In 2024, we are confronting a major election year with history and the rights of marginalized communities on the ballot. The disparities that Black and Brown people confront in this country are significant and growing from housing and employment to access to health care and access to capital. The Sundial Group of Companies which includes ESSENCE, the Global Black Economic Forum, Girls United, AFROPUNK, BeautyCon, Refinery29, and New Voices Foundation are coming together, along with our partners, to mobilize and ensure that we educate, mobilize and register voters to take action this November and into the future.
Our first major touchpoint will be a live virtual town hall on Thursday, August 1, 2024 where we will be launching our 2024 Paint the Polls Black™ Campaign. This campaign is tailored to provide information, address misinformation and register voters for one of the most consequential elections in our lifetimes. We will be joined by celebrities, politicians, voting and election experts and others to seize this moment. We will also be answering important questions from the public about voting, elections and the issues affecting them. The stakes are high and we want to make sure the public has the information, the resources and the support to exercise their right to vote and protect our future.
Our first major touchpoint will be a live virtual town hall on Thursday, August 1, 2024 where we will be launching our 2024 Paint the Polls Black™ Campaign. This campaign is tailored to provide information, address misinformation and register voters for one of the most consequential elections in our lifetimes. We will be joined by celebrities, politicians, voting and election experts and others to seize this moment. We will also be answering important questions from the public about voting, elections and the issues affecting them. The stakes are high and we want to make sure the public has the information, the resources and the support to exercise their right to vote and protect our future.
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LifestyleTranscript
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00:04:22hello everyone thank you so much for joining us my name is alfonso david
00:04:27I am the president and the CEO of the Global Black Economic Forum. I'm also a civil rights lawyer.
00:04:34And I am Ebony McMorris, White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Network. And I'm so
00:04:41pleased to be here tonight for Paint the Polls Black. Alphonso, are you ready?
00:04:48I am ready. I am ready. And for everyone, as you may know, this November, we are confronting a
00:04:54major election year with history and the rights of marginalized communities on the ballot.
00:05:00The disparities that Black and Brown people confront in this country are significant
00:05:05and growing, from housing and employment to access to healthcare and access to capital.
00:05:12Tonight, the sundial group of companies, which includes Essence, the Global Black Economic Forum,
00:05:18Girls United, Afropunk, Refinery29, BeautyCon, and the New Voices Foundation
00:05:26are coming together, along with our partners, to mobilize and ensure that we educate, mobilize,
00:05:32and register voters to take action this November and into the future.
00:05:38Look, to support this work, we are launching the 2024 Paint the Polls Black campaign. Now,
00:05:45this campaign is tailored to provide information, address myth information and lies,
00:05:52and register voters for one of the most consequential elections in our lifetimes. We
00:05:58will be joined by a few special, amazing guests, and we'll be answering important questions from
00:06:04all of you about voting, elections, and the issues affecting our communities.
00:06:10So we got a few housekeeping rules. First, this is a nonpartisan call focused on voter registration
00:06:18and mobilization. Further, this ain't a fundraising call, so you can keep your money in
00:06:22your pocket for now. There are other events for fundraising. We will also be answering your
00:06:28questions, so please put your questions in the chat, and we'll try to answer as many as we can
00:06:35before the end of the town hall. Also, please see the link for voter registration.
00:06:42If you have not registered to vote, please do. Go to www.paintthepollsblack,
00:06:49hashtag paintthepollsblack, and please register to vote. And finally, sit back,
00:06:55relax, and enjoy this town hall. All right, y'all, we're going to get right into it. Y'all ready?
00:07:04This is going to be a wonderful conversation. How excited are you, Alphonso?
00:07:07I am excited. We have two fantastic members of Congress joining us, but I'll let you take it away.
00:07:13First, please welcome Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett from the House of Representatives for
00:07:20Texas, 30th congressional district, great state of Texas. Also joining us is Congresswoman Chantel
00:07:28Brown from the great state of Ohio, hailing from Ohio's 11th district. Thank you both for joining
00:07:35us today. It's good to see both of you. Look, before we begin, I think it is only right for us
00:07:43to pause just for a moment and remember the life of the late, great Sheila Jackson Lee. There's
00:07:53memorial service being held today for her, who's hailing from the great state of Texas. But I think
00:08:01we would be remiss if we did not stop for a second, just for a couple of seconds,
00:08:05and think about this Shiro. Thank you all for that. Sometimes I think we just have to stop
00:08:18and sometimes think about what we are missing, and we are missing her so much right now.
00:08:25Before we begin the conversation, actually, Representative Crockett, I wanted to
00:08:30just ask you, let people know what this line is, who she was, and how we will miss the work
00:08:39and the legacy that she has left behind. Yeah. What's interesting is that we were
00:08:44reminded that she is of Jamaican descent. And one of the jokes that we would always talk about
00:08:53when it came to Sheila is that she was always in 50 meetings at one time, right? So her body would
00:08:59physically be in one meeting, and then she'd be on Zoom with somebody else with the headphones.
00:09:06But listen, as much as we joked, this is a woman who worked all the time, even when she was sick,
00:09:14on her deathbed. She never stopped working. She believed that the people, specifically the people
00:09:19of Texas, deserved better. And when it came down to representing people, while she was elected to
00:09:25represent Texas' 18th congressional district, that is famously known because Barbara Jordan
00:09:31held that seat as the first Black woman to ever go to Congress from Texas, she also made sure that
00:09:37she never, ever lost sight of the fact that she was a Black woman in America. And so being able
00:09:43to celebrate Juneteenth is because she never gave up. She was the fighter at all times for
00:09:48reparations, as well as the George Floyd Policing Act. I mean, this is a woman that never stopped
00:09:57and never lost focus of community. And community wasn't just her district, but it was Black folks.
00:10:03So definitely, she will sorely be missed. But I can tell you, as the next generation is trying
00:10:10to do our part, Chantel and I will continue to fight and make sure that her legacy continues to
00:10:17live on and that her legislation doesn't die with her, but it continues on until we finally get to
00:10:23the promised land and actually start to see a United States that really starts to respect
00:10:30and love us wholly, not just in word, but also in legislation.
00:10:35Congresswoman Brown, I want you to also talk about what her life meant and what she has
00:10:40represented for you.
00:10:42She was just a powerhouse. I grew up watching her on C-SPAN and on MSNBC, the news stations,
00:10:50and she always spoke with such command, such confidence. And if you heard her,
00:10:56she had this booming voice. It just came through. And she just commanded the room,
00:11:03no matter where she was. And so I was, to my surprise, when I first met her, I'm like,
00:11:08this little petite powerhouse. She was just so... But it was like, I imagined her to be this
00:11:14tall woman, but she might have been five something, but she was six, seven in spirit,
00:11:20because she did not back down from anything. She was fearless. She was a fighter. And she really
00:11:27just, as Jasmine articulated, always, always showed up and put people first.
00:11:33And we joked about her being never shy from a camera. She would always be in position,
00:11:42but it was a historical context to that because she left an imprint of what we could aspire to be.
00:11:50Had I not seen her in those images growing up, I would not know that this is a space
00:11:57and place where I could be. And so I'm just honored to be able to say,
00:12:04when the history books are written, that I was able to serve with her.
00:12:09That's so powerful. That's so powerful. Well, look, we are here to not just carry on her legacy,
00:12:15but to talk about issues affecting Black America and to mobilize and talk about voter mobilization.
00:12:20I just want to quickly get your reactions, and Alphonso and I talked about this a great length
00:12:26before, about the NABJ conference, where we saw three Black journalists interviewing
00:12:33former President Donald Trump. And the controversy ensued whether or not she should have been there
00:12:38or not. But then after that, some of the comments that were made. Representative Crockett,
00:12:44what was your reaction to that town hall, that panel discussion?
00:12:50Well, we'll be- Hotmess.com. Hotmess.com. That's all I got to say about it. But listen,
00:12:56regardless of where you stand about NABJ and how they handled Trump showing up and how they
00:13:02handled the VP and that kind of stuff, I think that it was important for us to have this moment
00:13:07because, number one, I think that Trump has not been pushed as all candidates should be pushed
00:13:13when you are trying to be the leader of the free world. You should be asked questions,
00:13:18and when you don't answer those questions, you should be redirected. And what's interesting is
00:13:24that it's almost like, not almost, he took offense that there were Black women journalists that were
00:13:32basically trying to get him to do what journalists are supposed to always do with him, which is to
00:13:37get him to answer questions. Instead, he decided that he was going to insult them as well and call
00:13:42them nasty and talk about how rude they were and things like that when all they were doing is
00:13:48actual journalism, which again, Project 2025, which is a nonpartisan thing allegedly because
00:13:55it comes from the Heritage Foundation, which is 501c3, but it talks about things such as the media
00:14:03and basically, as far as if I was to summarize it, getting rid of the free press. And I feel as if
00:14:10we've seen a consolidation when it comes to the media in general, because he's not been pressed.
00:14:15And now that he actually had journalists that wanted to do their jobs, he didn't know how to
00:14:20handle it, because when he went to do his debate on CNN, they didn't do their jobs, that's for sure.
00:14:31I saw the text that you put out on Twitter on X, and you said, shut his BS down,
00:14:37mid-sentence. But there was also this question, and Representative Brennan, I want to ask you
00:14:41about this, about challenging Blackness in America. And that is something that is not just
00:14:47subject to that, but we have seen over and over this challenge of Blackness, having to prove
00:14:53Blackness. What were you thinking as you were watching, or were you able to even watch that
00:14:59panel? I caught some of it, and I was, I mean, my text, I was flabbergasted. I mean, but a zebra
00:15:05doesn't change its stripes, and leopards don't change their spots. This was typical Donald Trump.
00:15:10I mean, when he can't speak or answer a question, he defaults to attacks and name-calling.
