From Loyalty To Leverage: The Black Vote Will Cost

Transcript

Opening & Knowledge God Theme

SPEAKER_02 0:36

Please, please welcome back and welcome back. Freedom's fears radio. I'm your vomit. I'm a vomit like that is. And as always, out the gate. Out the gate. We wanna thank you. And tell you how much we appreciate you pushing the buttons and tapping back in with us on this glorious sunrise. Today, February 17th, 2026. The numerical focus for today is knowledge God. And that doesn't come from a place of arrogance or ego. You remember years ago they used to say, you know what I'm saying, knowledge God, you know what I'm saying? Knowledge God, knowledge. It doesn't come from that place. Well, up here, we don't come from that place. That particular thought comes from a place of edification, humility, and responsibility. Right? Because now first of all, knowledge, that's that's what knowledge is. It's not it's not a thing to be arrogant or to sound intelligent. It comes from a place, it is the is the is the it is a root, it's grounded in cultivation, thoughtfulness, and responsibility. And it grows. Right? And God, what is God? How how do we see God? We see God Himself. Right? Arm, leg, leg, arm, head. And this is what knowledge God manifests, build or destroy. As above, so below. The eight. Right? That's what that represents. As above, so below. And I hope that is a reflection that you that you can understand. Or if you don't understand it, just do a little research and a little studying. And all you have to do is look at life. And those things. Everything I just said to you, you will see it with a clear lens. Okay. That said, we're going to move on with the program. We're going to move on with the program. Let me see. Can I get a bed in here real quick? Hold on just a second. Let me see. Can I get that? Yeah, there we go. There you go. That's my joint right there. And y'all know, y'all already know that. That's my joint. But any, but anyway, anyway, getting on with the with today's program, we're going to open up with um the bios for the week. You know, last week I came with one bio. This week I'm going to come with two. And I want you to understand that this is not a thing with celebrating Black History Month up here. I explained last week, I really don't celebrate Black History Month. I understand the place from which it comes from. I am a proponent of every day is Black history to me, black American history. We are the fabric of this nation. We are woven into the fabric of this nation. So every day is a reflection of our history to me. Now I understand the perspective of historical and traditional points of view, and I have no problem with that. Whoever says they celebrate it, to me, it's not a thing of well, it is sort of a celebration, but every day is a celebration of our history and our culture and such. But what I've been trying to implement here on the program each week is these bios that don't get talked about. Because you know, every year for the Black History Month, you know, it's it's Dr. Martin Luther King, um, Malcolm X, Harriet Tubman, and you know, so on and so forth. It's the usual bios that people reflect on. Now, lately, in recent years, we've expanded out to other individuals and to unknowns that usually don't get talked about. And that's this is what I'm trying to implement here. I just, I think, I think it was last week or the week before I started introducing these bios, and I'm gonna be doing that each week up here. I'm gonna be selecting a bio or two because there's so many people that we need to study from the past and from the present. And and their accomplishments that really don't get talked about. So we wanna we want to start doing that. And the first bio for this week's program, we are looking at uh Paul Robison. And this is a man I studied uh since I was very young, Paul Robeson and his uh journey, right? And it and it starts uh the by his bio is Paul Robeson, born in 1898 and died in 1976, was one of the most accomplished and politically fearless figures of the 20th century, an athlete, scholar, an actor, a singer, and global human rights advocate. Born in Princeton, New Jersey, the son of a formerly enslaved father, Robison excelled early. He earned a scholarship to Rutgers University, where he became a standout football player and a valedictorian of his class. He later earned a law degree from Columbia University. Robison rose to international fame as a stage and film actor, most notably for his powerful performances in Shakespeare's Orthello. As a singer, his deep bass, baritone voice made spirituals like Old Man River globally recognized, though he famously altered the lyrics in performance to remove themes of submission and instead emphasize resistance. But Robison was more than an entertainer. He became an outspoken advocate for labor rights, anti-colonial movements, and racial justice worldwide. During the early Cold War, his criticism of American racial inequality and his perceived sympathy toward the Soviet Union, Soviet Union, I should say, pardon me, made him a target of United States government scrutiny. His passport was revoked in 1950, severely limiting his career for nearly a decade. Despite political blacklisting, Roberson refused to renounce his beliefs. He viewed the struggle of black Americans as connected to global liberation movements across Africa, Asia, and