Speaker 1: You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2: Joining me in studio is none other than Nick Polyochini.
Speaker 3: What is up, my brother?
Speaker 4: What is up?
Speaker 5: Good sir? It's lovely to see you. Lovely to be
Speaker 5: seen as we're wrapping up February last week. Is crazy
Speaker 5: to think they were already.
Speaker 2: There already, even though it is a shorter month, right,
Speaker 2: it feels even shorter for some reason, maybe because January
Speaker 2: lasted seventy five days.
Speaker 5: You are correct, and February seems to have been the
Speaker 5: longest on record, even though we're going to be wrapping it.
Speaker 4: Up this week.
Speaker 5: So it's been busy, it's been good, and I want
Speaker 5: to take us to as always very akin to the
Speaker 5: old days with this week of a Nick Poliochanni. This
Speaker 5: Friday is something big that's happening, and you and I
Speaker 5: briefly talked about it just off air, and we kind
Speaker 5: of we sift to save it for the air kind
Speaker 5: of concept.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 5: So the thing I want to talk about is this
Speaker 5: Friday is going to be a nationwide economic blackout, and
Speaker 5: what that specifically means is that there is a boycott
Speaker 5: of all major companies that is being requested, meaning Amazon, Walmart, Target,
Speaker 5: Best Buy, McDonald's, Meta which would be Instagram and Facebook,
Speaker 5: Ford Motor Company, Chipotle, Coca Cola, which all of these
Speaker 5: are major brands that you can barely get around without
Speaker 5: doing anything.
Speaker 3: What is the reason for this economic boycott?
Speaker 4: They are trying to specifically make their I guess you
Speaker 4: would say people in general.
Speaker 5: So there's a group that has come together that's called
Speaker 5: the People's Union USA, and they organized boycott's traditionally before,
Speaker 5: but specifically looking at retailers because they're trying to send
Speaker 5: a message with everything that's been going on and the
Speaker 5: thing that for me and I have gotten a lot
Speaker 5: of feedback from social media from a lot of listeners
Speaker 5: that KFI and elsewhere that it's specific it's a twenty
Speaker 5: four hour time period where you're being urged to refrain
Speaker 5: from spending money unnecessarily both online and in store with
Speaker 5: these particular large retailers, and it is trying to make
Speaker 5: the and it's a reference specifically to DEI with you know,
Speaker 5: with everything that's been going on since January twentieth until now,
Speaker 5: and so with that all being said, and it was
Speaker 5: funny because I was talking to twelve off air. I
Speaker 5: both actively and inactively or you know, passively. I haven't
Speaker 5: been a target since the twentieth I haven't been to Walmart.
Speaker 5: I have been Costco. But you know, we got you
Speaker 5: got to pick and choose your retailers. But this Friday
Speaker 5: is going to be the major And there's been small
Speaker 5: blackouts throughout from you know, the new presidency through now,
Speaker 5: but this is one that is really being pushed, especially
Speaker 5: by minority groups.
Speaker 3: Let me jump in there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I talk about protests and effective protest just
Speaker 2: about every day with every issue on this show.
Speaker 3: I'm going to be consistent.
Speaker 2: So let me just ask you what word answer, because
Speaker 2: that's going to predicate how I'm going to respond.
Speaker 4: Sounds great.
Speaker 2: Is this going to be done in the hopes of
Speaker 2: actually changing something or only creating awareness?
Speaker 4: It is at this point creating awareness.
Speaker 5: Specifically, the hope is to have an economic impact, to
Speaker 5: be able to have a blip on the radar.
Speaker 3: Let me jump in. Go ahead. You are not going
Speaker 3: to have any economic impact. And I'll tell you what.
Speaker 2: These major corporations measure their revenue in quarters, not a day.
Speaker 2: In other words, if they have a down Friday and
Speaker 2: everyone starts spending on Saturday. It's not going to make
Speaker 2: any different and it's not even going difference, and it's
Speaker 2: not even going to register. And I always use the
Speaker 2: Montgomery bus boycott of nineteen fifty five as a comparison point,
Speaker 2: which lasted three hundred and eighty one days and set
Speaker 2: off the modern civil rights movement.
