Ted Burnett - NAACP, The Poor People's Campaign, 3rd Reconstruction, Environmental Justice & More

In this episode we speak with Ted Burnett

Ted is the VP of the Poor People's Campaign in California and a retired Deputy Director of SEIU 1000. He talks to us about how his road to activism started at an early age. He also talks to us about forming the Ontario Future Alliance, the impact of the Child Tax Credit Law, Voting Rights and much more.

GUEST
tedmail2@yahoo.com

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________Content______
00:38 - Intro
02:04 - Who is Ted
06:56 - Ted's Background/Early School Years/Start of Activism
24:09 - Poor People's Campaign/Minimum Wage
32:14 - 3rd Reconstruction Breakdown/Child Tax Credit/Class & Racism
50:45 - NAACP Work/Environmental Justice/Reparations
1:08:50 - Current Projects/Being An Ordained Minister/SEIU 1000 Dep. Director
1:21:21 - Ted's Empire

Transcript

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Hey, you guys, we got another great one.

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Stay tuned.

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Everyone, welcome to The Empire,

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where we like to engage

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with everyone from pastors to actors,

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rappers to trappers,

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and everyone in between.

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My name is Antonio Thee. Miles.

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I am your host for today.

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And yes, we have another great guest.

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And this gentleman who's

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going to be joining us

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today is Ted Burnett.

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He is the VP of the NAACP

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Pomona Valley version district.

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And he is also on the board

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of directors of the Poor

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People's Campaign that does

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the Inland Empire.

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And let's get right into this gentleman.

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And his name again is Ted Burnett.

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Welcome to the Empire, Ted.

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Thank you for having me.

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Man, so glad to have you, sir.

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How you been?

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I can't complain.

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If you don't complain about nothing,

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then it's all good.

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Got you.

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You got you.

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So you stub your toe,

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you just keep it to yourself?

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Keep it to myself.

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Unless if it hurt more,

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then I go to the doctor.

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Thank God for health care.

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Got you.

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So you complain to someone

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who gets paid to listen to you complain.

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Exactly.

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As long as I pay that co-pay, right?

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That pay, that part.

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Hey.

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I'm going, doctor,

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you're going to hear my complaint,

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but you're going to get paid.

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So my toe hurt.

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Listen.

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Got you.

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Well, you know, Ted,

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let's get right into it, man.

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You know,

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for people who don't know who you

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are and the things that you do,

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can you please tell all of

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us who you are and the

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things that you do?

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um uh good afternoon my name

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is uh ted burnett and I am

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the uh second vice

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president of the pomona

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valley naacp which is the

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uh oldest civil rights uh

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group in the united states

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um we at pomona valley we

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uh service five cities in uh

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San Bernardino County,

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and five cities in LA County,

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including Pomona, Ontario, Diamond Bar,

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Claremont, and et cetera.

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And I'm also on the board of

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directors of the Poor People's Campaign,

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in the Empire.

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And also we have a statewide

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chapter where I serve as on

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the board of directors.

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And then we also have the

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Ontario Futures Alliance,

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which is a great organization.

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that we have that includes LULAC,

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which is the Latino Civil Rights Group,

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MALO,

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which is the Tongan Civil Rights Group,

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and Pitzer College.

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LULAC includes other organizations that

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I had mentioned along with

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Poor People's Campaign.

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And we are a collaboration

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of people that comes

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together to fight social justice.

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And instead of us separating

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and fighting over peanuts,

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we get together and make peanut butter.

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I love that.

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We all know who invented peanut butter,

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right?

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Exactly.

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Gotcha.

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You know, it's so awesome.

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And for those who are watching, you know,

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please type a one in the

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chat if you guys can hear

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us and we sound clear, we look good.

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Just make sure that we just

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want to make sure

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everything looks good and sounds good.

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And if you're just joining us,

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we're talking with Ted Burnett,

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who is VP of the NAACP and

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also on the board of directors of

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excuse me, the Poor People's Alliance.

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And he's also with the

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Ontario Future Alliance.

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So we're so great to have

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and have everybody here with us.

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And so Ted, you know,

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Have you noticed a difference?

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Because you mentioned people

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would be fighting over peanuts, right?

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Like we want this, we want that.

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Have you seen a difference

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in the community as opposed

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to everybody fighting for

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different things as opposed

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to fighting for the same thing together?

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Have you seen a difference

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in what the outcome is?

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I've seen over the years

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people starting to

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understand that the system

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pits us against each other.

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And while 1% of the

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population in the world

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owns most of the wealth

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We as people of color and

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the poor and the working

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poor fight over the scraps.

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And so when you come

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together in a fusion movement,

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one of the things that you

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have to understand,

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there's an

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intersectionality that exists

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from all of us that we have

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common needs and common

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goals and common goals.

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ideology on what we want to do.

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And so when you come

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together as a group and you

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are not pointing fingers at

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that other group that you

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tried to oppress, then people say,

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oh my God,

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they have the same values that I have.

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They have the same outlook that I have.

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They want to send their kids

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to college like I do.

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And so once we realize that

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and then come together,

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then we have a better

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understanding that our

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enemy is not one another

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because that person don't

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look like me or share the

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same faith that me,

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but the fact that the

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system perpetuates that.

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And if we come together,

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which I've seen in the

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fusion movement of people

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coming together,

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We have common goals so that

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we put all of our resources

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in to try to be successful

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and make sure that everyone

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benefits from it.

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So when you start that fusion movement,

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then everybody benefits that.

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I love that.

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Yeah.

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And I love that because, you know,

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it's so true because the

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whole tactic of divide and

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conquer has always worked, will always,

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can always work.

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But when people get together

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and are together,

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they're so much more powerful to get.

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They're so much more powerful, right?

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What is it?

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Power in numbers, as they say?

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Yeah.

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You know, Ted, can you give us all,

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as brief as you can,

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a story of where you grew up,

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how you grew up,

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all the way up to the man

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that you are today?

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If you can give us a brief

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story about all that for us.

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Well,

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I grew up outside of Chicago in a

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town called Urbana-Champaign.

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And I grew up in Urbana.

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And my relatives came from

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the south in Mississippi

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because they wanted to get

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away from the oppression.

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And a lot of people who was

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from Mississippi actually

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came from the South to the

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big cities because there

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was jobs and opportunities,

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and it was part of the new

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industrial revolution and mechanism.

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And so my people came, I'm sure,

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from the cause of it.

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People remember the great

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Mississippi flood of 1927,

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where they flooded,

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opened up the government,

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opened up the levees,

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and it flooded the black lands,

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and they were all kept in camps

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while their land was flooded.

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And so people said,

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why should I stay here and

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deal with no job?

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My land is flooded.

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Everything is gone.

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We're going to go and migrate.

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And so there was a great

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migration of blacks from

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Mississippi to places like

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Detroit and Chicago and Miami.

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parents and grandparents

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migrated that way.

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And, you know, they actually, you know,

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when they found a job,

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when somebody in the family found a job,

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they said, okay, Joe,

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you come here and then we can,

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you can get a job and we

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can all live together.

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And then you bring your family on.

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And so I come from a background of, of,

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of,

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people who my

00:08:56.788 --> 00:08:58.469
great-great-grandmother was

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educated on the plantation

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so that she can teach the

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Black kids and the white

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kids on the plantation.

00:09:05.774 --> 00:09:07.414
So she went to teacher's college.

00:09:07.936 --> 00:09:09.216
But when she came to the North,

00:09:09.255 --> 00:09:10.336
they wouldn't let her use

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that education there.

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And so education has always

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been a part of my family.

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And so my family on my mother's side,

00:09:18.903 --> 00:09:20.082
which was a Townsend,

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was relatives of Fannie Lou

00:09:23.004 --> 00:09:24.066
Hamer Townsend.

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So there's always been

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activism and education in my family.

00:09:29.451 --> 00:09:32.692
And so when we move with our uncle,

00:09:33.913 --> 00:09:36.754
great uncle from the North, you know,

00:09:36.794 --> 00:09:38.235
we settled in,

00:09:38.355 --> 00:09:39.515
he settled in Chicago and

00:09:39.556 --> 00:09:42.357
we moved down to Urbana.

00:09:42.677 --> 00:09:48.120
And so my parents was married and they had,

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they was working for

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the laundry and everything else.

00:09:53.224 --> 00:09:54.845
And then when the great

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change came of civil rights and stuff,

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then they got better jobs

00:10:00.470 --> 00:10:01.730
in working for the

00:10:01.831 --> 00:10:04.293
university and also General Motors,

00:10:04.312 --> 00:10:05.573
which was a union job.

00:10:06.174 --> 00:10:09.697
And so at that time when I was growing up,

00:10:11.418 --> 00:10:13.058
you know, they have projects.

00:10:13.139 --> 00:10:13.999
If people don't all

00:10:14.038 --> 00:10:15.538
California know about projects,

00:10:15.899 --> 00:10:17.000
they have projects there.

00:10:17.399 --> 00:10:19.240
And so we all started living

00:10:19.279 --> 00:10:19.860
in the project,

00:10:19.899 --> 00:10:21.020
but eventually because of

00:10:21.541 --> 00:10:24.260
the changes in the civil rights movement,

00:10:24.902 --> 00:10:26.802
we were able to purchase a

00:10:26.881 --> 00:10:29.482
home in the first black

00:10:29.602 --> 00:10:31.722
subdivision in Urbana,

00:10:32.143 --> 00:10:33.543
which they never offered

00:10:33.583 --> 00:10:34.384
before because of

00:10:34.443 --> 00:10:36.484
discrimination and redlining.

00:10:37.085 --> 00:10:38.585
And so my mother,

00:10:39.365 --> 00:10:43.168
was always a spirited activist for change,

00:10:43.509 --> 00:10:44.791
even at a young age and

00:10:44.831 --> 00:10:45.792
everything else when she

00:10:46.231 --> 00:10:48.573
migrated from Mississippi.

00:10:49.355 --> 00:10:53.099
And so she and the people

00:10:53.158 --> 00:10:58.043
from Ellis Drive knew that

00:10:58.840 --> 00:10:59.880
there was something wrong

00:11:00.600 --> 00:11:04.962
when kids couldn't go to

00:11:05.222 --> 00:11:06.443
other kids' schools of

00:11:06.484 --> 00:11:07.903
different races and everything else.

00:11:08.264 --> 00:11:11.326
So they fought, the Ellis Drive Six,

00:11:11.686 --> 00:11:12.326
I think it was,

00:11:12.366 --> 00:11:15.427
they fought to desegregate

00:11:15.467 --> 00:11:16.349
the school districts.

00:11:16.828 --> 00:11:18.068
There was no other school

00:11:18.129 --> 00:11:18.909
district that was

00:11:20.490 --> 00:11:22.731
desegregated in the state of Illinois,

00:11:23.152 --> 00:11:24.692
and they fought together

00:11:25.491 --> 00:11:28.192
to desegregate the school district,

00:11:28.653 --> 00:11:30.854
which was unheard of then.

00:11:31.173 --> 00:11:33.653
So that was the first school

00:11:33.693 --> 00:11:35.095
district in the state of

00:11:35.174 --> 00:11:38.655
Illinois that was desegregated in 1966.

00:11:38.655 --> 00:11:40.076
And later on, two years later,

00:11:40.456 --> 00:11:41.817
my mother ran for the

00:11:41.856 --> 00:11:42.756
school board and was the

00:11:42.797 --> 00:11:44.197
first Black lady elected to

00:11:44.217 --> 00:11:47.119
the school board in Urbana.

00:11:47.639 --> 00:11:49.359
And that's where I get my

00:11:49.538 --> 00:11:51.779
activism from because of the fact

00:11:52.562 --> 00:11:55.124
yeah okay and um uh just for

00:11:55.163 --> 00:11:56.224
all you guys who are just

00:11:56.264 --> 00:11:58.245
coming in uh we are here

00:11:58.465 --> 00:12:00.164
today with ted burnett who

00:12:00.264 --> 00:12:03.265
is uh vp of the naacp

00:12:03.306 --> 00:12:06.226
pomona uh valley area and

00:12:06.246 --> 00:12:08.447
uh board directors excuse

00:12:08.486 --> 00:12:09.427
me of the poor people's

00:12:09.447 --> 00:12:10.748
campaign for the england

00:12:10.768 --> 00:12:11.868
empire and he's telling us

00:12:11.888 --> 00:12:14.089
a little bit about his life story and

00:12:16.044 --> 00:12:16.326
Ted,

00:12:16.385 --> 00:12:18.788
did you always know that you wanted to

00:12:19.067 --> 00:12:20.289
be into activism?

00:12:20.909 --> 00:12:22.312
Or do you remember when you're like,

00:12:22.351 --> 00:12:22.772
you know what,

00:12:22.831 --> 00:12:24.573
I really want to get into activism?

00:12:24.594 --> 00:12:25.575
Do you know when that hit you?

00:12:26.254 --> 00:12:26.495
Well,

00:12:26.916 --> 00:12:30.278
it hit me when they start busing us

00:12:30.320 --> 00:12:31.421
to the white schools.

00:12:32.381 --> 00:12:34.583
And when we got to the schools,

00:12:36.251 --> 00:12:38.773
it was angry white parents

00:12:38.874 --> 00:12:39.714
outside the school

00:12:39.793 --> 00:12:42.014
protesting and everything else like that.

00:12:42.075 --> 00:12:43.696
And I was always wondering

00:12:43.775 --> 00:12:45.277
why are they so mean and

00:12:45.317 --> 00:12:50.100
why are they so forceful in

00:12:51.120 --> 00:12:52.360
not wanting us there?

00:12:53.302 --> 00:12:58.485
And so my mom always talked

00:12:58.504 --> 00:13:00.905
to us about the Civil Rights Movement.

00:13:00.985 --> 00:13:02.586
And growing up when

00:13:03.708 --> 00:13:07.191
Bobby Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X,

00:13:07.591 --> 00:13:09.932
Martin Luther King, H. Rap Brown.

00:13:10.292 --> 00:13:12.734
I grew up in that era that I

00:13:12.874 --> 00:13:15.634
saw them on TV and heard of them.

00:13:16.115 --> 00:13:17.635
So it wasn't something that

00:13:17.676 --> 00:13:19.057
I read out of history books.

00:13:19.376 --> 00:13:20.837
It was something that I lived.

00:13:21.477 --> 00:13:23.458
And so what year was it when

00:13:23.499 --> 00:13:24.580
you were being bused to

00:13:24.620 --> 00:13:25.419
these white schools?

00:13:25.460 --> 00:13:27.541
What year is this?

00:13:27.561 --> 00:13:27.541
1966.

00:13:28.020 --> 00:13:30.261
I know I look young and

00:13:30.562 --> 00:13:31.962
everything else like that, but yes,

00:13:31.982 --> 00:13:34.571
it was 1966.

00:13:34.571 --> 00:13:35.152
Got you.

00:13:35.172 --> 00:13:35.451
Okay.

00:13:35.731 --> 00:13:36.011
Okay.

00:13:36.393 --> 00:13:38.875
You know, I found out recently,

00:13:38.914 --> 00:13:40.015
and I think it's probably

00:13:40.035 --> 00:13:41.096
the way that history books was,

00:13:41.136 --> 00:13:44.320
but like integration was

00:13:44.559 --> 00:13:45.881
kind of like mandatory.

00:13:45.902 --> 00:13:46.883
It wasn't a choice.

00:13:47.243 --> 00:13:47.822
Am I correct?

00:13:48.344 --> 00:13:48.703
Right.

00:13:49.105 --> 00:13:52.687
Once the Brown versus Board

00:13:52.727 --> 00:13:54.529
of Education of Topeka, Kansas...

00:13:55.169 --> 00:13:56.892
and got passed in Thurgood

00:13:56.932 --> 00:13:58.513
Marshall and on the Supreme Court.

00:13:59.133 --> 00:14:00.134
He was the one who worked

00:14:00.153 --> 00:14:02.056
for the NAACP that helped

00:14:02.096 --> 00:14:03.996
put who was the leading

00:14:04.357 --> 00:14:05.999
lawyer on that case.

00:14:06.318 --> 00:14:07.340
And once that happened,

00:14:07.720 --> 00:14:10.121
then the attorney general

00:14:10.142 --> 00:14:10.942
of the United States

00:14:11.423 --> 00:14:12.744
started rolling over saying

00:14:13.105 --> 00:14:14.466
people need to start

00:14:14.586 --> 00:14:15.386
integrating the schools,

00:14:15.447 --> 00:14:17.269
but people fought it and said,

00:14:17.889 --> 00:14:18.529
we don't care.

00:14:18.909 --> 00:14:21.572
We're going to stay with what we are.

00:14:21.932 --> 00:14:24.155
So when my mother and a

00:14:24.475 --> 00:14:26.817
group of other parents fought it,

00:14:28.019 --> 00:14:29.019
fought it because there was

00:14:29.059 --> 00:14:29.961
a study done at the

00:14:30.041 --> 00:14:31.142
University of Illinois that

00:14:31.182 --> 00:14:33.443
said that kids, people of color,

00:14:33.764 --> 00:14:35.066
kids do better when they're

00:14:35.086 --> 00:14:36.447
around a different environment.

00:14:37.067 --> 00:14:40.149
And so that's when they went

00:14:40.350 --> 00:14:41.331
and took it to the school

00:14:41.370 --> 00:14:42.572
board and got it passed.

00:14:42.852 --> 00:14:45.294
But it was a lot of opposition to it.

00:14:46.513 --> 00:14:46.852
Got you.

00:14:46.952 --> 00:14:49.114
And what grade were you in in 66?

00:14:49.974 --> 00:14:51.894
I think I was six years old.

00:14:52.333 --> 00:14:54.695
And then once they figured

00:14:54.774 --> 00:14:56.554
out where the kids were

00:14:56.615 --> 00:14:58.095
going to go and everything else,

00:14:58.434 --> 00:15:01.615
that next year in 67 is

00:15:01.676 --> 00:15:05.476
when I got bused to Yankee Ridge School,

00:15:05.557 --> 00:15:06.976
which was a magnet school

00:15:07.376 --> 00:15:11.398
for all the professors and rich people.

00:15:11.957 --> 00:15:14.320
So I'm thankful that they

00:15:14.399 --> 00:15:17.322
picked me to go to that

00:15:17.361 --> 00:15:18.643
school district because I

00:15:18.663 --> 00:15:21.524
learned so much about many

00:15:21.585 --> 00:15:23.726
cultures because my friends was like,

00:15:24.187 --> 00:15:25.528
and this is how I remember it.

00:15:25.927 --> 00:15:26.989
I had a friend named

00:15:27.028 --> 00:15:28.909
Fernando Gonzalez who was

00:15:28.929 --> 00:15:30.051
from South America.

00:15:30.071 --> 00:15:32.472
I had Kaya and Kenny connect

00:15:32.793 --> 00:15:34.774
who was from Russia.

00:15:35.274 --> 00:15:36.196
I had, um,

00:15:36.975 --> 00:15:37.876
Darren Ewellen,

00:15:37.957 --> 00:15:40.440
who his father was a Jesuit priest.

00:15:40.841 --> 00:15:42.462
I had Charles Goodloe,

00:15:42.763 --> 00:15:44.544
whose father was a diplomat

00:15:44.565 --> 00:15:45.765
from South Africa.

00:15:46.167 --> 00:15:48.068
And so all these people that

00:15:48.129 --> 00:15:48.889
I grew up with

00:15:50.022 --> 00:15:54.384
opened up to me and I spent

00:15:54.423 --> 00:15:56.485
a lot of time on my weekends.

