Native Land Pod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with Reason Choice Media.
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.
Home, y'all home.
So happy to be here with our essence family. We have had quite the weekend. It has been a beautiful experience. Have you all had a good time? All right, Andrew tip, will we getting into Oh, we.
Got some great guests for you all today. We want to have a little conversation about the state of affairs, politics and our nation. And I think we've got three voices who you'll get to hear it from.
Four I'm sorry, four voices.
One more add on that will be just perfect to get the message succinctly to us so that we can share with our friends, loved ones, family cousins, in them and them and them.
So bear with us.
It's gonna be a good quick panel for your enjoyment.
I'm excited to hear from the people at every level of government right now, because I think we were just talking backstage about so many people are not necessarily engaged. People are exhausted with what's going on, and I know, to save our spirits sometimes we need to tune out. But I'm thrilled that we have people who can make information accessible and digestible and break down the things we need to know.
So I'm ready to get into it.
That's right.
Well, while people are using the power their voices, it sounds like a protest is going on right now. But we're gonna make sure that you are equipped to do the very that kind of work and engage in your power at home.
So we are thrilled to bring.
To the stage the following voices, and if the backstage folks would do us a favor and increase the volume on these mics, that would be amazing.
We have State Rep.
Malcolm Kenyata, who is the vice chair of the Democratic National Committee joining us. We have Ashley Shelton, CEO of Power Coalition for Equity and Justice.
Yes, indeed, we have LINEE.
Vane, how y'all feel about parking Lot Pippin also the hosts of the People's Brief on Revolt, and last, but certainly not least, the Queen, our friend, our sister, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockhead is in the buildings. Don't mind us, We're not the church, praise seem We went to a white brunch right before this So I want to start with our dear sister, Jasmine. There are many crises that the country is wrestling with right now. I'm just gonna somber
us up just for a moment. There are a few crises on our hands, and one is in Jasmine's home state of Texas of course, with the flash floods and the many lives that were lost.
So, Jasmine, I just wanted.
To yield to you for a moment, to just bring truth to us about what's really happening in this moment.
Yeah, I think that, uh, this is a great opportunity to talk about this particular issue specifically right now that we are sitting in Louisiana, because we know that there is a such thing as say, hurricane season, but as we have these natural disasters that have only continuously been on the rise because some people just don't believe in climate change in this country, we also have had those that have been empowered with education and science that have
always at least helped us to predict what was going to happen so that we could then save our lives. Right now, people don't understand that there have been devastating cuts that have taken place on the federal level for no other reason than pure idiocy, cruelty, as well as incompetency, and it is leading to people dying. People don't fully understand that government, last time I check, wasn't here to kill us, but should be extending our lives and should
be representing for us. But unfortunately, right now, we do not know how many people are still missing. We do not know the total amount that have perished. Now we're looking at close to seventy people that have died, almost thirty of them are little girls. And all of this could have been prevented if we did not have a tax on science, including Noah, defunding Noah, which is how we get our predictions. These people had no idea that they were about to experience flash flooding, and they should
be here today. I don't really care what your political affiliation is.
Right now we are in a crisis.
In this country because we have people because at the end of the day, let me tell you something, I don't know those people's political affiliation whatsoever, and I really don't care. They are people and they are people that should be alive. And so when people start talking to you about Democrats, Republicans, independents. Ultimately, when you are looking for who it is that you are going to elect, you should elect people that are people centered and focused
instead of playing these stupid games. And that's what we have failed at.
Unfortunately.
That's right.
We want to give you a break, Congressman.
But before we move on to the other panelists, for some questions, I would love for you to reflect for this audience on it's still a term of.
Yours bad bill.
Bill?
Wait, what is it bad bill?
Butch body budget bill that just passed the US Congress signed it to law by Donald Trump. And how do you make it plain to this audience the ways in which their lives may be impacted by what this Republican majority just did.
I'm gonna keep it real short, because obviously we've got an amazing panel of people.
This is a reverse Robinhood.
Essentially, what they've done is they've taken resources and money out of your pockets. Because let's say somebody doesn't have healthcare, that now means that they are going to have to spend money that they couldn't afford it in the first place for health care that they couldn't afford in.
Order to try to stay alive.
Also say, Jeff Bezos can go out and when he get married to his third wife, okay, he can then have another fifty or sixty million dollar wedding.
That's it's pure and simple.
And let me let me give y'all numbers, numbers that you probably can't truly conceptualize. They cut one trillion dollars worth of money to Medicaid, not one thousand, not one hundred thousand, not a million, not a billion, but one trillion dollars. And after cutting one trillion dollars out of the ecosystem of health care. And that's how I'm gonna
phrase it. Because even if you don't have Medicaid, whatever good insurance you think you got, let me just tell you all, the prices are going to go up because there's a trillion dollars that has been pulled.
Out of the health care system.
For some of you that don't necessarily live in the big cities, and even some that live in the big cities, those hospitals are going to shut down because they won't have the resources when you need to show up. Even if you do have good health care, guess what, there won't be anybody there to take care of you.
People are going to die.
Unfortunately. That is the theme of this administration. And the only thing that we have to show for it is that literally, we have eighty three billionaires in this country. They care more about eighty three billionaires in this country than they cared about the hundreds of millions of people that are in this country.
That is the long and short.
Whether we're talking about healthcare, whether we're talking about food, whether we're talking about education, which historically education has been what has allowed us to hopefully start to minimize that wealth gap. I am telling y'all it is time to strap up because it's about to get really rough.
