Latest / TMI / What’s at stake? Maga VS Higher Education with Tiffany Dena Loftin

Transcript

What’s at stake? Maga VS Higher Education with Tiffany Dena Loftin · TMI

0:00
Speaker 1: I'm Tameka D. Mallory.
0:01
Speaker 2: And it's your boy, Myson the General.
0:03
Speaker 1: We are your host of TMI.
0:05
Speaker 2: Tameka and Myson's information, truth, motivation, and inspiration.
0:09
Speaker 1: New name, new energy, but.
0:11
Speaker 2: Same old us.
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Speaker 3: From now until November 3rd, the TMI Show is asking
0:18
Speaker 3: one question.
0:19
Speaker 1: What's at stake?
0:20
Speaker 3: Because the midterm elections are quickly approaching and what we
0:25
Speaker 3: do now reaches far beyond Election Day. Every week, my
0:28
Speaker 3: son and I are breaking down an issue that impacts
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Speaker 3: our communities, our power and our future.
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Speaker 2: Voting is not the solution, but it's damn sure too.
0:39
Speaker 4: And between now and Election Day, all roads lead to
0:42
Speaker 4: the polls on the TMI show.
0:45
Speaker 2: And that's what's at stake.
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Speaker 1: All right, my son. So we are in week two
0:49
Speaker 1: of what's at stake.
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Speaker 3: And this week we have a really, really big topic
0:54
Speaker 3: that a lot of folks are talking about, but obviously
0:57
Speaker 3: not enough.
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Speaker 1: So what's at stake this week?
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Speaker 4: Well, this week we'll be talking about higher education and
1:02
Speaker 4: how this administration has targeted it. We'll talk about the
1:06
Speaker 4: effects of DEI. We'll talk about how a lot of
1:08
Speaker 4: the loans and grants are really being affected and how
1:12
Speaker 4: we need to be educated on what.
1:14
Speaker 2: We need to be doing.
1:15
Speaker 3: Our guest this week is Tiffany Dena Lofton. She is
1:18
Speaker 3: an educator and an education organizer.
1:22
Speaker 1: Two different things.
1:23
Speaker 3: On one side, she teaches. On the other side, she
1:26
Speaker 3: helps to organize programs. young people to advocate for themselves
1:29
Speaker 3: and to fight back against these changes. And we're excited
1:34
Speaker 3: to have her on to help us understand the things
1:36
Speaker 3: that we don't know.
1:37
Speaker 1: Because I feel like even.
1:39
Speaker 3: When we were prepping for the show, we were asking like, what, huh?
1:43
Speaker 1: You know, need to Google.
1:44
Speaker 3: This, need to research this information in order for us
1:48
Speaker 3: to kind of grasp all the language that and the
1:52
Speaker 3: ways in which policy sometimes is designed to be inaccessible
1:57
Speaker 3: for folks to understand. And so, you know, as smart
2:02
Speaker 3: as we may be and how we can pick up
2:05
Speaker 3: on things quickly, I can say that this issue around
2:09
Speaker 3: the attacks on higher education definitely requires some slow down
2:16
Speaker 3: and help, you know, to really analyze where we stand.
2:21
Speaker 3: And I hope that one of the things I want
2:23
Speaker 3: to talk to Tiffany about is, you know, a lot
2:26
Speaker 3: of people will say, well, the education system was already
2:30
Speaker 3: a mess. So don't now all of a sudden that
2:33
Speaker 3: Trump is in office. Now you want to have an
2:36
Speaker 3: issue with the more mess that's being created when it
2:40
Speaker 3: was all the foundation of it was already really just
2:45
Speaker 3: not working for a lot of our children. And I
2:48
Speaker 3: would not disagree with that. I think that especially public
2:52
Speaker 3: education is, has been defunded for a long time. I
2:56
Speaker 3: think that there are very severe problems within the education
3:01
Speaker 3: system in general that need to be fixed. But what
3:04
Speaker 3: I do know is that it is a very different
3:08
Speaker 3: thing when there's a specific focus on disenfranchising our community.
3:16
Speaker 3: Not to say we weren't already dealing with issues, but
3:19
Speaker 3: there's a specific focus on disenfranchising our community, and I
3:23
Speaker 3: think people need to be aware.
3:25
Speaker 2: I totally agree.
3:27
Speaker 1: So let's talk before.
3:28
Speaker 3: We get to our main topic on what's at stake
3:31
Speaker 3: in the upcoming midterm elections.
3:34
Speaker 1: We should talk about some headlines.
3:36
Speaker 3: And so over the last week, there's a song by
3:40
Speaker 3: Takeoff from the Migos. And it's an AI video of
3:45
Speaker 3: a little snippet of it that a bunch of people,
3:47
Speaker 3: including you and I, have participated in. Something fun, something funny,
3:54
Speaker 3: but it is AI. And people have had mixed reaction
3:59
Speaker 3: to the video being on our pages because we are
4:04
Speaker 3: activists and therefore people have certain expectations of what we
4:10
Speaker 3: will and will not engage in. And specifically when there
4:15
Speaker 3: is such a struggle around AI that is happening across
4:20
Speaker 3: the world, not just in America, but people are struggling
4:24
Speaker 3: with the use of AI, the damage that AI will cause.
4:28
Speaker 3: and how to navigate all of that. And then of course,
4:31
Speaker 3: the lack of regulations by this particular administration is very,
4:36
Speaker 3: very serious. And I don't take away from that at all,
4:39
Speaker 3: one bit, period.
4:40
Speaker 1: I get it, that it.
4:42
Speaker 3: Is certainly a dangerous issue that we have to pay
4:47
Speaker 3: attention to. So As I said, there have been mixed
4:52
Speaker 3: reactions from folks and some people who are like, I
4:55
Speaker 3: just can't believe that you guys could be activists and
4:58
Speaker 3: do this thing at the same time. So I said,
5:01
Speaker 3: let me wait until it's time to do our show
5:04
Speaker 3: so that I can speak to some of those people
5:09
Speaker 3: and some of that criticism that's out there. One, I
5:14
Speaker 3: want to say off the back that I don't, disagree
5:18
Speaker 3: with anybody's opinion that AI is, it is not so
5:25
Speaker 3: much AI, but the way that AI is being implemented
5:30
Speaker 3: in our society is a concern and people should have
5:35
Speaker 3: the right to speak out, to voice their opinion, that
5:41
Speaker 3: this is an issue that they are 10 toes down on, right?
5:46
Speaker 3: I don't want to take anything away from that and
5:48
Speaker 3: that's okay. And there are other issues that I have
5:51
Speaker 3: to deal with every single day where people have an
5:54
Speaker 3: opinion on what we should and should not do and
5:58
Speaker 3: how we should and should not.
5:59
Speaker 1: Engage in the world. And so I.
6:03
Speaker 3: Wanted to speak to my personal feelings about it. One,
6:10
Speaker 3: I will not ever be perfect for anybody. So people
6:16
Speaker 3: who feel like, Well, I'm going to unfollow you because
6:21
Speaker 3: I can't believe that you, oh my God, how can
6:26
Speaker 3: you say you're fighting for the people and do this
6:29
Speaker 3: at the same time?
6:31
Speaker 1: People who had that.
6:32
Speaker 3: Particular opinion who decide that they want to unfollow me,
6:37
Speaker 3: I completely 100% understand it. And in fact, I actually
6:43
Speaker 3: support you because the number of people who follow me never,
6:47
Speaker 3: has never, ever been what... my life is centered around.
6:52
Speaker 3: So I completely get it. I am never ever going
6:56
Speaker 3: to be a perfect individual that walks this line of
7:01
Speaker 3: never ever engaging in anything that people may feel shouldn't,
7:07
Speaker 3: you know, I should not be engaged in because it's
7:10
Speaker 3: harmful or it's this or it's that in our society.
7:13
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna do that. That's not gonna, if that
7:16
Speaker 3: is the bar for which you see me, You probably,
7:22
Speaker 3: I'm not the right person for you to follow.
7:25
Speaker 1: And you should go and find.
7:27
Speaker 3: The people who are living and walking this line of
7:31
Speaker 3: perfection where they don't engage in any of the things
7:35
Speaker 3: that's happening in society that's harmful or things that are
7:39
Speaker 3: problematic or things that need to be changed or fixed
7:43
Speaker 3: because it's just not me. And I don't want that
7:46
Speaker 3: responsibility because I will never, I'm not even gonna try
7:50
Speaker 3: to live up to that standard. So let's put that there.
7:53
Speaker 3: The other thing is I, at times, there are things
7:58
Speaker 3: that happen, right? There are trends that people come out
8:00
Speaker 3: with all the time. Sometimes I do them, sometimes I don't.
8:05
Speaker 3: Most times I don't engage in the trends that are
8:09
Speaker 3: happening just because I don't have time or I don't
8:12
Speaker 3: feel like figuring it out and I don't wanna do
8:15
Speaker 3: all of that. But every now and then I see
8:18
Speaker 3: something that I'm attracted to that's funny, or if the
8:22
Speaker 3: team sends us something that says, we think that y'all
8:25
Speaker 3: should do this or say this thing or be engaged
8:28
Speaker 3: in some way, I will do it because I feel
8:31
Speaker 3: like it.
8:32
Speaker 1: And that's really it. Like, I like it. I'm like, okay, cool. So,
8:37
Speaker 1: you know, I do it because, yeah, I might feel
8:39
Speaker 1: like it.
8:40
Speaker 3: I might actually like it and be like, this is fun. However,
8:43
Speaker 3: I want to make this particular point very clear because
8:48
Speaker 3: I don't want anybody to be confused.
8:51
Speaker 1: I am not a person who.
8:53
Speaker 3: Who believes that we should not use AI at all.
8:57
Speaker 3: I don't believe that. I know that AI is not
9:01
Speaker 3: going away. That the problem is it is not being
9:05
Speaker 3: properly regulated where it's not harming people who live in
9:10
Speaker 3: vulnerable populations around the world and around this country. And
9:14
Speaker 3: I support those who have taken it on as a
9:18
Speaker 3: key issue that they are fighting for. 100%, I'm not
9:22
Speaker 3: trying to get in your way or organize against you
9:25
Speaker 3: because I believe that those regulations are necessary. But I
9:29
Speaker 3: am not somebody who has decided that I will not
9:33
Speaker 3: use AI at all.
9:35
Speaker 1: That is not me.
9:36
Speaker 3: So every now and then you will hear me say
9:39
Speaker 3: that I searched something on chat GPT to see what
9:43
Speaker 3: Information may be out there. Now, you know, I'm a
9:46
Speaker 3: person that searches in on ChatGPT and then I go
9:48
Speaker 3: look it up on Google and read a couple articles
9:51
Speaker 3: because you never know what information you're being given by
9:55
Speaker 3: each source. So that's, something that I believe in. And
9:59
Speaker 3: I still write long form. I'm not a person that
10:02
Speaker 3: does all my writing and chat GPT.
10:04
Speaker 1: I don't believe in that. But nevertheless, I.
10:07
Speaker 3: Still know there are tools out there that is moving
10:11
Speaker 3: things in this world along at a faster speed And
10:15
Speaker 3: I will use them at the times in which I
10:18
Speaker 3: think are necessary in my personal life. And I'm not
10:22
Speaker 3: mad at anybody else who says that they won't. But
10:25
Speaker 3: if you are looking for me to be a person
10:28
Speaker 3: who is 100% never going to use AI, that I'm
10:33
Speaker 3: telling you, I'm definitely not that person.
10:36
Speaker 2: I'm not.
10:37
Speaker 3: So- I just wanted to put that out there because
10:40
Speaker 3: I think that it's important when people have a, or
10:44
Speaker 3: believe in their minds that you would, I can't believe
10:48
Speaker 3: you would ever.
10:49
Speaker 1: Do this thing. I don't, I don't sit unless, you know,
10:56
Speaker 1: I'm not.
10:56
Speaker 2: But you haven't told them that. Right. So this is,
10:59
Speaker 2: the thing is like, I hear what you're saying, but
11:01
Speaker 2: you'd never said, Hey, I'm 100% against this. And I
11:05
Speaker 2: won't support it.
11:06
Speaker 3: Right.
11:07
Speaker 4: Because then you can be held accountable. But I should
11:09
Speaker 4: not be held accountable for what you believe. You're totally
11:13
Speaker 4: upon your belief. I'm not here to stop you from
11:15
Speaker 4: your beliefs. People have been talking about 5G towers was
11:19
Speaker 4: killing us and people still went out and got phones.
11:21
Speaker 4: We've been talking about radiation was killing us. People still
11:24
Speaker 4: got microwaves. I'm not saying it to diminish anything. I'm
11:28
Speaker 4: just saying that technology, as it continued to grow, there
11:31
Speaker 4: has been red flags. People have explained to us how
11:35
Speaker 4: all this technology is destroying us and killing us. How
11:37
Speaker 4: radiation is killing us. How these 5G towers is killing us.
11:41
Speaker 4: Now we're talking about AI. They're talking about how it's
11:45
Speaker 4: contaminating the water and it's taking the water supply. And
11:48
Speaker 4: I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm just saying that these
11:50
Speaker 4: things continue to evolve. And Everyone is not on the
11:56
Speaker 4: same issue at the same time. There might come a
11:58
Speaker 4: time where I learn more about the AI situation and
12:01
Speaker 4: say to myself, you know what, this might be something
12:04
Speaker 4: that I don't want to be involved with.
12:06
Speaker 2: I'm going to try my best to stay away from it.
12:08
Speaker 4: But I haven't been educated or I haven't felt the
12:10
Speaker 4: need because based on what I know, like you said,
12:12
Speaker 4: I believe there should be regulations.
12:13
Speaker 2: I believe, like you said, AI is not going anywhere.
12:16
Speaker 4: There definitely needs to be regulations to make sure that
12:19
Speaker 4: vulnerable communities are safe, that people are safe. Those things
12:22
Speaker 4: definitely need to happen. But Like you said, if you're
12:26
Speaker 4: coming to my page to dismiss me and unfollow me,
12:31
Speaker 4: and you've never heard me even have a conversation about
12:34
Speaker 4: this issue, you don't even know whether I'm educated in it,
12:38
Speaker 4: whether I agree with it, understand my stance on it,
12:41
Speaker 4: and you made a decision just to unfollow me and
12:43
Speaker 4: dismiss me, then you were really never there to support
12:46
Speaker 4: me in the first place. And that's just my opinion.
12:48
Speaker 4: Because there's a lot of things that I boycott again.
12:51
Speaker 4: I don't not talk to people who wear Nikes. I
12:54
Speaker 4: don't not talk to people who wear Gucci. I've made
12:56
Speaker 4: a false stance against those things. And there are people
12:59
Speaker 4: around me who haven't took in that same stance. And
13:01
Speaker 4: I have to respect those things. You know, I don't,
13:04
Speaker 4: I don't, I understand there's, these are not things that
13:07
Speaker 4: we collectively as a community have said we are totally against.
13:12
Speaker 2: Right. If we all get on the court and.
13:14
Speaker 4: We said like we said as a community, black people,
13:16
Speaker 4: the majority of black people say, hey, we don't want
13:18
Speaker 4: to go to Target because they're violating black people. And
13:21
Speaker 4: we decided we not. I took on that stance. And
13:24
Speaker 4: if I see somebody else is not doing, I'm have
13:26
Speaker 4: a conversation with him. I'm not saying I'm unfollowing you
13:28
Speaker 4: and this and that, because you might not agree with
13:31
Speaker 4: the stance that we have on our boycott and the
13:33
Speaker 4: things that we decide we're not going to do.
13:36
Speaker 2: And that's OK. Sometimes I might have to have a
13:38
Speaker 2: conversation because I want you to understand and I want
13:41
Speaker 2: you to agree with me and I want to give
13:43
Speaker 2: you the education so that you have the knowledge to
13:45
Speaker 2: be able to make a decision that I think will
13:47
Speaker 2: push you towards where I'm at. But if not, then
13:50
Speaker 2: I have to respect that as well.
13:52
Speaker 4: And I think we've got so... caught up in this
13:55
Speaker 4: era of social media where you feel like you control
13:58
Speaker 4: someone else, right? You control what they think, how they feel,
14:01
Speaker 4: you know, their personal opinions because we've done things and
14:05
Speaker 4: we've been on the front line and we've been deemed
14:07
Speaker 4: as leaders and we've done the work and we've put
14:11
Speaker 4: in the work necessary to be deemed that and respected
14:15
Speaker 4: in that way. But everything that you may think I
14:19
Speaker 4: shouldn't be doing may not coincide with what.
14:21
Speaker 2: I think I shouldn't be doing.
14:23
Speaker 4: And I need you to understand that because I might
14:25
Speaker 4: go to your page and see that you're not doing something,
14:27
Speaker 4: but I just don't know you. So you're able to
14:30
Speaker 4: make a complete assumption and then throw me to the
14:34
Speaker 4: dirt because I might, because we did an AI video.
14:37
Speaker 4: I'm like, it's not really that serious.
14:38
Speaker 2: This one.
14:39
Speaker 1: But I can't, I will not say it's two things
14:42
Speaker 1: that you.
14:43
Speaker 4: I'm not saying what I'm saying. I'm not saying that
14:45
Speaker 4: the cause is not that serious. I'm just saying, because
14:48
Speaker 4: you see me do one AI video doesn't mean I'm
14:51
Speaker 4: anti what you against, right?
14:53
Speaker 2: It doesn't mean that.
14:54
Speaker 4: It may mean that I don't understand or maybe I
14:57
Speaker 4: don't agree, but that's a conversation that you had. When
15:02
Speaker 4: you have a level of respect for someone, when you
15:04
Speaker 4: follow someone and you respect that individual, then you have
15:07
Speaker 4: a conversation and say, hey, I might not agree. It's
15:09
Speaker 4: a lot of people. It's people that I love to death.
15:11
Speaker 4: My favorite leaders, people that I follow throughout my whole life,
15:16
Speaker 4: and I don't agree with things that they say at times.