00:15:56.565 --> 00:15:57.946
I never stayed home because

00:15:58.285 --> 00:15:59.245
it was some of them,

00:15:59.667 --> 00:16:01.106
their first experiences

00:16:01.427 --> 00:16:02.567
having a Black friend.

00:16:02.607 --> 00:16:04.308
So I stayed over their house

00:16:04.548 --> 00:16:05.849
every weekend.

00:16:06.789 --> 00:16:07.750
For the first year,

00:16:07.929 --> 00:16:09.150
I was always in their

00:16:09.191 --> 00:16:09.990
neighborhood at their

00:16:10.030 --> 00:16:11.072
friend's house and

00:16:11.131 --> 00:16:12.172
everything else like that.

00:16:12.631 --> 00:16:13.773
So it was a

00:16:14.332 --> 00:16:15.533
It was an experience for me

00:16:15.614 --> 00:16:17.134
to see people from all

00:16:17.195 --> 00:16:18.134
different cultures and

00:16:18.274 --> 00:16:19.916
walks of life and not to be

00:16:20.035 --> 00:16:22.297
intimidated by anyone

00:16:22.736 --> 00:16:23.638
because I was on the... I

00:16:23.658 --> 00:16:26.058
had to understand that my

00:16:26.099 --> 00:16:27.259
mother instilled in me that

00:16:27.600 --> 00:16:30.780
I was from the same background as them.

00:16:30.801 --> 00:16:33.342
It's just their education was different.

00:16:33.602 --> 00:16:36.384
And so I excelled in the

00:16:36.504 --> 00:16:37.924
accelerated classes and

00:16:38.284 --> 00:16:39.265
everything else like that.

00:16:39.346 --> 00:16:40.505
And so it was...

00:16:41.826 --> 00:16:44.932
It was quite an experience, you know,

00:16:45.231 --> 00:16:48.378
considering during the 60s,

00:16:48.398 --> 00:16:51.462
not everybody was cool with

00:16:51.523 --> 00:16:52.465
it or kosher with it.

00:16:53.120 --> 00:16:53.379
Yeah,

00:16:53.500 --> 00:16:55.640
and so I guess there was a benefit to

00:16:55.660 --> 00:16:57.880
the integration going to school.

00:16:57.961 --> 00:16:58.802
You met more people,

00:16:58.841 --> 00:17:01.743
you got more culturally involved, right?

00:17:01.802 --> 00:17:03.923
And I wasn't intimidated by

00:17:04.403 --> 00:17:05.624
white people or anything

00:17:05.683 --> 00:17:06.784
else because there were

00:17:06.804 --> 00:17:09.025
some people at that time who thought, oh,

00:17:09.085 --> 00:17:10.625
well, you know, back then,

00:17:12.625 --> 00:17:13.605
If in the South,

00:17:13.906 --> 00:17:15.606
you didn't look a white person in the eye,

00:17:15.646 --> 00:17:16.847
you had a separate drinking

00:17:16.907 --> 00:17:18.847
fountain and everything else like that.

00:17:18.948 --> 00:17:21.949
And so it was like a

00:17:22.069 --> 00:17:24.269
separate but equal type of situation.

00:17:24.329 --> 00:17:25.070
Yeah, yeah.

00:17:26.250 --> 00:17:27.531
But the good thing, like you were saying,

00:17:27.551 --> 00:17:29.192
was that you were able to

00:17:29.231 --> 00:17:30.393
learn more about cultures

00:17:30.432 --> 00:17:31.712
and other people by doing it.

00:17:32.272 --> 00:17:33.673
You know, so what...

00:17:34.554 --> 00:17:35.915
So you said your first

00:17:36.557 --> 00:17:37.898
influence of being an

00:17:37.999 --> 00:17:39.862
activist was during 66, 67.

00:17:39.862 --> 00:17:41.944
So what was your first move

00:17:42.085 --> 00:17:43.446
actually towards activism,

00:17:44.067 --> 00:17:44.888
like physical move?

00:17:44.909 --> 00:17:46.351
Do you remember that era, that year,

00:17:46.550 --> 00:17:47.011
what you did?

00:17:47.593 --> 00:17:47.913
Yes.

00:17:47.952 --> 00:17:49.095
So my mother

00:17:51.885 --> 00:17:53.586
decided to run for school board.

00:17:54.127 --> 00:17:56.209
And we got a lot of threats

00:17:56.229 --> 00:17:57.130
and everything else.

00:17:57.269 --> 00:17:58.550
And she sat down and

00:17:58.590 --> 00:17:59.771
explained to us that we

00:18:00.332 --> 00:18:01.553
need to do activism.

00:18:01.952 --> 00:18:05.175
And so my first level

00:18:05.316 --> 00:18:06.696
activism is that my parents

00:18:06.737 --> 00:18:08.458
had an organization where

00:18:08.478 --> 00:18:09.558
they brought people from

00:18:09.638 --> 00:18:12.641
different left leaning

00:18:13.080 --> 00:18:15.422
liberals and Jewish

00:18:15.461 --> 00:18:16.622
community groups and the

00:18:16.682 --> 00:18:17.863
blacks all got together.

00:18:18.583 --> 00:18:23.064
We started working with

00:18:23.104 --> 00:18:24.944
their programs to try to

00:18:25.005 --> 00:18:26.005
let everybody else

00:18:26.105 --> 00:18:27.385
understand that integration

00:18:27.425 --> 00:18:29.246
was good and desegregation

00:18:29.286 --> 00:18:31.826
was good and that if we work together,

00:18:33.527 --> 00:18:36.367
we would be able to accomplish more.

00:18:36.667 --> 00:18:39.669
So that was my first taste

00:18:39.729 --> 00:18:41.229
of that picketing and

00:18:41.308 --> 00:18:42.410
everything else like that.

00:18:42.450 --> 00:18:45.609
Because when I was with my parents,

00:18:45.990 --> 00:18:46.891
they was out there picking

00:18:46.931 --> 00:18:48.111
and they brought us along.

00:18:48.471 --> 00:18:49.411
So it's something that we

00:18:49.451 --> 00:18:51.211
learned at a very young age.

00:18:51.271 --> 00:18:53.152
And then in 1968,

00:18:53.152 --> 00:18:54.813
when my mother ran for school board,

00:18:55.633 --> 00:18:56.212
And one,

00:18:56.972 --> 00:19:00.673
we did all her campaign and

00:19:00.733 --> 00:19:01.954
passing out flyers,

00:19:02.394 --> 00:19:03.595
going to meetings and

00:19:03.654 --> 00:19:04.355
everything else and

00:19:04.414 --> 00:19:06.256
educating the community so

00:19:06.296 --> 00:19:07.915
that she could win.

00:19:08.457 --> 00:19:10.416
And she was first black lady

00:19:10.797 --> 00:19:13.018
elected to the school board at that time.

00:19:13.637 --> 00:19:15.380
And so it was at a very

00:19:15.420 --> 00:19:18.282
young age that I was involved with that.

00:19:18.423 --> 00:19:19.182
And then at,

00:19:20.163 --> 00:19:21.965
I think she won like four terms.

00:19:22.386 --> 00:19:25.209
So at age, I think 15,

00:19:25.209 --> 00:19:26.871
I was helped running their

00:19:26.911 --> 00:19:28.833
campaign to run for office.

00:19:30.798 --> 00:19:31.058
You know,

00:19:31.078 --> 00:19:32.319
and that's so cool that she had

00:19:32.339 --> 00:19:33.660
you active and moving.

00:19:33.680 --> 00:19:37.682
I can tell your mother was a

00:19:37.843 --> 00:19:39.022
really big influence on

00:19:39.063 --> 00:19:40.443
your life and things like that.

00:19:41.023 --> 00:19:41.223
You know,

00:19:41.243 --> 00:19:42.785
and I wanted to mention something because,

00:19:43.665 --> 00:19:43.965
you know,

00:19:44.445 --> 00:19:45.886
I wasn't born in that era of the

00:19:45.926 --> 00:19:46.807
civil rights movement and

00:19:46.846 --> 00:19:47.587
stuff like that.

00:19:47.667 --> 00:19:49.028
But I remember talking to a

00:19:49.067 --> 00:19:50.249
friend's mom of mine who

00:19:50.269 --> 00:19:51.430
was from the South, Memphis.

00:19:52.089 --> 00:19:53.990
And she said that at the time,

00:19:54.111 --> 00:19:55.592
Martin Luther King seemed

00:19:55.612 --> 00:19:57.393
like a troublemaker because he was,

00:19:57.913 --> 00:19:59.294
you know, trying to change things.

00:20:00.301 --> 00:20:01.262
And it was just a whole

00:20:01.282 --> 00:20:02.203
different perspective that

00:20:02.223 --> 00:20:04.125
I never realized that some

00:20:04.164 --> 00:20:04.786
people were just like

00:20:04.965 --> 00:20:06.227
comfortable how life was

00:20:06.567 --> 00:20:08.788
and Martin Luther King among, you know,

00:20:09.309 --> 00:20:10.590
but he was saying like Martin Luther King,

00:20:11.231 --> 00:20:12.071
we didn't like him because

00:20:12.112 --> 00:20:13.333
he was trying to change things.

00:20:14.855 --> 00:20:17.277
Was that like a common thought process?

00:20:18.077 --> 00:20:19.518
There was a common theme

00:20:19.597 --> 00:20:21.499
around people because they

00:20:21.519 --> 00:20:22.459
were comfortable in the

00:20:22.499 --> 00:20:23.778
situation that they're in.

00:20:23.838 --> 00:20:24.479
And they said, hey,

00:20:24.798 --> 00:20:26.298
the white folks treat us good.

00:20:26.338 --> 00:20:28.299
Let's not rock the boat.

00:20:28.599 --> 00:20:30.279
But understand that his

00:20:31.240 --> 00:20:32.681
people should read letters

00:20:32.740 --> 00:20:34.740
from a Birmingham jail that he wrote.

00:20:35.480 --> 00:20:38.662
And he wrote that in saying that, hold on,

00:20:39.541 --> 00:20:40.862
the preachers and the

00:20:40.902 --> 00:20:42.882
community invited me here.

00:20:43.682 --> 00:20:47.123
Now you fighting to want me to leave.

00:20:47.855 --> 00:20:49.537
That's not the concept of

00:20:50.218 --> 00:20:52.259
being able to bring people together.

00:20:52.939 --> 00:20:55.121
And so there was a lot of

00:20:55.161 --> 00:20:57.721
resistance for him to go

00:20:57.761 --> 00:20:59.604
into some black communities

00:21:00.983 --> 00:21:02.125
and be able to fight it,

00:21:02.184 --> 00:21:03.566
because then that means

00:21:03.885 --> 00:21:04.626
they thought that the

00:21:04.686 --> 00:21:06.208
oppression would get worse

00:21:06.567 --> 00:21:07.769
because he's there when

00:21:08.578 --> 00:21:10.101
revolution that he was

00:21:10.161 --> 00:21:12.963
bringing and change actually helped it.

00:21:13.003 --> 00:21:14.365
So I understand what you

00:21:14.385 --> 00:21:15.166
mean about Memphis.

00:21:15.186 --> 00:21:16.228
Cause my grandparents from

00:21:16.307 --> 00:21:18.130
Memphis and they didn't play that down,

00:21:18.711 --> 00:21:19.391
down South.

00:21:19.852 --> 00:21:21.133
It was really bad down there.

00:21:21.433 --> 00:21:24.978
Even when he came to in the early sixties,

00:21:25.057 --> 00:21:26.759
came to Chicago and,

00:21:27.566 --> 00:21:30.707
And they pelted him with

00:21:30.787 --> 00:21:32.748
rocks and everything else

00:21:32.788 --> 00:21:34.669
when he went to the park in

00:21:34.709 --> 00:21:35.548
a Jewish neighborhood.

00:21:35.930 --> 00:21:38.810
But he said that he actually

00:21:38.830 --> 00:21:41.612
made a quote that the

00:21:41.731 --> 00:21:45.353
sweltering racism is worse

00:21:46.034 --> 00:21:48.295
in Chicago than it was down south.

00:21:50.193 --> 00:21:52.156
So that was a movement where

00:21:52.196 --> 00:21:53.198
people were scared and

00:21:53.238 --> 00:21:54.859
wanted to keep things going

00:21:54.900 --> 00:21:56.201
the same way and said, hey,

00:21:56.241 --> 00:21:57.042
don't come here.

00:21:59.509 --> 00:22:01.750
So that's correct that that

00:22:01.770 --> 00:22:03.231
was some parts of movement.

00:22:03.251 --> 00:22:06.154
But for the people who wanted real change,

00:22:06.714 --> 00:22:08.997
they welcomed Dr. King and

00:22:09.037 --> 00:22:10.417
his message and Ralph

00:22:10.498 --> 00:22:12.420
Abernathy and the Southern

00:22:12.460 --> 00:22:13.320
Christian Leadership

00:22:13.381 --> 00:22:14.721
Council and many other

00:22:14.761 --> 00:22:17.544
groups to be able to form a

00:22:17.683 --> 00:22:18.865
movement to be able to

00:22:18.944 --> 00:22:20.326
bring it for everybody.

00:22:20.386 --> 00:22:21.468
And see, when people...

00:22:22.268 --> 00:22:24.109
need to understand that not

00:22:24.230 --> 00:22:25.692
only did Blacks benefit

00:22:25.731 --> 00:22:26.792
from the civil rights,

00:22:27.253 --> 00:22:29.557
if it wasn't for Dr. King

00:22:30.096 --> 00:22:33.340
and the civil rights movement,

00:22:33.681 --> 00:22:36.443
there would never been the

00:22:36.984 --> 00:22:38.086
Immigration Act of 1965,

00:22:38.086 --> 00:22:38.886
where they brought

00:22:41.986 --> 00:22:43.906
they were able to bring more

00:22:44.826 --> 00:22:46.327
people from South America

00:22:46.347 --> 00:22:48.009
and Central America and

00:22:48.209 --> 00:22:50.028
Arab people and gays and

00:22:50.068 --> 00:22:51.730
lesbians into this country.

00:22:52.130 --> 00:22:53.310
Because previously,

00:22:53.750 --> 00:22:57.772
the immigration system was

00:22:58.192 --> 00:23:00.173
so racist and bigoted with

00:23:00.193 --> 00:23:01.673
structural systemic racism,

00:23:01.953 --> 00:23:02.894
they didn't allow those

00:23:02.954 --> 00:23:04.194
people of color to come in.

00:23:04.474 --> 00:23:05.715
But once he worked with

00:23:06.508 --> 00:23:08.632
to bring that in and pass that,

00:23:08.992 --> 00:23:10.295
that's when a lot of people

00:23:10.355 --> 00:23:11.616
were able to come into the

00:23:11.676 --> 00:23:13.039
country from different

00:23:13.079 --> 00:23:14.342
races and different colors

00:23:14.702 --> 00:23:16.967
and across Europe and the Middle East.

00:23:18.682 --> 00:23:18.982
Wow.

00:23:19.363 --> 00:23:19.542
Wow.

00:23:19.563 --> 00:23:20.284
And it's so true.

00:23:21.084 --> 00:23:23.404
And folks, if you guys are just tuning in,

00:23:23.505 --> 00:23:24.565
we're sitting down talking

00:23:24.605 --> 00:23:25.464
with Ted Burnett,

00:23:25.984 --> 00:23:28.766
who is VP of the Poor People's Campaign.

00:23:28.786 --> 00:23:30.487
I'm sorry,

00:23:30.527 --> 00:23:34.028
VP of the NAACP version division

00:23:34.167 --> 00:23:35.548
in Pomona and on the board

00:23:35.568 --> 00:23:36.368
of directors for

00:23:37.309 --> 00:23:38.631
the Poor People's Campaign,

00:23:38.692 --> 00:23:39.592
and many other things.

00:23:40.053 --> 00:23:41.634
And if you guys are watching the video,

00:23:41.714 --> 00:23:42.535
please like the video.

00:23:42.596 --> 00:23:43.355
It helps us a lot.

00:23:43.537 --> 00:23:44.798
Subscribe to the channel if you haven't.

00:23:45.438 --> 00:23:46.799
We do a lot of great work out here,

00:23:46.900 --> 00:23:48.121
so we appreciate everybody here.

00:23:48.141 --> 00:23:49.342
If you guys can hear us,

00:23:49.403 --> 00:23:50.564
type a one in the chat,

00:23:50.683 --> 00:23:51.464
anything like that.

00:23:52.806 --> 00:23:53.487
But yeah, Ted,

00:23:54.027 --> 00:23:55.288
I love for you sharing that with us.

00:23:55.769 --> 00:23:58.172
And I kind of want to move forward with...

00:23:58.771 --> 00:24:00.792
you being on the board of

00:24:00.833 --> 00:24:02.633
directors of the Poor People's Campaign.

00:24:02.673 --> 00:24:05.034
Can you tell us what is the

00:24:05.074 --> 00:24:06.074
Poor People's Campaign for

00:24:06.094 --> 00:24:07.414
people who might not know what that is?

00:24:08.674 --> 00:24:09.934
The Poor People's Campaign

00:24:09.994 --> 00:24:11.976
first started out of ideas

00:24:12.076 --> 00:24:14.016
of mobilizing people across

00:24:14.036 --> 00:24:16.517
the United States to fight

00:24:16.636 --> 00:24:19.837
for poor and low-income people.

00:24:19.857 --> 00:24:21.419
That actually started in

00:24:21.419 --> 00:24:23.199
1967 and they had a march on Washington.

00:24:26.938 --> 00:24:30.000
And so all the different

00:24:30.099 --> 00:24:31.539
organizations was making up

00:24:31.660 --> 00:24:34.102
pilgrimages to make a march

00:24:34.201 --> 00:24:34.922
on Washington.

00:24:35.402 --> 00:24:36.343
And Dr. King,

00:24:36.942 --> 00:24:38.983
weeks before the Poor People

00:24:39.023 --> 00:24:45.688
Campaign that started in 1967 and 68,

00:24:45.688 --> 00:24:47.607
he went and made a stopover

00:24:47.709 --> 00:24:48.788
in Memphis because of the

00:24:48.828 --> 00:24:50.509
garbage workers strike.

00:24:50.890 --> 00:24:53.832
And so they were dealing

00:24:53.872 --> 00:24:56.333
with the unions there in the city.

00:24:58.101 --> 00:25:01.801
And so some garbage workers

00:25:01.842 --> 00:25:05.223
had got crushed in garbage.

00:25:05.243 --> 00:25:06.003
If you know about the

00:25:06.064 --> 00:25:08.404
hydraulics from the old garbage trucks,

00:25:09.404 --> 00:25:11.185
they had malfunctioned and

00:25:11.685 --> 00:25:16.007
a couple of black union

00:25:16.047 --> 00:25:18.488
members got killed and crushed.

00:25:18.867 --> 00:25:21.568
And so he went to Memphis to try to fight

00:25:22.332 --> 00:25:25.693
for not only for safety, economic justice,

00:25:25.973 --> 00:25:26.934
and independence,

00:25:27.355 --> 00:25:29.076
but he wanted to help them out.

00:25:29.676 --> 00:25:31.817
And that's when he got assassinated.

00:25:32.518 --> 00:25:36.381
And so instead of letting the movement die

00:25:37.090 --> 00:25:40.792
with Dr. King, Reverend Abernathy,

00:25:41.634 --> 00:25:42.994
and the pilgrimage of

00:25:43.414 --> 00:25:44.596
different people around the

00:25:44.935 --> 00:25:46.797
United States still had the

00:25:46.876 --> 00:25:48.979
march on Washington.