Speaker 3: That's Rosa Parks. She refused to sit at the back
Speaker 3: of the bus.
Speaker 2: And the people in Montgomery, Alabama refused to use the
Speaker 2: bus lines for three hundred and eighty one days. That
Speaker 2: had an economic impact. Now, there was an old chain
Speaker 2: letter that would float around the nineteen nineties and early
Speaker 2: two thousands called the Big Gas Out because people were
Speaker 2: mad about remember gas price, and they said let's not
Speaker 2: buy gas for a single day. It did not change
Speaker 2: a damn thing. So I say, and I asked, respectfully,
Speaker 2: are you trying to create awareness? Are you're trying to
Speaker 2: create economic impact? Because one day it's not going to
Speaker 2: create any economic impact. What we have seen is people
Speaker 2: have really laid into target and not going to target
Speaker 2: over an extended period of time. That target is feeling it.
Speaker 2: But if you say, for one day, we're not going
Speaker 2: to spend that any big box retailer or we're not
Speaker 2: going to buy over here, bye over there, But the
Speaker 2: next day we can go back to what we were
Speaker 2: doing before. It's not going to be felt. It's not
Speaker 2: going to make a difference, with exception of you might
Speaker 2: get some news coverage.
Speaker 4: Right and I think that's it.
Speaker 5: And again, like you've just specifically had, I mean, this
Speaker 5: is why I come here. The thing that I like
Speaker 5: being a part of later with mo Kelly is because
Speaker 5: I learn as well and being able to bring in
Speaker 5: topics like this and talk about them in it environment
Speaker 5: with somebody who is well versed in a lot of
Speaker 5: background information. It's really helpful because again it's going to
Speaker 5: hopefully bring awareness and obviously not economically affect those people
Speaker 5: that are there. I want to play and you said
Speaker 5: target specifically, and target is a very big situation.
Speaker 4: I guess you would say.
Speaker 5: I was trying to figure out before I came on
Speaker 5: the show tonight exactly how to present it because I
Speaker 5: know I'm going up against the big guns and it
Speaker 5: is always good to bring a little bit of I
Speaker 5: don't know background to it. There's a TikToker not to employ,
Speaker 5: you know, the social media platform that was shut down
Speaker 5: and then brought back by the Illustrious Current was shut down, Yeah,
Speaker 5: allegedly six hours something like that anyway.
Speaker 4: But Amber Haley Lord.
Speaker 5: Who is a advocate for healthcare and corporate ethic related
Speaker 5: issues on TikTok Robin, can you play that piece of
Speaker 5: audio for me please?
Speaker 3: Why is everyone going after Target so hard?
Speaker 6: A bunch of brands backed away from DEI and we
Speaker 6: all decided to boycott Target, Walmart, Amazon, and a slew
Speaker 6: of others. Saw this really great question where this person
Speaker 6: was asking, why is everyone going so.
Speaker 4: Hard about Target?
Speaker 6: I know exactly why, because I've been doing it too.
Speaker 6: I think a lot of people are more butt hurt
Speaker 6: about Target because Target tricked us for so long talking
Speaker 6: about inclusivity, supporting black brands, diversity, equity, LGBTQ, pride, stuff,
Speaker 6: all the things. Really were loud and proud about so
Speaker 6: many things for so many years, and it was our
Speaker 6: happy place. We felt good being there. We felt like,
Speaker 6: as far as capitalism goes and big box stores, that
Speaker 6: we could safely spend our money there and that they
Speaker 6: had a lot of great brands and they were supporting
Speaker 6: And then just at the slight sign of an issue.
Speaker 6: They just tucked tail and run. They're a big company
Speaker 6: with a lot of money and a lot of lawyers.
