Native Land PodThis week hosts Angela Rye and Andrew Gillum discuss the ICE raids and unrest in Los Angeles with L.A. Mayor Karen Bass. Tiffany Cross is out sick this week.
We have all seen the sensational images from the protests and unrest in L.A. following last Friday’s ICE raids. The ICE raids targeted immigrants at their workplaces, including Home Depot and a clothing store. Since then, the National Guard has been called up by President Trump to quell what he’s calling an “insurrection.”
The use of that word, “insurrection,” is highly intentional, as is the effort by Trump and rightwing media to paint L.A. as a chaotic, lawless place. Trump is ratcheting up his mass deportation plans and Mayor Bass says that Los Angeles is the testing ground.
The unrest in L.A. dovetails into an ongoing conversation we’ve been having with you, our audience. We’ll be joined by executive director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), Attorney Nana Gyamfi. BAJI advocates for the nearly 10 million Black immigrants, refugees, and families living in the U.S. As BAJI’s director, Nana will respond to some of YOUR comments critiquing our hosts’ support of migrant communities.
Nana Gyamfi brings with her over three decades of service to the Movement for Black liberation, and over twenty years experience directing Black social justice organizations and networks. She is a human rights and criminal defense attorney, a professor in the Pan African Studies Department at the California State University Los Angeles, and a radio personality.
Find out more about the Black Alliance for Just Immigration at https://baji.org/ and follow them on social media @instabaji and @bajitweet
And of course we’ll hear from you! If you’d like to submit a question, check out our tutorial video: http://www.instagram.com/reel/C5j_oBXLIg0/ and send to @nativelandpod.
We are 509 days away from the midterm elections. Welcome home y’all!
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Native Land Pod is brought to you by Reasoned Choice Media.
Thank you to the Native Land Pod team:
Angela Rye as host, executive producer and cofounder of Reasoned Choice Media; Tiffany Cross as host and producer, Andrew Gillum as host and producer, and Lauren Hansen as executive producer; Loren Mychael is our research producer, and Nikolas Harter is our editor and producer. Special thanks to Chris Morrow and Lenard McKelvey, co-founders of Reasoned Choice Media.
Theme music created by Daniel Laurent.
Native Lampod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with Reason Choice Media.
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.
Welcome home. Y'all. This is episode eighty three of Native Lampod, where we give you our breakdown of all things politics and culture. We are your hosts. I'm Angela Raie. This is Andrew Gillham, and sadly, our dear sister Tiffany Cross is out. She got a bug.
The bug got hurt Andrew, she got a bug, y'all. Lifter and prayer and such and such.
Yes, please do that. Well, while we're lifting things up, let's make sure we also lift up some facts. So, Andrew, I was thinking, well, before we get into what we're talking about, what are all the things we're talking about today?
I mean, I think this is everything we're talking about today, is the chaos being precipitated by the President of the United States in one of the fifty states of this country, and the frankly indescribable harm that he's deliberately causing. You know, some weeks ago we had sort of borrowed this phrase that cruelty is the point, and it just keeps resurfacing in my mind every time I think about this administration, what is doing, what it feigns to be doing, right, what it tells people is doing, and then the actuality, like what's really going down? I mean, and these people for so much of what they undertake cruelty is the point of it.
Yeah, yeah, well we are talking about that. We're talking about these ice raids. We can't talk about what's happening in LA. It's happening all over the country Tangry's point, but we're talking about LA. This week we have Mayor Karen Bass who will join us to talk about everything that's actually happening in LA. Don't believe everything Fox News tell you, or don't believe anything at all. And then I also think it's important that we get into this black migrant or these black migrant related issues. We've been having this argument with our audience over and over again, and we really think it's important that you all don't just hear from us, but you also hear from the Black Alliance for Just Immigration. And I want to make sure that I said that right. Yes, look at go Ahead, Black Lives for Just Immigration, and we have their executive director joining us today. Nana Gamfi is the executive director for the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, and I'm hoping that Lolo or somebody can confirm that I pronounced her last name correctly. Lolo for the win, thank you so much. It's Nana Jumfi who will be joining us.
I don't know that the audience, I don't I don't know this has been an argument with the audience written large. I think that there are within our community a lot of folks who are still sort of processing and dealing with the outcome of the last election where the narrative had really taken hold that Hispanic Latino communities did not vote for Kamala Harris. And I think we've been trying to unpack some of those results and that kind of thing. And I think while we're doing so, there is some scar tissue that has to be dealt with, has to be recognized in some cases maybe has to be healed. But I think by and large, you know, our listeners are our hip to the fact that a lot of times the black community has looked at and called upon to not only be you know, in the in the case of the Congress, the conscience of the Congress, or in the case of greater society, the good that's often looked to to sort of bring the moral code and to to wear and carry that moral code for everyone, regardless of who's in the who's in the cross hairs. But when black people buy and large find themselves in the cross hairs, we're looking to our left and our rights and we all we can see. And I think that's playing out in some in some fashion here, not amongst everybody, but I do think on some fashion here.
Yes. And one other thing that we really think is important is this insurrection, this language versus protesters lingualgs. We'll get into that, but before we get going too much, we want to remind you that if you like this show, I know you like this show. I know you like this show, and you want to support us. We know you want to support us. The easiest way is to give us a rating, leave a comment, and text an episode to a friend, which I do all the time, or just tell somebody about Native Lampid. Thank you, and we're going to get it going.
Let's good.
If there's an insurrection, I would certainly invoke it. We'll see, but I can tell you last night was terrible. The night before that was terrible. If we didn't get involved right now, Los Angeles would be burning, just like it was burning a number of months ago, with all the houses that were lost. Los Angeles right now would be on fire. And we have it in great shape. I'm not playing around.
Will you determine whether or not there is an insurrection.
Well, you take a look at what's happening. I mean I could there were certain areas of that of Los Angeles as that you could have called it an insurrection.
It was terrible.
But these are paid insurrection to These are paid troublemakers.
They get money.
Okay, so let's talk about paid insurrectionists. I don't know if you saw this, but Andrew, there was a sign up on like a telephone pole in LA where protesters are being warned that there are right winging extremists going into community to like recavoc well, just like they did during the George Floyd protests, and they use that those those agitators to create and stir up more mess. Those are probably the same people that I don't know. We're on the Capitol on Capitol grounds on January sixth. They've been pardoned and given permission to continue this work insurrection is a violent uprising against an authority or government. And I think that when you loosely use the term carelessly use the term irresponsibly used the term, that is part of the problem, you know. So I want to talk about briefly this idea of insurrection versus protest and how this administration is honestly dangerously conflating the two. So I want to know your thoughts. AG.