Europe. Paul Robeson remains a symbol of intellectual excellence, cultural pride, and uncompromising political conviction. A figure who believed talent carried responsibility. I just said that in the uh opening of the numerical focus about about knowledge and and things of the nature being a responsibility once you've attained it. And this is the same thing this bio is saying about him. Right? And we want to um remember him, remember him, and um always, always uh what did I do here? Oh boy, okay. Yeah, always, you know, pay attention to these to these bios. The next person I want to to bring bring forth here is a female, a woman. And this is her name is Harriet Jacobs. Harriet Jacobs, born 1813 and died 1897, was an African American writer, an abolitionist, and formerly enslaved woman who wrote whose autobiography became one of the most important first-hand accounts of slavery from a black woman's perspective. Born into slavery in Editon, North Carolina, Jacobs endured years of sexual harassment and abuse from her enslaver. In an act of resistance, she hid for nearly seven years in a tiny crawl space barely tall enough to sit upright. Picture this, picture this family above her grandmother's shed to avoid further exploitation and to protect her children. She eventually escaped to the north and in eighteen sixty-one published her memoir under the presodium Linda Brent. Linda Brent. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. That was her memoir. The book was ground was groundbreaking because it exposed the specific sexual violence enslaved women endured, a dimension of slavery often minimized in male authored narratives. Jacobs wrote not only to condemn the institution of slavery, but to reveal how it attacked black womanhood, family structure, and bodily autonomy. During the Civil War, she also worked in relief efforts for formerly enslaved people, continuing her commitment to uplift beyond her writing. Harriet Jacob stands as a powerful voice of resistance, not through armed rebellion, but through testimony. Her work reminds us that documenting truth is itself a form of defiance. Very important, that last part. Yes, very important that last part. And I concur with that. Documentation. This is why we are here. I'm up here today on Freeman's Affairs Radio talking into this microphone, hopefully reaching out to many of you out there who tune in every week. This is documentation that we often talk about up here. Right? This is this is why we don't really get upset. We don't get upset that they stopped these certain celebrations or stop certain things that were that they quote so-called gave to us, uh like free admissions into these uh museums and on certain holidays and they want to roll back certain holidays. We don't care about that because our history, like I said in the very top of the opening of the program this morning, I said that we Yeah, we don't um there's I don't celebrate these things because we we are woven into American history. Our story, our journey is woven into the fabric of American history. We are the history. We are the fabric. And we should never forget that. But, you know, moving ahead, moving ahead, we're gonna get on with today's, what we're gonna talk about up here today. And what we're gonna what I want to kind of touch on today, and I don't want to stay long at all, and I say that every week, but really I don't want to stay long today, and we're gonna see how it goes, because I got a lot of stuff up here, and I may get a little a little jumbled, I should say, is that the word I'm looking for? Jumbled or flustered with all of this stuff I got up here. So it in the event that happens, please uh please try to forgive me. But yeah. Get that bed back in here and we can go. But anyway. Today, I wanted to touch on my my concern for today is is in uh interest voting. Because as I said, as I uh told you last week, that we are about to enter into the the in election season, the midterms. I think in March next month, we we'll be entering that season, and it'll be a lot of campaigning going on, and they've already started. They family, from what I see, they really there's not much out there. There's not much out there. But what I want to do, what I'd like to do, and what I'd like to see is our people becoming more sophisticated and demanding in the way we vote or the way we even view voting. Because right now, and I'm gonna be honest, and and some of you may get upset with me. I'm gonna say this because I try to keep it a buck. As the youth say, keeping it a beam. We are very, as black people, American black people, we're very remedial in our voting. The way we vote, we're very remedial in how we approach the voting system. You know, I was I was I was talking to a female a few days ago, a friend of mine. And I'm not gonna say her name up here, but she knows if if she hears this playback, that we were talking about voting and and how black people vote. And she said to she said to me that her grandmother told us she was a little girl, and her grandmother said to her, You a Democrat, and you're gonna die Democrat. Now, think about that for a second. That is that is some profound statement to tell a child. She said she was a just small child at the time. She's old, she was old enough to understand. She might have been 11, 10, 11 years old, maybe 12. But she says she remembered her grandmother