The Budget is a Weapon and We’re the Target

proven results. Determination notice stated that research with equity objectives does nothing to expand our knowledge of living systems and our quote unquote lower turn on investment and don't enhance health, and also are harmful to Americans. These statements are inaccurate and disrespectful for so many reasons. Sickle cell disease is a painful, life limiting genetic disorder that can be inherited by people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds around the world.

Sickle cell disease primarily affects black people in the United States. My research was focused on developing the first and only functional assessment in the first and only exercise program tailored to the unique needs of older adose fiscal soul disease called sickle FIT. Ending this project not only silences promising solutions for a neglected group of patients, but also sends a devastating message to future researchers that even life changing,

evidence based science can be discarded without cause. My question is what can be done to overcome these grant terminations and how do researchers doing impactful work for underserved populations find a way forward?

harmfully not factually dismantled. It's crazy. As she read some of the words from the letter that she received, I was thinking, what AI bought from, you know, from Donald Trump's government produced this letter as as as filled with inaccuracies as it was, and I can only imagine the doctor's frustration. I will just say, and and Angela, you probably have a more direct, maybe way forward for her here. But these were dollars that were already appropriated by the Congress.

Remember the Congress is the appropriator in our system of government, signed into law by a president. These are dollars that were already determined to where they were supposed to go. The government just needed to write the check, send the direct deposit, whatever it is that they do, and Donald Trump then held that up. I know that a number of agencies that have been impacted financially by some of these early decisions have decided to go to court and

sue to have that money come through for them. I don't know if that's the route for the doctor or if there are other suits that she can potentially join onto. But I believe that there are still grounds here for litigation and for the third branch of government to help

make some sense of this thing. That how does a budget get passed, signed into law, appropriations made, and the check gets stopped by Donald Trump and never delivered for the life saving and groundbreaking research that it was intended.

works of being dismantled. And I think what's most important is, as we're on this podcast, the Congressional Black Caucus is holding the floor through a UC process trying to get unanimous consent. Is what you see stand for for a democratic amendment on Donald Trump's budget, which he's named the Big Beautiful Bill. We've called it the Big Ugly Bill, We've called it Trump's Bad BBL. All of the things. We've had a marathon since Monday at six pm Eastern

deconstructing this bill that causes great harm. And what we need to understand is that one point three trillion dollars is going to be reallocated from Medicaid and SNAP in other programs to support people who are considered the least of these if we are to use biblical terms, and frankly just moved over transferred to the wealthiest Americans among us, the top twenty percent. And I think that when you consider that, when you can no, it's actually people with

less money than that. But when you look at the gap between the folks who are in six figures and in the bottom half of that twenty percent and the folks who are in the lower rung of the economy making under thirty thousand dollars a year, the bottom twenty percent, it is astounding. And the gap between the rich import is only going to be exacerbated by what they're doing

in this bill. And I think the worst thing is, you know, we keep giving people these high hopes that we're going to be able to change their minds, that we're going to be able to appeal to the inner moral compass of Senator so and so yesterday or sorry, earlier this week. It was Lisa Murkowski, who we knew was not going to pivot. And so we keep telling people if you apply pressure, if you apply pressure, they will do the right thing. Will they will?

eyed about what we do have. So we've spent just as much time on this marathon educating about the harmful impacts of this bill. Do you know how many people in this country don't even know this is happening? And it is the most harmful legislation that will be passed in our in modern history, in modern history. So we got to spend just as much. But what does that mean? Like when we use these terms, people don't know what

the largest transfer of wealth means. It means they are literally stealing money from programs that will pay doctors so that your kid who has asthma can be seen even if you are not on Medicaid. Once the accounts are we had doctors on talking about this. Once they fiddle with those accounts and there's no money at this community health center in Jackson, Mississippi or wherever, and there's no Medicaid to support that, there's nothing to close that gap.

