State of the Nation

down focused on joining a sisterhood. And as of this past weekend, I am now a proud member of the Alpha halfa Alpha sorority incorporated beside dya O'naga chapter in Knoxville, Tennessee.

I'm super happy and in this weekend in one of them most incredible things that could have happened to me among forty one beautiful women who are now my sisters, um our International President, who holds the highest position within the sorority, came to Knoxville to be at our ceremony and she also penned me um, which is really special.

The person that pens you is a current a k a. A member for some time who you asked to come and pen you as a new a k A. And uh, you know, I was privileged to have our international president, Glenda Glover to do that. And I believe that you know, she uh you know, sees me as someone who's a real leader and someone who is trying to make change for our community. And I found out over the last several weeks that this is the sorority of Rosa Parks UM, and so I am proud to be in in her stead,

you know, and and following in her her footsteps. So that happened to me this past weekend. Congratulations, man, you know that's it sounds like something that UM is worthy, that you're worthy of, first of all, and you know that's it's something that's dope. I don't really followed the or I gotta get into that, you know, you know,

I gotta learn a little. But you know, it seems like I know, I've seen a lot of the pictures that you posted, you know, a lot of the women, and I hear a lot of women that we know who are part of the fraternity, and that Garrett Subart Brock apologize the man. I don't know I can say either. I'm learning, Yes, yes, family members, family members. I have friends,

a lot of women. All of them are upstanding, you know, dope women, so you know, and you're supposed to be a part of so congratulation the a k A s Um this is they were the first sorority, first sority, so it's the first family and um, everybody else came after us. So I'm proud to be a part of that.

We're pink and green, we get twenty pearls UM. And I have a lot of people who are in the Divine nine in general, so just so you know, as a part of education, the Divine nine includes all of the different sororities and fraternities, the stigmas and the zetas and the deltas um, they're all a part of the Divine nine. So it is a family of people who

are in the Greek letter to organization. UM. But you know there are specific entry points, if you will, and homes that we have and mine is a k A. But I have lots of friends who are deltas and zatas and I love them all, so you know, it's a it's a yet another phase in my life. You know, turned forty years old and a lot of things happened for me, the release of my book State of Emergency, UM. You know me joining UH this sorority. So you know,

life is in progress. UM. Life is about both your I think it's it's it's got to be about your personal and your professional and our communities and just making sure that you stay grounded in all of those things. UM. And I know that there are people out there who say, well, what do the Greek letter organizations do for me? And you know, how are they involved? And I thought about that a lot because I do want to ensure I'm also a Link, which is another organization that has lots

of professional women. You have to be invited to become a LINK. I'm very proud of being in that organization as well. And one of the things about the way that UM white supremacy operates, in the way that laws and rules have been established, is that in order to maintain your five oh one C three status, you have to be very careful about how politically engaged you are in particular issues. And that's not just UM sororities and fraternities.

That's any five O one C three organization UM, which includes churches, UH, and you know some of these foundations and otherwise, so you have. They're very very strict on

the rules of how you can be politically engaged. You have to be very careful not to be lobbying or supporting candidates under your C three status, and so oftentimes there is conflict and conflict that I am one who intends to be a real advocate for us, looking at ways to change it and pushing it as close as possible to um making sure that we're not so caught up in our incorporation status that we are less concerned or or or not as much engaged in our community status. Right.

So I'm one of those people who will definitely be fighting for that. But what I will say is that while people may not be wearing their colors right because pinky green is my color and the adults is have red and blue, and you know, different ones have different colors, the one thing that you do see is that many of the people out here fighting, from Dr King to Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee to uh as I said, Rosa Parks,

and the list goes on and on. Even people who are currently on the ground today, they are members of these of the Divine Nine. Ben Crump. These are people who are members of the divine nine. But you don't necessarily see their colors on them at a protest. But people should not think in any way that it means that those individuals are removed from the movement, because they

are very much so engaged UM. And I think what we have to find a way to do is to be able to show more of those individuals and their support that is notwithstanding or that is that is separate and apart from the exact you know, the organization, but allows them to be to let it be known that we, as we may be, were members UM. But nonetheless I'm not here in an official capacity, but as a member, I do still support my community, and that's you know, it's a it's a tough balance and we have to

figure it out. But I think that's one of the reasons why I was invited is to help us figure out in such crazy times, how do we not us as an a k A. Not just in that organization, but in all of our organizations, find ways to help even more to fight for our communities. Well, congratulations, and I know that if that can be done, then you're

gonna get it done. You know. I look forward to seeing the engagement of the divide none in our community, you know, led by you know, efforts that I know that you definitely hold them too, because you ain't gonna to the run and play. I don't have to say something here and then what stuff is going on there visible right there on the hill constantly engage in Congress and they're they're doing those things. But there's a style that we like and and and that's where the conflict

comes in that people want a certain style. And I think, you know, it's a testament to what the a k a s are attempting to do by bringing more people like me into the organization. So I'm excited about my UM journey, this new journey in my life. So you know what I was thinking about today, it's totally off topic for this show that we have coming up, and that you and you know that you know, the the guests that we have that we're going to be bringing

on today is really really important. In fact, we decided not to have two guests because sometimes when we try to fit in the two guests piece, it seems like it just cuts um the ability to really focus hone in And I think as we're getting into this political season,

which politics is every season. But this is about to be a real um uh, it's gonna be a heavy lift for people, especially since they got nothing to claim that they've done for us and for our commune of these and we've but people still are in elected office. There's still work to be done, and so we're giving um the the gentleman that's coming on with us today full time to be able to talk to us. So um. But as just this other sort of crazy thought that

came to me. So lately, I've really been trying to take care of myself. I am trying to eat better. I'm trying to uh, you know, drink my teas and just do all the things that's necessary for my body, my mind and my spirit. Because you know, at forty, which I don't know if you experience is or not, because you're very, very healthy, but I know, especially for women, once we turned forty, we begin to see real shifts,

