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00:00Hi, everybody. Thank you guys for being here in the audience. And I also want to thank everybody who's tuning
00:06in at home. And we're going to have a really important conversation today. I was just on this stage a
00:12little while ago talking about how righteously pissed off we are most mornings watching the media landscape normalize the chaos
00:22that we're seeing in the country.
00:24But no more obvious place is this chaos present until it comes to black women. I hear something. Do y
00:34'all hear? Does somebody have their phone on or something? Back there? Oh, it's back there. Okay. We're not going
00:42to start a beef with them back there. But as long as you all can hear, it's okay.
00:46Okay. So the chaos is really just running rampant through our community because we are being pushed to the bread
00:53lines by the hundreds of thousands. And it has really been a challenge, quite frankly, to bear witness to what's
01:01happening to black women after all the love that we have poured into this country. That has not poured anything
01:08back into us.
01:09Hundreds of thousands of black women have been sent to the unemployment lines. This is not even counting pre-existing
01:15unemployed black women who never returned to the workforce after COVID. Black women understood that we'd be in for a
01:22long night after the last election.
01:25And now here we are, rethinking retirement plans, scaling down our expenses, refinancing, having to think about how we're going
01:34to pay the mortgage, having to think about how we're paying for private school for kids, or having to figure
01:39out how we're going to eat.
01:40And one thing I love about black women is our directness and honesty. And so in this conversation, we're not
01:46going to have talking points.
01:47We want to have real, honest conversations about solutions and what we can do to be helpful to each other.
01:55There's been a lot of conversations about us, but not a lot of conversations with us. And just this week,
02:04this is to the people watching at home as well in the audience, just this week, the unemployment numbers, or
02:09the job numbers, rather, came out.
02:10And every time the jobs numbers come out, they never disaggregate the data. It's like we're not even part of
02:15the conversation.
02:16So however good or bad it is, it is always horrible for black folks. And they've never done a segment,
02:23or when we talk about jobs numbers, on how awful and atrocious it is for black women.
02:27So I just want to set the framing of this conversation and let you all know this is going to
02:32be a very direct conversation.
02:34And I hope by the time you leave, you're armed with tools and armor to protect yourselves for the long
02:41night that's coming.
02:42So with that, I want to start with Ann Price.
02:45Ann Price. And I'm starting with you because I quote you in my book, as you know, because you've given
02:52some really direct conversation around we can't do it all at the same time.
02:59And a lot of us are in that sandwich generations where we're trying to take care of aging parents, we're
03:04trying to take care of children, and somewhere in that we get lost in trying to take care of ourselves.
03:11So on a scale of one to 10, 10 being the most dire of the Great Depression level of poverty,
03:20and one where we're all at least surviving comfortably, where are we today?
03:25And where do you think we might be a year from today?
03:29Thank you for that question.
03:31I mean, I think it's clear we can feel this in our bones and our communities that we've seen such
03:36a great push out of black women out of the labor force, people in government particularly, but even the private
03:42sector as well.
03:43So when we think about where we are, we are in a dire situation, we haven't seen anything like this,
03:51so we're seeing something that's very unprecedented.
03:53So I want to say that while we are experiencing this, there are ways that we need to think about
04:00how we survive this time, right?
04:04So I think there's two things, and other people on the panel will speak to that.
04:08One is we need a collective practice, and that collective practice is really about really thinking about the structures in
04:15place that allowed us to be here in the first place,
04:19and what we need for fair wages, what we need for good jobs, but we also need an inner practice,
04:25coming back to ourselves and asking ourselves,
04:28what wasn't serving me in the first place?
04:32What are the hopes and dreams that I put aside for this job that I had, right?
04:38And really coming home to ourselves, our wholeness.
04:43Well, I want to talk a little bit about what we are when we disaggregate even us demographically.
04:52I rent office space in Washington, D.C., and one thing that the people who run the office space wanted
04:59to do,
05:00because there were so many people out of work, particularly black women,
05:03they wanted to have a resume-building workshop for all the federal workers who had been dismissed.
05:09And I had to tell them, they don't need no resume-building workshop.
05:13These are professionals, college graduates who have been summarily...
05:18That's not the problem.
05:18That's not the problem.
05:19And it's insulting to offer that.
05:21I understand your intentions are well, but it will be insulting to offer college graduates.
05:26These are some of the largest losses of college graduates of public sector workers.
05:32April, I want to come to you on this.
05:34You're representing labor.
05:35What are some tools your members have employed to survive?
