How Do We Move Forward?

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Jay dot Dell, a production of I Heart Radio. Hi, it's still Scott and we're here for Jay dot il the podcast and with my sister friends La Yas sat Clair, Yes, ma'am, that's me, yes ma'am, President St Clair, Yes, St Claire. I used to say sint Clair. It's it was that first. It's okay. You know Slavery didn't funk it all up anyway, Jill, So you know I can't even claim the classiness of the name. Wow and age grating danceller. Sorry too much, Danzla, Danzla. There it is. I wish I could have had a couple more syllables. I mean a couple of more syllables. Been nice. You have a three letter name with two syllables aga, I do, I do, and yet people still can never say it correct. Its shocking. You're a continent. It's a a jo look a jaw like jah Rostafar. Okay, apparently today we've had some coffee. We have, We've had several cups, a little bit a little sweet on us today. Um, we're talking about how to move on from where we are now? Where are we now? Trump has been I think he's been put out of office. It looks like it looks like not pysically, but he will be yes. Currently he's still held up in the White House. Um, I am looking forward to the day seeing him out of it, Yo, scramping about, scrapping about to come and wrap, scramming about to be like, Yo, you don't get your ass off up out of here. We're gonna do it for you. I need a slow motion. I need it. I need a slow motion so that I could just watch it over and over again. Well, I I don't know, I don't know. I would like it to be I like the Obama's to be present when he gets kicked out, you know what I'm saying, Just because they had to say face in sixteen and walk that motherfucker through the White House like they like this. No, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I gotta no no, no no, no, no no, it's applicable right there, okay, okay, yeah, right there and sit in the office and and she they even left notes for these motherfuck us like I just I'm sorry, all extensive notes. That's that's what it's class. I'm tired on your ass and I'm very very interested in us publicly getting to see them drag him on out of there. I almost don't want him to leave. I want him to be there on the twenty one Or is it in January twenty one? Is the very last day? The last day is or I want to see the Secret Service switch over and grab him by the ankles and slide him out the front door the floor. I've been to the White House a couple of times, and what I liked about how they kick you out is the they're like, I guess they're in the military. Who wears white, the Marines, some kind of white fans, But I honestly don't know which part of the military they were in. But they were smoothed. What they do is they kind of heard you out. So everybody's having a good time and in these big spaces, and and all of a sudden, the white suits come in a little closer. And and because you you know your your your your personal space, you move a little bit and then they move forward and you move a little bit like a wall. It's like a wall, and they're smiling the whole time and listening to the music too. It wasn't uncomfortable. Next thing, you know, you're outside. Can I just say to the people that Jill is talking about a very interesting experience because number one, I believe you are talking about an Obama white house experience. Number two, you are talking about Obama white House party experience I E. D b ET closing party, which I'm gonna say to you, Jill, that white house that gone whatever you saw that white house, That white house was the once in another life with that white house, right, So glad I got to be there. Did I tell you that they at one of those events? I went to five of them. Oh, they invited me back, honey, so I every time. It was a great experience. At one of them, I think it might have been the first one where I took my mom and they had watermelon and fried chicken. And I ate that watermelon so hard. I ate it so hard they cut it. Don't tell the half story, Jail. It's more things than watermelon. Please tell me. It was more than watermelon and chicken. It was more on the menu. I don't know there. It was like tet. It was little pizzas and things all over the place, pieces of of of delicious all over and they had a mountain of sliced watermelon. It looked like the watermelon was cut by buy um uh not a razor but maybe a laser. It was. It was perfect. And then they they little turning they like el es and I thought, who puts feat of cheese on watermeltain? And did it? Did sound nasty? But I ate it and I ate it the kind And then there was an you know how it is something that's good. You start doing the little dance, you know, so like black I'm black chicken and a white hu. We did poses. Everybody posed in front of George Washington the picture Who squatted? Did anybody? We all did everybody You're not having a camera, but everybody did it. Everybody's like how you like now? A lot of how you like me? Out? It felt great? Was the electric slide. Every possible dance was wobbled. That was like you know the probably wobbled. Every possible dance was done. The party didn't end. The last party didn't entil five am. Can you break down what the bathroom looks like in the White House Hill? Which one? Did they look different? Would would they look different? Are the different decor? Is it like the Ebony building where every color it's a different color on every floor. That's how they building like the bathroom, like, just give me it wasn't. I don't have a glowing recommendation of the bathrooms. I can tell you that they were wallpapered and they were efficient. Okay. The rooms coming from those bathrooms were had plates and and things that were hundreds of years old, you know, And it was a lot of antiques, a lot of memory re bilia from other presidents. You know that Trump's picture portrait will be hanging in the White House, is it? No? No? No, that have they confirmed that they confirmed? No? No, I don't know. I don't. He didn't hang You know that he did not hang Obama's picture, So actually I don't. I don't. I promise you that, yes, Obama's picture is not in the White House. I promise you that there's something really going on. I mean, everybody knows this, we're just talking about it. There's really something there where you're so jealous, so agitated by doesn't he have a reason? The words are big mad, big mad. I mean from the physicality to the education, he is everything that that he that Trump is not right true? Indeed, I mean I just feel like that portraits do be looking at you and if you had to walk down the hallway and that brother just sitting in the chair like he is in his portrait. You're just looking at you. And the portrait was done so well, unlike any other portrait ever done, ever done anywhere