Hey y'all, I want to let y'all know that you can get more Small Doses. Yes, I am now doing weekly Small Doses bonus episodes, and they are from my people at the Seale Squad. So if you ain't getting enough of this, baby, there is more for you. This is a little taste of what you get. Of course, folks have been trying to come for me as if I was like the only person saying that this thing was staged, fascinating. And when I say staged, I want to be clear what
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doses, Small Doses bonus episodes at patreon.com. Before we get into this week's episode of Small Doses podcast, you all have been asking me, when are you going to announce more tour dates? Well, the final few are here. Y'all, we are about to announce tour dates for Los Angeles, DC, New York, and Lena all coming soon. And you guys better get your tickets because this is the first time ever that I'm actually betting on myself, we are renting the venues. This is a true
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app together so to speak to really hit show with the best that I can. And on the other side of this is going to be my one woman show. So all of this has been leading up to my one woman show. What would the ancestors say, which will be premiering top of November? But before that, you got to get this. So go to AmandaSeals.com. Sign up for the newsletter. Keep a lookout for these new tour dates. I'm coming to DC. I'm coming to New York. I'm coming to LA. I'm coming to Atlanta. And of course tickets
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life. Otherwise, if you feel like you don't hear me talking about things and you're like, yeah, like she never spoke about or she never said or she never mentioned, perhaps you didn't listen to my radio show. We talk about everything on the Amanda Seals show. And that can be heard wherever you get your podcast and we're syndicated in several cities. You can also follow us on Instagram and YouTube at Seals. So whenever you think that I'm not talking about something, just know it,
anything I'm not talking about it. You just ain't heard me say it. All right, I said it somewhere and you know I'll be everywhere. Let's get into the next episode of Small Doses. So funky. Hello, welcome to another episode of Small Doses podcast. I just want to let y'all know that I just feel like what we're growing here at this podcast. I mean, and we've been here for six years, huh? And six years. What we continue to grow is a space where we are really platforming
not just the voices of people, but the work of people. So many people come to me and they say, oh my gosh, like I just feel like we need to do something. We need to do something. And my response is always, baby, there is stuff being done. Like there are people that have been at work, but they need more numbers, right? They need more numbers, not just in dollars, but they need more numbers
and bodies, any more numbers and brains, et cetera, et cetera. So what I'm hoping that comes out of bringing folks into this space is that you all actually do take the initiative after to follow up on their institutions that they work with and their organizations, et cetera, either to lend a hand to pass it on to someone you know that maybe works in that same space or that maybe is in that same city and it can be supported, et cetera. Like this is about not just nation building. It's about us
being a community and community requires folks to take that extra step of connectivity. So I just want to just put that preface out there because today we are joined by DeWanit Thompson of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. And I met DeWanit Thompson on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, honey, so it don't get more connectivity around the quality and equity than that. We were on the Edmund Pettus Bridge at the commemoration of Bloody Sunday and a good friend of mine, Cadea Stone, who you saw on side
effects of voting rights in Alabama say, you need to meet DeWanit Thompson. And within two seconds we were having the key key on this bridge. So I was so excited to be able to bring her on the show not just because she does incredible work, but also because I knew we'd have an incredible conversation. And she did not disappoint literally at the end of this one of our producers, Shirley said, that was a great interview. That was a great episode. I learned a lot. I learned a
lot. So that to me is where we are in the phase of revolution right now. We are in a learning phase. So many of us just don't know enough. And so that is one of the most effective ways that we can actually push things forward is to start learning what needs to get pushed forward. So I was really, really excited for this conversation. And it did not disappoint. So I know that you guys are going to be into it because the side effects of equity, we are watching as DEI is being dismantled.
We are watching as affirmative actions being dismantled. We are watching them literally try and say that in Trump's administration, where he to become president, the focus will be on anti-white racism as it relates to civil rights. And I, honey, I can't listen. That would take the last of my edges. And they're here. The baby hairs are here, but listen, I can't wrap my head around that
because it is so absolutely deplorable. And again, another example of these people taking something and flipping it, but this would be, I would say, and you correct me if I'm wrong, I would say this would be the most egregious flipping. We've seen little flips with woke with CRT now with DEI, but this is going to be their coup d'-grab. And people like Duana Thompson are working every day within their community to make obstacles for that flip and to create actual ground swells that
are working behind, staying the execution of this type of legislation, et cetera. I want to get into a gem drop, but I just want to point out that DEI and affirmative action, all these things, I just need to once again remind people, it was never about lowering a standard. It was always about expanding the options. That is what DEI affirmative action is about. If your only siphon of talent is the people that have always had the access, then you have a limited access
to talent. And it has always been white men who have the most access. So if you widen the access point and now instead of just this track going through, you got six different tracks going through, it still requires the same level of brilliance to get in. It still requires the same standards. It's just saying that we are looking at more candidates at that brilliance level than the ones we always have. That is what DEI affirmative action has always been about. Don't let them try to flip that.
