Have you ever attended a school board meeting is there something stopping you have you ever attended a city council meeting or do you just Complain talking [ __ ] keep it so funky y’all um I consider it like a huge privilege and also a testament to the fact that I have been a lifelong teacher’s pet anytime that I get to be in um conversation with one of our great black intellectuals last week you got to
See part one of side effects of civil rights with uh cherylyn Eiffel Esquire the current Vernon e Jordan Jr Esquire endowed chair in civil rights at Howard University and also she is uh not not only a law professor but she’s also the former president and director Council of
The NAACP legal defense fund side note at one point they were trying to call it NAACP and they were really like trying to tell people like we should stop calling it NAACP and it should be NAACP and I was just like I mean I don’t know
I don’t feel like this is necessary I think we all think the double A is is strong um the NAACP sounds like a Aon like that’s what that sounds like to me it’s just insubordinate and chish all right uh but we decided to make this a two-part episode because honestly M
Sherin’s commentary is so robust it’s so dense but it’s so necessary that I was like they need a break they need to come back the next week so that’s what we did we have brought you back this week for part two of side effects of civil rights
With cherylyn Eiffel Esquire now in this conversation we continue our speaking about civil rights but she really really delves in even more into why voting is so important um particular particularly in this election and I think that’s something that a lot of folks are not really grasping I think there’s a lot of
Not I don’t even want to say delusion but there’s some Distortion that’s happening around this election that is really not grounded in reality it’s more so grounded in a like misdirection of where we were to how we’ve gotten to here and thankfully we have the genius
Of Miss sheryn to guide us to guide us and when it comes to you know the conversation around civil rights um and how that is affecting us now in 2023 she really walks us through two of ma two of the major civil rights issues that I
Don’t know that a lot of people even consider to be civil rights issues I think that’s what’s so important about this conversation is that I think so many of us have really um myself included have really we have been dis we we have had a disservice with our
Education in being able to properly identify things um and thus we’re not able to properly fight we’re not able to properly like refine our rage in in the right direction if we don’t know where things are placed in the landscape and as we move forward with this uh
Time I cannot stress enough to all of us out here that this is not a simulation I know people say that really jokingly right they say oh it’s like this is a simulation you know oh it’s like America season 2 no it’s happening we are the thing
Happening we are the history that we have read about and learned about and had all these you know pontifications and thoughts and commentaries about all these opinions about we are it now and I think some of us didn’t realize that that was even possible and we didn’t
Realize that even when wasn’t crazy we were it then too and so you know the work that I’m doing right now is trying to really wrap my head around how I can be as much service to y’all as possible in these spaces whether it’s on small doses
Whether it’s on stage whether it’s on um in amander R trust my documentary whether it’s on the radio at the Amanda seal show like I’m desperately trying to figure out how to wake all of us who are at least connected to me up like I I
Feel like if I can get at least like my consensus cons cons using then they will add to their consensus and then their consensus will consensus and it’ll be a whole consensus Fest we need consensus Fest 24 to pop off you understand me and so that be that that happens with
Curiosity with intellectual um effort and with love and empathy hearing her talk about how empathy has been attempted to be squelched should awaken for all of us that we need to really lean into our empathy as a weapon to fight this oppressive effort and that is
Something that a lot of America has been trying to stop but so many of us have been actually doing already so even if you’re saying to yourself like H this feels like more work maybe you were already doing that work this podcast right here is so much about empathy on
All the time so if you’re listening here you’re already on the right track and we got to get on track and we got to stay on track okay we got to Shakari and I will say it till I’m blue in the face in the hopes that we don’t become blue in the United
States still got jokes even though we’re facing fascism let’s get into the episode George Floyd’s murder um you know those of us who’ve been around long enough know that police violence has been going on forever you know this is an issue we were intens engaged in during my leadership at
Ldf um George Floyd the video comes out and it it touches you know us all in a in a very particular way not because we haven’t seen Eric Garner not because we haven’t seen Walter Scott killed in that Park not because we haven’t seen Tamir rice killed uh not because we haven’t
Seen John Crawford killed in the Walmart not because we haven’t seen um Sandra Bland pulled over uh and treated that way by that officer not because we haven’t seen Terrence Terrence Crutcher killed uh after police say he looks like a bad dude not because we haven’t seen
Alton Sterling killed in Baton Rouge not because we didn’t see philando Castile bleed out in his car in St Paul we saw all of that and then we saw George Floyd and we watched for nine minutes this man tortured and murdered by an officer who was so chill who was so