Yeah, I mean, for for real, it's a deliberate and dangerous complation, certainly by the lawyers amongst the group who ought to know better. I mean, I really do think that Donald Trump perceives any affront to him, any attack on his person, his name, meaning an insult or a contradiction to something that he says. He really believes. I think in his minds that he is the government and the government is him. He thinks he's already living in an autocracy where if you challenge the quote leader, you're challenging the government. But he isn't the government. He is not at all the government. He happens to be the head of a branch, but he's not the government him and of himself. But what I think, Angela is he's setting the predicate case for the point at which he chooses to invoke the insurrection powers, which go beyond just deploying the Marines and deploying or federalizing the state's National Guard. It then gives those entities, the Marines as well as the federalized national Guard, the powers to basically take on all police powers. It's it's saying two things. It's one saying that the government that exists in this place where the insurrection is taking place is not capable of dealing with the insurrectionists, which, by the way, I just got to say, I find it so it's not even funny. It's just it's like the world is playing topsy turvy with us. That this is a man who could not bring himself to call the individuals who attempted to stand in the way of an act of Congress, an actual act of Congress, to carry out a function or responsibility and counting to the electoral votes when he was in the crosshairs. That wasn't an insurrection. But protests where people are literally just trying to have their voices be heard, petitioning their government, is all of a sudden an insurrection. It doesn't it doesn't make sense, but I know what he's doing. And I think we all have to be hip to the game that what the President is attempting to do is ease our ears for listening purposes to the words insurrection, so that when he declares the insurrection powers of the Constitution, that nobody is scared by that, that nobody flinches by that, because we've heard the term already planted and used by this president. But I pray that we will resist the urge to believe this guy. He's not telling the truth. All he's attempting to do is a mass more power for his own use. Angela. It's a real sick game that he's playing, and it's made, in my opinion, all the more sick when you hear Pam Bondi and other lawyers within the administration doubling down on this nonsense. I would think they would know better, But I have to tell you, Pam Bondi was Attorney General of Florida. I've yet to see her brilliance on display, so I can't even say that that, frankly, she knows what she's talking about.
Yeah, yeah, And I think that here is the crux of the issue, getting back to the Insurrection Act, because I think that we sometimes can throw things around expecting that people know what we're talking about. So the Insurrection Act is a he's of legislation that was signed into law in I don't know, eighteen oh seven is what it says. So this was before slavery was over. This federal law gives the president the power to deploy the United States military and to federalize the National Guard in response to an uprising right, and so the President keeps threatening to utilize this Insurrection Act anytime somebody disagrees with them. So there were are four thousand National guardsmen already deployed and seven hundred Marines that were sent to la and to respond to protests that were like within a two block radius. And so what happens is for people who are already upset, whose family members who have been disappeared, whose friends have been harassed and intimidated and arrested by people who aren't even showing their faces. Y'all don't know if you've seen some of these images. We don't have any proof that these are actually law enforcement officers. It could be Joe Blow from the middle of Indiana, which, if y'all didn't know, is the home of the foundation, the founding place of the KKK. They could be from there, right, So deploying troops, he's already actually utilizing and relying at least what is allowed and called for in the Insurrection Act of eighteen oh seven. And it is extreme. It is very extreme, and it is a provocation for those who are already experienced in the harm. So I think that we have to consider what the outcome of this is. If this is a provocation and it is an advancement of I know that you're peacefully protesting, but which is your constitutional right, But I'm going to go ahead and call you an insurrectionis so that I have additional outsized powers to intimidate you, to threaten you, to jab you, to get you to react in an outsized way, so that when you react, the consequence will be on the reaction, not on the provocation.
Right. And Angela, just because I appreciate you pulling us back to make more clear what we're talking about with regard to these laws. Right now, the President in his administration have not given clear yet directives to the National Guard or the Navy seals that are on the ground. Yet there's a reason why they're holding back by the way, on giving clear written or otherwise expressed instruction, it's because the governor, supported by Mayor Karen Bass, have basically said, please pull back your federal federalizing of the National Guard, and you're sending in of these troops because we have the capacity to handle the issues as they exist on the ground, as they present themselves without instruction. The National Guard nor the Navy Seals are allowed to detain or arrest individuals given the powers that they are acting on right now. They're not acting on the insurrection powers of of of the United States. They've been federal by the president and they basically are occupying a show of force mission, which is they are there in person, but what they're allowed to do is very constricted under the laws as they exist right now. If the President moves this thing another step further, as you called the provocation, we of course i'd love to hear obviously the mayor's opinion on this, but I think it's pretty fair to say that it's the actions that the president is taking that is making the situation on the ground more dire. So he's not acting to alleviate pressure, he's not acting to bring down the pressure as it exists on the ground. His actions are intentioned to ratchet up the pressure, ratchet up the heat, to ratchet up of the conflict. The governor is saying that, the mayor is saying that, and they'll say, we have the capacity to handle the issues that are currently on the ground. As the reason why I think it's important for other mayors and other governors other states to really be on guard about this is because the president can attempt this kind of a takeover anywhere in the United States of America. Today it's California, it's Los Angeles. Today it's the state of California. But tomorrow, should protests pop up in the state of Florida against what he's doing and how he's going about doing it, he could assert the same kind of excess of power that he's using in California. None of us are absolved from this, and I think that's something that the American people really have to reckon with that. You may not like the state of California. You may dislike what you consider to be liberal policies of California, But do you like where you live? Do you like the values that you all hold dear, the Constitution that you believe you are abiding by and if you do, how would you like it if the president, because you disagreed with him, decided to fail federalize your state's national Guard and send in federal troops American troops who have for all intended purposes. And this is no disrespect to the troops themselves because they are under orders, but they have no business whatsoever patrolling American streets. And this provocation could get out of control if it's not handled. I think with greater levels of respect and deference to the state leaders and the local leaders that have been elected for purposes such as this.
And I think that here's here's a really another good point on this. Andrew David Huerta is an s c i U is the s CiU California President and also president of s c i U us w W. And on Friday of last week, he went to he went to protest, yes, the wrongful attention of all of these individuals. They're also rounding up folks who are citizens by the way, and have green cards, some of these folks, and so he went to protest near the workplace where an ice ray was being conducted. He was charged with a felony for impeding the work of a federal officer, just for standing in the way. He was tackled to the ground, he was detained. When Congressman Maxine Waters went to check on him, the door was slammed in her face. I was worried, as somebody who's a former staffers, the way that her hand was. I was so worried they were going to slam her hand in the door. And I'm bringing this up to say, if we work backwards now, Andrew right, so La SCIU, President David Huerta, New Jersey. So now we're cross coasts around these ice rates. New Jersey. You have Rasbaraka, the mayor of New Work, New Jersey, arrested on city land, not on the private land of the facility they've been using to hold folks for ice detention purposes. And you have Congresswoman Lamanica mc iver who has been indicted on federal charges as well. If you look at our positions of power and the folks who would be best suited to challenge this administration without the fear of retribution, they are now hitting all of those places. So the one place that we haven't seen yet is state legislators or county elected officials. We haven't seen additional civil rights or folks yet, at least not that we know of. Maybe that has happened, but it's not made national news. So what they're doing are saying, if you fight back against what we're doing, even though you know it is a violation of the law, you know that it is unconstitutional what we're doing, we are going to threaten, harass, harm and silence you. So what does that do to the lay person? Right? It makes you feel like you don't have a voice. If the people you normally turn to for guidance for talking points, for what social media graphic to put up, for what to say, for what to do, for where to organize are getting arrested, what do you do?
