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tv   Velshi  MSNBC  June 16, 2024 7:00am-8:00am PDT

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good morning, to sunday june 16th. i'm melissa murray filling in and for my friend and colleague ali velshi. donald trump has spent the last four years complaining about
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unfounded allegations of corruption in his 2020 election loss to joe biden. for many months now he's been spreading baseless lies about an election that hasn't happened yet. yesterday the twice impeached and recently convicted ex-president took this grievance campaign to detroit, a city that was crucial to president biden's victory in and 2020. and the city where trompe l'oeil is made baseless claims of election fraud. lanes that have credited, what have disenfranchised city voters, many of whom are black. that is all in the past apparently. in a span of just a few hours, trump attended a pair of events in the motor city. first, he participated in a roundtable discussion at a predominantly black church during which his campaign formally launched black americans for trump. and outreach group that seeks to cut into biden's lead among that demographic. then, he appeared at an event hosted by the right-wing organization turning point usai. and yvette largely attended by
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hard-line conservatives. during his speech the former president continued his attacks on electoral system. >> i go to california, we have 100,000 people show up and i say, why are we losing california? where we losing? it is so corrupt. the whole election process, and what we want to do is we ultimately want to go to paper ballots, voter i.d., one day voting. >> but trump conveniently leaves out of this narrative that the 2020 election was actually the most secure in american history. in fact those were the exact words used in a statement issued at the time by the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency. this was a group that the trump administration tasked with ensuring the integrity of the 2020 election. notably, just a few days after they released a statement confirming the integrity of the election, donald trump fired
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scraps, the head. it wasn't already apparent that trumps grievances about election security and really about election security. to this day, no evidence of his or -- emerged that there was widespread fraud in the election instead, trump's lives are part of a larger effort to sever democracy. and effort that would escalate if he returns to office. much of the threat is laid out in project 2025, the right wing 's 920 page playbook for a new trump administration. the general idea behind what is called the fascist playbook, is to overhaul the federal government and centralize more power and authority in the executive branch and among the many, many ideas proposed in that playbook, is one that targets the agency that determined that the 2020 election was secure. quote, in any event, the entirety of the cybersecurity advisory committee should be
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dismissed on day one. joining me to discuss our jennifer rubin, opinion writer for the washington post and author of the book resistance, how women saved democracy from donald trump. and with us at the table is basil, director of public policy at the roosevelt house institute of hunter college and former executive director of the new york democratic party. they are both also msnbc political analysts. project 2025 is not some secret document, it is publicly available, online. but yet there hasn't really been a reaction from the public at large, to this. you think that people just don't know about it or it is not registering and why aren't individuals taking this threat as seriously as they should? >> i think that is right. a 900 page document, unless it is broken down methodically, routinely, regularly by the
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press is going to go over the heads of the american people and that sort of is the idea behind it, that they are hoping in plain daylight they will be able to sase, we told you what we wanted and the average voter will not have known what they were signing up for her. as you say, it is really a complete guidebook to fascism. whether it is in reproductive rights, whether it is voting rights, whether it is stripping the federal government of the protections of the civil service, which makes sure that we have actually qualified people rather than presidential cronies. it really is a model of fascism. when people say, what are you worried about, donald trump is not going to do these things, the playbook is there. we just have to watch it and learn from it and see what is in it. and the press has to do a much better job of breaking it down and continually hammering home that this is an extraordinary document. it is extreme, far beyond anything we have seen in the
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nation's history and it really is un-american and counter to the entire concept of checks and balances. it really centralizes power in the executive, which as you know, is the first step in a totalitarian regime. >> so basil, jennifer is exactly right. we in the media have to do a better job of making sure the public understands exactly what is in these 920 pages. what what should we make of the fact that they are not hiding this at all, that they are not hiding the ball, they are literally saying the quiet part out loud. >> in part, because it is not just -- it is not a political platform, it is an instruction manual, and when you really do break it down, it is not -- you breakdown that significantly large document, it really talks about not just the president can do, unilaterally without congress for example, what he can do within agencies. but it is also telling voters what the president's cronies