telling her that, and she that's what she'd been on her life, a Democrat. And I asked her, You you ever wondered why, or have you ever paid attention? She said she never paid attention to, she always just thought that the Democrats were for black people and Republicans were for white racist people. So she always voted Democrat. She never questioned anything. And also had a conversation. I think I said this to you some time ago. My uncle said the same exact thing. He never actually took the time to stop and think over what he was going in the booth to vote for. He knew he had to vote Democrat because this was tradition. And um this is this has been our stance for them for. I'm not gonna say all of us are like this, because some of us do pay attention. Some people do pay real attention to what's going on in the in the political um landscape. Right? A lot of us do, but a lot of us don't. We don't even consider. And you know, you'll hear the same old silly, silly things like, you know, vote for the lesser two evils and all that, that goofy remedial mindset. You know, people who are really, I think, um academically lazy take on that. They don't want to seem that they're lazy, so they take on vote for the lesser two evils, and I'm gonna just be done with it. I'll go get my button on the day of voting, and you know, they give out these little silly buttons. I voted early, and I voted today, and you know, these buttons to pin on you when you go to the polls and vote, and people taking pictures with their little silly buttons on and their flags and American flags and stuff like that. But they haven't even considered at all what what they actually voted for because when you ask them, they can't tell you. And I've tested this, I put this through the litmus test plenty of times. So I understand our people, I know our people, and I understand them. Like I say all the time up here on this on this uh program, that I'm not a professional, I'm not a scholar in any sense of the word, I'm not an intellectual. One thing I am, though, a professional at, I'm an expert at, and nobody can take it away from me, is that I know my people. I'm an expert in black folks. I know my people. And this is what I was telling my man Fred the other day about underestimate you get up here and we talk and we talk, and you can't ever think that the people don't know. So I can't never assume most of you out there don't know what's going on. A lot of you do. That's why I don't get up here and talk down. I don't punch down at all. Because I don't underestimate any of you listening to my voice. Some of you, I may be, I'm maybe learning something from what I'm saying up here, and you're taking it with you and using it as an exercise to better some areas of your life. Some of you may be doing that, some of you may not be. I know I'm not here to entertain you. I'm not here for that. Sometimes we have a little light moment up here and we have a laugh, but it is I'm not up here to entertain. I'm up here to learn and to just put the thing out there. This is why I tell you to text the show, to to um send your emails in so you can interact with us. I never take you for granted, but anyway, pushing for it, I'm running my mouth, and we got a whole program to get to get get get to, and uh, we want to do that. So we're talking interest voting, right? This is what we're talking about. And tonight we're gonna talk about some things that make most people uncomfortable, not because it's radical, but because it requires discipline. And that topic is interest voting. For decades, black Americans have been described as loyal voters, particularly loyal to the Democratic Party. Election after election, 85 to 95 percent turnout alignment. It's reliable, it's predictable, and it's consistent. But here's the question no one wants to sit with. What have we received in proportion to that loyalty? And I'm not talking about uh symbolism, slogans, and campaign promises. I'm talking about tangible results. Interest voting is simple in theory. It means you don't you don't give your vote based on party identity, personality, race, or emotional rhetoric. You give your vote based on negotiated benefit. And this is where we want to go with this. This is where I'm I'm advocating we go. Policy for support, resources for turnout, reciprocal exchange, quid pro quo. You've heard me talk about that up here many times, right? Every major interest group in America practices this openly agricultural lobbies, gun rights advocates, environmental groups, corporate PACs, immigration coalitions. And foreign policy blocks. They don't pledge emotional loyalty, they negotiate. And if their man's are not to met, they withhold their support. That's not extremism, as most people will call some of us that that advocate for this. This is called leverage. But when black Americans even suggest adopting this strategy, we are told we are helping the other side or risking democracy or being unrealistic. Why? Because predictable voters are easy to ignore. The moment a a voting block becomes conditional, the political class must respond. Let me let you hear something, and then we'll get back. We'll get back into to the to the monologue. Let me let you hear something. And I held this, I held on to this, and I want you to hear it. This is um this is um Joy Reed. Pay attention to this. Pay attention. This is Joy Reed. Hold on.

