Native Lampard is a production of iHeart Radio in partnership with Reason Choice Media.
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome home everyone.
We are thrilled to be joined today for our mini pod our dear sister.
She just celebrated a birthday this week. She is a legend.
A civil rights hero of our time. You all will read about her in the history books. But Tip and I at least get to call her a machete sister friend. I know Bakari and Andrew are gonna get mad they call a sister too. But this is the legendary co founder of Black Voters Matter, Natasha Brown, and also the Southern Black Girls Collective.
Did I get it right?
He'll be no, you didn't get it right. But it's okay. Girls and Women's Consortium and Women's Consortia.
And get the sea word right. It's okay.
But what you gotta know is Latasha fights for all of our people, whether they in the South and north east, the West, across the continent. She is here because she is fighting now to en sure that we get our Say, Latasha, you have just launched, in coalition with some others, really robust boycott initiative and I want you to talk about we ain't buying it.
We ain't buying it.
We are not buying that we live in the wealthiest country in the world and we cannot take care of its citizens. We ain't buying that you can give a trillion dollars over a trillion dollars over the next however many young years, next decade to a thousand wealthiest people in this country, and you cannot supply for food stamps, You cannot make sure that people don't lose the ACA, they don't lose their subsidies for health care.
We ain't buying it.
We ain't buying that you can actually go and spend three hundred million dollars on a.
Gold gilded dining room.
At the same time, people including veterans, are standing in line for hours. So we ain't buying it. And because we ain't buying it, we ain't buying with people that staying with that foolishness. And so we've launched a campaign that literally we are talking. There are three companies who have actually capitulated, have stood with this administration, have backed away from their DEI commitments, Target Home, Depot and Amazon. We're coming for you on Thanksgiving weekend. We're asking people
just like we're not buying this fool shis. We're not buying and spending our money with companies that are not literally standing up for democracy and standing to protect us when there are people that are seeking a government.
That seeking to harm us.
Again Amazon, and I did say the Amazon because I know everybody started like.
Today, but I got a message with that.
I got a cool I got a tip with that Amazon Home depot and Target.
The home depot easy. I'm gonna have to I'm gonna talk to Ellen about Target. Make sure she stay out of that one. That's the one I'm worried about.
She should have been out of. We've been, but she kind of got.
But that's it.
Okay, let me let me just do an Amazon is gonna be I'm not gonna lie. It is gonna be very hard. It's a Seattle headquarter company. I want you really quick LB to get into why you chose those particular targets no pun intended. And also if you can talk about the importance of an economic boycott within a truncated time frame, because normally, I think, especially in this day and age, people are like, are you really going
to get a win. If there's an end of the matter, what is the purpose of having an end to the boycott and why wasn't it extended beyond just Thanksgiving weekend at Black Friday on.
So let me say this, this is not a boycott. This is an economic action. And so it's okay because there are boycott's target isn't actually full fledged boycott, And with a boycott there's a particular specific ask, there's a negotiation that goes around there, and there's an expected outcome. What we're saying is that we have economic power. Not only we have political power flex, but we have that's right,
we all flex. We have economic power. And what we know is twenty to over forty percent of sales for the entire quarter most companies on that weekend alone, They're projection for the next six months are determined by that we can and so this is really while it is we're lifting up the companies, this is really about us building our muscle. Like listen, I love the shop online like the next person. Matter of fact, and all I understand Amazon truck just left my house. I'm looking out
the way that has just left my house. So I get it right back they're right there, right, But ultimately, y'all, if we cannot create the kind of discipline for four days, well we're saying that we've got to start developing the muscle and the discipline that when people are not supporting us or allowing what, we're just gonna let We're just
gonna support these folks who are capitulating. They're going up on the White House like given their basically promising their first born child to an administration that is being hurtful in.
Harmful to us.
And so while this is yes, we're we're looking at how we use our money. We want people to be more conscious about their spending. More than anything, We want folks to be conscious about their spending to leverage that particular weekend because it is such a significant It is the largest retail weekend of the year, and it can have a dent in that truncated space. Now, there are
some folks like the Target boycott. The Target boycott hang on end is going to continue until they meet their demands, and there are other actions that are happening as well that people are really talking about what they can do to continue, and we want people to be activated in that. But this is a way for us to actually show
and demonstrate, you know. Part of reasons why our power, part of reasons why I think elections work is because they have a there's like a timeframe, right that you know, there's the election is gonna happen this day, and there's gonna be some choice and.
