WEBVTT

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From New York,
this is Democracy Now!

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Politicians in my home state
and all across America,

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in their craven lust for power,

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have launched a full-fledged
assault on voting rights.

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They are focused
on winning at any cost,

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even the cost
of the democracy itself.

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In his first speech
from the Senate floor,

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Georgia Democrat Senator
Reverend Raphael

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Warnock condemns Republican
voter suppression efforts

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as "Jim Crow
in new clothes."

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We’ll air his moving address,
by the first Black Democrat

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elected to the Senate
from a former Confederate state.

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Then we speak to Heather McGhee,
author of The Sum of Us:

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What Racism Costs Everyone
and How We Can Prosper Together.

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The Sum of Us is the story of my
journey across the country,

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from Maine to Mississippi
to California and back again,

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talking to Americans
of all backgrounds,

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who reveal to me
that the biggest impediment

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to our progress as a nation
is the zero-sum idea

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that progress
for people of color

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has to come
at a white folk’s expense.

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All that and more, coming up.

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Welcome to Democracy Now!,
democracynow.org,

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The Quarantine Report.
I’m Amy Goodman.

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President Biden and Vice
President Kamala Harris

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are meeting with local Asian
American leaders in Atlanta

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today in the wake
of Tuesday’s mass

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shooting in which a white man
killed eight people,

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six of them women
of Asian descent.

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Harris is the first
Asian American

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and the first woman
vice president.

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At a congressional hearing

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Thursday on the rise
of anti-Asian violence,

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California Democratic

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Congressmember
Ted Lieu called for an end

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to the racist rhetoric
used by some politicians

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since the start of the pandemic,
namely former President Trump.

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Rep. Ted Lieu: "You can
say racist,

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stupid things if you want.
But I’m asking you to, please,

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stop using racist terms
like 'kung flu'

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or 'Wuhan virus'
or other ethnic

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identifiers in describing
this virus.

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I am not a virus.

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And when you say
things like that,

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it hurts
the Asian American community."

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Meanwhile, Chip Roy of Texas
decided to glorify lynchings

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at the hearing intended
to combat racism and xenophobia.

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Rep. Chip Roy: "There’s old
sayings in Texas about,

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you know, find the —
all the rope in Texas

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and get a tall oak tree."

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New York Congressmember Grace

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Meng responded
to Roy’s comments.

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Rep. Grace Meng: "Your president
and your party

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and your colleagues
can talk about issues

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with any other country
that you want,

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but you don’t have to do it
by putting a bull’s-eye

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on the back of Asian Americans
across this country,

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on our grandparents,
on our kids.

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This hearing was to address
the hurt

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and pain of our community
and to find solutions,

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and we will not let you
take our voice away from us."

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Last week, Congressmember Meng
reintroduced her resolution

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denouncing anti-Asian
hate crimes

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and discrimination
amid the pandemic.

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Meanwhile, former
President Obama

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called for "commonsense"
gun control laws Wednesday.

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Biden has yet to raise
the issue publicly

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since the shooting but called
on Congress last month

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to pass new gun
control legislation.

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About a dozen nations,
including Germany,

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France,
Italy and Spain,

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have resumed use of
Oxford’s AstraZeneca vaccine,

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after Europe’s
top regulator

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declared the shots
safe and effective.

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The European Medicines Agency
investigated

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25 cases of rare blood clots
among some 20 million people

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who’ve received
AstraZeneca inoculations.

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It’s not known whether the
vaccine caused the blood clots,

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and health officials say its
benefits far outweigh its risks.

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Meanwhile, the Biden
administration said it plans

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to ship about 4 million doses
of U.S.-made

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AstraZeneca vaccine
to Mexico and Canada.

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The vaccine is not yet approved
for use in the United States,

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and millions of vials have been
piling up in U.S. warehouses,

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prompting criticism
of "vaccine hoarding."

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The White House says
the vaccine shipments

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would have to be repaid,
effectively making them a loan.

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On Thursday the United States

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recorded nearly 60,000
new coronavirus infections

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and over 1,600
COVID-19 deaths.

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Daily infections
have largely plateaued

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and are rising
in over a dozen states,

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even as the White House
marks its goal today

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of delivering 100 million doses

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within President Biden’s
first 100 days.

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On Capitol Hill,
chief White House medical

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adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci
clashed with Kentucky Republican

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Senator
Rand Paul over the use of masks.

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Senator Paul questioned
why people who’ve recovered

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from COVID-19 —
or who’ve had the vaccine —

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should continue
to cover their faces.

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Sen. Rand Paul: "You want people
to get the vaccine?

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Give them a reward,
instead of telling them

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that the nanny state’s going
to be there for three more years

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and you’ve got to
wear a mask forever.

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People don’t want to hear it,

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and there’s no
science behind it."

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Dr. Anthony Fauci: "Well, let me
just state for the record

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that masks are not theater.

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Masks are protective.
And we ask" —

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Sen. Rand Paul: "If you have
immunity, they are theater.

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If you already have immunity,

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you’re wearing a mask
to give comfort to others.

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You’re not wearing a mask
because of any science."

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Dr. Anthony Fauci: "I totally
disagree with you."

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Dr. Fauci pushed back,
saying there’s not enough data

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on whether people
with immunity to COVID-19

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can still spread the virus
that causes the disease.

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He also warned
that new viral variants

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may be able
to reinfect people

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who have immunity to earlier
lineages of coronavirus.

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The Senate narrowly confirmed
Xavier Becerra

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to lead the Department of Health
and Human Services Thursday,

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with just one Republican,
Maine’s Susan Collins,

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voting in his favor.
Becerra will play a key role

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in the government’s response
to the pandemic.

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The Senate also confirmed
William Burns as CIA director.

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Burns was involved in talks
leading to the landmark

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Iran nuclear deal
under President Obama.

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Deb Haaland was sworn in by
Vice President Kamala

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Harris Thursday
as secretary of the interior —

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the first-ever Native
American cabinet secretary.

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Haaland, a member
of the Laguna Pueblo Tribe,

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wore a traditional ribbon skirt
and moccasins for the occasion.

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Vice President Kamala Harris: 
"So help me God."

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Rep. Deb Haaland: "So
help me God."

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Vice President Kamala Harris: 
"Congratulations,

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Madam Secretary!

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Congratulations!
Congratulations!"

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Interior Secretary Deb Haaland: 
"Thank you."

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Vice President Kamala Harris: 
"History is

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being made yet again."

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The House of Representatives
passed two immigration bills

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that would establish a pathway
to citizenship

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or legal residency

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for undocumented people
brought to the U.S. as children,

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some immigrants with
temporary protected status,

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as well as undocumented
farmworkers.

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The American Dream
and Promise Act

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would largely apply to people
with Deferred Action

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for Childhood Arrivals, DACA,
and would reportedly benefit

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some 2.5 million
undocumented immigrants.

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The second bill, the Farm
Workforce Modernization Act,

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would allow about 1 million
undocumented farmworkers

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to get a green card
if they pay a penalty

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and continue to work
in the industry

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for four
to eight more years.

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While some advocates
have celebrated the bills,

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many are denouncing
the exclusion of millions

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of other undocumented people,

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including those who have
been convicted of a crime.

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Jacinta González,
senior campaign organizer

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at Mijente, said,

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"If we learned anything in 2020,
it’s that the policing

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and mass incarceration
systems in this country

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are fundamentally rigged against
Black and Latinx people,

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and the American Dream
and Promise Act is no exception.

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Criminalization
born of a racist system

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cannot be the measure
by which we determine

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who belongs and who goes."

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The bills now head
to the Senate,

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where they face an uphill battle
as 10 Republicans

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would have to vote
with every Democrat

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to pass the legislation.

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In more immigration news,

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more than 14,000
unaccompanied migrant children

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are now in the custody
of U.S. officials.

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Most are being detained
at facilities

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run by the Department
of Health and Human Services,

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and some 4,500 children
are still in the custody

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of Customs
and Border Protection.

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Meanwhile, the Biden
administration has stopped

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sending unaccompanied
migrant teenagers

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to a recently opened facility
in Midland, Texas,

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amid growing safety
and other concerns.

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The facility is a converted camp
for oil field workers,

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where most of the Red Cross
volunteers on site

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don’t speak Spanish
or Indigenous languages.

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Already over 50 teens,

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out of nearly 500
in custody in Midland,

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have tested positive
for COVID-19.

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The House of Representatives
voted Wednesday

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to award
Congressional Gold Medals

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to all members
of the Capitol Police force

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over their role in battling
the mob of Trump supporters

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that attacked Congress
on January 6.

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A dozen pro-Trump Republicans
voted against the measure,

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citing objections
to language that referred

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to the January 6 Capitol assault
as an "insurrection."

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The U.S. and China traded
tense verbal attacks

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as the first high-level talks
between the two countries

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since the start of the Biden
administration kicked off

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in Alaska Thursday.

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This is Secretary
of State Antony Blinken.

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Secretary of State Antony 
Blinken: "I have to tell you,

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what I’m hearing
is very different

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from what you described.

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I’m hearing deep satisfaction
that the United States is back,

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that we’re reengaged
with our allies and partners.

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I’m also hearing deep concern

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about some of the actions
your government is taking."

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The U.S. accused China
of threatening

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"global stability"
and raised human rights issues.

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China, meanwhile, said the U.S.
is using its military

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and economic might to carry out
its own national priorities

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and "incite some countries
to attack China."

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This is senior Chinese
diplomat Yang Jiechi.

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Yang Jiechi: "So, we hope that
when talking about

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universal values
or international public opinion

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on the part
of the United States,

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we hope that the U.S. side
will think about

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whether it feels reassured
saying those things,

00:10:04.250 --> 00:10:06.260
because the U.S. does not
represent the world,

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it only represents

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the government
of the United States."

