- 10 hours ago
Did you watch the conventions? Did you read the policy booklets? Well, we did and want to share with you our insights with Kenny Burns. Hosted by Alphonso David and Ebony McMorris.
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00:00Good evening, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us tonight. My name is Alfonso David.
00:06I am the president and the CEO of the Global Black Economic Forum, and I'm also a civil rights lawyer.
00:13Hello, everyone. I am Ebony McMorris, a White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks.
00:19We are so pleased to be here tonight. I'm happy to be able to co-host this amazing town hall, Paint the Poles Black.
00:29So, folks, a few weeks ago, we launched Paint the Poles Black, which is a voter awareness, registration, and mobilization initiative.
00:38It's supported by the Sundial Group of Companies, which includes Essence, the Global Black Economic Forum, Girls United, Afropunk, Refinery29, Beautycon, and the New Voices Foundation.
00:51And again, the focus here is to educate, mobilize, and register voters to take action this November and into the future.
00:59We hosted our first town hall in the beginning of August with Congresswomen Jasmine Crockett and Chantel Brown,
01:07Bakari Sellers, Van Lathan, Lene Vanay, and kicking us off last time was the one and only D-Nice.
01:15And tonight, we're hosting our second town hall where we will be dissecting some of the key policy issues and discussing how they affect you, the voter.
01:24We had a good time the first go-around, and we're going to do it again.
01:28I'm so excited about today.
01:30Look, there are many issues that I am sure you have all heard about, from immigration to housing, from economy to education, from democracy to public safety.
01:41We can't address all of them.
01:42However, tonight, we are going to tackle three of the most important issues, the economy, health care, and public safety.
01:50Now, this campaign is tailored to provide information, address misinformation, and register voters for one of the most important consequential elections of our lifetime.
02:05We will be joined by a few special guests, and we'll be answering your questions we want to hear from you.
02:12So we've got a few housekeeping rules.
02:14First, this is a nonpartisan call focused on voter registration and mobilization.
02:21Further, it's not a fundraising call.
02:23There are other events focused on that.
02:26We'll be answering your questions, so please put your questions in the chat, and we'll try to answer as many as we can before the end of the town hall.
02:38Also, please see the link for voter registration.
02:42One of our main goals here is to make sure that we are all registered to vote.
02:47If you have not registered to vote, please do.
02:49You can go to hashtag Paint the Post Black.
02:52You can go to our website to get that information and register to vote.
02:56And then finally, sit back and relax and enjoy this town hall.
03:00And it is my pleasure to welcome our very first guest for this town hall, Mr. Kenny Burns, who is a multimedia entertainer, an investor, and a producer.
03:12Kenny, thank you so much for joining us.
03:14It is my pleasure to be with you, Alfonso and Ebony.
03:18How are you guys doing?
03:19We're doing good.
03:21I'm doing good.
03:21I'm trying to figure out what is on your mind.
03:24Look, I'm just getting to it.
03:27I want to talk about the debate.
03:28What are your thoughts on what we saw during the debate?
03:34During the debate, I saw a good old-fashioned grandma butt whooping.
03:39It was get in the closet and stay there.
03:43I didn't really appreciate the after effects of the debate.
03:50The debate was exactly what I thought it would be.
03:52You have a highly educated person talking to a non-educated person.
03:57You have a lawyer by heart and trade talking to a criminal.
04:01And in that exchange, you saw all the uncomfortableness as if he was on the stand.
04:07I mean, as soon as she went to the size of his audience, the size of his audience, it just went all the way left.
04:17He was unhinged.
04:18And I honestly was so happy to see that.
04:22The problem is, is post the debate, you literally see the audacity of news outlets as well as the talking head saying that he won the debate.
04:35And now there's this farce of a, oh, I didn't curse.
04:38Did you like that?
04:39I said farce.
04:40It is a farce of a statement saying that, you know, heavyweight fighters don't fight again when they win the title.
04:47It's like, I mean, who is believing this?
04:49And the problem is, is that no matter whether you're a Republican or Democrat, every cycle, the margin of victory seems to be this big.
04:58So it's just a wild moment.
05:00And it's actually heartbreaking when you think about our democracy longer being what we've grown up to know it to be.
