Speaker 1: I'm just Jackson jewis Well. Of course, l fifteen leads
Speaker 1: Meet Pays with Gina Towns. Yeah. He was our creator
Speaker 1: and producer of The Jesse Jackson Junior Show, president and
Speaker 1: CEO of five nineteen Productions, and the executive producer, creative
Speaker 1: director and program director of The Jesse Jackson Junior Show
Speaker 1: on Smiley Audio Media's Kblate doc fifteen to eighty. She
Speaker 1: is also the host of Reflectivity on my weekly series
Speaker 1: Fat Meat Fridays. She's a graduate of Hampton University with
Speaker 1: the Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication and Arts. Gina
Speaker 1: has also earned her Masters of Arts in Theology and
Speaker 1: Social Justice from Princeton Theological Seminary. She co produced the
Speaker 1: Emmy Award nominated and documentary documentary Hampton University One of
Speaker 1: the Wonders of the World, and as a songwriter, co
Speaker 1: producer and performer, her single Yes hit number twenty six
Speaker 1: with a billet on the Billboard. Gina, Welcome forward to
Speaker 1: The Jesse Jackson Junior Show, Fat Meat Fridays and the
Speaker 1: j Lunch Club. Thank God it is Friday. That Friday.
Speaker 1: It's almost as if we talked just last week. It
Speaker 1: feels like a continuation the weeks are moving very very quickly.
Speaker 2: Well, time is moving swiftly. I don't know if January
Speaker 2: has ever gone this fast.
Speaker 3: It's really really something. It's also a slog when one
Speaker 3: considers all of the politics that's taking place. Gina, your
Speaker 3: thoughts on the roundup of our week here on the
Speaker 3: Jesse Jackson Junior Show.
Speaker 2: Well, going all the way back to last week, Really,
Speaker 2: I have had a great time, maybe more so than
Speaker 2: I have in a while, because you know what they say,
Speaker 2: you don't appreciate, you don't know what you got till
Speaker 2: it's gone. And our show has decidedly taken on a
Speaker 2: lot of Martin Luther King. We spent more than his
Speaker 2: birthday or even the national holiday recognition of his birthday.
Speaker 2: I mean decidedly every day. I asked you and our
Speaker 2: guests to focus on Martin Luther King, and you have
Speaker 2: done a tremendous job with bringing our attention to beyond
Speaker 2: Vietnam a speech that he wrote a year to the
Speaker 2: day of his assassination, and you'll break down of it.
Speaker 2: The discussions that you've had with people who are very
Speaker 2: cognizant of the social justice space, but in particular, there
Speaker 2: have been some conversations and you and Johnny Mack, who
Speaker 2: study Doctor King each and every week. Certainly we have
Speaker 2: a need for that right now, and that is the
Speaker 2: part of our history that we must turn to and
Speaker 2: lean on.
Speaker 1: You know, I give it some reflection in this first
Speaker 1: segment of our show. Nineteen sixty seven must have been
Speaker 1: a pivotal year in the life of Martin Luther King Junior.
Speaker 1: I was born in nineteen sixty five, and so at
Speaker 1: age two and a few months, I can only help
Speaker 1: but think that with what I've heard, with what I've read,
Speaker 1: with what I've come to understand, that the April fourth,
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty seven speech Beyond Vietnam a time to break
Speaker 1: the silence, and the fact that he wrote the book
Speaker 1: Where do We Go from Here? Chaos or Community serves
Speaker 1: as important data points in going forward for those of
Speaker 1: us who are in the King and the King gi
Speaker 1: and if you will tradition, where do we go from here?
Speaker 1: Chaos or Community? The question before us today is whether
Speaker 1: or not we are closer to community or we are
Speaker 1: closer to absolute global chaos. I was watching the leadership
Speaker 1: at the Davos Economic Summit this past week, and it
Speaker 1: is increasingly clear that they are accepting the idea that
Speaker 1: the old order has passed, that a new order is
Speaker 1: in front of us, that traditional alliances that have held
Speaker 1: true at least since the end of World War Two
Speaker 1: are no longer the same alliances. Europe obviously feels vulnerable.