00:10:09.830 --> 00:10:12.120
In Egypt, prominent
human rights activist

00:10:12.120 --> 00:10:15.060
Sanaa Seif has been sentenced
to 18 months in prison

00:10:15.060 --> 00:10:19.830
after a court found her guilty
of "spreading fake news."

00:10:19.830 --> 00:10:22.620
Seif was detained last June
and was later accused

00:10:22.620 --> 00:10:24.730
of making false claims
regarding the massive

00:10:24.730 --> 00:10:27.600
spread of COVID-19
inside Egyptian prisons.

00:10:27.600 --> 00:10:30.380
Amnesty International
called her charges "bogus"

00:10:30.380 --> 00:10:34.660
and "stemming purely
from her peaceful criticism."

00:10:34.660 --> 00:10:37.400
During the revolution in 2011,
Sanaa Seif,

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who was then just 17 years old,

00:10:39.090 --> 00:10:40.960
spoke with Democracy
Now!’s Sharif Abdel Kouddous

00:10:40.960 --> 00:10:43.540
about publishing a newspaper
in defiance of rules

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requiring government
permission.

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Sanaa Seif: "It’s the perfect
timing

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to push the borders
of freedom further.

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So, we thought, 'Why not?
Let's make a newspaper,

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and let’s not
get permission for that.

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Let’s just sell it
in the streets.’ ...

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It’s called Voices of Tahrir,
Voices of Liberation.

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And, well, we thought that
the first copy has to be, like —

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well, each one of us, after this
experience of the revolution,

00:11:18.570 --> 00:11:20.270
has something to say."

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And those are some of
the headlines this is Democracy

00:11:26.920 --> 00:11:30.150
Now, Democracynow.org,
the War and Peace Report.

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I’m Amy Goodman.

00:13:05.360 --> 00:13:08.050
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy
Now!, democracynow.org,

00:13:08.050 --> 00:13:10.410
The Quarantine Report.
I’m Amy Goodman.

00:13:10.410 --> 00:13:11.880
Senate Democrats have introduced

00:13:11.880 --> 00:13:14.010
sweeping voting
rights legislation

00:13:14.010 --> 00:13:15.700
passed by the House
of Representatives

00:13:15.700 --> 00:13:16.930
earlier this month.

00:13:16.930 --> 00:13:20.090
The For the People Act aims
to improve voter registration

00:13:20.090 --> 00:13:21.430
and access to the polls,

00:13:21.430 --> 00:13:23.470
ends partisan
and racial gerrymandering,

00:13:23.470 --> 00:13:26.350
forces the disclosure
of dark money donors,

00:13:26.350 --> 00:13:28.700
increases public funding
for candidates

00:13:28.700 --> 00:13:31.660
and imposes strict ethical
and reporting standards

00:13:31.660 --> 00:13:35.080
on members of Congress
and the U.S. Supreme Court.

00:13:35.080 --> 00:13:37.730
Republicans have signaled
they’ll use the filibuster

00:13:37.730 --> 00:13:38.950
to defeat the bill.

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This comes as voting rights
are under attack in courthouses

00:13:41.990 --> 00:13:44.100
and statehouses
across the country.

00:13:44.100 --> 00:13:48.560
Republican state lawmakers
have introduced over 250 bills

00:13:48.560 --> 00:13:52.020
in 43 states
to limit voter access.

00:13:52.020 --> 00:13:55.020
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court
appears poised to uphold

00:13:55.020 --> 00:13:57.470
controversial
voting limits in Arizona,

00:13:57.470 --> 00:14:00.690
in a case that would further gut
the Voting Rights Act.

00:14:00.690 --> 00:14:04.760
We turn now to newly elected
Georgia Democratic

00:14:04.760 --> 00:14:08.380
Senator Raphael Warnock’s
first Senate speech.

00:14:08.930 --> 00:14:12.600
He’s the first Black senator
to represent Georgia

00:14:12.600 --> 00:14:14.390
and the first Black Democrat

00:14:14.390 --> 00:14:16.880
to be elected
to the Senate in the South.

00:14:17.650 --> 00:14:19.600
Reverend Warnock
is also a pastor

00:14:19.600 --> 00:14:21.820
of the Ebenezer
Baptist Church in Atlanta,

00:14:21.820 --> 00:14:25.780
which was the spiritual home
of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

00:14:25.780 --> 00:14:27.470
Now Senator Warnock

00:14:27.470 --> 00:14:31.080
focused on voting rights
in his maiden floor speech,

00:14:31.080 --> 00:14:34.080
but he began by condemning
the deadly shootings

00:14:34.080 --> 00:14:37.500
at the three spas
in the Atlanta region on Tuesday

00:14:37.500 --> 00:14:40.940
that left eight people dead,
including seven women,

00:14:40.940 --> 00:14:43.260
six of whom were
of Asian descent.

00:14:44.060 --> 00:14:45.450
SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK: 
Mr President,

00:14:45.450 --> 00:14:48.630
before I begin
my formal remarks,

00:14:49.500 --> 00:14:53.810
I want to pause to condemn
the hatred and violence

00:14:53.810 --> 00:14:57.050
that took eight precious
lives last night

00:14:57.790 --> 00:14:59.490
in metropolitan Atlanta.

00:15:00.730 --> 00:15:02.990
I grieve with Georgians,
with Americans,

00:15:02.990 --> 00:15:07.440
with people of love
all across the world.

00:15:09.670 --> 00:15:11.430
This unspeakable violence,

00:15:12.240 --> 00:15:15.100
visited largely upon
the Asian community,

00:15:16.210 --> 00:15:20.760
is one that causes all of us
to recommit ourselves

00:15:20.760 --> 00:15:22.800
to the way of peace,

00:15:22.800 --> 00:15:25.500
an active peace that prevents
these kinds of tragedies

00:15:25.500 --> 00:15:28.510
from happening
in the first place.

00:15:28.510 --> 00:15:30.210
We pray for these families.

00:15:31.100 --> 00:15:34.410
Mr President, I rise here today
as a proud American

00:15:35.650 --> 00:15:38.540
and as one of the newest
members of the Senate,

00:15:38.540 --> 00:15:41.490
in awe of the journey
that has brought me

00:15:42.220 --> 00:15:43.920
to these hallowed halls,

00:15:44.870 --> 00:15:47.530
and with an abiding sense
of reverence and gratitude

00:15:48.720 --> 00:15:52.500
for the faith and sacrifices
of ancestors who paved the way.

00:15:54.400 --> 00:15:57.720
I am a proud son
of the great state of Georgia,

00:15:58.900 --> 00:16:00.600
born and raised in Savannah,

00:16:01.820 --> 00:16:04.700
a coastal city known
for its cobblestone streets

00:16:04.700 --> 00:16:06.400
and verdant town squares.

00:16:07.520 --> 00:16:09.410
Towering oak trees,

00:16:09.410 --> 00:16:12.200
centuries old and covered
in gray Spanish moss,

00:16:13.150 --> 00:16:15.300
stretched from one side
of the street to the other,

00:16:15.300 --> 00:16:17.070
bend and beckon
the lover of history

00:16:17.070 --> 00:16:19.650
and horticulture
to this city by the sea.

00:16:21.530 --> 00:16:23.400
I was educated
at Morehouse College,

00:16:24.650 --> 00:16:28.760
and I still serve in the pulpit
of the Ebenezer Baptist Church,

00:16:28.760 --> 00:16:34.040
both in Atlanta, the cradle
of the civil rights movement.

00:16:35.420 --> 00:16:37.469
And so, like those
oak trees in Savannah,

00:16:38.660 --> 00:16:42.960
my roots go down deep,
and they stretch wide,

00:16:44.420 --> 00:16:46.120
in the soil
of Waycross, Georgia,

00:16:47.820 --> 00:16:50.930
and Burke County
and Screven County.

00:16:52.530 --> 00:16:56.780
In a word, I am Georgia,
a living example

00:16:56.780 --> 00:16:59.090
and embodiment
of its history

00:16:59.090 --> 00:17:03.450
and its hope,
of its pain and promise,

00:17:04.860 --> 00:17:07.980
the brutality and possibility.

00:17:10.460 --> 00:17:12.640
Mr President,
at the time of my birth,

00:17:14.230 --> 00:17:17.770
Georgia’s two senators
were Richard B.

00:17:17.770 --> 00:17:24.170
Russell and Herman E. Talmadge,
both arch-segregationists

00:17:24.170 --> 00:17:27.200
and unabashed adversaries
of the civil rights movement.

00:17:28.770 --> 00:17:32.000
After the Supreme
Court’s landmark Brown v.

00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:35.200
Board ruling outlawing
school segregation,

00:17:35.200 --> 00:17:38.299
Talmadge warned that blood will
run in the streets of Atlanta.

00:17:40.140 --> 00:17:42.820
Senator Talmadge’s father,
Eugene Talmadge,

00:17:42.820 --> 00:17:46.200
former governor of our state,
had famously declared,

00:17:47.280 --> 00:17:51.280
"The South loves the Negro
in his place,

00:17:52.510 --> 00:17:54.260
but his place
is at the back door."

00:17:56.000 --> 00:17:58.430
When once asked how he
and his supporters might keep

00:17:58.430 --> 00:18:00.300
Black people away
from the polls,

00:18:00.300 --> 00:18:04.280
he picked up a scrap of paper
and wrote a single word on it:

00:18:06.020 --> 00:18:07.720
"pistols."

00:18:11.440 --> 00:18:15.900
Yet, there is something
in the American covenant —

00:18:17.880 --> 00:18:22.880
in its charter documents
and its Jeffersonian ideals —

00:18:22.880 --> 00:18:25.710
that bends toward freedom.

00:18:27.250 --> 00:18:29.700
And led by a preacher
and a patriot named King,

00:18:31.190 --> 00:18:33.030
Americans of all races stood up.