Let's get into a gem drop. So today's gem drop is equality versus equity. You know, when we talk about equality, I think the difference between equality and equity, it seems like a very slim difference, but I want to talk about the nuance because I think what equity is, and to want to speak more to this, equity is simply saying everybody should have the same capability to get into the finish line. That's what equity is. There should not be obstacles whether
it's race, gender, disability, sex, sexual preference. None of these things should impede you from being able to have access to in this country the pursuit of happiness, right? What is it? Life love and the pursuit of happiness? Wealth love some, you know, these white people with they wrote. So that's the idea, the American dream, if you will. The thing about equality that I
think becomes a bit touchy is that it feels like it's always juxtaposed to whiteness. Whiteness as the benchmark and then everybody getting access to whiteness versus everybody getting access to equity. So like I as a black person should be able to get to the finish line and get to the goal without having to engage in whiteness in order to do it. Whereas equality a lot of times feels like this is the benchmark and we're just giving you access to this benchmark but via these same channels
which many people consider to be the problem with integration. Integration was not about expansion of ideas around culture, ethnicity, etc. No, integration was, well, we're just going to open this door and you can come in here. We're not going to make more rooms. We're just saying you can come through this door that we had for the white people and you can come through the same door. And that's why you see so many black people putting on a code of whiteness in order to get access to it because
equality was never about inclusion. That was everyone was about. It was only about letting you be down if you're going to do this this way. So now when you start seeing with the BLM movement, when you start seeing Barack Obama being president, etc. And you start seeing people being these spaces but being black, they're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, that's not we're not going to allow that. We're not going to allow that because we are a white place. We are a white country and the only
thing that we will allow is an upholding of white supremacy. And if you're going to come and get access to what we have, you have to be willing to hold that up. That to me is the difference between equality and equity as it exists today. That may not have always been the case, but when I look at what's happening right now, that's what I believe to be the case. And so when we ask for equality, the fact that we have to ask for it tells you everything tells you everything. Let's get into this
episode. We got Duana Thompson of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute joining us for Side Effects of Equity. Presenting a gain Flings Love Story. Dear love of my life, we were on the 12B bus this morning when I caught a whiff. A scent so fresh, so life-changing, I had to find its source. Alas, I didn't know if you were the woman in the pink freshly washed card again, or the retired male man next to me, but I knew one of you was my soulmate. Ah, the scent of gain Flings. Try
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matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com slash try. Welcome to another episode of Small Doses Podcast. I am very, I think that it's like I feel very lucky and fortunate to not I don't care about celebrities. I don't care. Like at this point, I've met everybody I wanted to meet. So I'm sure. But to me, I want to meet the folks who are actualizing a vision of a better
world. Right? Who are literally like, you know what? I mean, I'll talk about it. But let me just be about it. And so here we are. What do I want to talk to? Who is being about it? Some might say who is about it? About it. Right? Yeah. I'm from the staff. That's how we grow. I'm from the staff. So you know, side effects of equity. I feel like this is a very large broad. Yeah. Topic, which means that your work is a very large broad work, right? Like because there is so much inequity. Right?
That is true. So tell me first how you contextualize equity as a concept in America. I'll tell you that that actually changes from year to year based off of America. Because I'm a realist at heart and probably a realist in how I do my work, particularly because when you deal with community, if you aren't a realist, people will either call you a fake.
Because what you're saying and how you're addressing it doesn't show up in the way that they're experiencing life or experience and the thing, right? Or if you, you know, always talk in these theories, people are like, that sounds good, but, but you're not living on earth, right? Any changes, but equity for me is the practice of saying there is a path that you can take that unless you inhibit yourself, you have access to gain something, right?
That is the process of equity, right? It is as long as you do the work, there is an opportunity there. Anything outside of that is extra, but equity is saying that each one of us have the same opportunity to get to point eight to point B. Even if each one of us are starting from different places, right? Whether that's from privilege, whether that is from the fact that I'm working harder because I didn't have it. The reality is the past is equity.
The past should be that I can get where I'm trying to go if I do the work. That's not always the chase. And we know that because many of us do all the work is still thinking from point eight point eight and a half to point eight. So that's what equity looks like in a broad sense for me. It's opportunity that is uninhibited by anything other than my responsibility to myself. This is a question that we know the answer to, but I just want to hear you vocalize it.
What are some ways that equity is impeded in America? Or what are maybe not even some ways, but like what are some tools that are used to create inequity in America? Systemic doubt, right? Oh, what's this idea that I thought you were just going to go easy and be like race? No systemic doubt. Let me know. What's the systemic doubt is this idea, no matter who's saying it that it can't be done. So if the white person is telling the black person because of your race, this is impossible.
The point is the person I think is possible. So the doubt is implanted regardless, right? And if you never hear a message that you can actually do something different. The systemic doubt is always going to be a detiring. Where do we see that most readily, you know, play out? I remember when I was in college, I went to Berea College undergrad, which is in Kentucky.
It is a private liberal arts college, if you know or have ever heard about Berea, it started as an abolitionist school that the time that they would teach white and black students a lot.