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can do in different parts of government. what judges can do, what can happen in states, what can happen within specific agencies. there's an agency breakdown within the document that talks about, in a very specific terms, what can happen within these agencies to affect government. and what is interesting is the very beginning basically, this isn't just about election, this is about retaking government. and it is sort of quite pernicious in its language. and we should be mindful that it is when a wing of government services and government responsibility, to create one singular narrative work america. that there's a lot of taking out of dei, lot of taking out, as jennifer talked about, civil service protections. the effective protections for organized labor, all of that is out. and this lack of regulation, this, we can do whatever we
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want is fully embedded in and that document. so i do think that we should do a better job of breaking it down. but there's a lot in there that we have already been mobilized around. we just need to bring it out. >> to make those connections with the work we've been doing and what needs to happen. jennifer, the heritage foundation has said that it now has more than 100 coalition partners, who have signed on as advisory members to project 2025. this is clear that it is not just some right-wing fever dream. they have consolidated support for this among the right. are you surprised that so many groups have signed onto it already, and how does the left counteract this? >> i'm not surprised all and i would remind viewers that the heritage foundation, which used to be a respectable, intellectual group, was also flying the flag upside down. so they have made cause, with the insurrectionists, with the
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anti-constitutionalists, and yes, they have taken over what was left of the caucus of the republican party. they are unified. and they have corrupted the course, as we have seen from the -- the supreme court. you only have to look at the judge who for example tried to outlaw mifepristone or the judge who has control of the trump trial at mar-a-lago. to see the extent to which they have already begun to corrupt the other branches of government. and what democrats need to do is they need to get organized. first of all they need to compete, up and down the ballot, there's a big push within the democrat party to make the state races, local races competitive. that is where a lot of the work of government gets done. so they have to make a push there. they have to rally behind the popular issues, which are choice , for example. the republicans are pushing something that is very
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unpopular and that is why they have to come up with all of these anti-democratic rules in order to get their agenda through. democrats need to rally around the issues that they are in lockstep with the american people on. the american people don't want to see social security privatized. they don't want to see the outline of all forms of abortion. they don't want to see book banning. they don't want to see the department of education torn down. so they have to get out there message. they have to be clear. and they have to, i think be very clear that this is really a question of what kind of america do you want to look at, and want to live in. you want to live in a democracy where we have a variety of choices for our personal lives and we get from government the things that we want, or do we live in a autocracy, where the rich and powerful get what they need and want and the rest of us are told to shut up. >> basil, jennifer gave us a
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clinic on all of the anti- democratic efforts, that are underway to make the selection, not one of the people, but one of these consolidated organizations. can you talk a little bit about trump's recent rhetoric, which really focuses on the election, the fact that there was alleged election fraud in the last election. he's really stoking this. is it really just an effort to make voters feel like anything they do at the polls is in vain, that their votes aren't going to count essentially from going out to the polls in numbers. >> one of the things that does come clear, particularly now in this election cycle is how little voters regard our institutions at-large. especially true for african american votes --. when trump does this, what he does is he stoking fear and concern that is already there and he knows that. is exacerbating that. is counting on the other side of the narrative, which is that
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you don't already trust it and now you have to take action. if you listen when he talked about their coming after me, when he was getting, the cops are coming to his house and he said they are coming after me, things could have gone a different way. that is on one hand trying to address this issue of the sort of police force. but on the other hand, it is telling americans essentially, what he has said before, which is get ready, stand ready. and push back. so that his concern that we need to have, it is not just calling attention to something a lot of americans are you are concerned about. it is the other side of it, the action we take as a result of it. and you have seen individually in arizona, -- wants to start a race war by planning a mass murderer. you have seen attacks on the fbi and intimidation of fbi agents. that is not disconnected from his language.
