The Fight For DC Statehood with guest Latosha Brown

Black Voters Matter co-founder, LaTosha Brown asks Mayor Pratt and her co-hosts about the fight for voting rights and the fight for D.C. Statehood

Episode Transcript

(00:09):
This is IPPH on Air, broughtto you by the Institute of Politics,
Policy and History at the University ofthe District of Columbia and now your host,
former Washington DC Mayor Sharon Pratt.We are very lucky, indeed,
to have Latasha Brown Shares, suchan outstanding activists with Black Voters Matter.

(00:29):
We're going to sort of turn itaround this time. She's going to ask
us questions. Thank you for beinga part of this, Thank you for
having me here. And I'm soexcited about being engaged in this discussion with
you all. It's just so muchrich political knowledge and history and experience here,
and so Mayor Pratt. You know, as I'm thinking about the work
that we're doing around DC statehood,and this has been an ongoing issue,

(00:53):
and here we are in twenty twentyone and we're actually having this debate around
whether DC should be a state rightand I'm wondering from you, you know,
what you're thinking as we're going forward, what do you think are kind
of the largest barriers that we're goingto have to overcome to really be able
to move forward that we go beyondthis question around DC statehood. We know

(01:14):
Puerto Rico is in a similar situation. What do you think of the key
barriers and how do we go over? Well, how do we meet those
challenges? Well, you know,I admit that I have little to no
objectivity on the issue of DC statehood, having been born here and having been
without full representation, any meaningful representation, But an as someone who cares about

(01:38):
this country, I am concerned.I am concerned that our democracy is in
a perilous circumstance. I am concernedthat the Republicans are determined to essentially gut
the notion of representative democracy. Anduntil the Democrats take it on for what
it is and amend that filibuster,I think it's a challenge, and I

(02:02):
think that it will be a challengefor voting rights, challenge for DC statehood.
So that's my thinking. I knowthat Karen and Mark and Karen is
a better read on what's happening onthe hill, but that's my that's my
takeaway. Thank you, Mayor.I do want to come to you,
Karen. I mean, you workboth in DC, but you also work

(02:25):
in an administration, and so youknow what the Biden administration is up against
right now, you know, havea sense of it. How do you
think that we get past this,how do we um, what do we
need to do to move forward?Well, it's a very good question.
Um. You know, I've beenin DC for over forty years now,

(02:45):
and the situation between the federal governmentin the in the likelihood of DC becoming
a state, has just you know, been on a trajectory of downward spiral.
Even though we've had presidents that supportedit, it has never been seen

(03:05):
as the priority issue, the votingrights issue that it should be seen as,
and that it really is. Ido see the Biden administration as an
administration who's willing to fight for it. But I think just stepping back,
we've dealt with a Senate for many, many, many years, and it's

(03:32):
worse now than before in that itis nowhere representative of our country. It
is a minority body who is thatis controlling all of our lives right the
number of because it's two senators perstate, and because of the shifts and

(03:54):
Democrat demographics it is and you know, young people versus old people, as
you've talked about before, we justhave a minority of white men who are
telling all of us what it iswe should be doing and getting back to
what the mayor said, I seethat Senate structure is the biggest threat to

(04:16):
our democracy in DC. Statehood wouldmake it much at least a little bit
more representative of who we actually are, you know, absolutely, I think
you're absolutely right when I think aboutyou know, Puerto Rico is in a
similar situation, you know, andso we're looking at the Senate that controls

(04:39):
an enormous amount of power around settingsetting the policy for the country. But
it's not representative. It's not areflective democracy. It's not representative to those
of us that are actually on theground, that the citizens and actual citizens
of this country. And so Mark, I know that the work that you've
been doing as an activist, thework that you've been doing for me,

(05:00):
that the work that we've been doingthroughout the years, you know, at
the center of this, you know, is structure racism. You know,
we often don't talk about kind ofthis attack on voting rights on it it's
like, oh, it's just forblack voters, but not really think about
how fundamentally this attack on black votershas an impact on democracy in general for
all of us. That literally,when you start impacting the rights of a