Like you know that I've gotten older. It's not a bad thing because I feel the sexiest and the brightest and the best that I've ever felt, because I'm grown for real now. But I still can also sense that my body is telling me, hey, we gotta change some of our habits. We can't eat and get in the bed, you know, we gotta do things different. So I'm just I was thinking as I had to pack. I was traveling, um and I had to pack my teas because you

can't find tumeric. You know. It's like we live in a society that this is not what they serve us, right. You can't go to the McDonald's and get some tumoreric ginger and pineapple tea that do with inflammation in the body. They don't have that. They don't have whole foods everywhere. We go to food deserts where you might not even be able to find a good supermarket. So I'm like packing teas and packing cranberry fills and doing all of that, and I'm like, why is it that everything that's good

for us? This is really my put of the day. Why is it that everything that's good for us taste so damned? Dad? Like everything that's like really really good for you, they tell you eat avocado. I hate avocado. All of this stuff that's like super super good for you, it doesn't taste good. I was like thinking, watermelon, ca I'm gonna eat fruits to me, eat watermelon, eat this I mean that people are like, that's a bunch of sugar. This is what I like. Everything that's really good for

you doesn't really taste that good. Yeah, I think. I think it's because we've trained I would taste buzz. Because you don't know what tastes good until you actually start training your taste buzz. And that's why different people, different cultures eat different foods. They've trained their taste buzzs to a certain seasoning, certain flavors. You know, some kids, I've watched my man's daughter. She's been vegan her whole life.

She never ate meat. You understand I'm saying, so trying to meet trying to stop my kids from getting chicken. It's like cutting their head off. They're like, what, no chicken? Chicken? So when you're trying to stop when you when you give them something and you your taste, but get trained to it. It's really hard to retrain your taste. But especially at forty, you know you've been eating what you've been eating. You know how you want your food season

you know how your mother usually cooked it. If there's a taste, but a sensation that comes from that. So now you're trying to give your body. Things that ain't seasoned, ain't got no sugar in it, and all of this stuff is excuse me, I eat season I ain't. I ain't. I ain't get all the way there yet. You know, I think there's another transition probably around fifty that you have to go through of some other things. But for now, I don't. I'm not saying I want like, I'm not

one of these people that add salt. I don't believe in like getting the salt and adding it to my food. I don't. I see people put salt on like fried chicken. Then you know you're killing yourself if you actually put grains of salt on your fried food or on your steak. I try not to do that, but I definitely want to eat food that tastes good. Yeah. What I'm trying to say is your definition to taste good comes from, you know, these taste buzz being exposed to certain seasons

in in foods, your whole life. So it's it's gonna be a process man retraining, retraining your body to do what's best for it instead it was best to it. It's very hard, just like rest rest you when you're sitting there and you're not doing nothing. You relax. It ain't the most healthiest for your body all the time because if you're not working out certain muscles, you're not moving them. The pain that comes with it, you don't like it. It's like, yo, I don't want to be

in pain. But you see the results, so you gotta you gotta balance. It's just like even in food, you gotta balance. You gotta give yourself a little bit of the stuff that you know taste good, but the majority of it got to be the stuff that's best for it. Yeah, well, we need to take you know what we should do.

We should We should rent a kitchen studio set up and let Capra come and show us, because she keeps telling me if you have black rice and you cook it with instead of water, you cook it with chicken bra it adds taste to it. Now, that's one of the things that my my mom when she was diagnosed with diabetes many years ago, and they changed everything, they

changed the way they cook. They didn't she didn't take the medicine route, which is why you and I argue so much about the vaccine and COVID and this and that in the third but you know good and well that from my family's perspective, they're not like run to get a flu shot and vaccine type of people. They're just not never have been. When my mom was diagnosed with diabetes, instead of them saying, okay, let's take all of this medicine, she took what she absolutely had to

and the rest of it. It all came from them throwing out everything that was in the refrigerator and changing the way they eat, the way they seasoned food, all of that, so now everything is low sodium. They have found different brands um and ways that they cook. And sometimes I'm not gonna lie, you know, I taste some stuff and I'll be like, dange, this is really you know, it's kind of it's not as it's not as um,

it's not as a season to your point. But but still they have found a way to make their food taste pretty good and pretty much the same but using different and more healthy um options and Kepra that is her position that you can make all of it tastes good, you just have to know how to cook it. And I think we should shoot a show that is on health that really just kind of shows us what it is that we need in order to be healthy since you're already into it. But I'm learning now and I

think that would be do you know. She's definitely dope in that regards and just telling you it's healthy mentally, physically, spiritually. So I'm definitely old for that. Man. We gotta get kept up here and give us a little class, give us a class. So my son, as usual, we have a friend that is joining us on street politicians today. UM. You know, I don't know. I think we gotta find a way to brand that our friends are joining us because we have so many friends doing really really powerful things.

And I'm really today, I'm I'm star struck. You know, I don't get star struck about a lot, but I'm star struck because the person that's joining us, UM is someone that is very powerful, very brilliant, UM and very much so committed to our people, our communities. And I'm so happy that I watched UM as my mom. You know, right around the time that he was running for office, my mom had had her stroke. She was UM, you know, just kind of like getting herself back in in in place,

if you will, and moving around in her community. And when it was time for her to go out and vote, that day. She was like, no, I don't want to do absentee, I don't want to do any of that. I want to go to the polls for this young man because I believe in him. Um, and that's none

other than Congressman Jamal Bowman of the Bronx. Now there's a history here, because, Um, this is a man who went from being a founding principle at a middle school, being a BRONX site, living in public housing before that, and now becoming the Congressman for the sixteenth district in the Bronx and also joining the squad members in Washington,

d C. As a real bona fide progressive. Um. And you know onitial we talk about radical progressiveness because there is there's some people who say they're progressive and I don't know what that means. But this man is really truly progressive and it has a radical vision for our community. So Congressman Bowman, thank you so much for joining us. Sir,

thank you so much for having me. Um. I am starstruck because your leadership in our community for several years, if not decades, has been transformative and inspiration for me, particularly your work and your leadership with the Woman's march Um when it first happened, and so appreciate you and my son love you brother man. We were talking offline about how you came to the school and did a

mediation with our students when I was a principal. Thank thank you for that, and thank you for your joint response to join the Lucas and that bs he put out, Dan, what was the name of that song? Um? What was Damn? I'm not a racist. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your response. I listened to that ship like twenty times, you know, so really appreciate that. Thank you both for what you're doing. Thank you for having me. Thank you man. It's a is you to be able to just see

you elevate to this space. And just like you said, you know, I went to your school when you were a steam principal, man, and just the way the way that you brought me into the school. You know, it was unconventional, but you understood the times that were and you understood that we need different methods and different ideologies

understanding to get to our kids. Like there was a there was a confusion with two rival games kids, right, and and it was just because they lived in different neighborhoods. It was they didn't even have their own personal beat because when we tried to roll it down, roll back what it was, it was like, well, that's just a way did this problem start? Well, they from here and we from there, and he said something to me one day and then you know, we just naturally even beating.

