May 7, 2025 • 46 mins
This week, we are joined by activist, author, and filmmaker Kimberly Latrice Jones, to talk about practical ways to help the youth get involved in civics, why the older generations need to put their thirst for power aside, and the difference between Black policy vs. Black politics. Make sure to check out Kimberly's work with Vocation Ventures and The Aster Project.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Small Dunce help from Small, Small Area Small.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
It's so funky. What's up, y'all?
Speaker 3 (00:18):
We're back with another episode of Small Doses podcasts. Aren't
you loving this season? I just feel like we just
keep going and going, and it's a lot of women
that are coming on and they just knocking it out
of the park.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
This is just the Kimberlee LaTrece Jones.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
It's so dope when you meet like minded spirits, right,
and this is somebody who is a like minded spirit
with myself and just being gregarious in the truth telling
of things okay, and engaging youth and activism requires that.
I don't know when it happened, but maybe it's the boomers.
(00:55):
I don't want to happen. But there's this way too
much kind of like a given to adults as like
being the all knowing when I'm not saying there shouldn't
be a respect for elders.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
But I know a lot of dumb adults.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
I know a lot of cowardly adults, and I know
a lot of shady adults. So like this idea that
like being adults is like some type of benchmark for
any level of esteem is bullshit. When we talk about activism.
It has by and large been the youth that have
led the movements, and that is international. It's been the students,
(01:32):
and it's been the young people who have said where
not God, I take get okay. It's been the young
people that have rocked the cat's bah. It has been
the young people that said London.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Like. It's been the young folks okay.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Whether it's come from punk, whether it's come from being
in the front lines of revolution as marching or rioting
or writing, et.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Cetera, the young folks be getting it.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
I largely believe that's because their minds are still malleable
and still have enough porousness to take in the principle
of things, the morals of things, the truth of things.
They haven't really closed off those barriers. They still have
(02:24):
some ability to shift, and that is why there is
such an effort to create these bulwarks. I think maybe
the word I'm looking for that get in the way
of getting to youth, whether it's through education in schools
or TikTok, you name it. Kimberly Latrese Jones is an
organizer who has made it her business to make sure
(02:45):
that youth is an incredibly important part of her activism
and organizing, And in this episode, we're going to talk
about really practical ways to engage youth in activism, whether
you're an organized or not, if you are a parent,
if you are somebody who's around anybody, if you are
somebody who's like me, I'm out here speaking all the time.
I need to be engaging youth and activism. There has
(03:05):
to be a literal practicality of how to do that
because the youth are not just general.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
They're not generic.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Okay, they have things about them that you may not
know about that you can absolutely tap into for positive
and progressive enlightenment. And so we're going to be getting
that right here. Also a hilarious time because Kimberly is
a hilarious person. That's why she writes comedy, which I
did not know until this episode.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
So let's dive on in.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
To engaging youth and activism with Miss kimberly La Trese Jones.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
We love a three names, We love it so happy
to see your pretty fate same, It's same.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
The joyousness of Miss kimberly La Trice Jones has joined
us here, a small thoses podcasts for engaging youth and
activism first and foremost.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (04:07):
I am grand? How are you? How are you?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Grand? Tell me how to get there?
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Me and Brandan been talking because first of all, I'm
so exhausted, and I feel like it's must be kind
of like sensory overloads and like just taking in all
of the news, like.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
It's so much to process, process, process.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
And like some people read the news, but I'm processing
the news, so it's not the same. It's like I'm
reading it and then thinking how does this affect me?
Speaker 2 (04:36):
How does this affect these people? How does this affect
the world? And like I think I'm just just like
I don't know. I think I'm burned out.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Gambly, we get burnt out, and see that is why
we have like sensory overload and stimulation. I hone in on, Okay,
what can I do? And I'm going to focus my
energy on what can I do? And I'm going to
block out everything else because I'm going to trust that
my brothers and sisters in the movement are doing what
(05:05):
they're supposed to do. I'm like, Okay, so Amanda's going
to make sure we're having the conversations. I'm like Michael
McClure is going to make sure that the unions are
okay you najah. How Lone Wolf is going to make
sure that we're healing through revolutionary healing. So what is
Kim's thing that she has control over that she can do?
And I'm I'm gonna run my programs and help my
people get out of poverty because that's my ambition, and
(05:28):
I'm gonna do my piece, and I cannot concern myself
with everyone else's piece. I just gotta trust my comrades
that they're doing their peace.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
I just need more comrades.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
I gotta trust that my comrades are doing what I
know that they do.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
That's what it is.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
I feel like I'm I mean, I'm still in like
a transition point in my life, right, So like I
mean it when I say like, oh, I need more
comrades because I'm kind of siloed, right because I was
in this other world of people that were pointless because
all they do is get on stage and act and
then they're like.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
I did it, and it's like well.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Ah, And so I am now like transitioned to a
space where I feel like I'm just more in alignment
with intellectuals and with folks that are humanitarian minded, right,
folks who are really about, Okay, how do we continue
to make the world a better place in spite of
and I just need to get just get a little
bit more folks, because.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
I'll send you a list of people who will be
great for the podcast. Please do different things, and we're
going to expand your comrae list and then you will know, Okay,
Tiffany be lost.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
I do know that Tiffany is over the him that
I do know.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Yes, people are handling different things, and so I'm like,
if it's a work issue, I know Tidney got it right.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
I will say this.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
I went to an event that artist Visa Butler. I
know she's so the best, and she was speaking at
Columbia University at Teachers College, and so there was a
lot of educators in the room, particularly black educators and
folks that work in organization spaces around policy around just
like amplification of black voices, et cetera.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
And nobody there was worried.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Everybody there was like, We're gonna keep doing what we've
been doing because we've always been doing the work to
challenge this stuff. Right here, I think For me, part
of it is that I'm also kind of just the
kind of person where like, if.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
I see that little negative thing over there, though, I
am like.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
But what are we doing about that thing over Nobody's
gonna do nothing about that thing over.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
There, way, Lynette.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
And that's how I feel about Democrats, oh, willild That's
how I feel about Democrats and Israel, like the idea that.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Like we don't need to continue like.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
I because the thing about it is, it's funny. I
was just talking to somebody about this. I'm like, so
many people are social justice influencers versus social justice workers.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
We see. That's what I don't want to be. I
don't want to be that.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Yeah, And so it's like the people who actually get
the spotlight and who are not over looked are the
ones who are social justice influencers. So then we're like, Okay,
everybody's having the conversations, but who's doing the work. Well,
it's like the workers are out there doing the work,
and we don't know those people. You don't know what
Scotty Smart is doing. You're not really tapped in on
(08:15):
what Gary Chambers has actually going on in terms of
programming and stuff like that. And so it's like, that's
why I stay tapped in to the social justice workers,
so I don't find myself feeling a way and being
like this about the influencers because I had to go
to the plant where I wasn't insulted by them, because
I used to feel insulted by them, since I used
to feel insulted, like I would see them in spaces.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
It's like, Okay, this.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Group of people was invited to the White House. And
then I'm looking at who's invited, and I'm like, these
are all the influencers that are invited, and the workers
are not invited. So the people who have structural change
plans that they could lay out and say, here are
the things that we've been doing.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Reason they're not invited.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Yeah, we're not here, are not having the conversations with
the lawmakers. And so that's why I conceded myself to like,
national policy and national government is not my thing. Let
somebody else handle it, you know, Let the lobbyist handle it,
Let the CNN correspondence handle it. I'm like, what can
I do in my state? Like how can I influence
my state, my county, my city where people are accessible
(09:17):
to me, where I can show up to those meetings,
even the ones I don't like. I saw recently that
our governor here was giving a little talking talk, and
so me and Mikins, no, that's our mayor. So our
governor is kem people giving a little speechy speech. And
so we went like thirty deep organizers in the state
of Georgia and set in because we're like governor camp.
We once you see that we are here, we are present,
(09:39):
we are working. We're making ourselves aware of what shifts
you're trying to make so we can be prepared to
combat them. Because a lot of times people don't want
to go to confront the problems because they're sole concerned
about the optics of it.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
So that's why, that is why you're not for the
national thing, because the national federal level.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Is all optics, all optics. That's what drives me insane.
It's all optics. But you're not about them optics. You
about them real things, okay.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Like real teens. What are we doing, Like what are
we actually getting done? And I know what I can
do at the state, city and county level, So I
focus my energy on that, and I keep telling people,
you take your state back she takes her state back,
and he takes his story back. Then the country is back.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Okay, I'll have to think on that. See, why do
you give me more work, more brain work?
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Well, you are always doing the work, and you're doing
the work with the keyids, and you know, I think
a lot of people, really, I don't know, they undermined.
I know this from talking to young people who are
trying to be a part of social justice movements and
organizations and they feel like they're being overlooked or they
feel like they're not being heard. And so I wanted
(10:52):
to talk to you about how do we engage youth
in activism. I mean people love to talk about history this,
history that, but for getting that youth. I mean it
was Fifth University, Like they were young people that were
a part of the Students for Non Violent Coordinating Committee.
Like it was young people that were sitting in in
North Carolina at these counters. It was young people that
(11:13):
were when we see the images in the Civil rights
movement of the kids with the dogs and the fire hoses.
That was the children's parade. Yes, they weren't there with
their parents. John Moose was ninety nineteen nineteen, And I
mean it's not a young person, but as someone who's
forty three.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Martin Luther King was twenty six during the Montgomery boycott.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Legitimately at people. K Fred Hampton was twenty one when
he was assassinated.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
So when we talk about youth and activism, I think
it's really not a far fetched thing. And I think
when people say things like, but the kids need to
I'm like, the kids are the best, in my opinion,
to be a part of the youth and activism because
they are the least infringed upon by adult bs. Their
(11:56):
minds are still clear about what their souls need.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Their minds are still clear, and they are more in
tune to know what needs to be done in this world.
