Transcripts For CSPAN March For Racial Justice 20171001

Now. Thank you for the amazing performance. How are you all doing . Were going to get this show started. Thank you all for joining us today. I want to get some chants goin chants going. Show those in power here loud and clear why we are here to stand for black women and Racial Justice, all right . Black lives matter. Black lives matter. Black lives matter. Black lives matter. Black lives matter. Black women matter. Black women matter. Black women matter. Black women matter. Black women matter. Black women matter. Come on, i cannot hear you all. Black women matter. Black women matter. Black women matter. Black women matter. Black women matter. Black lives matter. Black lives matter. Black lives matter. Black lives matter. Black lives matter. Black lives matter. No justice. No peace. No justice. No peace. No justice. No peace. No racist. Police. No justice. No peace. No racist police. When black women are under attack, what do we do . Stand up, fight back. When Indigenous Women are under attack, what do . Stand up, fight back. When muslim women are under attack, what do we do . Stand up, fight back. When any of us are under attack, what do we do . Stand up, fight back. What do we do . Stand up, fight back. What do we do . Stand up, fight back. Stand up, fight back. Stand up, fight back. Stand up, fight back. Stand up, fight back. Stand up, fight back. Stand up, fight back. Stand up, fight back. Stand up, fight back. Stand up, fight back. Stand up, fight back. No justice. No peace. No justice. No peace. No justice. No peace. No justice. No peace. No justice. No peace. No justice. No peace. Racistrump, no kkk, no usa. No trump, no kkk, no racist usa. No trump, no kkk, no racist usa. No trump, no kkk, no racist usa. No trump, no kkk, no racist usa. No trump, no kkk, no racist usa. No trump, no kkk, no racist usa. No trump, no kkk, no racist usa. No trump, no kkk, no racist usa. No trump, no kkk, no racist usa. What do we think about White Supremacy . [boos] what do we think about White Supremacy . [boos] it has got to go. We see over the past year that White Supremacy is in the white house. It has been in this country since the very beginning. But today we see in this administration it is intent on marginalizing our community, taking our allies, our jobs, our theth care, and ignoring unnatural disasters happening across the country and across the world. The countries in the caribbean and neighboring countries that are suffering. So what do we want . Justice. When do we want it . Now. What do we want . Justice. When do we want it . Now. Hey, hey. Ho, ho. White supremacy has got to go. Hey, hey. Ho, ho. White supremacy has got to go. Hey, hey. Ho, ho. White supremacy has got to go. Hey, hey. Ho, ho. White supremacy has got to go. Hey, hey. Ho, ho. Donald trump has got to go. Hey, hey. Ho, ho. Donald trump has got to go. Hey, hey. Ho, ho. Donald trump has got to go. Hey, hey. Ho, ho. Psy cysts have got to go. So one last time black lives matter. Black lives matter. Black lives matter. Black lives matter. Black lives matter. Black lives matter. Black women matter. Black women matter. Black women matter. Black women matter. Black women matter. Black women matter. Black women matter. Black women matter. Black women matter. All right. Thank you. [applause] give a round of applause for that chanting. [applause] we will have a real conversation supremacy, our responsibility to have uncomfortable conversation. So let me go ahead and welcome to the stage the president of the ms. Foundation, teresa younger. [applause] teresa hello. Hola. Are you already . Who walked, who marched here . I did not hear you. Who marched here . [cheers] first off, thank you. Second off, lets take one second to appreciate this amazing weather that we hire and recognize we have brothers and sisters and sisters in other parts of this country and down in the south and in puerto rico who cannot be here with us today. Join us for one second as we send them our love. All right, lets get going here. Welcome to the march for Racial Justice. [applause] lets get going here. Welcome to the march for Racial Justice. Are we ready for this . We have some amazing speakers. Going, i want to make sure we get started on both the right and the left foot. As a nation, we are standing at a crossroads. Nation, we are standing at a crossroads. I dont have to tell you all this because we know it, but in one direction, we have a future that is riddled with scandal, peppered with disinformation and misinformation, and steeped in indifference. Is that the way we want to go . No, its not. However, in the other direction road. Eally rough it is going to be a hard one for us to handle, but it is the road of hope and redemption. It is the road of a future that actually respects us all. What im talking about is a road that actually asks us to speak truth to power, ok . This is not necessarily about making us all feel warm and fuzzy. We have work to do, and we cannot let one person or five make aor even 150 people determination of what we need to be doing in order to create a safe, free, and just world for everybody. So lets just confront the lie of White Supremacy that holds back all of us black and brown, trans and cis, rich and poor, enlightened and blind. Lets understand that White Supremacy is not just those who carry torches down the road. Its not just those who feel so emboldened to take off their so that they can march before us. White supremacy is entrenched in everything we do. It is the principle by which this country was developed on, and now is the time for us to say no more. What are we saying . No more. Idle think i heard you. What are you saying . No more. No more. We just need to take note that we are going to be about having what i call uncomfortable conversations, right . If you are sitting and the water is rising, you moved to a higher level, but if you are at the top of the hill, the rising water never touches you, so this is about having uncomfortable conversations, not just with people we know or dont know. Its about asking a question just once or twice. It is going to be hard. It is going to be long. We actually have to call out what it is racism, sexism, thatarchy, all these ills constantly are in front of us, and now is the day and now is the time, but i want to remind us because some of us think of Martin Luther king as having this we are going to all love and peace and respect each other, and he was about love and peace and respect, but he was about speaking truth to power. He was about radical love, soy want to call on the words of dr. Martin luther king jr. , who called on us to radical love so many years ago. He said, i come here today to plead with you believe in yourself