I said, so when did it start? They said, I don't even know when it be so like they couldn't even tell me what the exception of this quote unquote beef that they had started. And you know, we rolled back. We got a lot of a lot of accomplished that day, you know, and it was just it was based on your leadership as a principal. So I just want to say congratulations. And all the work that you do definitely

motivates and inspires us as well. You know, you are a you know, I call you Jamal, but I'm gonna trying to call me Jamal. He's our friends. We can't, but you know you are. You are hip hop head like you you and you know what's going on you in the culture, So that makes it all the better. And I know you don't have a lot of time today because your team they've already told me don't play myself, So let's let's move it along. And I want to what we're trying to figure out. What we've now already

talked about some of your early stuff. And I think people need to do some research because what often happens in our community is that people say, well, oh no, he's already you know, he's a congress but he don't understand, he don't get it. But understanding where you come from, um, you know, knowing that you at one point lived in pulp the hows and understanding your your journey through the Bronx becoming a principle, bring people like my son into

your school, which I didn't know about. So this is new information for me as well. Um, and now going to Washington, it would seem that's the story we're trying to really replicate in our communities over and over again. And UM, now what we're trying to figure oall? Since you're there, we celebrated you. Now we need to go to the effect that we mad at all of y'all because ain't not happening. So tell us what why is there so much? Uh? Some people want to say stalling.

I'm at the point where I just I'm I don't even know the appropriate word to describe what how frustrated I am about the lack of action in Washington on policing, you know, now, voting rights, um, and just so many other things. So why don't you just kind of you talk, well, listen, yeah, so, Um. The short answer is Republicans don't want to do anything at all. And then we have a few Democrats who

behave like Republicans. And you've heard the names Mansion in Cinema and the way the Senate works, and because we have such a thin majority, if Mansion and Cinema aren't on board, even through a reconciliation process where all we need is fifty votes, then we can't move anything like that. That's the short answer. The longer answer is the filibuster.

So the filibuster was put into place several decades ago, pretty much designed to stop civil rights legislation from moving forward and to uh acquiesce um to Southern Democrats who lived in racist KKK driven communities, and so any civil rights legislation we try to move forward, the filibuster, which means we need a super majority sixty votes in the Senate to pass legislation is still in place because of that, you know, vote in rights, UH S one and as four,

UH common sense, gun reform, um, immigration policy, all of those policies that have already passed the House. And that that's the thing, like it's it's not all of Washington. It's like the House passed these bills aready. Now it gets to the Senate, and each Senator, especially with the majority, is almost like a president. They could they could dumb up a thumb down a bill and the bill will not will not go anywhere. So that that's the short answer.

The longer answer, and what you and I have talked about offline, Tamika, is we as a community, I don't think are doing enough to really build coalition and wield and use the coalition to engage Congress and the White House and to build power in Congress and the White House. And I'm saying that because and we talked about this, there are other groups and other lobbies in Washington, the Fraternal Order, police, fossil fuel industry, pharmaceutical industry, etcetera, etcetera.

They'll make a couple of calls and literally we'll be voting on the bill on Tuesday. That we didn't know about on a Monday, because people may some calls or they'll get a bill pulled. UH that we was like, yeah, I thought he's gonna vote on this, and they're like, and now we decided not to not to not to put that forward, they'll get it pulled on the same

day as well. So the consistent engagement of members of Congress underneath around a black agenda, if you will, agenda to uplift poor people and everything we're fighting for is what's needed, both in the short term and the long term. So it's very frustrating. Now good news is dis Reconciliation package that we're working on right now. It seems like we're making forward progress in a way that's going to really benefit the entire country, but particularly communities of color

and black communities. Investments in affordable housing, public housing, housing vouchers, UH, universal childcare, Medicare, Medicare and Medicare, and expansion three K programs client. So this bill has a lot in it, and the American Rescue Plan also had a lot in

it as well with with investments in public education. But in terms of overall, you know, Congress isn't responsive to like our demands or agenda, if you will, because I think we need to do a better job of organizing around their building coalitions underneath that agenda and then using it to reel power in Congress through the CBC and

other means as well. Is it frustrating for you being a congressman who got elected and on the right things for to do the right things and watching, you know, being involved in the situation like we see right now, just seeing how it's just not everything you're trying to do and old things you want to do to seeing it be installed and and you know prolonged. So yes, um it is, and it's it's like deflating as well.

Like so a couple of weeks ago, while black Haitians were being harnessed at the border with horse reins, the George full of justice and police and that was dying in the Senate without ceremony, like it didn't even get that much coverage. And for those two as a black man, for those two things to happen at the same time, and and you know, we we brought attention to what was going on with the Haitians at the border, which was good, but it still just felt like damn when

it comes to our stuff, it dies without ceremony. But again, you know, other issues, like I'll give you an example, um, the appropriate We just went through our first appropriations process, which is how the federal government spends its money both

here and abroad. And I had to fight and still fighting to move two million dollars let's say, from the borough of Prisons to historically black college is uh minority serving institutions, and and and black small businesses, like I'm still fighting to move to million of like a seventy

six billion dollar budget to these areas. Two million ain't nothing on the national level, is nothing, but because of the way that the structure of white supremacy and European seller colonialism is entrenched in Congress, that's just how we

do business. Same thing with trying to send more money to the Caribbean, Like, well, we fund countries very well, you know, in Europe, in the Middle East and other places, but like the Caribbean and the Constant Africa, when you compare the money that goes there versus other areas, it's clear to see that, Like you know, no one really has four full organizing around in Congress for the stuff

