- 2 days ago
Racial equity faces nonstop challenges on multiple fronts, often leaving many unaware of how these threats against progress impact their lives. This discussion will explain how the various attacks against equity impact our present and future. Join us for an important conversation that outlines the importance of staying informed and engaged. Discover why equity matters and what steps you can take to support a more just and prosperous society for Black communities.
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00:00:00you thought you'd gotten rid of me
00:00:10ha ha ha ha love y'all thank you hello even if you're not a member of Delta
00:00:18Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated hello everyone we're back again all right I am
00:00:23so excited to introduce this sister you all know her she is not just a
00:00:29politician not just an activist a lawyer a civil rights activist but also my
00:00:36sister and the woman who is attempting to save America from itself the great the
00:00:43glorious the gorgeous the incredible Stacey Abrams
00:01:02whoa hello hello all right my sister we're gonna jump right into it cuz we don't
00:01:07have a ton of time and I we have so much to talk about and the thing that we're
00:01:12going to get into here something we've talked about a little bit in the
00:01:15previous panels but it is now one of the most demonized concepts in America they
00:01:22went through critical race theory they demonized that they played around with
00:01:25it they went through affirmative action they played around with that demonized
00:01:29it but now they're on to DEI diversity equity and inclusion so I want you to
00:01:36first explain what DEI is and talk us through why it has become the focus of
00:01:44the conservative movements new war on black folks well I would start by saying
00:01:50they've been at war as long as we've been here and it's because of what DEI means
00:01:57diversity means all people equity means fair access to opportunity and inclusion means
00:02:05having a pathway to the American dream well if you are a reactionary person who has
00:02:12the cynical politics of the right DEI is a curse they are anti-diversity they are
00:02:19opposed to equity and they despise inclusion and they've told us this the
00:02:24thing is they've been telling us this for 248 years and you know how long I know
00:02:29they've been doing it because that's as long as this country's been around DEI is not
00:02:34simply something that made made itself manifest in the last decade DEI has been
00:02:39a part of the DNA of this country since its inception it was in the documents they
00:02:45just never actually translated it into action and so every movement we have had
00:02:50in this country since this country's founding has been about making certain
00:02:54that we have diversity that we have equity that we have inclusion and I can prove it
00:02:59reconstruction the first major DEI movement the first time black Americans actually had
00:03:08citizenship the women's rights movement the LGBTQIA movement the civil rights movement the
00:03:14Chicano movement you name a movement that has expanded access that was part of DEI but it began
00:03:20with black Americans it began with holding this nation accountable to the ideals it espoused
00:03:26it began with us saying that the American dream does not belong to a narrow few it belongs to all
00:03:31of us and the DEI movement is about how we get that pathway to the American dream how we remove
00:03:38the barriers that were put in place by those who despised the notions of diversity equity and inclusion
00:03:44and so when we hear that DEI is about preference that's wrong DEI is corrective action DEI is about
00:03:52holding the nation accountable to its promises and its principles and therefore when you hear
00:03:58someone say they despise DEI when you hear them try to convince you that it is somehow not your right
00:04:04what they are telling you is that they don't think you belong the last thing I'll say is that there are
00:04:09three pathways to the American dream education what we know the economy what we do and elections who's in
00:04:19charge well what are they attacking well they started with elections they started with Shelby
00:04:25v holder they have been going after the voting rights act since its inception because what did
00:04:29it do it allowed black Americans to participate in electing leadership in this country from the
00:04:35very bottom to the very top and so if you attack elections you give people the ability you give
00:04:40those who do not want us to participate the ability to change the rules the second thing they went
00:04:45after was education they started with CRT they started with telling us that the history we know
00:04:51to be true is a lie if you want to convince people they're not entitled to something you convince them
00:04:56that never happened the attack on CRT was an attack on the very construct that in this nation race has been
00:05:04an issue that we need to understand and they've gone after it by banning books they've gone after it by
00:05:09eliminating DEI on college campuses when they go after DEI through Shelby through students for fair
00:05:16admissions it is because they know that education has worked in this country that especially black
00:05:21women have been able to leverage education that black men have achieved levels of position in this
00:05:27country and so they've gone after education and now they're coming after the economy that's why they
00:05:32attacked the fearless fund that's why they're trying to scare companies out of DEI even though they know
00:05:37DEI makes companies money because they are more afraid of us than they are afraid of losing money
00:05:42that's a lot of power and so I will close with this the movement and the power of DEI is embedded in
00:05:50the name the reason they are attacking the construct of DEI like they attack the construct of CRT is because
00:05:57it works they begin by trying to convince us that we're wrong it's somebody if somebody tells you that
00:06:04they don't like your name if they mock your name do you change it do you say mom can I have my birth certificate I'm going to go
00:06:09change my name no because who I am is embedded in what I call myself and I won't let you call me out of my name well
00:06:18they're trying to convince us that DEI is an epithet because it works because 60% of Americans believe in DEI and when you
00:06:26explain that it's diversity equity inclusion that number jumps to 69% they are trying to convince us that DEI is losing
00:06:33losing because we're winning and therefore my fundamental belief is that we don't change our name
00:06:39we don't change our construct we don't change who we are because they don't like it we double down we lean
00:06:44in and we win amen and I want to break that into into into pieces because I think that's the important
00:06:51big picture that we need to have is that each of the things that the right has gone after have been the
00:06:58most successful things at creating opportunity for blacks so we'll start with voting to your point
00:07:04with Shelby when did they do Shelby after Barack Obama becomes president of the United States because
00:07:10they said oh this voting rights act and letting people vote and making it easier to vote and giving
00:07:15people options in 14 days of early this has allowed that guy to be president so we got to shut that down
00:07:21and they're doing the same thing with education opportunity etc etc etc so let's talk about how we
00:07:26fight back so let's start with the education piece they have now eliminated affirmative action
