- 4 weeks ago
"If we fight we may win or we may lose, but if we don't fight we lose." - Ted Shaw
In honor of the 250th anniversary of the United States, this session brings together Black leaders for a powerful conversation on the true meaning of July 4th, the historical struggles for freedom, and the ongoing fight for justice and equity. In 2025, we will examine why we, as Black people, are still fighting for the promises of liberty and equality that were never fully extended to us. Join us for a candid discussion about the complex legacy of America's founding, the resilience of our resistance, and the urgent need to continue pushing for real change in the pursuit of freedom and justice.
In honor of the 250th anniversary of the United States, this session brings together Black leaders for a powerful conversation on the true meaning of July 4th, the historical struggles for freedom, and the ongoing fight for justice and equity. In 2025, we will examine why we, as Black people, are still fighting for the promises of liberty and equality that were never fully extended to us. Join us for a candid discussion about the complex legacy of America's founding, the resilience of our resistance, and the urgent need to continue pushing for real change in the pursuit of freedom and justice.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00The 50th anniversary of the United States.
00:25Well, what is the true meaning of July 4th?
00:29Please welcome our distinguished panelists.
00:33Jamal Simmons, President of Dexter Davis Productions.
00:38Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, United States House of Representatives.
00:44Professor Kimberly Crenshaw, Executive Director of the African American Policy Forum.
00:50Damon T. Hewitt, President and Executive Director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
00:58And Joteka Eadie, CEO and founder of the Full Circle Strategy and founder of Win With Black Women.
01:07We will begin with opening remarks by Alfonso David, President and CEO of the Global Black Economic Forum.
01:17Good afternoon, everyone.
01:18I'm going to be on this stage for literally a few minutes.
01:22Good afternoon, everyone.
01:31I'm going to be on this stage for literally a minute.
01:35I want to take the time to hear from these incredible leaders about what does July 4th mean?
01:44What is the true meaning of July 4th?
01:48Today is the 250th anniversary of the United States.
02:04The question that we have to ask ourselves is how do we define July 4th?
02:09What does it mean for us?
02:11How do we look at this day through the lens of black people?
02:16I'm going to turn it over to our moderator, Jamal Simmons, who's going to lead this extraordinary
02:21conversation with leaders from academia, from political world, from advocacy world.
02:28And we will be talking about this issue because at this moment, given what happened yesterday,
02:33this question couldn't be more important than today.
02:38Thank you, Alfonso.
02:40A little round of applause for Alfonso David.
02:42Thank you very much.
02:44I want to thank you all for being here, taking your time out of your day to sit down and talk to us for a minute.
02:49You may have seen me a couple times on CNN, so we're going to have this conversation exist a little bit more fluidly
02:56than you may see in a five-minute panel on CNN where everybody gets to talk for 20 seconds.
03:02So we're going to have a little bit more fun today and really be able to dive in deep.
03:07You know, I got started in politics now.
03:10It's like 30 years ago.
03:12And at that point, it seemed like there was so much optimism, right?
03:16Economic pie was increasing.
03:17There was more inclusiveness that was happening.
03:20You know, we had people on television.
03:22Then Barack Obama became president.
03:24And it didn't mean we were going to be post-racial, but it felt like we were on our path to do something
03:28that was really going to be transformative for the country.
03:33And then Donald Trump came.
03:36And then not just Donald Trump, but the people who really supported Donald Trump.
03:42The people who wore the red hats, right?
03:45So what we've seen is America very often goes through these what seem like boom and bust cycles of black progress.
03:54The question for us now, and I'm going to ask Kimberly Crenshaw this, is this another boom and bust cycle?
04:00Or is there something different about what we're seeing today than what we've seen in previous episodes?
04:06Okay, thank you.
04:07Thank you for asking me that question.
04:10It's both and.
04:12So clearly we are in another bust cycle.
04:15As African American history tells us, wherever and whenever there's been any advance for African Americans,
04:23it is followed by an intense retrenchment.
04:27Let's consider Reconstruction.
04:29Reconstruction was the moment when black people were finally told that we could really be citizens of the United States.
04:35A whole infrastructure was built around the effort to guarantee that,
04:40including the 13th, the 14th, and the 15th Amendment, the creation of the Department of Justice,
04:45the creation of laws that would allow us to be able to vindicate our rights in the federal courts.
04:52A whole effort to ensure that we're enfranchised and our own efforts to create education
04:58because we knew the importance of literacy because they had taken it away from us for so long.
05:04These were all the promises of Reconstruction.
05:09Reconstruction lasted maybe 10 years, maybe 15 years, and we lost it all in an infamous election
05:18in which the people who were supposed to be protecting us said,
05:21you know what, we'll take black folks off the table.
05:24We won't enforce their rights anymore.
05:27We'll let the South determine what they want to do with black folk.
05:31That was called redemption.
05:33Reconstruction, 10 years.
05:35Redemption lasted until 1954.
05:39We're talking six, seven decades in which racial tyranny was the law of the land.