that matters. Most of our community so frustrating. But it's also like I you, there's an opportunity to to do things differently, and like it gives me a reason to go to work everything, like to to put pressure on people on the inside and do enough work on the outside to make sure that begins to change and it and it is change it. I mean, we just we just brought the Vice president to the Bronx a few

days ago. And one of the reasons why that happens because we engage them in consistent conversations around the issues that we're talking about. And he's like, Yo, you gotta come to the Bronx and see it. Blah blah blah. And that happened. But there's there's obviously more work to do, right Well, I was gonna say, when you talk about funding countries, the amount of money that we spend with Israel Is it's huge, you know, and that mainly is

for their um military. And so I think that your point about how we're spending our resources and I'm not even you know, obviously we have our own political position on the relationship between the US and is but we're not even talking about that, right, We're just talking about fairness. And that exists. That same conversation exists in so many different areas of how the US government operates. Right, So when we start talking about defunding police, it's the same

same exact concept. We're not even at the point of saying, let's just pull all of our money but you know, and don't fund police at all. We're just that can we please make sure that some of the resources are shifted to things that would keep police officers from even having to approach particular situations like mental health issues and you know, things that the community can address on its own, and and of course preventative services. And it seems like

that's very difficult for people to understand. But since we're on that talk about the George Floyd Justice and police and bill, there are those who will have us. First of all, I think spending time trying to work with

Tim Scott was a waste of energy. Um And I also think in many ways, maybe some folks don't recognize it, but it became it was the stall factor, right, Like they send us to talk to the token negro who has really no power and over certain issues within the Senate, right um and And and we spend so much time focused on that knowing that it's going nowhere and now

we have nothing. So tell us because there are some people who want us to believe in this moment that because of progressives being unwilling to bend on qualified immunity and some other issues, that that's the reason why the George Floyd Justice and Police and Act did not, um

even go to the floor. Yeah, so great question. Um, A couple of things, right, So the myths of bipartisanship now, all things being equal, all things considered, like you know, if Republicans were Kosha and things were like they if they were principal Republicans that just felt like, we want the same thing, but we want to go about it differently. Um, that would be one thing. But that's that's that's long gone.

Like it was gone, it's been gone for a while, but Trump made it worse where like it's not it's a it's a party of Trump and it's Trump is Um. So they just want to obstruct, obstruct, cobstruct, delay, delayed delay. So knowing that going into it with them as if there was gonna be some bi parsonal solution of this was was we were misguided in that and right, now bi partnership is a myth. The the other thing is so. So there was a stall tactic and then it ultimately

fall apart, fell apart. We Democrats compromised on qualified immunity, like we took that off the table, and we took other things off the table that they were saying, we're non starters. So what happened is they kept moving the goal posts, saying, oh, you gotta do this, you gotta do that, and with move the goal post until it got to a point where uh, sending the book, I realized they were negotiating good faith and we need we need to kill the negotiations. But here's a key, key point.

The Fraternal Order of Police were supportive of many aspects of the bill. Corey Booker got them to sign off on it. But what happened is there's like a sheriff's union and I'm forgetting the name of it right now, this is a sheriff's union in South Carolina with Tim Scott is from that was like, you cannot we we do not support any of this. And as opposed to responding being responsive to the Fraternal of the Police, he was responsive to them. And that's what ultimately killed the bill.

Now he's lying by saying, um, you know, uh, you know they wanted we wanted strings attached to the bill related to the police funding. So you know, so we were trying to defund the police. First of all, you try to pass any bill in Congress where and you want the Republicans support. They're gonna attach strings to everything we want to do. So I don't want to hear

the strings attached bullshit. That's that's bs. The other thing is, and going back to the defund the police piece, what we're saying is simple, put the money where it needs to go so that we can stop crying from happening in the first place and stop violent acts from happening in the first place. Police are not equipped to respond to our needs in our community. At best, they can respond after the fact. We are trying to stop shipped

from happening before it happens. So we haven't. The federal government stopped investing in public housing ten years ago, and they've been they've been disinvesting in public housing for for thirty years. Our communities were purposely redlined. We we we have food deserts and travel deserts in our communities, lack of healthcare, under funded schools, no job programs, etcetera, etcetera. This is by design. So instead of giving us jobs and education and what have you, they gave us police.

So George Floyd tried to kind of bring all that together and move in the right direction when it comes to police accountability. But there's other aspects of that that we need to talk about as well. Probation, parole, um, conditions for people who are incocerated, voting rights for people who are inconcerated like that. That's all part of that, in addition to mental health, substance abuse support, etcetera, etcetera,

true holistic approach. So now the House um is moving to you know, take hearts of the justice and police and that and hopefully move them forward as individual bills. Because if Republicans are saying, oh, we would have accepted this and accepted this and accepted that, Okay, let's see. Let's let's let's see what we could push through. But I gotta tell you, like I, I think they're full of it and they're gonna continue to try to obstruct, which is another reason why again we gotta run the

right people for office. Killer philipbus etcetera, etcetera. Yeah, I'm realizing I'm giving a lot of long answers and I'm sorry about but we need to answer because listen, people, our people is piste off, you know, a lot of us.

You know, we we we came to vote, we brought out people, we said, well, this is what we need, We need this to do this in the House and we need this and we and even against our better judgment for you know, for because we didn't believe completely and all the way in the administration, but we said it was better than what we had and we we

getting help. So we need answers to you understand, said we really need answers, and you wanted the brothers that we know is definitely on the front line of this work, that that really wants what's best with our community. So the long answers is needed because people are tired of the short off everything's fine, because everything ain't fine, you know. So, So what is the White House's responsibility too in all of this situation and what is there responsible? What can

they do? What should they be doing? What do you think? So they need to provide a vision for where this country needs to go. Um, they need to provide a vision in terms of a black agenda. They've done some of that with their Justice for the Initiative, etcetera, etcetera. But then they need to be out there, uh like like like screaming from the rooftop, from the mountaintops what that is. So that's what's happening now with Build Back Better.