anywhere. Fantastic. Yeah, I think, Okay, I'm just looking forward to that moment when we can really just figure out what's gonna happen next, Like how does this thing gonna go? Because I'm tired of the little linger, the language bothering me. Well, here's the issue, and you know that the linger is not is not all the fault of the incoming president. The linger is the fact that this is the first time ever that there is not a graceful transition, not even a transition team. So oh yeah, no, no, I'm yeah, yeah, I know you are, but yeahing. Still, you know, big up to Biden inherent because they still have their whole COVID team together, they still meet and then like we're gonna do what we can do to make sure there's a transition and not just because like Dr Fauci said, you can't stop the game and started again. They've gotta be a you know, transition to be smooth, like people have to work together like this, this is this is necessary. But it's just like it's the the instability and the the disregard and the i mean, the the full on arrogance is just it's beyond beyond. It is beyond beyond. And we still have seventy seven million American people who voted for this guy, and many of them that are in the same are just as delusional. Yeah, that's not that's just interesting in the scary part, right, because we've had the most ever election of folks come out to vote. But that also means that, yeah, like you said, seventies six million people are so voted for for Trump, which means we know they're there and they're upset. I mean, we always knew were there. But it's just that's so bering. That is sobering to think that here we are four years later, you've seen all that you've seen. There's no there was It's not like the first time when they thought, oh I thought it was gonna be this way or I thought it might be this way. No, you saw how it was. And still more people turned out for him. In fact, more white women in particular came out. He had the biggest increase of the electorate was white women, white women. More white women voted for him this time than the first time. And and they and there's a larger increase in white women than in white men. Yeah, because all you gotta do is put the fear in them. And I just thought to myself, wow, wow, And I refused him. But leave that of those women, of those white women, those fifty of the white woman electorate that I refused, the police believe that none of them was down on Washington with one of them pussy hats on. One of them had a pussy hat on, one one of them dead, when many of them many dead. But now now you're talking about the breakdown between racism and female I mean womanism. You know what I'm saying, feminism say do with me? Yeah? They had not to do with me. Feminism and womanism, Yeah yeah, I mean, let me just keep it to you straight. If I you might hear me say feminism, you understand what I'm saying. But I'm very clear in terms of what white women feel and think and practice when it comes to feminism does not always include me, and more often than not does not include me. Yeah, they're not clear. I like to I most definitely like to use the word womanism, which was coined by Alice Walker, if I'm not mistaken, because I know that was meant for me. M hm. So I like to use terms I know of for me. Thank you for breaking that down because I was somewhat unclear on the woman as a versus feminism. So I appreciate that Alice Walker must respect that. Well. I'll tell you what I want to see as this man leaves office. This is so many things this man as he leaves office, I definitely need us. And I'm gonna just going to say me, we have to start really paying attention to politics within our community down the Who's block, Captain. Yeah, we really have to talk about who's running for office so that we can get It's like it's like training a child on how you you know, how to grow up? Mhm. It's the same thing within our government, Like we have to choose well and UM support the people that are attempting to make changes in our society, like really support them. If nothing else, We've learned this. If nothing else, We've learned this because the clear blue sky, some whack ass billionaire UM who's not earned anything in a lifetime, who has no relationship at all with anybody, no relationship with the with the common people who wash clothes, who clean toilets, who fold, who who go grocery shopping, no understanding of any part of it. I don't even know if the if the man us wash his own ask before m I don't know the question. It's a good question. Who knows. But I know that he was gold toilets when I was catching scepter. So um you know that asked crack dirty? You know you gotta want to dirty? I'm sorry, just no, ain't nothing like a man with a dirty ass. Crack Sorry, come on, fellas, girl, what we a skid mark? No? Right there on the toilet seats? Is that on the toilets? If there's a skid mark, it's not like he wouldn't know about it, nor would he have to deal with because he don't look back. No, he wouldn't have to deal with his own, his own foolishness, none of it. That's I'm excited, and it's funny. I don't want to I don't like to make somebody president who's never been accountable for anything. How, I don't know, ask Pete Putin. I think it's very easy to pick up president who's never been accountable for anything. We don't listen, how do you make them the poor? How do you make them the poor white people? President? Is the question? How did that rich white man become the po white man's president? Like whoa, that man became the poor white man's president way before that, Because the bottom line is that poor white people didn't have nothing to do with planners and owners or plantations, and plantation owners were our first senators and our first congressman, and poor white people wasn't getting none of that money. Right, So rich white men been making the rules for poor white people a long time, and they've been sipping that bs kool aid that the rich white man been telling them since you know, the seventeen sixteenth century, telling him, oh you poor, you disenfranchised, but you better than them niggas. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's been going on for a long time. That's why it was the poor yeah yeah, yeah yeah, and an important lie to hold on to that that gave them a sense of being, a sense of of of value, purpose, purpose, And it's right, Mrs Trump, this is our place, that's right. It's not the well we see, we see the amount of hatred. We see the amount of anger. We're still here in this country. So now what We'll be back after the breath, And can I just allow a moment. I know people, you know people on social media. I know people on social media, like you know, I don't know what y'all are so happy for this motherfucker Biden and ain't no better than But can I just say on just the a level of symbolism, because I know it used to not matter until Trump came into office. Symbol of them and what these what this man symbolizes. I'm still more excited to see a man who didn't come from nothing in a way, I'm still excited to see a man who loves his wife, and I'll be able to see some love back in the White House. I mean a man who is married to a teacher, so she is connected to things. He is still a teacher, like a man who has been lifted up in the White House twice by two black people. Because remember, there would be no Joe Biden if not for in a sense of a president Joe Biden, in a sense of a Barack Obama and a Kamala Harris. And he knows that I am very conscious that this white man knows that he is on the back of these people. So I just can we just have a moment to say things are possibly going to be better than the last four years without making me feel like yo, then is wrong with you? Don know? Girl, listen, and not that you need my permission or anybody else. I do need a girl. Better come now. You'll be a crazy person to think it's not gonna be better. It's but better has varying degrees, and better is also, you know, in comparison to what and so if you're not comparing it specifically to the character of Donald Trump, if you're just talking about Yeah, if you're just talking about Donald Trump, then yeah, I mean most of us would have voted for Barney, you know what I'm saying. But I do think it would be unfair to a Joe Biden or or or even a Kamala Harris to assume that or to even hit towards that they are the same types of they would have the same kind of leadership as a Trump and there is no difference. I think that's dangerous and it lacks Yeah, it lacks nu once and it's it's it's silly to me However, you know, we do have to understand that, you know, Trayvon Martin that happened on the rocks watch, these kinds of things happened to us and continue to happen to us throughout the Obama pre residency. And yeah, it was awesome. A lot of bad things happened throughing Obama. We lost a lot of children. Sandy Hook happened on Obama's watch too, like most child school shootings and history and Obama's watched. I'm sorry because right, no, no, and we're on the same page because so what we're saying, I think it's so important to keep having the nuance there. What we're saying is that or what anyone is saying is, yes, it is important to not have Trump, but we cannot be so focused on not having Trump that we um create a pedestal for Joe Biden, or we create a pedestal for Kamala Harris or anybody else who would come into office on the tales of this kind of terrible criminal administration. So that is where we have to be careful, and we have to be careful not to set them up into a moment where they cannot be publicly critiqued. That's true. I think we are. We are dangerously at that moment with but hey, but no, I don't know, because we've been critiquing her the whole ride, the whole wide through right now. Yeah, in comparison into she's been critiqued in comparison to so as a black woman, she's gonna get way more drama than anybody else. Because she's a black woman, people are gonna be on her ask the same way they were on Um, way worse than Yeah, exactly, like a Michelle Obama. So yeah, she's gonna get it worse. But what we have to do as a community, and we are absolutely sophisticated enough to do this, is that we have to be clear that as we protect her from these white supremacist attacks, that we are also extremely critical and not critical in a way that says that we are being unfair or mean or inaccurate, but that we deserve that he deserved leadership that does and just represent us in color and background, but that they also represent our best interests, not some of our interests, but our very best interests as a group, as an electorate, as a community. Period. I see the activists already on social media is talking about, Yeah, we ain't forgot that we got you here, so we're gonna come back. We're coming for We're coming for you. But what wel you promised us? So I see a lot of activists on social already ready to collect and I'm not mad at that. I mean, I get it. Although you probably can we collect on this COVID first, I just don't. Let's not forget. I just want to listen. The thing is this. This country has a whole lot of checks that done sent out. It is a lot of people. It needs to cover a lot lot of checks. Okay, speaking of these checks, this this this might be really really personal. UM. I got alone as well for my employees, UM because I had over thirty employees and they gave me an amount of money that I celebrated. I was like, yeah, I'm going to be able to pay everybody for a month. UM didn't do the math right really, and it really only paid for two weeks. I just I guess I you know, I hyped it up in my mind that this was going to be such a relief for everybody and was going to um take some of the weight off. That's what I thought. But anyway, it only took care of two weeks for everyone down to the nickel and I get a phone call saying that they over gave me but five times and that they want to Yeah, they want me to repay them for or or to reimburse them for the two weeks of finance today, you know, sent out to my employees. And I think that that's what's going to happen with a lot of people. I think I feel like it was a scam. Yeah, I feel like it was a scam. Um, it wasn't as if I didn't send everything that was necessary, sent it on, sent my payroll, sent their names. They can account for the money. Everything went to employees. I didn't get a cent of it. But nonetheless, no, no, no no, no, But Jill, you know what, would you ever would you ever sign up for Donald for Trump University? No? Would you ever do a deal with Donald Trump? No? And so it's funny. I don't think people thought about it like it's the same it's the same thing. I'm so sorry I worried about that. And it's funny you heard like conspiracy theories about people. Um it, I'm out of their taxes for and I'm just hoping that's not the case too, because some people took money and they're like, what did they decide in that I gotta pay this ship back, which I hope is not the case. But it's the case. I absolutely believe that it's the case. M hmm yeah, yep. Five times. So you're telling me you fucked up five times waiting for me to cash the check. You you messed up five times? How? How did? How are your calculations this wrong? How? And where's your proof? I'm looking because all of mu shi it is in order. We need to pay attention to these late night uh congressional meetings. We need to pay this stuff is happening in the middle night. I know that I've you know, in in in my lifetime, I've seen you know, the live recordings of of congress meeting and I turned away. I want to watch that. It's long