Speaker 6: Without a shadow of a doubt, they did not have
Speaker 6: to do this. They were scared, and they were scared
Speaker 6: of losing money, and now they're losing money, and I
Speaker 6: encourage you guys to keep boycotting them. One big move
Speaker 6: that we recently made because we were getting like our
Speaker 6: pet food, like doggy diapers and dog treats and cat
Speaker 6: treats and all those things there, We now solely get
Speaker 6: everything from Chewi and actually we put everything on auto ships.
Speaker 6: We don't have to make a trip to the store,
Speaker 6: and we're getting it for less money. And Chewy is
Speaker 6: a great company.
Speaker 3: So that's solved.
Speaker 5: So I think the thing and that there's a lot
Speaker 5: of information that Amber put out there specifically, but I
Speaker 5: think that for me this is something and as we scroll,
Speaker 5: you know doom scroll, as it's very very popular, you
Speaker 5: are able to find things that align depending on what
Speaker 5: you like and what you click in social media. But
Speaker 5: it was interesting to come across this specifically because for me,
Speaker 5: and being so involved heavily with social media sets, it's
Speaker 5: on set. It is something that you know, and the
Speaker 5: jokes are always there with a meme, you know, the
Speaker 5: thirtieth of the month, it's this color and then it
Speaker 5: goes to a different color. For me with being a
Speaker 5: queer person, it is the rainbow that happens for June
Speaker 5: every year because that's that well, because that is LGBTQ
Speaker 5: History month. But it is always wild to me because
Speaker 5: the thing that for me that I've always pushed on
Speaker 5: the show period is supporting small business anyway and really
Speaker 5: leaning into that. But it was something that we had
Speaker 5: always had the Minnesota nice attitude with Target, and that
Speaker 5: was the brand that allegedly really had put themselves out
Speaker 5: there to be in support of minority groups and lean
Speaker 5: into AAPI and to black history and to LGBTQ. So
Speaker 5: the thing that I want to do is, you know,
Speaker 5: again add to the awareness of it. But as I
Speaker 5: always like to do, I like to bring things to
Speaker 5: the show. So how can you make yourself, you know,
Speaker 5: a part of it if you so choose, yes, go
Speaker 5: for me.
Speaker 3: It's real simple. It has to be more than a hashtag.
Speaker 2: It has to be more than a day, and it
Speaker 2: has to be about more than just awareness. It has
Speaker 2: to be about Hey, we're not going to shop at
Speaker 2: these businesses, and this is true of any protests to
Speaker 2: insert your cause does matter. We're not going to shop
Speaker 2: at these locations until correct dot dot and it's open ended.
Speaker 2: And then after a quarter of lost revenue, you may
Speaker 2: see businesses start changing their tune because ultimately they care
Speaker 2: about the American dollar and their bottom line more than
Speaker 2: anything in the world. They will sell Girl Scout cookies
Speaker 2: if that's what you're all asking for and demanded of them.
Speaker 2: But if you think that staying home per se one
Speaker 2: day is going to change their stance on any issue,
Speaker 2: absolutely not. It would never happen.
Speaker 4: Right, So let's look at how we can support other businesses.
Speaker 2: No, I'm saying, if you want to say we shouldn't
Speaker 2: shop here or there anymore and only shop small, which
Speaker 2: we hear on varying levels each year, correct by all means.
Speaker 2: But if you are sharing this with people, with them
Speaker 2: thinking that they're going to have an impact or there
Speaker 2: might be a change on the other side, I would
Speaker 2: not want you to lie to them, because I'm telling
Speaker 2: you it's not going to yield anything close to that
Speaker 2: type of result. We all know about quote unquote the
Speaker 2: fight regarding DBI. We all know that the different retailers
Speaker 2: that you mentioned have pulled back and that has left
Speaker 2: people feeling some kind of way. The only way that
Speaker 2: you're going to get them to change is to feel
Speaker 2: the same economic pressure which was placed upon them by
Speaker 2: the federal government. And if you can't meet that same
Speaker 2: level of pressure, and they've already had the meetings and
Speaker 2: they've already gained plan on how long they feel that
Speaker 2: people are going to be protesting or mad, and they
Speaker 2: feel that they can outlast you. And that's why they've
Speaker 2: made this decision at least for now, because they got
Speaker 2: to deal with the federal government for the next four years.
