Expanding The Narrative - What's Next: A 2024 Post-Election Conversation

[00:00:00] Hello everyone and welcome to this special edition of Spectrum Talk. I'm Ruby Jones.

[00:00:05] Following the 2024 re-election of Donald Trump, members of the community participated in a town hall meeting to discuss the election and what collective efforts we should take after failing to elect Vice President Kamala Harris.

[00:00:19] This discussion features passionate voices from individuals representing media and politics.

[00:00:25] You'll hear from Polly Baca, who was the first woman to serve as chair of the Democratic Caucus of the Colorado House of Representatives and the first Hispanic woman to be elected to the Colorado State Senate.

[00:00:38] You'll also hear from Tracy Winchester, the president and CEO of Colors TV, who is also a delegate for the Colorado Democratic Party.

[00:00:47] Rhonda Fields, a Colorado State Senator, joined the call and shared her sentiments following the election.

[00:00:54] Along with Chris Fresquez, who is the CEO and publisher of a wonderful Hispanic and Latino serving publication titled The Weekly Issue, El Seminario.

[00:01:04] And Rosalind P. Harris, publisher of Denver Urban Spectrum.

[00:01:09] For many, the re-election of Donald Trump is a huge disappointment.

[00:01:12] But for these community leaders, this is a wake up call and a sign that there's a lot of work to be done.

[00:01:18] Yes, we do have a lot to talk about after Tuesday's election.

[00:01:34] You know, we've been, what would I say, emails, phone calls, in-person conversations with so many people that, you know, the unthinkable happened.

[00:01:44] We've all been trying to digest what went wrong.

[00:01:47] How do we, as Vice President Harris said, when we fight, we win.

[00:01:53] How do we do that?

[00:01:54] We've been having those conversations long and deep, and some even crying over what took place.

[00:02:01] There's a lot of fear out there at the moment.

[00:02:04] I especially liked what she said about leadership, a true leader.

[00:02:10] And that's what we need right now more than ever.

[00:02:13] And, you know, here at El Seminario, we've always believed that a leader was not just one person.

[00:02:19] It's the community.

[00:02:20] It's the people.

[00:02:22] It's everybody is the leader.

[00:02:24] And we have to remember that.

[00:02:26] Also, you know, we've talked about this so many times, and it's about all generations.

[00:02:32] And that, I believe, is what's real important as we have stayed in touch with that, being a multi-generation media.

[00:02:41] We should, you know, we should look back at what happened in 2016.

[00:02:44] That should have been our wake-up call.

[00:02:46] I feel that at this point, as media, it's all about information.

[00:02:51] And the information has to be accurate.

[00:02:54] It has to be informative.

[00:02:55] It has to be a trusted source.

[00:02:58] And most importantly, it has to remain independent.

[00:03:01] Yeah, I'm a strong believer in that.

[00:03:03] I'm just going to jump in, Chris, because I understand what you said about 2016.

[00:03:07] As a matter of fact, you know, Wellington Webb sent me a little TikTok video.

[00:03:12] It was the same thing from 2016, the states and everything.

[00:03:17] But, you know, right now it's eight years later.

[00:03:19] So we've got a different group of young people as well.

[00:03:23] It's a whole different generation.

[00:03:25] I totally understand what you said.

[00:03:27] It should have been a wake-up call.

[00:03:28] And I think the wake-up call is the fact that the same people that were fighting in the Civil War have the same descendants today, right?

[00:03:41] I mean, the faction of people that believe that, you know, the haves and the have-nots and what is owed to me is, I think, something that has not gone away.

[00:03:52] You know, I do believe that racism did play a part in this.

[00:03:56] I do think that gender bias played a part in this and that that culture is a cultural thing that we basically have never moved away from.

[00:04:07] I mean, I think we've made some great strides, some great steps in the direction of making sure that people's rights are not impeded upon.

[00:04:15] I mean, that was the whole point behind the Civil Rights Movement.

