Native Lamppod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with Reason Choice Media. Welcome home, y'all. This is episode twelve, counted twelve of Native Lamppod, where we break down all of the news that we think is important for your listening ears, everything politics, and a little bit of culture sprinkled in between a lot of culture. We are your host, Andrew Gillham. I'm here with my sisters Tiffany Cross in the Angelo Rye. Welcome everybody to the week of reckoning
that maybe wasn't. We'll start this conversation on this day welcoming all of you, our wonderful listening audience, by digging a little deeper into what exactly is the state of the Trump trials. Yes, that's within s trials from New York to Florida to Georgia back to the District of Columbia. We'll try to bring up to speak with what we know. This was the week that was supposed to be the reckoning, and we'll let you be the judge of that ever
actually happened. From there, we'll travel across the country and do a little bit more of a deep dive into the nationwide anti DEEI diversity, equity, and inclusion, a war that it seems to be going on in just about every state in the Union. We'll hear what the proponents of these initiatives have to say and have a little discussion about what we think the real reason is for
the volume of pushback. After our deep dive, we'll have a conversation about Haiti, located closer to Miami than Miami is to New York, the island nation of Haiti has been an upheaval over the last several months. We'll try to figure out and parse what it is that you need to know what's happen and Potter Prince and in
politics is everywhere, or maybe it's politics aren't everywhere. Instagram has quietly started a limit on political social media, so I'm not even sure if y'all are seeing us right now. You'll get the host and cost take on what that's all about. Stick around. At the end of the episode, we'll talk about our respective calls to action that we hope that each of you will join us in. All right,
so let's get started, y'all. I hear Tiff that you're breaking it down over there in Atlanta, Agela over in our favorite west coast city, Los Angeles.
My favorite West coast city Seattle.
You're confused, Are you in Seattle? You'll thinks, say, La, Well.
That's not my problem. My favorite west coast city. I'm fact checking you. It's Seattle.
Thanks, all things above understood to opany all day, Oral fourth and I heard you had a great, great, great working day yesterday. Uh, and that you've been lightening it up in Atlanta. You're doing all right over there, I am.
You know.
It's good to be back in the South. It's nice.
You know.
I'm used to like speaking to people when you walk past them, and I still do that even in DC and New York. I give that nod that y'all know that we give, and then the nod to everybody. It's nice to be in the South. So yes, and happy to be in community with you guys. But I have to say, like I say all the time, I think it's very different when we're together in person. So I love seeing you guys in person.
Infection, Well, this may be something that we can commune on together, y'all. Tiff tell me, folks want to know what the heck is going on in trump Land? The reckoning that.
Was that wasn't as you said, Andrew. Okay, I'm gonna try to walk us through this. Angela, our resident attorney, I hope will correct me if I say something incorrect. So my understanding is on Monday the twenty fourth, I believe, or the twenty fifth, and appeals Court reduced the bond
for Trump's fraud trial. That you guys know he didn't have this money and state Attorney General, New York State Attorney General was prepared to seize his assets, and so this appeals court reduced the bond from four hundred and fifty four million to one hundred and seventy five million of parentheses. I want to ask Angela house Sleagh, like, how does that happen? He has ten additional days to secure the bond money which will allow him to appeal the ruling and the size of the fine. The ruling
and the seas of the fine. He has ten days to come up with that hiss. James has previously said she is prepared to start seizing his assets and his property should he be unable to pay. So, to be honest with you, all, I thought on Monday we were going to see his sit out on the front lawn like as an eviction, like you got to go. I didn't understand how it was all going to go. Now. Trump does have more court cases in progress, as everybody knows.
This week he got a trial date for the hush money case, which is of course his trial with Stormy Daniels, and that starts April fifteenth. For those who may not remember, Stormy Daniels was the adult film star that he tried to get his attorney to buy her silence essentially some
of his eighty eight criminal charges. So we're still awaiting trial dates for the federal election interference case which is out of Georgia, which we've talked about with Fannie Willith, the election ference case federal, which is course is about January sixth, and the mishandling of the classified documents case. So before we move on, we really love you guys
asking your questions. We want to keep encouraging you to do that, and you all determine our topics a lot of times because we have a question from a viewer who is seeing us up perfectly. So let's hear that listener question.
Hey, what's up Native Land pod? This is a guy Ti ty McIntosh in Orlando, Florida. I'm originally from Miami, Florida, though, and so a special shout out to my homeboy, mister Andrew Gillim grew up in the Richmond Heights neighborhood. Man, I grew up in Parian, the next neighborhood over. And actually remember your dad that used to sell flowers out on one hundred and seventeenth AF But that's a whole
other thing. I really wanted to ask you guys a question of regarding the Donald Trump civil case in New York, and I was really wondering why it was a civil case that was filed in not criminal charges that were filed against him. That tex fraud is not a criminal issue in the state of New York. Was there a statute of limitations at play? What exactly was going on there? Maybe you could shed some light on that and help folks like me better understand that issue.
Thanks a lot, Thank you, toy with the time. Well, first of all, shout out real quick to Paran. I was a neighboring a neighborhood to the neighborhood. I grew up in the heights, and yes, my daddy on the weekends would sell flowers in this intersection across the street from a cemetery that was located there, and I would on some weekends go down and pitch a little umbrella and help my daddy out selling flowers. That was a
nice memory. My father passed the year after I ran for governor, so I was a nice conjuring of memory there. I appreciate it to I love.
That, Angela. I feel like our resident attorney. I have so many questions for you, but you should probably get to the viewer question first.
I want to start by saying thank you to Ty. We always appreciate hearing from our listeners. We continue to invite you all to share your comments and your questions every week. Ty, you know I would like to know the same thing. Why the hell didn't he face a tax fraud case as well, especially federal We've seen report after report of the of the either the limited or no tax that Donald Trump paid, even before he gave rich people a very nice tax break, He's been hustling.