Certain that nothing would ever happen to him that he knelt On this man’s neet for n minutes with his hands in his pockets surrounded by people filming him and it struck something very deep it struck something so deep that it struck white people it struck everybody
Right and we ended up globally and we ended up having what were the largest civil rights protests that this country has ever seen beyond the civil rights movement in all 50 states we had protests yeah and we had around the world it was it was a powerful show of
Solidarity now many people will say where did that end up and so on and so forth but I want you to understand two elements of this apparently they were concerned about it because we have seen more anti-protest laws pass since the George Floyd protest that’s number one including you remember the Florida
Governor who signed a law that said that empowered people to have a defense if they ran over protesters with their cars to Satan MH what happened after that that that pushed people out into the streets remember this is still during a global pandemic no vaccine in sight at this
Point this is June of 2020 and people are driven into the streets what happened is that people these are multi-racial protests yeah felt something so powerful when they watched the torture of this man that thing that they felt the thing that was activated in them is something is a very
Critical weapon that was very critical during the Civil Rights Movement it is a powerful weapon uh when deployed and that weapon is empathy yes and that is why and that is why there are laws that are now to keep teachers from being able to teach black history when you look at the
Statutes themselves Amanda what they say is that students cannot be taught that teachers are forbidden from teaching materials and subjects that may make students feel shame shame guilt or discomfort on account of race shame guilt or discomfort on account of race what they are doing is is they are trying to
Interrupt empathy they are trying to interrupt that feeling that you have when another human being suffers and that’s a very dangerous thing to interrupt empathy but empathy that’s we learn it actually very often from Reading because we’re reading about people in circumstances that are not
Like our own and this is how we learn to feel as human beings for human beings who are not like us and I talk all the time about reading The Diary of Anne Frank in the sixth grade and I think I felt something that I would call guilt
Shame and discomfort not because I did anything but as a human being so that’s so again that is a response so when we said where did this come from why are they suddenly shutting down black history why we banning all these books why are we because they saw
The power of that empathy and it scared them and so again if we don’t diagnose it right then we’ll think see protest don’t do anything marching doesn’t do anything well apparently they think it did something they’re literally building cop cities okay they’re literally building Disney World’s training grounds for cops
Specifically to train them to suppress uprisings so why would you need to do that unless you feared those uprisings and so I think the the important thing for us is I’m not saying that’s all we need to do we need to obviously do a lot more for sure but I
Want to be careful and about the diagnosis because I don’t want us to think that we are reacting to them people say to me all the time we’re all so reactionary and they’re so strategic and I called on that actually we’re strategic and they’re responding to us
And if we’re not careful we will stop doing the things that that actually are powerful because we’ll think oh it’s not going anywhere well then why do they put all this effort into responding to it they’re responding to it precisely for that reason and so yes we have to have
More Tools in our tools box but why are they scared of people standing online for 9 hours and then ask yourself about you know voting doesn’t work when people say that like are you really voting and I mean this I mean like this year are
You voting because this is this is not a presidential uh election year wait because I need this to I need I need to like I I can’t even let you just run into this I because I am I’m kind of like losing it uh m m or
Misses I can’t call you cheryn I can’t do it you have to do it I have to do it I was I too much respect Miss cherylyn okay all right I’ll take it Miss yes that feels kind of Auntie like right I like that I’ll take Miss sheryn
Yes Miss sheryn that feels very West Indian too so miss sheryn I am deeply concerned for what we’re stepping into one because I have more of a empathic response than an actual informed response to what’s coming so I’m trying to become way I’m just like I’m trying to engorge myself
With information so I can like truly have the uh academic and intellectual grasp of it Beyond just my feeling um but I think there’s also a just genuine we’re dealing with complacency because we have people who are also like I mean what’s the problem then we have apathy
But then we have like really um bold in action it’s not even apathy because apathy is I don’t care but then there’s people who are like no I very much care and I’m not gonna vote because I care and they feel like they’re standing on a
Moral ground that I consider to be a house on sand and when it’s related to you know Joe Biden’s response to the genocide in Palestine they feel very empowered you know and I understand Arab folks feeling this way but I’ve seen this amongst the black community particularly who are like I’m done I’m
Not voting for anybody that’s it and I don’t think that it has anything to do with um my you know my understanding of things because I know that voting doesn’t matter and it’s not going to do anything anyway so there’s like these there’s so many layers here that I