00:15:16And it's really petty, and it's really immature, and it really is lackluster leadership on his
00:15:21part. And it was on full display for all the world to see. And I really love the fact that
00:15:27it was Black women once again holding him accountable. I mean, from the prosecutor in New
00:15:32York, to the prosecutor in Georgia, to now him having to deal with the prosecutor
00:15:39as his candidate to face, to hold the highest office in the land. Black women have been his
00:15:46greatest adversaries, and really holding him accountable for his dastardly deeds. And so,
00:15:54I was really grateful for the women who were on that stage, who kept their composure, who held
00:16:02their own, made sure they were confronting him with the facts. And he just tried to bulldozer
00:16:08them, which is something he's always done. So that should not have come as a surprise.
00:16:12But I was pleased with the representation that we had on that stage, however difficult that
00:16:17interview would have been, because he is not the type of person that you're going to get an easier
00:16:23interview out of regardless. So I do believe, when it comes to folks like him and his MAGA
00:16:30minions, they have no bottom, they have no boundaries. Just when I think they can't get
00:16:34any lower, they prove me wrong. And he did just that yesterday on the stage.
00:16:40Congresswoman Crockett, I had a chance to interview you when a global Black Economic Forum
00:16:48had an event at Essence. And in that, we quickly spoke about Project 2025, and you just mentioned
00:16:53that. I don't think people really, or maybe they're really beginning to understand the depth
00:17:01and seriousness of Project 2025, and how this is not something that we are just seeing now,
00:17:06but it has been in the works. When we see some of the reform that has come down from
00:17:11the Supreme Court, that is a part of the Project 2025 playlist. So when we talk about
00:17:17vulgar mobilization, ordering on why people need to get to the polls, I just want you to double
00:17:22down and let people know what this is and why this matters in their decision.
00:17:29Yeah, so a couple of things. Right now we see that the campaign that is most closely aligned
00:17:35with Project 2025 is trying to run away from it with their hair on fire, like, wait a minute,
00:17:40we didn't know, we didn't know. Yeah, okay. You know, so many of these people worked in the
00:17:45previous administration, and supposedly were going to work potentially in the next administration
00:17:51if Trump was to win. And so basically, they decided that they were going to play in our faces,
00:17:57and basically thought, well, we'll just hide it in 1000 pages, and they'll never read it. But we
00:18:02want to make sure that our psychophants are able to see in detail exactly what it is that we are
00:18:08trying to do. But as you already stated, as someone who came from the State House, this is just my
00:18:14first term in Congress, when I was in the State House, last session, we had to deal with things
00:18:19such as CRT, where they basically commandeered and changed the definition of CRT, and decided
00:18:25that they just did not want black history taught in our schools. Well, that's a part of Project
00:18:292025, and making that a nationwide situation. When we look at these six week abortion bans that
00:18:35started to go into place, what we had was we called a vigilante bill, they called it the heartbeat
00:18:41bill. But that bill was something that they handed down to the state of Texas, they handed this to
00:18:45Florida, we know that Iowa just got their six week ban. So the Heritage Foundation has been
00:18:50coming up with this legislation, and has been passing it through to Republicans in mostly
00:18:56Republican controlled houses to try to push this legislation through. And then we get to the
00:19:02Supreme Court, where we know that the previous administration stole some kind of seats on the
00:19:09Supreme Court. I mean, it depends on who you're talking to, how many of those seats were stolen.
00:19:13But nevertheless, the whole point was to get a court that would not necessarily adhere to the
00:19:19Constitution, nor court precedents, but would do basically what Project 2025 wants to do,
00:19:26which is to consolidate power within the presidency or the executor. And so we've got
00:19:32things such as getting rid of the Department of Education is one of those things. Department of
00:19:36Justice, which we know is separate and apart from the president, as we've seen the current president's
00:19:41son has gone through the justice system, has been convicted. That would not necessarily happen,
00:19:47because this power would be consolidated. Not to mention all the work that we did for the
00:19:52Affordable Care Act. They know that it's not popular to decide that you want to roll that back
00:19:57and get rid of preexisting conditions being an issue that you don't have to deal with.
00:20:02And all of the things that we have, we still know that there's a long way that we need to go when it
00:20:07comes to health care, when it comes to economics, when it comes to our overall prospects in this
00:20:14country. But instead, everything that is in this playbook is more so reminiscent of the 1950s and
00:20:21the 1960s. And so it is important that you understand that this is dangerous and it's not a
00:20:27game, and it's not just politicians out here just talking our heads off. You need to read it for
00:20:32yourself. Don't trust what I say. Just go ahead and Google, because I get that it is tough to trust
00:20:38politicians nowadays. But I'm gonna tell y'all, like I tell everybody else, my life was a little
00:20:44simpler before Congress. I didn't have death threats before Congress, and I actually dealt
00:20:49with real life murderers as a criminal defense attorney. Like, my life was a little simpler.
00:20:55A lot less people knew my name. It was a lot simpler. But I am here because I care. I am here
00:21:03because I believe that we, specifically as Black folk, deserve our fair share. And Chantel and I
00:21:09serve as only one of less than 60 Black women to ever get a seat at this table. And when we take
00:21:17up that seat, we understand that there's a lot of blood, sweat, and tears that came with our ability
00:21:23to sit at that table, and we don't have the luxury of trying to pretend as if we're not Black.
00:21:28We don't have the luxury of trying to pretend like we don't know how we got there. We are there to do
00:21:33the work. So I'm telling y'all, because I love you and I care, but I'm also telling you, like, trust,
00:21:39but verify. So go ahead and get your own receipts. Y'all know I'm the congresswoman that's already
00:21:43always got the receipts. But like, legitimately, just Google it, and don't just go out and vote
00:21:49yourself. Make sure that you tell somebody else in your circle who doesn't want to listen to a
00:21:54politician, and tell them why it matters to them, and that it's important that they get out and they
00:22:00vote as well.
00:22:02Alphonso, when you were, when GBEF was putting together the panels for Essence, one issue I know
00:22:09you wanted to make sure we talked about and hammered on, in addition to everything else, was
00:22:13really digging into Project 2025, because you really had a passion for people understanding
00:22:20what's at stake here.
00:22:22It's incredibly important because, you know, this is a hashtag that people now know about, but
00:22:28unfortunately don't have a lot of information about what it is. But I think to what the
00:22:33congresswoman was saying, this is a framework for redefining government, for really redefining how we
00:22:41operate within government, and potentially removing fundamental rights that Black and Brown
00:22:46people have. So this is an important topic that I think all of us should be very, very aware of,
00:22:52because it should inform how we think about voting, how we think about registration, how we think
00:22:57about the rights of our communities, because it will be directly impacted by whether and how you
00:23:02vote. So for some of you who are joining us, this is Paint the Polls Black, which is a town hall
00:23:09led by Essence, and the Global Black Economic Forum, and Afropunk, and Girls United, and
00:23:14a bunch of other organizations, companies that are coming together to make sure that we mobilize
00:23:19voters, that we educate voters, that we provide the tools that you need to make sure that you
00:23:24can exercise your constitutional right to vote. We will be joined by a number of other special
00:23:31guests. We're joined by two fantastic congresspeople right now, Jasmine Crockett and Chantelle Brown,
00:23:36who will also be joined by Pakari Sellers and others coming up very, very soon, so we want to
00:23:41make sure that you all stick around. But I'll turn it back over to Ebony, who has a few more questions
00:23:46for both Congresswoman Crockett and Congresswoman Brown.
00:23:50I want to switch just a little bit, because we mentioned reproductive rights, but I really want
00:23:55people to understand what's at stake when it comes to that. Since Roe was overturned in 2022,
00:24:0114 states have enacted near total abortion bans, while four states, Georgia, South Carolina,
00:24:08Florida, Iowa, have banned abortion past roughly six weeks of pregnancy. Others we see enacting
00:24:14laws or held ballot referendums to protect abortion rights. And I'm glad we have this on
00:24:20here. For me, this was such an important topic, because I was telling Afonso before this, as
00:24:26someone who might have been labeled a childless catwoman, I am raising a niece whose mother died
00:24:33before I got married, been trying to conceive, have not been able to, had a miscarriage, and I
00:24:41am sitting in a hospital room because my body could not expel a child, but I was in such pain.
00:24:49I'm watching another Black woman, because I know the pain, have a miscarriage at the same time,
00:24:55while her boyfriend or husband is trying to figure out how he can help her. What was going
00:24:59through my mind is how many women in Southern states are going through the same thing, but they
00:25:05don't even have the ability to get the help that they need. And many times their families end up
00:25:11burying them, because they could not have access to any type of care, any type of abortion pill
00:25:19that would have helped. And so this has had massive and devastating consequences, especially
00:25:25when we talk about Black maternal care. Congresswoman Brown, I want to get your take on
00:25:30why reproductive rights is definitely on the table.
00:25:35Well, thank you. And just my sincerest regard, relative to your situation, so many Black women
00:25:44deal with infant mortality, maternal mortality issues. Before coming to Congress, I served on
00:25:50Cuyahoga County, and during the times of the pandemic, we started to recognize the disparities
00:25:58specifically as they impact Black communities, and that conversation was only elevated by
00:26:03the tragic death of George Floyd. I bring that up because that was the foundation for
00:26:08me leading legislation to declare racism as a public health crisis, but the foundation was
00:26:13tied to infant mortality, the infant mortality crisis that we experience here, particularly in
00:26:19my district where we have some of the best hospitals, I mean, first-class, world-class
00:26:23hospitals, but we also experience third-world infant mortality rates. And so these things
00:26:28just did not make sense to me. So this has been a long-standing personal passion project of mine.
00:26:34So when we talk about reproductive freedom, when we talk about reproductive justice, when we talk
00:26:38about women being able to have the right to make their own healthcare decisions, I held from the
00:26:43state where the evangelist of Trump's 2025 project is now the VP pick, J.D. Vance, right? And this is
00:26:52a person who believes in having a national abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest. We are
00:26:58the state where there was a 10-year-old child who was a rape victim who had to flee the state to get
00:27:04the care that she needed because abortion care is healthcare. And so we're also the state where a
00:27:11young woman, Brittany Watts, a woman of color, had a miscarriage in her bathroom, lost a child.
00:27:16And because when she was in her restroom, in her bathroom, on the toilet, and the body of the fetus
00:27:23was stuck, she was charged with misuse of a corpse, abuse of a corpse. Those charges were
00:27:30eventually dropped, but because people, that was only because people showed up in Ohio in November
00:27:38and in August for issue one both times. And this is the diabolical nature of the people that are
00:27:46putting forth this type of legislation. It is inhumane. It is insensitive. It is inconsiderate.