I think back to when they had the congressional hearings
around Facebook and you had the Silent generation, which I
can't believe we still have people who are in Congress
and in the Senate that are not even boomers. They're
in the silent generation. You have the silent generation and
(12:21):
boomers who were so inept at even having the conversation
at the policebook hearings that it was like going mind
and I'm like, that's y'all's bag. It's Facebook, cause y'all
a little shitting cute because where you approached your little
pyer need yes, and they were so inept and I'm
like that to me? Who was where we should have seen?
The writing on the wall is that young people need
to be leading this conversation because the world in which
(12:44):
legislation is being created for is the world in which
they understand. And it's a world in which the people
who are elderly do not understand. So why are they
not at the forefront of the conversation when the world
that we are creating right now affects their adulthood. It
may not affec my adulthood. I may be long gone
in somebody's worm food, But this is affecting them. So
(13:06):
we need to have them participating in sculpting the world
for their adulthood.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
How do you do that?
Speaker 1 (13:12):
The first thing you do is get out of judgment
and stop deciding that if it's something that you are
not interested in, that it is not a modality in
order to get them excited. Okay, so you're not excited
about social media, well they are. You are not excited
about certain concerts, well they are. You're not. The young
games video games, Twitch, all of these spaces in which
(13:33):
they can be engauged. That's the first thing is utilizing
the tools that we have access to to communicate with
them and communicating to them in a way in which
is interesting to them. I tell people all the time.
People always say, oh, Kim, you're so concise. I'm concise
because I am intentionally trying to talk to young people,
and young people don't want to get a forty five
minute lecture for me. But if I can put it
into a five minute sound bite, that can then become
(13:55):
a video that I can throw some graphics on top
of that they can share. Now I have their attention.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
So Okay, what are like some like literal ways that
you've been working with young people within movement spaces.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Well, one of the things I did. You and I
have talked about this before is when I was trying
to invigorate the youth vote a few years ago. I
worked with the People United and we threw a Gucci
concert and the only way that they could get in
they couldn't buy a ticket. The only way that they
could get in was to show proof that they had
registered to vote, and we had Amaretta and Ti Son
(14:34):
Demani and all these people that were there performing, but
also in that same room, in that facility, we had
people there continuing to register people to vote in case
they brought AU plus one with their ticket. We had
about sixteen organizations, including NAACP, Black Voters Matter, all of
them with booths set up and they were going around
(14:55):
giving literature to the young people. They were talking to
them bed booths. We had Pisa to the poll that
that gave everybody free pizza, so that enticed them to
be there and engage in the conversation they needed to
engage in at the votes. A lot of young people
that we engaged at that event signed up to be
campersers for Black Voters Matter because they didn't even know
that they can get paid for canvassy.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
What So in this process? What have been impediments other
older people? I knew he was gonna say, Yes, other older.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
People have been impediments. And the interesting thing is, I
think people think I'm millennial. I am not a millennial.
I'm silently gen x right and so forty nine black
jum correct. Oh, I got to be a good Amanda
(15:50):
Seal team.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
A man, you got a rock on with that millennia.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
So I have just found that that's been And here's
the thing. In order for anything to work, you have
to have world knowledge and worldview. You have to have wisdom,
you have to have skill, you have to have access,
you have to have resource. All five of those don't
rest with millennials and up, and all five of those
(16:18):
don't rest with gen Z and gen alpha. So that
is supposed to be. The whole point is that when
I was with People United, our CEO was twenty two
years old. Our CEO was twenty two years old.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
That's a lot for me. I ain't gonna lie to you.
That's a lot for me.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Yes, we put him at the helm of running an
organization and then we built a board around him of wisdom.
So we had a board of the ogs.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Now one made that interesting with the twenty two year
old CEO. Would he talk to young people about joining
the organization and the work that we were doing. He
knew how to talk to them to get them excited.
Because me at forty nine trying to figure out, scratch
my head, like how do I get them excited? We
didn't have to worry about that. The twenty two year
old was getting them excited, and then the board was
(17:05):
sitting back with the wisdom saying, no, we can't spend
funds on that. Yes, the type of five, O, one
C three were in. We can't endorse candidates. But here's
what we can do all of that kind of stuff
to make sure. We basically built an organization for young
people and we were there for support. The problem is
older people want to be the HG N I C
all the time.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
I hear what you're saying. I hear what you're saying.
I hear what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
We have to be a support system for them. Your grandmothers,
all of our grandmothers, our grandmays, wherever you are from.
They did not rule the family in the way in
which we recall it. They supported the family. So mama
and daddy ran the family, and grandma was there as
the support system to pull Bama and Daddy's coattail and say, hey,
(17:48):
leave that baby alone, let that baby go down there
to the dance. And that is the way movements have
to be structured. You have to have the millennials and
the gen xers, they're working alongside the younger people, and
then have the boomers in the silent generation, they're on
the board saying, because guess what, it's interesting. The boomers
(18:09):
and the silent generation are going to be the ones
to tell Gen X and millennials, let that baby do
that thing. He got it, and if he falls, we'll
pick them up.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
I mean, I feel like this feels so much like right.
So how do we get right?
Speaker 1 (18:23):
The first thing that we do in order to get
right is we look around at organizations by young people
and instead of starting a competitive organization, we come in
in the sense of support. When I see a young
person starting an organization, I don't look at it like, oh,
they're trying to be in competition. To me, my answer
is do you have all your paperwork in a row.
If you don't, my organization can be your fiscal sponsor
(18:45):
so that you don't get into financial trouble. Okay, you
have your organization together. We have this huge event that
we do every year where we have vendors. How about
we offer you a free vending booth where you're able
to express yourself and you're us all able to be
around your colleagues who are doing this work. When we
are forming these organizations and they're new and they're green
and they don't know what they're doing. We give them
(19:07):
the jobs that enhance them with the skill set. Okay,
you may not be ready to be the calm director,
but what I'm gonna do is make you a canvasser
where you are going out there, and I give you
six months of that. You will be prepared to be
the calm director and then we can start talking about it.
All of us want to be the hot girl, and
we don't want to be big mama. We need some
more big mama activity in this world. I desire to
(19:30):
be big mama. What can big Mama do to help you?
What you need Nana to do? Come to Nana's house
and Nana gonna give you what you need and show
you what you need. I'm not competitive with these young
people and trying to take up space where the space
should be for them.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Why are people so competitive with the young people?
Speaker 3 (19:46):
They just don't want to give up. I guess whatever
version of relevance they feel like they have power.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
The same thing that has been the demise of this
country is power. When we show up to the gala
to raise money, we want people this d sick desire
to be the one that when they say, and we
just want to thank Amanda because her work that she
has done on the Jigawats Committee really is what got
(20:12):
us over the hump of what we needed and we
were able to raise fifty thousand dollars due to her
due diligence. We want to do that instead of saying,
thank God I found this amazing young woman Rose. The
work of dialis is that she has done to grow
this organization this year is beyond me. If we get
twenty more young people like her, what a force will
(20:33):
be to reckon with? Rose. Come give the people if
your words you want to give the words, we want
to give, the greeting, the salutations, the dinner.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
To Please tell me what work does the Jigawats Organization do.
I want to know what sector of the community the
Jigawats Foundation is servicing because I want to come through
and sit in on a meeting for the giggle lots.
(21:04):
You know you're saying stuff that I feel like I
want to get even down to even more brass tacks
for the people who are sitting in the car right
now or who are listening to this in the house
with a young person. What are some positions that young
people can look to step into in these roles like
you talked about canvassing, you talked about comms directors, like
(21:24):
I think a lot of it too, is a level
of ignorance around kind of like, well, what space is
there for me? I think some young people are like,
I want to get started, I want to be a
part of this. And there are some that are.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Just like I'm going to figure it out and I'm
going to work it out.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
But then there are some to get paralyzed by simply
just maybe not even knowing, like well, where is an
entry point that I can step into and where would
I be needed. Also, I be feeling like a lot
of young people these days only see influencers.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
They only see influencers, and that's part of the problems
that we are not entering into their spaces for them
to even learn what to do and how to do.
You know. So I say we go back to the
old school. There are all schools every year have a
jobreer pay. Yeah, they have a career day. So we
(22:11):
need a lot of these organizers, organization CEOs and people
like that actively trying to get into these career days.
Look at the top twenty high schools in your school
district and send out a formal email saying, Hey, when
you have career day, I am the director, I am
the CEO of this nonprofit. I would love to come
talk to your students about what's available in the sector.
(22:34):
Get your local elected officials, especially the position that they
don't know about the comptroller. People like that, they need
to be doing career days at these schools. The other
thing is, even when young people have been the ones
that we're talking about that have that get up and
go and going to start on their own, when you
see them start an organization, give them a day in
(22:54):
the life of your life. Say hey, I love what
you're doing. What you're doing is amazing. I want to
do a day in the life with you where you
spend the entire day with me. So you see what
my position actually does. You see the people that I
have to communicate with. You see how I engage my staff.
You see what type of work I have to get done.
And I'm gonna do two days. I'm gonna do one
day while you follow me, and then I'm gonna do
(23:15):
one day where you follow my second hand or my assistant.
So you see what they do in terms of support
of the work that I do. We have to be intentional.
A lot of times people want people to gravitate to them,
and their ideology is well, if they were really interested,
they would seek out Well, you can't seek out what
you don't know facts.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
You can't seek out what you don't know.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
What are some things in working with the youth in
activism that have surprised you?