Decision made by that day. Right, what can happen?
Particularly traditionally with boycotts, they can go on for a month, they can go on for a couple of years, they can go on, and and they should. I am actually a support of that. But this is a design in
that way. This is an economic action for people to actually reflect, to be more consciously aware of how we spend our money and who we spend our money too, and that there is a collective action we're going to take that weekend to send a message that we ain't playing with y'all, Like at the end of the day, we.
Are not buying.
Let me ask a question real quick. Is there is there I think you answered it just now, But is there an ask that that goes along with this economic action? Are we asking these companies for something?
Or yeah, you mean like stop being racist, but like but.
Like a specific like a specific ask and or because I mean it could be both. Is this Is this a message to the world and organizing messaging tactic that we're using, because by the way, I'm all in. I just need to figure out. You just need to tell me, well, why we hear what we're doing, and what the end result gonna be. But I'm all in because I follow you anywhere.
Well, you just need to ask.
I'm with you just in case somebody asked me what I'm doing, I need to be able to tell them why.
Yeah, that's why.
All right, nice to have you on the show. Welcome Home.
So part of what I think you know, I'm glad you asked the question, which is why I wanted to early upfront to distinguish this is not a boycott and a boycott and a boy this action in terms of when you're buying it. Now, there are boycotts that are part of this right and for example, the target boycott was a target fast and it's turned into a full
fledged boycott. They have specific list of demands that people have been organizing around that they're actually in negotiations with where they actually want some in right, and then there are people are actually now in this.
Space around home, depot.
What you're going to see is there's been an official call uponme depot, and where the folks who are organizing with that have a specific ask. This is an organizer. I'm an organizer and this right here is an organizer container for a couple of things. One is not just about the companies. What I want people to know are particular the folks that listen to this, this is about you too, that ultimately we want the companies to do right, but we ain't got to do right.
No, we gonna have to do better. We're going to have to be much more conscious.
Much more disciplined, much more directed with our spending. So for me, what the big part of this campaign is really about raising the consciousnes, the consciousness and the awareness that we are consumers and we've got power. When I look at black folk in this country, we've got one point eight trillion dollars in it, literally in billion dollars, I'm sorry, in consumer power. That's a lot of power, y'all. That when we're looking at how are we using that?
Why are we still continuing the same kind of spending habits which many of us are right I'm guilty of it, Like the next person that many of us are spending using the same kind of spending habits out of convenience, out of this is what we like. This is a brand we like. This is the store down the street from me. I mean I got some cool stuff from Target when I was shopping there, right, But ultimately, I don't love Target more than I love my five year old.
Like my five year old, I don't love Target more than I love my family. That right now, we're looking at them losing their health benefits. Where a family member of buyds her health insurance would go up from two hundred and sixty dollars a month to almost two rands.
She can't afford that. That's more than all that's the morning the bills in our household.
So we've got to use the pressure. However we can use that pressure. But more than anything for this particular campaign, this campaign.
Is for us. It is for us to really.
Think about our spending choices, our habits that we're actually contributing to businesses that are hurting and harming us. So it's not just they gotta do right, we gotta do right.
LB.
Can I just and I know T if you need to get in here Andrew.
You two, I just want to do one quick fact check just because I love you, sister, and you going it is two point one trillion, and it is trilli, but it's well Nielsen, Nielsen.
I'm gonna give you if you say, I just want to I said trillion in back off a billion, but right, okay, I'm gonna taking.
But I'm with you on that. I just want to make sure we take the whole Yeah, Like, let's be clear.
If it's between one.
Point eight and two point one somewhere in there, that's a whole lot of money, so Youney, and that is not our wealth. That is what we spend. This is also a discipline exercise of be I hear you. I'm sorry, and I do.
Want to say about the companies earlier, and I know tif you got a question earlier when I was asked the question why these companies target rolled back their DEI commitments. Right, target customer base forty percent of their customer base, y'all are multicultural shoppers. They're people of color. We're keeping them floating.