15:19
Speaker 2: That's just a reality. What happened?
15:21
Speaker 4: There are going to be disagreements with people that you
15:25
Speaker 4: actually have a lot of love and you follow and
15:28
Speaker 4: you believe in, and that.
15:29
Speaker 2: Is part of life.
15:31
Speaker 3: I would say that there's two things on that. I
15:34
Speaker 3: do not believe that people who say, well, I'm unfollowing
15:38
Speaker 3: you because you did this video were never there to
15:41
Speaker 3: support you in the first place. And the reason why
15:44
Speaker 3: I say that is because I feel like some people
15:51
Speaker 3: are so overly and overly may be a positive thing
15:55
Speaker 3: because I'm overly committed to the things that I'm committed to.
15:58
Speaker 1: So I get it.
15:59
Speaker 3: There are some people who are so committed to what
16:03
Speaker 3: they believe in that they at times become.
16:09
Speaker 3: You know, unmovable and anything that happens in that.
16:13
Speaker 1: Space is unacceptable and they got to go.
16:15
Speaker 3: Because I might post another AI video in three months
16:19
Speaker 3: or whenever it is that I choose to. And they
16:22
Speaker 3: may be feeling like I can't participate in this. I
16:26
Speaker 3: don't want to see it.
16:27
Speaker 1: It really bothers me.
16:28
Speaker 3: You may be one of the people who I really
16:30
Speaker 3: respected and you did this thing and now it bothers
16:33
Speaker 3: me and therefore I got to go. So I don't
16:36
Speaker 3: take anything away from folks who may take on that
16:39
Speaker 3: particular attitude. And I don't think that it means that
16:42
Speaker 3: they never wanted to support me. I think that they
16:45
Speaker 3: have come to a place where we part ways, where
16:48
Speaker 3: they just don't feel attracted to.
16:51
Speaker 1: What it is that I do or who I am anymore.
16:54
Speaker 3: And I'm saying I'm completely fine with that because to
16:58
Speaker 3: your point, It becomes too much pressure for any human
17:04
Speaker 3: being to have to live up to the standards of
17:08
Speaker 3: what everybody is thinking you should do on things like
17:13
Speaker 3: an AI video.
17:14
Speaker 1: Now, if I walked out of my house.
17:16
Speaker 3: Today and went and started aligning myself with MAGA and
17:21
Speaker 3: I started being out here, you know, trying to sell
17:25
Speaker 3: you some of the particular policies that these folks have,
17:29
Speaker 3: or I went out and started working for Palantir or,
17:34
Speaker 3: you know, one of these big companies, then I can
17:37
Speaker 3: understand more people. And, you know, either way I understand,
17:41
Speaker 3: but I can, I get where people might say, you
17:46
Speaker 3: have actually become a danger to our community.
17:50
Speaker 2: Exactly. And that makes sense. You know why?
17:52
Speaker 4: Because that was what you based your life on from
17:56
Speaker 4: the beginning.
17:57
Speaker 2: That is who you've always been.
17:58
Speaker 4: When you start going contrary to who you've presented, then
18:02
Speaker 4: I can understand how somebody would be angry with you.
18:05
Speaker 2: But the debate is this.
18:09
Speaker 4: I said you're not following me because you're following a
18:11
Speaker 4: version of me that you created.
18:14
Speaker 2: Right?
18:14
Speaker 4: Because I never told you or said anything to you
18:18
Speaker 4: about me not doing an AR video.
18:20
Speaker 2: There's never been a conversation. There's never been any dialogue
18:23
Speaker 2: that I had where I.
18:27
Speaker 4: Whatever you deemed in your mind of who I am
18:30
Speaker 4: or what I wouldn't do, I didn't tell you that
18:33
Speaker 4: I would never make an AI video.
18:34
Speaker 2: I didn't say I was anti-AI.
18:37
Speaker 4: You can't hold me accountable for something that I never
18:39
Speaker 4: said or presented to you as who I am. So
18:44
Speaker 4: your version of me is not my responsibility to live
18:47
Speaker 4: up to.
18:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I guess the other side of the coin
18:52
Speaker 3: for that you know, that I can hear people saying is, well,
18:57
Speaker 3: we're supposed to be fighting back against these systems that
19:02
Speaker 3: are a danger to our community. And I'm saying, you know,
19:05
Speaker 3: I heard Mayor Ras Baraka speaking on this issue. He
19:09
Speaker 3: did an interview and he said the regulations that are
19:14
Speaker 3: necessary for AI at the speed that is growing are
19:18
Speaker 3: just not there and it's very dangerous.
19:20
Speaker 1: And I totally support that.
19:25
Speaker 3: As I said, this particular industry is not going away
19:30
Speaker 3: and it is growing at a rate that if our
19:33
Speaker 3: communities do not figure out how to tap into AI
19:39
Speaker 3: to learn the good, the bad, the ugly, the ins,
19:42
Speaker 3: the outs, how we can use it to be more
19:45
Speaker 3: efficient and how we can challenge systems that are harmful,
19:51
Speaker 3: If we don't do that, we will be behind and
19:54
Speaker 3: the rest of the world will be moving at a
19:56
Speaker 3: speed beyond us. Now, there are people who will say, well,
20:00
Speaker 3: I don't care about that. We don't have to move
20:02
Speaker 3: at the same speed.
20:04
Speaker 1: That's fine.
20:04
Speaker 3: That may be your thought process, but it is not
20:07
Speaker 3: mine because I do not want to see a probably
20:12
Speaker 3: trillion dollar industry pass our communities by because we don't
20:17
Speaker 3: have information.
20:18
Speaker 4: It's not going to pass our communities by because the
20:20
Speaker 4: reality of the situation is unless you plan on being Amish,
20:24
Speaker 4: you are going to participate in AI. Every device, everything
20:28
Speaker 4: that we live on is going to be run by
20:31
Speaker 4: some level of AI. So it's not going to pass
20:34
Speaker 4: our communities by. It's just going to negatively impact you.
20:38
Speaker 4: It's either you at the table or you.
20:41
Speaker 2: On the menu.
20:42
Speaker 4: That's the bottom line. It's not so much that it's
20:44
Speaker 4: going to pass you by. These people are going to
20:46
Speaker 4: figure out ways to capitalize off it, to control our communities,
20:49
Speaker 4: to control our resources, to control our minds and everything.
20:53
Speaker 4: And if you are not aware of how it plays,
20:57
Speaker 4: then you're just going to be a victim of it.
20:59
Speaker 2: And I'm not going to be a victim.
21:01
Speaker 3: And for some people, the feeling may be, well, what
21:04
Speaker 3: does that have to do with a video?
21:06
Speaker 1: Like, what does that have to do with a video?
21:08
Speaker 2: That's what my thing, for me, that's what it says.
21:10
Speaker 2: What does that have to do with a video?
21:11
Speaker 3: I don't think, I don't know that it does have
21:14
Speaker 3: anything to do with a video. But what I will
21:16
Speaker 3: say is that I understand marketing. And I understand, it's like,
21:19
Speaker 3: I don't just sit in my house and do AI
21:22
Speaker 3: videos and post them for my own content. That's not
21:27
Speaker 3: really me. What we posted was a promo for our podcast,
21:34
Speaker 3: which by the way, we started to receive new followers.
21:38
Speaker 3: I see that more people have subscribed to our podcast.
21:42
Speaker 3: And you saw that there were people who were like, ah,
21:45
Speaker 3: this is funny. And people who I know for sure
21:48
Speaker 3: went to go check out what TMI has going on
21:51
Speaker 3: because I could see that there was an increase in
21:54
Speaker 3: people who checked out the show, checked out.
21:57
Speaker 1: The Instagram page.
21:59
Speaker 3: And so it became a part of our marketing because
22:03
Speaker 3: I thought it was funny.
22:04
Speaker 1: And I still think it was funny. And I actually
22:06
Speaker 1: think the video is cute and it's funny. And I
22:10
Speaker 1: am not upset at all.
22:12
Speaker 3: I don't feel like, oh my God, like when people
22:14
Speaker 3: say things like delete this, they must not know that
22:17
Speaker 3: that's the easiest way for me not to do it.
22:19
Speaker 1: When you tell me to delete something off of.
22:22
Speaker 3: My page, it is okay to say I am walking
22:26
Speaker 3: away from This page, because you have something up there
22:30
Speaker 3: that really, really is disturbing me. But I do believe
22:34
Speaker 3: that they are going to be people even within our
22:37
Speaker 3: social justice movement space that will have a difference of
22:42
Speaker 3: opinion on this issue. I see a lot of people
22:45
Speaker 3: who kind of like come down the, you know, who
22:48
Speaker 3: go in different directions around AI. You have some people
22:53
Speaker 3: who are a thousand percent against it and you have
22:57
Speaker 3: other people who do support us learning and using AI,
23:03
Speaker 3: whether it be for enjoyment and or entertainment and or
23:08
Speaker 3: for very serious projects. And somewhere along the line, I
23:12
Speaker 3: think we do need to find a commonality of what
23:15
Speaker 3: we are doing, again, to fight against the oppressive practices.
23:21
Speaker 1: That are harming communities and that will ultimately harm.
23:26
Speaker 3: You know, and that will ultimately disenfranchise people in the workplace,
23:30
Speaker 3: you know, pushing elderly people out, taking away important skill
23:35
Speaker 3: sets from folks that, you know, that people need.
23:38
Speaker 1: I agree with all of that.
23:39
Speaker 3: But I'm definitely not committed to never, ever use an AI.
23:44
Speaker 1: You're in a different boat.
23:46
Speaker 3: But in my life, especially as long as I have
23:49
Speaker 3: been in this work, I have been told that wearing
23:54
Speaker 3: weave is me wanting to be a white woman and
23:58
Speaker 3: it is disrespectful to the culture and people have, you're
24:01
Speaker 3: unfollowing me because I wear weave and, you know, where's
24:06
Speaker 3: the hair coming from and who is it harming? I've
24:08
Speaker 3: been told I'm not allowed to drive a nice car
24:11
Speaker 3: because I'm, you know, buying, I'm, you know, making money
24:16
Speaker 3: and stealing it from the movement in order to go
24:18
Speaker 3: live a fancy life. I have been told that I'm
24:22
Speaker 3: supposed to live literally a certain way to be able
24:26
Speaker 3: to prove that I am so much of a servant
24:29
Speaker 3: that I am sacrificing myself. I have been told that
24:33
Speaker 3: I'm supposed to say the words exactly as a particular
24:37
Speaker 3: community tells me to say in order for them to
24:40
Speaker 3: believe that I am aligned with them or I am
24:42
Speaker 3: an ally. I have been told that I'm not allowed
24:45
Speaker 3: to post bikini pictures because it's too sexy and it's not.
24:51
Speaker 1: What I'm supposed to be representing.
24:54
Speaker 3: I have been told that my twerk and work theory
24:57
Speaker 3: is ghetto and it's wrong and I'm playing myself. And
25:01
Speaker 3: all these things have made people say, I'm out of here.
25:04
Speaker 3: I'm unfollowing you because I cannot believe that you of
25:09
Speaker 3: all the people would do all of this, all these
25:13
Speaker 3: different categories of that I find myself offending people who
25:17
Speaker 3: believe that I'm supposed to be walking this straight line
25:21
Speaker 3: of being exactly what.
25:23
Speaker 1: They think I should be in order.
25:26
Speaker 3: And you know what? I've also heard that the fact
25:28
Speaker 3: that I have not been assassinated means that I'm not
25:32
Speaker 3: a real activist.
25:33
Speaker 1: I mean, the list... I can get a scroll and
25:37
Speaker 1: roll it down to the floor.
25:38
Speaker 3: So the way that I choose to deal with the
25:43
Speaker 3: expectations of others is that I will do the best
25:47
Speaker 3: that I can in what feels good to me. And
25:50
Speaker 3: I understand anybody who comes to a place when they
25:54
Speaker 3: need to depart from me because I don't represent what
25:57
Speaker 3: they're looking for in a leader, an organizer, or an activist.
26:02
Speaker 3: And the one thing that I will give back to
26:06
Speaker 3: all my followers and supporters and people is that I
26:09
Speaker 3: will not go to your pages and follow you and
26:14
Speaker 3: then go and tell you that I'm unfollowing you because
26:19
Speaker 3: you're doing something that I may not agree with. I'm
26:22
Speaker 3: just not going to do that. You don't have to
26:24
Speaker 3: worry about me ever doing that. And you said it right.
26:29
Speaker 3: I have people who never stopped going to Target. They
26:33
Speaker 3: never stopped wearing Nike. They never stopped wearing Gucci. I
26:37
Speaker 3: have a list of things I don't do. And because
26:40
Speaker 3: I do this thing, I understand, again, people who cannot
26:44
Speaker 3: support it, but I do not believe that it disqualifies
26:48
Speaker 3: me from the work that we are about to talk
26:50
Speaker 3: about on our show. And for those that it does,
26:54
Speaker 3: find you the best person that you can follow and support.
26:59
Speaker 1: As it relates to me, as it relates to me,
27:01
Speaker 1: I am okay with the idea that we're not for
27:06
Speaker 1: each other. It's cool.
27:09
Speaker 2: I'm totally okay with it.
27:11
Speaker 1: I thought it was very funny video. Love it.
27:14
Speaker 2: I thought it was hilarious.
27:16
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
27:17
Speaker 2: I'm sorry.
27:18
Speaker 3: I'm upset that you got to change your clothes and
27:20
Speaker 3: I didn't get to change mine. I don't know how
27:22
Speaker 3: that happened, but okay.
27:25
Speaker 5: All right.
27:25
Speaker 3: So speaking of the work, a couple of issues and
27:29
Speaker 3: we'll be getting to our guests.
27:30
Speaker 1: I want to give an update on Easy Pass.
27:33
Speaker 3: I know that there are folks who say, well, we
27:35
Speaker 3: had a forum, a town hall meeting a few months ago,
27:39
Speaker 3: and then they kind of see nothing happening in the
27:42
Speaker 3: public eye from then until now. And people want to
27:46
Speaker 3: know what's going on. And I'm glad you asked because
27:48
Speaker 3: I have an update. So number one, following the town
27:52
Speaker 3: hall meeting, we begin to hear back from the state,
27:56
Speaker 3: from the governor's office and other people who have an
28:00
Speaker 3: interest in figuring out, you know, what.
28:02
Speaker 1: Needs to be done here.
28:04
Speaker 3: There are a number of assembly members, particularly Assemblywoman Chantel Jackson,
28:09
Speaker 3: who I have kind of partnered with to wrangle all
28:12
Speaker 3: the others, and Senator Leroy Comrie, and there are others
28:16
Speaker 3: I don't want to get in trouble because many people
28:19
Speaker 3: have legislation that.
28:21
Speaker 1: They are holding and they are using that.
28:24
Speaker 3: Legislation and trying to sort of package it to find
28:28
Speaker 3: solutions for the E-ZPass crisis. And so the governor has
28:34
Speaker 3: asked to see all of this information and is working
28:38
Speaker 3: on recommendations for how there can be some changes. Now, one,
28:43
Speaker 3: it's an election year and the governor is running for re-election.
28:47
Speaker 3: And so what we are able to get done in
28:50
Speaker 3: the moment, if you know anything about politics, you have
28:54
Speaker 3: to be pushing and at the same time knowing that
28:58
Speaker 3: things will move a little bit slower when you're this
29:02
Speaker 3: close to an election. It's just the way it is.
29:05
Speaker 3: It shouldn't be that way. But that's just the way
29:07
Speaker 3: it is because people are trying to focus on the
29:10
Speaker 3: priorities that they believe folks will be attracted to to
29:15
Speaker 3: help them to keep not so much just winning the election,
29:20
Speaker 3: but to make sure that people have the confidence in
29:23
Speaker 3: them to say, I think I'm going to vote for
29:27
Speaker 3: this person so that they can continue doing the job
29:29
Speaker 3: that they're doing. So again, I'm not suggesting in any
29:32
Speaker 3: way that that means that this isn't one of those issues,
29:35
Speaker 3: but it is something that we introduced after the budget,
29:39
Speaker 3: which we've talked about that on this show. If you
29:41
Speaker 3: don't understand, the budget is where most of these issues
29:45
Speaker 3: have to be debated because it is lit. Every single
29:49
Speaker 3: thing you care about, including E-ZPass, is a budget issue.
29:55
Speaker 3: And so if they are not changes that are presented
29:59
Speaker 3: during the budget negotiation period, it is something that you
30:04
Speaker 3: will be advocating for until the next budget comes up.
30:08
Speaker 3: And hopefully you have made strong enough of a case
30:11
Speaker 3: that it will make it into the budget and there
30:14
Speaker 3: will be changes to the dollars and cents. that will
30:18
Speaker 3: impact people who look like you and me and people
30:21
Speaker 3: who are dealing with everyday crises around E-ZPass. And so
30:26
Speaker 3: all of that is happening. This is the part of
30:29
Speaker 3: the work where you don't hear as much, but the
30:32
Speaker 3: assembly members and the state senators and others have a
30:35
Speaker 3: responsibility to be bringing this up in their sessions and
30:39
Speaker 3: meetings and all the things that they are doing. And
30:42
Speaker 3: we have a responsibility to manage that and to monitor
30:45
Speaker 3: and make sure it's happening. Now, why that is also important,
30:49
Speaker 3: because the budget falls around June is when the budget
30:54
Speaker 3: is actually adopted, right? June is when the budget is
30:59
Speaker 3: actually adopted. It should be, you have some delays sometimes,
31:02
Speaker 3: but that's when it.
31:03
Speaker 1: Should be adopted.
31:04
Speaker 3: So then after the budget is adopted, like everything else,
31:10
Speaker 3: there's the summer recess.
31:12
Speaker 1: So most of these.