That's why VP Harris came to the Bronx. And but whatever that vision is and whatever that agenda is, particularly black agenda, you have to gauge our community, meaning go to the go to the hood, talk with people, listening to people, engage them, pull them in, Like pulled Tamika and my son into the White House. Not just the legacy civil rights groups, No offense to them, but we were The black community is a big tent and it's a diverse tent, and we all need to be a

part of that conversation. Um. So it's the vision, it's the engagement, is the communication, and it's the pressure. Like what pressure is President Biden and the White House putting on Mansion in Cinema, Uh, to move things in the direction that they need to move. It's the opposite. It's the opposite. Yeah, they're telling us which we're not listening, but they're telling us don't go after cinema or and

definitely Mansion. It's almost like Mansion is the president. I'm I'm confused at times who is the President of the United States because it seems like it's like it's almost like if you you know you you you're in the relationship with somebody, whether it be a business relationship or whatever,

but you seem to constantly be talking about somebody else. Well, after a while you start saying, well, if there's so much focus on this person, perhaps you know, this relationship, this whatever we're in, it ain't nothing because I need to be talking to him. And that's how that's how we feel. But yet the white and not the White House. I won't say the White House because that's a lot

of people. And that's another thing. We say the White House, right, And I get that that Joe Biden is the is the the whatever, he's the main person in chief exactly. But they have they have said several times that attacking, which that word depending on how you want to use it and throw it around. You can be um, you know, it can mean different things. But but rather than engaging, whether that be in a confrontational manner or not. It's

not the right approach to addressing Joe Manchin. But yet we're hearing him say or we're seeing him be an obstructionist in the process. Yeah, so I disagree with that, Like I think, I think we need to engage all parties all the time, very aggressively towards accomplishing our agenda. And I'm saying that because I could tell you, and we've talked about this, if I do something that certain communities don't like, I'm going to get a thousand emails in my inbox that in one day. So that's what

I mean by engagement. Like our community needs to be in coalition and have a letter writing campaign, email campaign, phone campaign, actions at people's office. Is all over social media, all over mainstream media, all constant, all the time, all

the time, all the time. Like when we you know, we weren't alive during the Civil Rights movement, but when we read about it and watch documentaries about all that, it seemed like they were relentlessly pursuing their agenda and their goals, and Dr king Ship had a direct line to to to UH the president at that time, first Kennedy and then UH brother came out to Kennam forgetting um. But I think I think Tamika to your point, there needs to be consistent engagement from our community around the

issues that matter most to us and our agenda. And we need to engage all four hundred thirty five members of the House and all fifth all huntred members of the Senate. Now there's something we don't need to be bothered with because they're just gonna be who they're gonna be, so we don't need to spend energy on them. But at least two thirds of both need to consistently hear from us all the time. And by us, I mean you know street from street politics to N double A

CP and everything in between. Like it gotta be, you know, because I'm not you know, I just speak for myself. I'm not trying to stay in Congress thirty years and see what happens like like I'm trying to I'm here now. I just beat the thirty one year incumbent. No one thought we could be beating by sixteen points. No one thought that could happen. But now that we're here, we gotta trying to hit it out the park like for the next five years and then after that we see

where we are. UM frustrate, but I want people to we gotta harness that frustration and channel it in the right directions, because you know, it's not enough to just you don't have conversation around thanks to give a table like we always do. Right, It's it's it's not enough for our bad or story. It gotta be everything at the same time all the time. We do want to hear about your vision because we don't have a vision.

And I think to your point about the White House having a vision with more I have to be honest with you and saying they'll tell you they have vision. My issue is that it doesn't seem like they're working towards it. That's that's the problem for me. Sounds like they have all of these ideas about what should happen, but I don't see the boots on the ground, and I don't see you all being used as surrogates to go out into the communities and and make these things happen.

And I'm trying to figure out why did I go live along with my son and live this our soul and Angelo Pinto and others, why do we and vote vote and black voters matter. Why did we move ourselves to to Georgia to fight to get the two Senate seats and still we're going back to we don't have anything to go back to our people with. Yeah. Yeah, so I'm sharing a vision, but I want to respond

quickly what you just said. So there was a Washington Post article I think two weeks ago about black men in particular, um and black people in general being being disenchanted with the White House because of everything you just sat and rightly so. And I called around and texted around that day just get a sense for what people were feeling about that. And still there was some misunderstanding

about the importance of communication and engagement. There was some, but then there were others who like jo Jamal, We had a meeting about that article, and the President was like, this is unacceptable. We gotta do something about it. And when I heard that, you know, I spoke to Senator Showman. I'm like, yo, like, this is the White House. You got all the resources in the world, there's no excuse for this to be an issue. Put me in coach, like I I got a plan, Like, let's let's enacted.

So stay tuned on that. Hopefully they're listening and hopefully, uh, we can move something. But in terms of division, I want to go back to my son was talking about UM when he came to my school and did that mediation with the two groups to rival gangs that didn't even know what the beef was about UM, but they was beefing with each other. Like you both know how many kids die under them circumstances, right, like literally get and up killed because of that kind of thing, Like

they just got beef, they don't know why. Next thing you know, someone is killed. So there's a couple of components to my vision. One is reparations for our community, Like do to study, get clear on what it is, and let's figure out what reparations look like for the for that black community. That's that's number one, and I think they'll deal with issues of wealth, inequality and all of that. UM. Education is another one that would be number two. And it's not just it can't just be so.

It needs to be Black history and culture in schools. It needs to be project based learning. It needs to stop being an over testing that we're doing right now and needs to be a curriculum that unlocks the brilliance of our kids, our kids are brilliant. We're just teaching them. We're just teaching like us a hundred years ago. By Our kids are super creative, innovative. They got so much to offer, and they're waiting for us to get our stuff together and design the curriculum that way. So that's

part of it. But the other part of it is, and we were talking about this offline education needs to work with healthcare, particularly in poor communities, particularly in poor communities of color. Why because there air kids are with mental health challenges, substance abuse challenges, trauma, and the family and home and teachers and clinicians need to work hand and glove and meeting those needs. So that involves more mental health services, smaller class sizes, and this is something

people don't talk about enough. It also involves more sports and arts and day of the programs and and other things. So education and healthcare being together is key. Another piece would be housing. Now reparations is connected to that to give people access to um you know, mortgages and affordable housing and all of that. But our communities that have been redline, like we we need to really invest in

those communities to reverse the impact of redlining. And this goes with environmental justice as well, Like that's part of it because we died from COVID because of our coal morbidities. We have those core morbilities because our communities have been neglected, so that that we gotta deal withal deal with that issue.

