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Welcome Home.
This is Angela Rye with Tiffany Cross and Andrew Gillham. You are tuned into this week's mini pod.
Are well, Hiday.
Hey, we're in the middle of recording. You face signed me.
We love you, Jay, you can face us anytime.
Welcome home, Jay, Welcome home j I'm trying to dismiss the bride. Okay, speaking of rights and speaking of crises, picking up facetimed in crises.
Mayor Adams, Mayor Eric Adams of New.
York City recently appeared on The Breakfast Club and he has something to say about migrant rights.
And I want to know if you all think there's.
Any truth to the profile of dei mayors also known as black mayors when.
Looking at known as mayors.
Okay, carry on, when looking at the migrant crisis in these United States.
We are going to play this clip and discuss.
Check out what they're doing. They're doing it to New York, They're doing it to Chicago, They're doing it to Los Angeles, They're doing it to Houston. What is the same in all those cities? All black mans all black mans, and so with we're saying same thing that I'm going through here. My brother Johnson is going through, my sister bass is going through, my brother Turner is going through. So our folks are what they wanted to happen, Governor Appen wanted to happen.
We're going to turn these of cities against their mayors.
We're going to create this environment where they're all going to go against their maths. Go google what they doing to my brother in Chicago, Go google what they doing to sister baths. So this cities have now turned against these black mayors that are making real change for the first time over police. And they're using this to say, Okay, these black mans are not competent, they can't run their cities. They're getting everything to the migrs and the simum seekers.
This was a perfectly executed plan that we are buying into make black mans look batter from and when we're doing just the opposite.
I love this moment.
You all know that I was raised by an activist and an educator. My dad is on the activism side, and we constantly were talking about the ways in which the government from the Fedes on down worked diligently to try to dismantle black leadership, black power. We understand that by virtue of bussing migrants from the border they're crossing into the states, they step into to the north, there's already something going on there. It's already something afoot. He
talked about mayors Johnson, Turner, Bass and at Hughes. Of course it's Adams. Is there something to this? Andrew, you are a mayor we talk about all the time, tiff your conspiracy theorist with me every now and then. Yours comes with data, So there might be some data you can run to on this point.
But I just I'm very curious about this.
Well, I do you want to say that they also bust migrants to the Vineyard, which has a different municipality, And I do not believe has anyone black and power there.
Except it's also thou synonymous with the vacation home of Barack Obama, right exactly.
It's like the vacation home for the quote unquote liberals that they might say, and I shouldn't say, there's not anyone black and power there.
I just don't know.
They have a very different way the way they divide up who's responsible for the towns. I would be remiss if I didn't say that. I definitely disagree with Mayor Adams on a lot of political issues, but on this one I take his point that, you know, Andrew, you told us a story not too long ago that about Ron Desanders who went to get migrants from Texas just to bust them as a political stunt. I'm always moved
to the humanity of these kind of discussions. I think about the people who risk life and limb and put their children at risk to get to these shores because they were in search of better opportunity, because they were literally not just in search of opportunity, but literally trying to save their own lives. Some of these states, particularly in South America, the policies that are running them out were influenced by US policies, and so some of these
states are borderline narco states. Some of these folks are fleeing because their lives are threatened. So it's always baffling to me. The party who self identifies as pro life, we of course know that's not true, but they self identify as pro life. We'll see these people and look at them in disgust and want to essentially, you know, push them, put them out to pasture in states where they feel like there are other people who don't look
like people that we, you know, acknowledge their humanity. So I hope that something changes.
I know.
So it is stress on cities with limited resources. I completely understand. We've heard a lot from people who say, no, they are taking resources away from us.
I hear you.
I understand that, But I just there's something about this that I think there is unity in humanity and if we can find our way to say, yes, it's unfair what they're doing, but we want to make sure that all human life is respected and valued and you have food and shelter. I hope that we can get to a place of that position in this country.
And I think if we were to evaluate what these mayors are doing in response to the migrant crisis that has literally been dropped on their doorstep intentionally for political stunts, almost in all cases you'd see that they are extending the humanitarian arm of their cities, right. But what they're also being then faced with are these caricatures of them that basically say, this is a city run amuck, this is a lawless place, this is a mayor who can't
handle big responsibilities. And I agree with Mayor Adams and have been on the side of it myself where individual mayors have been targeted and there there is no there is no coincidence whatsoever around what is shared between them all. There's no coincidence whatsoever. But but I also say the next step of this, by extension, they are attempting to assign lawlessness, on governability, lack of leadership to the Democratic Party.