00:07:33which has caused schools to affirmatively cancel scholarship programs that black folks were using
00:07:42they're trying to push like Howard University to rescind and roll back it's the recruitment of black
00:07:48medical students they're doing everything they can to shut down these opportunities and schools are
00:07:53actually responding to it with fear and running away how do we reverse that well first of all we have
00:07:58to understand what students for fair admissions actually did it did not eliminate access to education
00:08:05it did not make it illegal to offer scholarships based on race it put in alignment education policy with
00:08:16with employment policy so since the 1970s it has been illegal to use race as the major factor in hiring okay
00:08:25well for years they allowed education to continue to use race as a corrective measure because you can't get to
00:08:33the job if you can't get the education so the understanding was as a as a point of entry it was an affirmative good
00:08:41to make certain that we corrected for years of inequity in education what the supreme court said in students for fair admissions was that you can no longer
00:08:50use race as the major as the primary factor for admitting students unless because there was an exception they said unless you're sending them to military college because they still need black and brown people to go to cop to go into the military they didn't say you couldn't use it in other forms of education
00:09:08they explicitly said that it was narrowly tailored to higher education they did not say that you couldn't use it for scholarships they did not say that you couldn't have
00:09:18DEI offices on college campuses what what has happened is that colleges were looking for an excuse to not do the right thing the law has not changed in that fashion what has happened is that the state law has tried to take advantage of the misinformation
00:09:35and so you've seen states like Texas and Georgia and Florida and Ohio and Kansas and Wisconsin try to pull back and it's happening in places where communities of color namely black and brown folks black people in particular have seen advances in education but the supreme court did not say nothing can be done it said one thing couldn't be done but what has happened is that the miasma of fear and the aggressive nature of the right has been used to convince people to do the wrong thing and
00:10:05but the case law hasn't changed you can still when Duke University removed access to that scholarship it was a voluntary decision to deny access to funding to black students that was a decision they made and so one thing we can do is call them on it we can call the state of Florida on it we can call the state of Georgia on it we can call the state of Wisconsin on it we can call the state of Wisconsin on it we can call the question we can call out North Carolina if you went to a school in a state that is doing this our job is to remind people the law didn't
00:10:35require it they decided to do this if you all have questions for Stacy please make sure you write them down I think somebody should be walking around here with cards to allow you to write a question down because I do want to leave time for you guys to ask questions as well so so that's important in the academic sense as you make the excellent point it's cowardice or choices being made by these states and by these institutions what about in the business side because we know and I'm sure you guys are all wreck you know the fearless fund which was these black
00:11:05black women who had created a grant program for black women entrepreneurs where they could get $20,000 or more in grant money and we all know starting a business is very expensive and very hard and really difficult for black owned businesses even though black women actually start more businesses than any other group in the United States but we also started with no money and with very little family funding that we can get from just our relatives and banks are not necessarily out there trying to help us
00:12:05that these tiny little tiny little tiny little tiny tiny little tiny little tiny little $20,000 and up grants were discriminatory against white people and that that essentially they must open up their grants to give white people the money so we can't even help ourselves as Nicole Hannah Jones said
00:12:16so we can't even help ourselves as Nicole Hannah Jones said the response to
00:12:22those kind of lawsuits just that one lawsuit against that one little tiny
00:12:25organization you're starting to already see the retrenchment and retreat by
00:12:30corporate America by the banking world by the private equity world they're now
00:12:34scared to do anything that's directly impactful for black people what do we do
00:12:39about that so again we have to know what actually happened versus what they say
00:12:43happened so in the fearless fund decision the 11th circuit upheld an
00:12:48injunction meaning that the lower court said we don't like this but we haven't
00:12:53decided the merits we are just saying that until we figure out if this is
00:12:57right or wrong we don't want you to do anything we can't give the money out
00:13:01anymore so the lower court enjoined it and fearless fund appealed and a three
00:13:06member panel not the whole 11th circuit a three member panel said you should
00:13:11continue to not do it because we think maybe sometime in the future the lower
00:13:16court might agree with Ed Blum and so you can't give this $20,000 away at the
00:13:21exact same time in Ohio Ed Blum's buddy sued a organization called hello Alice
00:13:28hello Alice is giving $20,000 grants to black women to start businesses in Ohio the
00:13:34court said that's fine go ahead so even with fearless fund there are two
00:13:39different courts that have said two completely different things but what
00:13:43the business community has done among some of them is use one bad miniature
00:13:47answer to defend terrible policy we've got to call them on it the law didn't
00:13:54change there is no law in place there is no judgment no final determination that
00:14:00says that you cannot allocate funds it's a business decision and that business
00:14:05decision is a protected decision but because of how the right is playing this
00:14:10and because of how folks not our friend here miss Joy Reid who does an
00:14:14extraordinary job of telling us the truth but how some of the media plays it these
00:14:18are folks who've got the basket into the hole one time and are claiming they won
00:14:22the NBA championship no they just happen to make a free throw and maybe hit a
00:14:27three-pointer but they lost the game because we're still winning the law did not
00:14:32change we have not lost but what is happening is that they are bullying their
00:14:37way into forcing or not forcing compete compelling companies to take actions and
00:14:43so I'm sitting in a room of powerful people raise your hand if you spend money in
00:14:47America then we have the ability to hold accountable those companies that are
00:14:53retreating from their commitments when color of change sends you an email and
00:14:57says I need your voice when the global black financial when the global black
00:15:01economic forum says stand up with us when you hear from an organization saying we
00:15:06need you to speak up that's what we're doing we are telling corporations you don't
00:15:11have the right to walk away from us because the law didn't tell you you have to go and
00:15:16until the law actually changes they are accountable for the law as it is and that
00:15:22is that they should do right by America including black America but we can't get