and believe you are somebody. You are somebody. I talked to a group last night. Nobody else can do this for us. No document can do this for us. Lincolnianience emancipation proclamation can do this for us. No johnsons civil rights bill can do this for us. To be free, he must move down into the inner resources of his own soul with and sign with a own emancipation proclamation. Do not let anybody take your personhood. Be proud of your heritage. We dont have anything to be ashamed of. Somebody told a lie one day. We know this life. They couched it in language. They made everything black, ugly, and evil. Look it up in your dictionaries and see the words synonymous for blacks. It is always something degrading, low, and sinister. Look at the word white. It is always something pure and high and clean. We want you to use the right language today. We need also remember to forgive. I want to get the language so right that everyone here will cry out yes, im black. Im proud of it. Im black. Im beautiful. I will say that again just so you understand. While the color of my skin may be black, i am made up like so many of us here of native peoples and white peoples, but today, i stand in front of you and say yes, im black, and im proud of it. Im black, and i am beautiful. [applause] this is the pathway forward. This is what you are going to hear today in words and songs and poetry because it is why we march. We march for liberation, for justice, for unavoidable and unnecessary struggle to uproot White Supremacy. And i want you to join me today as we commit to calling White Supremacy what it is when we see it, and that we understand that if we dont raise the question, nobody will do it for us. We have to do this together. It is not about black people or indigenous communities. Folksnot about our trans or lgbtq communities. Turn to the person next to you. Turn to them, say i am in this with you. I didnt hear you. Say i am in this with you. Now turn to a person you dont know and introduce yourself. Introduce yourself. We are community and i am in this with you. Know that we are in this together. We are going to stand here and sit here and be part of this together, and then we are going to leave here and join everybody in whatever city they are in, and we are going to do this together. How are we going to do this . Together. Wait, i didnt hear you. How are we going to do this . Together. Lets get this started. Are you ready . Im going to wrap up with my favorite quote. I said it this morning. If you were with us when we marched for black women, you will have heard this, but i will just say to you all i want you to be the kind of woman or man or however you identify that when your feet hit the ground in the morning, the devil says, oh, shit, shes up. Lets be that kind of community. We can do that. We can be part of it today. Lets get going. Are we ready . Are you ready for some of these speakers today . Im going to tell you, you stay until the end, you get a reward. I want even tell you who it is, but we will start off as strong as we can be. We start off with a board member of not your mascot. She is a writer and speaker and advocate. Ceo of ae founder and tribecalled geek called geek, and she is here with us today to tell us where we stand. Johnny day, come on. Thank you all for being here today. There are people in this nation who do not understand why we are here. They dont understand why we cannot turn a blind eye, why we cannot leave well enough alone. Havent they given us enough . There are people who believe that we are causing division and hate while bringing awareness to the struggles of our communities. They believe we need to be polite and sacrifice everything that we are our languages, identities, spirituality, cultures, and communities in order for us to be worthy of life, liberty, and justice, but for those of us who choose to love out loud or have obvious disabilities and differences, whatever they may be, we know how it does not matter polite, how educated or obedient or silent or how indivisible we try to make ourselves. We are othered. For those of us with brown and black skin, the consequences are deadly because it fills those a fiercer didh that without even thinking, people clutch their purses or shoot on sight. Murder, rape, imprisonment, slavery, genocide, injustice that is why we are here. We need to a certain that we will not be broken, defeated, eradicated. Ordo not raise our voices fists with hatred or division in our hearts. We raise them in radical, revolutionary love, and that love is so strong that it has called all of us here today regardless of our background, regardless of our differences, because we have come here to restore an innate link back to our humanity, because we were not born knowing how to hate or discriminate. We were not born believing that the moral aptitude or worthiness of life, liberty, and justice was determined by the color of your skin, sexuality, spirituality, wealth, or community. We are taught, and we can and are choosing to untangle ourselves from the web of colonization and oppressive Power Systems that are the very foundation of this nation, and we need to be unapologetically honest about our experiences, and that is what im going to do. Yesterday, as i walked around this city, i realized that as an indigenous woman that i am in the belly of the beast. I am in the midst of a city sued so and antidiligently tidigeneity. This is a city where the mockery ,f our identities, our cultures and everything our ancestors died for occurs on any given sunday with no thought to the racism and harm they are perpetuating. This is a city and a nation that missed the irony of Washington Redskins players taking a knee while wearing a jersey that represents the racism and discrimination that we face as discriminate as indigenous people. [applause] some of you may be thinking that its just a name, just a mascot. We have bigger issues. But representation matters. ,nd it impacts our reality social, education, professional, even our political realities. We are less than 2 of the u. S. Population, yet we are the most likely to be killed by police. Rates of homicide, sexual poverty, arecide, anywhere from two to 10 times the rate of National Averages of any ethnic group. Our women and girls are murdered and disappear, and just a few weeks ago, one of my aunts joined their number. And those losses are hard. [applause] and many believe that the progress made four and by other communities will trickle down to , but that is not the reality because we are not asking if justice is even possible on stolen land. We are not working to envision what that will even look like. We are not working together. We do not know each other. We do not know how to communicate with each other, but we are trying. Over the last year, we saw that progress being made at standing rock. [applause] we saw people from all walks of life coming together to support onetribe, but that is just tribe. There are over 567 more sovereign nations that need to be supported, who are badly pipelined in their own lands as well as other issues battling pipelines in their own lands as well as other issues. Movement and the communities working toward justice for their people, we asked that you continue to support us, that you continue to remember us as we assert that we are still here as indigenous. Eople one of the things that people that i really want people to understand is that we are less than 2 of the population. 