Genuinely don’t know what to do so I have a spanking for everyone on this point I’m G sit back um so let me let me start with uh just when we talk about voting what we are talking about um because this is I think where even those of us who are
Informed have created a kind of hierarchy as though we are uh completely on point when in fact we are not um my concern is that when I say are you voting what I mean is that most of us consider ourselves voters who people who say I always
Vote they mean every four years or even every two years they mean that they vote for the president they vote for their governor they vote for their senator they vote for their mayor the rest of the offices not so much as a matter of fact sometimes they
Go into the voting booth and we’ve all done it you voted for the what we call the high salience elections you voted for the governor and you voted for your Senator you voted for your representative you voted for your mayor then it said sheriff and maybe you skipped it
You didn’t know who either of these usually guys were and then it said uh judges of the court of appeals or district court judges and it said pick three and maybe you skipped that one too or maybe you just voted for the uh Sheriff that had the D next to his name
Or the r next to their name or whatever floats your boat you have idea they like the name you will vote because his name is Wild Bill Jones yes okay and so but you consider yourself a voter you don’t vote for most of the offices on the
Ballot and you certainly don’t vote in an informed way for most of the offices on the ballot because you don’t even if you cast a ballot for those races you don’t even know who those people are what positions they take or what the office does you don’t know that the
Railroad commissioner Commission in Texas sets the oil and gas standards and stewards all of the the public resources you don’t know what your Public Service Commission does you don’t know that the probate judge in Alabama actually is the judge that then I have to tangle with on Election Day because they cover
Elections you don’t know what these offices even do so you don’t know who you’re you don’t know that the sheriff is the person who evicts people and so you are voting out of some kind of superior sense that you are a participant in the Democracy right and so I’m I’m I’m
Talking to uses now okay I’m talking to and I and I say this all the time when I’m talking to you know my my my my my Delta Soros my like we have to get serious about this thing before we even get to just so you know my producer is
Your soror so she had a little hey hey Sor so before we even get to the people who don’t show up on Election Day let’s talk about the people who do show up we as black people on Election Day with everything to lose or gain from almost every office on that ballot now
Everybody wants to pay attention to School Board elections now that the crazy white right-wing people have taken them over right what stopped you from voting in in an informed way for for the school board What stopped you from running for school board nothing money before wrong Schoolboard elections are low salience elections no
No no when I say money I mean people feel like if I have money I’m busy like I really feel like that’s what I well at least the high the people that I know that are intellectuals that have like professional positions like they really
Be feeling like I’m busy like I I have I have things that I’ve got to do but but we don’t but but those don’t have to be the people who run for Schoolboard elections and you see it now you see you know now the people have woken up you
See parents running parents can run yes and so I’m just saying it doesn’t have to be I’m not even preaching to the the the super wealthy and well-connected I’m saying ordinary people have a role to play and we we don’t there’s no tool that we can set to the side and say I’m
Not going to use that one as black people so saying you’re not going to vote at all to me is a Fool’s errand because you you have to you I mean we don’t have that many tools okay we just don’t it happens to be one of them it’s
Not it’s not everything I I’ll hit you up with another one that’s really gonna shame people how about how about how many of us try to get out of jury service you got everything to say about okay you got everything to say about the criminal justice system yep you
Recognize all the inequities you recognize the racism you recognize mass incarceration you don’t believe the police you have all your stuff and yet when they call you to perform the function of sitting in that jury box and making decisions you trying to figure out how to get out of it
Now if you’re in a job that’s not going to pay you that’s going to dock you for that time and what they give you for jury service is insufficient I totally get it and that’s why we should be advocating for that we should be asking for that legislation in all places that
Make sure that you get what you need and that your employers cannot you know dock you for for jury service and so forth we could we could make that an issue but you know that that’s not the reason most people are trying to get out they just
Don’t want to do it and that’s become like a thing that we all say and we all understand oh my God jury service well I personally would like to serve on a jury they never picked me so I never get to serve on a jury but I would like to I
Would like but the point is that is a form of power that’s also a tool I’m now talking about the tools of citizenship if they told you black people could not serve on juries we’d be marching on Washington yes okay but we can serve on juries in