05:46So it's a boom-bust cycle.
05:48The boom is short.
05:50The bus lasts for decades.
05:53Now we're in another boom-bust cycle.
05:56So if we consider the moment of racial reckoning after George Floyd was killed in 2020,
06:03which begat the largest mass mobilization in American history.
06:08In every state in the union, people came out and said, this is racism.
06:13We're not going to take it anymore.
06:15It was huge.
06:17It also lasted about three months.
06:20And now we're in a cycle of retrenchment that's lasted at least five years,
06:27and it probably will last another several decades unless we're able to stop it.
06:33So your question, what's different this time, I'd say two things.
06:37First of all, the cycles are quicker.
06:39We're talking three months, maybe four months, with all the promises of resources
06:44and commitments that just dissipated in the years after that.
06:49So they're real short cycles, and then the retrenchment is deeper.
06:53So this thing that goes into effect now, they're basically defunding the entire government.
07:00So if we ever get the keys to the kingdom again, there's not going to be anything in there for us to do.
07:07You know, when people abandon a house and then people come and strip all the plumbing
07:11and take all the steel and take all the appliances, that's what they're doing to the federal government.
07:16So our concern now is not just it's a cycle, but it's a deeper cycle.
07:21We're further behind, and this is not just for the next election.
07:26This is for the entire century.
07:29So we really need to grapple with what time it is.
07:32It is time for us to recognize what a deep crisis we're in and put everything we've got to trying to reverse it.
07:39So I started off with the professor because I wanted us to get some grounding in what was happening with the big picture.
07:52But now, you know, I used to work on Capitol Hill, so I know a little something about seniority.
07:56And so we got a member of Congress over here.
07:58So we're going to turn to Representative Jasmine Crockett, Texas's own Congresswoman, I want to know from you.
08:08You, more than anybody else on this panel, come face to face every day with the people who are trying to dismantle the federal government
08:17and the things that so many of us believe in.
08:19Can you tell us, one, what that's like?
08:22But then, two, what you think the agenda is and what we should be doing to stop it?
08:26Yeah, so first of all, it's great to be with y'all.
08:31Because Lord knows my coworkers then ran me ragged.
08:36So definitely happy to be in community at this time.
08:41I will tell you this.
08:43It is very difficult for me to navigate the space known as Congress because, as a lawyer, everything is about logic.
08:52And so it's a matter of, if I can make a logical argument, then I can move the needle.
08:57But that is not what it is being in Congress.
09:00And so it gets very frustrating.
09:03I was just telling a story backstage about the fact that one of my colleagues got on her flight to leave after this terrible vote passed yesterday.
09:12And this was maybe within an hour of the vote passing.
09:15And she sent us a message.
09:17And she said, you won't believe who's sitting next to me.
09:20Now, I don't know this man because I don't know half of them people anyway.
09:23I don't know.
09:24But it's a Republican.
09:25That's what I can tell you.
09:26And he started crying to her.
09:31And she was looking at him because he was so upset about the vote.
09:36But he wasn't upset enough to do the right thing.
09:39And so it is very difficult to navigate this space because I'm used to dealing with people that act, especially on this level.
09:47I'm supposedly sitting in one of the most powerful seats in the world, and I'm dealing with people that literally are not respecting the position, nor are they respecting the people that put them into power.
10:00That is a very difficult thing for me to, like, understand what it is to do.
10:05I have tried to shame them in committees by laying out, OK, listen, I'm fighting harder for the people that put you in power, sir, ma'am, because this how many of yours about to die.
10:15This how many of yours about to lose they food.
10:18Like, I'm laying out the numbers and the facts because y'all know I always bring receipts.
10:22Because in my mind, if I can back it up with some facts, then I'm going to win, right?
10:28Wrong.
10:29So when you say what is it that's motivating them, I also said in the back as I was talking to my sis Joseca, I said, you know, I thought that they all, because they all went to the White House.
10:41So they had us sitting on the floor waiting.
10:45They just held the vote open.
10:46So the vote supposed to be like 15 minutes, right?
10:49They set the record for the longest held vote because they didn't have the votes.
10:55So we sitting there and we waiting and we can't leave in case they try to pull some kind of funny business.
11:01We have no idea what's going on.
11:03So they're all taking trips over to the White House to talk to the president.
11:07And so I was like, okay, they done made some deals.
11:10So I'm thinking he done told them, listen, I'll make sure you got a good, you know, job somewhere.
11:18One of these corporations that I'm shaking down, right?
11:21I'm thinking he like, yo, you going to have a milli, you going to have a milli.
11:25Like I'm thinking he's setting them up, right?
11:28Wrong.
11:29Reports come out.
11:30They changed their votes so that they could get some swag that he signed.
11:35What?
11:36I'm sorry.
11:38You did what?
11:39Like, so like, how do you walk into that space and even take your colleagues seriously when they literally are caricatures of what an elected official should be?
11:52So as it relates to us, I tell people all the time, stop looking for somebody to save you because ain't nobody coming.