winded. Man, This legal jargon that is unnecessary. It's just unnecessary. I don't know, But as I get older, I it depended on the hearing is a form of entertainment. Ship not for nothing. That's how I got to know Kamala Harris wasn't until m Kavanaugh's hearing. It I was like, oh, ship, who is this she was coming at? So it's it's it's interesting I think as I get older that all that the political it reminded me of a soap proper in my own way. That's that's how I watch MSNBC and CNN so much. Sous like a soap proper. I'm reading now, Okay, the Constitution of the United States divides the federal government into three branches to make sure no individual or group or have too much power. That ain't working. Well, we're still waiting for Georgia because that is child. We just we need this one. We need to send it child, We need just how we need to send it, how we need to send it. I mean typically though, when the president, any president comes in, they typically are not getting the presidency and the House and Senate. Usually that happens in the interns. Yeah, typically you're not gonna get both. And don't forget Obama. What's the whole eight years that he worked with a Republican Senate as well and so and they made the deal in the beginning. Today wasn't gonna really work with him. So when people say, you know why I was certain things so hard, it's like he goes back to but that's also typical. So, yes, that did happen to Obama, but that situation is typical. It was typical during the Clinton administration. It was typical throughout you know, it happens because they just bounced from one party to the next, to the next and back again. Which again, that brings up the other issue that a lot of Americans have, which is why do we have this two party system. We should have office longer than residents. We'll be back after the break. I would like to know why we keep doing the same repeating the same actions. Like I just I just think it's really crazy that we're still doing the same thing. That the laws remain the same in so many areas, Like Okay, in the Bible, you know, um, you could have your hand cut off for stealing the local bread. M Um. In the Koran, um, you have to wash yourself before you pray. Right, Yeah. My my thoughts here are that I always felt like with with the with the Koran in that particular area, like sometimes or you can't be have been with a woman before you pray, like you have to wash your body. But I'm like, sometimes my best prayers are in the middle of sex. So oh, my Lord Jesus, and how does that? How does that work? You know? And things are in practice and are part of how detheran they're not exactly written in the Koran. But also there are also um things. They are also um exemptions. If you're in the desert and there is no water, right you can strike the earth. I mean, there's not so different. You know. Islam has a lot of a lot of details. I find that to be very fair. The more detailed the better. Yes, lots of details. A lot of people like to you know, they get the kind of surface part, but there's lots of allowances details, things that go into real life. I think that what happened when the real life happens. Yes, real life. Okay, So if you have two presidential candidates and uh, they're very very close to one another. Um, let's I would say that at that point, if they're very close to each other but nobody really likes either of them, then we need to have another vote to see who gets to stay, and whoever gets to stay has to come up against another candidate that we vote for. But then we have to create like a deadline because we could do this and keep doing this until because there is no perfect candidate either. There is no perfect candidate. But we shouldn't be in a position where we don't like either. Well, we were dealing with Hillary Clinton and um, Donald Trump. You know, I didn't know ultimately, Like I said, this is the part, this is the problem with the two party system. However, Um, this country is not that old, that's the other thing. But they hold onto the as a United States quote unquote, it's just over a hundred years old. The rules like they can't be changed, like they can't be manipulated for the for the benefit of the people. But yet they are still ever changing, right, Because if they weren't ever changing, the Supreme Court wouldn't be such a big deal. All these these issues with US holding making sure the Supreme Court is fair and balance and whatnot wouldn't be such a big deal because they're constantly making rulings over things that are ever changing. Abortion is ever changing, right, same thing with the Voting Rights Act, Like they're just I mean, there's a whole case of things. L G. B. T q I writes like these are new things that they had to create new laws and you know, rewrite certain things don't you think we're in a constant kind of rewrite in a way, it's just on who's rewriting at the time. Yeah, because there you go, there you go. Now that's a word who is doing the writing? Yeah, the rewriting is not the issue. It's who's doing the writing is the issue. And does that reflect those people who are living in this country? And does that reflect the best interests of the people who are living in this country or the people who are less likely to have an optimum experience in this country. So it's like it's really more so about like who we're trying to serve and are we serving them well? And that question is gonna be ever changing because the landscape of the country will be different over time. The country will not look exactly the same that the way it did in nineteen twenty. Right, That's why your cabinet should not look like the same cabinet from a president in the twenties, i e. Donald Trump's cabinet for the last four years. Right, And let's just be fair, the nineteen twenty cabinets shouldn't have looked that way either. No, but right, so you're talking about nineteen twenties and that that's like the year that women got the right to vote, the right to vote, correct, twenties something around that time. So at that time, our leadership wasn't reflecting its people right, even with the women. You say the white should have been more white women, It should have been more black women, should have been more Native women. I'm tying frond the gate from the onset of this country, like the country is very young, and then on top of that, from the onset of the writing of the constitution is written by flaming racists, you know. So, and so as of today, we just actually started to be able to say that, and we just started to be able to say that, so things are so much in their infancy stages and and thus getting to the point where we can have conversations and decisions and leadership that reflects the conversations and decisions that we're making personally in within our communities, and