31:13
Speaker 3: Elected officials go back to their districts, they take vacations,
31:18
Speaker 3: they travel, they do a bunch of things. And the
31:21
Speaker 3: session has just restarted. So now it is September, session
31:26
Speaker 3: is back in. We are back in the process of
31:30
Speaker 3: making sure that E-ZPass is a priority for our state legislators. Thankfully,
31:36
Speaker 3: they are talking about it. They're beginning those conversations again.
31:41
Speaker 3: There is a hearing that is being scheduled and hopefully
31:46
Speaker 3: it will be a joint hearing between the state Senate
31:50
Speaker 3: and the state assembly. All of these little moving pieces
31:54
Speaker 3: are in progress. As soon as that hearing is scheduled,
31:59
Speaker 3: we will be blasting it everywhere. and asking those of
32:03
Speaker 3: you who signed up to be ambassadors of the In
32:06
Speaker 3: the Toll Track campaign to help us get the message
32:10
Speaker 3: out there so we can pack the hearing, whether it
32:13
Speaker 3: be on Zoom and or in person, and so that
32:16
Speaker 3: we can send our petition and make sure that the
32:20
Speaker 3: governor has the information necessary so that she remembers This
32:25
Speaker 3: is not.
32:26
Speaker 1: A play play issue.
32:28
Speaker 3: It is an issue that is very serious to New
32:31
Speaker 3: Yorkers and certainly until freedom is committed. I said a lot,
32:35
Speaker 3: but just to get to the bottom line, we are
32:38
Speaker 3: committed to fighting for an end to the toll trap
32:43
Speaker 3: that so many of us are facing.
32:45
Speaker 1: So hopefully that long, long, long, long.
32:48
Speaker 3: Explanation I know that for a lot of people, it's
32:51
Speaker 3: like get to where we are and like, how is
32:54
Speaker 3: it going to impact my life tomorrow? But unfortunately, that
32:58
Speaker 3: is just not how government works. We've got a process
33:01
Speaker 3: that we need to follow and we are following it
33:04
Speaker 3: and not allowing anybody to think that they're going to
33:07
Speaker 3: circumvent the community who is demanding change.
33:10
Speaker 2: That sounds like a lot.
33:12
Speaker 4: You know, but you have to let people know exactly
33:15
Speaker 4: what it is so I understand the process. And hopefully
33:18
Speaker 4: it gets done like it's supposed to be done.
33:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, I hope that we can speed up.
33:24
Speaker 3: Much of what I have said by applying pressure, you know,
33:28
Speaker 3: one thing I have learned in this process, because, you know, we,
33:32
Speaker 3: regardless of whether the session was in or not, and
33:34
Speaker 3: the governor has an election or not, and all of
33:36
Speaker 3: that stuff, I have been following and reading and learning
33:39
Speaker 3: and getting myself up to speed, knowing the companies that's involved.
33:44
Speaker 1: And just all the things.
33:46
Speaker 3: One thing that I have learned in this process, because,
33:49
Speaker 3: you know, whether there's a, whether session is in or not,
33:53
Speaker 3: Whether there's a governor's race or not, I still have
33:55
Speaker 3: been having the conversations, you know, trying to keep folks
33:59
Speaker 3: engaged and also learning myself and doing a lot of
34:03
Speaker 3: reading and trying to understand how do we get here.
34:06
Speaker 3: And the deal that was made with Conduit, the company
34:10
Speaker 3: that is responsible for the E-ZPass system in New York
34:14
Speaker 3: and other states around the country, the way that the
34:18
Speaker 3: deal came together did not consider humans, like people at all.
34:25
Speaker 1: It's literally predatory.
34:28
Speaker 3: And that's another thing that we have to work on
34:31
Speaker 3: because I can't imagine how many contracts in different areas
34:37
Speaker 3: of our city and state are similar, right? We're talking
34:43
Speaker 3: about education today. God only knows what's going on in
34:47
Speaker 3: the education department and the types of contracts that have
34:51
Speaker 3: been signed, the deals that have been done that do
34:54
Speaker 3: not consider human conditions.
34:56
Speaker 1: And so that's another thing that has.
34:58
Speaker 3: Really been, you know, causing me a little bit of
35:01
Speaker 3: anxiousness is yes, we can fix this. I know we can,
35:05
Speaker 3: because in New Jersey, again, they threw conduit out. I
35:08
Speaker 3: don't know what their new policy is going to be.
35:11
Speaker 3: Hopefully it's not the same, nowhere near what it is now,
35:15
Speaker 3: but it makes you think about trying to get in
35:19
Speaker 3: front of being so active in your community and in
35:23
Speaker 3: the politics of what's going on in your neighborhoods and
35:26
Speaker 3: going to Albany and being in sessions and listening with
35:30
Speaker 3: an ear that is, you know, with a trained ear
35:34
Speaker 3: for policy that I don't know when you would ever
35:38
Speaker 3: get rest. Like we would literally have to divide our
35:41
Speaker 3: community up. And figure out, like, who's going to be
35:45
Speaker 3: in transportation, education, you.
35:47
Speaker 1: Know, all the issues of health. Who's going to.
35:50
Speaker 3: Be there as a vanguard to know? And you would
35:53
Speaker 3: expect the elected officials to be doing that.
35:58
Speaker 1: But I remember.
36:00
Speaker 3: with stand your ground laws, people were like, what the
36:03
Speaker 3: hell is stand your ground?
36:05
Speaker 1: They did not know.
36:06
Speaker 3: People had no idea that stand your ground existed and
36:10
Speaker 3: that it was a law that allowed for folks to
36:15
Speaker 3: just kill, not just Black people, but that we were
36:19
Speaker 3: the most vulnerable under legislation like that that had been passed.
36:24
Speaker 3: And folks were saying, well, where the hell would the
36:26
Speaker 3: elected officials? And I'll be honest with you. Some elected
36:29
Speaker 3: officials are saying, I've been right here and I've been
36:32
Speaker 3: trying to tell y'all, but people don't listen to me
36:34
Speaker 3: until maybe election time. But other than that, you know,
36:37
Speaker 3: we have very few people who are showing up and
36:40
Speaker 3: wanting to be engaged in what goes on in the
36:43
Speaker 3: day to day process of how legislation is passed. And
36:46
Speaker 3: I think that when we look at the E-ZPass situation,
36:50
Speaker 3: we have to hold ourselves accountable also that these people
36:54
Speaker 3: would even think it's OK. That means not enough of
36:57
Speaker 3: us are holding feet to fire and ass to belt around,
37:03
Speaker 3: you know, what these people are doing with our lives
37:06
Speaker 3: and our money, because it should have never happened.
37:08
Speaker 1: 100% right. I'm reading a comment from my page.
37:16
Speaker 3: I posted about Nicki Minaj and her being out on
37:20
Speaker 3: the campaign trail, quote unquote, telling people that they need
37:25
Speaker 3: to vote red. And, you know, I said in my
37:28
Speaker 3: post that when Nicki first appeared with Donald Trump, I
37:34
Speaker 3: was sounding the alarm. I didn't come out and I
37:38
Speaker 3: wasn't disrespectful to her. I didn't say, oh, this B-I-T-C-H
37:42
Speaker 3: is dirty. And I've seen people like, oh, she's a
37:44
Speaker 3: bad human being.
37:45
Speaker 1: I didn't say any of that.
37:47
Speaker 3: I specifically said that this alignment is very dangerous and
37:53
Speaker 3: that I don't know whether she knows or not. what
37:57
Speaker 3: she's doing or whether she has the right advice. But
38:00
Speaker 3: I can tell you that this is not going to
38:03
Speaker 3: end well. And at the end of it all, there's
38:07
Speaker 3: going to be blood on the hands of those people
38:10
Speaker 3: who support someone like a Donald Trump. Right.
38:15
Speaker 1: That's what I said.
38:16
Speaker 3: So, of course, there were lots of people who agreed.
38:19
Speaker 3: And then there's always the chorus, which I already knew
38:22
Speaker 3: of Nicki Minaj supporters or just Tamika Mallory haters.
38:25
Speaker 1: And some of them not even haters. They just like
38:27
Speaker 1: to critique everything that I.
38:29
Speaker 3: Say that people were expressing, you know, their their their
38:35
Speaker 3: discontentment with my opinion.
38:38
Speaker 1: OK. And so.
38:41
Speaker 3: I said, and one of the key issues that several
38:46
Speaker 3: people made in my comment, in comment section, if you
38:50
Speaker 3: go back and look, was that at the press conference
38:54
Speaker 3: that Nikki did with Trump, she said, this is not
38:59
Speaker 3: about taking sides. It is about the protection for Christians
39:05
Speaker 3: in Nigeria, right?
39:08
Speaker 1: And I said, bullshit. Because we already.
39:11
Speaker 3: Know how can you have Nigeria and other African nations
39:17
Speaker 3: on this new Trump kind of ban list? Because you
39:21
Speaker 3: can still travel here. Some people can still travel, but
39:25
Speaker 3: it is under restrictions with Trump's guidelines. How can you
39:30
Speaker 3: say that these countries that, by the way, were shithole
39:34
Speaker 3: countries in his last presidency, that now all of a sudden...
39:39
Speaker 3: you care so much about what's happening to Nigerian Christians.
39:44
Speaker 3: Like it doesn't even make common sense. So when they
39:47
Speaker 3: were trying to make that case, I knew that one,
39:52
Speaker 3: it doesn't make sense. Two, it doesn't even fly with
39:56
Speaker 3: who Trump is and why he would target African nations
40:00
Speaker 3: in the first place. So you over there doing a
40:04
Speaker 3: press conference with him, if you have any level of discernment,
40:08
Speaker 3: you know that this is a soft launch for what
40:12
Speaker 3: is to come. And so some people who don't like
40:16
Speaker 3: me or they love Nikki or whatever, you.
40:18
Speaker 1: Don't have to listen. That's fine. I'm over here trying
40:23
Speaker 1: to make.
40:23
Speaker 3: Sure that it does not slip past the people who
40:27
Speaker 3: follow me, who want to hear this type of information.
40:31
Speaker 1: So I said, for those of you who told me I.
40:35
Speaker 3: Was being a hater because she was just trying to
40:37
Speaker 3: do some nonpartisan humanitarian work, you might be a little slow,
40:43
Speaker 3: like really. And so a woman wrote this, I think
40:48
Speaker 3: it's a woman, yes. She wrote this comment and she says,
40:53
Speaker 3: the Democrats do not own black people, Tamika, spelled with
40:57
Speaker 3: an E, my name is spelled with an I, She
41:00
Speaker 3: has the right to support who she wants. How you
41:03
Speaker 3: mad she won't be a part of the party who
41:07
Speaker 3: want men, women's sports and private spaces also teaching children
41:14
Speaker 3: it's okay to have surgery and castrate your body. You
41:19
Speaker 3: are the one who sided with the devil, not her.
41:22
Speaker 3: I said, I'm so glad that this person wrote this comment.
41:26
Speaker 2: I'm so tired. It is tired as talking.
41:31
Speaker 3: But, you know, but but I just wanted to break
41:34
Speaker 3: it down. So, first of all, it is 100 percent
41:38
Speaker 3: true that the Democrats don't own anybody and nor do I.
41:43
Speaker 1: But you also don't own me.
41:46
Speaker 3: So just like you feel that Nicki Minaj should have
41:50
Speaker 3: the right to be in support of whoever she wants
41:53
Speaker 3: to support. I have the right to say something about
41:57
Speaker 3: it if I think that it could potentially be damaging
42:02
Speaker 3: to a large group of people. That's why I'm not
42:04
Speaker 3: mad at folks that said in my comments, I don't
42:07
Speaker 3: want you to do this AI video.
42:09
Speaker 1: You can't tell me to delete anything.
42:11
Speaker 3: But I'm not mad at people who may feel that
42:14
Speaker 3: way and express it because we all have the right
42:18
Speaker 3: to state our opinions. Then it says, how you mad
42:23
Speaker 3: she won't be a part of the party who want
42:27
Speaker 3: men's sports and private spaces. I get it, men in
42:31
Speaker 3: sports and private spaces. And also teaching children it's okay
42:35
Speaker 3: to have surgery and castrate your body, right? Let me
42:39
Speaker 3: just say again, because we have had to cover this
42:42
Speaker 3: over and over again, which is why you're saying that
42:45
Speaker 3: you're so tired of it.
42:47
Speaker 1: Because I want to make a comparison.
42:50
Speaker 3: This is not about making somebody become a Democrat. This
42:55
Speaker 3: has nothing to do with that. I have never walked
42:58
Speaker 3: around with the card and said, Please become a Democrat.
43:04
Speaker 3: I may have said register to vote in especially a
43:09
Speaker 3: primary election as a Democrat so that you can help
43:13
Speaker 3: us to win a Democratic nomination and then be able
43:18
Speaker 3: to go up against a candidate who's probably a Republican
43:22
Speaker 3: candidate or even a Democratic candidate that we do not
43:25
Speaker 3: believe is healthy for our communities.
43:27
Speaker 1: Right.
43:28
Speaker 2: Right.
43:28
Speaker 3: I definitely have said that, but I have never been
43:32
Speaker 3: running around being at the party events, the Democratic National
43:37
Speaker 3: Convention events talking about I'm some delegate or supporter to
43:42
Speaker 3: bring people into the Democratic Party. That is not ever
43:46
Speaker 3: what I've done. In fact, most of the time that
43:49
Speaker 3: I have gone to debates or the DNC events, I
43:54
Speaker 3: have somewhere along the line been there protesting against an
43:58
Speaker 3: issue that I feel the Democrats are wrong. So this
44:02
Speaker 3: is not about me trying to make Nicki Minaj support
44:05
Speaker 3: a particular party. The problem is not even Democrats or Republicans.
44:10
Speaker 3: The problem is Donald Trump is a specific type of evil.
44:16
Speaker 3: He is a specific type of evil. Now, let's talk
44:19
Speaker 3: about the issue of men in women's sports.
44:25
Speaker 1: The stats. Fewer than 10 people. Fewer than 10.
44:30
Speaker 3: Out of 510,000.
44:33
Speaker 1: Athletes in the NCAA, which as you educated me, are
44:38
Speaker 1: all the sports, it covers all the sports within college, colleges, right?
44:43
Speaker 1: College sports, are trans people. Fewer than 10 of 510,000
44:49
Speaker 1: people are trans.
44:55
Speaker 3: Now, I'm not in any way saying they shouldn't be
44:58
Speaker 3: there or they should. This is not what this conversation
45:01
Speaker 3: is about. What I'm saying is that the issue that
45:05
Speaker 3: you're speaking.
45:06
Speaker 1: To, this fewer than 10, and then I want to
45:08
Speaker 1: make sure.
45:09
Speaker 3: We say that to date, nobody in the WNBA or
45:15
Speaker 3: the NBA is trans.
45:17
Speaker 1: Today, right now, nobody is trans.
45:21
Speaker 3: So, The proportionality of individuals who are of this major
45:29
Speaker 3: concern that you're raising in this comment is this small. Now,
45:35
Speaker 3: let me tell you what's this big. There are almost
45:40
Speaker 3: a million, probably more than a million Black women out
45:45
Speaker 3: of work in the United States of America, because under
45:49
Speaker 3: Donald Trump, they have been pushed out of the workforce.
45:52
Speaker 1: You see how the proportionality of.
45:56
Speaker 3: What's at stake is completely different There are at least
46:01
Speaker 3: shout out to our brother, Wes Bellamy, who has been
46:03
Speaker 3: who did a report on the amount of black men
46:07
Speaker 3: who have also.
46:08
Speaker 1: Been pushed out of the workforce. And it is over 500,000.
46:11
Speaker 3: And again, these numbers are being these numbers or this
46:17
Speaker 3: particular data is only going to count those people who
46:22
Speaker 3: have reported that they are out of work.
46:25
Speaker 1: So that means that there are many.
46:27
Speaker 3: Other people who have been impacted because a person who
46:32
Speaker 3: may have been in a DEI position at AT &
46:35
Speaker 3: T or at a college or at some other company
46:41
Speaker 3: or institution, they lost their job. And therefore, several women
46:45
Speaker 3: who would never be counted or several people who won't
46:48
Speaker 3: be counted lost contracts. lost donations for programs, lost the
46:55
Speaker 3: ability to keep their their organizations open.
47:00
Speaker 1: All of that is a trickle down effect.
47:02
Speaker 3: So when I look at this big issue that you're
47:06
Speaker 3: naming as the key reason why you don't support the Democrats,
47:13
Speaker 3: and you support Donald Trump, or you're saying that it's
47:16
Speaker 3: okay to support Donald Trump in this particular instance, we're
47:21
Speaker 3: talking about less than 10 people of 510,000 college athletes.
47:29
Speaker 3: Or at this current moment, no trans people that are
47:33
Speaker 3: in the WNBA or the NBA. And you're telling me
47:37
Speaker 3: that somehow I should see that as the same issue
47:42
Speaker 3: of a million plus Black women who are out of work. No,
47:48
Speaker 3: I don't see those two things as being the same.
47:51
Speaker 3: And it does not mean that I agree with the
47:54
Speaker 3: Democrats about everything that they do. But what I know
47:58
Speaker 3: is that in the immediate, the crisis, the crisis that
48:02
Speaker 3: is actually in front of us.
48:04
Speaker 1: Is very, very, it's very acute. And when Nicki Minaj.
48:10
Speaker 3: Goes out and tells people that they need to vote
48:13
Speaker 3: for a person who does who has not even made
48:17
Speaker 3: a statement about the amount of black women who happen
48:21
Speaker 3: to look like Nicki Minaj that don't have jobs and
48:24
Speaker 3: she has nothing to say about it.
48:26
Speaker 1: And Donald Trump has nothing to say about it.
48:28
Speaker 3: And the Fed commissioner said he was going to come
48:32
Speaker 3: up with the report.
48:33
Speaker 1: And you haven't heard anything about that.