00:15:27convinced by terrible headlines that we've actually lost anything because the
00:15:32law didn't change now they're trying hard they're filing suits but they're
00:15:36filing suits to scare us out of opportunity not because opportunity is
00:15:41actually abandoned us and and I mean this is such a great point because we're
00:15:45seeing this even in Hollywood my sister's an actress June Carroll watch her
00:15:49movies and things if you get the opportunity and you know you look at what's
00:15:53happening in even Hollywood and there go they're taking this opportunity to say oh
00:15:58we don't have to keep making these casting decisions that that have
00:16:03diversity involved now people who wanted to make all white movies and make sure
00:16:07they don't have to hire black writers and black directors this is like a huge
00:16:11opportunity for people who sort of claim to be liberal but may not really be that
00:16:16liberal when it comes to diversity equity inclusion to scroll it back so as
00:16:20individual consumers it's so there's so much information coming at us all at
00:16:25one time how do we dig through which of these people we should be doing business
00:16:30with and who not like is there some way that we can sort of synthesize
00:16:34information and understand who we're spending our money with so one it's just
00:16:39paying attention to who says they're not but also pay attention to who says they
00:16:42will who says they're going to continue give them your money and then post on
00:16:47social media that's why you're giving them your money when viral moments happen
00:16:52it's not because someone is smarter than someone else it is that more and more
00:16:55people decide to publicly agree and so we have the ability to lift up those who are
00:17:01doing the right thing and we don't have to wait for someone to tell us we just have
00:17:05to echo it when we hear it we are good at repeating a terrible lie when we hear it we
00:17:09need to be good at repeating a fantastic truth when we hear it we need to go to the 15%
00:17:16project you should clap for it if you want to we should be following the 15%
00:17:23pledge any company that pledged that they were going to abide by the 15% rule and
00:17:28make certain that the communities of color that black communities got what they
00:17:31needed we should be celebrating those companies and anyone who walks back their
00:17:35commitment who quietly quits diversity equity and inclusion we should also point
00:17:41them out tell your friends and if you happen to tell your friends in public so
00:17:45much the better because the reality is we have to crowdsource our success we have to
00:17:50share the information we have we cannot spread rumors we have to spread truth and
00:17:55so if you decide to repeat it make sure it's from a credible source and that's not your
00:18:00friend's cousin so make sure we do our work but there are sources out there that will
00:18:05tell you what we need to do but the larger ethos has to be that we believe we are entitled
00:18:11to DEI when they went after Brandon Scott the mayor of Baltimore and accused him of
00:18:18causing a bridge to collapse and said that he was a DEI hire and he responded with yes a
00:18:24duly elected incumbent that's how that has to be our response when you saw those
00:18:30extraordinary women up here that was a result of the voting rights act of 1965 they could not have
00:18:38been elected had we not fixed the election laws and corrected the actions and the inactions for
00:18:44decades for generations in this country so if you enjoyed listening to them speak know that they could
00:18:49lose their jobs if we lose our right to elections and that's why we have to participate every single
00:18:54time at every single level but our fundamental responsibility is an internal one and that is to
00:19:01not let them demonize and delegitimize what we believe not let them litigate us into fear and not
00:19:08let them legislate us out of this country that's their mission and whether they do it through the business
00:19:14community through elections or through education we have to hold our truth to be we deserve to be here
00:19:20and we will be as loud about our truth as they are about their lies amen let's talk about amen let's talk
00:19:27about elections uh this is something you know well i tell this story every time that i do a fireside
00:19:32chat with so she's just gonna tune out when i do this thing again we met in 2014 in the green room
00:19:38because we were both gonna be on melissa harris perry show a former resident of new orleans we love
00:19:42melissa and i was uh one of melissa's frequent guests and fill-in hosts and we were on together
00:19:47and this was the day i was a guest not a whole not filling in for melissa and we're sitting in the
00:19:52green room and this sister told me her secret plan to register every black voter in the state of
00:19:57georgia and i'm obsessed with voting as you all know anybody who's ever heard me talk as i'm i'm
00:20:01kind of like and uh i'm a nudge about it like i actually will harass and and harass people to vote
00:20:06it's it's the most important thing to me and i i say it all the time and i was like this is amazing
00:20:11i need to get your number we need to be in we need to be in communication and then when i tell you
00:20:16this sister turn around and did it georgia has i want to say is it plus 90 percent
00:20:22of black voters in georgia are registered and she was doing it she was doing it at the time she don't
00:20:30like when people brag about her but keep clapping because it makes uncomfortable she don't like
00:20:33this is what i like to do to her she was doing it at a time when the current governor of georgia brian
00:20:41camp was the secretary of state and so what do you think brian was doing when this sister and her
00:20:46organization were registering voters and organizations like black voters matter our sister latasha brown
00:20:50were out there registering voters when black women were out there registering voters and black folks
00:20:54were out there doing the work he was taking them off the rolls as quick as they get them on he was
00:20:58trying to oh disqualify disqualify disqualify oh how can i make them not get on he was trying to pull
00:21:02people off the rolls as fast as she was trying to put them on the rolls she still managed to get them
00:21:07on the rolls but this is the way the other way that people steal elections is trying to make it so that
00:21:13you can't vote this is the game of keep away that conservatives whether they call themselves at democrats
00:21:18back in the day or they call themselves republicans now have been playing with us when it comes to our
00:21:22right to vote he was doing that type of keep away and then she because he knew that he was eventually
00:21:27going to have to face this sister in an election and he knew that he could not beat her in an election
00:21:31unless he cheated in advance and that is literally the story of what happened in georgia georgia is a state
00:21:38that used to be like louisiana people would write it off as a red state but some of us who worked in
00:21:43democratic politics in the early 2000s knew that georgia was one of those states on the brink of becoming
00:21:48a purple state and now it is a winnable state with two democrats elected statewide as united states
00:21:53senators including the great rafael warnock from king's church and their first jewish senator right
00:22:00and they and so georgia's winnable and yet he's still doing it republicans in the state of georgia