Fact the Supreme Court said it in 1886 it was a big deal strer versus West Virginia maybe it was 18 83 the point is that we we are not supposed to be kept from serving serving on juries and yet when we have the opportunity to do so we
Opt out so I we’ve got jury service we’ve got voting which we’re either why do you think we’re doing that though why do you think we’re opting out why do you think we’re we’re turning our head checking out in instead of and being involved in these spaces well I do think
Part of it is the reason why I’m on this show Amanda is that I think we have not been sufficiently educated about these things as conduit to power right so if I tell you about the railroad commissioner I tell you about the probate judge or I tell you about um
Uh you know any of these offices and what how they’re empowered to affect your life right I think that people are unaware and so you you look at these you know maybe you look at sheriff and say I’m not voting for no cop well that is
The cop that can determine we have a we have a sheriff we had a sheriff’s race here in Maryland in Baltimore where the sheriff had to run on a platform I’m going to do evictions differently I can’t change the fact that that that’s what I’m required to do by the court
When I get an order to evict but it doesn’t have to be done the way it’s being done right we will not embarrass people by putting off you know notic up all over there all I’m just saying like so so there are actually platforms that that you can have as a sheriff that
Matter to maybe matter to our community right and all over the South we have this Sheriff’s movement of what they call constitutional sheriffs of right right Wing sheriffs who believe they are the only actual law enforcement Authority in the country and that they have the power to confiscate ballot boxes so across the
South that that’s the platform of a number of sheriffs oh yes yes yes it’s called the Constitutional Sheriff’s movement and they’re aided by these um right-wing think tanks The Claremont Institute and that’s what they believe they believe that they are the only true law enforcement that was ever
Contemplated at the beginning of this country and and that they are empowered to you know these these folks who wanted to to uh kidnap the governor of Michigan I mean this is this this is serious so this is what I’m saying I do believe that it is because we have not
Sufficiently educated ourselves about the positions about the way which they connect to our lives and that’s why I say that we have to get off of the the addiction to elections are every four years and let’s focus on the presidency I’ve been railing against this for the
Last year and a half all these polls about what’s going to happen next year next year is next year we got November coming I mean they just had a they I mean there’s elections all year long depending on where you live every year is what I’m saying Virginia Virg the
Virginia state you know legislature is either gonna be Republican or Democratic after this and they already have their Republican Governor well Louisiana just had that situation too they became they became red again that’s right because people didn’t come out for the Governor’s race but the legislature in
Virginia is going to decide whether or not women have access to to abortion and can make their own decisions about their own bodies so does it not affect us are people not going because it’s not a presidential year and there’s no governor on the race they’re not going
To go vote in their State House and Senate elections this is what I’m talking about I don’t think that we are I I think that we have and it’s not in some ways it’s not our fault because I think the political parties and the media have chosen to talk about
Elections that’s why I can open up the paper today and there’ll be a million stories about how Biden is polling and how Trump is polling for an election that will take place next year but there will be nothing about the elections that are on the ballot this year that that’s
What I’m saying and so we have to kind of opt out of that and that’s why on your show on other blackowned media in in Black papers we have to be talking in specific ways about the races that are going to matter to us every year that
Are on the B do you know how many people run unopposed that’s what happened in Louisiana all these seats unopposed nobody put and as I said you could run for school board I mean hell if if the person is running unopposed why not you s sign up your paperwork and you do it
So I I I think we are we have to begin to use our places where we congregate to share the information at this level because we need information that works for us and and for our community and for our lives and that means the churches need to play this role that means the
Sororities and the fraternities need to play this role that means that um every place where we gather needs to have that information and so I think what we have are suffering from is the lack of um conduits to the kind of information we need to vote with power and to exercise
That vote with power to explain why jury service is important and why you should not turn away from it we have to understand what those issues mean for us as a community and the truth is when your child gets arrested you’re more the person you’re most concerned about is
Not President Biden you are worried about the da yeah you are worried about the judge before whom they are going to appear yeah right when you think about the future of your children you’re worried about what’s what what the school board is saying is going to be
Are going to be their policies you’re worried about funding for your school you’re not thinking about kamla Harris God bless her so I think the ways in which we have been trained to think it’s it’s not that obviously the president the vice president and the and your Governor that that is powerfully