00:27:55It is dangerous. It is deadly in some cases. And so this is a serious component that is also in
00:28:03Trump's Project 2025, part of the thing that they want to institute if they get their hands on the
00:28:10levers of power during this 2024 election. And I think it's also important, if you'll allow me to
00:28:15circle back, we started talking about Project 2025, but this work, as my good sister, Representative
00:28:22Crockett talked about, started long before this. There was a Project 2017 that got no attention.
00:28:30And what they did is they implemented nearly 60 percent of those policies in 2017,
00:28:37and we're dealing with those ramifications right now. We can talk about 2016, when we were,
00:28:44many folks were unsure about what they were going to do, and so many people didn't even exercise
00:28:51their right to vote, Alfonso and Ebony. They thought, well, one candidate who was the most
00:28:56qualified candidate in our nation's history by the name of Secretary Clinton was on the ballot,
00:29:01but oh, but her emails. And then another guy who people thought, oh, he would never win. Well,
00:29:06because people stayed home, because people played games in this binary system and voted third party,
00:29:13we ended up with a Donald Trump presidency. And he was able to appoint not one, not two,
00:29:18but three Supreme Court justices who are overturning decades of precedent. Roe v. Wade
00:29:24was overturned on my birthday, June 24, 2022, worst president I ever received, so I'll never
00:29:31forget the day. And so these are the ramifications when we talk about that, that cliche, elections
00:29:37have consequences. This is the real life situation of elections having consequences. Because people
00:29:45didn't show up in 2016, those consequences didn't immediately hit us in 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 even.
00:29:53But we are feeling them now. June 24, 2022, Roe v. Wade was overturned, immediately followed by
00:30:00the overturning of affirmative action, the overturning of the Chevron case. And these
00:30:05are things that are outlined. It's not just a framework, Alfonso. It is a blueprint. It is a
00:30:11true roadmap of how they're going to really try to end democracy as we know it in this country.
00:30:19I mean, we heard Donald Trump say himself, if you vote this time, you'll never have to vote again.
00:30:25Now I don't know about y'all, but that is very, very concerning for me. And because I know that
00:30:34when it comes to power in this country, that whether you are black, white, rich, poor, gay,
00:30:41straight, Democrat, Republican, everybody gets one vote. So we need to make sure that we are
00:30:48taking this power back and that we are using it and that we're not being selfish in that,
00:30:53and that we're spreading the power and empowering young people, empowering our
00:30:58community to make sure that they understand the power that they hold, because this election is
00:31:03truly going to be the most consequential of our life. These people aren't playing games. One of
00:31:09the things that I respect is that they are relentless about their pursuit of power.
00:31:13We have to vote from the top of the ticket to the bottom, because every position matters in
00:31:19this game called politics. If we win the presidency, but we don't have a House or a Senate
00:31:25to support that presidency, then we're going to be in big trouble. So we have to make sure that
00:31:31we are crystal clear about what's at stake and what we need to do to preserve this fragile thing
00:31:37called democracy. It is not a guarantee. It is a gift, but it is not a guarantee.
00:31:44Church.
00:31:47I know we're not raising money, but can we pass the plate on that one a little bit?
00:31:53The doors are open.
00:31:54That was a word. That was a word. So I know we only have five more minutes or so with you both,
00:32:02and I think there are a few things that we want to get to. Ebony, maybe we can just shift to D&I.
00:32:09So everyone's heard about diversity, equity, and inclusion, which has become now a target
00:32:15by some who oppose it. This is a nonpartisan call, so we'll try to just focus on the facts.
00:32:24So for both of you, and I think I want you both to answer this question, how has the term
00:32:28diversity, equity, and inclusion been weaponized to fuel misinformation, and what impact does this
00:32:35have on genuine equity efforts that we're seeing, whether in corporate sector or in government?
00:32:43Yeah. So real quick, I'll say that basically they're using DEI as their new racial slur.
00:32:48I mean, I'm just saying it's the new N-word as far as I'm concerned. And what I need people
00:32:54to understand is that Chantel brought up the affirmative action decision, and part of kind
00:33:01of the catalyst for that has been this whole kind of anti-DEI movement that we've seen, where they
00:33:06are pulling money out of our institutions, whether it's the colleges or whether it's other governmental
00:33:12agencies. But more importantly, we got to bring it back to the economics, right? So they are trying
00:33:19to translate this into everything that they can. This is where we've seen the attacks on the
00:33:24Fearless Fund, when you have black women trying to raise capital for black women, and they're saying,
00:33:29no, you can't do that. Well, they ain't never told the white men that they couldn't do that.
00:33:33And that's the whole reason we've needed DEI, just to be clear. It's because there's not been space
00:33:39made for people other than white men in this country. And as has been pointed out recently,
00:33:45the facts are that white women have benefited more from affirmative action than anyone.
00:33:50And so what it's always supposed to be is a matter of, hey, look at me too. But as we can
00:33:57look at this election, and while I'm being nonpartisan in this moment, let me just point
00:34:02out the facts. The best way to explain how there has been a level of privilege in this country is
00:34:09to look and see that you've got an orange man on one side who literally was born with a silver
00:34:15spoon in his mouth, and somehow we have a race that is tied between him after his 34 felony
00:34:22convictions and a black woman who has never been to jail, who has been elected to multiple spots,
00:34:29from DA to attorney general to U.S. senator to vice president, and she is the one that they are
00:34:37alleging is unqualified because she is black and because she is a woman. That is how DEI has been
00:34:43weaponized in this country, when essentially it would just give her an opportunity to sit at the
00:34:50table. And right now we have a race that is tied. So that's my summary. So DEI, we're going to take
00:34:57it back, has definitely earned it. That's what I heard somebody say. So she has definitely earned
00:35:02it. And when we come to DEI, DEI is supposed to level the playing field when all things are equal,
00:35:10because they want to pretend like, again, as Jasmine said, you're lacking qualifications,
00:35:16and the only reason you're getting these opportunities is because of the skin color
00:35:20or your gender, which nothing could be further from the truth. When it comes to our vice president,
00:35:25she is far more qualified than Trump and JD Vance and many of those Republicans that are
00:35:34questioning her qualifications combined, okay? So if they put all of their little qualifications
00:35:40together, it wouldn't equal Vice President Harris's pinky finger, as far as I'm concerned.
00:35:45So these people are just, they're flamethrowers, they're gas lighters. This is something that they
00:35:53have been well-practiced in, and they have no relationship with the truth. This is what they do.
00:36:00So for me, I don't want us to run away from DEI, because I am DEI. I am diversity, equity,
00:36:06and inclusion all day. I fight for us to make sure that we are getting those needs. I fight
00:36:11for us to make sure that the playing field is leveled, and that is what DEI is all about.
00:36:16But the fact that they are underqualified and questioning the qualifications of the most
00:36:23qualified person in this country's history to run for president is laughable, and I'm
00:36:29gonna just leave it there. Thank you both for that. And now for the final question.
00:36:36You are both, of course, elected to Congress. You, Congresswoman Crockett, was elected in 2023,
00:36:41if I'm not mistaken, and you, Congresswoman Brown, in 2021. So where this town hall is about
00:36:48voter registration, it's about voter mobilization. What do you want to leave people with when they
00:36:54are saying, I'm not going to vote, or my vote doesn't matter, or this is all noise, or I don't
00:37:01understand all the key issues? What do you want to leave them with on this town hall?
00:37:07So, I'll jump in, I guess. For me, my very first, I would just tell people, my very first race that
00:37:15I ran was for city council. And when the polls closed, I was literally down by six votes,
00:37:23and I thought I lost that race. But for what's this thing called provisional ballots, which I
00:37:30call them just in case, so just in case you requested an absentee ballot, or just in case
00:37:35you moved and you didn't update your voter registration, or just in case you got married
00:37:40and didn't change your name, you will still get a provisional ballot and vote. But these votes
00:37:44aren't counted immediately, they're counted 11 days later. And in my race, there were 23 of them,
00:37:50and that shifted me being down from six votes to winning by seven. Now, as a child of faith,
00:37:59seven represents perfection, completion, and God. And while I was okay with the outcome,
00:38:05if I had lost, I was okay with that, but I trusted God's infinite wisdom. And winning by seven has
00:38:12been my moral compass, the guiding force, and really the foundation of how and what I do as
00:38:20it relates to this work. I got into this because I wanted to help people. And I knew that
00:38:29serving in a public office could help me help a lot of people at one time. I need people to know
00:38:39that we have a chance to make history. We are on the precipice of change in this country.
00:38:52And it is critical that we use this power called the vote. Because like I said previously,
00:38:59when it comes to power in this country, it doesn't matter your party affiliation, it doesn't matter
00:39:05whether you're Black or white, it doesn't matter your gender, from GED to PhD,
00:39:11everybody gets one vote. And people don't try to take things away from you that don't have value.
00:39:19They know that the vote is the way that we can truly make real change in this country.
00:39:28So I am just humbly, respectfully, but with bold expectations, pleading with people,
00:39:36do not sit these elections out, none of them, and make sure you vote in every election and every
00:39:44race, up and down the ticket. Because this is truly a way for you to exercise your power
00:39:52in this country. And if we don't do it, the threat is real that they will try to take it away.
00:39:59And with that goes away our freedoms, many of the freedoms that we are taking for granted.
00:40:05The freedom for us to decide how we take care of our bodies, when we decide to start a family,
00:40:13who and how we choose to love, that's all on the line. So you don't have to do it for me,
00:40:20do it for yourself and the future freedom and fight for this fragile thing called democracy,
00:40:26because again, it is not a guarantee.
00:40:31Yeah, so God bless Chantel for only being down by six. When I was running for the state house,
00:40:38I came up 700 votes down. So, you know, polls, polls, we have been voting for three weeks,
00:40:45we had tons of early voting because it was in the middle of the pandemic. And I had hustled,
00:40:51when I tell y'all I hustled, y'all don't understand, like, I've actually just started
00:40:55sharing this story about the fact that I went and registered people at the trap houses. I did,
00:41:00I did. Okay. A vote is a vote is a vote, you know what I'm saying? And I was like,
00:41:07I knew where I wanted to go with some of my legislation, because I understand that when
00:41:12you end up with drug convictions, that means that you don't have opportunities for education.