5 million among this entire population, and people do not understand the significance of that, but what those numbers mean is that we have survived the maximum efforts of one of the world greatest superpowers. We are still here. [applause] for your support because we are in this together and none of us are free until all of us are free. Thank you. [applause] see, this is not about us. This is not about any one of us. This is about what we are doing for those we love, those whose shoulders we stand on, and those who will come after us. That is what this is about. This is for the seventh generation that will come after us. What world do we want to leave them. This next person i should not even have to introduce because you know her, and you know her because unfortunately, she was that this the tragedy country does to black and brown men on a daily basis. This is the mother of full land of castile philando castile, the founder of the full letter castile philando relief fund. Join me as we bring to the stage valerie castile. [applause] thisll wow, is solidarity. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of you coming out. Now this is what solidarity looks like. We are all in it together. Each and every last one of you. We are here to support one. Nother as we fight for justice im valerie. Castile. S philando days since i last saw my son, when i last hug my my son,n i last kissed when i last told my son that i love him. My son was taken at a very early age under such rhythmic action. Y son did everything right i did everything humanly possible to protect my kids. I said if you want to carry a weapon, go get your license. My son started working with you was 13 years old, and he was gainfully employed until he was ruthlessly murdered. Didr all that, we everything we could. Dashcam video from the in the car. They had audio. And then they had the aftermath, which im sure a lot of you saw my son take his last breath, and a his last breath, he did dying declaration where he said, i wasnt reaching. He told the officer he said, sir, i have a weapon in the car. Instead of giving my son direct stop moving, dont worry about the license, he shot in that car with no regard for human life. He shot my son five times. Five times, and he was still strapped in his seatbelt. My son knew what he needed to do when he got stopped by the police. Wastarted driving when he 17. And those sparse amount of years, my son had been stopped 50 times. 50 times my son had been stopped by the police, and he was only 32 years old. You to the mac. That dont make no sense. And they say theres no racial profiling. Heyre not stereotyping you tell me what it is. These are some things you need to ask yourself. Use your common sense. My son did everything right. The womano protect and a child by informing the. Fficer that he had a weapon the weapon was not shoot ready. On, i got a weapon in the car, let me get the gun , andy pans, let me cock it then im going to shoot it. That dont make no sense, but my life and body. They cut my son open trying to save his life because he was honest and he told the truth. Im still wondering where on this planet do you tell the truth and be honest and still be murdered by the police. Come on, somebody, help me out right now. Right. Did everything he had an honest job. The only thing wrong in his life by the policessed until they ultimately killed him. Understand, the area my son was traveling in, everybody in the state of minnesota new. You go all the way out of your way just not to pass through that little area because of the prejudice. We going to call a stated a spain. Quit playing. You know it. Racism is alive. Its a live all over. You nextdoor neighbor know, right about now, in the culture we are living in, i always knew there was a silent war on black people, and people of color, but now its not silent no more. They doing it out in the open. And then for a person to tell. Ou your video dont mean shit and it video, audio, dont mean shit that came out the police mouth. Im not just saying that. Im saying with the police said. Then the police pull over a white woman and said, what you are afraid of . We just kill black people. Yall saw it on facebook, on tv. Thats what he believes. Because racism is alive. They have infiltrated the government, the jails, the police department. White supremacists is all over the place, and they are out there showing an even more. Nowadays, you cannot even walk down the street, some white nigger. St, aw, \ they doing it all the time. I mean, i came here to speak let you know and how dissatisfied i was with the verdict because they had everything that they needed. They had everything they needed for conviction, and they didnt. I stilled and understand how that happened. You had everything you needed here you got you everything you needed. My son the car, seat belted in going andhe dashcam him talking, having a conversation with my son, and then he just killed him. Everything, and nothing was still done. There is no accountability when it comes to the police. Absolutely. Fuck the police. Absolutely. Crucified in that car. Thorned crown,s his seatbelt was the cross, and where the nails, and that car was the cross. This is what happened to my son. When they did that, let that man get off with no accountability, got a free rein to kill. And it wasnt three weeks later they shotting killed Justine Damon dash shot and killed Justine Damon. Yes, they did, they killed her two. It will be very interesting to see how that plays out. But im coming to you from my heart, and i just want everybody to be careful out there because you just dont i love my son. I miss him every day. You, youre you, you, brother, your sister, your cousin, it be any one of you guys. Because of no accountability. Is themant to see taking away that get out of jail free card. I was in fear for my life. [applause] we need to get rid of that get out of jail free card. Once you do that, that will give the next officers all before he paused the trigger and uses that they force. I am working with a lot of