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Welcome home, y'all, this is Native Lampod. I am Angela Raie with Tiffany Cross and Andrew Gillham. We are joined today. You done, He's already so much with your delayed ass intro. We are joined today by one of our good friends, our dear sister, Congresswoman Ayana Presley, who represents Massachusetts seventh District. And she is on the move, y'all. She's getting things done, y'all.
Talk about where are our fighters. She is in these streets making sure that we are represented, that our interests are heard, that they're known, and that we don't silently disappear into the dark. So she is just coming from a protest, which we will hear about.
On the friend.
Oh, she's on the way, on the way into the protest. All right, Well, let's hear about this protest from her while I'm getting fact checked, and tell us where you are headed and the importance of this moment.
Yeah.
First, I just want to say that it's good to be home, good to be with you, and I just want to say this community in this moment is not a nice to have, it is a must have. So as we revisit that question from King, where do we go from here? You know, in a moment of chaos, cruelty, and corruption, where do we go from here?
Chaos or community? We have to continue to choose.
Community and solidarity because this wholesale harm is coming for everybody. So right now I'm on my way to a protest that one of our federal buildings in solidarity with federal workers. And let me just say this, as someone who was an aide for sixteen.
Years, I get so tired of.
People not seeing the humanity of our federal workforce.
And thinking that this is just you.
Know, hacks living on the government dole.
These are people that could have been serving and taking.
Their talent many other places, but with the intention they arrived at the office every day to make sure that someone was on the other end of the line to pick up the phone when you were in christ and you needed a lifeline and you needed an advocate. These are dedicated, compassionate, brilliant individuals who deserve more than to receive a pink slip or a threatening email.
From a doge bro or from some rich, entitled, greedy, grubby.
Hand millionaire who's taken a wrecking ball to the infrastructure of.
Our federal government.
And now so many federal workers don't know how they'll provide for their own families.
But I'm gonna tell you what.
I've spent a lot of time with these workers, and their primary concern is not even how they will provide with their families.
It's not even their livelihood.
It is how would their unfinished work impact the people the communities.
That they serve.
What does this mean for their grant that someone is now now advancing, What does the mean for that veteran with the BA you know? What does this mean for someone who's headstock portal, you know, is closed. So I'm on my way in solidarity because every day, at this inflection point, where cruelty, cares and corruption.
Are daily intake our daily food, I'm gonna choose.
Community that's real, that's real. Do you think that it's ironic that you get this guy head and doze a made up organization that ain't really legit yet as an organization, an agency of the government, The wealthiest man in the damn world happens to be telling us about wasted federal money taxpayer dollars while he's on the take that this man is criticizing the appropriations of you all well at the same time putting money in his pocket from the
very source that he's criticized. What's the irony in that? And how do we drive that further home? Or do you or do you even think it matters?
Okay, let me just say this. As I think about how to move forward, I always take a look back. So there's three things that are guiding me in this moment. One the blueprint.
Laid out to us in the early chapters of the civil rights movement, which we're still very much in. Doctor King said, our most powerful weapon is organizing.
So we have to organize organized organized. Now, Listen, that is hard to.
Do when their strategy is to flood the home is shocked in awe, and it's to overwhelm.
Us to such an extent that we just start being reactive. And sometimes in being reactive, we're not being strategic.
So I keep looking back to those early chapters and studying movements.
Like what did they do? What do resistance look like?
And again, there's three things that I think we always need imagination, strategy, and stamina.
I've learned that from the movements. The second thing, you're going to look at the.
Pandemic, because there's the closest analogue.
That I have to this moment is full sale harm. And what did we do? We stood up infrastructure, rapid response, mutual aim.
Those are some of the things that I'm working on actively right now to build so mutually.
What's the second thing? And then the third thing, Doctor.
King, you know, tells us that we have to study the words of the oppressed to inform our strategy.
So I'm paying.
Close attention to every executive action and the words of this authoritarium and fascist regime and Donald Trump and Elon Musk. So doctor King says, we need to dramatize the evil, Andrew and so that is why sometimes we go out and we do these interviews and people.