00:41:16That means your housing opportunities go away, your job opportunities, like I understood what
00:41:22sometimes cause people to kind of be in this cycle, where they feel like they can never get
00:41:27ahead because I had done criminal defense work. And so I was like, listen, I'm fighting for y'all,
00:41:32I need y'all to fight for me to get in there to fight for y'all. So I went everywhere. So
00:41:36anyway, I was down by 700 votes. So I told my team, yo, we didn't lost, we didn't lost,
00:41:40you know, we tried, but three weeks later, we, it's, you know, 700. Somehow, I ultimately won
00:41:46my race by 90 votes. So I tell everyone that every single vote counts. So we ended up being
00:41:53the tightest state house race in the entire state of Texas that year. And I went from barely getting
00:42:00there, one of the thank you lotties, then made it into the state house to then becoming only the
00:42:07fourth black woman ever elected to Congress from the state of Texas in the very next term. So what
00:42:12I want you to understand is that there is great talent that is out there that has a heart, but
00:42:17listen, they can't get anywhere if y'all don't do y'all research and decide that you're going to
00:42:22show up. And the reality is this, would you ever own a business and pay somebody every month or
00:42:32every week or however frequent you're going to pay them and never check in on them, never decide to
00:42:38play a role in their hiring or firing? You would not, but that's essentially what you do when you
00:42:44give up your vote, because listen, you have to pay taxes or they come in to get you, right?
00:42:49So if you're paying taxes, then why is it that you would not want to say so? And who's going to
00:42:55decide how your tax dollars are spent and where they're going to prioritize those dollars? Like
00:43:02elected officials run everything in your life, everything, whether it is the police that are on
00:43:10your streets, whether we're talking about whether or not you got good streets, whether you're
00:43:15talking about SNAP benefits, which both Chantel and I serve on the same two committees,
00:43:20oversight as well as agriculture, where right now we are fighting. It's never a sexy headline to put
00:43:26out there, but we don't have a farm bill because there are people on the other side of us that have
00:43:31decided, you know what, $6 a day for people to eat is just too much. We want to cut $30 billion
00:43:37when people are already struggling. Like you should know this stuff and you have access to
00:43:43this information because y'all got the internet. When we had the likes of a John Lewis that
00:43:48literally did not know if he was going to live or not, guess what? He didn't have access to that
00:43:53information. So I'm just imploring y'all to say, this ain't about Chantel. It ain't about Jasmine.
00:43:58And frankly, it's not about Kamala Harris. I need y'all to be selfish and say, this is about me and
00:44:03mine. And so what that demands of me is that I'm going to show up and make a decision about which
00:44:10direction my life is going to go in, whether I'm going back or whether I'm going forward.
00:44:15And I'm telling y'all right now, I'm trying to go forward. So that's it.
00:44:19Okay. So we have two sermons. Ebony, do you have any last words?
00:44:26Three seconds. I just really want to end. First, let me just say, thank you. Thank you, ladies.
00:44:30Thank you for the work that you've done. Thank you for the ground that you are laying. I just
00:44:33want to end by just even quoting Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, who said that voting is not
00:44:40just our right, it is our power. And people need to realize that.
00:44:44It really is.
00:44:46Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Congresswoman Crockett, Congresswoman Brown. Thank you for
00:44:50your time. Thank you for your advocacy on issues that directly impact Black and Brown people.
00:44:55Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
00:44:56Thanks for having us.
00:44:58Thank you. And now before we go to our next set of guests,
00:45:02I want to give a special shout out to the one and only D. Nice for starting this town hall off
00:45:09with a bang. You all know him from Club Quarantine, and he showed out again tonight. D. Nice,
00:45:14thank you for all of your support. Every single time we ask you, you show up. And I want to just
00:45:19say thank you for all of the work that you do and all of the support you continue to give us.
00:45:26And now we turn to a specific demographic group, young voters.
00:45:30Mm hmm.
00:45:31Every election, we hear that young people have such an impact
00:45:34in national, state, and local races, and this year promises to be no different.
00:45:39We are joined tonight by two leaders running brands that speak specifically to young people.
00:45:44Rochelle Dennis is the head of Girls United, which is a global destination for young multicultural
00:45:50individuals to find the community, mentors, perspectives, tools, resources, and opportunity
00:45:56to thrive. We're also joined by Sophia Dennis, who is a Gen Z voting rights advocate and an
00:46:02entrepreneur. Hello, everybody. It's a pleasure to be here. As Alfonso has mentioned, we will
00:46:10really be getting into the topic of how young voters can really mobilize in this election
00:46:16to really speak to issues. So without further ado, I would like to introduce everybody to a
00:46:22very special guest that we have, and that will be Lene Benit. How are you?
00:46:30Hey, everybody. How's it going? It's been a long day, but I'm good.
00:46:33A long day it has been, but we're excited to have you here and excited to really get into it.
00:46:40So with that being said, just wanted to really just understand you being from Spelman and going
00:46:47to Spelman and also Boston University, what has it been like being in the field that you're in
00:46:57and really mobilizing young voters to vote? I got my first degree in psychology from Spelman
00:47:07College, and there you learn that kids have the opportunity or young people have the opportunity
00:47:11to glean a lot from the environment around them, and they're really perceptible and absorb things
00:47:17like a sponge, and so it has not been difficult communicating with young people. I think 2020
00:47:22brought us a lot of heartache, but it also brought us a catalyst for people to really be engaged and
00:47:26interested in the discourse surrounding Black people's rights and opportunity and the way we
00:47:31engage politically. So the ground has been set, and this election season is no different. There
00:47:38is air that keeps fanning the flames of young people getting ignited, wanting to be out there,
00:47:44wanting to be involved. So it's been very interesting to see a lot of young people take
00:47:48the lead. A lot of young people have voices larger than mine. I think I get coined as a
00:47:53voice that can speak directly to Gen Z. I'm a millennial, so I just try my best to make things
00:47:58as down-to-earth as I possibly can to bring everybody to the table, but young people are
00:48:02really out here radicalized in a way that I never expected to see, and I kind of bring up an example
00:48:08quite often. When I was a high school teacher, my kids used to ask me did I ever think there
00:48:12could be another civil rights movement, and I would tell them no. I would tell them that I think
00:48:16that as a community we are too individualized, we are too siloed and separated to understand
00:48:22one another's needs enough to come to the table, but I never expected to see anything like what
00:48:27I'm seeing right now. So my hat goes off to young people, and I'm just grateful to be in community
00:48:31with young people and learning from them as well in this work because I have degrees in psychology
00:48:36and African-American studies, and if you had asked me when I started this in 2020, I would not have
00:48:41assumed I'd be anywhere near politics, but that's kind of the last thing I'll say to answer this
00:48:45question. It is my love for Black history and my deep study of it that revealed to me that Black
00:48:52history does not exist without Black political action. Every single thing that we've done from
00:48:56the agency of enslaved people to outright televised revolutions and movements have
00:49:03all been political acts, so yeah, it only makes sense that we're here.
00:49:07That's wonderful. So I think based on the previous conversation, which was incredibly insightful,
00:49:12we can really think about voting not only as a part of civic engagement, but also almost as
00:49:18though it is a civic duty, also a right that was fought for by so many of the people who came before
00:49:24us. So when we're discussing Gen Z and the importance of the youth in the Gen Z vote,
00:49:30what are some of the things that you've learned about how Gen Z engages politically and how
00:49:36you've been able to encourage certain people who have had questions about interacting politically,
00:49:42how to become politically active, how to find their political identity, and to just really
00:49:47forge their path as a political person looking to engage? Yeah, so the internet,
00:49:57point blank and simple, and apps, and I'm sorry, social media apps is really how young people are
00:50:02engaging. Interestingly enough, when we found out that Joe Biden would be stepping down and
00:50:09Kamala Harris would be taking the endorsement, or was getting the endorsement, rather, that week,
00:50:14I saw so many young people, and interestingly enough as well, young white people hosting lives
00:50:19incessantly. I could be on, I get on TikTok maybe once or twice a day, but throughout the week,
00:50:24I would see the same young people creators online doing a lot of the work to sort of argue folks
00:50:28down. So young people are arming themselves with information to be able to come into public spaces
00:50:33where a lot of rhetoric is spewed to share the facts. I think young people are really interested
00:50:38in engaging in this combat against misinformation in a real way. So I'm really interested to see
00:50:47the way that this morphs and flows, but what I'm also seeing is a lot of organizations wanting to
00:50:53provide resources to meet that enthusiasm of young people. So I've been blessed to engage with this
00:51:00organization called Fair Fight, consulting on how they should be connecting with communities
00:51:05on social media, and they're providing a lot of resources, not just to myself, but just to the
00:51:09general public, and they enlighten me on quite a few ways people can get involved with voting, and
00:51:15I think they're really important, and again, I think we have such enthusiasm. I keep using that
00:51:19word because we just haven't had motivation like this in a long time, like people from your
00:51:24grandmas, your aunties, down to the very young people wanting to have a voice in how we are voicing,
00:51:30wanting to have a voice in how we are voicing our concerns for this election. So I wanted to
00:51:35just kind of go through a couple of what those things were. I think when people think about
00:51:39volunteering around election, they think about going door-to-door to knock and get people to
00:51:43register to vote. You can absolutely do that, but something that was completely new to me was the
00:51:47whole idea of voter protection opportunities and volunteer roles, and so you have things like poll
00:51:54watchers, and these are people who are making sure that processes are being done as they need to be
00:52:02done, that there's no funny business, and after the last election that we have, we need people
00:52:06in those rooms to be doing those things, and you can be partisan or nonpartisan. It does not matter
00:52:11your affiliation, and really for all of these, it doesn't matter your affiliation. It just gives you
00:52:15an opportunity to be in the room. Before I go down the rest of the list, I just think that's
00:52:19the most important thing for us to consider here. The online space is a great space for discourse.