that leadership reflects that. That's new. Think about this, y'all. Juneteenth just came into the mainstream and twenty that's when corporations was like, oh, that's the thing, Like, oh, we can sell you all some ship on this day. It is young, but we're talking about you know, my great grandmother's time, my grandmother's time, my mother's time, my time, you know. Yeah, not to be backing off of Baldwin, but I the bourbage does have to change. Yeah, and change. We're in a state it will change. It even has to change. And we as a society have to pay attention to who we're putting in office and why we're putting them in office. It gets dangerous. It's just like with pastors, you know, or or any kind of religious figure. It's the why you're here that counts, not that you're here, it's the why what is your purpose now? Is before it was just we needed to be in the room. It's funny you say that, Jill, because you made me think of like a race that we had out here for district attorney against this woman, Jackie Lacey, who's a black woman, right, And so at some point it was just like, yeah, a black woman district attorney that should be in the conversation, right, but this black woman is not really for black lives matter. They've and protesting at her house in front of her house this whole time, and all this other stuff. So now we're getting to a point to where like we've discussed before. There are layers to us as a people. Right she black, or she might not be for you, right, Yeah, this this reminds me of conversations we had about Kamalade Harris before before the election. What was just like, yeah, come on, guys, we can't be so not that we should ignore representation. Representation is a big deal, but not that we should ignore representation, but that we should be able to critique representation. We shouldn't be able to have um to to to think critically about it and to say, hey, hey, this is it's not just about having someone there. It's just about it's about the align with our values and the values of those who are most vulnerable amongst us. And that's fair. We just got to the point where we can do that, right because we wanted to be in Yes, yes, just got to that point. I say that to say, Jill, sometimes we got to remind ourselves to be persistent, be active, but also at some point be patient with our movement, like I mean, and acknowledge that we have had movement in progress in this small amount of time, not to say we stop and we slow down, but also just give yourself a little bit of credit. A little bit of credit. I'm saying that from now on, I'm gonna wear I'm gonna wear some kind of slipper when I come down the steps, because slid in the fuzzy socks and bust my ship, you know what I'm saying. From the point moving forward, Yes, my person lead am going to make it a point to pay attention to who's in office. In my vocality, there's a chance for me to vote that, I'm going to do it because what happened is a whole racist, negative asshole who had no no relationship with with people with the with regular human beings in this world, no relationship with them whatsoever, became president of the United States. Yeah, and it happens because it happens on the local level. Two, I'm with you on that. I will say this too. In addition to paying attention to local politics, there's a there is a section of people that go absolutely ignored by people who are generally voting, and that is your community activists. It's like there's a disconnect there, you know, in terms of listning to the work, listening to what they have to say, and listening to the work that they do. Because the work that they do is directly tied into service and the service of the people in the community who are the most vulnerable. If you are only really looking at the platform of you know, politicians when they come up for office, you know, how can you really I mean, you're looking at their platform. They're saying that's what they believe in. But the local activists and the community folks, they're keeping those people honest. And I'm saying, no, we don't know you well. You when X, Y and Z happened. Because I'll say this about a local a local election that happened here in this neighborhood. I want to say that the people were I remember a certain person was running and I called my elder. I was like, she ain't talking such as such, you know her? She was like, oh no, I did three events. I invited all the candidates. That person never showed up. That person never showed up. I don't know who that person is. I'll call, make another couple of com phone calls and I'll tell you. So it's like it's that kind of thing, is that we have to be able to communicate with each other and those who are doing community work and service when they understand some things that we don't those of us who are getting up going to work every day, minding our business, doing X, Y and Z. We're not doing that work. That's not our ministry. But we owe it to them and the work that they do to take their word for it. And I think there's a bit of a disconnect with that its at the local level. On the local level, however, I do want to pick up Black Lives Matter in a way because I feel like they have at least this election became a great kind of McDonald's sense of that being that Glass Roots organized the exactly. And I say that to say that they gave it was a time when I'm looking at I told John and Cally, it's a large study book for the ballot, so many things you have to vote on, right. But what Black Lives Matter did was they made themselves, uh, the central person for all local elections and gave you a checklist of kind of like at least who rose with them? Right. So then on a local level, which was like, okay, so you roll with them? Now I decide do I roll with you? Because of this and because of all these other things that I know. So I also say that to say that Asia, I think that too, is a process that we're in the midst of that. I want to acknowledge that we might have been not so progressive about four years ago, but I think that what Donald Trump has done has made us forced us to be more part of the situation where we didn't understand the power of our territories, our states, the electoral college, our local the registrars, you know, the importance of the person who actually is in charge of voter registration in your local municipality. Like thank you to to to my girl Stacy Abrams, because she brought that up. So again, I just I'm acknowledged. I want to acknowledge that we learned and we're getting there. We're watching more MSNBC and we trust them. Believe those people who were organizing under BLM locally, they were most definitely the same folks that have been organizing all the law with their own organizations and their own stuff. They just happened to also be a part of BLM