So when you looking at Amazon, Amazon Cyber Monday, just alone, y'all, that is the biggest online shopping day of the year, believe it or not, multicultural almost at the same rate, we're the ones that's buying online, and believe it or not, it's our Latino, our Latito brothers and sisters that is the biggest, the biggest vehicle for them in terms of online shopping. And we're seeing what's happening with that when
we're looking at home depot the same thing. Not only home depot policies, but they got the mitigative goal right to actually call folks having workers that are outside like they've exploiteded. Now they're actually providing that information to ice and surveillance information. No, you can't take our money and not staying with us and just exploit us.
That's not gonna go now. That's why we ain't buying it.
But to do that to Andrew ask your question, you stand up, listen. I feel like Lytasha framed the message on this herself. First of all, we ain't buying it definitely came from because you said it like you own it. We ain't buying it. I believe you. I believe you fully. I like this action, this flex action, economic flex because too often we're taking for granted and we allow society
media and others to reinforce our disempowerment. And what this campaign, in my mind, seems to do, is to reinforce the fact that we have power and choice about everything. Your choice to not vote is a choice. You could go or you could not. You're exercising a choice when it
comes to your money. Yeah, that store may be closer, it may look like it have better sales and discounts on for you, But guess what if you ride just a little bit further down the street, that one's got some stuff and they got better stuff up the block, down the street, round the corner. It's a choice. And I just I think in this time talking about meeting the moment, Angela, you know we're talking about all these We're talking about powerful people and how they meet the moment,
and how this public figure is meeting the moment. Well, how are we, as regular everyday people and more specifically, regular everyday consumers meeting the moment. We may not have the platform, we may not be the elected official, we may not be you know, the basketball player or the activists, but every single one of us has the ability to flex when we want to. And this, to me, the collective flex is one that requires our neighbors, our friends,
our family others to participate. I just hope that all of us deputize, not just ourselves, but our family members, remind them, talk to them about what this is, because it ain't nothing worse than a flex and a muscle don't pop out, that's right, that's right, So you can't flex and then no, nothing show up.
And I will say to this too.
You know, I can't tell y'all how many times I've been in conversations recently around you know, we need a Martin Luther King, we need a leader, we need and every time I hear that, it actually aggravates me. Let me tell you why, because I think it's a compound.
At the end of the day, it's a compound. What you what you say to me is you want somebody that's willing to give their lives to You want somebody to go on the uh, to be out there, put them themselves in dangerous way, and you don't have to change anything about your behavior, Like we can't do that.
At the end of the day, if we are and as we will defeat this author terranism, it is going to require something of all of us, and damn it if you can't wait, if you can't go four days without spending some money, I don't know what to say to you, right, you know, I don't I don't know, I don't have any I don't know what to say. But I think it's you know, even in the campaign,
just the functionality of the campaign. I want folks to understand there are three companies that we're highlighting because there are actions already going on and right, and that's what made it for us. We thought that that would lift it up, lift up work that was ongoing, work.
That is happening.
But we're we're actually saying, don't spend any money that weekend, and if you already spend money, spend money with local, black owned or smaller women owned companies that week in. So that's why each day on Thursday, we're saying, spend time with families, don't spend time with folks, don't spend money.
We ain't spending no money. We spending time with our families.
On Friday, that which they call black Friday, we call it a blackout Friday. It's gonna be the blackest Friday they ever seen. Because what we're gonna do is we're gonna make sure that we're lifting up in that space. They're gonna be actions going on across the country in different stores, and we're asking people to not buy on Black Friday, to send a message of our consumer power.
That Saturday and Sunday, we're saying, spend small, that small Saturdays, small Sunday, spends with small businesses, black owned, some of these businesses that have lost some of their contracts or they have lost their foot traffic. And on Monday we going you're talking about cyber Monday. No, it's gonna be
a cyber shutdown. We are saying telling folks to lead your apps, do not buy online, and more importantly Amazon, make sure that we're lifting up that we are not shopping and buying anything from Amazon.
So it is a four.
Days very trunk k five days very trunkeated in a space that we believe that we can actually show the power, use our consumer power and to send a message and it can feed into larger actions, ongoing actions.
That are happening.
I love it, Pasha.
I want to talk about the home depot piece and I'll shift topics a little bit, but I just wanted to make this point to our audience I'm having some work done house now, and there are workers who live in Maryland and they're saying, we're not coming to d C right now. So we have to do everything via FaceTime or WhatsApp because literally crossing state lines, they could
be disappeared or deported. And I know that our community, there are small pockets of our community who do not feel in solidarity with this community, and I want to caution us that if we let them turn us into monsters, then we are no different. The same way a vampire can suck blood from your neck and convert you into another bloodsucker. We can't allow that to happen. I know it's frustrating.