He's been a hustler on the go.
He's not just invoked white privilege, but he also embodies why they call him teflon don I don't understand it for the life of me. And of course, now with all of the cases, all the charges that are pending, the thing that is most alarming is we've talked about on this podcast is the fact that Donald Trump has a really important case before the Supreme Court on presidential immunity, and if that case is decided in his favor, not only will he not face federal charges for the election
interference case, he likely won't face any charges. So there are eighty eight pending charges. Trial with Alvin Braggs scheduled to begin, as Tiff has already noted, but we are all waiting with beta breath to see what really happens. But these charges are are the trials are slated to go forward. In reference to these charges, I think even Fulton County has some hearings that are coming up, so we shall see. But nothing on tax You all know that this is the time where I am, of course
going to raise the hypocrisy here. We've seen people who've been accused of far less, indicted for far less. Namely I'm thinking about Marilyn Moseby as I continue to dig into this case. It is absolutely insane. I don't know why at all Donald Trump can get away with I won't say murder, but it certainly seems like it. To be indicted eighty eight times on multiple levels of government, I think signifies something very serious. If that if he were black, what we would be saying, we wouldn't even
be having this conversation. There wouldn't be a presidential immunity case before the Supreme Court. So for you to be able to utilize or access ninety five thousand dollars of your own money and face forty years in prison, versus you are raking people over the calls, your contractors, not paying them, your taxes, evading them. You know you're you're in a bill your property valuations. That is a form
of mortgage fraud. Donald Trump has done that with his son time and time again and has faced nearly no consequence. So I'm eager to see these trials get started and see if justice becomes a system that serves all of us, or for will it be just us we're the only ones who are penalized.
I have a question, Angela, because I think what he was asking was about civil versus criminals. So just for our viewers, civil is about money. Criminal is about your life and liberty. So who are the entities that decide we are going to press civil charges, and like what goes into that decision and who decide? I mean, I know, I think prosecutors decide for the criminal charges.
Is it this?
This might be a dumb question, but I really don't know anybody about the law. Do prosecutors also make the decision in a civil case? No, So a private citizen has to bring that right.
It can be so civil cases aren't always about money. They can be if there are damages involved. Sometimes it can be about there was criminal activity. For example, I have an open case right now with a former staffer that is a civil case on embezzlement. Right, So you can proceed with a civil lawsuit when someone was negligent or reckless or caused you personal or physical harm. That can be a civil action. But also a state's attorney general can proceed with a civil action.
They consue you if.
They believe that there was a wrong done to this state or to the people of that state. And then also with criminal cases, it is normally a prosecutor can be on the local, state, or federal level. But I think that the main thing is to know that a private citizen can sue someone that isn't normally a civil action, and a state or a government is that he can
also pursue someone that can be civil or criminal. And in this instance this he was referencing the Letitia James case, But there are other open criminal matters they just have not gone to trial yet.
And you're saying that a civil like charges can come out of a civil case. It's not just about money.
They're not charges, but I'm saying that there it can be about a wrong done to a person that is not financial only.
So for example, it could be a property dispute.
It could be you know, someone was physically harmed and as a result of that physical harm you can get monetary damages or punitive damages. But it doesn't have to just be a civil action about money.
But the remedy is never in a civil case. The remedy is never jail time or correct a criminal record because that doesn't accompany civil litigation. I use one example of OJ Simpson where he may have been adjudicated non guilty, you know, not guilty in the criminal proceeding, but the Goldman.
Uh uh found liable in the civil suits.
Simpson family bought civil uh Yeah, and you know some say justice may have been had in some way there, you know, keeping this man perpetually, you know, financially obligated to pain.
What's the most likely to happen with Trump? This is for either of you, like, will he likely be found guilty in some of these civil cases or.
Even the language is a little different.
So even when a jury brings back a guilty verdict, it means he's liable in a civil suit. On on the criminal side, you found guilty, it means you you have a criminal conviction.
There's a criminal charge on your on your record.
And I think that the the other thing that's important, and this might be too in the weeds, but with civil cases it's by a preponderance of the evidence and and the the plaintiff has an obligation to prove that. On the on the criminal side, it is the person has to be guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. So the threshold for liability versus guilt or innocence is different in each of those and proving that someone's guilty beyond a reasonable doubt is the responsibility of the prosecution.
So the strongest case against Trump then.
So I think it's hard to parse and part because I think the only reckoning we've seen, and again this week, was supposed to be him having a pony up, you know, a fraction of what he says he's worth, but then the appellate court reduced that amount. The only reckoning we've seen so far as it relates to Trump's misdeeds have been in the civil courts, uh and the civil proceedings, I should say, the criminal ones he has yet to
stand you know, his day in court on. And I think that's part of what the viewer listener was getting to, which is, if we know that he has violated criminal code, why didn't prosecutors determine to go after him criminally on these cases? Either in the tax peace and the evaluations, there was clearly there's a statute that the prosecutors could have cited in pursuing him that way. I don't know the answer to that. I don't think we right now
know the answer to why that decision was made. We may never know the answer as to why that was made. But the reckoning on that is clearly, you know, sort of working its way through, and I'm kind of skeptical, frankly, whether or not this man is going to outlawyer the lawyers of the government and figure out a way not to have to pay anything at the end of the day. The criminal ones really concern me because this is a
matter of timing. We know that Trump is committed to delaying the start of any of these criminal trials, criminal proceedings, and I think he's betting on one thing to cover all things, and that is one that he wins re election. And if I had to offer a second, the second, I think he's wagering that the Supreme Court will say the president a sitting president cannot be prosecuted federally or
by the states. If we were dealing with another person, Barack Obama, would it be fair for him, as a sitting president to have an investigation and indictment come up against him from the state of Alabama or Mississippi or Texas a criminal indictment, I mean for some act that they may have determined to be criminal and have him
prosecuted as a sitting president. And my guess is is that the courts would not allow for a sitting president to withstand prosecution while he is sitting in the seat of president, either at the federal or the state level. And I think that that's probably the math that Trump is also working with that he says, look, if I become president, the federal stuff, I can summarily dismiss, direct the Attorney general to suspend with that, and in the
state charges, they can't pursue me while I'm president. And so maybe there's a statue of limitations. Maybe it comes back around that by the time they're able to pursue him, they're not legally able, or they no longer have the appetite to remember the judges elected in this case in Georgia and the prosecutor is elected in the state of Georgia, they may be different people by the time a you know, second term president Trump, you know, was there, God forbid
that ever happened. But I think those are the odds he's playing.