Yeah, yeah, right. You attack on the leadership is deliberate. It's basically to say that you have no cover no matter where you are or who you are. And by the way, Angelau and I are not defending folks because of what titles they hold, and we're talking about what jurisdiction they have. Members of Congress and their oversight capacities can go on any one of these grounds of where these facilities are housed, and they can conduct inspections and wellness checks. It is within the law, it exists within their capacity as members of Congress. And in the instance of the mayor of Newark, we were talking about a facility that has no legal license to operate in his city, no certificate of occupancy issued by the judicial, by the municipal government who has jurisdiction. And beyond that, he wasn't even across the line onto federalized property or anything else to have to have undergone the kind of treatment where he is. But your your, your, your, your point is correct, which is this is the chilling effect. They mean to say that I don't care who you are, you have no quarters within this country. So long as Donald Trump is president, we can get you wherever you are.
Okay, that's a really good point, Andrew. Let's stop here. We're going to go to a break, and after the break we are going to welcome Mayor Karen bass.
He welcome home, y'all.
I'm coming to you from the streets of Los Angeles. This is area where La County, LA City, and a.
Little bit of the city of Inglewood converge.
And as you can probably see behind me on the streets, what's going on not much.
Looks like this is as usual, and from.
What I understand, this is the condition in most of the city. So what you're seeing on the news is really limited to area downtown and the area in a neighboring city of Paramount and a little bit of confident from what I saw, which are not in the jurisdiction of the City of Los Angeles and therefore not jurisdiction of mayor Baths.
So sorry traffic noise, but that's part of the story.
So as you can see, it's.
Nowhere near what it was like in nineteen ninety two, the silver hair and it's there in President nineteen ninety two in the streets, and this is not anywhere near the kind of situation where we have the National.
Guard out, in my opinion, So.
I took that from what's real from the front line. All right, welcome home, y'all, Thank you, I appreciate everything.
Into well. Today we are joined by I call her Congresswoman Bass. All the time, she is not in Congress anymore. She has a full other job that.
Is keeping elevated Angela. She's now, yes, yes.
She's very very busy. Mayor Karen Bass, who is doing the work of the Lord on the ground in LA. And so we want you to come in and Miss Bass if you could just tell us what is happening in LA, what is right, what is wrong, so we can collect, just correct all of the misinformation out there and get into what you think our audience can do to support y'all.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. First of all, what is happening our raids from ice that is causing havoc not just in the city of Los Angeles, but in our surrounding region. And we don't know when, where, how that this is going to take place, but it has spread a blanket of fear and terror amongst the immigrant population, which as you know, is a significant percentage of Los Angeles. Now, having said that, at the end of some of the protests, you have the stragglers who have nothing to do with the protests who have been who have committed acts of violence in the form of vandalism, breaking in the stores, robbing, and so I initiated a curfew yesterday from eight pm to six am that's going to go on every day until we are past this. The problem is that we don't know when we're going to be past it, because all we have are rumors from Washington.
D C.
We don't have any concrete information. There isn't a letter I have that says that we're going to conduct raids in your city for the next thirty days, but that is the rumor. Now everything has been fined. Our local police departments the Los Angeles as well as regionally, have been able to handle things. You know that the White House intervene, took power, seized power from the governor, and federalized the National Guard, brought them here with big fanfare. He even claimed that they had successfully eliminated the violence Saturday night, when the troops didn't even arrive until Sunday afternoon. But we know this. This is kind of a familiar playbook. Now he is talking about sending in the Marines. The National Guard that is here is just guarding one building, the Federal Building. There is nothing else for them to do. Now he's going to bring in Marines at the cost of one hundred and thirty million dollars to taxpayers. That is money that we could use to prepare for the World Cup, which will be here in one year. So this is the situation that we are facing. We have a very well established and respected immigrant rights institutions and movements. They have conducted protests. Those protests have been peaceful. It is what has happened afterwards that has created a narrative of this is citywide. This is really relegated to about five blocks in downtown Los Angeles. It isn't even all of downtown.
Mayor. As a former mayor myself in Tallahassee, Florida, I observed two weeks ago where ICE agents came in and began arresting folks on work sites, detaining people on work sites, and it drove really the entirety of our community, not crazy, but mad with anger that the place where we call home, a community that reflects the values of the folks who live here, had been all of a sudden corrupted, bastardized, made to look like we replaced that we were not. And I got to believe, with the way in which this president seems to have it on for the state of California and maybe likewise for Los Angeles, that that everything that he's doing, every step that he's taken as well, is intentioned around turning up this this this uh, this this atmosphere of chaos and lawlessness, when in fact, if I am to perceive what I'm seeing on television properly. It seems like the only agents of chaos are the ones that he's introducing. Are we getting something wrong about that? As as viewers who are you know, removed and remote from California but are watching these scenes play out. For instance, you tell us that you're talking about four or five blocks of downtown, not even the the the the the entirety of it. You're you're talking about thousands of troops that are now federalized uh uh, Navy seal you know, a term that all of us know well as fierce fighters, but abroad, not here in American cities. I just wonder what is this supposed to look like when raids come down? And then basically, how do we jux suppose that against what we're seeing?
Well, you know, I have been saying that I feel like we're in a laboratory in la We are a part of a great experiment. If they can do this to the nation's second largest city, then in green lights everywhere around the country, and of course we know the focus will just be on democratic cities. So you have soldiers who I hear are here in the vicinity. They're not in the city of Los Angeles. I've heard them move around a little bit. I have no idea what they are going to do here because there isn't anything to do, and again the expense and what could be used. But remember when the administration started, the deportations were going to be a hardened criminals, violent people, drug dealers, gang members. I'm hard pressed to say a street vendor selling popsicles or fruit is a threat to anybody. Are a customer at a car wash, a father who's there with his son gets snatched and now his son is alone to figure out how to deal with the car and the family. Or seeing people chased across the parking lots at home depot or outside of LA chased across the fear fields in agricultural areas, I don't know how that relates to the vision that was created before. I think it's all about the numbers now, and I think they're using us as a test case. I think the nation is responding where you saw. You know, protests take place in different cities, But this is an egregious overreach. This is a solution in search of a problem. Thursday, last Thursday, everything was peaceful in Los Angeles. Nothing was going on Friday when the raids happened. That's when you had a problem in LA. So this was a problem that was forced on us. We didn't request it, and it has resulted in some very negative consequences. Most importantly is to the families, the parents, the kids who are separated to our local economy. Angela knows that LA can't function. There are sectors of LA that cannot function without immigrant labor. And the stories that you hear my grandson's elementary school, Ice agents showed up outside of the school and they what people believe is they might have thought it was graduation, because I will tell you graduations were a point of fear for people around the city because that's a primo place to pick up a people. You know, our parents who are dropping off their kids or picking up their kids. You think about the impact that this is going to have on our economy, the way immigrant labor is what sustains the city and makes the city great.
You know, Ms mass I want to I want to go to this clip of the Attorney General Pam Bondi because I think what she is saying and what she's provoking without fact is dangerous. But I want you to be able to respond to this. Let's row that clip.