Speaker 1: Greenland is less secure today than it was before Donald
Speaker 1: Trump became president again. Russia is embolden in Ukraine, and
Speaker 1: Vladimir Lensky is treated as a stepchild. The President of
Speaker 1: the United States kidnapped the president of Venezuela, Jared Kushner,
Speaker 1: the President of the United States, began something yesterday called
Speaker 1: a peace board. We'll talk about more of that will
Speaker 1: to come forward on KBLA Talk fifteen eighty. I'm Jesse
Speaker 1: Jackson Junior. More when we come forward on KBLA in
Speaker 1: your show, It's happening Fridays with our creator, Gina Towns,
Speaker 1: and our very special guest in this hour is doctor
Speaker 1: nik Cordelai Corte. Not only does he continue his work
Speaker 1: as an author and KBLA White House correspondent, but also
Speaker 1: returns to GSP as professor shaping the next generation of
Speaker 1: transformational leaders. His work bridges the worlds of media public
Speaker 1: service and education, living proof of what it means to
Speaker 1: lead with both head and heart. A proud graduate of
Speaker 1: De LaSalle High School in the San Francisco Bay Area,
Speaker 1: he went on to earn his bachelor's degree in political
Speaker 1: science from the University of Southern California, where he also
Speaker 1: pursued a minor in Critical Approaches to Leadership, and after
Speaker 1: several years of experience as a public affairs professional, doctor
Speaker 1: Q felt called to deepen his impact through education, choosing
Speaker 1: Pepperdine University Graduate School of Education and Psychology GSP as
Speaker 1: his academic and leader ship home. Doctor Corte, Doctor Q me,
Speaker 1: you welcome to.
Speaker 4: The Jesse Jackson. I'm on the Jesse Jackson Junior Show.
Speaker 4: It's Friday. I couldn't be happier. How you doing, brother man?
Speaker 1: I love you very much and there's absolutely nothing you
Speaker 1: can do about it. That's right, Ney, Listen. I am
Speaker 1: particularly concerned about the headlines over the last two weeks,
Speaker 1: and I'd love to get your input and your feedback.
Speaker 1: Let me just read them briefly. The US pulls out
Speaker 1: of the World Health Organization. The United States formally completed
Speaker 1: its withdrawal from WHO on Thursday, after a year after
Speaker 1: President Donald Trump, he simply essentially put the cabash on
Speaker 1: it USA. Today, Americans say the United States is out
Speaker 1: of control, and not just the liberals are saying it.
Speaker 1: Al Jazeera says the US to withdraw from dozens of
Speaker 1: UN international organizations. The Wall Street Journal echoes that Trump
Speaker 1: pulls out of more than thirty UN bodies, BBC Trump
Speaker 1: withdraws from US key climate treaties and dozens of other groups.
Speaker 1: And of course, the context here is a global climate
Speaker 1: catastrophe that is taking place at the same time that
Speaker 1: the administration is withdrawing from international cooperation because, as John F.
Speaker 1: Kennedy said, we all share the same planet and we
Speaker 1: are all more Doctor Q, where is this? Where are
Speaker 1: we going? In the post celebration of Martin Luther King Junior,
Speaker 1: his ninety seventh birthday was January fifteenth. Chaos or community?
Speaker 4: Well, thank you for the question, Jesse Junior. I think
Speaker 4: there are examples of both. There are examples of chaos
Speaker 4: in community. You've just laid out the kind of chaos
Speaker 4: that we're seeing, particularly abroad, but the chaos that we're
Speaker 4: also seeing right here across the country, we're seeing facilitated
Speaker 4: by ICE. For example, I am still shaken and stirred
Speaker 4: having learned about UH civil rights attorney and activists uh
Speaker 4: Nikema Levy Armstrong not only being arrested at the hands
Speaker 4: of the US Department of Justice for exercising her First
Speaker 4: Amendment right UH in and in in peacefully protesting UH
Speaker 4: in a church where the pastor is alleged to also
Speaker 4: be doubling as a local director of ICE. To add
Speaker 4: insult to injury, we saw that the White House just
Speaker 4: yesterday shared an altered photo of an arrested UH Nikema
Speaker 4: Levy Armstrong. What do we call that? We call that propaganda,
Speaker 4: you know, you got to say it playing uh And
Speaker 4: and so we are seeing a lot of seeds of
Speaker 4: division that are being sown. We're seeing, uh the kind
Speaker 4: of chaos that is intended to leave us feeling disoriented
Speaker 4: and feeling powerless, and feeling like what it is that
Speaker 4: this administration hopes to accomplish, That every plank that's a
Speaker 4: part of Project twenty twenty five, that all that is inevitable.
