March 25, 2025 • 21 mins
This episode I'm breaking down my recent policy wins, how I made them happen, and giving some updates on local and national politics. Follow me on Facebook and Instagram @TheLawAccordingtoAmber for more content!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hey guys, and welcome to the Law according to Amber.
Every other Monday, we'll discuss controversial topics with the mixture
of opinion and legal facts. Thus the Law according to Amber.
Be sure to give me a follow on Facebook at
the Law Cording to Amber, as well as Instagram, same name,
The Law according to Amber. What's up, y'all? Welcome to
(00:33):
another episode of the Law according to Amber, your favorite
policy podcast, And this episode we're gonna be getting into
some policy updates from some legislation I've worked on and
talk about what's really going on. Stay why in the
legislature because there's a lot happening there and maybe a
little bit nationally too. I don't know. It's got to
(00:54):
get a little interesting enough for me to talk about it.
And there has been some stuff happening. I heard somebody
got put in a signal group chat, so there's also that.
So first, starting locally, I wrote the People's Accessibility Act,
an ordinance for city Council. Last September, I was in
(01:16):
a fellowship with the Change Collective, which is a org
that works their focuses on local change and works with organizers,
entrepreneurs like just your regular everyday citizen on ways that
they can make local government or make a local impact.
And I was really inspired because during the campaign to
(01:38):
pass ordinances it's in support of Justice for Tyree Nichols,
which looked like a pretextual stop ordinance at are transparency
and other things we worked on. It was incredibly hard
organizing at those meetings. We had to make sure that
folks could get down there, that they could pay for parking.
There were just so many aspects, and I think the
(01:59):
accessible ability of the meetings was the biggest issue in that,
like the meeting started at three thirty, that they always
have to pay for parking, and usually that parking can
range with twenty to twenty five dollars. Some of these
meetings we were going kind of long, so we'd be
there till like nine and ten at times, and people
had to you know, stay there and pay for parking.
(02:22):
So I felt like that was an access barrier. And
I've always been really big on accessibility. I think that
because of my background and knowing how the levels of
access that you have to different things really truly impact you.
I've always been like, I have to make sure that
this as accessible as possible. It's one of the reasons
(02:44):
why I started my podcast. It's one of the reasons
why I post content on social media because I want
policy to be made simple, as my little hashtag says,
and I want folks to understand how it's affecting them
in their everyday lives. Because they use these big words
and like fancy jargon and Roberts rules of order and
all this other stuff to really confuse folks, and they
(03:05):
know that the average person isn't gonna know what's going on,
and so I feel like it's important to decode that
and provide that for folks. And I really felt like
I wasn't seeing that happen from my community as a
black woman from Memphis, and I just wanted to make
that impact. It was really crucial for me, and I
saw how policy changes can really affect your everyday life,
(03:28):
and I wanted everybody to understand in what ways it
affected them. So I wrote the People's Accessibility Act, and
it was a ordinance focus on three specific things. One
moving the time back for city council meetings to four
point thirty two making the parking free for city council
(03:49):
meetings on Tuesdays, and three allowing folks to not say
their address to give public comment, but instead still writing
it down on the comment. You still have to write
your address down no matter what. That has never changed,
but I try to does not require you to actually
say your address out loud. So I really want to
do that because there need to be a security measure
(04:12):
in place for folks who are watching the meetings and
streaming them. The meetings are streamed on YouTube, and there's
these like crazy right wing radio stations here who have
played people's comments in full, like they've listening their address
and everything. And if I'm like a piercing like a
Justin Pearson and the Pearson family, someone's playing my public
comments over the radio like that puts you in danger?
(04:33):
Or me an organizer who was obviously very vocal, and
I pissed people off all the time, which I guess
you'd do with me, but I'm sure I pissed folks
off all the time, and that puts me in danger
and the average citizen, like so many people have told
me that they don't want to make public comment because
they don't want to say their address, and I understand
that that is a level of security that people deserve,
(04:55):
and saying that you cannot make public comment because you
won't say your address. I just didn't think it was okay.
So I wrote that ordinance, and first I researched, So
I looked into the city Charter and like what was required?
And it's actually not required that you say your address.