What kind of you was some graduated from there, which is the father of black history. And in his book, the miss education of the Negro, he goes on to say that to teach a black person that his condition is hopeless and that his black faces occurs is the worst sort of lynching. And the point of that is, it's because you're basically telling me that there's nothing I can do to change my situation.
So in effect, you're saying systemic doubt will keep me from ever thinking that is possible. Right. So that's one of the ways I think that equity is inhabited the other way. Obviously gaps and resources, gaps in education, gaps and opportunities, the lack of succession planning in particular communities. Can you say that a little bit? What do you mean by succession planning?
Because I believe what was that? What was that charcoal hiccup? She said, you know, people don't always like to hear me talk about this, but I do believe. Well, you talking to somebody that is the most likeable, unlike you. I know you're right. Right. So this is a space because I know you're cool with it.
I think that because we don't always have the most dynamic power conversation or the idea of what power looks like that in a lot of our communities, we feel like power is holding on to this one thing and this one position until you die. And that's not power power is actually creating a space for multiple people to not only have access to your position, but to others to create change. Right.
And so if you don't have a radical context around succession planning, then essentially you are perpetuating a system that says it's not possible for you to move forward. So that is in effect something that deters equity, right, because you're not able to provide that that opportunity is not going to be available in the places in the spaces that we built for ourselves. So one of the things people ask me, doana is, okay, what do I do? What can we do? Right.
You know, and I really feel like a lot of times at this present stage, you just be feeling like, well, just at least learn because I feel like I feel like so much of what we're missing is even just knowledge of what we're missing. What are you in the work that you do? What is a day in the life of doana? Like, how does the work your do?
You know, I'm saying, like, how does it exist? Because the other part of this, like, in the, what do I do of things? Is that a lot of people don't know what other people are doing? Like they, they don't know and they kind of have an idea that it's like, oh, like their idea of it is like, Sean King, like, that's their idea. Amanda, okay. Which you, yes.
Well, I mean, I mean, that's a lot of people's idea of like, oh, like this is somebody that's like doing, but there are people like yourself who are in the trenches, like in a very different way. And I want to this. I'm an organizer. And I'm poor. There it is. Right. So I bring that to whatever space that I've been blessed to sit in. And to me being an organizer means bringing people into ideas in a way that they can own them, that they can execute on them.
And the way that they can see that idea, create an opportunity for change or whatever the thing is that we're going after, but we have to be organized into that moment effectively, and consistently. And so I say, I'm an organizer at heart. I had the benefit of learning from leaders like here at Bella Fonse and Angela Davis and John Lewis and others very early on in my life. And so, where's the context that you were able to learn from them? Like were you in an organization or great question.
So my very first job out of college, I was the community liaison for the Birmingham City Council to all 99 neighborhoods that we have here in the city of Birmingham. So I have been blessed as a high school student to meet at that time. She was the first black, Sudford Kirk judge. Her name is Carol Simeath and she's now back on the bench, but she was at that time on the city council.
And I was a 10th grader. And I would organize things even in high school. And she saw me in a 10th grade. And she said, I want to stick by you. I want to help create opportunities for you. I want to allow you to grow this natural thing that you have as an organizer. And then when you graduate from college, I'm going to have a job for you. She told me that black person white person Asian Latinx black woman, black woman first black circle court judge in the state of Alabama.
Oh, wow. And first black woman city council president, you know, an incredible individual, Carol Simeath and she kept her word when I graduated or off the cross the stage on Sunday. Monday, I was starting at the city of Birmingham. Right in the Birmingham City Council office. And in that role, my responsibility was to engage with communities and to engage with them around the concepts of what was happening in the city council, but also to hear from the community.
What were the issues so that I could take that back and sort of communicate on behalf of the community to the council upon post on right. Yeah. I've never seen myself as that, but yeah. That's a good share comparison. Okay. So in that, I also got an opportunity to be visible in ways that I probably never would have been as a 20 wire old.
Right. Right. She actually gets radical succession really clearly like back in the day when it wasn't even a conversation, because she was always like, go, I don't have to go, you go, I don't have to go, you go. So anytime there were opportunities for me to be in a room where I could learn where I could understand something different. She would allow me to space the the comments are or to go in her place.
And so I always have my hand off to her. However, around 2005, here about fun, say he had seen, he tells the story, he saw a nine year old, get arrested in a class one, and it was on the news. It angered him so bad that he woke up the next day and started an organization called the gathering for justice, which is now left.
I'm not looking at the rest is another dope leader. Right. He literally was like, Oh, tomorrow, this is what I'm doing. But the core of that was, and he called this gathering of he wanted all of these young leaders, and he had different partners that he knew that could identify young people all over the country. And he brought us together to Alex Hayley's farm to have this conversation. And he was like, let's make a lot of that. Like, you're going to be like, then double doors.
Okay, when did Harry, it's hologram appear to give you all the message because at this point, anything to happen. All right. So you're with Harry Belafonte. You're with the first black woman city council, first black circuit court judge. You then me Harry Belafonte just because you was dope.
