizen dot com. If there's an organization,
a person and effort you think fits in this show,
we want you to let us know. You can visit
my website, sign up from a newsletter, find out about
(51:13):
upcoming events. It's all the how do citizen dot com.
And I'm on Instagram at Barrattune Day. I'm on Patreon
slash Barrattune Day. You can even text me right now
two o eight nine four eight eight four four drop
the worst citizen in I text out that are the
first people to learn about the upcoming tapings of the show.
They get the zoom link a little earlier because honestly,
(51:34):
it's just easier for me to text it out than
spending up the whole email list thing, which comes, you know,
a day and a few hours later. All Right, that's it.
How This Citizen with barrattun Day is a production of
I Heart Radio Podcasts. Executive produced by Miles Gray, Nick Stump,
Elizabeth Stewart and Barrattune Day Thursday produced by Joel Smith,
(51:55):
edited by Justine Smith. Powered by you
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