00:22:09came back and now governor kemp signed a voter suppression law while sitting beneath the portrait
00:22:17of a plantation trolling the people of georgia in the united states with all white men standing
00:22:24around him as if to send a message yeah y'all blacks thought you had something you ain't got nothing i
00:22:30will take it all back from you and he signed that law which has made it harder to vote so when we have
00:22:35that kind of keep away constantly happening we win a little bit they take it back we win a little bit
00:22:40they take it back you're now in a state where unfortunately only 10 of our people came out to vote in the
00:22:45last election that they called a primary to keep people home so that we would stay home and let
00:22:51demonic things happen in the state of louisiana to us how do we fight this you have fought it in georgia
00:22:59give us some advice on how to fight it nationwide first is that we can't we can't believe the hype
00:23:05that we're hearing um we know that not only did he advocate for and sign into law horrific voter
00:23:14suppression law in 2022 2021 he did it again this past year so he got celebrated for not committing
00:23:23treason in 2020 and people forgot that he'd purged more people in a single day than any secretary of
00:23:30state in the history of this country he passed more anti-voting laws than any other governor in
00:23:36the 21st century and that's i mean he's fighting against ronda santis and greg abbott for that title
00:23:42and he's doing a really good job of holding it but the problem is we keep getting distracted by these
00:23:47moments and we ignore their mission what jeff landry is doing here in louisiana what brian kemp is doing
00:23:54in georgia what greg abbott is doing in texas what ronda santis is doing in florida what's happening
00:24:01in ohio it is all part of the same narrative when we vote we win therefore keep us silent so we lose
00:24:12and here in louisiana they just passed two of the most horrific laws i've ever heard about
00:24:19medical castration as a law in the 21st century the attacks that they have on voters and just a small
00:24:29thing what they're doing in baton rouge each of these pieces are part of taking away our power
00:24:35and denying us access to the american dream and we should be righteously indignant but also
00:24:41righteously engaged if 10 of the people showed up it's because 90 of the people didn't think it could
00:24:47matter that's not apathy that's despair apathy means you don't care despair means you don't think
00:24:56it matters if you try or not and so we've got to go to the despair we've got to go to the heart
00:25:01of people's concerns and we can't show up on election day and say do this thing for me we've
00:25:07got to show up before election day and say here's what's happening to you and here's what we can do
00:25:12about it we've got cancer alley here in louisiana i grew up in gulfport mississippi so i know a lot about
00:25:17louisiana and what i know is that there is a stretch of land a stretch of highway here where the the rate of
00:25:24cancer deaths outstrips anywhere else in this country including three mile island and that's because
00:25:31of the poisoning that happens in those communities well we have the inflation reduction act that is
00:25:36putting money into the hands of communities like cancer alley to say let us help you we need to be
00:25:43out there demanding those dollars because landry can't stop that money from getting here but we
00:25:48can't wait from election to election to see change joy pointed out that i was doing this work in 2014
00:25:532011 2012 i was doing it when losing was absolutely guaranteed but we only win when we make incremental
00:26:01progress we we aren't the ones who win the first time we go out we've got to keep showing up and i know
00:26:08you understand this because in this state when you showed up and when you showed out things changed
00:26:13but we've got to remember our victories the same way we remember our losses but instead of learning our
00:26:19losses we have to learn our lessons one of the lessons is that we have to register voters every single
00:26:26day every single place you don't win a state like georgia by showing up three weeks before the election
00:26:34saying y'all come on it took 10 years but we've got the time because this is our place we have the
00:26:42right to be heard this is our country the organization that i'm a part of american pride rises if the name
00:26:48is intentional i am an american i am proud of my country and i am proud of what we can be and i will
00:26:55not let anyone convince me that my patriotism is any less than theirs we are the ones who help build
00:27:01this nation and we are going to be the ones who help repair this nation but we've got to show up
00:27:06every day for our nation and that means voting in elections whether we like it or not whether we love
00:27:12the people on the ballot or not because it's not about who's on the ballot it's about who's in the
00:27:17booth and that's the story that's the narrative that's the work we have to do amen we have some
00:27:22excellent questions here for you and this might be my favorite question that i have been asked at an
00:27:28event and i love it so much and i'm so glad whoever this is answered it and the question is what can
00:27:33teens do to make a difference and get involved in politics whoever you are teen god bless you i love
00:27:41that question can you stand up where's our team unless you're like 64 in which case
00:27:46come on teenager yay yeah excellent so number one it's showing up that is the most important piece
00:27:56i got involved not when i was 25 not when i was 30 the first time i was involved in politics i was 17
00:28:02i wasn't old enough to vote but i was old enough to to speak i was old enough to tell people what i
00:28:08thought my older sister is here with me she and i my parents pulled us into social justice work early on
00:28:15and we sometimes bifurcate this we treat social justice and politics as separate they're all the
00:28:20same you don't need social justice if the justice is already working and to make the justice work you
00:28:25have to have political leaders who feel accountable and so the first responsibility is to do exactly
00:28:30what you've done but ask questions of those who are in power they have to answer you because you are
00:28:36an american you are entitled to an answer whether you can vote for them or not because even if you can't
00:28:40cast a ballot you know a grown-up who can and they need to be afraid that you can get that grown-up to
00:28:45do your bidding and i i have a borrowed teenager who lives with me and she's pretty good at that
00:28:50number two you have to imagine better for america imagine better for yourself and your friends
00:28:59and understand why it hasn't happened yet this generation is the most connected generation ever
00:29:09but for those of us who kind of disparage that we've got to recognize they not only have access
00:29:15to more information than we did that means they have to consume more information than we did
00:29:22imagine being bombarded with truth all the time and so the second job of teenagers is not to be
00:29:30overwhelmed by the sheer scale of what you see around you find the thing that animates you the thing that
00:29:36activates you the thing that brings you joy and make that the focus of the work you want to do
00:29:40find the problem that you think you can help solve and focus there don't allow the rest of the world
00:29:46and the mistakes that adults have made convince you that you can't make change not only can you we are