00:25:49.138 --> 00:25:51.621
And they spent six weeks in

00:25:52.500 --> 00:25:55.041
Washington to protest the

00:25:55.102 --> 00:25:58.183
plight of the poor, demilitarization,

00:25:58.263 --> 00:25:59.865
health care, poverty,

00:25:59.944 --> 00:26:01.026
and everything else like that.

00:26:01.346 --> 00:26:02.766
And they spent six weeks there.

00:26:03.207 --> 00:26:04.406
They were there so long and

00:26:04.446 --> 00:26:05.708
so many people wanted to

00:26:06.307 --> 00:26:09.130
help them out that the post

00:26:09.309 --> 00:26:13.011
office gave them their own zip code,

00:26:13.011 --> 00:26:16.058
20013.

00:26:16.058 --> 00:26:19.942
And so after they spent six

00:26:20.021 --> 00:26:25.066
weeks at the Capitol,

00:26:27.247 --> 00:26:30.169
things dissipated with the

00:26:30.229 --> 00:26:31.309
Poor People Campaign.

00:26:31.710 --> 00:26:33.451
And so it was revitalized

00:26:34.491 --> 00:26:36.093
almost like in 2016, 2017 by Dr.

00:26:41.815 --> 00:26:43.935
William Barber, Bishop Barber,

00:26:44.195 --> 00:26:46.597
and Pastor Liz Theoharis.

00:26:47.137 --> 00:26:49.499
And the same concepts that

00:26:50.880 --> 00:26:53.300
Dr. King did with the Poor

00:26:53.340 --> 00:26:55.883
People's Campaign are now

00:26:55.942 --> 00:26:57.584
the pillars of what

00:26:59.807 --> 00:27:00.827
is going on today.

00:27:01.268 --> 00:27:02.669
And the thing is,

00:27:03.009 --> 00:27:05.951
the same characteristics of poverty,

00:27:06.730 --> 00:27:10.712
demilitarization, health care, wages,

00:27:11.032 --> 00:27:15.115
affordable wages, homophobic, xenophobia,

00:27:15.635 --> 00:27:16.836
dog whistle politics,

00:27:17.237 --> 00:27:18.297
the same thing that they

00:27:18.336 --> 00:27:19.478
were fighting for then

00:27:19.478 --> 00:27:22.977
56 years later,

00:27:23.436 --> 00:27:25.137
we're fighting for the same thing.

00:27:25.337 --> 00:27:25.919
And that was the

00:27:25.959 --> 00:27:27.759
revitalization of the Poor

00:27:27.799 --> 00:27:29.641
People's Campaign that got

00:27:29.701 --> 00:27:31.142
us where we are today.

00:27:31.261 --> 00:27:32.803
And actually,

00:27:32.863 --> 00:27:35.384
I think we started the

00:27:35.484 --> 00:27:37.415
California movement like in 2017,

00:27:37.415 --> 00:27:38.047
2018 out of LA.

00:27:42.289 --> 00:27:43.511
Okay.

00:27:43.832 --> 00:27:45.513
So basically still fighting

00:27:45.534 --> 00:27:47.237
for the same thing over 50 years ago.

00:27:48.137 --> 00:27:48.959
That's unfortunate.

00:27:49.400 --> 00:27:50.361
What's some of the biggest

00:27:50.461 --> 00:27:51.762
things that are on the

00:27:51.823 --> 00:27:53.265
agenda for the Poor

00:27:53.285 --> 00:27:54.507
People's Campaign to attack?

00:27:55.567 --> 00:27:55.728
There's 140

00:28:00.378 --> 00:28:03.819
Poor people and low-income

00:28:03.859 --> 00:28:05.681
people in the United States

00:28:05.740 --> 00:28:07.281
for every walk of life and

00:28:07.321 --> 00:28:10.843
for every faith, religion, Black, white,

00:28:11.143 --> 00:28:11.883
Latino,

00:28:13.344 --> 00:28:15.444
poor whites in the Appalachian Mountains,

00:28:16.345 --> 00:28:17.625
Lookout Mountain, Tennessee,

00:28:17.986 --> 00:28:20.606
poverty is the main course

00:28:21.207 --> 00:28:22.387
and that we're one of the

00:28:22.468 --> 00:28:23.650
richest nations in the

00:28:23.710 --> 00:28:25.811
world and we have 140

00:28:25.811 --> 00:28:27.413
million poor and low-income

00:28:27.472 --> 00:28:30.395
people who live there.

00:28:30.695 --> 00:28:33.578
We demand that the politics

00:28:33.638 --> 00:28:35.740
and the policies that oppress people,

00:28:36.553 --> 00:28:38.114
through laws and legislation,

00:28:38.654 --> 00:28:39.935
prioritize the poor.

00:28:40.655 --> 00:28:44.558
And we're also pushing for a minimum wage.

00:28:45.140 --> 00:28:48.781
And so in other states, minimum wages,

00:28:48.801 --> 00:28:51.964
we're pushing for at least $15 an hour.

00:28:52.244 --> 00:28:53.306
But a lot of the southern

00:28:53.365 --> 00:28:55.887
states that have slaves

00:28:56.347 --> 00:29:00.030
still only make $7.25 an hour,

00:29:00.490 --> 00:29:02.492
which is the federal minimum wage.

00:29:03.217 --> 00:29:04.417
And in 2008 and 2009,

00:29:04.417 --> 00:29:08.442
the federal minimum wage was $6.55.

00:29:08.442 --> 00:29:10.663
So it only went up from $6.55 to $7.25.

00:29:12.085 --> 00:29:13.567
So it's hard for people to

00:29:13.606 --> 00:29:14.827
be able to pay their rent,

00:29:15.648 --> 00:29:16.710
take care of their children,

00:29:17.309 --> 00:29:18.371
provide and have health

00:29:18.431 --> 00:29:21.054
care without working two and a half jobs.

00:29:21.727 --> 00:29:23.528
Yeah, I actually think the minimum wage,

00:29:23.568 --> 00:29:23.909
I think,

00:29:23.929 --> 00:29:25.349
in the state of California is now

00:29:25.349 --> 00:29:26.290
$20 an hour.

00:29:26.730 --> 00:29:27.872
Yes.

00:29:28.311 --> 00:29:31.595
If you have 60 or more fast

00:29:31.654 --> 00:29:32.496
food restaurants,

00:29:32.556 --> 00:29:33.936
then it goes to the effect.

00:29:33.997 --> 00:29:35.377
But if it's less than that,

00:29:35.438 --> 00:29:38.580
then it merges up after a

00:29:38.740 --> 00:29:40.342
couple of years to reach

00:29:40.382 --> 00:29:41.262
that $20 an hour.

00:29:41.282 --> 00:29:41.723
Got you.

00:29:42.263 --> 00:29:43.464
So what's your idea?

00:29:43.545 --> 00:29:45.346
Because what happened is that

00:29:46.146 --> 00:29:46.807
A lot of people have been

00:29:46.847 --> 00:29:48.127
complaining about low wages,

00:29:48.288 --> 00:29:51.190
but they've recently risen the wage,

00:29:51.871 --> 00:29:53.132
but then people are getting

00:29:53.192 --> 00:29:54.353
laid off and getting

00:29:54.393 --> 00:29:57.134
replaced by AI and robotics.

00:29:57.654 --> 00:29:59.195
So what's your thoughts on that?

00:30:00.396 --> 00:30:03.598
I think that if technology has always been

00:30:05.726 --> 00:30:08.128
issue in America,

00:30:08.569 --> 00:30:11.993
once you went from picking

00:30:12.034 --> 00:30:13.875
cotton to the cotton gin to

00:30:14.696 --> 00:30:15.999
industrial revolution,

00:30:16.038 --> 00:30:17.661
there's always been technology.

00:30:18.371 --> 00:30:20.251
But the main part is that if

00:30:20.311 --> 00:30:24.134
you are looking for robotics and AI,

00:30:24.194 --> 00:30:25.675
then there needs to be a

00:30:25.756 --> 00:30:28.258
direct transition from the

00:30:28.337 --> 00:30:30.499
mechanism part of it to be

00:30:30.578 --> 00:30:33.300
able to retrain people into

00:30:33.361 --> 00:30:35.883
different walks of life and

00:30:35.942 --> 00:30:37.604
jobs and everything else like that.

00:30:37.683 --> 00:30:44.147
So we can't stop AI and mechanism,

00:30:44.608 --> 00:30:46.410
but we can retrain the people

00:30:47.170 --> 00:30:51.073
to be able to go into a

00:30:51.153 --> 00:30:52.753
different course of work.

00:30:53.814 --> 00:30:56.215
Because when you do that,

00:30:56.736 --> 00:30:59.417
you not only invest in the community,

00:30:59.478 --> 00:31:00.818
you invest in the people,

00:31:01.138 --> 00:31:02.500
and you invest in families

00:31:02.559 --> 00:31:04.101
so that they'll be able to make it.

00:31:04.540 --> 00:31:08.104
So people can put their heads in the sand

00:31:08.723 --> 00:31:10.464
But there are ways in job

00:31:10.525 --> 00:31:13.527
training and vocational education,

00:31:13.846 --> 00:31:17.749
healthcare communication

00:31:17.788 --> 00:31:19.970
that people can be able to make it there.

00:31:20.009 --> 00:31:22.371
So it's just being able to

00:31:22.432 --> 00:31:24.873
invest in those communities.

00:31:25.868 --> 00:31:27.109
I completely agree, you know,

00:31:27.910 --> 00:31:28.750
with the change,

00:31:28.790 --> 00:31:30.530
you need to invest in being

00:31:30.631 --> 00:31:32.672
educated to move with the change, right?

00:31:32.711 --> 00:31:34.472
Like, we're a horse and buggy,

00:31:34.792 --> 00:31:35.453
we went to cars.

00:31:35.493 --> 00:31:36.433
So we had to train people on

00:31:36.453 --> 00:31:38.295
how to work on cars and stuff like that.

00:31:38.434 --> 00:31:40.375
I completely agree at the train,

00:31:40.395 --> 00:31:41.876
the training needs to be evolved,

00:31:42.436 --> 00:31:42.717
you know,

00:31:42.997 --> 00:31:43.817
and when it goes back to the

00:31:43.856 --> 00:31:44.837
poor people's campaign,

00:31:45.317 --> 00:31:47.499
can you explain what third

00:31:47.818 --> 00:31:49.119
reconstruction agenda is?

00:31:50.828 --> 00:31:51.609
I'm glad you asked.

00:31:51.670 --> 00:31:53.269
Keep on going.

00:31:54.630 --> 00:31:55.931
Can you give us a plan on

00:31:55.971 --> 00:31:56.971
how to end poverty?

00:31:57.590 --> 00:31:59.112
It's a two-part question.

00:31:59.832 --> 00:32:00.892
Can you explain what third

00:32:00.932 --> 00:32:02.093
reconstruction agenda is?

00:32:02.893 --> 00:32:04.093
Can you give us a good plan

00:32:04.133 --> 00:32:05.213
on how to end poverty,

00:32:05.473 --> 00:32:06.614
if that's even a possibility?

00:32:07.842 --> 00:32:09.703
Okay, the Third Reconstruction.

00:32:09.743 --> 00:32:12.165
So in order to understand

00:32:12.226 --> 00:32:13.826
about the Third Reconstruction,

00:32:14.188 --> 00:32:14.988
and give me a minute

00:32:15.008 --> 00:32:16.410
because I'm going to give

00:32:16.450 --> 00:32:18.191
you some background on history on it.

00:32:18.530 --> 00:32:19.451
Instead, in order...

00:32:20.924 --> 00:32:23.486
to go for a third reconstruction,

00:32:24.046 --> 00:32:25.286
you have to understand what

00:32:25.346 --> 00:32:26.526
the second reconstruction

00:32:26.566 --> 00:32:28.126
and the first reconstruction was.

00:32:29.606 --> 00:32:30.906
And the first reconstruction

00:32:30.987 --> 00:32:36.407
came out of slavery when people,

00:32:38.148 --> 00:32:40.269
they had the Emancipation

00:32:40.308 --> 00:32:43.210
Proclamation and the

00:32:43.529 --> 00:32:44.690
freedom of the slaves.

00:32:45.349 --> 00:32:46.789
And in order to understand

00:32:46.849 --> 00:32:48.211
about the first reconstruction,

00:32:48.230 --> 00:32:49.330
you have to understand that

00:32:50.019 --> 00:32:52.383
That wasn't a choice to do

00:32:52.423 --> 00:32:53.664
the right thing by the

00:32:53.704 --> 00:32:54.806
United States government.

00:32:55.306 --> 00:32:56.768
It was an economic choice

00:32:56.847 --> 00:32:57.809
because when you have,

00:32:59.090 --> 00:33:00.271
they did a census of 1860

00:33:00.271 --> 00:33:03.195
and they found out that

00:33:06.163 --> 00:33:08.204
in the next 15 to 20 years,

00:33:08.746 --> 00:33:10.166
the way that they breeded

00:33:10.267 --> 00:33:11.586
slaves for business,

00:33:12.087 --> 00:33:14.308
that the black slaves would

00:33:14.429 --> 00:33:15.470
outnumber the whites.

00:33:16.490 --> 00:33:17.770
And so you have places like

00:33:18.191 --> 00:33:20.712
Alabama that had like

00:33:20.712 --> 00:33:23.894
500,000 whites and 420,000 slaves.

00:33:23.914 --> 00:33:26.316
You have Arkansas, Delaware, Florida,

00:33:26.396 --> 00:33:29.097
Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland,

00:33:29.397 --> 00:33:31.579
Mississippi, especially Mississippi.

00:33:31.799 --> 00:33:33.040
In Mississippi, they had 425,000

00:33:35.382 --> 00:33:38.844
slaves and 375,000 whites.

00:33:39.484 --> 00:33:41.865
So they looked at that census and said,

00:33:41.925 --> 00:33:44.627
oh my God, if we don't do that,

00:33:45.347 --> 00:33:47.288
even though they counted one third people,

00:33:47.709 --> 00:33:49.289
then they going to be able to take over.

00:33:49.730 --> 00:33:51.211
So they said, instead of

00:33:52.133 --> 00:33:53.673
doing the right thing, they said,

00:33:54.134 --> 00:33:55.615
what can we do to stop?

00:33:55.675 --> 00:33:57.116
Because we have to breed the

00:33:57.176 --> 00:34:00.039
slaves in order to conduct our business,

00:34:00.319 --> 00:34:01.560
and whites are not having

00:34:01.840 --> 00:34:02.801
kids like they did.

00:34:03.163 --> 00:34:04.624
So they started with the

00:34:04.703 --> 00:34:05.664
Immigration Act of 1855 to 1955,

00:34:05.664 --> 00:34:06.685
where they brought in 23

00:34:06.685 --> 00:34:07.665
million white European

00:34:07.926 --> 00:34:08.487
peasants from Europe

00:34:14.291 --> 00:34:15.692
to balance out the

00:34:15.731 --> 00:34:17.592
population and not only did

00:34:17.632 --> 00:34:18.972
they bring them into this

00:34:19.032 --> 00:34:20.054
country through ellis

00:34:20.173 --> 00:34:21.173
island which everybody can

00:34:21.213 --> 00:34:22.713
read the history they

00:34:22.753 --> 00:34:24.215
brought them in and gave

00:34:24.235 --> 00:34:26.715
them land under the

00:34:26.795 --> 00:34:28.416
homestead act that they had

00:34:28.456 --> 00:34:29.516
stolen from the native

00:34:29.576 --> 00:34:31.556
americans and the 40 acres

00:34:31.576 --> 00:34:33.016
of mule and a mule that

00:34:33.056 --> 00:34:33.996
they didn't get from the

00:34:34.036 --> 00:34:35.677
blacks not only did they

00:34:35.717 --> 00:34:37.438
give them land they helped

00:34:37.998 --> 00:34:39.679
them mechanize and gave

00:34:39.699 --> 00:34:41.179
them low interest loans

00:34:42.039 --> 00:34:44.699
And to be able to mechanize their farming.

00:34:44.940 --> 00:34:46.601
So they got an advantage

00:34:46.900 --> 00:34:48.240
over the people who was

00:34:48.340 --> 00:34:50.121
always already here with

00:34:50.161 --> 00:34:52.123
the Native Americans and the blacks.

00:34:52.523 --> 00:34:54.422
And so when people talk about, well,

00:34:54.463 --> 00:34:56.123
my parents came on Ellis

00:34:56.284 --> 00:34:57.965
Island and they pulled

00:34:58.005 --> 00:34:59.764
themselves up by the bootstraps.

00:35:00.204 --> 00:35:01.545
And I tell people, hold on.

00:35:02.166 --> 00:35:04.086
The blacks, the one who invented the boot.

00:35:04.507 --> 00:35:05.726
If it wasn't for the blacks,

00:35:05.766 --> 00:35:06.567
there wouldn't be no,

00:35:07.748 --> 00:35:08.748
our country wouldn't be a

00:35:08.807 --> 00:35:09.867
wealthy country because

00:35:09.907 --> 00:35:11.889
they operated under free labor.

00:35:12.309 --> 00:35:13.949
So when you talk about the

00:35:14.009 --> 00:35:15.128
first reconstruction,

00:35:15.409 --> 00:35:17.550
you talk about a systematic

00:35:17.630 --> 00:35:19.811
point of trying to continue

00:35:19.851 --> 00:35:20.911
to oppress the blacks,

00:35:21.431 --> 00:35:22.550
even when they were out of

00:35:22.610 --> 00:35:24.871
slavery after 1865,

00:35:24.871 --> 00:35:26.012
because then they said, oh,

00:35:26.371 --> 00:35:28.773
there's a complete advantage for us

00:35:29.757 --> 00:35:31.960
to have them be able to vote.

00:35:32.280 --> 00:35:34.543
So in 1870,

00:35:34.543 --> 00:35:37.807
they passed where black men could vote,

00:35:38.829 --> 00:35:40.050
but not black women.

00:35:40.873 --> 00:35:44.135
And so in that course,

00:35:44.936 --> 00:35:46.175
the Black men who voted,

00:35:46.456 --> 00:35:49.177
over 600,000 Black men

00:35:49.237 --> 00:35:50.777
voted in that election.

00:35:51.539 --> 00:35:53.278
And that election helped

00:35:53.400 --> 00:35:55.480
elect Hiram Rose Revel,

00:35:55.721 --> 00:35:56.740
who was the first Black

00:35:56.820 --> 00:35:59.362
senator from Mississippi who was elected,

00:35:59.722 --> 00:36:01.362
even though they didn't

00:36:01.443 --> 00:36:03.164
seat him because he was Black.

00:36:04.186 --> 00:36:06.869
So you have the first reconstruction,

00:36:07.369 --> 00:36:08.309
and with the Freedmen's

00:36:08.349 --> 00:36:10.952
Bureau to set up to help Black assimilate,

00:36:11.353 --> 00:36:12.552
but that was short lived

00:36:12.632 --> 00:36:17.916
because once 1877 passed,

00:36:18.157 --> 00:36:20.298
they removed the troops out of the South.

00:36:21.380 --> 00:36:22.820
They got rid of the

00:36:22.900 --> 00:36:24.822
Freedmen's Bureau and defunded it.

00:36:25.242 --> 00:36:26.724
And then Jim Crow came.