I want to ask a follow up to you, Congressoman, and also I want to bring in Malcolm Kenyata, who is here as well. I think a lot of white one run newsrooms misrepresent black folks and they think black folks are so loyal to the Democratic Party, not understanding it as ourselves who were loyal to We're voting it for harm reduction, not to any particular party. So what would you say to the millions of people across this country who has every right to criticize their government, their
tax paying citizens. So we can't admonish them for these criticisms, but they feel like the party is not fighting for them and they're not interested in Instagram memes and media stunts, but they want to see actual combat to protect them what's happening. I'm curious what you would say to those people, and when she's done, I would love to hear from you as well, Malcolm.
So I absolutely understand.
I think that one of the reasons that I became like a top request at surrogate both under Biden as well as Harris, is because they could send me places that other people couldn't go. Because I understand the frustration. There are a group of people that have I felt like neither party has ever changed their lives for the better.
And I get it.
I understand that there are people that feel like, you know what, they only show up in our black church when it's time to get our black vote, but we don't see.
Them any other time.
I understand it, right, And so I tell people, just like I just told y'all you should vote based upon who is going to look out for you, I will tell you that I am not a Republican because I don't ever see myself being in a party that sides with white supremacists, and the last time I check, I'm totally black.
I get that, but it.
Does not mean that I believe that the party that I am affiliated with it's perfect. In fact, I don't believe anything on this planet is perfect. But I do believe that we can push people to be better.
And so that's where you come in.
The idea that Donald Trump won this election, in my opinion, is a farce for a couple of reasons.
But one of those reasons is.
Because a lot of people say, you know what, what he talking about that ain't gonna do nothing for me?
And what she's talking about.
I don't necessarily believe it, right because people have given up on this two party system. But the problem is when you decided to stay at home, you gave up on yourselves. And unfortunately, so I'm gonna tell y'all a real truth because that's the only way I know how to be. Is that we consistently want perfection out of our politicians and our preachers, and the reality is that we will never be perfect. And I tell people all the time that they divided us, and what do they say in war is.
Divide and conquer.
We got conquered because we allowed ourselves to be divided. And so what I want you to understand is that it's not really about convincing everybody to believe everything that you believe.
I don't really care where you stand on abortion.
I don't really care where you stand on LGBTQYA issues. And I frankly don't care where you stood on the war that wasn't even taking place here, because ultimately, they allowed you to be divided amongst those and they played in our faces also that they could rob us blind in daylight.
That is what they're doing.
They're robbing us of our futures, they're robbing us of our presence, they're robbing us of our lives.
So ultimately, the one thing.
That like, listen, it's a lot of people to have issues with me, and then it's a few people that love me too. But at the end of the day, you know what you're getting with me. You know that I'm gonna be one thousand about what I'm saying. So ultimately, I am asking you, I am begging you, because I don't know how we survive unless we get real realistic. If y'all remember this last thing I'm gonna say, so we get everybody else. Y'all remember that there was a
bit of a civil war within the Democratic Party. Ultimately, right, we had a nominee, We had Joe Biden.
Right, y'all, remember who tore Joe Biden down? It was us. It was us.
So the whole time we decided we were gonna tear Joe Biden down, and listen, I don't care we're you stood on that either to be perfectly honest, because I said it was only two people I was gonna ride with. If it wasn't Joe Biden, it had to be Kamala Harris, because I wasn't gonna play with them. But here's the reality. We spent so much time fighting ourselves that we didn't pay any attention to the real enemy, the one that
was going to inflict actual evil upon us. And so I just want us to have more of a togetherness spirit so that we can move together and understand that nothing will be perfect. But if we just keep our eye on the price, which should be these babies that we got sitting here, we should be pushing to make sure that they are not rolling back our access to money, that they're not rolling back our access to education, that they're not rolling back our access to even being able
to have a job. Right now, we are under attack in this country and people are still sitting by trying to play the same dagone rules.
While we got this convicted felon.
And listen, I did criminal defense, so I'm not necessarily against those that have been caught up in the system.
But this.
He is a real life criminal. This is the real thug going around rounding up people on immigration talking about they've been the enemy.
Last time I checked.
You are the enemy, sir, not them.
Here here, wait, Malcolm, here's one thing I want to put some respect on his name. This is Pennsylvania State Representative Malcolm Kenyatta, who knows a lot about running for office too, and just recently speaking of the infighting in the party, which Jasmine knows a little bit about as well. So we're not gonna leave everybody blameless. You had to run for a position twice at the DNC.
Not the history I wanted to make, but okay, the only person to have to win twice. So let me let me say this first, good afternoon, and let me just make this point. All of us sitting here today, we know exactly what it means to live in a country and to engage with institutions that don't always love us back.
That is the history of this country.
And I want to be very clear, and I say this, and this shocks folks, that poor kid from North Philly always starts this way, but I start this way. I am not a Democrat just because I hate Republicans. Hear me on that now. I do not like what they are doing. But I'm not a Democrat just because they're bad. So I'm a Democrat. I grew up in a working, poor family in North Philly. My dad was trained as a social worker. My mom spent most of her career as a home health aid, working with folks who have
really significant physical health challenges, mental health challenges. And my dad was lucky that when he was getting his degree, one day, a cute little thing named Kelly Kenyatta strolled on it.
And nine months later you have me. Now I talk about my.
Parents because I hit the parental jackpot. Okay, I got the best parents in the world, second only to your parents, who I assume we're fantastic.
But my parents I fucking hated each other. They did they did not.
I promise you I was there they did not, And so what that meant for me is they separated when I was young.
I got my first.