[00:04:18] But just the fact that the same descendants are still here alive and well.

[00:04:23] We should never lose sight of the fact that we constantly have to be vigilant about making sure that people's rights are not infringed upon.

[00:04:33] And that we, because there are people ready to take away our rights at any given moment.

[00:04:39] So we just need to be vigilant about that and remind that.

[00:04:43] I think you get complacent.

[00:04:45] I mean, clearly, we've been complacent with a Democratic administration through the years.

[00:04:50] And that, but whenever a Republican administration comes in power, it is always about diminishing what steps have been made, what strides have been taken, what, you know, accomplishments that we've done.

[00:05:02] It's like one step forward and two steps back.

[00:05:05] I mean, it's always about pulling back from the have-nots.

[00:05:08] And the haves are always trying to make sure that we remain poor.

[00:05:13] We remain deprived of any of the benefits of this country that we've all worked so hard to put together.

[00:05:20] Pacey, you said it well right there about being complacent.

[00:05:23] And that's the problem.

[00:05:24] I've stressed this over the last eight years.

[00:05:27] And that is that, and I'm just going to be right out with it.

[00:05:31] The Democratic Party has been terrible in its messaging.

[00:05:34] And they only come to us, meaning the Black and Latino community, is when we're in a situation like this.

[00:05:41] And it's always too late.

[00:05:43] Too little, too late.

[00:05:44] The way I see it is that, you know, we have something to really be concerned about.

[00:05:50] And that is, you know, we have democracy.

[00:05:52] And, you know, democracy is not something that we just should take lightly.

[00:05:56] It's something that we should be protecting every day of our life.

[00:05:59] It's a responsibility that we protect it.

[00:06:02] You know, we cannot go back to those dark ages.

[00:06:04] And the goal right now is what I see it and what we see it here is we have to regain the Senate.

[00:06:11] We have to hold the seats that we have in the House.

[00:06:14] And we've got to make sure that this new administration coming in is a lame duck.

[00:06:19] But that's going to take all of us.

[00:06:21] And it's going to take multiple teams and people working together, organizations.

[00:06:26] Something that even you and I, Bea, have worked on for years in our lifetime of publishing.

[00:06:32] And that is creating partnerships and creating relationships.

[00:06:36] And these have to be solid.

[00:06:37] But it can't be alone.

[00:06:39] We've all got to work together.

[00:06:41] And that is we've got to work our resources together.

[00:06:43] We've got to stand and hold the line on this.

[00:06:46] And then again, we've got to make sure that this never, ever happens again in this country.

[00:06:51] And the only way we do that, again, is we've got to work together.

[00:06:54] We've got to work across all generations.

[00:06:57] We've got to make sure that we are doing that day in and day out.

[00:07:00] And we've got to start building.

[00:07:02] We should have already 10 years ago, building new leadership.

[00:07:05] And this new leadership, again, goes across all generations.

[00:07:08] I am so glad I live in Colorado.

[00:07:11] And Colorado is the bright, shining light in all of this.

[00:07:14] You know, not only do we have Rhonda now as a county commissioner,

[00:07:18] but we have, you know, really good elected officials who do understand the importance of

[00:07:25] pushing back on this and not allowing this guy who just got elected to the White House

[00:07:31] to mess with us.

[00:07:33] You know, and he's certainly going to try to do so.

[00:07:35] I think what he and his colleagues want to do is take us back to my youth in the 40s and 50s

[00:07:42] when we, you know, there were, we were all discriminated against and we were segregated.

[00:07:46] And I think we have got to organize as strongly as we did in the 60s and 70s.

[00:07:54] And I don't blame it on anything recent.

[00:07:58] I think all of this started in 1980 with Ronald Reagan's election

[00:08:03] when he started doing away with a lot of the legislation that we passed in the 60s and 70s.

[00:08:10] You know, the civil rights legislation, the housing legislation, all of the good stuff.