It's only required that you write it down, and there's
no requirement about the time either. So I knew that
(05:16):
all these things could be changed because they aren't legally
required in any kind of way. And I knew that
they could be changed by the city Council because if
it wasn't in the charter, then you don't have to
do like an amendment or anything. So that made the
process easier too. So then I started emailing city council members.
I was like, Hey, I had this idea. Can you
please look at this ordinance. I would really like to
(05:39):
discuss it and talk about, you know, how we can
get this pass. And so I met with city council
members like one on one, because you can't meet with
all of them because it shine laws, so imagine me
doing a lot of meetings. I met with them one
on one, and then they changed the time after I advocated,
So I advocated for quite a while. I mean it
was probably about a month or I was advocating on
(06:02):
these three different things and they met and they changed
your time in January. So just for timeline purposes, I
started talking to folks around October and in January they
changed your time. And I say this for timeline purposes,
so you know that, like things aren't instant, right, like
they take time. I wasn't able to meet with them
all very quickly, Like it took a few weeks to
even meet with all the different city council members, because
(06:24):
the city council is a part time job, it's not
full time. The only person who is really more available
with miss Yolanda, because she really treats us like a
full time job. And she made sure that like when
she got the job, she said she was gonna commit
full time. And you know, honestly, I appreciate that. But
the other folks are like working other jobs. So like
I tried to be respectful of that and making sure
(06:45):
that I talk to them all too, because I I
want to support Like if I had to pass this
as an ordinance, I wouldn't need seven votes. I wanted
to make sure I had those seven votes. So they
changed your time, and then we met about the parking
and they worked with I talked with councilwomen Jerry Green,
and she said, they we're going to reach out to
this guy Art at the River Parks Partnership that it's
(07:07):
like the people who govern the garage, but they're like,
it's the Memphis River Park. So it's like the park
system that we have here. And they approved the free
parking and so the next step was just getting it
on record and then kind of finding out if there
was a process right, like the parking is free cool?
Do you have to put in a code? Do you
have to do anything? But no, So when you show
(07:28):
up on Tuesday, the city council meeting today, when you
show up, parking is free all day. So yeah, after
I accomplished that, then I talked with Councilwoman Yolanda Cooper
Sudden just to make sure that things were solidified, and
she said, yeah, she's gonna write a resolution, and so
she wrote a resolution. She introduced that resolution two weeks ago,
(07:51):
and that was just introduced in committee meetings where she
was getting folks to vote on like approving the free parking,
and it was mostly symbolic, but I do think it's
important to put stuff like this on the record, so
we have it. And even col Counsel and Jeff One
was like, well, this is just symbolic because it's somewhere
already doing and they were like, yeah, and I get
(08:12):
that it's just symbolic to them. But for me, one,
it gives me the assurrety that like, this is actually happening.
And two, for other folks who are looking at, you know,
this process and wanting to be able to like point
to something, then they could say, oh, that's just resolution
that passed. You know, the parking is definitely free Lase Blase.
So got those two things accomplished two out of three,
(08:35):
which I think ain't bad. But we're still going through
to three. So now I am writing an ordinance specifically
about the public comments so that people do not say
their address. I ain't reading it yet, and I'm gonna
work on it. I haven't reatten it yet, but we're
getting there. I'm gonna work on it probably this weekend.
(08:56):
And yeah, makes some shake. So that was a huge accomplishment.
I always look at access barriers as like just just
a wall that can be torn down, and I definitely
felt like these were things that could be accomplished, and
even the city council members themselves told me that these
(09:19):
were all things that were realistic, but no one had
said anything to them. And I think that when we
approach folks with solutions, especially when we're strategic about it,
like I talked to all of them. I went to
all the council members and I was like, hey, this
is an issue, then you are able to make something shake.
And I was really proud of the strategy and organizing
(09:39):
work I did there and in such a huge accomplishment
that I may happen, because free parking is a very
huge thing, especially in a place like Memphis, where our
city government is downtown. So if you want to go
to a city council meeting, you have to go downtown,
so you have to pay for park there's no other option.
And so imagine me trying to organiz hundreds of people
(10:00):
to come down to do public comment for these ordinances
and they y'all got to pay twenty dollars, fifteen dollars
to come down and make public comment. It's just it's
very taxing and it just doesn't work, and it doesn't
help us be consistent in our movements because people are like, oh,
we can't. I can come this time, but I can't
come next time, you know. So that was a huge
(10:23):
access barrier that I saw that other people saw as well,
and I'm really glad that I was able to remove that.