Are like, you know, dang, Like all she did was just tell us everything is wrong. Well, I have to dramatize the evil. I have to tell you, and we have to make them wear it. And let me just say this, anyone that is.
Not being actively disrupted and agitating and doing the work of litigation legislation, agitation, mobilization is being complicit in this wholesale harm. And although this harm is coming for everybody, it is anti blackness of steroids.
So I'm paying.
Attention to who isn't saying anything, because everyone, what are you talking about?
I think, to Tip's point last week, if somebody needs to be held accountable, they need to be held accountable. We cannot hold people accountable who we can't name. I don't think that that's a trap. I think that's the truth.
Do you care to drop a name because we got some.
Bit abond?
Well?
Can I just say this, congresswoman, I you know I if you, if I ever had to cover you for something, I would have to recuse myself because I just love you. And I want people, the American people watching this to know that who they see on the floor of Congress, who they see on this podcast, and who we are privileged to see privately just with you, is consistently the same person living in service to liberation, a true public servant with a personal testimony, your story. And I think
there's a lot of complacency right now. I think there's a lot of apathy when it comes to government, and you still have that ability to give people goosebumps when you speak, to speak with righteous indignation and anger.
And I know I.
Share all your videos, and so I just want to take a moment to say thank you you for your work, and that we are watching and paying attention and we want to amplify you in whatever way. And I just I cannot be an impartial or unbiased person ever with you because you are my Aquarius sister. Happy belated birthday to you, and I just appreciate you and love you so much, and I want everybody to feel that way about you. So I just I don't even have a question.
I just want to tell you that diddo diddo last week. Last week, the CBC was my family, though, I just want to point that out.
This is her family, your family. I love, I love she did not pick up no because I love Ayana Pressley. The CBC as a body, respectfully, is not my family. Ayana Pressley is my sister. Who I will do it. I'll fight somebody over les, somebody love. It will be the CBC. Let MTG start acting fool on Capitol Hill. Neg see the Jarius bringers there. Real Yeah, I'm not a lawyer, Angela, get me out.
I don't know if I get you out with this, DJ and Bonnie Is.
I love the levity of this for a moment, and I thank you for those kind words since I receive them and I spend them back to all of you. The what you all are doing in this moment is so essential because people are hungry for accurate information.
And look, you all have your opinions.
To the editorialize, but you also just bring the straight facts and you are trusted voices right now at a time of just mass diss and misinformation or no information.
And I take so.
Many of my cues from you. You know, honestly, this is the season for calling a thing a thing. And when I think about the fact, and this is what democrats need to do. You don't talk people out of their experience.
You don't.
You don't counter their lived experience with slide decks.
You just listen and call a thing a thing. And that's how you build trust. When I ran for Congress for the first time, Can y'all believe it's almost seven years ago? What I ran for Congress the first time.
I can't tell you how many consultants told me. If you get asked in an interview if Donald Trump should be impeached for your.
Opinion is a racist pivot?
What that's why you'd be surprised, But we're saying that's how we don't have trust. There's a deficit of trust because you have to call a.
Thing a thing, and that's what you won't do.
You definitely can't lead if you're afraid of your shadow. And it seems to me that a lot of people up there afraid of their shadow and what will come up and creep behind them on the next race, and therefore they're muted because they're in fear of themselves, stepping over themselves, saying the wrong thing and being held accountable. You speak the truth, The truth is the truth is
the truth all the time. You can defend it otherwise, you know, to hell with you, because I'm not fighting for people who don't fight.
Absolutely, and as our sibling in the movement, Brittany Pac.
Mc cunningham says, swapping scared power is in power at all And we although we worked our hearts out to change this outcome.
Yo, what if listen.
To black women was an actual practice and just not a statement T shirt? Wow, we can't be in the canary, in the coal mines on these things. I did not None of us wanted this to come to pass, right. We did everything to stop it from happening. The one of the reasons I believe we're in this position is because when Democrats have the power, we don't use it. And Donald Trump and Eli Musk, they are transparent. They want the power, they want to amass the power, they want to wield the power.
