Natively and pod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with Reason Choice Media.
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome. Now.
I want to go way back to nineteen ninety two, the year Nirvana's Nevermind went number one on the US Billboard two hundred charts. Tornad O'Connor stirred up controversy by ripping a picture of the Pope on Saturday Night Live. You remember that, and Bill Clinton defeated George Bush in the presidential election. But before all that happened, this happened on my show. That was then Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton belting out a soul for rendition of Heartbreak Hotel on
my show, The Arsenio Hall Show. That changed presidential campaign forever.
Welcome home, everybody. This is Tiffany Cross, Angela Ray and me and I don't know if they're on my left right, but I did point to my left and am I right. Welcome y'all. There's a quick mini pod we wanted to get into with you all as we talk about, are there spaces that are below the belt a little too gotter for our presidential candidates to go? Where do they go to talk to as many people as they can. We're interested in hearing each other's thoughts on that, and
maybe you walking weigh into Angela, what you got? What do you think set this up out? Well?
I think, first of all, there should be no place really off limits to reach voters. I do think that that comes with some contingencies. I think that we should never put our candidates in harms away. I think that there are some platforms where they want to go viral or make a name for themselves, and so in those instances it's probably not the best I think. One thing that I've been particularly interested to see is there is a new conservative platform, or a new ish conservative platform
called Rumble. This guy DJ Academics has been paid to go on Rumble and earlier this year said that he was going to be streaming on Rumble from Trump's crib. I don't know if Donald Trump is going to go on Rumble with him, but that's interesting to me. To me, you know, when folks don't have any political background whatsoever, what role should they really play? And I think that's a conversation that both sides of the aisle really should be having. We've spent a lot of time focusing on
influencers and their role in campaigns. And I'm almost of the school of thought now where I believe the role of an influencer has an outsized place and focus on campaigns to the to this in the same ways in which we talked about on our last podcast, money Right. And so there are some folks who are niche influencers or micro influencers, are targeted and specific and no politics
very well. I think those folks who are educated in the space, have political background, and have some political acumen should have more influence over over the electorate than folks who sometimes do like I'm actually really irritated about fifty cent and the role that he's played in this election.
I'm irritated, frankly with some of the things that ice Cube did last cycle, and I wish that if they were to engage, that they took the time to sit down with folks who do this work every single day, like we do when we're talking about hip hop, or like we do when we're talking about making movies or making shows. I just think to Pont, I mean, anyone
should can have an opinion. You're a voter, you have every right to weigh in exactly how you see fit, but I would like to see them yoke up and link up with folks who actually know the space a little bit more. I do think that to be in pop culture and find people who don't watch cable news, especially with those numbers decreasing every single day, I think it's worth it to go meet people where they are. And this won't be the first time that folks went to go meet people.
Where they are.
And we know that we played the clipper earlier. Of Bill Clinton going on our senior hall and playing the saxophone, I think that earned him the title the first black president. I would like to correct history and say our first black president was in fact Barack with Saint Obama. But that's what made him. No no, no, no, don't come on, Donald Trump, don't do me.
We used to growing up. If we used to debate Lincoln was black, wasn't Yeah?
Not, asked Frederick John So anyway, I.
Know my history who was also biracial.
But yes, we mean also, I mean, hey, Braham, come on. Anyway. Back to the point.
The point is please go reach people like Andrew who spread misinformation on podcast. Go talk to him and can fact check and get the registry anyway.
That's because you know the fact that I think it was ninety one when Bill Clinton went on Our Senio Hall, and that was a huge deal. But now for a presidential candidate to go on a late night talk show is not that big a deal. I remember when Bill Clinton was there playing the saxophone and he had on the glasses and it was so big. And look, the elephant in the room at the time was he didn't just go on the late night talk show.
It wasn't Johnny Carson.
He went on with a black late night talk show and Arsenio Hall was you know, you know, like the big, the big, the first to do it. Yeah, he was the first to do it at that time. What was interesting, though, is George H. W. Bush had refused to go on Our Senio Hall, and he made some sort of comment
about it. I can't remember, but Our Senio Hall and his stand up a few days later, uh like clap back at President Bush and was like, ain't nobody invite you irregular heart beating and he had just had like some sort of heart condition or something.