Speaker 4: That's what they want us to feel. But I think
Speaker 4: to your point, I think community is a part of
Speaker 4: the anecdote to this. We cannot make it to the
Speaker 4: other side of this chaos by ourselves. And so I've
Speaker 4: been heartened to see so many activists from across the
Speaker 4: country lock arms and declare that what's happened to folks
Speaker 4: like Nikeema Levy Armstrong and other peaceful protesters, other legal observers,
Speaker 4: other American citizens, the trampling of folks civil rights and
Speaker 4: civil liberty. Not only is it wrong, but you have
Speaker 4: people taking to the streets saying not on my watch.
Speaker 4: That is the kind of community that we need to
Speaker 4: sustain through election Day in order to bring this country
Speaker 4: back from the brink.
Speaker 1: You know, I saw the altered photo of sister Armstrong
Speaker 1: side by side with the dignity that she accepted and
Speaker 1: did not if you will resist arrest. As a result
Speaker 1: of that protest, we also saw some levels of the
Speaker 1: exact same attempt to disgrace if you will, to humiliate
Speaker 1: don Lemon. I believe in the same particular event, And
Speaker 1: I'm wondering to think about a department of justice that
Speaker 1: traditionally prided itself in the idea that even those in
Speaker 1: captivity are innocent until proven guilty. This kind of altering
Speaker 1: of the even prosecutorial environment where even a criminal defendant,
Speaker 1: an alleged criminal defendant, has to even prove in court
Speaker 1: that hey, the documents that you're showing or the evidence
Speaker 1: that you're presenting has been altered to reflect not the
Speaker 1: truth of my First Amendment rights, but the inherent insults
Speaker 1: that are associated with the process. Uh that if in
Speaker 1: fact you are proven innocent, the social media space, the government,
Speaker 1: with the government's support, participates in a denigration of you
Speaker 1: and the organization and the movement and the very processes
Speaker 1: that we have hold deers Americans. Your thought about that
Speaker 1: as a professional journalist.
Speaker 4: Well, let me just say, speaking of feeling shaken and surred,
Speaker 4: I think a lot of us who pride ourselves in
Speaker 4: developing the first draft of history in the form of journalism,
Speaker 4: I think we were disturbed by the efforts of this
Speaker 4: Trump Department of Justice to trample on the right to
Speaker 4: a free press. And thank goodness that this federal magistrate
Speaker 4: judge rejected the Justice Department's initial attempt to bring charges
Speaker 4: against our friend, our brother, journalist Don Lemon, for appearing
Speaker 4: alongside protesters who went into a Minnesota church over the weekend.
Speaker 4: You know, so we can't live stream protest that's against
Speaker 4: the law, that that invites the Department of Justice, the
Speaker 4: US Department of Justice, to file charges. It's it's it's
Speaker 4: hard to not believe that Don Lemon's black, proudly black,
Speaker 4: proudly gay self didn't factor into his targeting. You know,
Speaker 4: it's it's hard. It's hard to believe, you know, that
Speaker 4: someone who has demonstrated an ability to speak truth to power, right,
Speaker 4: it's it's hard to believe that this Justice Department didn't
Speaker 4: seek to make an example out of Don Lemon and
Speaker 4: and to send a signal to you, to send a
Speaker 4: signal to me that telling the truth, speaking the truth
Speaker 4: to the masses, streaming the truth to the masses will
Speaker 4: be met with a federal government weaponized by this Trump
Speaker 4: administration's ultimate aims. You know, it is it is. It
Speaker 4: shocks the conscience that there are a number of folks
Speaker 4: out there that can't see this for what it is.