They will abuse the power. I've been so.
Busy proving that we're the adults.
In the room, so we forgot to prove that we're the fighters in the room the moment.
What do you think the fight looks like? And I actually have a two parter because the whole reason you wanted to come always tell about reparations. We're gonna get
the reparations too. But I want to make sure that I asked this for those at home who feel like they're not seeing a fight in the Democratic Party, who feel like they're seeing people who just have kind of rolled over and accepted what is, who are frustrated that Ken Martin just yesterday or by the time this year is a few days ago, dropped a memo that is four pages long, single space talking about what is next for the Democratic Party, and some of it is frankly
tone death. So when you look at party leadership, when you look at the caucus, when you look at the obligation of the Tricaucus, the Democratic Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus, the Progressive Caucus, where do you see the fight and what is the role of the people in this fight?
Okay, first, let me just say this, just for the purposes of narrative shaping, Democrats did fight. We fought like hell to try to stop this from happening. So I want to start there, Okay, to do everything possible so that Donald Trump will not be elected. The second thing is, you know, Tim, I think I think the challenge that we're having is a It's not a messaging problem because I hear a lot of my colleagues in the fight and saying the right things or things that I align on.
We have a density and saturation problem that we have not overcome. We're trying to learn the lesson in real time that people's news and information is so bifurcated across so many platforms, and we're behind, so things don't feel coordinated, they don't feel amplified because we're not reaching saturation, we're not reaching density.
And look, we're diverse caucus.
But this is not the time for people to be like, I'm gonna vote my district.
I'm gonna say the thing that works best for my district. We need to be of one accord. Now. Where I know we're.
All aligned on is the fight, and that is litigation. Some members will be on amicust briefs. You know, the courts have been able to be a stopgap to slow roll some of this because it's just straight lawlessness. It is an unprecedented power graph. But what does an unpressed
and the power graph demand of us? Unprecedented clarity, unprecedented conviction, unprecedented leadership, unprecedented organizing, unprecedented mobilizing, and unprecedented joy y'all because when they're coming for every civil right and human right and gain, we cannot give them there too. So that's why I said, I'm gonna choose community every single time. But the fight is litigation, it's legislation, it's agitation, it's mobilization.
But just like with the presidential raise.
We have the better policies, but we did not have the cohesive message that breaks through.
And that's why I'm saying that, like, we really have to challenge ourselves to just call a thing a thing.
This is not the time for nuance because the harm that is coming is blunt as hell, and we have to be just as blunt in how we take it on.
That's real.
Yeah, that's real. So with that one of the places where we know, historically our folks have always felt unseen, unheard, unrepresented by this government. Even if we have those one officer, two officer, now sixty plus offs of folks who represent our interests, what we know is that this country has never properly served us. And one thing that you've done is taken on the legacy of Congressman John Conyers and Congresswoman Chila Jackson Lee and introducing HR forty, which is
of course, our reparations bill. So I'd love for you to talk briefly, Congresswoman, about why you decided to take up that mantle and what you're hoping to see happen in this very divided congress.
Okay, two says one, just to give you the background, and I thank you for making sure there's no rature of black history and saying that this was taken up thirty plus years ago by John Conyers, then by Sheila Jackson Lee, who is now both of whom are ancestors.
Sheila Jackson Lee's daughter, Erica Lee Carter.
Who finished out her term, so former congresswoman I asked me to meet with her and said, after a lot of prayer and reflection, conversation with her staff, former staff of Congress Ischeila Jackson Lee's and even her own family, asked if I would take this on, wow.
And sorry, we love you.
And thank you for taking it on.
So one, I'm emotional because that she had the confidence to entrust me with this, and secondly, I was thinking of Congress Ischela Jackson Lee, who are was texting with in the final days of her time here, and her last message to me was we must keep fighting for our priorities and never give up.
And her daughter came to stand with me.