But the audience went wild.
But the thing is it made Bill Clinton more accessible. And I just want to say, the person who donned him the first black president was our luminary Tony Morrison, you know who we love, So you know it did resonate with some people. Obviously, is not our first black president, and his policies were not always in our favor, as history can rewrite itself. But I like the point that
Angela was making about where people get their news. You know, as a journalist, I read the trades every morning, and just this week and Pointer highlighted, you know, there's ever every day there's some big news platform that's collapsing or having layoffs, and just this week they highlighted that readers are increasingly getting their news from influencers. That frightens me because I've seen these influencers and because you have a
lot of followers. Does not a journalist make. Even though there can be intelligent and intellectual people, that doesn't necessarily mean like there is training to go and figure out how to present a story with all that pertinent accurate information that is unbiased but can still honor the community, that is not confusing. They're not you know, speaking inside baseball. You're presenting, you know, both sides of a story, not nonsense,
but both sides of an accurate story. And so when I see people, you know, it kind of gives this like this false inflated sense of intellect that's not really there, because it's like, oh, well, I saw this person say it on TikTok, and so now I'm informed about this topic that I got while they were you know, doing a little dance and gave it to me in thirty seconds.
And that's not always the case, you guys. I feel like, well, Andrew, you anyway have like I try to strike a balance because I don't want to like be like elitists, like you only have to get your news from the Times, you know, like cause that's a problem too. And I feel like, to Angelo's point, these cable news platforms, you ask for it, You ask for people to tune out, you know, when you summarily ignored our communities forever, then of course people were gonna start getting their news and
information someplace else. So there is some legitimacy to going into some of these spaces that some people made THEMB their nose a. But it's like, as we are increasingly ignored by these mainstream platforms that only platform people that make white people comfortable, then yeah, you gotta go out
and talk to people in a different way. And I'm torn with the influencer piece because you know, I was super annoyed too, Angela with ice Cube and the plan he came out with and people were like, oh my god.
I Ececubs a genius.
I'm like, have y'all ever heard of actual think things? And members of are Congressional Black Caucus And this is not the first time these things were asked for. There's also the gaming industry, you know, there are I think that was a place in two thousand. I want to say sixteen is the first time that was utilized. And black people are the second largest demographics to participate in gaming industry, so on platforms like Twitch, which Amazon bought for.
I can't remember how much I wrote about it in my book, but I like, like a billion dollars, like nine hundred and sixteen million dollars, and the black folks are the second largest demographic and there wasn't really a lot of people engaging them there. So I think we have to go meet people.
Angela.
I think your perspective though, is like go into some of these more hostile environments and make your case, you know, like show up to the fight, like, noo, give you buck, I'm showing up that one. I think there's some legitimacy to that. But then I wonder, is that the role of a surrogate, Like do you send a mayor pete in there and not necessarily the candidate or does that take away it's like you sending you sent your boy
to fight me. You ain't even able to fight me yourself. Like, I don't know, I'm still I'm still torn on that. All right, we got to take a quick break, but we'll see you on the other side.
Don't go anywhere, you know.
I think I'm probably oddly enough very liberal on this because I think you go everywhere. By and large, I think the rules of the game have changed drastically. I mean, I remember, tiff, as you pointed out, the breaking news of Bill Clinton on Late Night with a.
Black host and and what that did for him, and it made him relevant in the culture and a different kind of way before we were referring to it as relevant in the culture today. Though. My issue with him, First of all, if you're a citizen, you're in America, you're breathing, you can have an opinion, you can have choice, You can have all those things, and you can have your own reasons for why it is you're doing what it is you're doing politically. So I can't begrudge people
who go down that road. I've said it before, I'll say it again fifty cent. He and I may share complexion, but that's kind of probably where it's at. We're in a different tax bracket. He's got a whole another world of concerns and care or frankly, I got a whole different kind of world of concern and bills and so on, and tax brackets and so on and so forth. And so when I see people like him move, I don't attribute it to be in our collective community best inrists.