05:39What is labor saying about this moment in time?
05:41And what are you saying to your members who don't have an income anymore?
05:45Tiffany, thank you for the question.
05:47And I think what is important to note about that story you just told is that so much of the
05:54response that we get is about what's our fault.
05:59Right?
06:00So assuming that I need help writing a resume is speaking to my deficits, my deficiencies.
06:07And so what I am saying and what the labor movement and what we're moving our members and workers to
06:12say is that the material conditions that we live and exist in ain't our damn fault.
06:19It is not our fault.
06:21It is not our fault.
06:22We are enough.
06:23We are fine just the way that we are.
06:26And what we must organize and build our power to respond to is whose fault that it is.
06:33It is the economic exploitation that we've always experienced that we have to solve for.
06:40It is the corporate greed, the anti-blackness, the white supremacy that we must solve for.
06:48And I think we have to start there and stop blaming ourselves and each other for the issues that our
06:55communities face, and we figure out how we solve for them.
06:58Yeah.
06:59I think when you say it's not our fault, Congresswoman, I know somebody whose fault it is.
07:05I have some thoughts, Tiffany.
07:07And I'm righteously angry about that.
07:10But I have to say, and we may disagree on this, so I want to hear your thoughts.
07:13One thing I don't want to hear from people is wait till midterms or midterms is going to save us.
07:19If that's what we're saying, then somehow we lost the plot because I, you know, Congress can only do so
07:25much when you're in the minority.
07:27And I'm not so sure that these three pillars of government will uphold fascism in this way.
07:33What, if anything, can Congress do at this moment?
07:36And what are some of the challenges you're facing in trying to meet the needs of your constituents who, too,
07:42have been sent to the unemployment line?
07:44So, Tiffany, the biggest thing here is realizing that you're right.
07:48Congress cannot do it all.
07:50But we have an absolute role to play.
07:52And that means speaking up even when you don't think you can win the fight.
07:56That means making sure that people know that you're with them and you're leading in this moment.
08:01Because at this day and time, you need to know that there's leaders in this country willing to fight for
08:05you, even when they don't see the victory in sight.
08:08Because it's not always just about that vote passing.
08:11Because math is math, and we understand that.
08:14But I think back to just two weeks ago in Georgia.
08:17We were going to have a special session, y'all, to redraw all of the lines on June 17th.
08:22They were going to literally erase black representation on Juneteenth.
08:27That was the day that they chose to close the special session.
08:30But people showed up en masse down at the state capitol.
08:33Even though Republicans control every constitutional office in Georgia, they control the House and the Senate in Georgia, a majority
08:41of our congressional delegation.
08:43But people showed up en masse.
08:45And you know what happened?
08:46The people's voices were heard.
08:48And they were like, wait a minute.
08:50We don't want to have to deal with the wrath of all of this while we're trying to run to
08:56win the midterms.
08:57And so they held off.
08:58And they didn't have that.
08:59So that's why it's not just enough to think about this in the realm of, like, what is Congress going
09:04to do?
09:04It's about Congress.
09:05Yes, I've got to do my part.
09:06And I've got to make sure that people understand there are folks like me who are willing to stand on
09:11the front lines and fight for you every single day, even when it's not easy.
09:15But we also have to have community.
09:17And that's when people show up, use their voices, and make sure that they are heard, because that's the only
09:23way out of this is together.
09:24I think about the statistic, April, when you think about white women and their unemployment rates during the Great Depression.
09:31That's what black women are facing in 2026.
09:362026, we're still in the same boat that white women faced in the Great Depression.
09:40So we've got work to do, and we can only do it if we come together.
09:44It's not about one person in Washington, because I ignore that man, Tiffany, because I know that the work that
09:50I'm doing to close the racial wealth gap existed before Donald Trump, during Donald Trump, and it will be thereafter
09:56until we come together to make sure that we're using our voices collectively to move us all forward.
10:02I want to talk about that coming together, and Anne, I want to talk to you about that.
10:09But before I come to you, I want to bring in Ty.
10:12One frustrating thing for me, Ty, in 2020, there was a lot of racial reckoning talk.
10:19How that racial reckoning working out for us these days?
10:22I mean, I think overwhelmingly black women understood that was a marketing tool.
10:26It was a brief moment in time where the private sector was taking advantage of what was going on.
10:34One thing that I want the audience to know, during that time in 2020, post-George Floyd, America's 50 biggest
10:42public companies and their foundations collectively committed at least almost $50 billion to address racial inequality.