Job at twelve years old, washing dishes at a little restaurant. I buried both of my parents by the time I was twenty seven because they didn't have access to the type of health care that everybody deserves. But I think about what it took for me to be sitting here on this stage with you in this exact moment. As difficult as things were, I had healthcare because of a little program called CHIP that I'll remind you Democrats made a reality in this country.
Democrats did that.
I moved five or six different times, but we always had somewhere to go because of HUD and because of all the different things that existed, Section eight vouchers, affordable housing that was built, and that was built because there was a Democrat who did not know a little kid named Malcolm Kenyata was gonna need somewhere to go, but who believed in this idea that all of god children deserve to have somewhere to lay their head and be
treated with dignity, decency, and respect. And I think about when my parents found themselves in between jobs and it was Democrats who built the social safety net in this country that Republicans have just effectively shredded with the bill that they just passed. And so I did not run to be vice shared this party and run again to be vice share this party because I thought everything was
going great. I ran because a part of the mistake that we make is believing that institutions will somehow disappear if we're not there, when the reality is the Democratic Party is not what.
It should be because you're not there.
And I promise you you go around your community and I hear people talk about, you know, the old guard, And don't get me wrong, there are people with a lot of money, a lot of seniority, who want to use that money to keep people in place that keep them very comfortable.
Do not get me wrong on that, But.
Also be clear that a lot of it is like a paper tiger.
I think about people who step up.
And run for office in areas where nobody said they could win, and they are winning because a lot of people get afraid of stepping up and never even run. They never even challenge the system. When I ran to be in the State House almost a decade ago, at this point, there were so many folks who said to me, Malcolm, a gay kid from North Philly, it's not about to be elected to no stay house. Let me just tell you it is not gonna happen. That's very cute what
you're doing, but it's not gonna happen. And there were people who ran who everybody had tapped on the shoulder to say they were gonna be the person who ran. And I raised my hand and gathered my signatures and knocked on doors because I believe that when we talk to people, not just about the president that's gonna be elected, but when we talk to people about what is happening in their communities, that is the way we're gonna build our party. And let me end by making this point,
because the Democratic Party cannot exist. Hear me on this. We do not exist to just throw a damn party every four years and announce the nominee every single day. There are elections across this country that matter to your life, and we have done a crap job of treating those people with respect. And so I have this crazy idea that we ought to invest in folks running for school board like we do for people running for US Senate.
I have an idea that when somebody runs for mayor, we ought to interview them and not just the people running for Congress. Because I will tell you this, the jerrymander maps that we have here in Louisiana and everywhere else, those maps weren't jerry mandered in DC.
They were jerrymander where you live.
The people who were banned in the books, they were getting banned before the dumb lady from ww wherever the hell she came from. They were being banned at your school board meeting where your kids go to school. And when I think about the need to build affordable housing, there are zoning board meetings that might be happening tomorrow morning at ten o'clock that you're not going to that is going to decide whether and how we build.
Out the things.
And let me make this final really important point. People have asked, Malcolm, you know what is the Democratic Party about?
What are we going to do? And people will tell me as I go.
Across this country, Well, Malcolm, in twenty sixteen, they did this.
And I'm not saying they did or they didn't.
I was not even an elected official in twenty sixteen, and I promise you there's not a damn thing I can do about twenty sixteen or twenty eighteen.
I hear you, I agree with you. But what we're going to.
Do as a party is we can't keep talking about what we are not. We have to start talking about what we are. And I think the Democratic Party exists to do one thing that I think is the message of this party, and it's three words, make life better.
That is why we exist.
To make life better, so that you can afford your health care, to make life better, so you can have one good job backed up by a union, so you can care for your family. To make life better, so you can go to the damn doctor when you're sick and afford the prescription and when you leave the appointment.
That is our work.
And so I'm asking you to not help build this institution, because we like the institution as it is. But I am telling you that if you step up in this moment, there are spaces you can be the chair of the local party where you are. Probably you can certainly be a committee person where you are. And I am not here to defend incumbents. The Democratic Party DNC, against popular belief, we are not an incumbent protection racket. My job is not to protect a single incumbent. My job is to
elect democratic nominees. And so when you are the Democratic nominee, we'll do everything in our power to tell people how you're gonna make their life better and then earn their supports.
I love I love Dan Knaka.
I love what you share because what's really important is the local involvement. And sitting right to your right is Ashley Shelton, who runs the Coalition for Equity Injustice here in Louisiana. Y'all know about the four Congression, the constitutional amendments in March and the fact they were defeated. Thank that woman right there. So Ashley talk a little bit about local power and what happens when you come together and how miracles happen when you do just that.
Yes.
No, So we had four terrible amendments that they wanted to enshrine in our constitution, the worst of which was to put fourteen year old kids in adult jail. And so because they understood that the folks that in goal are aging out and they need new folks to work the farm also the plantation, and we got on the ground.
We did all we.
Use a multitude of strategies, but we did a town hall. We went all across the state listening and talking about what these amendments were and what they did. We explained to people how this would impact them and their families on a day to day basis. You know, we held you know, we in every meeting. Then we met the you know, the black teachers from Jefferson Parish, and we met the such and such an auxiliary you know, group
of women in this parish. And so we went all around this state talking to people about why this was important, and they showed up.
And I think that would Yes, they did.
Sixty five percent of the state who voted in that election defeated those amendments, and in fact, the one for putting the kids in jail got sixty six percent.
And I think that the thing.
That I think is most important is that a couple of things that since this election or this administration came in, we have seen.
Such an uptick in participation.