00:36:27.023 --> 00:36:28.304
So that's the first part of

00:36:28.565 --> 00:36:29.666
the first Reconstruction.

00:36:29.885 --> 00:36:31.367
The second Reconstruction

00:36:31.467 --> 00:36:33.068
came out of the Civil

00:36:33.128 --> 00:36:34.248
Rights Movement with Martin

00:36:34.268 --> 00:36:36.389
Luther King and then wanted

00:36:36.409 --> 00:36:38.351
to spend money on schooling

00:36:38.672 --> 00:36:39.952
and the Brown versus Board

00:36:39.972 --> 00:36:41.673
of Education and the Voting

00:36:41.713 --> 00:36:42.733
Rights Act of 1965 and the

00:36:42.793 --> 00:36:51.400
Civil Rights Act of 1965.

00:36:51.400 --> 00:36:54.061
People talk race,

00:36:54.400 --> 00:36:56.161
but they use code language

00:36:56.521 --> 00:37:00.963
to be able to deal with the Black.

00:37:01.202 --> 00:37:02.483
And so once that happened,

00:37:02.943 --> 00:37:05.003
you had a fusion movement

00:37:05.043 --> 00:37:08.264
that took place where poor whites, Black,

00:37:08.344 --> 00:37:08.965
Latinos,

00:37:09.065 --> 00:37:11.005
and Jewish people all came

00:37:11.065 --> 00:37:12.706
together to fight for that.

00:37:12.927 --> 00:37:14.126
Because when people talk

00:37:14.146 --> 00:37:16.068
about the civil rights movement,

00:37:16.387 --> 00:37:17.867
there wasn't just Black people.

00:37:18.068 --> 00:37:19.469
There were people from all countries.

00:37:19.489 --> 00:37:20.289
There was abolitionists.

00:37:20.628 --> 00:37:22.070
The abolitionists of the

00:37:22.130 --> 00:37:23.110
first Reconstruction,

00:37:23.150 --> 00:37:24.871
there was Viola La Russa

00:37:24.911 --> 00:37:31.434
who died on her way to

00:37:31.554 --> 00:37:33.014
Alabama by the Klan.

00:37:33.034 --> 00:37:34.715
There was Reverend James

00:37:34.934 --> 00:37:37.237
Reeve from the Universalist Church.

00:37:37.516 --> 00:37:38.737
There was all many different

00:37:38.777 --> 00:37:40.137
people who was involved

00:37:40.157 --> 00:37:42.179
that who wanted to do the right thing.

00:37:42.518 --> 00:37:43.719
And so when we talk about

00:37:44.019 --> 00:37:45.159
the second Reconstruction,

00:37:45.179 --> 00:37:46.260
the third Reconstruction

00:37:46.581 --> 00:37:49.121
need to be a blueprint of

00:37:49.661 --> 00:37:51.643
What happened first with us

00:37:51.943 --> 00:37:52.583
all with an

00:37:52.684 --> 00:37:54.485
intersectionality and the

00:37:54.545 --> 00:37:55.827
third reconstruction have

00:37:55.847 --> 00:37:57.228
to involve people coming

00:37:57.268 --> 00:37:59.228
together in fusion politics

00:37:59.489 --> 00:38:00.951
and willing to change and

00:38:00.990 --> 00:38:02.152
to challenge the system.

00:38:02.492 --> 00:38:03.833
So we need a third

00:38:03.853 --> 00:38:04.914
reconstruction where we

00:38:04.954 --> 00:38:06.195
bring everybody together.

00:38:06.474 --> 00:38:07.615
And that's my whole concept

00:38:07.655 --> 00:38:09.577
with the Ontario Futures Alliance.

00:38:09.637 --> 00:38:10.878
We're saying instead of us

00:38:10.938 --> 00:38:12.820
fighting over peanuts,

00:38:14.068 --> 00:38:15.009
Shout out to George Watson

00:38:15.028 --> 00:38:15.929
and Carl Carver.

00:38:16.289 --> 00:38:17.771
There we go.

00:38:18.090 --> 00:38:18.510
Peanuts.

00:38:18.811 --> 00:38:19.972
We need to come together and

00:38:20.012 --> 00:38:20.833
make peanut butter.

00:38:21.072 --> 00:38:22.193
So that's what it is.

00:38:22.514 --> 00:38:24.275
Taking what we learned in

00:38:24.715 --> 00:38:26.597
the South in the first

00:38:26.637 --> 00:38:27.757
reconstruction and the

00:38:27.818 --> 00:38:28.878
second reconstruction,

00:38:29.458 --> 00:38:32.101
maneuver it and pivot and

00:38:32.141 --> 00:38:33.442
being able to bring up the

00:38:33.501 --> 00:38:35.342
concepts that has always

00:38:35.422 --> 00:38:37.505
kept us back in the past.

00:38:38.632 --> 00:38:40.335
That's the third reconstruction.

00:38:40.715 --> 00:38:42.757
And then I'm going to talk about poverty,

00:38:42.838 --> 00:38:43.059
right?

00:38:43.458 --> 00:38:43.619
Yeah,

00:38:43.778 --> 00:38:45.041
I want to say something really quick.

00:38:45.400 --> 00:38:46.983
Wow, it's super amazing.

00:38:47.844 --> 00:38:49.045
And we'll definitely get

00:38:49.085 --> 00:38:51.369
into the Ontario Future Alliance.

00:38:52.009 --> 00:38:53.490
But you said they use code language.

00:38:53.570 --> 00:38:54.592
Can you explain some code

00:38:54.632 --> 00:38:55.454
language that they use?

00:38:56.534 --> 00:39:01.739
Instead of, it's camouflage,

00:39:02.199 --> 00:39:04.541
dog whistle politics.

00:39:04.581 --> 00:39:05.862
When they said that Obama

00:39:05.882 --> 00:39:09.206
was a food stamp president, you know,

00:39:09.905 --> 00:39:12.528
Black people are aggressive.

00:39:12.909 --> 00:39:14.110
They're loud.

00:39:14.490 --> 00:39:15.672
They're lazy.

00:39:16.913 --> 00:39:18.574
They only like watermelon.

00:39:18.594 --> 00:39:19.914
Those are cold language.

00:39:20.155 --> 00:39:20.936
And what people don't

00:39:20.956 --> 00:39:22.518
understand is about watermelon,

00:39:24.398 --> 00:39:26.920
Blacks really didn't like watermelon.

00:39:27.400 --> 00:39:30.081
But when the Emancipation

00:39:30.181 --> 00:39:33.141
Proclamation came and the

00:39:33.661 --> 00:39:36.422
Freedmen Bureau gave them, you know,

00:39:36.443 --> 00:39:38.043
that was a keeper of all

00:39:38.083 --> 00:39:39.224
their birth records and

00:39:39.284 --> 00:39:40.204
everything else like that.

00:39:40.525 --> 00:39:43.005
The Freedmen Bureau gave them seeds,

00:39:43.365 --> 00:39:43.925
the plant,

00:39:44.206 --> 00:39:46.206
so that they can become self-sufficient.

00:39:46.527 --> 00:39:48.867
And so watermelon was a good plant.

00:39:49.108 --> 00:39:50.369
thing that they can sell on

00:39:50.389 --> 00:39:51.829
the open market and it

00:39:51.889 --> 00:39:52.831
didn't take that much

00:39:52.911 --> 00:39:54.931
farming so the freeman

00:39:54.952 --> 00:39:56.472
brewer gave them watermelon

00:39:56.713 --> 00:39:58.353
and so when they grew the

00:39:58.414 --> 00:40:00.675
crops on their own instead

00:40:00.715 --> 00:40:02.336
of share cropping they were

00:40:02.476 --> 00:40:05.318
able to take the watermelon

00:40:05.639 --> 00:40:07.039
sell it get money and then

00:40:07.099 --> 00:40:08.340
buy more seeds from other

00:40:08.380 --> 00:40:09.601
things so it wasn't the

00:40:09.661 --> 00:40:10.822
concept of black like

00:40:10.862 --> 00:40:12.304
watermelon it was just a

00:40:12.403 --> 00:40:14.244
good business decision to

00:40:14.284 --> 00:40:15.505
be able to sell it that you

00:40:15.545 --> 00:40:16.987
can have something to sell

00:40:17.047 --> 00:40:17.967
on the marketplace

00:40:18.547 --> 00:40:19.771
So you see how these cold

00:40:19.811 --> 00:40:22.014
languages got people thinking that, oh,

00:40:22.074 --> 00:40:23.097
this is the way it is.

00:40:23.197 --> 00:40:24.278
But when it is,

00:40:24.358 --> 00:40:26.963
it's just another way of being racist.

00:40:28.043 --> 00:40:29.204
I got you, I got you.

00:40:29.704 --> 00:40:31.726
And for those of you guys just turning in,

00:40:31.967 --> 00:40:32.427
tuning in,

00:40:32.467 --> 00:40:34.108
we're talking to Ted Burnett here.

00:40:34.128 --> 00:40:35.128
We're getting really deep.

00:40:35.688 --> 00:40:36.548
We just got talking about

00:40:36.588 --> 00:40:37.829
the third reconstruction era.

00:40:38.190 --> 00:40:39.070
And if you're just jumping in,

00:40:39.150 --> 00:40:40.311
please like the video,

00:40:40.931 --> 00:40:41.873
subscribe to the channel.

00:40:41.952 --> 00:40:43.454
We got some more great things happening.

00:40:43.914 --> 00:40:46.335
And so Ted, you wanted to kind of explain,

00:40:46.856 --> 00:40:47.956
just give us like one idea

00:40:47.976 --> 00:40:50.157
of a plan on how to end poverty,

00:40:50.237 --> 00:40:51.559
if that's even possible to

00:40:51.599 --> 00:40:52.840
possibly end poverty.

00:40:53.079 --> 00:40:54.440
Let me give you an example.

00:40:55.559 --> 00:40:57.201
The child tax credit.

00:40:57.942 --> 00:40:58.442
What is that?

00:40:59.003 --> 00:41:00.423
The child tax credit was

00:41:01.784 --> 00:41:04.847
introduced by the Biden

00:41:04.907 --> 00:41:07.208
administration during COVID

00:41:07.829 --> 00:41:11.170
to offset poverty for the

00:41:11.251 --> 00:41:13.092
poor and poor mothers.

00:41:13.373 --> 00:41:15.835
So not only did you get a

00:41:16.454 --> 00:41:18.137
tax credit at the end of the year,

00:41:18.456 --> 00:41:21.278
they gave you a stipend every month

00:41:22.000 --> 00:41:23.641
to be able to spend on your

00:41:23.681 --> 00:41:25.302
bills and take care of your bills.

00:41:26.222 --> 00:41:28.744
And the child tax credit was successful.

00:41:29.385 --> 00:41:31.827
It actually lifted people out of poverty.

00:41:33.929 --> 00:41:37.972
But then when it was set to expire,

00:41:38.373 --> 00:41:40.974
none of the Democrats had

00:41:41.034 --> 00:41:43.235
enough kahunas to push for

00:41:43.275 --> 00:41:44.456
it to continue.

00:41:44.918 --> 00:41:45.757
And I know they just

00:41:45.797 --> 00:41:47.059
revisited a couple of

00:41:47.119 --> 00:41:48.239
months ago and everything else,

00:41:48.539 --> 00:41:50.101
but the child tax credit

00:41:50.918 --> 00:41:53.639
The statistics prove that it

00:41:53.719 --> 00:41:55.019
lifted people out of

00:41:55.099 --> 00:41:56.380
poverty and that people

00:41:56.400 --> 00:41:57.701
didn't just spend their

00:41:57.760 --> 00:41:59.481
money on malt liquor and

00:41:59.561 --> 00:42:01.460
menthol cigarettes like the

00:42:01.601 --> 00:42:03.081
dog whistle politics say.

00:42:03.402 --> 00:42:04.862
They use it to pay their rent.

00:42:04.922 --> 00:42:06.682
They use it to provide food

00:42:06.722 --> 00:42:08.302
for their kids and everything else.

00:42:08.563 --> 00:42:09.943
And it was a great success.

00:42:10.262 --> 00:42:11.903
And they looked at the numbers and said,

00:42:12.003 --> 00:42:12.643
oh, my God.

00:42:13.775 --> 00:42:15.416
It lifted people out of poverty.

00:42:15.916 --> 00:42:16.956
We can't have this.

00:42:17.836 --> 00:42:19.257
And then they did away with it.

00:42:20.237 --> 00:42:23.059
That's the number one way in

00:42:23.079 --> 00:42:24.780
the short term and the long

00:42:24.860 --> 00:42:26.882
term that you can lift

00:42:27.322 --> 00:42:29.682
people out of poverty by

00:42:29.882 --> 00:42:31.123
supporting the child tax

00:42:31.143 --> 00:42:34.304
credit because black women get a bad rap.

00:42:34.766 --> 00:42:36.565
Not only are they oppressed

00:42:36.987 --> 00:42:39.547
by the system through

00:42:39.608 --> 00:42:41.748
history for black women,

00:42:42.750 --> 00:42:43.510
for black women,

00:42:44.231 --> 00:42:45.952
they were oppressed by black men.

00:42:46.454 --> 00:42:47.393
I mean, white women,

00:42:48.614 --> 00:42:51.458
white men and black men have

00:42:52.304 --> 00:42:54.025
control over that whole

00:42:54.085 --> 00:42:55.925
sister waiting with the gender equity.

00:42:56.344 --> 00:42:57.965
And so when you have a

00:42:58.045 --> 00:42:59.726
single mother with four kids,

00:43:00.166 --> 00:43:01.146
all she's trying to do is

00:43:01.206 --> 00:43:02.807
provide a roof over her

00:43:02.867 --> 00:43:04.347
head and she's working two

00:43:04.387 --> 00:43:05.349
and a half jobs,

00:43:05.748 --> 00:43:07.108
not being able to be home

00:43:07.168 --> 00:43:08.369
with the kids and

00:43:08.409 --> 00:43:09.170
everything else because

00:43:09.190 --> 00:43:11.291
she's working to take care of the family.

00:43:11.731 --> 00:43:13.751
And so when you have the tax credit,

00:43:14.431 --> 00:43:18.132
It lifted people out of poverty, blacks,

00:43:18.452 --> 00:43:19.793
whites, poor whites,

00:43:20.034 --> 00:43:21.353
Latinos and everything else.

00:43:21.614 --> 00:43:23.514
And that would be the first

00:43:23.554 --> 00:43:24.494
thing that they need to

00:43:24.554 --> 00:43:26.096
revisit in doing it with

00:43:26.135 --> 00:43:27.135
the richest world in the

00:43:27.215 --> 00:43:28.376
nation in the world.

00:43:30.019 --> 00:43:32.360
We should reintroduce the

00:43:32.422 --> 00:43:34.902
child tax credit so that

00:43:34.983 --> 00:43:36.784
people will be able to

00:43:37.184 --> 00:43:38.085
start with poverty.

00:43:38.105 --> 00:43:39.806
Because when you live from the bottom,

00:43:40.385 --> 00:43:41.447
everybody rises.

00:43:41.847 --> 00:43:42.228
Got you.

00:43:42.248 --> 00:43:43.869
So we don't believe in Reaganomics here?

00:43:44.409 --> 00:43:44.608
No.

00:43:46.769 --> 00:43:47.471
Reaganomics, folks,

00:43:47.530 --> 00:43:48.871
is basically the top-down principle,

00:43:48.931 --> 00:43:49.572
if you didn't know.

00:43:50.112 --> 00:43:51.293
I also wanted to ask you,

00:43:51.452 --> 00:43:53.574
so why do you think they took it back?

00:43:53.735 --> 00:43:54.434
And why don't you think

00:43:54.454 --> 00:43:56.135
they'll... Why haven't they

00:43:56.155 --> 00:43:56.615
brought it back?

00:43:56.695 --> 00:43:57.356
What's your opinion?

00:43:57.396 --> 00:43:58.036
Why'd they take it away?

00:43:58.878 --> 00:43:59.117
Well...

00:44:02.213 --> 00:44:02.833
from your opinion?

00:44:03.414 --> 00:44:05.614
My opinion is they saw the

00:44:05.675 --> 00:44:09.257
numbers and the structural

00:44:09.317 --> 00:44:11.818
systemic racism part of it

00:44:12.278 --> 00:44:16.601
is that if I give the

00:44:16.702 --> 00:44:17.702
people of color and the

00:44:17.762 --> 00:44:20.804
poor a chance to lift

00:44:20.864 --> 00:44:22.164
themselves out of poverty,

00:44:22.684 --> 00:44:23.626
then they're going to start

00:44:23.686 --> 00:44:25.927
wanting to get an education.

00:44:26.266 --> 00:44:28.027
And then if they want to get an education,

00:44:28.369 --> 00:44:29.009
then they want to

00:44:29.713 --> 00:44:31.594
to live in better neighborhoods.

00:44:31.893 --> 00:44:32.855
And if they want to live in

00:44:32.894 --> 00:44:33.755
better neighborhoods,

00:44:34.054 --> 00:44:34.916
then we don't have a

00:44:34.996 --> 00:44:36.856
working class to be able to

00:44:36.916 --> 00:44:38.478
do our dirty work and to

00:44:38.498 --> 00:44:40.739
send people to the military

00:44:41.378 --> 00:44:42.679
and they won't have options.

00:44:42.719 --> 00:44:44.521
So it's a point of control

00:44:44.541 --> 00:44:46.442
because the numbers,

00:44:46.762 --> 00:44:48.503
the numbers don't lie.

00:44:49.733 --> 00:44:52.235
they know about how much the

00:44:52.514 --> 00:44:53.976
child tax credit has lifted

00:44:53.996 --> 00:44:55.016
people out of poverty.

00:44:55.335 --> 00:44:59.099
And also, along with the child tax credit,

00:44:59.679 --> 00:45:04.402
they also supplemented people's medical.

00:45:04.961 --> 00:45:09.164
And so people have access to health care

00:45:10.163 --> 00:45:11.864
And was insured because we

00:45:11.903 --> 00:45:14.545
have like 87 million people

00:45:14.606 --> 00:45:16.786
in this country who are

00:45:17.507 --> 00:45:19.487
uninsured and underinsured.

00:45:20.369 --> 00:45:23.010
And with just the pandemic funding left,

00:45:24.451 --> 00:45:25.871
people are going to lose

00:45:25.952 --> 00:45:27.893
over 15 million people are

00:45:28.253 --> 00:45:29.514
in the process of losing

00:45:29.574 --> 00:45:31.574
their access to affordable health.

00:45:32.605 --> 00:45:33.706
Because they had the federal

00:45:33.786 --> 00:45:36.509
pandemic emergency where they gave funds.

00:45:36.829 --> 00:45:38.951
So you can see that if you

00:45:39.550 --> 00:45:40.932
give people hope,

00:45:41.914 --> 00:45:43.375
then they will move to the

00:45:43.474 --> 00:45:45.556
next step to want to do better.

00:45:46.237 --> 00:45:48.820
And the system don't want that to happen.

00:45:49.820 --> 00:45:50.581
Gotcha.

00:45:51.262 --> 00:45:52.684
And I guess I'll be a little

00:45:52.704 --> 00:45:53.784
bit of devil's advocate here.

00:45:55.646 --> 00:45:56.447
Some people say that

00:45:56.606 --> 00:45:58.188
systematic racism doesn't exist.

00:45:59.387 --> 00:46:00.967
Do you think it really

00:46:01.027 --> 00:46:01.847
exists or you think it's

00:46:01.907 --> 00:46:04.007
all a bunch of fairy tales

00:46:04.047 --> 00:46:05.309
and it's just in people's minds?

