Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Hill Discussion On Diversity Inc

Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Hill Discussion On Diversity Inclusion 20240711

Innovations are far less successful. As we wrap up this event, were going to take a look at how all of us can play a role at building equity in society. I would like to thank qualcomm, the International Association of realtors for their support of todays program. Special thanks to the National Association of realtors for supporting this particular band of programming, and its going to be a great, great band. Stay tuned. Lots of cool stuff. Particularly my next speaker. Some of the leading minds in civil rights and social activism are with us this afternoon to discuss how intentional actions can lead to positive and constructive change. Before we get underway, a few housekeeping notes you can tweet us at thehillevents. Well be speaking live. If you have any trouble with the livestream, just refresh the page. Hopefully that will fix it. Our first guest is a proud fifthgeneration mexican. Thats a cool way to frame it. Deb holland serves the 5th congressional district. She is cochair of the native american caucus and vice chair of the quality caucus, and we may be seeing her in a Biden Administration soon. I dont want to jinx it, but i hope you come back and talk to me no matter where you sit in government. Congresswoman holland, its great to talk to you again. Weve been talking about diversity and inclusion, and i want to make sure we dont have any blind spots as we think about this issue. You talk about diversity broadly, but you also are very worried about the native american community, Indigenous Community of america really being left out of these conversations. How do you see it . Absolutely. Well, we need more voices. We need diversity across the board, right, and thats why im super proud to be one of the first native women in Congress Alongside my dear friend and colleague, cherise davis. We need people speaking for their own community so we get that perspective at the table. Thats absolutely important, yes. Youve been pushing some legislation as Building Blocks of this. I love the name, the not invisible act, the native American Business incubators programmatic, the progress for Indian Tribes act. Tell us what these Building Blocks do, and secondly, who are the villains trying to stop them . Let me just say that Indian Country i mean, look, we have been working to overcome so many of the federal governmental policies through the years. The boarding schools, the reservation systems, the dawes act. I mean, these are all things that essentially did not allow native americans to live their lives, right . And so the not invisible act, that is addressing the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women. This is an issue thats been happening just the last couple of generations. Its been happening since the europeans came to this continent to begin colonizing the native americans who were here. And so when we start chipping away at these issues that have been happening for a long time, for example, the not invisible act of 2019, it will start a commission that will study this crisis and make sure that we know how to move forward with it, how to keep our native women safe from this crisis. And thats just the beginning, though, right . When you have an issue, a crisis thats bienemaeen manifesting i for 500 years, its going to take more than one or two pieces of legislation to remedy. So thats what well begin working on. You know, representative holland, i usually dont go into my own story, but in the mid1990s, i was a Senior Policy Adviser to jeff bingham. I was in new mexico all the time, visited schools on, you know, native american schools, and lets just say that my concerns back then, over 25 years ago, about structural neglect and the impact that it makes on the psyche of children and families, the Health Challenges that were existing, now, i havent made a lot of those trips, you know, at the same frequency since, but it horrified me. I guess my question to you is, is that improving or is that structural neglect still as palpable as it was back then when i experienced it . Well, i think were improving in some ways, but in some ways were not, and ill give you an example of that. You know, this pandemic, its hit communities of color especially hard. Indian country are some of those communities that have been hit hard by the pandemic. You know, there are indian communities with no running water, with no electricity, no opportunities for telehealth. Their water is polluted. There is all these challenges that communities of color face. Native communities are absolutely some of those communities that are the most hardest hit. In new mexico, were about 11 of the population, and at one time over 50 of the positive covid cases. So there are disparities that are being suffered by so many communities, Indian Country in particular, and so, yes, we need to keep working hard. And i think this year, looking at the political side, more native americans running for Public Office than ever before, not just for congress, but for state legislatures and county commissions and other offices, i think thats absolutely going to help make sure that our voices are heard on every level. Thats what needs to happen. We need representation at the table where decisions are being made so that people have a voice. Do you think the incoming Biden Administration has that well set in place . I know youre being considered for a cabinetlevel position, but i dont know how to frame it, to be honest. Sometimes you bring in people because of the identities they represent. That doesnt necessarily mean they get it. Do they get it . We were talking about operation warp speed earlier, and if there does become a safe, efficacious vaccine that people can eventually trust, theyll still have