Law enforcement. They need to have their hands untied where they can do their jobs. Right now, in California, what we're doing is working by bringing in the National Guard, by bringing in the Marines right now to back them up, to protect our federal buildings, to protect the highways, to protect the citizens. So right now in California, we're at a good point. We're not scared to go further. We're not frightened to do something else if we need to.
They're not doing anything.
They are protecting one federal building and to back us up. We didn't ask for backup. These California Highway patrol protected the freeways last night. What the worry is there is people going and blocking the freeways.
None of them protest.
We were yes, we were able to handle it all. So this is just complete fiction and that's what's scary. That's scary suspiction. Then what more is coming? But I do have to center this always in the raids. What is going to heal our city is to stop the raids.
It's an alternative reality, and I don't know how people who otherwise live in the real reality make steps to keep their community safe. When this kind of ratcheting up come. I mean, you hear it in her voice and her disposition and what they're trying to deliver the American people, this this notice of ratcheting up. And what I think I hear you saying, Mayor, is the ratcheting up is what's putting all of your citizens and.
Harms way, ratcheting up something that didn't need to take place to begin with. You want to talk about something that makes people angry. That makes people angry when you have relatives that we don't know where they are. They've had no access to legal counsel, their families, members have not been in contact with them. They don't know. Maybe they've been sent off to Seacott, that horrendous prison in El Salvador. Maybe they're Venezuela. Who knows, because they're sending people to countries that they're not even from.
May I know your time is limited in Angela. I will obviously yield to you for the last question, but I am curious what advice do you have for the rest of us spread out across the country. Who are you know, in some cases pretty terrified about what we're seeing and what we perceive could happen to us, Well, how do we take how do we get information right now?
Well, I think that what exists here, I don't know, you know if it exists other places, But what exists here is a rapid response network, so basically, and the community knows this community wide, so that if there's any sightings of ICE, then they go to those locations. Just to make sure that people know their rights, not to interfere with federal officers, because obviously that would be a felony, but to make sure that the people know their rights, know that they should have access to a lawyer, know that they don't have to cooperate. Those are basic rights that exist in our country. So I think that's one thing. And you know, we are fortunate, as I mentioned before, to have a well well well established immigrant rights and infrastructure people who've been here for four decades, and so that's the main thing. And then I think always people need to know history, the historical context for this. I was on a zoom earlier and they were saying, well, why aren't you convinced that the courts will be the backstop. No, remember, in his first administration he shifted the courts.
You know.
So what we don't tend to do is no history or remember history. Look at the Joe McCarry the era, you know, I mean, there are historical references to this. Look at you know what the Insurrection Act is. Make sure that people understand what they're seeing. And I believe they're testing the limits of this. You heard Stephen Miller who repeatedly evokes the term insurrection insurrection. No insurrection happening.
Here, Yeah, but where there was an insurrection is bad as I know. So when you think about what you witnessed, what you experienced, the trauma of all of that, the people who actually were harmed, the officers that they swear to always protect and look out for. Back to blue is what they say. When those things are actually happening. Those folks are now pardoned and they're trying to erase that from history. But the people who are protesting peacefully because they have loved ones who are being impacted by these completely uncalled for, gone to far ice raids. I want to know what you tell the people the difference between the power of protests and being labeled wrongfully as an insurrection is. And then in the community. This is a two parter that's kind of set for so I'll try to remember the second part if you forget it. In our community, black folks, miss bads, like, we need to get through to our people so there's not this divide around how to stand up for the right thing to do even if you're if there's no immigrant on your block or in your house or in your kids' school, Like, what is the right thing to do? Isn't this the right time to be coalition building?
One hundred percent? It's the right time for our city to come together. But you know, I think that we're fortunate there because I think everybody sees what's going on here. So I'm not at this point worried about a divide. But I'm also not naive either, which means sometimes even when there isn't a divide, it can be created. And I think that that's going to be really important because this is not just a brown issue. There are tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of black immigrants here from the Caribbean, from African countries, also from Central America. I mean, I think a lot of times people don't know where beliefs is, belies is. They predominantly blacked right. It is in Central America, and so when we're talking about Latinos, you know they're more black Brazilians than there are black Americans. So you know, we need to understand that this is our struggle as well. Thank you for the opportunity of speaking with you. I'd love to come back on again. It's wonderful to see both of you, even if it's just in a box.
A box.
Tiffany would be here, miss basket and she got food poisoning. Oh well, it.
Was nice to see her on the Zoos the other day, so please give her my regards again.
We're wishing you well, Mayor Keith, standing tall and strong as you have already, you're exhibiting what it truly means to be a leader.
I love you.
I love you back.
Oh Man. Thanks again to Mayor care Bass for joining us and correcting the record of everything that we're hearing out there. After this break, we will be joined by the Black Alliance for Just Immigration executive director. Her name is Nana Jumpy. Okay, so I feel like we should just keep this thing going and bring in Nana on the Black Alliance for Just Immigration. I think what we have to understand we could actually start where we just ended with ms Bass around this idea of coalition and what it means again. Nana Jumpy is the executive director for the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, and we are thrilled to have her join us to talk about ice raids, what has happened in the almost a little over for hundred days of this administration, and its impact on Black migrants. They have a report out that we'll talk to her about in just a moment. Oh, she's joining us now, Nada hown you hear us and see how are you really good? Did you? Were you able to hear the interview with ms Bass?
You know, I jumped on and so I can hear that absolutely, So.
Can you help us because let's actually Andrew. If we can't, let's go to some of these comments we get in our thread about immigration. Do we pull those screenshots, Dereck or Nick? Okay, So while you're pulling those, we're just gonna get started. So now to talk about the need for the Black Alliance for Just Immigration. This is not something that we hear about often. There aren't a whole ton of black organizations in the immigration space talk about the need for that.
So you know, clearly it hasn't been more critical than right now. But the Black Alliance for Just Immigration was started by a black diasporing crew, started by an African American who Gerald Nonoir, who was the first executive director for at least a decade, folks from South Africa, from the Caribbean sitting down and understanding that black immigrants were in a strange place where we're invisibilized in the immigration conversation. If you say immigrant, people don't think of black people, right, But we're also hyper visibilized if you look at who's targeted, how we're targeted. As we see even more clearly in this first hundred days up until now of this regime, we see that black people, black immigrants are targeted and it also ends up bringing in African Americans as well. And so as we look at what's happening with the immigration enforcement, we know that this is the tip of the spear for what they're trying to do on the police state level. They would love for this really to be the National Guard versus black folks. I think Minneapolis, think Ferguson, and if they can move it that way, they will, But they start with immigrants because they know about all the divides.
Andrew Ifel, no, I just I'm so glad we went there. I didn't know we go there so early. But the imagery of black communities, black cities being descended upon Angela. You talked a little bit earlier about one of the characters in the Housewives.
Show where Portio Porsiae Williams X has been Simon was deported get back to Nigeria.