11:59You are the person that you've been waiting on.
12:03It is time for the people to rise up.
12:05One of the most powerful moments that I have experienced since I've been in Congress and he's been the president was on no kings.
12:14It was such a beautiful rebuke of him and this ridiculousness that we saw on that day.
12:21He spent all that money.
12:22He spent close to $50 million to have a parade for himself.
12:27Wasted our $50 million, to be clear, because that was your money, to have this parade and nobody showed up.
12:34But it didn't take all that money for people to come out all across this country and tell them that no kings live here.
12:40So, so long as we have some semblance of a democracy, I need you to harness your power.
12:46And what that looks like is it means that you're going to show up at every single election, not just once every four years.
12:53It means you're going to show up for the school board.
12:56It means you're going to show up for city council.
12:58It means you're going to finally learn who some of these judges are that are on the ballot before you got to go.
13:03This is what it's going to take because the people that are saving us right now, it's good mayors.
13:08It's attorney generals.
13:10It's good governors.
13:11It is the judiciary sometimes, so long as we can avoid the Supreme Court.
13:16I mean, that's what it has to take.
13:19And so, so long as we continue to empower people that will actually listen to us, they will resist.
13:25But for right now, it's about to get bad.
13:28And I don't even know how else to put it.
13:30It's just about to be bad.
13:38Jotaika, you were in the Congress, in the House chamber, when the vote was taking place.
13:44You've spoken about that.
13:46You also are one of the few black women who's been in a C-suite in a tech company in Silicon Valley.
13:52Some people have called you the Olivia Pope of Silicon Valley.
13:59Andre Perry talks about how, at the Brookings Institution, talks about how, while black median wealth has gone up, white median wealth has gone up even more.
14:09Right?
14:10The wealth gap has grown even more.
14:12So when you see what's happening with the government, and you know what happens in these business rooms, business suites, when they're making decisions, how do you look at black wealth and the relationship between those environments where you've been in?
14:31Are we impacting black wealth with some of these decisions?
14:34We're absolutely.
14:35We're absolutely.
14:36First of all, hello.
14:37How are you doing?
14:38I want to give a big, big hello to the 92% that's in here.
14:46I was backstage, I was talking to Jasmine.
14:48We was like, if they would have just listened to the 44,000 and the 92%, we wouldn't be where we are.
14:53Jamal, your question is so important.
14:57Um, important because when we think about, I mean, we're here at the Black, Global Black Economic Forum.
15:03And we think about these decisions and these decisions and the impact that they have particularly on wealth.
15:09Because we think about, you know, this day, the 4th of July, we're 250 years in this country.
15:15But yet we're still approaching, yet not even made it to the day in this country where black women, where we earn the same amount as a white man on the dollar.
15:26So the gaping disparities that we have because of the systems that are in place.
15:33And I think it's important for us to understand that we have an imperative to dismantle systems that continue to create the wealth divide in this country.
15:44When we look at what is it that is keeping us back, it is the fact that we have less access to home ownership.
15:53It is the fact that when we look at corporate America and these companies that have set in the C-suite in Silicon Valley,
16:00the type of decisioning that it has made, it has a deep impact on our ability of whether or not we're able to even get an entry,
16:09particularly into these jobs, like when you look at the tech industry, the jobs that will redefine and create wealth.
16:15We don't have that access. We're not there. We're not getting those jobs.
16:20Black and brown folks, black folks, we make up approximately 2% of the tech force.
16:26And when it comes to venture dollars that are poured into black women, we get less, less than 1%, 0.1% of investment, our ability to get the loans that we need.
16:40So now when you see the dismantling of important federal programs and so much of the federal government where even though the systems did not work for us,
16:52there was some relief in the federal government, but we've seen a total dismantling of that as Dr. Crenshaw have outlined.
16:59What we are seeing is a dismantling of every, not only the system, but also that was what was putting place the very little to provide relief.
17:10And I think that it is going to continue to set us back. It is going to continue to keep us from moving forward in the way that, you know, we all want to.
17:20Because the reality is that black folks, when we think about the American dream, it is not that we don't want to be a part of the American dream.
17:27We work hard. We built this country. As Angela Rye said, we built this country for free.
17:32But yet, time and time again, America will show us and has shown us that they don't like us.
17:40And it sometimes feels like America hates us, particularly if you are a black woman.
17:45So, when we think about this day on the 4th of July, you know, the reality is that for some it's a celebration, but for many of us it's a reality check.
17:54That's what the 4th of July is. And when it comes to, you think about wealth, our access to building generational wealth,
18:02it's actually critical for us to make sure that we're beating back and fighting against the systems that will continue to keep us oppressed.
18:11And the number that Andre Perry uses from Brookings is, for every $100 in white median wealth, black people have $15.
18:26Think about that for a minute. $100, $15.
18:30In 1852, Damon, Frederick Douglass asked a very similar question to the one we're asking today.
18:37What to the slave is the 4th of July? Now, we're not going to call us slaves.