Speaker 2: Then they only have to deal with people screaming and
Speaker 2: shouting for the next four weeks.
Speaker 4: And that's right.
Speaker 5: And I think that's the thing specific to this, because
Speaker 5: if you take it even one step further, it's if
Speaker 5: we all need these retailers, there's no question about it. Then,
Speaker 5: as you said, trying to be able to do a
Speaker 5: long game on this, it's real hard not to go
Speaker 5: to Walmart and Target. It's real hard not to go
Speaker 5: and make because the convenience of our lives, right.
Speaker 2: You're not gonna go to Amazon. You're not gonna go
Speaker 2: to Target. But you're not gonna go to Amazon. Correct,
Speaker 2: you're not gonna go to Walmart.
Speaker 5: Well, and the best part is with Amazon because people
Speaker 5: never see it. That's the thing, because that gets delivered
Speaker 5: to your home, so you can feel real good about
Speaker 5: yourself because it's no one's ever seeing that, as opposed
Speaker 5: to I'm not going to walk into a Target or Walmart.
Speaker 5: So the idea is beyond what's coming on Friday, and
Speaker 5: if you so choose to participate in it, that's great,
Speaker 5: But it's how do you spend your money at these retailers?
Speaker 4: Is what I'm looking at.
Speaker 5: So I want to look at some small businesses that
Speaker 5: are because the point is we have people. You have
Speaker 5: people that you care about, as do I who work
Speaker 5: at these places that need the job. So this isn't
Speaker 5: saying you know, I understand we're all doing that walkout
Speaker 5: to make a point or try to feel good about ourselves,
Speaker 5: but how can we be smarter about spending those dollars?
Speaker 3: I have some thoughts about that. Sharing when we come back,
Speaker 3: please do.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2: Mo Kelly, Nick polo'chinny. We're live everywhere in the iHeartRadio
Speaker 2: app and we have a different sounding conversation tonight is
Speaker 2: Nick polo'channey is telling us about this economic boycott in
Speaker 2: the name of the DEI anti DEI stances taken on
Speaker 2: by Target and other Walmart, other big box retailers, and
Speaker 2: there's an economic boycott schedule for this Friday. I've taken
Speaker 2: this stance. It's not going to have an economic impact.
Speaker 2: And if you're trying to do anything beyond awareness, I
Speaker 2: think you're respectfully wasting everyone's time. Everyone's aware of it,
Speaker 2: but if they're not going to be pushed to the
Speaker 2: point they being the retailers pushed to the point that
Speaker 2: they would make a change, I don't know the purpose
Speaker 2: of it.
Speaker 3: And let me add one thing before I turn it
Speaker 3: back over to you, Nick.
Speaker 2: Sure, when you talk about awareness, part of that has
Speaker 2: to be an edge education process of the general public.
Speaker 2: And in terms of the DEI discussion, people for the
Speaker 2: most part, and I know people listening right now are
Speaker 2: misinformed as to what it is. Diversity, equity and inclusion
Speaker 2: is not affirmative action, correct, And I hear it again
Speaker 2: and again, and if you keep saying it, I'll tell
Speaker 2: you you're wrong every time you say it. Think of diversity, equity,
Speaker 2: inclusion as you will expand your reach and also where
Speaker 2: you are looking for qualified, equally qualified individuals. Let's say
Speaker 2: that you are pilots, and this is a real example.
Speaker 2: Let's say you're recruiting for pilots for American airlines. You
Speaker 2: would also have representatives which will go to the HBCUs,
Speaker 2: the historically black colleges and universities and recruit from those
Speaker 2: stem places and also invite them to test and become pilots.
Speaker 2: You're not choosing people of color, or who are women,
Speaker 2: or who are GBTQ on the status of them being
Speaker 2: checking those boxes and they're also underqualified or less qualified.
Speaker 3: That is a lie.