SPEAKER_01 23:07

Joy Reed from SMMSNBC is at it again, this time taking to TikTok with a message for black voters.

SPEAKER_03 23:16

You're gonna look real crazy. You're gonna look real weird and real on the on that side. You really all crazy on that side.

SPEAKER_05 23:51

Staring into the cameras, so in telling you going into the star and until people of any race are individuals, they can think for themselves, they can have different values and perspective and it is able to be reductive and patronizing and yet race that to think that just because if they have black skin or they're of African American heritage, they have to support Kamala Harris instead of Donald Trump. Really? They don't get to be individuals, they don't get to have different beliefs that everything from abortion to tax policy to foreign affairs. No, they just have to support the person from their demographic group. That's not progress. That's not social mobility, that's not an open-minded view of the world.

Media Clip & Independence Stance

History Of Black Party Realignment

SPEAKER_02 24:37

It's all right, you got the idea. I don't want to hear all of that because I don't want you to think that I'm sitting up here shilling or advocating that black people turn to the Republican Party. No, I don't, I'm not, I'm an independent, I'm registered as an independent voter because I'm an independent thinker. And what I advocate up here is for us to rent out our vote for the highest bidder. In other words, whatever you're offering, we Democrats, you this is what we want. What can you what can you do about this? This is these are our concerns and our demands. Where where can you meet us at with this? If you can't give us it, give all of it to us, where can you meet us at on on a on an equitable spot? Where can you meet us at with this? And we weigh what they offer if they're saying, well, we can't do this and we can't do that, because that's their favorite word. When it comes to to us, it's their favorite go-to line. We can't, we can't, we can't, we can't, we can't. So, okay, fine. Republicans, this is our demands, these are our concerns. Where can you meet us at at an equitable spot with these with these um proposals? Well, uh uh, you know, you got the scratching and itching and fumbling the mic and this and that. Okay. See you guys later. Best of the luck to the both of you. And uh, you know, take care. If you got independents or other parties out there running running for office, you go, you sit with them and say, you know, these these are demands, these are concerns. Where you at with it? Oh, you don't have anything? Okay, all right. Good luck to you guys. And we go on about our business, doing what we need to do to better and further our causes. Believe me, once that happens, once that happens and they see that we're serious about it because they they saw it with the general election, they saw it. Right? 21% they lost of black men voters. 21%, I believe it was 20, 21 percent, right? And um the Democrats fail miserably in the in the swing states. Now we don't have all of the logistical evidence to s to specifically narrow it down to black men, but we will agree that in those swing states, swing states that that the Democrats lost, the big biggest districts were where black people were at. We will agree to that part. So we can go, we can we can leave that there and leave it to your imagination or to your thought of what happened. But back to it. Back to it. So that's where I'm at with it. I don't advocate for the the um the uh Republicans or the Democrats. Personally, I don't care about neither party, to be honest, quite honest with you. I'm concerned about our concerns and our demands and where you can meet us at with those. Right? So back to to my monologue here. Okay, now let's be clear. Interest voting does not automatically mean supporting the Republican Party, which I just said. It also does not mean abandoning abandoning civic participation. It means neither party is entitled to our vote. It means you ask, what are you offering specifically to address the measurable disparities affecting my community? We're talking about targeted economic investment, capital access, contracting power, educational equity, health outcomes, criminal justice reforms with measurable benchmarks, not broad diversity language, not inclusion panels, not hashtags, specific deliverables. And if neither party offers anything concrete, you withhold, you organize, you build independent leverage, you vote locally where strategy makes sense. You treat your vote like currency, not identity. Because here's the uncomfortable truth when your vote is guaranteed, your agenda is optional, right? Political power is not about passion, it's about positioning. Other communities understand this. They found candidates, they bundle donations, they build packs, they influence primaries, they threaten withdrawal of support, they move strateg uh strategically. Meanwhile, we argue over party loyalty. Interest voting requires something deeper than anger, it requires patience, coordination, and long-term thinking. You cannot demand reciprocity if you are not unified around specific demands. So tonight we're not talking we're not asking who you vote for. We're asking how to vote. Are we emotionally vote or emotional voters or are we transactional voters? Are we symbolic participants or strategic actors? Because in politics, respect is not given, it's negotiated. And negotiation only works when the other side believes you are willing to walk away. That is interest voting. So let's talk about