18:44But what to black people today is the 4th of July as someone who does the legal work that's trying to make sure we have the rights that we need to succeed in this country?
18:55Thank you, Jamal, and Global Black Economic Forum. And welcome, New Orleans. It's good to be back home in the city where I grew up.
19:03And the city and the state that gave us the New Orleans Four, Ruby Bridges, Leona Tate, Tessian, Prevost, Gil Etienne, who integrated New Orleans Public Schools.
19:14The city that gave us Plessy v. Ferguson. The state that gave us the Colfax race massacre where black people were murdered for simply organizing ourselves and each other and daring to think we could vote.
19:29So, New Orleans is the kind of gumbo, the city, the state is the gumbo that keeps on giving, the good, the bad, the ugly.
19:36And I think that's a microcosm, Jamal, for what our complicated relationship is as black people to this country.
19:43See, we as black folks love this country even when it doesn't love us back. Our struggle through chattel slavery, through sharecropping, which people don't think of as struggle, but it was struggle, through Jim Crow, through the new Jim Crow, our struggle and our progress makes this country better.
20:06Yet, our institutions continue to betray us. Think about the U.S. Supreme Court and the Dred Scott decision before the Civil War.
20:15The Supreme Court held that black people have no rights which the white man is bound to respect. It feels that way once again.
20:24The U.S. Congress has betrayed us. We didn't always have Jasmine Crockett's, but the Congress, as we just saw, continues to betray us.
20:32These institutions, especially Congress, it's almost like this is where black people's dreams go to die.
20:39Our institutions continue to betray us, yet our struggle continues to make this country better.
20:46And so, people think about our community, think about all the negative factors about who's in prison, who's in jail, who's killed by police.
20:55These are real things, educational opportunity, entertainment.
20:59But people don't talk about the fact of how very patriotic we are.
21:03The fact that Fannie Lou Hamer, that Emilia Boynton Robinson, that John Lewis, that Martin Luther King Jr.,
21:12people sacrifice liberty, safety, and sometimes their lives to make this country better.
21:19That is patriotism.
21:21People don't talk about the fact that black people disproportionately serve more so in the military than people in other communities.
21:30We're more likely to be entrepreneurs.
21:32We actually respect authority, as long as the authority is not abused.
21:36We are patriots.
21:38So, when you think about our relationship, what the 4th of July means, it means we are, for decades, for centuries, redefining what patriotism actually means.
21:50When you think about a patriot, people are going to show you an image probably of a white man.
21:54But when you think about a patriot, the next time I want you to think about a black woman.
21:58I want you to think about black families.
22:01About black people.
22:03So, what is the 4th of July?
22:05It is a reminder, not a celebration, it is a reminder of what we've endured.
22:11And I won't say what we've overcome, what we've accomplished, but also the road we have yet to tread.
22:22Dr. Crenshaw, you are regarded as a person who coined the phrase intersectionality.
22:28It feels like the attack that's happening right now is at the intersections.
22:35Black, women, LGBTQ, immigrants.
22:43It seems, and people cross over all the categories when you start to see the attack points.
22:52How do you, when you take a look at where we are today, how do you believe we counteract that attack and build, as you said in the beginning, we may not have things left from what existed before.
23:04So, what is it that we build next that takes care of the folks who are sitting at those intersections?
23:09You know, I think when people come after something or things, people who don't want us to thrive and survive, when they come after our ideas, our frameworks, our literacy, our history, it's telling us that they know that in those ideas and concepts is the key to our liberation.
23:35So, when they want to erase the story of Ruby Bridges that you mentioned, when they want to make it impossible to tell the story of the Colfax massacre, when they want to say that the Tulsa race riot wasn't a race riot and to teach it like it was makes white kids feel bad.
23:52When they want to say that.
23:53When they want to make us and our country illiterate about what our country actually is and has been, they are telling us that the key to our future is understanding how we are living in a country that was produced by this past.
24:09So, what we have to do is simply reverse what it is they're trying to reverse.
24:14So, if they're coming after our ideas, we need to dig down further.
24:18When they're coming after our history, we need to reinforce it the most.
24:22When we have the opportunity to actually get involved at the local level, as Jasmine was just saying, we shouldn't be voting just every four years.
24:32We shouldn't just be voting for who's going to be in the White House.
24:35We need to be voting for what's going to be taught in the schoolhouse.
24:38That's where we need to put our energy.
24:41And if anyone tells you they only want to see you every four years, they don't have your best interests at heart.
24:47They're not concerned about how your life is actually going.
24:51They're just concerned about who sits in the White House.
24:54We can't afford that limited view about our well-being.
24:58This is the secret and the story about how voting rights was actually effective at the local level.
25:05It's not just about federal policy.
25:08Here's the thing about intersectionality.
25:11It is absolutely the case that what has allowed this vehicle of destruction to go so far into the center of American politics
25:22has been the convergence of all of the things that make white, middle-class, elite people uncomfortable.
25:31It is black folks in places that they don't think they should be.