The one thing that I would also flag is that if the Supreme Court can't rule that a sitting president who is on the record as trying to find additional votes is not worth hearing, like, there should be some restrictions on presidential immunity. And I feel like when it comes time to look at whether or not someone trying to actually tear with democracy in a very real way, like there should be some limitations on that. I think the precedent that we have that I'm traumatized by is
Bush versus Gore in two thousand. They found themselves on the wrong side of that mad then too. So I just I don't have a lot of faith and hoping this, especially the particular makeup of this court.
But I am I'm really concerned.
To me, it feels like the very obvious case is the election interference case because of how egregious that was and what the fallout from that with January sixth I know there are a lot of people who aren't as connected to people on the Hill who don't understand the severity of that. But this is a really, really big deal and I'm like been sounding the alarm on this. I'm like losing sleep about this presidential immunity case and where the Supreme Court rules in junior July.
Do you have a prediction, Angela on how they might rule.
Yeah, I think my prediction is my worst fear, which is that it is a six ' to three decision, you know, deciding that Donald Trump does not have to withstand trial and he does in fact have presidential immunity on all of these cases and he gets to get off Scott straight.
On party lines.
I think maybe maybe, maybe John Roberts, but I don't have a lot of hope. I definitely ain't hoping for Claire's Thomas. I wouldn't be surprised if he was right there on them calls with Jenny Okay exactly.
I would.
I would submit, and I'm not I'm not a lawyer. I think the court is going to be very narrow and whatever decision they make, and I think is likely going to be a decision that doesn't exonerate him from the actions that he took even while as president. They were not presidential actions. So his actions that he took while being president is different than actions that he's taking as the president of the United States toward a greater good, greater end of the of the people of the country.
There's a distinction here, and I think the Court will
make that distinction. But I also think they are going to waste so much time in doing so that there will not feasibly be time enough to try him on any of those federal cases prior to the November election, and thereby really giving him a free pass that means he gets to compete in this presidential election, with with no adjudicatory decisions having been made on the most critical cases that we've all been seeing, witnessing, hearing about, and
that his reckoning comes only after and only assuming that the appetite still exists at these various levels to continue to pursue, uh, you know, these charges. But it's complicated, y'all. But don't let it be so complicated that we tune out. A lot is happening here. Just know this. The rules
of the game for Donald Trump is delays. His only friend and I and I and I come down on the side will deny as always his but his best friend is to delay this so that it never comes before a decision of a jury prior to the election of twenty twenty four November. Yeah. Wow, that's a lot, y'all.
I know, we got to talk about them.
Tiff said, Well, that's why we got a toss to pay some bills. So we'll be back on the other side of this. Stay tuned, everybody. So we're back, And I wish the topic was lighter coming off of that Trump legal update. But Angela, Tiffany, we've all been making reference to these diversity, equity and inclusion programs, policies. Shoot, if you're in my state, conversation about you've probably heard it listeners in your respective communities as anti woke legislation
or anti DEI programs, and all over the country. I think now in half the states, we've heard legislators and legislation that has stripped your respective state of any DEI protections programs, offices, laid folks off sumarily and unsummarily, and folks are just confused about what's going on. And so we thought it'd be a timely matter to have us do a little bit of a deeper dive on what's up with DEI. What's its standing? Is it still standing? Are we barely standing on one leg and a crutch?
And so on and so forth. And we decided we turned to Angela to give us the best readout on what's happening with DEI.
Thanks Andrew.
So, I think the most important thing to note is that there are currently more than thirty bills across the country that target diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. If you ask us, if you ask them, it's didn't earn it for whatever reason. They include initiatives that are at public universities. We know that this started at the top, top top with the Supreme Court overturning affirmative action last summer, and I think that what we have to understand now is
that this is by design. It is happening in Utah because that's a very multicultural state. North Dakota also very multicultural South Dakota, extremely black Tennessee, Alabama, Idaho, and Florida are just a few others. And what I think we really have to understand is it's not just a state issue. This issue also found its space and weird it's ugly head. Just last week, folks were talking about the House Office of the United States House of Representatives getting rid of
their Diversity and Inclusion office. What I ended up finding out from Hakim Jeffries, who will likely become the first black speaker in United States history, he mentioned that actually, this didn't just begin last week with the failure to appropriate funds to the office. It actually began in the Republicans' twenty twenty three rules package.
They've been trying.
To get rid of the House or the Diversity Inclusion Office in the House since then.
And so we are seeing what folks are doing and We're very clear about it.
I think one thing that is extraordinarily telling is Brandon Scott, who is the mayor of Baltimore. In a very tragic moment when the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed after the ship collided with the bridge, he is out speaking about it, and some idiot I try not to name call, but sometimes it just is what it is tweeted that he was a DEI mayor. I'm sorry, what does that have to do with anything? Oh, you know what, we actually get it. We're clear about exactly what you mean when
you say DEI. So for us, they think that DEI is about a handout, but we're clear about the fact that they use DEI as a racist trope. It is their new so it's their twenty four version of the N word. They no longer have to say that because they can call us what they mean by calling it DEI. Do you all know that one of the things that got the most traction last week in our podcast Conversation online was DEI. We have young black folks saying things
now like I don't need a handout. I'm sorry, it's not a handout for you to get what you deserve. The thing that is the most troubling about a lot of this legislation, and we can actually throw to a clip in Alabama. But the thing that's the most troubling about this legislation is that they are billing it as a way to make sure they level the playing field. The playing field ain't been level for four hundred plus years. You have never given us what we deserve. You've never
given us what we earned. We are supposed to be here, and that means making sure that you don't get the handout. So I do want to go to this Alabama clip really quer so we can hear how these things are talked about on both sides of the aisle and reported on Let's take a listen today.