I think he's got other things that bay hear. I may not know what they are. He may be for Trump because Trump is trying to reduce taxes on people who are in his bracket. He may be trying to open up in some golf courses, you know, another side hustle, or a new business venture. We never know what it is that these folks have going that necessitates how they move,
particularly in political spaces. I don't I don't assign anymore, and I think I probably at one point did assign when I saw black people whose names I recognized, mostly to your point, Angelo, who were in the political space. Maxine Waters was a queen and a god to me, you know, in middle school. And if she said it, it was truth, it was Bible, it was law, and she got there by good consideration that had me and mind when she said this was going to be good
for us. Long divorced myself from that belief. And I think our community has grown in many ways sophisticated enough to hear a celebrity or an influencer say something and then to process through the recesses of their mind whether or not it works for them or not the truth, but guess what. And those who aren't likely aren't impacting the process and the way that we think they should be anyway, like i e. Voting to talking about voting in the candidates that you support and the reasons why
you do it. The largest influence of research substantiates this comes from your person to person contacts, relationships with people around, moving them to the different story. If it doesn't mean it's true, like people did, I don't think so. I don't think so. I thought in twenty sixteen. What we saw where influence has held then the role that they hold now, which is they bring attention largely to a candidate or an issue or a situation that might otherwise
go unmerited. Oh yeah, that's what I think influences bring as a value to a campaign. That I was a struggling candidate in a primary and I needed anybody to put eyes on me that would and once they put eyes on me, maybe then the regular voter would say, oh, I didn't know about that cat, let me find out more. But they weren't saying I'm going to vote for him because Cardi B said go do it. I'm going to look for him because Cardi B said.
Can I ask you a question? Well, both of you guys only fans.
Let's say, is somebody out there she reads three million people a month on only fans doing all kinds of who knows?
So if I got to go play with her little toe?
No, sir, no sir, no sir you okay, So there is a line. Are we sending our handdate only fan?
I don't think.
I don't think that you send the candidate to OnlyFans. I think that you can have the only fans talent, do a video on OnlyFans and say like, I know you thought this was what she was going to get today, but let me tell you instead, this is where I'm a voter.
Actually that's a good idea. It was a great idea. But here's the other.
Either way, the DNC just credentialed like twenty forty influencers content creation should as official folks.
That they should should And here's why the third of young people under thirty get their news from TikTok, So that's exactly what they should do. The question is how do the candidates and the campaigns engage these folks. I think part of what we see happening that is a challenge is people try to use nineteen nineties tactics with new media, and that's the part that doesn't ring true. That's the part that strikes inauthentic. We don't need Kamala Harris on Kai Sanatz trying to say stuff like him
be like what game you playing? No, let me get on it, Let me get on the NBA two K with you or whatever it is. I don't even know what the game is called. So it's like you have to make sure that they still ring true. There's a video that's gaining traction of Kamala Harris saying that you know, she makes a mean pot of greens and one time she had to make so many, so many greens for Christmas that they had to watch them in the bathtub, and the dude like saying she's lying. Probably is very true.
I prefer using a sterilite. But I understand exactly what you're saying. I just can't unsee ass and my grades.
I can't unsee it.
But I just think that there are ways that we can reach folks and it is authentic. I believe Hillary Clinton when she said she had hot sauce in her bag. I don't believe it was from Beyonce Lyric. I believe that Kamala really cooked a mean batch of greens and a bunch of other things. There are people, though, who are frustrated that Kamala recently had Meg the Stallions twerking at a rally. I didn't mind it, mean, I thought
there are some young folks that it could reach. It was in Atlanta she had Quavo talking about gun violence. I also can say I would have preferred though, her sitting down to talk with Meg about what happened with her and Tory Lanez and what she did as a prosecutor to quell domestic violence, what she did as a senator, what type of legislation she introduced, what she's going to
do as law. Not really, it requires Meg telling. It requires Meg telling her story, which she's done several times, and I think it would have probably gone over a little better perhaps than it did with the Gail King interview because of how Kamala is approachable in those one on ones. She did a great thing during her twenty twenty bid where a bunch of us sat down with her on criminal justice reform, some really influential people. It
was like a small round table. Every influencer conversation isn't about a celebrity. It is about people who exist in our incredible and notable in certain subject matter, certain you know, have certain expertise. She could do more of those conversations.