Now you are Alex Hayley's farm. Okay. I'm keeping up because this is a ride in that space. I mean, other incredible leaders who are doing work now to be co-makers of the world, the kind of brezes of the world, the care changes of the world, all these individuals who do this work behind the scenes.
And I think what he told us, when he gathered us together, he told us two things that I will never forget. One, he told us that the agenda was to get an agenda. It wasn't his responsibility to tell us what the agenda was, but it was his responsibility to bring us in a space where we would be critical thinkers, where we would work with each other to figure out what are the ways in which we want to shift the dynamics of whatever the things were that we were going to organize around and to get an agenda.
And the second thing that he told us was that he apologized to us because he told us that his generation had been so busy trying to get their rights that they forgot to teach us the strategies on how to maintain them. So he said he wanted to spend the next, you know, what he felt like was the last part of his life teaching the strategies and investing in young leaders to take this work and do whatever and be planted wherever they felt they could make a difference.
And then he said, I'm being from Birmingham, Alabama, it's going to look different than somebody who's hearing this who's from Oakland, you know, for him or somebody that's different from, you know, New York, right. So when I had this experience, my thought was, okay, what difference can I make when I go back to Alabama to Birmingham.
And I had the platform of working for the city council and a leader like Carol Smith, and who said, oh, I'll follow you if this makes sense, you know what I mean. Right. I had the opportunity to really engage and learn how to organize from a very grassroots and effective way. So that's how I got started on my journey and on my path and how I realized from the very beginning that the agenda was to get an agenda.
And if I'm in the room, I don't want to talk a long time about how I'm just got stuff. What we doing. What's the plan? What's at stake? Because that's a very important, you know, how do we message what's at stake? How do we raise resources for what's at stake? How do we empower the folks that are going to do the work?
How do we get folks out of jail if they go and have to go to jail? Like I want them that send votes done. I want to come out of spaces that I work in saying we actually did something. We took something from A to B, even if we couldn't take it from A to Z.
That's what a typical day looks like for me. So even today, I started my day in a fourth grade of Mitch's school class with 90 to your old teacher, about the barbie young civil rights Institute. What the civil rights movement was wise, four little girls, lies, been taking from the message street back to start was important.
And what does that mean to them as a 90 year old and how they can be a superhero and change their community? That was at 9.30 this morning. I have been through several different iterations of leadership since that time to get to this moment. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Isn't it amazing that we live in a world where you can get practically everything you need when you need it right at your door. Well, with door dash, you can pretty much get everything.
You know, one time when I was working on the smart funny and black show, we had a team of writers and we were just so locked in that we forgot to order lunch and it was like, oh my gosh, we're on a schedule, we're on a time crunch, we're on a deadline, we can't stop, but we also do need to eat
boom, door dash and the clutch, that a room of brilliant writers got our brains working even sharpers that we could finish even faster and give you all a great show. So shout out to door dash for coming to the door, dashing to the door, I should say with the nutritiousness that we needed door dash, your door to more download the door dash app now to get whatever you need delivered must be 21 or older to order alcohol drink responsibly alcohol available only in select markets.
What's the scenario where you really feel proud about like the we came up with the agenda we carried it through and we saw the results. So I started an organization called woke vote in 2017 and I have to tell you Amanda, I have been blessed to work in some of the most I think for most people, respectable what they would consider respectable places I worked in the White House I've worked in Congress, I have worked for international races all over the world.
I have been able to sit with the most flexi episode we have ever had it's just all a flex flex, all over the place. Oh my gosh, but I say that to say I've always been very connected to my blackness and any of those spaces and very much unwilling to detach from it to try to move forward, right. If I can't be love out all of this, then I guess this was not the space for me, right.
And my dad taught me that you negotiate nothing out of fear, which means that anytime I'm doing something, if nothing else, I'm not afraid, right. I mean, I know or have all the resources, but I'm not afraid to move forward. When I was working for the Democratic Party, I was told when I got there that I would be able to do programming that I really felt like would be organizing work that centered leaders that were already doing the work to organize people on the ground,
even if it wasn't for the party necessarily, but they were leaders and they need a resources. I was told I'd be able to do this really like transformative programming. I wrote all of these strategies and concepts. And I was so excited because I left the White House where I was doing that kind of work for the small business administration and making sure that black small businesses knew about the billion dollar venture capital fund that we have that nobody seemed to know about all these things.
I'm like, I could see my work making a difference. I then go to the Democratic Party because they're saying, we need a dynamic person to come in and like work with black folk and all 16 at the time of our constituency groups. I was over all 16 constituency groups for the country, but a Democratic party.
I wrote 16 plans about how we can be intentional and engage, put money on the ground, stop coming to people with a hot dial two days before election, like all these things, how we can really build. And they told me that's the work that they hired me to do. And I never got to do any of it. And every day it was go down here and put out a fire that's based off of loosely. We told y'all one thing, but we're actually doing something else with this.