We for for a lot of these folks who come after them on the right, on the hard right, on these Fox shows. What they're what they're showing is is that this is what will become of America if we allow Democrats to take control. Yeah, they're there, they want to go this far left policies and homeless are going to be taken over every street, you know, a rapist and sex rings are taken over our cities because this is what the future of our country looks like if
these people are in charge. So they're playing on Yeah, they're playing on two two aspects of the boogeyman. If in respect to us, it is yes, the the lawlessness. How many times that we've seen ourselves in images, uh, and and in prison, you know, attire. So they're they're lawless. They can't uphold the law because they don't follow it themselves. And then there is the caricature of black folks as the biggest recipients of the welfare state. The they want
everything for free. They don't work for what they earn. The de I mayor, he's a mayor, but he didn't earn it the right way. He's not the most qualified. He's the he's he's he's just d e I, which I as in doing your rundown. I said, you know, it's synonymous for me, closer to the N word than it's the polite, the most polite way. These folks are being able to incorporate that into their into their.
When we take their definition.
When we take their definition right, when we take that where we accept their definite, that's what they mean it for. So I just I agree with Mayor Adams, and I think it's a layer beyond. I don't. I don't think it is by itself exclusively about black mayors. I think it is because of the tropes that they've spent decades echo inter in the minds of everyday Americans about why it is you ought to be locking your door when
you see a black man walking toward you. Why you ought to clutch your purse underneath you, why you ought to switch sides of the street that you're walking on. They're playing on a long history of investment in defining who we are, who they want people to think we are, and now they're attaching that to the Democratic Party for the power shift here. They believe we shouldn't have power, and if we have power, this is what it will look like.
All right, y'all, we're going to take a quick break, but before we do, we all know it's important for our community to stay informed, particularly in an election year. So tell someone you know about the show. Tell five people arrive with five to the podcast. You can also leave us a rating or review sending those questions in those comments.
More coming up after the break. You know.
The other part of this that I think is interesting is also on that interview, Mayor Adams talks about how when these people are on your doorstep, you have a legal obligation or face the liability of not taking care of them. So he got innovative and created a program that may end up costing uppers of fifty three million
dollars with Mobility Capital Finance. They provided debit cards to these families that like, will have twelve dollars a day because they didn't want the we've talked about before the podcast.
The food that was given to them was nast them.
It gives them an opportunity to go get food from places they like and eat hopefully.
Okay, twelve dollars a day isn't much, we know that, and.
Not just place they like, right, these are culturally.
Of them. Yeah, they can spend it on food.
They can get it anyway they want. But the a lot of food was going to waste because this isn't stuff that they were eating, yeah where they were coming from.
Yeah, so they were in that Wait, there was a lot of food waste that was happening. This was another opportunity. Mobility Capital Finance is actually a black owned business. So they're getting this huge opportunity to and I'm not saying that it's not a handout, but a huge opportunity to solve a really important crisis from the humanity standpoint.
Topcius you talked about. And so this is one of those.
Moments where a mayor who very much ran on lot order I don't always agree with Eric Adams either. When he talked about being targeted, I understood exactly what he meant. This is someone who's like, Okay, I see this happening, this isn't right. I'm going to try to solve for it. And they're still trying to make you look like you're irresponsible. You're still they're still trying to make you look like
you can't manage your city. They're still trying to make you look like when migrants come in, there goes the neighborhood, which is a trope that we also understand and have experienced, is going from one group of people of color to another.
And I wonder when it all stops.
Yeah, yeah, I don't think it does stop.
I don't think it. I don't think it stops over race by itself. I think the only way it stops is if we somehow had a realignment of what power looks like in this country. But that well, I don't know. I mean, like I said, for I'm not convinced that what is motivating and moving these folks begins and ends with race. I think it begins and ends with who has power and who risks losing power. It is this is how I've always had it because I've built and
designed this system for my advancement. What happens is someone who is not like me, didn't come from where I came from, doesn't understand my history, my lineage, my story. What if they start being able to make the rules, and then what if they replicate what we did, which has built the rules to suit us, except now they build the rules to suit them. They make two mistakes. One, that's not what we're about equity period, and that means for everybody. But but if this is more what's going
through your mind? Building the system like we built it for us, except now as being built for someone else.
Yeah, But I wonder what you would say, particularly because you were a mayor to people, because there are these issues reference you know, mayors of Elster, Turner out of Houston, Careen Bass out of LA There are people and municipalities where there appears to be a fight over resources. It makes sense, and the subtext of that sometimes the commons
do come across as very anti immigrant. We've talked about this before, where you're saying, no, these are people fighting for their resources and it can be you know, both in right, I wonder what you would say to people who have these negative comments to me that pull from the oppressor's language and perspective instead of let's build.
Together, but like no, ain't no room here, you got to get out.
What do you say to those shops like y'all have looked over us and bypass us, and now your.
Comment is, well, the first thing we don't tell them is we don't tell them that that's not true because and there they lived experience. If I'm trying to get a job meant applying for one and can't get one, but you got here yesterday and yet you have one, we can't. They're never going to believe us or trust us that that that that that that.
But is the job?