It shuts down, and we have to be honest with about that. So instead of all of your efforts being in call your member, which you still should, ask this member of Congress to change their minds, soften their arts. You still should. Maybe the most vulnerable of the GOP can find some commonality with the most vulnerable Americans. But if you can't, what is the community resource that already exists that we can tell people about.

wouldn't have an issue here. Unfortunately, we have feckless members of the Republican Party who I don't care what the outlet is. I have watched the media be completely derelictive late as it has described this budget, giving people the false hopes that Senator such and such is going to come in to save the day because the president has hardliners on the right who are not going to be for adding this much debt to the to the debt

limit of the country. Not true. I wish that instead of saying that there will hold out Republicans, that they would say that there are Republicans who consider themselves holdout, but in keeping with the last ten votes, they have caved every single time they have held themselves out there as being responsive to the citizens that they represent. They're fully aware that rural hospitals in the states that they

represent are going to shudder, impacting all people. Right, the majority of this country does not live in highly populated, urbanized cities. They don't The majority of folks are spread out all over this vast land, many of them not with the access to the kinds of tools, resources and human resources in the form of doctors, nurses, specialists that

they need access to. And if you tell them to reach those folks over the internet through telemedicine, you're gonna have to go further to inspect whether or not there is a strong enough signal of internet in the communities that they live to get them in touch with a doctor where a seamless conversation can take place. The fallout from this build is going to be tremendous, Angela, and I appreciate you putting, you know again, relight on this.

I do think that pressure does burst pipes. I think we have to apply pressure, and pressure comes in many forms.

But more than anything, what these members of Congress are the math that they are doing as they're calculating Donald Trump and his how do you say, get back evil spirit to the six to eight hundred thousand of you who live in their district, and they are choosing the voice of this one man over all six to eight hundred thousand of you, and he's saying that this voice is much more important to me and my future as an elected official than all of y'all combined, who send

me to Washington in the first place. That's the method they're doing, and we all ought to be offended and ashamed that we have members of Congress there representing us who have no interest in taking our voices to the floor of the Congress to the will of the Congress, or by God, representing that voice to their vote.

to you. I think that I have been so much in a bubble around the State of the People and the Power tour that and it was a good, safe, feel good bubble, you know, completely dissociated with what is happening, you know, from this mad man like just like was able to just get out and see how many tools we have for our care of ourselves. When you kept bringing up the budget for weeks, that it is something that we need to talk about, that it is something

we need to talk about. I just had no interest, you know, and I and I think now in the eleventh hour, in part because I'm like, he's gonna he's breaking all the rules and the laws anyway, So like what difference does it make? And still honestly feel a little of that, but I know we have a collective obligation to tell our people what is on the line, and I don't know if some of it is holdover from November, just feeling like, well, like, what what use is it to tell people what to do if they're

not going to do it. If they call their member of Congress and the member of Congress has a phone on D and D they literally have their phones on do that to get to their members, they have to send a social post. It is a dere election of duty without absolute dere election of duty. And so I did want to apologize because I know the public servant in you would still have us to do the right thing,

which we should do. And so I don't want to speak for Tip, but I want to say I apologize because I think that we should have given this time, probably every week, even if it's just to highlight a portion of the bill, and I'll say, like, as long as I have any say in it, I will yield from now on, even when I am in a bubble and I'm asking you to please take full permission to say, sis, I think you're in above on this, we're missing it, and to sell on the alarm. So I just want to pologize.

That this has to start at that basic of a level in order for us to to to to suspend with that belief that what is it all for. He's gonna do what he's gonna do anyway, because the truth is this pressure does burst pipes, and there's a there gonna be some accountability on his side, but don't let it be us checking out. That is the permission structure for him doing whatever it is that he want to do.

We're always gonna check in, tap in to make sure that if you're gonna get there, brother, you're gonna burn down every bush, every tree, every limb, run over, every house, every person to get there. Do you want that record?