And I hope this shows y'all that one person really
can ignite a spark and change something big, because all
I did was reach out to them and email them
and call them and bug their assistance until I got
(10:43):
a meeting and then I pushed this issue and it happened.
And so I hope that encourages other people to know
that you can also make very impactful change. It's very
very doable. So let's talk about some of the local
legislative shenanigans. So a lot of the bills going through
(11:04):
the state legislature right now are really targeted to immigrants,
like ways to target undocumented folks and through education. One
bill was actually sponsorble by Monte Fritz, who I mean,
when you look at him, he's your regular smagler, white, evangelical,
(11:25):
toxic Christian guy who is like just hyper religious. And
I think that the hyper religion, the hyper religiosity of
his personality has to do with all the fucked up
shit he be doing, because he's the same type of
guy who will pass a bill calling for a national
Day of prayer and a national day of fasting to
(11:46):
seek the Lord for guidance, and then he'll also push
a bill that charges undocumented children tuition equal to the
amount of money that they will receive from the state
per pupil because they don't have a birth certificate from
the United States. They don't need to add up. But
you love God so much, and God said love your neighbor.
(12:08):
God wasn't discriminatory. But you want to charge children to
go to public school? One, first of all, is illegal,
but secondly it's just insane. And then another bill that
we've seen is that children not being able to go
to school if they don't have documentation. So if you
don't present a birth certificate, then you aren't allowed to
(12:28):
go to public school, which also I feel is definitely illegal.
But it's also the challenge that we're seeing with the
Trump administration and them like having all these bills trickle down,
especially through the South, that are targeting immigration because they
just want to see what they can get passed. And
I think they're realizing that a lot of this shit
(12:49):
they can't get past because Monte Fritz bill failed, and
I'm not gonna be surprised if the other bills failed too.
But another bill that really is going to affect Shelby
County is a bill about taking over the school board.
So previously the superintendent, Marie Fagins, who was removed, who
(13:09):
was removed with a very weak resolution, I will add
because of that, because of the removal process and how
messy it was, there was a Representative Mark White who
has written in sponsored legislation that would take over the
school board and in the way of putting a school
(13:31):
board manager in charge, like a board of managers in
charge that will be over the school board that also
takes on the responsibility to school board is legally chartered
to have like hiring and firing the superintendent. It would
then be the role of the Board of Managers to
do that and the school board will be advisors. And
(13:53):
if you're thinking to yourself this sounds ludacris and illegal
as fuck, is because it does. Because I definitely don't
see a legal path to being able to take over
an elect their body and remove their strip them of
their power that they specifically were elected to do. Don't
see that as being powerable at all. But one thing
(14:15):
about the state of Tennessee, they love a goo lawsuit.
They begetting too left and right over this legislation. A
lot of stuff that they passed over the last like
two three years was never even enacted because it was
illegal as fuck, and they just didn't care. It was like,
you know, let's just do it anyways and see what happens.
So I'm not surprised that this bill is moving through.
It's going on to the full Education Committee and then
(14:36):
I think it will be heard on the floor soon.
But I definitely think they're gonna get sued about it.