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Or maybe that just you learned.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Here's the first thing I learned. The youth is boxed
the sellouts. In a second, the youth will tell me
very quickly who the trolls are, who the coons are?
Miss Kim, you friends were.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
All that face?
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Ah interesting, I'm at the start second giess, and you,
miss Kim, if you over to hang it, what up?
She is?
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Coon?
Speaker 1 (24:06):
To the tenth fout?
Speaker 3 (24:07):
You know.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
They tell me who they have worked with at the
State House and that they have been paiges for that.
They're just like that person is not who they portrayed
themselves to be. They're in the room with somebody for
a very short period of time and they can hear
the dog whistles and are like, Miss Kim, are you
sure about her? Because I don't rock with her. I
don't know. I was with one of my young people
(24:31):
who recently ran for office and unfortunately did not win
his seat. But I was with him yesterday working on
some projects and I mentioned someone to him that I
wanted to connect to him with, and he was like
a He was like with Kim, let me take the
ten reasons why a person Coon.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Well, you know, Coon for them also is different than
I feel like it was for us.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Oh no, for sure, for us, I feel like Coon
was somebody who just you know, kind of be just sellout, right,
like in terms of like, oh you.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Really don't represent blackness.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
Coon for them is this is someone who's made a
career out of weaponizing their blackness against black people.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Yep, that's a whole actual job. At this point. There
are people that we can name right now who.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Have decided this is my career path selling out black
people as a black person.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Yeah, as a full on black person. And one of
the things that young people pointed out to me is
some pure coonery and buffoonery is even if you have
not made a career of selling out your people, will
you have not recognized that your time is up and
are not willing to pass the baton for the sake
of holding on your suit. You have now into the
(25:41):
coon jet. Yes, I don't care what you did. That
was great if you're eighty two, your whole.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
We're talking about Maxine Waters.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Oh for sure, let it go her. And what's that
other one who be throwing fishbros.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Clyburn.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
I don't need no fish bro, I need some bos.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
When I went to CBC the first and last time
that I went to the Congressional Black Caucus, because it
really is just a big old fish fry with fancy shoes,
I moderated a panel that Jasmine Crockett had put together
and someone there was a council member in Jersey, and
she said there's a difference between black politics and black policy,
and that was so like the whole room went, oh.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
And that's what I think.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
We're really getting into the thick of now, right, Like
we're really starting to see who is here for black
policy and who is here for black politics. And it
doesn't necessarily even have to be a black person, and
it doesn't have to be a Republican or a Democrat,
because the mayor of Atlanta is not about black policy.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Oh god, no, but he's a Democrat and he's black.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Yeah, and he's friends with rappers, friends with rappers.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
So how does the getting the youth involved in activism
work when we see, like, how what am I trying
to say? We're in a scenario now where there's now
like a political fallout.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
If you hear snoring, that's my cat Lando.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
He has cancer, so he can do whatever he wants
and he's right here, so we're seeing political fallout. Does
getting youth in activism cross over to getting youth in
civics and in politics?
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Yes, But civics is far more important than politics now,
and I'll tell you why because the first step is
empowering young people to know how they can combat those
who are practicing poor politics. And if you get them
to learn that, you're more apt to get them to
want to walk into politics if they learn how to
typically engage and combat the people who's politics they don't like.
(27:46):
So what I always tell people, you want to get
young people excited about potentially running someday, don't start grooming
them to run for politics. Nurture a love of civics
in them, and then it will naturally lead them to
wanting to run in politics. So teach young people how
to grassroots lobby. If you teach young people how to control, manage,
and get something done at a council meeting, at a
(28:09):
commissioner's meeting, you'll be holding the commissioners accountable enough because
they got one of the biggest budgets in the city
and control so much down to the things we don't like,
like the jails, Yet we give them all this grace
and all these passes, which is crazy to me. I'm like,
I tell people all the time. They're like, you go
to all the I said, I go to all the meetings,
But I'm telling you where I am a regular is
(28:29):
down there with them commissioners. If you really want to
know what's going on with the money, that's where you
have to go. You have to go Sity and on
those commission meetings. One of my favorite moments in Black
civics in Atlanta was they were getting to surpassed a
really disrespectfully low key racist noise ordnance in p Street right, yes,
where all of these black businesses are. Yeah, it's a
(28:51):
nightclub district. How you gonna have a noise ordnance?
Speaker 2 (28:54):
We are winning the club one twelve down now.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
In a club district, you're gonna pass a no, you're
going to have effect on these people's businesses. So what
happened was in less than forty eight hours, and less
than forty eight hours, a nightclub coalition was formed with strippers,
bottle girls, DJs, club promoters, club owners, bar backs, cleaning companies,
everybody who works in the club district. They came to
(29:20):
the city council meeting over two hundred deep. It's the
first time I've ever been at a city council meeting.
They had to use the overflow.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Room, not the reggae room.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
They had to use the reggae room. So many people
got up as spoke, but many people signed up for
public comment and then conceded their time to Killer Mike.
So all these people conceded their time to Killer Mike,
who owned the club or restaurant or something in that district.
So now Killer Mike goes from his three minutes to
about forty minutes that he can speak, and all these
(29:49):
other people spoke. That bill went back to committee. Now
people who know anything about civics know where the bill
has to go back to the committee. It normally goes
there to die.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
It goes to to.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Died or is going to be changed so much in
committee to come back to the floor.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
It ain't gonna look like what y'all was there for.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
It ain't gonna look like what y'all was there for.
It all that bill went back to committee just like that.
That's why I was telling people local glass roots lobby
is the most effective because just the sheer amount of
people who showed up. Let these people who at the
end of the day, their whole ambition is not to
pass policies, keep their jobs. They don't care about passing policy.
(30:28):
They care about keeping their jobs. So the idea that
all these young people striperelling them bottle Girl number four,
all of them showed up, DJ such and so.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
DJ jiggawayt DJ Jigawa.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
All came through, Okay, from club get it, get it.
They were all there. That alone put enough fear in
the heart of the Council that they realized the noise
that would come from passing this.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Bill, and they don't want the noise. Bill died in committee.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
But what happened in that was out of that no,
out of the over two hundred, were they all going
to continue to be typically engaged. No, But you got
about ten who are solidly still civically engaged, And some
of them only came because it was like, we're doing
the club right at City Council today.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
This is what's being done.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
This is what being done. If you don't want to
be left out, you don't want to not be in
the post when it's done. But for some of them
sitting in there, a light bulb went off and oh,
I didn't know I could affect change in this way.
This is how I affect change. And so we've got
to engage them civically to teach them. You know, one
thing I teach people all the time. I tell people
a story about I lived before when I understood black
(31:40):
history but didn't understand civics in the way that I
do now. I lived on the street. My son's in
college now he's his mama's child pre law partisign And
I lived on the street when he was really little,
where I had an eighth of an acre on the
side of my house, grassy that he could have played in.
I still had to take him to the park because
at least every other day a car would roll into
our yard, and I was like, even if I'm out
(32:01):
there I might not be fast enough to get to him,
so I'm not doing it. If I understand civics, then
the way which I do now, I would have understood
my own personal power in getting that corner assessed and
getting a new lane put in and getting new stop
lights put in with just sheerly a petition.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
But I didn't know.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Eventually sold the house because I was like, this house
is just unsafe. One day somebody go to roll into
my house. Now I hate that because what that house
is worth now? And then they would ragged the house.
But at the end of the day, the greatest trick
they played on us was telling us we have no power.
And when you really condition people to believe they have
no power, they won't move. They won't even move on
(32:41):
the power that they have.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
They won't move on the power that they have. And
eventually they won't have power. Yeah, because that's the other part, right, like,
eventually they won't have power. And I feel like there's
a necessity now to really address young people and their
power in a different way then maybe we were in
the past, right because the issues are also far more
(33:04):
urgent and really in front of their faces. There was
a point in time where I feel like if you
didn't care about politics, you didn't have to know about it.
It wasn't really in your mix like that. I mean,
even when Trump became president, it was like you could
really just put your head in the sand and just
not pay attention. And they were talking about politics every day.
But you could be like, I don't know who this person.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
I don't know who.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
I say that as somebody who did that. I was like,
I don't want to know. Yeah, I don't want to know.
Whereas now they have successfully made politicians celebrities.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
We got a whole reality star in Augus, ma'am.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
When I saw them all at that funeral and I
saw how people were commenting on it like it was
the Kardashians, or like it was seeing people sitting courtside
at a basketball game, That's when I said, oh, they
did it.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Yeah. And they were trying to get the tea. Ooh,
she didn't sit by us, so she don't like her.
I'm like, what is it the Real House or the
White House?
Speaker 2 (33:53):
I said, Oh, they did it.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
They finally got Americans to look at politicians as celebrities.
And once you start looking at politics the celebrities, you're
no longer looking at them as people who have actual
legislative responsibilities. You're looking at them as people that you're
just watching voyeuristically. So like when I see politicians going
to confront elon Musk and they're like, oh, they wouldn't
let us in, I'm like, this why we need kids,
(34:15):
because if you had some teenagers there, they're going to
be like, you're not letting us in.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Somebody, where's the gate. I'm climb over the gate.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
I'm climbing over the gate. But first of all, you
need young people to do that because these non Meganese
we need to get over the gate. I mean stuck
on the gate, hanging by my shirt look crazy.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Facts.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
They also don't have the same things to lose. Young
people do have something to lose, but it's not the same.