00:18:34.830 --> 00:18:36.490
History vindicated the movement

00:18:36.490 --> 00:18:39.470
that sought to bring us
closer to our ideals,

00:18:40.820 --> 00:18:43.520
to lengthen and strengthen
the cords of our democracy.

00:18:45.620 --> 00:18:50.030
And I now hold the seat,
the Senate seat,

00:18:51.780 --> 00:18:54.510
where Herman E. Talmadge sat.

00:18:56.280 --> 00:18:57.980
And that’s why I love America.

00:19:00.780 --> 00:19:04.920
I love America because we always
have a path to make it better,

00:19:06.560 --> 00:19:08.260
to build a more perfect union.

00:19:09.670 --> 00:19:11.060
It is a place
where a kid like me

00:19:11.060 --> 00:19:12.760
who grew up in public housing,

00:19:14.340 --> 00:19:16.620
the first college graduate
in my family,

00:19:18.260 --> 00:19:20.309
can now stand
as a United States senator.

00:19:22.160 --> 00:19:27.280
I had an older father.
He was born in 1917.

00:19:30.030 --> 00:19:31.890
Serving in the Army
during World War II,

00:19:31.890 --> 00:19:34.860
he was once asked to give up
his seat to a young teenager

00:19:34.860 --> 00:19:39.700
while wearing his soldier’s
uniform, they said,

00:19:39.700 --> 00:19:42.650
"making the world safe
for democracy."

00:19:44.570 --> 00:19:48.960
But he was never bitter.
And by the time I came along,

00:19:48.960 --> 00:19:52.620
he had already seen the arc
of change in our country.

00:19:54.170 --> 00:19:56.080
And he maintained
his faith in God

00:19:57.470 --> 00:20:01.180
and in his family
and in the American promise,

00:20:01.180 --> 00:20:03.990
and he passed that faith
on to his children.

00:20:06.300 --> 00:20:10.600
My mother grew up in Waycross,
Georgia.

00:20:10.600 --> 00:20:14.300
You know where that is?
It’s way 'cross Georgia.

00:20:17.210 --> 00:20:19.690
And like a lot of Black
teenagers in the 1950s,

00:20:19.690 --> 00:20:22.510
she spent her summers
picking somebody else's tobacco

00:20:22.510 --> 00:20:24.210
and somebody else’s cotton.

00:20:25.470 --> 00:20:29.770
But because this is America,
the 82-year-old hands

00:20:29.770 --> 00:20:31.920
that used to pick
somebody else’s cotton

00:20:31.920 --> 00:20:33.850
went to the polls in January

00:20:33.850 --> 00:20:36.750
and picked her youngest son
to be a United States senator.

00:20:38.380 --> 00:20:43.940
Ours is a land where possibility
is born of democracy —

00:20:45.630 --> 00:20:48.410
a vote, a voice,

00:20:49.900 --> 00:20:53.280
a chance to help determine
the direction of the country

00:20:53.280 --> 00:20:58.140
and one’s own destiny within it,
possibility born of democracy.

00:20:58.140 --> 00:21:00.980
That’s why this past
November and January,

00:21:00.980 --> 00:21:03.900
my mom and other citizens
of Georgia grabbed

00:21:03.900 --> 00:21:07.190
hold of that possibility and
turned out in record numbers:

00:21:07.190 --> 00:21:12.610
5 million in November,
4.4 million in January —

00:21:14.210 --> 00:21:16.480
far more than ever
in our state’s history.

00:21:18.210 --> 00:21:20.600
Turnout for
a typical runoff doubled.

00:21:22.590 --> 00:21:24.700
And the people of Georgia
sent their first

00:21:24.700 --> 00:21:29.420
African American senator
and first Jewish senator,

00:21:30.860 --> 00:21:34.730
my brother Jon Ossoff,
to these hallowed halls.

00:21:37.310 --> 00:21:39.010
But then, what happened?

00:21:40.730 --> 00:21:43.440
Some politicians did not
approve of the choice made

00:21:43.440 --> 00:21:46.210
by the majority of voters
in a hard-fought election

00:21:46.210 --> 00:21:47.910
in which each side

00:21:48.490 --> 00:21:52.030
got the chance
to make its case to the voters.

00:21:53.150 --> 00:21:55.290
And rather than
adjusting their agenda,

00:21:58.020 --> 00:21:59.930
rather than changing
their message,

00:22:02.210 --> 00:22:04.259
they are busy trying
to change the rules.

00:22:06.420 --> 00:22:09.110
We are witnessing
right now a massive

00:22:09.110 --> 00:22:12.220
and unabashed assault
on voting rights

00:22:12.220 --> 00:22:15.710
unlike anything we’ve ever seen
since the Jim Crow era.

00:22:21.530 --> 00:22:23.820
This is Jim Crow
in new clothes.

00:22:26.530 --> 00:22:31.180
Since the January election,
some 250 voter suppression bills

00:22:31.180 --> 00:22:33.250
have been introduced
by state legislatures

00:22:33.250 --> 00:22:34.530
all across the country,

00:22:34.530 --> 00:22:38.460
from Georgia to Arizona,
from New Hampshire to Florida,

00:22:41.380 --> 00:22:46.550
using the big lie
of voter fraud

00:22:48.290 --> 00:22:50.320
as a pretext
for voter suppression,

00:22:51.990 --> 00:22:56.200
the same big lie that led
to a violent insurrection

00:22:56.200 --> 00:23:01.800
on this very Capitol —
the day after my election.

00:23:03.810 --> 00:23:08.700
Within 24 hours, we elected
Georgia’s first African American

00:23:08.700 --> 00:23:09.930
and Jewish senator,

00:23:09.930 --> 00:23:13.430
and, hours later,
the Capitol was assaulted.

00:23:14.980 --> 00:23:17.570
We see in just
a few precious hours

00:23:18.370 --> 00:23:25.050
the tension very much alive
in the soul of America.

00:23:26.850 --> 00:23:29.540
And the question before all
of us at every moment is:

00:23:31.440 --> 00:23:35.230
What will we do to push us
in the right direction?

00:23:37.460 --> 00:23:41.270
And so, politicians,
driven by that big lie,

00:23:43.270 --> 00:23:45.370
aim to severely limit —

00:23:45.370 --> 00:23:47.830
and, in some cases,
eliminate — automatic

00:23:47.830 --> 00:23:51.000
and same-day voter registration,
mail-in and absentee voting,

00:23:51.000 --> 00:23:52.570
and early voting
and weekend voting.

00:23:52.570 --> 00:23:56.050
They want to make it easier
to purge voters

00:23:56.050 --> 00:24:00.950
from the voting roll altogether.
And as a voting rights activist,

00:24:00.950 --> 00:24:05.500
I have seen up close just how
draconian these measures can be.

00:24:05.500 --> 00:24:10.580
I hail from a state that purged
200,000 voters from the roll

00:24:10.580 --> 00:24:15.700
one Saturday night,
in the middle of the night.

00:24:18.600 --> 00:24:19.930
We know what’s happening here:

00:24:19.930 --> 00:24:22.520
Some people don’t want
some people to vote.

00:24:28.210 --> 00:24:29.710
I was honored on a few occasions

00:24:29.710 --> 00:24:35.590
to stand with our hero
and my parishioner, John Lewis.

00:24:37.580 --> 00:24:40.690
I was his pastor,
but I’m clear he was my mentor.

00:24:43.060 --> 00:24:46.640
On more than one occasion,
we boarded buses

00:24:46.640 --> 00:24:48.840
together after Sunday
church services

00:24:50.030 --> 00:24:52.600
as part of our Souls
to the Polls program,

00:24:52.600 --> 00:24:56.470
encouraging the Ebenezer church
family and communities of faith

00:24:56.470 --> 00:24:58.640
to participate
in the democratic process.

00:25:00.100 --> 00:25:02.960
Now, just a few months
after Congressman Lewis’s death,

00:25:04.300 --> 00:25:07.330
there are those
in the Georgia Legislature,

00:25:07.330 --> 00:25:09.830
some who even dare
to praise his name,

00:25:11.910 --> 00:25:14.890
that are now trying to get rid
of Sunday Souls to the Polls,

00:25:14.890 --> 00:25:18.490
making it a crime for people who
pray together to get on a bus

00:25:18.490 --> 00:25:20.240
together in order
to vote together.

00:25:21.750 --> 00:25:23.450
I think that’s wrong.

00:25:24.490 --> 00:25:26.420
Matter of fact,
I think that a vote

00:25:26.420 --> 00:25:30.930
is a kind of prayer
for the kind of world

00:25:30.930 --> 00:25:33.180
we desire for ourselves
and for our children.

00:25:34.690 --> 00:25:39.290
And our prayers are stronger
when we pray together.

00:25:41.560 --> 00:25:42.980
To be sure, we have seen
these kinds

00:25:42.980 --> 00:25:44.570
of voter
suppression tactics before.

00:25:44.570 --> 00:25:47.190
They are a part of a long
and shameful history

00:25:47.190 --> 00:25:49.040
in Georgia
and throughout our nation.

00:25:49.950 --> 00:25:51.900
But, refusing to be denied,

00:25:53.280 --> 00:25:56.630
Georgia citizens and citizens
across our country

00:25:56.630 --> 00:26:00.620
braved the heat
and the cold and the rain,

00:26:00.620 --> 00:26:03.350
some standing in line
for five hours,

00:26:03.350 --> 00:26:05.750
six hours, 10 hours,

00:26:06.920 --> 00:26:09.650
just to exercise their
constitutional right to vote —

00:26:10.430 --> 00:26:17.710
young people, old people,
sick people, working people,

00:26:18.220 --> 00:26:22.030
already underpaid,
forced to lose wages,

00:26:23.630 --> 00:26:28.310
to pay a kind of poll tax
while standing in line to vote.

00:26:31.310 --> 00:26:33.160
And how did
some politicians respond?