That's right. So most folks who follow that show, you know, a lot of Black Americans who follow that show will recognize him, obviously recognize her. And even that feels a little bit abstract from us. But when you take it to its next logical conclusion, that the the scenes that that Trump and his folks would love to see playing out is is the big whip flash that they have to to the rising up of of of our movement, particularly as a response to the to to to what occurred in Minneapolis during the quote unquote great awakening that a lot of us thought was taking place. But I almost hear every time when they discuss protests, the Ferguson protests being sort of at the epicenter of what it is that they that they that they reject and would like not to see happen again. They weren't talking about brown folks them, They're talking about us. They they want to they want to see our voices silence. And I just wonder, how do we break through to make clear that we're part of the We're part of the target here, y'all. Our community is in part the.
Target, absolutely, And I think there's two things, two ways to do that. Number One, we are not separate in terms of black immigrants and African Americans. Right, if you look into the world, even of culture, we all out here shaking it to Bernard Boy and all these folks, right, we are looking at folks like it's a Ray who has a parent who's from Senegal who was an immigrant. We're looking at people who are in our athletic world right across all the different sports, across the genders of sports that we have. We're looking at people who are neighbors, who are co workers, so people are married to who people are dating. This you know, twenty percent of black people in this country are either immigrants or the child of immigrants. This is not a small crew like in the corner somewhere. We are together doing things together. And so even if they decided to, yeah, think about black cities. If they decided today that they were going to go ray, that Ice was going to go into black communities to search for black migrants. Man, that Angela, you could be from somewhere else, right, Andrew, you could be from somewhere else.
Like, there's nothing to say. They're not stopping in as people.
They're grabbing up brown folks and black folks now without asking citizenship questions.
Right.
They had people in the basement in LA and the Federal building who were citizens who they grabbed up when they were at the immigration court with their people who were not citizens. Once they realized, oh, these people are citizens, they didn't let them go. They said, oh, you're not citizens, so we can't put you in detention prison, so we'll put you in a basement and keep you there overnight. You think that can't happen to us. When they talk about sending homegrowns to El Salvador and Jibouti, who are they talking about. I promise you they're not talking about Rittenhouse because they let him walk around here and do shows. They're talking about us, and we got to declaimed about that.
That's right. That's right, and I think on this point, you know, one of the things that I really appreciate. I did a podcast the other day with Jeffrey Wallace, who was one of our California leeds not on, and he was saying that one of the things that he got from you actually was this conversation around not talking about migrants through the lens of how it harmed the economy through their labor, but through their humanity. And I think I was like, Wow, I feel so much guilt hearing that because I've been using it that way, because I thought for the people who didn't have any empathy or compassion around it, if it hit them in the pocket, maybe I could get them there. But I'm like, dang, we do kind of sound like we talk about slavery when we say it that way.
Sure we do, absolutely, And this is actually the point that I make with the larger immigrant rights movement, which as you know, often shies away from the racial justice conversation and certainly the anti blackness conversation, that there is no one who's contributed more an economics labor than African Americans.
Hence, down four.
Hundred years, no one has contributed more and in that four hundred years people were still being the described as chatnel or at best three fits of a person. So your humanity to racist, your humanity to the foundational core of this country is absolutely not based upon your economic labor. You'll be essential during the pandemic. As soon as that pandemic is over, they decide they ain't gonna raise your wages. They don't care if you have housing, too bad for you. On health care you're disabled, too bad for you, right, because the real truth is that they don't value our humanity, and so it's really important that we place that first. Yes, obviously we contribute, all of us are contributing out here, right. And as I tell folks, my parents wouldn't have come here had it not been shiny enough right to come over here, which is the result of what African Americans did, the debt unpayable, okay, unpayable in terms of what immigrants owe to African Americans in this country. And also we need to understand that the original quote unquote illegal alien, if you want to use that term, which we try not to use, is the African dragged here and chained. That's the original, and it's.
Well, yeah original.
They were the original, but not in their and their eyes. They always belonged to here and their eyes, we are the people that have always been the ones that don't belong. And all the things that they're doing, whether it be about DEI, whether it be about where they're trying to cut, these attacks that they're putting on black folks, it's because in their heart of hearts, as Malcolm X said, they feel you're not an American. If you were an American, they wouldn't have to do all these extra pieces. And so that's another thing that we have to keep into consideration that you know, as a captive people, there's still a fight to be treated and seen as humans who belong in this place. And so if it's hard for African Americans, immigrants should not think we're gonna leap over, you know, leap frog into the land of white milk and honey. That's not what's gonna happen. We're not going any further than our African American siblings, which is why this fight together is so critical.
Non can you help, because I think you're hitting on what sits at a lot of the disarmony when it comes to Black Americans and how we right now feel about frankly, Latino immigrants to the country as a result of this last election, where many of us heard and were, you know, over and undated with Latino men choosing Trump, that you know, Latino women or Latino families harboring really anti black sentiments expressing them out loud and clips that were collected on social media or even through people's own individual life experiences based off of where they lived Miami, in some places South Florida and other places on the West and Northeast coast. Those feelings that a lot of black folks have of being mistreated and rejected and even leap frogs in some ways aren't made up. For a lot of folks. It's real, it's lived, it's it's real experiential in their lives. What what are folks missing as a part of that narrative? How do we how do we get folks to get beyond some of those instances to maybe have a different and maybe greater larger appreciation for where the majority of Latinos may be, not the ones that Trump and the media decide to hand select out as being the representatives of those the majority representatives of those communities, but the feelings are not made up. They're hard come by, and when you have to deal with it, is not enough to just say they share our experience because we're close in color, and if it can happen and then it can happen to us, we've got We've got to give our people. I think a little bit more of an audience with their sentiment, with what they're feeling here, I think as a way of sort of bringing us onto the same page. I'm not sure how you reflect on.
That there's a reason there's a Black Alliance for just immigration. Can you imagine we're in the immigration world where people talk about things without even considering how it impacts Black people, whether they be migrant or African American, And even when we bring it up sometimes they're like, oh, well, sucks to be you, and they just keep moving forward with the plans that they have, right, and so absolutely it's real. We feel that as black immigrants, we feel that as African Americans, we have issues within that diaspora there as well. Some things that I ask people to reflect on. I think, firstly, I think it's important for us to understand and to think about the fact that around the world, people do not actually get history lessons on what has happened in this country with black people both and with African Americans. People just don't know. They barely know about what's happening. For example, in Brazil, I know you all are familiar with what's happening there. Black folks in Brazil don't get history lessons on Brazil, let alone going all the way across to the United States. So when you come here, you come here without that information.
I mean Baji.
We started this program in Ghana called so you want to be in America. So we go down during ducky December and we do various workshops to talk to people about Yes, here are the avenues that come to the US. But know how difficult it is because you're black. And when you get to the US, you're going to be this thing you've never been before. You're going to be a black person. Okay, And this is what that means. This is some of the history of what that means. This is what it's going to mean to be a good community member. You're not gonna come to the United States and decide that you're going to listen to all the stories you've been told or what you think you've seen on TV, et cetera, and social media about who African Americans are. We're gonna talk to you about the real in terms of who African Americans are, the connection between African Americans, Africans folks from the Caribbean that allowed us to have these worldwide revolutions that we're still engaging in right now. What people have come up from. Right in terms of African Americans in the United States, because you absolutely don't know that I'm from Ghana. There are people in Ghana with those slave dungeons there that people fly all over the world to go to, that have never been there, don't know they exist, don't know what's going on, are just learning about it maybe when they go to college. And I'm old as dirt and twice as funky. It's a lot I didn't learn about until I went to college. Living in this country, born and raised here, right, So I think that we need to have that grace. But then we also need to have the responsibility on the part of immigrants who come into this country to know what's up with the house. You don't just walk in people's house, open up their fridge, start eating, you know, enjoying your life. That that's not how it works. You're supposed to find out what's going on.