Speaker 2: So when I say to you, awareness, there has to
Speaker 2: be a component as far as educating people to.
Speaker 3: What it is not it's just what you want.
Speaker 5: Right, And I think for that specific thing to take
Speaker 5: it even very close to home here at KFI. Last year,
Speaker 5: Steve Gregory, who used to work here myself, and Jacob
Speaker 5: Gonzales won an Edward R. More Award for the Regional
Speaker 5: and National, one of the most Illustrious Awards within Media.
Speaker 3: Congratulations once again, well thanks your thank you.
Speaker 5: But the point is we literally won in the category
Speaker 5: of DEI Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and it had to
Speaker 5: do with everything you've described of how educating people is
Speaker 5: and how what it involves outside of this box being checked,
Speaker 5: because it affects people at the end of the day,
Speaker 5: It affects lives at the end of the day, and
Speaker 5: you know, it affects livelihoods at the end of the day.
Speaker 5: So that's something that we have even done here specifically
Speaker 5: on KFI with a two hour special and a nine
Speaker 5: episode podcast series, and we're acknowledged for it.
Speaker 2: But unfortunately it has been distorted, it has been misused,
Speaker 2: it has been appropriated, has been used to malign people
Speaker 2: as a slur and pejorative. We see it whenever there's
Speaker 2: an airline almost incident or an actual incident, including today,
Speaker 2: and they say, oh, there's another DEI incident in the
Speaker 2: air today, making the assumption that not only the incident
Speaker 2: was because of someone other than a white cis male, correct,
Speaker 2: but because that someone was either a woman and that
Speaker 2: person was responsible for that incident and was lesser qualified
Speaker 2: and chosen instead of that white cis male, right.
Speaker 5: And the funnier part of that whole scenario is I
Speaker 5: am a white sin it's mail and I'm also queer,
Speaker 5: so I hit the DEI box. But there's you and
Speaker 5: I walk into a business, you see a white man
Speaker 5: and a black man. That's we've encountered it and specifically
Speaker 5: not to see my emails, right. And I think that
Speaker 5: it's in this moment that we have an opportunity again
Speaker 5: to educate and bring awareness to something.
Speaker 2: And I agree with you, and that's why I use
Speaker 2: this platform because I want to raise the caliber of
Speaker 2: the conversation absolutely, and part of that is disabusing people
Speaker 2: of their ignorant notions exactly. And when it comes to DEI,
Speaker 2: if you want to change the tenor and direction of
Speaker 2: that conversation, that it has to be more to me,
Speaker 2: I agree with it.
Speaker 3: It has to be more than.
Speaker 2: We need to put pressure on Target and Walmart and
Speaker 2: Amazon to say we want this. There has to be
Speaker 2: a wider educational component so people understand not only what
Speaker 2: you're fighting for, but why you're fighting for it, and
Speaker 2: also why you're against it is actually not what you
Speaker 2: are against, in other words, what you think you're against
Speaker 2: is not even.
Speaker 3: What it is.
Speaker 2: If I had a nickel for every time I had
Speaker 2: to explain the folks that you don't know what the
Speaker 2: frick you're talking about.
Speaker 5: And I think that's it, because we're giving gravity and
Speaker 5: air to something that doesn't get talked about specifically. And
Speaker 5: the challenge is we live in the fifteen second moment anymore.
Speaker 5: So wherever the algorithms of your social media take you,
Speaker 5: that's the lens within your only thing you're seeing. And
Speaker 5: that's what kills me because again, that is where I
Speaker 5: have spent a lot of my time, you know, when
Speaker 5: I was an iHeart an employee and supporting the brand
Speaker 5: here that I was able to really see how that
Speaker 5: curation through technology really changes the definition and really changes
Speaker 5: the perception of something.
Speaker 3: Let me ask you a quick question.
Speaker 2: Sure, break, we're going to carry this over to the
Speaker 2: next segment, but this I think is going to highlight
Speaker 2: what I mean after the economic boycott. In other words,
Speaker 2: there's Friday the twenty eighth, what happens on March first.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's again like we joked about it, but I say,
Speaker 5: that's my point and I think that's the hardest part.