[00:08:14] And we've had this cyclical process going on since then about, you know, going forward and then

[00:08:22] back again, as one of you already mentioned.

[00:08:25] But I think it's something a little bit more.

[00:08:27] And, you know, I was so upset on election night and day that it's taken me a while to come to this conclusion.

[00:08:35] And my conclusion is, is that we haven't done what we needed to do to educate our youth.

[00:08:41] Because there were a lot of young Latino men that voted against their own self-interest by supporting this ban.

[00:08:49] And I think a part of that goes to the fact that we still have some issues in our communities about not only women,

[00:08:58] you know, because I think there was a pushback.

[00:09:01] I think Kamala Harris is probably one of the most capable, qualified people in my history of being participating in presidential politics.

[00:09:11] One of the most, perhaps even the most qualified ever to run.

[00:09:15] She and Hillary, I think, have been the best candidates we've had.

[00:09:18] And we couldn't elect either one of them.

[00:09:20] So there's some issues about being a woman.

[00:09:22] But there's also some issues about being people of color, that we have got to really continue the education of our own communities,

[00:09:33] plus the general populace.

[00:09:34] And I feel very much like we have got to start re-energizing the kind of energy we had during the movement years,

[00:09:42] during the civil rights movement, the Gigano movement.

[00:09:45] You know, when we were ready to go out there and demonstrate and push back.

[00:09:49] And I really think we need to be very cautious and to watch this administration, you know, the White House,

[00:09:57] and push back and demonstrate when we have to.

[00:10:00] Well, Senator Baca, I agree totally with you.

[00:10:03] And I think, though, the piece that we need to focus on is the social media.

[00:10:08] I mean, our people, they embrace the social media.

[00:10:12] They embrace all of the podcasts and all of the YouTube and all of the indoctrination that's going on,

[00:10:20] whereas they think of themselves as just being assimilated.

[00:10:24] They're just like regular old Americans.

[00:10:27] They don't have any identity with their own civil rights and their own culture.

[00:10:32] To me, that's the gap that we need for the next time around, starting now.

[00:10:37] We need to start being more intentional in our social media presence and educating the people,

[00:10:45] the young people, about their history and, you know, and talking about how that has an impact on their pocketbooks.

[00:10:53] Right?

[00:10:53] Their wallets and their pocketbooks.

[00:10:54] Because everyone kept saying, oh, inflation is so high and I need somebody that's going to be in there

[00:11:00] that's going to make sure we bring down the prices and et cetera.

[00:11:04] And I get that because that's what you see on an everyday basis.

[00:11:07] You go out, buy gas, buy groceries, try to buy a house.

[00:11:11] So, yes, that's what most people are going to be faced with.

[00:11:14] And so it's incumbent upon us to make sure they understand, well, how does that tie into your history as a people?

[00:11:21] Because, honestly, nothing has changed, you know, really.

[00:11:27] Again, when I talk about the Civil War and the fact that we had the haves and the have-nots,

[00:11:31] that's what we were fighting for.

[00:11:33] That is still happening today.

[00:11:35] The MAGAs are the people on the Confederate side.

[00:11:38] It's just the new Confederacy that we need to deal with.

[00:11:41] And we need to deal with it on our social media platform.

[00:11:45] And I'd like to kind of weigh in on that conversation

[00:11:48] because I think the social media links had a lot to do to radicalize a lot of different voters.

[00:11:55] And I'm not on TikTok that much or, you know, X.

[00:11:59] I am on X, but I don't follow everybody.

[00:12:01] But young people aren't listening to Morning Joe or NBC News or, you know,

[00:12:06] they're not going to the way I was raised, watching the nightly news on TV.

[00:12:11] A lot of the information they're getting is through social media.

[00:12:15] And a lot of it is misinformation.

[00:12:18] And it radicalizes them to a point that whatever,

[00:12:22] I don't know what the imaging they're getting,

[00:12:24] but I think they've been bombarded.