The state of Alabama committed sin.
The passing of s B one twenty nine has caused controversy among Alabama lawmakers. The bill will ban topics that will be considered divisive concepts or discussions that will make a group of people feel bad about their identity. Republicans supporting the bill say, everyone, no matter what race, sexual orientation, or other identity backgrounds, are already seen as equal.
I think the main thing is to make sure that everybody regardless of race.
Is I will be on the plane level fail.
People who oppose this bill fear that there will be some negative consequences that could affect Alabama's ability to recruit students at its public colleges and universities.
Child, now here's what we holl Well, you know, I want you guys to weigh in and then I'll go to what my highest.
Hope is on this particular topic. But I would love for y'all to weigh in.
Well, I mean, I'll just pick up with the I guess the legislator left off in the description of the bill as being being instruction of anything that might cause
people to feel offended about themselves or their cultures. And of course, this resembles very much what Florida Governor Rohnda Santis and his Republican acolytes in the legislature past when they passed their anti Woke legislation, which basically said, in addition to stripping all of these programs of their funding and resources and decommitting the state from its commitment to diversity, is it said you can't teach a history, you can't have a book in the school library or any other
public face of which our tax dollars go to pay for if a reader might find the contents of it degrading to themselves or their heritage, And I just this is it's so to me emblematic of really the point around why we have to put emphasis on what's different and what we don't or ties on a regular basis is that their umbrage comes at hearing a history that
is dehumanizing or leads to them feeling bad. But at no point considered what part of the history that was already under instruction that caused us to shrink in our seats as students every single day we had to show up, So forget how I feel, don't consider what makes me feel degraded or dehumanized or unseen. But the moment it
creeps up your street, it's a major offense. The reason why I say this is emblematic of why we need programs that emphasize what's different and allows what's different just in the door, because we're not talking about anybody's qualifications for entry. We're simply talking about the makeup of the room of equally qualified people. Everybody qualified. Let's deal with that first. Now that we settle that question, everybody meets
the threshold. Now, what is going to enrich this threshold in such a way this group, this community in such a way that they are now taught to think differently, to experience the world through another pair of eyes. Because if you're going to be my future leaders, I want to know that you have the capability of being able to look at a situation and analyze that situation through a set of eyes that are not dismissive and dysphoric of everybody else's experiences except your own part of the
I don't even want to go down that road. I simply want to say, I'm going to I'm going to submit that there are a lot of people out here who don't who are who are perpetrating racist acts and
biased activities unconscious of their of themselves. Give you an example, my wife R Jay patronizes a number of these custom places where they put logos and your name, you know, your monograms and stuff on things, and she had a comment to them about the fact that we shop her often and they're never during the holiday season, any black Santas or any black Santas on the face of the cloths or the towels or this or that, and this is the owner of a woman who she's become very
close to, and Almo says, I just had not thought about that. And when she the next year had got in this big old stock of diverse santas, black, brown, and everything in between, was so excited to reach out to my wife to say, this year we made an intentional effort at trying to find santas that we're doing so. So we didn't go off and be like, this is a racist woman who commssed racist acts and doesn't care
about diversity. We simply said, your walk in life just hasn't caused you to think about how I might experience this shopping venture when I don't see myself and my family and my whatever reflected, And so they took corrective action. I'm not saying, I'm not giving legislators that saying benefit of the doubt. Many of them are taking these actions to be inflammatory. Don't mistake the intention here. I'm simply saying, that's why having different people in the place matters, right,
because we experience it differently and it all matters. It all matters. So these folks are crying wolf because we're not traveling up their street, but they've been traveling up hours, over our neighborhoods, over our states, over our everything, and haven't had to think twice about it.
Yeah, well, I would just say diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts are necessary everywhere, in both the public and the private sectors. I think the example you just gave Andrew is so great because people get very tight in their feelings when they feel like you're calling them a racist when and what you said is this woman said, I just had not simply considered your perspective in life. I think for a lot of black people in this country, we've never had the option or privilege to not consider
the master narrator's perspective on everything. We've always had to consider how white people feel and navigate ourselves accordingly, not out of deference, but out of survival. And so now that we're looking at diversity, equity, and inclusion, the popular phrase that goes along with it is diversity is being invited to the dance, inclusion is being asked to dance. I think, to put equity in its perspective, it's different
than equality. It's equity. So equity is saying, if Angela and I live together and Angela has one hundred millillion dollars in the bank, and I have ten dollars in the bank, and Angela says, well, let's plit the rent evenly. That's that's equal. It's not equitable. And so if I say no, I want to spend a dollar and Angela because she makes and this is true, Angela makes five hundred million dollars a year.
Trying to get me robbed, that's a lie from the pit of hill.
Put another way, it's equal being giving everybody the same thing, and equitable being giving everybody what they need right access.
That's the equity piece.
But isn't that the part?
Like I think, really quick, like just a really quick glimpse at this, this didn't earn it thing is really pissing me off. And the reason it's really pissing me off is because if there was ever a group of people in this country who didn't effen earn it it, it's like white men. So if we look at this quickly, can y'all just tell me who you think benefits more from legacy admissions?
Is it white folks or black and brown folks?
What do you think white people?
Okay, if we say.
Those who have historically attended college.
Okay, weportionate, just a quick just a quick answer here. Trust funds, white men? Yeah, okay, what about will money? Your your people leave you some money in a will. Who's more likely to benefit Who's more likely to have a goddamn will?