00:52:25We need to be in rooms where people making decisions can hear those voices and feel that
00:52:30sort of tension, feel that sort of pressure in ways. I'm a huge advocate. I won't say too much,
00:52:35but I don't want to see us give any more of our bodies or our blood. We can vote. We can use the
00:52:41power of our vote to make moves and make ways, and we've yet to use the full extent of our vote,
00:52:45so I need us in the rooms to actually apply that sort of pressure in legal ways, and there are so
00:52:50many legal ways to apply that pressure that we've not gotten into because we are angry, and there's
00:52:55nothing wrong with us being angry, but what I see is an amazing opportunity. A congresswoman in the
00:53:00last segment said that we are in a historical moment, and it's not just because we have the
00:53:04potential to elect the first Black woman president. It's because we as a nation have created or
00:53:10engaged in this nexus event to literally take the social contract theory back,
00:53:16and I know it's supposed to be going down the list, but I'm...
00:53:20You're definitely getting into it, and what you've really talked about has been social
00:53:25media and really utilizing that to our advantage so that we're not putting our
00:53:30bodies on the line anymore. Can you give a little bit of context into how your series,
00:53:36Parking Lot Pimpin', really came about, and how that has been a response or has been
00:53:44spread across social media to really inform people?
00:53:48Yeah. I think, like I said, I saw a desire and a need for the content and people actually wanting
00:53:54to hear more. When I was that high school teacher, I would teach upperclassmen, 11th and 12th graders,
00:54:00and so I had kids come into my classroom every semester just thinking they were going to take
00:54:04a freebie class because they thought they knew everything there was to possibly know about Black
00:54:09history because they'd been taught the same things over and over and over again through their 12
00:54:14years of education. And so in this moment where we're also getting the opportunity to legitimize
00:54:19and formalize African American history in schools, we're also seeing that being attacked.
00:54:24So anyway, back to where I started, I actually went on a Juneteenth march with some organizations
00:54:31in my community, and that moment that I thought that I would never see, that I was telling my
00:54:35kids I don't think it's possible, I felt downtown Atlanta, marching to the Capitol, and not just my
00:54:41organization was out that day, but so many hundreds of thousands of people were coating the streets
00:54:46and having an amazing time, and so many different people of so many different colors. And you had
00:54:51folks with signs talking about or referencing cultural connection points and movements for
00:54:56freedom and organizations between Black and Latinos, Black and Asians, Black and white folk,
00:55:03had people making sandwiches, this was COVID times, you had people with medic packs and masks and
00:55:06people wearing gloves and being mindful. And so anyway, I went and sat in my parking lot because
00:55:11I felt like everything I prepared myself for, all the Black history Bs and going to get that MA
00:55:16that nobody told me I was going to be able to use outside of being a professor,
00:55:20I wanted to share that with the world in a way that was fun, in a way that met that sort of
00:55:25desire with something that didn't feel like it was stuffing it down their throat. And it
00:55:30wasn't just me, I actually remember when I was getting started figuring out how I wanted to do
00:55:34mine, I was inspired by people like Consciously. I would see folks like, I ain't gonna name a bunch
00:55:39of names, but I saw a bunch of creators on the internet. And whether I fully agreed with their
00:55:45perspectives or their approaches or not, I found space for myself in that and connected directly
00:55:51with the community that was looking to hear those things. So that's how I got started. And that's
00:55:55how it stuck, but people wanted it and they wanted to share it.
00:55:59That's amazing. So I think you've discussed how you've been able to build up quite a bit of a
00:56:05social media following and to get young people engaged in the content that you produce, and to
00:56:11really be able to create a message behind the content that you've produced. You were going
00:56:17through a list of different ways that people can become involved in the political process that are
00:56:23just not the typical way that you would think about it. So earlier this week, I watched a video
00:56:27of yours where you were discussing this, where you were talking about ways that people can become
00:56:31involved in the political process. And I'm gonna let you go down that list, but I just want to
00:56:36call out that this is something that can be super useful to people who may not be able to vote.
00:56:42Whether that be for whatever reason that is, maybe you're not old enough to vote yet,
00:56:46maybe you have some sort of other reason that you're not able to vote. But just letting you
00:56:51know that there are so many ways for people to be involved in the political process, even if you are
00:56:57not able to vote in this election. So whether you're not 18 yet, and you really want to be
00:57:03involved in the political process because you will become an adult under this political term,
00:57:09or you're not a citizen, whatever the case may be, what Linnea is about to describe are different ways
00:57:14that you can become involved in this process. And for the people who are voting, these are ways that
00:57:18you can become even more involved and learn a lot more about the political process. So yeah,
00:57:23I would love for you to continue to discuss some of the ways that people can become more involved.
00:57:29Okay, great. So we already went over a poll watcher, and I told you these are people who
00:57:33are making sure the process of voting from the folks who are tasked with taking your identification
00:57:39and giving you your ballot and all the things, they're making sure all of these things are done
00:57:44by the book, that there's no funny business happening. You also have poll observers who
00:57:49are folks who are making sure people who are engaging in the voting process, how close they
00:57:55are to one another, making sure that they are doing what they are supposed to do as far as
00:57:58protecting the privacy of every voter. You got hotline volunteers, and these people are really
00:58:03important for community, especially because all of us have so many questions around voting. So
00:58:08hotline volunteers are based and provided for community to be able to call in and ask questions
00:58:17about where their precinct is, the hours you have to vote, the earliest that you can vote,
00:58:21maybe some rules around what you can and cannot bring to the voting precinct, and just some things
00:58:26that you should be aware of. Story collection, which I think a lot of young people would be
00:58:30interested in. Story collection just involves talking to people about their experience with
00:58:35voting. And I want to be clear that nothing that anyone on this entire call today is offering,
00:58:44nothing we're offering you is perfect. Nothing we're offering you is scot-free or the epitome
00:58:49of democracy. We're here fighting for it. We're here fighting for the opportunity to make it
00:58:53something all of us feel good about engaging in. So story collection allows for us to record
00:58:59critiques. It allows us to see what community wants from the voting process. And I feel like
00:59:04a lot of folks, young people with their phones in their hands, we could do this anyway. It would be
00:59:08an amazing thing to see us trading stories like this. But it's important to be connected to
00:59:13community organizations that have networks and are platforming those networks to make that
00:59:18information accessible to people who do not have social media. And I know you think that everybody
00:59:23has it, but everybody doesn't. And this information is so important for people who need to get it or
00:59:28access it off of the phones, off of the timeline. Maybe their algorithm just might not show them
00:59:32something that is super important for their ears to hear. So story collection, I think, is a very
00:59:36beautiful way to volunteer and I think directly connects with younger audiences and how they want
00:59:41to be engaged. But here are two things that I think we need to engage in in droves. As I said on my
00:59:48video last week, whenever I did it, board of election volunteers and state election board
00:59:55volunteers. In order to volunteer, what your job description would be is to go attend these
01:00:03meetings. You can see what their agendas are online the night before. You can, and I'm reading
01:00:10to make sure that I'm not saying anything incorrectly, but you can basically register
01:00:15to make public comment and go into these rooms and discuss the benefits of certain goings on for
01:00:23certain voters and then the cons of certain goings on for voters. And what I mean by that is
01:00:28these board of elections are the people who get to make decisions about, they can't drink water
01:00:34in line, they can't do this, that, and the other, they can't sit in a chair. So a lot of these things are
01:00:40also being, a lot of this is voter suppression under the covert nature of policy, the covert
01:00:46umbrella of policy. And by going to these meetings, you can suss out exactly what's being done
01:00:51to try to circumvent your community from having an active voice in voting, and you can
01:00:56take it back home, you can take it back to your neighborhoods, you can take it to the trap houses,
01:01:00like Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett was just talking about. I've been seeing this amazing
01:01:04pastor, Pastor Redonis Bryan here in Atlanta, going and talking to people who look exactly
01:01:10like him. And granted, he's a pastor, so he's ministering, but he's doing the type of work that
01:01:14I need to see all of us doing, and that's engaging people you don't think would engage, because every
01:01:18single vote counts. So by going to these meetings, you get all the tools that you need. You can also
01:01:23share this, like I said, with the organizations that have platform, like Fair Fight, to be able
01:01:26to make this information widely accessible to folks. But these are some of the biggest
01:01:31rooms to be in. So I definitely suggest board election volunteering and state election board
01:01:35volunteering, and being what's called a pro-voter voice. And then the last thing is a poll worker.
01:01:40These are the people who actually sign up to staff the polls. But yeah, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot.
01:01:46I just went through the list, Fair Fight Action. And I'm sorry, Fair Fight as well as Let's Freaking
01:01:52Go Volunteer has all this information on their site, and you can assign it by state. So yeah,
01:01:58for sure. But as an Atlantan who knows what it's like for my voting rights to be decided
01:02:04upon behind closed doors, yeah, scared, shaking, not really trying to engage.
01:02:12I'm so excited to learn about opportunities like this, because it lets me know that I don't just
01:02:18have to sit with my hands, sitting on my hands. And that's one of the biggest, most important
01:02:22things. If you do not vote, I understand, again, none of this is perfect. None of these,
01:02:29in a nonpartisan way of speaking, none of these candidates are exactly perfectly what we want,
01:02:35what everyone wants. You cannot make everybody happy. But if we do not vote, we cannot be engaged.
01:02:40And I'm not just asking you to vote for primary. I'm asking you to vote down ballot. So again,
01:02:45we can get the House, we can get the Senate. I'm also asking you to vote in your local elections,
01:02:49down to the sheriff, down to the councilwoman and all the things. Yeah.
01:02:56Yeah. And it's an important habit to pick up. If you start voting at a young age,
01:03:01you tend to continue to vote as you get older. So it's good to start voting
01:03:05as soon as you can, so that you can continue to stay civically engaged.