And I think we're in a country where our material goods,
our possessions, our positions, possessions and positions are just so
much more important to people than the position of their
community to get access to anything.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
And adulthood is very similar to high school. People are
still trying to have crime to the cool kids, and
so part of it is, which is why we need
the young people, is because young people don't see these
legislators as the cool kids. They don't they don't see
them as the cool kids. They're not looking at them
like you know. I listen, many people are not a
fan of mine. I'm gonna kid, I'm a fan. I
(35:19):
appreciate that I'm a fan of yours. I don't get
invited to the cool kid events.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Say I get kicked out of the cool kid group chats.
I'm with all of that. You know, they listen, Why
are they not a fan of yours?
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Do you believe I believe that they're not a fan
of mine because I don't honor proximity to the cool
kids above actually doing the work. So I'm not going
to say that Andre Dickens is a good mayor so
that I can be invited to the Mayor's ball.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
You're not gonna be polite in the way of progress, No,
that's what you're not gonna do.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
That's one point. And when people are trash and fake
and phony and worth two dollars, I'm going to still
call them out for being I held a press conference
against Fannie Willis at the height of her becoming the
cool girl, for her trial and for her trying Trump,
and my whole thing was, I hope you're enjoying this ride,
and y'all all posting her till my black girl magic,
(36:13):
Black girl magic. Meanwhile, before she ran for office, myself
and selfal others put her on a zoom call with
close to twenty of the mothers of people who have
been killed by police brutality, and those cases are sitting
on her desk untried, and she made a commitment to
us that she would try those cases, and instead she
tried YSL and Trump because she wanted to be popularized.
(36:38):
You are the district attorney here in this city. You
need to be trying the cases that are important to
this city. You have a legal job to do. I
don't understand why I was supposed to join the club
and see you as like a little industry warning because
you were trying Trump. I know you have let down,
lied to, and not held up your word about what
(37:01):
you promised the people of this city.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
Hot girl, I'm speechless in my solidarity because I'm really
just I'm like, that's how I feel about Kamala Harris.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
That's how I felt.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
Oh yeah, and you know, I did you know when
I was on the Breakfast Club, I talked about why
rock with Kamala, and then when I was on another show,
I talked about why and Rock with Kamala and I
did not endorse her. And I remember there's a social
justice influencer who made some like in the Arms of
an Angel video with a whole bunch of people in
it with Kamala Harrison tagged me to it, and she
dragged me to a million people because I politely DM
(37:34):
Darren was like, do not assume you know my politics.
Do not add me to this type of thing without
my permission. First of all, that's intrusive to decide that
you're going to use my likeness to endorse what you
are interested in without communicating with me, and about assuming
what it is that I like. And she told a
million people that I was a cool No, I believe
(37:55):
the coolness you beloved.
Speaker 2 (37:56):
It's so okay.
Speaker 3 (37:59):
We are gonna go to our Patreon only segment because
I want to talk about what is the different way
that we need to approach young people now that we
may not have been doing in the past five years,
if anything, like, what are the changes that we need
to apply?
Speaker 2 (38:15):
So my Patreon folks, y'all know what to do.
Speaker 3 (38:17):
Join us over at the seal squad with Miss Kimberly
latrese Jones. Don't nobody like her and don't nobody like me,
but we like each other and y'all love us, so
come on join us. So okay, these kids have so
many influences now, right, they have all these other things
(38:41):
going on.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
How do we keep them from becoming coons?
Speaker 1 (38:46):
An educated man could never be a coon, right, an
educated woman could never be a cool I don't know.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
I don't know. I feel like coonan has expanded now.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Yes, and when I say educated, I'm not talking about
traditional educator, I'm talking about it doing exactly what I
said on them. Okay, okay, if you are in your
home and you are having real conversations with your kids,
because let me be clear, your kids are having political
conversations in high school. Your kids are having political conversations,
and their social studies class and their history class. They
(39:18):
are having political conversations amongst their friends. Yet you think
it's outside of their pay grade to have conversations. So
you have left them to be having conversations with the
world and being influenced by the world because you don't
want to have those conversations. Also because you're not educated
enough to have those conversations.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
That's the real reason.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Yeah, So how do we stop young people from becoming clones?
We make sure that we are teaching them real civics,
real history, and that when we see something that gets
on our nerves, we're explaining to them why. When my
son was like ten, eleven, twelve years old, and I
would be watching the news and I would, you know,
throw a milkshake at the TV. And who would ask
(39:56):
me what was going on? I would explain to him,
even as young it's ten, Even as young as ten,
I would explain to him why this was upsetting. And
when him and his little innocent mind would be like, why, mommy,
that sounds like a nice thing they're doing, and I
would be like, no, not a nice thing. Let me
properly contextualizes for you child exactly. And guess what, mon
(40:17):
So son, they had a poon vone in his body.
And this is why he was the amnesty president in
his high school. That's why he was in the BSU
on his high school. That's why he was on student
council on his whigh school. That's why he started his
own voting initiative this last voting cycle, which was his first.
He's a college freshman. It was his first election. He
started him a voting initiative called Vote Nigga. Yes, Vote Nigga.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
He started his vote Nigga campaign and was very successful.
When he's Vote Nigga campaign and he's pre law poly
SciAm wants to actually make real change in the world.
But I never ran away from difficult conversations with him. Now,
I didn't expose my child to things that were beyond
what he should because assume it as a question. But
having a fair reasonable conversation with him about what things
(41:04):
are has made it so his purview in the world
is such and set up that he's going to be
one of those young people that we talk about that
look and be like not him, not her, you could
not you.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
I love it, I love it. I love you. I
love what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
And I really just am glad to be able to
platform and amplify the work of folks like yourself.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
Because the rest of the worlds we is this. I
just you know, I don't like shut up kill Jos.
I'm like you shut up.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
You shut up. They're like shut up. Aman of cels,
I'm like, make me do something.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
I'm like, I'm on a seven kids, I'm scared of you, and.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
I'm the opposite. I'm like, I'm the only child. I've
been out here by myself. You think I'm scared of you?
I really feel like.
Speaker 3 (41:55):
You know, it's in this time that people like you, though,
are who people end up really having to pivot to
because they realized, well, this is somebody who's been the
same this whole time. This person been saying this this
whole time. Like they're not pivoting to this, you know, like,
oh now I get it. No, they were saying this,
and that means that they have a better understanding of it.
(42:16):
And we're going to start seeing a lot of shifting happening.
And a lot of that shifting, I feel like, is
going to be going away from politics from politicians, sure,
because the politicians aren't really showing up the way that
people thought they were. I think people thought politicians were organizers.
That's what I feel like a lot of people think
they think that politicians are like organizers in the capitol,
(42:38):
and they're not. And so my last question is how
do we encourage a new generation of young people to
look at politics as being public servants, not as being
a part of politics.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
Start taking field trips and taking young people to city
council meetings so they can see how diabolically dysfunctional it
is and how it is not this fly cream of
the crop conversation amongst grand intellectuals and philosophers is a
gaggle of dodo birds flapping their wings, yelling at each other,
(43:17):
cussing each other out name, call it act of the fool,
and are not even intellectual enough themselves to actually be
sitting in those seats. And here's I'll end with this,
And this is something that really grinds my gears. We
have to stop being anti intellect and making it seem
it's cool to be the everyday guy. If right now
(43:39):
somebody came here and said, Kim, you need to have
open heart surgery, I do not want the local carpenter
performing open heart surgery on me. This ideology that people
who should be passing policy for one of the largest
nations in the world should be every day momo jojopopo
from up the street is the most ridiculous I've ever heard.
(44:02):
For some people who are leading the free worlds, we
need the most intellectual, the most informed, the most prepared
to be statesmen of this country in those seats, and
I don't want to hear any more conversation about They
feel like somebody I want to have a beer with.
I don't want to have a beer with my legislator.
(44:22):
I want to have to purchase a ticket and sit
twelve rows backs here my legislator. Because they are glific
and profound that access to them is limited. I don't
want move on them in office.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
We don't want DJ Jiggawatts passing legislation.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
That's all.
Speaker 1 (44:41):
That's all I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
The last.
Speaker 3 (44:49):
Well, I gotta tell you I knew this was gonna
be good, and it was great.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
I had two great podcast conversations today. This is why
we do small those podcasts.
Speaker 1 (44:58):
Y'all. We're seven years in and it.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
Just keeps getting better and better and better. Thank you
so much.
Speaker 3 (45:05):
Please let people know where they can learn more about
your work, where they can get their kids involved, or
where they can get involved with getting kids involved.
Speaker 1 (45:12):
Yes, two things. You can follow my website www dot
Kimberlywatrees Jones dot com. You can follow me on trash
ass Metal.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
I know, but hey, hey, I'm at Google.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
I get it, you know at Kimberly Watrees Jones. Also
on Instagram, you can follow my nonprofit Vocation Ventures and
my project that I'm super excited about. You can follow
my project, the Astor Project. The Astor Project is the
project I've been working on for five years. We finally
got funding this year and are pulling the trigger on it.
(45:44):
The Aster Project is a project where we are taking
the lives of people who have been unfortunately killed at
the hands of police, and we are humanizing them. We
are not talking about their cases, We're not talking about
what happened to them on the infamous nights where they
are unlive. We have been sitting with their families, their friends,
their loved ones and learning who they really are. And
we are painting urals. We are writing a book of
(46:05):
short stories, and we are making an album. I don't
even know if I can say who the producer is.
I don't know if it's been publicly announced yet, but
it's somebody super huge, like a multiple Grammy winning platinum
producer volunteered it's time to produce the album, and we
are making songs about these people so we can see
their humanity.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
And it's as t o R or a st e.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
R ast e r ast e R the ASTOR project.
Speaker 3 (46:28):
Well, we are looking forward for that and when that
comes out, when it starts like really getting available to people,
will you please come on Views from Amandoland.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
To talk about it.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
I most certainly will.