And we're looking at losing over three hundred and despite the media constantly saying, you know, rule the white is silent because they often you know, when they go out and talk to rule folks, they don't often look like us. But a significant portion of Black people live in rural areas. Absolutely, so I think this idea that people are a bit disengaged and they don't know this is happening.

it's information. I hope that people got information from what Angela and Andrew shared. I don't know that people tune into things like this. You know, if we're going through the budget and talking about it, for me, that's something I want to listen to. I think you do have to dangle sometimes the salacious in front of people. You have to make it so simple. And in all of our bubbles, I think there is.

playing this these political games. So you get a Republican on and you or you get a Democrat on and you're like, you know, what impact do you think this will have? Are you trying to play this up to win mid terms? Are you guys talking attacking Vice President j d Vance because you think he's gonna run and you're trying to And it's like, who gives a shit? This is why people don't know what's going on, because

we're trafficking in this kind of BS. I wanted to say that about the disconnect because if you guys don't mind, I want to get to this viewer question, who is kind of I'm going to relate it back to the bill and Antel I'm sure you can find a way to relate it back to the bill because people have some smoke for me and Angela and I.

help America's economy and working families. Just blatant lies, to the point where Susan Collins put out her own statement seeing what it actually did. They're indirect conflict, so you don't even have to leave their party to get an alternative story. The other thing I was going to say is you said that we need to make it more salacious, and I.

my mom just went back to chemo. We went and I said, Mommy, would you mind being on camera? I want people to see when Medicare is even just your supplemental insurance, who this impacts, you know, it impacts a widespread diverse, you know, economically read from a region. We are in Seattle at the best cancer hospital and one of the best cancer hospitals in the country. My mom's

Medicare is going to be impacted. So I think that it may not be this relations but it is certainly the story, and I think that it's something that is needed. But to move the needle to the point that Andrew raised about pressure bursting pipes to ensure that people know who they're accountable for. Don't let them forget the face.

Don't let them forget the face of who this will hit, whether it's that child on CHIP, or it is that elder on Medicare, or it is a person that may not even poor, don't even know they're on medicaid because medicaid is called something else in your state. Do not let them forget. And so again, well Andrew can jump let me.

should be who you're holding responsible. It doesn't matter what statement Lindsey Graham put out, like you're you're the reporter, like you hold him. And I just want to say something else. We talked about Senator Lisa Murkowski, who is a Republican representative from Alaska, and I just want to say she is a feckless, horrid human being. And the reason I say that is because if maybe you guys saw this, maybe you did. In a few months ago she talks about and the media celebrated her for this.

She talked about, well, we're scared, you know, Donald Trump is in office, and we're scared to do the right thing. But I Lisa Murkowski will do the right thing. So this is why what does it say? Don't really matter to me? And I'm using my language very intentional when I'm talking about her. One she's taller, and she tends to be a really disrespectful woman when confronted by the media, like she CNN's Manu Raju had a confrontation with her

where she was like towering over him. I forget the reporter's name, but this week a CNN reporter confronted her saying, you're selling out you know. Senator rand Paul said you're selling out the American people, or some maybe misquoting that, and she tried to have a staring contest with him. And I'm like, you picked the right one, lady, because I wish I had that microphone. Don't speak first. Let her stand there and look dumb. So every time you will hear Lisa mckowski as being like middle of the

road and she can work with Democrats. We heard the same thing about Susan Collins. They are your typical fifty three fifty two maga Republicans. Who was I don't like what Donald Trump does, but I'm gonna vote with his ass eight ninety nine percent of the time.

Fifty other people, though, voted with Lisa Murkis. This is my point, including JD band So no matter what, justff you miss me with the like white woman Bollsted, she's a hero and she said she's scared and she's doing the right thing.

general election in twenty twenty six. So don't think we've gotten away with anything. They're conniving their willingness to lie sheet steel. They have only saved themselves, but because they think we stupid enough not to understand that this thing is going to have detri mental impacts on all of us.