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so again, what democrats need to do, it's very important. is to make sure that not only we go out and vote, but we also have to consistently talk civics and trusted in auditions. and putting people in place. this is jennifer's point about down ballot races, putting people in place that are going to be trusted in and running these institutions. >> these are terrific points. jennifer rubin, basil, thank you for getting us started this morning. coming up, breaking developments out of the middle east. we go live to tel aviv to explain why israel is enacting a quote, tactical pause in its offensive in southern gaza. later, a truly alarming development that you might have missed this week. because it was buried in clarence thomas's a low concurrence in the abortion pill case. we will explain just ahead. ah . help fuel today with boost high protein, complete nutrition you need...
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we have breaking news out of israel this morning. the israeli military announced a quote, tactical pause in its offensive in southern gaza to allow increased deliveries of humanitarian aid. this comes one day after the deadliest attack on israeli forces in months. eight idf soldiers were killed in southern gaza yesterday. the new tactical pause would allow windows from the day during 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. local time for crucial humanitarian aid to reach the millions, plus, palestinians displaced throughout central and southern gaza. many of whom fled the city of rafah in recent weeks. to be very clear it is not a cease fire. joining me now to explain the situation on the ground from tel aviv is nbc news international correspondent matt bradley. good morning. what do we know about this tactical pause and why now? what does it mean for aid into gaza? >> reporter: it is one of these
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things that caught us by surprise. it caught senior members of the amazing -- israeli government by surprise. local media reporting benjamin netanyahu and the minister of defense, that they were surprised by this. they didn't get word of this. and there's a reason why they are doing this. the world health organization for one has warned their serious malnutrition affecting many parts of the gaza strip, including a lot of children. and this comes as the u.s. sent the floating., we've been hearing about since march, to try to get a onshore into the gaza strip, past the blockages hated by the israelis into the gaza strip. but that has been withdrawn, all because of bad weather. they are worried the damaged again as it has been several times in the past couple of months. that pier had been crucial to bringing millions of tons of food aid to the starving gazans. also at the same time, as you mentioned, there's been an uptick in the fighting that has killed a large number of israelis than normal in this
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fight. we saw the eight were killed announced yesterday. since then, three more died but the eight were killed died in one single incident, an explosion on an armored vehicle. three others died as well. so there's a lot of anger here in in israel about the sacrifices soldiers have been making and already we are hearing from right-wing ministers and politicians, saying the tactical pause is basically just letting hamas off the hook. they are saying they need to keep going. we heard from the national security minister, he tweeted out that this was a foolish decision and the people who made it should not be in office. we can expect to hear more from that as the week goes on, and as you mentioned, this is an open-ended thing. it started yesterday, according to the idf and it is going every single day until there's further notice. it is indefinite picture. but it is only happening, this sort of pause, this strategic tactical pause bleeding from
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the over crossing all the way into central gaza. but it stops before it gets too rough. the fighting elsewhere is going to continue and the idf is careful to say it does not represent a cessation of hostilities. >> thank you for the update from tel aviv. that was matt bradley with nbc news international. still ahead, impacts of the right-wing's dismantling of affirmative action. those can be seen almost everywhere you look. will talk about one specific case where the reversal of progress toward racial and gender equity is stark and maddening. that is up next. next. failure . because there are places you'd like to be. farxiga can cause serious side effects, including ketoacidosis that may be fatal, dehydration, urinary tract, or genital yeast infections, and low blood sugar. a rare, life-threatening bacterial infection in the skin of the perineum could occur. stop taking farxiga and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of this infection, an allergic reaction, or ketoacidosis.