Speaker 4: It shocks the content that Democrats, Republicans, independents can't lock
Speaker 4: arms and say this is a bridge too far, right,
Speaker 4: what else is it going to take? But look, you know,
Speaker 4: our legal system, Uh it worked, uh in this case,
Speaker 4: you know, But I fear for the other independent journalists
Speaker 4: that are out there that don't have the same muscle
Speaker 4: as legacy corporate media might have. I shudder at what
Speaker 4: is possible if the algorithms change and suddenly it's harder
Speaker 4: to get information from these independent journalists, you know, on YouTube,
Speaker 4: on Instagram, on some of the other major platforms. And
Speaker 4: last thing I'll add is you know, of course, I'm
Speaker 4: sure you're aware that TikTok is now officially under US ownership.
Speaker 4: For anybody on TikTok, it's worth looking at the terms
Speaker 4: of service, looking at the terms of service uh as
Speaker 4: a part of what TikTok says that they're offering. I
Speaker 4: took a look at it yesterday because you know, I
Speaker 4: like to geek out on stuff like this. I was
Speaker 4: looking at the community guidelines in my time off last night,
Speaker 4: and one of the areas you talk about integrity and authenticity,
Speaker 4: you know, and they talk about how we require clear
Speaker 4: labeling when AI or editing is used to realistically depict
Speaker 4: people or scenes. We don't allow AI generated content that
Speaker 4: misleads about matters of public importance or that harms individuals.
Speaker 4: Will look with the White House just put out yesterday
Speaker 4: on those media channels with Nakeema Levy Armstrong right, and
Speaker 4: so part of the fight ahead as folks that refuse
Speaker 4: to spiral ind chaos and folks that embrace the tenets
Speaker 4: of a beloved community. Part of the work that we
Speaker 4: have to do is also hold these social media companies,
Speaker 4: hold these organizations to what they say on paper. They're
Speaker 4: all about.
Speaker 1: You know, I just want to add, because I know
Speaker 1: the genus going to come into the conversation in just
Speaker 1: a moment. You know, when Donald Trump first became President
Speaker 1: of the United States the second time, there was an
Speaker 1: attack on the legal community that would have historically stood
Speaker 1: up and fought for Don Lemon, for a mis Armstrong,
Speaker 1: because on the face of the matter, it's wrong. The
Speaker 1: prosecutions of Letitia James, the prosecution of the prosecutors, the
Speaker 1: care in which Jack Smith had to prepare and present
Speaker 1: his testimony to avoid to the extent that he may avoid,
Speaker 1: the kind of contempt from Congress that that others have received.
Speaker 1: This is what we see. This is what we discuss.
Speaker 1: But these individuals are hiring lawyers who literally to prove
Speaker 1: they're innoc since can bankrupt the alleged criminal defendant. I
Speaker 1: can't begin to tell you just how much this costs
Speaker 1: to preserve your name, to preserve the dignity of your work,
Speaker 1: to not become a mean, to not become part of
Speaker 1: a culture. When we need people to speak truth to power,
Speaker 1: we need people to be taken seriously, we need to
Speaker 1: convey serious messages. But then when we find ourselves having
Speaker 1: to mortgage our homes, to pay for lawyers, to lose
Speaker 1: everything that we've ever gained, just to stay free, just
Speaker 1: to maintain the integrity of who we are, this is
Speaker 1: the era that we are clearly entering. Me and I
Speaker 1: wanted to allow Gina the opportunity to come just before
Speaker 1: we come forward in two minutes, to share some of
Speaker 1: her initial thoughts.
Speaker 2: Well, you started out listing off a number of things,
Speaker 2: a number of news stories, but in particular, it is
Speaker 2: our withdrawal from the world stage, our participation in a
Speaker 2: beloved community around the world. And this really follows leadership,
Speaker 2: because there's a leadership that took us to these organizations,
Speaker 2: and there is a participation that we've had foundationally, we
Speaker 2: have been the financial backbone of many of particularly the
Speaker 2: who the World Health Organization is of particular interest as
Speaker 2: we begin this isolation of what appears to be an
Speaker 2: isolation period, but certainly this is not what Martin Luther
Speaker 2: King envisioned or thought about us. So domestically, we have
Speaker 2: a number of things going on that dan have tentacles
Speaker 2: that reach out around the world, and we tend to
Speaker 2: look at things in an isolated fashion. But all of
Speaker 2: these things add up together, and I think, you know,
Speaker 2: one of the reasons why we have to study Doctor
Speaker 2: King is because we are losing a place in our
Speaker 2: history and an ideology that we have to fight for.