whether we are ready for it and what it would actually take to implement effectively. Let's get into it. Yeah, yeah, that's the opening monologue, and that's where we at. That's where we at, family, with it. So, let me let me go back. Let me go back to it. Okay. That's it. Yeah, that was the opening monologue. Now let's first before we go go into how we're gonna move forward with these things, and we we're not gonna stay long with this, let's go into what happened to to give a little history on what happened, right? And the historical breakdown, how black voting was formed, um it started with the party shift. After the Civil War, black Americans largely aligned with the Republican Party, the party of Lincoln and Reconstruction. But that alignment began to shift during the Great Depression under Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal. This is what happened. This is how we got to where we are now. Right? But that alignment began to shift during Roosevelt and the New Deal, right? Even though many New Deal programs included black workers, especially agricultural and domestic labor, the relief infrastructure still provided more material support than had previously existed. That began the migration. Then came the 1960s, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, signed under President Lyndon B. Johnson, solidified black alignment with the Democratic Party. And you know what old Lyndon B. Johnson said, right? His famous quote We'll have these Negroes voting Democrat for the next 200 years after this bill's passed. At the same time, many white Southern uh conservatives migrated toward the Republican Party during the so-called Southern Strategy era. By the 1970s and 80s, black voting patterns were no longer transactional. They became defensive. We we at one time we were very transactional in our voting, but that changed in the 70s and 80s. And as me growing up during those eras, I can look back hindsight and see that. Let me get some man some music in here. I can see that. Anyway, voting Democrat became synonymous with protecting civil rights gains. And over time, loyalty replaced leverage. The key shift was we moved from voting for negotiated material benefit to voting against perceived harm. And that's the psychological transition that changed everything. And we dealt with a lot of myths and no facts. And myth one was interest voting helps Republicans. And the fact of the matter is, interest voting helps whoever negotiates. That's the reality of it, family. If neither party offers policy concessions, neither receives automatic loyalty. Interest voting is conditional, not partisan. Myth two, if black voters pull back, democracy collapses. The fact of the matter is, democracy collapses when voters have no bargaining power, which we right now we don't. Every organized political interest group in America practices conditional support. No one excuses agricultural accuses agricultural lobbies or corporate packs of destroying democracy for negotiating policy outcomes. Conditional voting is not sabotage, it's political maturity. And I told you at the top of the hour that we are very remedial in even how we approach the voting process. Very remedial. There's no maturity there. And I'm sorry if if someone's getting offended by that, but I'm I I speak from from earnesty up here. I'm speaking to you earnestly. And I want this to change for us because I'm gonna get into our power in a little bit. And just a let me just let me just clear this out, right? Myth three, we don't have the numbers to influence outcomes. Oh boy. They sold that to us. The Democratic Party sold that to us, right? In fact, in swing states and close elections, even five to eight percent, a five to eight percent can shift in turnout changes, national results. The key isn't total population, the key is strategic concentration. Politics isn't about being the largest group, it's about being decisive in competitive margins. I'm gonna talk about what is required of us in just a few minutes and just a few moments. Let me just finish this thought. You know, as I've been going over this work and looking into it and doing doing some research and things, and I realized on a local level, this is where you have to start. This is where you have to start on local in your own backyard. And I made some phone calls over the weekend to some people that I know person, you know, some personal friends of mine, and some people that I know casually to see if we can right here in Brooklyn where I reside, you know this congresswoman, um, what's her name, Clark? Yvette Clark. She's from the 9th District here in Brooklyn. And she's she is the she's a congresswoman, and she is the the the she's the the chair of the CBC, the Congressional Black Caucus. Right? And why is this woman there? Because I don't know if I'm gonna play that for you, but I want to play something Phil Scott was talking about earlier, but before we go, yeah, I'm gonna play, I'm gonna play that. I'm gonna play that. Hold on. Let me just dig it up, family. Let me just dig that up and we'll get back to it. We're gonna get to it. Because I want to show you some things up here. I'm gonna show you some things. Where is it now? I didn't plan. I didn't plan to play this. I didn't plan to play this clip, but I gotta come up here and do it. I gotta. I gotta come up here and do it. Because this was so important. Uh let me see, can I find it here? Here it is. Wait, is that it? No, let me see. Can I find it? Yeah, in a second. Okay, I found it. Here we go.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