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groups will be deep, broad and long-lasting. in the spirit of training our attention on specific instances of this kind of harm, i want to talk about one case today, the fearless fun case. the fearless fund is a black woman owned venture capital firm that aims to help level the playing field for other women of color in business. ss the fairland -- fearless fund established a program to support businesses owned by black women. again, black women receive less than 1% of venture capital funding, so this was a modest attempt to remedy the gross disparity. apparently a conservative group deceptively named american alliance for equal rights took that personally. the group sued the fearless fund claiming this modest grant program by focusing on black women discriminates against business owners of other races. you may not recognize the name of the organization behind the lawsuit, but it's president is a very well known right-wing activist. he's the force behind the anti-
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affirmative action case that went to the supreme court last year and when the supreme court struck down race conscious admissions programs in colleges and universities, that gave bloom an opening. and now with the strength of that new president at his back, he's taking on the fearless fund and so far he is succeeding. earlier this month a federal appeals court in atlanta ruled the fearless fund's grant program is likely illegal because it relies on race to determine eligibility. the court ruled that bloom is likely to prevail with his legal action against the grant program and now the lawsuit can move forward. and the fearless fund has been ordered to suspend its grant program while this lawsuit plays out. again, i want to underscore, what the fearless fund is trying to do is help remedy a gross inequity in venture capital funding. it is stepping in where racial
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and gender biases are holding back women of color. and since its founding in 2018 the fearless fund has raised $25 million to invest in black women owned startups and businesses. businesses that would likely not have otherwise been handed. it is just the latest in a sweeping right-wing effort to undermine diversity initiatives in the united states and opposed affirmative action world there would no doubt be more attacked on the participate -- parts of society we have managed to eke out process on racial equity. joining me to discuss the case is angevin crime, civil-rights attorney and founder of ben crump law. he's representing the fearless fund in its recent appellate process. mr. crump, where does the fearless fund go from here? there's been a preliminary injunction stopping the group from posting its grant program. what is the next step? >> we continue on our vigilant
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efforts to get economic opportunities to all americans, especially those who have traditionally been marginalized, blight -- like black women. the fearless fund attempted to try to give a level playing field, to get a seat at the table for black women and women of color, who have always been denied that seat at the table. i mean, their efforts were to help fund the group of people who are the most entrepreneurial , which is black women, and starting small businesses. but the lease funded. and edward bloom and his conservative enemies of equality, come and attack them for trying to do what white men have done throughout history of america, white men fund white men businesses. they don't fund black women and
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other women of color businesses. so they were mpting to try and fill a need that was not being met, and for that, for them trying to increase women participation in venture capital , investing in those firms, they raise the venture capital from 008 to .97. and for that, the men said that's too much. you are all doing too much. lack women are going to make it where we can't get investment and we are going to be out of business. 90% of the venture capital space right here, because black women get 1%, you sue us. it is a shame before god. >> mr. crump, cannot talk about the legal theory of the case. the alliance brought this case under section 1981, it is a
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reconstruction era law that was passed for the purpose of allowing newly freed african americans, the same contractual rights that white people had enjoyed. the alliance is using this against the fund. the view that by limiting the grant program to black women, they have created a contract and in so doing, impaired the contractual rights of those of other races. what you say about the irony of a law that was enacted to protect black people in in the south from having their contractual rights impaired, being now used to prevent black women from helping other black women get a toehold in the entrepreneurial space? >> it is simply hypocrisy. at the most fundamental level, edward bloom is engaging in in the intellectual justification of discrimination, and tragically, the courts, the conservative courts are ratifying this intellectual
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justification of discrimination. and what we must educate people on in the court of public opinion, as we continue to fight in the court of law, is the fact that they are using a law that was designed after the civil war to make sure that african americans were free to enter into contractual agreements with white people. because before that it was illegal. black people will go to jail for doing that then. and so here we go, 100 years later, and they're using that law, not to deny opportunities for black people to do business. i mean, it is just hypocritical at every level, and that is why when they attack diversity, equity and inclusion and they attack black history, it is part of a greater scheme. and we have to make sure that
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we are educating our children to deal with these oppressors. because i have always said on many occasions, the enemies of equality like edward bloom won't when this ultimately as long as we make sure that our children are more intelligent than those who would seek to oppress them. and that intelligence, we must be ready to fight. we must call on president biden to come and ratify with an executive order to belief in diversity and inclusion. we call on merrick garland, the united states attorney general to ratify this belief in diversity and inclusion, by affirming the civil-rights act of 1964. now, more than ever we need to take a stand behind areas of law -- the fearless fund and people who believe that diversity is a good thing, not
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something that should be set- aside. i never would have believed in 2024 that we would be talking about whether diversity was a good thing or not. >> thank you both for those insights. we will watch the fearless fund case as it makes its way through the appellate process. that was ben crump from the crump law firm. up next, alarming development this week that you probably missed. buried in justice clarence thomas' concurrence in the abortion pill case, is a radical call to dismantle a crucial piece of legal doctrine that has for generations been used to litigate civil-rights cases. that is coming up just after this. this. swiffer powermop. ♪♪ an all-in-one cleaning tool that gives you a mop and bucket clean in half the time ♪♪ our cleaning pad has hundreds of scrubbing strips that absorb and lock dirt away, ♪♪ and it has a 360-degree swivel head that goes places a regular mop just can't.