Speaker 1: You know, when I saw some of the memes of
Speaker 1: Doctor King during the holiday period and leading up to
Speaker 1: the holiday period, with him dancing and clowning, and with
Speaker 1: people taking pictures of him who were not there at
Speaker 1: certain periods of his history, and even for the King
Speaker 1: family to respond to say leave my father, Bernie said
Speaker 1: out of the memes, out of the jokes. And the
Speaker 1: idea of protecting one's legacy in this context is it
Speaker 1: is obviously something that we're going to have to talk about.
Speaker 1: We may even be leading to a generation of people
Speaker 1: who start saying it's time to get unplugged. Jesse Jackson
Speaker 1: Junior listening to Jesse Jackson Junior show Our very special
Speaker 1: guest in this hour is doctor Q. Knie Quarter Lai
Speaker 1: Coarte is our very special guest. He's the White House
Speaker 1: correspondent for w for KBLA Talk fifteen to eighty. Our
Speaker 1: very special contributor, Gina Towns will come forward with us
Speaker 1: as well, Talk fifteen eighty in just a moment. I'm
Speaker 1: Jesse Jackson Jr. Welcome forward to the Jesse Jackson Junior Show.
Speaker 1: This is Fat Meat Fridays and the j Lunch Club
Speaker 1: with our regular contributor on Friday's the creator of the
Speaker 1: Jesse Jackson Junior Show, Gina Towns. Gina, welcome forward to
Speaker 1: the show. Hie Jesse, and our very special guest in
Speaker 1: this hour is nie Q, doctor Ortalie Quarte, who is
Speaker 1: our White House correspondent at KBLA. Doctor Q, let me
Speaker 1: ask you a question just before Gina shares with us
Speaker 1: our happenings and black history on this particular date, Trump's
Speaker 1: peace board at Dovels at the Dovels Economic Summit looks
Speaker 1: like a real estate deal. I've always believed in a
Speaker 1: two state solution in the Gaza strip, but when you
Speaker 1: see the images and I challenge our listeners to google
Speaker 1: peace Board, and to google New Gaza. Google New Gaza
Speaker 1: and see the renderings of new Gaza. And I'm wondering
Speaker 1: in this moment, doctor Q, how are the poor people
Speaker 1: of Gaza going to be able to afford to live
Speaker 1: in this arrangement? Why are they not part of the
Speaker 1: so called peace board, Doctor Q.
Speaker 4: I think those are questions that need answers, and I
Speaker 4: think it's pretty apparent. You know, there's a book that
Speaker 4: I require that my students at Pepperdine University read over
Speaker 4: the course of the semester. It's called Design Justice. And
Speaker 4: one of the principles that the authors about at length
Speaker 4: in that book is nothing for us without us, nothing
Speaker 4: for us without us. And this is an organizing principle
Speaker 4: that some of the most seasoned organizers have adhered to.
Speaker 4: There doesn't seem to be much evidence of that. It
Speaker 4: is deeply troubling that this plan to rebuild Gaza, this
Speaker 4: plan to erect the Middle East Riviera, that it doesn't
Speaker 4: seem to have any Palestinians that are playing a principal
Speaker 4: role in this, that have a principal voice in this. Yes,
Speaker 4: we're seeing folks from the Arab world that are a
Speaker 4: part of this but you know, these are folks that
Speaker 4: are doing their own bidding, and so this is something
Speaker 4: that I think people of conscience are going to have
Speaker 4: to watch very very closely. This is going to require
Speaker 4: courage people to speak truth to power, and you know,
Speaker 4: as not just Democrats, but anybody that's in opposition to this,
Speaker 4: as they get out on the campaign trail, it's important
Speaker 4: to remind people about the power of our example. Yes,
Speaker 4: we need to bring prices down here at home, but
Speaker 4: we can't underestimate the power of America's example abroad for
Speaker 4: good and for evil, for good, you know, and for
Speaker 4: the good of the narrow self interest of a privileged few.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking in this moment when doctor King says that
Speaker 1: it's a time to break the silence, that a betrayal
Speaker 1: of silence is taking place. As the renderings are obviously
Speaker 1: of a futuristic gaza strip that mirrors flying into Manhattan
Speaker 1: in fact a more modern Manhattan, or flying into Dubai,
Speaker 1: but it simply does not refer the education level the
Speaker 1: oppression that the Palestinian people have confronted for decades, and
Speaker 1: it seems to me that they have no role in
Speaker 1: the future of Jared Kushner's conceptual designs or what can
Speaker 1: only be seen as a multi trillion dollar development a
Speaker 1: riviera in the Gaza Strip.