And I also think that people should stop seeing white
men as saviors, because there's a group here Memphis Lyft
who's like been right by Mark Whiteside this whole time,
and like these popular people here, like what is that
(14:57):
girl name who has Lye academy? I forgot her name, child, Ladia,
Ladia Yates. She has been like standing by the superintendent
removal thing and saying, like, you know, they were wrong
for removing her, and she agrees with the takeover. And
I just think that that's insane to say about our
(15:19):
public schools when so many of the people who attend
her dance school probably go to public school. Most of
them do. And I think it's insane for the Memphis
Lyft group to think that they have an ally in
this white man. It's the same for anyone to think
that that they have an ally in this white man,
because all he was doing was looking for time, space
and opportunity. He said, this bill has been in the
works for two years. The superintendent stuff just started happening
(15:42):
last year, like in the last six months. So you've
been working on a bill to take over the school
district for two years, and this is the perfect opportunity
for you to make that happen. Not that you actually
care about the students, got it? Thanks? So I think
that they're the ponds and they're being played and Mark
(16:02):
White is very much playing his white savor role real,
real well, because they're falling for like putting his hands
and it's honestly disgusting to see. And I really agree
with a lot of people on social media who are saying, like,
what other solutions should we be looking for for the
school board? And I think there's a lot of other
solutions we should be looking at are we no? But
should we yes? And none of those are taking over
(16:25):
the school board. That's not any of the options that
I think are are realistic here. So that's just my
thoughts on it, and as it moves through, I'm probably
gonna still post like little updates on social media about
where it's going, like if it's fast the House to senate, whatever,
if they get sued. I mean, I'll definitely update folks
on the immigration legislation and you know, the school board
(16:46):
takeover legislation, because I do just want to say there's
actually some good legislation being pushed through the state House,
but none of it's getting attention right now because of
all the bullshit that they're doing. And I get it,
like none of the reps. If it was me, I
wouldn't want to try to push the my legislation right
now because of all this BS that's happening, and it just, yeah,
(17:06):
it's not as impactful and you might end up not
getting it passed just because of all the opposition in
general to the Republicans, so you might not be able
to get the votes that you need. I mean, it's
just ridiculous and nationally, you know, the current administration out
here setting up war plans on signal group chats and
(17:28):
adding in a whole like reporters, editors, whatever that man is,
whatever he is, I don't even know what his actual
job is. But let me tell you something real quick.
If that was me, if I had got dropped into
a signal group chat with the vice president, the defense person,
(17:51):
the head of defense department, and whoever the other advice
to people are, I wouldn't have said shit. I would
have been built the case for months. Olivia Pope raised me.
Maybe I'm not telling a motherfucking thing. I'm getting as
much to you as I can. I'm trying to get
a whole expose in this whole. I'm taking screenshots every
(18:14):
day because they was in there clowning. And then, if
I'm smart, I would start an anonymous page and start
posting random shit. A few months later. I would never
say it was me, Like my boy, he just dumb, dumb,
Like where's the finesse? Why would you snitch so quickly?
(18:36):
It's been two days. And if bands is joking that
much within a few text messages, imagine what kind of
shit he really would be saying, Like bro, Honestly, I'm
disappointed in him for stitches so quick. He should have
shut the fuck up. And that's a white man for you.
Either they super evil and trifling, or they all do
good and want to do the right thing care about
(18:57):
black women. It's never in between. It's never in betwe
It's either there very much your Trumps and JD. Vances
who abuse women and are insane and don't believe in
the rule of law. And then there's your super do
gooder white guy who loves black women and you know,
really cares about our rights and it's always standing up
for us and loves everybody. There's like no in between
(19:20):
for me with white men personally. Yeah, I just can't
believe he snitched. I wish he had shut the fuck
up real bad, but that's just me. So basically, they
dropped him into a group chat with literal war plans
being planned and like talking about how Trump wouldn't like this,
(19:43):
Trump wouldn't like that. You know, we're still gonna go
through with it. This is how we're gonna do like
literal war plans, like literally talking about dropping bombs, and
I said, wow, y'all are using signal group chats for
this what happened to the blackberries? What happened to the
President's using blackberries? Like no security measure. It's like, oh
my god, it's insane. So yeah, that's what's happening locally nationally,
(20:10):
some of the legislative tea and more important, the legislative
wins slash policy wins that we've made here in Memphis,
and I hope that this inspires folks to try to
make these changes where they are. You can always ask
to have those meetings. Push back. I think people should
challenge that time more and more because they aren't at
crazy times everywhere like some places like in Nashville, they
(20:32):
have meetings in like five or six, So I mean
people should start definitely questioning, like why are we having
it this early? Can we push it back to four?
Can you push you back to four thirty, like, you know,
let's make this more accessible, and why isn't the parking free?
This is a public building that people trying to come
to to participate in the public process. Not to mention
(20:53):
that the city council on the city side, because we
have a city and county government, the city council is
the only post public forum people have. There's no other
place where you can go make public comment other than
school board meetings. But there's no other place like this
around actual city governance that you can go and make
a public comment. It's only city council meetings. So if
I have a specific issue, this is the only outlet
(21:16):
and place I can go, and so why not make
that the most accessible it can be? And that was
my whole goal. So as always, you can follow me
on Facebook and Instagram at the Law according to Amber
and we'll, you know, see you for another episode, probably
next week, because I'm sure something's gonna happen. All right,
(21:36):
y'all be
Hey guys, and welcome to the Law according to Amber.