Speaker 5: So again and we'll talk about this after the break,
Speaker 5: but it's how do you take your dollars and how
Speaker 5: do you better choose what you're doing, choose where you're
Speaker 5: spending them.
Speaker 2: Oh, I got an answer to that. It's very easy.
Speaker 2: That has to be mapped out before you have the econom.
Speaker 5: And you have to have done so much homework and research,
Speaker 5: and thankfully there's a good amount of that done.
Speaker 2: But it is because it's easier to just see the
Speaker 2: not dismissing or just did It's easy to say, oh,
Speaker 2: there's an economic boycott on Friday.
Speaker 3: Sure I won't buy anything on Friday.
Speaker 2: And they don't have to think about it beyond it,
Speaker 2: because in their mind they've actually accomplished something. They've done something.
Speaker 2: They put up a hashtager that they shared a post
Speaker 2: and they didn't spend any money at Amazon, and then
Speaker 2: they go home and feel like, see, I've contributed to
Speaker 2: the cause, when.
Speaker 3: Those mother fathers have not. They haven't done anything. They're lazy.
Speaker 2: If they actually studied civil rights movement, they would know
Speaker 2: that there's a commitment not only weeks, months, most likely
Speaker 2: years as in plural and then not only does a
Speaker 2: country change, but capitalism would change and you'd have the
Speaker 2: desired result. But you know, in this country, when the
Speaker 2: social media, they move on after a week or so.
Speaker 2: And my point to you is Saturday is going to
Speaker 2: come and people will have moved on because they will
Speaker 2: have thought they would have done something, and they would
Speaker 2: have not done anything. They would not have educated the masses,
Speaker 2: they will not have provided any really economic pressure on
Speaker 2: the entities that they want to pressure, and then nothing
Speaker 2: has been gained. And that's what frustrates me because you
Speaker 2: may as a group may be well intentioned, but it's
Speaker 2: poorly executed and poorly planned.
Speaker 3: Right, we'll have more just moment.
Speaker 2: It's Later with mo' kelly KFIM six forty were live
Speaker 2: everywhere the i heeartradio app.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty KFI.
Speaker 2: Mister mo' kelly and Nick Caliochinni still as we're both
Speaker 2: live everywhere the iHeartRadio app. And we've had a very
Speaker 2: spirited conversation about the conversation surrounding DEI and how many
Speaker 2: businesses and retailers are responding to the pressure and the
Speaker 2: executive action of President Trump, and they've responded in different ways.
Speaker 2: Some companies like Apple, for example, have pushed back. Some
Speaker 2: companies such as Walmart and Target have given in correct,
Speaker 2: And you have told us tonight about a proposed economic
Speaker 2: boycott across the country. Regarding those retailers who have which
Speaker 2: have given in, I push back on the idea that
Speaker 2: it's going to create the type of awareness and impact
Speaker 2: that you might have hoped for. I thought something would
Speaker 2: have something else would have been more impactful and more educational,
Speaker 2: and I was using history as a guy.
Speaker 4: Does that a fair representation?
Speaker 5: I think it's a perfect You've definitely brought us in,
Speaker 5: you know, if you want to reset us right back
Speaker 5: to where we were. And I think that's the reason
Speaker 5: I bring something like this to later with mo Kelly,
Speaker 5: because we can have that spirited conversation and with the
Speaker 5: knowledge and background and experience to really take a dive
Speaker 5: into it. Because it is one of those scenarios that
Speaker 5: I've already talked about. People will participate in it for
Speaker 5: the awareness component of it and to feel good about it.
Speaker 5: But as you said on Saturday, the very next day,
Speaker 5: it'll be two hundred dollars to spend at Target. Yeah,
Speaker 5: because it will be right back to it and I
Speaker 5: think the funnier thing even to add to it, Target
Speaker 5: their shareholders push back on the company itself and said,
Speaker 5: we didn't want this. So if you go to Target
Speaker 5: dot com or you go to their social media, you're
Speaker 5: seeing Black History Month stuff. Now, you saw API Month
Speaker 5: stuff back last month. You've got things that are coming
Speaker 5: up for a Women's History month, You've got things that
Speaker 5: are being already on the website for LGBTQ Pride Month.
