S2EP10 - TIFFANI & MALEENA - THE TRUMP ADMINSTRATION

TRANSCRIPT

Samia: This is Make America Relate Again, presented by Better Angels Media. I’m Samia Mounts.

First things first, we got some shout-outs to give out! Jessica Blaze left the show a 5-star review on Facebook, saying, “This podcast is quite possibly the only thing that brings me comfort with this Trump presidency.” Thanks, Jessica! I’m happy the show is giving you some hope and comfort. It does the same thing for me, believe me.

A new iTunes review from Marisa reads, “Thank goodness for Samia!! Since this podcast was created a year ago, I’ve been devouring episodes. This is THE CRITICAL THING that we need right now in this country. When we engage in a way that is not so polarized, we can begin to get at the deeper issues. This is what could change the world!” Thank you, Marisa!!!

And Andrae Marquise posted on Facebook about last week’s episode, saying, “It was the best episode I’ve heard from the series. It’s the first time a conservative has been able to articulate so well what the issues we as progressive need to focus on and take into account when addressing the issues. Very smart and well done episode. Thanks for the work you do.”

Andrae, I know you’ve been listening since Season 1, so this comment means a lot to me. I’m glad the show continues to give you things to think about as we approach the end of Season 2.

And that’s a great segue into this week’s conversation. For the last three weeks, we’ve been hearing from a lot of men. For the final three episodes of the season, I’m bringing you lots of women. And this week, I’m finally bringing you two women of color.

Maleena Lawrence is an actor, journalist, entertainment correspondent, producer, and entrepreneur from Smyrna, Delaware, now based in Los Angeles. She has a degree in psychology, and has been a social justice activist since she was just a kid, advocating for underserved communities nationwide. She’s a fierce liberal who shares my tendency to bring spiritual and philosophical issues into the realm of politics.

Tiffani Jones grew up in a family of community organizers, and was a staunch Democrat for most of her life. In the last few years, however, she’s spent a good deal of time getting to know the Republican Party, after an advisor suggested she run for a California Senatorial seat on the Republican ticket. She’s come out of this period of research with a new respect for the goals and philosophy of the Republican Party, and she doesn’t think the liberal stereotyping of conservatives is particularly fair or accurate, especially where the current presidential administration is concerned.

I’m actually pretty embarrassed that I haven’t had any black women on the show before now, and I’m also thrilled to be bringing their perspectives to you. For me personally, black female voices have been the most powerful as far as inspiring positive change in my own life.

Let’s hear what Tiffani and Maleena had to say about the Trump Administration.

MUSIC

Samia:  Tiffani, Maleena, welcome to Make America Relate Again.

Maleena:  Thank you.

Tiffani:  Thank you. Thank you for inviting us.

Samia:  I'm so happy to have you both here. Why don't we start by having you both introduce yourselves, so the listeners can distinguish between your voices and kind of know where you're coming from politically, and otherwise? Tiffani, let's start with you.

Tiffani:  Oh, thank you. I have been part of the Democratic Party for a while, for the past, I would say, as - when I was born. So my father was in politics. We, and still do have a nonprofit in Boston, Massachusetts, that is 50 years old. And that's how I got into politics. And when we came to California via Boston, Massachusetts, as a community organizer, which my father was, and founder of a nonprofit organization, we got into politics. So some of the people that I know that we're talking about today that are making decisions, I know. Just recently I decided that I wanted to discover and research the other party, which is the Republican Party. I was a little disgruntled as everybody is. But not disgruntled enough to just say and speak from no knowledge. I wanted to find out on my own what the party was about, so I decided to attract good people in the party that would show me what their beliefs, what the philosophy was like, and it's been an interesting, interesting journey, I can say that.

Samia:  So you're a Democrat who spent your most recent times getting more involved with the Republican Party?