Every other Monday, we'll discuss controversial topics with the mixture
of opinion and legal facts. Thus the Law according to Amber.
Be sure to give me a follow on Facebook at
the Law Cording to Amber, as well as Instagram, same name,
The Law according to Amber. What's up, y'all? Welcome to
(00:33):
another episode of the Law according to Amber, your favorite
policy podcast, And this episode we're gonna be getting into
some policy updates from some legislation I've worked on and
talk about what's really going on. Stay why in the
legislature because there's a lot happening there and maybe a
little bit nationally too. I don't know. It's got to
(00:54):
get a little interesting enough for me to talk about it.
And there has been some stuff happening. I heard somebody
got put in a signal group chat, so there's also that.
So first, starting locally, I wrote the People's Accessibility Act,
an ordinance for city Council. Last September, I was in
(01:16):
a fellowship with the Change Collective, which is a org
that works their focuses on local change and works with organizers,
entrepreneurs like just your regular everyday citizen on ways that
they can make local government or make a local impact.
And I was really inspired because during the campaign to
(01:38):
pass ordinances it's in support of Justice for Tyree Nichols,
which looked like a pretextual stop ordinance at are transparency
and other things we worked on. It was incredibly hard
organizing at those meetings. We had to make sure that
folks could get down there, that they could pay for parking.
There were just so many aspects, and I think the
(01:59):
accessible ability of the meetings was the biggest issue in that,
like the meeting started at three thirty, that they always
have to pay for parking, and usually that parking can
range with twenty to twenty five dollars. Some of these
meetings we were going kind of long, so we'd be
there till like nine and ten at times, and people
had to you know, stay there and pay for parking.
(02:22):
So I felt like that was an access barrier. And
I've always been really big on accessibility. I think that
because of my background and knowing how the levels of
access that you have to different things really truly impact you.
I've always been like, I have to make sure that
this as accessible as possible. It's one of the reasons
(02:44):
why I started my podcast. It's one of the reasons
why I post content on social media because I want
policy to be made simple, as my little hashtag says,
and I want folks to understand how it's affecting them
in their everyday lives. Because they use these big words
and like fancy jargon and Roberts rules of order and
all this other stuff to really confuse folks, and they
(03:05):
know that the average person isn't gonna know what's going on,
and so I feel like it's important to decode that
and provide that for folks. And I really felt like
I wasn't seeing that happen from my community as a
black woman from Memphis, and I just wanted to make
that impact. It was really crucial for me, and I
saw how policy changes can really affect your everyday life,
(03:28):
and I wanted everybody to understand in what ways it
affected them. So I wrote the People's Accessibility Act, and
it was a ordinance focus on three specific things. One
moving the time back for city council meetings to four
point thirty two making the parking free for city council
(03:49):
meetings on Tuesdays, and three allowing folks to not say
their address to give public comment, but instead still writing
it down on the comment. You still have to write
your address down no matter what. That has never changed,
but I try to does not require you to actually
say your address out loud. So I really want to
do that because there need to be a security measure
(04:12):
in place for folks who are watching the meetings and
streaming them. The meetings are streamed on YouTube, and there's
these like crazy right wing radio stations here who have
played people's comments in full, like they've listening their address
and everything. And if I'm like a piercing like a
Justin Pearson and the Pearson family, someone's playing my public
comments over the radio like that puts you in danger?
(04:33):
Or me an organizer who was obviously very vocal, and
I pissed people off all the time, which I guess
you'd do with me, but I'm sure I pissed folks
off all the time, and that puts me in danger
and the average citizen, like so many people have told
me that they don't want to make public comment because
they don't want to say their address, and I understand
that that is a level of security that people deserve,
(04:55):
and saying that you cannot make public comment because you
won't say your address. I just didn't think it was okay.
So I wrote that ordinance, and first I researched, So
I looked into the city Charter and like what was required?
And it's actually not required that you say your address.
It's only required that you write it down, and there's
no requirement about the time either. So I knew that
(05:16):
all these things could be changed because they aren't legally
required in any kind of way. And I knew that
they could be changed by the city Council because if
it wasn't in the charter, then you don't have to
do like an amendment or anything. So that made the
process easier too. So then I started emailing city council members.