01:03:11Yeah. And, you know, there's a lot of issues at stake. And some of the issues that, you know,
01:03:18we're seeing Gen Z really, you know, really take up and really coming to the polls concerned about
01:03:25is, you know, cost of living, gun reform, job wages, racism, and student debt. You know,
01:03:32all reflective of these past couple of years, you know, that we've had, and it just shows how
01:03:37much is really at stake, especially, you know, with the attacks on DEI, you know,
01:03:43on affirmative action, you know, and times are really scary. You know, people are,
01:03:48what we're really categorizing this election as is, it's an attack on democracy. And so,
01:03:54you know, Gen Z, this is what the future looks like for us. So there's a lot of concern there.
01:04:02You know, there's not an understanding of what that future will look like. And,
01:04:06you know, the fact that we have an active role to play in making sure that we are ensuring our
01:04:12future is important. So, you know, everything that you've mapped out is super important. So,
01:04:17you know, what are ways that, like, even people that can't vote, right, people that are,
01:04:22you know, not eligible to vote, what can they do? What can they, you know, what can they also bring
01:04:29to the table as well? I think, so a lot of things that I just mentioned, you can engage in whether
01:04:36you can register to vote or not. And I think it's important that you still do that. I think
01:04:39it's important that you still remain in the conversation. And one of the biggest gaps that
01:04:44I'm seeing is the chasm between the rhetoric that is being spewed within community online
01:04:55and what we do when we go to the polls. So even if you can't vote, something that I'm
01:05:00encouraging a lot of people to do is recognize that a lot of rhetoric that we are falling victim
01:05:05to and vulnerable to that is anti-community is actually preventing us from moving forward in a
01:05:10strategic and unified way. I'm doing my best to develop opportunity and programming to go into
01:05:16community and have these conversations like focus groups with Black men, women, queer folk, they,
01:05:21them, young, old, to talk about what we need to see from one another to feel protected.
01:05:25And I feel like that is, like, step one. That's step one. And we're trying to do both at the same
01:05:30time because unfortunately we're in a game of catch up. But if you cannot vote, and for whatever
01:05:35reason you cannot vote, and I'm specifically thinking about maybe offenders who have had their
01:05:39right to vote taken away, being in community with people who are actively engaged in voting
01:05:44helps them to continue to remember to think of you. We're only going to move forward if we're
01:05:49in community. And so, yes, it is on us to make sure that we are aware of our community's needs,
01:05:54but we have to sit at the table together in order for everyone's needs to be
01:05:57on the white board.
01:05:59Yes.
01:06:01Yeah.
01:06:03Yeah. Having the conversations, building community, being aware of what other community members are in
01:06:09need of, what their concerns may be, how, you know, things that Rochelle just listed out may impact
01:06:15them differently, and how, you know, all of us can exercise our vote to be as beneficial as possible.
01:06:25Mm-hmm.
01:06:27Is, you know, is I think all we can do and all we can hope for. We are so happy that we were able
01:06:36to have you, Linnea. Anything else that you would like to share with the audience?
01:06:44You, it sounds cliche, and I feel like unfortunately we've said a lot of these things without the sort
01:06:51of organization and activation necessary to really see them through, to make them real.
01:06:58But you cannot have a voice if you do not vote. You simply cannot. I hate to say it. I hope it
01:07:03don't sound ridiculous. I wish there was more that you could, there is more that you can do,
01:07:07and we've sort of named so many things surrounding voting, but that is the key to, as I said earlier,
01:07:14us taking the social contract theory back. Our government was designed to protect the people,
01:07:17was designed to protect the people, and in return the people were supposed to empower
01:07:21the government. And we've seen over and over again in Council's time, whether in our states
01:07:25or whether in this country, nationally, we have asked for things from our government that we have
01:07:30not received. We have been ignored blatantly. And so we have to engage even further to push back.
01:07:39Yeah. And what a great way to end, and great way to end, you know, everything that you're saying.
01:07:46We've got to get to the polls and do what we need to do. I do want to encourage the audience
01:07:52also to submit their questions, and we will be answering them very shortly.
01:07:57Linnea, thank you so much for being on with us. This has been absolutely amazing, and we're really
01:08:06excited to see the youth really get to the polls and vote. So thank you for everything that you're
01:08:11doing, and we will toss it back to our host, Alfonso. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank
01:08:18you. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining us, Linnea. We know that many people are joining us
01:08:24on many different channels and platforms, from YouTube to X to StreamYard. So for folks who may
01:08:29have joined us late, you just heard from Linnea Ben-Yi, who is a poet, an artist, a voting rights
01:08:34advocate, and a social media guru, and is really known for her IG series, Parking Lot Pimpin'.
01:08:41Linnea, thank you so much for joining us and all of the work that you do. Rochelle and Sophia,
01:08:45thank you for moderating this important conversation. I will now turn it over to my
01:08:50co-host, Ebony. Thank you so much for that, and thank you, ladies, for such an empowering session.
01:08:57I want to say this because many times when we have this conversation, and I want people to
01:09:02understand that literally sometimes while you are sleeping, there's legislation being passed about
01:09:07you and your community. Even today, the Georgia Secretary of State made the decision to provide
01:09:15individual citizens with the ability to cancel any other individual's voter registration digitally.
01:09:21This is a threat to democracy, to voter participation. These things are happening
01:09:27in real time. Thirteen states where governors are opting out of food programs for kids,
01:09:32I'm not telling you who to vote for, but I'm telling you that you need to vote. I'm so excited
01:09:38for our next panel discussion, two brilliant Black men. Every election cycle, we hear about Black men
01:09:47and voting. There are stories about voting patterns and trends that are often misaligned
01:09:54with reality. Check the sources, people. We have two commentators who are on the front lines of
01:10:01election work and voting to discuss that further with us today. First, Bakari Sellers, who is a
01:10:08political commentator on CNN. You see him all the time. Former member of the South Carolina House
01:10:14of Representatives and the author of The Moment. He's joined by Van Lathan, who is the co-host of
01:10:21The Ringer's Higher Learning Podcast and is best known as a former co-host and senior producer on
01:10:28TMZ Live, which I always say, he's always ready to check somebody in real time. He is also the
01:10:34executive producer for Two Distant Strangers, the 2021 Academy Award winner for Best Live Action
01:10:42Short Film. Please welcome these gentlemen. What's up, man? What's up, brother? How you
01:10:50doing, man? How are you feeling out there right now? Well, I'm on vacation and y'all got me doing
01:10:55this, so I was trying to spend a little time with the family, but things kind of went different
01:11:02a couple Sundays ago, but I'm happy to be here anytime that essence calls, anytime that I get
01:11:09a chance, an opportunity to spend some time. And they told me who was moderating it, so I
01:11:13couldn't say no. I mean, they said Rachel Lindsay was busy, and so here we are. She always is.
01:11:20Let me ask you this. The narrative around Black men, our votes, our apathy to vote, our
01:11:31willingness to vote for the other side, how accurate do you feel that to be as it seems to
01:11:37come back every single election cycle? No, it's false. I mean, it's objectively false because the
01:11:42second largest voting group for the Democratic Party in this country behind Black women have
01:11:48been Black men. And when you look at the statistics, you'll see that Black men actually
01:11:53turn out to be a disproportionate share of the elected, compared to their peers. And so
01:11:59that's objectively false. And I've said this to you. You've heard our good friend,
01:12:03Charlamagne, talk about it. You've heard many other people talk about it and kind of steal my
01:12:08line, but I love it. But the simple truth is that this election has always been between,
01:12:14at the time it was Biden-Trump in the couch, but now it's Harris-Trump in the couch.
01:12:19And still to this day, I mean, Kamala Harris' biggest threat is not Donald Trump. Kamala
01:12:25Harris' biggest threat is the couch and people electing to stay at home. I think that's going
01:12:30to change now with the energy that you see, but that still is nonetheless a threat.
01:12:37And the excitement for Kamala Harris, since she's been announced as the top of the ticket,
01:12:46have you seen and felt a noticeable shift? And I guess the question is, why? Why do you think
01:12:53that shift has been so distinct if you've seen one, when she essentially represents the same
01:12:59administration and the same record of that administration that's been turning America
01:13:05around for the last four years, three and a half years? Why do you think so many people
01:13:09are into Kamala at the top of the ticket right now? It's a simple fact that a lot of people don't
01:13:14know, but I'm going to spring this on you because I just found out about it. In 2016 and 2020,
01:13:23there were a total of 93 million different individuals, 93 million different human
01:13:31beings, that cast a vote against Donald Trump. A lot of that energy was pent up. A lot of that
01:13:38want to change is pent up. And let's be honest, it's a fresher face on the scene. It's somebody
01:13:44new. It's, you know, she ran in the primary and did not do well, but primaries are for people who
01:13:49have tuned in. You know, usually you have 14 million people decide who is a nominee for a
01:13:54particular candidate. At the end of the day, 160 million people vote for the president of the
01:13:59United States. And so it's a very, less than 10% of the electorate chooses a particular party
01:14:04as a nominee. And so what we're looking at now is just this pent up want to participate.
01:14:13You're also seeing something that's amazing. In September of 2016, Hillary Clinton raised $150
01:14:20million. Kamala Harris raised $200 million in eight days. Something is happening in the world,
01:14:28and we should see if that's going to be enough to change the trajectory of where we end up.
01:14:35I'm from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which I have to say every single moment of every single day,
01:14:41remind people that my city exists. And I was talking to some people from the NAACP a couple
01:14:47of days ago, and they were telling me about voter turnout down there in Baton Rouge. And they said
01:14:51the numbers were around 17%. Now, when you say the number, I was blown away. But intellectually,
01:15:03if you did ask me, I probably could have conjectured that the number was somewhere near
01:15:07that. In a city like Baton Rouge, that's around 54% Black, population wise. What is it about civic
01:15:17engagement that we haven't learned? Why is it that it seems like sometimes in a place like that,
01:15:24where the power really, really, really can be taken, that we're not mobilizing to get
01:15:29out there and vote and take that power for ourselves? That's a good question. That's
01:15:34probably one I would prefer to hear you and Gary Chambers have a one-on-one dialogue with Ted James
01:15:41and try to figure that out. My conjecture or hypothesis would be that over the past decades,
01:15:51Louisiana has made it more difficult for people of color and poor people to vote.