[00:12:25] Because when you have Elon Musk on there who controls the media,

[00:12:29] I mean, there's so many people that can drive perceptions based on his point of view.

[00:12:34] And then they all just feed off of it.

[00:12:36] But I just want to say this and how I'm feeling.

[00:12:38] I can tell you that I'm mourning right now.

[00:12:41] I feel like I'm grieving because I really felt like we had a shot at this.

[00:12:46] I really felt hopeful that she had a chance

[00:12:50] because I was seeing how she was mobilizing these huge crowds.

[00:12:54] And maybe I was in a vacuum or whatever,

[00:12:57] but I just felt like she was doing everything she needed to do

[00:13:01] to run this race in a short amount of time.

[00:13:04] I can tell you I'm proud of her campaign and everything she's done.

[00:13:07] I'm not in a position to say she should have did this

[00:13:10] or she could have done that better.

[00:13:12] I'm not going to blame the Democrats because it's not just about that.

[00:13:16] It's about white people wanting to really be in control.

[00:13:19] And I think that they want to have a multicultural environment,

[00:13:22] but as long as the white man and the white supremacy

[00:13:25] and these white leaders are in charge.

[00:13:28] They just, it's sexism.

[00:13:30] It's racism.

[00:13:31] It probably is in the messaging of the Democratic Party.

[00:13:35] But this is a wake-up call for us in reference to what America voted for.

[00:13:41] And so we have very little, at this point, it's been said.

[00:13:45] America chose who they wanted.

[00:13:47] And at this point, we're going to have to buckle up

[00:13:50] and deal with the aftermath of what he says he's going to do.

[00:13:54] I believe he's going to deliver on most of his promises.

[00:13:56] Like Senator Baca was saying, at this point,

[00:13:59] just because we have to deal with what America voted for

[00:14:02] doesn't mean that we just sit back.

[00:14:04] We do have to confront and challenge some of the things that he's dealing with.

[00:14:10] I'm hoping that the people in authority and regular citizens

[00:14:15] address when he does things that are just inappropriate.

[00:14:19] So that's how, you know, I'm just really impressed with her campaign.

[00:14:23] I'm sorry it didn't work out the way I wanted to.

[00:14:25] America has spoken.

[00:14:27] My feeling is that I think that what happened was that we didn't get everybody out to vote.

[00:14:34] You know, there were fewer people that voted in this election than voted four years ago.

[00:14:40] And I think those were our votes that we lost.

[00:14:43] I have to believe that this man does not represent the majority of Americans.

[00:14:49] I believe that we just got too comfortable and sat back.

[00:14:53] And Kamala was one of the best candidates we've ever had.

[00:14:57] And she did.

[00:14:58] She did everything the right way.

[00:15:00] But there was something about this latent laziness, or they didn't feel the threat.

[00:15:06] And so they just kind of forgot about their responsibility of being engaged in participating.

[00:15:12] You know, we've got to somehow fight back.

[00:15:15] And I think it was a lot of our youth that didn't get engaged or didn't participate to the extent that they should have.

[00:15:22] And maybe it's also other age groups.

[00:15:24] Well, I've kind of weaned myself away from the news.

[00:15:27] I haven't really wanted to see MSNBC or CNN.

[00:15:30] But, you know, what I've been hearing, too, is that it mainly is African-American men and the Latino men and some of the white women.

[00:15:38] They didn't come out.

[00:15:40] Yes.

[00:15:40] There's been a lot.

[00:15:41] There's been a lot.

[00:15:42] Listening to Tracy and Rhonda Pauley, you know, I agree on all the topics and issues you just pointed out.

[00:15:49] The social media has been a big threat to our society and also to media in general.

[00:15:56] When we started to look into it, and this is not all about El Seminario, but I mean, it's about what I personally had seen going before COVID and meeting with the high schools and trying to get an understanding of where this generation was going.

[00:16:10] And this took place probably 2016, 2017.