00:29:52relying on you and the third is to go find your friends don't do this alone when i met joy in that green
00:29:59room it was a breath of fresh air to talk about this with someone who didn't automatically laugh at me
00:30:04because you gotta remember 2014 saying georgia was going to go blue was not exactly something people
00:30:09believed in fact they didn't believe it until november 7th 2020 2020 but she was a friend and when things
00:30:18got hard and when she got her show and i needed to tell people what was happening she was the person i
00:30:23could turn to your friends don't have to be famous they just have to be true and so as teenagers you know
00:30:30who shares your values and you know who should share your values and so one of your opportunities
00:30:34is to tell them why you're doing what you're doing why you care about what you care about so if you
00:30:40show up if you focus on what matters to you and if you share your truth with your friends we can get
00:30:46much more done in this country amen all right here's another good one uh do you have some suggestions
00:30:53on mobilizing to make sure that dei is here to stay go to apr network.org and share your information
00:31:01as i mentioned i have founded an organization recently it's actually a network of organizations
00:31:06and we are focused on defending dei because dei isn't just about some bad you know conversation you
00:31:13had in hr dei is about the lifeblood of this country it's about whether or not we have black doctors
00:31:20who are allowed to go to when she talked about howard university they're trying to stop one of
00:31:24the top universities producing black doctors if they can strip us of medical education in a nation
00:31:30where black women have the highest rate of maternal mortality that's higher than some places in the
00:31:35world when they can stop us from getting access to the medical care we need that's what they mean by
00:31:40anti-dei when they can eliminate jobs and opportunities when they can shut down access and so we've got to
00:31:47recognize that dei is not just a narrow attack on black kids trying to go to harvard it is a
00:31:52fundamental attack on whether we get to fully participate in this country so please go to
00:31:57aprnetwork.org sign up and you will get all the information you need all the calls to action you need
00:32:03and we're also working on project 2025 to give you what to do on that as well i have a question on
00:32:08project 2025 uh but i'm going to ask this one first thank you and i hope you all put that in your
00:32:11phones you know i'm like i'm a bully on that put put in your phone did y'all write that down
00:32:15our network put in your notes i put everything in notes i love that little notes thing in the phone
00:32:20it's so convenient um what can we do to stop the democratic party from beating down our candidate
00:32:26asking our candidate to step down the republican party have a convicted felon and no one from the
00:32:31republican party asked their candidate to step down thank you for speaking my spirit and soul
00:32:36joe biden is our president
00:32:43on august 19th he will come our the week of august 19th he becomes our nominee and if we do our work
00:32:51he will become the president of the united states once again in 2025 in between we have to remember
00:32:58that this is the man who saved america from donald trump this is someone who was so committed to this
00:33:09country that he has done all of the things he could think of to do we have we've heard the litany and i
00:33:15can go through the the litany of what he has invested but let's remember what comes next he has planted
00:33:22seeds we're in the south in the south we plant things and the reality is when you plant something
00:33:28you got to be around to harvest it if the other guy gets in he is going to raise the ground and salt
00:33:35the earth so nothing good grows again and how do we know because he told us
00:33:41i i i come from the old school you dance with the one who brung you
00:33:45and the reality is joe biden has done an amazing job as president we all stumble i i'm i have had
00:33:53malapropisms myself and the reality is i look at the body of work i look at the integrity of the person
00:34:01and i look at the possibility of having someone who believes in us that much willing to continue to
00:34:09stand and fight with us and fight for us he's the only candidate we know who could win because he's
00:34:14the only one who has he is our president and we need to stop listening to the doom loop and start
00:34:21putting our work boots on and doing the work of getting him re-elected as the president of the
00:34:25united states and i just want to throw in one more thing have you all noticed and y'all have been here
00:34:31y'all maxine waters was on i think he's on this stage you saw representative jasmine crockett um you've
00:34:36seen representative ayanna presley have you noticed it's not black people who are calling on him to step
00:34:43down is it just me who's noticed that so let's let's think about it this way i'm just asking is
00:34:50weird am i just maybe hallucinating it i will say that there is no community that better understands
00:34:56the risk that we face there is a luxury to wishful thinking we are grounded in an absolute reality
00:35:05and we have watched one person meet that reality as president of the united states and that is why
00:35:14i stand with joe biden that reality is one that has not only been staved off he's actually invested
00:35:20in our communities he has put resources in we may not have everything we want but we can see the
00:35:26seedling sprouting i'm i'm i'm you know i'm extending the metaphor a bit too far but what we've got to
00:35:32understand is that those who are the loudest are often the ones with the least to lose
00:35:36the people who have to do the work are the ones who understand the consequences of failure
00:35:42there is wishful thinking and there is known reality and the known reality is that joe biden
00:35:49is the candidate that we need for this moment he is the incumbent president incumbency matters and i can
00:35:56tell you as someone who has faced an incumbent incumbency matters but more importantly you
00:36:04referenced the fact that we have a convicted felon who will become the nominee on the other side
00:36:10when they stumble they say they've invented a new dance when we stumble we create an entire
00:36:19histrionic around it and i say we and i mean they because those of us who know better just have to
00:36:26do better we don't have to give into the doom loop we don't have to conscribe we don't have to
00:36:32subscribe to the narratives we just have to know that the work needs to be done i'm going to do the
00:36:39work because i know what the consequences are i've read project 2025 i've i live in a state where
00:36:46project 2025 is the mantra the leadership lives by louisiana is one of those states we have seen what
00:36:53will happen this is not speculative this is urgent and our urgency should lead us to ignore those who
00:37:01will tell us that what we know to be true isn't and we need to fight for what we know we need to be
00:37:06true next that should be our work and and this goes to the next question that i have it says that
00:37:12republicans as you said are aligned with 2025 what is the democrats answer what is the democrats answer
00:37:17project 2025 president joe biden all right i mean so but let's let's be honest what project 2025 seeks
00:37:24to do is dismantle diversity equity and inclusion in all its forms meaning they want to be able to
00:37:30dismiss fire and dismantle access to equity diversity and inclusion they want to get rid of the department