people in minnesota, there are different laws holding these officers accountable for their actions. We have to stand tall, we have to stick together. We have to stay unified. We have to stand in solidarity and we have two march until we cant march anymore. I want to thank everybody for coming out. I love you guys. Thank you very much. [applause] i told you we are in for a treat, deny . That is radical love, when we talk about radical love we are talking about truth, it does not make us feel good all the time. Let me introduce our next speaker who is all about truth. The truth does not always make us feel good but she is somebody you doesnt set by, she doesnt wait for things to come to her. Happen, she is the former executive director of the american Arab Association in new york. One of the organizers of the 2017 womens march, help me welcome her. [applause] hows everybody doing today . I dont know why but i dont believe you. I was everybody doing today . [applause] i am here today because when black women lead, i follow. Taughta black women that us that we must love and protect one another. It was a black woman that taught us that we cant have a single issue struggle because we dont live single issue lives. It was a black woman that taught us that when one of us is not free, none of us are ready. Froms an aboriginal woman australia who inspired my activism through her words. Hereaid if you have come to help me, you are paid wasting your time. If you have come here to your liberation has been bound up with mine, lets work together. It was also 94 of the black directive that did not donald trump. Black women know what is up. I trust black women. Black women matter, my black women sister matter. When we work toward a world where black women matter and black people matter, then all of our lives matter. Im black peoples lives dont matter, none of your lives matter. I want to make something very clear, this bothers me a little bit. Trump did not introduce racism to us, he did not introduce misogyny or sexism to us. He did not introduce them above of you or transphobia or islamophobia. Is just a symptom of what this country has been plagued with since the days of its founding. Something else very clear. Lets get the word into axuality intersection out onalityrsectinalit straight. This means we cannot dismantle antiblack racism without dismantling xenophobia, homophobia and antifeminism. That is what intersection out he is all about. When we say we march for Racial Justice, we march for all women and all black people. We march for 11 million undocumented immigrants. Not some of them, not dr. Recipients, all of them. Every last one of them. When we say we march for racial we say no muslim ban ever. Health care is a human right and my body is my choice. I was out here before trump and i will not be intimidated or silenced by cap White Supremacists and racists. I will be here after trump. The goal is not to just impeach ae man but to dismantle system that has oppressed people of color for far too long. It is cool to be at a march and i feel inspired to be here. The real work happens in the communities that you come from. White sistersy and brothers that are here. I love the solidarity but the real solidarity is about changing the minds and hearts of the people in the white house. I will end by saying if you are ever looking for me, if you want to know where i am at, i will be out here unapologetically muslim, unapologetically palestinian bottle black women to justice. Ok, that was the deposition of bad us. Badass. Let me bring up the cofounder of this very much we are all at today. She is an activist, facilitator, educator, artist, help me welcome her. [applause] i am here today to show you what radical love means. This is my father. Six years ago, my father was robbed on the south by the police. Has been battling to receive justice from the nypd and the new York City Court system. And the federal court system. This is a man who has loved me my entire life. School from when i was four18. Even though i was embarrassed by it. This was a man who told me i could do and be anything i wanted. He has always pushed me to be my greatest and he is the reason i am standing here and talking to you like i am right now. The love he has shown me my whene life, my entire life i watch what he went through, when i watch what he is still going through, i said to myself what can your love do . Show him that he is heard, he is seen, it doesnt matter what this Justice System thinks, there is a place for him in this country. What will your love do to create . That space . To create a country deserves to live in. Everyone here has an opportunity to contribute to love, radically. I am telling you that this is what my love is. Creating the space with Beautiful People. To say we are not going to tolerate this anymore. I believe in the power to love each other and to see each other and white for each other. And to deal with each other and succeed together in this country. I believe we can see each and languagesies and cd expanse of our family had. Because we are a family. And solidarity intersection audi, set it right, this is all of us fighting together. Black lives matter. Eligible extend our hearts and our hands to brooklyn, to fund, to stay in iraq, to pine bridge, los angeles, houston, that is where my dad is from. To puerto rico, to the u. S. Virgin islands, to the , straight,asian muslim,ay, poor, able buddhist. Brother, sister, mother, father, lever and loved ones, we see you. I believe you. I love you through action. You deserve a country and a government and a system that respect your rights and that is what we are fighting for. Thank you. I am so glad to be here. I had no idea i would be standing before this many people. On the night i was robbed in the store, they took me to the back of the store and rob may. One lady stayed, everybody ran. I dont understand but i am so glad to be here and share this story with you. Right now i am going to have to take a knee. [applause] thank you. I will introduce you to to who have had the privy are going well. We make small grants to women and women of color that organizations throughout this inntry, two of our partners this work are with us today and they were the organizers of the black womens march earlier today. Let me just introduce you to them. By fellow family. Hello family. I need to be on the stage today. I do not have to march today. Neither did you. But we did despite the risk to ourselves, to our bodies, to our tired feet leading up to this Great National mall. Army of black an women, an army of gender queer, trent identified, gender nonconforming. An army of all women, women of allies, men toof break every chain. We stand here for those are the on these types of