Important for your life but so are these other offices and what the right-wing did was they got in on the ground floor of all of this and started exploiting in that’s how they were able to take over the legislatures and then the legislatur could ger bander the districts so that
They would have outsides power they took over the school boards they took over all these local races all of the judges the state court judges and it’s time for us now to get serious and to get smart you know my Mantra is leave no power on the
Table leave no power on the table which means you need the school board you need the Public Service Commission you need the Railroad Commission the probate judge and you need the president the vice president the governor we don’t have the luxury of leaving power on the
Table well I’m going to be using that and I will credit you every time because I’m in that argument there every day with very smart people who feel very convinced that they are doing something radical by doing nothing well when when you when you say when people
Say they’re not going to vote are do they mean there are particular offices I’m not going to vote for or do they mean they’re not going to show up up because I think they have to be challenged if you’re saying that you’re not going to vote because you don’t like
Your mayor or you don’t like the president what about all the other offices are you going to educate yourself about them and vote because otherwise then I think you’re using it as an excuse if what you’re saying is you have a problem with the president of the United States and therefore I’m not
Going to vote for the mayor the city council the school board uh the the Public Service Commission I don’t believe you do you think it matters do you think it matters in this election um because I I completely agree with you we have to be voting for all of these
Things right no power left on the table yep a lot of people feel very uh passionate about abstaining from voting in this election for the president in particular do you think that to accomplish to accomplish what I mean I think that I think that and I understand people you know your fa now
Was but you have a right you have a listen our vote is one of the few things we have that no one can take from us and I remember being in elementary school and my teacher saying about voting remember this is back in the olden days
And she said a woman doesn’t even have to tell her husband who she voted for and I that stuck with me like it’s so it’s so personal nobody has the right you know so I so I I I want to say that I love that people feel passion about
Their vote I’m not going to give my vote to just anybody that’s real and and I want to respect that I think that’s really really important um but I I do also want to be very honest about the moment that we’re facing in this country we are either
Going to be a democracy or we’re not now I’m not here singing the Praises of American democracy as though I haven’t been a civil rights lawyer for 30 years which obviously means we have been an unhealthy democracy I will I I fully admit that we have been an unhealthy
Democracy with many flaws right but if you think that is the same as living in an authoritarian regime you are sadly mistaken and so my job is to fight to to live to fight another day and to and to fight with some available tools and so I can never with this
Election coming up if it indeed is between the two Front Runners of the two parties at this moment um I could never sanction the idea that in order to feel that you are fully realizing your personal displeasure with some of the policies of a candidate who was otherwise at least committed to
Democracy in this country that you would then withhold your vote with the knowledge that it might produce the election of a cruel self-absorbed immoral Authority Arian that it’s it’s tough but we got to do tough things sometimes and so I would say you live to fight another day and you vote in the
Way that allows you to live to fight another day to have some tools to do that fight Because if you think that it’s the same and they’re all the same you are sadly mistaken you have to look you have to look in the face of your
Children and you have to look in the face of your grandchildren children 20 30 years from now um when they’re living under an authoritarian regime when they’re jailed you know or or just you know working like a cog in a wheel my last question is what are the top
Two national civil rights issues in your opinion that black people need to be supporting and what’s at stake if we don’t but we and you can tell we see it because you see it when we’re standing on those lines one of the reasons black people like to vote in person we do feel
That Joy when we’re standing in that line to vote right and you see everybody talking and getting to see them what I’m saying we here so yeah we know what it is so we have to harness that y’all got to vote for Obama and now y’all actually think voting for the
President is like a thing what are you talking about yo that’s it that’s the code crack can we use this you can thank you damn Ved we the flowers everyone should learn when Trump won because I don’t care who he was facing he was the worst most incompetent
Candidate that we have ever seen there is nothing about him that suggested he should be president except grievance whiteness and he was a man like asking me which of my children is my favorite I mean they’re it’s really okay so let’s let’s reframe it let’s reframe it what are
Two there we go there we go there we go what are just two you know not top two just you know two that are up there I just pick two oh goodness let’s see I mean you know I continue to believe that we will never be a healthy