Well, my will for my grandmother was the money's under the mattress. Okay, that's what a lot of our trust funds are.
Mine is I got enough to pay for the right bear.
Right.
But but I'm saying, like, who's more likely to break out really well with will money?
Money from the will? From an estate plan? Okay? What about a mortgage loan?
There have been suit after suit about the ways in which banks are not even giving us access to loans for homes.
What about that? Who's more likely to benefit there?
There's statistics for this, White folks, black and brown folks.
Yeah, white people last tax cuts. So I'm just saying, like, when you talk to us about didn't earn it, check.
Yourself before you wreck yourself, because the facts are all here.
The DEEI, the anti DEI legislation needs to be back pointing at you. Here goes you, here go you point at us. Here's us point back at you, But I got.
My question is because like those white men who were power rests almost exclusively in some of these areas, they're not going to be convinced by this. I sure the years, quite frankly have lost my faith. I'm not trying to convince the willfully ignorant anymore. But I do want to collectively inform the people who are open and arm us collectively with action items that can change this. So white man like no, see is you They're not going to hear that and say, oh, well, why didn't I think
of that? I'm sorry, guys, let's fix it. So what do we do?
But it's black folks that are looking at that too, like, oh I Like I have seen in the comments that are like, yeah, I don't want to hand out no, no, no, you do want equal footing though, you do want equitable footing. So like you're getting brainwashed by that. Yeah, you're Solda bill A Goods, it's not even real. Like and then
here's the other thing. There are places where we are empowered, where we have power to push back against these narratives we always know and this is the thing that I wish we would have embraced and embodied from the civil rights movement. You hit them in the dollar. The most successful example of this, I think in an athletic program, particularly because Randall Woodfinn called on athletes no longer to go to Alabama States permis Yes, sorry, TIF, thank you
for that, the mayor of Birmingham. You also have Derrek Johnson from the NAACP and other civil rights leaders saying don't go to Florida, don't go to Kentucky.
Then don't go to these places.
And a wonderful example because there's some students who are like, I can't afford to not go. I was planning on helping my parents, my family get out the hood.
I gotta go to.
The school that's recruiting me. I would turn you to Missouri in twenty fifteen. Miszoo in twenty fifteen. Their football team was like, if this administration can't get us act together, we're not playing. I guarantee you we could get some coaches together, the Don Staleys of the world, the Deon Sanders of the world, the other folks black coaches at big institutions who can say college players have us say
college players have a role, College players have influence. Use your influence and turn your back to these institutions.
They want to perpetuate what slavery.
Was all about. I keep trying not to use that analogy, but it is hell. It is applicable here. You have to say you will not use my body to make money for your institution, all the while turning around around my colleagues, my peers who could get in here on academic scholarships, could could learn here, but you're turning them away because they don't see themselves reflected in the curriculum. If you can't reflect me in the curriculum, I will not serve you on the field or on the court.
Game is over, pastime, halftime, over time, is due?
Time?
And time?
What impact? What's the financial impact? How effective is that of athletes not going to states because I imagine that would hit institutions of higher ed. But how wide a shadow does that cast across the rest of the States.
Let's begin and in with this. Who is likely the highest paid staffer on any lege campus in the country football. It ain't the president, Yeah, it ain't the provost. It ain't the dean of this, that or the other. And again, these are institutions of higher learning, principally created for our academic uplift, yet the highest paid individual on the campus. It's so much so that they not only take the money. If you're a state school, they don't just take the
state money. Then they put a whole committee together on the side, call them boosters or insert whatever you want, that then has the ability to raise unlimited sums of money for said individuals. Angela, I know you've been doing something. I got out out till I said that.
Please tell it was no and it's accurate.
We know it's accurate, but I just wanted to I wanted folks to know the figures. This is a tiff moment brought to you by Native Lampire, but this is normally a Tiffany moment.
Our resident sports expert would have told you.
This that eighty percent of the highest earning public employees are college head coaches. You all know Nick Saban, of course, he just retired recently of Alabama. He was making eleven point seven million dollars a year. But he doesn't see that you should have equity in a college institution because because you did not earn it.
That's just one.
Right of the college football team business. There was black.
Yeah, thirty one of the fifty highest paid state employees are college football coaches, thirty one of the fifty.
To Andrew's point, you know, I just I.
Think so some people, as Tiffany was pointing out, will hear the checklists and say, well, that's because we planned better, that's because we wrote a wheel, That's because da da da da da. And I just want you to really interrogate this further because I agree with Tiffany, I don't think we're going to convert mis because ultimately what it's about, while we may see the supremacy in it, it is about power and the survival of that power. And it
begins in my home. I want to preserve as much as I can for myself in my porogeny, and it's to hell with everybody else who's not in that category. And I don't think this is a wide exclusive reaction. I think this is a people period reaction, which is
self preservation. But when your self preservation now doesn't just have your actions to attribute to a success, but it is reinforced by a set of systems banking, loans, loan officers, policies, institutions that then stand up right behind you to reinforce that system. It's now no longer within your own It's
no longer happening within your own power. It's happening within the collective power of institutions, public private governments, of policies, laws, ordinances, codes, you name it are now reinforcing your ability to maintain your power. Whereas, when you look at me, what institutions do I have backing me up other than some symbolic resolutions and statements that say everybody of any shade and
background ought to be able to be here. Well, if that's true, then let's interrogate why then all those folks aren't represented here. I'm just saying I know a lot of us, and I'm talking specifically to black folks up in Mobile who don't want to be cast with an expursion that you didn't deserve to be here. I know that voice, I know it intimately. But don't get caught by the okie doke. Once you get compelled by that vision, you have failed to ask any other questions as to
why why don't my people have a will? Well, your folks weren't able to build up enough reserves. They were paying their bills every single month and therefore weren't able to save up enough. Oh, and then granddaddy remember that land he had, that forty acreuse everybody used to talk about he had in southern Georgia that somehow because of taxes, not because of his ability to own it, not because of his ability to buy it he bought it, but
because of government taxation and the policies that shifted. And then who came into ownership, Oh, the bank, and they wouldn't let you get it back at the amount that he owed in taxes. So then they owned it and then sold it to the commercial realtor who now has a whole strip mall on your granddaddy's lay in. We have to interrogate the reasons as to why and if you buy the okie dokee, you never get to the questions as to why these things look the way they look.