Speaker 3 (46:37):
All right, well you all know what it is. It's
a Small Loses podcast. Thank you so much, Kimberly Laterrese Jones.
Get your kids active in activism for sure,
Small Dunce help from Small, Small Area Small.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
It's so funky. What's up, y'all?
Speaker 3 (00:18):
We're back with another episode of Small Doses podcasts. Aren't
you loving this season? I just feel like we just
keep going and going, and it's a lot of women
that are coming on and they just knocking it out
of the park.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
This is just the Kimberlee LaTrece Jones.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
It's so dope when you meet like minded spirits, right,
and this is somebody who is a like minded spirit
with myself and just being gregarious in the truth telling
of things okay, and engaging youth and activism requires that.
I don't know when it happened, but maybe it's the boomers.
(00:55):
I don't want to happen. But there's this way too
much kind of like a given to adults as like
being the all knowing when I'm not saying there shouldn't
be a respect for elders.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
But I know a lot of dumb adults.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
I know a lot of cowardly adults, and I know
a lot of shady adults. So like this idea that
like being adults is like some type of benchmark for
any level of esteem is bullshit. When we talk about activism.
It has by and large been the youth that have
led the movements, and that is international. It's been the students,
(01:32):
and it's been the young people who have said where
not God, I take get okay. It's been the young
people that have rocked the cat's bah. It has been
the young people that said London.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Like. It's been the young folks okay.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Whether it's come from punk, whether it's come from being
in the front lines of revolution as marching or rioting
or writing, et.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Cetera, the young folks be getting it.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
I largely believe that's because their minds are still malleable
and still have enough porousness to take in the principle
of things, the morals of things, the truth of things.
They haven't really closed off those barriers. They still have
(02:24):
some ability to shift, and that is why there is
such an effort to create these bulwarks. I think maybe
the word I'm looking for that get in the way
of getting to youth, whether it's through education in schools
or TikTok, you name it. Kimberly Latrese Jones is an
organizer who has made it her business to make sure
(02:45):
that youth is an incredibly important part of her activism
and organizing, And in this episode, we're going to talk
about really practical ways to engage youth in activism, whether
you're an organized or not, if you are a parent,
if you are somebody who's around anybody, if you are
somebody who's like me, I'm out here speaking all the time.
I need to be engaging youth and activism. There has
(03:05):
to be a literal practicality of how to do that
because the youth are not just general.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
They're not generic.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Okay, they have things about them that you may not
know about that you can absolutely tap into for positive
and progressive enlightenment. And so we're going to be getting
that right here. Also a hilarious time because Kimberly is
a hilarious person. That's why she writes comedy, which I
did not know until this episode.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
So let's dive on in.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
To engaging youth and activism with Miss kimberly La Trese Jones.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
We love a three names, We love it so happy
to see your pretty fate same, It's same.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
The joyousness of Miss kimberly La Trice Jones has joined
us here, a small thoses podcasts for engaging youth and
activism first and foremost.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (04:07):
I am grand? How are you? How are you?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Grand? Tell me how to get there?
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Me and Brandan been talking because first of all, I'm
so exhausted, and I feel like it's must be kind
of like sensory overloads and like just taking in all
of the news, like.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
It's so much to process, process, process.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
And like some people read the news, but I'm processing
the news, so it's not the same. It's like I'm
reading it and then thinking how does this affect me?
Speaker 2 (04:36):
How does this affect these people? How does this affect
the world? And like I think I'm just just like
I don't know. I think I'm burned out.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Gambly, we get burnt out, and see that is why
we have like sensory overload and stimulation. I hone in on, Okay,
what can I do? And I'm going to focus my
energy on what can I do? And I'm going to
block out everything else because I'm going to trust that
my brothers and sisters in the movement are doing what
(05:05):
they're supposed to do. I'm like, Okay, so Amanda's going
to make sure we're having the conversations. I'm like Michael
McClure is going to make sure that the unions are
okay you najah. How Lone Wolf is going to make
sure that we're healing through revolutionary healing. So what is
Kim's thing that she has control over that she can do?
And I'm I'm gonna run my programs and help my
people get out of poverty because that's my ambition, and
(05:28):
I'm gonna do my piece, and I cannot concern myself
with everyone else's piece. I just gotta trust my comrades
that they're doing their peace.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
I just need more comrades.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
I gotta trust that my comrades are doing what I
know that they do.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
That's what it is.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
I feel like I'm I mean, I'm still in like
a transition point in my life, right, So like I
mean it when I say like, oh, I need more
comrades because I'm kind of siloed, right because I was
in this other world of people that were pointless because
all they do is get on stage and act and
then they're like.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
I did it, and it's like well.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Ah, And so I am now like transitioned to a
space where I feel like I'm just more in alignment
with intellectuals and with folks that are humanitarian minded, right,
folks who are really about, Okay, how do we continue
to make the world a better place in spite of
and I just need to get just get a little
bit more folks, because.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
I'll send you a list of people who will be
great for the podcast. Please do different things, and we're
going to expand your comrae list and then you will know, Okay,
Tiffany be lost.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
I do know that Tiffany is over the him that
I do know.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Yes, people are handling different things, and so I'm like,
if it's a work issue, I know Tidney got it right.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
I will say this.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
I went to an event that artist Visa Butler. I
know she's so the best, and she was speaking at
Columbia University at Teachers College, and so there was a
lot of educators in the room, particularly black educators and
folks that work in organization spaces around policy around just
like amplification of black voices, et cetera.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
And nobody there was worried.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Everybody there was like, We're gonna keep doing what we've
been doing because we've always been doing the work to
challenge this stuff. Right here, I think For me, part
of it is that I'm also kind of just the
kind of person where like, if.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
I see that little negative thing over there, though, I
am like.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
But what are we doing about that thing over Nobody's
gonna do nothing about that thing over.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
There, way, Lynette.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
And that's how I feel about Democrats, oh, willild That's
how I feel about Democrats and Israel, like the idea that.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Like we don't need to continue like.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
I because the thing about it is, it's funny. I
was just talking to somebody about this. I'm like, so
many people are social justice influencers versus social justice workers.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
We see. That's what I don't want to be. I
don't want to be that.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Yeah, And so it's like the people who actually get
the spotlight and who are not over looked are the
ones who are social justice influencers. So then we're like, Okay,
everybody's having the conversations, but who's doing the work. Well,
it's like the workers are out there doing the work,
and we don't know those people. You don't know what
Scotty Smart is doing. You're not really tapped in on
(08:15):
what Gary Chambers has actually going on in terms of
programming and stuff like that. And so it's like, that's
why I stay tapped in to the social justice workers,
so I don't find myself feeling a way and being
like this about the influencers because I had to go
to the plant where I wasn't insulted by them, because
I used to feel insulted by them, since I used
to feel insulted, like I would see them in spaces.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
It's like, Okay, this.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Group of people was invited to the White House. And
then I'm looking at who's invited, and I'm like, these
are all the influencers that are invited, and the workers
are not invited. So the people who have structural change
plans that they could lay out and say, here are
the things that we've been doing.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Reason they're not invited.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Yeah, we're not here, are not having the conversations with
the lawmakers. And so that's why I conceded myself to like,
national policy and national government is not my thing. Let
somebody else handle it, you know, Let the lobbyist handle it,
Let the CNN correspondence handle it. I'm like, what can
I do in my state? Like how can I influence
my state, my county, my city where people are accessible
(09:17):
to me, where I can show up to those meetings,
even the ones I don't like. I saw recently that
our governor here was giving a little talking talk, and
so me and Mikins, no, that's our mayor. So our
governor is kem people giving a little speechy speech. And
so we went like thirty deep organizers in the state
of Georgia and set in because we're like governor camp.
We once you see that we are here, we are present,
(09:39):
we are working. We're making ourselves aware of what shifts
you're trying to make so we can be prepared to
combat them. Because a lot of times people don't want
to go to confront the problems because they're sole concerned
about the optics of it.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
So that's why, that is why you're not for the
national thing, because the national federal level.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Is all optics, all optics. That's what drives me insane.
It's all optics. But you're not about them optics. You
about them real things, okay.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Like real teens. What are we doing, Like what are
we actually getting done? And I know what I can
do at the state, city and county level, So I
focus my energy on that, and I keep telling people,
you take your state back she takes her state back,
and he takes his story back. Then the country is back.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Okay, I'll have to think on that. See, why do
you give me more work, more brain work?
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Well, you are always doing the work, and you're doing
the work with the keyids, and you know, I think
a lot of people, really, I don't know, they undermined.
I know this from talking to young people who are
trying to be a part of social justice movements and
organizations and they feel like they're being overlooked or they
feel like they're not being heard. And so I wanted
(10:52):
to talk to you about how do we engage youth
in activism. I mean people love to talk about history this,
history that, but for getting that youth. I mean it
was Fifth University, Like they were young people that were
a part of the Students for Non Violent Coordinating Committee.
Like it was young people that were sitting in in
North Carolina at these counters. It was young people that
(11:13):
were when we see the images in the Civil rights
movement of the kids with the dogs and the fire hoses.
That was the children's parade. Yes, they weren't there with
their parents. John Moose was ninety nineteen nineteen, And I
mean it's not a young person, but as someone who's
forty three.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Martin Luther King was twenty six during the Montgomery boycott.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Legitimately at people. K Fred Hampton was twenty one when
he was assassinated.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
So when we talk about youth and activism, I think
it's really not a far fetched thing. And I think
when people say things like, but the kids need to
I'm like, the kids are the best, in my opinion,
to be a part of the youth and activism because
they are the least infringed upon by adult bs. Their
(11:56):
minds are still clear about what their souls need.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Their minds are still clear, and they are more in
tune to know what needs to be done in this world.