communities out there that dont see themselves talking about the vaccine. They dont see a trusted ambassador. So in your conversations with the Biden Administration about covid, about this community, do you get the sense that their commitment is structural and real . Absolutely. President elect biden has a tremendous, tremendous policy platform for Indian Country, one of the strongest pillars of his platform is tribal consultation. And i trust president elect biden to make sure that he is bringing tribal leaders to the table for those important decisions. He is not going to make decisions that affect Indian Country without talking to them first. And that will be a breath of fresh air compared to what this Current Administration has done, blasting apart sacred sites, for example, to build a southern border wall and texting the tribal leader two hours ahead of the time that dynamite is being implanted in the ground. So the Biden Administration will absolutely have the best interests of Indian Country at heart and the best interests of communities of color at heart. I have every bit of faith in joe biden and Kamala Harris to ensure that they are bringing those voices to the table. And im actually looking very forward to it. One last thing, president elect biden has promised to reimplement the tribal nation summits every year. Thats where he brings Indian Tribes to washington, d. C. To make sure he is talking directly to tribes. So i look forward to us having a voice in this administration, and i think its very heartfelt, i think its very real. Deb, just in the last question, i want to squeeze one more in. 73 million folks voted for president trump. You work in congress, you work across aisles. New mexico is a crazy place. There is every dimension of politics there. How do you talk to people . How do you bring them over to get empathy, to get understanding to break some of this gridlock . Well, of course, i would like to say that you start with things that you can agree on. Indian country, those are some issues that some of us can agree on. And, in fact, i am i was the highest rated freshman for bipartisanship. Most of my bills had cospons cosponsorships from across the aisle, and i worked with my republican colleagues to move our country forward in a lot of areas. So we can absolutely agree on things. Were all humans, right . We can agree on things. We need to find those things, and we need to start with those things and push them forward, and i have every faith that we can do that. Well, representative deb haaland of the great state of new mexico, cochair of the native caucus, vice chair of the tribal caucus, i hope you come back and talk to us soon. Thank you so much. Reverend william j. Barber ii is cochair of the campaign a National Call for moral revival and pastor of the greentree disciples of christ. Drawing on dr. Reverend Martin Luther kings values. They work with hundreds of partners nationwide to advocate for communities of color, immigrants, the poor, women, the lgbtq community, children workers and the sick, a big lift of this organization. Reverend barber, im so grateful for you joining us today. I admire so much what needles youre trying to move in our society where Structural Racism has been part of the fabric of this nation. People dont like to talk about that to some degree, but we are now. So as a new president ial administration is coming in, i just want to ask you, what marks do they need to hit and what would disappoint you with this new administration coming in if they dont get it right . Well, thank you so much for having me. I think first of all, we have to align systemic racism and systemic poverty. When we talk about race, we have to talk about it in all these dynamics. Black people but not just police brutality, a resegregation of public schools, economics, mass incarceration. We have to talk about racism and how we treat and still do not have just immigration policies for particularly latino brothers and sisters, and we have to talk about the continued mistreatment and refusal to fully treat our indigenous brothers and sisters right. But we also have to deal with the fact that we have, before covid, 140 million poor people in this country, 4 of the nation. And 60. 9 of black people are poor, 26 Million People. But we also have 66 million white people who are poor in wealth. Thats 41 of white people. So we have to first of all talk about race and poverty together. We have to deal with the 62 Million People who work every day without a living wage. We have to deal with the fact that over 50 are black people who work every day without a living wage. Those being the facts, then there are some things we have to make sure. This president elect ran on three critical things that have to happen in the first 100 days. He ran on 15 in the union. If we pass 15 minimum wage, 49 Million People will be lifted out of poverty and that will have a positive impact on the africanamerican community. He ran on expanded health care, and we know health care is a critical issue, particularly among covid, among poor people who are dying at a larger rate, and black people. But many of the black people who died at a larger rate or poor and in ill health. And they ran on systemic racism. So the issue of passing the Voting Rights act and restoring it and expanding Voting Rights and dealing with Police Reform and dealing with more full funding of public education, those things are critical. Making sure that we have a just immigration policy, making sure that our indigenous families nations are treated properly in policy and are protected on their federal lands. Those are the kinds of things that must happen right off the bat early in the administration because people did not vote for normal, they voted for change. Im interested when you talk about the parts of society that are right now theyve been looked down on, theyve been demeaned, theyve been