You call me whatever name you want to, but just just make sure that the same the same policies you have benefiting you, undergirding you, backing you up, that that same artillery, that same bandwidth exists for me and mine. And my guess is there ain't a state in this nation we can point to that can back us up in the same way that you can point to any of the fifty that backs up the institutional structures that pre exist us.
Andrew, I know we've been on this for a minute.
We should do, like really think this should be a mini five to like a deeper dive on this. But like, I'm curious to know why, like ACOU hasn't come forth with challenging some of these pieces of legislation on the not teaching something because it makes someone feel bad piece in particular, like that feels like a violation of free speech. So I'm curious to know why that hasn't been the approach here. They are loud, and I would argue in some instance is wrong on some of the other things
that they'll take up for free speech. So in this instance where that could be particularly harmful, we're talking about equitable funding in this country on that didn't earn it part.
But there are whole pieces where these folks.
Have joined together, almost like the American Legislative Exchange Council also known as ALEX, making a resurgence because these bills are widespread. It's only thirty places where they've caught traction, but they are over like almost in every state, especially on the piece around now teaching our history because it makes someone feel bad, and that feels like a really
good opening to me. I think I would just say the last thing is I'm very curious to know why the Biden administration, in particular, I would think Kamala, Vice President Harris, why they're not going after this the same way that they're going after reproductive justice issues like this. It feels like it's remarkably silent, and it feels a little irresponsible to me that we're not taking this head on. This is something that the Republican Party is using to
gin up their base. How you're going to gin up our base? Our base isn't excited to watch these bills happen. We've seen this time and time again. We saw a turn of events in twenty twenty around the murder of George Floyd, and we're seeing a harsh backlash. We should be like making sure that our folks know that we care, that we're seeing that we're heard. They're going to be protected, just like wombs are being protected.
I think it's I think they will dial this down to a red herring. And I think Tiffany said this early on when we started broadcasting. You know, she was saying we get whispered to.
Yeah, I'm tired.
Anyone else gets the megaphone right in the podium, with the with the with the with the mics everywhere, and so on and so forth.
I surely last night I need a megaphone.
But you know what, we've got to charity or or or or sympathy or understanding or comprehension begins at home, which is why we've you say, ten ten toes deep. We've got to be able to stand ten toes down. I said it in my own sentence, ten toes down. And the fact that we aren't anybody's charity case. You aren't giving me a damn thing that I don't not just deserve, but that I haven't worked for and earned
for myself. I agree with you. I think we probably need a deeper dive here, and I would actually love a deeper dive that may be centered some of these voices of folks who carry some shame or embarrassment around diversity, equity and inclusion, so that we get to hear like, what's.
Really you want to hear from the audience.
Absolutely, I want to hear that what's really at this? What has you confused over over your being seen.
Help to your respect, Doctor Ken, you talked about respecting the dollar, like this is this is your money, money, this is your opportunity, This is what you desire the dollar.
But but but guess what, most of these things don't ever get to the dollar. Most of this is for many of these corporations, companies, university, so and so forth. This is an assembly and some quiet counseling. When the when the students of color come to you and say, my professor doesn't say a damn thing about my history. We're relegated with DA DA DA. And then they become champions on their behalf to say, hey, we got to
teach inclusive and complete histories here, right. But but in a lot of places it doesn't come down to the dollar. In so many places, it's just about being reflected, and it can't be overstated. It cannot be overstated. When my children have not had a black teacher all of their education, except for the ones that they get at home, Andrew, are you serious, I'm very serious. In a public they.
Don't have black they don't have black teachers.
My children haven't had a black teacher, and my twins are fourth graders any year of their matriculation, and they will not if it stays the way that it looks, they will not have that experience in their elementary school. And I would reckon that I am not rare in this situation. Is not in isolation or alone. I think is reflected in a lot of places that in the
south West, Midwest and so on and so forth. All I have to say is it meant something so much when my children were able to see a doll in a picture in a person who wasn't inside their home. They got all these pictures, they're like, my daddy knows Obama, and but that isn't the real experience of of of everybody. But the first time you see that outside of your home is in Black History Month.
Yeah.
And then even in those so I miss me with self hatred, self uh devaluation where you can't even stand up with your stiff spine held and your shoulders thrown back, to say that we matter enough to be reflected in the true telling of the story. Period enough said, I can navigate the rest, but just let's start there. We're not even there, and I we are over time. When we come back, y'all, we're gonna pick up another weighty, heavy topic. And uh after that, we'll try to land
this plane one way or another. Stay tuned, let's face some bills, and we're back. And again the topic is is no lighter. In fact, I think considerably, considerably more costly when we think of human toll and just the terrible ants that the people of Haiti have been experiencing. And I know it has not been widely covered on most of our traditional platforms here mainland US, but in the opening I mentioned that Haiti is closer to Miami than Miami is to New York. I mean it is
seven hundred miles off the Florida coast. But not just that Haiti. Haiti occupies a very very very very important place in the in the African dash or around the globe, having been the first and still struggling, but nonetheless the first republic that was majority black, and in the history of the world, they threw off the yoke of US and French and Spanish imperialism, but more specifically in its founding, they threw off the yoke of French imperialism and slave
trade to declare their independence as a free people. Oftentimes, I remember growing up, i'd hear oder folks say, man if I couldn't have been alive during state, because if I was alive, such and such and such and such and such, a lot of us have that such and such and such and such and such and such. But the people of Haiti, under the leadership of Toussaint and so many other powerful figures who were around that time and have served since, were able to throw off that yoke,
establishing their independence. And then we talk about reparations here in the United States and what is old.