Speaker 5: So if nothing happened now, granted that is a representation
Speaker 5: of okay, we're coming back to it, but also something
Speaker 5: is you know, we have that idea of a brand
Speaker 5: like Target, who is the Minnesota nice of the big
Speaker 5: box retailers who really leaned into it. So the bigger
Speaker 5: question that you and I were starting to talk about
Speaker 5: and we stopped is give me, in your experience or
Speaker 5: your insights kind of what would be a better use
Speaker 5: of the time or better approach I guess for it,
Speaker 5: because obviously, like you specifically have laid out, it needs time,
Speaker 5: it needs education, it needs a lot more than one day. Obviously,
Speaker 5: even if we're just talking about the awareness component, removing
Speaker 5: the economic impact, which obviously you've already discussed specifically saying
Speaker 5: it has quarters involved and that's how businesses look at
Speaker 5: all that, and that makes perfect sense. But what is
Speaker 5: something that could be done or something that would be
Speaker 5: a better approach.
Speaker 2: All movements need to be able to have a person
Speaker 2: or a group of people who can effectively communicate on
Speaker 2: behalf of those masses coming out of the Montgomery bus boycott.
Speaker 3: I use that as an example.
Speaker 2: That's when doctor King moved to the front of the
Speaker 2: civil rights movement and then became one of the lead mouthpieces,
Speaker 2: if you will, to express the fact that this is
Speaker 2: what's going on in America, this is what needs to
Speaker 2: be changed, this is why we're going about it this
Speaker 2: way to bring about the desired change. So people could
Speaker 2: not only see what was going on. In other words,
Speaker 2: he'll be able to provide context for why people were
Speaker 2: refusing to use the Montgomery bus line system. This economic
Speaker 2: boycott is going to come and go, and there won't
Speaker 2: be a cohesive voice or message around it.
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 2: I've seen it far too many times with Occupy Wall Street,
Speaker 2: with the pea hats, with the Trump protests in twenty sixteen,
Speaker 2: with BLM. It happens every single year. There isn't a
Speaker 2: centralized messaging source, and people who've been agreed upon to
Speaker 2: be able to speak on behalf of the movement and
Speaker 2: provide context and edge so people understand, hey, this is
Speaker 2: what DEI is not, and this is what DEI is.
Speaker 2: And also this is how DEI has either moved the
Speaker 2: country forward or added something to it in a way
Speaker 2: that you did not know. And I was using an
Speaker 2: example of the late astronaut Ronald McNair and how NASA
Speaker 2: was specifically looking in communities they had not looked before. Originally,
Speaker 2: NASA was a military installation and they're only looking for
Speaker 2: pilots and military veterans and what have you. And then
Speaker 2: in the early nine late nineteen sixties, early nineteen seventies
Speaker 2: they started was basically the forerunner of DEI. And that's
Speaker 2: when you saw female astronauts, That's when you saw black astronauts,
Speaker 2: and you saw different people representative of different communities and
Speaker 2: different disciplines becoming astronauts.
Speaker 3: There has to be someone who can.
Speaker 2: Articulate the benefits of an inclusive society and not just
Speaker 2: in an employment context, historical context, and then you can
Speaker 2: have a robust conversation about where it fits and where
Speaker 2: it does not fit within our society and what is
Speaker 2: being proposed does none of that when there are plenty
Speaker 2: of historical examples of how that's been done and been
Speaker 2: done effectively.