I think back to when they had the congressional hearings
around Facebook and you had the Silent generation, which I
can't believe we still have people who are in Congress
and in the Senate that are not even boomers. They're
in the silent generation. You have the silent generation and
(12:21):
boomers who were so inept at even having the conversation
at the policebook hearings that it was like going mind
and I'm like, that's y'all's bag. It's Facebook, cause y'all
a little shitting cute because where you approached your little
pyer need yes, and they were so inept and I'm
like that to me? Who was where we should have seen?
The writing on the wall is that young people need
to be leading this conversation because the world in which
(12:44):
legislation is being created for is the world in which
they understand. And it's a world in which the people
who are elderly do not understand. So why are they
not at the forefront of the conversation when the world
that we are creating right now affects their adulthood. It
may not affec my adulthood. I may be long gone
in somebody's worm food, But this is affecting them. So
(13:06):
we need to have them participating in sculpting the world
for their adulthood.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
How do you do that?
Speaker 1 (13:12):
The first thing you do is get out of judgment
and stop deciding that if it's something that you are
not interested in, that it is not a modality in
order to get them excited. Okay, so you're not excited
about social media, well they are. You are not excited
about certain concerts, well they are. You're not. The young
games video games, Twitch, all of these spaces in which
(13:33):
they can be engauged. That's the first thing is utilizing
the tools that we have access to to communicate with
them and communicating to them in a way in which
is interesting to them. I tell people all the time.
People always say, oh, Kim, you're so concise. I'm concise
because I am intentionally trying to talk to young people,
and young people don't want to get a forty five
minute lecture for me. But if I can put it
into a five minute sound bite, that can then become
(13:55):
a video that I can throw some graphics on top
of that they can share. Now I have their attention.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
So Okay, what are like some like literal ways that
you've been working with young people within movement spaces.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Well, one of the things I did. You and I
have talked about this before is when I was trying
to invigorate the youth vote a few years ago. I
worked with the People United and we threw a Gucci
concert and the only way that they could get in
they couldn't buy a ticket. The only way that they
could get in was to show proof that they had
registered to vote, and we had Amaretta and Ti Son
(14:34):
Demani and all these people that were there performing, but
also in that same room, in that facility, we had
people there continuing to register people to vote in case
they brought AU plus one with their ticket. We had
about sixteen organizations, including NAACP, Black Voters Matter, all of
them with booths set up and they were going around
(14:55):
giving literature to the young people. They were talking to
them bed booths. We had Pisa to the poll that
that gave everybody free pizza, so that enticed them to
be there and engage in the conversation they needed to
engage in at the votes. A lot of young people
that we engaged at that event signed up to be
campersers for Black Voters Matter because they didn't even know
that they can get paid for canvassy.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
What So in this process? What have been impediments other
older people? I knew he was gonna say, Yes, other older.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
People have been impediments. And the interesting thing is, I
think people think I'm millennial. I am not a millennial.
I'm silently gen x right and so forty nine black
jum correct. Oh, I got to be a good Amanda
(15:50):
Seal team.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
A man, you got a rock on with that millennia.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
So I have just found that that's been And here's
the thing. In order for anything to work, you have
to have world knowledge and worldview. You have to have wisdom,
you have to have skill, you have to have access,
you have to have resource. All five of those don't
rest with millennials and up, and all five of those
(16:18):
don't rest with gen Z and gen alpha. So that
is supposed to be. The whole point is that when
I was with People United, our CEO was twenty two
years old. Our CEO was twenty two years old.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
That's a lot for me. I ain't gonna lie to you.
That's a lot for me.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Yes, we put him at the helm of running an
organization and then we built a board around him of wisdom.
So we had a board of the ogs.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Now one made that interesting with the twenty two year
old CEO. Would he talk to young people about joining
the organization and the work that we were doing. He
knew how to talk to them to get them excited.
Because me at forty nine trying to figure out, scratch
my head, like how do I get them excited? We
didn't have to worry about that. The twenty two year
old was getting them excited, and then the board was
(17:05):
sitting back with the wisdom saying, no, we can't spend
funds on that. Yes, the type of five, O, one
C three were in. We can't endorse candidates. But here's
what we can do all of that kind of stuff
to make sure. We basically built an organization for young
people and we were there for support. The problem is
older people want to be the HG N I C
all the time.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
I hear what you're saying. I hear what you're saying.
I hear what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
We have to be a support system for them. Your grandmothers,
all of our grandmothers, our grandmays, wherever you are from.
They did not rule the family in the way in
which we recall it. They supported the family. So mama
and daddy ran the family, and grandma was there as
the support system to pull Bama and Daddy's coattail and say, hey,
(17:48):
leave that baby alone, let that baby go down there
to the dance. And that is the way movements have
to be structured. You have to have the millennials and
the gen xers, they're working alongside the younger people, and
then have the boomers in the silent generation, they're on
the board saying, because guess what, it's interesting. The boomers
(18:09):
and the silent generation are going to be the ones
to tell Gen X and millennials, let that baby do
that thing. He got it, and if he falls, we'll
pick them up.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
I mean, I feel like this feels so much like right.
So how do we get right?
Speaker 1 (18:23):
The first thing that we do in order to get
right is we look around at organizations by young people
and instead of starting a competitive organization, we come in
in the sense of support. When I see a young
person starting an organization, I don't look at it like, oh,
they're trying to be in competition. To me, my answer
is do you have all your paperwork in a row.
If you don't, my organization can be your fiscal sponsor
(18:45):
so that you don't get into financial trouble. Okay, you
have your organization together. We have this huge event that
we do every year where we have vendors. How about
we offer you a free vending booth where you're able
to express yourself and you're us all able to be
around your colleagues who are doing this work. When we
are forming these organizations and they're new and they're green
and they don't know what they're doing. We give them
(19:07):
the jobs that enhance them with the skill set. Okay,
you may not be ready to be the calm director,
but what I'm gonna do is make you a canvasser
where you are going out there, and I give you
six months of that. You will be prepared to be
the calm director and then we can start talking about it.
All of us want to be the hot girl, and
we don't want to be big mama. We need some
more big mama activity in this world. I desire to
(19:30):
be big mama. What can big Mama do to help you?
What you need Nana to do? Come to Nana's house
and Nana gonna give you what you need and show
you what you need. I'm not competitive with these young
people and trying to take up space where the space
should be for them.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Why are people so competitive with the young people?
Speaker 3 (19:46):
They just don't want to give up. I guess whatever
version of relevance they feel like they have power.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
The same thing that has been the demise of this
country is power. When we show up to the gala
to raise money, we want people this d sick desire
to be the one that when they say, and we
just want to thank Amanda because her work that she
has done on the Jigawats Committee really is what got
(20:12):
us over the hump of what we needed and we
were able to raise fifty thousand dollars due to her
due diligence. We want to do that instead of saying,
thank God I found this amazing young woman Rose. The
work of dialis is that she has done to grow
this organization this year is beyond me. If we get
twenty more young people like her, what a force will
(20:33):
be to reckon with? Rose. Come give the people if
your words you want to give the words, we want
to give, the greeting, the salutations, the dinner.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
To Please tell me what work does the Jigawats Organization do.
I want to know what sector of the community the
Jigawats Foundation is servicing because I want to come through
and sit in on a meeting for the giggle lots.
(21:04):
You know you're saying stuff that I feel like I
want to get even down to even more brass tacks
for the people who are sitting in the car right
now or who are listening to this in the house
with a young person. What are some positions that young
people can look to step into in these roles like
you talked about canvassing, you talked about comms directors, like
(21:24):
I think a lot of it too, is a level
of ignorance around kind of like, well, what space is
there for me? I think some young people are like,
I want to get started, I want to be a
part of this. And there are some that are.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Just like I'm going to figure it out and I'm
going to work it out.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
But then there are some to get paralyzed by simply
just maybe not even knowing, like well, where is an
entry point that I can step into and where would
I be needed. Also, I be feeling like a lot
of young people these days only see influencers.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
They only see influencers, and that's part of the problems
that we are not entering into their spaces for them
to even learn what to do and how to do.
You know. So I say we go back to the
old school. There are all schools every year have a
jobreer pay. Yeah, they have a career day. So we
(22:11):
need a lot of these organizers, organization CEOs and people
like that actively trying to get into these career days.
Look at the top twenty high schools in your school
district and send out a formal email saying, Hey, when
you have career day, I am the director, I am
the CEO of this nonprofit. I would love to come
talk to your students about what's available in the sector.
(22:34):
Get your local elected officials, especially the position that they
don't know about the comptroller. People like that, they need
to be doing career days at these schools. The other
thing is, even when young people have been the ones
that we're talking about that have that get up and
go and going to start on their own, when you
see them start an organization, give them a day in
(22:54):
the life of your life. Say hey, I love what
you're doing. What you're doing is amazing. I want to
do a day in the life with you where you
spend the entire day with me. So you see what
my position actually does. You see the people that I
have to communicate with. You see how I engage my staff.
You see what type of work I have to get done.
And I'm gonna do two days. I'm gonna do one
day while you follow me, and then I'm gonna do
(23:15):
one day where you follow my second hand or my assistant.
So you see what they do in terms of support
of the work that I do. We have to be intentional.
A lot of times people want people to gravitate to them,
and their ideology is well, if they were really interested,
they would seek out Well, you can't seek out what
you don't know facts.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
You can't seek out what you don't know.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
What are some things in working with the youth in
activism that have surprised you?
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Or maybe that just you learned.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Here's the first thing I learned. The youth is boxed
the sellouts. In a second, the youth will tell me
very quickly who the trolls are, who the coons are?