Tiffani:  Yes. Well let me just tell you this, in 2018, before, prior to 2018 and I guess I can kind of tell you this, I wanted to be, excuse me, I wanted to run for an office, for a senatorial office in L.A. Because politics is my blood. I told you about my dad and the nonprofit and the community, working in the community, so I decided I wanted to make a positive change. And you can't be a candidate without understanding both sides. So I decided to really research the Republican Party and see if that might be an avenue to go. As it was suggested and advised at the time, now this was two years, three years prior to 2018, we’re talking about, maybe 2015, 2016. And they said, "Oh, you know, why don't you run on the Republican ticket?" And I said, "Well, I don't know anything about it." And that led me to my research. And again, it's been an interesting journey, I'll tell you that.

Samia:  That's fascinating. All right. Maleena, how about you?

Maleena:  Yeah. So politics. It came through an experience. And I remember early on in the fifth grade, there was two incidences, childhood incidences, growing up in Smyrna, Delaware, actually, that made me, before I was political, become more - these experiences that I'm about to mention helped shape me consciously to be a human being and learn the distinction between being a human and a racist. And I was in elementary school, I'll never forget, and there was a thump at the door. And the thump on the door wind up being the door just smashing down onto the living room floor right by the stairs that went straight up into my grandmother's house in which I grew up. And I remember the person laying on the door, I watched enough cartoons to know that, in my mind, it was just a animated pow, bam boom, from Roadrunner. Meep meep, boom. And this man was my Uncle Gary. And when he lifted up his head, he said, "Mom, mom," and all of my cousins including myself were on the stairs. And when he lift his head up, he had blood all over his face. I didn't know what it was, I didn't know what had happened. We, I just screamed, "Uncle Gary, Uncle Gary, Meem, Meem!“ which, that's what we called my grandmother. And my grandma came running down the stairs and was like, "What's wrong with you, boy? What's wrong?" And the next thing you know, all these police were at the door, coming inside my house. And my grandma was yelling, "You can't come in my house. What are you doing?" And they took him away, to make a long story short, in handcuffs. Fast forward, my uncle was in the parking lot. He had a white girlfriend, which he tended - I've never seen my uncle with a black woman, to be honest. He was always with a white crew of bikers, he dressed like a biker, but everybody loved him. Everybody knew Uncle Gary and all his girlfriends that were white women, tend to be thick and bike riders. And they just come rolling up by the house and they just roll off, saying, "See you later." And, so that's what we knew. But that night in particular, in the parking lot, the story, real quick, was, my uncle, they all were drinking. But when the police approached the bike crew, they approached my uncle. And then they - one particular police officer harassed my uncle and started put his hands on him. So my uncle - and they all tore up. Everybody hung out in the parking lot. Today we call it parking lot pimpin’. So everybody hang out in the parking lot, and the cop put his hands on my uncle. My uncle was a fighter. My uncle also was one of the state champions in wrestling and football. So I found that out later. And I was like, "Oh." Next thing you know, the cop tried to take down my uncle, but my uncle took down that cop and then wind up taking down all these cops that tried to jump him. And so he made it, he ran to the house, which wasn't far from this hangout, and when he made it home, after having a huge fight with the police, the street was lit. And they took him away. They released him later. And word on the street was that my uncle took down five to ten cops, and - but what we got was police brutality on our door. He was beat really bad. Even though he managed to get away, they called him Superman 'cause he had this super power strength or whatever. But that day, that look and then the police officer that came to our door, it was just - they just took him away like he was nothing. They - and it's almost like they tried to strip away our rights right when they pulled him at the same time, to cuff him up. The second was when I was in the fifth grade, and this won't be so long. But a young white boy named Steven Devarry, I'll never forget his name, called me a nigger. And the way he said it, and I don't use - I was raised not using that word as well as the U word, which was the word ugly. My father wouldn't allow us to say it. And I went to my teacher, Miss Carson, Miss Virginia Carson, who happens also to be my favorite teacher. Miss Carson made him apologize to me, which took him forever to do. And at this time in the fifth grade, during my childhood, I had never been called the N word. And it just erupted something in me. Because every day we had to, of course, recite the Pledge of Allegiance, but she also made us remember and recite the Gettysburg address. Every quarter. We had to recite this Gettysburg, the Gettysburg address. And from that day on, though I spoke with Steven Devarry, until he had to write this whole letter as to why he called me the N word and apologize to me directly, which took him a while to do, it erupted in me something where I literally had the feeling that at first I was less than. Why did he call me that? My feelings were hurt. And I entered into a space and frame of mind that I didn't want that to happen again. And what could I do? So I started joining clubs. I started participating in things where I didn't see black people, like baton-twirling and things of that nature. And whether people could call me whatever, but that wouldn't start me from doing or being and showing up as a young black girl in these small towns. And that's how I was introduced to what, I don't call it just politics, but social-political environments. And that's it, and I started running for class offices, in every grade almost, whether I won campaigns or lost campaigns. I started to participate. And just be vocal about it. And not just sit around and let things happen in our school. So I challenged administrations in school, students, teachers, and I challenged myself.