And Yvette Clark, she was approached by a you know young reporter. Um she works for Lindale TV, you know, the right winger, uh Mike Lindale, the MyPillow guy. He has his own like network, and so she works at Cap, this young lady works at Capitol Hill. So she pulled up on Yvette Clark to ask her about the Save Act. Now, the Save Act is supposed to, if it put goes into law, make sure you are an American citizen uh before you can vote in any elections. That's definitely on the federal level. Well, Yvette Clark was question about the Save Act. Let's go ahead and check that out.

SPEAKER_06 38:55

Can you just explain that further? Because 76% of black Americans support the Save Act, according to CMS.

SPEAKER_04 39:03

Well, we find it racist because at the end of the day, it's targeting black communities with a cost burden. We've been through this historically. I mean we're we've been prohibited from voting because we didn't know how many bubbles were in the soap bar. And so this is just a new iteration of that? And we're very focused on defeating it. But if 76% of black Americans support voter, I don't believe that 76% CNN reports. But that's possible. That's possible. Okay, but I do not agree with it.

Myths About Interest Voting

SPEAKER_00 39:37

Now, this particular video with Representative Yvette Clark is the problem with the Congressional Black Caucus. If 76% of black America supports the Save Act, then your job as a congresswoman is to say, I'm voting for it because the community wants it. If the community was against it, then I'm gonna be against it. Even if I'm against the SAVE Act because I just don't personally like it, but I'm a representative of this community, 76%, so I gotta go with what they want. That's called being a representative. What you saw is a woman being rogue. She's wanting to go against what the black American wants with voting. Okay? Now, in the end, basically she admitted it was just her. She wants to throw racism. Listen, I am sick and tired of Democrats trying to throw racism on everything. They are listen, you I have no problem calling out anti-black racism. And I do it a lot. I've been doing it for years. But I would not sit up here and say anti-black racism if it's not that. Now, I understand if it's coming through the Republicans and Trump and the Democrats too, it's some sort of racism tied to it. But call it what it is, they did a re uh a study on that. And the Save Act would hurt more white folks than it actually would hurt us. Because a lot of his people in red states don't have the proper IDs. And a lot of them surely don't have a U.S. passport. A lot of black people got passports. It's not hard to get a passport. As long as you don't have a certain type of things, you know, on your record and you don't owe like child support or owe a bunch of taxes, then you can get a you can get a uh passport. It costs what? What, a little over a hundred, a little over a hundred dollars? Man, man, people people waste that kind of money at the restaurant. And a passport is good for 10 years. But I've always told y'all that. Get your driver's license, get your passport, have your voter registration. Always I've I preached those three to everybody that has followed anything I've ever said. And if you don't have those three things, shame on you. Because you were told to get your driver's license, your passport, and and and and and your voter and register to vote. I told all of you that. Driver license, because you need ID, no matter where you go. And you gotta drive. Passport, so you can travel the world. Even if you go take a cruise, sometimes you need a passport, right? Some of y'all like taking cruises. Vote, voter registration. So when it's time for us to go vote, whether it's strategically vote for one particular party or the other, whether it's a punishment vote to make someone like Yvette Clark get primaried, so we all show up in the primary to get her out. That's like a protest vote or a vote of punishment. Uh-uh, uh-uh. Or, or it may be a time we have to choose the couch. But at least we want to be registered to vote. That way, no matter what way we go, we can we can participate in the process. That's what I've always taught. Now, Evette Clark and the Congressional Black Caucus, that's why we don't get anything. You see, we can sit there and talk about oh, how bad the Democrats are, and oh, they don't do this for us, and you know, you e okay, the Republicans, we already Yeah, and I just wanted to um pause that for a moment.