00:46:06.969 --> 00:46:08.309
If it didn't exist,

00:46:08.429 --> 00:46:10.150
why do they fight so hard

00:46:10.449 --> 00:46:12.510
to stop learning?

00:46:12.530 --> 00:46:14.130
Because learning is it.

00:46:14.371 --> 00:46:15.132
When they say, oh,

00:46:15.211 --> 00:46:17.931
critical race theory and da, da, da, da,

00:46:18.333 --> 00:46:18.592
and DEI.

00:46:18.913 --> 00:46:19.873
And I'm like, hold on.

00:46:20.313 --> 00:46:21.873
They don't teach critical

00:46:21.934 --> 00:46:22.914
race theory in schools.

00:46:24.130 --> 00:46:25.911
grade school or middle

00:46:25.951 --> 00:46:27.052
school or high school.

00:46:27.112 --> 00:46:28.693
It's a college curriculum.

00:46:29.753 --> 00:46:31.393
It is a college curriculum.

00:46:31.914 --> 00:46:34.155
And so they want to be able

00:46:34.255 --> 00:46:36.737
to stop people from

00:46:36.836 --> 00:46:38.818
learning because then they

00:46:38.838 --> 00:46:40.599
can put their heads in the

00:46:40.639 --> 00:46:41.679
sand and then they don't

00:46:41.719 --> 00:46:43.900
have to deal with the guilt because

00:46:45.030 --> 00:46:47.911
poverty is a moral issue.

00:46:47.992 --> 00:46:49.592
It's not about left versus right.

00:46:49.911 --> 00:46:51.552
It's about right versus wrong.

00:46:52.112 --> 00:46:56.494
And in my faith tradition, Jesus said,

00:46:56.954 --> 00:46:59.054
if you do it unto the least of me,

00:46:59.094 --> 00:47:00.635
you also do it unto me.

00:47:00.934 --> 00:47:01.755
The poor you're going to

00:47:01.775 --> 00:47:03.036
have with you always.

00:47:03.456 --> 00:47:05.775
So if you don't educate

00:47:05.815 --> 00:47:08.336
people on their history, then

00:47:09.648 --> 00:47:11.449
they won't be able to

00:47:12.030 --> 00:47:13.811
understand what power the

00:47:13.851 --> 00:47:15.512
power dynamics were before

00:47:15.552 --> 00:47:17.414
because it is not about

00:47:18.510 --> 00:47:21.552
it's about race and class.

00:47:22.213 --> 00:47:23.393
People always forget the

00:47:23.434 --> 00:47:25.534
point that this is a class structure.

00:47:26.175 --> 00:47:28.637
And so when you talk about

00:47:28.697 --> 00:47:30.619
that and you talk about history,

00:47:30.938 --> 00:47:33.681
you talk about the Chinese

00:47:33.800 --> 00:47:36.043
Exclusion Act of 1882,

00:47:36.043 --> 00:47:37.384
where they kicked the

00:47:37.423 --> 00:47:39.864
Chinese out of the country,

00:47:40.326 --> 00:47:41.907
but they did bring them in

00:47:43.894 --> 00:47:45.655
after the Emancipation

00:47:45.695 --> 00:47:48.155
Proclamation to replace the

00:47:48.215 --> 00:47:49.856
slaves because those

00:47:49.936 --> 00:47:51.797
Chinese people came from

00:47:51.896 --> 00:47:54.878
Cuba where they was doing sugar cane.

00:47:55.217 --> 00:47:56.998
So they needed a replacement

00:47:57.097 --> 00:48:00.478
for the Black slaves who got free,

00:48:00.699 --> 00:48:02.119
so they brought the Chinese in.

00:48:02.380 --> 00:48:03.400
And then once the Chinese

00:48:03.420 --> 00:48:04.260
started taking over,

00:48:04.500 --> 00:48:05.460
they came up with the

00:48:05.760 --> 00:48:08.001
Exclusion Act of 1882 to

00:48:08.340 --> 00:48:09.561
kick them out of the country.

00:48:09.942 --> 00:48:11.762
Then they talked about

00:48:12.762 --> 00:48:13.021
OK,

00:48:13.061 --> 00:48:16.204
let's bring in the Mexican people into

00:48:16.264 --> 00:48:17.545
this country so that they

00:48:17.565 --> 00:48:18.246
can do the work.

00:48:18.505 --> 00:48:20.106
And then they say, oh, my God,

00:48:20.126 --> 00:48:21.106
the Depression hit.

00:48:21.608 --> 00:48:23.329
And we they started the

00:48:24.028 --> 00:48:25.530
repatriation of 1929 where they kicked.

00:48:29.411 --> 00:48:30.693
Mexican immigrants out of

00:48:30.733 --> 00:48:34.195
this country and deported

00:48:34.195 --> 00:48:35.617
100,000 Mexican Americans

00:48:35.876 --> 00:48:37.737
who were citizens out with them.

00:48:38.077 --> 00:48:39.039
Then we talk about the

00:48:39.079 --> 00:48:40.500
Bracero Program in the

00:48:41.360 --> 00:48:42.681
1950s when they did the same thing,

00:48:43.282 --> 00:48:45.242
on and on and on and on.

00:48:45.704 --> 00:48:46.963
So when they talk about

00:48:47.003 --> 00:48:49.025
structural systemic racism,

00:48:49.405 --> 00:48:50.766
people of color and the

00:48:50.806 --> 00:48:52.688
poor has always suffered from it.

00:48:52.987 --> 00:48:54.849
But if you don't teach the history

00:48:55.489 --> 00:48:57.010
about what happened in the past,

00:48:57.271 --> 00:48:59.811
then you revisited the

00:48:59.911 --> 00:49:01.172
knowledge of people not

00:49:01.233 --> 00:49:02.594
knowing what's going on.

00:49:02.614 --> 00:49:04.934
Because history don't repeat itself.

00:49:05.934 --> 00:49:07.815
People repeat history.

00:49:09.637 --> 00:49:10.197
I love that.

00:49:10.358 --> 00:49:14.599
And so it's not only a race thing,

00:49:14.639 --> 00:49:15.900
but it's also a class thing.

00:49:15.980 --> 00:49:16.360
Class.

00:49:16.721 --> 00:49:19.842
And your eyes went up then

00:49:20.061 --> 00:49:21.282
when you said a class thing,

00:49:21.302 --> 00:49:22.523
because it is about class.

00:49:22.784 --> 00:49:23.764
Because here's the thing.

00:49:24.184 --> 00:49:24.885
If you're rich,

00:49:26.112 --> 00:49:30.641
and you black or Mexican or

00:49:30.882 --> 00:49:31.985
Asian and everything else,

00:49:32.385 --> 00:49:34.070
you get the benefits of running.

00:49:34.786 --> 00:49:37.748
being able to pay for a good education,

00:49:37.809 --> 00:49:38.708
a good housing,

00:49:38.728 --> 00:49:40.510
to get yourself out of jail

00:49:40.771 --> 00:49:41.851
and everything else like that.

00:49:41.871 --> 00:49:43.592
That's why all those rappers

00:49:43.893 --> 00:49:47.114
love Trump with his tax

00:49:47.195 --> 00:49:51.036
credit that he gave to people in 2017,

00:49:51.036 --> 00:49:51.876
which is the biggest

00:49:51.956 --> 00:49:53.878
transfer of wealth in this

00:49:53.958 --> 00:49:55.940
country when they gave those tax credits.

00:49:56.219 --> 00:49:57.981
Now the tax credit for us,

00:49:58.481 --> 00:50:00.762
a common American, they expired.

00:50:01.422 --> 00:50:02.643
and was never renewed,

00:50:02.922 --> 00:50:05.123
but the businesses were kept on.

00:50:05.344 --> 00:50:07.364
So if you rich, you benefit from it.

00:50:07.603 --> 00:50:09.525
So it is race and class.

00:50:10.025 --> 00:50:11.605
Yeah, and sometimes they interchange.

00:50:11.625 --> 00:50:12.744
They're inseparably driven

00:50:13.144 --> 00:50:14.326
and woven together.

00:50:14.346 --> 00:50:16.166
Yeah, and they interchange,

00:50:16.206 --> 00:50:17.186
interlock between the two,

00:50:17.206 --> 00:50:19.327
between race and class.

00:50:19.646 --> 00:50:20.447
And if you guys are just

00:50:20.507 --> 00:50:21.967
joining the live today,

00:50:22.067 --> 00:50:25.367
we are here talking with Ted Burnett.

00:50:25.728 --> 00:50:26.927
And please like the video if

00:50:26.967 --> 00:50:27.527
you haven't already.

00:50:27.568 --> 00:50:28.509
Subscribe to our channel.

00:50:28.548 --> 00:50:29.309
Share this video out if

00:50:29.329 --> 00:50:30.148
you've been enjoying it.

00:50:31.009 --> 00:50:31.309
So Ted,

00:50:31.329 --> 00:50:33.630
since we've been talking about race

00:50:33.690 --> 00:50:34.311
and class,

00:50:35.150 --> 00:50:36.452
what is your role and

00:50:36.492 --> 00:50:38.432
responsibility as being VP

00:50:38.532 --> 00:50:41.954
of the NAACP Pomona Division?

00:50:44.594 --> 00:50:47.777
And see the National

00:50:47.797 --> 00:50:48.436
Association for the

00:50:48.456 --> 00:50:50.137
Advancement of Colored People.

00:50:50.737 --> 00:50:50.918
Yep.

00:50:51.318 --> 00:50:54.280
And so we represent all

00:50:54.380 --> 00:50:57.041
people of color and

00:50:57.807 --> 00:50:58.909
anyone who's been

00:50:58.949 --> 00:51:00.271
discriminated against

00:51:00.951 --> 00:51:02.353
whatever color they are,

00:51:02.492 --> 00:51:03.813
because discrimination

00:51:04.434 --> 00:51:05.896
knows no boundaries when

00:51:06.577 --> 00:51:07.617
people are oppressed.

00:51:07.978 --> 00:51:10.581
And so we not only are the

00:51:10.681 --> 00:51:12.182
watchdogs of discrimination,

00:51:13.909 --> 00:51:18.030
of the people of color, but we stand up,

00:51:18.291 --> 00:51:21.132
file lawsuits, file complaints,

00:51:21.472 --> 00:51:23.632
go to school boards meetings,

00:51:24.052 --> 00:51:25.333
city council meetings,

00:51:25.693 --> 00:51:26.753
and every type of

00:51:26.813 --> 00:51:28.153
governmental meetings so

00:51:28.193 --> 00:51:29.474
that we can keep an eye on

00:51:29.514 --> 00:51:30.894
making sure that people are

00:51:30.954 --> 00:51:33.815
doing the right things for social,

00:51:33.976 --> 00:51:35.856
economic, and environmental justice.

00:51:36.617 --> 00:51:39.958
And people talk about, hold on, Ted,

00:51:40.039 --> 00:51:42.059
you just said environmental justice.

00:51:42.338 --> 00:51:43.619
And environmental justice is

00:51:43.739 --> 00:51:44.880
actually one of the pillars

00:51:45.280 --> 00:51:46.181
of the Poor People's

00:51:46.201 --> 00:51:47.121
Campaign because

00:51:47.481 --> 00:51:49.141
environmental justice and

00:51:49.202 --> 00:51:51.983
pollution and putting oil

00:51:52.023 --> 00:51:53.923
wells pumps in the

00:51:54.003 --> 00:51:56.425
neighborhoods and power

00:51:56.465 --> 00:51:59.746
lines by the neighborhoods, all of those

00:52:00.507 --> 00:52:02.126
affect people of color and

00:52:02.186 --> 00:52:03.367
minorities and the poor

00:52:03.648 --> 00:52:04.708
because they're always

00:52:04.788 --> 00:52:07.088
putting them in those neighborhoods.

00:52:07.389 --> 00:52:08.528
And so when you have

00:52:08.588 --> 00:52:09.768
pollution and you build

00:52:09.789 --> 00:52:11.909
more warehouses in the poor neighborhoods,

00:52:12.269 --> 00:52:13.710
that pollution gets and

00:52:13.750 --> 00:52:15.570
causes health problems and

00:52:15.710 --> 00:52:17.690
it perpetuates the

00:52:21.371 --> 00:52:23.552
denigration of the people of

00:52:23.592 --> 00:52:25.014
color and especially Black,

00:52:25.094 --> 00:52:26.777
because if you already

00:52:26.856 --> 00:52:29.039
don't have access to proper

00:52:29.099 --> 00:52:30.561
health care and you don't

00:52:30.601 --> 00:52:33.884
have your basic needs to be

00:52:33.943 --> 00:52:34.644
able to do that,

00:52:34.985 --> 00:52:36.385
and then you have pollution

00:52:36.447 --> 00:52:37.728
and trucks going through

00:52:37.748 --> 00:52:38.588
your neighborhood,

00:52:38.969 --> 00:52:40.530
oil pumps and the residue

00:52:41.010 --> 00:52:44.414
of the pumping and power lines,

00:52:44.974 --> 00:52:47.416
That adds to you not being

00:52:47.536 --> 00:52:50.458
able to have a mortality

00:52:50.538 --> 00:52:52.938
rate that's low because of

00:52:53.019 --> 00:52:54.019
the health problems,

00:52:54.360 --> 00:52:56.782
along with high blood pressures, diabetes,

00:52:57.141 --> 00:52:58.121
heart problems and

00:52:58.161 --> 00:52:59.302
everything else that are

00:52:59.342 --> 00:53:01.704
caused by these environments.

00:53:01.943 --> 00:53:03.184
So we have to be able to

00:53:03.505 --> 00:53:04.365
make sure that our

00:53:04.425 --> 00:53:06.606
environment is also healthy.

00:53:06.847 --> 00:53:08.608
good for our children and

00:53:08.750 --> 00:53:11.532
our elderly and middle-aged

00:53:11.572 --> 00:53:13.034
people so that they can be

00:53:13.094 --> 00:53:14.456
able to continue to live

00:53:14.817 --> 00:53:16.259
and be a part of society.

00:53:16.559 --> 00:53:20.643
So it's all about doing the right thing.

00:53:20.724 --> 00:53:21.605
Like I keep saying,

00:53:22.346 --> 00:53:24.668
it is not about left versus right.

00:53:26.128 --> 00:53:28.090
It's about right versus wrong,

00:53:28.510 --> 00:53:29.811
and it's a moral issue.

00:53:30.233 --> 00:53:31.373
Because you can't be concerned.

00:53:31.574 --> 00:53:31.853
You see,

00:53:31.873 --> 00:53:34.275
a lot of people on the right are

00:53:34.315 --> 00:53:38.099
concerned about three things, anti-gay,

00:53:38.480 --> 00:53:39.360
anti-abortion,

00:53:39.400 --> 00:53:41.682
and pro-prayer in the schools.

00:53:42.103 --> 00:53:44.065
They embrace that with their

00:53:44.125 --> 00:53:47.246
Christian nationalism, and they say, oh,

00:53:47.608 --> 00:53:48.728
we need to make sure we

00:53:48.768 --> 00:53:50.070
support candidates through that.

00:53:50.652 --> 00:53:51.572
But then when you tell them,

00:53:51.913 --> 00:53:53.074
what about the other

00:53:53.213 --> 00:53:54.936
teachings of Jesus that he

00:53:54.976 --> 00:53:56.536
says about the poor and the

00:53:56.597 --> 00:53:58.137
downtrodden and the widows

00:53:58.398 --> 00:53:59.298
and the orphans and

00:53:59.338 --> 00:54:00.280
everything else like that?

00:54:00.400 --> 00:54:02.161
What about those scriptures?

00:54:02.521 --> 00:54:03.202
But they don't want to

00:54:03.262 --> 00:54:04.844
remember about those scriptures.

00:54:05.443 --> 00:54:06.304
They don't want to remember

00:54:06.344 --> 00:54:08.186
the scriptures about people,

00:54:08.527 --> 00:54:10.347
about race and racism and

00:54:10.608 --> 00:54:11.869
treating people different.

00:54:12.650 --> 00:54:15.452
You love your neighbor as

00:54:15.492 --> 00:54:16.353
you love yourself.

00:54:16.902 --> 00:54:17.202
Yeah,

00:54:17.262 --> 00:54:19.184
but that's kind of a lot of how

00:54:19.523 --> 00:54:20.244
religious people are.

00:54:20.264 --> 00:54:21.005
They pick and choose what

00:54:21.045 --> 00:54:22.344
they want to choose.

00:54:22.405 --> 00:54:24.266
People pick and choose what works for them,

00:54:24.286 --> 00:54:24.686
right?

00:54:25.186 --> 00:54:26.086
And it seems like when I

00:54:26.166 --> 00:54:27.447
asked about being a vice

00:54:27.507 --> 00:54:30.429
president of the NAACP,

00:54:30.989 --> 00:54:31.989
you kind of went back to

00:54:32.009 --> 00:54:33.090
poor people's campaigns.

00:54:33.130 --> 00:54:34.090
So I'm assuming a lot of the

00:54:34.190 --> 00:54:36.291
issues kind of cross and

00:54:36.311 --> 00:54:37.612
the things kind of cross a lot.

00:54:38.271 --> 00:54:40.472
So going back to the NAACP,

00:54:41.353 --> 00:54:43.094
is reparations on the table?

00:54:43.614 --> 00:54:45.894
And why, if it is or is not?

00:54:47.769 --> 00:54:49.190
If you study through history

00:54:50.670 --> 00:54:53.072
and study about the United

00:54:53.132 --> 00:54:56.635
States benefiting from free

00:54:56.675 --> 00:55:01.318
labor and wealth and being

00:55:01.418 --> 00:55:04.840
able to purchase land from

00:55:06.061 --> 00:55:08.021
France and England and the

00:55:08.061 --> 00:55:10.403
United States and Spain,

00:55:11.684 --> 00:55:13.425
the Louisiana Purchase and all of that,

00:55:14.340 --> 00:55:15.280
they wouldn't have been able

00:55:15.322 --> 00:55:17.001
to purchase that land if

00:55:17.041 --> 00:55:20.443
they had to pay wages to those people.

00:55:21.905 --> 00:55:24.385
And so we became the richest

00:55:24.465 --> 00:55:25.925
nation in the world off the

00:55:26.047 --> 00:55:30.889
backs of the slaves, off of slavery.

00:55:32.028 --> 00:55:33.329
So if you look at all the

00:55:33.389 --> 00:55:34.731
money that was accumulated

00:55:35.050 --> 00:55:36.992
then to purchase and to do

00:55:37.092 --> 00:55:38.092
everything and the

00:55:38.132 --> 00:55:39.913
Industrial Revolution and everything,

00:55:40.472 --> 00:55:41.693
and they never got paid,

00:55:43.333 --> 00:55:44.755
Where is the point of you

00:55:46.076 --> 00:55:48.538
reimbursing people for the

00:55:48.597 --> 00:55:49.639
work that they've done?

00:55:51.141 --> 00:55:53.081
Where is the work that's

00:55:53.121 --> 00:55:54.563
being done in the

00:55:54.623 --> 00:55:56.684
reparations for Native

00:55:56.724 --> 00:55:57.925
Americans when you stole

00:55:57.945 --> 00:55:58.947
their land and killed the

00:55:58.987 --> 00:56:01.668
buffalo and slaughtered in genocide?

00:56:03.230 --> 00:56:04.271
Where is that?