I was like, Hey, I had this idea. Can you
please look at this ordinance. I would really like to
(05:39):
discuss it and talk about, you know, how we can
get this pass. And so I met with city council
members like one on one, because you can't meet with
all of them because it shine laws, so imagine me
doing a lot of meetings. I met with them one
on one, and then they changed the time after I advocated,
So I advocated for quite a while. I mean it
was probably about a month or I was advocating on
(06:02):
these three different things and they met and they changed
your time in January. So just for timeline purposes, I
started talking to folks around October and in January they
changed your time. And I say this for timeline purposes,
so you know that, like things aren't instant, right, like
they take time. I wasn't able to meet with them
all very quickly, Like it took a few weeks to
even meet with all the different city council members, because
(06:24):
the city council is a part time job, it's not
full time. The only person who is really more available
with miss Yolanda, because she really treats us like a
full time job. And she made sure that like when
she got the job, she said she was gonna commit
full time. And you know, honestly, I appreciate that. But
the other folks are like working other jobs. So like
I tried to be respectful of that and making sure
(06:45):
that I talk to them all too, because I I
want to support Like if I had to pass this
as an ordinance, I wouldn't need seven votes. I wanted
to make sure I had those seven votes. So they
changed your time, and then we met about the parking
and they worked with I talked with councilwomen Jerry Green,
and she said, they we're going to reach out to
this guy Art at the River Parks Partnership that it's
(07:07):
like the people who govern the garage, but they're like,
it's the Memphis River Park. So it's like the park
system that we have here. And they approved the free
parking and so the next step was just getting it
on record and then kind of finding out if there
was a process right, like the parking is free cool?
Do you have to put in a code? Do you
have to do anything? But no, So when you show
(07:28):
up on Tuesday, the city council meeting today, when you
show up, parking is free all day. So yeah, after
I accomplished that, then I talked with Councilwoman Yolanda Cooper
Sudden just to make sure that things were solidified, and
she said, yeah, she's gonna write a resolution, and so
she wrote a resolution. She introduced that resolution two weeks ago,
(07:51):
and that was just introduced in committee meetings where she
was getting folks to vote on like approving the free parking,
and it was mostly symbolic, but I do think it's
important to put stuff like this on the record, so
we have it. And even col Counsel and Jeff One
was like, well, this is just symbolic because it's somewhere
already doing and they were like, yeah, and I get
(08:12):
that it's just symbolic to them. But for me, one,
it gives me the assurrety that like, this is actually happening.
And two, for other folks who are looking at, you know,
this process and wanting to be able to like point
to something, then they could say, oh, that's just resolution
that passed. You know, the parking is definitely free Lase Blase.
So got those two things accomplished two out of three,
(08:35):
which I think ain't bad. But we're still going through
to three. So now I am writing an ordinance specifically
about the public comments so that people do not say
their address. I ain't reading it yet, and I'm gonna
work on it. I haven't reatten it yet, but we're
getting there. I'm gonna work on it probably this weekend.
(08:56):
And yeah, makes some shake. So that was a huge accomplishment.
I always look at access barriers as like just just
a wall that can be torn down, and I definitely
felt like these were things that could be accomplished, and
even the city council members themselves told me that these
(09:19):
were all things that were realistic, but no one had
said anything to them. And I think that when we
approach folks with solutions, especially when we're strategic about it,
like I talked to all of them. I went to
all the council members and I was like, hey, this
is an issue, then you are able to make something shake.
And I was really proud of the strategy and organizing
(09:39):
work I did there and in such a huge accomplishment
that I may happen, because free parking is a very
huge thing, especially in a place like Memphis, where our
city government is downtown. So if you want to go
to a city council meeting, you have to go downtown,
so you have to pay for park there's no other option.
And so imagine me trying to organiz hundreds of people
(10:00):
to come down to do public comment for these ordinances
and they y'all got to pay twenty dollars, fifteen dollars
to come down and make public comment. It's just it's
very taxing and it just doesn't work, and it doesn't
help us be consistent in our movements because people are like, oh,
we can't. I can come this time, but I can't
come next time, you know. So that was a huge
(10:23):
access barrier that I saw that other people saw as well,
and I'm really glad that I was able to remove that.