Speaker 2: Gina, your thoughts, I think the whole thing is just
Speaker 2: very bothersome in general, with the Gaza Strip, because I
Speaker 2: had one of those old Bibles as a child where
Speaker 2: Israel what is now known as Israel's Palestine, and that
Speaker 2: name was changed and those people were moved pushed down
Speaker 2: into the Gods Strip. And so now after a culpable
Speaker 2: year of unmitigated bombing, death and destruction, it's time to rebuild.
Speaker 2: And I saw some early sketch drawings of what it
Speaker 2: could be might be. I mean, I think we all
Speaker 2: knew from the time that Jared Kushner went that there
Speaker 2: was a deal afoot, and certainly it does not include
Speaker 2: the people who have been occupying that land. But the
Speaker 2: fact is that those people were occupying another land even
Speaker 2: before we got to this point.
Speaker 1: Doctor Q. I can't help but reflect in this moment
Speaker 1: that the sixty seven thousand people in this conflict are
Speaker 1: going to be a people without a home, that they
Speaker 1: are going to be potentially refugees in their own land.
Speaker 1: And somewhere I read that justice delayed is justice denied.
Speaker 1: That somehow peace is not merely the absence of noise,
Speaker 1: but the presence of love and the presence of justice.
Speaker 1: These are also sustaining principles that we believe in organizing
Speaker 1: because the end that we seek is pre existent in
Speaker 1: the means, meaning we give some thought to the end
Speaker 1: that we want to accomplish towards this idea of a
Speaker 1: beloved community. I don't see that taking place here.
Speaker 4: I don't see it taking place in the near term.
Speaker 4: It is worth noting that four Palestinians have been killed
Speaker 4: in Gods that as Trump has launched this Board of Peace,
Speaker 4: it sounds like, you know, America is committed to living
Speaker 4: in an alternative universe. Al Jazeera reporting that a number
Speaker 4: of medical sources are saying that at least four people
Speaker 4: have been killed in the Palestinian civil defense. They reported
Speaker 4: that on the death of an infant from hypothermia and
Speaker 4: Central Gaza. While President Trump has unveiled his Board of Peace,
Speaker 4: they're not experiencing peace there. And I think it's important
Speaker 4: that people really understand this, that, you know, to create
Speaker 4: this delusion that we're creating this body that is committed
Speaker 4: to ushering in an era of peace in the region.
Speaker 4: When there is no peace on the ground right there,
Speaker 4: We're not dealing in reality, you know.
Speaker 3: And so.
Speaker 4: At some point we're gonna have to reconcile that, because
Speaker 4: I don't see the kind of long term security in
Speaker 4: the region if we don't reconcile that. To think that
Speaker 4: the young people that are coming up right now that
Speaker 4: are exposed to all of this, the young people that
Speaker 4: are coming up that are living in poverty right now,
Speaker 4: the young people that will be forced to live a
Speaker 4: life as refugees, young people who may never go back
Speaker 4: to the place the only place that they've known is
Speaker 4: their home. To think that people just pack up and
Speaker 4: move and don't have a word to say about it,
Speaker 4: don't have a feeling about it, don't have a trauma
Speaker 4: experience related to it, that is divorced from reality. And
Speaker 4: we better get this reality check sooner than later so
Speaker 4: as to give the region a chance to have the
Speaker 4: kind of security that we all hope that it would have,
Speaker 4: to have a kind of peace that Trump is trying
Speaker 4: to create this illusion of At the moment.
Speaker 1: I'm Jesse Jackson Junior listening to Jesse Jackson Junior show
Speaker 1: this is Fat Meat Fridays with Gina Towns, our regular contributor,
Speaker 1: and our very special guest in this hour is none
Speaker 1: other than our White House correspondent, Doctor Cortelai Nie Cordlai
Speaker 1: Corte More. We come forward on kV Late Talk fifteen eighty.
