Native Land Pod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with Resent Choice Media.
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.
Welcome, Welcome, Hey, everybody. This episode is a replay of one of our interviews from our live stream as a Congressional Black Caucus Foundations Annual Legislative Conference. If you want to listen to or watch the full stream, check out the links in the episode description. You can also find a full list of all the guests we interviewed. Welcome home, y'all. We are welcoming up Congresswoman Evac Clark. She is the
incoming chair for the Congressional Black Caucust. She's been in congressional leadership, a long time Chris woman, and she is extraordinary. We first met while she was on the Homeland Security Committee as a freshman, and watching her rise has been my greatest privilege and honor. Congressoman Clark, thank you so much for being here with us today.
I want to add that she's one of the most fashionable members Yes Congress as well. Has always been super fly and a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated. And on a personal note of privilege, you have always been so supportive of me, So I want to thank you publicly for that. So we love you, and happy welcome.
Home, Welcome, wonderful. It's such an honor to be with you. And I do want to make a correction. I am the first vice chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, and I'm seeking the support of my colleagues will message of the Congressional Black Caucus.
But you know you put it.
Well, here's what I know. Here's what I know, and I want to say this to you, of course, that race is not partisan, and also we're in the clear here.
What I want to say to you to your face, Miss Clark, is as long as I worked on the hill and even after, I know how long you've served diligently, how much you love your colleagues, how much you love the culture, how much you love your constituents, how much you adore our community, and so I am confident that you will be the next share of the Congressional Black Caucus.
And I know I've seen your service, you know firsthand, And I loved laboring with you because you made everything fun and we still worked hard, but you always kept a smile on your face, and I'm grateful for that. And for your sisterhood too.
Thank you so much.
My sister sat Andrew is such a pleasure.
It's good to be with you. I was gonna tell you. I told Congressman mixing Waters when we were.
Together at the DNC, how growing up in Florida, in Gainesville, how I didn't know my member of Congress and there was a white male at the time, and how because of her advocacy, I always felt like she was my member of Congress. You're the next member of Congress who really puts puts it in the mold of I don't have to be a New York resident in your district to know that you're out there fighting for us.
And so I know our listeners feel that way.
I know I personally feel that way, and I just I'm thankful for your leadership and high time that a voice like yours helms again the CBC.
I wanted, Oh, thank you, thank you all so very much. I appreciate it, and I love my people. At the baseline, it starts with the love of your people, and you will go, you know, through the fire to make sure that they are safe, they are protected, they are thriving.
That's real.
In this society.
You do that every day. I want to ask you. You know, we're talking about this selection in less partisan ways because you know, we want to protect the five o' one C three status of the Foundation. But one thing I wanted to raise is there are a lot of concerns impacting our community specifically going into this election. And we're not talking about who to go for necessarily right now,
but I think we all want to preserve democracy. There are a lot of threats at stake in you for a long time, cybersecurity has been your bread and butter, you know that space. What are you most concerned about for black folks going into this selection site? Absolutely, I'm concerned that our extreme, you know, devotion to social media puts us in a place where misinformation and disinformation can can permeate our thoughts, and so oftentimes what we're seeing
is not accurate, their deep fakes. You technology used to deceive, intentionally deceive people.
That can be visual and it can be audio as well, And this will be the first election where this technology is that the fingertips of the average everyday American not to mention foreign advices. And so I'm just concerned, given the tone and tenor of this particular election cycle. Some would call it desperation, others would call it openly ambitious that there will be those types of disruptions to our election.
And it doesn't have to be information regarding candidates. It could be your polling side is closed.
Right right, yep, the day of the election. And it's interesting you bring that up because it shows how powerful we are as a people in this country first, but second as a voting block, because we are disproportionately targeted by misinformation and disinformation, I would argue, perhaps second only to the Lasino community. And a lot of these outlets don't have Native Spanish speakers to help dispute some of the disinformation. So we want to encourage our viewers out
there share responsibly, consume information responsibly. What are some things that you would encourage people to do, like how if you know, how how do they make sure that they're not consuming misinformation and disinformation? And what role is the congressional black castus?
And you take the same device provides us the opportunity to fact check. Yes, right, So don't just receive content and not then do some a little do legits around it, because if it doesn't sound right, it probably isn't right, And oftentimes we know that the information we receive can be flawed, and we don't want to inadvertently participate in the spread of that. And that's what generative AI can do in the blink of an eye. So I want
to encourage our folks to use that same device. When you receive something on social media to investigate, you do your own fact checking.
Yes, you have you considered. I know you've got to bounce. I'm so sorry.
Have you considered the feeling what the work becomes if you are negotiating as CBC chair with a black woman president who's overly qualified and all the other good stuff. But I just I don't want us to sit in a moment that we're not at yet. But I would love to hear your pre thought.
Extraordinarily excited about First of all, what the Biden Harris administration has already done. They've made monumental investments, and the CBC has been a major part of negotiating those investments, knowing that the need for those investments to hit our communities is paramount, and that we're turning the page.
We are already.
Turning the page.
The question is will we go back, will all of those investments be dismantled and we say no, it won't. We say not on our watch. And just knowing that this, I want to say, sister, is a new generation. Both of us were born in the same year. I won't go into those details, but you can google it, use.
Your Google machine.
We were birth born as beneficiaries of the civil rights movement. We were not you know, young people that marched or the young people that were host We were the beneficiaries. And that meant that, you know, the world was our oyster because our ancestors truly did what needed to be doe to get to be done in order to advance our communities. We now have someone with that frame to move us forward, and certainly among CBC members, we've got a intergenerational body and that is a unique blend in
this century. We are, I believe, at the precipice of manifesting a whole new paradigm of a civil society. It already exists. They are those who are in denial about the existence. But as a result of what our answers us is that we probably have the most educated Black community in the generation. That's not to say that there is major work that has to be telling because we got to raise the bar and I think that's where the fear that we are experiencing that has been weaponized
against us is coming from. So stay tuned.
And I just want to let you know because I know you've got to get to the dinner. But the comments on our YouTube live, everyone is commenting about your glasses and your nails. I told you all she the most fashionable. So thank you so much.
Much continued success.
You can't wait to have you back in all your capacity. I love you. Hey, y'all, thanks for listening. Remember to rate, review, subscribe, and tune into our regular episode that drops every single Thursday, Welcome Home, y'all.
Native Land Pod is the production of iHeartRadio in partnership with Resent Choice Media. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.