Basically what it wants down to we believe this, but we can't do this. And one thing about me, my name is everything to me, my credibility, everything to me. So it was probably about nine months in when I was like, yeah, this ain't going to work because y'all not having to go down here and talk to miss Martha and this back to like last time you can't you say something. And this was a lie. So I don't trust you double.
Like I'm not going to do that. My daddy, I passed. I can't you know, we mean something says. And so because of that, I decided I couldn't stay there. So I left. And I started working on what I felt like was the kind of work that I could be intentional about that I could lend and be proud to associate my name with. And that was to do full time organizing for the things that I felt like we're important as it relates to social justice, human rights and human dignity.
And in 2017, coming back to Bramie, which I've always advocated for people to get whatever they need, travel and see everything, but take care of home. Yeah. So I went back home, right. And there was an opportunity for at the time, there was a seat that was vacated by Jeffrey Boyer guy sessions. I'm sure you remember all this.
And somebody was like, Oh, Alabama is never going to be able to elect a progressive senator. That's just not going to happen. So we're not putting nobody down there. We're not doing all that. And I'm like, what do you mean we can't do it? You know, I know people who are organizing every single day. What are you talking about? I also put together 16 plans on how to do it. That never had you plan to do it.
And a girlfriend of mine, we literally were like, how are they? What are they looking at that is telling us why is the data so skewed for them? Because I deal in data. This is not feelings. This is not, oh, I just bleed. No, I can show you the hard facts, the hard data of how this can work. Your data looks different than mine because your data is lace with bites that mine is not.
So I talk for about seven months to people trying to get them to put money on the ground. Meanwhile, you know, people are like, Oh, I don't think it can happen. I will tell you that the election was in December. I didn't get resources to put on the ground until six weeks before the election. And we were able to turn out 100,000 black voters is six weeks and he got elected. We were able to do it. And that is what birth will vote. Right.
So that is the thing that I think is one of the things that I'm most proud of is that we proved when you invest and black and brown leadership, when you invest in people who are indigenous to their space and the understanding of their culture. We did not ever say the candidates name and to this day, vote vote does not advocate for candidates. We advocate for power for community power to we never say to people, you have to do this because somebody died.
Because we realized that there was a generation of people who don't connect with that because they don't even know the history, right, which is also systemic and also an impact to equity, not know on your own history. Right. And then three, we realized that I'm trying to ask the people to volunteer to do everything. So we put literally $2 million on the ground. Where did you get to million dollars from?
I need let me tell you angel investor who's still to this day doesn't want to be named took a chance. Here's what happened. He came down to brine me him because he had been hearing me litter everybody I caught everybody. Everybody I knew where money I called them and everybody who knew me to be a closer.
I mean, I worked for Barack Obama's campaign. I was just African American vote director in Florida in 2012. I was just geo TV lead for Florida in 2008, but I have wins under my bill. So when I call somebody and say I could do something typically they're like, yeah, we believe that the proof is that it did not believe right.
You know, but they can't believe it. And so, but I had raised so much noise that this guy called me and he said, hey, I'm a donor. The review is donor opportunities for an entity. And he said, you know, multiple people are telling me I should talk to you.
He said, I'm going to come to Birmingham. This is a Monday night. He was selling me this at like seven o'clock. He said, I'll be in Birmingham and three o'clock the next day. I'm willing to meet with you for a minute. I'm going to tell you right now. I really don't believe. It's possible, but I'm interested in here. What you have to say that night I wrote a 14 page proposal that night. You're just a show off. And that was a big day.
Can I just pause real quick? Because when we I forgot who we had on this show. I think it was Nicole Hannah Jones. Like, I love her. You had to push yourself. Yeah. And then it's not like this is something new, you know, particularly the black women. But I don't think enough people really understand that things happen because folks reach deep down into the reserves to pull it out. Like it's not casual.
This shit happens. It's not it really requires like sometimes just having to go extra and really having to ask more of yourself than you've ever had to ask. Really. I'm so much for doing that. Thank you for your service. Thank you. And I had I want to shout out. I had an intern or really I call her my executive assistant in my believer.
Her name was or I mean with a name like my entire. Oh, listen, she had been my entire that the DNC and when I left, she left. It was like wherever you go, I'm going. That's just I said, I'll take her. You know, and she when I told her, I was like, oh my God, I got.
You know, less than 24 hours to try to write this because he wanted to see how it would work. Okay. Right. Not your idea in the sky. How you got this much. How would it work? So I had to write out the field plan. I had to write out all of the different pieces. But I do believe. And this is why I'm such a big proponent of being prepared for your divine moment because not every moment is a divine moment. But you got to be prepared when it does show up.
Like it slowed. Like I just wrote for four or five or six hours. I would write or what type. I would write or what type. And then we were viewing and be like, do you think that she would check my numbers. I'm checking my numbers. I mean, it was an all night thing. I presented to him the next day. He looked at me and was like, I'll be honest with you. I never really thought I would take this seriously. But I'm really interested in this.
But so much of that is that you demonstrated your passion in a way that made him feel safe that at the end of the day. This is who's at the helm. You know, maybe I don't know, but she know. And she said together. That's exactly what he said. He said, I still don't want to call me that some of you that were giving me the money. They said, Amanda, we still don't know if you could pull this out. But we want to give you the opportunity to try.