Folks coming out, Folks have questions, Folks that want to be engaged, They want to understand what's happening. People are hungry, and we saw that we fed that, and you know, and working across genres across issues really were able to come together and defeat these amendments and stop them from coming to our you know, coming to put in being
put into our constitution. And ten thousand more black people voted on these four amendments than they did for the governor's race ten thousand and so, you know, I would say, like, we, you know, we got some work to do, because if we would have got that together, we probably would have had a better we wouldn't have been dealing with what
we're dealing with. But it does going to show you that I hope that it is a Bellweather moment where you know, as goes the South can mean something positive, that the South is really you know, we have something to say, and it's time to recognize that.
There's power here.
We have the second largest black population, second to Mississippi. But we still you know, but there's so many there's so much power here. We're thirty percent of the population. And so we've already won one additional congressional majority minority seat, and then we're still fighting for nine state seats, six House and three Senate. And so all of these are in one is in the Supreme Court. Some of them
are in federal court the middle district. But we're going to keep fighting because that's where.
The power is.
That's where our power is. So think about the fact that.
I can sit here right now and say nine seats across the state don't have representation where black folks were cracked or packed into different districts, and so again, those fights were led by the people of the state. And I am so proud of the people because the message that the people kept saying over and over again is
that we just want what's fair. We went so much so that it came up and was quoted in court that all they wanted was what was fair and that we don't need to start changing the rules now that the majority is starting to look like the minority.
I love that, y'all give it up. Excellent work on the ground. I want to invite in Leneveney, who.
Some of you all know from social media the People's Brief as well, but a woman who is taking really difficult issues and breaking them down to digestible levels. And I just want to start here with you, which is in this time right now where people seem to be and competition for attention, that our minds have spread every
which way we turn on social media. There's ten thousand videos that we all want to stream through, and some of that seems to be distracting folks from some of the real harm that's taking place through the governing process. I'm curious to know how it is that you break through the noise and give folks, you know, to the millions y'all, to the tunes of millions who are tuning into her videos to understand a little bit better of what's happening in this political space.
I'd love to hear how you're doing that, and then to.
What advice would you give to the rest of us of how we can get our family members, friends, co workers to pay attention to what's happening, even though it may not be the sexiest thing happening.
Yeah, I think Kendrick Lamar said the best, and he said, you got to make it look sexy. A lot of people don't care about things until they feel like they can see themselves in it, or see a version of themselves that they'd like to be in it, or it connects to something they have going on in everyday regular life. So I just prioritize me to people where they are using language that people understand I have a master's in African American studies, but I don't lead with an academic mind.
I lead with like I'm talking to family, like I'm talking to my homegirls or whatever, and just making sure like you understand what's going on because it does affect you. I think it's really difficult as a black creator, period though, because what gets clicks and what gets likes, what gets what gets tossed around the algorithm and goes violence more often than not negative content, and like you said, people
aren't in competition for attention. But also I think we're facing an academic of an epidemic of everybody wanting to be right, everybody wanting to have the correct opinion, and wanting to amalgamate mass groups of people to engage in this group thing that is completely unnecessary and distracting and also a product of white supremacy.
So how do I do it?
I guess I know it's about the grace of God, you know what I'm saying, Like I just I use my voice because this is something that when you think about trying to master down to a science, you have to be able to just cut through with allten authenticity and purpose and usefulness for the audience. And I'm just grateful that what I've been doing for the past five years has done that for people and it's continuing to grow. You ask me a second part of that question, advice, What could you be doing?
Okay, So here's the thing.
If you like the content, and it's not just me, I've been able to be here this weekend with a lot of great creators. You might know Rashonda Elias, you might know Elizabeth Booker, you might know the Conscious Lea. We all have different vantage points. You all have different skill sets to be able to give you the information in a way that makes sense for you. But just like you're engaging in the comments, you need to take those conversations home to your workplace, like this shit.
Is not a game.
And the more that this administration is allowing itself to roll out its marketing trail of doom, it gets harder for us on the Internet to have joy, maintain joy, to be encouraged. And so you have to be able to utilize the information that you're getting from your feed and feed it back into your community. So I mean, I have more thoughts on what we can do at home because I'm sitting up here.
And I can't.
I intended to come here and listen and learn, and then I was on the program. But with that said, I'm sitting up here with amazing voices in politics, but I find I'm a person who's more connected to the people and just working from the ground up. So I have ideas on what we can do, but we can't expect our elected officials to do everything.
And we can't.
Expect our elected officials to save us when we have not been in the rooms, and we have not been sticking beside the Democratic Party, when we have been actually actively working to tear it down because we want to be right, because we feel disenchanted and we feel like the party hasn't had our back, and I get all those things, but we have a role in this work as well, and if we stand by and just let it pass us by, I'm going to find ourselves in the world to hurt. Yeah.
I just say that Linney is being like extremely modest. I just want to say that part number one, I mean briefly.
Touched on her education.
I'm not gonna labor, but I do believe that specifically when it comes to black women, I will absolutely spend all my time pouring into the ninety two percent because we tried to save this country in the first place, all right. And so Lenae also is she's a lyricist. This woman is a poet, and she knows how to frame it in ways that really resonate with our people. And so she is a trusted voice because she's gonna say what she gonna say very unapologetically. As she said,
She's gonna do it in an authentic way. But she's also young, and so you know, our party has consistently struggled to be like how we get young people, how we get them youngins right, but like literally being able to platform. And I appreciate my brother Malcolm Kinyata. We have known each other for some time, but like this was actually a really big step electing him for a
lot of different reasons to this post. Because when people are saying that the Democratic Party is not doing certain things, and lord knows, I got a long list of things I ain't doing. But when you're saying things like we want young people, but it's like, do you just want young people to go and get your coffee or do you want to actually give them a seat and give them a voice, and so that is why it is
beautiful because they are playing roles. And I think it's also even more beautiful that you have this compilation of folk on this stage right now, because it is going to take all of us. It is not just about the elected official. I know that we want it to be only about the electors doing the work, but there's so much that the people have to do because at least so long as we have a democracy, the power
resides with the people. And that is why it is so important that we have those that can communicate and educate, but also have those that are engaged in the straight up just activism and education on the ground. It takes every single person. So I don't want any of you to ever feel like there's not a role for you to play because you're not going to run for elected office.