00:26:35.190 --> 00:26:37.270
Well, they are trying
to make it a crime

00:26:39.430 --> 00:26:46.880
to give people water and a snack
as they wait in lines

00:26:46.880 --> 00:26:49.260
that are obviously
being made longer

00:26:49.260 --> 00:26:51.790
by their draconian actions.

00:26:51.790 --> 00:26:56.130
Think about that.
Think about that.

00:26:59.030 --> 00:27:01.129
They are the ones
making the lines longer,

00:27:04.960 --> 00:27:07.470
through these
draconian actions.

00:27:09.820 --> 00:27:11.790
And then they want
to make it a crime

00:27:12.410 --> 00:27:13.810
to bring grandma some water

00:27:13.810 --> 00:27:16.659
while she’s waiting in a line
that they’re making longer.

00:27:20.560 --> 00:27:27.220
Make no mistake:
This is democracy in reverse.

00:27:29.430 --> 00:27:32.410
Rather than voters being able
to pick the politicians,

00:27:32.410 --> 00:27:35.410
the politicians are trying
to cherry-pick their voters.

00:27:37.790 --> 00:27:39.490
I say this cannot stand.

00:27:41.350 --> 00:27:43.050
And so I rise, Mr President,

00:27:45.210 --> 00:27:47.300
because that sacred
and noble idea —

00:27:49.740 --> 00:27:54.260
one person, one vote —
is being threatened right now.

00:27:56.140 --> 00:27:57.760
Politicians in my home state

00:27:57.760 --> 00:28:01.860
and all across America,
in their craven lust for power,

00:28:03.210 --> 00:28:06.180
have launched a full-fledged
assault on voting rights.

00:28:06.180 --> 00:28:09.440
They are focused
on winning at any cost,

00:28:09.440 --> 00:28:12.270
even the cost
of the democracy itself.

00:28:15.390 --> 00:28:19.030
And I submit that it is
the job of each citizen

00:28:21.020 --> 00:28:23.850
to stand up for the voting
rights of every citizen.

00:28:25.320 --> 00:28:28.740
And it is the job of this body
to do all

00:28:28.740 --> 00:28:32.650
that it can to defend
the viability of our democracy.

00:28:35.190 --> 00:28:39.820
That’s why I am a proud
co-sponsor of the

00:28:39.820 --> 00:28:44.480
For the People Act,
which we introduced today.

00:28:45.990 --> 00:28:47.850
The For the People Act
is a major step

00:28:47.850 --> 00:28:50.670
in the march
toward our democratic ideals,

00:28:50.670 --> 00:28:53.900
making it easier, not harder,
for eligible Americans

00:28:53.900 --> 00:28:56.290
to vote by instituting
commonsense,

00:28:56.290 --> 00:28:58.800
pro-democracy reforms,

00:29:00.480 --> 00:29:05.860
like establishing national
automatic voter registration

00:29:06.750 --> 00:29:10.100
for every eligible citizen
and allowing

00:29:10.100 --> 00:29:12.360
all Americans to register
to vote online

00:29:12.360 --> 00:29:16.770
and on Election Day;
requiring states to offer

00:29:16.770 --> 00:29:18.580
at least two weeks
of early voting,

00:29:19.360 --> 00:29:22.060
including weekends,
in federal elections,

00:29:22.850 --> 00:29:25.130
keeping Souls
to the Polls programs alive;

00:29:27.030 --> 00:29:30.110
prohibiting states from
restricting a person’s ability

00:29:30.110 --> 00:29:32.070
to vote absentee
or by mail;

00:29:32.070 --> 00:29:34.640
and preventing states
from purging the voter rolls

00:29:34.640 --> 00:29:37.480
based solely on
unreliable evidence,

00:29:37.480 --> 00:29:41.770
like someone’s voting history —
something we’ve seen in Georgia

00:29:41.770 --> 00:29:43.680
and other states
in recent years.

00:29:45.080 --> 00:29:50.770
And it would end the dominance
of big money in our politics

00:29:52.000 --> 00:29:56.360
and ensure our public servants
are there serving the public.

00:29:59.040 --> 00:30:02.440
Amidst these voter suppression
laws and tactics,

00:30:02.440 --> 00:30:05.430
including partisan
and racial gerrymandering,

00:30:06.660 --> 00:30:08.600
and in a system
awash in dark money

00:30:08.600 --> 00:30:10.960
and the dominance
of corporatist interests

00:30:10.960 --> 00:30:13.540
and politicians
who do their bidding,

00:30:15.380 --> 00:30:17.180
the voices of
the American people

00:30:19.400 --> 00:30:23.580
have been increasingly
drowned out and crowded out

00:30:25.100 --> 00:30:28.200
and squeezed out
of their own democracy.

00:30:29.660 --> 00:30:31.790
We must pass
For the People

00:30:31.790 --> 00:30:33.970
so that people
might have a voice.

00:30:34.830 --> 00:30:36.080
Your vote is your voice,

00:30:36.080 --> 00:30:38.080
and your voice
is your human dignity.

00:30:38.850 --> 00:30:43.870
But not only that, we must pass
the John Lewis

00:30:45.490 --> 00:30:47.480
Voting Rights Advancement
Act.

00:30:50.290 --> 00:30:52.990
You know, voting rights
used to be a bipartisan issue.

00:30:54.370 --> 00:30:58.120
The last time the voting rights
bill was reauthorized was 2006.

00:30:58.120 --> 00:31:00.310
George W. Bush was president,

00:31:02.610 --> 00:31:05.100
and it passed this chamber
98 to 0.

00:31:07.280 --> 00:31:10.790
But then, in 2013,
the Supreme Court rejected

00:31:10.790 --> 00:31:14.010
the successful formula
for supervision and preclearance

00:31:14.010 --> 00:31:15.770
contained in the 1965

00:31:15.770 --> 00:31:21.370
Voting Rights Act.
They asked Congress to fix it.

00:31:26.330 --> 00:31:28.030
That was nearly eight years ago,

00:31:30.830 --> 00:31:32.929
and the American people
are still waiting.

00:31:34.260 --> 00:31:36.150
Stripped of protections,
voters in states

00:31:36.150 --> 00:31:38.350
with a long history
of voter discrimination

00:31:38.350 --> 00:31:41.449
and voters in many other states
have been thrown to the winds.

00:31:44.200 --> 00:31:47.950
We Americans have noisy
and spirited debates

00:31:47.950 --> 00:31:49.540
about many things —
and we should.

00:31:49.540 --> 00:31:51.920
That’s what it means
to live in a free country.

00:31:53.680 --> 00:31:56.130
But access to the ballot
ought to be nonpartisan.

00:31:58.620 --> 00:32:02.000
I submit that there should be
100 votes in this chamber

00:32:04.160 --> 00:32:07.560
for policies that will
make it easier for Americans

00:32:07.560 --> 00:32:09.840
to make their voices heard
in our democracy.

00:32:12.150 --> 00:32:20.210
Surely, there ought to be
at least 60 in this chamber

00:32:20.210 --> 00:32:22.210
who believe, as I do,

00:32:22.210 --> 00:32:25.990
that the four most powerful
words uttered in a democracy

00:32:28.150 --> 00:32:31.560
are "the people have spoken,"

00:32:33.000 --> 00:32:35.900
therefore we must ensure that
all of the people can speak.

00:32:39.870 --> 00:32:45.230
But if not, we must still
pass voting rights.

00:32:46.830 --> 00:32:48.390
The right to vote
is preservative

00:32:48.390 --> 00:32:49.590
of all other rights.

00:32:49.590 --> 00:32:52.420
It is not just another issue
alongside other issues.

00:32:52.420 --> 00:32:57.270
It is foundational.
It is the reason why any of us

00:32:59.200 --> 00:33:01.900
has the privilege of standing
here in the first place.

00:33:03.480 --> 00:33:05.870
It is about the covenant
we have with one another

00:33:05.870 --> 00:33:08.100
as an American people:
E pluribus unum,

00:33:08.100 --> 00:33:09.800
"Out of many, one."

00:33:11.440 --> 00:33:13.550
It, above all else,
must be protected.

00:33:15.480 --> 00:33:17.180
And so, let’s be clear.

00:33:18.600 --> 00:33:23.110
I’m not here today to spiral
into the procedural argument

00:33:23.110 --> 00:33:25.380
regarding whether
the filibuster, in general,

00:33:25.380 --> 00:33:28.290
has merits
or has outlived its usefulness.

00:33:29.530 --> 00:33:32.629
I’m here to say that this issue
is bigger than the filibuster.

00:33:34.370 --> 00:33:36.740
I stand before you saying
that this issue —

00:33:36.740 --> 00:33:40.440
access to voting and preempting
politicians’ efforts

00:33:40.440 --> 00:33:41.810
to restrict voting —

00:33:41.810 --> 00:33:44.090
is so fundamental
to our democracy

00:33:44.090 --> 00:33:47.370
that it is too important to be
held hostage by a Senate rule,

00:33:49.320 --> 00:33:51.480
especially one historically used
to restrict

00:33:51.480 --> 00:33:53.180
the expansion of voting rights.

00:33:55.050 --> 00:33:58.120
It is a contradiction to say

00:33:58.120 --> 00:34:01.770
we must protect
minority rights in the Senate

00:34:01.770 --> 00:34:05.080
while refusing to protect
minority rights in the society.

00:34:07.800 --> 00:34:09.010
Colleagues,

00:34:09.010 --> 00:34:12.450
no Senate rule should overrule
the integrity of our democracy,

00:34:14.330 --> 00:34:18.230
and we must find a way
to pass voting rights,

00:34:18.230 --> 00:34:20.610
whether we get rid
of the filibuster or not.