stages. All of the women that were left in heaps in the back alleys. In heaps on their bedroom floors. Left ine to those building hallways, staircases, basement garages. We stand here for those who have survived actual assault and any other form of violation along the continuum of the categories of violence reserved for females and women identified people. Especially a trend identified system. We represent a multitude of generations. We are here as the march for black women in unity with the march for Racial Justice. We are here on journeys toward healing. Rerunninge towards our narrative and claiming our and ournd ourselves space within the Racial Justice movement. We will not let ourselves be shaped around how this country sees us. We will not let ourselves be shaped around how this country treats us. We will rise triumphant, we can , noree if you are here devil and how can stop you from being free. [applause] afternoon good people. I know it has been a long day but we stop some energy. I said good afternoon. Today i stand before you not just as the executive director of sister song, not just as a march but as an activist, singer and songwriter. Music has been the heartbeat of our movement. Our activists have a unique skill in transforming them so that we can see the issues, here the issues and feel the issues. Lets move people to action. The High Priestess says it is an artists duty to reflect the times. In honor of the march for black women i want to on it honor her legacy. She is one of the greatest inspirations for me as a black woman and as an artist as she was definitely on a pot of unapologetically black. She wrote a song that is empathize the lives of black women in the United States. We are not a monolith, we come from different places, we all have different stories. We all seek freedom. My skin is black. My arms are long. My hair is woolly. My back is strong. Strong enough to take the pain, conflicted again and again what do they call me . My name is on steroids. My skin is yellow. My hair is long. Between two worlds i do belong. My father was rick and wide. He forced my mother, late one night what do they comic . My name is stiff ona. Stephonia. My skin is tan. My hair is fine. My hips invite you my mouth is like sweet wine. Who hasnt got money left to buy . What do they call me . My name is sweet thing. My skin is brown. My matter is tough. Invite thewe want to march for Racial Justice to dine with us at the university of the district of columbia. We invite you all to break bread , sit together, lets lock arms together like we have been doing, you are all invited. Around 7 30 orng 8 00, see you then. Music says a lot. Give it him him what time for monica. Give it up one more time for monica. Thank you monica. Know, someyou will you should. All names you should. I met this woman just a few minutes ago. The welcome to the stage and i toldn activists, her i would say it wrong. How do i follow that . I want to thank everybody for being here. A tiring has been eight months. For many of us it has been eight months of resistance, for some it has been a lifetime of resistance. Thank you for being here. Just the other day i was listening to the news and i was that the menything were saying house about the players taking any at the football games. Ill just think thinking about how disrespectful that was. That speaking how they and english i would be in the classrooms, studying up, trying to say the pledge of allegiance anyway i could. And i tried and i tried because a way to that would be be american or to be accepted. But no matter how hard i have tried to be accepted and to be an american and to be called an american, i still get called illegal. Hard i tried, i still have to figure out how to help my brother pay his tuition cause he is undocumented. I still have to see my own mother be taken from my own house. In handcuffs. Not taken, she was literally kidnapped by ice from my own house. I still get calls from my undocumented brothers and sisters tell me that there loved ones are being taken. What do i do . Have been in a detention center. The matter how much i try and how many dreamers and dr. Recipients have tried, they so take our doctor away. Do you know what i told the president and everybody else around that said that was disrespectful . I will care what you say. I am an american. I may not be a citizen, i may not have the old status but i am in america because you know what needs to be an american who love this country . It means that you are recognizing that you remember the history of the station. You know that this nation was built on the land of native americans. To be an american means that you know and understand that this land was built on the back of african slaves. To be an american you know and you understand that if you are not native to the station, if you are not brought here by force, you came from immigrants. This is somebody who actually sees what happens in this nation and does something about it. Is we can start with calling it what it is, everything that has happened right now with the undocumented community, with the people of white everything is about supremacy. Not just in the white house, not just in the building behind you but White Supremacy in all levels of government. It is White Supremacy that helps to continue to oppress our community and we have to call it what it is. Youy, i stand here to ask do not just come to a rally but to continue to stand up for black lives. Stand up to make sure that we are all protecting native american lands. We are protecting the water they have us fighting so hard to protect. We are standing up for our brothers and sisters in puerto rico were fighting so hard to be able to tell us that they need help. Of calling. Y years i ask you today to please remember that in a couple months, 800,000 people like myself who have daca will lose a work permit. We are not going to be able to has but also the government every single piece of information about us and our families. Please remember that, make a to beo Anything Possible able to give a message to congress to face this problem. Pass the dream act and keep us and our families in this nation. I want to end with something that we do with a lot of our immigrant rights. I want to end with a unity march. Thatt to end with a saying our filipino brothers and in the movement, it is this means one right, one fall. Whent us to remember that they come after one of us, theyre coming after all of us. This is how it starts. Thank you all so much. I have to go really fast because we are coming up on time. Who wouldve thought . How may well come up as alexander. This is about taking action. Good afternoon everybody. You may know me from jacksonville, florida. Instead of being a prison servant