And then the last piece is not really the last piece, because there's health care, criminal justice reform we talked about earlier, like all the components, not just police reform, but the

cultural system, immigration reform, that's part of it. But I think maybe the most the most important piece is just the concept of black self determination um and and and Black and Pan African liberation building, meaning like you know, we we we can't accept the mental disease as European settler colonialism does let many of us to believe that we're not kings and queens. Like we have to like unlock that disease from our mind and really work towards

black self determination. And once we do that, we change the world. And that's one of the reasons why I'm such a hip hop fan. It's not about the music, but I think hip hop captures that essence. It's like, funk it, We're gonna do it ourselves and we just did something and change the world. I mean, I'm in Congress because of hip hop. People don't understand that. But when you understand Kariswan and Chuck D and Rock Him and the impact of my life as a black man

growing up, That's why I'm in Congress. But none of that happens if we're not in coalition with each other. And so, and I want to go back to this. My office is lobbied constantly from all groups who want me to join, Join the Join, the Albanian Caucus, Joined, Joined the Join, the Muscular Discript Treaty Caucus, Join this Caucus, Join. I'm constantly lobbied on this stuff, but I'm rarely lobbied

by black institutions, even civil rights institutions. They don't call me like, Yo, Jamal need you on this, I need you on that. I don't get those calls and like that coalition that we're building needs to be together. And y'all got a lobby the mess out of me and the CBC and other members of Congress. So none of that happens until we make it happen, and we make

it happen in coalition. Everybody is doing good work already. Um, but once we do that good work together in coalition with a strategic plan towards those goals, I think we move things forward. And now when you got myself and Corey and squad and in Congress like use us like we're we're ready to wield black power. We just need to know that the the coalition has our back in that. I hear that. And you said a lot of things.

I want to say one thing that you when you wrote about this education and the way that we teach our children a lot of things. I was having this conversation with my son, ten year old son taking him to school one day, and he just started crying like he didn't want to go to school. And I'm like why. He said, because school is killing my curiosity and my creativity. He said, we sit around all day. I was supposed

to be out here learning off the land. I was supposed to be When you go to school, it's just based on tests and scores. It's not based off learning. When you outside, you learned, And he was he broke it down so eloquently, and it's pretty much exactly what you said. And and I've been an advocate for teaching

our children the way that they learned. You know that, like you said, the school system is primitive and it doesn't go according and that's why you have a very low graduation weight in attendee rate of black men because it doesn't it doesn't grasp us. So I'm that I wanted to say that, and then next I just I wanted to because I know we at the end of this, right, but it's hard for us right as blacks, just to garden.

But we have in this country. We haven't really seen with the government has really benefited us, you know, And and somehow we still understand the mission. You understand, we understand that at the end of the day, we gotta still put people in position that can do things. But we've been we've been constantly let down throughout the government. Right, So what we're trying to figure out what is the messaging that we do for this menterm how because I

don't know what it is. You know, we understand how dangerous Republicans is. We see that. We know that because we are engulfed in this and we understand. But from the dis alayment's perspective or just a regular person going to work every day just seeing a new seeing this, how do you engage them? How do how do how do we get them to say, I'm gonna get I'm gonna mustle up this energy again and go out to do this even though I ain't seeing shit happen and

I keep him getting worse and words for us. How do we engage yes, so that this is the ongoing conversation we gotta have, like offline, we gotta continue to talk about this because it's a great question, and we gotta look we kind of plan for that because you're

you're absolutely right. I think the short answer is our coalition needs to have a clear agenda, and we need to go out there and hold elected officials accountable to our agenda in every part of the country, from dog catcher to school board, to local elections to to federal elections. Like we gotta go to candidate forums, shoot them emails, like engage them and ask them what do you what? What where? Where's your stance on this? This, this, and this?

And have them respond and then we follow up, and then we follow up and we follow up. Because you're right, it's not like come out and vote for X person if I haven't even I don't what is that person's agenda, How is that person gonna what are they gonna do to benefit my life? And then the other part, this is really really important. It's good to have Jamal Bowman in Congress, but like I can't do it alone. What I mean by that is, don't just send me off

and expect me to do it. I need y'all with me as we continue to do the work because it empowers me to be more radical as I do the work. Like if I know I got thousand people in Corps City holding me down, for example, or in Mount Vernon or Yaker's, then it's like I say whatever I do and say whatever I want. So oftentimes I know what we think. It's like many of us think, oh, I voted for this person, they ain't in, but they ain't

doing nothing. Well, how are you holding them accountable for doing something what they're once they're in, Because I know for a fact they're hearing from other lobbies on a variety of issues. So it's both like democracy is a contact sport and we gotta be in it on a day to day like grind. It's almost like breathing, especially as we're trying to, you know, build black power in

this country. Like we gotta be in in a day to day basis, like you two are well, thank you so much on Congress Mopoement for being here and speaking with us. And I think part of accountability and support

is funding. So how do we give use of money? Which, by the way, you had an event the other night and my counterpart, Linda star Store, was invited but I wasn't, and she tried to get me to come with her, and I Black people don't just go to events that they were not invited to our parents and they didn't invite you don't go, so I told her not be going because I was not invited. You and my sister Court want my money. You know it's crazy, isn't it crazy?