01:15:57Also, the caliber of candidates that are running for office in terms of meeting voters where they
01:16:02are and giving them something to vote for, instead of something to vote against, has been
01:16:07a unique problem and leaves something to be desired. I would probably say, last but not least,
01:16:17there is a palpable sense of exhaustion felt by Black people from Baton Rouge to
01:16:23South Carolina, where I'm from, to L.A., where you rich folk, I think you probably lay your head out
01:16:29there in L.A. a little bit more. I don't know if I can tell you from Baton Rouge, but you take
01:16:34pictures under the Hollywood sign. Anyway, I digress. I would say that there is a certain
01:16:42level of exhaustion amongst Black folk throughout. I think it's the combination of the three things,
01:16:46the opposite, the lack of quality candidates and also that level of exhaustion.
01:16:54I asked a question specifically about my hometown, but I meant it in a broader way.
01:16:58And you answered with some observations about the pitfalls or the challenges to voting for Black
01:17:08people that I think would probably—those challenges probably exist throughout communities
01:17:14all over the country. How do we turn people out? How do we get people to exercise such
01:17:21an important American right and power and privilege to change their lives, to vote for
01:17:26DAs, to vote for sheriffs, to vote for comptrollers, to vote for people who have
01:17:30direct power over aspects of their life? How do we get people back engaged?
01:17:37I think it's very simple. I think you have to give people a reason to do it.
01:17:42And the reason—it's not enough to say people died and fought for it, because
01:17:48it's kind of like how we spent six, seven, eight months talking about a threat to democracy. It's
01:17:52not breaking through. Sometimes you have to shift messages, messengers, too.
01:18:00And so my first point would be that we have to give people something to vote for. One of the
01:18:06things that's unique about KDH is that she is going to areas of the country, meeting voters
01:18:14where they are, and not dealing in who Donald Trump is, but she's actually articulating a plan
01:18:19and laying out a plan of why you should vote for her. And that's just unique in this time frame,
01:18:24because we always want to paint our opponent as something other than a child of God, and we want
01:18:30to bring him down to a certain level and not her down to a certain level, instead of actually
01:18:36dealing with what you can provide the constituency for which you're running. So that's first.
01:18:42The second thing is we have to meet voters where they are. And I've said that once,
01:18:46and I'll probably repeat it two or three more times. Black folk who reach or attain a certain
01:18:52level of accolade, people who reach a certain level of wealth, a lot of my friends on the left,
01:18:59forget that you don't, it's not fair to assume people should come to you to hear the message.
01:19:07Sometimes it's necessary for you to shut up and go to them and listen to their hope.
01:19:16Got a couple of questions coming in. One question was, can you vote by email?
01:19:23No. Is that possible?
01:19:24No. No. And thank God it's not. That's one of the more unsafe matters in which you probably
01:19:30could vote by email, but you can vote by mail, not email, but mail, particularly in Pennsylvania.
01:19:37Anybody on the call that's from Pennsylvania, please fill out and do everything you can to
01:19:40show up and vote. And you can vote early, and you can vote at your local office. For those of us
01:19:45who'd be traveling on election day, it's important that we go out and do the things necessary.
01:19:51Check in with your local voter registration office and figure out how you can vote.
01:20:00Let me ask you this. Every single election, particularly at the top of the ticket,
01:20:06people ask us, people say to us that this is the most important election of our lifetimes.
01:20:11Yeah. Yeah.
01:20:12It's been repeated so many different times that it's kind of lost its luster.
01:20:17Is this the most important election of our lifetimes right now? And if so, why?
01:20:23That's a really, really good question, Brandon. The answer is yes. And the problem is that I've
01:20:27probably echoed that before. And yeah, the answer is yes. There is a distinct difference between the
01:20:37future of McConnell and Harris and the future of Donald Trump. There is a distinct difference
01:20:43between Project 2025 and making sure that women can decide what they want to do with their bodies,
01:20:50making that decision with their family and their doctors. In Project 2025, they actually talk about
01:20:58eliminating the school lunch program. They talk about eliminating veterans' benefits.
01:21:05Literally starving children.
01:21:07Yeah. They talk about a nationwide ban on abortion, ending no-fault divorce,
01:21:13because they believe women should stay in relationships regardless, and not only just
01:21:18stay in relationships, but stay in the kitchen. And now you have an effective messenger on what
01:21:25the future looks like. And so, as I told the vice president, if she's acknowledged
01:21:33and is actually executing, because, of course, it just makes perfect sense. You don't have to
01:21:39lean into the identity of who you are. People can see it. You don't have to lean into the identity
01:21:44of being the first. People can see it. But you can talk to those folks who don't key in every
01:21:54single day of the week like we do, the social media or the news. And you need to be able to
01:21:58tell them things like, I'm not going to raise taxes on people who make under $400,000. I'm
01:22:03going to lower costs by going after price dodges. I'm going to sign the toughest immigration bill
01:22:14that Donald Trump stifled and made stop. All of those things matter,
01:22:24and those are the things that she articulated.
01:22:29I want to talk about the actual peril of the election, meaning how important is the turnout
01:22:40for people to get out there and vote based upon the fact that this vote will be heavily contested
01:22:50if, in fact, Donald Trump loses? How important is it for people to get to the polls,
01:22:57because if Donald Trump himself doesn't win, he is going to claim all kinds of
01:23:03witchcraft and chicanery and things like that? No, you're right. And I would argue that
01:23:11those things will take care of themselves. I want everybody not to worry about what
01:23:15happens when you round third. Let's get on first base first. I would encourage people
01:23:21just to show up and show out, or in the words of the great American poet Kendrick Lamar, pop out,
01:23:28vote. Those things, that's more necessary than worrying, because he lost every single
01:23:35challenge he had last time. So I'm quite confident in that. Last question for you,
01:23:41because I know you're out there with Forrest Gump and y'all got to go catch some shrimp.
01:23:46You ain't seen my boat. Hold on. I don't know how you can turn it around,
01:23:51but I'm sitting next to the boat. This is your boat right here?
01:23:54Man, no, I just got done paying student loans.
01:24:00But I'm outside the seafood restaurant, because we down here in South Carolina,
01:24:04where they go catch it for you right here on the side. So this is the boat they go catch.
01:24:07That's what I'm talking about. I'm going to ask you this question until I see the answer change.
01:24:15And we talk about Charlamagne. I ask Charlamagne this every time we see you on TV,
01:24:21we sit around and we have a conversation about how much you get on our nerves.
01:24:26When will Bakari Sellers' name be on a ballot again? Or have you found a different way
01:24:36to reach people and affect change that you don't feel like your name has to be on the ballot?
01:24:45I think both of those answers are true. And I'll be 100% honest with you as well. I feel like I'm
01:24:50in a group chat with you just chatting, but, you know, if Jim Clyburn were to resign today,
01:24:56I would like to return to his seat. And I think that would be decently successful.
01:25:01But the longer that takes, the less likely I am to run because I enjoy it. I am on a platform
01:25:08that is decent and we have the relationships that every United States Congressman and I have.
01:25:15Van, I'll ask you this. What job do you choose where you consciously go work with people you
01:25:21dislike? Like, why do I want to go work in that gig? I don't know why. And then why would I
01:25:31why would I take a pay cut to go work with them, right? But I don't know. I want to be
01:25:38a part of the change I want to see in the world. And so I never say never. And I am really,
01:25:44really in tune to family and letting God know what are my steps. At the end of the day,
01:25:49I've been in some bad spots and I've been in some weird predicaments and I've been left when I
01:25:55should have been right. I've been upside down. I should have been straight up.
01:26:01But he gets me through and through. And so I'm just going to listen to him.
01:26:05Hopefully the words in my mouth and the meditation in my heart will be acceptable.
01:26:10Good answer. Well, my brother, it is always good to talk to you, particularly about something that
01:26:16is so important. And you guys, there's nothing more important than exercising your power as
01:26:21an American, getting out there and voting. Thank you to Essence for providing this platform for us
01:26:28to have this conversation here in the Paint the Poles Black Town Hall. Thank you to Bakari. Brother,
01:26:33we really appreciate you joining us while you're out there running from the police with your beard
01:26:42and everything. You look like you're on the lam. I'm just going to be honest. No, I am channeling
01:26:47my inner young Teddy Kennedy. Right. We appreciate you joining us, man. Thank you, Bakari. We hope
01:26:53that this inspires everybody to get out there and vote because once again, it is the most important
01:27:00election of your lifetime and you're going to be framing and creating your very near and distant
01:27:08future with your vote. So we hope that you guys will get out there and do that. I'm Van Lathan.
01:27:12Thank you, Essence. Van Lathan, thank you so much for moderating that conversation. Bakari,
01:27:18thank you for joining us on vacation. Thank you for all of your advocacy. And now as we come to
01:27:25a close, we're going to answer some questions of some key areas or issues that we have heard about.
01:27:33We're going to be joined again by Emily McMorris and Sophia Dennis and Rochelle Dennis. So let's
01:27:40talk about the first issue that I think many people are confused about is identification.
01:27:45Okay, I'm registered to vote and I'm going to go out and vote in November. Do I have to take my
01:27:50photo ID with me? What do we think the answer is? And this will be a multiple choice. Yes,
01:27:58you have to take your ID with you. No, you don't have to take your ID with you. And C, it depends.
01:28:10We're asking us? Yes. I would say yes, because I feel like you need to have some sort of government
01:28:19documentation. Any person disagree? Do you have to take an ID with you when you are going to vote?
01:28:31Ooh, timid group. So it's a trick question. It depends. Right, I was about to say,
01:28:36it depends on where you are. I know in Maryland, I don't need my driver's ID. I have my state
01:28:43registration. And when I come in, they just ask me my name, they ask me where, and they ask me
01:28:49my address. But we are, I will say quickly seeing across states, many states have been enacting
01:28:58so many different voter registration laws that are changing and people are going to go to their
01:29:03precincts and not know what to do, or even if that precinct is even still there, because they
01:29:10are constantly moving the goalposts on these things. So it depends on the state that you are in.
01:29:16And so for many people who say, well, then that's even more confusing, what do I do?
01:29:20Go to vote.gov. There are many other websites that you can go to that you can check your local laws,
01:29:26and it will tell you whether you need to show up with a photo ID or driver's license or passport.