Democracy until we confront the truth about our Criminal Justice System right we just will not be and you are not a full citizen if the state can commit violence against you with impunity not right you’re just not you you we we recognize this in any other country if the state if if arm
Officers of the state can commit unwarranted violence against you with impunity then the democracy is deeply unhealthy and you cannot consider yourself a full first class citizen so that has to be tackled and has to be addressed and we can’t let our foot off the gas on that
Issue um you know obviously I would say voting because I think it’s so important and removing barriers to vote voting um but I do believe that we have to re-engage around the issue of Education I agree it is just so vital and I do think we have to help ourselves
Understand why public education is important um you know as I said it is a it is a necessary feature of any healthy democracy that is what what’s so funny to me and I I I talk about this in my book but also all the time that you know
Everybody knows that Board of Education said that schools could not engage in in in racial segregation but the the court in brown said something else that’s really important that almost never gets talked about what the court said in brown was and I’m quoting now education is the very Foundation of
Citizenship it is the single most important function of state and local government that’s what the Supreme Court said so ask yourself wherever you are to today in your city in your town in your county does it look like education is the single most important function of your local
Government from what you can see of your of the educational system in your city or your town does it look like that in terms of budget allocation does it look like that in terms of infrastructure does it look like that in terms of teacher pay does it look like
That in terms of support for students including disabled students um including uh students who need language assistance does it look like education is the most important function of your state or local government because the Supreme Court said in 1954 that it is or should be
What do you say to people who say well I’m not voting because it doesn’t matter they’re going to do what they want to anyway look at the Electoral College well that’s I so here’s the thing this is now here I’m with you my view is that this is what this election
Stands for for me this election stands for on the other side of it presuming that we are not an authoritarian regime it is time for us to reimagine this entire democracy and that’s correct what is driving me to Howard law school where where I’ll be opening a 14th
Amendment Center on Law and democracy next year and where I’ll be teaching a course called reimagining American democracy the 14th Amendment it is not just a history course it is about reimagining at this time the new democracy that we want yes because I believe that this is the moment that is
Confronting us that’s why we get to look at the Supreme Court and how what what reforms need to be made to the Supreme Court we get to look at the Electoral College we get to look at the Senate we get to look at their rules that allow
One person to hold up the confirmation of all of these people in the military that allow one person through the filibuster y that allows Joe Mansion allows us to have licked childhood poverty with the CH income the child tax credit the check that went out every month to people with children with young
Children that eliminated 80% of child poverty and that was not extended last year in December because one person Joe mansion believed that people might be using that money for drugs in his state where he is allowing an entire opioid crisis to go rampant the point is that’s a structural problem
Because one Senator should not be able to determine whether we lick childhood poverty one Senator or two should not be able to determine that we can’t even have a debate about amending the Voting Rights Act in order to protect black voters so there’s structural reforms that happened in the Senate and on the
Other side of this election that’s where our Focus needs to be our Focus needs to be on reshaping and reimagining this democracy so that it works for us compromises that were made in the original Constitution including the Electoral College compromises that we were that were made to to appease the
Slave states that were made to a appease rural States that had a very small population have to be reimagined we have to look at DC statehood we we have to do these things on the other side of this election so that’s the other thing I
Would say Amanda if what you want to do is just cast your ballot and then sit back and judge what happens um that’s not going to work we need people to cast their ballot this year and next year for every race and to vote in an informed
Way and then after the election to stay engaged and that means I I keep saying people once a month you can call your Senator and you should they do worry about these calls trust me you can call them you can tag them on Twitter I say they wor about social media people are
Like what’s the point of social media trust me trust me they do they care they do you need to show up at when your Congress person has a town hall have you ever attended a school board meeting is there something stopping you have you ever attended a city council
Meeting or do you just complain about garbage pickup and the roads and and so what I’m saying is I believe at this time given the rise of um authoritarianism fascism uh hate groups uh explicit old-fashioned anti-black racism that we have to be refreshed and renewed in how we approach our
Engagement with this country and that means it’s time out for you know just um posturing and behaving like robots going into a a booth and then thinking that there’s no followup that has to happen out of out after it you have to vote and then you have to hold them accountable