or come together under BLM. Believe you me that the folks that have been on the ground are the same people that were on the ground ten years ago. They're the same people that were on the ground five years ago. These are the same folks. So I think it's just important to remember that when we when we're mad at people, we talk about you too woke for your own good and I don't know about that. Think about that these people they've been on the ground years before. You knew who they were years before. And one thing I will bring up was, and when we see progress, when we see something and say, oh, that's progress, what you see is organizers. What you see is their work. So what you are seeing is that that's not the politician. Those are the organizers who have made that a point that that politician make that a part of what they're doing. The politician is the person who follows the directive of the organizers who are connected to the people. Think about how far we come to this that our work. Community organizer was a bad word. Remember when they called obamaaction, he ain't nothing but the community m hm. And that works on that works on the Trump side too. Somebody brought this up the other day. I was watching a panel and they said, yeah, we have to remember that they were organizing their asses off same thing. So we have to be clear that this same action is happening on the opposite end. As well. And remember, please, good people that being a citizen um, some of us are just born into citizenship. But it's also a responsibility, yes, ma'am. And it is also um, it's a privilege, depending on how you look at it or why you look at it, but it's a response ability and a privilege. So pay attention to the people in your community. When you hit eighteen and you're old enough to vote, UM, pay attention to the community that you're in, on every possible level wherever you can have a voice, making a point to have it, because what we don't want is another um hate monger um of any kind of any race in the presidency ever again. Coming up next on the show, What's on Your Heart an occasional segment where we're checking with people re respect about how they're really feeling. Hold on, y'all, waitment, I think somebody's calling. That must mean it's time for Lots on your Heart? All right, So here's the deal. When we first started this show the j dot Ill Podcast, Jill Scott made it a point to let me an Asian know that she wants all kinds of different voices to be represented on this show. Now, of course, the first person that I thought about was my cousin, Dr Angel Loved Miles, who has a PhD and women studies and some other things that I really can't pronounce. But it's also a beautiful black woman who was born with spina bifida, who has surpassed all kinds of gold records and whatever she is, we are. She is the pride of our family. Uh so I wanted to bring And she's also a Philly girl, so with all, a Philly girl, a German. So, with with all that being said, Dr Angel Love Miles, how are you good? You know, just Jill Scott in Asia, so I know all about your First of all, it kills me when her cousin got a whole PhD. My cousin is a wrestler. I'm like, see, that's how black folks do you. They're like, oh, you know, I'm just gonna call my cousin. You know, she's just you know, just dope, you know. But but you know, not people. I'm lucky and blessed. But you know, and it's funny because as me and Angel we were talking today and she was talking about how she is connected. She's fans of both of y'all. She's gonna be real humble and not say that. But I was like, you know, he should from kindred On here too. So I kind of wanted Angel to tell her own story in a way, and you know, kind of introduce yourself to not only the listeners, but to Asia and Jail as well. Okay, Um, well, like like you said, my my big cousin, um Angel from Philly, from Germantown, Philadelphia, I grew up going to a school for kids with physical disabilities, um, and Philly called Widener Memorial School. And if I'm not mistaken, jil, you went to Girls High. So so Widener's right behind Girls High. Yeah, and I don't you know a lot of people don't notice that. And I went to Girls High part part time. UM. So it's called at the time, they called it mainstreaming. And so I went to Widener part of the day and I would go to Girls High the other part of of the day. Um. And when when I was in high school, I was in Girls I went to Widener really from kindergarten fourth grade. I only went to Girls High like maybe my sophomore year to to my tudor to my senior year. And so but I also you know, I'm a black girl, so um, and I grew up in low income housing um in Philly, and um, you know, dealt with the typical Philly issues of you know, being poorant just drama, drugs and addiction in my family and all that stuff. Um. And so somehow, in spite of and also because of all those things, I was able to go to college and I would depend state which was like not like Philly at all, main campus uh overwhelmingly majority white, like no disabled people. Um. And that was really hard because I went to a school for disabled kids my whole life, where everything was made for us and it was like normal to be disabled, and suddenly like nothing was made for me, and um, I had to talk to the teachers and like asked them to accommodate me, where like I never had to do that before. Like things were just accessible, Like if my wheelchair broke down, but there was a Brave shop and I could just go to the Brave Shop and get my chair fixed. Um. They even had we even had like a a wheelchair um um swing in our in our in our in our playground. So like everything was like made for us. And then all of a sudden, like life was like never will never be like that again. I had to face reality that like I live in a dominant, non disabled world and that um, and that I have to get everybody else to adjust to me. So so I did that in addition to adjusting to race and racism at Penn State, which was like I knew racism and said, of course, but like um, and I was, you know, I was exposed to white people growing up, but there I was exposed to white people who weren't used to black people. Like if for white people, I grew used to black people, so like they grew with black people. Uh. Particularly my stepfather was white. Uh and like, yah knows that he's not an everyday black man, me white man. So I called him black man by an accident because he grew up around black people and people would be like, oh, you know the well that light skinned brother right there, and I'm like, no, my my dad is white. He's like real. So anyways, I grew up you know, um with that and anyway, UM, to make a long story short, I went to UM Penn State, graduated, I pursued my masters and then my PhD. Because I wanted to know, like when I went to college. I was