10:53But that's not where the story ends.
10:55More than 90% of that money was allocated to potentially profitable loans and investments, including mortgages.
11:03Reporting found that only $70 million went to organizations devoted to criminal justice reform.
11:09So this was really mostly a reflexive reaction to the horrific violence that we have so routinely faced.
11:16So I know that you have said companies want to do well and do good.
11:23I dare say, no, they don't.
11:25So where are we today?
11:27And what's your perspective on it?
11:29So you said companies want to do well and do good.
11:32I said companies can do well and do good.
11:35Thank you for correcting me.
11:36And I think it's got to be about building it within yourself and not just being on whatever is the
11:43hot topic of the day.
11:44Because one of the things about Cappy Q, our businesses, we work with them, they were putting in the work
11:49before George Floyd.
11:51The people who are on the wayside right now were out there trying to be cute and look good and,
11:55oh, by the way, say, I'm not a racist.
11:57Don't fight me.
11:59But the ones who were putting in work were already investing in people of color.
12:04They were already investing in education.
12:06They were making sure people had access to child care.
12:09And, oh, by the way, what they saw was higher retention from their employees, greater promotions from people of color,
12:15outperformance and innovation.
12:16And so what we really need to fight about is the false narrative that diversity, equity, inclusion means mediocrity.
12:24In fact, diversity, equity, inclusion is the only way you have exceptionalism because we run circles around y'all with
12:30half the resources.
12:32Yes.
12:34I want to ask a follow-up, Ty, because what you're saying that companies can do well and do good.
12:40And I think this is a time for us to tap into our imagination and really rethink what we're doing
12:45in this society.
12:46Because even that, I wonder, can they do good and do well?
12:51I don't know.
12:52So I wonder, because if they really were intentional about it, they would be funding their demise, if we're going
12:57to really be honest about it.
12:59Can we survive in this system of capitalism?
13:03See, people like to come back, you know what, you know what, Tiffany, you came here to play.
13:07You came here to play with me.
13:09So let me tell you like this.
13:11Right now, everyone is like, capitalism is evil, and we need to get away with capitalism, right?
13:18Now, let me say I put a hammer on the ground.
13:21Would you yell at the hammer, or would you say the person who picks it up can either knock you
13:25in the head or build a house?
13:27Capitalism is a tool, and the fundamental challenge of the way it's wielded right now is driven by people who
13:33are focused on scarcity,
13:35who are focused on undermining each other.
13:37But what does it look like when it's focused on abundance and the wealth that we already have, especially black
13:42women?
13:43Because when black women have resources, the first thing we do is help other people.
13:48And when we grow and build our businesses, we grow it in a way where we take care of each
13:53other.
13:53And this is not a theoretical thing.
13:55We work with $3 trillion of assets of under management with businesses, and what we see is 10x growth in
14:03those portfolio companies when they invest in ways that actually help their workers and their communities thrive.
14:09So this is a false narrative that folks are trying to do to help us fight within each other instead
14:15of collaborate towards the outcomes we know we can achieve.
14:18So you say we can thrive in capitalism.
14:21You think that is a fundamental system?
14:22We can thrive if we drive it with the values innate to our community instead of, as I've said before,
14:29cosplaying colonizers and trying to make it a way where we're driving scarcity and competition amongst each other.
14:36So this is a philosophical discussion that I'll come back to because I want to bring Anne in, but doesn't
14:41capitalism require somebody to have less and someone to have more?
14:44Is that the fundamental belief of capitalism?
14:47Yeah.
14:47Yes.
14:48Okay.
14:48Well, okay.
14:49So Ty, Ty said I came to play.
14:51Bring it spicy.
14:51I will bring it in to answer that question because I saw you nodding like you have thoughts.
14:57If you want to answer that question, but I also have another question for you.
15:00Sure.
15:00Let me quickly answer it.
15:01First of all, this is an incredible panel.
15:04So can we just give a huge round of applause?
15:06Thank you so much once again for having me.
15:09So, I mean, I think when we think about economics, it's really about maximizing scarce resources.
15:15So if we're talking about capitalism, it is about, you know, you don't have a whole lot of resources.
15:19Not everybody can get it.
15:20And so there's sort of a hierarchy that is built outside of that system.
15:23And so it perpetuates these sort of relationships where some people have more and some people have less.
15:29And we're starting to see a little bit of a movement towards socialism.
15:33We're not going to get into that today.