Well.
The French, when they were thrown out of Haiti during Haitian independences, decided that because they could no longer ship cocoa beans out of Haiti and that they could no
longer benefit from the slave trade. That they said, the Haitians owed the French people five hundred million dollars during that day, five hundred million dollars, which is over two billion in today's money, that they had to repatriate to the French country, which they did, preventing them from doing all kinds of things for themselves and for their people.
I want you to toss real quick to this video, which will give you a little bit of perspective on what we see happening now in Haiti, where heavily armed gangs now control about eighty percent of the capital city, Porto Prince according to the United Nations, and fortunately the circumstances made them even more powerful than what appears to be Haiti's remaining government. Let's toss to the package.
So let me give a little hits free lesson. I've talked about this before on the show. Most people are familiar with the fact that in eighteen oh four Haiti declared its independence from its brutal slave owners France slave masters. They became established the first independent black republic in the history of the world. That was a miracle of miracles, never to be equalled. But for generations descendants of the enslaved had to pay reparations to their enslavers, that includes France.
By accounts, some five hundred million dollars was repatriated back to France, money that could have gone to build schools, to build roads, to build.
Infrastructure in Haiti.
Also in nineteen fifteen, the United States invaded the country, saying that it was too poor and too unstable to take care of itself, and walked out of Haiti's national bank with some five hundred thousand dollars, which they used to establish a company that is now known as City Group. A lot of people don't know that history.
But we can't talk.
About that without the deep corruption that has existed in Haiti from its political leaders for many, many, many years. Wasn't always like this, Back in the nineteen fifties and the nineteen sixties. We have some images that show that Haiti was a beautiful country, just like many other islands in the Caribbean, thought to be a playground for the
rich and the famous. But that deep culture of corruption that has existed for many of Haiti of Haiti's leaders has led to the situation that we're seeing right now, in addition to some natural disasters like the earthquake and of course the assassination of a president.
Yeah, and so your land is robbed. You are then thieve from, not just off of your crop, but literally your banks are robbed from the leaders who are stood up in Haiti, from du Vaier, Papa Doc, Baby Doc. Some of you will remember just July of twenty twenty, twenty twenty one, where the president was assassinated in his home,
President Moyes. We now have the Prime Minister Henry, who as of this week, has landed in Puerto Rico, but has not been able to return to Haiti itself, the country that he is the political leader of, because he went to the United Nations and asked for an international police force to come in and help re establish order. The people of Haiti said no. The gang said hey, oh no, and you can't come back. You must resign. He's now agreed to resign and stepped down after a
provisional government for governance has put in place. It's a terrible situation. But what I appreciated about that piece is you can't understand what's happening now, the failures of a stable government in Haiti. You can't understand it now if you don't also happen to understand how we got here. Tiffany, I know you are a lover of things all international and global. I just wonder how what's happening in Haiti plays, and you're part of the neighborhood up north.
I'll keep it brief because I know we've been going long on these pop but I think it's important, and thank you for putting in context. The Slaver Volt, the self Liberated Slavery Volt, that took place in seventeen ninety one. That is reason number one why we should care about what happened there. If we don't care to bring a wrinkle in time here, the United States could potentially face a country seven hundred miles from Florida shore that could
be run by criminals and narcos. So you could have potentially a narcos state, and that will most certainly impact domestic policy here. In terms of our foreign policy, the United States has already spread very thin given multiple confrontations happening across the globe, and so I unfortunately have more questions than answers around what the US role is and what it should be. You talked about, you know, going to the UN. A lot of people this is not
my opinion. I don't feel comfortable opining on it, but a lot of people would argue that the US prompted Prime Minister Henry was pretty much feckless during his time there. And so if we are turning to international people, there is a chance that the Kenyan police could play a role here, which would also potentially create other problems, but they are approved at least by the UN. Some people have challenges with the UN, so This is a subject matter that's really hard to wrap up in thirty seconds,
so probably something for a deeper dive. But I would just encourage people to read papers. Google is not a research tool, you know, like actually read an article from reputable reporters who are on ground there, who've been doing deep dives on this for years, because it's worth knowing about and foreign policy impacts domestic policy, and we should all have a little bit of curiosity about it.
That's real, that's real. Well, listen, just know that here at natal Land Pod, we're going to try to bring news to you that is also relevant to you. And so it's my hope that we'll continue to track what's happening there and see the people of Haiti and the larger death spora that exists outside of Haiti right here in the United States, and just you know, let you know that you're not alone in your care and in your concern for what happens to the future of of
of Haiti. All of us, all of us are are in horror about what we're seeing, and we're hoping that we'll reach a conclusion there that preserves life and liberty and most importantly the freedom. So bravely established on that island nation so many, so many years ago. We'll be right back after we pay some bills. All right, y'all, We went a little long today, so we didn't get to cover everything we wanted to in the episode, most namely Instagram and they're limiting up political content. I asked
you before we're on Instagram. Are y'all able to see us? We're talking politics? But we're going to do a deeper dive for you. We'll give you a little bit more
time and a little more emphasis on the topic. So stay tuned for the details on the picture mini pod talking about Instagram and their limitation of political conversation and in the spirit of calls to actions, the bio pict surely that our I mean the actress, the actor at extraord and their Regina King plays pivotal role and I think acts for the first time with her sister, biological sister in and all these years of acting, they've never been in a film together, and so they got to
do that this time. I'm interested. Have y'all checked it out yet? I did what you got for Angela.
You know what I'm going to tell you. There are two things that I really want to say one Regina King for performance like that after losing her son so tragically.
It's just it's just amazing.