like, where did everybody go? Like like I grew up with like a really diverse community, Like where everybody go? Like why am I, you know, the only black disabled women and like all my classes at least with apparent disability, because there are people with on apparent disabilities. I wanted gods at but there were no people that like we're openly saying that they're disabled and ever physically disabled and a person of color. UM where I was and my friends that I grew up with who were disabled and often people of color, they were unemployed, they were chilling at home their parents, living off of their soul security. And I was like why, Like we all had dreams and goals just like everybody else. So I researched it UM and I went to grad school and I got a PhD here and like that's like the skip like skipped to the end. There's like a whole lot in between it. And it's in women's studies UM, and you know I it's so it's a radical uh degrees. Everybody's like women studies like are you a kind of college or whatever? No, No, I'm not interested in UM, but really just it's just studies like gender basically as a as a category and like gender and relationship to other other social identities. So it really is just a way of like looking at identity and inequality in general because in challenging like dominant ideology, so so challenging dominant world views that and dominant usually is like male, white, um sis, hetero sexual um. Just challenging all those like dominant identities and really instead centering like marginalized identities and thinking about intersectionality and feminism and all that stuff. So so all that good stuff. So I really wanted to. Um, my grandparents had master's degrees and they taught me that, Like they got it at a time when it's really hard for black people to get master's degrees. Um and uh, because they were black, they weren't able to economically benefit from their degrees the way that they should have. So that's why I like, in spite of their degrees, when my mother was in college and that my father, I'm like like his uncle, and I had my brother and then me, Um, we still wound up and subsidized housing because they didn't have wealth to transfer to to the family like they would have if my my my grandparents would have been white but anyway, they had taught me that education should make you better to people, not better than people. Right. Let me just say that growing up in North Philly, Um, I really think it was although we had we had drugs, we had violence, we also had a really gigantic group of people who were just people. So I don't recall feeling of heaviness about someone being uh bold or or or gay or a person with disabilities. I don't recall, Um, we we knew who the crackheads were, like, oh that song, so they don't crack you know what I mean. It was kind of like we were very accepting of everything that everybody was and if you like the person, you like them, and that's just what it was. If you didn't, you didn't for whatever reasons that were yours. But I don't remember feeling of heaviness um in my neighborhood anyway about people being themselves. And I think that that's really what all all we want is for people to be the you know, be themselves without having to carry whatever boxes and bullshit that this society places on us. So here's the question, Dr Miles, what is on your heart? You know? Pieces on my heart? You know, I'm just really trying to think about, you know, how can we get to peace because I believe that it's achievable, and um, I have to have hope that that it's achievable. And I think that there are groups in power that want us to believe that it's not, um, you know, and so I think that that's something that's really all my heart. You know, love is all my heart, you know. UM. You know, I have someone that I really love who voted for Trump, and it's really tearing me apart. Like this person is a person of color, this person is disabled, and someone I really love that I actually had a relationship like amate relationship with at one point, and I just cannot figure it out and it's really turning me apart. And I'm like, do I cut this person off? It is that the way do I handle it? Because are they harboring some type of hate that I don't know about? Someone like but when I'm with them, like I don't experience any of that, like, you know, I just experienced kindness, and so you know, I have to believe that like love will help us overcome these differences. Like I don't think that, um, but just cutting people off will solve it. And I'm just hopeful like that because I'm not perfect either. Um, and there are some other your areas that you know, I may be harming someone. So I'm trying to figure out how to have grace but also like standing my principle, stay to my principles, and so that's really hard. Um. But I and I also want to close to say that like you know, you're on my heart, Asia, You're on my heart, Jill, Like, oh, like, yeah, you're in my heart because you're my family. Um, and UM, I wanted I couldn't be remissed without like sharing you know, like how Jills like music like has impacted me how it particularly um has helped me get through graduate school and overcome so many of those barriers. And so you know when you say like and beautifully human, like I am here, like I am a wealth unfathomed and if you don't recognize my presence, I am here. Um, if you don't recognize me, I am here, like I felt I am a source of power, Like I felt that way in my soul as a black woman because I'm and it was a black woman's disability because I'm ignored so much and and I'm I've treated invisibly so much. And so you know, when I grew up in Germantown, Yes, people, there was some part where like everybody was accepted in some ways, but there were a lot of ways where like I was ignored, I was chased, I was spit on by black people. I was teased, um unrelentingly. UM, I was excluded. I wanted to be on drill team so much. I want to be on drill teams so much, but they would not let me be on their parents and kids because I was disabled, um, and just treated me like like my disability was contagious. UM. So I experienced that, but I also experienced an immense kindness UM from from the same community. So we have both in our community. We have to you know, when Joe Biden talks about um, you know that this is not who we are. When he talks about his um. When he did a speech and he said, like it's accepted, species is not who we are. We're Americans, and um, he needs to acknowledge that it is who we are. We are like we are, we are both, we are as Americans, like we are both you know, the our our worst enemy, you know, and our best friends, and we can't keep lying. So he did for the first time actually any president of any president or president left actually mentioned disabled people in his