Speaker 1: I'm Jesse Jackson Junior. Welcome forward to the Jesse Jackson
Speaker 1: Junior Show on kV Late Talk fifteen to eighty, and
Speaker 1: I want to welcome our regular contributor on Fat Meat Fridays,
Speaker 1: Miss Gina Towns, the creator of the Jesse Jackson Junior Show. Gina,
Speaker 1: Welcome forward, Gy Jesse, Hey, Ny Hey, Doctor Anna or Ty,
Speaker 1: our White House correspondent, is also joining us. Uh. In
Speaker 1: our final segment, I'd like you, if you don't mind,
Speaker 1: doctor Q, for you to transition and pivot the conversation
Speaker 1: to We've seen chaos in the world, but we're also
Speaker 1: seeing chaos domestically. Nothing quite like what's taking place in Minneapolis,
Speaker 1: Minnesota have I ever seen in my sixty years. What
Speaker 1: are you hearing from Capitol Hill to the White House
Speaker 1: on the nature of the chaos and what it could
Speaker 1: mean for the midterms.
Speaker 4: Well, just yesterday I had a chance to be in
Speaker 4: conversation with Bishop Joseph W. Tulton. He is the founder
Speaker 4: of Interconnected Justice. He's also a former Senior Advisor for
Speaker 4: Religious and Global Affairs in the US State Department, and
Speaker 4: his body of work has really focused on the rise
Speaker 4: of white Christian nationalism, and so part of what we
Speaker 4: are seeing on the ground in places like Minneapolis, you know,
Speaker 4: are folks peddling in that white nationalism, white Christian nationalism.
Speaker 4: I think, you know, the focal point of the DOJ
Speaker 4: arrest of Nakeema Levy Armstrong, civil rights attorney and activists
Speaker 4: who showed up at a church in Minneapolis where the
Speaker 4: pastor is alleged to be doubling as acting director of
Speaker 4: ICE in the in the area, and I think it
Speaker 4: raises some really significant questions in terms of the conflict
Speaker 4: of interest. You know, there are people that go to
Speaker 4: the church seeking refuge. It's not unusual for churches to
Speaker 4: be thought of as sanctuaries or you know, folks who
Speaker 4: are down on their luck, for folks that are in
Speaker 4: need of support and services. And so the fact that
Speaker 4: this alleged connection between this acting ICE director and his
Speaker 4: role as the pastor of this church, it is heavily problematic,
Speaker 4: and this is just the story that we have learned about.
Speaker 4: It makes you wonder how many other churches across America
Speaker 4: have pastors or assistant pastors, deacons, deaconesses that are somehow,
Speaker 4: you know, tied into the ICE apparatus. You might remember,
Speaker 4: due to the passage of the so called Big Beautiful Bill,
Speaker 4: ICE has more funding now than they have ever had
Speaker 4: in their history, and so they have so much money
Speaker 4: to throw at not just official ICE agents, but folks
Speaker 4: willing to cooperate with ICE. And that is deeply troubling.
Speaker 4: And so that's what I'm hearing the most about from
Speaker 4: folks in DC and places like Minneapolis and out in
Speaker 4: the field and places across the country.
Speaker 2: Gina, Sure, they defunded SNAP and defunded health care for
Speaker 2: Americans who needed in order to build this budget. And
Speaker 2: so this is what we have now. And I want
Speaker 2: to go back to what you said, because I saw
Speaker 2: Don when he landed in Minneapolis, and there was a
Speaker 2: guy who spoke to him there and the guy said,
Speaker 2: I'm so glad you're here and basically said, you know,
Speaker 2: be careful, and Don was like, well, what's that about?
Speaker 2: And he says, well, things are really not what people
Speaker 2: don't understand what's going on here. It's not like maybe
Speaker 2: it was in Los Angeles or DC, or even Chicago
Speaker 2: for that matter. This is this is really a lot
Speaker 2: and people are scared. So, you know, I was just
Speaker 2: as you guys were talking. This militarization and focus on
Speaker 2: materialism is certainly something that doctor King prophetically talked about.