[00:16:14] And you were right.

[00:16:15] We have a generation that doesn't know the history of what this country has been through.

[00:16:21] And as we know, our history has been erased and they're trying to do that so that they can put together what they want to fill these young minds with.

[00:16:30] So social media, what we experience here is that, you know, you see a headline and the headline.

[00:16:37] I mean, there's wizards of writing these headlines and it misleads so many people.

[00:16:42] I personally do not do Facebook.

[00:16:44] I will not touch it.

[00:16:45] And I know that our organization here does use it for other purposes.

[00:16:51] But when you look at social media, then again, you look at, as you pointed out, the MSNBC, CNN, Fox.

[00:16:58] You know, you have these commentators that speak on very limited information and they don't get into the depth or the history of the details of what those subject matters are and what the real essence is of it.

[00:17:11] Then what really irritates me the most is what we call recycled news.

[00:17:16] You could watch one station for a few minutes and then they do it over and over again.

[00:17:20] And when you have these deep, deep, deep pockets, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars, and they give a platform to a person like now number 47.

[00:17:29] I've watched this and I have multiple screens going at a time to see.

[00:17:34] They gave our vice president not equal time and not the time that was necessary to really get some messages across.

[00:17:42] But they give, I'm sorry, I'm being open here, but they give this knucklehead, you know, the opportunity to stand there and lie after lie after lie.

[00:17:50] You know, it's a journalist's responsibility to, first of all, push back and it's the producers to cut them off if they're pushing these lies and this rhetoric.

[00:18:00] I mean, it's a division.

[00:18:01] I think, Paula, you mentioned it or maybe Rhonda, but I saw that in 2016 as everybody started to say this.

[00:18:09] It was the angry white person stepped forward and voted.

[00:18:13] And that's what happened in 2016.

[00:18:15] But here's the other side of this.

[00:18:17] Our country is too focused on the quick fix.

[00:18:20] When Trump took office in 2016, it was a sugar high for people.

[00:18:24] You know, they got that $1,000 check and then they went on to really pushing his agenda.

[00:18:30] You know, that became a nightmare for this country.

[00:18:32] It set us back.

[00:18:33] Again, this country wants the quick fix.

[00:18:36] Anything worth having of value is going to take time.

[00:18:40] We know that.

[00:18:40] All of us here today are discussing what we're discussing because it took it has taken us time to get where we're at.

[00:18:47] You know, we've lost that.

[00:18:48] You look at other countries and that's why some of them are exceeding us in so many areas, because they see that anything worth value or hold on to.

[00:18:57] And it takes time.

[00:18:59] So people got to get off this boat about the economy, the economy.

[00:19:03] Yes, it was turning.

[00:19:04] It is turning.

[00:19:05] Trump is not going to fix anything.

[00:19:07] And this is something I think we need to really focus on.

[00:19:10] And the only way we're going to do that is through communication, information.

[00:19:14] You know, when you mentioned about time, about the planning, the quick fix, my understanding is the Project 2025 has been in the works for years.

[00:19:24] Oh, my God.

[00:19:24] Thank you, Bea.

[00:19:25] Yeah, that is true.

[00:19:27] It's been in the works for years.

[00:19:27] And, you know, so we can't do a quick fix.

[00:19:31] And I think we do need to have some serious planning.

[00:19:33] You know what it feels like to me?

[00:19:35] It feels like COVID.

[00:19:36] It feels like COVID again to me.

[00:19:38] Like, you don't want to go out.

[00:19:40] You're kind of scared.

[00:19:41] You know, you can't.

[00:19:42] And I got my best girlfriend in California.

[00:19:44] We haven't even communicated because I know she's in a zone.

[00:19:47] It's an eerie kind of feeling for me right now.

[00:19:51] My daughter-in-law, actually, she was driving the other day.

[00:19:54] But she was going to the airport.

[00:19:55] And she was going past this semi-truck because the street was going to be a one lane.