00:34:27.700 --> 00:34:30.920
And so, as I close — and nobody
believes a preacher

00:34:30.920 --> 00:34:32.620
when he says,
"As I close" —

00:34:36.770 --> 00:34:38.840
let me say that I —
as a man of faith,

00:34:41.500 --> 00:34:47.570
I believe that democracy is
the political enactment

00:34:47.570 --> 00:34:49.270
of a spiritual idea:

00:34:52.740 --> 00:34:54.620
the sacred worth
of all human beings,

00:34:56.920 --> 00:35:01.430
the notion that we all have
within us a spark of the divine

00:35:01.430 --> 00:35:04.670
and a right to participate
in the shaping of our destiny.

00:35:05.740 --> 00:35:09.480
Reinhold Niebuhr was right:
"[Humanity’s]

00:35:09.480 --> 00:35:12.330
capacity for justice
makes democracy possible,

00:35:12.330 --> 00:35:13.540
but [humanity’s]

00:35:13.540 --> 00:35:18.070
inclination to injustice
makes democracy necessary."

00:35:19.780 --> 00:35:21.480
John Lewis understood that

00:35:22.100 --> 00:35:24.100
and was beaten on a bridge
defending it.

00:35:26.770 --> 00:35:29.990
Amelia Boynton,
like so many women

00:35:29.990 --> 00:35:34.960
not mentioned nearly enough,
was gassed on that same bridge.

00:35:38.320 --> 00:35:40.520
A white woman named
Viola Liuzzo was killed.

00:35:42.480 --> 00:35:44.779
Medgar Evers was murdered
in his own driveway.

00:35:46.660 --> 00:35:49.990
Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman,
two Jews and an African American

00:35:49.990 --> 00:35:53.270
standing up for that sacred idea
of democracy,

00:35:53.270 --> 00:35:55.030
also paid the ultimate price.

00:35:58.980 --> 00:36:00.680
And we, in this body,

00:36:02.000 --> 00:36:06.060
would be stopped and stymied
by partisan politics,

00:36:07.550 --> 00:36:13.140
short-term political gain,
Senate procedure?

00:36:16.370 --> 00:36:19.410
I say let’s get this done
no matter what.

00:36:19.410 --> 00:36:22.250
I urge my colleagues
to pass these two bills,

00:36:22.250 --> 00:36:24.980
strengthen and lengthen
the cords of our democracy,

00:36:24.980 --> 00:36:27.900
secure our credibility
as the premier voice

00:36:27.900 --> 00:36:29.530
for freedom-loving people

00:36:29.530 --> 00:36:32.180
and democratic movements
all over the world,

00:36:33.860 --> 00:36:37.700
and win the future
for all of our children.

00:36:38.870 --> 00:36:40.800
Mr. President,
I yield the floor.

00:36:45.300 --> 00:36:48.320
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Georgia’s
new Democratic senator,

00:36:48.320 --> 00:36:50.360
the Reverend Raphael Warnock,

00:36:50.360 --> 00:36:53.060
giving his first speech
from the Senate floor.

00:36:53.060 --> 00:36:55.520
In a rare display in the Senate,

00:36:55.520 --> 00:36:59.020
the people in the room
gave him a standing ovation.

00:36:59.680 --> 00:37:02.130
When we come back,
we speak to Heather McGhee,

00:37:02.130 --> 00:37:04.190
author of the new book
The Sum of Us:

00:37:04.190 --> 00:37:08.290
What Racism Costs Everyone
and How We Can Prosper Together.

00:37:08.290 --> 00:37:09.580
Stay with us.

00:37:09.580 --> 00:38:21.590
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: "We’ll Never

00:38:21.590 --> 00:38:27.130
Turn Back" by Mavis Staples.
The 81-year-old legend

00:38:27.130 --> 00:38:30.710
just got her second dose
of a coronavirus vaccine.

00:38:31.360 --> 00:38:34.640
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy
Now!, democracynow.org,

00:38:34.640 --> 00:38:37.160
The Quarantine Report.
I’m Amy Goodman.

00:38:37.160 --> 00:38:40.180
President Joe Biden
and Vice President Kamala Harris

00:38:40.180 --> 00:38:43.010
head to Atlanta today,
where they plan to address

00:38:43.010 --> 00:38:44.520
Tuesday’s mass shootings

00:38:44.520 --> 00:38:46.670
at three spas
that killed eight people,

00:38:46.670 --> 00:38:50.150
including seven women, six
of whom were of Asian descent.

00:38:50.760 --> 00:38:53.000
The trip to Atlanta
was originally scheduled

00:38:53.000 --> 00:38:54.490
as part of Biden’s campaign

00:38:54.490 --> 00:38:58.690
promoting the nearly $2
trillion American Rescue Plan.

00:38:58.690 --> 00:39:03.500
Democrats hail the deal
as the largest anti-poverty law

00:39:03.500 --> 00:39:07.040
in a generation.
One study projects it will lift

00:39:07.040 --> 00:39:10.030
almost 14 million Americans
out of poverty,

00:39:10.030 --> 00:39:12.990
including 5.7 million children.

00:39:12.990 --> 00:39:16.240
While the relief plan
has broad public support,

00:39:16.240 --> 00:39:19.670
not a single Republican
supported the legislation.

00:39:20.500 --> 00:39:22.710
We spend the rest of the hour
with Heather McGhee,

00:39:22.710 --> 00:39:26.560
author of the new book
The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs

00:39:26.560 --> 00:39:29.270
Everyone and How
We Can Prosper Together.

00:39:29.790 --> 00:39:32.680
Heather is the board chair
of Color of Change

00:39:32.680 --> 00:39:35.490
and former president
of the think tank Demos.

00:39:36.070 --> 00:39:37.570
Thanks so much for joining us,
Heather.

00:39:37.570 --> 00:39:39.650
Congratulations
on your new book!

00:39:40.390 --> 00:39:43.040
HEATHER McGHEE: Thank you.
Congratulations on 25 years!

00:39:43.690 --> 00:39:46.650
AMY GOODMAN: Thank you so much.
The whole team at Democracy Now!

00:39:46.650 --> 00:39:49.970
is celebrating. Hopefully soon,
we can celebrate together.

00:39:49.970 --> 00:39:51.210
HEATHER McGHEE: Yeah.

00:39:51.210 --> 00:39:53.760
AMY GOODMAN: Well, you just sat
there and watched,

00:39:53.760 --> 00:39:56.140
once again,
the Reverend Warnock.

00:39:57.430 --> 00:39:59.810
You tweeted while
he was speaking,

00:39:59.810 --> 00:40:02.790
and said everyone
should do themselves a favor

00:40:02.790 --> 00:40:04.470
and watch this speech.

00:40:04.470 --> 00:40:06.510
Can you talk
about the significance

00:40:06.510 --> 00:40:10.100
of what happened in Georgia
for this whole country,

00:40:10.100 --> 00:40:12.970
Reverend Warnock
the first Black Democrat

00:40:12.970 --> 00:40:16.230
to be elected
from the former Confederacy?

00:40:17.200 --> 00:40:18.870
HEATHER McGHEE: Yeah,
it was so moving.

00:40:18.870 --> 00:40:23.820
I mean, I really think of
the crucible of the 24 hours

00:40:23.820 --> 00:40:27.280
between January 5th
and January 6th

00:40:27.280 --> 00:40:31.470
as American promise and
American peril in a nutshell.

00:40:31.470 --> 00:40:35.570
First we saw
a multiracial coalition,

00:40:35.570 --> 00:40:38.630
a multiracial
antiracist coalition,

00:40:38.630 --> 00:40:42.230
that was standing up
to four years of division,

00:40:42.230 --> 00:40:45.990
pain and suffering,
and putting the man

00:40:45.990 --> 00:40:52.080
who is the successor to Reverend
Dr. Martin Luther King,

00:40:52.080 --> 00:40:55.520
marching through the pews
of that storied church,

00:40:55.520 --> 00:40:59.700
and putting him in office,
along with Jon Ossoff.

00:41:00.440 --> 00:41:01.970
That was an historic moment.

00:41:01.970 --> 00:41:06.020
So many of the political class
had counted Georgia out.

00:41:06.020 --> 00:41:09.740
And yet, a coalition,
that went from Black folks,

00:41:09.740 --> 00:41:13.620
who had been organizing
for years with Stacey Abrams

00:41:13.620 --> 00:41:17.910
and LaTosha Brown,
to white women in the suburbs,

00:41:17.910 --> 00:41:21.010
who turned away
from the Republican Party

00:41:21.010 --> 00:41:24.570
for the first time
in generations, young people,

00:41:25.300 --> 00:41:28.050
really overcoming
a number of barriers

00:41:28.050 --> 00:41:30.500
to the ballot
in the middle of a pandemic,

00:41:30.500 --> 00:41:32.200
did the impossible,

00:41:32.960 --> 00:41:36.250
with the promise of relief
from this pandemic,

00:41:36.250 --> 00:41:38.820
itself a disease
that has wreaked havoc

00:41:38.820 --> 00:41:41.000
disproportionately
on people of color

00:41:41.000 --> 00:41:44.720
but that has shown that our
fates are inextricably linked.

00:41:45.280 --> 00:41:48.190
And then, not 24 hours later,

00:41:48.190 --> 00:41:51.900
the dark spirit
of American white supremacy,

00:41:52.430 --> 00:41:58.460
fueled by a big lie, that has,
as its core logic, racism,

00:41:58.460 --> 00:42:01.070
the idea,
the common sense,

00:42:01.070 --> 00:42:04.140
that of course a man
who was rejected

00:42:04.140 --> 00:42:06.080
by the majority
of people of color

00:42:06.080 --> 00:42:10.200
could not possibly have
lost the presidency,

00:42:10.200 --> 00:42:12.480
that, of course,
when people of color vote,

00:42:12.480 --> 00:42:14.490
it is somehow suspect
and criminal.

00:42:15.290 --> 00:42:16.850
This is the tension.