Speaker 5: Now to piggyback on that specifically, because you've given a
Speaker 5: lot of context to history, and that makes and hopefully
Speaker 5: we would like to learn from history, and it seems
Speaker 5: that doesn't that's not the case. But what does it
Speaker 5: look like now? Because I'm we have an individual leading
Speaker 5: our country who has been incredibly polarizing to a certain topic,
Speaker 5: who has brought in other people that are polarizing to
Speaker 5: a topic. What does it look like for us in
Speaker 5: the fifteen second attention span now? Because historically you were
Speaker 5: able to have that one epic polarizing voice or maybe
Speaker 5: two or three, and the way that news traveled and
Speaker 5: communication traveled it was one thing. So how how do
Speaker 5: we in the modern era approach this? What does that
Speaker 5: look like? Here's the uncomfortable truth.
Speaker 2: I'm always going to tell you when anyone else the
Speaker 2: trees when I talk about the Civil rights movement, it
Speaker 2: was not a month or a year. I used this
Speaker 2: Montgomery bus boycott as an example of something which was effective,
Speaker 2: but it did not bring about the ultimate desired result,
Speaker 2: bring about the ending of segregation. The signing of the
Speaker 2: Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act the Montgomery
Speaker 2: bus boycott was nineteen fifty five. The signing of the
Speaker 2: Civil Rights Act was nineteen sixty four, that's nine years later.
Speaker 2: The Voting Rights Act in nineteen sixty five, and the
Speaker 2: Fairhousing Act of nineteen sixty eight, which and the totality
Speaker 2: of those acts change society. But people want it right here,
Speaker 2: right now, in this instant, going back to the fifteen
Speaker 2: second news cycle and also the social media cycle where
Speaker 2: we just move on, where people are not actually committed
Speaker 2: to something. The modern day civil rights movement started actually
Speaker 2: in the late nineteen fifties during the Eisenhower administration, with
Speaker 2: the first Civil Rights Act that most people have forgotten
Speaker 2: and you're talking about, you know, the arc of justice
Speaker 2: is long, the ar moral arc is long, and it
Speaker 2: bends towards justice. Well, that arc is really really long,
Speaker 2: and it lasted from like nineteen fifty five to nineteen
Speaker 2: sixty nine. If we're going to fundamentally change America, it's
Speaker 2: not going to be overnight. It's not going to be
Speaker 2: one boycott on Friday. It's not even going to be
Speaker 2: a successive boycotts over the course of the year. It's
Speaker 2: going to be an ongoing process with a specific legislative end.
Speaker 2: Legislative there has to be a legislative in or otherwise
Speaker 2: it's going to be willy nilly and people going to
Speaker 2: do whatever they want, and then people are going to
Speaker 2: fall back into their own silos and then choose to
Speaker 2: do whatever is politically or financially expedient to serve their
Speaker 2: own personal, financial and political interests.
Speaker 4: I'm marinating over all that no, no, no, no, I don't
Speaker 4: have any good news, no, no, no, But.
Speaker 5: I say because I think that's the hardest part, and
Speaker 5: that's kind of the world that we're in right now,
Speaker 5: is it's people. And granted, sadly going back to the
Speaker 5: fifteen seconds, people want the quick fix, and that is
Speaker 5: not going to happen yep, raising awareness the second that
Speaker 5: it happens. If we're just going to remove all the
Speaker 5: things the second that we move into it, and once
Speaker 5: you start clicking away from it on social media, not
Speaker 5: only is the attention span gone, but the algorithm is
Speaker 5: now moving it completely to a different world. So how
Speaker 5: people are consuming the information and how people are consuming
Speaker 5: that context.
Speaker 4: Here your more challenge, here's.
Speaker 3: The dirty little secret, and we won't have to let
Speaker 3: it go after this.
Speaker 2: Of course, those who are in power, those who who
Speaker 2: maybe the oligarchs, the Elon Musk of the world, the
Speaker 2: Mark Zuckerberg's, the Jeff Bezos, they know that they can
Speaker 2: outlast you. They know that they have the power through
Speaker 2: executive actions, through corporate structure. They have power. And those
Speaker 2: who have power are not going to willingly relinquish it.
Speaker 2: And they also know that you will give up after
Speaker 2: two weeks on this case, one fricking one day.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Later with mog Kelly on demand from
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