Maybe in trying that we in fact, the night we won. He called me and he said, we are in awe. He was like, we just ran out. And it's not me. You know, I want to say, it took a lot of work for that to happen. It was not me. It took teams all over this state. Let's
say that the ground was doing our work before they, you know, we love what I should Adrian Sharpshire. Like these were people who were on the ground doing their very specific components. It took all of us doing that work. But just mention I just said to other black women. Yes, ma'am.
And you who were leading an imposition to do the work and who were advocating and saying this can happen. And the crazy thing about this, Amanda, we did all of that work. Got him in there. And then. And this is why I'm probably not the most popular and not always making the magazines like some of my colleagues. And I also didn't have to take him out. Right. Because he didn't do. I won't say take him out. Well, you have a account. You didn't get reelected. You held him again.
And reelected. Right. And I think that is a lesson that leaders on both sides, whether it's, you know, Republican Democrat, whatever needs to understand this next generation of politicals of activists freedom fighters. You all get too many chances with us. Right. Like it's like do the work.
And remember who put you there. We don't have your back. But if you're not going to do it, we're going to find another way to get this thing done. And I have a lot of respect for Dev Jones, because he's also the attorney who brought charges against the gentleman who bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church, it was finally able to get justice for those families.
He is an incredible figure and leader here, but in that moment, communities felt like we were not being represented in the way that we expected once we did all this work to get that seat. And so I think it's just a tale, particularly where we are in this particular election cycle. Like, you know, things are going to have to happen. We definitely need to think about the impact this election will have on our communities. But we definitely still holding you all accountable while way it doesn't.
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Yeah, isn't it amazing that we live in a world where you can get practically everything you need when you need it right at your door. Well, with door dash, you can pretty much get everything. You know, one time when I was working on the smart funny and black show, we had a team of writers and we were just so locked in that we forgot to order lunch.
And it was like, oh my gosh, we're on a schedule. We're on a time crunch. We're on a deadline. We can't stop. But we also do need to eat boom door dash and the clutch.
Then a room of brilliant writers got our brains working even sharpers that we could finish even faster and give you a great show. So shout out to door dash for coming to the door, dashing to the door, I should say with the nutritiousness that we needed door dash your door to more download the door dash app now to get whatever you need delivered must be 21 or older to order alcohol drink responsibly alcohol available only in select markets.
Is your vehicle stopping like it should doesn't squeal or grind when you break don't miss out on summer break deals at O'Reilly auto parts. I mean, I think that's something that so many people are talking about these days is this idea of what does holding an elected official accountable even look like, right?
You know, there's there's so much inequity in these elected officials and kind of just their ability to show up. I mean, what I've been really trying to drive home for folks is you need to really pay attention to your state senators and your state representatives.
Anything from the governor down is really important right now this Supreme court keeps saying it's about states right states right states right that that that that which is really just another it's a dog whistle for segregation and other oppressive measures but you're a visionary. So where do you have or do you have any vision around like ways in which we can hold. Any of these lawmakers accountable beyond simply not electing them.
So again, I'm a realist so I always start especially with my young people and explaining to them how to power met their community how to power back the media systems that they're part of. Number one, you got to know what all the roles do in order to hold somebody accountable right because I think one of the things.
I mean, so we don't hold on to the exact you did right which I thought was great and I hope that people taking your footsteps but I think teaching people like to your point here is what the role does so that we can then determine is this person being effective or not is one thing.
However, you have to be doing I tell this people other time I love the people who say burn everything down and will start over. I have many of those people in my world to say that and I'm like great so what happens to the people who was already burning before we burn it down.
Like we can't just do that right so we have to do multiple things at one time so in this one side holding accountable and one laying holding accountable means being at meetings here and what they said that they were going to do calling into question if they didn't do it.
Following the budgets, volunteering when there's an opportunity for you to actually have voice and make a difference in that space taking part in that civic opportunity as a citizen that's one role right to hold them accountable because that's very direct in the place.
Obviously in that role is also voting people in and out depending on what they do one of the other lanes is building the bench of folk who believe like we believe who have been trained who have a context of equity who have a context around justice who have a context around human dignity and who like we and you are not willing to take whatever the opportunities are just to say we've got that opportunity but we're only going to do this if it makes sense.
We got a trained that group of leaders and position and the VA but the safety seats when we vote somebody out because if she really has not been that we can't get access to the seat the issue that we don't have a bench to continue the play right so you have one person that we get that actually might move the needle from a to be but there's nobody there when that person's you know done or if we have to take them out to step in and finish the play yeah right so that you start all the way over so you can go to the other side of the street.
So you have to build a bench of individuals who have an equity mindset as if you're a I could say who's a brilliant equity expert she has a book out that talks about the equity mindset you have to build that in a way that allows us to take advantage of the opportunities as we're recycling people in and out and then you about have a lady who would say and imagine a world where all of that is different who are coming up with the plan for if we didn't have that.