What are the rules? Who I take my shoes off here? You know?
Who is nasty to people around here? Who do we avoid? Who's the lovely ones, et cetera. What are the rules in this place in order for me to live in harmony with everyone in this house? We know how to do that. That's part of our cultures. For a lot of black and brown immigrant cultures, Asian immigrant cultures, we got to do that. When it comes to African American community, period.
I want to turn to the rapport you all have Kick us out, lock us up, keep us out. The first one hundred days and overview of the Trump administration's immigration policies and their impacts on black migrants. In this report, and I know you talk about what's happening with TPS Temporary protected status, the many ways in which they're locking and so sending people to places they've never been by the way, El Salvador is one, Guantanamo Bay is another one. Talking about Guantanamo Bay, and then the entry pathways that have been blocked. Since this report has been published, they've now banned several African countries. From traveling here at all. So can you talk about what you all have seen, what y'all have heard from some of the people directly impacted by some of these policies you addressing the report.
So it has.
Been really devastating for our community members. That doesn't mean there's not resistance, It doesn't mean there's not organizing going on. But to your point earlier, and we got to acknowledge the pain. Now, if you're Haitian, you have been hit every which way. But you know they have just focused on Haiti the way they hate this first Black republic, the way they hate it. So there were temporary protective status for Haitians terminated, the Biden program that allowed for humanitarian parole, in other words, people to be able to come in and be vetted so that they weren't vetted while they're in the burning house. Right, you vet before you come and then if you're allowed to come in after they check you out thoroughly and got you and you were sponsored by someone that you were able to be here. Cut that program terminated, literally went around everything straight to the Supreme Court, and then Haiti is now on the list of countries banned. Right, So you can't come here, your status is gone. And they did that purposefully. So when these raids occurred, they even though cases are in court et cetera, they can say, oh, no, we know that your status is terminated. They have all your information. They can walk right up to your dora at any time in the day or night and grab you. And so we see that happening across the country, not just with Haitians, but also with African countries that aren't talked about as much because there's not the same kind of relationship that Haiti has with the United States. But we saw when he went after international students. One of the first crew he went after with South Sudan because they were taking people and deporting them to Sudan that weren't even black people. They were deporting people from Maya, marking people from other countries and the self student these were like, wait a minute, what's going on here? You're now trying to just use us as a dumping place for people because you don't know what you're doing and you don't give, you know, a care. So it has been really you know. So they're the first students to all of a sudden just not have status, which means you can't go to class. People could not graduate, who had been in school for four years, who are getting their masters, who are getting their PhDs, could not complete their programs. People were told they had to get out of student housing. We had over one hundred Haitian students reach out to us. They went to their work study and were told, hey, we were told by the administration that you no longer have status and we think you should self deport right. We had people being arrested in the courtrooms, eight people in Chicago when I was in Chicago this past Friday, eight black migrants bam bam, bam, bam bam, just like that, families holes in our community going into immigration court as they were supposed to do. We see the expansion of detention and out of line. One of the main detention prisons outside of Los Angeles, we had almost closed it down because that's what the law is that they're supposed to be closed. It was down to two people. Now over eight hundred people are in there. From two to eight hundred in the time period that this regime has been started. And then, of course we see the deportations and this idea of deporting people anywhere and everywhere and trying to make deals to do that and sparking ideas in others. So my understanding and we're looking more into it to see what is going on, is that in Alabama there's a law or a bill that's being put forward at the state legislature to make it so that in Alabama the Department of Corrections can deport people.
Convicted in prisons outside of the country.
They're not calling it deportation, of course, but what else is it If you're in Alabama and you're convicted and suddenly you find yourself in Rwanda. You have been deported into Rwanda? Right, and you think phone calls are hard, Now get a load up, get away too. What it's going to be like for our people? And so this is what we see happening, keeping us out with these travel bands, keeping us out by making it so difficult for us when we apply, people apply multiple times. These embassies of the US abroad are so beautiful in Africa and the Caribbean because they're using the fees from their denials. You don't get the money back to feed and you know, make everything all lovely. There's a move now by African and Caribbean countries to get that money back, but that's not the case. We have our people who are being locked up, and we really feel like the next phase is for them to come to places like New York, Boston, d C. Places where it's a little bit easier Chicago to target, and to add to the Floridas and the Georgia's and the Texas and you know, all of those places in the South. And then in terms of you know, us kicking us out, we see what's happening there in the mass way, and so really important that we continue to think about what's happening and understand that that's meant to be expanded to us.
All.
Yeah, we were gonna look at some of the comments that we get. No, no, we get mad. I think this is the one place we don't agree on much on this show, but one place where we all agree is like the vitrioll towards the immigrant community without any regard for the fact. And we shouldn't have to say, well, there are black immigrants, so you shouldn't be vitriolic in your speech. It should be like y'all are out of pocket because you're out of pocket. But I wanted to pull some of the comments so Derek Nick, if y'all can put a few of the comments up so we can have Nana's response. I rarely hear any other group tell each other to go die on a hill over black people. My damn, you fight tooth and nail for immigration. How did that work out?
Yeah?
I mean, so, here's what's interesting. Firstly, I find that that we are selectively understanding the lies of the right.
Right.
Yes, so we understand as black people, we are selectively.
Buying into or not into the lies of the right. So when the right is telling us right that we don't have a history, that black people, African Americans haven't really done anything, that they're low iq, that DEI really stands for people who don't deserve it being in spaces, that there's no need for us to have a museum, that having a museum in itself is racist, and all of the lies that it tells about black people and African Americans are going to focus on in particular. We understand that's a lie. But when they say they're kicking your black job, we're like, oh my god, they're taking our black job.
Now.