[00:20:03] So she passed him up.

[00:20:04] And by the time she got to the light, he literally got out of his truck, came up to her car.

[00:20:10] And she thought something was wrong.

[00:20:12] And he's calling her.

[00:20:13] That was stupid.

[00:20:14] You black bitch.

[00:20:15] You nigger.

[00:20:16] She came back.

[00:20:17] You know, she was shaking.

[00:20:17] She said, it's happening.

[00:20:19] It's happening.

[00:20:21] So, I mean, things like that, she didn't even do anything.

[00:20:24] So we've got to be really careful.

[00:20:27] Listening to some of your conversation, I really just, you know, admire your perspectives

[00:20:31] and your insights, your experience.

[00:20:34] So thank you for joining the call today and for sharing your thoughts with us.

[00:20:38] I really appreciate that.

[00:20:40] One of the things that really was remarkable, Tracy, when you were talking about the importance

[00:20:46] of historical education and financial literacy.

[00:20:50] I think those are two instrumental components of advancement for our community.

[00:20:57] I really loved how you pointed out that everybody was talking about inflation and the price of everyday goods.

[00:21:03] You know, a lot of the conversation was surrounding the stimulus checks and, you know, whether or not Donald Trump played a role in allocating that money and really making it available to the American people.

[00:21:15] We, as a people, we, as a people, don't have enough resources when it comes to financial literacy and education.

[00:21:22] I think that's so critically important.

[00:21:25] And then, Rhonda, what you were talking about in terms of social media, it's also such a huge, huge sticking point.

[00:21:32] And I really think along with social media is entertainment.

[00:21:35] And I think that with Kamala Harris's campaign, what we saw was all of these entertainers showing up and showing out and endorsing.

[00:21:44] And, you know, that's where the excitement really was.

[00:21:47] And these rallies with these recognizable figures, whether it be music or movies or TV, whatever it was, people, especially young people, were really gravitating towards that.

[00:21:58] So I know on my end, I am looking forward to finding ways to activate the community outside of election years when it comes to entertainment that focuses more on healthy messages and positive messages for our community and for our young people, as well as that historical education and that financial literacy component.

[00:22:19] I do want to say this, though, to bring some optimism to the table here, because when I hear about being, you know, reticent and fearful and and feel like it's taken over, that is totally not the way to go.

[00:22:34] We have to we have to dig deep inside because Lord knows our ancestors did.

[00:22:40] All of the civil rights that we have today is because our ancestors fought and they fought with tremendous odds against them.

[00:22:47] And this is what we're dealing with today is nothing compared to what they did.

[00:22:52] So we can dig deep and we can fight back.

[00:22:55] And guess what?

[00:22:56] Two years we have elections coming up.

[00:22:59] And really what happens is that everything turns over again.

[00:23:03] Right.

[00:23:03] You have the you know, the house is up again, at least a third or two thirds of the house is up.

[00:23:09] I can't remember the exact numbers, but history has shown the American public is very impatient.

[00:23:15] And that when something is not working, they throw out whoever's in office and get the new guy in.

[00:23:21] Or in our case, we were hoping for the new gal in.

[00:23:25] Right.

[00:23:25] But that didn't happen.

[00:23:26] But it is very is very consistent with the history of our elections.

[00:23:32] Senator Baca could probably comment on that.

[00:23:34] But there's always a turn of party leadership just about every two to four years.

[00:23:41] So we have a new election coming up, another election coming up two years from now.

[00:23:46] We need to, like you said, Chris, we need to start dealing with it now.

[00:23:51] Start getting our messaging now.

[00:23:53] Start educating our young people now so that they understand because they're going to get hurt.

[00:23:57] I mean, people's memories are so short because when 2016, it didn't take long for us to feel the pain from Trump administration.

[00:24:07] In less than two years, we felt that pain.

[00:24:10] So and then, of course, there was an election and more Democrats came back into power.