00:56:04.952 --> 00:56:06.954
And so there has to be a way

00:56:08.215 --> 00:56:10.456
to reward people for the

00:56:10.496 --> 00:56:12.157
work that their ancestors done.

00:56:13.896 --> 00:56:17.077
And so California has done a

00:56:17.137 --> 00:56:18.358
good job with the

00:56:18.418 --> 00:56:21.239
reparations committee and going on.

00:56:21.500 --> 00:56:22.820
But they got to go to the next step.

00:56:24.201 --> 00:56:26.101
The next step is how do you pay for that?

00:56:26.922 --> 00:56:28.702
And does it have to be money?

00:56:29.262 --> 00:56:32.242
I know Evanston, Illinois,

00:56:32.304 --> 00:56:38.846
they implemented part of reparations.

00:56:39.246 --> 00:56:41.887
It can go into anything from

00:56:42.702 --> 00:56:44.382
Down payments on homes,

00:56:44.902 --> 00:56:46.764
children's education,

00:56:48.184 --> 00:56:49.284
paying for schooling,

00:56:50.144 --> 00:56:51.664
free community college

00:56:51.945 --> 00:56:53.626
program need to be expanded.

00:56:55.706 --> 00:56:57.068
It can go through many ways,

00:56:57.947 --> 00:57:02.369
but America has a lot of good angels,

00:57:04.170 --> 00:57:05.650
but a lot of bad demons.

00:57:06.831 --> 00:57:07.572
In some way,

00:57:08.692 --> 00:57:10.193
if we're the godly nation that

00:57:10.233 --> 00:57:11.193
we say we are,

00:57:13.074 --> 00:57:17.577
We need to take care and

00:57:18.137 --> 00:57:19.938
right the wrongs that has

00:57:19.978 --> 00:57:21.739
happened over the years.

00:57:21.938 --> 00:57:24.320
Because no one can say that

00:57:24.481 --> 00:57:30.322
America has not benefited from slavery.

00:57:31.503 --> 00:57:33.364
And that's going to revisit history.

00:57:33.864 --> 00:57:36.445
Yeah, and I like how you mentioned,

00:57:36.465 --> 00:57:37.367
I think a lot of people

00:57:38.233 --> 00:57:39.315
It's a big debate obviously

00:57:39.375 --> 00:57:40.335
happening right now between

00:57:40.376 --> 00:57:41.356
giving people reparations.

00:57:41.976 --> 00:57:43.317
And I like how you mentioned

00:57:43.518 --> 00:57:44.697
thinking about there's

00:57:44.757 --> 00:57:45.818
other ways to give it.

00:57:45.878 --> 00:57:46.739
Some people talk about, hey,

00:57:46.760 --> 00:57:48.340
just no longer making

00:57:48.420 --> 00:57:50.161
Afro-Americans get taxed or

00:57:50.382 --> 00:57:51.922
go to school for free or whatever.

00:57:52.103 --> 00:57:56.846
Those are cool opportunities and changes.

00:57:58.106 --> 00:57:59.889
As you being co-founder of

00:57:59.929 --> 00:58:01.449
the Ontario Future Alliance,

00:58:02.110 --> 00:58:03.630
can you tell us what is the

00:58:03.710 --> 00:58:05.052
Ontario Future Alliance and

00:58:05.112 --> 00:58:06.432
how you became co-founder of it?

00:58:07.673 --> 00:58:14.157
so um when we a lot of uh uh

00:58:14.277 --> 00:58:16.958
cities around uh california

00:58:17.398 --> 00:58:18.878
have districts where they

00:58:18.938 --> 00:58:20.820
vote in the mayor city

00:58:20.860 --> 00:58:22.161
council race and everything

00:58:22.260 --> 00:58:26.382
else and we didn't have any

00:58:26.443 --> 00:58:27.242
districts here so um

00:58:29.878 --> 00:58:34.344
Chris Robles got together

00:58:34.905 --> 00:58:36.246
with a lot of community

00:58:36.286 --> 00:58:38.349
groups and fought that and

00:58:38.409 --> 00:58:39.590
threatened a lawsuit with

00:58:39.630 --> 00:58:41.213
the Attorney General that

00:58:41.753 --> 00:58:43.635
it wasn't representing

00:58:43.795 --> 00:58:45.237
underrepresented people.

00:58:46.039 --> 00:58:46.920
And so in...

00:58:48.400 --> 00:58:50.760
getting together all those

00:58:50.800 --> 00:58:53.262
community groups, we had to review.

00:58:53.382 --> 00:58:54.682
Once the city decided that

00:58:54.702 --> 00:58:57.204
they weren't going to fight us on it,

00:58:57.625 --> 00:58:59.106
we had to come together and

00:58:59.445 --> 00:59:01.586
help redraw maps on how the

00:59:01.666 --> 00:59:02.666
districts are going to be

00:59:02.947 --> 00:59:04.007
so that we wouldn't leave

00:59:04.108 --> 00:59:06.349
out the people who was underrepresented.

00:59:06.889 --> 00:59:11.231
And so we got together with NAACP,

00:59:11.251 --> 00:59:13.233
the Poor People's Campaign, LULAC,

00:59:13.632 --> 00:59:16.353
the Civil Rights Latino Organization,

00:59:20.896 --> 00:59:23.699
which is the Tongan group

00:59:24.219 --> 00:59:25.940
and different other organizations.

00:59:26.061 --> 00:59:28.402
And we worked on maps to

00:59:28.443 --> 00:59:31.525
redraw the districts.

00:59:31.965 --> 00:59:33.246
And so once we,

00:59:33.987 --> 00:59:38.190
the map that we push for got approved,

00:59:38.871 --> 00:59:41.574
this is the first year, this year, 2024,

00:59:41.574 --> 00:59:42.313
that we have districts now.

00:59:45.239 --> 00:59:47.480
And so all those groups that

00:59:47.519 --> 00:59:50.922
was working together on the redistricting,

00:59:51.481 --> 00:59:51.902
we said,

00:59:52.003 --> 00:59:55.123
why should we disband or dissipate?

00:59:55.864 --> 00:59:57.385
We need to stay together

00:59:57.405 --> 01:00:00.987
because we have so many things in common.

01:00:01.447 --> 01:00:03.168
We need to come together to

01:00:03.248 --> 01:00:05.170
fight for other injustices

01:00:05.750 --> 01:00:08.411
that come up around our area.

01:00:08.952 --> 01:00:13.434
And so myself and Melissa May, who's

01:00:15.775 --> 01:00:17.775
officer in LULAC came

01:00:17.815 --> 01:00:18.916
together and formed the

01:00:19.016 --> 01:00:20.456
Ontario Futures Alliance.

01:00:20.876 --> 01:00:23.577
So any injustice that goes on,

01:00:23.637 --> 01:00:24.418
we fight for it.

01:00:24.478 --> 01:00:26.117
Anything that's not right,

01:00:26.177 --> 01:00:26.998
we fight for it.

01:00:27.057 --> 01:00:30.659
We provide healthcare

01:00:30.739 --> 01:00:33.079
pop-ups in different areas

01:00:33.139 --> 01:00:35.800
of Ontario to have free mammograms.

01:00:35.860 --> 01:00:38.460
We give away free food, backpacks.

01:00:39.121 --> 01:00:41.742
We gave away free toys to

01:00:42.804 --> 01:00:44.666
children and we continue to

01:00:44.766 --> 01:00:47.349
fight for the community

01:00:47.668 --> 01:00:49.931
because people used to look

01:00:49.971 --> 01:00:52.273
for government to take care

01:00:52.293 --> 01:00:54.094
of standing the gap in the

01:00:54.175 --> 01:00:55.436
social services gap.

01:00:55.795 --> 01:00:57.777
But now community groups

01:00:57.858 --> 01:00:59.820
have to do it because our

01:01:00.019 --> 01:01:02.302
vested interest is not to

01:01:02.842 --> 01:01:04.344
influence people by votes

01:01:04.443 --> 01:01:07.606
or anything else is to help people

01:01:08.521 --> 01:01:10.222
be able to understand that

01:01:10.262 --> 01:01:12.684
there's a right way of doing things.

01:01:13.005 --> 01:01:15.126
And if everybody pitches in

01:01:15.567 --> 01:01:16.768
to take care of those

01:01:17.168 --> 01:01:18.608
social services type of

01:01:18.648 --> 01:01:19.949
things and to make sure

01:01:19.969 --> 01:01:21.170
that people are healthy and

01:01:21.210 --> 01:01:21.831
everything else,

01:01:22.211 --> 01:01:23.652
then they will have a voice.

01:01:24.173 --> 01:01:25.373
And we are the voice for the

01:01:25.434 --> 01:01:27.275
people who don't have voices.

01:01:28.317 --> 01:01:28.896
I love that.

01:01:29.137 --> 01:01:30.038
Voice for the voiceless.

01:01:30.097 --> 01:01:31.518
You know, it's always good to have that.

01:01:32.159 --> 01:01:32.760
It's so great.

01:01:32.800 --> 01:01:35.202
You know, I was going to ask about

01:01:36.172 --> 01:01:36.293
uh,

01:01:36.353 --> 01:01:38.815
your former experience as deputy director,

01:01:38.855 --> 01:01:41.936
but I, uh, I would rather,

01:01:41.956 --> 01:01:43.498
I rather would ask this, which is,

01:01:44.318 --> 01:01:46.278
you know, we got a lot into, you know,

01:01:46.699 --> 01:01:47.820
what you do for the community,

01:01:47.840 --> 01:01:49.061
how you got into activism

01:01:49.121 --> 01:01:49.981
and things like that.

01:01:50.641 --> 01:01:51.922
But Ted,

01:01:52.003 --> 01:01:53.983
what is something that most people,

01:01:54.123 --> 01:01:56.385
even close friends don't know about you?

01:01:59.166 --> 01:02:03.250
Um, I'm an ordained minister.

01:02:07.083 --> 01:02:09.324
And I'm the acting pastor at my church,

01:02:10.927 --> 01:02:14.630
but I don't really like

01:02:14.831 --> 01:02:15.992
organized religion.

01:02:17.693 --> 01:02:18.295
Can you explain?

01:02:18.315 --> 01:02:21.958
I think it's a personal

01:02:22.018 --> 01:02:24.041
relationship with Jesus

01:02:24.081 --> 01:02:25.302
Christ that you should have,

01:02:25.342 --> 01:02:27.043
and that's between you and him.

01:02:27.940 --> 01:02:29.981
And when you get into organized religion,

01:02:30.262 --> 01:02:31.682
then you have this religion

01:02:31.782 --> 01:02:33.244
telling you that you can do

01:02:33.284 --> 01:02:35.445
this and you and then this

01:02:35.505 --> 01:02:36.525
religion can do that.

01:02:36.965 --> 01:02:38.146
And that's what has led to

01:02:38.226 --> 01:02:40.027
Christian nationalism,

01:02:40.449 --> 01:02:42.869
where people are saying, oh,

01:02:42.949 --> 01:02:44.351
I believe in these three things,

01:02:44.471 --> 01:02:45.210
anti-abortion,

01:02:45.251 --> 01:02:47.972
anti-gay and preparing in the schools.

01:02:48.333 --> 01:02:49.614
And so when you get to those

01:02:49.673 --> 01:02:51.574
things and you start formulating,

01:02:51.855 --> 01:02:53.115
then you only want people

01:02:53.175 --> 01:02:54.137
who look like you.

01:02:55.646 --> 01:02:56.547
to worship with you,

01:02:56.608 --> 01:02:58.009
and that's how Jesus don't

01:02:58.048 --> 01:02:58.909
get down like that.

01:02:59.590 --> 01:03:00.949
You know that Sunday morning

01:03:01.030 --> 01:03:02.710
is the most segregated time

01:03:04.873 --> 01:03:10.536
out of the seven weeks in the week,

01:03:11.237 --> 01:03:12.016
out of the days,

01:03:12.717 --> 01:03:13.898
because that's when people

01:03:14.358 --> 01:03:17.239
who look the same, believe the same,

01:03:17.840 --> 01:03:19.961
all come together to worship the same,

01:03:20.342 --> 01:03:21.543
when there should be

01:03:22.445 --> 01:03:25.327
Blacks, white, Latinos, Asians, Jews,

01:03:25.407 --> 01:03:26.027
Gentiles,

01:03:26.387 --> 01:03:28.987
all in the congregation of what

01:03:29.068 --> 01:03:30.188
Jesus fought for.

01:03:30.927 --> 01:03:34.068
And so I don't get into

01:03:34.429 --> 01:03:36.168
formal religion where you

01:03:36.248 --> 01:03:38.210
are going to point fingers at people.

01:03:38.230 --> 01:03:39.309
Because that's why people

01:03:39.409 --> 01:03:41.451
are turned off to religion these days,

01:03:41.530 --> 01:03:42.490
because people are always

01:03:42.530 --> 01:03:43.530
trying to preach to them

01:03:43.891 --> 01:03:44.931
and tell them that if you're not,

01:03:44.952 --> 01:03:46.012
you're going to burn in hell.

01:03:46.331 --> 01:03:48.092
I'm not saying there's no hell,

01:03:48.132 --> 01:03:50.112
because there is in my belief system.

01:03:50.552 --> 01:03:52.594
But there is a way to love

01:03:52.695 --> 01:03:55.056
your neighbor as you love their self.

01:03:55.336 --> 01:03:56.577
And if you go and do

01:03:56.657 --> 01:03:59.000
something for someone and

01:03:59.079 --> 01:04:00.501
it added and your motives

01:04:00.521 --> 01:04:02.181
and intentions are pure and

01:04:02.222 --> 01:04:03.043
you do it out of the

01:04:03.103 --> 01:04:04.123
goodness of your heart,

01:04:04.483 --> 01:04:06.505
you have already supplanted

01:04:06.646 --> 01:04:08.206
what Jesus wanted us to do.

01:04:09.324 --> 01:04:10.204
Yeah, I love that.

01:04:10.264 --> 01:04:11.385
I think it's very crucial to

01:04:11.425 --> 01:04:12.844
love thy neighbor as you love thyself.

01:04:12.905 --> 01:04:14.706
I think that's a very great

01:04:14.746 --> 01:04:17.126
message left by Yeshua.

01:04:17.947 --> 01:04:19.186
You know, and I guess I have to ask,

01:04:19.226 --> 01:04:19.487
you know,

01:04:19.768 --> 01:04:22.427
since you are a retired deputy

01:04:22.447 --> 01:04:23.768
director of the SIU,

01:04:23.809 --> 01:04:24.688
can you tell us a little

01:04:24.708 --> 01:04:26.429
bit about how it was and

01:04:26.590 --> 01:04:28.030
maybe an interesting story

01:04:28.070 --> 01:04:29.530
or two when you're in network?

01:04:31.371 --> 01:04:33.351
Being the deputy director of

01:04:33.431 --> 01:04:35.653
the SEIU Local 1000,

01:04:35.653 --> 01:04:37.335
which is the largest public

01:04:37.394 --> 01:04:40.476
sector union in California,

01:04:40.836 --> 01:04:42.257
over 100,000 members,

01:04:42.757 --> 01:04:44.117
we represented and

01:04:44.177 --> 01:04:47.219
bargained contracts for EDD, DMV,

01:04:47.300 --> 01:04:49.742
Highway Patrol, prison, food and ag,

01:04:49.802 --> 01:04:50.661
fish and game,

01:04:50.722 --> 01:04:52.922
and all type of prisons and

01:04:53.003 --> 01:04:53.543
parole agencies.

01:04:54.364 --> 01:04:56.706
And we represented people

01:04:56.766 --> 01:04:58.347
from the Oregon border to

01:04:58.367 --> 01:04:59.349
the Mexican border.

01:04:59.389 --> 01:05:00.971
That's how big we were.

01:05:01.492 --> 01:05:03.713
And so we made sure that

01:05:03.773 --> 01:05:06.056
people rights under the

01:05:06.135 --> 01:05:07.157
contract to have a

01:05:07.197 --> 01:05:08.077
collective bargaining

01:05:08.097 --> 01:05:10.280
agreement was upheld and

01:05:10.440 --> 01:05:12.103
enforced and to make sure

01:05:12.143 --> 01:05:13.664
we teach people to know

01:05:13.704 --> 01:05:15.246
their rights in the workplaces.

01:05:15.606 --> 01:05:17.688
Because there are rules and

01:05:17.750 --> 01:05:20.273
regulations against despair

01:05:20.353 --> 01:05:20.914
treatment and

01:05:20.974 --> 01:05:22.135
discrimination and

01:05:22.195 --> 01:05:23.197
everything else like that.

01:05:23.478 --> 01:05:24.320
And there are rules that

01:05:24.380 --> 01:05:25.420
have to follow through the

01:05:25.981 --> 01:05:27.043
civil service rules.

01:05:27.485 --> 01:05:29.467
And so when we...

01:05:31.556 --> 01:05:33.336
continue to fight and I

01:05:33.376 --> 01:05:34.778
worked for 27 years for

01:05:34.798 --> 01:05:36.300
them we continue to fight

01:05:36.320 --> 01:05:37.460
to make sure that people

01:05:37.501 --> 01:05:39.081
had a job that they can

01:05:39.121 --> 01:05:40.182
take care of their family

01:05:40.543 --> 01:05:41.443
and take care of everything

01:05:41.483 --> 01:05:43.204
and one of my great stories

01:05:43.284 --> 01:05:45.907
was when we had budgetary

01:05:46.027 --> 01:05:48.289
problems in 2007 2008 and

01:05:48.289 --> 01:05:52.032
2009 in the state of

01:05:52.052 --> 01:05:53.773
california and during that

01:05:53.833 --> 01:05:55.155
time governor

01:05:55.195 --> 01:05:57.275
schwarzenegger was the

01:05:57.416 --> 01:06:00.579
governor and he was going to um

01:06:03.331 --> 01:06:05.634
get rid of our workers' jobs.

01:06:05.773 --> 01:06:07.534
And because of the budget,

01:06:07.574 --> 01:06:09.536
he was going to pay the

01:06:09.597 --> 01:06:12.898
workers federal minimum wage at that time,

01:06:12.938 --> 01:06:14.719
which is $6.55 an hour.

01:06:15.201 --> 01:06:16.041
And it was an outrage

01:06:16.061 --> 01:06:17.782
because nobody could go

01:06:17.822 --> 01:06:20.744
from making a good wage to

01:06:20.744 --> 01:06:23.706
$6.55 just because the

01:06:23.726 --> 01:06:24.726
state government couldn't

01:06:26.148 --> 01:06:27.528
balance their budget.

01:06:27.909 --> 01:06:29.811
So we went around picketing

01:06:30.525 --> 01:06:35.929
The governor at every viewpoint he was at,

01:06:35.969 --> 01:06:37.889
we picketed his house in LA.

01:06:38.269 --> 01:06:40.251
When his movie came out,

01:06:40.331 --> 01:06:42.172
we picketed his movie at

01:06:42.211 --> 01:06:43.253
the movie theaters.

01:06:43.353 --> 01:06:44.793
And we got him at the

01:06:44.853 --> 01:06:46.414
Capitol and everything else like that.

01:06:46.474 --> 01:06:48.356
And one of my greatest glory

01:06:48.416 --> 01:06:50.677
is when we got kicked out

01:06:50.737 --> 01:06:53.418
of the Capitol by Schwarzenegger.

01:06:53.798 --> 01:06:55.099
And I had something said,

01:06:55.119 --> 01:06:55.920
something smart like,

01:06:56.539 --> 01:06:57.641
How's Maria doing?