Again, I'm not disputing that there's you know, a blow up in population when it comes to particularly you know, Latino immigrants, and I want to distinguish because sometimes the people that were yelling about and being immigrants are actually not immigrants. They're like generations of people here which folks don't recognize and recall. But even if you're looking at immigrants themselves, you see more people because you have people like me who are the children of immigrants, who are also considered in the immigrant space. But we're Usians, right, We're Americans. We're people that were born here, and so that gives that impression as well. But what are the lies? You know, I think about Crenshaw, and you're gonna really understand this, Angela, think of a think about Crenshaw. Think about black areas in LA. Now, imagine that there are no black immigrants there, or no immigrants period. Let's imagine that, or people that people perceive as immigrants, even if they've been there forever. What businesses are left? Who's left? How are we electing these black and brown folks into city council? Like, how is that happening? Who is who's providing? You know, we have this community, we have this dance classes, we you know African dance class, We have culture, we have these museums we have Again, it's not just economics, it's just the humanity that is contributive that we have to acknowledge, and we have had black people. We want to celebrate Churley Chisholm, but not celebrate Churley Chisholm Caribbean parents. We want to celebrate Audrey Lord and not celebrate Audrey Lord's Caribbean parents. I just came back from a trip to Grenada to the very land of Malcolm X's mama Louise Little and the land they have there, and saw second third cousins, you know, And so we can't we can't talk about Kwama Terrae. We can't talk about Marcus Garvey. We can't talk about so many people who have contributed, have contributed in this country, absolutely right, we can't talk about that, you know, right, people like in say, oh, for the work she's done with New Georgia Project, amara Enya, doctor, mari Enya, the work she's done for m for bl right, I'll throw myself in there a little bit too, you know what I'm saying. Like we can when we look in Congress and we see people like ilhan Omar standing up and speaking out Congressmen and the goose, like, come on, now, we're not just sitting up talking about immigrant issues. We are absolutely engaged in this fight as well. Could there be more of us, absolutely, they could be more of all of us. There could be more African Americans, more black black immigrants, more and other types of Americans and immigrants. Absolutely, But I think it's it's incorrect to say that people are not fighting and have not been fighting as a part of black liberation, when black panthers had to escape this country, they went to Algeria, they went to Cuba, they went to Tanzania, they went to Ghana.
That is a part of our story, that's right.
And also on the economic side, seem to always want to put us against each other for the pitiliest piece of the pie that exists on the whole table. It's like, you don't know, y'all aren't in position to compete for everything. Of course not, but there's a little piece of crumbs that we let fall from the table. Every black brown person are only in competition for the crumbs of the meal. And I just wholeheartedly resent that our only place of competition has to be in their leftovers. It's not true. It's not a fact. They'd like to make it more the truth, and like to make it more the fact. But I just resent that they continue to put us in the box to compete for what is the littlest shred of anything that exists, and then have the nerve to put us in competition with one another, with with with one another for the bucket half empty, always.
Always, And we got to look at the You know how often we also see our saying folks admiring the white billionaire.
True, you know what I'm.
Saying, and not thinking about how Yeah, they part of your problem. This is why, this is why we have the crumbs. They eating the whole cake and giving us the crumbs, and yet we look at them and say.
Wow, they got the whole cape. They the ones think while that's why we're suffering.
I want to go to this other comment, and then I know we have to let you go. Nan No, but this is good. This is part. You argue this point way better than we did, So this is excellent. We are so thrilled to have an actual expert on here, not just our feelings and thoughts. And Andrew this comment, this is where I'm reading out loud for the folks who listen to our show and no watch. I am all for solidarity, but not at the expense of ourselves. We show up all the time, even when we know they won't show up for us. I'm not going to be silent. I'm gonna speak truth to power. I'm going to find ways to survive and sustain my community and any Brown folks who want to show up and support that we cool. As for marching and being on the front lines, I think I'm good on that. That's another comment, Nana, what do you think about this one?
So you know, there's the piece I think of when I was a little girl and I would always try to be the person that'stood up for people, and then you know, sometimes those people were reciprocate.
Sometimes they wouldn't, and I would go to my.
Mother and complain and she would, you know, she started off saying, you know, oh, my's poor datta. You know you think everything should be fair, You will suffer every day of your life. Okay, that was it nice, But she proceeded to explain that we do things because we believe in humanity and we are humane. Black people across the world are the standard for humanity and what is humane and have stood up across the world for that. And so I know people feel like they want to tap out. There are people talking about they're tapping out on black issues. They're just tapping out, period.
That's it. They're done.
And I understand that sentiment because people feel tired. This is a long fight, and you know, people want to be able to see the benefits of that fight in their lifetime, and so it feels very terrible for them. But I will say this that when we stand up for humanity, we stand up for ourselves. That our Mama Nonifiing lou Hamer teaching us that no one is free until everybody is free is absolutely right, and that that has been said in multiple languages across the Black world with respect to multiple fights. This is what we know in our DNA. We are the parents of this planet. And the reality is that wherever we are, whether it's black people in the United States, are the standard of what it is to be humane and to stand up for folks. Black people in Brazil do the same, Black people on the continent do the same. It doesn't mean that we don't have folks that are not in that mode.
But as a whole, we understand that that's our place.
Whether it be in the un where you saw African countries come together to force a conversation about George Floyd and about police murder in the United States right, or because African Americans don't have a a national head to be able to do that, particularly at that time, or whether it be right here in the halls of these legislatures and in these courthouses. We are the ones that set the standard, and we should not abdicate that. If we abdicate that we lose such a core part of the reason that we are here in this universe.
Oh that's good and so powerful. Nana. We're so grateful for your time today, y'all. If you're not following Black Alliance for Just Immigration, first know that they are a State of the People partner and we're so grateful to have them. And I also want to ensure that you all are paying attention to everything that they're doing. This report is out, there are updates coming. If y'all need to understand how to debunk a myth around black migrants and our role and impact of the harms of the Trump administration. No better follow than Nana. Jumpfy Nana, do you want to drop your social so folks know how to follow you?
Absolutely.
You can follow me at Attorney Nana which is easily spelt and a Na at Attorney Nana. You can follow Baji at insta Baji on Instagram. We're still on that X. We're figuring it out at Baji tweet. We're also on Facebook and we're on LinkedIn and please connect up with us. We got toolkits we have you know, know your rights, and multiple languages and ideas of how folks can jump in and help and to think through what it is we need to do in this moment because we know we're gonna win. We just want to win as fabulously as possible.
You gotta do that and that that's true to Andrew. The thing that I will also say is make sure please that we get those We will drop them in the description for the podcast, so folks know how to protect themselves, know their rights, especially with these ice rays happening in La right now, but of course there are many other places, so we want our folks to be protected, said our folks with intention. Thank you, thank you so much, Naana, thank.
Thank you so much for having me out. This was fabulous.
Thank you so much, Thank you, welcome home. See that's for all of us. See there, okay, I was so good.
You know, it's it's powerful.
You know.
I was reminded you could appreciate this. I think Angela just sort of acting, uh, you know, taking an action in life, not for what you're going to get from having taken it, but because you take it because it's if it's right within your soul, if it's right within you. So if you if you never get to thank you, you know from the mouths of the people who benefited from that thing, you're okay because your goal wasn't for the thank you. Your goal was to be the mark by which you know a standard is measured, or to uh, you know, to stay firm for that thing because it felt like the right thing to do, and then what flowed from it to to towards the benefit of those individuals, you know, you're happy with that, And I just think, I guess in some ways, I'm I'm kind of hoping that more of us can find some peace with Like when you're take an action and you take a stance, you're not taking it for the purposes of the thank you for the appreciation that may come with it, But because it's right within you, I'm already fed because it fits right within me. I'm at home with having taken that step, with that action. But I get it on all sides. I get how people can be frustrated and tired and feel like everybody else gets the benefit off your sacrifice. I totally get it. But that's why we have to shift to another place, you know, mentally, I think we have to shift to another place in that regard. And I appreciate you know not for helping them, helping to see that with us today.