48:35
Speaker 3: And then Ayanna Pressley, our fighting congresswoman, is out there
48:40
Speaker 3: walking up and down Washington trying to say that if
48:43
Speaker 3: Black women are unemployed, this is going to create a
48:46
Speaker 3: serious economic issue, not just for our community, but for
48:50
Speaker 3: the entire country.
48:51
Speaker 2: No.
48:52
Speaker 3: I'm sorry that the issue that you're trying to raise,
48:55
Speaker 3: I do not see it in any way, shape or
48:58
Speaker 3: form to measure up to what we are dealing with
49:01
Speaker 3: in terms of how we're going to be able to
49:04
Speaker 3: feed our families.
49:05
Speaker 1: When I'm going to the pump and.
49:07
Speaker 3: The gas is so high that even a person like
49:10
Speaker 3: me who has the resources to pay for gas and
49:13
Speaker 3: I'm standing there thinking, let me just get a little
49:16
Speaker 3: less and not fill my tank up.
49:18
Speaker 1: When truck drivers are.
49:20
Speaker 3: saying that they're going on strike, many of them are
49:22
Speaker 3: Trump supporters because the diesel is so high that it's
49:25
Speaker 3: almost the same price as what they make in a week. No,
49:30
Speaker 3: I don't think that the issue you're raising about people
49:35
Speaker 3: playing in professional sports is in any way in comparison.
49:39
Speaker 1: So no.
49:43
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm not going to keep talking about this.
49:45
Speaker 4: I'm glad that you had your level of input into it.
49:50
Speaker 4: You had your brushing with the people who want to
49:53
Speaker 4: deflect and talk about shit that makes no sense. You know,
49:56
Speaker 4: they want to talk about somebody's telling kids they can
50:00
Speaker 4: cut their genitals off when that's already been disproven, when
50:04
Speaker 4: we've already seen that it's a myth, it's been told
50:06
Speaker 4: it's a myth, and they've been explained to a thousand times,
50:09
Speaker 4: but they will constantly keep saying things.
50:11
Speaker 2: I'm not going to explain it no more.
50:13
Speaker 4: I'm not going to explain how there's no women or
50:16
Speaker 4: men in women's sports. I'm not going to keep having
50:18
Speaker 4: that conversation because it's not a thing. I'm not going
50:21
Speaker 4: to constantly keep having to be deflected from real issues
50:27
Speaker 4: and real shit that we're dealing with. Like you said,
50:29
Speaker 4: we're talking about a million black women that don't have jobs,
50:34
Speaker 4: who've been pushed out of the workforce, and as many men,
50:37
Speaker 4: probably as many as the same black men have been
50:39
Speaker 4: pushed out of the workforce.
50:41
Speaker 2: When we're talking about how DEI has affected our communities.
50:45
Speaker 4: Like you said, we're talking about how the finances in
50:48
Speaker 4: our communities is at an all-time low, and Trump is
50:51
Speaker 4: on the news talking about we have the best poverty.
50:54
Speaker 2: You know, just dumb shit.
50:55
Speaker 4: Like, this is what we're talking about, and you want
50:57
Speaker 4: to tell me something about men and women's sports? That's
51:00
Speaker 4: not even a thing. Like, it's just to deflect, and
51:03
Speaker 4: it's just to... What they said is... It's bait and switch.
51:07
Speaker 5: Right.
51:08
Speaker 4: You know, it's just to confuse you and have you
51:10
Speaker 4: arguing about some shit that don't matter. So you don't
51:12
Speaker 4: focus on the shit that do matter. So you did
51:14
Speaker 4: an excellent job of pointing it out like I did
51:16
Speaker 4: weeks ago. We're pointing the same dumb shit out. We
51:19
Speaker 4: cannot continue to engage in dialogue that is not progressive.
51:25
Speaker 4: It is a distraction. They do not want us to
51:28
Speaker 4: focus on the real shit, so they want us to
51:30
Speaker 4: get caught up in this. Nicki Minaj has chosen to
51:34
Speaker 4: be on the side that does not benefit Black people.
51:37
Speaker 2: There's nothing that she can explain to you.
51:39
Speaker 4: She can tell you about all that shit and all
51:41
Speaker 4: of that, but she ain't going to tell you about.
51:43
Speaker 2: The else she loves.
51:44
Speaker 1: He's so nice.
51:45
Speaker 4: But tell him to tell you about the Epstein files.
51:47
Speaker 4: Tell him to tell you about the nice people that
51:50
Speaker 4: he got 34 counts. Tell him to talk about the
51:52
Speaker 4: sexual contact things. Let's talk about those things, right?
51:57
Speaker 2: Those are not things you want to talk about. But
51:59
Speaker 2: you know why?
52:00
Speaker 4: Because those are things that you're used to in your community, right?
52:03
Speaker 4: Inside your direct community, you're used to sexual assault and
52:07
Speaker 4: all those things. So you're used to enabling those type
52:10
Speaker 4: of individuals, right?
52:11
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying? So that's okay for you.
52:13
Speaker 2: It's not okay for us. So cool.
52:15
Speaker 4: Y'all with Nikki, she can go wherever she want. She
52:18
Speaker 4: just needs to stay away from us at this point.
52:21
Speaker 3: She can, she can do whatever she wants. So can
52:24
Speaker 3: everybody else. Everybody has the right to do anything they want.
52:29
Speaker 3: But there's going to be somebody that's going to have
52:30
Speaker 3: something to say about it. And just the same way,
52:33
Speaker 3: like I can take it when people, you know, what
52:36
Speaker 3: I'm not going to let you do is lie on me.
52:39
Speaker 3: Lying on me, I'm going to get that straight. But
52:41
Speaker 3: if you think that's something that I'm doing is just
52:43
Speaker 3: not your cup of tea and you want to express yourself,
52:46
Speaker 3: by all means, my comment section is open so you
52:50
Speaker 3: can say whatever you want. But we're going to at
52:53
Speaker 3: least be able to talk through what makes sense and
52:57
Speaker 3: what doesn't. And what doesn't make sense is us. And
53:00
Speaker 3: by the way, I just want to make sure to
53:02
Speaker 3: say to the trans community that I am not going
53:06
Speaker 3: to participate in demonizing trans.
53:09
Speaker 1: People in order to make a point.
53:11
Speaker 3: What I am saying is I am not about to
53:14
Speaker 3: sit here and have a conversation about rats in my
53:17
Speaker 3: community when there are no rats, but there's gun violence.
53:20
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna do that.
53:21
Speaker 3: We're gonna talk about what is actually impacting us I'm
53:25
Speaker 3: not going to sit here and talk about, you know,
53:27
Speaker 3: whether or not the garbage is being picked up on
53:29
Speaker 3: time when it actually is being picked up on time.
53:33
Speaker 3: And instead, you want to focus over here when the
53:36
Speaker 3: real issue is the streetlight hasn't been fixed and people
53:39
Speaker 3: are being killed at the intersection.
53:41
Speaker 1: We are going to follow. We're going to pay attention.
53:44
Speaker 3: To the issues that are actually impacting us and the
53:48
Speaker 3: things that have the ability to cause mass harm in
53:53
Speaker 3: our communities. And I can tell you right now, a
53:56
Speaker 3: trans person being in sports, it might not be someone.
54:01
Speaker 3: Someone may have an opinion that they feel, you know,
54:04
Speaker 3: you can have the conversation around strength and all of that.
54:07
Speaker 1: That's fine.
54:08
Speaker 3: But it ain't going to kill people the way that
54:10
Speaker 3: jobs will.
54:12
Speaker 5: It ain't.
54:13
Speaker 1: So I'm not going to do it.
54:14
Speaker 2: Keep the main thing to me.
54:18
Speaker 1: All right. So as we continue our series on what's
54:22
Speaker 1: at stake in the upcoming election, today we are talking
54:26
Speaker 1: about higher education.
54:27
Speaker 3: Higher education is at stake. And let me just say,
54:31
Speaker 3: if higher education is at stake, you already know that
54:34
Speaker 3: our children are also caught, unfortunately, in a challenging situation
54:40
Speaker 3: around this country because our parents and our elders and
54:44
Speaker 3: folks who are trying to continue their education, they need
54:47
Speaker 3: their children to also be safe, satisfied, learning, properly protected
54:55
Speaker 3: in the education system so that all of us can
54:58
Speaker 3: do what we're supposed to be doing.
55:00
Speaker 1: And right now you got the kids going through it.
55:02
Speaker 1: The parents are going through it.
55:04
Speaker 3: Education in general in this country is under attack. And
55:08
Speaker 3: I wanted to make sure today, my son, that we
55:11
Speaker 3: had a conversation with someone who is deeply entrenched in
55:16
Speaker 3: what's happening around with our college students from the young
55:20
Speaker 3: ones that are in just in schools across the country
55:24
Speaker 3: and definitely HBCUs.
55:26
Speaker 1: And then also, again.
55:28
Speaker 3: You have people who are in, who are returning to
55:32
Speaker 3: school or folks who maybe just starting out and they
55:35
Speaker 3: are up in age. They are now struggling with increasing debt.
55:40
Speaker 3: It was always too expensive. Now it's even more too expensive.
55:45
Speaker 3: They are dealing with Just so many different challenges with
55:49
Speaker 3: the different laws. I was under the impression that this
55:53
Speaker 3: new administration was supposed to be coming in to clean
55:56
Speaker 3: up the quote unquote mess, because I don't think any
55:59
Speaker 3: of us would sit here and say that we believe
56:03
Speaker 3: that the education system was doing its best job on
56:06
Speaker 3: behalf of the people, even under previous administrations. So let's
56:10
Speaker 3: just start out by saying that today, that we it's
56:14
Speaker 3: always been always.
56:16
Speaker 2: But I will. Unlike you, I never thought that this
56:18
Speaker 2: administration was going to help.
56:19
Speaker 3: But I'm just that's what they said they were going
56:23
Speaker 3: to do. And the people came on our pages and
56:27
Speaker 3: got in the comments and said, that's right. It needs
56:30
Speaker 3: to be cleaned up. We need to change the system.
56:33
Speaker 3: The system is not working, which I did not disagree with.
56:36
Speaker 3: As I said, it's always from the little ones on up.
56:39
Speaker 3: There are challenges. However, it appears that we are having
56:43
Speaker 3: even more problems now and these issues are becoming increasingly dangerous.
56:48
Speaker 3: And so today, one of our friends, you know, we
56:50
Speaker 3: have our friends that come on our show that we love.
56:54
Speaker 3: is here, again, someone who is deeply entrenched in the system,
56:57
Speaker 3: working with students, working with parents and families, working with
57:01
Speaker 3: other organizers. Her name is Tiffany Dena Lofton. If you
57:05
Speaker 3: don't know Tiffany Dena Lofton, you need to go find out.
57:08
Speaker 3: She's the executive director of the U.S. Student Association and
57:13
Speaker 3: the the state vote director for the NAACP Mississippi State Conference,
57:19
Speaker 3: a national labor and higher education organizer.
57:24
Speaker 1: She would not call.
57:25
Speaker 3: Herself a leader, but she is absolutely 100% a badass
57:30
Speaker 3: leader in our country. And again, if you don't know Tiffany,
57:34
Speaker 3: you should just go run, follow her on social media.
57:37
Speaker 3: and get the good juice, the information that she's given
57:41
Speaker 3: because she's always educating all the people. So Tiffany, Dina, Lofton,
57:46
Speaker 3: thank you so much for joining us. Our friend, our
57:48
Speaker 3: dear sister.
57:49
Speaker 1: We love you.
57:50
Speaker 2: Yes.
57:50
Speaker 1: Welcome, welcome, welcome. Thank you for having me back. It's
57:53
Speaker 1: good to see y'all.
57:54
Speaker 2: How are you feeling today, Dina?
57:56
Speaker 5: I'm feeling good.
57:57
Speaker 1: You know, the world's on fire. Higher education is under attack,
58:00
Speaker 1: like D'Amica said.
58:01
Speaker 5: But I'm inspired because our students across the country are
58:05
Speaker 5: fighting recklessly. Today was actually the first day of school
58:08
Speaker 5: for many of our college and universities on the West Coast.
58:11
Speaker 5: I always tell people our East Coast schools start in
58:13
Speaker 5: early August and our West Coast schools start in September.
58:16
Speaker 5: So now everybody's back in session. And this is, you know,
58:19
Speaker 5: this is how I got involved in organizing. I started
58:22
Speaker 5: my career in organizing and doing campaigns in As a
58:25
Speaker 5: first year in college. And so I'm just really excited
58:27
Speaker 5: about the leadership that exists across the country and all
58:30
Speaker 5: the work that they're going to do. But it's very
58:32
Speaker 5: different terrain from when I was in college and when
58:33
Speaker 5: we were in school. So let's talk about it.
58:36
Speaker 4: So we've named this series that we're going to be
58:38
Speaker 4: doing for the next few weeks is called What's at Stake?
58:42
Speaker 4: So when we talk about higher education and we talk
58:44
Speaker 4: about the midterms, you know, I know there's a lot
58:47
Speaker 4: of different interpretations on what's been going on with higher education,
58:52
Speaker 4: with professionalism, talking about the funding for the colleges. And
58:57
Speaker 4: one of the things that I heard, and me and
58:59
Speaker 4: you were having a conversation, you would give me a
59:00
Speaker 4: little more correction about it, that they change what professional is.
59:06
Speaker 2: Like they say that nurses are no longer professional. You know,
59:09
Speaker 2: they can't.
59:10
Speaker 4: Be, they're not classified as professional no more. They're a
59:13
Speaker 4: lot more different things that we take in college that
59:16
Speaker 4: are no longer deemed professional.
59:18
Speaker 2: Is that true? Or give me the understanding of what
59:21
Speaker 2: it actually is.
59:23
Speaker 5: So I've also been seeing that on social media. People
59:28
Speaker 5: are saying that this administration is, is changing the definition
59:31
Speaker 5: of what professional is. Now, changing the definition of what
59:34
Speaker 5: professional is, is true. Now, I'm not gonna give you
59:39
Speaker 5: both sides to be neutral and I'm definitely not giving
59:42
Speaker 5: you other sides because I think what they're doing is
59:43
Speaker 5: a good thing. But I think people as an organizer
59:46
Speaker 5: and as a strategist, I think about what is the
59:48
Speaker 5: argument that they're saying and what are the changes they
59:50
Speaker 5: are trying to make and how do we fix it?
59:52
Speaker 5: So there are two things people need to know about
59:53
Speaker 5: this problem. One is that last year, Donald Trump's been
59:59
Speaker 5: in office for too damn long. Last year, Congress passed
1:00:03
Speaker 5: a budget bill that we all knew as the one big,
1:00:06
Speaker 5: beautiful bill. In that process, a bunch of higher education
1:00:12
Speaker 5: financial changes were slipped into the package. And Congress, which
1:00:19
Speaker 5: is all Republican-led, Congress voted and approved it. In that package...
1:00:26
Speaker 5: There were a few dramatic, very dangerous changes to how students,
1:00:31
Speaker 5: and it really impacts students of color, it really, really
1:00:34
Speaker 5: impacts Black students, how much money students are able to
1:00:39
Speaker 5: take out in loans.
1:00:41
Speaker 1: So it capped the amount of loans people were able
1:00:43
Speaker 1: to take out.
1:00:45
Speaker 5: And then one of the dangerous things that it did
1:00:47
Speaker 5: was it removed grad.
1:00:49
Speaker 1: Plus loans altogether.
1:00:50
Speaker 5: Those are the loans that grad graduate students take out
1:00:54
Speaker 5: to be able to go to school.
1:00:55
Speaker 1: They got rid of it altogether.
1:00:57
Speaker 5: And then they said, we're going to cap the amount
1:00:58
Speaker 5: of loans based off of if you're an undergrad, based
1:01:02
Speaker 5: off if you go to law school, based if you
1:01:04
Speaker 5: go to medical school, based if you if your parents
1:01:06
Speaker 5: are taking out loans for you because there's parent plus loans.
1:01:09
Speaker 1: If your parents are taking on certain loans, there's only
1:01:11
Speaker 1: a certain amount now that you can take.
1:01:12
Speaker 5: It used to be you could take out as much
1:01:14
Speaker 5: loans as you want to to help you finish your program.
1:01:17
Speaker 5: And then you pay that back over your life. And
1:01:19
Speaker 5: I've been paying back my student loans forever now. The
1:01:23
Speaker 5: argument that Republicans, because it is Republicans, that they are
1:01:26
Speaker 5: making is if we cap the amount of loans that
1:01:30
Speaker 5: we're telling people they can take out, that will somehow,
1:01:33
Speaker 5: they haven't figured out and named how, but that will
1:01:34
Speaker 5: somehow lower the cost of tuition. And we know that's
1:01:38
Speaker 5: not the case. So they got rid of graduate, I'll
1:01:40
Speaker 5: come back to that. They got rid of graduate plus
1:01:42
Speaker 5: loans and then they capped the amount of loans you
1:01:43
Speaker 5: could take out. That happened last year. It went into
1:01:46
Speaker 5: effect July of this year. So they passed it last year.
1:01:50
Speaker 5: It started July of this year. But the second thing,
1:01:53
Speaker 5: I said there were two. The second thing that happened
1:01:55
Speaker 5: is now they are saying because the cost of college
1:01:58
Speaker 5: is too high and because we have surpassed $ 1. 7 trillion
1:02:02
Speaker 5: in student loan debt, We are also now going to— this
1:02:08
Speaker 5: is what Republicans are saying— we are also now going to measure—
1:02:12
Speaker 5: What the return on, you're going to hear this everywhere,
1:02:15
Speaker 5: the return on investment is for all the programs that
1:02:17
Speaker 5: we have. This is why you've been seeing ethnic studies
1:02:21
Speaker 5: get erased from campuses. This is why you've been seeing
1:02:23
Speaker 5: arts getting erased from campuses or defunded from campuses. This
1:02:26
Speaker 5: is why you've been seeing language courses get erased from
1:02:28
Speaker 5: campuses because the Republican administration does not believe that any
1:02:32
Speaker 5: of these programs that I just named give you a
1:02:34
Speaker 5: large enough return benefit, return a cost on your life.