I need you to understand that we all have a purpose and there is some level of influence that you can engage in that will move the needle to get us to a more a union.
You're not gonna underline just one thing really quick, Hey everything that jazzn't said about LINEE because I'll tell you my family we'd be sharing these videos around, especially for the knuckle has who voted the other the other way. And there are folks in my family voted not the way they should have should have voted. But let me say this you for people in your network. There are
folks that you are in a group chat with. There are folks who call you who trust you, and in this moment they're great, really smart people who are looking, who are sociologists and others. Disinformation. Misinformation is real, it's rampant. You were not going to be able to stop the ocean. But there are five or ten people in your phone right now who don't trust none of the people sitting on the stage.
But who trust you, who believe.
In you, and when you say something to them, it really matters. And I would just say, there are a lot of our uncles and our aunties and our mama and them who have stopped asserting themselves in this moment, and I would say, reassert yourself in this moment. I promise you there are folks within your network who want to hear from you, and you are the most effective, you know, messenger, with an assist maybe from some of the people we are on this stage.
Thank you for that, Malcolm well on Native Lampard. We try to make the point that we're never talking at you, it's a conversation with you. So we do want to open up the forum. If people are yes, ma'am, I couldn't even finish it. We already Black women don't never really need an invite, So yes, ma'am, there's no Mike.
That's okay, you can have mine. Good afternoon, thank you for being here.
I just have a So what I want to say is with can you say your name is where you're from? I'm sorry, dandy shit Harris Newborn, North Carolina. I live there, I'm from New York. And McMahon, she's trash. I just want to say that I'm a millennial. I left the Democratic Party two years ago and I'm independent and I'm
running independent for a House seat in North Carolina. And I feel like if there is not a good Democratic candidate, that the Democratic needs to open up the charter to at least support an independent candidate that is good for the seat, and not only young people running grassroots. We need money. We need money to go against these Republicans. So what is advice for people that are running independent and not necessarily tied to a party.
We want to stay grassroots.
It's gonna be me and ken YadA. I'll deal with the money. I'll let you deal with the other. Listen, it's not even necessarily a party affiliation. Black women are the most underfunded no matter what you look at, whether you're talking about building their own businesses or anything, so across the board, historically we are the most underfunded. My deal is, you can't run somebody else's so the traditional way that other people may raise money or whatever that
may not necessarily be your path. When I ran for the state house, people thought I was crazy because I decided I.
Was gonna have my own ball, and they was like, you're gonna do what I.
Said, I'm gonna have a ball, and they said, well, okay, and so I did.
I did my own ball.
I had me, you know, a few local celebrities come through, right, because I knew that regular people that were not used to donating that you gotta get something in return. So we had an open bar, we had food, we had live music right and we made it to the extent that we could profit in and one night for my state House race, we raised over twenty thousand dollars doing
something that no one else had ever thought. Now, when you get into politics, Malcolm Kenyatta will co sign if they tell you you gotta do your call time, you got to call the donors and things like that. But that wasn't what was going to work for me. And I knew that I could tap into a space that had not been tapped into and do something different. So I'm going to cheat you to think outside the box.
And frankly, I'm going to challenge each and every one of you that are sitting here that ultimately, with politics, especially in this new age of politics, one of the issues we're having within the party is that we're still trying to function within the same rules.
They didn't get rid of the whole game.
It is completely different, right, So think outside the box, do not be limited, and know yourself.
I'm gonna let you talk about the Democrats supporting the indipendence.
Yeah, you know, I love that, and I would just say, yeah, you know, we've been playing checkers and Republicans are playing grand Theft Auto and they've stolen their third car and have shot up the neighborhood. So only say this, first of all, thank you for running. Anybody who's run for office, win or lose, knows the sacrifice that it takes to put yourself out there in that way. Obviously, I want to talk to you after this about coming back to the Democratic Party and running and running as a as
a Democrat. But I think that you know, part of the conversation that we were having this whole thing with David Hogg, and you know, a lot of what people heard him saying was right, a lot of what he was actually saying and doing was wrong. But let me say this, we do need robust primaries. That's why I said at the end of my first comments that it is not my gig to try to say, well, this person's in the seat, and my job is to stop you from running against them.
It's not my job.
My job is to trust all of you, to trust voters, to trust that the conversations you're having with people at doors will either earn you their votes or they will vote for another candidate, or they will stay at home. And so even you stepping up as an independent, I think the positive thing that I think comes out of that is I want more people to go in and exercise their responsibility and their right to vote and engage
in the process, and particularly locally. And this is like not a democratic hath thing, but me and my reat I do think we need to have more, particularly at the local level, more open primaries, because particularly for your mayor or for you know, your local council people, you know, who's picking up the trash or making sure that there's potholes. That's not particularly partisan. And any mayor will tell you that, you know, that's not a partisan thing. People just want
you to effectuate high levels of government service. And so to that end, you know, I have sponsored and we have passed out of at least the House open primaries in Pennsylvania to allow for more people to engage in the process. But after we're done, I'm gonna run off this stage and try to talk to you.
Okay, all right, all right, cool.
Pee, Thank you so much for being here. My name is ROBERTA and I am from Florida. So we understand fam you graduate, yes, So I say that to say, what we're experiencing in Florida is no secret.
Every other day we're on CNN.
But we're operating with this trifecta, right, meaning we don't have the House, we don't have the Senate, and we don't have the cabinet on our side, and we're literally under attack in de Satanists, including our HBCUs as you know what fam you. What we're finding is they are appointing their people. I also practice law. They are appointing their people to all of our judicial seats, appointing their people to now to those open positions.
And we're losing power.
And we have a host of young people who have lost faith in politics, as they call it. And I don't have how many doors you knock them, We're hearing more and more.
Now.
I don't do politics, so this is for anybody, but namely you. How do we go about restoring faith in the process, because when you see that, you're under a tech and I have lots of friends who serve on the legislatum.
I'm sorry, we understand the question. There's some people behind you. So we're going to stop you right there and have one answer per question.
So I'll be very brief to say.
You know, my grandfather, Mohamma Kenyada, was a great civil rights activist and leader, and he would say something that my dad passed on to me, you don't have to do politics, but politics does you? And I think that it's a part of why I led with talking about why I'm in this role, even if somebody who's been very critical of this party, why am I in it? Because institutions don't disappear because you're not there. And I
always use the thing of karaoke. If you ever go to karaoke, the people have no business on the microphone or the first people up there to saying. The folks who know how they need to sing, They're like, well, I haven't rested my voice, I don't have my team with me today.
That's politics.
People who have no business in public office run every single time. And you have so many folks who need to be in the system because they are qualified, because they are called and some of these folks are sanctified. Okay, but who say politics are messy and dirty, that I'm not going to be involved in it. And in fact, we need the exact opposite response. We need to flood the zone in the way that they're flooding the zone with people who want things to change.
Can I really quick you asked about restoring faith. We need to get back to bartering, we need to get back to servicing people. And I heard you say you're knocking on doors, what are you asking them? Are you asking them to vote? Are you asking them what they need? Are you meeting their knees? And are you establishing trusting community? For then you need to be able to turn around and say I've done this, here's why.
This is what you can do for me.
Yeah, good afternoon. My name is Zori Stevens and I'm from New Orleans.
I'm nervous.
Ahead, baby, you're in a safe space. You're good. It's okay, you're good, y'all, clap it.
Up for all right.
So I'm in school for engineering, so.
Good.
I'm gonna be very transparent. I'm not up to date what politics, but I learned a lot from working in this activation and coming to listen to you guys talk. So my question is what is your advice on learning what we are actually voting for? Because I know when we read the laws that are trying to be passed, they're not written for us to understand.
So that is a fabulous question.
And you know Power Coalition we do a lot of work to write things in plane language. So I mean we did it with the amendments, we do it with anything that's on the ballot. It's like, what does it mean if I vote yes? What does it mean if
I vote no? And so we break it down in the plane language, so you know exactly what you're doing when you go into the polls, because I tell people all the time, nobody's going to go to the polls if they don't understand what they're supposed to do, And so we break it down so it's very simple, and we put we have a sample ballot on our website for every single election at Powercoalition dot org and so it's really accessible whether you want to. And we also
do a whole social media media digital campaign. But their organizations like ours, all over the country stific engagement tables that are trying to make sure that we're breaking this stuff down so that people can actually engage with it. And also too, like we do events at Sneaker you know, Sneaker Politics and different different places where again I might not be the messenger, but where are there other young
folks like you. We're on the campuses across the state trying to make sure that their ambassadors working with you guys to get more involved in fighting for the state we want to live in.
Can you pull out your phone.
Can you pull out your phone and take a video for somebody to put a bunch of and anybody else who wants to take this list to. It's a bunch of social media outlets that you can follow. You let me know when you're ready, ready, okay. At Leneviane at the consciously at list Now, I don't want you to type.
I just want you to record me because I'm about to list them at Lenavane at the Consciously at Booker Squared at Dots Discourse, at Khalil Green at j william j At Feminist at Feminist Hood, at When we All Vote at Nineteenth News, at ap at Native Lampid at Native Lampid, at Angela Raie.
Yeah, that's like, that's ten.
I think I'm sorry.
I'm sorry at.
Power co j and at Malcolm Period at Andrew Gillam activity Cross.
And I'm gonna do this other one at Midas Touch.
Yeah, thank you so much.
We're gonna go to the next question.
Say thank you so much because I go to a PWY so these type of conversations don't really go on.
So thanks, thank you so much.
Forward, Ashley, I hope you got a new campus ambassador, right there exactly.
Hello.
I want to thank y'all for the work that y'all do. I'm Joel and Jelivet and from Lafayette. I also want to give a huge shout out to Ashley. She's been a great partner in the previous administration. Thank you for so much for your work in the census. The question I have is, especially for messaging, Republicans have that lucky
thing where they're a very homogenous group. And then especially for Democrats, especially for not only are people but working within the party, how can we work better to have a more cohesive message when there's so many priorities at place.
Let me be very quick to say, we have to stop focusing on the knuckleheads, because I don't hear people say there's like nobody fighting, and then they'll tell me how much they love Jasmin Krakkat and I like to remind them that Jasmin Krokka is a member of the Democratic Party, and so I think that you know, so often what happens is they are these random ass people who talk to a reporter and then they're quote unquote
speaking for the Democratic Party. And I have no idea who some of these people are, but those are the voices that get lifted up. I would say all the people who Lennay just mentioned, retweet them, push them out into your timeline. I wish I had a quick answer for you on how to stop some of the idiotic things that people who are like registered a certain way to vote to stop them from saying the things that they're saying. But so often their voices get framed as
they are the Democratic Party. Like I've heard people say over and over again, why aren't Democrats supporting like the Zoran in New York? Cher Martin and Malcolm Kenyata were the first two Democrats to congratulate him after he won, and we're gonna do everything we can to make sure he becomes the next mayor of the City of New York. And there are other like random Democrats who are like not supporting him, and they become the face.