I hope that this is homework for students all over the country, particularly those who are eligible to vote for.
The first time.
It is so inspiring and it teaches us so much about the importance of our engagement, even when the system itself is not perfect.
We are there to perfect the system.
The thing that I wish, like, I literally cried about this yesterday to see Barbara Lee, how she showed up in that film, and then to be in there after. I'm crying again now. I wish that this would have came out before her primary, because what you see is Shirley Chisholm passing the baton to her like she was willing to figure out how to engage everybody who was necessary in the political system, from the Black Panther Party to George Wallace and Barbara Lee, like learned under her tutelage,
she still performs that bravely nine to eleven. We wouldn't have had a war and faux weapons of masters destruction if Congress would have listened to Barbara Lee like she is formidable, and I wish that people knew what we all know about b Lee, so to see this document or not this documentary, but really could have been this biopic, like with the way in which she comes across on camera again for people who don't know her full history and how she showed up for us in Congress and
even as a staffer for Ron Dellams after what happened with Shirley Chisholm and Ron Dellams to taking the baton also from him. She deserved that Senate seat and she didn't get a fair shot because money is still in politics and because people don't understand the courage that it takes to sit in these role, these roles and to be sworn, you know, to take this oath, and for the belief that she could still have in this system after constantly watching the system betray her, but know that
if she's there it could change it. Just was it, really, honestly, y'all, Like as frustrated as I've been lately, it restored my hope and reminded me of the importance of our voices right now.
So that I.
Love that you brought it and made it relevant to present day Angela, because I think that's so relevant. I do want to say about Shirley Chisholm for our viewers who may not know, she's the first black woman elected to Congress. She ran for president, and she was a voice for the people in Congress. She like challenged her fellow members who were accused of harassing and trading sexual favors from their staff. There were things that that were not included in the biopic about her, So I encourage
people to learn more about Shirletism. I would also say, there's so many questions for us as black women, and sometimes you can show up and you show up as a woman who happens to be black, or you can show up as a black person who happens to be a woman. I always show up as a black person who happens to be a woman. Shirly Tism, perhaps controversially to some people, sometimes showed up as a woman who happens to be black because she felt so much sexism.
And I look at some of the commentary sometimes on our socials and I can understand that level of frustration from her. So I think her legacy lives on in so many of us, but still invite so many conversations around the work that she did. And I love how Angela created at wrinkle in Time, and thank you Andrew for making sure we talk about it. And I have to say, lastly, Regina King, if you ever hear this,
we love you, my to have always loved you. But the way that she shows strength after losing her only baby h to suicide, and the way that she's talked about it, and then you know she I respect his decision to not be here. It's hard not to hear her promote this because they used to walk the carpets together and not weep for that too. So lots of heaviness around this film, but I encourage everybody to see it.
Well man, I appreciate I thought it was gonna be a quick mention, but I love y'all going deep on it because similarly I took away a couple of things. But I'll just mention two for the moment. One was a little saddened by the role that black men in Congress played in negotiating a way a bit of Shirley
Chisholm's power. And it wasn't about her power, it was what it was the gap she was standing in on behalf of and you have to look at the biopic, I think more understand or understand or history and what
happened at that seventy two convention. And then I also really paused in reflection at that moment, Angela that you reflected on, which was to see Ron Dellams, who were former mayor, famed socialist democratic socialist himself, who would be succeeded in Congress by the Barbara Lee, who was such a strong support or advocate for Shirley Chisholm and credits her with so much of her own learning, would then take the seed of a man who, in this very
pivotal moment at the seventy two Democratic Convention played a role in a little bit of the undermine of the negotiating game there at the end, that's to not take anything away from anybody's record of service, but to put it into context in that particular moment. And I think it should challenge all of us to not let the biopick be the beginning in the end of our research, but let it be if you haven't studied it before, let it pique your interest. If you have, go back
and refresh yourself. And again we're talking about the premiere of this past premiere of March twenty second on Netflix of the new biopic Shirley, which again stars the amazing talented work of Regina King as the indomitable Shirley Chisholm and the brook the Brooklyn politician herself who made history becoming the first black woman to run for president of the United States. So I hope y'all check that out.
He was on the front lines at a fight against Phyllis Lafley too, around the Equal Rights Amendment, And can I say, really quickly, just for context for the viewers audience, brought up Barber Lee's courage of her conviction. I just want because there are a lot of people out there
who aren't old enough to remember this. As crazy as that sounds, but after nine to eleven, Congress took up a vote and she was the sole member to vote against the AUMF, which was the authorization use of military the only person to vote against it.
You curations, Yeah, that's right, appreciate that.
We love you really going to be our senator. You will be our senator no matter.
Always, always, and the new conscience. Right if if we refer to John Lewis as the congressman, rightly, John Lewis as the conscience of the Congress. I think we can add a couple more voices to that conscious.
We claim that title for the CBC. By the way, well didn't say that.
Shirley Chisholm and Ron de Ellins are also co founders of the thirteen of the CBC members as well. And his legacy, I really do hope people go back and look because he was a strong voice on apartheid, anti apartheid. He there's way more good to his record than that moment.
But that was a tough one. But that's why people, you know, folks ought to be considered in the fullness of their service and not at any one particular time. But moments in time also matter, right. Yeah, you mentioned to invoke the term wrinkling time. There's some wrinkles and maybe over time, by and bye, we'll iron those out.
Please please please take some time over the next coming days to watch Shirley Again in premiere March twenty second on Netflix and it's still available for your downloading streaming pleasure. Check it out. Before we end the show, I want to remind everyone to leave us a review please and subscribe to natal Lampid. We're available on all platforms and YouTube. New episodes drop every Thursday. You can also follow us on our social media. We are Angelo Buie, Tiffany Cross,
and Andrew Gillum. There are two hundred and twenty one days until election Day. Welcome Home, We All Native lamdpod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with Recent Choice Media. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.