(05:24):
small group that it has the abilityto really be able to impact not ability.
It impacts the rights of all ofus. And so I'm just wondering
where you're thinking, where do wego from here? Where should we be
putting our energy as we go forwardas a nation? Well, um Latasha,
First of all, you know,we all are a great debt of
gratitude to you, because I thinkwithout the activist Black Voters Matter, we

(05:46):
would not have won. Democrats wouldnot have won in twenty twenty or in
January of twenty twenty one. Everyoneshould know that we met organizing in Selma
and then annual do you believe?And what would tell them about it was
about voting rights. It is thelandmark event that gives us the current of

(06:06):
voting rights that we have now andthose all the voting rights that are under
assault. To your question about howit affects everyone, People know about the
march from some of Montgomery, butwe're often only allowed to hear every year
one speech of doctor Kings, Buteverybody ought to hear the speech at the

(06:27):
end of that march, and hetalked about the impact of structural racism even
on whites, and that was bydesign that African Americans coming out of the
period of enslavement and whites would neverconnect and have shared interests, shared concerns.
And the way that it was donewas by convincing whites that racism was

(06:53):
more important, that even though whitesthemselves were impoverished in many places, at
least they were better all than AfricanAmericans and the Doctor King's words, to
paraphrase, when whites were starving inhungry during that era, structural racism gave
them the psychological bird of Jim Crowto feed themselves. And that's still the

(07:17):
case, and Trump once again masteredthat strategy when he was in office.
And so really the goal is toconvince people, let everyone know that while
they may be all gemmed up behindromanticism about the Confederacy in January sixth and
all, that many white Americans havenot had a raise in wages just like

(07:43):
everyone else. Many white Americans areno longer so much middle class, but
more or less working class and inmany cases working poor. And help them
ultimately to get over the distractions ofDonald Trump and the Republican Party, which
really has mastered a way of dysfunction. Karen's right. The problem is in

(08:07):
the Senate. But it seems they'vedecided that the government just isn't going to
work and isn't going to do anywork. But one of the ways to
solve that in the immediate would beDC statehood to end that filibuster in the
Senate. But in long term,we've got to look at ending racism,
sharing with the white community, howracism even hurts them, and ultimately how

(08:30):
we reform the government so that itcan function despite the few who don't want
it to function absolutely, you know, And it's interested in the midst of
us having being in this moment thatseems really difficult. I often believe that
it's in the most difficult moments thatwe have the most promise. And so
I think this moment we have reallywe can go the path apparel around the

(08:52):
democracy path, or we can gothe path of great promise. And so
in this moment, I think manypeople are asking that question and where do
we go from here? And Ithink that's a good thing. I think
that's a good thing. I thinkbecause it will determine how people engage going
forward. And so I think there'sa number of things as we go forward.
I usually ask this question, youknow, wherever I go, what

(09:13):
would America look like without racism?And it's very, very challenging for people
to even think about that, butI think that we all should be asking
ourselves that question, what would Americalook like without racism? So that we
can literally start setting a vision forwardon how we're going to radically reimagine this
nation going forward. We can't justcontinue to respond the way that we're responding.

(09:35):
We have to really demand that there'ssomething different. And so, you
know, even in that context,I've often talked about I want there to
be a Department of Democracy. Ithink there should be another department that is
set up as part of the federalgovernment that their sole purpose is to literally
protect the democratic rights of citizens inthis country. What we've seen is we've

(09:56):
seen political parties basically insert themselves whereI think that the constitution meant for the
powerful people, and so what wehave to do and people are saying,
well, can you do that?Of course we can. The Department of
Homeland Security was created eleven days afternine one one, and so just as
we were able to create that wherewe saw that there was a weakness that
there's clearly there's a weakness around theprotection of the rights of citizens in this

(10:18):
country, and we need a departmentthat will focus, that will serve more
as an overseer and literally even havea stronger a tomb to hold the political
parties accountable because the Constitution doesn't saywe depart is it says we meet the
people. Love it. You've beenlistening to ipp on Air, posted by
former Washington DC mayor Sharon Pratt.Ipp on Air is a production of the

(10:43):
Institute of Politics, Policy and Historyat the University of the District of Columbia.
To reach us with comments or questions, email us at info at ipp
dot org. Thanks for listening.The Mactain Mob on the MOPTAINMBA on the