therefore day, on a minimum mandatory sense, i am here with you all in washington dc. I was want to thank all of the people that organized to get me here and so now i am starting my own nonprofit. I am being a part of this effort and this movement. As i think about it, i did three years in prison, two years on house arrest before i was able to complete my sense and in that entire time i thought about what was going on and i could see it from the inside. Now that i am on the outside, it is my moral obligation to the people that supported me, it is my obligation to women, black women, my children, your children to stand here and be a part of this movement. I want to say that i dont believe we are the subject of women were being taken advantage of. We are systematically and intentionally and brutally being preyed upon. This is by the real super predators and we must know the difference. Is, youall it what it can say White Supremacy. Im going say super predators. The term is used loosely it while ago. That makes plans on the to you, advantage is a condition or circumstance that with one and a favorable or superior position, we are not a circumstance and we are not a situation, we are human. We are not circumstances or situations, we are ruthlessly being preyed upon by people. I wanted to make sure i changed that narrative. It is different, when they were calling people super predators and children back in the day, now you know who the real super predators are. Theyre taking tax cuts for themselves, setting back over hundreds of people, taking away millions of Peoples Health coverage. Systematically massacres in red and people and making profit about it, that is the real super predator. Color doesnt change the value of who i am and make me any less of value so just like when you go to the car lot and you see a car has the same amount of mileage same car, same everything, different color, you would know that so many sale you that car because the color was different. Let me tell you that i would not expect that in any area of your let that we would accept the same thing about our dna. Did you hear what i said . We will not accept the same thing about our dna. I want to thank everybody who brought me here. Print. Omens group i am here to stand before you and thank you for having me. Sorry about that. Im usually right here, right when we are ready to start. It is the pastor ofbased strategies. Theelped organize charlottesville to bc march. Reference . Good afternoon everyone. It was an incredible march , that isashington dc last remaining colony on the mainland of the United States and being a colony on the mainland of the United States, our heart goes out to another colony that is called puerto rico and the people who are suffering today because of an an a list of this government to serve the people of puerto rico. If you are from out of state, you dont realize that we dont have Voting Rights in washington dc. Us arein the bony behind able to impose any kind of law that they see fit on the citizens of the district of columbia. Let me point out something,d daca helps. It was built on the backs of slaves. Where the archives said, that was the Auction Block where they sold off slaves. What im pointing out is that slavery was the foundation of america and we are founded upon slavery, slaves in bridged this they could enjoy White Privilege today. It is because of the labor of slaves, my ancestors, those who went before me. On black lives matter, it is because historically, black wives had never mattered in this country and to the people of this country. ,hen we say black women matter it is because black women have never mattered to this country or in the history of this country. When we deal with police thetings and killings, whole story, unarmed and killed by the metropolitan police department, not convicted, not indicted, never mix missed a paycheck or had to go off the force. Alonzo smith that was killed by police here in washington dc and no one has been held accountable. Theou have Richard Collins third who was visiting people at the university of maryland and a white supremacist came along and stabbed him to death bed before he was to graduate. Days before he went into the you didntas hear crab from this white house. When i graduated seminary, a white woman who called herself progressive and liberal came to me and said i want to rip you she went through my whole apartment and said i think i will take your apartment because after all, i can fumigated. She never realized what came out of her lips. This past election, that is what went along in america. They knew they could sell the fumigation of america to white people because they are so intimidated by the encroachment of black people. Soon they willat be the minority. Marsh and continued to change things around here. March and continue to change things around here. There are historical organizations that have been dominated and changing with the role of women. Today we have with us to president and a ceo of some of those organizations. I will ask you to help me welcome to the stage tony van pelt who is the president of the National Organization for women, a feminist and a humanist activist and she will then be after her will be monica greg was the ceo of the d c chapter of the ywca. Come on up and help me. Thank you all. Im here today because we cant talk about Racial Justice without talking about the ways racism affects women of color. Women who look like me have a responsibility to show up and support our sisters of color in this movement for justice. For too long, white women have been silent, we have failed to take action against racist systems that have permeated our society and in doing so we have fueled them. We are calling on activists across the nation to take action. If we dont make noise, we can expect further displays of White Supremacy. For those who marched here in january but have not continued to show up for justice, consider this your call to action and for those here today, i am honored to walk beside you in this movement for Racial Justice and this march for black women. Thank you. Good afternoon. Be here for this movement. In 2017i have to tell you that after 160 years of this work iou an apology. I am sorry that today we are having a march for Racial Justice instead of celebrating the fact that we dont have to have marches for Racial Justice in 2017. Continued this 165 we have been on and work with all of us who are gathered here today to write systems of oppression that are trying to divide us and use us as a new having force. I was a bag you not to get tired. I will beg you not to stop. That is what they are counting on. As we continue this fight together, i thank you all for being here and we look forward to working with you