It's not like it's a job with like six figure payments and benefits. Is it a job that people want to do?
But it is one that they feel that they could access And.
Is it though I know how they feel, is it actually a job they do they want to be dated?
If I'll put it this way, it almost doesn't matter what you or I think about that. If the story that we're telling ourselves and that they're telling themselves is I lost out on the opportunity because you.
But also be pray it could be.
But but it also is their living experience what he's saying, And the part of it is this, you have a job. I don't have one. It's not that it's the same job. It's you have a job and I can't get one.
Yeah, and they made a way for you and they're not making a way.
That is how white folks have felt. It is anybody who doesn't look like that.
But we all know that more than one thing can be true at one time, and so if it's somebody's lived experience has got to be validated. And what I would say is as loud and proud as we are with the services that we are providing for asylum seekers and immigrants who coming to the compt we got to
be equally as loud and proud. If Mayor Adams had to go through and detail the budget that he spends on housing, on small business development, on what he you know, spends on growing, building, sustaining protecting the community, it would be a bohemoth by comparison. But his job today is to deal with the mike and Cress's right here on the street, and so that's what we're hearing a lot about those moneies that are spent. They don't even compare, right,
they don't even compare. But because we have, as you've already said, you know, adopted the Master's plan using the Master's playbook, thinking that we're going to disassemble that house using the instructions he wrote, we will not. He didn't build his house to fail, He built it to throat.
If I'm getting snap benefits in my s, benefits don't cover my groceries. They're not paying attention to the fact that it's twelve dollars a day per person going on this card and eggs are eleven dollars. They're focused on the fact that you're getting benefits that I've been having a scrap for all my life in some instances.
I don't want to overgeneralize.
But the other thing on this point is this same card that was created by a black company. A white council member, Gail Brewster, is like, we need to investigate, we need to investigate what this is. I don't know about this, probably because it was a company or two or three that she she thought I could have got this contract over them when it wasn't there.
I did because it's a DEI contract.
The trope continues, right, I.
Just don't want us to participate it.
No, I don't want to suit to either. That's alonger road I think for us to have to hold. But I but what is important here.
It was just about to say you got to talk to some country.
People from South georgiad you want to is that? And again nobody will receive it. But what Mayor Adams did in paying for this program the way he is is a fraction of what they would spend and the food program that they are currently running. So he's saving money, he's doing it in a culturally sensitive way. He's addressing the problem in demonstrating leadership as a mayor, as are the others. But it is also fitting into a narrative that is very convenient for the other side. And I
think we got to be aware of it. We got to see it all the way through. And I agree with you. We have to interrogate the same language being used by the oppressor. Now we're adopting and we're using it. And I think it is my Meslow's hierarchy of needs, and I.
Think that doesn't see anything.
This is food shelters, safety, security, and if you come against any of that. For me and mine, there are no rules on the table.
Can I ask you a question before we close out? Often I read the comment sometimes on our YouTube or social media, my comments. My people email me to my website. They DM me and all of you guys. A lot of times people email me to my website. They've copied you guys. But it's accounts you A'll never check. But nonetheless I read them a lot of consistent comments about you, specifically Andrew. I think people feel I know this is not true, but people feel abandoned, you know, like.
Andrew, you've left us with the scantis, and you know, like.
Somehow you're like, I don't want to be governor, guys, never mind, you know, but people are saying to count all the votes, right, But people they feel away, and they're like, when are you getting back in the game. And when I hear you week after week on this podcast, I do wonder, do you think you'll ever run for office again?
I don't know. I don't know, but I do know this. There are a lot of ways in which we can be of service, and serving in the office of a policymaker is just one route we can. We can I think I'm on purpose and on mission, on God's mission here only because I think we can penetrate minds. I think we can engage people. I think what this country needs more than anything right now is a real revolution.
And I don't mean to I'm turning the table over and whatever, but a revolution from the standpoint of we have we have. We have left it to somebody else to take care of that, to go and take care of that, to go and handle that by way of politics, for too long, thinking that we have to be locked out because we don't know enough about it. Too complicated. It's hard that you know, I wouldn't know what to do here, and the system benefits by all of us
who draw that conclusion. I'm saying, it ain't that complicated. It's as simple as I'm a priority. I'm a living, human, breathing thing. I deserve what I need in order to survive. And the government has the ability to do that part and to help you do your part. But but if we keep checking out who holds them accountable, those marbles never get picked up off the floor.
When we need all the marbles to weigh in on who holds them accountable.
On social media, because guess what we ought.
To Well, I ask a lot of people want to ask answer that question.
The comments I asked for you, Yes, you got the answer.
You got the answer. Thanks for listening, y'all.
Remember to rate, review, subscribe, and tune into our regular episode every Thursday, Welcome Home, y'all.
Native Land Pod is the production of iHeartRadio in partnership with Recent Choice Media. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows