LIVE at Florida A&M University Homecoming

Native Land Pod is a production of iHeart Radio in partnership with Reasoned Choice Media.

Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.

Yes, yes, yes, Welcome home everybody. This is Andrew Gillim. I'm here with my beautiful hot hot literally hot co host. You are.

I know, we host.

We introduce you, Tiviny Crime and who are you?

My name is Angela Rye. I'm live from the set and right woll.

Technically we're just off the set.

The Will Packer Amphitheater. We don't even have Will Packer with us today.

I'm in.

Also Florida and m But also you got a special relationship with Will.

That's right, I tell you know.

I text him a picture of the Will Packer and theater.

Yeah, because he didn't have one proud of it.

He's the.

Anyway.

Welcome, Welcome home, everybody. We got a special special show and we're actually gonna get right into it because you know, we started a little bit later. Angelia insisted that the stage not have any covering, So.

I'm really sorry, sorry.

For all of our guests. Will be coming forward throughout the day. Just as you start to feel the sweat drip down your face, and through your shirt. You can thank Angelou Raie for having selected again no.

Covering for also did and that is put napkins under your boobs.

It works very well.

How women know about it?

Okay, we just re from being a PG thirteen show. Now you know we're explicit, So everybody again explicit.

It's not explicit either.

Way, y'all. We're about to get ready. Welcome to the highest of seven heels, Florida Agriculture and Mechanical University, also known as BAMN.

If you say for mood.

We know that you are not related to any of us. If you say at a m you we know that you were a guest. Will treat you as a visitor.

The king.

I was not the King of Origin and Green, but you should have been.

Stage Go put on your hand, go put on your hand. I know, but you're blocking, can't you.

He's a politician, our friend, your friend and our leader here in the state of Florida from Florida Senate is about to be joined by our future leader Florida Senate. In fact, both are senators. I think, I said the Florida House of Florida Senate Shevard Jones, alumnus of Florida Agricul University, Sir and future senator, former SGA president here two times, SGA president at Florida A and M University president. I was, but he hit it two times. It was so nice he had to do it twice. Check when

I consent.

I agree, uh, and Tiffany is another you along.

But happy to be.

It's all one big family and they but happy to be here. But yeah, bring it, as they're saying, the church bringing greetings, university.

Up the road.

Send any sin go single money, Oh Lord, send any money. Okay, when you bring greetings, see one to know that they send it past package. Welcome anyway, Senator, Yes, sir, I hope that you're up here not only celebrating homecoming, but helping to recruit a new colleague into the state Senate.

Listen, I sent him some some love yesterday and we got to sing him a little bit more to get him across the finishing line.

All right, yeah, I sent him some money, yes, Aryl asked.

Well, without question, Well, unfortunately the fundraising deadline was yesterday, but he did send money in time.

I did. Yep.

Maybe give me my props. Now, what's up?

Daryl said, to be clear, as as an attorney, I did not violate.

They're good, they're not, you know, but we're doing great. Senator Jones and his colleagues have done a great job of helping my campaign. Andrew saidate Democrats actually coming together to win a race, and I think on on Tuesday, we're gonna take back the Senate seat and flip it.

Then we're gonna flip.

The seat back right, and we're gonna This is the number one legislators race in the state, and we all have gotten behind it to win it. So it's been a very collective effort on our part.

I've seen a lot of your commercials. They are like back to back in there, Yes, which is great. But a lot of our viewers are outside of Florida. So if people who don't live in Florida, what is the relevancy your race? Why should they care? Why should they pay attention? Or they if they're hearing they should be so moved to send a donation for the next tone, I know, but for the next line, when you ask for re election, tell the people why they should care.

It's the significance of it. So the Republicans came a couple of years ago. They jeremeded this particular district and designed it so that the Republican would have a better chance of winning. And they created a super district, so it's thirteen counties, it covers twenty percent of the geographic area of the whole state. And then they went and got a former football player, gave him lots of money

Can you just for the sound, folks, if you can keep our mics up so we can hear each other, especially with the music, that'd be great.

I want to ask you, Darryl, like, what was the impetus for you?

You've been a civil rights lawyer, you've been on the ethics committee with the Bar, You've really dedicated your life to advocacy and service.

What made you want to run for public office?

Well, Angela is normally, I mean when you live in a good life like most folks in America. You see what's going on, and as Andrew tell you, we're very close. So I was involved in when Andrew ran and been around.

Florida is important.

Florida represents a lot to my family, to everything that I belong, that I am. And when you see what the people in power are doing, how they're managing it, you have to ask yourself that somebody capable has to start the cycle the flip. You just can't keep giving up. And so, like you say, being and I did great civil rights work. I have a great name in this town. I knew and the Republicans knew that I was the type of person that could beat their guy. And we're

You know.

I know y'all are visiting Angela and Tiffany. But and the ads that his opponent is running and he's certainly an otherwise decent person, is spending most of this time talking biography, and we come together. Now he's the incumbent.

Issues the incumbent that sound familiar.

It's not talking about but that's what that's what the Republicans constantly run on.

If you even look at Corey Senator Simon and what he has done since he's been in this I mean sending assignment, I mean he signed with the Republicans on all of the black history, elimination of black history, as

We're gonna have a three fourth.

So by the time we get into the legislator, whether we show up or not, they can start session or whether we're going to committee or not. We can't break nothing, but with this one, I know we can't because I believe there is an absolute pushback that's going to have to happen, because I think they are already setting up what they want to do for next session.

They wanna make it harder for ballot.

Initiatives next year.

Of course, I know for a fact they're.

Gonna go after local governments again, and we need to have the numbers to be able to block a lot of this stuff that's absolutely happening. I think they're going to continue to eat at our public education system. And it's not something that I am talking hypothetical. I'm talking something that I know what's happening, that absolutely brewing in the background.

So could you explain to me why it is that Florida and the Florida Legislature is gifting the country so many black Republican elected officials. We got Byron Donaldson, Donalds.

Donald donald disrespect on his name.

I didn't know him.

He ain't even finished here, Donaldson.

Donald's. We got Simon, who we hopefully will be retiring soon. But what about the Florida Legislature keeps producing these.

Byron Donaldson Toby.

To stop making I have.

Pledged and they have a new one too, called Grace Glass. She's running against Gallop right now. Oh really, Grace Glass is her name. She's from Bavard County. She came here to work for the say this real? And so I said, I was at a Ya politic with these people and that beautiful young lady and I was trying to understand her psyche. Yeah, and so so at lunch, I hope I didn't really disrespectful, I said, was you are a real Republican.

I think I just I want to.

Take a quick moment just to our viewers, because if you're tuning in and you don't live in Florida, you you might be, you know, maybe not as focused on Florida issues. So I think it's important for our viewers out there to know who are all across the country that a lot of these crappy policies bubble up from the state legislature. Right now, a majority of state legislatures are run by Republicans. So before you all ever heard about book bands, before you ever heard about the attacks

Again, but it all starts from the twenty twenty five national policy. So what you really see is kind of like that alex model that we saw years ago.

Yeah, Legislative Exchange councilor yeah.

Yeah, it's the Republicans.

That's tough Conference twenty twenty five in the sense right they go they pull these policies from that meeting and they started running in bills.

Like in play yes, literally copy and paste. Well, we are so grateful that you all have joined us today.

Thank you.

We are thrilled to have you, and we know that we're going to see you around. Right off this set, we are Andrew.

Before we let them go, they quickly give us their estimation of what will happen for Harris Wallas of Florida.

I think that that Vice President Harris will do well in Florida, and I think plus one really wow.

Yeah, I think Florida's gonna go blue.

Yeah, I'm gonna tell you why.

Because people are not paying attention to the independence Independences are leading Democrat. There are a third YEP, and we're learning that in Miami Dade County while Miami Dade County, I know, our numbers are looking pretty weird right now, but we have more independents who are leaning Democrat, and we're novging because we did track Poland and we're noticing that they are leaning towards Kamla Harris.

So I think it's going to be a big upset. And the Republicans are they are running scared.

They're running scared on three, they're running scared on four, They're running scared on candidates because it's unpredictable because it

Yes, yeah, that's six.

What you got to say, without question, what we.

Did as early as last week.

We see we have an eight point advantage with independence, So independence are that edge. And you know, for example, you get these news reporters saying, well, the Republicans are really showing up.

Yeah, it's showing up.

But one, this is a fifture three percent Democratic district that I'm running in and we have an eight point advantage, which is outside the era of Roger Vera.

Exactly.

Well, we want to think again. Our guests one sitting Senator Chevyn Jones and the Florida Senator and in just five more days, our next four more day days, the next Senator for the State of Florida, Democrats Attorney.

Next up, we have Melanie Campbell, who is the President and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation.

We have our good sister shavon.

Our Line Bradley, who is the President and CEO of the National Council of Negro Women. And we have doctor Stacy Grant, the international president for Zeta Phi Beta Sorority. Clap it up as they the state get, we get some, we get some.

I can't take another piece of clothing on me. Are so hot, I'm I'm about to lose cling.

Yeah, behind right behind you.

So good to see you. Thank you, guys.

Get those couches together.

We don't want to Oh yeah, they has a careful yeah, why to get there there?

I want you all to know. It's about one and thirty degrees.

But I hear, I feel a fan and it's a lively environment here on famu's campus. I heard Black Street earlier and then at some point I hope we do the can we Talk challenge? Can we It's like when they start playing can We Talk? And then they goes out and the whole audience.

Oh, the whole song. Yeah, that's a great idea. Till yeah, Well, we have some powers on the stage joining us.

One thing that we know, and I think Andrew will attest, it's given the powerful black woman he's married to, and the powerful black mom and he raised.

Him and his powerful black sister. And if we wile black co hosts, oh yes, oh yes.

Now.

The other thing I'm gonna say was what we know is that when black women are involved, we can get the thing done every time. So talk to us about the work you all are doing right now in a very nonpartisan way, because I know you are in your non pos yes, you got them on.

But talk about the importance of the black vote this season.

What you all are hearing you all are in battleground states, traveling the country making sure that we are getting out to exercise our franchise because we know democracy is fragile and it's hanging in the balance.

Well, first of all, thank you all for so I'm so excited to hear yes, come to my home state exactly. You know, you know I went to Clark but you know HBC, you love and as we sit in our aka both delta but real quickly been on this tour. We started a year ago in Florida for thirty days, just going from community community, listening to the folks to let us know what was concerning them. And then we

Yes, I love it.

And our tagline is we won't be erased and we won't go back. Somehow that's become a part of some term but I don't know why, but you know, it is what it is. But what we've been, what I have seen and what we've seen is that black folks are fired up, that we are right. And also I was talking to uh Uh Shavan and telling them when I hit Pittsburgh, that's when you saw some of the other uglinesses out there.

Is ugliness is out there now.

But our people are clear that African drum beats beating that we know this is not the normal election.

This is of our future.

And uh and young people all over this campus. We've been over here.

We've been here since yesterday, but we've been in Michigan and Ohio and Pennsylvania, Maryland, Georgia, Alabama. We're not gonna forget the South, and that's why we're in Florida as well.

But it's it's it's something.

It's been something, and it's also been exciting and evailorating because we're not going nowhere.

We built this country, as Angela says, for free.

It's data five Beta.

I will be remiss if I did not say my brother is a proud member of five Beta siblings.

So love it.

Yes, my father was a signal.

That's why we live.

We love the blue and white.

I mean, we are under.

But seriously though the power in being here, I too want to thank you for this conversation because everyone's paying attention to the D nine. So not only am I here as international President of Zata Phi Beta, I'm also proud to be the vice chairwoman of our councilor president. So I want to shout out the Honorable Chris Ray j D who is our chairman, and all of the presidents of the D nine. We work together as a unit.

They're understanding this.

Is not just about the White House, it's the down ballot, right, it's to understand that every single election counts. It's working and collaborating with organizations like you see here today and being for the sororities. We're a part of NCNW, an organization of organization leaders, so we're bringing everybody to the

I have a quick question for the Reverend SHVN. I gotta ask you.

We had Jamal Harrison Brian join us on our podcast and is killing it Like we're starting to see so many numbers because I think that black folks really feel torn. And I'm generalizing here, but some of us who grew up in the church feel really torn about some of the social values that we were taught that were kind of drilled into our minds. And then what is on

You're powerful, you are anointed.

Like, let me just be very clear, this is what talks to the most time, So I want to be clear about that. I just want to know what do you say to the church folks that are like, I need to know how I'm making this point to folks who are like completely like.

You know, the anti crisis at that top, you know, like nonsense.

First of all, I love it. I'm so excited to hear. And I think one of the things I have to do with is called I call it moral mischief because it's context. But people have been taught, it's been ingrained in us to other people in the church, and an issue like reproductive justice for me is personal and Angeley knows this. I mean, I struggle intensely with conceiving and have lost children, and the condition that I had, I actually would have lost care under the current DoD's decision.

Away from the polls.

So you'll see black preachers saying things like I can't vote for ex party right and playing it plays a game that confuses the mind. And I'm gonna tell you something. It is a concerted effort. It is a coordinated plan. And to the evangelizic evangelical Christians that are out there, let me tell you something. Evangelical just means to evangelize.

They have their word, and it is wrong.

Black people are actually evangelical because we tell good news, we evangelize. But what the political pundits have done is use that word, kidnapped it, misconstrued and confused minds to make you think that that if I now am evangelical, if I am pro life, well, if you're pro life, then that means you're pro all life. That means your pro Black life, your pro Brown life, you're pro all life for all the stages, in all ages and spaces.

About the life that we are affecting.

But also I tell my brothers and sisters behind the claw, do not misconstrue the Gospel for your own plan. Do not do that, because that's not what Jesus does. Jesus is justice. It's an alignment. And if we're talking about this social justice space voting, this is of God. It is of God for you to go to vote. Why because he calls on us to engage in the governor's work.

An I want to.

Just say really quickly because there are so many people I know being weaned on the teachings of Washington, DC that you all are common knowledge to us, But there are so many young people, unfortunately, who are not familiar with the work of NCNW National Council of Negro Women founded by doctor Dorothy Hyde. I was vice president of

So I wanted to offer our viewers that background.

But I also want to point out I met a woman in the audience who is an advocate for Amendment for Right here in floor Florida, which essentially codifies abortion rights here in the state. Something shocking is that they were told they could not tent or table here at fam you. Unfortunately, I haven't had time to look into the background of it, but my surmise perhaps because it may.

Be an issue with state funded schools.

Yeah, Republicans leadership Ron DeSantis, who has invested interest in silencing these voices and making sure that this amendment doesn't pass, And our previous guests talked about how important ballid initiatives are.

Do the right thing.

And I want to thank the woman in the audience who told me about amendment for it. Thank you for being here with us.

Yeah, I and the we need to keep allies like you all at the national level close to states like Florida. For sure, as we laid out previous to your arrival, that these states oftentimes are the play field for much of what ultimately happens at the federal level. They tested with the guinea pigs. For sure. Ron de Santis is the biggest of the of the perpetrators of making Florida

Well, that's why we came a year ago.

That's right.

We know what the state would have.

Been like had you That's happening in our home state, which is why we wanted to make sure we stayed a whole month.

When we started.

This was because so many things and what we wanted to point out about Florida was if you want to know what fascism looks like, come to this of Florida. And so what I'm seeing though, is a resurgence of organizing in this state. And because the numbers have always been there, right, And so he came run a second time, right, And I was glad to see them, just speaking as a.

Native of Florida.

Yes, and see Darren Parks up here and I ran into it earlier home. And how important it is that we don't turn this state over because the numbers are there. Florida has a young demographic. People still see Florida, you see Mickey Mouse and all that. But when it comes and then they say retirement. The truth of the matter, you know this that a lot of young people the state has changed, and the numbers are there that I

In Alabama, but take them, that's such.

A it's such a common understanding. Like the racism and the suppression is almost baked in and how the media covers the electoral map. What would it take given that a majority of us either currently live in the South or we originate from the South, and there are small pockets of evidence of a remigration, you know, where people are the South right, So what does it take to actually change those numbers? And I asked Mellie, because you know this, when we were in Atlanta, Atlanta in the

Vote next year?

Vote in these state legislative races.

That has stated trouble.

The power dynamic in these states because of state like Mississippi, we saw try to move up now.

The reality is when they.

Control the legislature, they those who don't believe in inclusion, take over the state legislation, take over the governors races, and then they take over the census.

Then you end up with this like reversal.

And you're trying to come back to it, but we have to really find a way, uh, to to continue next year, to keep it's going, because.

That's the only way going otherwise, you know.

And then.

That's what I'm gonna say, because you can be the blackest state in the Union and still not have power in the state legislature.

That's which makes no sense.

So the real question will it becomes is one who's running to who's mobilizing? And then three where where does real power line? Because that's the real question we have to start answering. This question about power has been the challenge. The dynamics won't shift until the people see themselves as the power. So that's that that comes from us mobilizing, that comes from these the Native Land podcast is power because you get to own the message, you get to

They're not gonna see.

Value in this.

So there's no way we can say that we're and we always see I'm I'm a Jersey girl, so I'm a by way of Florida planned city. And I feel I think about why we say the South has something to say. The South already has said it, but has the South mobilized to get it? And what I'm saying is that this black excellence about Atlanta is real. Manard Jackson was a whole phenomenon in.

And of itself.

We're not even having that conversation about who do we train the contracts to prepare the next generation of power seekers. It's about power.

It's not just money.

It's power, position money access.

Right, that's position money access.

That's not a president you're close to. We're closing.

No, no, we're not, We're not yet. Hold on.

I was just gonna say, if you all see Lolo Lolo Wavier your mic in the air. We didn't say at the beginning of the show that our shows are our live shows in particular. One you all know when we send in videos to get videos from you all every week to the podcast, but when we come to you, we want to make sure that it's an active and engaged conversation, because it is so much more than just voting.

It's also utilizing your voice. So we have a mic here if you have a comment or a question while we have these incredible queen's up here. Andrew, I know you had a question.

Well matter first of all, impressed with you every time I say you. I was doing the dishes.

My wife was at her.

Work station and we heard a voice in this interview responding to Donald Trump's whole party as he neglected the work of these CERTs and sororities. And there's this voice coming over speaking powerful truth.

And I put the dish.

Who was.

She is good?

So thank you for your representation not only of obviously your illustrious organization, but more broadly for black folks, including black Greeks. I did want to ask you your your organization obviously engages with alumni, adults, folks who are fully working, but also you're closest to young people, the folks who are your training to become your future alumni. I'm curious it's just what reed you've been getting as you all

Absolutely so.

For us as an organization, where proud that we did establish youth auxiliaries, the first to do that, and all of us have our youth auxiliaries now that we're working with because what we're allowing them to say and giving them platform. When we vote, we're voting for them. We're voting for their future. We have our young mikaz and

We can't just get and keep, we get to give.

So through our service and through elevating conversations, we are able to get out of this pocket of knowing where the Black state? But how do we now prepare with strategy around how we not only keep it but advance it for the future. So when you talked about reproductive rights, I didn't share until today publicly on Alive. I could have been arrested under these rules because I lost my child in between my two sons. This is serious and

Play with my Jesus.

But what we cannot do is allow other people to tell our story. We can't allow other people to shift the narrative of the truth. These alternate realities.

That we're hearing.

It's unreal and people are confused about the truth.

And I think it was John Howard Wesley. I was John where he talked about true and truth.

So if you believe something to be true, right, you believe that it's okay for in this state to tell children that slavery was good for them. Then it becomes your reality and you try to convince other people to join in. This election is about setting the record straight right, It's about making sure our young people understand that when we walk into that ballot box, it's for their future.

Shout out to this podcast for the work.

That you do, because what I'm finding is that we are suffering an necessarily in silence because we're not elevating our voices. And when we elevate our voices, then we can talk about the truth of the small margins that win these elections. Many of people stay home and get frustrated and say, well, I'm not gonna be bothered. It's too much, I'm confused, I'm stressed out. Don't get stressed out.

Do something.

That's what Michelle Obama says, do something, and something means voting. So when you look into the eyes of a five year old who doesn't understand politics, but understands that they want their mother to live God forbid, something goes wrong. When you look at a teenage boy and my mother of two black men who I can say to them, do you understand what immunity means.

On the ballot?

Do you understand that if God forbid something happens, there's no recourse. These are the issues we need to talk about, and our young people are getting it. Yeah, they're understanding it. And because they see other peers coming together to have the conversations, it makes.

It easier for us to move forward and.

Not turn back the hands of time in twenty twenty four. That the blood that was shed on this country's ground has to be screaming from the grave if we allow us to go back to what they thought for us to walk through.

We don't get to keep. We get to give.

And I want you to know when I say that next week on the podcast, I'm giving you credit.

I'm giving you credit, but I'm stealing it.

I know we have to let you because y'all are going to your brunch and we've kept you long. But I do want to just say one thing. In addition to voting, we have to mobilize, and we do really appreciate, we're so grateful for the support that we've gotten from the community for the podcast. My ask of you all is to make sure that you share this segment that you're on with your membership.

We're on right now.

I make sure that you make sure that you share and tell them to tell a friend, because what this is is a convening of a safe space for all of us. We are your hosts, but we are merely the vessels and the facilitators for this space, so that everyone feels like they have an opportunity to share their opinions, to ask a question that they may have been too a shame to share.

So continue to do that, and thank y'all so much for what you.

Post all were put to do this for this moment. This is the binde of us are connected for a reason, right, Thank you all, and keep doing what you're doing and.

Come getting the boat.

Conditioning y'all, blessing over you, showing the black man's voice, black woman's voice, working together everyone, we'reparated.

Love y'all.

Thank thank you, love y'all, Thank you, thank you for everything.

Thank you.

Get towels, sweat town, listen you were I tell y'all, I'm doing good.

I got my napkins up under my boobs. I'm all right.

Are we doing the sneak next man this way.

Next we have the fox. Is there any questions? Are comments from the audience? If now we're gonna move along to our next man. All right, y'all are feeling quiet, you must be on one of them. We have Jasmine Bernie Clark, who is the Harris for President Florida State director.

Y'all, sorry, we got we just gotta.

Take the kind of forever.

We have Lauren May who's the university trustee and holds the position that Andrew wants.

Hell, she's the student body president.

I was the first trustee.

Okay, first trustee said get the history right.

And then we have Christopher Matthews who's the president of Family's Chapter of Helping.

Black Communities Unite. Thank you all for being here.

Happy to see you, ja Don Lauren, I said, jazzmin Sorry, this is Jasmine Lauren.

It's good to see you. We were handled together recent Jazz.

Boss, Lauren and the young man in the middle. But we can make sure Christopher's mike is work and please.

And put it a little closer. Thank you coming to you as well.

How has it been so far? Tell us what we have to look forward to, and especially how voter registration and turnout is going for students, Yes, definitely.

So it has been going great so far. My vice president, Decree Williams, has been doing a great job with planning homecoming. We've had some different things this year. A lot of our events have been at the Willpacker Amphitheater and I think that's and it has made the student engagement go up a lot. Tonight we have the n PhD Step Show tomorrow is the game. I know everybody is looking forward to that. And as far as voters registration, we have been doing a lot of things, you know, get

And I see you're pink and green.

Yes, definitely, Yes, I love that.

One of the things I remember, Lauren, we did a panel together recently in Bringingham. You talked about being raised in a family of politicians.

Yes, definitely. How has that mattered for you in this election cycle?

In particular, how have you used that history within your own family to motivate folks to go.

Out and vote.

There's literally an early voting station across the street from where we are, right across set. Yes, sorry, right across the set from where we are, across from will Packer Amphitheater.

Yes, definitely.

I think as student body president, it's not only important for me to advocate and put out information about voters, education and registration, but for me to actually be doing the things that we're talking about, Because if the representation of the student body isn't getting out there, voting and getting my hands dirty, how can I encourage the rest of the student body to do the same.

I love it, Jasmine. I know your hands are full here. Yes, it has been and is an organizer, continuing organizer, but right now is leading the Harris Wallas campaign here in the state of Florida. Yes, how has it been. I know we're at the top of the state, but I know energy has been on full display for the South.

Energy has been electric.

Since the transition has occurred here in the state of Florida, we have seen the highest number of voter participation we have ever seen in our state's history. And actually just recently this campaign has received more participation by way of volunteers and voter contact than the last four presidential elections in history. So that is a testament to the amount of people who are feeling this campaign, not only you know, through thoughts, prayers, and support, but they're actually digging in

So what's your projection. I know you've got to be optimistic as a director, but.

We're incredibly wantimistic. We are excited about what we're seeing. Here's the thing. We know that Republicans have a million vote margin here in the state of Florida, but we are not seeing that actually show up in early vote numbers. We're not seeing that be represented. So you may have registered them, but you never engage them. You're not talking to them. We are bringing folks over to our side.

Christopher, I love having you on the panel because one thing that we do on this show is tried as often as possible to center the voices of everybody, especially black men. If our viewers would call our past few shows, we've had an i say, asymmetric number of black male guests.

Now I know my peer group.

And my seniors and the people right below me, and they are enthusiastic to vote for Vice President Harris despite this false media narrative perpetuated by folks who don't look like us. I'm curious from your peer group, who I don't have the privilege of talking to as much, how confident are you that young black men are going to show up to these polls enthusiastically on Tuesday.

I'm pretty enthusiastic about it. I think most black men are supporting Harris at this point in time, and I think that's never kind of been an issue amongst us. We've always kind of demonstrated our support for her. I do think there may be a slight turnout for Trump or for the other side and the replica Republican Party, but I don't think that's gonna negate the fact that black men have an overwhelming support for Kamala Harris.

Do you hear people saying that in your peer group?

Do you hear people talking to you about okay, and what is the what is their I guess attraction, like what attracts them to the other side of this divide.

Honestly, I wouldn't say it's attracting to the other side. I think a lot of them feel like their versus voices haven't been heard. They feel like this, well, a lot of us are. A lot of them are looking at the state of the community and just thinking about what's you know, changing over these last four years, or what's over the last eight years. And most people are opting not to vote. That's what I kind of hear

Yeah, what do you say to them?

Yeah, I respond to them. So the way we do it with our organization HBCU, Inc. So we try to get the students engaged in different ways. So one method was just doing postcarding where they write postcards and put express their own ideas of what they want change to those people, and the postcards go out to Florida Virginia

So can I want to ask a follow up? And this is a straight up We try to keep it a buck on this show. So I am really curious when.

Like you in the dorm with your people, you.

He ain't do yeah, I'm fourth you or not, You're with your.

Friends wherever you.

Right, whatever is appropriate, and you hear somebody saying, yeah, man, I ain't even voting.

Like, what's your straight up answer?

Not the I'm on a podium answer, but like, straight up, how are you talking to your peers saying, my g that ain't it?

What do you say?

Well, first off, I do give them that answer. Okay, if you are going to go vote, make sure you educate yourself and give them incentive of powering them with that knowledge and not just like going again studying with these bills and amendments actually mean read the language of it, but.

You're right.

But when you educate them on what is actually on the ballot, like homestead and what does homestead actually mean if you're looking to potentially be a homeowner eventually, what does this mean to you? And actually connecting the amendments to them and their actual reality. And if honestly, if they say I'm not going to vote, then I say, check out my organ and our organization. We have a garden here on Family's campus. We're mentoring at Family DRS.

Live and how policy impacts small business owners.

That's ma'am.

Yes, ma'am, I love it.

I want to just quickly and I know we have to let you go, Lauren. I know you're running today. You have to squeeze us in, so we're grateful. I want to just ask you really quickly, Jasmine. You talked about a million vote different like a basically like a gulf between progressives or Democratic leaning voters and Republicans.

What do you think it will take for that margin to shift for Tuesday?

So we are in a state where I think you already know project existence far before this document did, and we have been living under a governorship for the past five or six years where the reality is so bleak. We have experienced multiple hurricanes, where insurance is an issue, housing is an issue. When this campaign talks about price gouging, we're experiencing it as people are trying to escape to safety. So this isn't something that they're reading in a document.

We're living.

We've been experiencing it for a really long time, and I think people are finally connecting the dots they see who's in charge and who can make those decisions, and they see that in our governor, who takes his decisions from a mega party extremist boss, which is you know, Donald Trump, and folks are making that connection and saying, this does not work for me anymore. This does not

We can't talk about.

Where money is going in other countries when we see the example of what our governor is doing by sending resources to other states when people can't escape here.

And so that's what it takes.

And I think folks again are seeing the difference with the levels of government and how.

They are interconnected.

And when you go to your ballot, this fall take into consideration that every single person that is on that ballot us to work together from local all the way up to federal.

To get what we need in this community.

Thank you so much, and honestly, I want to give Lauren her flowers as well, or we brought the mayor of Tallahassee uh this semester, and you know, this is our second year doing it, and just continue to having that engagement from the local level. I think that's a great point in just you know, making sure they understand, Uh, this is a bottom up situation where it starts locally and it works its way up.

Absolutely absolutely no shade.

But I only know one mayor of Tallahassee.

Bring.

I don't know a man.

Thank you so much.

Get enjoy homecoming.

Jes Oh, the Lord is mild on us with some clouds.

Because it's all them all over the country.

Shout out to the small business.

Hundred degrees out here.

We got Disney meeting, y'all.

You know what I'm saying that my I'm most excited about Desmond meeting.

Oh just forget everybody else.

I'm happy about everybody else, but but Desmond Meat has done the Lord's work. So this this year in Florida, Amendment four is about abortion. But you all will recall uh years ago twenty eighteen, Amendment Florida was about restoring voting rights for formerly incarcerated people who are returning citizens, and desneh mean led that work for the state of Florida, but also the work that he did here cast a wide net influence across the country and even today, millions

So brother, you know we love you.

We thank y'all so much for having me. I missed this for the world. I drove three and a half hours forget yeah, hang out with y'all for a couple of minutes.

I wanted him to have his own time for a little bit.

We're gonna bring him some panelists too, but I wanted there's a special, unique spiritual connection between these two because of the time on the ballot together and.

I us one.

I'm gonna make it.

But in truth, I would love for you to just update our viewers nationally on since the passage of Amendment for Desmond. They know that they heard some wrangling in the legislature and the governor around its interpretation. Where do we sit today as a result of that, And obviously that goes without saying how proud we are of you, the amendment and the voters of Florida who tried to you know, who tried to change the law make it right.

Well, Andrew, I'm glad you used that word nationally.

Right.

So, first of all, you know, since the passages of Amendment for we know, the Florida legislature had implemented the law that basically made people have to pay outstanding legal financial obligations.

Right.

But the problem was was that when people would go to the state and say, well how much I owe, the state was like, well, I don't know, right, And that has been a consistent problem. And you know, over the last couple of years you've even seen people getting arrested, which was problematic because everyone that got arrested, even the women in Texas, they all had one thing in common.

You know what it was?

They were all issued a voter identification card by the state. And if you can't rely on the state to determine for the eligibility, then who can.

You rely on?

And so we end up having to file a lawsuit against the entire state of Florida, and I'm talking about the entire state over two hundred and sixty seven plaintiffs, I mean defendants. We have wow, right, and as a result of their lawsuit, the state is now finalizing some policy changes that would allow anyone, if they have any doubts about their voter eligibility to actually find out within a certain amount of time.

Or it is presumed that they're eligible to vote. So we're keeping our fingers crossed on this.

But why I like what you said about the national because one of the reasons I was excited to come on this show because I know you guys have a reach that is nationwide. Right, is that what I'm excited about is related to Amendment. For because in every battleground state, key states right now, in this election, impacted people like me are returning. Citizens like me are four to ten times the margin of victory in the last presidential election.

And it's not too late for people.

In Wisconsin, in Michigan, in Arizona, in Nevada, and even in Minnesota and in Virginia, because people can register the

Are else with the vote, they think they can't vote, are too scared to vote.

Well, this is just the first first step really in restoring a very punishing criminal justice system, particularly when it comes to black men. I'm not leaving out black women, but people of color are disproportionately harmed by the current criminal justice system. What is your ass once Vice President Harris becomes President elect. Harris, what is your ask of this administration to really remap I.

Love your positive and forward things.

First of all, if I were to give an ask, I would get rid of this first, right, and I put this on.

And basically what that say is f the F word, right, because for too long that F word is just like the N word. Right.

For too long we've used that word to marginalize people, right, and it is stuck with them as a scholar, that of shame for all of their lives. Somebody may have done something twenty thirty years ago. I mean, look, last year my organization was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Right, so now I'm a Nobel Peace Prize nominee. I am time one hundred most influential. I'm MacArthur genius for the really.

Another year, and I still have to go by that F work with people fur me and.

So we have to start there.

So that would be one of the things is that do not you have to take a more humane approach to criminal justice and people who've been impacted by the criminal justice.

Yeah, So I just I want our viewers to know because they probably can't hear and the music isn't coming through the mic. But if you're listening to us or watching at home, it's very loud here on the ground.

I know you guys hear us at home.

Trying to speak loud, but I really appreciate it anyway, I really appreciate what you said, because that's such an important issue around reframing. A lot of people don't even know how to talk about it themselves. So we hear our own people saying felon or for former felon. So we try to reintroduce language returning citizens formally.

In justice impact of people, you know what. A lot of people can normalize the end word as well, like yo, my end, what's up?

You know?

Yeah, we even turned it into a term of endearment.

But the reality is is that the origin of that word is meant to be dehumanizing to someone else, right and and and here's the catch that if we if we understand the the human nation aspect of it, the humanizing aspect of it, then that means that we should not use that word, even for our enemies. To be totally honest with you, Well, so hire was a problem.

So he's currently under criminal investigation.

Right at the time that the jury filed them guilty, they found him guilty of a couple of charges, but there wasn't an adjudication of guilt, right, and there wasn't a finding of guilt yet, you know, And so until that happens, technically he's not He is just a person that was convicted by a jury, but that has not finalized yet, and so we kind of like jumped the

I felt like he was talking to me.

Yeah, I felt it.

And it's just like having that white friend that's cool with you all these years and one day somebody black pists them off and that it worked come out of his mouth.

Start, man, I'm wonder how many times he said that about Yeah, another ed word.

We can use to describe him.

It's called fraud.

Fraud.

So I know that we have some other guests that are joining us to state place Dans.

But you gotta give your stuff. Okay, I want you.

You'll be joined now by two Uh yeah, go ahead, other individuals who are one important in this state but also important in this election cycle. I want to invite Shawn and kimber come on up.

Uh.

And approaching the podium now is u Kim Rivers who owns truly did you see those signs to leave medical marijuana distributor distributorships here in town and around the state, really around the country. This is its owner and chair of the board. Also former SGA president of Florida State University.

That is this poetic?

Or what right? Everybody's been impacted?

How many people are finding bars?

That's right? Yes? And next to Kim is is political strategist, lobbyist, lawyer, uh, my former finance chairman and my race for governor of the State of Florida.

Good friend.

And now we add to it author Sean Pittman, who is face here at Tallahassee but a great supporter of the show and and awesome, awesome, strategist. You want them on your side.

Thank you for introducing me, my new mess friends in the middle.

Okay, yes, right.

We'll talk after this show.

I love that.

You champion the issue I care very deeply about. So welcome home, y'all, thanks for being here. I hope the audience can hear. Can you guys here okay? Okay, good, So they're good. You guys are good. The audience at home can here because we're.

In the you can't hear, I can't hear you?

Okay, can you hear the guest? Okay, yes, yes, okay, so everybody can hear. So we're good with the with with this. But it's it is.

I want the viewers and know it is popping live and popping here on campus and so much music. But let's let's get into this because I'm really I do want to talk kickoff with the issue of marijuana. One, why is that your issue? And too, how are you connecting accessibility and a lot of the legalizations. We see who's making money off of it and who's not, and the people who are most impacted by the criminal justices inside of marijuana are not making money from it. But

And Amendment three is really about, first and foremost, we've got to stop the madness. It is time that we stop putting people in jail and and targeting and profiling and arresting thoks for marijuana. And here in the state of Florida, we have got in Florida, and I know Andrew can talk about this at length, but we've got

Where adults, responsible adults.

Over the age of twenty one have the freedom to make a personal choice on a product that's safer than alcohol in the privacy of their own home.

So it's a personal freedom, you know amendment as well. And what we know is that there are.

Products right now that are in our communities that are dangerous, that are laced with a lot of different substances. In some cases, in gats In County, we had nine individuals die over a weekend over a.

Bad batch of weed. It's ridiculous.

And we have an opportunity now to make sure that people and adults have access to smart, safe, regulated product here in.

The state of Florida.

Now, to answer your question directly, you know, the state of Florida has been It is an interesting landscape right now, right and I'm not here to tell you any differently. There's twenty five companies currently that are licensed.

Sitting on the Governor's desk.

Is another twenty Two, we fought really really hard to make sure that in those licenses that there's a class of farmers here called the Pigford licenses that are our African American farm owners who were initially not able to participate in the licensing arena. We have fought really really hard to make sure that there is licenses now that have been and are being issued for that class's five.

Now, they're still room for improvement.

So we also give the legislature and ability to issue new licenses and so there can be a whole new licensing regime. So the idea here is that this is a market expander to bring more opportunity to the state.

In addition the tax revenue, this is going to.

Generate four hundred million dollars every year that we can generate back into our communities to make sure that we're doing right by those communities that have been the most impacted by this crazy war on drugs that candidly has gone on way too long.

Yeah, But the savings that the system will experience by not Desmond you know as well, Yeah, I prosecuting in the dial system.

You're talking about over two hundred million dollars a loan, say save to tax visions.

Well, absolutely, I think it's it's I think it's far more than that, right. And the reason why I've say that is that you're.

Talking about to You're talking about two hundred million that the state will saved just from prosecuting. But the state loses over forty billion dollars a year and lost income from people that get these type of convictions, and so

Profit off of this in the past. Yeah, point blank. You're able to get jobs and housing the same thing.

Because it makes economic sense, it makes community, I think, value sense, and the regulatory regime, however restricted now as it expands, can be inclusive of the communities who have sat at the epicenter of the worst impacts from the War on drugs at this country has waged against them. Sean, You've obviously been in the state through democratic regimes as well as Republican regimes, which has been you know, frankly, the majority of your professional career has been under that one.

Listen, you just talked about one and Amendment three, right, I mean, And one of the things I talk about in my book This Affected is you know, what are we pretending not to know as folks that are stakeholders involved in government and politics and all of that. And one of the things we pretend not to know is when there are issues like Amendment three and Amendment four that we have an opportunity to make like revolutionary change.

Right.

Too many times they think if I do this, it means this.

Tomorrow doesn't always mean that we would make voting today our modern day bus boycott where we sacrifice, knowing that it may take some time. We would, we would, we would make the kind of change not just nationally, but locally where it hits home.

You are a mayor.

You know the kind of things you can do as a mayor statewide. We can't make them think that if this person gets in office tomorrow, that's going to change their lives. What we have to do is make them realize that you're not just doing it for yourself. You're doing it for your kids and your grandkids. And we got to create that muscle memory, that voting sacred right.

Sorry, I'm doing this because I can't hear on my headphones, but we're about to adjust that. As soon as this panel's over, Desmond, I want to ask you if you can share any best practices for these lovely folks who have an initiative on the ballot and other folks throughout states all over the country that are thinking about what they can do to change their communities their states to ensure that ballot initiatives pass.

You're a victor, so what do you recommend?

What's the game? It's still a lot of people that So there's two things.

One is Behindsight twenty twenty that you know what we've seen, especially in the state of Florida. Right is typically the second greatest display of democracy. Right, it's actually a citizens and the first is voting. The second is when the citizens, who all power belong to to begin with, right, decides to take matters in their own hand in the form of a citizen's initiative, to say this is what we

That's going to be extremely important.

So important though.

I agree, I.

Wanted to ask you all giving you an expense on these initiatives that I know We've got to move to the next panel is what do you fear for access to the ballot following your amendments through citizen initiated process. You anticipate that there's gonna be a clap back and really directly because you still got one that needs to be passed. Is how it is that you can'tpaign for an initiative that may be more effective than how you might for a candidate, or are there similarities that could.

Listen candidates is entirely different than in this entirely different, you know, I think the candidates is more narrowly focused. And unfortunately, because of just who we are as a society, we have gotten to the point of where we are where we are with our candidates and and let's be real, you know, not everybody is excited about the candidates. They're excited about the moment, right, but not necessarily about the candidates.

Dani. If a candidate whether we're.

Yeah, I would just add right that.

I mean, what we tell folks is, look, I mean it certainly, you know it's our it's our civic responsibility and our privilege right to be able to exercise our voice and to vote. And you vote for candidates, but you just kind of you hope that the candidate is going to do what you what you want them to do.

Right.

A citizen ballot initiative is our most direct way that we can we can impact our communities, right, and so we are talking about the citizens in the state of Florida, as an example, have an opportunity to mark a mark a bubble on their ballot sheet that is going to directly stop people from going to jail. Like that is what we're talking about in a very literal way here.

And you position it also right for the next step, right, you give incentive to our lawmakers to then do that right thing about folks who have all already been uh in trouble, have it on their record. Expungement becomes a word that everybody understands after the point that Amendment three gets passed, Because if I'm a lawmaker, my next thing is, Okay, how do we deal with these people who have been in trouble.

For small amounts a week?

Right?

We got to get that stuff off their record and and help them help them with their lives.

Can I asked us a quick closing question.

For for somebody who's visiting Florida and you want to sample Florida's offerings, what might you.

You know talk about it?

After that?

Was that was a set up question there?

Thank you, we have Frederick Ingram and then come on up man, I'm sorry, really quick, we need to come on up and make your way up here. We lie brother, all right, Fan makes his way up here. Frederick Ingram is the president, the Florida President.

Hi, you pled me.

He's telling you maybe you can't use a certain title. Man, We don't introduce you with your title. Former president of the Teachers Union in Miami Dade. He got elected president twenty eighteen of the state wide Teachers.

Association Federation of Teachers, No in Florida Teachers and.

Any right in Florida when.

He almost got fired because I saw it, this hot had a head on.

At first.

I didn't see make America normal rally.

You had the wrong.

Rally, got the right share.

There you go.

Of course, Nicky Free who is the chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party here in Florida.

And you're at this point, well that.

Too, just on the map quite often. But she's also been fighting fiercely in a state that has tried to not only silence Democrats but have us to disappear and every way in the society. And so I think you want to give it up to you for the thankless and hard for work you all do every day.

Thank you and thank you so much for having me up here.

And first I got to do a shout out.

There's no other post fam you student body president that can get a cat student body president.

All to be on here on stage.

There it issident University of Florida where I graduated high school.

Nikki.

I feel like every time your governor here, Governor Ron's.

Not my governor.

Rand is stupid?

Is that.

Every time he does something, I feel like you're the first person we hear from on a national Stage's like, you come out and you're really good at being on the front lines. What is keeping you up at night when it comes to this Tuesday as it relates to the state of Florida.

There's a lot of things actually that keep me up and also get me up in the morning. A lot is voter suppression. A voter suppression that we've seen consistently since he became governor for six years. Everything between access to the ballot box, the drop boxes you all remember last last Yeah, the machetes, Yeah, the people that are coming out with the big trucks, and the intimidation at the polls that are making.

People scared to be there.

Yeah.

But it's also you're just talking about it with Desmond fifty million dollars that the governor has stolen from the people to put out there against the citizens' initiatives.

That is miskeueuing information that is going out people.

So that's what's keeping me up and making sure that you know, what I've said consistently for the last few months is that we have seen that we have been the lab racks of Project twenty twenty five for the last six years. And if we don't vote, then we say that's okay, and that keep going for another two years.

So we got to make sure that we are doing everything.

Possible to turn out our vote in this election.

Questioning prediction, fed oh, my prediction, Kamala Harris is gonna be our next president.

It is help.

It's Florida gonna be blue.

This same absolutely gonna help. Florida is not dead.

We got a lot of people who care about everything that's going on, and listen. Shout out to my colleagues, the teachers, the teachers that are doing God's work every day. They're taken care of two million children in this state and fifty million children nationwide. In spite of being defunded, in spite of being villainized, in spite of having librarians taken away from us, in spite of having fewer resources in our classrooms, we are still going to teach. We're

And so I am eternally optimistic, like every teacher is. At beginning in the school year. We think we can teach.

Every kid how to read and every kid how to do math, because that's what we do that And if you give us the right resources, get out of our way, protect us through public policy, we will continue to do the magic that we need in our public schools.

Policy that doesn't impact the classrooms. Every piece of policy, every policy that's.

Right, you know, and if we want to continue to see stuff like FAM you and FAM Youth's homecoming, you know, we can't make light of this kind of stuff, right These kids come from K twelve public schools.

These are the best purprisers.

That we have.

And we need more of these folks, and we need more public policy that's.

Going to protect what we have in our classrooms and our teachers, and we need to get more about black men in our classrooms because they're not going into the classroom because they don't pay well. They're not going into the classroom because why would you go back to a place that treated you in the wrong way?

Why would you go back to that.

So we need to change our system so that we can change our people and we can help our families in this next generation.

That's why voting is important. It's gonna happen with or without you.

So you can choose not to vote, but that's a vote for somebody else, and it's a vote against your children. And our children should not be for sale. That's not what we should be doing. In the state of Florida, we've had double trouble, Desanta's and Trump in the same zip code. That's crazy, you know, And so listen, we're not crazy. We got to understand where this has make America normal again. Not because I want normal, because I want the abnormal to be gone.

I want stuff that Donald Trump.

Is saying about my people, about people like me, about Haitians, about you know, villainizing our teachers, villainizing our children.

This man doesn't know anything from anything, and the.

Only way we can get rid of that kind of hate and disdain and divisiveness is to vote.

It's the only game in town. You can like it or not like it, but you better get at it.

Yeah, and that's why Florida isn't play because what DeSantis has done to this state for six years, that the banning of books. I saw an article today that says we're still the number one state in the nation for banning books, you know, everything from black history to slaves, that there was a benefit to slavery, the six week abortion ban. That's not who we are as Floridians. And he's taken us into such a dangerous direction. That's why I think you're seeing the backlash here in our state.

I always do.

By the men. But I will say this question for national audience. There are a lot of folks who have written Florida off by and large, that we constantly is not a purple state Nymore. People keep saying a red state. A lot of folks neglect that a third of the electorate maybe second and running now are independent registrants in this Florida. If you had to make the audience more broadly, make the case more broadly, and I'd like to hear

Easy, look at our election in twenty eighteen, Andrew, you lost by thirty four thousand votes. I bet you probably know that number by yeah, And I won and I won by five thousand, six hundred and seventy three votes.

That was just six years ago.

And then in twenty twenty and we saw Desmond's You know, in twenty eighteen, we saw a restoration of civil rights passing by over seventy percent, legalization of medical marijuana by seventy two percent. These initiatives that you're talking about earlier are are progressive, and the people of this state consistently are voting way over the sixty percent threshold. And the fact of the matter is a third of our state

She won with independence.

We flipped a House seat this year.

The last time that House seat was blue was when Senator Nelson was a House member, and we flipped it with seventy percent independence. So right now we've got a demographic that Democrats are voting, Independents are voting and breaking for Democrats, and I am not convinced that more than ten percent of the Republican voters are voting for Kamala Harrison Democrats because they're tired of this nonsense and they want normality again.

Well, and speaking of normal, we got to get back on schedule. So we so appreciate you with us today. We're so so great voting.