00:37:37of education do you know why because title one expanded access to education and ensured that black and
00:37:44brown children finally got an education in this country and it funds that education imperfectly yes
00:37:49but absolutely it does they know that if you have a president trump the housing crisis we are in will
00:37:56become a permanent situation but that the housing crisis as it is is getting better because we have a
00:38:02president who actually thinks it's a problem we will have access to health care they want to get rid of
00:38:08it we have a president who will hold obamacare and continue to fund it and fight for expansion of
00:38:13medicaid so that the remaining states have to actually serve their people and so all of the
00:38:18things that they seek to undo under project 2025 get preserved when we win this election our best
00:38:26answer to project 2025 is president joe biden and i will add to that if i could if i may that
00:38:34understand that the state we're in right now did not have obamacare y'all know that obamacare is a
00:38:40fancy way of saying expanded medicaid right when fdr passed the social security act back in the 1930s
00:38:47they wanted to include universal health care in it but he couldn't get it through because the american
00:38:52medical association fought it and they fought it and successfully fought it it took until 19 into the
00:38:571960s and lbj for them to expand the social security act to include medicaid which is state funded a
00:39:06version of you know universal health care for people who are poor and medicare which is health
00:39:11care for people who are aged that is part of the social security act that's what it is what what
00:39:17president obama did what they call obamacare is the affordable care act which for the first time
00:39:22changed the formula for medicaid so that people who were not under a certain level of poverty but people
00:39:29who are basically working class could get medicaid it's expanded medicaid and what they
00:39:35originally did when they passed the affordable care act is the government the federal government
00:39:39vowed to fund the you know to basically finance it 100 so that states basically didn't have to put
00:39:46any money in red states the states that used to be slave states said we don't want it even though
00:39:53it would save our rural hospitals even though it would save people's lives we don't want that dirty
00:39:59obama money no florida said no texas said no louisiana said no kentucky said well actually
00:40:04kentucky said yes why did kentucky say yes because they had a man named governor bashear who was a a
00:40:11democrat and he said i'll take the money but i'm gonna call it connect because people in my state are
00:40:18conservative and they don't like obama so they will take something called connect as long as they
00:40:24don't think it's obamacare so they took it and people for the first time rural people who had
00:40:29never gotten to have a go to a doctor we're going to the doctor they're like this is amazing
00:40:32and then a republican ran against mr bashear and said i will run on repealing obamacare
00:40:38and the conservative voters in that state said yeah let's get rid of obamacare put that guy in
00:40:44put him in and he tried to get rid of obamacare and then people went you can't get rid of connect
00:40:50that's my that's my health care he said i said i was gonna get rid of obamacare what are you talking
00:40:56about i'm doing what you hired me to do and you know what they did they elected mr bashear's son
00:41:02they said get out republican go away get out and they put the son in and so the bashear that's in
00:41:08there is the son the daddy's the one who gave him obamacare and when the republican tried to get rid of
00:41:13they went what no no stop so people as you said they respond to the actual things you know this
00:41:20state right here has obamacare yeah you know how they got it john a democrat john billy this state
00:41:27louisiana elected a democrat he came in there and this state was the number one incarcerator of
00:41:33americans number one they have a thing called angola prison here which is a plantation where the 13th
00:41:39amendment says you can put in people to slave labor and they like incarcerating especially black people
00:41:43in the state of louisiana they love it but john bell edwards comes in and he reduced the incarceration
00:41:48rate he actually they're like 46 or 40 something they're no longer like last they're no longer the
00:41:53number one incarcerator and he passed through obamacare which they call it probably something
00:41:58else here but it's health care and you know what people did in this last election elected joe they
00:42:03replaced him with the former attorney general who is threatening that he will literally
00:42:09punish new orleans if the the law enforcement here don't arrest and prosecute people who try to get
00:42:18abortions he wants to put people in jail for getting abortions or trying to get abortions do you know
00:42:24what color the people are gonna be who get arrested for trying to get an abortion i'll let you guess
00:42:29they look like they at the essence festival
00:42:31you don't vote because you like love john bell edwards or or andy beshear or the beshears or even know who
00:42:41they are you vote for yourself it's self-preservation none of them are gonna move in your house
00:42:48but i ain't gonna live with you no and the reality is we live in a region of the country
00:42:54where 57 percent of black people live yes 57 of black women live in states where they have
00:43:03no access to reproductive care at all 57 percent project 2025 will make certain that we are denied
00:43:17not only reproductive care we will be denied contraception we would be denied ivf and we will
00:43:24have no ability to escape to a place to get it because we can't afford anything because all of
00:43:29the jobs that we have all of the protections we have will be gone and so as joy pointed out the
00:43:35challenge of this election everyone says it's the most important election this is an existential election
00:43:42it is a question of whether we continue to be true full citizens of this country as
00:43:49uneven as that has been in our history or whether we are legally relegated to a position of absolute
00:43:57powerlessness they've when there you've heard this when somebody tells you who they are believe them
00:44:03Maya Angelou told us this read project 2025 you don't have to read the whole thing just read a summary
00:44:08go to democracy forward and read the summary when they come after head start who are they coming
00:44:14after when they come after health care who are they coming after when they come after diversity
00:44:20and medical education who are they coming after we don't have a surplus of black and brown doctors
00:44:26in this country but we do have a surplus of black and brown folks who don't have access to health care
00:44:32in this country everything that is at stake can be preserved if we get what we need and what we need
00:44:42is a leader who believes in us and this is not a partisan space but I am hyper partisan in this
00:44:47I have successfully worked with both parties but what I will tell you is there is one party that
00:44:53actually sees me and has said that we will do things to help me voting is a selfish act we'd like
00:45:02to talk about in terms of community voting is selfish people don't care about your politics they care
00:45:07about their lives our job in the next four months is to connect the dots because not everyone