for this important cause, thank you. I told you if you stay to the end we would bring you something spectacular. Going,the one who got us she brought our voices together, she understands what together looks like, she understands selective power, join me in welcoming to the stage feminist extraordinaire gloria. [applause] stretch here, right i have two minutes and somebody will drag me off. Allies, sisters, coconspirators. I like coconspirators. I am so glad to see you, you have no idea, i feel like i had to wait for some of my friends i am 83 years old, where have you been. Here is my story, i got on a train this morning and i was thinking i should give you lots of statistics and all of that. But i cant explain why we are marching because ill think anybody should not understand it instantaneously why were marching. The ticket taking guy, like always supplies something. He said to me why are you marching . Fortunately, half asleep i have put on these bracelets few remember these . I said there like pow bracelets and one is for Rosie Gimenez was the first woman to die because of the height of amendments 1910 it, she was 20 years old. I showed this to him and said look at this, who is dying is not white women. Some white women are dying. They are being punished by this policy that trump was not the present. He lost by 10 million votes, 34 hillary and seven for others. I have yet to call him president. That he got it. That with one march, it doesnt make it for half the human race. We have to have many, many, many marches so that all of our lives, the reality is, the so we canhing speak and be heard and understand each other. All women in the world are in some degree of trouble. The first step in every hierarchy is patriarchy in order to control reproduction. Racism, cast in india, class, it all makes it much worse, to maintain those divisions you have to control women even more. These things have always been intertwined. It is just not possible to disentangle these deep cast systems. It is absolutely impossible. They can only be uprooted together. People,st remember gender was invented in order to control reproduction and we are not this inventing it. Invented in order to justify colonialism and slavery. We have not done a good job in this country of uprooting the racism that justified slavery. Got rid of slavery but not we should have learned from germany and the holocaust every child in german schools learns this we are just beginning to uproot all these things. I think we have to remember how deep they go. The good news about being human is that we are adaptable. The bad news is we are adaptable and allink that racism this bull ship is somehow human nature. Heres the people who lived indian people who lived here do not have he and language, this was relatively recent that all of this happened. I find it helpful, i dont know about you to understand that it was not always that way. The other thing that the guy on the train reminded me of is that it was a march that was a first epic antifrom march. When i back to units station, i was shopping my bags along. They came up to me and took my men whoan older black should not still be a red cap and he said to me as we were ing i was surprised. I asked him why and he went on to say that as a young man, he had been a black panther and he thought that he could only shoot liberation with a gun. Then he listened to women like angela davis. This is who i would like to remind you is a hidden figure of the reproductive Justice Movement. Found the reductive Justice Movement because she spoke out against forced sterilization. Belongs movement we talked for a long time. He said i learned how to serve and not being a seven. So because we traded names and addresses, he thought i would mind if i thanked him today. His name is Edward Herrmann and he taught me a lot. What i learned is dont worry should. About the yout worry about what should say and should do. Just listen and learn as much as you talk. Look at each other. Look at each other. You will feel much better. To the spirit of Rosie Gimenez and all those in africa well that does because of the policies and the killing policies of this country. News ust one note of a republican just overturned entire had amendment. Available to now everybody, not just to women who can afford them. Trump is so bad that even some republicans are woke. Here i justf you want to say that this movement belongs to women of color and it always has and the very first issue of this magazine published a massive toll. A National Poll about womens opinions of the Womens Movement and a feminist issues. Womenhan 60 of black support of the Womens Movement and feminist issues and only about 30 of black women did. I do know i debar still surprise. It is not like white women are stupid, were just occupied. Think of the great harry tubman, she was so often thanks for rescuing and leading out of slavery. Said i could have freed thousands more if only they knew they were slaves. So we are not different from each other. Our minds get enslaved in all kinds of ways. We change because we tell our stories, we discover we are not alone. We are not crazy, the system is crazy. I just want to say one thing, i want you to find joy in this. You can compel fear but you can also compel love if people are cap dependent for long enough. You bond in order to survive. You cant compel laughter. It happens when two things to two things come together. It happens when you understand that is when you learn something. Measure, to you as a dont hang out any place where they wont let you laugh, including churches and temples. Other with joy because we can understand that life is a circle, not a pyramid. Each ofnderstand that us is unique, each as a member of the human race and we can restore the kinds of cultures that existed in the first place for 95 of human culture, we cannot go backwards but we can go forward. Boundaries, no more passports, nomura immigration, no more it number who is a citizen of what. Thank you. Things that she is coming up here to speak to us about. Please look into the states, ess, producer and gina bellefonte. I appreciate having this platform and this opportunity. Here today in front of you as a woman of privilege and perhaps not in a way that you may think. Bellefonte and carrying a mental of my continuing legacy is among the greatest privileges of my life but i stayed here before you as a woman of privilege. I have a calling. I have a purpose. The purpose is one of greatest privileges that any human can experience in a lifetime. An awareness of something greater than yourself. And when is the cause at you and told you to say get up, stand thesomething, this dismantling of our health care. Ongoing violence against communities. People live below