Speaker 2: And every so often there's a rise in this. It's
Speaker 2: almost like we have to go back, you know, every
Speaker 2: sixty years, every hundred years, and you know, fight this
Speaker 2: battle all over again. And I don't know that it
Speaker 2: will ever stop. What do you think me?
Speaker 4: You know, look, I think it is a righteous fight.
Speaker 4: It is a fight that we have been fighting for
Speaker 4: centuries in this country biblically speaking, even longer than that.
Speaker 4: It is a righteous fight. But speaking of righteous fight,
Speaker 4: I just want to connect the dots for a second,
Speaker 4: because there's a whole conversation happening around qualified immunity. And
Speaker 4: you might remember that the president and Vice president have
Speaker 4: said and then they didn't say, and then they said
Speaker 4: that they supported full immunity for ice officers. Well, I
Speaker 4: just want to remind our audience of leaders learners and
Speaker 4: listeners that back in twenty twenty, when folks had taken
Speaker 4: to the streets in places like Minneapolis and Los Angeles
Speaker 4: and Chicago and DC and New York and so many
Speaker 4: places across the country calling for justice, calling for the
Speaker 4: passage of the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act, I
Speaker 4: just want to remind folks that one of the major
Speaker 4: components of that bill was reforming qualified immunity for officers.
Speaker 4: There are some that wanted to get rid of it altogether.
Speaker 4: There are some that wanted to lower the threshold by
Speaker 4: which it could apply. But imagine, imagine if we had
Speaker 4: gotten that done in twenty twenty. Imagine what tools local
Speaker 4: law enforcement and other agencies would have to work with
Speaker 4: to rein in these ice officers off the rails. And
Speaker 4: so this is just a reminder that there's sometimes there's
Speaker 4: legislation out there. And you know this better than most
Speaker 4: Jesse Jackson Junior, as a former member of Congress and
Speaker 4: soon to be member of Congress again, you know this
Speaker 4: better than anybody else. That there are folks that somehow
Speaker 4: get in their head that there are pieces of legislation
Speaker 4: that narrowly only benefit black people and seem to forget
Speaker 4: the history that we've had in this country of fighting
Speaker 4: for legislation that not just moves our people forward closer
Speaker 4: to liberation, but moves America forward. And so if America
Speaker 4: celebrates it's two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, commemorates it, we
Speaker 4: need to do a look back and a look forward.
Speaker 4: We need to learn from what we didn't get done
Speaker 4: into and how it's playing out in the now, so
Speaker 4: that we can stop it from happening ever again.
Speaker 1: Now that's a word of hope if I ever heard one,
Speaker 1: that doesn't get much clearer than what doctor Q said.
Speaker 1: Nineteen sixty four Civil Rights Act didn't just benefit black people.
Speaker 1: It also led to the Americans with Disability Act. It
Speaker 1: also led to the civil right to marriage for two
Speaker 1: persons who are in love and care deeply and profoundly
Speaker 1: for each other. It led to access for the disabled
Speaker 1: to get into buildings and to build ramps and to
Speaker 1: build sidewalks that allow people to traverse and take advantage
Speaker 1: of their basic civil and human rights. It's given rights
Speaker 1: to veterans and to even white men. It was illegal
Speaker 1: to be a police officer in Alabama and Mississippi and
Speaker 1: certainly a state trooper if you weren't at least six
Speaker 1: foot two. So even short white men were discriminated against
Speaker 1: without the Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty four. When
Speaker 1: you think about this question of qualified immunity, doctor Q,
Speaker 1: you hit its spot on the head. They shot that
Speaker 1: woman in her face, and they also now have warrantless
Speaker 1: searches of people's homes, meaning they can kick in the
Speaker 1: door not only of black and brown people, but they
Speaker 1: can kick in the doors of white folks. Doctor King, American.
Speaker 4: It's an American and we need to call it out
Speaker 4: before our nation succumbs to this perversion of our constitution.
Speaker 1: Our very special guest has been doctor Nie Cordelaike Corte,
Speaker 1: and you're listening to the Jesse Jackson Junior Show and
Speaker 1: Fat Met Fridays with Gina Towns More. When we come
Speaker 1: forward on KBLA Talk