00:42:16.850 --> 00:42:19.310
And I explore this tension
in my book

00:42:19.310 --> 00:42:24.510
because, fundamentally, racism
has been the most powerful tool

00:42:24.510 --> 00:42:27.690
wielded against
the best of America —

00:42:27.690 --> 00:42:31.760
against American democracy,
against cross-racial solidarity,

00:42:31.760 --> 00:42:34.020
against the American
dream itself.

00:42:34.020 --> 00:42:37.090
I talk about how it’s brought
us the inequality era.

00:42:37.090 --> 00:42:39.410
And figures like
Reverend Warnock,

00:42:39.410 --> 00:42:44.210
who put into perspective,
who in their own lives

00:42:44.210 --> 00:42:49.350
have so much of the course
of American history on display,

00:42:49.350 --> 00:42:51.720
are whom we need
to look to right now

00:42:51.720 --> 00:42:55.980
to remind us that that tool
always robs

00:42:55.980 --> 00:42:58.390
this country
of its best promise.

00:42:58.390 --> 00:43:00.070
AMY GOODMAN: You mentioned
Stacey Abrams.

00:43:00.070 --> 00:43:02.250
Georgia’s state Senate
recently approved a bill

00:43:02.250 --> 00:43:03.530
that would end
the right of voters

00:43:03.530 --> 00:43:06.340
to cast absentee ballots
without excuse,

00:43:06.340 --> 00:43:09.330
while toughening voter
ID requirements.

00:43:09.330 --> 00:43:10.900
Georgia voting
rights activist,

00:43:10.900 --> 00:43:13.880
the former gubernatorial
candidate, Stacey Abrams,

00:43:13.880 --> 00:43:16.310
blasted the legislation
on CNN.

00:43:17.430 --> 00:43:19.250
STACEY ABRAMS: I do absolutely
agree that it’s racist.

00:43:19.250 --> 00:43:23.170
It is a redux of Jim Crow
in a suit and tie.

00:43:23.170 --> 00:43:26.910
We know that the only thing
that precipitated these changes,

00:43:26.910 --> 00:43:28.660
it’s not that there was
a question of security.

00:43:28.660 --> 00:43:30.270
In fact, the secretary
of state

00:43:30.270 --> 00:43:33.180
and the governor went
to great pains to assure America

00:43:33.180 --> 00:43:35.090
that Georgia’s elections
were secure.

00:43:35.090 --> 00:43:37.840
And so, the only connection
that we can find

00:43:37.840 --> 00:43:39.830
is that more people
of color voted,

00:43:39.830 --> 00:43:41.440
and it changed the outcome
of elections

00:43:41.440 --> 00:43:43.650
in a direction
that Republicans do not like.

00:43:43.650 --> 00:43:44.980
AMY GOODMAN: So,
that’s Stacey Abrams.

00:43:44.980 --> 00:43:46.200
And, of course,
it’s not just Georgia;

00:43:46.200 --> 00:43:47.490
it’s all over the country,

00:43:47.490 --> 00:43:50.920
over 250 bills now introduced
in legislatures

00:43:50.920 --> 00:43:52.430
around the country,
as you’ve said.

00:43:52.430 --> 00:43:54.800
I mean, the idea
of the Republicans, what?

00:43:54.800 --> 00:43:57.060
If you can’t beat them,
enjoin them?

00:43:57.060 --> 00:44:01.100
Like, just legally
stop them from voting.

00:44:01.100 --> 00:44:02.330
HEATHER McGHEE: Yeah.

00:44:02.330 --> 00:44:04.090
Well, I mean,
let’s be very clear

00:44:04.090 --> 00:44:07.380
that this is the question
that has bedeviled

00:44:07.380 --> 00:44:11.420
this nation since its founding:
Are we going to be a democracy,

00:44:11.420 --> 00:44:14.150
or are we going to be
a white supremacist state?

00:44:15.110 --> 00:44:20.240
You know, our Founders had
a revolutionary idea

00:44:20.240 --> 00:44:23.340
to break with the European
tradition of monarchy

00:44:23.340 --> 00:44:27.550
and bet on the radical idea
of self-governance.

00:44:27.550 --> 00:44:31.100
And yet they compromised
their own ideals from the start,

00:44:31.730 --> 00:44:34.410
to compromise with slavery.

00:44:34.410 --> 00:44:38.270
They drilled holes into the
bedrock of American democracy

00:44:38.270 --> 00:44:39.490
at the beginning,

00:44:39.490 --> 00:44:42.280
with compromises such
as the Electoral College

00:44:42.280 --> 00:44:44.490
to ensure a voice
for slave states,

00:44:44.490 --> 00:44:48.880
the three-fifths compromise,
and then, of course,

00:44:49.400 --> 00:44:54.010
allowing the 1st Congress
to delineate citizenship

00:44:54.010 --> 00:44:58.630
only to free white citizens,
free white persons.

00:44:58.630 --> 00:45:01.110
And so, we’ve seen,
time and time again,

00:45:01.790 --> 00:45:06.620
all of these tactics
are from a very old playbook.

00:45:06.620 --> 00:45:08.790
They’re from a playbook
that is deployed

00:45:08.790 --> 00:45:10.700
by a narrow white elite.

00:45:10.700 --> 00:45:13.380
And the thing that I try
to outline in my book —

00:45:13.380 --> 00:45:16.630
I have a whole chapter
on the way that democracy

00:45:16.630 --> 00:45:20.700
has always been
subverted by racism,

00:45:20.700 --> 00:45:23.080
deployed by
a narrow white elite —

00:45:23.080 --> 00:45:27.140
is that the costs of these kinds
of voter suppression tactics,

00:45:27.140 --> 00:45:29.690
both in the Jim Crow
era and today,

00:45:29.690 --> 00:45:31.450
of course,
hit their target, right?

00:45:31.450 --> 00:45:33.520
Of course they
disproportionately and first

00:45:33.520 --> 00:45:34.860
and worst impact

00:45:34.860 --> 00:45:38.380
Black Americans and Brown
and Indigenous Americans,

00:45:38.380 --> 00:45:39.790
whom they’re targeting.

00:45:39.790 --> 00:45:43.190
But they also impact
young people, of all races.

00:45:43.190 --> 00:45:46.920
They make it harder for white
people to vote, as well.

00:45:47.490 --> 00:45:49.040
This is why, you know,

00:45:49.040 --> 00:45:52.690
when Demos took a case
to the Supreme Court

00:45:52.690 --> 00:45:55.040
against the purges
of the voter rolls

00:45:55.040 --> 00:46:00.110
for people who had just not
voted in two elections in a row,

00:46:01.220 --> 00:46:04.310
our lead witness
was Larry Harmon,

00:46:04.310 --> 00:46:08.330
a white, middle-aged
Ohioan Navy veteran.

00:46:08.330 --> 00:46:10.010
This is what happens.

00:46:10.010 --> 00:46:13.160
People get caught in a trap
not set for them.

00:46:13.160 --> 00:46:14.520
During the Jim Crow era,

00:46:14.520 --> 00:46:18.330
the Southern states suffered
a slow death of civic life.

00:46:18.330 --> 00:46:20.190
It was because of things
like the poll tax

00:46:20.190 --> 00:46:21.840
and the grandfather clause

00:46:21.840 --> 00:46:26.630
and the restrictions
by force on the right to vote.

00:46:26.630 --> 00:46:28.320
It meant that working-class
white people

00:46:28.320 --> 00:46:29.610
didn’t vote, either.

00:46:29.610 --> 00:46:31.850
And it meant that
there was one-party rule

00:46:31.850 --> 00:46:35.210
by a white segregationist elite

00:46:35.210 --> 00:46:37.350
that didn’t even have
to compete for votes,

00:46:37.350 --> 00:46:40.170
and so it didn’t invest
in the South.

00:46:40.170 --> 00:46:44.420
It left the South lagging behind
on core public investments,

00:46:44.420 --> 00:46:47.700
because when you don’t have
a functioning democracy,

00:46:47.700 --> 00:46:49.370
you don’t have public goods.

00:46:49.370 --> 00:46:51.340
You don’t have
a thriving economy.

00:46:51.340 --> 00:46:53.250
That’s the Republicans’ vision.

00:46:53.250 --> 00:46:57.320
They want a plantation democracy
and a plantation economy.

00:46:57.320 --> 00:46:59.450
But we’re not going
to let them have that.

00:46:59.450 --> 00:47:01.860
AMY GOODMAN: So, let’s talk
about the central image

00:47:01.860 --> 00:47:03.760
of your new book,
The Sum of Us:

00:47:03.760 --> 00:47:10.300
What Racism Costs Everyone
and How We Can Prosper Together.

00:47:11.360 --> 00:47:14.540
Let’s talk about
that swimming pool,

00:47:14.540 --> 00:47:16.510
a drained swimming pool,
Heather.

00:47:18.210 --> 00:47:20.260
HEATHER McGHEE: So, my book
is about the way

00:47:20.260 --> 00:47:23.560
that after 20 years
of trying to do

00:47:23.560 --> 00:47:25.050
what I thought
was very sensible,

00:47:25.050 --> 00:47:30.350
which was bring economic data
to policymakers

00:47:30.350 --> 00:47:33.360
to get them to make better
economic policy decisions,

00:47:33.360 --> 00:47:35.370
I left the think tank world

00:47:35.370 --> 00:47:37.160
and went on a journey
across the country.

00:47:37.160 --> 00:47:38.840
And one of the first trips

00:47:38.840 --> 00:47:40.790
that I made
was to Montgomery, Alabama,

00:47:41.820 --> 00:47:44.790
where there is a central park
called Oak Park.

00:47:45.780 --> 00:47:49.270
And it used to be, really,
the beating heart of the city.

00:47:49.270 --> 00:47:50.980
And in the middle of Oak Park,

00:47:50.980 --> 00:47:54.320
there used to be one of
what was, at one point,

00:47:54.320 --> 00:48:00.500
nearly 2,000 grand resort-style
public swimming pools.

00:48:00.500 --> 00:48:02.290
And these weren’t just
any kind of swimming pools.