05:08Kenny, I want to ask you a question that I think many, many people and specifically black people have been just sort of shocked about.
05:16And that's the dogs and the cats.
05:18Oh, man.
05:19Let's talk about that.
05:21Yeah, that was dog whistle for, for, you know, you know, not just cannibals, obviously, but animals.
05:28And I think that, you know, when you think about the way they look at us, I have this conversation all the time on my podcast, the Kenny Byrne show that, you know, it's not even a thing of the backdoor conversations anymore.
05:41It's not what they think about you behind your back.
05:43They're telling me.
05:44Just the other day he had a Klansman and at a, you know, stop sign where people were holding up Trump signs.
05:52And it's like, you feel that comfortable, you know, being outside in a Ku Klux Klan outfit in 2024.
05:59He's evoking an emotion across America that's very disturbing.
06:03And the sad part is, is that as much as it is about race, it's class that is taking over the directive of all of these dog whistles being blown.
06:16All of these narratives being pushed into the algorithms and quite frankly, you know, messing with our children's minds.
06:23They don't know what to believe.
06:24They're seeing all types of memes.
06:26I mean, to think that a Jamaican is not black is the most outrageous thing I've ever heard in my life.
06:32But then to double down on things and for kids to actually, you know, repeat these things is really disturbing.
06:42Go ahead, Emily.
06:43Kenny, you mentioned the Klansman.
06:45I couldn't figure out why there was a black man standing beside the man with the, but I digress.
06:51Right.
06:52What do you believe when we talk about this, right?
06:55What are some of the key issues then at stake at this election?
06:59And how should voters begin to prioritize them when they cast their ballots?
07:04Yeah, you know, that's a loaded question on many levels and many answers to it.
07:10Well, first of all, our democracy is on the table.
07:13You know, laws.
07:15You know, I truly believe that he meant what he said when he said, if you vote this one time, my good Christians, you won't have to vote again.
07:24I think we should hear him loud and clear.
07:27He was in that debate completely lying about his participation.
07:31When I watched the TV and heard him say, go down there and fight like hell, because if you don't fight like hell, we're going to lose everything we know to be true and white.
07:41I mean, he didn't say the white part, but that's what he meant.
07:43And I think that the end, you know, at the end of the day, it's like, what type of like country would we have with this type of ideology, you know, in office?
07:54And when I go to the gym the next day, you know, white, black, indifferent, they're all unbelievably disturbed by the cat and the dog comments.
08:04It's like, would you really say that in a debate?
08:07Because one of my white friends was telling his brother, who's a staunch Trump supporter.
08:11And this is how slim the margins are in households and families.
08:15You got one that's totally embarrassed.
08:18You got another one who's standing by and he's just dismissing it.
08:20He said he said he called him and said, yeah, I'm putting some cats and dogs on the grill.
08:24Are you coming over tonight?
08:24Because he knows he's a Trump.
08:26He's like, I didn't even watch it.
08:28Trump's going to beat her.
08:28But that's the mentality.
08:30The mentality is like, I don't care what he says.
08:33I don't care what he does.
08:34But that lets you know, ladies and gentlemen, that there is a racial divide, that there is a class divide.
08:42And we have to be aware of it.
08:43And the thing that I think we could do outside of going to the ballot box and winning this election, because if we all go to the ballot box, there's no way that there will be a small margin of victory, is to call people out.
08:56There is a respective way to make people feel so uncomfortable, they're embarrassed to do it.
09:00I know for a fact, Donald Trump going to the spin room immediately after that debate, he was grasping for straws.
09:09His underwear were on fire.
09:11And then you have somebody like J.D. Vance.
09:13J.D. Vance is literally, I want to say a lot of things.
09:18This is not my platform, but he is literally, he's about the crowd size, too.
09:23He's about the attention.
09:24He's about all the things he doesn't get in real life.
09:28And ladies and gentlemen, you have to pay attention to the people that build their worlds around their inconsistencies.
09:34Facebook, when you look at Elon Musk and what he's doing with X, these are things that these insecure men have always done.
09:43But guess what we have to do?
09:45Vote.
09:45That's how we beat them.
09:46As we talk about voting, one of the issues that we're hearing a lot about in this election, and we've heard about it for years, right?
09:56Every election cycle, Black men.