Through a snowstorm on the day that we reintroduced HR forty and I said, you know, thank you for coming. I know this is emotional, this heart for so many reasons. That she said justice is never convenient, and that has stayed with me because when we reintroduced this people, you know some people were like, is she like adults? You know, she's she's been a legislator, she's been an aid reparation.
In this moment, Why would you do such a thing.
Well, again, this is a moment of anti blackness on steroids.
They've had different proxies for it.
With critical race theory, black lives matter, diversity, equity and inclusion, and diversity with an inclusion you know, means the dismantling and.
Defunding of that to harm a lot of people. But again, it's anti blackness on steroids. So what is the antidote to anti blackness? Pro blackness? So this is this is.
Not the time to moderate our aspirations.
I'm not gonna shrink in the pursuit of our north star. This is exactly the time, you know. So you this is an.
Educated, you know, you know, very conscious listener, you know viewership that you all have.
So folks don't need me to.
Talk about Jim pro and redlining and Orangeburg and Tulsa. But you know, the point is we are still very much digging out from the vestiges of slavery, legislated harm, not just things that happen organically in the ether. You know, people forget that this is legislative precise harm. So that is why we need rape conscious prescriptive responses because the harm that was dealt was precise.
And very race conscious, and it was legislated.
So if we can legislate hard and harm, we should be able to legislate justice and to legislate healing. We have a team shrillion the racial wealth gap in this country that was created, so we have to undo the harm, do the reparative work that we did for indigenous people, for Japanese Americans who were.
In a tournament, camps.
And the important thing to note in this moment is that there is huge momentum around reparations. There are so many municipalities throughout the country, including the City of.
Boston, and have reparations to task forces.
There are so many municipalities that are now actively doing the work of redress and reparations is not just about a check.
So let me just quickly explain HR forty.
It is to It is an eighteen month process, so it.
Does have a finite end. Okay.
There are people that are appointed to this federal commission that we want to ASTABT published fifteen members in total to examine and study the.
Impacts of slavery to today, and then to offer up reparations proposals across all areas, so healthcare, housing, social, economic.
So I know people will say, well, you know, what do we need to study?
You know we already we already know this, but no.
It's worth examination and study. We have more morementum than ever before.
In the last Congress, there were one hundred over one hundred and twenty cosponsors for HR forty.
That's the most that we've that we've ever had.
I'm at about eighty right now, and I want to make sure that we exceed that original number to get this to the floor for a vote. So I'm not in denial about the sobering landscape, but I think it is important while we are doing the work of blunting these harms and mitigating harms, that we have to be proactively still advancing something. So I'm not just gonna take my lawmaking pain home because people are like, oh, it's gonna be hard, it could be impossible.
Because I don't want to. I don't want to dis rock.
The momentum on the issue of reparation.
You said a lot there, Congress women, but I tell you that what will live for me is the reality that when they are coming for us, we don't shrink from that fight. We put a fight right back at them, and it's not going to be on their terms. It will be a fight determined by what is on our terms. I know you've got a balance, but I am very curious to pass this question on to you. That came to us from listeners, and quite frankly continuously comes to
us from listeners. And it's in this space of whether or not there are ways in which this Congress or we as a peace people black folks can find common cause with certain pieces of the Trump agenda. And I'm just curious to know how it is you measure where common cause might exist when such a foundational question around whose role is what? And the triflingness over your role, and then how you look past that and say, but let's work together on this. This is that in the third,
because that's where we have common calls. Where's the balance in that? How do you address? What would you say? And maybe your answer as a legislator might be different. A citizen's answer might be as an everyday person and consumer.
Yeah, So you know, again, one of the things I found frustrating is that it is only when republic when Democrats.
Are governing in the minority, that we.
Are asked regularly what would you do in the name of bipartisanship, But the question is never posed to people across the aisle.
I also have to.
Be just real and say that I don't think that there is a Republican party right now. It is a cult of cowards who are complicit in wholesale harm of our shared constituents. This doge so called Department of Government Efficiency, that is taking a wrecking ball in a machete to our government infrastructure. There is nothing efficient about it. It certainly has a lower the price of eggs or housing.
It's just going to make people poorer, hungrier, and sicker.