01:29:31And if so, under what circumstances? Now, second question is, okay, I don't have to show up with
01:29:40my ID in certain states, but I see that they're asking for ID, but only of certain people.
01:29:48What do you do then? What do we think the answer is? I go to vote. I know in my state,
01:29:55I don't need to show up with a driver's license or a passport, but I see that the Black woman,
01:30:02they asked her for her ID, and the Black man, they asked him for his ID. What do I do?
01:30:10So this is not... Go ahead. No, you go ahead.
01:30:15I think this may tie back to what Lene was discussing earlier about having different
01:30:21people who are stationed at polling locations to basically police and just ensure that everybody
01:30:29is being treated equally and fairly. And those people being stationed there would be able to
01:30:34report that people are being treated unfairly and that certain people are being, basically,
01:30:41being given the runaround and being told different information and being given hurdles to jump
01:30:46to while trying to vote. And I would say, go to a poll watcher.
01:30:51So that's why this is important. Two things, not just go to a poll watcher, because depending
01:30:57where you are, it may work a little differently. But I also, and I know, Alfonso, you've talked
01:31:03about this, I would encourage everybody to also have a number on you that you can call and report
01:31:10the DOJ has a number, and I believe you said a group before, Alfonso, but there are numbers that
01:31:20you can call to report them immediately. I see some of the comments coming in. You need to report
01:31:25it immediately. I would also say, before you get to that, please think before you know,
01:31:31know your rights. We always talk about knowing your rights in criminal justice. Know your voting
01:31:35rights. Also know if your name has been removed from the poll, because what Georgia is trying to
01:31:44enact in allowing everyday citizens to question whether or not their neighbor is able to vote or
01:31:50not and get your name removed is huge. Indeed, indeed. And so for folks, all of those are
01:31:58correct. If you see conduct at a voting booth where Black people are being asked to do one
01:32:05thing but White people aren't being asked to do the same thing, there are a number of things you
01:32:08can do, including talking to a poll station watcher. But you can also call election protection watchers.
01:32:16So the Global Black Economic Forum, in essence, we have a partnership with the Lawyers' Committee
01:32:21for Civil Rights Under the Law. And that partnership means that when you go into a voting booth or you
01:32:27go to a polling station and you see conduct that doesn't look right, you can call several numbers.
01:32:33There are voter helplines. One is 866-OUR-VOTE. Easy to remember. 1-866-OUR-VOTE. And you can call
01:32:43if you are the target of voter suppression or if others are being targeted, and they can provide
01:32:49support as well. Voter intimidation was such a huge... I really want people to understand that
01:32:58we've seen, even as a reporter, we've covered stories, they have had rallying calls for people
01:33:04in many Southern states to stand outside in places especially where you're allowed to
01:33:09carry your weapons and practice voter intimidation. I mean, literally just
01:33:14standing there and being a presence, scaring people to not come to the poll,
01:33:21to not come out to the poll. So this is real, but it is because the threat wouldn't be so real if
01:33:27they didn't understand the power that you have. Yes. So let's shift to another common question
01:33:33that we hear, which is if anyone has an interaction with the criminal justice system,
01:33:38right? If you've had any type of interaction with the criminal justice system,
01:33:42question is, can you still vote? Yes or no?
01:33:46I think it depends.
01:33:53You're talking about felonies? In some states, allow for... If you are a former felon,
01:34:04let me just say that, and have a record, you served your time, you are able to vote. That
01:34:13is not in every state. That's why we're saying no if you can or not before you go. Some states
01:34:18do allow that. And here's the thing, another reason why it's important to vote, because
01:34:23that may be a referendum. So when we're talking about that down ballot, these are measures that
01:34:30you're also voting for in your area. I know we talked about the president, but you need to see
01:34:34what referendums are going to be on that ballot, because we've seen many states coming out and
01:34:40pushing to allow, if I've done my time, why am I not able to... These are tactics that people
01:34:47use to keep people from voting, and you got to know that they are targeted.
01:34:54Correct. Correct. And to put a finer point on that for those, it falls into several different
01:34:59categories, right? So there are certain states where your voting rights are retained, even while
01:35:04you're in prison for a felony conviction. There are very few, Maine, Vermont, and DC. And then
01:35:10there are other states where voting rights are restored automatically after you get out of prison.
01:35:15So right after you get out of prison, your voting rights are restored. That's California,
01:35:20and Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania, and a few other states. And then there are states where
01:35:25your voting rights are restored automatically after you complete a sentence, including prison,
01:35:30and probably parole and probation. That's to Ebeneez Point, Georgia is one of those states,
01:35:36or West Virginia. And then you have those states where they are trying to take away your right to
01:35:42vote just because you've had some interaction with the criminal justice system. So once again,
01:35:48make sure you check your local laws to understand what your rights are, and all of these resources
01:35:54are publicly available. That's a question we often hear. And I think we have one more question,
01:35:59which is certification, right? Certification of votes. So after you vote, will the election
01:36:10that you're voting in be certified? And the answer is yes. The Department of State in every single
01:36:18state is responsible for certifying the election. And so that is their role. So after you vote,
01:36:25they're supposed to count those votes, along with a number of other agencies that are involved,
01:36:30and then certify those votes through the electoral process.
01:36:35I'm sure there may be many, many other questions, but Ebeneez, did you have something?
01:36:39I was going to say on that certification, we can't forget what happened in Georgia.
01:36:45Can't forget that infamous call where somebody called and said, I need 11,870 votes. Can you
01:36:50get it for me? That's why it's... Can't forget that call. And we cannot forget what...
01:37:02It's so important why it is important to have civic engagement, because when we talk about
01:37:08the president and everything else, it is also important for us to begin to look at other roles
01:37:12we can fill when it comes to voting, to become an elector, whether or poll watcher or something.
01:37:20We must all really become more civic engaged, because it's not like we can't have that call
01:37:26again. Exactly right. Somebody may go through with the call, but Georgia gave us Senator Raphael
01:37:39Warnock, John Ossoff, and then Dems got the House. That's how important that was. And that was the
01:37:47precursor for what kicked off January 6th. And this is why we are doing this town hall.
01:37:56This is the first of many engagements that we will be taking a part in for Paint the Polls Black.
01:38:01This is an important election, as you've heard, during this entire town hall, and we thank all
01:38:05of you for joining us. Closing comments, I'll start with Rochelle, and then we'll go to Sophia
01:38:11and Ebony. Yeah. So just to really close out, we've already talked about the importance of
01:38:18mobilizing young voters to get out and vote. The power is really within us to really set what we
01:38:24want our future to look like. Everything is being impacted from where we go to school to our jobs,
01:38:33and really, we have an active role in securing our future. And as we do more of these,
01:38:40it is really important to also encourage your friends to vote, the people around you to vote,
01:38:45because if we're not voting, we don't have a voice. So make sure that you're encouraging everybody in
01:38:51your life to get out and vote. It doesn't matter how young you are, you have a voice,
01:38:55and that's what I want to leave everybody with. Sophia?
01:38:59Yes, absolutely. As we sit here today and discuss the political process, getting involved in the
01:39:06political process, especially for young people who may be first-time voters discovering their
01:39:12political identity, it is incredibly important for us to remember that voter apathy is not the
01:39:19solution, will never be the solution. And anytime you are faced with that, you must continue to
01:39:25encourage people to go out and vote, and to encourage people to find faith in the democratic
01:39:31process. While it's really important for us to encourage people to vote, it's also really
01:39:37important for us to give others the tools and the information and the infrastructure
01:39:43to get other people active, to encourage others to interact with others on a political level.
01:39:50So while we're having these conversations about getting people out there to vote,
01:39:54it's also really important for us to also give people the tools to also inform others,
01:40:00to have political conversations, to create these communities where they can engage with one
01:40:05another, where they can register to vote with their friends, where they can go out and vote
01:40:10with their friends, and to really engage in politics in a fun and interesting way. So go
01:40:16register to vote, become politically active, have these conversations with your friends, and yeah,
01:40:23that's my message. Ebony? Really quickly, I just want to say this. I spoke with a number of civil
01:40:32rights organizations, and they said the biggest thing that they fear this time is misinformation
01:40:36and disinformation. So I encourage people that as they are talking around the kitchen table with
01:40:42their friends and families, that they are sourcing the information that they get. They are repeating
01:40:48what is facts, but may not always be popular. I want to thank you, Alfonso, for allowing me to
01:40:54even be here on today. I appreciate it. As a member of the Black press, and one of the very few
01:41:01members of Black owned and operated stations that's in that White House briefing room,
01:41:05I'm telling you that there is so much more at stake than we know. And as said before,
01:41:11this is not just about Trump or Harris. This is generational. Your votes are generational.
01:41:19This is about the courts. This is about kitchen table issues that you talk about all the time,
01:41:24and how it's going to affect your life. So I just want everyone to leave here and remember
01:41:30that your vote is your power. Don't give up your power.
01:41:37Thank you. Thank you, Ebony. Thank you, Sophia. Thank you, Rochelle. Thank you, all of you for
01:41:41joining us. Thank you to all the speakers who also joined us this evening. We hope that you
01:41:47have more information. We hope that you are registered to vote. And if you're not, we hope
01:41:53that you do get registered to vote. As you've heard throughout this town hall, our right to
01:41:57vote is sacred. And if we don't exercise it, someone else will. And their vote will decide
01:42:04the trajectory of our lives. So we hope this serves as a meaningful resource to you. I want
01:42:10to thank the Sundial Group of Companies, which includes Essence, and the Global Black Economic
01:42:14Forum, and Girls United, and Afropunk, and Refinery29, and Beautycon, and the New Voices
01:42:21Foundation for helping to support this town hall. The stakes here are high. And we want to make sure
01:42:27that you all have the information, the resources, and the support to exercise your constitutional
01:42:32right to vote and protect your future. Please visit paintthepolls.com. Over the next few weeks
01:42:38and months, we will be adding more information and resources to the site. And please stay tuned
01:42:44for more town halls to make sure that we are keeping you as informed as we can through this
01:42:50historic election year. Thank you again for joining us.