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CJP #54: Jason Brown ( VA-4 ) · Coconut Justice

• Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Hey, what's good? Jason Brown has built a career in service of others. Right now, he's in Virginia helping all the immigrant families that are struggling with the obvious bumps with the law. Now Jason wants to take those skills and that experience to Washington. So he's going to run for Virginia's fourth district. Hey everybody, I want to introduce you to one of my newest friends. He's running for Congress in Virginia's 4th district. Jason Brown is here. Hi Jason. I'm doing good. How are you? Jason Brown II: Hey, how are you? I'm doing well. Thanks for having me. I'm excited. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Awesome. So Virginia for what area does that come? Jason Brown II: Yeah, so Virginia's fourth district is pretty much Henrico County down to Brunswick County. ⁓ pretty much central Virginia, everything that is south of like northern Virginia. I guess that's one way I could put it. Like everything that's like Richmond and south of Richmond. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): This is my conversation with political hopeful Jason Brown. Before we get into it, remember to go to coconutjustice.com to get you some clothes that I think would look good on you. Let's go. Okay. Did you ever hear that song? ⁓ Richmond from Richmond. I can't remember his name. It's a, it's a, it's not even country. It's Jason Brown II: ⁓ is it like Rich Guys from North Richmond or? Yeah, I know what you're talking about. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have heard that song, yes. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, I don't know what genre that... It's not country. Is he maybe from West Virginia? Yeah. Jason Brown II: I think that's what he was aiming for. I don't know much about the guy, but I remember when the song came out, I was like, he's putting us on the map. So yeah, yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Did you like when you first heard it where you're like, all right, cool. Yeah, we got, you know, we got or was it like, why are you shit talking us? Jason Brown II: ⁓ No, think I was more so like I knew who he was talking about and I agreed with what he was saying I think based off of like what I can recall. ⁓ Yeah, mean rich guys from north of Richmond. Yeah, right in DC and I mean that's where a lot of like ⁓ weapons contractors and things are at and so it's like I get it. Yeah, call those guys out. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's what's that area like? What's your area like? Is it really conservative or is it like super political and everyone's always fighting? Like, what's it like out there? Jason Brown II: Mm-hmm. Yeah, so Virginia's fourth district, the way I've explained it to others is it's a very solid cross-section cut of what the United States looks like, right? And so ⁓ it's very diverse when it comes to race. ⁓ It's a pretty solid split there. And then politically, the fourth district is a strong ⁓ democratic district. So it leans more for democratic politicians. candidates, however, it's made up of different communities and counties and what have you that vote strongly Republican. And so you can be in some areas like Richmond and Petersburg where it's going to be Democratic strongholds, more urban environments. And then you can be in places like my hometown, Dinwiddie County, which is more of a rural community, more of a conservative Republican community as well. You can go out to Prince George, some other parts of southern Virginia that make up the district as well and they'll vote pretty similarly. So it's interesting that like you can ⁓ it's kind of like some countries that you can travel to where it's like ⁓ if you're in one part of the country it's like snowy and another part of the country it's like a desert and you've got mountains and you've got rivers and all of that like District 4 is kind of like that you've got pretty much anything and everything that you could think you run into like right here in this district. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. It sounds gorgeous. Jason Brown II: Yeah, yeah, I mean the the natural landscape is virtually all the same But yeah as far as just the people landscape ⁓ it depends on like which part of the the District your and so if you're in places like Brunswick County ⁓ More like the more rural areas. I mean gorgeous farmland very quiet ⁓ Clear skies, it's it's really nice and then like if you're someone that's more into like the you know hip architecture and you know looking for Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Are you guys outdoorsy out there? Jason Brown II: more trendy spots to go to going out into like Richmond you've got that there's also a lot of history here of course this was the birthplace of the Confederacy ⁓ and many of you know the bloodiest right right right many many of the the bloodiest battles in the Civil War were fought right here at pretty much my own backyard ⁓ and so like you there are many like students that I went to school with and you know they would be digging in their backyard and find like bullets from you know the Civil War like it's that's yeah yeah Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): You can't be perfect. Yeah. Wow. Jason Brown II: that happens here. ⁓ So yeah, it's one those areas that's like, like I said, it's a very solid cross section of what the United States looks like. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): That's pretty neat. Out here, we find arrowheads and stuff. I live in California. I'm in Northern California and we find ⁓ arrowheads and stuff like that. ⁓ There was, think it was a ⁓ golf course going in and they found a bunch of ceramics and pots and all kinds of stuff. So it's, that's pretty neat that, that, that it's still there. Jason Brown II: okay uh-huh Mm-hmm. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): After all this time, it's still there and you guys are digging it up. That's that's crazy. Jason Brown II: Yeah, it's been there, it's been undisturbed, and it has a story behind it. That's what happens when you have a system that prioritizes profit over people. They're okay with tearing it down or paving right over it or digging it up so that they can put whatever they need to put down in the ground. ⁓ So it's very little care for humanity and human history as well. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah, that's the tough part. that's, but I guess. It's tough because I understand wanting to move forward and progress and all that stuff. But yeah, like where's the respect for history? Jason Brown II: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): That's a tough question to have to answer. But yeah, again, those rich men that we keep talking about, they don't care. They will put a shopping mall wherever they want. Jason Brown II: Right, right, right. Right, right, right. Yeah, and so that's the thing is like it's, I mean, you do have to have that balance between like wanting like ⁓ architectural and ⁓ infrastructural like progress and development for your community, right? Like if anyone were to say, hey, like we want to step into your community and develop affordable housing, like build up affordable housing units and what have you. That's great. ⁓ But then you also have to balance that with respect for the land and Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Jason Brown II: respect for the history that's there and the history that's buried underground in that area. How do you have those conversations? And unfortunately, there's a history of having that conversation and pulling out the wrong answers for all of these questions. ⁓ So you will have development that's on Native American burial grounds or ⁓ right here in Richmond, there was development over ⁓ an African slave burial ground. ⁓ And I'm someone who was a descendant of slaves right here in Chesterfield County, which is about minutes away from me. ⁓ And so, you know, that's something that definitely hits close to home, that someone's like, hey, we can just develop right over this. ⁓ So yeah, there is that balance, you know, I'm not someone that's like anti-development, like don't build anything. ⁓ But you know, I would say don't build anything when you know, like what's underneath without like really delving into and having a conversation with the impacted community to see like, okay, what's the way forward, you know. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. Right. and doing the homework behind that. So you can see like, what are we doing? Jason Brown II: Right, right, right, right, right. Right, so you're a good steward of it, yeah. Because a lot of people are handling things that they have no business handling and it's simply because they just didn't do the homework and don't care. So hopefully there's like a curse on them or something, right? Like they dig up the wrong thing and it curses them. Yeah, seen it enough in movies, I need to be real this time. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. So. Yeah, could you imagine? Well, actually, you could almost say we're living through the curse right now. Like we haven't been, we haven't been too, too respectful of our history here. And man, it feels like we're paying the price for something we did as a community back sometime. Jason Brown II: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and I mean, we're not taking care of the planet and we see all the things that are going on there. I mean, this is a serious, we're seeing calls in effect and live action. And then you have our elected leaders who are scratching their heads saying, why does this happen? know, why are prices going up? know, why are gas prices going up? Or why are we having all these hurricanes and tornadoes and it's snowing in March and you know, all these things. And it's just like, okay, you guys, you know, the cause and you see the effect. You need to do Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. Jason Brown II: something about it and they don't care because again we're operating off of you know private profit over public good and over just like profit over people and it's yeah they're not doing anything about that. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. And you said that the Confederacy started in that area? Jason Brown II: Yeah, the birthplace of the Confederacy. Richmond, which is here in Virginia, was the capital of the Confederacy. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Is it still you guys? Do you still see the flags flying and all that goofy stuff? Jason Brown II: ⁓ yeah, ⁓ yeah, absolutely. It depends on which community you're in. ⁓ Of course, the more like... urban environment is the less you'll start to see it there just because of people who are moving in and kind of just there's a different feel. But no, I grew up being able to see like I could walk down my neighborhood and like come out of my neighborhood and see a Confederate flag on someone else's house or what have you. So I mean, it was very common, especially growing up to like be able to see it. ⁓ Now, not as much because you know that there's backlash you're going to face if you put it up. But what people have started to do to try Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Jason Brown II: to be a little creative with it is ⁓ the Confederate flag that we usually see is the Confederate battle flag. And so what people have started to put up is like the actual Confederate flag, which looks a little different. And so like if you see one of the like actual Confederate flags put up, people would be like, ⁓ they don't know what it is because they're so used to seeing the Confederate battle flag. ⁓ And so like it's when those like creative ways to still put up a Confederate flag and not, I guess, get the backlash from it. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Jason Brown II: It's been, I'm glad I learned that in history class that there were two different flags because I'm like, ⁓ would have just mind my business and not cared what was put up because I wouldn't have known what it was. But yeah, fun fact. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And this is my question as far as all that goes. Well, when you're seeing these flags, do they ever put the American flag on top? Or is it just, here's a Confederate flag and you have to live with it? Jason Brown II: Mm-hmm. You know, that's a good question because I'm trying to think on if I have ever seen them together. I know very recently I had been near a house that had the American flag and then like a Trump flag underneath it. I'm not sure if you've seen some of those. So like I've seen those together, but as far as like a Confederate flag and American flag together, I'm drawing a blank on if I've ever seen them like that. ⁓ Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. Jason Brown II: So it usually is kind of like from what I recall, like here's the Confederate flag. And it's like, you know, they weren't even around like, like I, like it's like you're on the losing side with that. And it's like, you know, you know, but that's another conversation for another day. Cause I'm just like, ⁓ I dunno, I grew up around it. So it is kind of like frustrating. And it's one of those things that I'm just like, we just have to let it die on, you know, and stop, stop reviving it. bringing it back up, you know. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ I was in Florida late last year and I was driving by this. I don't even know what kind of business it was, but it was one of the largest flags I've ever seen. And it was a Confederate flag. And I'm like, what country do you live in? Jason Brown II: Hmm. Interesting. Okay. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): So I'm always trying to understand why if these folks were such proud Americans. why not fly the American flag versus not for anything but that flag lost. Jason Brown II: you Yeah, yeah, yeah, I would say part of it, and this is not really a thought out thought, it's more of just my raw reaction to that, or raw response. For me, I believe it's because they're trying to identify with something, right? You know in your being of beings, in your heart of hearts, what your beliefs are, and here's something that... you can identify with and so like you're going to you know use it to express who you are internally. ⁓ And so it makes sense that you know like growing up in a community where you know I saw confederate flags up ⁓ in many spots was also the same community where I went to school with with you know white girls who would say yeah my dad said I can't bring a black boy home you know I can't date a black boy you know I I remember when two of my white female classmates like had that conversation with me and told me yeah my dad said I can't Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Jason Brown II: date black boys and I'm just like like you know as a kid I didn't really question it I thought it was like strange but you know I had been so used to that being my experience that like it was one of those things I didn't bat an eye at until I became an adult and I'm like do we realize how weird that was like that should not have been normal ⁓ and so yeah I just think that you know people try to find ways to ⁓ identify with something and see themselves in something and unfortunately many people have seen themselves in the confederate flag Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Ha ha. Yeah. Jason Brown II: and what it represents, ⁓ even if the claim of what it represents is very different than, like, you people will say, ⁓ it's my heritage. No, it's not your heritage. mean, if you were to have like an Irish flag or a British flag or anything up like that, that's your heritage, right? Like I used to have a pretty big Nigerian flag hanging up in my bedroom when I was living with my family because that's where most of my ancestry comes from, is Nigeria. ⁓ Now, if I were to have some other crazy flag, Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right, right, right. Sure. Yeah. Jason Brown II: or whatever, like I couldn't say that that's my heritage because especially for a group like the Confederate States, you know, here in the US, that's not an identity, that's not a heritage, that's not an ancestry. yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. Your ancestry, my friend who's flying that flag, your ancestry is the stars and stripes. Jason Brown II: What can I say? Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): We were America. We were, we were America. Yeah. No, that's, that's something I, I try to be somewhat patient with that. Jason Brown II: You have to, yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): yeah, because otherwise it's, it's going to turn back into what it was back in the day. And then I don't think that flag is worth it. ⁓ but it is a little frustrating when, you know, my ancestors came from the islands, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Dominican Republic. And if I were to just be flying those flags without the American flag, Jason Brown II: you Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): You're just showing that you don't want to be a part of the team. You know, and. Jason Brown II: Hmm. Yeah, and I definitely get that. And I agree that you do have to show patience. know, I'm a political organizer before I'm an elected official. And so for me, it's really about working with other individuals within my class, you know, the working class here in America, working with them to fight for what would be better for all of us. And so what I tell people is that, you know, when I say that I want affordability for all, when I say that I want health care and education and housing to be guaranteed as human rights for Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Jason Brown II: for all of us here in the richest nation in modern history where we don't guarantee those things. When I say I want that for all, I do mean all. I do mean not only the people that agree with me, but also the people who disagree with me. I want that family that has the confederate flag hanging on their front porch to be guaranteed housing and education and healthcare. ⁓ Because it's not about wanting to provide what's best for people who agree with you politically and ideologically. It's wanting to ⁓ Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Jason Brown II: for humanity what humanity needs. ⁓ And I don't think that we can, I've always told people who have looked up to me for leadership, like, you know, we can't play political puritan and say that, you you have to check all of these boxes in order for me to think that you qualify to be fought for. No, like who are we to leave parts of our class behind as we fight for, you know, a better tomorrow, you know? Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): love that you said that because yeah, it just seems like up to now, we've had leadership that that takes control by dividing. Jason Brown II: Mm-hmm. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And it's refreshing to hear a lot of you younger folks coming up saying, no, that doesn't work. We have to do it a completely different way. Jason Brown II: Yep. Right, right. And that's a very important conversation to have. I've been in some spaces. ⁓ where, for example, there was a meeting that I had attended. ⁓ I was tabling there and just supporting the event and was there to learn. And there were some sentiments of Black separatism that were in the meeting. And I personally ⁓ don't agree with Black separatism as a whole, the idea that Black people in America, we should have our own land, our own economy, our own, the list goes on. And the reason I disagree with it is because I don't believe that white people Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Jason Brown II: are the problem. I believe racism is the problem. And so I don't believe that we should be separating ourselves and dividing ourselves from other people in our class and think that that's the solution because it's not. ⁓ And so that's why I say, you we have to fight for everyone that is within our class, regardless of where they lie on the political spectrum. And what we're starting to see is that while racism has benefited, ⁓ you know, white Americans here, ⁓ it's starting to become less and less of a benefit. We're starting to see that for many poor white Americans, for many working class white Americans, racism is no longer continuing to serve them because it's not a battle of black versus white or left versus right. It's a battle between the top versus the bottom, between those who have and those who don't have, ⁓ between the workers and the ruling class. And so that being said, racism has benefited many white Americans simply because they needed it. ⁓ The white ruling class needs Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Jason Brown II: of racism so that poor whites and formerly ⁓ enslaved black people would not work together to overthrow the system. And you can see that all in the history following the Civil War and the ⁓ reconstruction period here in the United States. it's becoming more and more of what we no longer need. And saying this from like a white ruling class perspective, they're like, well, we no longer need poor whites on our side anymore. And so that's where you have to bring that into the conversation, right? So like when we talk about ice for example you know I have unfortunately met a lot of black Americans who will say well I don't care about ice because they're not coming after me ice is being weaponized and militarized to become something that goes beyond immigration so even though what draws me to fight for my migrant neighbors isn't the fact that they may come after me one day that ice may come after me one day you know I simply do it because it's the right thing to do ⁓ it's still part of the conversation that okay once they finish their so-called initial goal of trying to round up migrants documented or undocumented here in the United States, they will come after black Americans. And once they're done with black Americans, they will come after poor white Americans. And so we have to really see that it's this versus this, not all of the divisions that we have, whether it's ⁓ long gender, nationality, languages that are spoken, religion, the list goes on. We need solidarity between working class Americans more than ever right now. So yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, because looking throughout history, it has always been the rich folks trying to figure out how to get the cheapest labor. And, and it's unfortunate that the people who don't have will fight against each other way faster than actually just taking a look at no, it's the fact that the corporations Jason Brown II: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm Mm-hmm. you Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): are giving the jobs to immigrants or to illegal immigrants or whatever you want to call it. ⁓ And then now I'm, you know, I used to work in Silicon Valley, come to find out that those corporations are giving jobs to contractors and it's having the same effect as, you know, folks that are coming from South America and Central America up here and they're, and they're getting jobs. Jason Brown II: Mm-hmm. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And everyone who's fighting for a job is fighting with each other for the job instead of saying, hey, corporations, why are you giving our jobs away? Jason Brown II: you Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Right. No. Yeah, I definitely get that. And, you know, there was a speech that I was listening to recently and it was from Angela Davis a few decades back. And, you know, she had brought up Nike in particular and how, you know, Nike, huge portion of its consumer base was working class Americans. And however, they were not providing jobs for the people who were purchasing their products. Right. They were going overseas and, you know, setting up their businesses and places where, you know, they may have paid their people dollars an hour to create these shoes that then they turn around and sell to us for a hundred dollars. The system just has not worked for us and with capitalism, we have to call out the issue where the issue is. Capitalism is the issue, that's at least what I believe. Capitalism is exploitative and it's also cancerous. The idea is that once Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): At least. Jason Brown II: capitalism has exploited all of its resources ⁓ and all that it can take away from domestically, it then has to spread out into other frontiers to then exploit those places in order for it to sustain its growth. And so it's cancerous in the sense that it's exploited the American working class and it had to get to a point where it would then exploit the Japanese working class, where it would exploit the Chinese working class, it would exploit the Mexican working class, the list goes on. ⁓ And that's something that we have to stop. And we are, again, the richest nation in the world. We're right here in the belly of the beast. ⁓ When you look at just the success or failures of many other nations around the world, in many cases, it depends on whether the American government has intervened ⁓ in that country's economy and its society. People will point the finger and look at Cuba and say, well, look at Cuba, right? Like this is a failed socialist project. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Jason Brown II: Well, yeah, I'm looking at Cuba and I'm seeing the embargo in the blockade that we have on the Cuban people ⁓ and so it's like you have to have conversations that Point out who the common enemy is ⁓ and so that's why I'm like very ⁓ Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Jason Brown II: the work that we're doing, not only as a political organizer, but the work that I do as an elected official and as a candidate ⁓ really requires a lot of what I've called supernatural humility, because it goes beyond just yourself. Like you have to understand that, yes, there is a common enemy between all of us. And I have to do my part in exposing who that common enemy is. And I can't get sidetracked in thinking that everyone who voted for Trump is the enemy, because that's not the case. I'm willing to say that Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Jason Brown II: really a lot of people who voted for Trump can be some of the most revolutionary people out there when you really start to have conversations with them. It's just that many times we get to the wrong conclusion about how to resolve these issues, right? For some people, they think it's voting and another billionaire who claims to be outside of the system and that he'll fix up everything. For other people, they think it's vote blue no matter who and that will change everything. Both of those ideas are wrong, right? And it's simply because there's this idea of, well, who's the real enemy here? Is it the Republicans? Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Jason Brown II: Republicans? No. Is it the, you know, this one in particular like Democrat that's running for office who, you people are claiming it's going to be a communist one day? No, they're not the problem. The problem is that the ruling class, right? And that's our common enemy. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Jason Brown II: You've got all the theory and everything coming out of me now, so I'm just like, I'm trying to find something a little bit more exciting. I'm not sure if everyone went to watch this and hear my take on capitalism and everything. So hopefully I've been able to ⁓ grasp their attention. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): I No, but it's really interesting. It's really interesting because, yeah, I wanted to go back to you. had mentioned Cuba and like U.S. intervention with all kinds of stuff. And what folks don't, might not remember is when Fidel took over Cuba, he actually came to the United States first. And the United States told them, hey, when you take over, know, we're gonna, we'll help your finances. We're gonna buy a bunch of sugar from you. And they reneged on that deal. similar situation with the Dominican Republic, similar situation with all kinds of countries around the world where Americans have reneged on the deals that they are making. know, unfortunately what's happening today with Iran, you know, we're bombing them. But from what I understand early on, we actually had a really good relationship with them. Jason Brown II: Native Americans as well. Yeah. Hmm. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And we're doing a lot of trading with them. And we, we went back on some deals with them too. And now we're, and now we're in this mess. and it's, it's to your point, it's terrible that, that we would rather operate in such a shady way rather than building a, ⁓ a country that's taking care of everyone. Jason Brown II: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): and being able to. make the world a better place. And it's just, if we were to have cleaned up our own house, it wouldn't be this hard to spread democracy. Jason Brown II: Great. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): But look at what we're doing. Look at what we're doing. If you don't play according to our rules, we're going to bomb you. And it's sad because we have way more potential. Jason Brown II: You Yeah, yeah. Right, and I've mentioned this before to others that being... that we stand where we stand financially and politically and socially, we are actually able to show to the rest of the world what's possible with all of this wealth. We're able to show to the rest of the world what's possible with the scientific innovations that we have, the medical innovations that we have. But instead, what we've shown to the world is what's possible with rapid greed and exploitation and with running on a system, again, that prioritizes private profit over public good. ⁓ And so it's unfortunate. And again, I've talked to people about, you know, guaranteeing housing as a human right, guaranteeing education and guaranteeing health care. And, you know, the question comes up of, you know, like, where's the money going to come from for that? And it's like, we already have it, right? You know, like, you know, there's been talks that, you know, it would cost maybe about like $20 billion, right, for us to end homelessness here in the United States. Only 20 billion. That's been a number that's, you know, been popularized and put out there. And here it is that the Trump administration is saying, well, we're going to spend $38 billion to Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Weird. Jason Brown II: buy warehouses to turn them into migrant detention centers for ICE. That's 18 billion dollars more. So it's not that we don't have the money, it's that the people that are sitting in seats of power are morally bankrupt and would instead rather put that money to feed their priorities than to meet the priorities of working-class Americans. And so that's why we have to flip the system, you know, on its head and put power back into our hands, you know. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right, and I hope that normal Americans understand that, that we can make that change. And I know that it's frustrating because I'm about to be 54 on Saturday. almost 50, thank you, for almost 54 years, I have heard the government is corrupt, we can't do anything about it. Jason Brown II: ⁓ my gosh, happy early birthday. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And it's been 54 solid years of complaining. current time, I started talking to a lot of you candidates, not even a whole year now, but talking to you guys and listening to your ideas and listening to how you perceive the world and how you can see the country run. I love that you guys are talking the way that you do. But the thing is we have to trust normal folks that are not running for Congress have to trust that This generation that's coming in that is basically tired of doing the status quo and complaining and stuff like that. We just have to get you guys in there and let you make that change. And we have to be very careful with who is funding the people that are winning these places because that, those are the people that are actually making the decisions. It's not the people in Congress. Jason Brown II: Hmm. Yum. Great. Great. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. No, I 100 % agree. And so this is why, you know, I pointed out, for example, that the individual who is also running for the same seat that I'm running for has accepted $88,000 plus from AIPAC. And for me, it's important to point that out because then I will look at, for example, when the war on Iran broke out and I'm reading the statement that they write about the war on Iran versus my thoughts on the war on Iran. And I'm like, these are two different realities that we're living in, but then it makes since ⁓ Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Sir. ⁓ yeah. Jason Brown II: You know the list goes on because I don't want to be accountable to those people I want to be accountable to my community and not based off of how much they were willing to donate to me right because I can't be bought I'm unbought you know no one's Donations that have been given to me have swayed me to you know support one issue over another issue It's when I'm actually meeting people face to face and I get to hear their concerns and hear their stories and listen to those things and listen to the vision that they have right because everyone has a vision of what a better world could Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Jason Brown II: and look like for them and for their loved ones and for the rest of the community. And when I actually get to listen to this, I'm like, OK, that sounds a lot similar to this world that I envision for my loved ones and for myself and for the people that I know. And so when I have conversations like that, that's what I want to be held accountable to. I want someone to sit down with me. And we both walk away from the conversation with more hope than we went into the conversation with. And then here it is that I'm held accountable. And they're saying, hey, you remember that vision that we created together, you're falling short of that vision. That's the accountability that I want. I want people that are going to point that out instead of people that are saying, hey, you know, we gave you X amount of thousands of dollars and you haven't spoken on, you know, this particular issue that we want you to speak on. And that issue may be genocide or that issue may be war, that issue may be, you know, big oil or the issue may be fill in the blank of all these other, you know, evil things that, you know, people accept money for. So, ⁓ yeah, it really makes a live action difference when you compare candidates. who have accepted money from certain sources, who haven't accepted money from certain sources, then you see how they speak on particular issues. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. And it's frustrating when... The folks that are getting this money make whatever kind of media, whatever kind of messaging that gets normal folks to vote against their own interest. know, like how wonderful would it be to not be bombing? However, we're bombing in the past couple of Well, past couple of months, we did Venezuela, Iran. Jason Brown II: Hmm, yeah. Mm-hmm. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): We're still in Ukraine, Ecuador. Jason Brown II: Mm-hmm. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Who else? There's however many better, mean, Cuba's next. Cuba's next, right? So look at all the money. Nigeria. ⁓ yeah, we started, we started some stuff in Nigeria. So imagine instead of doing all of that. Jason Brown II: Right, that's the question. Who else? Like there's always someone else to add to the list. Yeah. Yeah. Nigeria, supposedly. Mm-hmm. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Imagine investing in education. Jason Brown II: Right? Right. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And then that way, because slowly but surely I've been, I've been researching and talking to you guys and watching videos and reading books and stuff like that. The seventies, I don't know what the hell happened in the seventies, but besides me, I don't know what the hell happened in the seventies, but something happened to where it just went sideways and folks just started going internationally to bomb things and Jason Brown II: Uh-huh. ⁓ Mm-hmm. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): We started taking money out of education. We started taking money out of all of our social safety nets. Everything that's supposed to make life easier for you and make it to where you can reach a little farther and push a little farther and, and invent things and actually have like a, a base of knowledge where you can be a business owner and be an idea person. Jason Brown II: Mm-hmm. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): If, if we, as, as a country, if we were more prepared to, to take the lead in progress, I don't know if I would care that manufacturing isn't here anymore because everyone is up to speed on education and we're inventing things and then we can go somewhere else to, to build it, but we're just not there. You can't. Jason Brown II: Mm-hmm. Right. Right. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): You can't take money out of the country to go bomb other countries and expect your home to be okay. Jason Brown II: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've said it before give public education, the Pentagon's budget, and tell the Pentagon to go do big sales. I think we'll start to, yeah. Right, right, exactly, exactly, right? That's what we say, right? We say to the unhoused, we say to people that find themselves in financial constraints, pull yourself up by the bootstraps, and here it is that the Pentagon fails audits almost annually. Yeah, so they're the ones that are leeching off of all of our hard work and hard-earned money. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): tell Pentagon to pull themselves up by the bootstraps. Yeah. ⁓ Mm-hmm. Right. And imagine, imagine if the United States had a public education system that was creating engineers and scientists and doctors and teachers. And then we can fill all the jobs at NASA with our own people. We can fill all the jobs in Silicon Valley with all our own people. You know, but it's frustrating. It's frustrating that we're supposed to. Jason Brown II: Sure, sure. Hmm. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): The have nots are supposed to pull themselves up by the bootstraps and the haves are leeching off the government and then pointing at us and saying, look at those leeches. Jason Brown II: Right, right, exactly, exactly. Yeah, and that's why it goes back to pointing out, you know, who the public, you know, excuse me, not the public, the common enemy is, you know, for all of us, because we'll then start to buy into the lie of, if I just vote with this particular party, that'll change things. you know, that's a lie that both sides of the aisle, you know, accept, right? You'll have conservative voters that say, if I just vote Republican, things will change. If we just voted enough Republican Congress people that will support a Republican president, things will change. Then on the other side, you have people that say, if I vote Pluton, matter who, I vote in Democratic Congress people that will support a Democratic president, then things will change. And it's like, no, we've seen cases where both of those things were right. Right now we have a Republican president and a Republican Congress and things are not moving towards, you know, actual progress and meaningful change for the working class. There was also a super majority where under the Biden administration, there was a Democratic Congress, right? And they didn't push past things. And so that being said, it's like we've seen examples of what all of this looks like. We can't continue to repeat this. That's insanity. We need to be able to say, okay, enough is enough. We're going to put power back into the hands of the people. And so, you know, I'm running as an independent in this race, you know, because I do fall left of the Democratic Party. And, you know, I just I believe that the working class has outlived any usefulness of the two party system. And, you know, I've had people ask me, you know, ⁓ well, why don't you run as a Democrat? Why don't you do this? Why don't you do that? And, you know, I think it's just we have to step outside of the box. have to say okay well this is who you know the enemy is and unfortunately there are so many people in both parties who are unwilling to say let's put power back into the hands of the people. It's more of let's keep the power for ourselves, let's keep you know the resources for ourselves. You know the ruling class has only ever used you know its resources, its innovation and you know its money to satiate its own greed right. The ruling class is not using those resources and that innovation to make our life any easier, right? You can look at AI, for example. AI could be used to make so many processes that we have individual people running make those processes easier for those individuals. Instead, we're using AI for mass surveillance. We're using AI for war. We're using AI to lay off individuals. And so Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): We're using AI to put ex-presidents on monkeys? Jason Brown II: Well, yeah, exactly. So it's like it by a president, right? A president is putting, yeah. So that's the thing is, you know, we can do so much better and you know, no, like people ask me, well, what do you think about this like new technology or this innovation? You know, for me, it's it's always neutral in and of itself, right? You know, the same compass that, you know, would be used by people who were trying to find, ⁓ you know, maybe a ⁓ hospital Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Jason Brown II: or get around or you know whatever it may be or to map the stars and all of that. There's the same compass that was used by people on slave ships to bring slaves over to the Americas. And you know the internet for example, the internet can be used for all sorts of great things but it can also be used for all sorts of bad things. And so it's all of these technological innovations, medical innovations, etc. could work for us. But whether it works for us or doesn't work for us depends on who's in control and who decides how that technology is used. defuse AI for supporting individuals like ourselves. When we look at drone technology, right? Instead of drone technology supporting war, we could have used drone technology during the COVID pandemic to provide ⁓ groceries and medications to people who were shut in, like the elderly who could not risk going out into public to purchase groceries or to pick up their medications or to see a physician or the list goes on. that's like, have all of the technology, we have all of the wealth, we have all the resources. So now we need to have people in power who are going to say, let's use all of that for the people instead of our own private self enrichment. And I think that it's when we actually have that systemic change, you know, changing a system that no longer says, you know, changing the system and going from one that says private profit over public good and putting in a system in its place that says, take care of the people, take care of the planet, take care of our communities, take care of public education. You know, that's when we're really going to be able to see the vision that I have, the vision that you have, the vision that our loved ones have. And again, that vision, it has so many common threads because we're all hungry for change that actually is going to serve us. And so that's why I'll talk to people and I'll say, well, what's the kind of world that you envision? And it sounds so identical to the one that I envision because it's like we understand in our being of beings what it would look like for us to be taken care of. And unfortunately, we're doing the opposite of that. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): telling you an educated populace is less violent, will help initiate or help maintain progress. You know, and we just keep sending good money after bad. Instead of educating our people, we're going to get people from all other countries. And then we You know, we have leaders that say ⁓ Americans are lazy and stupid. Okay, well, if we're lazy and stupid, and you're the leader, what does that make you? Jason Brown II: Well, yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): To me, it makes you useless because if you called us lazy and stupid and the first thing you do is take money out of education, you're the problem. You're the problem. Speaking of which, what's your educational background? Go ahead. Jason Brown II: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I agree. Yeah, so I am a product of public education. I'm also a school board member in my community and I work full time in public education as well and I'm a college student. So like I'm surrounded by education on all four sides. So it's an issue that I take very seriously. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Me too. I love it. I love it. I love education. I'm addicted to education. I'm addicted to knowing things and researching things and don't even get me started on hanging out with smart people. that's one of my favorite things. That's one of my favorite things. Especially again, talking to you guys, all these candidates and then Jim Johansson and all those guys. Man, every time I get to book one of you guys on a conversation, I get giddy on the inside. Jason Brown II: Good. Yeah, you sound like me. Yeah, yeah. I love that. Nice, nice. I was excited for this too. I was like, I don't know what to expect, but I'm excited, And I'm loving it. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. What are, so are you an instructor? Are you a Jason Brown II: No, I'm in an administrative role. But yeah, my department serves our migrant students who come through the city, you know, making sure that they have the resources they need for learning English and learning their other core subjects as well. So when I speak about like abolishing ICE and you know, all of that, like it's something that I take very seriously because, know, this is something that I'm able to see firsthand. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Okay. ⁓ awesome. Yeah, that's cool. So you, you, you're supporting the education system ⁓ and you're helping immigrant communities, members of the community and like gain their balance in your, in your area, right? Jason Brown II: Yeah, as a school board member, bullying has been one of the number one issues that I've spoken to, but apart from that, advocating for our migrant families is something else that I've created a record of. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Let me ask you that, because I don't know if you remember, Trump round one, ⁓ didn't his wife start an anti-bullying campaign? Jason Brown II: I don't know how effective that would have been because I didn't see any changes from, know, if she did. I don't know the answer to that. ⁓ I'm certain they probably did start up initiatives like other initiatives they created and have no business creating because it's like your husband's a bully. So it's like, you know, how good are, you know, how good is this initiative going to be ⁓ under his administration? But yeah, yeah. You know, I can't really speak to that, but yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): If anything, it got worse. Yeah, your research is trash. Yeah. How did you become a political organizer? What does it take to become a political organizer? Jason Brown II: Yeah, so I actually joined an organization right after I had been, well, a little. before I had been sworn in on the school board, believe. ⁓ And for me, it was where I was able to sharpen my teeth, where I was able to learn what it looks like to organize my community, what it looks like to put on a march or a protest, what it looks like to do public education and ⁓ sharing brochures with people to talk about current crises or current wars or whatever it may be and how to bring someone ⁓ who's interested in that conversation, bring them into the fold. get them involved in the work that needs to be done. ⁓ And so for me, it was really just a natural overflow of my care for my community and my love for the people to be a political organizer. ⁓ And so I don't think it takes anything more than just concern. Someone who is concerned, someone who has stepped away from apathy and says, hey, we need to do something about what's going on. ⁓ It takes that. It takes some humility. And you can do a lot with concern and humility. ⁓ It's very easy to become an organizer and to organize in your community. It's a lot of hard work, ⁓ but it's also very rewarding work and it's necessary work ⁓ because without organizing our community, without building a network for working class Americans to be able to work together shoulder to shoulder, ⁓ we're not gonna be prepared for the class struggle ahead. So we certainly need individuals who are gonna be working together and taking care of their community together. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): How is it for you going out into rural Virginia and explaining to those folks out there that you're coming to make positive change in their life? Are they susceptible to your ideas? Do they shake their fists and say, get off my porch? Like, what's that? What's that like for you? Jason Brown II: Yeah, well, I mean, I'll... Be very honest and say that there are certain communities where a message like abolish ICE is a little bit more receptive than other communities. And so there may be more like, quote unquote, democratic strongholds or ⁓ more urban environments or communities where they're a little bit more diverse that would be receptive to that. ⁓ However, I believe wholeheartedly that it's necessary to work in communities that disagree with that message. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Jason Brown II: because a message of abolish ICE and affordability for all, message that says abolish ICE and guarantee housing and healthcare and education for all people, that's for all people. And so I do have to go, I want to go into rural communities and share that message, right? And maybe the approach is a little different, right? So for example, I may go into a community that's a little bit more conservative. And when I talk about the need for ending our wars, right? I may speak less on the humanity side of it and more speak on the financial stewardship, right? Like that's our taxpayer money that's paying for these missiles, that's paying for the genocide in Palestine, that's paying for X, Y, and Z. And that because financial stewardship is more of a talking point that comes up in conservative circles, that may help to bridge the gap between, this is what's going to work out well for all of us. Here's something that you believe and let me put those two together. And so, you know, that's something that, you know, requires a lot of just being able to understand your community, being able to understand the people around you and just being socially aware. And then again, requires a lot of humility because I know a lot of self-righteous liberals who will step into a community like that and think you guys are beneath me. I know more than you do. So if you don't accept this message, I'm just, you know, kicking the dust off of my feet and walking away. And you can't do that. You cannot decide to leave pockets of our class and pockets Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Jason Brown II: of our community behind because it's really going to take all of us to win the world that we want. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah, I think you are, you hit the nail on the head with that one because if you're dealing with people, from what I understand, the, the median Trump supporter reads at like a fifth or sixth grade level. And if you are a highly educated person and you are speaking to someone in a condescending way, Jason Brown II: you Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): you're turning them off. So you're going to make it easy for a clown like Trump to come in and say, ⁓ those people, they're making you blah, blah, blah. And they're coming after you. then, you know, if you're not speaking the same language, you know, it's not that difficult to get someone to trick someone into thinking that that someone is after them and after their jobs and a lot, you know, a little bit of what you said. Jason Brown II: Yeah ⁓ Right. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): earlier is, know, we don't want our daughters bringing colored people home. You know, that's happened to me too. And I'm like, I speak three languages. Like I'm not dumb. Jason Brown II: Go. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. And it's, sad. It's sad because it's that thing that, well, racism is the thing, but it's that thing that, that, that we haven't yet gotten over. And, and it just, to me, it doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense. my high school, I had everyone there, Iranians. Assyrians, Indians, black dudes, white dudes, Chinese dudes, Japanese dudes, I went to school with everybody. And it's just not that hard to get along with people. Jason Brown II: That's right. Yep. It's in our nature. But yeah, that's why racism is such an unnatural thing. And so it requires effort. It requires work to be racist because it goes against nature. ⁓ But some people, unfortunately, I would say there are many people who are willing to put in the work. And then there are many people who think that they have to put in the work so that they can get ahead. And that's why you say that racism is one of those things that has benefited so many poor white Americans. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. Jason Brown II: benefiting them less and less. And that's why we have to have more solidarity within our class because there are many people who hold to racism as a, this is my last lifeline to, you know, feel as if I'm in a place better than this other individual, right? You know, because I, you know, I can speak as a poor white American if I look around and I realize that, you know, things just aren't working out for me, that the system is against me, that, you know, whatever it may be, and I can blame all of it on people who don't look like me and be the beneficiary of blaming it. own people who do not look like me. ⁓ That's a lifeline that many people reach for. So that's why we have to step in and really with a lot of humility, because it takes a lot of humility to, you know, go in and say, okay, I understand this person may be racist, but you know, I can't leave this individual behind. You know, that requires a lot of humility, but that's, that's necessary work. You know, there are, think that's an unpopular message to say we can't leave racist behind. But I believe that in my heart of hearts that there's no one in the American working class that I'm willing to leave. behind because the fight that I'm fighting for is for all of us and I understand that it takes a lot of indoctrination for an individual to come to those kind of conclusions and we have to unlearn that and in that process of unlearning is how we start to free ourselves. Again, may be very unpopular but... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Right. Yeah. Let me just throw that out here. White folks, we're cool. Just come hang out with us. We're cool. Jason Brown II: Yeah, yeah, of course. You get it. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, like I don't understand. And I'm glad that I don't, but I've hung out with white folks. I've done the country thing. I've done the drink way too much Jack Daniels and Coke. I've done the fishing and all the things and I loved it. And I've also gone to different parties and did the MC Hammer dance and all the, know, it's, ⁓ Jason Brown II: Say it. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Different cultures make life so much fun. So much fun. Jason Brown II: Yeah. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): What's your family life like? You said you're a descendant from Nigerians? Jason Brown II: No, so, ⁓ like through DNA tests and things like that, you know, I've found that, you know, most of my ancestry comes from Nigeria. ⁓ But yeah, I'm a descendant of ⁓ slaves who are here in Chesterfield County, which is about 30 minutes ⁓ away from where I live. ⁓ And, you know, just typical black American family. ⁓ You know, the more I talk to other people ⁓ who fit the demographic, the more I've realized that, you know, many of the experiences I thought were my own are actually universal experiences for black Americans. And so Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Uh-huh. Okay. Yeah. Jason Brown II: ⁓ I've continued to find a lot of pride in that. I didn't grow up being super proud to be black. ⁓ It was something that I found a lot of shame in. I tried to move myself closer and closer in proximity to whiteness and whether it was... revising family history and saying, you know, this particular parent is white or, know, I have a white grandfather. I have a white this or have a white that, you know, the lies that I would tell myself, ⁓ you know, to feel more comfortable in who I was as an individual. ⁓ fortunately when I got to college is when I really started to undo a lot of that. And, you know, I realized that being black is something I could be proud of. ⁓ and, know, that was what maybe like five or so years ago. And here it is that now, you know, I'm, I'm still holding on to that I can be proud of who I am. And I definitely want to instill that in others who had that same struggle that I did. I was someone who, the way that I talked, people would say, well, you sound white. Or just being educated or getting good grades on tests. It was like a white thing. And so it was like, even if I succeeded in life, it was like, well, you're doing something that white people do. And so we really have to undo a lot of these lies that we've been told and that we tell ourselves you Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Our communities are kind of like that, right? I used to carry a book bag just full of books, 100 % of the time. And I was always getting that, look at this book carrying ass motherfucker. And I'm like, I'm just, want to be smart. I'm sorry. Jason Brown II: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Right. Sure. Yeah. Right. Right, right, right. Exactly. Exactly. So you get it. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): I do. I do. ⁓ I've been, I've been called names. The fact that my podcast is called coconut justice. I didn't even try to, I didn't, it's a gamer tag. It's a gamer tag. There's a longer story to it, but it's a gamer tag. Right. And then through the years, and I've been coconut justice since like, I don't know, since I went to college, you know, the two thousands or whatever. And I never thought of it like that. And then. Jason Brown II: Okay. ⁓ huh. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): think it was someone had asked my mom, why does he use coconut justice? And my mom said some goofy thing. He's brown on the outside, white on the inside. No, I like to read. I also like my cafecito. I love Cuban sandwiches. Like you can't take tostones and maduros off my plate without a fight. You know what I mean? Jason Brown II: Yeah, yeah Yeah. Right, right, right. I get it. Yeah, we really have to decolonize our thinking, you know? Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, yeah, and reading books is not a white thing. It's a smart person thing. You know? Yeah, there's a lot of my heroes. Jason Brown II: No? Right. Exactly. Exactly. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): that are authors and are writers and are just, they take pride in being smart. That's why I want our education system to be robust. I don't want our teachers in the United States to be struggling. That's so disrespectful. Jason Brown II: Mm-hmm. Right. Right. Right. Right. I agree. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And then we wonder why nothing is getting better. We have a population that can't think their way out of a wet paper bag. Jason Brown II: I love Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): We need to get back to that. We need to get back to that. We need to get back to that. That's the good thing about the seventies and stuff. Some of the good things about the seventies was a schoolhouse rock. were learning for free on TV and you can't tell me not everybody understands. am a bill. I am only a bill and I'm sitting here on Capitol Hill. Right? They were teaching us. Jason Brown II: Yeah. I'm only a bill, yeah. Yep, yep, yep. Now teaching and education is commodified and privatized and you've got to pay to access it, yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): and it's Yeah. Yeah. And it's not, there's this podcast, Grits and Eggs. I don't know if you've heard of them. They're out of ⁓ Atlanta, I believe. He said something deep just last week. He said, game should be told, not sold. Same thing, game meaning knowledge. It should be told, not sold. So if I am able to improve your Jason Brown II: Okay. Hmm. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): knowledge base, it makes us both better. And then if we can come and we compare notes, that's practicing democracy. Jason Brown II: Mm-hmm. You get it. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right? ⁓ 100%. 100%. I don't mind getting into argument with anyone as long as they're smart. I hate getting into fights with people that are just dumb as hell. And everything that they say is something that they heard on TV or that Trump said or something. You know, like I don't, I don't get it. I need. Jason Brown II: Sure. Mm-hmm. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): We need scientists, we need researchers, we need to up the game when it comes to this education stuff. Jason Brown II: And we will. We'll be on the winning side and we can choose whether that's today or we keep pushing it off for another generation to take on. Today's the day. Yeah. Today is the day. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Nah, today is the day. Today's the day. I have way too many of you guys, too many of you young folks coming up saying, no, there's a better way to do it. And it's wonderful. I see that you guys are leveraging the internet and social media and everything to not just educate yourselves, but to educate the people that are going to be voting for you. I love that. Jason Brown II: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, and that's why they're trying to take it away. mean, they'll, like, for example, TikTok, you know, they'll blame it on, ⁓ it's the Chinese Communist Party. No, it's not the Chinese Communist Party. The issue is that we're using TikTok to educate the masses, and you don't like that. So, yeah, we can see through the smoke screens. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah Yep. Yeah, have you been trying to be active on social media? Jason Brown II: Yeah, I'm very very active on my Instagram. That's like really like ⁓ That's an essential for me. TikTok is one of those things where I'm still trying to figure it out Still trying to figure out how to be trendy, you know Like I was a kid that growing up was always around like older individuals. That's just you know just how I was. And so I never really learned how to engage with my own generation. so TikTok is one of those things that I had to have someone else show me how to use. you know, I'm learning it slowly but surely. But yeah, we'll get there eventually. So, yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. That's another thing I've seen. I've seen, well, I've had a couple of conversations with Brie Woodson and other folks, um, cats on the couch and all that stuff. And it's cool to see them leveraging social media as almost like an outreach program. Jason Brown II: Yep. Yep. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): You know, I think that's really cool. AOC is a genius at it. And I like what she does where she's saying, okay, this is what's happening in Congress right now. This is what you need to watch out for. This is what should be happening, but this is what's happening now. And just having those. Jason Brown II: Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, and so on mom. Donnie would did it really well to and yeah Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. What are some of the issues in your area that you want to make sure that you address or that you want to let people know that you are ready to address? Jason Brown II: Yeah, two biggest issues that are running on are abolishing ICE and guaranteeing affordability for all of our families. So abolishing ICE starts with simply that and prosecuting rogue agents who have terrorized our communities. on top... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Has it been bad out there for you guys? Jason Brown II: ⁓ I think that any number of individuals being detained is bad and so it's increasing and so we are starting to see it and you know more so in urban communities however they're not going to stop there ⁓ you know we actually just had a huge pocket of the community go to speak out against the potential development of an ICE detention center here ⁓ and or headquarters and I may be mistaken but ⁓ an ICE facility they were trying to build it here in the community about maybe 40 minutes away from where I'm at. And so a huge part of the community came, spoke against it, and it was voted down. It did not move forward. That just goes to show what's possible when we work and fight together. So abolishing ICE is number one for me and equal to number one. My other top issue is, again, guaranteeing affordability for all, whether that's housing for all, education for all, health care for all, universal pre-K, public transportation, green infrastructure. We are the richest nation in modern history. should be providing all these things as guarantees for our ⁓ families. And unfortunately, that's not the case. ⁓ And then there are other issues that I've spoken to, whether it's granting immediate citizenship to all undocumented citizens here ⁓ in the US or ending the blockade and embargo in Cuba and in Venezuela, and the list goes on, ending the war in Iran, paying reparations to Gaza, ⁓ empowering our native empowering our indigenous communities ⁓ and ending the ⁓ missing, excuse me, I'm forgetting the acronym right now, but there are crises that are impacting our indigenous women. And so, you know, whether it's murdered indigenous women or missing indigenous women, putting federal resources to combat that. So there are other issues that I've spoken to as well that ⁓ fall under this greater sentiment of power back to the people. So yeah, and that all, like I Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Nice. Jason Brown II: said district four where I'm at is a perfect cross section cut of what it looks like to be in the United States. And so all of those issues that I'm speaking to, because they're so well received here in my district, they'll certainly be well received nationally because it's what people are hungry for. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And what do you say to some of those people that are like, that's socialism. Jason Brown II: It is socialism. If that's what you want to call it, then that's what it is. A system that says, let's put the people first. Let's put power back into the hands of people. What person do you know does not want to be empowered? I meet very few people who say, don't want to be liberated. I don't want to the call the shots on my own life. I'd rather some rich guy do it. I haven't met a single person that would say that. ⁓ They may say it if they just simply don't want to agree with whatever the ism is that you want to call this Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Hahaha Jason Brown II: kind of this vision, but for me I'm not afraid to say let's put power back into the hands of the people. That's simple enough and if you want to call me a radical for that, a communist, a Marxist or whatever then call me that ⁓ because I'm not going to be afraid to say put power back into the hands of the people because that's what we need right now. Either that or I'm going to be siding myself with the people who continue to exploit our communities. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, that's exactly what they're doing. Was there one particular thing that pushed you to run for office? Jason Brown II: ⁓ no, there wasn't like one particular thing. It was more so just for me. Again, this is like a natural pouring out or overflow of just my desire to serve the people and to do better for my community. ⁓ that was the case when I ran for school board. It's a case now that, you know, I simply just want to be the individual who changes things for the better. And I do that even like in my, my full-time job, right in my workplace, you know, I have left jobs before simply because because I did not find satisfaction or purpose there. I did not feel like I was making an impact through my full-time work, and so I had to leave to go somewhere else to do that. And so for me, it really is all about that self-sacrificial service. And so it became a thing of, like, I think one night I was just on my couch, and I was like, I just turned 25. I can run for Congress. And it became a thing of, well, I started to tell too many people, and it was something I couldn't back away from because excitement was built. And I was like, I'm going to do it, because I believe that as ICE violence increases in our communities, impending war becomes more and more of a reality, that we need leaders who are going to sharpen their teeth in the face of that and not concede ground to it. And unfortunately, I don't trust our current elected representative ⁓ for this district and any other representative to do exactly that, to sharpen their teeth instead of conceding ground. ⁓ And so I said, I have to step up to the plate. And then there were two members of our community who were detained by ICE. And Petersburg, which is my second home since you know, I've lived in Dinwiddie virtually all of my life and for me what I said is You know that day when those community members were detained a call to action went out that said are you gonna be on the side of the Liberator or are you gonna be on the side of the oppressor? And I chose to be on the side of the Liberator. I chose to say that okay This is enough is enough. We cannot allow this to happen again and people don't have to turn on the TV to try to find You know ice violence. It's something that's right here in our own backyard and something has to be done about it and I can continue to allow the people who are in power to stay in power and know that they're not going to change anything but still cross my fingers or I can step up to the plate and say I'm willing to be that self-sacrificial lamb to you know try to serve my community and that's a decision that I made. Her name is Jennifer McClellan. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Who's the incumbent? I don't know if I've heard her name. Jennifer McClellan. So how long, like, I asked this question just because it boggles the mind sometimes. ⁓ Has she been in office for a long time? Jason Brown II: Elected office, she's been in for a few terms. Now, as far as being a congresswoman, I believe this would be her second term that she's running for reelection. She was first voted in in 2022. So actually, her third, yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Okay. So it's not like she's an 89 year old. Jason Brown II: No, and you know what I've told people is that and again, this is another unpopular message, but it's one that I believe, you know, ⁓ I don't believe age is the issue. Sorry if you hear my dog. I don't believe age is the issue. You know, I do believe that what the issue is that we tend to blame age on is a defanging of a lot of the leaders who in their younger years really wanted to serve the community. But as time went on became more and more compromised became bought out and then they started to defing themselves and no longer push were the policies that they were pushing for initially. And so, you I expect when I'm 89 years old, I hope that I am still as principled and as convicted as I am right now at the age of 25. So, you know, when people say, well, do you believe there should be age limits on these things? No, I don't believe there should be age limits because it's not an issue of age, it's an issue of giving up your, yeah, forfeiting your principles and your moral convictions. And ⁓ unfortunately, when people start to sit around in these ⁓ positions of power, or they forget who enabled them to be in those positions of power in the first place. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Do you believe in term limits? Jason Brown II: I don't think I do. ⁓ And I say that as someone who I see this as my calling in life to serve my community and this kind of capacity. And again, I think it goes back to the issue of what are your morals and what are your convictions, right? Over time, people start to take it for granted that they're just gonna be reelected over and over and over again. And so they start to lose a lot of that fire. And that comes up even in like, for example, you can look at like religious conversions, for example. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Jason Brown II: There may be people who you know, they're religiously converted and then you know They're on fire for whatever they believe and then over time it starts to die off and then they you know start to become less and less of a I don't want to say fanatic but less and less of someone that's like on fire for whatever they're believing in and so that starts to happen with Yeah, and so that starts to happen with a lot of our elected leaders And so, you know, I don't think that again amount of time served is the problem I don't think that the amount of time you've been on this earth is the problem. It's more of Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): tapped into their community. ⁓ Jason Brown II: is we have people who continue to forfeit their convictions for money, forfeit their principles for more power, and we need people who are going to say, no, it's not about me, it's about putting power back into the hands of the people. And you can do that at 89. You can do that on your 89th term. But if you stop doing that, it's time for you to go. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): make sense. Yeah, because that was that was a conversation that I started having with folks a handful of years ago is technically there is ⁓ term limits. ⁓ Technically, because you can vote them out at any time. So, okay, you're not doing your job. Okay, you got to go. But then now we're learning that Jason Brown II: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): through PAC funding and all that stuff, those folks have a tendency to hang on a little bit longer just because they have the money. And they might disengage with their community. ⁓ Jason Brown II: Mm-mm. Sorry about that. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): It's okay. Yeah. So when they disengage with their community, they should be taken out, but we're starting to learn that it's just not, it's not that easy. to get to get people voted out but yeah i my dogs are my dogs are feeling left out Jason Brown II: That's great, now I don't feel so bad. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, but yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. If you're doing a good job, I could be convinced that you should keep your job. Yeah, I can see that. Jason Brown II: But it needs to be proven and it shouldn't be something that's based off of your prior credentials and your prior successes. You need to have continued success. again, it becomes a thing of if you, it may be your 89th term that you've been elected, but it's like, okay, if your 89th term is when you stop saying, let's put power back into the hands of the people, then that's when you need to go. Yeah, you got to go. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): You gotta go. Yeah. Yeah. Do you what do you foresee? ⁓ Let's say you run wonderful campaign and you and you win. Do you have an idea ⁓ of what your ⁓ What's the common thing your first 100 days would look like? Jason Brown II: as far as like the policies I would try to push or like what would my experience look like. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Your experience in office, the policies that you would put, well, we already know you're going to push abolishing ICE and affordability. But are you expecting, what are you expecting as the new guy coming in? Jason Brown II: think that for me, I would probably in my very first 100 days and I hope it's not like this but ⁓ speaking I may become very demoralized very early on ⁓ remember that was a case when I was elected onto the school board ⁓ I came in and said hey, these are all the issues that I ran on here All the issues that I'm to correct here the things that the community shared with me that we need to change you know this goes on ⁓ then I get behind the scenes and I'm like ⁓ like this is why it looks the way that it does and You know, it's one of those things where and I I'm very open when I say this I've shared this in many spaces where I tell people that I feel as if the change that I'm wanting to make for my community I have had Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Hahaha Jason Brown II: the most opportunity to create that change when I'm working shoulder to shoulder with people, when I'm out in the streets with the people, rather than when I'm in a boardroom or in a meeting voting yes or no on different policy issues. So I do believe that I am a political organizer before I'm an elected official. And so it's all about how am I organizing with the people, how am I organizing my community to fight for the change that we need and less of, okay, did I vote yes or no on this particular issue? And I do believe that it's important to, you certainly vote yes on the things I need to vote yes on and no on the things I need to vote no on, but I believe there's more change created when I'm out in the streets than when I'm in the boardroom, if that makes sense. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): I've talked to folks that are running under the Democratic banner. And then I've also talked to folks that are running independent. How much harder do you think it is running as an independent? Jason Brown II: It's really difficult. Here in the state of Virginia, It's easier financially to run as an independent initially because as a Democratic candidate if you were to run and you know, try to get your name in for the primary election It's three thousand four hundred eighty dollars that you have to pay as a primary filing fee I don't have four thousand dollars laying around. I don't know many other people that have four thousand laying around Whereas as an independent because you're not running in a primary. It's zero dollars that you have to pay to get your name on the ballot it's more so just making sure that you get the Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Jason Brown II: ⁓ correct number of petition signatures for ballot access, which here in Virginia is 1,000 signatures for House of Representatives candidates. ⁓ Now we'll say that it is more difficult just being without a party, right? Because you have the party infrastructure, you have people that can step up and be your campaign manager, you already have a pool of funds and resources, you have people that can be your treasurer, people that can do your graphic designs. Whereas as an independent and grassroots candidate, you know, I'm having to work all else to do it. And so all of the like graphic designs that I put out, all of the statements, all of those things are all things I have to design to myself. And then all of my financial statements and financial reporting and everything is everything I'm doing all on my own, making sure my math is right. You know, when it comes to videography and things like that, I have to reach out to people that I know to try to find help with them. And so it's one of those things where you really have to become creative and sourceful in order to you know really ⁓ pack a good punch, but for me I Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Jason Brown II: I want to work for the people. I want to do this. I believe that on election night that I will win. And I have to look at where I am now and where I am November 3rd or will be on November 3rd and where are all the things I have to do in between to get there. And if what I have to do in between to get there is initially wearing all the hats that one day I'll have someone else wear, then I'm going to wear all of those hats because it's worth it to get into this fight and to want to do better for my community. I get exhausted from it, but it's something that energizes me at the same time. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. And I'm assuming that there's a certain amount of freedom too. Jason Brown II: Yeah, yeah, I don't have to be afraid to speak on. ⁓ you know, speak to a political line that I want to hold, right? And so, you for me, it goes back to I can be accountable to my community and my community alone. ⁓ And so if I want to say, let's not go to war on, go to war with Iran, let's not start war on Iran, you know, I can say that. Whereas if I had been in a party that maybe didn't hold that particular line, then maybe I wouldn't be able to speak to those things the way that I would want to speak to them. So it is really a matter of principle for me, ⁓ you know, deciding to run as an independent opposed to that. deciding to run in the Democratic Party. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. And earlier you said you're more left than the democratic party. What, what do you mean by that? Jason Brown II: Yeah, I would say that the Democratic and Republican party both fall within the framework of capitalism, right? And you'll have progressive Democrats, you'll have Democratic socialists that run as Democrats, but they're all still working in the framework of let's reform the system. Or, you know, in the middle, they're like, let's keep the system. And to the right and to the left, they're like, let's reform the system, either to move it further to the right or move it further to the left, but still all within the framework of capitalism. I'm someone who believes Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Jason Brown II: that the capitalism is what has created all of the crises that we see around us because it simply goes back to people saying private profit is more important than public good. ⁓ And so that being said, I cannot allow myself to ⁓ sit within capitalism and think that I'm going to change it from the inside. I'm very proud to be outside of that system and say that I believe in a system that says let's put people first because we should be putting people first. That's a no-brainer. ⁓ whatever you want to call it. mean, unfortunately, there's such a red scare here in the United States, but the reason they want us to be afraid of it is because if we were to pursue it, it puts them out of power. And people understand that. People understand that it's the rich who are making, who are calling the shots. It's the rich who get rich off of war. It's the rich who get rich off of our exploitation and off of poverty and off of homelessness. And so it's something that needs to be changed. And it's something that we can, again, change either now or keep pushing it off and hoping that a future generation takes on that fight. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): right. Jason Brown II: wins the wins that we wish we would have won. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): make sense. And I agree, there's a weird there's a weird trepidation that comes with trying to take care of your citizens. And you're like, I'm literally trying to make life easier for you. ⁓ I've had conversations with people where, you know, I say something like, you you're diabetic. Wouldn't it be cool if you can get your medicine? Like the proper amount of medicine, you don't have to ration yourself for you to live a healthy life. And they say, well, no, not if the government has given it to me, because that's socialism and I don't want to live. And I'm like, you're going to die. Jason Brown II: Hmm. Yeah, I've had similar conversations. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, people, you can call it anything that you want. But as long as you call it, mean, as long as you don't call it socialism, people buy into it. But then the second that you start to add an ism onto it, you know, that's where that American propaganda kicks in. And it's like, no, no, that's something I'm supposed to be afraid of. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Isn't it hilarious? I've seen the videos where they say, what do you think about Obamacare? And they're like, no way. Well, what do you think about affordable healthcare? And they're like, ⁓ yeah, all the way. That's what we need in this country. You're like, ⁓ my God. Jason Brown II: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's frustrating and I've run into that as an organizer, having to have those conversations with people. But at the end of the day, it's more important for me to win over the unwon people in my class than it is to stand on a moral high ground and say, let's just give up on them and move forward without them. And so that's why I say it really does take a lot of supernatural humility to do the kind of work that needs to be done. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And think about this, the people that are in charge right now are literally leaving us behind. They're tearing the fabric of society and they don't care if we catch up or not. Jason Brown II: Yeah. No, they don't. They don't need us. Well, I mean, they need us, but they act as if they don't need us. So, no. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. They need us to work for cheap. Jason Brown II: Yeah, yeah, they need us to continue to enrich themselves. ⁓ They have to have someone to exploit. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. And then you have people like Stephen Miller saying, you don't build anything. You don't. And I'm like, dude, you got soft hands. You need to shut up. Jason Brown II: Well, what can I say? unfortunate Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): It's so unfortunate and it's crazy how some folks just eat that up and you're like, you really, you really do believe this. It's so unfortunate. And again, we got to tap back into education so we can have people that can think their way through this and be like, wait a minute. You're rich. You're exploiting us. Jason Brown II: Yeah? Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): It's not, it's not that difficult. It's not that difficult. And it's only obvious that it's not working. We're out here bombing everybody and their cousin. Jason Brown II: Great. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): They told us we couldn't afford healthcare, we couldn't afford education, but we can afford, boy. And isn't it crazy how they tell us we don't have money for any of that, but then they ship all that money to Israel and Israel has universal healthcare. Jason Brown II: but we can afford those Tomahawk missiles. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. It's like we don't want to take care of ourselves. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And listen, I'm not even mad that we're trying to take care of our neighbors. I don't, I'm not even mad, but we got to clean our house first. Jason Brown II: Yeah, clean our house and and Yeah, once we've taken care of our people, I still don't want to take care of Israel, but Let's take care of our people. Yeah Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): We gotta take care of our people first. Yeah, yeah, I mean, the relationship we have with them is a really weird Really weird relationship. If it was a, ⁓ like a relationship between two people and it was like that, you'd be like, you guys have to break up. This is toxic. Jason Brown II: I'm hoping to be that friend that encourages the United States to break up with Israel for sure. Yeah, no more support. I don't support any of that. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. It's wild. It's wild that we... We've been through so much as a country and we just keep giving the keys to these people that they don't do a good job. And this is both sides, both Republicans and Democrats. We keep voting for sellouts. Jason Brown II: ⁓ I agree. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): So that's why I'm excited when people like you stand up and you say, enough is enough. We got to do it better. We can do it better. Jason Brown II: Yeah, yeah. I do appreciate you having me on. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Of course, of course, anytime. ⁓ Go ahead and give the good people of Virginia ⁓ your last sales pitch. Let them know what you're going to do for them and then let them know where they can find you online. Jason Brown II: Yeah, I guess I'll s- going in reverse order, rub myself up. You can find out more information about me on my campaign website, jasonforkongress2026.com. And you can also find me on Instagram at jasonforkongress, or you can reach out to me directly. My contact information is on the website. If you want to chit chat it up, I'm very accessible as a candidate. ⁓ And part of the reason why I'm accessible as a candidate is because I do believe that it's putting power into the hands of the people that's really going to win the world. that we want. ⁓ So when I say that I want affordability for all housing for all education for all health care for all ⁓ citizenship for for all undocumented families here in the United States, all of these things that we can want ⁓ and that we can achieve and that we can win. ⁓ It all starts with putting power back into the hands of the people. And it's been a very, very, very long time since we've had elected leaders that have said exactly those words. ⁓ And so, you know, there's a very stark difference ⁓ between some who is wanting to put power back into the hands of the people and someone who's wanting to keep the power for themselves and enrich themselves off of it. And so there's a very clear choice come November 3rd and I hope to be that choice for the people because I'm putting the people first. And if you think I'm not putting the people first, let me know how I can do it better because I'm always going to get better at that. I'm always going to get better at serving the people. So but thank you again for having me on here Corliss, I really appreciate it. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yes, sir. Of course. Anytime. Thank you for taking time from your busy schedule. I know you grassroots candidates, especially listening to how you have to do your own graphic design and everything. Holy cow. Holy cow. You got to want it. Yeah. I, it's great story. Thank you. And with that, everybody. ahead. Jason Brown II: was a pleasure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, but I'm loving it. I'm loving it. Yeah, but thank you again. Yeah. Yeah, you have a... ⁓ I was gonna say you have a good afternoon, but yeah, without everybody, I'll let you finish. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): You have a great rest of your evening. And with that, everyone, we out. Jason Brown II: Doosers. Thanks again.