1:02:38
Speaker 5: They think that, oh, those are fluffy programs. We don't
1:02:40
Speaker 5: really need to do those things. Now, they don't say
1:02:42
Speaker 5: that about a certain list of academic programs. What they
1:02:46
Speaker 5: are saying is if you have to take out, I'm
1:02:49
Speaker 5: just giving an example.
1:02:51
Speaker 1: $ 50, 000 in student loans, but you don't make minimum wage when.
1:02:54
Speaker 5: You take the job after you graduate, then we don't
1:02:57
Speaker 5: think you're going to be able to pay back those loans.
1:02:58
Speaker 1: And that's not a good return on investment.
1:03:01
Speaker 4: But that's not even known. You don't you don't know
1:03:03
Speaker 4: what my my job is going to be after.
1:03:05
Speaker 1: I get out. Oh, you're right. They don't.
1:03:08
Speaker 5: But what they're saying is we're going to go after
1:03:10
Speaker 5: your IRS information. So we should all be asking ourselves,
1:03:14
Speaker 5: you know, this is an administration that's very much like surveillance.
1:03:16
Speaker 1: We should all be asking ourselves the question.
1:03:18
Speaker 5: So, my son, I don't know what job you're going
1:03:20
Speaker 5: to get when you graduate, but I know what your
1:03:22
Speaker 5: IRS documents are going to say.
1:03:24
Speaker 1: And if they go to the IRS and they get
1:03:26
Speaker 1: the information.
1:03:27
Speaker 5: So if they're saying we can get the information from
1:03:29
Speaker 5: the IRS to see how much you get paid to
1:03:32
Speaker 5: see if you're able to pay off these student loans,
1:03:34
Speaker 5: we are now going to decide. And really what they're
1:03:36
Speaker 5: trying to do is also hold the universities accountable to
1:03:39
Speaker 5: see if the universities are irresponsibly giving out more student loans.
1:03:43
Speaker 1: To people who can't pay them back. But but let's
1:03:45
Speaker 1: let's let's for three seconds.
1:03:46
Speaker 5: Let's just remind ourselves why we're talking about it here
1:03:49
Speaker 5: on the show, because I love this this series.
1:03:52
Speaker 1: What's at stake?
1:03:53
Speaker 5: Because the elections are less than 40 days away. Black
1:03:56
Speaker 5: people are mostly impacted by these decisions. Not just because
1:04:00
Speaker 5: I'm Black, but because Black borrowers are the ones who
1:04:03
Speaker 5: take out loans to be able to go to master's programs.
1:04:07
Speaker 5: We are 70% of HBCU students get the Pell Grant.
1:04:11
Speaker 5: So the second the Pell Grant drops or the second
1:04:14
Speaker 5: that the Pell Grant eligibility requirements change, which it did,
1:04:17
Speaker 5: and some of our students can't get it anymore. Now,
1:04:20
Speaker 5: the only option they have left is to take out
1:04:22
Speaker 5: student loans. And if they can't take out student loans
1:04:24
Speaker 5: because you've capped it at.
1:04:25
Speaker 1: $ 20, 000 a year, guess what they're going to do?
1:04:27
Speaker 5: One, if they're already in school, they're going to drop
1:04:29
Speaker 5: out because they can't finish because they can't pay because
1:04:31
Speaker 5: that's what's happening to students right now.
1:04:32
Speaker 1: Two, they're not going to go at all. Now, what
1:04:34
Speaker 1: are they going to do?
1:04:36
Speaker 5: And three, if they do go and they drop out,
1:04:38
Speaker 5: they're still responsible for paying off the student debt that
1:04:40
Speaker 5: they didn't get a degree to finish because Congress has
1:04:43
Speaker 5: changed the rules about how much money you can get.
1:04:44
Speaker 1: This impacts Black people significantly. Yeah.
1:04:48
Speaker 3: Why was there, there was a period where right after
1:04:53
Speaker 3: the announcements were made about the changes within the education department,
1:05:00
Speaker 3: that all of these students started calling.
1:05:04
Speaker 1: Me saying, can you help?
1:05:06
Speaker 3: We don't have, you know, that their grants or their
1:05:10
Speaker 3: tuition had not been met and they were going to
1:05:13
Speaker 3: be kicked out or would not be able to finish
1:05:16
Speaker 3: their degrees. What was it in that period? Because that
1:05:19
Speaker 3: would have been before July. I'm talking about last year.
1:05:22
Speaker 3: I was like giving GoFeed Fund Me money and sending
1:05:26
Speaker 3: cash apps to help people finish their education.
1:05:32
Speaker 1: Getting close to the end of the year. Now, I
1:05:34
Speaker 1: know that happens across the board.
1:05:35
Speaker 3: That's just a normal thing that we always have to
1:05:38
Speaker 3: help try to bring our people over.
1:05:40
Speaker 1: Pull them over the finish line.
1:05:42
Speaker 3: But it seemed to me that somehow the policies of
1:05:47
Speaker 3: the Trump administration impacted students that we know of, Black students,
1:05:53
Speaker 3: and there was some type of issue going on. Maybe
1:05:55
Speaker 3: you have some insight on that. There were a couple
1:05:58
Speaker 3: of reasons for that, but here's the main issue. When
1:06:01
Speaker 3: this administration took over the Department of Education, they laid
1:06:04
Speaker 3: off most of the staff at the DOE, the Department
1:06:06
Speaker 3: of Education. When you lay off a significant number of
1:06:11
Speaker 3: staff who work in the office, when your administration wins
1:06:15
Speaker 3: the election, then the services that it is able to provide,
1:06:21
Speaker 3: they cease because you don't have enough capacity with staff
1:06:23
Speaker 3: to be able to do them.
1:06:25
Speaker 1: And so what we saw these last two years.
1:06:27
Speaker 5: This last year significantly, I was just at Tougaloo College
1:06:30
Speaker 5: talking to a student about this a couple days ago.
1:06:33
Speaker 5: They have not received yet their financial aid package, which
1:06:37
Speaker 5: I don't even think people know how financial aid packages work.
1:06:39
Speaker 1: I'll come back to that.
1:06:40
Speaker 5: But they weren't able to receive their financial aid package
1:06:43
Speaker 5: because a couple of reasons. One, their school hadn't finished
1:06:48
Speaker 5: the accreditation recommended changes yet.
1:06:51
Speaker 1: The Department of Education has not released.
1:06:53
Speaker 5: Their financial aid packages for all the students, but that's
1:06:56
Speaker 5: because they didn't have enough staff.
1:06:57
Speaker 1: So now they had to rehire. They couldn't just hire
1:06:59
Speaker 1: the people they fired.
1:07:00
Speaker 5: They decided to do something wild where they want to
1:07:02
Speaker 5: rehire a bunch of people into the department. And it
1:07:05
Speaker 5: takes them a minute to get trained and understand what
1:07:07
Speaker 5: their job is. in order for them to catch up,
1:07:09
Speaker 5: and you're doing it at the worst time.
1:07:11
Speaker 1: School is starting.
1:07:12
Speaker 5: These students need to know how much their financial aid
1:07:14
Speaker 5: package is going to be so that they can start
1:07:16
Speaker 5: their school.
1:07:16
Speaker 1: That's why you saw the stuff that you saw at Howard.
1:07:19
Speaker 5: That's why you're seeing it on the West Coast in
1:07:20
Speaker 5: California with my students in the University of California school
1:07:24
Speaker 5: system as well.
1:07:25
Speaker 1: When you defund and then.
1:07:27
Speaker 5: Try to shut down and then fire a bunch of
1:07:29
Speaker 5: staff in the Department of Education, of course you're going
1:07:32
Speaker 5: to have interruptions as it relates to students being able
1:07:34
Speaker 5: to receive their financial aid packages.
1:07:36
Speaker 1: Yeah. Interruption sounds right.
1:07:39
Speaker 3: That people were saying, my funding has been, my grants
1:07:46
Speaker 3: and all their resources that they were depending on had
1:07:49
Speaker 3: been delayed. It was being reviewed and they were now,
1:07:54
Speaker 3: some people were kicked out of the system. And so
1:07:57
Speaker 3: they were trying to raise money to pay $ 4, 000, $ 5, 000.
1:08:02
Speaker 3: And I remember particularly, there was a young woman in Atlanta, Georgia,
1:08:08
Speaker 3: who was down to days and she would not be
1:08:12
Speaker 3: able to get her degree. And the institution was unable
1:08:16
Speaker 3: to do anything to help her. And so it just
1:08:19
Speaker 3: seemed like a lot of chaos was caused in the very,
1:08:23
Speaker 3: very beginning. And I was gonna say, maybe they should
1:08:27
Speaker 3: have like, planned better, but what the hell am I
1:08:30
Speaker 3: talking about?
1:08:31
Speaker 1: Like, I must be out of my mind. So, I
1:08:33
Speaker 1: don't know, my son, you want to ask another question
1:08:34
Speaker 1: because I have another question.
1:08:36
Speaker 4: No, I was just saying, when I'm listening to this, right,
1:08:39
Speaker 4: it sounds so oxymoronish, right? Because how are you going
1:08:44
Speaker 4: to do a federal IRS look at somebody else's to
1:08:50
Speaker 4: base on what I'm going to make when I graduate
1:08:52
Speaker 4: from college? How do you know what I'm going to
1:08:54
Speaker 4: do with my degree? How do you know what kind
1:08:57
Speaker 4: of money I'm going to make? How do you base
1:08:58
Speaker 4: this off of that? So that is.
1:09:00
Speaker 2: part one.
1:09:00
Speaker 4: But I remember just a couple of months ago, the
1:09:03
Speaker 4: end of the last school year, my son was in
1:09:06
Speaker 4: a pre-college program. And, you know, he was only a freshman,
1:09:09
Speaker 4: but a lot of the kids were seniors and they
1:09:12
Speaker 4: were graduating and they were talking about how a lot
1:09:16
Speaker 4: of the money for the program that they had had
1:09:18
Speaker 4: been stopped and they couldn't give scholarships to the kids.
1:09:22
Speaker 4: Normally they would give them scholarships to be able to
1:09:24
Speaker 4: help them in school. And it was like, they didn't
1:09:26
Speaker 4: have the finances to do it. And it was really
1:09:28
Speaker 4: hurting them. And he was trying to figure out how
1:09:30
Speaker 4: they was going to get it. And I was like, damn,
1:09:31
Speaker 4: this is really.
1:09:32
Speaker 2: A serious thing.
1:09:33
Speaker 4: So when we look at this situation, What do you
1:09:37
Speaker 4: think that we should be focusing on? What election should
1:09:40
Speaker 4: we be focusing on at this point? Who are the
1:09:42
Speaker 4: people that you feel could be a power that can
1:09:44
Speaker 4: help us that are speaking about these things?
1:09:47
Speaker 2: What should be our recourse?
1:09:51
Speaker 1: That's a great question. Let's start here. This generation, they're
1:09:58
Speaker 1: going to be... I got to double check. I know
1:10:01
Speaker 1: it's close to or more.
1:10:05
Speaker 5: than 8 million students who are newly eligible for this
1:10:08
Speaker 5: midterm election. We've been registering students across college campuses at
1:10:13
Speaker 5: the United States Student Association across the country, everywhere. Anybody
1:10:17
Speaker 5: who turns 18 by election day or on election day
1:10:20
Speaker 5: can vote. So we've been turning out young people for
1:10:24
Speaker 5: the first part of the answer to your question, because again,
1:10:29
Speaker 5: and I said this earlier on an Instagram video, The
1:10:33
Speaker 5: attacks on higher education are policy attacks. They are rooted
1:10:38
Speaker 5: in values that conservatives and Republicans hold about the cost
1:10:41
Speaker 5: of college and not believing that education is a right.
1:10:45
Speaker 5: I believe that education is a right. But these elected
1:10:48
Speaker 5: officials who are in office don't. And so they are
1:10:52
Speaker 5: trying to restrict by using the language that it costs
1:10:56
Speaker 5: too much money and that it's too expensive and that
1:10:59
Speaker 5: we are trying to save people. And so they are
1:11:01
Speaker 5: now restricting who has access to higher education and who
1:11:05
Speaker 5: gets to complete higher education. So the first thing we
1:11:07
Speaker 5: need to do is, I know everybody gets sick of
1:11:09
Speaker 5: people saying this, but we only say it because it's true.
1:11:12
Speaker 1: If you don't vote, all of this, this is how.
1:11:13
Speaker 5: This happened in the first place, is because this administration
1:11:16
Speaker 5: has a trifecta in Congress.
1:11:18
Speaker 1: They own the House, the Senate, and the White House.
1:11:20
Speaker 5: And he was able to appoint this weirdo who has
1:11:23
Speaker 5: no resume whatsoever that is qualified enough to run the
1:11:26
Speaker 5: Department of Education. And they have made all these changes.
1:11:29
Speaker 5: The second thing is this. We are watching at the
1:11:32
Speaker 5: same time that they are eroding the right to higher education.
1:11:37
Speaker 5: We are watching the attacks on diversity, freedom of speech.
1:11:42
Speaker 5: And since I'm on the ground every day with my students,
1:11:45
Speaker 5: I literally just had a call a couple hours ago
1:11:46
Speaker 5: with students from 21 different campuses. Their number one priority, y'all,
1:11:51
Speaker 5: is not this discussion.
1:11:52
Speaker 1: It should be. It should be. This is not their
1:11:54
Speaker 1: number one priority.
1:11:56
Speaker 5: Their number one priority is they don't have food. They
1:11:59
Speaker 5: cannot afford food on campus. And they don't have housing.
1:12:04
Speaker 5: They don't have nowhere to live. Okay, I want you
1:12:07
Speaker 5: to go backwards.
1:12:10
Speaker 3: Because, you know, when I don't understand something, I'm too
1:12:15
Speaker 3: old to skip past it like I get it. I
1:12:19
Speaker 3: have to go backwards and understand the details. So tell
1:12:23
Speaker 3: me how the loans for students apply to... The grants
1:12:32
Speaker 3: for colleges or these institutions to be able to provide food.
1:12:38
Speaker 3: And so you're saying both of these things are impacted,
1:12:41
Speaker 3: not just the amount of money that a student can access,
1:12:45
Speaker 3: but you're saying that the grants. The grants that usually
1:12:52
Speaker 3: come down from the federal government that help them operate,
1:12:56
Speaker 3: the operating money, has also been impacted under the ugly,
1:13:02
Speaker 3: beautiful bill and other policies that this administration has been
1:13:08
Speaker 3: putting in place. Can you help us slow me down
1:13:10
Speaker 3: and bring me there so that I understand? Because there
1:13:13
Speaker 3: are some people who will say the loans have always
1:13:16
Speaker 3: been too much. They do not agree that people should
1:13:20
Speaker 3: be taking out.
1:13:21
Speaker 1: All these loans.
1:13:22
Speaker 3: They'll say, They hear folks complaining that they have $ 100, 000.
1:13:29
Speaker 1: In loans from medical.
1:13:31
Speaker 3: School or, you know, nursing schools, you know, all of that.
1:13:38
Speaker 3: And yet their salary for the first, unless they become
1:13:43
Speaker 3: a doctor or RN or nurse practitioner or whatever, their
1:13:47
Speaker 3: salary hardly ever makes it to the level of what
1:13:51
Speaker 3: they spent and what they are now paying back.
1:13:53
Speaker 1: So there are people who will agree with that.
1:13:57
Speaker 3: And there are arguments for why, especially in our communities,
1:14:03
Speaker 3: as the most educated group of people in the entire
1:14:08
Speaker 3: society being Black women, We take on those loans, not
1:14:13
Speaker 3: because one degree might work, but because five other things
1:14:17
Speaker 3: plus that degree, we put it all together and make
1:14:22
Speaker 3: a dollar out.
1:14:23
Speaker 1: Of 15 cents and take care of all the things
1:14:26
Speaker 1: that need to happen.
1:14:27
Speaker 3: And we look good and we smell good and we
1:14:30
Speaker 3: drive nice and we have our children doing everything. And
1:14:33
Speaker 3: then when you have a husband who also is making
1:14:36
Speaker 3: some money, doing something great, then you put that together
1:14:40
Speaker 3: and you see the strong, flourishing families that we know many, many, many, many,
1:14:44
Speaker 3: many of them.
1:14:46
Speaker 1: You put that there. So we know that don't get
1:14:48
Speaker 1: in our business. Just give us our tax paying dollars
1:14:52
Speaker 1: so we can do whatever we need to do.
1:14:54
Speaker 2: That's it.
1:14:55
Speaker 1: That's all we want.
1:14:56
Speaker 3: Then we pay the tax, make it available so that
1:14:59
Speaker 3: I can come get it when I need it to
1:15:01
Speaker 3: do what I have to do.
1:15:04
Speaker 1: But now I know.
1:15:07
Speaker 3: That people who may not agree with the loans.
1:15:09
Speaker 1: 100% want there to be food, heat, pest control.
1:15:17
Speaker 2: No.
1:15:19
Speaker 1: Mold in their dormitory. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Safe buses
1:15:26
Speaker 1: to ride.
1:15:27
Speaker 3: Protection for students in many different ways, whether it be
1:15:31
Speaker 3: sexual harassment.
1:15:32
Speaker 1: Program, all the things. Yeah. Mental health.
1:15:35
Speaker 2: Yeah.
1:15:35
Speaker 1: And housing, you know, they want that.
1:15:37
Speaker 3: So talk about how that is now also impacted.
1:15:41
Speaker 2: Yeah.
1:15:42
Speaker 5: And, I'm going to talk about it in examples on
1:15:47
Speaker 5: purpose because I want us to not look at the
1:15:50
Speaker 5: problem with what the Department of Education is doing is
1:15:53
Speaker 5: it has one strict agenda to shut all this down
1:15:58
Speaker 5: and not make education a right and make it a
1:16:00
Speaker 5: privilege for rich kids who can't afford it. While naming
1:16:04
Speaker 5: that across the country, states are having different issues.
