Native Land Pod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with reisent Choice Media.
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.
Welcome, Hey, fam You're about to hear a replay of one of our interviews from our live stream at the Democratic National Convention. 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've been talking about history, making history, and how it's important to
stand on the shoulders of those history makers. And we've been joined by a legend, congress Woman Barbara Lee from California's twelfth congressional district. She is a mentor. She is a woman that we absolutely look up to. She got a torch passed to her by Shirley Chisholm. And I know you passed the torch to Kamala Harris when you sit up and said I'm going to endorse her first
in twenty twenty. So we are thrilled to be joined by you, and we know you are busy, So thank you, Congresswoman, you're here.
Thanks, thanks so much. Angela. You know this is Uh, I don't know how I've been there. I still get stars.
Yes, Congress you.
I've been to every every convention except one since nineteen seventy two.
And uh, this is a bookend convention for me.
The first convention was when I was a delegate for Shirley Chisholm.
Of course, Willie Brown.
Then said give me back my delegation for the McGovern delegates.
And now here we have common health and I.
Share that because it's pretty busy for me, you know, convention, and I'm a convention.
Officer this year. Yes, and so I'm just like having a good time but working.
We know you, and we wanted to ensure what you were joined pretty quickly by a candidate, Latifa Simon, who is actually the person you're passing the proverbial torch to in your congressional district. So we wanted to ensure you had this moment in the midst of all the fun you're having, put all the work.
Thanks.
Let me just say, Latifa, just like Vice President Kamala Harris, she's prepared, she's ready, she's experienced, and she knows exactly what she's doing and how to take the twelfth Congressional.
District to the next level.
And so I'm really proud of right, She'll tell you I taught a class at Mills College. She was my smartest teap of my smartest student. So now this baton is in good hands and she runs this next lap of the race.
Congresswoman Lee, did you have a envision a time like this? Did you ever see something like this being possible?
Oh?
Yes, in nineteen seventy two, I saw it because I saw Shirley Chisholm fought. I saw and watch Fanny lou Hamer from Afar, and I saw all of these black women, all of these women of colors, struggling.
Through all the challenges.
And then I saw Vice President Harris in twenty nineteen taking that baton, saying.
That she was going to run for president.
And when she dropped out, I was on a train going from DC to New York and it was money.
So we got to get this money out of politics.
But I told her then, I said, don't worry, You're gonna be president one day.
Wow. Wow, I love it.
So, congress Woman, I'm so happy that you're joining us because one thing I've always loved and respected about you is you will have the unapologetic way of standing and
moving in your conviction. I remember being a young journalist getting my uh just starting out at CNN, and this was during right after nine to eleven, and you, of course were known as the sole member in the House of Representatives to vote against the au m F, which, to your point, would have given this government free access to engage our military and foreign foreign adversaries.
Can you talk a bit about.
What it means, because I think we're seeing a very different Kamala Harris on the campaign trail now and she appears to be moving in her convictions as well. Can you talk a bit about what it meant to be the sole person and stand in your own truth and righteousness to make sure that you were on the right side of history more than almost twenty five years later.
That authorization to use military force was a sixty word authorization, overly broad. All it said, in essence was any president can go to war forever. Now the Constitution requires Congress to declare war. Yeah, but to turn it over then President Bush and subsequent presidents was.
Wrong, first of all constitutionally.
But if you believe in looking at alternatives to go into war, then you do not just automatically use the trigger the military option. You always tried development, diplomacy, peaceful solutions first. You do not just do that the military aswer My dad was in the military. Out of that, my father was the first one to call me. He retired to lieutenant colonel. He said, you were right. Do not give any president the authority to send our young men and women.
Into work and not know what you're doing.
Yeah, so you know, you faced a lot of death threast, a lot of hassles, and it was hard, but you know the scriptures. Ephesian said, stand right, We thank you for that.
For congresswoman, if I could ask, because there are a lot of folks who want to follow in your model. Obviously we've got Latifa, who who is blazing amazing trail as an activist organizer right where she is, tell us just very quickly, how do you deepen into that value set? If there was advice that you would give to folks, how do you ground? Where do you ground? When do you know where to make that stand?
You have to know yourself, You have to know what you believe in.
And Shirley Chisholm said to me, she said, you know you've got to shake things up. She said, these rules were made for you, they were made for me. You got to get in there, not go along to get along. You get in there and you you disrupt every policy in every system that's oppressive, this discriminatory, this racist, that's sexist, this wrong, and then you build something new.
And that's what you do, Congress, and that's what Latifa has done her life.
We definitely want to get Latifa in, but you had a heart out two minutes ago. We are not trying to get cussed down.
He doesn't know I'm back here because I realized when I got there, I ran off in another ten minutes. Ask Congresswoman one more question. I just want to say that, you know, we got to in Latifa too.
This is a question for la being that black woman have always been the backborne of the Democratic Party. Does this feel like you're finally getting your just do having the VP at the top of the ticket.
First of all, I grew up born and raised in the Bay Area with Congresswoman Barbarly as our north star politically, so you know, for us, you know, she ran so we could walk. We had a politic of freedom and justice. You would turn on Channel two k TVU in the morning. And see Barbara Lee when I was a child watching this woman on the floor, even before you gave that consequential vote. And so for me to be running this race following in your footsteps, first of all, there's no shoe.
There's no foot that could fill the shoe of Barbara Lee. I want to be very clear from Barbaraly has literally a degree in diplomacy, not just degree from the academics, but doing the work for fifty years, allocating for women and children, being an internationalist, literally building.
As she climbs. There are so many of mes out there in the Bay Area.
But when Barbara told me that she was going to run for the United States sinner, I said, ma'am, mayam might I And she, on my primary nights passed me a littoral baton and we've won that race, Rightenous Lee me get to the place where I could say, my full time job is going to be working for poor women and children and for just say but folks, I talked about Kamla last night, But let me tell you something being raised in the Bay Area.
Being understand the Bay Area.
I understand Oakland, the black folks there, they came through the great migration, right. They are from the South, were country, and we knew we were trying to leave Jim Crow and we found it in the Bay Area. We thank God for Rondellums and we thank God for Barbari Lee. I'm gonna do you right, miss Lee.
I'm so much like Latifa has already done me right.
First of all, because I never would have run for the Senate, knowing that money in politics was going to be a challenge, and knowing all the dynamics, as you know, but I knew that worst case there, Latifa was to carry this baton.
Ron has me the baton.
I passed Lativah the batona, and I'm forging ahead. And let me just say it's really important now for you to be their Latief because since okay, Northern California, I'm the first and only black woman ever elected to Congress. We have a Northern California delegation of all white people, nobody that looks like myself. Can you imagine having a seat at that table and having to push, push, push every single day, and Latifa is the one to do that. I was the first and only woman north of Los Angeles.
You know this elect to the California Assembly and Senate.
Yes.
And you know when you look back, and I work for Ron dollas one of the first chief of staffs black women on Capitol Hill.
That's like a long time that.
I've had to push, push push, But you know what, like Shirley Chisholm, Hey, here's Latifa.
I I really I love y'all.
I'm so glad that we have Oakland representing tonight, the same night that Kamala Harris will be speaking.
I'm gonna get I'm.
Gonna get Congressman lead to Worklet's but we are definitely gonna have you back. Thank you so much, speak.
Thank you so much. 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 iHeart Radio and partnership with Recent Choice Media. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.