And if I can't get my colleagues across the aisle or four Republicans to join with us to move pieces of legislation to stand in the gap and to buffer these harms, I don't know. So it's a tough question to answer, but I will say this, I will sit at the table and work with anyone who is serious about centering everyone who calls his country home.
And advancing problem rest.
But so far they have not proven that they are serious about that work.
Is you know that that's it?
But where where would where would I hope there'd be opportunities housing cannabis community house centers. I mean again, there's so many issues of consequence that affect our shared constituents, and there should be nothing partisan about those things. People housed and babies fed and things. These are not controversial things and nothing radical about it.
At least they shouldn't be. As we as we uh prepare to let you go and bring that bring the house down at the rally, Our dear sister, I want to just ask you if you have parting words for those who don't see themselves represented in the members they have, whether you know, state, local, or on the federal level. For those who see you as their representative in their voice, what is the thing that you would say to everybody who's continued going on in this fight and it's scrambling
to figure out what to do next. What's the thing that you would tell them to do. What's the point of encouragement?
I would say that everyone has a role to play. You know, some people are gonna I just left visiting the program Youth Build right, they're picking up a hammer in the name and the work of social racial justice, progress and change. I pick up a microphone and a lawmaking pen.
Every day.
Some people are going to pick up a paint brush, you know, some people are going to leave the revolution, and some people are going to pack the lunch for the people leading the revolution. So I would just encourage people to kind of do you know that that internal audit of yourself, like what is my gift and what do I seek to bring in this moment as my gift.
If you're a prayer warrior, do that. If you're a nurturer, do that. If your community and a movement builder, do that.
If you believe in the electoral process still and want to do the work of engagement, do that. You know, if you want to storage your platform to share information, do that.
I think a lot of people think civic.
Engagement is just running for office and voting. And so if you're questioning the integrity of a voting process and you have a deficit of trust and your elected representative, you're like, now what, But the opportunities for civic engagement and the responsibility have always been greater than that, and the power of the people has.
Always been greater than the people in power. Now. People always fill away a trip when I say that, because they're like, well, technically art you want to position to power.
Yes, but I defeated a nearly twenty year in covent and one beh eighteen points because I know where the real power lies.
It is with the people. I govern cooperatively.
So you the people are still powerful, yes, even in this moment, because every game that has happened was.
Not led by government. Government responded to the will of the people. Come on, is this just.
A fact, it's just effect. So I know folks are tired. Like I said, every movement needs imagination. That's my HR forty. That's one of my my things I'm dreaming on right.
It's strategy.
So we need a defensive strategy litigation, legislation, agitation, mobilization, and we need stamina.
And that's what we really struggle with. That's why boycott's.
Are short lived, because we struggle with stamina. Some Yeah, we've got the summon sleeper shifts.
It's some summon.
Uh you know, uh, every bit of strength that we have in this moment. I'm gonna close with with this Tosell Richards because I co chair the newly named Reproductive Freedom Caucus, which used to be the Pro Choice Caucus, and Cecil Richards was an incredible partner in that fire.
You know.
You know her from Planned Parenthood, the daughter of former Texas Governor Ann Richards, and she recently died from brain cancer. And she was out there organ rising and fighting even.
Though she was sick. And people said, what are you doing here?
And she said, because in the future they'll pose the question, what did.
They do when everything was at stake for the country?
And she said, the only acceptable answer is everything, everything we could.
So I get it. Y'all.
Y'all feel like you're losing everything, so you want to know that we're willing to risk it all to.
Put it on the line, and I am.
We love you for it.
Love you.
Thank you so much. Yes, stand with them to tell them we stay with them.
You ball, you know they take so much time to pain from Boston.
Yes, thank you got your back.
They thank you for joining the Natives attention of with the info and all of the latest rock gulum and cross connective to the statements that you leave on our socials. Thank you sincerely for the patients reason for your.
Choice is cleared, so.
Grateful and took to execute roads.
Thank you for serve, defend and protect the truth, even if paint and walking home to all of the natives, we thank you.
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