Miss Kim, you friends were.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
All that face?
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Ah interesting, I'm at the start second giess, and you,
miss Kim, if you over to hang it, what up?
She is?
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Coon?
Speaker 1 (24:06):
To the tenth fout?
Speaker 3 (24:07):
You know.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
They tell me who they have worked with at the
State House and that they have been paiges for that.
They're just like that person is not who they portrayed
themselves to be. They're in the room with somebody for
a very short period of time and they can hear
the dog whistles and are like, Miss Kim, are you
sure about her? Because I don't rock with her. I
don't know. I was with one of my young people
(24:31):
who recently ran for office and unfortunately did not win
his seat. But I was with him yesterday working on
some projects and I mentioned someone to him that I
wanted to connect to him with, and he was like
a He was like with Kim, let me take the
ten reasons why a person Coon.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Well, you know, Coon for them also is different than
I feel like it was for us.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Oh no, for sure, for us, I feel like Coon
was somebody who just you know, kind of be just sellout, right,
like in terms of like, oh you.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Really don't represent blackness.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
Coon for them is this is someone who's made a
career out of weaponizing their blackness against black people.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Yep, that's a whole actual job. At this point. There
are people that we can name right now who.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Have decided this is my career path selling out black
people as a black person.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Yeah, as a full on black person. And one of
the things that young people pointed out to me is
some pure coonery and buffoonery is even if you have
not made a career of selling out your people, will
you have not recognized that your time is up and
are not willing to pass the baton for the sake
of holding on your suit. You have now into the
(25:41):
coon jet. Yes, I don't care what you did. That
was great if you're eighty two, your whole.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
We're talking about Maxine Waters.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Oh for sure, let it go her. And what's that
other one who be throwing fishbros.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Clyburn.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
I don't need no fish bro, I need some bos.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
When I went to CBC the first and last time
that I went to the Congressional Black Caucus, because it
really is just a big old fish fry with fancy shoes,
I moderated a panel that Jasmine Crockett had put together
and someone there was a council member in Jersey, and
she said there's a difference between black politics and black policy,
and that was so like the whole room went, oh.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
And that's what I think.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
We're really getting into the thick of now, right, Like
we're really starting to see who is here for black
policy and who is here for black politics. And it
doesn't necessarily even have to be a black person, and
it doesn't have to be a Republican or a Democrat,
because the mayor of Atlanta is not about black policy.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Oh god, no, but he's a Democrat and he's black.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Yeah, and he's friends with rappers, friends with rappers.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
So how does the getting the youth involved in activism
work when we see, like, how what am I trying
to say? We're in a scenario now where there's now
like a political fallout.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
If you hear snoring, that's my cat Lando.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
He has cancer, so he can do whatever he wants
and he's right here, so we're seeing political fallout. Does
getting youth in activism cross over to getting youth in
civics and in politics?
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Yes, But civics is far more important than politics now,
and I'll tell you why because the first step is
empowering young people to know how they can combat those
who are practicing poor politics. And if you get them
to learn that, you're more apt to get them to
want to walk into politics if they learn how to
typically engage and combat the people who's politics they don't like.
(27:46):
So what I always tell people, you want to get
young people excited about potentially running someday, don't start grooming
them to run for politics. Nurture a love of civics
in them, and then it will naturally lead them to
wanting to run in politics. So teach young people how
to grassroots lobby. If you teach young people how to control, manage,
and get something done at a council meeting, at a
(28:09):
commissioner's meeting, you'll be holding the commissioners accountable enough because
they got one of the biggest budgets in the city
and control so much down to the things we don't like,
like the jails, Yet we give them all this grace
and all these passes, which is crazy to me. I'm like,
I tell people all the time. They're like, you go
to all the I said, I go to all the meetings,
But I'm telling you where I am a regular is
(28:29):
down there with them commissioners. If you really want to
know what's going on with the money, that's where you
have to go. You have to go Sity and on
those commission meetings. One of my favorite moments in Black
civics in Atlanta was they were getting to surpassed a
really disrespectfully low key racist noise ordnance in p Street right, yes,
where all of these black businesses are. Yeah, it's a
(28:51):
nightclub district. How you gonna have a noise ordnance?
Speaker 2 (28:54):
We are winning the club one twelve down now.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
In a club district, you're gonna pass a no, you're
going to have effect on these people's businesses. So what
happened was in less than forty eight hours, and less
than forty eight hours, a nightclub coalition was formed with strippers,
bottle girls, DJs, club promoters, club owners, bar backs, cleaning companies,
everybody who works in the club district. They came to
(29:20):
the city council meeting over two hundred deep. It's the
first time I've ever been at a city council meeting.
They had to use the overflow.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Room, not the reggae room.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
They had to use the reggae room. So many people
got up as spoke, but many people signed up for
public comment and then conceded their time to Killer Mike.
So all these people conceded their time to Killer Mike,
who owned the club or restaurant or something in that district.
So now Killer Mike goes from his three minutes to
about forty minutes that he can speak, and all these
(29:49):
other people spoke. That bill went back to committee. Now
people who know anything about civics know where the bill
has to go back to the committee. It normally goes
there to die.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
It goes to to.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Died or is going to be changed so much in
committee to come back to the floor.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
It ain't gonna look like what y'all was there for.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
It ain't gonna look like what y'all was there for.
It all that bill went back to committee just like that.
That's why I was telling people local glass roots lobby
is the most effective because just the sheer amount of
people who showed up. Let these people who at the
end of the day, their whole ambition is not to
pass policies, keep their jobs. They don't care about passing policy.
(30:28):
They care about keeping their jobs. So the idea that
all these young people striperelling them bottle Girl number four,
all of them showed up, DJ such and so.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
DJ jiggawayt DJ Jigawa.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
All came through, Okay, from club get it, get it.
They were all there. That alone put enough fear in
the heart of the Council that they realized the noise
that would come from passing this.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Bill, and they don't want the noise. Bill died in committee.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
But what happened in that was out of that no,
out of the over two hundred, were they all going
to continue to be typically engaged. No, But you got
about ten who are solidly still civically engaged, And some
of them only came because it was like, we're doing
the club right at City Council today.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
This is what's being done.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
This is what being done. If you don't want to
be left out, you don't want to not be in
the post when it's done. But for some of them
sitting in there, a light bulb went off and oh,
I didn't know I could affect change in this way.
This is how I affect change. And so we've got
to engage them civically to teach them. You know, one
thing I teach people all the time. I tell people
a story about I lived before when I understood black
(31:40):
history but didn't understand civics in the way that I
do now. I lived on the street. My son's in
college now he's his mama's child pre law partisign And
I lived on the street when he was really little,
where I had an eighth of an acre on the
side of my house, grassy that he could have played in.
I still had to take him to the park because
at least every other day a car would roll into
our yard, and I was like, even if I'm out
(32:01):
there I might not be fast enough to get to him,
so I'm not doing it. If I understand civics, then
the way which I do now, I would have understood
my own personal power in getting that corner assessed and
getting a new lane put in and getting new stop
lights put in with just sheerly a petition.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
But I didn't know.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Eventually sold the house because I was like, this house
is just unsafe. One day somebody go to roll into
my house. Now I hate that because what that house
is worth now? And then they would ragged the house.
But at the end of the day, the greatest trick
they played on us was telling us we have no power.
And when you really condition people to believe they have
no power, they won't move. They won't even move on
(32:41):
the power that they have.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
They won't move on the power that they have. And
eventually they won't have power. Yeah, because that's the other part, right, like,
eventually they won't have power. And I feel like there's
a necessity now to really address young people and their
power in a different way then maybe we were in
the past, right because the issues are also far more
(33:04):
urgent and really in front of their faces. There was
a point in time where I feel like if you
didn't care about politics, you didn't have to know about it.
It wasn't really in your mix like that. I mean,
even when Trump became president, it was like you could
really just put your head in the sand and just
not pay attention. And they were talking about politics every day.
But you could be like, I don't know who this person.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
I don't know who.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
I say that as somebody who did that. I was like,
I don't want to know. Yeah, I don't want to know.
Whereas now they have successfully made politicians celebrities.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
We got a whole reality star in Augus, ma'am.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
When I saw them all at that funeral and I
saw how people were commenting on it like it was
the Kardashians, or like it was seeing people sitting courtside
at a basketball game, That's when I said, oh, they
did it.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Yeah. And they were trying to get the tea. Ooh,
she didn't sit by us, so she don't like her.
I'm like, what is it the Real House or the
White House?
Speaker 2 (33:53):
I said, Oh, they did it.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
They finally got Americans to look at politicians as celebrities.
And once you start looking at politics the celebrities, you're
no longer looking at them as people who have actual
legislative responsibilities. You're looking at them as people that you're
just watching voyeuristically. So like when I see politicians going
to confront elon Musk and they're like, oh, they wouldn't
let us in, I'm like, this why we need kids,
(34:15):
because if you had some teenagers there, they're going to
be like, you're not letting us in.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Somebody, where's the gate. I'm climb over the gate.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
I'm climbing over the gate. But first of all, you
need young people to do that because these non Meganese
we need to get over the gate. I mean stuck
on the gate, hanging by my shirt look crazy.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Facts.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
They also don't have the same things to lose. Young
people do have something to lose, but it's not the same.
And I think we're in a country where our material goods,
our possessions, our positions, possessions and positions are just so
much more important to people than the position of their
community to get access to anything.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
And adulthood is very similar to high school. People are
still trying to have crime to the cool kids, and
so part of it is, which is why we need
the young people, is because young people don't see these
legislators as the cool kids. They don't they don't see
them as the cool kids. They're not looking at them
like you know. I listen, many people are not a
fan of mine. I'm gonna kid, I'm a fan. I
(35:19):
appreciate that I'm a fan of yours. I don't get
invited to the cool kid events.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Say I get kicked out of the cool kid group chats.