You know.
It's not real in the literal sense.
But I know it's frustrating for black folks who are spiritually and mentally and physically exhausted at what they're going through. But we have to consider the humanity of other people. I think that is just our superpower. So on that note, I always say, if I could bottle Natasha up and give her away for Christmas, I would do that. You are Love's evangelists, and you can turn anyone into a devout follower.
Of whatever do.
They if you get your on them, you get your hands on them, then then you can and a lot of us we had the privilege of having them a few hours on the day before your birthday, not on your birthday, but but talking and just about what we're going through. And people are hurting right now. You know, people don't have food to eat. People their children are hungry, People are dealing with healthcare crisis. People are dealing with alien parents, people are dealing with alien children. People are
broke or their spirits are broken. It's just a heavy season right now for black folks, but for everybody. You have always, when I've been in the darkest moments of my life, been a beacon of light. And so I can't give you away to everybody for Christmas, but in the gift of giving this season, I just wonder what words of love you might be able to offer to all of us who are going through challenges, no matter what we look like or no matter what we're going through.
You know, the good news is if I was dependent upon let's say, in the government to fix this, y'all see how that's working, right, or political parties to fix this, I would probably feel a sense of helplessness if I was looking at the benevolence of Trump or the white folks, or whoever it is that we think gonna save us, I would feel that. But that ain't where I get my source for That's not my source of strength. That's not where I've ever gotten my.
Source for strength.
I am a daughter, a great great great grandchild of somebody who had been enslaved.
Right, and all of the new before that was enslavement.
I am the grandchild of a man and a woman that couldn't even register until they were in their late sixties. I am I come from folk who in the deep Deep South that could not and did not have freedom of movement, did not have the right to vote. We're not even treated humanely, right, So how dare I having access to all that I have access to to not really use the power that they used, and that power was they use their humanity? Y'all that ultimately we have
got to understand that. I do believe I am, like you said, I'm a lover. But I do believe that you know, you know I am as y' all know as Machelli's no.
Since I got me.
A beautiful telescope for my birthday, just I'm just flexing a little bit. But right, I have been obsessed with stars, and I just want to share this real quick.
I've been obsessed with stars, and part of.
It is, you know, the idea that in our universe there are billions of stars, but there are billions of universes. So I need people just to get your wrap your head around that, right, and stars are always out but right now it's daytime for many of us, and I can't see the stars. I can't see the stars, but they're still out there. It is only in the night
time that I see the light from the stars. And the interesting thing about seeing the stars in that moment that there are sometimes that when you look at there's some stars, you see that those stars are not even don't even exist anymore. Some of the stars that we're looking at are actually called dead stars. All you were seeing is their former glory days. That it took that long for that light to travel to us to perceive it,
and so we're seeing it. But ultimately that's start gone on, that start don't even exist anymore, is the residue of its former self. And then there are other stars that are being born every day. And why am I saying that it is in the darkest night in this country that black folk have always been the stars to lead the way. Harriet Tubman followed a star, a north star forward, And I thought that the north star was the brighton star in the sky when I started kind of research about stars.
It's not the brighton star. You know what it is. It is the most consistent. It is the star that you.
Can always depend on. Sometimes it's the brightness, sometimes it's not. And I'm saying that black people got to know who we are, that we have always been the stars to actually lead the way to democracy. We have always been the stars to say it don't matter what you say about me. You can put all kinds of anti blackness, you can put whatever you want to put it. Ultimately, I will still rise and I will also bring and
open that space up for others. So in this moment where we are feeling this darkness, this is the moment.
Baby, turn your light on, like put your lightners up.
This is the moment that you need to whatever it is in you, your humanity, that's when you cut that on. And you're being called in this moment. So I don't think I don't want to minimize that is this a heavy moment. Absolutely, I don't want to minimize the fact that are people suffering and struggling. Absolutely, But we have always had to deal with racism, we have always had to deal with economic barrier, some of us more than others.
And we have always found joy and found a way out.