I agree. I'm just saying with certain celebrities, we are asking people to do a lot in those reveals, and so some are more comfortable with a couple of seconds. I'm with my girl, Da da da da Da da da, and I'm dying for her and I'm and I'm fine with that. Yeah, show us I will last time.
I can't reference that, yeah.
Yeah, yeah. But for people who are willing to engage and give more of themselves to illuminate for their followers, why it is that you're For instance, Cardi b talking about goddamn Obamacare when she said, just so we could go and get our Yeah, you know, look, I was like, this is some hard stuff. I love this. It was.
It was I'm sorry, carludant. And I became a follower of her after seeing her do that because she spoke as plane spoken as any of us would be, just the way that I talked and laughed, you know, jokingly about Abraham Lincoln. It's because some of my boys we laugh about that. You're kind of brown. Maybe it's I tell you, I know the history, I know what the facts are, But that isn't the way regular people engage in conversation. Folklore can take twenty trips around the block
before a moon before the truth gets won. Right, that's mine.
Just stick with Cardi, not Abe. That's all I'm asking.
All I'm saying is people let me. You gotta know we talk as regular people and ways that we may not speak to each other at the live show, right, we will get close to it, but we won't be that. And I'm just saying, why not. We have to make these environments as comfortable as we can for people because we're asking them to engage personally, not on behalf of we're saying, you go take the time to vote and put your stamp on it. And that is an extension
that half the country doesn't make right now. And there's a reason.
Yeah, I hear that you said that we don't do that in a live show, and I asked, why not.
I know that's probably a different I.
Said, we do. We do, but but nah, I don't say somebody that I would like us to do because there are words that I shouldn't say.
Am I.
I don't have my mom and my mother in law come at me. Yeah, you know, but nah, that's always going to be real. I may I may present it slightly more appropriately, but it is what it is. I just think we're we're long past the time of you know, pearl clutching around who performed at such and such as rally and who they got of urban endorcement.
So there were some people who really didn't It.
May have been. It may have been, and I don't take issue with them. I think she got more than what she did. I think she got more than what she lost. And that's the analysis that I think people have to, you know, sometimes.
Make a calculation.
You guys.
Remember when that state legislator was twerking and people had a fit.
Remember she was on the Yes, I remember I knew.
That legislator, you know, you knew her?
Was she and p fle and we defended her MBJC.
I defended her on my show at the time because I feel like, listen, as the gender, as the elected leaders get younger and younger, like we have to get rid of some of these purity tests, you know, and it's like, yeah, we are full human beings who have full lives, and you know we didn't grow up well, thank god, you know, there was no Instagram.
I'm during frequent in Atlanta.
You know, we didn't grow up with our homecoming, you know, being played on TikTok, you know. And so now as we have people, unless you lived your whole life like a robot, there's going to be some things out there that you did or do. And I think our social norms and morays adjust and we're going to have to adjust.
Just know this, y'all. You may think it's a good idea for you to do, but you also have to be prepared to deal with the consequences. That could be a voter who is now pissed as hell at you and will no longer be voting for you. It could be a classroom of kids who said, I've never heard of you before, but when you was working and talking about the college loan forgiveness and how to apply, Like I got my life because I watched you to work and got the instructions on how to apply. I don't
know what that looks like. All I'm saying is is you make the choices that are consistent with you. You can feel at home in that choice because you will have to be at home in that choice when you have to deal with the consequences of it. That's all I'm saying.
Good Mini pot guys, y'all, We out of here.
Chalk for your loan forgiveness, y'all, Thanks for listening. Remember to rate, review, subscribe, yeh.
Add that to it the list of things you should never say again.
Welcome on, y'all.
What to work for your loan forgiveness.
Native Land Pod is the production of iHeart Radio in partnership with Recent Choice Media. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.