And I hope this shows y'all that one person really
can ignite a spark and change something big, because all
I did was reach out to them and email them
and call them and bug their assistance until I got
(10:43):
a meeting and then I pushed this issue and it happened.
And so I hope that encourages other people to know
that you can also make very impactful change. It's very
very doable. So let's talk about some of the local
legislative shenanigans. So a lot of the bills going through
(11:04):
the state legislature right now are really targeted to immigrants,
like ways to target undocumented folks and through education. One
bill was actually sponsorble by Monte Fritz, who I mean,
when you look at him, he's your regular smagler, white, evangelical,
(11:25):
toxic Christian guy who is like just hyper religious. And
I think that the hyper religion, the hyper religiosity of
his personality has to do with all the fucked up
shit he be doing, because he's the same type of
guy who will pass a bill calling for a national
Day of prayer and a national day of fasting to
(11:46):
seek the Lord for guidance, and then he'll also push
a bill that charges undocumented children tuition equal to the
amount of money that they will receive from the state
per pupil because they don't have a birth certificate from
the United States. They don't need to add up. But
you love God so much, and God said love your neighbor.
(12:08):
God wasn't discriminatory. But you want to charge children to
go to public school? One, first of all, is illegal,
but secondly it's just insane. And then another bill that
we've seen is that children not being able to go
to school if they don't have documentation. So if you
don't present a birth certificate, then you aren't allowed to
(12:28):
go to public school, which also I feel is definitely illegal.
But it's also the challenge that we're seeing with the
Trump administration and them like having all these bills trickle down,
especially through the South, that are targeting immigration because they
just want to see what they can get passed. And
I think they're realizing that a lot of this shit
(12:49):
they can't get past because Monte Fritz bill failed, and
I'm not gonna be surprised if the other bills failed too.
But another bill that really is going to affect Shelby
County is a bill about taking over the school board.
So previously the superintendent, Marie Fagins, who was removed, who
(13:09):
was removed with a very weak resolution, I will add
because of that, because of the removal process and how
messy it was, there was a Representative Mark White who
has written in sponsored legislation that would take over the
school board and in the way of putting a school
(13:31):
board manager in charge, like a board of managers in
charge that will be over the school board that also
takes on the responsibility to school board is legally chartered
to have like hiring and firing the superintendent. It would
then be the role of the Board of Managers to
do that and the school board will be advisors. And
(13:53):
if you're thinking to yourself this sounds ludacris and illegal
as fuck, is because it does. Because I definitely don't
see a legal path to being able to take over
an elect their body and remove their strip them of
their power that they specifically were elected to do. Don't
see that as being powerable at all. But one thing
(14:15):
about the state of Tennessee, they love a goo lawsuit.
They begetting too left and right over this legislation. A
lot of stuff that they passed over the last like
two three years was never even enacted because it was
illegal as fuck, and they just didn't care. It was like,
you know, let's just do it anyways and see what happens.
So I'm not surprised that this bill is moving through.
It's going on to the full Education Committee and then
(14:36):
I think it will be heard on the floor soon.
But I definitely think they're gonna get sued about it.