1:16:08
Speaker 1: It's not one issue across the state.
1:16:09
Speaker 5: And again, the United States Student Association right now represents
1:16:13
Speaker 5: 4.7 million college students across the country in 21 states.
1:16:17
Speaker 5: So we are working with students on the student governments
1:16:19
Speaker 5: on campuses across the country who have their own particular issue.
1:16:22
Speaker 5: For example, the University of Massachusetts Amherst has enrolled more
1:16:28
Speaker 5: students than it has housing for.
1:16:31
Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
1:16:32
Speaker 5: So what they have done is created a housing lottery
1:16:37
Speaker 5: where students every year put their name into a bucket
1:16:41
Speaker 5: virtually and then some AI computer pulls the names and those.
1:16:47
Speaker 1: Are the people who get housing.
1:16:50
Speaker 5: Anybody who was not pulled in that lottery now has
1:16:53
Speaker 5: to go find housing off campus and pay skyrocketing rent.
1:16:58
Speaker 1: We all know how expensive rent is. Skyrocketing rent.
1:17:02
Speaker 5: And have to find, to your point, multiple jobs in
1:17:06
Speaker 5: order to be able to pay the rent. And if
1:17:09
Speaker 5: they have a gap in their financial aid package, they
1:17:12
Speaker 5: have to also work enough jobs to be able to
1:17:14
Speaker 5: pay the balance of whatever they are missing from their
1:17:18
Speaker 5: financial aid package.
1:17:20
Speaker 1: We saw last year in Oregon, California, Indiana, Massachusetts, Washington State, Arizona, Texas.
1:17:34
Speaker 1: I can name a bunch of them. I just want
1:17:35
Speaker 1: to make sure I get them up.
1:17:36
Speaker 2: Michigan.
1:17:37
Speaker 5: We saw double digit last year. We saw double digit
1:17:42
Speaker 5: tuition increases. Nevada had one too. 12%, 22%, 18%. Tuition
1:17:51
Speaker 5: increases last year for this year. So students don't have housing.
1:17:57
Speaker 5: because the university doesn't have enough housing, because they are
1:18:00
Speaker 5: admitting more students than they have space for on their campus,
1:18:04
Speaker 5: which they used to always do that, but it would
1:18:06
Speaker 5: be guaranteed housing for first and second years. Now they're
1:18:11
Speaker 5: admitting more than that. And my alma mater at UC
1:18:14
Speaker 5: Santa Cruz, we used to have apartments and dorms.
1:18:17
Speaker 1: I was just there. I'm teaching a class there this fall.
1:18:20
Speaker 5: The apartments would have like, you know, four beds in it.
1:18:24
Speaker 5: So four students, you can have a quad dorm. you
1:18:26
Speaker 5: can have a double, you can have a single, you
1:18:27
Speaker 5: can have a triple. So you'd have, you can have
1:18:29
Speaker 5: a room by yourself, a room with a roommate, two roommates,
1:18:31
Speaker 5: four roommates. Now they have turned the lounge spaces where
1:18:37
Speaker 5: students can come and gather and commune. And if they
1:18:41
Speaker 5: wanted to celebrate a birthday, they could surprise one of their,
1:18:43
Speaker 5: you know, dorm mates, whatever.
1:18:45
Speaker 1: They could do a birthday party in the lounge. They
1:18:47
Speaker 1: would have events in the lounge.
1:18:49
Speaker 5: They have now turned the lounges, which were not meant
1:18:53
Speaker 5: to be bedrooms, into bedrooms.
1:18:55
Speaker 1: And they have put eight beds in the lounge. So
1:18:59
Speaker 1: now there's no.
1:19:00
Speaker 5: Third space or shared space on that campus, in that
1:19:02
Speaker 5: dorm or in that apartment, where if my son has
1:19:05
Speaker 5: his own room and you have your own room and
1:19:07
Speaker 5: I have my own room, now we got to meet
1:19:08
Speaker 5: in one of our rooms because the lounge has become
1:19:10
Speaker 5: another bedroom for eight other people and their beds. They're
1:19:14
Speaker 5: stuffing these students in these buildings, charging them the same
1:19:18
Speaker 5: amount of money for the rent that they would charge
1:19:20
Speaker 5: in another smaller room with less space, less resources, mold,
1:19:26
Speaker 5: water pipe problems, whatever it is. And then those students
1:19:30
Speaker 5: who aren't able to get those dorms now have to
1:19:33
Speaker 5: find housing off campus. The reason why I said housing
1:19:36
Speaker 5: is a problem is because I am meeting with my
1:19:39
Speaker 5: students weekly and I am asking them, what are we
1:19:42
Speaker 5: going to do to fight for freedom of speech on campus?
1:19:45
Speaker 5: What are we going to do to fight for tuition
1:19:47
Speaker 5: to go down on campus?
1:19:48
Speaker 1: And they keep telling me the.
1:19:51
Speaker 5: Dining halls are running out of food or the dining
1:19:54
Speaker 5: hall food is absolutely disgusting or The price of the
1:19:59
Speaker 5: dining hall meal pass has increased. So when I was
1:20:05
Speaker 5: in college, 19 years ago, I started college.
1:20:08
Speaker 1: I started college in 2007.
1:20:11
Speaker 5: I was able to become an RA or residential assistant,
1:20:14
Speaker 5: which meant that my job was to make sure everybody
1:20:17
Speaker 5: in the dormitory was safe and that we hosted programs.
1:20:20
Speaker 5: And if the washer and dryer broke, I would send
1:20:22
Speaker 5: the ticket up so that we can get it fixed, right?
1:20:24
Speaker 5: I would make sure there were no problems in the building.
1:20:26
Speaker 5: If there was an argument, I would help deescalate the argument.
1:20:28
Speaker 5: I had a training for two weeks. And the benefit
1:20:30
Speaker 5: of being an RA or an NA was that my
1:20:33
Speaker 5: housing was covered and I would get a free meal pass.
1:20:37
Speaker 5: So sometimes students across the country will become an RA
1:20:40
Speaker 5: for their building, like an apartment manager, sort of, and
1:20:43
Speaker 5: they'll be able to get free housing and free food.
1:20:45
Speaker 5: I just found out from my students across the country
1:20:48
Speaker 5: that they took away the benefit of free food. So
1:20:52
Speaker 5: now students have to pay out of pocket for a
1:20:53
Speaker 5: meal pass. So you're not only getting free housing and
1:20:56
Speaker 5: that's it. And when you have to pay out of
1:20:58
Speaker 5: pocket for your meal pass and the food's not that good,
1:21:00
Speaker 5: these students are saying, the student governments are saying, we're
1:21:04
Speaker 5: having our own food banks on campus.
1:21:07
Speaker 1: This is wild. This is wild.
1:21:12
Speaker 5: Students across the country should never have to worry about
1:21:15
Speaker 5: their basic needs being met at an institution that is
1:21:19
Speaker 5: costing them $ 60, 000, $ 75, 000, $ 80, 000 a year. They should never
1:21:24
Speaker 5: have to worry about where they're going to sleep, if
1:21:26
Speaker 5: it's safe or healthy, or the air is not contaminated
1:21:29
Speaker 5: with mold, if the showers work, if they're clean, or
1:21:32
Speaker 5: if the food is healthy enough to be able to eat,
1:21:35
Speaker 5: if it's affordable to be able to eat, or if
1:21:37
Speaker 5: they have enough food for all the students on campus
1:21:39
Speaker 5: to eat. And that is the number one problem we're
1:21:42
Speaker 5: having across the country.
1:21:44
Speaker 3: It is the corruption of the institutions and not the government.
1:21:48
Speaker 1: That's what they're going to say. And here's what I'm
1:21:50
Speaker 1: going to say.
1:21:51
Speaker 5: So the federal government every year gives $ 180 million to
1:21:55
Speaker 5: campuses across the country. But the education budget in Congress
1:22:01
Speaker 5: is not mandatory money.
1:22:03
Speaker 1: It's discretionary money.
1:22:05
Speaker 5: So every year, Congress gets to decide how much money
1:22:07
Speaker 5: they're going to give, how much money they're not going
1:22:09
Speaker 5: to give.
1:22:10
Speaker 1: You know what's not discretionary? Defense spending.
1:22:15
Speaker 3: Okay.
1:22:18
Speaker 5: And so when we talk about the Pell Grant, for example,
1:22:20
Speaker 5: and students being able to get financial aid, which the
1:22:22
Speaker 5: Pell Grant, should.
1:22:23
Speaker 1: I remind people, is the only free money the federal
1:22:26
Speaker 1: government gives out.
1:22:27
Speaker 2: That's right.
1:22:28
Speaker 5: There's no scholarship that the federal government gives us, no
1:22:32
Speaker 5: free money. It's only the Pell Grant. So if the
1:22:34
Speaker 5: Pell Grant used to cover two thirds of the cost
1:22:38
Speaker 5: of college, we weren't having these problems.
1:22:40
Speaker 1: We had other problems. We didn't have these problems.
1:22:42
Speaker 5: But now it's covering less than one third the cost
1:22:46
Speaker 5: of your tuition for two reasons. They've defunded the Pell
1:22:49
Speaker 5: Grant and they have increased the cost of tuition. So
1:22:53
Speaker 5: we're just our government, our federal government, not Department of Education,
1:22:58
Speaker 5: because they don't control the budget. The Congress does.
1:23:01
Speaker 1: Congress has just now said, listen, we don't think higher
1:23:04
Speaker 1: education is a priority.
1:23:05
Speaker 5: We're going to cut this, slash this, move this, sanction this,
1:23:10
Speaker 5: and then we're going to try to change the rules
1:23:11
Speaker 5: so that campuses.
1:23:13
Speaker 1: Who are trying, most people don't know this.
1:23:16
Speaker 5: The Department of Education just completed a really important process
1:23:20
Speaker 5: where they had negotiated rulemaking around recommendations to change accreditation.
1:23:27
Speaker 5: In order for a school, any school, to get federal dollars,
1:23:31
Speaker 5: it has to be accredited, right? In order for a
1:23:35
Speaker 5: school to get federal dollars, it has to be accredited. Now,
1:23:39
Speaker 5: who controls the rules of accreditation? Well, there are accreditation
1:23:44
Speaker 5: agencies that are privately owned.
1:23:47
Speaker 1: Across the country.
1:23:47
Speaker 2: Are you serious?
1:23:49
Speaker 5: And those private accreditation institutes, they're not the federal government,
1:23:53
Speaker 5: they're not government at all. They're private institutions that get
1:23:57
Speaker 5: to decide whether whether or not your school deserves federal funding.
1:24:02
Speaker 5: And so they come up with a list of requirements. Well,
1:24:05
Speaker 5: the Department of Education just released 10.
1:24:08
Speaker 1: Changes to accreditation.
1:24:11
Speaker 5: So I just want to be very clear that like,
1:24:13
Speaker 5: I know there's so many people who are mad. I
1:24:15
Speaker 5: want to be very clear about my politics. I think
1:24:17
Speaker 5: education should be free. I don't believe we should have
1:24:19
Speaker 5: student loans at all. I think everybody's student loans should
1:24:22
Speaker 5: be erased. I don't even think we need to check
1:24:24
Speaker 5: with the IRS or do an application or do a
1:24:27
Speaker 5: lottery in a hat. Just erase everybody's student loans. Education
1:24:30
Speaker 5: should be free. That's where my politics are at. But
1:24:33
Speaker 5: let me be very clear. The argument that this administration
1:24:37
Speaker 5: is making is that everything costs too much. So we're
1:24:41
Speaker 5: going to make all these changes and the impacts of
1:24:44
Speaker 5: those changes hurt black people who go to college the
1:24:48
Speaker 5: most point blank period.
1:24:50
Speaker 4: And then when you add on top of it, the
1:24:53
Speaker 4: DEI regulations.
1:24:55
Speaker 5: Right.
1:24:55
Speaker 4: Because we didn't even get to DEI. When you talk
1:24:59
Speaker 4: about all those things that they're doing, and then you
1:25:02
Speaker 4: add DEI, how does that affect us? Because people say,
1:25:05
Speaker 4: DEI ain't got nothing to do with us. It ain't
1:25:06
Speaker 4: helping us. It ain't hurting us. White women benefit from DEI.
1:25:11
Speaker 4: Black people don't benefit from no DEI. So explain to
1:25:14
Speaker 4: them how, when you implement the DEI measures into higher education,
1:25:19
Speaker 4: how it affects Black people.
1:25:21
Speaker 2: Okay, so.
1:25:22
Speaker 5: Folks are watching and listening. If they're unable to see me,
1:25:25
Speaker 5: I identify as a Black woman.
1:25:28
Speaker 1: I always have. I always will. And I graduated high
1:25:32
Speaker 1: school wanting to go to UCLA. I applied and I
1:25:35
Speaker 1: didn't get in.
1:25:38
Speaker 5: When you apply in the state of California to a
1:25:40
Speaker 5: University of California school, you can apply with one application.
1:25:44
Speaker 1: To all 10 schools. The school I got into was
1:25:47
Speaker 1: UC Santa Cruz.
1:25:48
Speaker 5: I didn't want to go to UC Santa Cruz because
1:25:50
Speaker 5: I didn't see a lot of Black people on the flyers.
1:25:53
Speaker 5: And I said, well, I don't really know that school.
1:25:56
Speaker 5: I'm going to try to find another route into a
1:25:57
Speaker 5: community college or something. But I got a letter in
1:26:00
Speaker 5: the mail from the Black student union at my school.
1:26:05
Speaker 5: And that letter said, congratulations on being admitted to UC
1:26:09
Speaker 5: Santa Cruz. We're going to invite you up for free
1:26:13
Speaker 5: for three days to to come and explore and get
1:26:16
Speaker 5: a tour of our campus and meet the upperclassmen and
1:26:18
Speaker 5: talk to Black faculty and staff.
1:26:20
Speaker 2: Okay?
1:26:21
Speaker 5: And this program, I didn't have to pay not a
1:26:24
Speaker 5: single dollar for. But I grew up in Section 8 housing.
1:26:27
Speaker 5: I grew up raised by a single mother. I grew
1:26:29
Speaker 5: up first generation.
1:26:31
Speaker 1: My mother and my father did not go to college.
1:26:33
Speaker 1: We didn't have Wi-Fi at the house. We didn't have
1:26:36
Speaker 1: a car.
1:26:37
Speaker 5: So my mother didn't, and she worked three jobs, and
1:26:39
Speaker 5: she was at Santa Monica Community College trying to get something. So-
1:26:43
Speaker 5: I did not have a family member or a friend
1:26:45
Speaker 5: or a parent who could drive me to other schools
1:26:48
Speaker 5: to show me what college was about.
1:26:50
Speaker 1: I had to just figure it out on my own.
1:26:52
Speaker 5: When I got to UC Santa Cruz on that trip
1:26:54
Speaker 5: for free, I decided on that trip that I was
1:26:57
Speaker 5: going to go to UC Santa Cruz. That trip was
1:26:59
Speaker 5: not a trip organized by the university. The Black Student
1:27:03
Speaker 5: Union on campus organized that trip. Let me tell you
1:27:06
Speaker 5: why DEI is important. That Trip invited 79 students up
1:27:11
Speaker 5: to the campus and has a 99% recruitment and retention rate.
1:27:15
Speaker 5: Anybody who comes up on Destination Higher Education, which is
1:27:17
Speaker 5: the name of that program, that comes to the university, 90%
1:27:22
Speaker 5: of the time, they come back to volunteer for free
1:27:24
Speaker 5: to help those students who are seniors in high school
1:27:27
Speaker 5: do the same exact experience that I had, which is
1:27:30
Speaker 5: why I chose that university. When I got to the university,
1:27:33
Speaker 5: I had Black professors. I took a Black jazz class.
1:27:37
Speaker 5: I did African-American studies. I was a part of the
1:27:40
Speaker 5: African-American theater arch troop, and I participated in Black graduation.
1:27:44
Speaker 1: And then I came back and was the graduation.
1:27:46
Speaker 5: Speaker as an alumni at UC Santa Cruz and teach
1:27:49
Speaker 5: a class there around organizing. The reason why DEI is
1:27:54
Speaker 5: so important is because I didn't say DEI is what
1:27:56
Speaker 5: got me into UC Santa Cruz.
1:27:57
Speaker 1: It's what kept me at UC Santa Cruz.
1:27:59
Speaker 5: And we often ignore the role that diversity, we like
1:28:03
Speaker 5: to use this acronym as though it's this like scary,
1:28:06
Speaker 5: woke thing. This acronym provides the programs that Florida can't,
1:28:11
Speaker 5: the state of Florida told our Black student unions, you
1:28:14
Speaker 5: can't even use the word Black in the name of
1:28:16
Speaker 5: your organization anymore. And they were trying to celebrate Black
1:28:19
Speaker 5: History Month because of the erasure of DEI. They are
1:28:24
Speaker 5: telling us we can't have ethnic studies at our school
1:28:27
Speaker 5: because of the erasure of DEI. They're telling us we
1:28:29
Speaker 5: can't have affinity graduations, which means the Black students at
1:28:33
Speaker 5: my school could no longer have a Black graduation. That
1:28:36
Speaker 5: is the erasure of DEI. And we are stripping the
1:28:40
Speaker 5: experience and the opportunities of Black scholarships, which a lot
1:28:43
Speaker 5: of Black athletes get. And I'm confused as to why
1:28:45
Speaker 5: Black people are not more upraised about this. Black athletes
1:28:48
Speaker 5: get scholarships. They get it because they're Black athletes. When
1:28:52
Speaker 5: you erase DEI, guess who doesn't get money to go
1:28:54
Speaker 5: to school?
1:28:56
Speaker 1: Those Black athletes, especially HBCUs. And so we just have
1:28:59
Speaker 1: this huge attack on, I don't, I want to say
1:29:04
Speaker 1: this very explicitly.