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this wednesday, america will celebrate juneteenth, the country's newest federal holiday. juneteenth commemorates june 19th, 1865, the day when the last black americans enslaved in galveston, texas were informed that they had been given their freedom. making juneteenth a national holiday required tireless work from countless activists and advocates over the years. nbc's -- sat down with opal lee, dubbed the grandmother of juneteenth, to learn more about that fight. >> reporter: these walls in fort worth, texas, may look like a black history museum.
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that it is actually the home of opal lee. >> ms. opal lee, you are 97 years old, right? many consider you the grandmother of juneteenth. how does that title sit with you? >> hey, i don't mind titles. >> reporter: for years, lee advocated for juneteenth to become a federal holiday inspired by her own family's celebrations. >> we would go to the fairground for the juneteenth celebration, there would be music and food. >> reporter: one year when lee was 12, the annual celebration turned to tears. >> my parents had just bought a house and my mom had it fixed up so nice. but people started yelling. >> reporter: it was a white mob. >> -- my dad came home with a gun and the police were there. and told my dad, we will let
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this mob have you. they did despicable things. >> reporter: the terror did not quote the resolve. in 2016, lee made headlines at 89 years old, pledging to walk from fort worth to washington, d.c. the journey, 2 1/2 miles each day, to symbolize the 2 1/2 years black texans waited for the message of emancipation to reach them. >> a little old lady in and tennis shoes, whose walking from fort worth to d.c., 1400 miles. somebody will take notice. >> reporter: and they did. in 2021 the white house calling the. president joe biden making juneteenth a federal holiday. >> how did you feel? >> i don't know how to express it. i was thankful. >> reporter: in may, lee was awarded the presidential medal of freedom. >> i am struck by how much
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history lives on your walls, but also in your stories. what do you ultimately want your legacy to be? >> that there was an old lady who tried to get it over to everybody, that we are one people. >> that was nbc's -- reporting. we will be right back. back. (aaron) i own a lot of businesses... so i wear a lot of hats. my restaurants, my tattoo shop... and i also have a non-profit. but no matter what business i'm in... my network and my tech need to keep up. thank you verizon business. (kevin) now our businesses get fast and reliable internet from the same network that powers our phones. (waitress) all with the security features we need.