And so all I'm saying is, perhaps God in the universe, because I'm a personal faith perhaps this moment we just it's your showtime. Maybe in this moment where we're in the darkest night of this country, maybe this is the moment that our stars are supposed to be shining their brightness. And all that means, in my opinion, is that we've got to go back to be in community. We've got to use our power. We can't just go around and
spend money and not be conscious of it. We can't go around and say things and not be conscious of it. We can't go around and repeat things that we've heard on Instagram or somewhere and not be conscious of it.
Why. Because we are at war, and when you are at war, you move differently.
You're far more disciplined, You're more disciplined in your thoughts, you're more disciplined in your movement. And so this is the moment that I think is being called for us. It don't really matter what the other folks gonna do, because they've been pretty.
Consistent for four hundred years.
The question is what is it that we're going to do that's going to be different, that creates a different kind of result. And I think this is a opportunity. It's a bad space that we're in, but this is also an opportunity for us to shift the frame from seeing ourselves as citizens of this bason, this bootleg nation that we're see in right now, to start seeing ourselves as founders of a new America, the founders of a nation that we design, we deserve that we're going to create.
Reading the hearing and the doing of his word, Latisha Brown, well, I love'll feerless leader, We love you.
Please come back and thank you y'all. Come on, like, go to our website. I got to go because I actually have to got to go to a doctor's visit. But if you can go to we ain't buying it dot com And we want people to make it their own. This is campaign isn't held by one group or one person. Make it your own because there are other folks and well, you know what, they add all kinds of stuff in that list. My niece to day had about fifteen different co is that she was like, Oh yeah, I'm not going to.
Them because they did this, this, they did that.
So part of the spirit is there's a spark, there's a space. There are folks around the nation that are gonna do some actions. Use your power right because we are baying before you.
Go, it's real quick.
Can you just give us one little, one little note, you give us something on your way out.
Our note is, well, the first thing I did right was the day I started to fight.
Keep your eyes on.
Did not mean and.
If you were on the street, you wouldn't know that.
If you wet, thank you, thank you.
We're y'all, you and mute you want to hear you.
I'm still.
Like, let the audience your time.
You can't tell me. You can't tell me how my spirit moves.
Know what I'm saying, that's the music.
They don't know. They don't know, y'all.
Andrew the ain't never been to the morning being don't know.
They're trying to dictate that.
We want to know.
How about the job just saying. This is why she does it impromptu, because yes, because I'm gonna go.
Well, the first thing I did right was the day I started to fight, keep your eyes on the price.
And hold on, hold on, because we ain't buying it by y'all.
I'm going he's out, hold on, hold on, hold on.
But I'm just gonna say this. I I actually appreciate call and response. It is in our nature to be, you know, instantaneously responsive. We do it on the podcast, that's what we got.
But he's.
Doing that. But my point is I really think that I get it. And so I'm sorry for hitting y'all so hard, but I was really mad.
Because I wanted to just hear Latasha.
And what she normally does is she'll come into a speaking engagement or into a segment on air and just go, and so people don't really have this chance.
I'm not saying the audience, I'm trying.
I'm doing it a really terrible job apparently, but I didn't piss them off.
I love them, but I really did just want to hear Atasha. That's not what we were doing. They about.
They actually they want to actually they do, and this is actually one of those moments where I think people need to have something to hold onto. And one thing that I really believe LB does so well is she can snatch hope out of a very dark circumstance and she does it with the power of her spoken and melodic word. And so we appreciate y'all for going on mute while you're saying horrifically. And even though you you felt like you were a team player, you were not.
And it was as annoying as Andrew's lawnmower in the background.
So there's that. I love you. Guys got the spirit because.
They can't they how the spirit moves us, the jealousy.
They can't even hit the notes, not one of them.
They don't even hit them.
Thank you ahead of my.
You don't even know. You don't need. First of all, protocol has not been established.
Okay, I don't know what after church. You go to teen team drums and no bass drum, but I go to Koji church.
Protocol it's always indeed.
You're not telling the truth because you have still been in church today.
If you were Kojing, the complication was this church just got to just hit the letter.
No.
I go to Church of God in Christ My church is progressive. We end on time now everywhere else. If there's a regional meeting, we're gonna be there till three p m. But no, today we are out of church. Who is not in churches, y'all and y'all definitely not in a choir that said, we thank you.
You have let me open some mail.
Welcome home, Welcome y'all.
Native Lampard is a production of iHeart Radio and partnership with Reason Choice Media. For more podcasts myheart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,