09:58Where are Black men?
10:00Where are they going to vote?
10:01Are they going to vote?
10:01Talk to us a little bit about your perspective on how can Black men play a pivotal role in this election?
10:11And from your perspective, what specific issues are you hearing from Black men that we should be focused on to ensure that our voices are heard?
10:20I'm glad you brought that up, Alfonso, because when I got back from the premiere of Fight Night, the Million Dollar Heist, now on Peacock, the number one show that I'm executive producing, we had a premiere last week in New York.
10:33And I came back on Friday to do a fight for our democracy.
10:37That's right, right?
10:38It was fight for our democracy.
10:39Kaseem Reid, Arian Simone, I'm sorry, co-founder of the Fearless Fund, who just got their case dismissed, so big shout out to them and all the amazing work they're doing for women-led founders, and Dottavio from Revolt.
10:58And we did a panel, and everybody was talking about what needs to happen and what needs to be done, and I was like, well, I think Black men are as key to this election as white women.
11:09And I say that because I had posted from the DMC, her nieces had said how to correctly pronounce her name.
11:17And so I have fun on my platform, and I said, hey, comma, la, if the babies can say it, you can say it.
11:24Let's say it together, comma, la, and was going through this whole thing.
11:27And the Russian bots attacked my Instagram feed like I had never saw, but then I started seeing NBA basketball player.
11:37I'm like, wait, he said something twice.
11:39And the one NBA player said, well, why should we say her name correctly?
11:44And she hasn't done anything for us.
11:45I said, well, do you love your mom?
11:47I said, it's a respect thing that you're taught, right?
11:50But then a lot of Black women just don't like women for whatever reason.
11:54I don't know if it's because they have always saved us from ourselves or always have pushed us to the point of execution when we couldn't get to the finish line.
12:05I don't know what you don't love about Black women.
12:08I know they saved me.
12:09So I get so confused about the hate speech, and then I get confused with the lack of consistency for us showing up for our Black women.
12:18I mean, you know, when you have, again, rhetoric coming from all over the place, and mind you, we know, I'm sorry, a lot of people don't know, but intelligent people know that a lot of the stuff you just can't think is real, right?
12:30But then the people that are ignorant, that have no clue, don't read, don't want the information, they are stuck with those memes.
12:37And so I just want to encourage my Black men, one, to have men our age, Alfonso, to talk to younger Black men and say, look, you know, the one thing 19 Keys, a friend of mine has said, he has said, you know, Kenny, you show up for us.
12:51You talk to us.
12:53Even though you give us that OG and tell us how we need to be moving and mobilizing, you still let us talk to you.
13:00And I feel like the disconnect between Black men and Kamala talking to all of my mentees is that they don't feel she talks to them.
13:09I said, well, you know what?
13:10I can't believe that because I follow the news.
13:14I read newspapers.
13:16I see the foreign, you know, dignitary stuff that she does on our behalf as a country.
13:21I know her being an alumni from Howard University.
13:24I'm not in her age bracket, but my wife graduated from Howard University.
13:28H-U, you know.
13:30But I think it's the whole thing of, like, if you knew something about someone, if you saw the journey from attorney to attorney general to senator to, you know, vice president, you could respect the resume just as a human.
13:43Let's talk human, right?
13:44If you go through the resume of the, you know, the competitor on the other side, it's a whole farce of racism, classism, you know, bankruptcies and all type of things you would never want to be involved with as a human.
13:58But then you look at the other side and you have this much service for the majority of your life and you can't give the benefit to someone of saying their name correctly.
14:06So I think we have a lot of work to do with understanding what this really is, how we should approach it, and more importantly, how, you know, we can feel good about showing up for this woman that deserves to be president of the United States.
14:18I love, like, everything that you said, especially the respect part.
14:24I do want to remind people, look, if you've got questions, go ahead and put them in the chat.
14:28Kenny, I want to ask you this, because when we're talking about, like, there was a lot of folk, DNC, it was a lot of love.
14:35You know, we got conferences going on, CBC going on right now.
14:39But for those who aren't attending that, for the everyday person that's on the street, that's trying to work, that's got two and three jobs, do you think sometimes that I can rattle off what the vice president has done, but do you think sometimes the language needs to shift?