If we didn't have to have a share of what would that actually look like if we didn't need this you know ruling body what would that look like we can't just burn it down and we all had a plan right so all three of those things to me look like holding not only elected officials accountable but holding ourselves accountable to again the agenda right we go all way back to what hair about a fun they said the agenda is to get an agenda the agenda is going to be multiple things that multiple times and I love it.
And I love that it can be that because not everybody's built for the same thing I was on the streets calling for justice for George Floyd and Brianna Taylor in a mind Aubrey but I never went to jail I couldn't afford to go to jail because in the roles that I lead if I go to jail somebody doesn't get a check somebody families impacted all that but I'm grateful to know that
if you don't know how you are going to addressed this, you need to look over to theuel from your people who are in third place. who have taken on the weight of that responsibility. They are justice critically and necessary as those of us who understand data, who understand policy, who understand how to set an agenda.
They are just as important as individuals like yourself who has the ear and the eye-slacky of an incredible amount of people who can formulate and have people to think around ideas and opportunities. Whether they like you for or not, whether they appreciate you or not, you've taken on that incredible responsibility as a creative and as a leader. And if I haven't said it, we appreciate what comes along with that. We appreciate the good days.
Is this, we appreciate the days where you want to tell all of these folks, y'all can hand me. Not thank you. Because I've been there. So we got your back, but we need you. And everybody has a role to play in imagining equity and actually seeing equity come about. Thank you. And I say same. What most discussed you today about the way DEI has been defamed. The bandit. Because I'm just asking for today. Because I know for me every day is a new one.
So what today would you say got you annoyed, bothered, in a tizzy around how these people have just bastardized, man-handled, hoodwinked, and run them up, DEI? So in my role at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, our first responsibility is to preserve the history of what happened during the Civil Rights Movement, specifically in the city of Birmingham and surrounding areas.
OK. So the reason why I think that is incredibly important and a way to answer this question is because if we don't own our narratives, people will tell us what we did or did not experience. They will erase it as we see. They will twist it to their benefit, you know, whatever it may be. So here's the side. Like if you don't write your story, they'll kill you and say you liked it. This end. And so we have to be in the real business of preserving.
Yes. And that's one of the things that I love that I get to do in this role. We have over 1,200 oral histories of first accounts of individuals who were there when something happened. OK. We work with foot soldiers every day who were there. But what we also have to realize is that preserving our history and our narrative isn't something that we need to do from the 1950s and 1960s.
But we got to preserve for what we do in the last 12 months because they're literally taking our narratives and changing them. So it is incredibly important. We tell our legacy students who are high school students that go through our programming here at the Institute, what's going on right now in the context of justice, human rights, human dignity? Do we need to be preserving right now? What ideas? What concepts? What names?
You know, what experiences do we need to be preserving and putting in a time castle right now so that we can still own and understand these things? And so what irks me to my core quite frankly is the fact that there are those who will take something like the word woe, which I feel like I tell people out of time. I didn't work too hard under the name of woe to change it because somebody else decided what else is going to be. No, woe vote is woe vote. Woe vote is woe vote.
His mama called me play and I called him play. That's exactly what it is. But the fact that those who have worked with me, because it's not Martin Luther King, listen, we coming up on the anniversary of Martin Luther King's letter from a Birmingham jail, April 12th, I believe, is the date. Here we do a recitation of the letter and we have different people from the community to talk about it.
The actual jail cell bars that he wrote the letter from are in the building that I'm sitting in right now. In that letter, he calls the question, not folk that we know is crazy. But the silence of the folk that's supposed to be on the side of right. And what I've been most discouraged by is those who have been saying that they're on the side of right.
And now, because somebody had been told you that vote means something different, you have decided to forget the years that we worked together, the work that we've done under the same brand. And now because somebody has told you when somebody is making it hard for you to feel comfortable now with the word woke or diversity or inclusion or equity, now you don't always, you can fund or you can partner or you can stand with. Am I not the same person? Right. Am I not a woman? That was a journalist.
I don't understand. So that is what I think, because I, again, I'm a realist, I expect crazy to do what crazy to do. Yes, I expect naysayers to be naysayers. I'm happy and I'm thankful when that's not the case, but I'm prepared when it is always the case. Right. And so I don't necessarily have a problem with agitators being agitators, they doing their job.
What I have a problem with is if we don't work together, if I prove in my work, if I prove in what this means, if you had a very clear understanding of what this is, and now because individuals who we know are divisive, who we know are only doing this so that they can have a new platform by which to include or I guess exclude others so that they can have a way to double down on power that they are losing. Now you got a problem with the word, well, this one I need you the most. Right.
This is what we saw when we was opposed to being woke. My Lord. Wake up right here, right now. This is it. So that's what I think has really hurt, or just I think really been the most frustrating is the silence of our friends. And not so many, that even is from, you know, in the worlds that I have, I don't always get to say and do everything I would like to do.