[00:24:15] And so this is the same attitude that we need to have is that, you know, we have an opportunity to put some guardrails on Trump.

[00:24:23] And we can do that by making sure we get like minded people in the House, in the Senate.

[00:24:29] And we have to start getting our people educated, understanding their history and understanding that this is not permanent, that this is something that we can control.

[00:24:40] And by moving forward, not moving backwards, but keep on moving forward.

[00:24:45] Thank you, Tracy.

[00:24:46] I agree 100 percent.

[00:24:48] And I might share that every single member of the House of Representatives of the United States House of Representatives is up for reelection in two years.

[00:24:57] And one third of the Senate will be up for reelection in two years.

[00:25:01] The one thing I want to point out is that now there's time for a total reorganization.

[00:25:07] The Democrat National Committee will be electing new officers by the end of January.

[00:25:12] When the president is of your party, then the president nominates who he wants to be the officers of the Democratic National Committee.

[00:25:21] When you don't have the president, then anybody can run.

[00:25:24] And so it'll be interesting to see who comes out in that election where, you know, it's anybody's opportunity to run.

[00:25:32] But I think that there is a brand new awareness of the work that needs to be done to reorganize and to move forward.

[00:25:40] But in my mind, what's critical is that you've got people of color and women that really pursue the leadership and really organize.

[00:25:49] Because in my opinion, the Trump forces really want to go back to 1950s, 40s and 50s.

[00:25:56] And what we have to do is organize as we organized in the 60s and the 70s.

[00:26:01] And then again, to elect a Barack Obama.

[00:26:05] It's a question now of pushing back because the forces that took over our country when Ronald Reagan was elected and he started pushing back on all of the great policies that we had passed in the 60s and 70s.

[00:26:17] Those forces are in control now.

[00:26:20] And it's time that we really been organizing and having a goal in mind, knowing that we've got to work with each other and activate, activate people.

[00:26:30] I do really believe that we're going to have our young people engaged more so now.

[00:26:35] I can just feel it as I talk to my granddaughter.

[00:26:38] They're going to recognize what they've lost, particularly those kids in college, because this president is not at all concerned about helping people or making sure the kids can get through college or that people can have good jobs.

[00:26:52] And that's the other thing is that all the folks thinking that he was going to make a better economy are going to be rudely awakened when they find out he doesn't care about anybody else except himself and his family and his friends that are billionaires.

[00:27:05] I just want you guys to know that even though I'm exhausted, my heart is broken, I'm terrified about what's ahead.

[00:27:13] I can let you know that we've been here before.

[00:27:16] That's right.

[00:27:16] You know, black women have been the anchor of democracy.

[00:27:21] We fought for it from the very beginning.

[00:27:23] And so we know how to build together.

[00:27:27] We fought together.

[00:27:28] And today I just want to reflect that we will go on from here.

[00:27:33] And we just need to keep moving forward because we will not be denied.

[00:27:37] We didn't win this battle.

[00:27:39] But doesn't mean it's over.

[00:27:41] And as black women and people of color, we know how to fight.

[00:27:45] We're resilient.

[00:27:46] We've been fighting all our lives.

[00:27:48] Isn't that from Color Purple?

[00:27:50] I've been fighting all my life.

[00:27:53] So we're going to continue to fight.

[00:27:55] And sometimes we have to get beyond the grief, the pain, and the disappointment.

[00:28:00] And we just have to stand tall like black women have always done.

[00:28:05] And we just have to continue to fight because the fight continues.

[00:28:08] The struggle continues.

[00:28:09] I think there's going to be lots of analysis about it.

[00:28:12] All I know is I can't stop fighting.

[00:28:14] We find energy from each other.

[00:28:17] We find the support.

[00:28:19] You know, we stand on each other's shoulders.

[00:28:22] And that's what keeps us in the ring.

[00:28:25] That keeps us fighting.

[00:28:26] We're able to do it because we have each other.