00:45:14understands that the pain they feel in their lives not only happens in the governor's mansion here in
00:45:20Louisiana it happens in Washington DC but our ability to change the narrative and to preserve our opportunity
00:45:29for more happens in November of 2024 if we cede that power if we give away that opportunity if we grant them
00:45:41the imprimatur to tell us that we don't matter that we do not deserve more they will take us up on it
00:45:50because they can count just like we can they can see demographic maps Atlanta's not getting smaller
00:45:56things aren't getting easier things are getting more complex the racial diversity of this country is
00:46:06getting more complex and that diversity demands that more of us be included and this is the last thing I'll say
00:46:12we often treat resources like they're finite what DEI has proven is that when more of us get to participate
00:46:22there's more of us that have things but there's more stuff to go around DEI increases the bottom line it increases the
00:46:31money made it increases the jobs created it increases the opportunities multiplied if we had we close the racial wealth gap in
00:46:40this country we would have created more than a trillion dollars in new revenue that's money that pays for a lot of things that we need but we've got to
00:46:50believe that we're entitled to it because when you believe you're entitled to something you will fight
00:46:55for it you will defend it you will protect it and you will vote for it and that's the mission that we
00:47:02have to have in the next four months so I have two really great questions and I'm trying to I keep going
00:47:06back and forth which to ask first because they speak to the two things you were just talking it's like
00:47:09perfect perfect perfect I'm gonna do both of them so here's the two question number one and this is like more of a personal
00:47:15sort of empowerment question this person would like to know how would you suggest to us as black women
00:47:20to be empowered to stand up for DEI in our workplaces especially where sometimes we find ourselves to be
00:47:26a first that's number one and then the second question is about the economic piece as a small business owner
00:47:32we need help with more PPP loans and economic equity loans to help us from going out of business how do
00:47:38so they're not asking specifically I mean they are asking specifically about PPP loans but how do we
00:47:44sort of attack the economic wants of people and also just people's empowerment on DEI so on what you
00:47:49say part of the success of the liars about DEI is that they argue that it's somehow harmful so our first
00:47:58job is to point out the success your company makes more money if it does the right thing it makes less
00:48:06money if it does the wrong thing and we've got the stats to help you so if you go to apr network.org we
00:48:11can make sure we get you the one pagers to help you make your case depending on where you are in
00:48:16your company though part of your narrative is that when someone says well we can't do this because of
00:48:21the risk your your question is well what's the risk of not doing it we too often accept the premise
00:48:28my entire life is constructed around not accepting the premise we can't accept the premise of the question
00:48:34that the risk is our success no the risk is our failure so we need to ask the question what do
00:48:41we lose if we stop what do we lose what are we exposed to there is a talent management risk people
00:48:48who don't think you want them will leave are they willing to let you leave let others leave number two
00:48:55there's an economic risk you make less money when people don't like you and won't buy your stuff
00:49:01number three there is a legal risk they are trying to change the laws the current law the eeoc claims
00:49:09that get filed the eoc claims are very much in our favor discrimination is illegal and therefore the
00:49:16work that they are doing they are trying to make it legal to discriminate again and that's the way you
00:49:21should pose the question why are they working why is this company supporting legal discrimination
00:49:27we have to put the question forward and we can do so in a very nice way because that's how we have all managed to
00:49:33navigate these spaces and we can give you the questions to ask but we've got to have the courage to ask them
00:49:39not as a way to dismantle what is wrong but as a way to challenge what currently exists and is right and then ask for more
00:49:49when it comes to the economic piece unfortunately ppp is over because of congress but one of the attacks
00:49:56one of the legal attacks is on the minority develop minority business development agency m mbda
00:50:03that was one of the lawsuits filed by blum and his consortium and that happened after for the first
00:50:09time in 30 years the association the agency got permanently authorized that's because that agency has generated
00:50:17billions of dollars in economic access for black businesses that's why they're mad about it and so
00:50:23one of our jobs is to re-elect joe biden because joe biden was the first president to permanently
00:50:29authorize the minority business development agency the small business the sba a lot way too many of us no
00:50:38longer take advantage of the money there because 20 years ago it was a very difficult program to navigate
00:50:46under this president it is a lot easier in fact you no longer have to do personal guarantees you
00:50:50can work with third parties that will do the guarantee with you or for you so you can access
00:50:56the billions of dollars that move through it so part of our defense of dei is defending what has been put
00:51:02in place and then telling the story we've got to go run tell what we have so people know that we need
00:51:07to keep it and to your point about black women being the number one generators of new business we are the
00:51:13least likely to take advantage of these opportunities but these opportunities will vanish if we lose the
00:51:19president that we have and the power that we have so we have to do the work we have to do well and you
00:51:25used you were a state representative states uh you were you were at the state level and i think people
00:51:30undercut the importance of state representatives and state senators you speak my love language
00:51:35as as important as the extraordinary panel of congressional women was most of the harm that
00:51:43is visited upon us happens at the state level so if you think about the the i call it their infernal
00:51:49triangle those who are opposed to to dei they start by delegitimizing so they convince us or at least they
00:51:57get us arguing over the narrative they get us arguing over dei they get us arguing over who should be in
00:52:02charge they focus our attention on the semantics so they can move to the practical so they get us
00:52:08fighting about whether we're going to call a der pick three other letters in the alphabet as though
00:52:12they're concerned about the initials they don't care about the acronym they care about the content
00:52:17but while we're fighting over there they move on to litigation they sue to dismantle what we have
00:52:23the voting rights act the oh i don't know roe v wade they are doing it with the bachy decision which
00:52:30was overturned by students for fair admissions the ada name a bill that has made it easier for us to
00:52:36navigate this country they are coming after that bill they are trying to dismantle the federal laws
00:52:42that have guaranteed us better access in this country and while they're litigating they're over