But they don't want you showing up in November of twenty two six mad, so they push the effects of all the tens of thousands, hundreds of you know, tens of thousands of people that they're going to push off of health care and the millions billions you would say that are going to be added to the cost of those of us who do right now afford our own insurance and pay for it. All that they plan to have kick us in the ass right after they compete to hold the house hold, the Senate, and of course

the presidency isn't up in twenty twenty six. But all of that they plan to save by kicking the impacts that are going to hurt all of us the most to right after the next election.

protests on the alp of our neighbors. But I remember both of you doing November after Vice President Harris lost the election, basically saying that held with the idea of a rainbow coalition. So do you believe that the echo chamber that your guys are living in, you believe that that echo chamber is starting to position you to be the same people that Malcolm X warned.

to you, brother. But to your question, I let Angel respond because I know he talked about you know your your rest is selfish. But I just wanted to say, because Lolo sent us this question earlier, Andrew, can you please put your computer down?

me to come on. This thing happened today, you know, can you Angelie remember how it is in that cable news rush, you know, like you going about today and they're like, come on right now and talk about this thing, or come on tonight, and there is some benefit. I rarely say yes, because there's some benefit to like sitting down thinking about it and not jumping out there so quickly every time something happens. After the election, I was surprised by the numbers and we're still getting updated data.

Exit poser, notoriously unreliable Pugh just came out with new voting numbers last week. That Pew Research is an institution that I trust emphatically, So I don't believe I ever said to hell with the Rainbow Coalition. My only point about and I'm not arrogant enough to tell people what they should or should not be doing. So if I if I come across that way, it's not my intention. I am arrogant enough to say what people should care.

And when I see comments from people who are looking at the government, disappearing people saying we don't care, reminding our business, my point to you is we do care, because that will eventually be us. And we've already seen black people being detained, deported and just trying to give information. And I respectfully say, I don't know what echo chamber

you're referencing. The only quote from Malcolm X that I know where he talks about like people in the media making you like hate heroes, and that's not at all. I reject the notion that I'm in that kind of echo chamber. I think all of us, you know, talk to different people and do different things. If I'm coming across like I'm talking to me like you're stupid, which I can do sometimes, I'm sure I don't want to gaslight you and say I don't do that sometimes quite honestly,

I do think people are dumb. You know, we had a conversation like that on this. When I see some of the comments from people, I do think, wow, this is we are eroding our intellect when I see people, you know, and it's not that, you know, I don't criticize people for not caring or I do purtends people not caring. I don't criticize people for not being engaged one hundred percent.

you to the front line of a protest. Why, brother, I ain't there neither. I'm not on the front lines of a protest right now. I don't know what's gonna happen to us on the front lines of a protest. I am engaging in community work, and you're invited there. You've been invited there every single week at State of

the People. If you came to one of the places where we've toured if you if you tuned in online to a live stream of one of the events we've done, if you tuned into the National Assembly, you would know that Malcolm X's daughter was at the event speaking and endorsing what we're representing. So clearly we're not that far off of what our daddy represents. Friend, So I just I'm not really sure mister dj' what you're talking about.

You're certainly welcome to always submit your commentary. You don't need an Apple laptop shield as Andrew is putting up. You kild no walls for you, or are LATINX brothers and sisters. And here's what I'm also going to tell you. It's already coming to your front door. And this is why we told you we thought you should care. This is why we wanted you to pay attention. This is why we wanted you to not turn a blind eye

to the suffering of our neighbors. Because of this right here, let's roll the clip.

were done very much in purpose. People being pushed into a subway just before it arrives going forty miles an hour, and they're ten feet away from where the thing is to get pushed right into the face of the subway train, get whacked and killed. And these are sick people. I'd like to get them out of here too.

to be a citizen in this country. I believe the case was in maybe he was born in seventeen fifteen, I don't know, before slavery was over and he had been free, was moved to another state where he would not be free anymore. Dred Scott was told in the Supreme Court decision that he was not a citizen because he was enslaved, and therefore he could not be a citizen. And so birthright citizenship, which we all have because of the Fourteenth Amendment, is now being challenged on every side

by this administration. The fact that this man is talking about deporting people who are criminals, and let's be super super clear about the fact, because some of y'all might be silly enough. TIP might think you you're dumb. I might think you're silly. Some of y'all might be silly enough to think, well, if they're a criminal, that can go. Well, how many of y'all if you're honest and you throw your bias out the window, know you have someone who's

incarcerating your family, one of your friends. We all know someone who's been wrongfully accused. So Donald Trump saying that someone committed this crime does not make it so.