Someone on my staff gonna get in trouble? How Linda they lived, even my constituent like Tho with' and y'all law y'all wasn't there. I don't know. I don't know what happened with that. But to your question, yes, funding is really important. And let me also say this, the people who don't want the world to change, they are very well financed, that's right, very well finding how do people find it so so you can go to Bowman

for Congress dot com slash donate. Every little bit helps Bowman for Congress dot Com slash donate, And you know, like always say, the more generous people are, the more radical I can be. Well, thank you, thank you so much. And even though I wasn't invited, I am going to

go and give my donation right now. As my son likes to call it, investment in more radicalism, because I need you to be that um and we're gonna We're gonna have We're going to organize a fundraiser for you with uh, you know, a select group of individuals who I know want to be there to help you see your vision through. I was just talking to Ebro a couple of days about you and the conversations that you guys have been having, so I want to we want to pull that together. So we're committed to that. I

appreciate that. I want to say one more quick thing. If if hip hop and sports get involved in this is over, yeah, it's we win exactly. You know what also happens. Tamika just had you know we had on another show. She talked about Cardi B right, and how Cardi B was very vocal on a lot of things that we're dealing with. And she got so much backlash from being vocal and standing up for what she believed was writing on people that hip hop artists and you know,

um athletes, they don't want to deal with that. They want to be able to say these things, and they want to be liked and comfortable. So the average person that's already rich and famous and and and getting this thing and says, yo, you know what, I don't like that, and get backlash from his own fans and his own people that he's supposed to be protecting us, like, you know what, I'm just gonna be quiet in my my business. It's true. But the money they can help with the

money we need to right. That's right. And one of the things that I've done in my life is moved elected officials and celebrities and others onto their next thing. So we are going to release you from this interview right now and say thank you so much for being with us. Congressmen, he said, love, thank you all. I talked to you soon. All right. That's how we are. Congressman Jamar Bowman, I think you know he's if we could ever just get the right people were putting them

in the pipeline. We just gotta get them to the starting line, right They gotta be in the starting five, um and and the problem is that, unfortunately, we've got other people in the starting five right now who do not share our vision, and they're dangerous. And that's just three. And I'm to my black votes. I'm not talking about like the Republicans. I'm telling about black Democrats, right that are just not on. They're not on. We're not singing

on the same tune. I think it is. You know, we have a lot of skin folks that ain't kin folks, you know, and we we and a lot of people are just scared to because like I really I realized that people behind closed doors will support your you know what they call quote on called ragged radical idealism, just just actual justice with justice really should look like they called radical. They want that, they support it. They're just not gonna stand next to you into the world and

everybody else is supporting. They don't want to be part of the minority. They don't want to push the car, they want to ride it. They ain't gonna help you when the flat comes. They're not gonna put no gas in the tank. But when you're riding in the smooth they're gonna get in the back again. I'm with you when you get a good paint job. But they don't see the vision, like, Yo, this car right here could really beat something. We all got around it and built

it up. They don't want to do that cart. They want to go with the comfortability. So they know what's right and wrong, and they support it in their mind and in theory, but they are not going to risk whatever position they have, whatever relationships they have, whatever the parties they can be invited to to support, to stand up visually, verbally and say it. They're just not gonna do it. I think that's true. I think that's true. But I would say that some of the individuals I'm

talking about, they don't. They are the party. They make the party. They're not looking to be invited or be comfortable. When I think about Representative Clyde Burn, you know, this is not somebody who needs an invitation to an event or that is feeling like he just wants to be comfortable. This is somebody who fundamentally believes different than what we believe. Right He's he fundamentally believes that this or he is

he is adamantly against defunding the police. Maybe he agrees in theory that they need can't The thing is this, he can't be against the funded police right because the things that he acts like he wants to fight for,

you you you against the term right. And if you and if you're a big enough person, like if you can if you can get people, if you can get black people to vote for body and after all the ship he did, if you can give support behind that in and say not what you're talking about, this is what we need right now, right then you should be able to say, I know what my people need by the fund police, and I'm going to equate that and make us all be in coalition instead of separating us.

I agree with that. I agree with that. I agree with that. But I think that even he at this point in his life, has become so disconnected from like Ray Ray and what is happening on the ground, very hyper hyper hyper locally that in his mind, police being in our communities is working, except there's some bad apples

or there's some changes that need to be made. We except that that may be the reality, because we may not be able to completely remove police, but our fundamental belief is on the far other side of that argument that we need less police. I mean to the point where maybe a few officers that you could call on

and more community programs. I don't. I think we would be on two different and we started having this conversation with UH, with the Congress mcclaburn right now, we will be completely on two different sides of the table about this issue, but we both agree about what we want to see happen for our communities. How we get there, there is a fundamental difference someone newer, sort of younger black folks that are going into Congress, like a Corey Bush,

like a Jamal Bowman. These are individuals who are now who now who see and understand what we're saying. So I think that the people who are in the starting five, they are so disconnected from from from from our position that until they are able to retire and move on, we're going to continue to see clods in the pipe.

Because the attitude that we should be careful going after cinema right and and mansion to senators to senators who's supposed to be Democrats and all the rest of the Democrats for the most part, are agreeing that certain bills need to be passed. They are supporting uh certain legislation and also are aligned to some degree with our vision. Except these two people mhm right, and they're telling us be easy with them. We're working on what like it

doesn't make sense. But I promise you that a Corey Bush and a Jamal Bowman and others who who are in who are part of either the squad or just progressives in general, they're like yo to his point, engage them aggressively every single day. And I think that's the advice that we have to follow. So so when people who are who have the most radical vision, they're really deeply into this thing and they and they want to

see major change happened. That's in our favor. When they are not funded and supported by the community, they become beholden to those who will support them. And that is where you start to see. Because you cannot be a congressional member, a leader, or anything and not have food to eat and close on your back and be able to take care of your family and have the resources necessary to continue to win elections, and to have discretionary funds that you can use to support certain things within

your community. You can't. It can't be done without supporting. You have to be supported. Supported. Support is mandatory. There's no way that as any official or lead or anything, that you can do something without support. You just can't do it by yourself. We're not supported, we're not financially supporting them. The communities that come and say, hey, well

these are our issues and we're gonna support you. We're gonna make sure that we come out, we're gonna do all things necessary are the people that people don't care to. So I know that we want a lot done, but we have to be intentional. We have to be steadfast, We have to be persistent and constant in what it is that we want. So you know what I don't get,

I really just don't get how Riker's Island is still open. Like, you know, throughout the years, they got documentaries, You've heard the stories of how there's so much corruption going on, how people are getting stabbed, how there it's just so much like right Island is accessibool for what's wrong with this justice system? You know? And the last week I pretty much posted of photos that have been taken inside holding seals and Sidewrickers aland where you got people sleeping

on the floor with plastic bags on them. You know, it just was so inhumane. And it's like they care about COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, covid, but you got these people in these closed cells with plastic bags, sleeping on the floor in cells. And I've been in right Becas Island, so tell you that the the dirt in the mold and that's inside these cells, and the old pits that you can still smell in the toilet boones

that ain't really been cleaned. You know, it's just it's not even there's no way that I can describe it. And just seeing it constantly seeing it and seeing that it's still the same way as it was twenty years ago when I was when I was in there, it's just unbelievable, even on a visit. It's nasty, like right because Island, like you said, you said, the best thing.