They're not the face.
And I think that's why it's so important that we do have incredible messengers like Jasmine and so many others in our party.
So I'm gonna approach this from a little bit of a different perspective because we have fights within the caucus all the time. I'm giving y'all a anxiety, okay, because we do have so many We are a big tent party. And so I think that because we are also within a bit of an identity crisis, if we can kind of get to our core values, then we can all agree on these are the things that we will always
lift up. I will be perfectly honest with you and tell you that there are people that currently are within the Democratic Caucus and they're like, no, I can't do
this trans stuff. I mean, I'm just telling you, like they have said it like we don't want to stand there on it, or they have said that they disagree with like where we are going on immigration, like I will always stand on the on the side of like human rights like period, like full stop, right like, because the fact that people are immigrating to this country doesn't
necessarily mean that they are invading the country. There's a difference, right, So, Like, I think that it comes down to at least getting us to a baseline on the few things. And I think that we have to just stick to three things, because, as you said, when you think about all the things that the Republicans have done to tar us apart right now, the reality is that they didn't campaign on a bunch of stuff. In fact, most people can't tell you what
policies they did campaign on. And so I think that number one, we have to come up with our core, like these are going to be the three things that we always just focus on at a base level, while also obviously amplifying these other things individually. But we got to have at least a base. And then I think that it's important for us to recognize that we are in a branding crisis and how people look at us as a brand and say it is time for us
to rebrand. People think that it's about our policies. They're like, oh, we're going too far left, or oh we need to be more center. No, personally, I believe that what people are looking for as fighters, and right now they're saying listen, uh, they're not fighting for us, Like that's it, And I understand that's what Malcolm is saying, right but like, that's that is. If we can just be branded as fighters in whatever way, I think that people will then at least.
Want to listen to us.
But the problem is a lot of our messengers they don't believe that they're fighters in the first place.
So they're not going to listen to them.
Before you go to the next question, Thank you Congress. Before we go to the next question. The young lady was asking about information. This man is asking about messaging, and I just want to acknowledge we had someone join us. Roland Martin, will you please stand up. I just want to thank this man because he covers almost everything that's happening in Black America that legacy media summarily ignores.
So I just want to give you your.
Flowers role and thank you because it costs money and resources and you spend that and show up.
Every time for us, so all the time follow Roland Martin.
Yes, one question, name me where you're from.
Yes, my name is Stacey. I live in Atlanta, Georgia. But my question is is that a lot of people are not paying attention to the military that he is, that he gave money to the ICE, the billions of dollars that he's pre aiding for his own military because they're they're coming right now for brown people. To the next is black people. That's my belief. And I think he's gaining. I think he's gaining the military. He's building up his own military financially with this new bill.
Okay, so that sounds like a comment. So do we have closing comments?
I'm sorry, So just to give under this new budget that the President just signed, the Republicans pushed Congressman, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the budget.
For uh this, uh the ice? What's the other?
The DHS Department of Homeland Security is triple the budget of all other federal law enforcement combined. They're building a massive structure on the right. Since Trump isn't able to completely co opt all the other agencies that pre exist him, he wants to create one in his own, like, in his own making right, and then direct them to be one loyal to him, but to then execute his orders without delay. So the coming you may resonates with me, and I think many of the rest of us that
this stuff isn't happening in slow motion. It's happening quick, fast and in a hurry, right before.
Our very eyes.
We are eyes wide open watching all of it take place.
My colleague Tiffany says this all the time.
When folks reflect on what I would have done during the Civil rights movement, her response has been, whatever you are doing right now is exactly what you would have been doing then. And if that's nothing, if that's cloud gazing, if that's doom strolling, that's what you would have been doing. So a lot of folks awaken are waiting on us to come awake. And I understand the challenge in this is the reality is we really never have.
Permission to go to sleep. We have to sleep in shifts when we do sleep.
Yeah, but unfortunately we have to stay on the mark because the effects on us are always triple time what they are for everybody else, brown, white, and everything in between. So the moment requires us to be awake and if we do need a nap, if we do need a break, we have to tap in, tap out, but then tap back in.
That's the message I think we all ought to So those.
We're closing what costs to action. That's how we in every Native lampid show. So Congressoman, we will start with you.
I was just gonna say, yeah, you show right about the Timu hitler. Uh did we got somebody caught it?
Uh? Yeah, no, Listen, it is really bad.
I'm just saying this because we don't talk about it, because we focus on medicaid, we've focused on snap benefits, but this bill was approximately a thousand pages long, So I want you to know that there's a little bit of bad in there for everybody, especially our children. There
are a lot of attacks. But ultimately they did decide that they were going to add money in to this rogue military force, this force in which we could not get amendments because this is stuff that came through the Judiciary committee that I sit on.
We could not get any amendments.
As it relates to saying, well, they at least got to unmask themselves and identify themselves because literally here recently there was a report of somebody who almost got raped by somebody pretending to be ice because they just look like regular street thugs coming through, and so people don't know if they are criminals or if they are law enforcement, and frankly, I don't know a lot of times even though they have the authority, they still acting like a bunch of criminals.