Thank you all the work that you're doing is help save democracy. So thank you so much, Nikki Freed and better ingram.

Y'all keep doing for the black community.

Vote November fifth, because we have.

Awesome welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome.

This breeze is so appreciated. As we bring up the next guest.

Praise the Lord. Yes, okay, So now what we're gonna do is. We're gonna bring up a very very special guest. She is our defacto producer of today's show. She is Andrews not just better, but the best half.

She is.

I guess it is, yes, shaking her head.

He's doing. Genesis Robinson is also going to join us on ground.

Shaking her head.

She's still producing. Come on, Jay, and where is uh? I'm not sure he's.

Okay, okay anyway, Southern Girl Desserts, don't worry about it.

Are so happy to have you, our de facto producer making it happen. Yeah, she really, We're happy to have you, have you as well, happy to have yell in Tallahassee.

Thank you so much.

So real quick, Jay, before we get to you, Genesis, tell us about the Equal Ground Fund and what you're doing.

Yes, so, thank y'all for having me.

Equal Ground As a black led voting rights organization, we're working throughout the entire state of Florida with the goal of educating our community, getting them prepared for elections, and getting them more involved in the civic engagement process. Too often, election after election, we don't see the type of engagement in our community, and so we made the commitment to have a year round investment.

Right.

We're not just coming into communities right before an election and disappearing.

We're staying in.

We're mobilizing, We're educating and providing all of the resources for people to get more involved in the political process.

I love that Genesis was a young organizer as a student on campuses here. He's given all of his time since leaving Catlin to continue organizing around the state. We appreciate it. We're gonna come back to Egle ground. I want to give a quick shout out to my best friend, my wife, my chosen life partner r J who home and for whom I couldn't I couldn't do give it up for Jay, y'all, and then and then she also so the produces on other shows.

Y'all, you don't get to hear about it, but.

We hear about it.

What's on Instagram?

Why Why do I know that?

I don't know because you don't know what's going on.

Which most people figure out what they listen to the.

Show it's We're at the highest of seven Hill.

That's why I.

Said it, right, I feel like we should hear this love story that began in politics.

We have two different versions, and therefore we don't j.

You're gonna tell it blaming her time.

Let's jay, I want you to tell this story because we want to get the young people motivated, and sometimes the best way to do that is to know that they can meet in the city chamber.

WHOA, yes, the microphones are defect.

Yes, Jesus you're mad that.

I am so proud of you and what all young people are doing being active. This young man was a very active student leader. We were both in student government the year before.

He was SGA president, I was SGA vice president, and we didn't get along at all. We thought about everything because Andrew was ready to march to the capitol.

He was ready to protest, and I just had a.

More because do we always have to march?

Well, no, my boy was what are we asking for?

And what is the exit strategy? So need let's to say we did not date in college at all. We reconnected years later. It was our student government advisors that put us together and here we are all these years later.

But I will say one thing he says a lot is life partner, and that is that's true. No matter how we started, where we are now and all the in between. This is my friend, my best friend. I can talk about him, y'all came.

But this is home for us.

It's where we started, it's where our love started.

But like this is.

Spiritual, right, and you don't just have to be a rattler.

All of these people supporting you, all this show. When we have been through the highs and the lows, it was our rattler family that was right there.

They didn't care what was going on.

They said, you are one of us, and.

We've got y'all. So I hope that wherever you are, you have that.

You have that home, you have that community, you have that love, that kinship, because there's nothing like it. So I won't tell the full story because we disagree.

I wanted to hear that. I think the whole tremendously.

On how the story goes, I'll tell you.

Listen, this is the quickest part. When I first moved back to Tallahasseee after graduating, I ran.

Into Andrew and the mall and he was a city commissioner.

So I was proud of him, and he gave me his number. I'm gonna try to find it so I could take a picture to show y'all.

He wrote it down because.

I still had a paper calendar in my purse, and he wrote down three phone numbers on this piece of paper. Now, when I saw the young man in the mall, he looked really nice.

He was shopping, but.

He had two phones on his hip.

None of those three numbers was a cell phone number, so I just assumed he didn't want me to call him.

For real.

He gave me like a word number.

And anybody with two cell phones is probably never home.

Why are you giving me your home number?

You see j What was you doing?

You shouting to the genesis.

Right here in this love story? Did we connected?

It was fine.

I never called him because I just assumed I was.

Like need meet with calling it.

What happened the pond day our student government advisors. I had come back and actually worked on campus.

I had a.

Graduate student job and I was in charge of the court, the Royal Court, and I was at a football tailgate and Miss Doing, Miss Lamb, miss Dupon, is no longer with us, but everybody that was in student government in the nineties and two thousands remembers her and Miss Lamb, who doesn't work on campus, but it's still here, said they had somebody that wanted me to meet, and I got very excited and we made plans and it was.

Him, and I was like, why y'all could just tell it was him.

So we went to dinner to Bennigan, which is no longer.

The restaurant closed, they had to put us out, and we sat and talked for another two or three hours in the parking lot on Saturday night, and he invited me to go to church with him the West day.

I wasn't.

One more second before we go to tennis.

Sometimes love stories don't always have happy endings, and they should, but sometimes love stories brush you into another part of your destiny.

We're joined today by Charles Johnson said here for moms, and we're gonna get it right with four moms.

Moms.

Charles, thank you so much for joining us and for the work you're doing. We want to hunt you, but we didn't throw it off and ran off the set. Today we're just gonna be be good and.

And that too.

I feel like we've been shouting at church, so we really really thank God for your work. I first learned of what you were doing, uh at Elaine Walter Ross's Firth Fund event in la so thank you so much. Please tell the audience about for here, for moms and the reason for the work, which is sure.

Sure, sure.

So first of all, it's an honor to be here, right, And I have to say to my brother Andrews, to RJ. Right, like y'all have to understand, like on behalf of all of us, man, we love you, bro, we really love you. And I want to tell my story, but I have to start and center this and the fact that when I touched down here twenty five years ago in the fall of nineteen ninety nine, my first time voting ever was in ninety nine, right, and I had a front row seats to two things, to a historical steal of

And there's nothing you can do of it. Did you understand me? We love you?

So this is an honor to being here. So with that being said, I apologized, had I had to say that Andrew so and so this story starts, and how I got this work. I was fortunate enough to meet a woman that absolutely changed my life. As we talked about my wife, Kira, we're talking about Sunshine per signing.

We're talking about Sunshine Per signed by the woman.

That raced cars, who had her pilot's license, who spoke five languages, and I always wanted to be a dad, always wanted to be a dad.

And socome.

We welcomed our first son, Charles the fifth, in twenty and fourteen, and we begin to talk about how cool we would be to have back to back boys, and so we found out we were welcomed our second sons in twenty and sixteen.

We were ecstatic, and so on April.

Twelfth of twenty sixteen, we walked in the Cedar Sinai in Los Angeles for we expected to be the happiest day of our lives and walk straight into a nightmare. It's important to stand that Kira was not only in good health, she was an exceptional help and no pre existing conditions, no signs of distress. And we went and it was supposed to be a weird seeing scheduled sea section. Our son was born perfectly healthy, ten fingers, ten toes, super handsome, and.

You're looking just like me, like, this is it, right, this is it? This is the dream.

And they take us back to recovery. And that's when things took a turn for the worst. And as I'm sitting there watching cure rest and watching the baby rest, I see blood and the casseeter bring it to the attention. And the doctors been nurses at CEDARS. They come in, they examine her, they examine her, they take her vitals, they ordered tests.

Keep in mind, this is around. We went into the delivery at two and it's about four and.

They ordered that CT scan that's supposed to be performed STAT and so STAT what does that mean?

Right now?

Right?

Like, okay, I'm concerned, but my wife is healthy, my baby is healthy, and we're supposed to be a seat of sign. Now five o'clock comes, no CC scam, and I'm asking, hey, y'all, where's the where's the scam that's coming?

Sir? Six o'clock, no skin? Hey, what's going on? Ah, sir, it's coming. We'll see seven o'clock.

And now by seven o'clock she's shivering uncontrollable, right, And they said, well, maybe we may have to take her back to surgery.