Local Strategy & CBC Critique

Building Leverage: Demands & Machinery

Discipline, Withholding, And Power

SPEAKER_02 43:13

We may go back to it. We know we might go back to it, but I just wanted to to put a little a little of my thought on it. And when it comes down to these uh organizations, the Congressional Black Awkwards the NAACP and Urban League and all of these uh type of folks. Family, what they usually, when they're confronted with these things, these things we're talking about up here, they will be high behind legislation. They're not government, so they can't do certain things. They they're only in Congress and so on and so forth. And they they can only present certain things to legislation. They can only present, they can't really do it. But but y'all made certain things. happen when when when the uh when democrats were in power for power y'all made certain certain things happen under the covet under covet and under joe biden you made things happen for these uh these uh foreign nationals right but the here's the problem and i'm not uh gonna sit here without evidence and insinuate even though our feelings we feel instinctively inside that the that the that um uh they have lost our trust these institutions but we can't get up here and make accusations without hard evidence and we just don't have time for that up here today but the understanding is that inf institutional structure of black organ organizations are embedded within one party coalition politics um politics that uh that limits any willingness to use independent leverage most of these people uh in these organizations I'm gonna say 90% of of vote of the voter base are locked into a to one party and the and the leadership careers behind some of these people depend on that party's committee assignments fundraising pipelines and leadership support and that's when negotiation flexibility shrinks these people are just not willing because of of their tie as the as I pointed out in those those things I just said their ties to to the to the DNC will not allow them to be flexible in leverage they can't be so where does that leave us that's back to back to that that that that interest voting and let me explain let me let me first try to explain how that may come about hold on let me get get to my points here let me uh did I lose my place here yeah I did of course okay yeah this this could be um things that we can start to do and I I try like I said over the weekend I made some phone calls and I'm trying to get some people on board so we can form a small coalition here in Brooklyn where I reside in some of these districts to we need to know where our people at in some of these districts we are spread all over the place. There's some foundation now Brooklyn is overran with a Caribbean population. Brooklyn and Queens both I can't speak to Manhattan and Bronx and Staten Island but I can speak to Brooklyn and Queens because these two cities I've lived in in most of my life between these two cities right or boroughs as we call them and I can tell you they're largely overran by Caribbean people first second generation some some of what we would refer to as anchor babies and so on and so forth. However there still even though most of us have been gentrified and left the city went south and out west and stuff like that there's still a pretty nice contingent of of us of foundational people here in here in the city and I think this things small things like like small caucuses could work to our advantage in in flipping some of these elections and getting people um who hold our interests into to elected into office okay okay unified policy demands not broad con not broad concepts specific measurable deliverables federal contracting set aside set aside set aside tied to lineage capital access funds with enforcement mechanisms targeted health care disparity legislation specific sentencing reforms metrics reparative policy tied to documented historical harm these are the things that that these pol these we want these politicians to have in their bios or in their their um journeys in their political uh coming ups right excuse me I'm getting a little chast here okay independent political organizations not just activism we need PACs policy think tanks uh data teams and legal teams other groups invest in influence infrastructure if you want leverage you need machinery this is true strategic withholding power most the the most important piece politicians must believe if if we ignore this block we lose measurable turnout that requires discipline no last minute fear based voting no panic shifts long term strategy over short term emotion okay economic alignment political leverage without economic economic leverage is is fragile communities that influence politics also influence capital flows campaign donations bundle contributions organized fundraising votes matter money multiplies votes and you know in transition closing this out interest voting is not rebellion it's it's not betrayal it's not extremism it's adulthood the question is not whether the strategy works it works for every other organized group in America the real question is are we disciplined enough to implement it? Because leverage requires unity and unity requires sacrifice right now we can talk about whether we're ready for that level of political maturity are we ready for it now like I said I made some phone calls over the weekend I made some phone calls and I haven't heard back from anybody but you see those same people on Facebook talking about FBA FBA this FBA that FBA this FBA that so I'm saying and these people are right here in Brooklyn with me now I put some I put a serious call out there and I'm putting a call to all of you who may be listening right here in my city of Brooklyn right Brooklyn New York you can text the show or you can email us at freedmensaffairsradio at gmail.com I'm I'm putting I want to put together a small caucus of serious people who want to make a difference because our fight is in our own backyard we can't sit around and wait for Tyreek and Professor Blacktruth and Jason Black and and all these people doing what they what they can do. These brothers and sisters are doing they've been doing they got a track track record of work but we can't sit around and wait for them we have to put in and it's a lot of us that are because anytime Tyreek has a space I was looking at a space uh the other day he had I think it was yesterday he turned he turned on his his equipment and within minutes 14000 people in the in the room in the chat 1400 tuned in not saying it was all in the chat but 1400 were viewing within minutes that's man that's impactful now all of us can't do that we all all of us can't do that we just don't have the the the the um whatever it is that he does he he's at he's been at this work for a very long time I got about what three almost four years in invested in the game not that long a lot of people don't know who I am but that's fine I don't need 14000 I don't need 2000 right well I could use 2000 but you know you understand what I'm trying to say I look at my analytics and I see uh each week who's listening where they're listening from and I see Brooklyn I see New York Manhattan but most thing is I see Brooklyn right on the map and I'm I'm saying I'm I'm I'm pouring my heart out to you you my fellow Brooklynites let's get together man let's get together because I said this early years ago I said this that we need a database to find out where