25:35It's queer folks having rights they don't think they should have.
25:38It's immigrants having a piece of this republic that they don't think they deserve.
25:43All of these things are part of the brew, but here is what I think the unspoken part.
25:49Anti-blackness is the fuel that is taking our democracy apart.
25:56Everything they're doing now, they first tried with us.
25:59Remember, we used to have a very robust social net for everyone.
26:08How did they take it apart?
26:09They attacked black women.
26:11They attacked black women.
26:12Now, of course, it wasn't black women that were the only ones that suffered,
26:17but they knew that if they could attach the idea of entitlement to black people,
26:23they could undermine support for something that benefited everyone.
26:28So they went after black women, and then everybody lost important entitlements.
26:34The same thing with education.
26:36How do you build resentment against one of the best public education countries in the world?
26:42You attach it to black people, and then you encourage people to say,
26:46okay, I don't want that, so you defund public education.
26:50This is what has happened over and over and over again.
26:55So here's the thing. We cannot fight this if we don't name anti-blackness.
27:01And I say that knowing that a lot of our allies are uncomfortable talking about anti-blackness.
27:08They'll talk about anti-everything else, but they won't name the hatred of black people
27:15as a core feature in American democracy.
27:19We have got to be the people that are going to name that.
27:22We've got to be the people who are going to say that contradiction between America,
27:27the land of the free and the home of the brave, and black people not having any of that,
27:32that contradiction is always rationalized by, well, they're different.
27:37They don't work as hard. They don't have the right family formation.
27:40They don't value education. They don't value authority.
27:43These are all the arguments that they are using to justify inequality.
27:47And if you doubt me, look at the last executive order that President Trump signed against the black Smithsonian.
27:55What he said was that this idea that race is socially constructed,
28:01the idea that racial inequality is socially constructed, that's an improper idea.
28:06What is a proper idea?
28:09What is a proper idea?
28:10Mein Kampf.
28:11Hitler's book.
28:12Still on the shelf of the Naval Academy.
28:15Right?
28:16The bell curve.
28:17The idea that black people are naturally inferior.
28:20Still on the shelves of the National Academy.
28:23That is what they think proper ideology is.
28:27So recognize, this is Klan ideology at the highest level.
28:32The highest level.
28:34Right?
28:35Along with, along with, I'm going to end with where Joteka was taking us.
28:40Along with the plutocrats, the people who want to rob our government blind to get an extra $100,000 off their tax returns.
28:50These are the people who basically don't believe in democracy, have said they don't believe in democracy,
28:57are trying to control and dismantle our democracy for private gain.
29:02So you've got the intersection of racial hatred and greed.
29:07And those two things are the foundation of this country.
29:11So if you want to ask what this has to do with July the 4th, we're rehearsing it today, right now.
29:17So Congresswoman, I'm going to stay on that because it also seems like the institutions outside of the government are buckling under the weight.
29:34Media companies where you're supposed to have freedom of speech that are cutting deals with the president.
29:39Law firms that are supposed to represent whoever they are deemed need to be represented,
29:44who are cutting deals, you know, with the White House.
29:48Is there any, is there anything...
29:53The time is now 4.37pm.
29:58Festival ends today at 5pm.
30:02Vendors, please begin closing out sales.
30:05Guests, please finalize your purchases and find your way to the nearest exit.
30:11And get this word before you go.
30:15And I don't like battling the voice of God.
30:17God might be a woman, so I don't like battling the voice of God.
30:23At least in my house.
30:26What is it that you can do in the federal government that will bolster the institutions that ought to also be taking care of the democracy?
30:39Because it's not just what happens on election day.
30:42It's all those outside institutions that we count on to hold it together.
30:46Yeah, I think that's a great question.
30:47I think there's a couple of things that we need to understand is that, you know, this election went the way that it did because of a lack of education.
30:55Now, that isn't me calling people stupid, but that is me letting you know that people are uninformed.
31:00So many people have no idea of what it is that we're supposed to do on the federal level in the first place or the city level or the state level or the county level.
31:08And so they don't fully understand what our roles are.
31:11So they don't understand how powerful we are in certain ways.
31:14And so in my mind, the one thing that we could all do is, number one, make sure that we are more educated, because there's a lot of things that people want to blame on a president.
31:23There was a lot of things.
31:24The eggs, y'all.
31:25It was the eggs.
31:26The eggs was the president.
31:28It was Biden and the eggs.
31:30And I'm like, say what now?
31:32And we ain't heard about them eggs since now.
31:34Now, listen.
31:35Right.
31:36But we allowed ourselves in like, and it's not to say that a president doesn't necessarily play a role as it relates to inflation.
31:43I'm not saying that.
31:44Right.
31:45But most people didn't understand what global inflation was about.
31:47They didn't understand how we were having issues with our supply chain as a result of COVID-19, that it wasn't just that things got shut down here.
31:55It was that things got shut down all around the world.
31:59Right.
32:00Or the fact that like people were voting for this fool when he was like, I'm going to do tariffs because tariffs going to be great.