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it was 1956, brown versus board of education had been the law of the land for two years. separate was 90 well, but in the jim crow south, segregationists were nonetheless scheming up new ways to their old ways. in alabama, state officials aggressively investigated the
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naacp to slow the group's boycotts, protest and other efforts to break jim crow's stranglehold in the south. eventually, the state filed a lawsuit to prevent the venerable civil-rights group from doing business in the state. alabama's attorney general claimed the association violated the states for incorporation statute, which required businesses to be registered locally in an alabama. to comply, the naacp provided business records and a list of office locations to officials. but they steadfastly refused to hand over to the state, a list of its members. and for good reason. a black person joining the naacp to stand for their basic rights, was not only a threat to the south, but it invited economic reprisals, social ostracism and violence from townsfolk, from the police, and the naacp understood that. they understood that sharing the names of its members would
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expose the folks to untold risks and dangers, compromising their ability to work together on the cause of social justice. in 1958, when that case reached the united states supreme court, the court agreed with the naacp, and it did so unanimously, holding that the demand for the membership rolls violated the due process clause of the constitution. the naacp versus emma lab -- alabama is foundational to the principle of third-party standing. it is the idea an association can present claims on behalf of members. but on thursday, justice clarence thomas took aim at that important legal doctrine. although the supreme court in its ruling, allowed mifeprestone to remain on the market, justice thomas filed a separate concurrence in which he agreed that the anti-choice stock errors lacked standing but when further, to question the entire idea of third-party standing. as he explained, if the antiabortion doctors
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challenging mifepristone lacked standing to sue, then so did abortion providers who routinely file lawsuits on behalf of their pregnant patients, who are denied care. if justice thomas' views gain traction, it could create a chilling effect on everything from challenging abortion bans to environmental protections to suing for basic civil rights. third party standing has until this point been a principal way for marginalized persons to band together as a group, to secure their rights. and the naacp versus alabama was absolutely crucial for the civil rights movement. the naacp refused to hand over membership rolls as a form of protection. and that protection became a conduit to legal resistance. black resistance in its many forms, is the topic of a new and very important book by dr.
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kelly carter-jackson. it is titled we refuse, a forceful history of black resistance. i want to emphasize, forceful is key and that title. even as the naacp was arguing protection in court, black people outside of courts were arming themselves and learning self-defense on the ground. they understood that the courts might not protect them day to day and that they would have to protect themselves. jackson's examples of resistance spanned the length of american history and throughout, the basic theme emerges of black women, as among the fiercest resistors, protectors and revolutionaries. kelly carter, jackson -- carter- jackson tells the story of finding her own grandmother kept a loaded gun to protect herself and her family, recognizing she would not always be able to count on the state for protection. and carter tells a story of civil rights activist mabel williams who understood her sons wanted so badly to participate in a protest march.
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that in order to secure their safety, she sat in her car during the march with a shotgun nearby. throughout history of this country, black community has been questioned and as kellie carter jackson writes, black people always resisted. dr. kellie carter jackson joins me no. she's the assessor of african studies at wellesley college and author of several important books. the newest is we refuse, a forceful history of black resistance. it is out now. dr. jackson, let's start with your focus on lack women. the examples you use in the book, you write about learning how black women played a role in and resisting oppression. what surprised you about these new stories that you uncovered? >> first, thank you for having me and happy father's day, i want to shout out to my dad who modeled for me what refusal has always looked like. it was his mother that had the shotgun in her nightstand. that we were shocked to find that my grandmother was packing
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heat. and it really compelled me to go down a deeper story that doesn't just involve my family, but so many black families across the country that have had to seek out their own protection. when police would not protect them and the mob was coming for their neighborhood, how else were they going to defend themselves? the book really offers up multiple examples, some widely known, some lesser-known, about how black women have never stood on the sidelines, how the black community has always come to its own defense and own protection, and why that matters. >> a big part of the book, and you make a lot of the introduction, of the idea of nonviolence and its importance to the cause of black resistance. i want to quit a little bit from the introduction. nonviolence on its own, is not expensive enough to rectify the harm caused by racism. demoting and celebrating nonviolence as the only acceptable form of resistance is rife with handicaps. i am
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suggesting a much broader range of tools, one cannot build or even dismantle an entire house with only a hammer. so please, tell us about the range of tools that you imagine and you are suggesting that would make for more effective resistance. >> sure. i look at a range of tools, and my book is made of five chapters. it is made of revolution, protection, force, flight and joy derek and i readily admit even these chapters are not fully accessible and we have a much at our disposal, or black people to defend themselves against white supremacy. but i wanted to focus on these five chapters because i have seen for my own personal experiences, revolution, force, fight, protection and joy has worked out in my life and worked effectively. but i've also seen how it worked throughout history, how black people used revolution, not just in -- the haitian revolution, how the underground railroad and abolitionist movement was about protection.