I'm like, what about to say it, skin that you said in.

This game of dismissal, denial, and deprioritization of my wife's pain and our concerns continues to escalate.

Eight o'clock, nine o'clock, and.

Around nine o'clock the nurse came in the only thing that they had done at this point is get her IV through it. So around nine o'clock, though, nurse comes in to change her IV bags and just out of decoration, I just stopped her.

I said, look, my wife isn't doing good. She's pale. They said that they were gonna take her for surgery. Nobody's coming. They said they were gonna take her for a CDC. And that was five hours ago. Can you please just help us?

At which point this woman looked me dead in my eyes and lund she said to me, sir, your wife just isn't a priority right now, Your wife just isn't a priority.

Nine ten o'clock and for the instant time.

It wasn't until midnight, twelve thirty am that they finally made the decision to take my wife back of surgery, after allowing her to bleed and suffer needlesly for more than ten hours, while myself and my family begged and pleaded for them to just.

See her validate our concerns.

So finally they take her back to surgery, go down to make the walk down this long corridor, and I'm holding her hand and I'm just doing once.

Again, the only thing I know to do is a husband and to say they everything will be okay.

And the last thing she said to me before those double doors opened up and they closed behind her, and baby, I'm scared. And we're talking about women as fearless. A woman that went skydiving like some of us went for jobs. And when they took her back in their operating room and they opened her up there with three leaders of blood in her abdoinence from where she had been able

That's such a heartbreaking story, and let me just say I'm so sorry, and when we offer our condolences for your loss and the strength it must take you every day to carry your wife's memory and create this legacy not only on behalf of her, but the work you're doing will impact thousands, if it's not millions of black women across the country.

So I don't even have a question. I just have gratitude for you and to you, so thank you.

I've heard your story, Charles. Obviously, I don't know. Today I feel particularly moved as I think about my wife sitting there, and I think about our three children and think about the miscarriages that happened in between them, and I just have nothing but gratitude for as a husband and father, your willingness to stand when I imagine you didn't have the strength to get up and to stand in the gap for so many other families, other husbands and their wives and partners who deserved to walk out

You know, I think you know, youth are certainly excited to get engaged to hear me. Yeah, okay, I think youth are certainly excited to get engaged this election. Many of them who are having the first opportunity to pass a vote, they've watched for four years, They've watched for eight years, right, Donald Trump and the type of leadership

Right, They're seeing where they're prevented.

From calling their peers by pronouns of their chosen right, and so they have an opportunity to do something about it.

And so we're excited about that.

We know that this is sort of the first test of what their engagement and participation will look like not only on the national level, but here in the state of Florida. You talk about Black Men as an organization that organizes the black community in the state of Florida.

We know that the black community has a lot to say.

We're a little concerned right now about the black turnout here in the state of Florida, and so that's why our organization is committed from now until Tuesday to continue the work of getting people out to vote, providing the resources necessary for them to make educated, informed decisions, because we know that the voter suppression laws.

That have been passed here in Florida are having an impact.

In twenty twenty three, they removed four point two million Floridians from the vote by mail roles. Why did they do that because they knew in twenty twenty our community led the way and voting by mail and parenting, and they wanted to prevent us from being able to participate in that way.

And so you know, we're hopeful, we know that, you know, Thomas winding up. We encourage everyone who's out there to make a plan to vote.

If you have not voted yet, make sure you're vote by mail ballots received by seven pm on election day. It's not enough to have it dropped in the mail by that time, it must be received by your supervisor. And so make a plan to vote and make sure you participated in.

This upcoming election.

I love it, and angela activity for your awareness. The greatness about Equal Ground is that it's a group that doesn't work just in an election cycle. It's one of the few groups that you'll find year in year out, inside of gubernatorial or presidential or outside of those races, organizing and meeting people at their need. So, Genesis, we thank you for it.

Yes to that point.

To Charles and Jay, I know you all have both been personally impacted by what happens with black mothers.

I'm curious to know, as so much is on.

The balloting our very bodies, what do you encourage people to do and how do they stay engaged around issues like this beyond election day?

Yeah, so, I think you know, when we think about reproductive justice, when we think about maternal health, particularly black maternal health, and it's important to speak to this and black maternal health. I know that stories like mine, when we look at the statistics, their heart brainsfuls.

But here's the realt of this situation. We talk about data.

The CDC is determined that eighty four percent of the maternal deaths in this country are classified as preventable, right, eighty four percent. That means those of mothers that should be at the first day of kindergarten, that should be dancing at weddings, they should be streaming at soccer games on Saturday mornings at the top of their lungs, and

The year twenty thirty.

Yeah, and how do we do that Fundamentally, we talk about a climate right now, As you well know that it's so politically divisive, this issue around maternal wellness and mothers being having the human right, not the women's health right, not the black the human right to get birth to a healthy child and live to raise that child is uniquely bipartisan right, whether your approach and suppose this is something we can reigar on So regardless of how you affiliate,

Right.

But at the same time, while policy is important, we are done asking other people's permission to save our own lives.

And supporting the doers.

The re out of this situation is there's a lot of people that like to stand around and admire the problem. No, and when we talk about policy too, And I could go on all day, but one of the things I'll say, we talk about policy.

We're making sure that the dollars. This year we passed.

And a budget appropriation of one hundred million dollars specifically to fund community based black women led organizations It's an important distinction, right, So these funds are not just going to the legacy organizations that are making the sisters in the community sing for their sufferers, right and tap dance to get the funding. So we're making sure that funding is going to the people that need it, that have boots on the ground and are having their hands on

I think it's personal. It goes from personal to policy. Advocate for yourself. Yes, black women, black men, we gotta go to the doctor at least once a year, right.

We got to get our mammograms, We got to get our.

Paths, nears.

We have to take control of our health, take back our power for our bodies.

And then we have to understand the power of our vote. Because there are people out here politicizing IVF. I wouldn't have my children if it weren't by IVF. There are people politicizing what we do with our bodies and the decisions we have to make so I just asked everybody, you don't have to be into politics, but politics is personal.

It's very important, and that is how people decide the policy.

That affects all of our lives. So I just asked that people take back that power. Like Charles said, there are a lot of policies at place, so support the people that support the power things that support us.

Yeah, and you know, that's one of the things that I think we're seeing here in the state of Florida's people to start to recognize the electoral power associated with the issues that they care about. Andrew, I often talk about that your election was perhaps the most consequential in the history of our state.

Right. We went on to have.

A Supreme Court that allowed unconstitutional.

Maps to move forward and jimp Jerrymander. We have a state Board of Education that has allowed there to be to be taught that there's educational and benefit to slavery, right. And so I think when people look around and are able to tie their electoral power to the issues that matter to them, that we can use that as a motivator to get them to vote.

It's not just about the presidential race, right, It's about voting.

Up and down the ballot at all levels of government to ensure that we're getting the results that we need for documentedy.

It's so grateful for it is.

All your.

Thank right back. I shout out to my co hosts. I should keep up, I should keep us here for thirty more minutes. Just the torture them. You got one over from Seattle the other way from the northeast. They about to die of here.

Me too, though, shout out you did, good seed. I was real worried about you, so you did good.

Y'all get up for this final panels. Thank you for their growth, their energy, and her female of applause.

To you all.

You guys can ask no questions.

Y'all probably Tom raise the Lord. We'll come down and answer Mama's stage.

Well, I want to say to our viewing audience, thank you very much for joining us for the fiftieth episode of Data Lampard. Welcome home, forty flight.

We'll be at Philly on Monday.

We'll be at Howard University with the next President of the United.

States on Tuesdays.

Sorry, that's break news. We'll be in DC night. We got thank you ourselves, but it would be that Moran see.

Thank you for joining the Natives attention of with the info and all of the latest rock Gulim and cross connected to the statements that.

You leave on our so shows.

Thank you, sincerely for the patients reason for your choice is clear, so grateful it took the OA to execute roles than for serve, defend and protect the truth even in pain.

For Welcome home to all.

Of the natives.

Wait, thank you, Welcome y'all.

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