It's successful of all the things that's wrong with the justice system, right, And it's so for this city of New York and Mayor Deblasio to have a mandate where people can't even go to a restaurant unless they are vaccinated and then turn around right, and and and allow a facility to just fester COVID and and and you know, and the thing about it, right, and there's a lot of people really well, if they didn't do the crime, you do the crime, you gotta do the chump, you know,

and and the thing about it just for education, even though I don't agree with that sentiment at all, because human beings are human beings, and you most of the people are in there for low level crimes. But the reality is they're being accused, most of those people, and they have not even been found guilty of what they on the trial. They haven't gon to try to, haven't done nothing. This is a holding facility. So it's not

this whole theory. But all you do to come some of them people are find out they didn't do the crime, or they're in their trial process, but regardless they're not because when they found guilty, they are sent upstate or wherever or released the you know, based upon the sentences.

So it's like it's I'm just saying, in general, it is hypocritical for the city to say we care so much about COVID, we care so much about wellness and health, health and this and that and then to have people piled up on top of one another inside of these facilities on Breaker's Island. And to your point, it should have been closed once. Um, what's what's our young brother's name,

Khalif Browder was killed? Well, he wasn't killed, but once he killed himself as a result of all the things we know happen in right, is not what we think we know what happened in writers and yet and still the facility states open. Now it's interesting that we are talking about that because and I wanted us to invite someone on that may be able to talk to us next week about this issue with Rikers, because there are people, even our own friends, who say things like, well, if

you close Rikers, then what do you do? It goes back to the original conversation about defunding these systems that are about incarceration, that are about um uh incarceration and punitive measures for things that need to be taken care

of in completely different fashions. So, for instance, I have several family members who are correctional offices on Rikers Island that will tell you half of the population has severe mental illness and they are they're in prison in jail rather and they're not being cared for, and the correction officers are not trained and don't have the temperament to deal with the mental illness of people who are in there. So the the issue is the facility has been opened

and left that way for jobs. Because I've also had family members who said, don't be out here talking about clothes and rics, because then where we gonna work? What like, just think about what you're saying. Keep people incarcerated. That to their point, they also want to argue, well, they're slicing our faces. Um, you know there they're they're they're violent.

Well they're violent, many of them because they they have other issues that are not being addressed, So why would you want them to be inside of this jail with you? It just it's it's it's like it's like it's like everyone and and everything in our society is like this, like just don't be making sense period. As you're right, man, you know, I'm hoping that we get to a stage

because we're just so divided. Like I realized how people are dealing with so many different issues, right, there's so many different understandings and classes, and we deal with classism, we deal we deal with racism as just black people, but within our black community, we deal with classism, we

do a colorism. We deal with so many different things and ideologies, and a lot of times people that you think should understand certain things that we're dealing with, they don't because their reality is just so it's so far from what some of us are actually dealing with, you know. And it's card and you love that they're good people. It's not that they're bad people. It's just that they don't really understand the whole system. They don't under especially

this injustice system. Me actually being informally incarcerated, I have conversations with people and I listened to them in the way that they view you know, jail and how people should be locked up and what should be going on, and how it's good for them and all that, and and trying to, you know, until I'm able to really break it down to them, and and even then they'd be like, oh, well, yeah, I hear what you're saying, but because they're so far removed from that reality, you know,

it's it's not something that they could even consciously understand. And then I've watched people who have been never been involved in the Lord and prior to all of these situations had to go through stints inside prison and come home with a completely different mind frame understanding like Dan, this this is really crazy. Like what they're doing in here is it's really like slavery and the way they're

treating these and they start to identify. So, you know, it's just a lot of you know, moving parts when it comes to this injustice system and in prison in general. I just hope that we recognize what's going on the writers right now, and you know, and we start really advocating for our brothers and sisters who are there because they literally killing these people, like they're literally the inhumane COVID.

If you told my COVID what's going on? Is that a lot of people I note that they had COVID almost died, they had to sit and sell they're giving them, locking them in the cell. You know, they're not really giving you, no real medical attention. They just gotta fight it. That's not that's in all the jails. Yeah, that's that's what I'm saying every day. So you know, hopefully man, something that starts to change, man, But until then, man,

close it, close down, close it down. So once again that brings us to the end of another Dope episode. Shout out to Congressman Bowman, who we had who was very informative, you know, gave us his vision, gave us his frustration, just gave us a whole glimpse of what is going on. A lot of us don't really be knowing. We just see what's on the news and we're here and we frustrated. Man, but his brothers like him, who

give me just a little be a hope. If we can get five or six people like that on one team, you know, and we can rally behind them, then I can really see some change coming man. So I appreciate his interview, and um, you know, like we do. Man, we we're gonna keep on doing what we do. If you got any suggestions for the show, let us know. Tell us if you love us, if you hate us. You know, we are the number one show in the world,

so we truly appreciate being number one. When you tell people that we're number one and we're not, then they might not feel like they gotta go get you know, more downloads and get more people involved. Not tell people we number one because those little bit of stats they talk about that that's cool, but number one. Like I got people that come up to me and this, people like I love your podcast, my favorite podcast in the world. So we number one the people. You know what I'm saying.

We number one to us. So now the world is gonna transfer to number one. If you start, you gotta say it. Yeah, you gotta talk it into existence, man manifest your destiny. We are the number one podcast in the world. And even though me and to me you don't agree, we agree on that, you know. So we're not gonna always agree. We're not gonna always disagree, but we will both always and I mean always be authentic. Alright, plute. Listen to Street Politicians on the Black Effect Network on

I Heart Radio catch us every single Wednesday. The video version of Street Politicians on I Woman dot Tv