So that's a whole other issue.
But my final thing to you is to say, do not feel powerless in this moment, because that's exactly what they want you to do. And if you ultimately feel that way, they will win. There are more of us that are saying and understand that this shit ain't right, and so it is time for us to decide that we are going to rise up. Because if we don't rise up, I promise you gonna be sitting there talking about should a cut A woulda. This is not the moment. Do not be afraid, I promise you. If you allow
them to come for one of us. This young lady talked about going after brown folk, and y'all may say, well, yeah, you know, we was looking at y'all numbers and y'all ain't looked like the ninety two percent, so y'all voted for it, and I understand, I understand that, but you have to understand that if we allow them to come for them, they coming for us.
We just saw the report of.
The young black man who had never been to Jamaica a day in his life. His daddy was serving this country overseas when he was born, and then they decided, well, you know what, he was born on a base, and well he ain't German, well he ain't American.
Well his daddy.
Originally was from Jamaica, and they sent him to Jamaica, a place he had never been. So please believe you all need to be paying attention to all of this because it truly can will impact you. But follow everybody that Lenae said, the follow and stay engaged.
But it's more than staying engaged online. It's more than holding your officials accountable, y'all. Like she said, there's more of us. We have to do something. We have to be willing to be uncomfortable. We have to be willing to sacrifice talk. We look at politicians doing a lot of things like canvassing, hosting events, trying to get you the electing for office. We can do that kind of
stuff for ourselves and our own community. I was just talking to Angela, but I say, the people in mutual eight, y'all.
We need to strike. We need a general strike.
I've been saying Black women need to stop going to work since the election. They need to feel the weight of losing us. We need to plan out these things. Of course, we need to let people in our community know that we can in fact meet their needs and it is possible no matter how many resources that we have. And I know because my grandmama did it for her ten children and making sure everybody neighborhoods still eight.
We need to be.
Getting into more sustainable food sources. And I know it doesn't feel good or sexy or whatever. We want to get your stuff from the farm, but hello, we are only going to allow these things that happened to us play the game. We don't have to accept this reality as reality. If we allow the regime to continue as it is, then it will be permanent. Buck the system. Well, we got to correct me if I'm wrong with them. We got a mayor in Chicago arresting ice agents. This is the type of energy.
That we need.
Like they're not playing by the rules. So why should we.
Thank you for That's gonna go there, Malcolm, and then we'll close as a host's So.
I think I will echo what the congresswoman said. I hear a lot of that. Well that's what y'all get because that's who you all voted for. And I just want to remind us we are barely fourteen percent of the population. We cannot win this fight alone. And as we go through these frustrations, if forty nine percent of one group voted for Trump, then I want to ally with the fifty one percent who did not vote for him.
And I want to remind us, as black people, we have to keep in mind our humanity and remember who the real enemy is, because they can divide us and keep us fighting amongst each other as the global majority. Really, then they'll be able to win. They are not our enemy. We know who the enemy is. It's not the it's not the global majority.
Now my call to action would be to really consider running for office. You know, resources are slim all of the things, but more than fifty percent of the seats in the state legislature here in Louisiana go unchallenged, and so I spend all of my time chasing my tail going into regular session, special session, fiscal session. We're going to have an insurance session, and they're running us ragged. But they wouldn't be able to do that if they
thought that they knew they couldn't get the votes. And so we have to do the work of really considering taking on leadership. And to Kenyata's point, these folks are not I mean, it's not they're not brain surgeons out here wilding policy. I mean, we had a guy on in our legislature who literally the two year olds or that these kids are unredeemable as young as two years old. Whoever, this man is who doesn't even understand that this baby's braining and developed is insane.
And so I just remind people that, like, we have.
Crazy people running for office, moving our states, impacting our lives. The Louisiana Congressional delegation is one of the most powerful in the country, but they're the ones helping to dismantle FEMA were most of our state receives one of the largest payouts of medicaid, dismantling medicaid, and so it just reminds us that we have to fight for our voice, but to fight for our power. But we can't do that if we're not willing to get in the game. And it feels like the.
Bar is kind of low.
Yeah, we even had a brain surgeon and Ben Carson didn't note the hell what was going on. So even if you are a brain surgeon, please step up and run.
I want to just sort of reiterate the video we did with you know, telling folks to follow certain people support Native Land podcasts literally what they're doing, because you see media outlet after media outlet bending over backwards, giving millions of dollars to this administration because they dared interview somebody from the other party, and so what Andrew and Tiffany and Angela are doing is a big deal.
And so I just want to say to you all, thank you for what you are doing. This is not easy, what they are doing.
To our good brother Roland Martin, who's been up against it for a long time, thank you for what you are doing. Because there are fewer and far in between places where you can go and even have a rational conversation about what is happening in this moment, and so we need to defend the fourth of State.
And that's what I would say in this moment.
Thank you all so much.
We want to give a special round of applause and thank you to our an incredible.
Planel and for you.
All tuning into this live show, participating your questions and answers. Haris Swimming Jazz and Crockett Lenee the Knee. I'm gonna get it right, the People's Brief. Make sure y'all watch for vote Ashley Shelton, our brother Ma welcome Kenya of course the host here. Our call to action is definitely tune in, definitely participate, and we'll see y'all on the next show.
Welcome Home, y'all, Welcome Home, Thank you.
For joining the Natives intention of with the info and all of the latest Roy gillim and cross connected to the statements that.
You leave on our socials.
Thank you sincerely for the patients reason for your choices cleared. So grateful it took the execute roles for serve, defend and protect the truth even in past. And we'll welcome home to all of the Natives wait.
Thank you.
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