gut punched in the 20082009 financial crisis, so when you look at the broad array of people youre trying to lift up, its inspiring, one, to hear such a critical statement, but who are the villains youre trying to take down that are trying to prevent the progress and the empowerment of that part of the equation in our country . First of all, look at the policies that are villainous. That is a 2017 tax reform law that gave to the greedy and the wealthy. But this hurt poor communities and black and brown communities by creating situations that forced more money to be cut from education. Lets look at the fact that we have a bloated military budget while we spent 54 cents of their discretionary dollar on the war economy. What a republican eisenhower called the congressional military industrial complex. And less than 16 cents of their discretion was on infrastructure and health care and wages. If we just took a portion of that money and directed it toward ininfrastructure, toward health care, toward public education, we could fundamentally shift the lives of poor and low wealth people, and that would in a major way shift the lives of black people, brown people and indigenous people. By the way, it would impact poor whites as well, that racism is against black and brown people and indigenous people, but it actually is antidemocracy. Lastly, we have to look at the senate. Mitch mcconnell has called himself the grim reaper. Some people say trump is the mechanic, but Mitch Mcconnell is the getaway driver. He has not allowed bills on minimum waste to come to the floor. He has refused 1700 things sent for seven years since 2013 to fix the Voting Rights act and expand Voting Rights. We have to stop this. We cannot allow that. Because not even having a debate on these things is contrary to what we call ourselves as a democracy. Let me make a connection here. Everybody in this country that we trace i come from a state the that has massive Voter Suppression toward black and brown people. In fact, the courts, all the way to the federal courts, said it was a certain intent. People like Lindsey Graham and thom tillis, once they get into office they vote to block health care, they vote to block wages, and it hurts more black people in numbers. It hurts more black people percentagewise but more white people in numbers. This is the racism targeted at black and brown people and indigenous people, but it ends up hurting all people, especially lowincome whites, and its against the democracy. Thats why we say in our campaign the only way you can deal with diversity and racism is you have to bring black, brown, white, and latino people together for the ecological denial of health care, the war economy and the false analogy of racism. I like the framing that some issues are not left versus right but right versus wrong. I know youre bringing back moral mondays and gathering people to go to talk about covid, talk about the crisis, go talk to legislatures around the nation. I guess my question to you is, in this framing, do you find you have unexpected allies . Do you find that there are people not just democrat republican, but they get the message youre saying . Is that an opportunity that our listeners today ought to be aware of, that we need to be aware of typecasting people by political party, but when you put it in right versus wrong, there may be more opportunities than we see . I think the descriptions of left and right is too punitive. The left and right comes from the french revolution, so i dont know why were using it in the 21st century. I dont know what a centrist is. What i believe politicians should be doing is dealing with whats at the center of peoples lives. Whats causing them misery . Whats causing them pain . I said to president elect biden, the hope is in the mourning, mourniourning mourning. If you address whats going on in the nation, youll heal the soul of the nation. You have to speak to the issues people are dealing with. Now 62 of republicans want expanded health care. Over twothirds of the country want an expanded minimum wage. So what needs to happen if a breaking firm left and right and republican and democrat, centric and conservative, why not have as a goal establishing justice. And the bookend to that is promoting the general warfare. Why not take every single policy, lay those four principles, tranquility provided for the common defense and add the protection of the law by the grid of whether you say this is good policy or bad policy. People are ready for that, so much so that, yes, we organize people in appalachia and in alabama. We brought together white farmers and black fast food workers. Weve seen poor black and white republwhite, republican and democrats, gay and straight come along with these issues, the devastation of the economy and nationalism. We had a moral march on washington. We didnt come to washington because of covid, but nearly 3 Million People showed up online in this past election. We contacted 3. 1 Million People pier to pier, infrequent pouring and black voters. Over 75 decided to vote early. 50 voted for the biden harris ticket. We saw 16 come into the electoral this time. That means 25 million didnt vote, but thats the only way to expand the electorate. If year going to change the south, change the country, were able to study how voting is power. There are ticks in georgia, florida. If we get less than 19 , some in states less than 10 , the number of voters who didnt vote in 2016, they can easily shift where they are. Yes, its happening all over the countries, happening with the Poor Peoples Campaign. If they will maintain, and not listen for people saying you need to move away from what you ran on, that would be a mistake. They move away from health care, they move away from 15 in the union, and move away from systemic racism and follow this strange notion of

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