15:34But I think my point here is just that people who are staunchly capitalist, I think a lot of times
15:41are very much thinking about scarcity and maximizing that scarcity.
15:45So the question I wanted to follow up with you on, Anne, is you, I know you wrote a wonderful
15:50book.
15:51Oh, yes, the double tax.
15:53The double tax.
15:55And we all know the double tax that we confront here.
15:57But something that I found really interesting about you is you're a naturalist, a naturist.
16:04I don't know the proper.
16:05Oh, you're talking about like a birder?
16:07Yes, but beyond being a birder, because I saw that.
16:10But I wonder your thoughts on as we try to survive this space, something that I've been focused on is,
16:17like, even when the congresswoman talked about showing up for each other, it's like, if I have nothing, how can
16:21I show up for somebody else?
16:23And one thing I've been exploring and I've seen a movement happening is people leaving, like, metropolises and having land
16:33and growing their own food.
16:34And so I just wonder, all of you ladies, really, but because I know that's your space, is that an
16:39option that we should be considering?
16:41Yes.
16:42So I think what you're speaking to is something that I would say really summarizes down to betting on black.
16:48So one thing that I've realized kind of writing this book and also doing the research that I'm doing where
16:54I'm focused on making it easier for us to get jobs in the economy is that black women are reliable
17:00for black women.
17:02Right?
17:02When we show up for each other, we're able to grow economies even within the scarcity that we exist in
17:09within capitalism.
17:10And what I mean by betting on black is I feel like a lot of times we underestimate our economic,
17:17cultural, and social capital.
17:19Right?
17:20The reason why Target is trying to court black folks right now is because we are withholding our dollars deliberately.
17:26And so I think that when we talk about reinvesting in black communities, it can be an effort that we
17:31decide together to do.
17:33And I would even say more so that black Wall Street isn't a myth.
17:38Right?
17:38This is something that's existed in time, even before, you know, enslavement and colonization, African systems existed, where people were
17:46economically thriving.
17:48One thing I want to note really quickly on this point is that my favorite sentence to say in 2026
17:53is that the world is about to get a lot blacker.
17:56I don't know if folks know this, but this is part of the reason why there is political crash outs
18:01happening all over the rest.
18:03Namely what's going to be taking place is that 25% of the world's population is going to be black
18:09in the next 20 years.
18:1125% of the world's workforce is going to be black in the next 20 years.
18:17And so what I will say to this point is that betting on black ensures that you have a high
18:21return on your investment.
18:22And so if you're betting on a black business, betting on a black community, that ensures that we are growing
18:28our black communities beyond what we think is possible.
18:31And I just, if I may jump in, I really appreciate this betting on black, because I think so much
18:38that has happened in our community, we fed into the hype about individualism.
18:44And if there is nothing on the 250th anniversary of this country, there is nothing more American than this notion
18:51that all you need is yourself.
18:53And I think that that is not who we are.
18:55That is not our culture.
18:57That is not our people.
18:58And that it is our collective power.
19:01It is our collective action that is going to be part of the key to our collective liberation.
19:07If we are not all free, if we are not all liberated, none of us will be liberated.
19:13And so that is one of the reasons why I do what I do, about bringing workers together and an
19:19organization to build our collective power and to take collective action.
19:25We need one another now more than we ever did.
19:28And it is to stand up in the face.
19:30And I think we also have to create a set of shared principles and shared values.
19:34We don't have anything that we believe in anymore for one another, that I can look and see you and
19:41know that my fight is your fight, because we have a set of shared principles and values.
19:46So absolutely, let's bet on one another and our collective power so that we can go out and get what
19:53we deserve.
19:54I think to that point, if you kind of go back to one of the benefits of black women and
20:00our resilience is, if you look over the last six years, black business, black women-owned businesses have grown 102%.
20:09They've employed over 600,000 people and have $60 billion in revenue.
20:15And that often comes not just from our resilience, but from the fact that we're having all these challenges in
20:20the workforce.
20:21And we said, you know what, we're going to do that and we're going to take something for ourselves.
20:25But one in five black people are hired by black businesses.
20:28So the more we grow and invest in our own in ways that actually reinvest the revenue and dollars in
20:35our community,
20:35that's where you start to take that capitalist mindset and make it a collective action.
20:40And what we got wrong before is we thought exactly like you said, I have to be the hero at
20:44top of the mountain instead of when I got some, we got some.
20:49Can I jump in there and talk about wealth for a minute?
20:52You talked about what are we facing currently.