1:29:05
Speaker 5: I am so clear that the attack on higher education
1:29:10
Speaker 5: by this administration is happening because this administration is so anti-Black.
1:29:16
Speaker 5: It's not happening because they are trying to save the
1:29:18
Speaker 5: cost of tuition and trying to save people's pockets.
1:29:20
Speaker 1: No, no, no.
1:29:21
Speaker 5: They see, to Tamika's point earlier, how educated Black women are.
1:29:26
Speaker 5: They see how Black families thrive when they get higher education.
1:29:29
Speaker 5: They see how individuals run for office because they went
1:29:34
Speaker 5: to college. They see how people become civil rights lawyers
1:29:37
Speaker 5: and doctors and astronauts.
1:29:40
Speaker 1: And they are anti-Black. So the attack on education... And nurses.
1:29:45
Speaker 1: And nurses. And teachers.
1:29:49
Speaker 5: Yes, ma'am.
1:29:49
Speaker 1: And so the attack on higher education is one of
1:29:53
Speaker 1: the pillars... of attacking the Black community.
1:29:57
Speaker 5: And the second we let them just say, well, we
1:29:59
Speaker 5: didn't really give a fuck about higher education, no way.
1:30:01
Speaker 1: It was too expensive. You right.
1:30:03
Speaker 5: We are erasing one of the biggest opportunities for forward
1:30:08
Speaker 5: mobility for the Black community that we have not only
1:30:11
Speaker 5: fought for, but that we have always had.
1:30:14
Speaker 1: And that's a part of this conversation too.
1:30:16
Speaker 5: That's why when you asked the question earlier, my son,
1:30:18
Speaker 5: about elections and what people should be doing, it's not
1:30:20
Speaker 5: just turning out to vote, but it's also making sure
1:30:23
Speaker 5: that students on campus are empowered enough because ain't nobody
1:30:26
Speaker 5: coming to save us. I have a keynote at Howard
1:30:29
Speaker 5: University with a bunch of HBCU students. Nobody's coming to
1:30:32
Speaker 5: save them. If we're going to protect higher education, it's
1:30:35
Speaker 5: not going to be the three of us. We're not
1:30:36
Speaker 5: in school right now. It's going to be the students
1:30:39
Speaker 5: on campus right now who literally have to organize a
1:30:42
Speaker 5: national movement to not only save what we have left,
1:30:47
Speaker 5: but then rebuild what needs to be rebuilt because higher
1:30:49
Speaker 5: education hasn't been perfect. But this erasure of higher education
1:30:54
Speaker 5: is an attack on our communities and our communities need
1:30:56
Speaker 5: to be the one to fix it and be a
1:30:57
Speaker 5: part of the solution.
1:31:00
Speaker 3: I know you need to go, but I wanted to
1:31:03
Speaker 3: just go back to the professional degrees because you were
1:31:08
Speaker 3: explaining to us before we were on camera that the
1:31:13
Speaker 3: professional degrees have not completely gone away because there's litigation.
1:31:20
Speaker 3: So they were attempting to reclassify certain careers as professional
1:31:27
Speaker 3: Is that what it would be called?
1:31:28
Speaker 1: Careers, certain careers, like if you become a nurse, that
1:31:31
Speaker 1: is a career.
1:31:32
Speaker 2: Yeah.
1:31:32
Speaker 1: Yeah.
1:31:32
Speaker 3: Yeah.
1:31:33
Speaker 1: Administrative.
1:31:34
Speaker 3: So they were they were trying to reclassify certain careers
1:31:38
Speaker 3: and put them in categories that would not allow them
1:31:42
Speaker 3: to to have the same access to.
1:31:45
Speaker 1: To funding, if you will, or loans, loans.
1:31:50
Speaker 3: As they previously had, again, the whole issue of reciprocal,
1:31:55
Speaker 3: if it's not making you as much money, then we
1:31:59
Speaker 3: don't see the benefit of you paying these student loans
1:32:03
Speaker 3: and all that. I get that. But there are people
1:32:07
Speaker 3: who are fighting that, right? And I'm trying to know,
1:32:12
Speaker 3: I guess what I'm trying to figure out is, can
1:32:15
Speaker 3: people support them? Like, is it the ACLU or is
1:32:20
Speaker 3: it particular institutions?
1:32:21
Speaker 1: Is it the colleges who are responsible?
1:32:24
Speaker 3: Is it lawsuits from individuals, from labor, from wherever people
1:32:29
Speaker 3: go to follow the track and support those who are
1:32:34
Speaker 3: pushing back against the administration? Because I think that we
1:32:38
Speaker 3: often have all these conversations. People say, what can I
1:32:41
Speaker 3: do where I'm sitting? to help advance the cause to,
1:32:46
Speaker 3: you know, to stop them from making these changes that
1:32:49
Speaker 3: are really, really harmful?
1:32:53
Speaker 1: Great question.
1:32:53
Speaker 5: So again, this is not just a debate about like
1:32:58
Speaker 5: whether or not Washington considers something a professional degree.
1:33:01
Speaker 2: Okay.
1:33:03
Speaker 5: It is Congress, I said this in the beginning, Congress
1:33:06
Speaker 5: eliminated the grad plus loans and now the Department of
1:33:09
Speaker 5: Education is trying to change the definition of what a grad, sorry,
1:33:16
Speaker 5: what a professional degree is, which then limits how much
1:33:20
Speaker 5: money people are able to borrow to finish that program.
1:33:23
Speaker 5: There are some incredible organizations like the United States Student
1:33:26
Speaker 5: Association that we work with. The American Federation of Teachers
1:33:31
Speaker 5: has been a huge champion in suing this administration and TECAS,
1:33:36
Speaker 5: which is a education think tank policy organization that we
1:33:40
Speaker 5: work very closely, they have also been a part of
1:33:42
Speaker 5: the litigation. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund has been a
1:33:46
Speaker 5: part of this. The ACLU is taking on statewide cases
1:33:50
Speaker 5: that I'm aware of. There's an organization called Protect Borrowers
1:33:54
Speaker 5: that is doing work just around student loans. TECAS is
1:33:57
Speaker 5: doing a lot of work around Pell Grants. Protect Borrowers
1:33:59
Speaker 5: is doing work around student loans. There's a campaign. A
1:34:02
Speaker 5: lot of organizations have come together in this moment under
1:34:06
Speaker 5: the attack. There's two that are resisting and filing litigation.
1:34:10
Speaker 5: One is called the Emergency Campaign for Higher Education. And
1:34:14
Speaker 5: another is called the Alliance for Higher Education. And we're
1:34:17
Speaker 5: a part of both.
1:34:18
Speaker 1: Who am I forgetting?
1:34:18
Speaker 5: Oh, there's a phenomenal organization that I absolutely love and
1:34:22
Speaker 5: adore who does really smart legal work of challenging the
1:34:26
Speaker 5: rules and recommendations that the department comes out with called EdTrust.
1:34:31
Speaker 5: And then I'm sure there's other labor unions like the
1:34:33
Speaker 5: National Education Association who which are teachers unions, AFT.
1:34:37
Speaker 1: And NEA, that are doing this work.
1:34:39
Speaker 5: But the reason why I'm saying this is because it's
1:34:41
Speaker 5: so important to know that it's not a one-faceted issue.
1:34:45
Speaker 5: Students don't have the power, like they don't have the
1:34:46
Speaker 5: resources and the time to sue. They're trying to go
1:34:48
Speaker 5: to college.
1:34:49
Speaker 1: But we have alumni, we have teachers, we have community organizers,
1:34:52
Speaker 1: we have labor leaders, and we have lawyers who have
1:34:55
Speaker 1: all come together to fight this.
1:34:57
Speaker 5: And this administration has been sued a lot since they
1:35:01
Speaker 5: got into it. My God, they've been sued so much
1:35:07
Speaker 5: since this has happened and they have learned to play
1:35:09
Speaker 5: this game to like wait it out until they get
1:35:11
Speaker 5: in trouble. And they've also positioned these judges around the
1:35:15
Speaker 5: country so that they can try to win in places
1:35:17
Speaker 5: that they want to make these changes.
1:35:19
Speaker 1: But it's important for us to have a legal strategy.
1:35:22
Speaker 5: It's important for us to have a physical resistance strategy
1:35:25
Speaker 5: with students protesting and boycotting on campus. And then it's
1:35:28
Speaker 5: important for the rest of us who aren't on a
1:35:30
Speaker 5: college campus or university to do what you've done in
1:35:33
Speaker 5: short ways that can help mitigate the damage that's being
1:35:35
Speaker 5: done now.
1:35:36
Speaker 1: We have to help figure out ways.
1:35:37
Speaker 5: To fundraise and give to these students and resist the
1:35:41
Speaker 5: restrictions of giving out scholarships and loans. Sorry, giving out
1:35:44
Speaker 5: scholarships and free money and fundraising for students to be
1:35:47
Speaker 5: able to finish their education. Because whether we win now
1:35:50
Speaker 5: or whether we win next spring, it's going to mean
1:35:53
Speaker 5: that a student is able to finish or not able
1:35:55
Speaker 5: to finish because the school year already started.
1:35:57
Speaker 1: So we want to support them and give to those
1:35:59
Speaker 1: GoFundMes that they're having.
1:36:01
Speaker 2: Wow.
1:36:02
Speaker 1: This is a lot of information. I feel like... Thanks
1:36:06
Speaker 1: for shining light on this, y'all. Yeah, thank you.
1:36:09
Speaker 2: No, thank you for having the knowledge to shine light
1:36:12
Speaker 2: on this. A little bit. A lot of us understand
1:36:17
Speaker 2: that something is going on.
1:36:18
Speaker 4: We hear, oh, it's wrong, education, this and that.
1:36:21
Speaker 2: And, you know, you have been blessed with the ability...
1:36:25
Speaker 2: What you wanted to say. Say, what did you forget?
1:36:27
Speaker 2: You forgot? Yeah, I forgot.
1:36:29
Speaker 1: I did forget something. To me, you can say, what can,
1:36:31
Speaker 1: I don't think you said this, but this is what
1:36:32
Speaker 1: I heard you say. What can people do? And what
1:36:33
Speaker 1: are people doing to fight back?
1:36:35
Speaker 5: One of the things that's coming up This was also
1:36:38
Speaker 5: messed up is they're doing this during the worst time.
1:36:40
Speaker 1: The Department of Education is making changes at the worst time.
1:36:43
Speaker 1: They're making changes when school is starting.
1:36:44
Speaker 5: So students are busy and excited and they're coming back
1:36:47
Speaker 5: to campus and they're not paying attention to what's happening
1:36:49
Speaker 5: in Washington, D.C. And now they're trying to do things
1:36:51
Speaker 5: over the holiday break. And now Congress has, the House
1:36:54
Speaker 5: has gone home until the election. So decisions aren't changed.
1:36:57
Speaker 5: And students are trying to figure out, they're doing this
1:36:59
Speaker 5: during the worst time. But one of the things that's
1:37:01
Speaker 5: coming up and you should follow the United States Student
1:37:03
Speaker 5: Association on Instagram so that you can keep up with
1:37:06
Speaker 5: some of the changes.
1:37:08
Speaker 1: Is there is a proposed, keyword, proposed rule.
1:37:13
Speaker 5: Out of the Department of Treasury, not even the Department
1:37:16
Speaker 5: of Education, the Department of Treasury that is saying, if
1:37:21
Speaker 5: a school has anything to do with DEI, we want
1:37:26
Speaker 5: to change their tax status so that they're not able
1:37:30
Speaker 5: to receive tax-deductible donations.
1:37:34
Speaker 1: Okay, wait. So today... you can receive a tax deductible
1:37:39
Speaker 1: donation as a school alum. Yeah, you can get it. Yeah.
1:37:43
Speaker 5: If it goes to nonpartisan, nonpartisan stuff and infrastructure and
1:37:47
Speaker 5: stuff around the school.
1:37:48
Speaker 1: Where does it go?
1:37:49
Speaker 3: Like, I would go online and I would go to
1:37:53
Speaker 3: howard.edu and there's a place there that says donate to Howard. Maybe.
1:38:00
Speaker 5: Hypothetically, I can't say that that's exactly the case, but
1:38:03
Speaker 5: like alumni associations fundraise from alumni and then they gift an.
1:38:07
Speaker 1: Award to the school. Right.
1:38:10
Speaker 5: There are three major ways that schools get money. The
1:38:12
Speaker 5: federal government donations. There's four donations, tuition, which is not
1:38:18
Speaker 5: the biggest thing. Source of revenue, I should say. And
1:38:21
Speaker 5: then the last one is like grants or projects that
1:38:24
Speaker 5: they sign with corporations or like individual private donors so
1:38:28
Speaker 5: they can build a science building or whatever.
1:38:30
Speaker 1: It might be. So those are the four big ways
1:38:31
Speaker 1: that they get it.
1:38:32
Speaker 5: And I imagine there's always a way to donate to
1:38:36
Speaker 5: a school, but usually it's through an alumni association or
1:38:38
Speaker 5: something like that.
1:38:40
Speaker 2: Oh, okay.
1:38:40
Speaker 3: So you're saying, exactly, they're working to change the tax
1:38:44
Speaker 3: status So that now you become a private institution versus
1:38:50
Speaker 3: a nonprofit.
1:38:53
Speaker 1: Is that what it would be?
1:38:54
Speaker 5: It's not necessarily nonprofit or private. It's whether the campus
1:38:59
Speaker 5: can do.
1:39:00
Speaker 1: advocacy.
1:39:01
Speaker 5: It's a 501c3 and a 501c4. So you can donate
1:39:05
Speaker 5: to the c3 and get a tax write-off. You can't
1:39:07
Speaker 5: donate to the c4 and get a tax write-off. What
1:39:09
Speaker 5: they're saying is that if this administration is saying, if
1:39:14
Speaker 5: you do anything about DEI, they're considering that partisan. And
1:39:19
Speaker 5: so they're not including that. They're saying that that means
1:39:22
Speaker 5: your tax status can't be nonpartisan and you can't give
1:39:25
Speaker 5: and get a tax deduction, which is going to hurt
1:39:28
Speaker 5: some campuses.
1:39:28
Speaker 1: What does partisan mean?
1:39:29
Speaker 3: Because I thought that partisan meant you were for a
1:39:32
Speaker 3: particular candidate.
1:39:34
Speaker 1: Candidate or an issue or bill. Party.
1:39:37
Speaker 2: So an issue is also party.
1:39:39
Speaker 1: Sorry, a bill, bill, bill, bill, bill, bill. I don't
1:39:41
Speaker 1: say issue. Right, a bill. Right, a bill.
1:39:45
Speaker 3: So being for black or brown people or trying to expand,
1:39:50
Speaker 3: I guess, what? You got to ask the Department of
1:39:53
Speaker 3: Treasury and you got to ask Linda McMahon because I
1:39:56
Speaker 3: can't make the argument for them.
1:39:57
Speaker 1: I'm confused. Now we're going down a little cycle.
1:40:00
Speaker 2: Rabbit hole.
1:40:02
Speaker 5: But this is just to name one, how many different
1:40:06
Speaker 5: ways higher education is being attacked. So we just spent
1:40:09
Speaker 5: a whole 30-something minutes talking about basic needs, and different
1:40:14
Speaker 5: ways that students aren't able to take out the amount
1:40:16
Speaker 5: of loans. Now they're trying to change the tax status
1:40:18
Speaker 5: so that people can donate and get taxed right off
1:40:20
Speaker 5: to the schools that do anything about DEI.
1:40:24
Speaker 1: Again, I told you, it's not because they care.
1:40:25
Speaker 5: About college completion or student being successful or efficiency or affordability.
1:40:31
Speaker 1: It's anti-Black. It is anti-Black, and that's what they are
1:40:34
Speaker 1: focused on. It all makes sense, and it makes perfect
1:40:38
Speaker 1: sense to me. I'll keep y'all posted.
1:40:42
Speaker 4: We appreciate you Tiffany man for coming up here dropping
1:40:45
Speaker 4: real jewels and breaking it down because Tamika needs you
1:40:49
Speaker 4: to take her from A to Z she.
1:40:50
Speaker 5: Don't like I'm glad she does that because the audience
1:40:53
Speaker 5: needs to hear that.
1:40:53
Speaker 4: Too because if I know I ain't understand it I
1:40:56
Speaker 4: need you to make.
1:40:57
Speaker 1: Other people ain't understand it she's right sometimes this stuff
1:41:01
Speaker 1: is so confusing.
1:41:02
Speaker 5: That what they doing is that sometimes I be like
1:41:04
Speaker 5: I don't understand why Or what you're doing. But if
1:41:08
Speaker 5: we could break it down to our people and help
1:41:10
Speaker 5: them understand what's happening with the attacks on higher education,
1:41:14
Speaker 5: then they can figure out ways to plug in. And
1:41:16
Speaker 5: right now, my job in this season is to organize
1:41:18
Speaker 5: students so students can fight what's happening because they're the
1:41:21
Speaker 5: ones who are really going to make it happen.
1:41:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely.
1:41:24
Speaker 3: Listen, at 46 years old, I know what I know
1:41:27
Speaker 3: and I know what I don't know.
1:41:29
Speaker 1: And I'm not afraid to say, I don't know.
1:41:32
Speaker 3: You know, it used to be a time when people
1:41:34
Speaker 3: would say, oh, you remember Johnny from 127th Street?
1:41:39
Speaker 1: And I'd be like, oh.
1:41:40
Speaker 3: You know, because I feel bad about saying I don't
1:41:43
Speaker 3: know Johnny.
1:41:44
Speaker 1: Now I'm like, no, don't know Johnny. Bring it back.
1:41:49
Speaker 1: Help me. I need a picture.
1:41:51
Speaker 5: Right.
1:41:53
Speaker 3: And so I want I want to understand because I
1:41:56
Speaker 3: know that I know now, especially having a granddaughter who
1:42:01
Speaker 3: is in school now.