as the Asian. We're just as other as the indigenous person. We're just as other as our Latino brothers and sisters. So maybe I was mad at the Rainbow Coalition, but goddamn it, we need each other now because the math on math. So get on board. Now.

I'm Angela you but even even so, I just want to you behind that wall. I just want to well, I think I remember that episode. So many people were a lot of people were agreeing with you Andrew and disagreeing with Angela and me. So I honored that, I do you know, I maintained my position and that we have to care. But I honored the disagreement and not don't want the viewer to think that we're just you know, like f you you ain't agree, Like no, we we

hear you, and thank you for articulating your disagreement. And just to clarify because if you I think a lot of people probably felt that we were suggesting that because people even the comments, they were like, I'm not going out to protest, and that's not what we were suggesting. And just for the record, Angela and I were having a conversation.

spend the rest of his life in prison. It just is like it feels uncomfortable to celebrate sending a black man to the white man's prison. I also balanced that with the incredibly monstrous, heinous, disgusting behavior that we saw that was detailed before us, and from a legal perspective,

which I don't understand at all. I was telling these guys earlier, I was asking, like all the lawyers, like how do you feel on people are like, I know, trial lawyer, like you should ask the trial lawyer because I was like, what about this and did they make the reco case? And they're like, yeah, I don't really do that. So I didn't have a chance to get

a lot of response from trial lawyers about this. But I just I'm just trying to balance like, yes, I feel so like, yes, this man, they made the case that, yes, this man was a monster to these women. I don't know if we start locking up monsters for lifetime sentences.

A lot of people on the other side felt like, well, they were complicit because they were setting it up, which I think is such a shitty thought to have, to be honest with you. People are so quick to attack women and you know, or attack Cassie for not leaving, but not attack Diddy for being a monster in these cases. So I'm just I guess I'm okay. It doesn't really matter if I'm okay because I'm not the victim here. I think, you know, again, the victims are who matters.

But I wasn't one of those people that's like, send him to jail forever. I just I don't know how.

go back to Bill Cosby. A lot of us were like, Okay, maybe I don't know what happened, but if some wrong happened, I can't understand why I can't watch the Cosby Show anymore. I can't understand why I can't say no, right. But but you remember networks took it off. I remember there were all these apps you could no longer access it.

I remember telling my own personal story of being motivated when to go to college because of what was exampled and what was modeled there and to be able to separate the the the personality of character on television from the man or the woman in real life. I mean, there are black actors and actresses that I've been around, and I have referred to them by the most popular role that I remember they played.

what was exposed. But I do remember when the charging document came down, the indictment came down, and I kept thinking, one, let me just say out loud, I am highly suspicious, suspicious of the federal all systems of justice, but the federal system of justice very particularly. Okay, I've been on the other side of that. I've read indictments that included wholesale lies, the whole goddamn thing, all twenty however pages

of it. But folks who were in the streets were reading it like it was a you know, a production of the local newspaper fact check and you know, wholly accountful, accounted for. And then the judge says, you realize that that is their opinion of what they believe occurred. And then there is what the defendant says, what is and has occurred, and in this court room, I'm going to tell you what you can and cannot listen to and what you can and cannot consider when you go back

to deliberate this decision. When I saw racketeering, I my understanding of it. I didn't. I was like, oh, well, hey, good luck and proving this big, grand scheme enterprise. And then I thought back to my charge. Which shit, I they excuse me of having a grand scheme of an enterprise and with so much time to orchestrate in mummy people all over the place to ward my benefit of thirty thousand dollars. I guess that's what they thought, you know, And I don't want to compare the two from a