32:06And then the day after he got elected, y'all know the number one thing that was Googled?
32:12What is a tariff?
32:13I'm going to need you not to try to figure it out after the fact.
32:19And now everybody like, well, I don't like them tariffs.
32:22Well, well, if he told you one truth, one, it was that he wanted to bring about the tariffs.
32:28It may have been good to understand that before you went and cast your vote.
32:32So like, I think a lot of the things that are falling apart.
32:35Number one, it starts with the fact that people don't have the education and they don't understand.
32:40And I get it.
32:42Some people are just trying to figure out how they're going to put food on the table, keep a roof over the head and make sure that their kids got clothes on their backs.
32:48So they don't have time to sit down and watch you, no offense, on CNN 24-7.
32:53They just don't, right?
32:54But before you head to the polls, I think that you have to, candidates need to do a better job too.
32:59So let me say it's a two-way street.
33:01But we also have to do our part.
33:03And we also have to encourage those in our circle to do their parts, all right?
33:08So for me, part of it is education.
33:10The other part is that there is a group of people that in this country are like, these systems have never worked for us.
33:16As we continue to try to figure out why it is that his polling is still, like, he shouldn't have, he should be in the negative, negative, beyond negative.
33:27Don't break that hill, no.
33:29I don't want you to.
33:30I have to carry you out of here.
33:32But when we dig into it, when I have real conversations there, people are like, well, these systems ain't never worked for me before.
33:39Anyway, so what do I care?
33:42Some people are absolutely good with the systems being broken.
33:45And I'm not saying that I don't understand that because I get it.
33:48But at the same time, the way that I've been describing this is because what's going to happen is there will be this backlash, right?
33:55Somebody going to remember.
33:57Hopefully enough people remember how much hell we going through right now.
34:00And so in four years, we flip it all around.
34:02Hopefully in two years, we at least get the house, right?
34:04So hopefully, hopefully, Jesus help us.
34:06Hopefully, right?
34:07But here's the deal.
34:09You take a glass right now, and you throw it against a wall, and it's going to shatter.
34:14Are you able to put that glass back together as quickly as it took you to shatter it?
34:19No.
34:20But what's going to happen is because he broke it so fast, everybody's going to say, well, you need to fix it just as fast.
34:27And it's not going to happen that way.
34:29But what I want you to understand is that, as we know, there's an ebb and flow, right?
34:34We do have an opportunity.
34:36We always got to look at the opportunistic side of this because we know that these systems have never been perfect, because we know that a feature of the systems instead of a flaw of the systems has been to hold us down to some extent.
34:54When we rebuild, we need to rebuild systems that actually start to work for all of us.
34:59So we need to look at it as an opportunity.
35:01But we also are going to have to be patient and understand that they ain't going to let me do what he do.
35:08He out here breaking laws every other second.
35:11Now, if I look like I want to do something wrong, they coming for me, right?
35:16So we got to understand that we will still, again, respect authority.
35:21The final point that I'll make is that what we are about to experience as we're talking about economics is we are about to experience.
35:30You talk about that wealth gap.
35:32I don't even know what you're going to call it no more.
35:34I don't even know because there's about to be a transfer of wealth.
35:38This is a reverse Robin Hood that we are about to experience.
35:42And let me explain why.
35:44Because there are people that literally do not need the money.
35:47And they were paying in and that was supportive.
35:50It made sure that somebody like me, who was on SNAP when I was in college,
35:55but somehow I was able to actually focus on school instead of having as many jobs as I usually would carry,
36:02because that was the only way that I could survive.
36:05But being able to actually go and get some food, that helped me to be able to not only get through college,
36:11but to get through law school and ultimately be able to pay into the system.
36:15It helps everybody if we just invest in people.
36:18But right now they have decided they don't want to invest in people so long as they are good.
36:23But they are going to realize that it's going to hurt them too.
36:26Because guess who the consumers are?
36:29Us.
36:31If you ain't got enough money, I mean, y'all done seen the farmers complaining, right?
36:35If you don't have enough money to buy the food, then what's going to happen to the farmer?
36:40What's going to happen to the grocery store?
36:42Listen, one of the things that as I, because we've got to get to them and then, you know, the voice of God,
36:47she said we got to go in a minute.
36:49But one of the things as I go out and I speak, I always pull from a gospel song,
36:54because I'm a preacher's child, but I don't preach at all.
36:58I always pull from, I need you to survive.
37:03That needs to be the theme that we all end up taking on.
37:07You talked about the intersectionality.
37:09They won because they divided us.
37:11And we've always known that divided we fall, united we stand.
37:16They allowed us to look at the immigrant and say, oh, yeah, you can go on and get out of here,
37:21not understanding that you need that immigrant to survive.
37:25They allowed you to say, oh, well, you know, the trans kids, they're about to mess with my kids.
37:30And so I can't nobody name a trans kid playing with their kids, but that's okay.
37:34But they allowed people to be like riled up about that because they distracted you.