[00:28:29] And we have to support Kamala.

[00:28:31] I don't even know how to do that.

[00:28:32] Kamala 2028.

[00:28:34] That's right.

[00:28:35] That's what I'm saying.

[00:28:36] I hope she runs in 2028.

[00:28:39] I don't know if she's ready to embrace that right now.

[00:28:42] She needs a little minute.

[00:28:43] She needs a minute.

[00:28:44] She needs a minute to regroup.

[00:28:46] That's four years.

[00:28:49] You know, we haven't seen the end of Kamala, though.

[00:28:52] She's a leader.

[00:28:53] Whichever route she chooses, I'm going to be behind her on anything that she wants to do.

[00:28:58] I'm there for her.

[00:28:59] Yep.

[00:28:59] You know, another thing that really stands out to me with this conversation, you know,

[00:29:04] the young people, I feel really devastated for a lot of these young people of color because

[00:29:09] I feel that they are going to lose trust in government and also question their own role

[00:29:16] in civic engagement and in society and question their own power.

[00:29:21] And one of the things that I think is so important with community advancement and the work of service

[00:29:26] agencies that are working to make things better for the young people is to really instill

[00:29:32] the message that they are powerful.

[00:29:34] And it doesn't have to be necessarily in anything tied to politics, but just in their own lives

[00:29:41] and in the things they want to do in their careers, in their families.

[00:29:45] And I think, you know, all the work that we all do independently of media when we're out working

[00:29:50] with people and we're out working particularly with young people, I think we should be mindful

[00:29:55] of the need to remind them of their power at every opportunity.

[00:30:00] Something I want to mention, and I know that, I don't know if this came in yesterday or early

[00:30:06] this morning about the text messaging to the black community, which when I first got word

[00:30:12] of that, I mean, I just had to stand up and just, I was so furious over that.

[00:30:16] And the comments of rounding up all the immigrants, I know that they're already looking at areas

[00:30:23] to put detention centers.

[00:30:25] His new administration, we cannot forget the LGBTQ plus communities either.

[00:30:31] You know, we took in a lot of calls from them.

[00:30:33] And those that are, you know, transgender, those that are saying, you know, I'm not going

[00:30:38] to be able to get married.

[00:30:39] I'm not going to be able to go on with my life.

[00:30:42] And then older, older siblings calling in and say, it's not fair to my younger sister,

[00:30:47] who's, you know, eight years old, nine years old.

[00:30:50] It's not fair to them to grow up in this world.

[00:30:52] So that's the type of things that I think needs to really burn inside us.

[00:30:56] And thank you, Tracy, for saying that it's going to be all of us.

[00:31:00] That's how we're going to push this man back.

[00:31:02] And all the people that he's selecting, we got to pay attention that what he's doing

[00:31:06] right now by saying that he's trying to unite our country.

[00:31:09] It's a smokescreen.

[00:31:10] A lot of it is.

[00:31:12] I've studied a lot of these people he's putting in place.

[00:31:15] And they're opportunists.

[00:31:16] You know, they're not sincere about what has been going on in this country for decades.

[00:31:22] Let's continue this dialogue.

[00:31:24] We absolutely have a lot of work to do.

[00:31:26] And just know that Elsa Minardi is going to just push on like all of us.

[00:31:31] And we're just going to be on that front line, whatever it takes.

[00:31:34] Thank you, Chris.

[00:31:35] You're a warrior for sure.

[00:31:37] It's good to be with warriors.

[00:31:40] And I think all of you are.

[00:31:42] And, you know, it gives me even greater hope that we can push back.

[00:31:47] And in two years, we can see a new Congress and in four years, a new president.

[00:31:53] Absolutely.

[00:31:54] Absolutely.

[00:32:00] Thank you for tuning in to this special edition of Spectrum Talk.

[00:32:04] I'm Ruby Jones, and I'll talk to you later.

[00:32:06] Take care.