Thank you. No, I'm so grateful and thanking her too. I think we should go to cross the action.
I want you go first with your as well. I think online.
Okay, well mine is. By the time our pod drops next week, we will be just arriving to Baltimore, and so I want to urge people, if you haven't yet for State of the People. Our tour is over, but the National Assembly, thanks brother, thank you for your role. If people are so excited to see you there, I'm serious. I'm hoping that you all will meet us in Baltimore. What has been fascinating ag and I think you've seen this too, is at every turn there's been conversations around and you know this especially because we really are like siblings for forever. But I have a big I'll have a big idea and it's like, we can't do that. That's too much. We don't need to do that right now, let's go down. We need time. And it feels like all along the way we were being shown we were given confirmation like oh no, we are late, Oh no, we don't have time. Know, we do need to prepare. And one thing I'm super grateful for is Judith Brown Dianas, who is an incredible attorney runs Advancement Project. I know you known her for forever. We need to have it. How we have that Judy on the show. That's crazy, we need to have Judy on the show. But Judy has been you know, she's a constant voice of reason and consummate big sister and I love her. But even Judy, like there was moments where she was like I don't know, and Judy came around, she was like, you know what we need to do. And now she's like ten toes down, ten fingers down, elbows in like going and has been that way the whole time, even when she disagrees with me, like I've learned so much about leadership from her on this, because she was like, I don't agree with you on this, but there's this part over here I agree with this where I'm going to lean in and it's been beautiful. And I'm saying all that to say that there's a lot of that happening along the way on the tour as we plan these workshops for the National Assembly. The black papers have been that way. David has done a remarkable job at pulling these black papers together. It will be over thirty by the time the Assembly comes. So my point is I want you all to register. If you can't drive, I mean, if you can't fly, drive, If you can't drive, get on the train. If you can't get on the train, get on the bus. But please come. I think that it will be well worth the sacrifice to get there. If I have money for you all, I will pay for all y'all to come. I don't have that, but what I do have is a bunch of really willing national partners and local partners who have pulled together to give the best of themselves in these spaces The plenaries will be designed to talk through policy, what our demands are and what we require of ourselves. The workshops will be designed to give you tactics and tools to go home and keep implementing. The delegate training will be designed to help us build the structure that we need to move forward, whether it's to approve a statement on behalf of Black America, to get mobilized in another way. The rapid response network the miss bass is talking about are the very things we are going to establish in Baltimore. We can't afford not to be there, so I plead with you to come and to do what you feel called to do. Everybody is welcome. Any offering you have is sufficient. It's a state of THEPPL dot com slash Baltimore. I hope you will come, and I want to send just a note of gratitude to all of our local city committees, organizers, every group that did anything. I don't care if you brought napkins and forks, we thank God for you. If you spoke, if you built the stage, if you passed out a flyer, if you ask your friends to come, if you put up an I'm in graphic, we love you and We are eternally grateful for your support, and I want to thank my co host especially because they came and then every time I've been late or I didn't know what was going on, they tapped in. They were like, this is what we talked about. I'm like, okay, I'm just gonna fight tired, and they were right there like we got you said. So, I just love y'all and thank God for you. That was a really long pot action.
Well, I'm co signing our chief of staff to black people. I think you're now a president of black people. But all these things, but really you're the sheer will I mean, and this is in so many ways just the force of will. It's how you have moved that and in divine grace, because it's only possible through His divine grace that it has come together in such a way. But Angela, you, if you have leaned in and through your sheer force of will, have been able to bring people who haven't always partnered, who haven't always been good at co signing, who haven't always you know, been down for an action that doesn't, you know, require three years of planning before you take the action. We thank you. I think there's a collective thank you that's out there for you. If you haven't heard it collectively, I hope you get to hear it now that we are an eternal gratitude for you, for your person, for who you are, not only for what you do, but just the person that you are. And I think it's it's an incredible blessing. And not only are you going to feel the gifts coming around and around, but the gift that you are to others will continue to go around and around and around and continue to inspire. So thank you for all of that and then some and uh and we got your back just like you've had ours.
So love you, brethren, I love I want to shout out. I want to shout out two more people. I want to shout out Lolo on our pod because Lolo came in Andrew is research producer and it's like I always call her Charles Barkley. Yeah, she's a utility player, not just for the podcast, but for this tour too. Lolo lost her cousin tragically at our first tour stop and it just hit her so hard and even after that, came back and was like, Okay, I sat down as long as I can. I got to get back in the game and has done that. Like she just picks up wherever she can. Constc her best friend just got married. She's like, I'm out for a day and a half, I'm coming back. She's back, you know. So I want to shout out Lolo and Chloe on uh that does social media for the podcast did so much at the beginning of the tour, and and who like was holding it down, just like when y'all were holding me down, she was holding Chloe down. So I want to thank them. And then Vincent Evans, that dog gone Vincent Evans. That dog gone Vincent Evans. We love Vincent Evans and I thank God for how he has my back personally as his sister. I've been telling everybody that's one of the few that can boss me. So when they ever need, they need to get through to me because I'm being hard headed. Hear, come, Vince, I'd be like what they'd be like now, Angela, the people are concerned that you're not here.
Listen, we are not about to go into a mimic session of my boy. But it's a couple Yea, it was good. I got a couple of my sleeve. But when going to Angela.
I just want to make sure you thought of that. Sent to Evans. Yeah, we should have played. I'm gonna get a video of Vins. Vince was like they call him the star of the dot because Vince is like a breakout star and he's not even trying to perform. He's just being him damn self. He is crazy anyway.
And we want to welcome you home.
Yeah, welcome home. I'm gonna tell you guys right now, how many days are left until the election. We don't even get to them listener questions. Maybe we'll do that on a mini pod. Okay. As always, we want to remind everyone to leave us a review and subscribe to Native lamp Pod. We're available on Why are you sniffing the middle of my study? I'm sorry, so disrespectful, Go on mute. Okay. As always, we want to remind everyone to leave us a review and subscribe to Native Lamp Pod. We're available on all podcast platforms and YouTube. New episodes drop Thursday and Friday, with solo pods on some Mondays when Andrews feels like it, and right now, given my track record, it would be in some Tuesdays. But I'm back y'all. I'm gonna keep it going. You can also check out the other shows on our Reason Choice Media and network that includes Politics with Jamel Hill and Off the Cup with sc Cup. We have another one that's coming out in July, but we'll save that because I think he's going to join us on the podcast. Don't forget to follow us on social media and subscribe to our text or email lists. That's another thing where Lolo's done because she got ninety seven jobs on Native lampod dot com. We are Angela Raie, Tiffany Cross and her absence wish her well that she gets better. And Andrew Gilli welcome home, y'all. There are five hundred and nine very long days until the midterm elections.
Bless us for the last morning plea.
Thank you for joining the Natives. Attention to what the info and all of the latest Roy Gillam and Cross connected to the statements that you leave on our socials. Thank you sincerely for the patients reason for your choices clear.
So grateful it took the execute role.
For serve, defend and protect the truth even in past.
And we'll welcome home to all of the Natives.
We thank you.
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