01:06:57.661 --> 01:06:59.601
He said, get out, get out, get out.

01:07:00.081 --> 01:07:01.121
And he kicked us out of the

01:07:01.161 --> 01:07:02.782
Capitol with everything else like that.

01:07:02.842 --> 01:07:03.724
And I yelled to him,

01:07:04.143 --> 01:07:05.985
why are your why are all

01:07:06.025 --> 01:07:09.005
your security guards look like Aryan?

01:07:09.085 --> 01:07:10.126
Why are they blue eyes,

01:07:10.806 --> 01:07:12.088
blonde hair and blue eyes?

01:07:12.148 --> 01:07:13.248
And I and, you know,

01:07:13.768 --> 01:07:14.708
I was just getting under

01:07:14.768 --> 01:07:19.050
his under his skin with that.

01:07:19.592 --> 01:07:20.891
And but that was one of the

01:07:20.931 --> 01:07:21.952
greatest things when we got

01:07:22.012 --> 01:07:23.514
kicked out the Capitol and

01:07:23.554 --> 01:07:24.793
stuff for protesting and

01:07:24.853 --> 01:07:25.775
everything else like that.

01:07:26.641 --> 01:07:27.442
That is awesome.

01:07:27.521 --> 01:07:28.282
That is awesome.

01:07:28.963 --> 01:07:29.302
Wow.

01:07:29.903 --> 01:07:30.324
And you guys,

01:07:30.384 --> 01:07:31.485
how are you guys able to get

01:07:31.525 --> 01:07:32.224
his home address?

01:07:32.385 --> 01:07:33.126
That's so wild.

01:07:33.246 --> 01:07:33.545
Oh yeah.

01:07:33.585 --> 01:07:37.369
But you know, people, listen,

01:07:38.070 --> 01:07:39.170
SEIU 1000 is just one of

01:07:39.210 --> 01:07:43.193
the sister locals of SEIU.

01:07:43.673 --> 01:07:45.554
We have locals that

01:07:45.936 --> 01:07:49.217
represents United Healthcare Workers,

01:07:50.278 --> 01:07:50.998
County of

01:07:52.059 --> 01:07:53.360
la workers county of

01:07:53.420 --> 01:07:55.440
riverside workers county of

01:07:55.481 --> 01:07:56.742
stanislaw workers so we

01:07:56.762 --> 01:07:59.083
have like 12 or 13

01:07:59.083 --> 01:07:59.983
different locals that

01:08:00.063 --> 01:08:02.204
represent city municipal

01:08:02.284 --> 01:08:03.523
state workers and

01:08:03.583 --> 01:08:06.125
everything else so we we we

01:08:06.204 --> 01:08:07.505
always stand together and

01:08:07.545 --> 01:08:09.385
if we need a fight against

01:08:09.525 --> 01:08:10.827
one is a fight against all

01:08:11.246 --> 01:08:13.788
so when when he's cutting the budget

01:08:14.610 --> 01:08:17.594
He not only is affecting state workers,

01:08:17.895 --> 01:08:19.657
it's always also affecting

01:08:19.997 --> 01:08:21.738
other workers in other sectors,

01:08:22.038 --> 01:08:23.240
public sectors of the

01:08:23.720 --> 01:08:24.921
county and municipal.

01:08:24.983 --> 01:08:27.826
So we we used our research

01:08:27.945 --> 01:08:29.847
and and found everything

01:08:29.927 --> 01:08:31.590
and found out where he was going to be.

01:08:31.890 --> 01:08:33.412
And we was there at every moment.

01:08:33.872 --> 01:08:35.993
Probably one of his maids were like, nope,

01:08:36.734 --> 01:08:37.375
you got a hold of one of

01:08:37.414 --> 01:08:38.595
his maids and came in and

01:08:38.636 --> 01:08:39.337
got it that way.

01:08:39.356 --> 01:08:41.198
That's probably what happened.

01:08:41.298 --> 01:08:41.998
Super cool.

01:08:42.279 --> 01:08:43.701
You know, Ted,

01:08:43.720 --> 01:08:44.902
I want to thank you so much

01:08:45.462 --> 01:08:46.462
for being on The Empire.

01:08:46.523 --> 01:08:46.802
You know,

01:08:46.823 --> 01:08:47.684
what are some of the current

01:08:47.724 --> 01:08:48.664
projects that you're working on?

01:08:51.835 --> 01:08:54.938
We are working on a lot of

01:08:55.078 --> 01:08:57.119
environmental justice stuff

01:08:57.239 --> 01:08:58.560
with different

01:08:58.680 --> 01:09:00.242
organizations to educate

01:09:00.301 --> 01:09:02.604
the public about pollution

01:09:02.684 --> 01:09:04.786
and how pollution works and how

01:09:05.287 --> 01:09:08.349
pollution is not only air pollution,

01:09:08.748 --> 01:09:11.890
but it's built pollution also.

01:09:11.909 --> 01:09:12.369
I mean,

01:09:12.409 --> 01:09:14.131
built pollution is they're building

01:09:14.171 --> 01:09:16.091
warehouses around areas

01:09:16.131 --> 01:09:17.512
that used to be farmland

01:09:17.792 --> 01:09:18.573
and people don't have

01:09:18.673 --> 01:09:20.314
access to that anymore.

01:09:20.594 --> 01:09:21.734
And then another pollution

01:09:21.795 --> 01:09:23.615
is social pollution on how

01:09:23.716 --> 01:09:25.617
it affects people of color

01:09:25.837 --> 01:09:27.637
and poor people to be able

01:09:27.717 --> 01:09:29.599
to live in a good

01:09:29.658 --> 01:09:31.760
environment and to have clean water.

01:09:32.079 --> 01:09:33.341
you you surprise how many

01:09:33.421 --> 01:09:35.122
people flint is not the

01:09:35.261 --> 01:09:36.743
only place that don't have

01:09:36.842 --> 01:09:38.664
clean water and that's a

01:09:39.145 --> 01:09:40.265
constitutional right

01:09:40.838 --> 01:09:41.078
You know,

01:09:41.118 --> 01:09:42.199
we hold these truths to be

01:09:42.239 --> 01:09:43.761
self-evident that all men

01:09:43.801 --> 01:09:44.863
are created equal and

01:09:44.922 --> 01:09:46.144
endowed by their creator

01:09:46.423 --> 01:09:47.865
with certain unalienable rights.

01:09:48.105 --> 01:09:48.725
And that's life,

01:09:48.826 --> 01:09:50.768
liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

01:09:50.807 --> 01:09:52.009
And the pursuit of happiness

01:09:52.310 --> 01:09:53.451
is having health care,

01:09:53.751 --> 01:09:55.953
having access to clean

01:09:56.432 --> 01:09:58.435
water in this country.

01:09:58.815 --> 01:09:59.716
They're one of the richest

01:09:59.796 --> 01:10:01.337
countries in the world and

01:10:01.358 --> 01:10:02.458
people don't have access.

01:10:02.738 --> 01:10:05.100
So we're educating people on that.

01:10:05.161 --> 01:10:06.622
We're going to do some pop ups.

01:10:07.363 --> 01:10:09.985
for health care and dental

01:10:10.046 --> 01:10:11.046
for the community.

01:10:11.547 --> 01:10:13.909
And we're still working on

01:10:14.250 --> 01:10:16.832
making sure that people who

01:10:17.033 --> 01:10:18.194
are elected officials,

01:10:18.274 --> 01:10:22.037
that they still want to do

01:10:22.078 --> 01:10:23.319
the right thing and elected

01:10:23.340 --> 01:10:24.020
to do the right thing.

01:10:24.341 --> 01:10:25.521
And one of the main things

01:10:25.561 --> 01:10:26.483
that we're working on

01:10:26.943 --> 01:10:29.203
has to do with the John

01:10:29.243 --> 01:10:30.425
Lewis Voting Rights Act.

01:10:30.505 --> 01:10:32.826
We need to be able to put

01:10:32.865 --> 01:10:34.747
some teeth back into the

01:10:34.806 --> 01:10:36.408
Voting Rights Act because

01:10:42.270 --> 01:10:43.612
it was gutted by the 5-4

01:10:44.051 --> 01:10:47.273
Shelby decision that took

01:10:47.292 --> 01:10:48.894
the teeth out of our voting rights.

01:10:49.194 --> 01:10:51.114
And voter suppression is real.

01:10:51.876 --> 01:10:53.657
And if people don't understand that,

01:10:53.837 --> 01:10:54.796
it's a real thing.

01:10:55.337 --> 01:10:55.757
And so...

01:10:56.559 --> 01:10:58.801
Being able to be born in the

01:10:58.841 --> 01:10:59.740
year that I was born,

01:11:00.121 --> 01:11:00.921
a lot of people in the

01:11:00.942 --> 01:11:01.983
United States didn't even

01:11:02.023 --> 01:11:03.524
have access to be able to vote.

01:11:04.003 --> 01:11:05.104
And after the Voting Rights

01:11:05.164 --> 01:11:06.865
Act of 1965 passed,

01:11:07.466 --> 01:11:09.448
it was gutted all through the years.

01:11:10.127 --> 01:11:12.088
And so we need better and

01:11:12.128 --> 01:11:13.289
stronger language.

01:11:13.329 --> 01:11:16.112
And we asked Congress and

01:11:16.171 --> 01:11:17.813
the Biden administration to

01:11:17.872 --> 01:11:19.634
push forth the John Lewis

01:11:19.654 --> 01:11:21.034
Voting Rights Act so that

01:11:21.074 --> 01:11:22.256
we can have protections,

01:11:22.515 --> 01:11:24.478
so we can practice our

01:11:24.557 --> 01:11:26.099
constitutional rights of voting.

01:11:26.559 --> 01:11:27.639
Can you explain a little bit

01:11:27.658 --> 01:11:28.420
for people who may not know

01:11:28.439 --> 01:11:30.340
what the John Lewis Voting Rights Act is?

01:11:30.380 --> 01:11:31.000
Can you explain that a

01:11:31.020 --> 01:11:31.820
little bit more for us?

01:11:32.881 --> 01:11:34.421
And not going into the weeds,

01:11:35.202 --> 01:11:37.202
the 5-4 Shelby decision

01:11:37.662 --> 01:11:40.283
took the enforcement of the

01:11:40.342 --> 01:11:43.064
Voting Rights Act from the

01:11:43.663 --> 01:11:46.225
federal government and put

01:11:46.265 --> 01:11:47.104
it to the states.

01:11:48.265 --> 01:11:50.305
And then the states, which are

01:11:51.811 --> 01:11:54.832
Southern states like Alabama, Arkansas,

01:11:54.953 --> 01:11:57.293
Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana,

01:11:57.913 --> 01:11:59.954
Mississippi, North Carolina,

01:11:59.994 --> 01:12:02.076
South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas,

01:12:02.416 --> 01:12:02.996
and Virginia,

01:12:03.676 --> 01:12:08.878
they practice using the old

01:12:08.939 --> 01:12:10.998
Jim Crow act of if you

01:12:11.019 --> 01:12:12.300
don't have an ID card,

01:12:12.963 --> 01:12:13.864
you can't vote.

01:12:14.444 --> 01:12:17.867
If you limit in the amount

01:12:18.226 --> 01:12:21.109
of voting areas in the

01:12:21.208 --> 01:12:22.270
minority neighborhoods,

01:12:22.569 --> 01:12:24.051
like four years ago there

01:12:24.091 --> 01:12:28.033
might have been 160, now there's only 40.

01:12:28.033 --> 01:12:29.253
Limiting in those votes,

01:12:29.613 --> 01:12:32.855
voter intimidation, voter misinformation.

01:12:33.376 --> 01:12:34.216
What's intimidation?

01:12:34.893 --> 01:12:36.034
Intimidation standing

01:12:36.115 --> 01:12:38.881
outside the voting rights

01:12:38.961 --> 01:12:40.182
and if you vote in it,

01:12:40.222 --> 01:12:41.405
we're going to beat you up.

01:12:41.966 --> 01:12:43.328
Some people in some states,

01:12:43.389 --> 01:12:45.554
they have open carry

01:12:46.314 --> 01:12:48.536
and they intimidate people that way.

01:12:48.935 --> 01:12:54.238
They send people the wrong addresses,

01:12:54.859 --> 01:12:57.859
all types of camouflage so

01:12:57.899 --> 01:12:59.381
that people won't be able to vote.

01:12:59.680 --> 01:13:01.582
And the John Lewis vote put

01:13:01.662 --> 01:13:03.221
some of those things that

01:13:03.283 --> 01:13:05.243
was taken out with the 5-4

01:13:05.302 --> 01:13:06.144
Shelby decision

01:13:07.425 --> 01:13:09.146
versus Shelby versus Holder

01:13:09.967 --> 01:13:11.989
and put some teeth in the

01:13:12.050 --> 01:13:13.332
enforcement that everybody

01:13:13.372 --> 01:13:14.712
has a right to vote.

01:13:14.993 --> 01:13:17.395
It is easier to get a gun

01:13:17.475 --> 01:13:19.257
card than it is to get an

01:13:19.457 --> 01:13:21.140
ID to vote in some areas.

01:13:22.301 --> 01:13:23.643
And then the point about if

01:13:23.722 --> 01:13:27.126
you have been in trouble with the law,

01:13:27.405 --> 01:13:29.068
you don't have rights to vote.

01:13:29.608 --> 01:13:30.748
And it's just a lot of

01:13:30.810 --> 01:13:33.471
things that they are reintroducing.

01:13:33.851 --> 01:13:36.654
But it's the same as we say, same grocery,

01:13:36.715 --> 01:13:38.837
different bag from Jim Crow in the 1800s.

01:13:39.978 --> 01:13:40.278
Gotcha.

01:13:40.297 --> 01:13:41.519
I was going to mention that same shit,

01:13:41.538 --> 01:13:42.500
different day, as they say.

01:13:42.520 --> 01:13:42.900
Yeah.

01:13:43.100 --> 01:13:43.801
Yeah.

01:13:43.900 --> 01:13:44.841
I was going to mention like-

01:13:45.502 --> 01:13:46.182
I didn't want to say that

01:13:46.203 --> 01:13:47.404
because my mother's listening.

01:13:47.725 --> 01:13:48.604
Oh, mama.

01:13:48.625 --> 01:13:50.027
You've heard the word before.

01:13:50.106 --> 01:13:50.646
You've heard it before.

01:13:52.448 --> 01:13:53.248
Thanks for being here, mama.

01:13:54.990 --> 01:13:55.992
I was going to ask you too

01:13:56.072 --> 01:13:59.253
about the thing about felons, right?

01:13:59.274 --> 01:14:00.574
If you're a felon, if you have a felony,

01:14:00.615 --> 01:14:01.576
you can't vote either, right?

01:14:01.655 --> 01:14:02.356
That's correct, right?

01:14:02.516 --> 01:14:02.777
Right.

01:14:02.896 --> 01:14:03.238
And so-

01:14:04.224 --> 01:14:06.786
There are through the

01:14:07.565 --> 01:14:08.987
attorney general's office

01:14:09.386 --> 01:14:10.988
and the district attorneys

01:14:11.068 --> 01:14:12.628
in many different cities,

01:14:13.488 --> 01:14:15.390
California expungement law

01:14:16.110 --> 01:14:19.493
and that you can find ways

01:14:19.893 --> 01:14:21.073
to say that you want to

01:14:21.154 --> 01:14:22.954
vote and then they would

01:14:22.975 --> 01:14:24.076
help you expunge your

01:14:24.176 --> 01:14:26.197
record so that you're able to vote.

01:14:27.154 --> 01:14:28.876
And there are some also

01:14:28.956 --> 01:14:30.938
things that they're working

01:14:30.997 --> 01:14:33.020
on in California that they

01:14:33.199 --> 01:14:34.521
are going to allow people

01:14:34.582 --> 01:14:36.363
who are incarcerated to

01:14:36.404 --> 01:14:38.064
vote because some people

01:14:38.185 --> 01:14:39.466
are under misdemeanors.

01:14:39.527 --> 01:14:40.587
But if they're locked up,

01:14:40.988 --> 01:14:42.630
they don't have access to voting.

01:14:43.230 --> 01:14:44.532
So there's a lot of programs

01:14:44.572 --> 01:14:45.752
that people are working on

01:14:46.113 --> 01:14:49.457
so that people have a right to vote.

01:14:52.061 --> 01:14:52.841
Well,

01:14:53.783 --> 01:14:55.523
when it comes to the voter suppression,

01:14:55.542 --> 01:14:56.962
the voter intimidation,

01:14:57.444 --> 01:14:59.804
sometimes the box is too

01:14:59.844 --> 01:15:01.625
far for people to drive in rural areas.

01:15:02.404 --> 01:15:04.685
Isn't mail-in ballots a way

01:15:04.765 --> 01:15:05.945
to fix that problem?

01:15:06.685 --> 01:15:09.567
That's a way as a symptom

01:15:10.627 --> 01:15:12.247
that gives people access,

01:15:13.587 --> 01:15:15.929
but some people only

01:15:15.988 --> 01:15:17.628
believe in voting in person.

01:15:18.710 --> 01:15:19.390
And, you know,

01:15:20.305 --> 01:15:22.265
Like somebody in my generation,

01:15:22.947 --> 01:15:24.306
I'm going to vote on my

01:15:24.408 --> 01:15:26.548
deathbed because I've seen

01:15:26.609 --> 01:15:28.930
and lived when my parents

01:15:28.989 --> 01:15:29.890
didn't have the right to

01:15:29.970 --> 01:15:33.113
vote and had to fight to be able to vote.

01:15:33.853 --> 01:15:37.956
So if we want to have equal

01:15:38.036 --> 01:15:39.777
representation under the

01:15:39.856 --> 01:15:41.578
law and everybody have a

01:15:41.637 --> 01:15:43.618
right to be able to vote,

01:15:43.979 --> 01:15:45.199
then there should be

01:15:46.400 --> 01:15:47.282
mail-in ballots.

01:15:47.603 --> 01:15:49.765
There should be access to voting.

01:15:50.104 --> 01:15:51.987
There should be more polling places.

01:15:52.306 --> 01:15:53.748
There should be mobile voting.

01:15:54.009 --> 01:15:54.890
There should be all

01:15:54.949 --> 01:15:56.452
different ways to be able

01:15:56.492 --> 01:15:58.274
to feed in so that people can vote.

01:15:59.234 --> 01:16:01.117
I want to push that voting

01:16:01.176 --> 01:16:03.099
day is a national holiday.

01:16:04.106 --> 01:16:05.648
Then you don't have to worry about that.

01:16:05.707 --> 01:16:07.268
If it's a national holiday,

01:16:07.649 --> 01:16:08.969
then everybody's off work.

01:16:09.029 --> 01:16:10.430
And then the vote,

01:16:10.510 --> 01:16:13.530
the momentum goes up of

01:16:13.591 --> 01:16:16.072
people having access to the voting.

01:16:16.112 --> 01:16:16.493
But, you know,

01:16:16.512 --> 01:16:18.533
the system don't want that because then,

01:16:18.854 --> 01:16:20.054
you know, there are much more.

01:16:20.694 --> 01:16:23.275
When the people of color, black, white,

01:16:23.555 --> 01:16:24.136
poor whites,

01:16:24.256 --> 01:16:26.356
Latinos and everything else come together,

01:16:26.377 --> 01:16:27.478
we can we can.

01:16:28.957 --> 01:16:30.179
outvote everybody.