14:51So we hear terms like democracy or disenfranchise all the time.
14:55But those aren't necessarily, you're not sitting at a table with your family saying, oh, democracy is it.
15:01No, you're like, we hungry.
15:03What are we going to do?
15:04What's going to happen with this business?
15:06Do you think that that needs to sometimes, how we talk, change that language?
15:11And would that help in even attracting younger generations or black men also?
15:16Yeah, I think, you know, hearing people, you know, engages them, you know, willing to listen to the things that they truly feel.
15:24But as a parent, my sons have said things to me that I could not possibly fathom them actually feeling because we did not grow up like daddy grew up or mommy grew up.
15:34We have love in the house.
15:35We have two visible parents that are working hard to make sure your dreams come true.
15:39Like, how could you possibly feel this way?
15:41But they do.
15:42And you can't ignore that.
15:43And I think that we have to listen, you know, but also in the same conversation of being a parent, we can never, ever.
15:51I'm sorry, they would never, ever understand the work that's being done if they don't travel outside their neighborhoods.
15:56I travel every week.
15:57I see infrastructure being done all over the country, every city I go to.
16:01That's the Biden-Harris administration at work.
16:04I do know the, you know, the things that are happening, but see, a lot of people don't.
16:08And it wouldn't be much like parenting.
16:10Again, you wouldn't get your flowers as a parent until they're grown and they're going through it themselves.
16:15But that's the disconnect, you know, with the generations.
16:18It's like, okay, people know that suburban, you know, Atlanta's going to vote black.
16:24Atlanta and the surrounding areas from Sandy Spring to, you know, College Park, all the surrounding, that's going to be blackity, black, black, black.
16:31But they depend on the rest of Georgia, which is toothless, meth, white, bonuses on Friday if you go vote.
16:41I'm just telling y'all the truth.
16:42But see, the problem with us is we can't depend on the youngest to just go vote because they have too many questions without thinking about the things that they can't see.
16:50We have to believe.
16:51It's like believing in Jesus Christ, that things unseen.
16:54I'm not saying believe in politicians like Jesus.
16:56I'm not saying that.
16:57But you believe in things that you admire or desire without sight.
17:02You believe in things that you, these goals you want to accomplish in your life without actually touching them.
17:08So why can't you give someone the benefit of the doubt?
17:11See, the problem is we don't want to do the work the rest of the three years before the next election.
17:14We just want to go crazy, hear all these things, go vote and think it's just going to magically, you know, disappear.
17:20But we have local and state elections to adhere to as well.
17:24Kenny, final question.
17:26As we're thinking about this election cycle, we are facing, as you have alluded to and mentioned, some misinformation, disinformation, some apathy from young people.
17:39What are you finding to be the most effective tool?
17:42Say folks are watching tonight.
17:45They are facing challenges with having conversations with their kids or their parents or their friends.
17:50What are you finding are the most effective tools that are working in your communications, in your discourse with other folks?
17:59I'm finding that the truth along with proof is not enough to just be the truth anymore.
18:04The fake news, you know, industry that he's created, the, you know, him clearly denying a loss in a debate where we all watch the debate.
18:14So you have to have the truth and then you have to have proof and you have to double down on that.
18:18You cannot deliver either without the other.
18:20So I would suggest us all continue to put messaging out in the world that is factual, double down on those facts, have conversations like these that Essence are providing for, you know, people in the community that are doing this work every day.
18:33There are, you know, honorable people with honorable messaging, with honorable intentions, but you look into these rappers and all these people that, you know, are being paid to play.
18:43Like, come on, like there are actual activists that mean it and want to, you know, authentically show up for you and have intention.
18:49You know what I'm saying, you know, in representation for you.
18:53So, you know, I just, I think, you know, truth and proof.
18:56If you could show up with both, it's lights out Joe Jackson.
18:59Kenny Burns, thank you so much for joining us.
19:02Thank you for your advocacy.
19:05Thank you for your investments.
19:06Thank you for the producing work that you do.
19:09And thank you for taking the time to talk to us today and to actually do this work that is so critical for this election.
19:16Yes.
19:17Ebony, Alfonso, thank you for having me.
19:19And I'm going to leave you with a little fun.
19:21You guys be good.
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