00:48:02.290 --> 00:48:05.630
These were pools that held over
a thousand swimmers at a time.

00:48:05.630 --> 00:48:07.480
And they were built
in a building boom

00:48:07.480 --> 00:48:11.800
of public amenities in the 1930s
and '40s in the New Deal era,

00:48:11.800 --> 00:48:14.390
Amy,
where we saw a government ethos

00:48:14.390 --> 00:48:17.100
that said it is
the government's job

00:48:17.100 --> 00:48:20.160
to lift the standard
of living of our people,

00:48:20.160 --> 00:48:22.700
to provide protections
for workers,

00:48:22.700 --> 00:48:26.720
to invest in a heretofore
completely unthought-of idea,

00:48:26.720 --> 00:48:28.100
which is that
working-class people

00:48:28.100 --> 00:48:31.180
would be able to own a home
with no down payment

00:48:31.180 --> 00:48:33.760
and stretching it out
over 30 years,

00:48:33.760 --> 00:48:35.030
through to the GI Bill,

00:48:35.030 --> 00:48:38.720
which was a massive investment
in economic security

00:48:38.720 --> 00:48:41.410
and created
a white middle class.

00:48:41.410 --> 00:48:43.170
And I say a white middle class,

00:48:43.170 --> 00:48:45.640
because virtually
all of those public investments

00:48:45.640 --> 00:48:46.950
and protections

00:48:46.950 --> 00:48:49.730
that I just described
were for whites only,

00:48:49.730 --> 00:48:52.540
either by design,
such as with the mortgage market

00:48:52.540 --> 00:48:56.500
and the redlined housing maps,
to the GI Bill,

00:48:56.500 --> 00:48:58.450
which was race-neutral
on its face

00:48:58.450 --> 00:49:00.700
but excluded
millions of Black GIs.

00:49:01.580 --> 00:49:04.490
The swimming pools across
the country, in so many places,

00:49:04.490 --> 00:49:07.970
not just in the South, were also
segregated and for whites only.

00:49:07.970 --> 00:49:09.860
And when the civil
rights movement

00:49:10.560 --> 00:49:12.160
empowered Black families to say,

00:49:12.160 --> 00:49:15.460
"Hey, those are our tax dollars.
We want our kids to swim, too,"

00:49:15.460 --> 00:49:17.790
what did white-controlled
towns do?

00:49:17.790 --> 00:49:20.760
Instead of integrating them,
all across the country,

00:49:20.760 --> 00:49:23.280
but definitely in Oak Park
in Montgomery, Alabama,

00:49:23.280 --> 00:49:26.710
where I visited,
they drained the public pool

00:49:26.710 --> 00:49:28.500
rather than integrate them.

00:49:28.500 --> 00:49:30.700
They took out the water,
poured in dirt,

00:49:30.700 --> 00:49:32.630
seeded it over with grass.

00:49:32.630 --> 00:49:34.620
In Montgomery,
they kept the entire

00:49:34.620 --> 00:49:36.400
Parks and Recreation Department

00:49:36.400 --> 00:49:40.490
closed for a decade
to avoid integration.

00:49:41.350 --> 00:49:45.660
I went, as I said, to Oak Park,
and I walked the grounds.

00:49:45.660 --> 00:49:47.810
Even after they reopened
the park,

00:49:47.810 --> 00:49:49.550
they never rebuilt the pool.

00:49:50.290 --> 00:49:52.920
And for me,
that was a perfect image

00:49:52.920 --> 00:49:55.300
of what’s happened
to the American economy,

00:49:55.300 --> 00:49:57.160
as the majority of white voters

00:49:57.160 --> 00:50:00.040
turned their backs
on the party of the New Deal,

00:50:00.040 --> 00:50:03.350
the party that had really
guaranteed middle-class security

00:50:03.350 --> 00:50:04.640
for white America,

00:50:04.640 --> 00:50:07.600
when that promise was extended
across the color line

00:50:07.600 --> 00:50:09.150
during the civil
rights movement.

00:50:09.150 --> 00:50:12.460
And Lyndon Johnson
then became the last Democrat

00:50:12.460 --> 00:50:16.390
to win the majority of white
voters, even until today.

00:50:17.770 --> 00:50:20.030
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to go
to Bessemer, Alabama.

00:50:20.030 --> 00:50:22.700
And this is an issue
that is very dear to your heart.

00:50:22.700 --> 00:50:25.810
You went there. Amazon workers
continuing to vote

00:50:25.810 --> 00:50:29.180
on whether to become the first
unionized Amazon warehouse

00:50:29.180 --> 00:50:30.410
in the country.

00:50:30.410 --> 00:50:33.820
They’re demanding stronger COVID
safety measures and relief

00:50:33.820 --> 00:50:36.630
from impossibly
high productivity standards

00:50:36.630 --> 00:50:40.080
that leave many unable
to take even bathroom breaks.

00:50:40.080 --> 00:50:42.750
Upwards of 80% of
the Bessemer workers are Black.

00:50:42.750 --> 00:50:44.500
The majority are women.

00:50:44.500 --> 00:50:47.940
Last month, we spoke
to Jennifer Bates,

00:50:47.940 --> 00:50:51.830
a worker and organizer at
Amazon’s warehouse in Bessemer.

00:50:51.830 --> 00:50:53.930
She just testified
also before Congress.

00:50:53.930 --> 00:50:55.680
This was what she said
on our show.

00:50:56.370 --> 00:50:58.110
JENNIFER BATES: Well, the reason
why we’re organizing

00:50:58.110 --> 00:51:00.420
is because we need
an even playing field.

00:51:01.690 --> 00:51:04.260
Some of the conditions
that are in there are:

00:51:05.010 --> 00:51:07.530
being ignored
by human resources,

00:51:08.470 --> 00:51:11.630
long work hours with
only two breaks. ...

00:51:11.630 --> 00:51:12.910
So, we want to be heard.

00:51:12.910 --> 00:51:14.330
We want to be treated
like people

00:51:14.330 --> 00:51:16.170
and not ignored
when we have issues.

00:51:16.170 --> 00:51:20.310
People are getting fired
without having their opportunity

00:51:20.310 --> 00:51:22.160
to speak their side.

00:51:22.160 --> 00:51:24.850
AMY GOODMAN: That is Amazon
organizer Jennifer Bates,

00:51:24.850 --> 00:51:28.590
speaking to us from Bessemer,
from the union hall.

00:51:29.860 --> 00:51:31.850
Can you tell us, Heather McGhee,

00:51:31.850 --> 00:51:34.810
about the significance
of this battle?

00:51:34.810 --> 00:51:40.210
If they win, they will be the
first warehouse to be unionized.

00:51:40.210 --> 00:51:42.720
Amazon is pouring millions
into fighting them,

00:51:42.720 --> 00:51:45.420
even trying to change
the traffic light

00:51:45.420 --> 00:51:48.740
outside the warehouse,
because when people stop,

00:51:48.740 --> 00:51:51.539
organizers would go over
and talk to them in their cars.

00:51:52.480 --> 00:51:56.250
But can you talk about this
and other places you visited,

00:51:56.250 --> 00:51:58.110
that didn’t win
in their strike —

00:51:58.630 --> 00:52:00.330
in their unionizing attempts?

00:52:01.280 --> 00:52:02.540
HEATHER McGHEE: In
The Sum of Us,

00:52:02.540 --> 00:52:05.280
I basically ask the question
at the outset:

00:52:05.280 --> 00:52:07.740
Why is it we can’t seem
to have nice things in America?

00:52:07.740 --> 00:52:09.070
And by "nice things,"

00:52:09.070 --> 00:52:13.190
I don’t mean self-driving cars
or laundry that does itself.

00:52:13.190 --> 00:52:16.260
I mean things like wages
that keep workers

00:52:16.260 --> 00:52:18.100
out of poverty,
universal healthcare,

00:52:18.100 --> 00:52:20.250
child care,
reliable infrastructure.

00:52:20.250 --> 00:52:22.250
And for me,
the right to bargain,

00:52:22.250 --> 00:52:25.600
which is a human right,
is one of those nice things

00:52:25.600 --> 00:52:28.090
that we can’t seem to
have in America anymore.

00:52:28.090 --> 00:52:31.430
And at its core,
racism is the answer why.

00:52:31.430 --> 00:52:36.350
It’s been the tool that bosses
have used throughout our history

00:52:36.350 --> 00:52:39.510
to drive a wedge between
Black and white workers,

00:52:39.510 --> 00:52:42.050
to give white workers a sense

00:52:42.050 --> 00:52:43.950
that they are
a little bit superior

00:52:43.950 --> 00:52:45.740
to the Black workers
on the line,

00:52:46.390 --> 00:52:48.970
and therefore don’t need
to link arms together

00:52:48.970 --> 00:52:52.100
and collectively bargain
for better wages and benefits

00:52:52.100 --> 00:52:53.810
and power for everyone.

00:52:53.810 --> 00:52:56.430
I went to Mississippi,
to Canton, Mississippi,

00:52:56.430 --> 00:52:59.110
in the wake of the failed
UAW union

00:52:59.110 --> 00:53:02.710
organizing drive
at a Nissan plant in 2017.

00:53:02.710 --> 00:53:05.340
And there I talked to workers,
Black, white,

00:53:05.340 --> 00:53:08.570
for and against the union,
who told me, so clearly,

00:53:08.570 --> 00:53:11.790
that the reason
why the union vote failed

00:53:11.790 --> 00:53:15.810
was that race had been the tool
to drive workers apart,

00:53:15.810 --> 00:53:17.720
that white workers’ mentality
was,

00:53:17.720 --> 00:53:20.310
"If the Blacks are for it,
I am against it,"

00:53:20.310 --> 00:53:21.960
that in the South,
in general,

00:53:21.960 --> 00:53:24.040
which is the region
of the country

00:53:24.040 --> 00:53:25.640
with the lowest labor
standards —

00:53:25.640 --> 00:53:26.940
and it’s no surprise.