01:16:30.519 --> 01:16:31.560
So they don't want people to

01:16:32.500 --> 01:16:33.640
be able to vote or have

01:16:33.820 --> 01:16:35.242
access to voting because

01:16:35.261 --> 01:16:36.481
they know they will lose.

01:16:36.502 --> 01:16:37.542
Yeah.

01:16:37.703 --> 01:16:40.164
And also the youth aren't voting.

01:16:40.385 --> 01:16:40.965
I remember talking about

01:16:41.005 --> 01:16:42.685
Melissa May about that is

01:16:42.725 --> 01:16:43.806
that the youth aren't voting.

01:16:43.827 --> 01:16:44.707
So they're also having that

01:16:44.747 --> 01:16:46.268
whole demographic that's

01:16:46.328 --> 01:16:48.128
missing from making a

01:16:48.429 --> 01:16:49.489
political change as well.

01:16:50.069 --> 01:16:50.369
Right.

01:16:50.409 --> 01:16:50.990
But that's when the

01:16:51.110 --> 01:16:52.390
education piece where

01:16:52.492 --> 01:16:53.952
people like my generation

01:16:54.032 --> 01:16:55.592
or the next generation need

01:16:55.613 --> 01:16:56.654
to educate them on

01:16:57.014 --> 01:16:58.034
where we came from,

01:16:58.055 --> 01:16:58.835
because they don't teach

01:16:58.935 --> 01:17:00.336
all of that in the schools

01:17:00.376 --> 01:17:02.297
like they normally do.

01:17:02.677 --> 01:17:04.139
If you watch the video of

01:17:04.238 --> 01:17:06.180
Fannie Lou Hamer and Emmett

01:17:06.260 --> 01:17:09.903
Till and Viola Louisa and

01:17:10.283 --> 01:17:11.743
the four little girls in

01:17:11.783 --> 01:17:14.565
the Birmingham church who got killed,

01:17:14.905 --> 01:17:16.386
if you watch those videos

01:17:16.466 --> 01:17:17.768
and learn about history,

01:17:18.167 --> 01:17:19.708
then you know your voting

01:17:20.409 --> 01:17:22.051
is not only for you,

01:17:22.470 --> 01:17:23.851
but for the shoulders that

01:17:23.891 --> 01:17:26.573
you stood on for the past generations.

01:17:27.529 --> 01:17:28.849
And if it's not about you,

01:17:29.529 --> 01:17:31.250
it's about serving the

01:17:31.310 --> 01:17:32.850
people who came before you

01:17:33.430 --> 01:17:34.730
so that they can understand

01:17:35.091 --> 01:17:36.572
how important it is.

01:17:36.591 --> 01:17:37.351
Yeah,

01:17:37.471 --> 01:17:38.712
and paving a way for the people in

01:17:38.733 --> 01:17:39.113
front of you.

01:17:39.613 --> 01:17:40.372
Exactly.

01:17:40.773 --> 01:17:42.554
And so I guess a good question is,

01:17:42.613 --> 01:17:45.015
is that the school

01:17:45.095 --> 01:17:46.694
government educational process?

01:17:46.835 --> 01:17:47.136
I mean,

01:17:47.615 --> 01:17:48.895
is that the school educational's

01:17:48.956 --> 01:17:51.077
role to teach about Black history,

01:17:51.157 --> 01:17:52.377
or is that Black Americans'

01:17:52.777 --> 01:17:53.717
responsibility to teach

01:17:53.738 --> 01:17:54.497
about Black history?

01:17:56.226 --> 01:17:58.207
I think the curriculum needs

01:17:58.247 --> 01:17:59.668
to be upgraded because they

01:17:59.689 --> 01:18:01.069
don't go far enough with

01:18:01.210 --> 01:18:02.990
black history because black

01:18:03.030 --> 01:18:04.511
history is not black history.

01:18:05.012 --> 01:18:06.332
This American history.

01:18:06.594 --> 01:18:07.793
There would be no America

01:18:07.833 --> 01:18:09.715
without the blacks.

01:18:09.836 --> 01:18:10.775
I think that they should

01:18:10.815 --> 01:18:12.636
change the curriculum and upgrade it.

01:18:12.938 --> 01:18:14.398
So it tells more of the truth.

01:18:14.819 --> 01:18:17.220
A good book is called Lies

01:18:17.300 --> 01:18:19.962
My Teacher Taught Me is a great book.

01:18:20.523 --> 01:18:22.304
Because you have to refocus

01:18:22.384 --> 01:18:23.963
what they taught you and

01:18:24.024 --> 01:18:25.744
reprogram it and unlearn

01:18:25.784 --> 01:18:27.085
what you've learned to be

01:18:27.145 --> 01:18:28.845
able to put the truth back in your mind.

01:18:29.305 --> 01:18:31.926
And so I think it's inherent

01:18:31.987 --> 01:18:33.506
upon the educational system,

01:18:33.827 --> 01:18:35.427
but it's also inherent upon

01:18:35.608 --> 01:18:38.009
every family to teach

01:18:38.208 --> 01:18:44.110
history as a mandatory thing

01:18:44.869 --> 01:18:47.773
so that your next generation can learn.

01:18:47.792 --> 01:18:48.894
That's how I got taught.

01:18:49.154 --> 01:18:51.275
It wasn't taught in my, when I was young,

01:18:51.376 --> 01:18:52.596
it was a bunch of lies.

01:18:53.158 --> 01:18:54.198
We all thought that the

01:18:54.658 --> 01:18:56.341
Indians scalped the cowboys

01:18:56.400 --> 01:18:57.261
and they were bad.

01:18:57.280 --> 01:18:59.063
That's what I got taught in school.

01:18:59.103 --> 01:18:59.804
But my mother,

01:19:00.264 --> 01:19:02.185
through the community and

01:19:02.206 --> 01:19:04.368
through all the people who got help

01:19:06.377 --> 01:19:07.498
who helped get teachers,

01:19:07.519 --> 01:19:08.458
because I had Black

01:19:08.498 --> 01:19:09.838
instructors in my school

01:19:10.099 --> 01:19:11.139
that my mother worked on

01:19:11.158 --> 01:19:13.260
the school board to help get elected.

01:19:13.739 --> 01:19:15.539
And, you know, Miss Dorothy Shelley,

01:19:15.579 --> 01:19:16.900
who was a librarian who

01:19:17.220 --> 01:19:18.201
spent time with me.

01:19:18.520 --> 01:19:21.322
In junior high, I had a Black principal,

01:19:22.162 --> 01:19:26.162
Dr. Young, and a Black vice principal,

01:19:27.783 --> 01:19:29.382
Mr. Mears, Henry Mears.

01:19:30.104 --> 01:19:31.304
I would have never had

01:19:32.319 --> 01:19:33.520
if I didn't have that

01:19:33.579 --> 01:19:34.921
guidance and instruction

01:19:34.980 --> 01:19:36.301
because of my mother

01:19:36.322 --> 01:19:39.664
working for the Get Black instructors in,

01:19:40.005 --> 01:19:40.926
I wouldn't have ever had

01:19:40.966 --> 01:19:42.306
the foundation to know what

01:19:42.386 --> 01:19:43.728
I can do or not do.

01:19:44.167 --> 01:19:44.408
Yeah.

01:19:45.128 --> 01:19:45.828
You want to give a shout out

01:19:45.849 --> 01:19:47.791
to your mom since she's listening?

01:19:48.110 --> 01:19:48.810
Hey,

01:19:49.311 --> 01:19:51.353
shout out to Dr. Evelyn Burnett

01:19:51.472 --> 01:19:53.475
Underwood and shout out to

01:19:53.854 --> 01:19:55.456
Bishop King James Underwood,

01:19:55.475 --> 01:19:58.298
who's the foundation of who

01:19:58.399 --> 01:19:59.699
made me who I am today.

01:20:00.460 --> 01:20:00.859
Amen.

01:20:00.921 --> 01:20:01.421
You know, and

01:20:02.729 --> 01:20:05.610
I think it's definitely important for any,

01:20:05.711 --> 01:20:07.511
because I think other ethnicities do this,

01:20:07.572 --> 01:20:08.592
but I think it's about,

01:20:08.752 --> 01:20:10.413
they teach themselves their culture.

01:20:10.493 --> 01:20:11.215
They make sure they do.

01:20:11.234 --> 01:20:12.956
And so I think it's important to,

01:20:13.896 --> 01:20:14.556
I think that's where,

01:20:14.577 --> 01:20:16.078
if we're talking about Black Americans,

01:20:16.097 --> 01:20:16.618
I think that's where they

01:20:16.679 --> 01:20:18.180
lack a lot is they don't know how to,

01:20:18.199 --> 01:20:19.199
they don't teach their history.

01:20:19.239 --> 01:20:19.740
Like if I say,

01:20:20.140 --> 01:20:22.141
if I talk to someone who's 14 right now,

01:20:22.181 --> 01:20:22.483
like, hey,

01:20:22.502 --> 01:20:23.662
do you know what Thelonious Monk is?

01:20:23.682 --> 01:20:24.644
They'd be like,

01:20:24.663 --> 01:20:25.524
what are you talking about?

01:20:26.404 --> 01:20:26.706
You know,

01:20:27.185 --> 01:20:28.707
and do you know who James Earl Jones is?

01:20:29.466 --> 01:20:30.948
And these are celebrities, you know, from,

01:20:32.011 --> 01:20:32.591
the past,

01:20:32.650 --> 01:20:33.810
but they wouldn't know the history.

01:20:35.051 --> 01:20:37.572
But that's another day.

01:20:37.631 --> 01:20:39.551
And what I think a lot of

01:20:39.591 --> 01:20:41.672
Mexicanos are very lucky

01:20:41.752 --> 01:20:43.332
about is that Mexico is

01:20:43.353 --> 01:20:44.012
right down the street.

01:20:44.533 --> 01:20:45.514
So if you wanted to get some

01:20:45.554 --> 01:20:46.833
Mexican history or anything like that,

01:20:46.854 --> 01:20:47.913
you can just go down the

01:20:47.953 --> 01:20:49.113
street and you can

01:20:49.154 --> 01:20:50.375
literally be in Mexico and

01:20:50.395 --> 01:20:51.715
get some history and stuff like that.

01:20:51.734 --> 01:20:52.875
So I think that's a lot of

01:20:52.914 --> 01:20:55.195
benefit for los Mexicanos.

01:20:55.256 --> 01:20:57.256
They can experience that type of benefit.

01:20:58.556 --> 01:20:58.936
But Ted,

01:20:58.957 --> 01:21:00.238
I want to thank you so much for

01:21:00.278 --> 01:21:01.439
being on The Empire, man.

01:21:01.918 --> 01:21:03.940
Let's say that 100 years pass by,

01:21:03.940 --> 01:21:05.402
250 years pass by,

01:21:05.462 --> 01:21:06.682
half a millennia passes by.

01:21:07.423 --> 01:21:08.064
What would you like your

01:21:08.203 --> 01:21:10.926
empire to look like a half

01:21:10.945 --> 01:21:11.766
a millennia from now,

01:21:11.867 --> 01:21:14.168
whether it's community work, activism,

01:21:14.929 --> 01:21:15.930
speaking the word of God?

01:21:16.570 --> 01:21:17.150
What would you like your

01:21:17.211 --> 01:21:19.052
empire to look like 500 years from now?

01:21:21.373 --> 01:21:25.917
That everyone love one another.

01:21:26.845 --> 01:21:29.327
And a kind word goes a long way.

01:21:30.506 --> 01:21:32.367
And if we start one person

01:21:32.426 --> 01:21:35.608
by one person caring about other people,

01:21:36.368 --> 01:21:39.029
then it'll be practice and

01:21:39.088 --> 01:21:40.368
it'd be muscle memory.

01:21:41.788 --> 01:21:42.889
Because we got too much

01:21:42.929 --> 01:21:44.449
division and hate in this

01:21:44.529 --> 01:21:45.409
country right now.

01:21:45.810 --> 01:21:47.090
And it's driving people to

01:21:47.109 --> 01:21:48.711
be out of their minds and

01:21:48.751 --> 01:21:50.110
not making good decisions.

01:21:50.490 --> 01:21:52.551
So if we start by just being

01:21:52.610 --> 01:21:54.152
nice to another human being,

01:21:54.532 --> 01:21:55.412
we can start there.

01:21:57.853 --> 01:21:59.252
I love that, and it's so true.

01:21:59.634 --> 01:22:01.293
Kindness goes so far.

01:22:02.154 --> 01:22:03.114
Kindness goes a lot farther

01:22:03.135 --> 01:22:05.095
than being rude and being an a-hole,

01:22:05.175 --> 01:22:05.774
as they say.

01:22:08.315 --> 01:22:08.536
Ted,

01:22:08.555 --> 01:22:09.856
I want to thank you so much for being

01:22:09.896 --> 01:22:10.657
on The Empire.

01:22:11.436 --> 01:22:12.356
For people who want to

01:22:12.436 --> 01:22:13.997
support the work that you're doing,

01:22:14.018 --> 01:22:15.778
they want to be involved in

01:22:15.938 --> 01:22:17.059
any of these organizations,

01:22:17.158 --> 01:22:17.979
can you please tell

01:22:18.139 --> 01:22:19.840
everybody how they can find you,

01:22:20.140 --> 01:22:21.239
contact you, and work with you?

01:22:23.461 --> 01:22:23.701
Yes.

01:22:25.529 --> 01:22:28.095
You can contact me through

01:22:28.115 --> 01:22:29.819
my mini organization at

01:22:29.920 --> 01:22:32.465
tedmail2atyahoo.com.

01:22:34.085 --> 01:22:36.086
Ted mail to T.E.D.

01:22:36.846 --> 01:22:37.966
M.A.I.L.

01:22:38.408 --> 01:22:40.229
The number two at Yahoo dot

01:22:40.248 --> 01:22:41.670
com is the best way to get into me.

01:22:41.930 --> 01:22:42.970
And let me say a shout out

01:22:43.010 --> 01:22:46.592
to someone who's always by

01:22:46.653 --> 01:22:49.054
my side and puts up with me

01:22:49.113 --> 01:22:50.715
and the many hours that I put in.

01:22:51.215 --> 01:22:53.197
My wonderful wife, Terry,

01:22:53.256 --> 01:22:55.318
who puts up with me and

01:22:55.358 --> 01:22:56.599
just encourages me every

01:22:56.639 --> 01:22:58.659
day to be able to do the right thing.

01:23:01.802 --> 01:23:02.563
That's so beautiful.

01:23:02.603 --> 01:23:03.323
Shout out to her.

01:23:03.363 --> 01:23:03.623
You know,

01:23:03.663 --> 01:23:05.725
it's good to have a what do they say?

01:23:05.765 --> 01:23:08.166
A man is as strong as his

01:23:08.206 --> 01:23:09.447
wife that's next to him type of thing.

01:23:10.106 --> 01:23:12.688
You know, it's a man's world.

01:23:12.988 --> 01:23:14.149
Yeah, nothing.

01:23:14.748 --> 01:23:14.868
See,

01:23:14.908 --> 01:23:16.229
if I said if I sing that song to a 14

01:23:16.229 --> 01:23:16.930
year old, they're like,

01:23:16.970 --> 01:23:17.730
what are you singing?

01:23:18.990 --> 01:23:20.192
But James Brown shot the

01:23:20.212 --> 01:23:22.033
James Brown shot off the James Brown.

01:23:22.273 --> 01:23:23.353
James Brown did a lot for

01:23:23.372 --> 01:23:24.314
the community as well.

01:23:25.460 --> 01:23:26.301
But ladies and gentlemen,

01:23:26.320 --> 01:23:27.621
I'll also have that

01:23:28.480 --> 01:23:29.782
information in the description.

01:23:30.242 --> 01:23:31.242
So if you want to reach out

01:23:31.282 --> 01:23:32.762
to Ted to support any of

01:23:32.802 --> 01:23:34.063
his organizations or be a

01:23:34.103 --> 01:23:35.203
part of it to know more,

01:23:35.524 --> 01:23:36.783
that also be in the description,

01:23:37.404 --> 01:23:37.704
you know.

01:23:38.604 --> 01:23:41.865
And so I want to thank Ted for being on.

01:23:41.905 --> 01:23:42.707
I want to thank all of you

01:23:42.747 --> 01:23:44.667
guys for for tuning in and listening.

01:23:44.707 --> 01:23:46.047
We learned so much about Ted,

01:23:46.108 --> 01:23:47.408
about how his mother

01:23:47.768 --> 01:23:48.509
started off his life.

01:23:49.579 --> 01:23:52.082
activism campaign and his activism route.

01:23:52.603 --> 01:23:54.945
We learned about how there's

01:23:55.046 --> 01:23:55.867
voter suppression,

01:23:55.907 --> 01:23:57.408
voter intimidation that goes on,

01:23:57.429 --> 01:23:59.090
about the Poor People's Campaign,

01:23:59.130 --> 01:24:00.452
about over 150 million

01:24:00.471 --> 01:24:02.094
people who live in poverty

01:24:02.154 --> 01:24:03.595
and how the Poor People's

01:24:03.614 --> 01:24:06.297
Campaign are working on ways to fix that.

01:24:07.158 --> 01:24:08.579
And things are not just racism,

01:24:08.600 --> 01:24:09.541
they're classism and how

01:24:09.581 --> 01:24:11.122
they collide and calamity

01:24:11.162 --> 01:24:12.064
and things like that.

01:24:12.463 --> 01:24:14.305
So we learned so much today.

01:24:14.845 --> 01:24:15.306
And again,

01:24:15.346 --> 01:24:16.988
I want to thank Ted Burnett for being on.

01:24:17.028 --> 01:24:18.229
I want to thank all you guys

01:24:18.670 --> 01:24:20.091
for listening and tuning in.

01:24:20.811 --> 01:24:22.292
Please like the video if you haven't.

01:24:22.474 --> 01:24:23.394
Comment down below.

01:24:23.774 --> 01:24:24.735
Subscribe to the channel.

01:24:24.775 --> 01:24:26.216
We have more great guests

01:24:26.356 --> 01:24:27.377
and things to talk about.

01:24:27.899 --> 01:24:28.779
If you guys didn't know.

01:24:29.460 --> 01:24:31.381
My name is Antonio D. Miles.

01:24:31.841 --> 01:24:32.461
I am the host.

01:24:32.900 --> 01:24:34.641
And so we do this as much as we can.

01:24:35.042 --> 01:24:36.203
And we appreciate everybody.

01:24:36.243 --> 01:24:37.103
We're trying to grow.

01:24:37.122 --> 01:24:39.184
If you guys want to support the channel,

01:24:39.203 --> 01:24:41.484
support the work, there's a Cash App,

01:24:41.524 --> 01:24:43.744
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01:24:44.104 --> 01:24:44.886
and a bunch of other stuff

01:24:44.926 --> 01:24:45.365
in the link in the

01:24:45.405 --> 01:24:46.086
description if you guys

01:24:46.105 --> 01:24:47.487
want to help support the podcast.

01:24:48.087 --> 01:24:48.487
And again,

01:24:48.506 --> 01:24:50.507
I want to thank all of you guys

01:24:50.528 --> 01:24:51.967
for listening, for having Ted on.

01:24:52.609 --> 01:24:52.708
And...

01:24:54.009 --> 01:24:54.649
Other than that,

01:24:55.090 --> 01:24:56.271
we will catch all of you

01:24:56.292 --> 01:24:58.033
guys in the next episode.

01:24:58.613 --> 01:24:58.975
All right?

01:24:59.935 --> 01:25:00.256
Peace.