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how when we think about the long freedom struggle in the civil rights union, we think about the beacons of self- defense. and i wanted to think about the things we don't think about like flight, how when black people leave, they choose to say not on my watch, i'm leaving and they flee the south or they flee rural areas to urban areas or flee the country altogether like james baldwin or josephine baker, they go to paris or black panthers to go to africa. the last chapter looks at july. it looks at how joy can be a weapon. how joy fortifies ourselves against the erosion of white supremacy. >> i want to go back to your point about nonviolent resistance. you talk about other forms of resistance and your point is that we have to have more of that and nonviolent resistance actually has a more checkered history. it is praise today but in its own time it was very criticize. i want to show you --. august, 1966, 63% of americans
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had an unfavorable view of dr. martin luther king jr. who is almost universally revered, and very much associated with the principle of nonviolent resistance. what does this shocking number suggest to you about the capacity for any one form of resistance to cover all of the bases? >> if i am honest, nonviolence has limitations. when we think about four little black girls being killed in a church. when we think about medgar evers being assassinated in his front yard in front of his family. we think about the fact that a white person can come to a black church, be greeted by the parishioners and then opened fire against them. nonviolence is not a solution in in those circumstances. and i think we need to look at nonviolence within a particular context. and often times i think nonviolence can handicap us. that doesn't mean violence is the only solution either. i tell my students, i don't
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like binaries. i don't like violence or nonviolence, this or that. i think we have a whole array of solutions and it is going to take an all hands on deck approach to really abolish white supremacy. to make it nonexistent. to really think about ways we can eradicate discrimination and racism wholesale. >> i want to go toward the end of the book. you ended on a hopeful note. as you say and you said earlier, you think that joy is also a form of assistance. i would like to invite you to say a little bit more about how the prospect of joy and hope for that matter, can also fuel resistance and revolution. >> absolutely. i see joy as the cornerstone of the black experience, that we are not just the history of fighting, that joy is what creates our language, our culture and our art. it informs our resistance. it fortifies us. the perfect example is the montgomery wall that happened
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last summer in in august, where we saw a black worker being attacked and we saw black people come to his defense. we saw a teenager swim across the water, we saw -- slinging chairs. but also in that moment, we saw black people creating joy through mockery, through laughter, through gifts and re- enactments. and the joy that came in those few days following the montgomery rebellion was something i thought was so hilarious. but also something that really sort of exemplified what black culture is all about. that we will always find it joy. we will always carve out spaces to poke fun at the ridiculousness of white supremacy. and use that joy to sort of build ourselves up as well. >> that is a great message for this juneteenth weekend. thank you kellie -- kellie carter jackson. her book is we refuse, a
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forceful history of black resistance. it is out now. up next, new alarm bells on capitol hill over the prospect of another trump presidency, and project 2025. democratic representative stacey plaskett joins us to discuss what is concerning lawmakers. new reporting from nbc news on the white house plans to protect undocumented spouses of u.s. citizens. what is behind it donald trump's new push to win over black voters. which naturally includes trump himself making the case that is very much not racist. all of that and more, and another hour of velshi after this quick break. is quick brea listen. horsepower keeps you going, but torque gets you going. ♪ ♪ [ engine revving ] oh now we're torquin'! the dodge hornet r/t. the totally torqued-out crossover. it's never a good time for migraine, especially when i'm on camera. that's why my go-to is nurtec odt. for the acute treatment of migraine with or without aura
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good morning. it's sunday, june 16. i am filling in for my friend velshi.

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