37:41They distracted and they divided and ultimately they have conquered.
37:46So the only message that I give out to people is I don't really care what your beliefs are.
37:51I really don't. I really don't. I know that sounds bad.
37:53I'm probably not supposed to say that, but I don't.
37:55I don't care if you believe that I should have access to my reproductive rights or not.
37:58It ain't your business.
38:00I need you to focus on what does matter.
38:04What matters is that this country survives.
38:07We have been the greatest country in the world because of our diversity.
38:10We are a country of immigrants.
38:12And right now we got a bunch of colonizers that's playing with us.
38:17They don't want us to know our history because if you know your history.
38:20She told you.
38:33Vendors, please continue closing out sales for today.
38:37Guests, please finalize your purchases and find your day to be your exit.
38:42We look forward to seeing you tomorrow.
38:46We're going to move on because she ain't trying to hear me.
38:58I will yield back to the gentlewoman from Texas if she would like to finish her statement.
39:04No, no, no.
39:05In all seriousness, the one thing that I would ask of each of you as you're going out
39:10and you're educating your circles, and number one, understand your power
39:14and the fact that you do have influence.
39:16You have a lot more influence than the average politician.
39:18That's number one.
39:19But number two, don't try to beat people up because of what they believe.
39:23This isn't about getting to your perfect person.
39:26The reality is that some of y'all are sitting here with your loved ones and, you know,
39:30y'all married or about to get married and all the things.
39:33And here's the deal.
39:34You took a vow to be with them for life, and you don't agree with them all the time.
39:39You ain't got to agree with politicians all the time.
39:42You don't have to be on the same page 100% before you can actually go out and vote.
39:47What you should be looking for is who is going to do the most good for me and mine.
39:52And so it's okay if you disagree, say, with me on abortion.
39:56It's okay if you disagree with people on LGBTQIA because they have found that they can divide us on our side.
40:03Trump didn't really win.
40:05We didn't show up because we decided to stay at home.
40:09So that's what I want y'all to do is refocus and recognize that it's okay if you disagree with somebody so long as overall the vast majority of what they're trying to do is going to be better.
40:21It's okay if you disagree with the war because I know a lot of y'all did as well.
40:25They divided us.
40:26Do not allow yourselves to be divided going forward.
40:29All right, Jotaika, you led – I want you to set something – set the record straight on something.
40:39You led and lead one of the largest grassroots engagements of black women in the country.
40:46When was black women?
40:48When my old boss, Kamala Harris, was running for president, it was your call with the 44,000 strong.
40:58Black women around the country that gave her the lift so people could take it seriously.
41:05People now are making the case that black women are no longer interested in politics.
41:12Why don't you tell us the truth?
41:15You know, that's been a big conversation that black women are, quote, resting.
41:25But our definition of rest is that we are simply not going to continue to do the thing that others want us to do, but we're going to focus on the work that we need to focus on.
41:39And what is true is that black women, while we do self-care, is important to us, what has not ever happened is for black women – we have never taken our eyes off the prize.
41:51What we have done, we have said very clearly that we are not going to continue to allow ourselves to be used in a manner that does not benefit our people in the way that we know our people need to benefit.
42:07I also want to say that I remember after the election, and actually the congresswoman and I and some others, I remember we were in a basement of a place, and it was that Wednesday when we had left Howard University where our vice president, who should be the president of this country right now, had gave a very powerful concession speech.
42:35And I remember feeling so down and so sad and depressed.
42:42And I remember going to the sage black women who had carried us, Dr. Janetta Bech Cole and the late Dr. Hazel N. Dukes.
42:51And Dr. Dukes said something to me that it sticks with me even yesterday when we saw this vote.
43:00She said, we who believe in freedom, we walk with our heads held high.
43:10And so what I want to say is that we cannot allow for anyone to lead us to believe that we lost.
43:21We did not get the election results that we deserve.
43:24But we as black women, we did not lose.
43:27And I think it's important for us to not allow them to condition us to think that we do not have power, to allow them to condition us to think that we must shrink in a moment where we must stand.
43:39As Dr. Coretta Scott King said that freedom is won and lost in every generation.
43:45And if you have ever fantasized about what you would have done if you were on that bus in Montgomery and they asked you to move, what would you have done?
43:55Would you have marched with King?
43:56We've all done it.
43:57But this is our civil rights movement right now.
44:01This is our moment to do something.
44:03We cannot afford to be silent because they are literally, as we saw yesterday, coming for our lives.
44:10I grew up in rural South Carolina.
44:12And I watched the United States Congress just vote for a bill that could jeopardize 800 hospitals across rural America.
44:19Moved 16 million people off of healthcare.
44:23One in eight people not to receive SNAP benefits.
44:27That is a life and death and it's very personal.
44:30So in this moment, black women, we have not gone to rest.
44:35We're taking care of ourselves, but we have not rest.
44:38The final thing that I would say, when I think about the 4th of July, that I leave you with this and I can speak for myself, right?