fact pattern. I'm simply saying where my suspicion of the judicial system begins is it began long before my own experience. With my own experience was a true testament to the fact that these folks know how to tell a story. That's what I knew. And then there are no no no. I mean then the things that we know and we see with our own eyes that we can make judgment about. So when we think about the Cassie video, for instance, and how we felt inside, and how we deplored that,

and how we believe that there are to be a consequence. Well, guess what, prosecutors, maybe in a state where you can prosecute domestic violence and the statue of limitations doesn't exist, which in many states, those statues of limitations on such crimes were lifted during the height of the me too era. And that's one thing, But you you got you wanted this jury to believe that this whole enterprise was set

up to achieve a thing. The other thing that really bothered me about what I have assessed from the very peripheral look that that that that I've taken out this least, which is all of the loading up. If I read one more thing about baby oil, I wanted to puke. Because what it does is it takes individuals lifestyles and then conflates it with other what what what is truly

justifiable legal wrongdoing? And then the idea is to then, because it is not like what we do, It is not very familiar to what you and your house and

your household and and what your experiences have been. It is wrong, it is deplorable, it is illegal, it is a moral, it is all these things and I'm thinking, this ain't gosh to do with the thing that is being accused, And so you've now bought in all of this stuff to make me muddy and dirty and not like you and not publicly acceptable, so that people distance themselves in such a way that they're never going to see my humanity when they go back into a jury box,

into a jury room for deliberations. Again, this is yes about the puppy case. This is also mostly about the greater criminal justice system, and largely a system that happened that cooperates to make something look a certain way, to introduce certain evidence, to introduce certain voices and perspectives, so that in a jury room those things get taken in And because I don't understand it, it must be wrong, because it's out of the society's mores mores, it must

be wrong. And so that stuff, I just think, if you got a case.

protecting black men. When we start to protect black men to the harm of women, that's when it's a challenge. And I do see so many comments, particularly when the Cassie video first came out, all these women just shit on her and it was like, oh, she lying, and she waited to now bring it up, and I don't believe her. And then the video came out in the New York Times article read like a time stamp of

that video. And then most people's opinions change. But there were still people, and I would say it's probably less than one percent of women. Maybe their comments just the toxicity of it all right to the top. But still the people who are saying, well, they were into it, and well they were setting it up and they did this. Who gives the shit, you know, Like that doesn't make him the victim in a situation where he was being a monster to these women. Like I just I get

a little frustrated with that or even the idea. I had a friend who I won't name out of respect for his privacy, but a friend who had similar accusations, and he was my friend, and I could honestly say to him privately, like, yeah, I think you made some fucked up decisions here, and I think you did cause these women some harm. But I could also say yeah, and I also think it's an attack on them like trying to get you. That doesn't excuse you or the harm that you cause these women, And I don't know.

I think that's where I am. You know, the verdict came out this week, and like I said, I would just ask the audience for some grace as we're working through this. I don't want anybody to misunderstand and think that I'm sitting here trying to defend Diddy.

be a responsible for me to say so. But enough people anecdotally who have had really negative experiences with him, and so if there's a message, I would just say, I hope that a lot of these men with money and power change their behavior and know like these incidents it's you know, from freak offs to like all these things just change your behavior.

and wrong and how you treat a person period. I don't that that doesn't have to be my context achieving a black woman or somebody else that it No how do you treat If you hit my son across the face right unprovoked, you gonna have some issues with me. So I'm again, I'm talking about my situation unprovoked.

excuse the actions of another. There are some of us who you know, do the reverse for a different party. And likely the scenario is is that, you know what, a bunch of bad decisions got made by a bunch of people. And now what we are considering, however, is not a bunch of bad decisions, but when those decisions crossed a legal line that is provable, that should then result in the legal consequences and penalties. So say a jury of your peers, and a jury of peers went

to the courthouse and they reckoned with these questions. They gave weeks time away from their family and their jobs, and they listened. They took it in, unlike me who had to operate on this from whatever left off the pages of the Internet, which is certainly not the reflection of all the things that go down in that room. So I have to trust and believe that those folks did what was merited of them. That can still result in us having a very wide different set of opinions

about how this thing to have come down. In all truth, I really have issues with a lot of this whole thing, and I'm trying to be able to sense this through a lens that is outside of just my own, but my own experience weighs heavily on how I see the system and all parts of it and all of us who have to cooperate in it. If there was wrongdoing done on behalf off, did it? You heard the attorneys for him say, my client did wrong and if you were probably on this we give way to that issue.