I'm with all of that. You know, they listen, Why
are they not a fan of yours?
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Do you believe I believe that they're not a fan
of mine because I don't honor proximity to the cool
kids above actually doing the work. So I'm not going
to say that Andre Dickens is a good mayor so
that I can be invited to the Mayor's ball.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
You're not gonna be polite in the way of progress, No,
that's what you're not gonna do.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
That's one point. And when people are trash and fake
and phony and worth two dollars, I'm going to still
call them out for being I held a press conference
against Fannie Willis at the height of her becoming the
cool girl, for her trial and for her trying Trump,
and my whole thing was, I hope you're enjoying this ride,
and y'all all posting her till my black girl magic,
(36:13):
Black girl magic. Meanwhile, before she ran for office, myself
and selfal others put her on a zoom call with
close to twenty of the mothers of people who have
been killed by police brutality, and those cases are sitting
on her desk untried, and she made a commitment to
us that she would try those cases, and instead she
tried YSL and Trump because she wanted to be popularized.
(36:38):
You are the district attorney here in this city. You
need to be trying the cases that are important to
this city. You have a legal job to do. I
don't understand why I was supposed to join the club
and see you as like a little industry warning because
you were trying Trump. I know you have let down,
lied to, and not held up your word about what
(37:01):
you promised the people of this city.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
Hot girl, I'm speechless in my solidarity because I'm really
just I'm like, that's how I feel about Kamala Harris.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
That's how I felt.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
Oh yeah, and you know, I did you know when
I was on the Breakfast Club, I talked about why
rock with Kamala, and then when I was on another show,
I talked about why and Rock with Kamala and I
did not endorse her. And I remember there's a social
justice influencer who made some like in the Arms of
an Angel video with a whole bunch of people in
it with Kamala Harrison tagged me to it, and she
dragged me to a million people because I politely DM
(37:34):
Darren was like, do not assume you know my politics.
Do not add me to this type of thing without
my permission. First of all, that's intrusive to decide that
you're going to use my likeness to endorse what you
are interested in without communicating with me, and about assuming
what it is that I like. And she told a
million people that I was a cool No, I believe
(37:55):
the coolness you beloved.
Speaker 2 (37:56):
It's so okay.
Speaker 3 (37:59):
We are gonna go to our Patreon only segment because
I want to talk about what is the different way
that we need to approach young people now that we
may not have been doing in the past five years,
if anything, like, what are the changes that we need
to apply?
Speaker 2 (38:15):
So my Patreon folks, y'all know what to do.
Speaker 3 (38:17):
Join us over at the seal squad with Miss Kimberly
latrese Jones. Don't nobody like her and don't nobody like me,
but we like each other and y'all love us, so
come on join us. So okay, these kids have so
many influences now, right, they have all these other things
(38:41):
going on.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
How do we keep them from becoming coons?
Speaker 1 (38:46):
An educated man could never be a coon, right, an
educated woman could never be a cool I don't know.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
I don't know. I feel like coonan has expanded now.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Yes, and when I say educated, I'm not talking about
traditional educator, I'm talking about it doing exactly what I
said on them. Okay, okay, if you are in your
home and you are having real conversations with your kids,
because let me be clear, your kids are having political
conversations in high school. Your kids are having political conversations,
and their social studies class and their history class. They
(39:18):
are having political conversations amongst their friends. Yet you think
it's outside of their pay grade to have conversations. So
you have left them to be having conversations with the
world and being influenced by the world because you don't
want to have those conversations. Also because you're not educated
enough to have those conversations.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
That's the real reason.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Yeah, So how do we stop young people from becoming clones?
We make sure that we are teaching them real civics,
real history, and that when we see something that gets
on our nerves, we're explaining to them why. When my
son was like ten, eleven, twelve years old, and I
would be watching the news and I would, you know,
throw a milkshake at the TV. And who would ask
(39:56):
me what was going on? I would explain to him,
even as young it's ten, Even as young as ten,
I would explain to him why this was upsetting. And
when him and his little innocent mind would be like, why, mommy,
that sounds like a nice thing they're doing, and I
would be like, no, not a nice thing. Let me
properly contextualizes for you child exactly. And guess what, mon
(40:17):
So son, they had a poon vone in his body.
And this is why he was the amnesty president in
his high school. That's why he was in the BSU
on his high school. That's why he was on student
council on his whigh school. That's why he started his
own voting initiative this last voting cycle, which was his first.
He's a college freshman. It was his first election. He
started him a voting initiative called Vote Nigga. Yes, Vote Nigga.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
He started his vote Nigga campaign and was very successful.
When he's Vote Nigga campaign and he's pre law poly
SciAm wants to actually make real change in the world.
But I never ran away from difficult conversations with him. Now,
I didn't expose my child to things that were beyond
what he should because assume it as a question. But
having a fair reasonable conversation with him about what things
(41:04):
are has made it so his purview in the world
is such and set up that he's going to be
one of those young people that we talk about that
look and be like not him, not her, you could
not you.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
I love it, I love it. I love you. I
love what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
And I really just am glad to be able to
platform and amplify the work of folks like yourself.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
Because the rest of the worlds we is this. I
just you know, I don't like shut up kill Jos.
I'm like you shut up.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
You shut up. They're like shut up. Aman of cels,
I'm like, make me do something.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
I'm like, I'm on a seven kids, I'm scared of you, and.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
I'm the opposite. I'm like, I'm the only child. I've
been out here by myself. You think I'm scared of you?
I really feel like.
Speaker 3 (41:55):
You know, it's in this time that people like you, though,
are who people end up really having to pivot to
because they realized, well, this is somebody who's been the
same this whole time. This person been saying this this
whole time. Like they're not pivoting to this, you know, like,
oh now I get it. No, they were saying this,
and that means that they have a better understanding of it.
(42:16):
And we're going to start seeing a lot of shifting happening.
And a lot of that shifting, I feel like, is
going to be going away from politics from politicians, sure,
because the politicians aren't really showing up the way that
people thought they were. I think people thought politicians were organizers.
That's what I feel like a lot of people think
they think that politicians are like organizers in the capitol,
(42:38):
and they're not. And so my last question is how
do we encourage a new generation of young people to
look at politics as being public servants, not as being
a part of politics.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
Start taking field trips and taking young people to city
council meetings so they can see how diabolically dysfunctional it
is and how it is not this fly cream of
the crop conversation amongst grand intellectuals and philosophers is a
gaggle of dodo birds flapping their wings, yelling at each other,
(43:17):
cussing each other out name, call it act of the fool,
and are not even intellectual enough themselves to actually be
sitting in those seats. And here's I'll end with this,
And this is something that really grinds my gears. We
have to stop being anti intellect and making it seem
it's cool to be the everyday guy. If right now
(43:39):
somebody came here and said, Kim, you need to have
open heart surgery, I do not want the local carpenter
performing open heart surgery on me. This ideology that people
who should be passing policy for one of the largest
nations in the world should be every day momo jojopopo
from up the street is the most ridiculous I've ever heard.
(44:02):
For some people who are leading the free worlds, we
need the most intellectual, the most informed, the most prepared
to be statesmen of this country in those seats, and
I don't want to hear any more conversation about They
feel like somebody I want to have a beer with.
I don't want to have a beer with my legislator.
(44:22):
I want to have to purchase a ticket and sit
twelve rows backs here my legislator. Because they are glific
and profound that access to them is limited. I don't
want move on them in office.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
We don't want DJ Jiggawatts passing legislation.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
That's all.
Speaker 1 (44:41):
That's all I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
The last.
Speaker 3 (44:49):
Well, I gotta tell you I knew this was gonna
be good, and it was great.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
I had two great podcast conversations today. This is why
we do small those podcasts.
Speaker 1 (44:58):
Y'all. We're seven years in and it.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
Just keeps getting better and better and better. Thank you
so much.
Speaker 3 (45:05):
Please let people know where they can learn more about
your work, where they can get their kids involved, or
where they can get involved with getting kids involved.
Speaker 1 (45:12):
Yes, two things. You can follow my website www dot
Kimberlywatrees Jones dot com. You can follow me on trash
ass Metal.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
I know, but hey, hey, I'm at Google.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
I get it, you know at Kimberly Watrees Jones. Also
on Instagram, you can follow my nonprofit Vocation Ventures and
my project that I'm super excited about. You can follow
my project, the Astor Project. The Astor Project is the
project I've been working on for five years. We finally
got funding this year and are pulling the trigger on it.
(45:44):
The Aster Project is a project where we are taking
the lives of people who have been unfortunately killed at
the hands of police, and we are humanizing them. We
are not talking about their cases, We're not talking about
what happened to them on the infamous nights where they
are unlive. We have been sitting with their families, their friends,
their loved ones and learning who they really are. And
we are painting urals. We are writing a book of
(46:05):
short stories, and we are making an album. I don't
even know if I can say who the producer is.
I don't know if it's been publicly announced yet, but
it's somebody super huge, like a multiple Grammy winning platinum
producer volunteered it's time to produce the album, and we
are making songs about these people so we can see
their humanity.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
And it's as t o R or a st e.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
R ast e r ast e R the ASTOR project.
Speaker 3 (46:28):
Well, we are looking forward for that and when that
comes out, when it starts like really getting available to people,
will you please come on Views from Amandoland.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
To talk about it.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
I most certainly will.
Speaker 3 (46:37):
All right, well you all know what it is. It's
a Small Loses podcast. Thank you so much, Kimberly Laterrese Jones.
Get your kids active in activism for sure,
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