speech, which is not he shouldn't get a big cracker for. But he did that because of the work that we did, because we organized disabled people or and ize and um and and got on and we helped elect him. So so we have we fought really hard for that because we're twenty percent of population and there, and the Democratic Party is just starting to really say like, oh, if we get these folks to organize, like maybe they have some power. So so I wanted to like, you know, talk about about that and everything and un understanding that what was behind that. So I'm just like, because it's so important and so poignant that to to bring us back to the fact that, yes, when you see these things happen, there is work behind that. There's organizing behind that. When you see something, it didn't just fall out of the sky. There are black women, there are black people. There are black people from all kinds of intersections, all kinds of spaces that are organizing to make sure that those things happened. It's not the empty moment. It's a moment that black people worked and and and strive to get and that that's not even off. Yeah, and it's like and not just buy people, but like margin life people in general, like disabled people, like LGBTQ people, like like disabled people, like a lot of times people treat us like, um, like things were a charity, like just like given to us, Like oh, wasn't that nicely? You know? Um that um that they that the America gave us ramps and automatic doors, and it's like, no, they don't know. They don't teach the disability rights movement, like they don't know that disabled people chain themselves to buses, Like they don't know that disabled people put sledgehammers to to curbs, like that we that we we father they wouldn't let us, um have you know, our own to be integrated into schools, that it was legal to just segregate disabled people into schools and utial schools like the school that I went to, where there there was really no reason why I shouldn't have been able to go to girls high all day long when I went to Penn State. But there's this, but there's this belief that um, you know, because I was disabled, that I needed something special. Um, and clearly I didn't, because I mean, I'm I moved to Chicago, I live in Chicago now, like I've been to Japan, I've been to Australia. So clearly I could have been a girls high. And so it's like society has to change the way that they think about because we put limitations on people with disabilities that are more limitating than our actual conditions themselves. And so when Jill Scott says living my life like it's golden, like that is a power that is an empowering thing for a disabled person to say, because our lives are not viewed as valuable like, um, you know, so when I say I'm happy, people are like, well, how could you be happy? You're disabled? You were born like you. People say this to me all the time. They congratulate me for being outside, like look at you outside. You know, do you have a do you have a certain like tool bag of cuss words that you have to that you have for people, because I just need to know because I'm just saying people out on a regular People have said that they start praying for me automatically, Like one lady was like, you're out of that chair, girl, like if you just demanded and my mother said I should have got up, Like it's because I can't. Well, so it just started mess with Like I didn't think about it, you know, but I should just start playing with people. But um, just for fun. But you know, and I like to laugh about it, but it's really not okay, it's a it's a type of street harassment, like you know about street harassment for women being sexually it's disable people get street harassed. People randomly asked me can I have sex? Like when I was a teenager man, just like okay, well how do you do it? Can you do it? Dada? Less than the first of all, that's done of your business, but like secondly, like what you know, it's just so we need to want to educate people about disability. People don't learn about it in school, and so the conversation is important. Angel. That's why your voice it's important. Angel. You know one thing about this kind of work, and people like yourself. I feel like the more that I listen to you, the more I understand how to treat people better. Like you said, education should make you better to others, not better than others. And I feel like the more that I interacted. I'm always telling people like, why are we not listening to our organizers? Why are we not listening to our advocates and activists. These are the people who are most in touch with who we are at our core. These are the folks that are talking to people who are the most affected by all the things that are going on because they don't get an opportunity to speak in a way where everybody gets to hear it, and that is an issue and is an issue. I thank you so much for being with us, Doctor Miles Angels Love Miles. How do you eat an elephant? One by it time? Hey, y'all, I'm Eves, a producer on the show, and I'm here to bring you the resource of the day. As all of the women on the show mentioned, the organizers in your community are out here putting in work. Let's give them our support and acknowledgement. Jill, Layah, and Asia all have love for Philly, and Asia has a recommendation for y'all based in the city. Check out the Black Philly Radical Collective, which includes the organization's Philly for Real Justice, Black Lives Matter Philly, the Abolitionists Law Center Philadelphia, and many more. I'll drop a link to the collective's website and the description. And for those of you outside of Philly research the anti racist abolitionists and progressive organizations and causes in your area. Thank you so much for sening and um you know you can always leave your comments where we're open to that. Always. Thank you for listening to Jill Scott Present j dot il the Podcast. This podcast is hosted by Jill Scott, Laya st. Clair, and agent Gayden Dance Flare. Its executive producers are Jill Scott, Seawan g and Brian Calhoun. It's produced by Laya Sat Claire and me Eve Steph Cooke. The editing and sound design for this episode we're done by Taylor Chakom. Just like so many reasons why this ship happened, that for us to prevent it? What about them seventies six million people, if that's real? If that's real? Because now we know that other countries can be involved in our elections and maneuver our elections. This is the problem with having so much information, y'all's too much, so you don't know what's real. You don't know what's real. So many you know, and there's the truth and then it's my truth. I have my truth, I'm standing in my truth. All of those things we don't know what truth is anymore. J dot Ill is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.