00:53:26.940 --> 00:53:29.330
When you start a labor market
in the South

00:53:29.330 --> 00:53:33.250
at exactly zero dollars
in pay and a lash,

00:53:33.250 --> 00:53:36.560
then of course you are
going to have just $7.25

00:53:36.560 --> 00:53:38.550
an hour two centuries later.

00:53:38.550 --> 00:53:41.230
Of course you are going to have
— or one century later,

00:53:41.230 --> 00:53:43.220
excuse me, after emancipation.

00:53:43.220 --> 00:53:47.260
Of course you are going to have
this sort of plantation economy,

00:53:47.260 --> 00:53:49.400
this Jim Crow economy.

00:53:49.400 --> 00:53:52.820
But what I’ve seen, when talking
to workers in the South,

00:53:52.820 --> 00:53:55.580
is they know that
as the South goes,

00:53:55.580 --> 00:53:59.310
so goes the rest of the economy.
The drive to low-wage work,

00:53:59.310 --> 00:54:03.380
born really in the modern era
in Arkansas with Walmart,

00:54:03.380 --> 00:54:05.740
is now why there are
so many factories

00:54:05.740 --> 00:54:07.490
and warehouses in the South,

00:54:07.490 --> 00:54:10.160
where there’s
right-to-work-for-less laws,

00:54:10.160 --> 00:54:13.160
where there’s this anti-union
organizing and ethos

00:54:13.160 --> 00:54:14.530
by the political elite.

00:54:14.530 --> 00:54:17.990
And yet, in Bessemer,
this is the crucible moment.

00:54:17.990 --> 00:54:21.340
This is the moment when we’re
going to see whether or not

00:54:21.340 --> 00:54:24.940
what is quickly becoming
the dominant player in markets,

00:54:24.940 --> 00:54:27.880
in labor markets
and in consumer retail markets,

00:54:27.880 --> 00:54:30.850
has to answer
to the power of its workers,

00:54:30.850 --> 00:54:33.560
has to share power
with its people —

00:54:33.560 --> 00:54:35.980
even, yes, when those people
are the people

00:54:35.980 --> 00:54:38.150
of the absolute bottom
of the social

00:54:38.150 --> 00:54:42.510
and economic hierarchy,
low-paid Black women workers.

00:54:42.510 --> 00:54:44.500
I think the answer
is going to be yes.

00:54:44.500 --> 00:54:47.599
And I think that it’s going to
reverberate across the economy.

00:54:48.970 --> 00:54:52.580
AMY GOODMAN: So, Heather McGhee,
this is a remarkable week,

00:54:52.580 --> 00:54:56.670
where you have the passage
of the American Rescue Plan

00:54:56.670 --> 00:54:58.540
in the last week,

00:54:58.540 --> 00:55:02.460
that is the close
to $2 trillion relief package,

00:55:02.460 --> 00:55:08.060
that no Republican voted for
but already are touting it

00:55:08.060 --> 00:55:10.510
when they write
fundraising letters

00:55:10.510 --> 00:55:11.860
and talk to their community

00:55:11.860 --> 00:55:14.240
about what they’re bringing
their communities.

00:55:14.770 --> 00:55:19.600
But talk about both the issue
of how many children

00:55:19.600 --> 00:55:22.130
will be brought out of poverty
in this country,

00:55:23.360 --> 00:55:27.030
but also the stripping
of an issue that you have

00:55:27.030 --> 00:55:30.580
spent years fighting for,
and that’s the Fight for 15,

00:55:30.580 --> 00:55:33.360
the fight for a $15-an-hour
minimum wage.

00:55:35.230 --> 00:55:36.490
HEATHER McGHEE: In
The Sum of Us,

00:55:36.490 --> 00:55:41.780
I visit with workers
who are fighting for $15,

00:55:41.780 --> 00:55:45.950
who are fast-food workers
making a little over $7 an hour,

00:55:45.950 --> 00:55:47.440
Black and white,

00:55:47.440 --> 00:55:52.190
who were really at the vanguard
of the movement in Kansas

00:55:52.190 --> 00:55:53.980
City,
a Black worker named Terrence

00:55:53.980 --> 00:55:55.950
and a white worker
named Bridget.

00:55:55.950 --> 00:55:59.070
And the vision that
they spelled out to me,

00:55:59.070 --> 00:56:01.410
of Black, white and Brown
coming together

00:56:01.410 --> 00:56:05.420
to defeat the racism
inherent in poverty wages,

00:56:05.420 --> 00:56:09.610
the racism inherent
in not having a strong union

00:56:09.610 --> 00:56:10.820
and collective
bargaining

00:56:10.820 --> 00:56:12.850
that puts people
on an even playing field

00:56:12.850 --> 00:56:17.820
and amplifies everybody’s voice,
was what they needed to fight.

00:56:17.820 --> 00:56:22.810
Bridget told me, she said,
"Listen, I used to believe

00:56:22.810 --> 00:56:25.580
the us versus them about
the immigrants stealing jobs

00:56:25.580 --> 00:56:26.930
and Black people committing
crimes,

00:56:26.930 --> 00:56:28.170
but," she said,

00:56:28.170 --> 00:56:31.870
"now I know, as long as
we’re divided, we’re conquered."

00:56:32.430 --> 00:56:34.940
And I tell that story
about Bridget and Terrence

00:56:34.940 --> 00:56:38.670
and the way that racism was used
as a wedge to divide workers

00:56:38.670 --> 00:56:41.050
from their common problems to —

00:56:41.050 --> 00:56:43.870
common solutions, excuse me,
to their common problems,

00:56:43.870 --> 00:56:46.360
because that is what is
on display right now,

00:56:46.360 --> 00:56:47.970
that great tension.

00:56:47.970 --> 00:56:53.210
We had the American Rescue Plan,
which is the biggest refilling

00:56:53.210 --> 00:56:56.990
of the public pool,
the pool of public goods,

00:56:57.540 --> 00:57:01.140
for the American people
in my 40 years on this planet.

00:57:01.650 --> 00:57:07.000
It is a massive repudiation of
the bipartisan austerity agenda

00:57:07.000 --> 00:57:08.430
that we have been left with

00:57:08.430 --> 00:57:10.570
in the wake of
the civil rights movement,

00:57:10.570 --> 00:57:13.890
that has degraded
and eroded public goods,

00:57:14.430 --> 00:57:17.280
mostly because
of white opposition

00:57:17.280 --> 00:57:18.800
to public goods for a public

00:57:18.800 --> 00:57:22.700
they no longer see as good,
a more diverse public.

00:57:22.700 --> 00:57:27.320
You saw that Republicans knew
that they could cavalierly vote

00:57:27.320 --> 00:57:28.560
against something

00:57:28.560 --> 00:57:31.660
that would help
millions of white Americans,

00:57:32.260 --> 00:57:34.120
as well as Black
and Brown Americans,

00:57:34.120 --> 00:57:36.790
because their messaging,
at the national level

00:57:36.790 --> 00:57:38.210
and in the right-wing media,

00:57:38.210 --> 00:57:41.840
is that this is about
Black and Brown people.

00:57:41.840 --> 00:57:44.790
A Republican congresswoman said,
"I’m voting against this bill

00:57:44.790 --> 00:57:46.990
because
Joe Biden is opening the border

00:57:46.990 --> 00:57:48.600
instead of opening schools.

00:57:48.600 --> 00:57:50.690
How is that helping
our children?"

00:57:51.300 --> 00:57:56.110
We saw immediately Fox News
pivot towards the one provision

00:57:56.660 --> 00:57:58.400
that was for Black farmers,

00:57:58.400 --> 00:58:02.900
who were left out of
the trillions of dollars in aid

00:58:02.900 --> 00:58:05.870
that has been given over
the past number of generations

00:58:05.870 --> 00:58:07.670
exclusively to white farmers,

00:58:07.670 --> 00:58:09.600
including
the billions of dollars,

00:58:09.600 --> 00:58:11.800
most recently,
in the Trump administration,

00:58:11.800 --> 00:58:13.420
where Black farmers
were discriminated

00:58:13.420 --> 00:58:17.730
out of their fair share.
This is the divide and conquer.

00:58:17.730 --> 00:58:20.100
This is trying to activate
the zero sum.

00:58:21.010 --> 00:58:23.310
And the fact that we were
not able to get —

00:58:23.310 --> 00:58:24.770
AMY GOODMAN: We have 10 seconds.

00:58:24.770 --> 00:58:26.020
HEATHER McGHEE: —
we were not able

00:58:26.020 --> 00:58:27.920
to get
the minimum wage bill in there

00:58:27.920 --> 00:58:31.740
is really about the failure
of a multiracial coalition

00:58:31.740 --> 00:58:33.570
to have the kind of
enduring power

00:58:33.570 --> 00:58:36.680
that we need to lift the wages
for all working people.

00:58:36.680 --> 00:58:38.070
AMY GOODMAN: Heather McGhee,

00:58:38.070 --> 00:58:39.430
we want to thank you
for being with us.

00:58:39.430 --> 00:58:43.290
We’re going to post Part
2 online at democracynow.org,

00:58:43.290 --> 00:58:45.900
author of the new book
The Sum of Us:

00:58:45.900 --> 00:58:50.430
What Racism Costs Everyone
and How We Can Prosper Together.

00:58:50.430 --> 00:58:53.420
Heather McGhee, the board chair
of Color of Change,

00:58:53.420 --> 00:58:55.810
and former president
of the think tank Demos.

00:58:55.810 --> 00:58:57.400
Happy Birthday to Tami Woronoff!

00:58:57.400 --> 00:58:59.970
Remember, wearing a mask
is an act of love.

00:58:59.970 --> 00:59:02.050
I’m Amy Goodman.
Thanks for joining us.