And I also think that people should stop seeing white
men as saviors, because there's a group here Memphis Lyft
who's like been right by Mark Whiteside this whole time,
and like these popular people here, like what is that
(14:57):
girl name who has Lye academy? I forgot her name, child, Ladia,
Ladia Yates. She has been like standing by the superintendent
removal thing and saying, like, you know, they were wrong
for removing her, and she agrees with the takeover. And
I just think that that's insane to say about our
(15:19):
public schools when so many of the people who attend
her dance school probably go to public school. Most of
them do. And I think it's insane for the Memphis
Lyft group to think that they have an ally in
this white man. It's the same for anyone to think
that that they have an ally in this white man,
because all he was doing was looking for time, space
and opportunity. He said, this bill has been in the
works for two years. The superintendent stuff just started happening
(15:42):
last year, like in the last six months. So you've
been working on a bill to take over the school
district for two years, and this is the perfect opportunity
for you to make that happen. Not that you actually
care about the students, got it? Thanks? So I think
that they're the ponds and they're being played and Mark
(16:02):
White is very much playing his white savor role real,
real well, because they're falling for like putting his hands
and it's honestly disgusting to see. And I really agree
with a lot of people on social media who are saying, like,
what other solutions should we be looking for for the
school board? And I think there's a lot of other
solutions we should be looking at are we no? But
should we yes? And none of those are taking over
(16:25):
the school board. That's not any of the options that
I think are are realistic here. So that's just my
thoughts on it, and as it moves through, I'm probably
gonna still post like little updates on social media about
where it's going, like if it's fast the House to senate, whatever,
if they get sued. I mean, I'll definitely update folks
on the immigration legislation and you know, the school board
(16:46):
takeover legislation, because I do just want to say there's
actually some good legislation being pushed through the state House,
but none of it's getting attention right now because of
all the bullshit that they're doing. And I get it,
like none of the reps. If it was me, I
wouldn't want to try to push the my legislation right
now because of all this BS that's happening, and it just, yeah,
(17:06):
it's not as impactful and you might end up not
getting it passed just because of all the opposition in
general to the Republicans, so you might not be able
to get the votes that you need. I mean, it's
just ridiculous and nationally, you know, the current administration out
here setting up war plans on signal group chats and
(17:28):
adding in a whole like reporters, editors, whatever that man is,
whatever he is, I don't even know what his actual
job is. But let me tell you something real quick.
If that was me, if I had got dropped into
a signal group chat with the vice president, the defense person,
(17:51):
the head of defense department, and whoever the other advice
to people are, I wouldn't have said shit. I would
have been built the case for months. Olivia Pope raised me.
Maybe I'm not telling a motherfucking thing. I'm getting as
much to you as I can. I'm trying to get
a whole expose in this whole. I'm taking screenshots every
(18:14):
day because they was in there clowning. And then, if
I'm smart, I would start an anonymous page and start
posting random shit. A few months later. I would never
say it was me, Like my boy, he just dumb, dumb,
Like where's the finesse? Why would you snitch so quickly?
(18:36):
It's been two days. And if bands is joking that
much within a few text messages, imagine what kind of
shit he really would be saying, Like bro, Honestly, I'm
disappointed in him for stitches so quick. He should have
shut the fuck up. And that's a white man for you.
Either they super evil and trifling, or they all do
good and want to do the right thing care about
(18:57):
black women. It's never in between. It's never in betwe
It's either there very much your Trumps and JD. Vances
who abuse women and are insane and don't believe in
the rule of law. And then there's your super do
gooder white guy who loves black women and you know,
really cares about our rights and it's always standing up
for us and loves everybody. There's like no in between
(19:20):
for me with white men personally. Yeah, I just can't
believe he snitched. I wish he had shut the fuck
up real bad, but that's just me. So basically, they
dropped him into a group chat with literal war plans
being planned and like talking about how Trump wouldn't like this,
(19:43):
Trump wouldn't like that. You know, we're still gonna go
through with it. This is how we're gonna do like
literal war plans, like literally talking about dropping bombs, and
I said, wow, y'all are using signal group chats for
this what happened to the blackberries? What happened to the
President's using blackberries? Like no security measure. It's like, oh
my god, it's insane. So yeah, that's what's happening locally nationally,
(20:10):
some of the legislative tea and more important, the legislative
wins slash policy wins that we've made here in Memphis,
and I hope that this inspires folks to try to
make these changes where they are. You can always ask
to have those meetings. Push back. I think people should
challenge that time more and more because they aren't at
crazy times everywhere like some places like in Nashville, they
(20:32):
have meetings in like five or six, So I mean
people should start definitely questioning, like why are we having
it this early? Can we push it back to four?
Can you push you back to four thirty, like, you know,
let's make this more accessible, and why isn't the parking free?
This is a public building that people trying to come
to to participate in the public process. Not to mention
(20:53):
that the city council on the city side, because we
have a city and county government, the city council is
the only post public forum people have. There's no other
place where you can go make public comment other than
school board meetings. But there's no other place like this
around actual city governance that you can go and make
a public comment. It's only city council meetings. So if
I have a specific issue, this is the only outlet
(21:16):
and place I can go, and so why not make
that the most accessible it can be? And that was
my whole goal. So as always, you can follow me
on Facebook and Instagram at the Law according to Amber
and we'll, you know, see you for another episode, probably
next week, because I'm sure something's gonna happen. All right,
(21:36):
y'all be
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