44:46On this 4th of July, I'm not interested in lighting not one firework.
44:51But what I am interested in is putting a fire up under the systems that continue to keep us marginalized in this country.
44:59And as a black woman, that's a part of the 92%.
45:03What we will not ever do is cede our power because one thing that I know for sure is that organized people,
45:10and especially organized black women will beat organized chaos every day, all day, and any day.
45:19Any day.
45:20Any day.
45:21Any day.
45:23All right, Damon, you're going to anchor us out of here.
45:25I told him don't put me after Joe Taker.
45:27He's just a rating of the mic.
45:29But look, here's the thing.
45:31I'm going to pick up where Joe Taker left off and bring a little bit of what Congressman Crackett said as well.
45:37We have a sacred duty right now to be an unbroken link in the chain.
45:44There are so many who came before us, including the unheralded black women and the black men who are out front.
45:51There are so many who are going to come behind us.
45:54My young children, your niece, your nephews, your grandchildren.
45:59So we can't afford to be the weakest link or a weak link, period, in the chain.
46:04We have to be an unbroken link.
46:06That means we have a duty to do things that fall into two buckets.
46:10We must fight back on all this crazy, all this madness.
46:15And fighting back means the litigation that we do at the Lawyers' Community for Civil Rights.
46:19It means the policy that Congressman Crackett does.
46:22It means the thought leadership from Professor Kimberly Crenshaw.
46:25It means the activism from Joe Taker Ede.
46:28It means the communication on mass media that Jamal Simmons does.
46:32Right?
46:33It means all of that is part of the fight back.
46:35But we also, friends, have to fight forward.
46:38Because if all we're doing is defending the ground that our ancestors gained for us, we've already lost.
46:45We have to do two things at once.
46:48We have to fight back and fight forward.
46:50What does fight forward look like?
46:52It's going to be different for each of us, but there's a role for everybody to play.
46:57For some of you, it's going to be your vote.
47:00For some of you, it's going to be your voice.
47:02For some of you, it's going to be protests.
47:04For some of you, it's going to be other forms of activism or subversion inside of systems, like a criminal justice system.
47:11Inside of major corporations.
47:14It's keeping D and I going.
47:17As our friends with L'Oreal are doing here today.
47:19Right?
47:20And so, we have to be vocal.
47:22Because the war we're losing is not just an economic battle or a policy battle.
47:28It's a war of lies, but it's also a war of narrative.
47:31Because they think our day and our time is over.
47:34Yeah.
47:35But we have something to tell people.
47:36We're going nowhere.
47:37Absolutely.
47:38We're not going anywhere.
47:39We are here to stay.
47:40And this country is what it is on our backs because of our sweat, because sadly of our blood.
47:46And we are not going to squander that.
47:48Not yesterday, not today, and not tomorrow.
47:50We will keep fighting forward.
48:01I will admit, there are days that I can get kind of down in a funk about where we are.
48:11And then there are days when it's time for me to go.
48:16I just want to leave you with this.
48:29I want to leave you with this.
48:31I saw Doris Kearns Goodwin, the renowned historian, talk about what it was like during different periods of darkness in American history when people didn't understand what was going to happen.
48:43How were we going to get out of segregation?
48:45People did not know.
48:46When were women going to get the right to vote?
48:48People did not know.
48:49But what it took, because when you look backwards, you can say, oh, I can see how all these dots fit together that led us to the thing.
48:58But when you were living in it, you couldn't see the dots.
49:02So we just have to get up every day and do the work.
49:05And you create the dots.
49:06And at some point, there will be a light that comes through a rock.
49:09And everybody will see that's the way we're supposed to go.
49:12And we will all move in that direction.
49:14So let's keep doing the dots.
49:16Let's keep connecting the dots.
49:18And I think we got a dot that's going to be connected.
49:20Why don't you tell us?
49:21Tell us what it is.
49:22Tell us what it is.
49:23I got to talk fast before a goddess comes and tells me to shut up.
49:26So connecting the dots.
49:29Connecting the dots.
49:30So Langston Hughes said, you don't have to tell the Negro what fascism is.
49:36We've lived it.
49:37Right?
49:38This is our history.
49:39This is our story.
49:40So Freedom Summer has got to be the opportunity for us to learn from each other where we've come and where we're going.
49:49Everybody's doing something.
49:51One thing, if you like this conversation, and I can tell you do, and you want to go deeper,
49:56we're having Democracy Defenders Summer Seminar and Summit with Representative Justin Jones in his city,
50:05in his state, Tennessee, July 20th to 25th.
50:09So if you want to learn more about what we're up against, how to fight back, how to vote, how to educate,
50:17how to self-activate, this is the place for you to come.
50:20So there will be flyers all around.
50:23There are some right there.
50:24And maybe I can talk all of my co-panelists into coming through.
50:29All right.
50:30So keep working.
50:31Keep banging away at the rocks.
50:33Look for the light.
50:34And we will all see you when we get there.
50:36Thank you for having us.
50:37Thank you for being here.
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