And you have folks on the other side who made accusations and claims that suggested otherwise, and that all had to be ferreted through. What I hope the takeaway is from us for many, You know, for folks, one is have the conversation and a safe enough environment where you feel like you can be completely honest with where you are, how you got there, and you don't make silly excuses

about why it is a thing went away. A thing went without having scrutinized it, without having interrogated it enough for yourself, because that just leads to a perpetuation of a bunch of behaviors that we all as a society need to suspend with. I also hope that people will lower their judgment radar a little bit, meaning your judgment on other people, and determine that just because a thing isn't my thing doesn't make it an illegal thing or

a bad thing for that matter. So I am going to withhold judgment on whether group sex is a bad thing or a good thing, and just state that group sex took place. And if in law and your state they prosecute you for group sex, then write the damn crime, bring me the evidence, put that before a jury and

its admissible form, and let them decide. But if you're going to swing from the rafters on your charging document and you're going to bring things toward me that I know and most reasonable people could conclude did not occur,

you have to deal with that as well. And I blame in some ways on this on the prosecution, the fact that there are going to be parts of this narrative that are going to be understood by whole groups of people and draw them to the conclusion that my life is not as important that my gender renders me subjugate to a man, or from a man's perspective, that you know what, it doesn't matter what you really did, because you're forever going to be burdened by what they

said you did and you'll always be judged through that lens. So there are a lot of offenses that can be taking place here, a lot. I just think we ought to be able to have a reasonable conversation, admit that we don't know what the complete and the right answers are, and to also say that we can have contradictions in our thoughts and our feelings based off of how we approach a thing through what lens by which we see it. But I'll tell you this, I don't see any winners.

There are no winners here. I think there's a lot of hurt and pain that folks are going to have to process. And that's what makes this conversation one that is conversation worthy because it's implications reached beyond just the parties involved. They send me a message to a whole group of people that the people were involved in implicated here will never know the names of where they live, where they come from, or their stories.

got listeners who feel a different way. Name where you feel that offense took place, but that's the perpetrator by name, that's the victim by name, vice versa, and let that be that. I don't want us to What I know often happens is the projection of the actions and because a person fits that profile, that the action is taken by the person of that profile reflect on everybody.

et cetera. So I think I would ask that we just laid off black women, you know, like and that goes to our brethren. I'm not appealing to white folks, so because I just don't know if that even matters. You know, we've been made the enemy of the country, but it also goes to other black women, you know. I think these comments about you know, what women should have done and how women are, I think it's so self hating and fucked up. So yeah, my request would

be to offer grace. That's my CTA. Be careful with that digital anonymity. When you're shitting on someone else's experience or just saying something ugly, if you wouldn't say it to that person's face, then don't type in a comment because other survivors see you uh and they hear that, and it discourages people from coming forward to give their testimony about it. So that's my CTA. I kick it, see you brother h If you don't, I.

We're available on all podcast platforms and YouTube. And did you know that Native lampod is part of a podcast podcast. It's part of a podcast network called Reason Choice Media. Jamel Hill is on the RCM network with her show Politics, an Se Cup on her show Off the Cup. Be sure to check those out and don't forget to follow us on social media and subscribe to our text or email lists. On Native lampod dot com. We are Angela Rie,

Tiffany Cross, and Andrew Gillum. Welcome home, y'all. There are sadly four hundred and eighty eight days until midterm elections and God, we hope we still have.