20:55Y'all remember 2008, the Great Recession?
20:58Well, during that time, black people had the largest confiscation of their wealth in modern history.
21:07Seven generations of wealth was taken from us in 2008.
21:12And so when we look at what's happening today with black women being pushed out of the labor market,
21:17the types of jobs, particularly in government, where we had the greatest opportunities for wealth building,
21:25because we had really great benefits, we had pensions, those jobs have now been stolen from us and taken from
21:32us again.
21:33And so what we need to really focus on is how are we going to hold on to the wealth
21:38that we have
21:38and what ways can we actually build wealth from work, right?
21:43We're going to have to find creative ways.
21:46Business ownership is one of those ways.
21:48But this is our task to think about how do we hold on to our history and how do we
21:53hold on to our wealth.
21:54Congresswoman, I want to bring you back in the conversation because I'm listening to you guys.
21:58And I still, maybe I'm a doomsdayer these days, but I'm still listening to what you're saying about,
22:03oh, we have to invest in our own, we have to build our own wealth.
22:06Yes, I understand that.
22:07But I'm also struggling with a history that tells me that has not been our savior.
22:12The people of Tulsa weren't bothering anybody.
22:15They were there just trying to build a life for themselves.
22:18It didn't matter that we were investing in our own.
22:20Somebody came along and snatched their lives and their livelihoods.
22:24So I don't, even all this like invest in our own, but yes, absolutely we should do that.
22:28But I don't know how to live in a country or co-create anything with people who deny us our
22:35humanity.
22:36No matter what we build, they come along.
22:37You look at the red summer of 1919.
22:39Tulsa was not an anomaly.
22:41It was the norm.
22:42There were white violence all across our communities where we had built our own and just wanted to be left
22:49alone.
22:49It feels like, people say this is like a revisit of civil rights.
22:53I'm like, no, no, no, no, this is post-Reconstruction.
22:55It feels like we are at that time.
22:56So when I hear we talk about wealth building, I just wonder, is that our savior?
23:03I don't know.
23:04So it doesn't have to be either or, Tiffany.
23:07And I think we have to look at this in multi-lanes and that everybody on the stage is coming
23:12from this from a different angle but getting to the same goal.
23:15So what I'm fighting for in Congress and when I look at how I got to Congress and I serve
23:20in the seat that the late Congressman John Lewis held.
23:22So I do come at this from a civil rights perspective and my district being the cradle of the civil
23:28rights movement.
23:28And I think about how Martin Luther King, he was fighting for economic justice for our people.
23:33It wasn't just about voting rights, but voting rights was a means to get us to what we needed to
23:39bring our people, get economic justice.
23:42And so we're kind of in that same framework when people want you to say you have to focus on
23:46one issue or another or there's only one way to get there because this is all by design.
23:53Throw the whole kitchen sink at us, confuse us, like have us coming at this from every different angle.
23:58Like they're going to attack the care workers, they're going to attack our economic mobility, they're going to fire black
24:05women from the workforce, make it difficult, attack our voting rights.
24:08But everybody has a lane to play in this and it's not just one way to get there.
24:13So when I think about this, I think about like Congressman Lewis left us with these words.
24:17He said our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, or a month.
24:21It's the struggle of a lifetime because like you said, these people didn't want us here.
24:24They don't want to see us thriving.
24:26And I understand that I'm working within a system that was not designed by or for people who look like
24:32me.
24:32And that's why organizing for me is so important because that's what's going to get me to have more people
24:37thinking like me, standing up for us to get us to where we ultimately all of us are focused on
24:43getting.
24:43And if I may, Tiffany, and last comment, I appreciate what you said because this is not just about wealth
24:49building.
24:50This is wealth building in the context of democracy building, in the context of power building.
24:57That's right.
24:58Because the game is rigged.
25:00They don't want us.
25:01They don't want us to thrive.
25:02So this is about building our power in order to build a democracy that can actually allow us to thrive.
25:09Thank you for that.
25:11And I hope you guys, this was a really great, healthy exchange of ideas and ideology that I hope at
25:17least tapped into our imagination on how we build wealth, power, but most importantly, how we build community.
25:25Because that's the only way we've survived this 400-year nightmare.
25:28So thank you so much for showing up to hear us.
25:30I hope we armed you with tools when you walk away.
25:33And we will see you next time on the screen.
25:34But don't go anywhere because there are a lot more amazing panels coming up on the GBF stage.
25:38Thank you, everybody, and thank you to my panel.
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