our people at and I wanted to do at that time I was talking about doing a a monthly Zoom meeting just for foundational black Americans here in here in New York but I want to slim that down to to Brooklyn and I want to get a data uh a data team together to to find out what districts our people are in and where they're at because we're gonna have some some districts are going to have more than others and we want to know where we where we need to concentrate the hardest for for our political demands and our concerns and like I said we're working on the Freeman's embassy we're working on that I didn't want to blow that up but we're working on that and we're definitely going to need to know where our people at because where where we're gonna be able to get people the that amount of people the most help that's what we're gonna need that data for you understand family we coming up on on here almost almost an hour got about what 56 minutes in 55 six 56 minutes in and I don't want to hold you too long so we're gonna get ready to we're gonna try to speed things up a little bit and uh get ready to get ready to bounce let me see what else I got here okay I just want to leave you with with this and then we're gonna close out family this thing we up here talking about today is is it's um this is actually bigger than politics if we really think about it interest voting is not about democrats or republicans it's about power for generations black Americans have been politically engaged but engagement and leverage are not the same thing and the reason why I say that family that we are powerful do you know this recent delineation thing this re this recent delineation thing has taken on and caught on like a wildfire to the point where it has other melanated nations do copying our model and the brother George um bishop georon did a did a program man go to his channel go to his channel uh uh street media channel right bishop georon good brother man he has that urban nerd program he does a lot he does a lot and that brother man he went in I think I was listening to him on I think it was Saturday or Sunday and he was killing it man and he brought up some clips of you have the family over there the you know the Caribbean family over there in the UK they was they was um getting at the getting at the the that the diaspora the African diaspora about you trying to erase their place in his in in history and into car cosplaying them the same things we've been saying up here on this station and others like Tyreek and uh um TBA Jason Black over there at the at the Black Authority and others Phil Scott and others have been saying they're starting to say it now they're they're complaining and they're saying the same very same things we've been saying and talking about but we were at the forefront of it this is why I tell you our influence is crazy and that influence it equals power family it equals power we just don't realize and and the the depths of that power and that this is why we don't use it because we don't understand it. A lot of us think if if if if white society hands and prints are not all over it it's not uh it's not authentic it's not uh viable and it's just the opposite it's just the opposite we haven't realized the power this is why we don't use it because we don't realize I just told you I had conversations with a young with a female and she couldn't answer me why or how what she just said she never thought about it. You know I never thought about it that way I never did woman older than me older than me my uncle same thing he 20 years older than me never thought about it never gave it a thought he just said when it's time to vote he goes in the booth and put down Democrat never thought about it because we don't realize the power we have because once you realize that power you say man okay we can pull I can pull this off now because I I got the I got the resources to do that and we do have it we do have it to make to make uh you know these this blueprint up here I was speaking about we have that right okay so we want to um we can show up faithfully and still be treated as an afterthought and that's what's been happening that's not that's not emotional that's structural interest voting is a declaration that our vote is not symbolic it's strategic it says we are not automatically yours we are not permanently aligned and we are not emotionally attached to any party branding we are aligned with outcomes and that requires something many people are not ready for independence of thought because once you detach from a party identity you have to think critically and that's where most of us are afraid of we thinking critically we can't think without we get on these Facebook and TikTok and Instagram oh FBA this FBA that FBA this but without white mommy and daddy you scared to come out the crib you scared to look over the over the top railing of the crib right you have to study policy that's something we don't want to do right politics is too boring but it affects your everyday life and I'm not a politician mind you have to organize you have to accept sometimes that the answer will be to withhold and to withhold requires courage it means you may be criticized it means you may be misunderstood it means you may be accused of helping the other side but mature politics is not about fear it's about leverage back to that leverage as above so below power right every serious interest group in America operates this way they are not sentimental they are strategic they understand one principle if your support is guaranteed our agenda is optional so the real question isn't whether interest is interest voting is radical the question is whether we are ready to stop being predictable you know when you're predictable you know it's like when you're in the boxing ring and the guy you you know you faint and you do certain feints and and you throw certain combinations and the guy reacts the same way every time okay now you can set him up because you know he's been predictable and how is he going to react to you are we ready to build institutions instead of personalities are we ready to negotiate instead of react because independence is not isolation independence is leverage and leverage is how respect is earned in politics not through outrage not through loyalty but through discipline organized strategic action that's the conversation we should be having and if we're serious about political maturity this is where it begins family we're gonna get ready to close out of here I want to close out with certain with uh certain things with a with a I did have a closing monologue and um I want to see if that if I can get that up here anyway get that music no that's not it why is it I can't my stuff don't be in place the way I like it always uh out of um stay out of the thing anyway family I couldn't find what I was looking for but anyway we're gonna get ready to get out of here we're gonna get ready to beat it because we've been up here for a nice little time now and uh you know I hope I gave you something to think about in this episode and you'll come back and see us next week we'll do it again we'll definitely do it again family so in the words of my man Malik you must respect life love justice cherish freedom and treasure the peace y'all go in peace y'all go in peace be patient with eat with each other be helpful to each other and come back and see us next time next week we're gonna do we're gonna do it again and um y'all take care peace