I can't always say what is my personal thoughts on certain things because I realize the impact that that could have on the spaces that are the most safest for the people that I serve. So when you think about the conversation on Israel and Palestine, there's not much that I can say about that, but I will tell you that sometimes I too feel that I am silent when I should be more loud. And it is a hard thing to do.
So I understand that there are those who may be situated in a hard place, but I can guarantee you it is not all. And I can guarantee most of the people who are supporting, who are supporting methods like woke, vote in other organizations. They have the resources and the opportunity to be loud in the same way that they had the resources and the opportunities to be loud right now. It's a decision.
Yeah. Right. And so I'm hoping that we all find myself included spaces where we can speak truth to power even if our voice is shake. Hmm. Well, our following is very loud and they have questions for you. Okay. And they are speaking with a steady voice. But they're shaking their table. I can only imagine. So let's head on over to our Patreon shout out to the SEAL squad. If you want to get these bonus questions, you know what to do.
Subscribe to Patreon and join the Amanda verse and be a member of the SEAL squad. Our daughter, Jessie, loves playing detective. A clue. But since we discovered she has sensitive skin, we've been playing detective too. We thought the problem was our puppy. But it was actually our old detergent. Uh-huh. So we switched to tide-free and gentle. Tide cleans better than the leading competitive free detergent and it doesn't leave behind irritating residues.
Plus, tide-free and gentle has no dyes or perfumes, so it's gentle on her skin. Case closed. If it's got to be clean, it's got to be tide-free and gentle. Yeah, isn't it amazing that we live in a world where you can get practically everything you need when you need it right at your door? Well, with door dash, you can pretty much get everything.
You know, one time when I was working on the SmartFunny and Black show, we had a team of writers and we were just so locked in that we forgot to order lunch. And it was like, oh my gosh, we're on a schedule, we're on a time crunch, we're on a deadline, we can't stop, but we also do need to eat boom, door dash, and the clutch, that a room of brilliant writers got our brains working even sharper so that we could finish even faster and give y'all a great show.
So shout out to door dash for coming to the door, dashing to the door, I should say, with the nutritiousness that we needed. Door dash, your door to more. Download the door dash app now to get whatever you need delivered. Must be 21 or older to order alcohol. Drink responsibly, alcohol available only in select markets. The last dose. Before we go, how much of the institute's work would you say is reforming and how much of it would you say is revolutionizing? Well, I think that's a good question.
Well, I mean, say this, I am blessed that the board of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in the mayor of the city of Birmingham said we are excited to have a person like you elite the institute because I don't necessarily, the institute is not a political organization, right? It's a historic civil rights organization that practices in preserving culture and also training the next generation of storytellers, historians and advocates, right?
It's not necessarily a place where we are sharpening the next person who's gonna run for a political office, right? We are sharpening the way in which you should think critically about issues. And so we are an education facility, we are a research facility, we are an advocacy facility for multiple things. And my firm work at Black Equity Strategy and Trust where I lead work around the idea of how we create systems that don't just do good, but they do that well, right?
We know a lot of people who want to show up and do things, but they don't put the process in place for it to actually be effective and efficient. And so they're doing good, but they're not doing it well. And I'm not always able to be as revolutionary as I would think at the institute, but I am able to add revolution as an opportunity for our students and to have them think about revolution in a way that is not tainted by this idea that revolution or being a revolutionary is a bad thing.
We get to plant the seeds of what good revolutionaries look like. What Angela Day was looks like, like these are, you know, bi-mosis is what they look like. You know, the Stuckley Carmichains, we get to tell you why they would be ahead of their time, right? And so we get to do that work. And then my other work with Wokefold and Black Equity and the other places that I get to be, I get to radicalize the work that I do in terms of training on the institute side.
So I'm very blessed to be able to operate in that way. And I think the institute being a 32 year old organization, what it does is gives me and those who work here and those who come in the door, it gives us a validity to the work, right? It gives us a way of saying, we've done, and we've been here, you can trust us. This is a sacred space for you to ask your hard questions. It's a sacred space for you to deal with what you believe the truth is.
It's a sacred space for you to break and dismantle ideas that you've been told and then to rebuild the idea of what's possible. And all of that can happen here. And in itself, that is revolutionary. There you have it. In itself, it is revolutionary. How can people learn more or where can people get more information about the institute? Absolutely. So you can follow us on everything at B-Ham Silver Rights. So all of our work is on B-Ham Silver Rights. Our website is www.bcr.org.
Likewise, you can find us with WokeVote everywhere. WokeVote.us. And then I am I am the one on Instagram. I am not the biggest person on social media, but I certainly will interact. But you can find Burnham Silver Rights Institute and WokeVote on all of those spaces. And we'd love to engage. We do leadership and training developments every year. We've got a fellowship that's coming up all across the country. So we're really excited if you're interested in a paid fellowship.
Please reach out to both WokeVote and to the Burnham Silver Rights Institute. We're excited to have you. All right. Well, thank you so much. We were and we are excited to have you and to continue to support your work, Duane. I appreciate you, Amanda. Thank you so much for the work that you're doing. We support you, sis. Thank you. Thank you.