the federal poverty line. Trends, notmen gender conforming all black women are at the heart of this our native brothers and sisters suffer from some of the most egregious violations against a human rights and millions of us live with the consequences of Inadequate Health care, housing, food, education, unemployment and with criminal justice and immigration systems that discriminate against people of color to perpetuate racial, ethnic and gender oppression deny millions of access to safety, quality and justice. Although there is much darkness right now, i believe in us as we realize the passion and desire to be a movement for change, that gives me hope. Im here to the test that what we may not have in material wealth, we more than make up for and tenacity. We will battle the cancer of inequity that plagues our great country and we will unite to form an army of social justice warriors who say enough is enough. We will continue to shift the narrative and reclaim our cursorys. We must ask who are the poor and why are we poor . As more people die each year as a result of this is well at work in masking mass conflict in the router that the laws and structures of our global capitalist system create property. Suffer no ofople unemployment. Forced overtime and a continued reduction of benefits. The epigram Economic System is deemed intolerable. Make our boat that will the difference. This consent a powerful message. We can build power and strength toward policies to change our damaged immigration laws, our damaged education policies and violations against our reproductive rights. Our experience has taught us that art and culture are some of the most powerful ways we have valuese people across that our society must start treating as truly sacred. Vehicle forure is a sharing and connecting stories, lessons and values that are illuminated in this movement. It helps fulfill the shared struggle that cuts across the many boundaries that often divide us and reclaim powerful creativity that is needed to build the just society we know is possible. If one day i am blessed with grandchildren and they asked me, what did you do when black women,any black regardless of what gender they were assigned at birth, were being murdered in the street . When unarmed people of color were being gunned down by police . When Beautiful People are being labeled as enemies because of their religion. When people are being torn from their families, when our government light and cheated us lied and cheated us, what did you do when you let a narcissistic he filled racist become president . What did you do . [applause] gina i will say with pride and listened, i i wasnt marched, i protested, because silence is not an option. We must let our voices be heard in service of the community and in Forward Movement of the human collective. When they ask, what else did you do . I organized, i stood up. I said, no sexual violence, no genderim blaming, no to inequity. If they ask me again, i will tell them that i led, i followed, i believed, and i kept listening, which guides me to the truth. I believe in peace and the power of righteousness. I believe in the morality of humanity. I believe in love. I say to you today how privileged we are to have purpose, to have the calling that wakes us up from that restful sleep, and says to us, stand up do something enough is enough power to the people thank you. [applause] if you are sitting down, you need to stand up if you can. We are wrapping up. And i need you to join me in thanking all of the volunteers who helped us today, giving you ok. R, making sure we were tomorrow, people are going to be marching all over this country at sister marches. Monday, you will have a choice to make. You will need to do something that is brave. How uncomfortable are you willing to be in order to help us have the radical love we need to have . What will you do . Think about it, because the first thing i will ask you to do is take out your phone. I want you to text justice 228466 i believe it is right here. Text justice. Those letters spell out the word action. You will have a list of what is going on every day. We have to do this. Take a look at the person next to you. We invite you to join the mlk memorial to remember our brothers and sisters who have been lost to indiscriminate violence. That will be at 7 30 tonight. For those of you that live in the d. C. Area or will be here next week, we invite you to join common cause at the Supreme Court as we rallymemorial againt gerrymandering on tuesday at 10 00 a. M. [applause] teresa i am going to invite you to host the gathering, and to make your theme radical love, and challenge your family and friends to do something. Challenge them. If you dont have family and friends, take a look at the person next to you and invite them to your house, take them out for coffee, have a conversation. Andteresa finally, today, righe right now, i want you to join all of us that are up here. I will need help getting up after this one. I think we all need to take a moment and take a knee for Racial Justice. Join us, join all those who kneel down, and take pride at what we can be as a country. Together we can reach Racial Justice. This wont be the first time, nor will it be the last time that we have to come together for the world we want to have. We want to thank you all for kneel hopeus tonight and that you will practice radical love. Thank you. [applause] ]ope i was born by the river a running ever since its been a long, Long Time Coming but i know change gonna come change next, live, your calls and common on washington journal. Then, newsmakers with senator mike lee and then President Trump on tax reform. Chester arthur ranks among the lesser president s. The only thing that most people remember about him is his distinctive facial hair. His sideburns. Author on his book the unexpected president about the life of chester arthur. He recognize that he was not qualified for the job. Job. He ended up on the ticket by accident. He never imagined he would be president of the United States. All of a sudden, he is in the threshold of office. Q a. Night on cspans morning, an author and syndicated journalist talks about trump and the republican agenda. Then dave zirin talks about the nfl comments. Then, steve clemons. You can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. Washington journal is next. Good morning. These images from puerto rico as the u. S. Territory continues to deal with the aftermath of hurricane maria. Miami herald reports that the island is facing a humanitarian and Public Health catastrophe. Administrations response has been, in his words, incredible. The president prepares to travel to puerto rico on tuesday. It is sunday, october 1. Later this morning, we have supreme