1:42:03
Speaker 1: She's four.
1:42:04
Speaker 3: I already see the issues and had to support her
1:42:09
Speaker 3: mom and dad on, you know, trying to make sure
1:42:13
Speaker 3: she gets the proper education.
1:42:16
Speaker 1: Support that she needs in.
1:42:18
Speaker 3: These little, little Head Start programs. So imagine what people
1:42:24
Speaker 3: are experiencing. I said in the beginning, imagine if you
1:42:27
Speaker 3: are in higher education. And when I say higher, I'm
1:42:30
Speaker 3: talking about even older than college students in their four
1:42:34
Speaker 3: year college education. And you have a child who's going
1:42:38
Speaker 3: to the second grade and you stressed out about what's
1:42:41
Speaker 3: going on in the second grade while you're over here
1:42:43
Speaker 3: trying to get a professional degree so that you could
1:42:45
Speaker 3: take care of your family. It's just I mean, it's
1:42:48
Speaker 3: too much stress.
1:42:49
Speaker 1: At one time.
1:42:50
Speaker 3: And you've got to follow policy to know what's happening.
1:42:53
Speaker 3: You've got to follow racism to know what's happening. If
1:42:56
Speaker 3: you're a woman, you're under attack just because you're trying
1:43:00
Speaker 3: to figure out how misogyny and patriarchy. I mean, it's
1:43:04
Speaker 3: too much shit at one time to.
1:43:07
Speaker 1: Be able to manage.
1:43:08
Speaker 3: And we're dealing with a time where special education needs
1:43:12
Speaker 3: for young people.
1:43:14
Speaker 1: Is also on the rise. We're meeting it.
1:43:17
Speaker 3: Education officials across the country who are saying that they never,
1:43:21
Speaker 3: ever experienced such a spike in autism and ADHD diagnosis.
1:43:27
Speaker 1: We probably always had it, but.
1:43:29
Speaker 3: Our parents didn't get we didn't get the proper the screenings.
1:43:35
Speaker 3: So we put that, like you said, another day, another podcast.
1:43:38
Speaker 3: But nevertheless, all of this is happening at one time.
1:43:42
Speaker 3: And while this administration is focusing on being anti-Black, we're
1:43:47
Speaker 3: losing valuable years, time gaps for people to get what
1:43:54
Speaker 3: they need to be productive citizens. By the time we
1:43:58
Speaker 3: finish all of this.
1:44:00
Speaker 1: Come on.
1:44:02
Speaker 3: I and whatever other advancements that's happening around the world,
1:44:07
Speaker 3: we're going to be pretty much four years behind because
1:44:10
Speaker 3: we've been dealing with these.
1:44:12
Speaker 1: People who are just figure out how to spite black folks.
1:44:15
Speaker 2: And that's right.
1:44:16
Speaker 1: Whoever else, you know.
1:44:17
Speaker 3: They may be able to harm in the process. So
1:44:20
Speaker 3: it's it's we it it is.
1:44:24
Speaker 1: What's that state?
1:44:25
Speaker 5: Right.
1:44:26
Speaker 1: Like it is what's at stake. And so that's the
1:44:28
Speaker 1: reason I do that full circle.
1:44:30
Speaker 2: Come on.
1:44:30
Speaker 1: What's at stake? Good job. That's why we're.
1:44:32
Speaker 3: Doing this series, because there are people who are like,
1:44:35
Speaker 3: you know, still they don't know.
1:44:39
Speaker 1: Can I can I do a call to action? I'm
1:44:41
Speaker 1: so glad this is called What's at Stake.
1:44:43
Speaker 5: We don't have enough elected official candidates talking about higher
1:44:47
Speaker 5: education and the cost of higher education.
1:44:49
Speaker 1: Say that all over again. Say that's my son asked you.
1:44:51
Speaker 3: Yeah. Who are the candidates?
1:44:55
Speaker 5: I can't think, like, there aren't candidates who are saying
1:45:01
Speaker 5: that their top three agenda items on the campaign trail
1:45:04
Speaker 5: is higher education. A lot of people are talking about immigration,
1:45:08
Speaker 5: health care, cost of living, gas prices. And then there
1:45:13
Speaker 5: are some people who are anti-Trump, anti-Trump, anti-Trump so much
1:45:16
Speaker 5: they don't have an agenda at all. But we need
1:45:19
Speaker 5: more candidates to talk about Higher education and there are
1:45:25
Speaker 5: people who are shying away from DEI, being woke, talking
1:45:29
Speaker 5: about canceling all student loan debt, making college free, et cetera.
1:45:33
Speaker 5: People aren't even there yet. And elected officials don't get
1:45:36
Speaker 5: there on their own. Voters have to force them. But
1:45:40
Speaker 5: there are not enough elected officials right now talking about
1:45:41
Speaker 5: higher education in the campaign for the midterms. And my
1:45:46
Speaker 5: job as an organizer is is to make sure that
1:45:48
Speaker 5: by the time we get to the presidential in 2028,
1:45:51
Speaker 5: it's one of the top issues on the debate stage.
1:45:53
Speaker 1: You see what I'm saying?
1:45:54
Speaker 5: Because this student loan debt issue has not been solved.
1:45:57
Speaker 5: It continues to happen and grow. And I said this
1:46:00
Speaker 5: to a group of students not too long ago. If
1:46:02
Speaker 5: we don't do something about it right now, higher education
1:46:05
Speaker 5: is not going to exist in the next eight years.
1:46:07
Speaker 1: So we got to.
1:46:09
Speaker 2: No.
1:46:10
Speaker 5: So to make his point about fixing it in four,
1:46:13
Speaker 5: the angle be fixing nothing because there's going to be
1:46:15
Speaker 5: generations of people, just like the generation of the pandemic kids.
1:46:19
Speaker 5: They're going to be generations of students who are not
1:46:21
Speaker 5: going to have this opportunity. They're going to be saddled
1:46:23
Speaker 5: with student loan debt and they're not going to have
1:46:25
Speaker 5: no jobs because AI don't take everything over.
1:46:27
Speaker 1: Don't get me started.
1:46:30
Speaker 2: You said it all.
1:46:31
Speaker 1: Listen, Tiffany, I want to just say thank you.
1:46:34
Speaker 3: As my son has said, you have a wide range
1:46:39
Speaker 3: of knowledge and understanding on these issues. And really, you
1:46:43
Speaker 3: should be getting booked like on all the shows. I
1:46:45
Speaker 3: want to commit to making sure that I help wherever
1:46:50
Speaker 3: I can to get you in places where people can
1:46:54
Speaker 3: hear this information. Because so many people just don't know.
1:46:59
Speaker 3: It's just too much happening. We know, you know, we
1:47:01
Speaker 3: can debate about police violence all day because, you know,
1:47:06
Speaker 3: most people are very much so, you know, they are
1:47:11
Speaker 3: socialized to think of things where you see a smoking gun.
1:47:16
Speaker 3: But these this conversation around education is like carbon monoxide.
1:47:22
Speaker 3: It's in the air. You may not be able to
1:47:25
Speaker 3: see it, smell it or taste it, but it's all
1:47:28
Speaker 3: around you. And it's hitting our pocketbooks. It's going to
1:47:31
Speaker 3: change our lives. And I and I'm, you know, my
1:47:34
Speaker 3: four year old granddaughter and my son's five year old
1:47:37
Speaker 3: and his children that will be going to college. We
1:47:40
Speaker 3: want them to have the experience that you were speaking about.
1:47:43
Speaker 3: And the only way that that will happen is if
1:47:46
Speaker 3: we make sure that this conversation is a part of
1:47:49
Speaker 3: everybody's campaign promises. If we make sure that, you know,
1:47:53
Speaker 3: it is just as important as affordability, we should you know,
1:47:57
Speaker 3: it is an affordability issue.
1:47:59
Speaker 1: So thank you.
1:48:00
Speaker 2: That's right.
1:48:01
Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you. What's at stake?
1:48:04
Speaker 5: Thank you for having me and making space and having
1:48:07
Speaker 5: a series where you're talking about what's at stake, because
1:48:10
Speaker 5: we got to make politics personal. And folks are not
1:48:13
Speaker 5: going to feel motivated to go out and vote if
1:48:15
Speaker 5: they think they're just voting for a candidate, unless we
1:48:17
Speaker 5: have discussions like this where we're talking about the real issue.
1:48:20
Speaker 1: I would I would be irresponsible if I didn't if
1:48:23
Speaker 1: I didn't name that, although it.
1:48:25
Speaker 5: Feels like carbon monoxide for a lot of our students
1:48:27
Speaker 5: because people are not paying attention to students on campus.
1:48:29
Speaker 1: There is also gun violence at our schools. There is
1:48:32
Speaker 1: also ice at our schools. There are also flock and
1:48:35
Speaker 1: palantir contracts there. with our campuses that are surveilling our students.
1:48:39
Speaker 5: And there's a big story happening that's been revealed where
1:48:42
Speaker 5: a young lady was gang-raped at Cornell University and nobody
1:48:45
Speaker 5: was held accountable. There are students at Florida International University
1:48:49
Speaker 5: who protested silently to get ICE off their campus, and
1:48:53
Speaker 5: they are being threatened to get kicked off their school
1:48:55
Speaker 5: and not being able to finish college. There are student
1:48:58
Speaker 5: government elected presidents who are now being removed by the administration.
1:49:02
Speaker 5: So there are physical things that are happening on campuses
1:49:04
Speaker 5: across the country too. And people can follow our work
1:49:07
Speaker 5: at usstudentassociation.org and usstudentassociation on Instagram.
1:49:12
Speaker 1: Thank you.
1:49:12
Speaker 2: Once again, we appreciate you, Tiff. Thank you.
1:49:15
Speaker 3: I love y'all.
1:49:16
Speaker 2: We love you more.
1:49:17
Speaker 1: I learned from y'all. I learned from the best. You're
1:49:20
Speaker 1: well beyond that, sweetheart.
1:49:22
Speaker 2: Come on now. Not yet.
1:49:24
Speaker 1: Not yet.
1:49:25
Speaker 2: Maybe.
1:49:25
Speaker 1: I got big shoes to fill. Love you guys. Love
1:49:27
Speaker 1: you too.
1:49:29
Speaker 4: Shout out to Tiffany Dina Lofton and her brilliant analysis
1:49:33
Speaker 4: of what is at stake right now. You know, we
1:49:35
Speaker 4: talk about higher education. She's one of the premier educators.
1:49:39
Speaker 4: She's been in that space for so long and she
1:49:42
Speaker 4: always gives us some jewels and some knowledge that we
1:49:44
Speaker 4: don't know. You know, hopefully the world will pay attention
1:49:47
Speaker 4: to what she says because I'm paying attention. And it's
1:49:50
Speaker 4: crazy to me how things that are kind of simple, right?
1:49:55
Speaker 2: Like it should be.
1:49:56
Speaker 4: Understood why DEI is important, how it's affecting colleges, how
1:50:01
Speaker 4: it's affecting our people, how it's affecting our schools, how
1:50:04
Speaker 4: it's affecting everything. It should be easy to understand that,
1:50:08
Speaker 4: but she had to break it down and let you
1:50:10
Speaker 4: know that there are programs in our school that specifically
1:50:13
Speaker 4: affect us that are being eliminated, you know, because they're
1:50:16
Speaker 4: trying to eliminate us from higher education.
1:50:19
Speaker 2: So once again, shout out to her for the information.
1:50:22
Speaker 4: And I hope that it inspires someone or everyone to
1:50:27
Speaker 4: go out and get to those polls to make sure
1:50:29
Speaker 4: that you look and see who is on what issue.
1:50:33
Speaker 4: You know, who is paying attention to the issue that
1:50:35
Speaker 4: is going to affect you and your family and your community?
1:50:38
Speaker 1: Well, here's what I would say.
1:50:41
Speaker 3: Joe Biden, y'all can get mad at me all y'all
1:50:47
Speaker 3: want to.
1:50:48
Speaker 1: He said they trying to put y'all back in chains.
1:50:51
Speaker 3: And that was because he knew what his white comrades,
1:50:56
Speaker 3: his siblings, if you will, he knew what they were
1:50:59
Speaker 3: talking about in closed door rooms. He understood the plan.
1:51:02
Speaker 3: He understood the language. And so when he said they're
1:51:06
Speaker 3: trying to put y'all back in chains, a lot of
1:51:08
Speaker 3: people got upset about it, which I respect because I
1:51:12
Speaker 3: was one of the folks like, what is Joe Biden
1:51:14
Speaker 3: talking about? Ain't nobody going to put us back in chains.
1:51:18
Speaker 3: But that is, but the problem is that the way
1:51:21
Speaker 3: we see the possibility of sliding backwards into an enslaved
1:51:30
Speaker 3: state is that all of it will be done by
1:51:33
Speaker 3: physical violence. What folks don't understand is that he was
1:51:38
Speaker 3: talking about systemic changes, systemic changes that would ultimately, before
1:51:45
Speaker 3: you know it, you look up and it's like, oh, shoot, how.
1:51:49
Speaker 1: Do we get here?
1:51:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, because we ain't got shit. Yeah.
1:51:53
Speaker 1: How do we get here?
1:51:54
Speaker 3: Our institutions are crippled and therefore we don't have people
1:51:58
Speaker 3: to fight for us. Our organizations that have been on
1:52:02
Speaker 3: the ground have been in many ways physically and very
1:52:07
Speaker 3: violently attacked.
1:52:09
Speaker 2: Right.
1:52:10
Speaker 3: We're going to continue to lock you up. We have
1:52:13
Speaker 3: a police state, a militarized state. We have ICE that
1:52:17
Speaker 3: has been properly funded to carry out any mission that
1:52:23
Speaker 3: we may give them. Who's to say that they will
1:52:26
Speaker 3: not change the purpose of ICE to a different cause
1:52:30
Speaker 3: after they feel that they've deported enough people? Why wouldn't they?
1:52:34
Speaker 3: They've already been given unchecked power. to do whatever they want.
1:52:40
Speaker 3: So they're trying to push.
1:52:42
Speaker 1: Us out of the workforce at record numbers.
1:52:45
Speaker 3: Again, our educational institutions are under attack, as we learned today.
1:52:50
Speaker 3: There are so many things happening that while we are
1:52:54
Speaker 3: resisting paying attention or saying we don't need to vote or,
1:52:58
Speaker 3: you know, I'm not I'm not worried about it.
1:53:01
Speaker 1: Before you know it, when you.
1:53:03
Speaker 3: Look up everything that you know to be a part
1:53:06
Speaker 3: of your normal, you know, at least as normal as
1:53:10
Speaker 3: possible process for success would have been impacted.
1:53:15
Speaker 1: They know what they're doing.
1:53:17
Speaker 3: Their project 2025 is so powerful in their own right
1:53:25
Speaker 3: for what it is that they are attempting to do.
1:53:28
Speaker 3: And so when Joe Biden said, they trying to put
1:53:31
Speaker 3: y'all back in chains, I feel like he wasn't saying
1:53:35
Speaker 3: they're gonna show up at your house with a gun
1:53:37
Speaker 3: and tell you, you gotta come outside right now and
1:53:40
Speaker 3: go to a field where you're under whips and chains.
1:53:46
Speaker 3: He was saying, I'm looking at the policies that these
1:53:50
Speaker 3: people want to put in place in this nation. And
1:53:55
Speaker 3: when it's all said and done, the conditions for which
1:54:00
Speaker 3: your children will have to exist will not be anything
1:54:05
Speaker 3: like what you have enjoyed. Even in all of its
1:54:08
Speaker 3: effed upness, it's been better than what we are about
1:54:12
Speaker 3: to hand your children.
1:54:13
Speaker 2: Can't say no better than that, man.
1:54:15
Speaker 4: At this point, if you don't, if you have not
1:54:18
Speaker 4: seen the reality of this administration and what they are
1:54:22
Speaker 4: not only attempting to do, what they are actually doing,
1:54:26
Speaker 4: then it's nothing I can tell you, man.
1:54:28
Speaker 2: You are what we call woefully ignorant. You know, you
1:54:32
Speaker 2: are obstinate.
1:54:33
Speaker 4: You know, when you can be given the actual facts
1:54:36
Speaker 4: and see everything and still just resist it.
1:54:38
Speaker 2: So, there's nothing I can do to help you at
1:54:40
Speaker 2: this Yeah, I don't know.
1:54:42
Speaker 3: We still have the obligation to teach, to learn, to share. And,
1:54:47
Speaker 3: you know, little by little, we gain one or two
1:54:51
Speaker 3: or three or four people who understand that this is
1:54:54
Speaker 3: not about party politics, but it is truly about mitigating harm.
1:54:59
Speaker 3: And that's where I am right now. And yeah, I
1:55:02
Speaker 3: want to get to the point where we don't have
1:55:04
Speaker 3: to do any of that.
1:55:05
Speaker 1: You know, I want to get to the point where
1:55:07
Speaker 1: we live in a society where.
1:55:09
Speaker 3: You don't have to try to figure out how to
1:55:13
Speaker 3: navigate in the minutia that is all violent. I want
1:55:17
Speaker 3: to do, I want to live that way, but that
1:55:19
Speaker 3: is not the reality for which we are existing in
1:55:22
Speaker 3: at this moment.
1:55:24
Speaker 4: And with that said, We've come to the end of
1:55:27
Speaker 4: another episode of TMI. Once again, shout out to Tiffany
1:55:30
Speaker 4: Dena Lofton for her insight in letting us know what's
1:55:34
Speaker 4: at stake. I'm not going to always be right. Tamika D.
1:55:37
Speaker 4: Mallory is not going to always be wrong, but we
1:55:39
Speaker 4: will both always, and I mean always, be authentic.
1:55:43
Speaker 3: Listen to the TMI podcast on the Black Effect Network,
1:55:47
Speaker 3: on iHeartRadio, or anywhere podcasts are available.
1:55:51
Speaker 4: Or catch the video version on YouTube at TMI Show PC.