And holding them accountable is not saying next time I won’t vote for them that’s not it’s not it say it holding them accountable is saying the truth is showing up is prot yes is calling your Senator and telling your Senator what you want the president to do because that’s how the
Pressure happens pressure happens because the Senate starts hearing from members of his party that they’re getting heat in their districts about XYZ you pick your issue that’s what happens you’re not gonna call Joe Biden so you say I’m not gonna vote for him next to you that’s not necessarily the answer that’s not
How you hold someone accountable you hold someone accountable by moving that power up through the chain by calling your representative or your Senator at 202-224-3121 202 224 3121 and they will connect you and you and you leave the message you let my you know what enter the name of
Your Senator no I I want him to pressure Joe Biden to do whatever I don’t want a dime of my money to do whatever I want more money to go to XYZ that’s what you need to be doing and if you’re not doing that if you can’t take
Time out once a month to call this person I I don’t know what to tell you I know you can do it but we need to create that as an infrastructure in our communities you know like how Del the Deltas have Delta days on the hill right where they you know Delta’s carpet
Capitol Hill and they go visit Congressional offices it’s very powerful it’s very when they see thousands of college educated black women all wearing red walking through those Halls and coming to people’s offices they’re they’re shook yeah well they’re they’re so they’re so unconfronted on such a regular basis but
What if every church had a call day we don’t tell you what to do because we’re a church we don’t tell you who to vote for we don’t even G to tell you what to talk about but as a church we G call a church on Tuesday night I’m not gonna
Interfere with bible study on Wednesday night but Tuesday night is our call night and everyone is asked to call their Congress person their Senator their whatever about an issue that matters to them I’m going to I’m going to commit to adding that to my radio show I’m going to commit to adding that
Effort to my radio show right I have been really trying to figure out how to um you know try to create action items and actualize you know the shift of bringing Civics into our culture in a way that people feel like it just doesn’t have a place even though
We know for a fact that it has had a place in our culture the only reason we have what we have is because we we emblazened Civics into our culture and made it a part of our community like like values that’s why we stand on the line for nine hours that’s why that’s
Why we do it because we actually do know and I’m just saying I’m pushing us to go the next level that when you get in that Booth we have to every office that’s what what I’m saying is every generation of black people has to be responsive to
The moment in which we find ourselves as our forbears did say that one more time can you say that one more time generation of black people has to um adjust ourselves that is to to to meet the challenges of the moment in which we find ourselves yes our
Forebears had to do it during periods of slavery they had to do it during Reconstruction they had to do it during the nadir the nadir is that period that is regarded as the lowest period after slavery for black people and do you know what we did in the Nadar we created and
Strengthened black institutions yeah many of our sororities were created in that period many of our churches many of our HBCU the NAACP like we created things that later came to to be anchors for activism so whatever generation we’re in the generation we’re in is one in which we are confronting rise fascism
In which there is global Fascism and a global authoritarian movement right in which the rise of fascism has meant that many people don’t care how we look to the rest of the world so that I was gonna get to that lost that we lost we’ve lost that piece
Right um so so we have to meet our moment and Our Moment requires a higher level of citizenship than the ones that even those of us who consider ourselves engaged have have actually participated in and that means that even though last year you didn’t want to do jury service now
You do have to do jury service that means that before election day comes two weeks before you go on ballot pedia.com b a l l o t p d a ballot pedia.com and you put in your zip code and they will tell you everything that’s on your
Ballot this year they will tell you who’s running for those offices and what the job of the office is that you will do that and you will do it a few weeks before because Sunday afternoon what you’re going to do is you’re going to come home and you’re going to spend an
Hour getting yourself ready for the election you’re not just busting up in the booth because you know who’s at the top of the ticket you are actually educating yourself about who is on the ballot and what those offices mean and if you are somebody who’s so frustrated
And feels like you just want to get involved you’re going to go on runfor something.com runfor something.com and you’re going to work with this group of people that is training people to run for office and that’s helping people understand what offices they can run for and helping
Them do it so you’re gonna just go to that next level because that is what is being required of us in this moment because they are trying to run the tables they want it all back and if we don’t get ser ious about how we’re going
To engage this moment we are going to be handing to our children something worse than was handed to us which is a betrayal of our Ancestors
source