00:52:47here in our states because we're not paying attention and they're legislating at the state level
00:52:52to make sure we can never rebuild what we lose when they win these lawsuits and so if we want to
00:52:58win we've got to win in all of the pieces they play they don't just play chess they play three
00:53:04dimensional four dimensional chess we're overplaying not even checkers because it's like we don't even
00:53:10know where the board is our job we're playing marbles guys
00:53:18and we keep getting knocked out of the square and trying to figure out what happened we've got to
00:53:22recognize that the square that we have to pay attention to is those governors and those state
00:53:28legislators when federal money is let that money goes to the states to disperse that's why georgia
00:53:35louisiana louisiana got it better but georgia mississippi alabama florida you name the state
00:53:41that's falling behind it's federal money that's not making it to the people who deserve it
00:53:46when the arpa money came down when ppp came down when states had control of those dollars
00:53:51the governors who cared about the people gave the money to the people the ones that didn't pocketed
00:53:56those dollars and their folks are the ones benefiting that's because we don't pay attention
00:54:01to governor's races the president matters absolutely but you have to have governors and
00:54:08legislators who care too because the money that gets let at the federal level comes down this like
00:54:14being concerned about the ceo of your company but not your manager oh there you go the main the pain you
00:54:20feel comes from your manager first and if the ceo changes you want the best ceo possible so they're
00:54:25still making money but you need a manager who isn't making your life difficult we have to pay attention
00:54:32to the managers and that's what the state level does and so please pay attention wherever you live
00:54:38because this isn't just a southern problem across the country when we do not pay attention to state and
00:54:44local politics that's where they're making new laws because they know they have basically held
00:54:50us hostage at the congressional level with gerrymandering they're doing their best with
00:54:54the electoral college on the presidency they're moving all of the power and i'll when you think
00:55:00about what they did with roe v wade the dobbs decision didn't outlaw abortions at the federal level
00:55:06it said states could decide with obamacare and expanding medicaid the supreme court didn't say oh no
00:55:13you can't expand medicaid they said the states get to decide if they want the money when you give
00:55:17the state the power then we've got to go where the power is and take it back and that means paying
00:55:23attention to state law that's correct you want to control your state because apparently the state
00:55:27controls you my last question you must have known this was coming you probably anticipated it
00:55:31are you going to run again we need you exclamation point for any office
00:55:37politics is one of the tools that i use to try to make change and i will put it this way they're not
00:55:45getting rid of me that easily thank you so much come on come on come on come on come on um stacy we
00:55:53have three more minutes left and so i would love for you to just give a closing call to this incredible
00:55:58audience i'm so proud of you all i'm just being honest look i went to usher last night he didn't get
00:56:03on to like 11 o'clock i got exhausted he didn't even sing my favorite song i was like i gotta go
00:56:08i love i love you essence festival come on now charlie charlie wilson sang for like 400 hours
00:56:13charlie said this is my concert i just yeah but you all have chosen to sit in a forum where we are
00:56:21talking about things that matter that matter more than just entertainment and i want to big up to people
00:56:27like jennifer lewis who said yes i'm an entertainer but i'm gonna come and talk facts and talk important
00:56:31things we are not just here to party and enjoy this wonderful southern food we are also here to
00:56:36empower each other this is a sisterhood of power we're here to empower ourselves and i'm just proud
00:56:41of each and every one of you for taking the time to sit here and listen to these empowering conferences
00:56:47so i want you to give us a final call a final word give us some instruction sister you won't be our
00:56:52pastor on today because we're gonna say this is a church well give us some instruction well having gone
00:56:58to many revivals i start by saying thank you to joy reid for leading us in this work
00:57:06and your first job is to go and buy her book tell them your book oh it's called medgar and murley it
00:57:11is about my sweet soror merley evers williams and her late husband the great mega evers and it's their
00:57:16love story civil rights love story it's a civil rights love story it's an extraordinary novel
00:57:20it's a book but it feels like a novel so whether you like fiction or non-fiction you need to read this
00:57:25book go and get it thank you so number one that's your first job number two it is to
00:57:32during the first administration of the convicted felon
00:57:39and rapists they would tell
00:57:42they would tell us to take him seriously not literally that's wrong we need to take him seriously
00:57:51and literally when he tells us that he thinks there are black jobs he means it when he tells
00:58:00us that he plans to be a dictator on day one he means it i'm just i'm just quoting him i'm not even
00:58:07going into the actual extrapolation but the reason i point this out is that we have this remarkable
00:58:15memory in the us we remember the good with perfect clarity and we let the bad fade we haze it a little
00:58:24bit and we've got to remember the four years that preceded these with absolute clarity we have to take
00:58:33what they are promising seriously and literally because he doesn't get elected alone this is not about one
00:58:41man this is about an entire party apparatus that has told us who they are and what they intend for
00:58:47us they wrote it down but we also have to remember what we've accomplished again and again and again we
00:58:55elected people who were not supposed to win because they didn't look like what preceded them and again
00:59:01and again and again we have gotten good done we have the power to change the world but it starts
00:59:08with us it starts in this election and it means going from the top of the ballot all the way to
00:59:13the bottom where the fine print is it means that we don't vote alone and it means that we tell the
00:59:19truth no matter how hard it is to no matter who we're telling it to because our lives are on the line
00:59:26and that young woman who had the the audacity to ask the question what could she do she was asking you
00:59:33what will you do how will you stand up how will you defend her future how will you defend dei how
00:59:40will you defend america we have the job to do we know what has to be done we know when it has to be
00:59:46done now as i like to say let's go get it done thank you all so much stacy abrams everyone thank you all
00:59:52for being here if you are not following me on social media i'm joyann reed on instagram i'm joy reed
00:59:57official on tick tock and i only say that because i'm doing civics education on these things i'm doing
01:00:02my best to try to get these young folks so teenager tell your friends please follow me follow this
01:00:06sister love you guys at everything so at stacy abrams thank you stacy abrams on all social media
01:00:13love you guys thank you
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