Samia:  Thank you so much for sharing all that. I really appreciate that.

Maleena:  You're welcome. 

Samia:  And that's wonderful and I'm kind of in love with you. All right so, thank you both. We're here today to talk about the Trump administration. Last season, that's all any of the conversations were about, was Trump and Trump versus Clinton and the election. This season we've focused on individual topics, so this is the first time we're really going to have an in-depth conversation about this administration and what's going on with them. So I'm interested to see how you guys both feel about it. Tiffani, I know that you came from a Democrat background, but more recently, you've been exploring potentially becoming a Republican politician. So let's start with you. What's your take on the Trump administration?

Tiffani:  Being that we're in California and this is a deep blue state, I don't believe that people really understand what he came to do. Obama played his part and he did as much as he could do with trying to unite humanity. Definitely Hillary did her thing with the empowerment of women. And Trump came to do his. And his, I tell everybody, he didn't come to save the world, he didn't come to save you. He just came to do what he wanted to do, the way that he saw fit. And like most people, you run for office to change what you don't like. And he came to do exactly that. So whether it came through business, it came through international trading, he's just being authentically him. And he's letting everybody know. This is a part of transparency that I don't think that everybody understands. Obama talked about transparency. And he's bringing it, but in a way that you may or may not like it. I happen to support some of the things that they actually do, and I know that in Republican cities - and when I say “Republican city,” which most of the legislators are Republican - they take care of their people. They absolutely take care of their people. They write legislation that supports some of the issues that concern the people. I just think they get sometimes a bad rap because there's not a total understanding of what they do and who they are. Again, we're in California, a deep blue state, we don't need anybody else in the country, in the world to - you know, in California. We can support ourselves all on our own, with all our wealth. So for me, I just think that people just - he's misunderstood and misinterpreted. And I have some friends who've been black that he's done things for. On a personal level. So I can't get into whether he's good, he's bad, he's this, he's - that's not my understanding of him and the things that he's trying to do within the administration. 'Cause again, I see some things. I see things that most people don't. That come across email, you know what I'm saying? I'm involved in groups that really do support the good nature of the party.

Samia:  Maleena, what's your take on it? What's your response to that?

Maleena:  Well, Tiffani mentioned that she and the Trump administration have in common, or Trump in particular versus the administration, is that he too was a party-flopper. And in this case, not to take party flopper out of context, but just to say whether you're Republican to Democrat, Democrat to Republican, liberal to conservative, whatever the case may be. Donald Trump started out as a Democrat, went Republican, back and forth. So he his self has admitted that. I think what concerns me about 45, Trump, the whole administration, is that consciously, separating Trump from the administration is not full accountability. And it's not full transparency. We can see that coming out now. But I think one thing that we have to look at as a society and as a community, even as legislatures, listen to your program, is that we need to be mindful that the person who represents this country, at the end of the day, the leader of this interesting world, that is written as a free world, but we have to protect it in its totality in order to engage freedom, in order to actually have and celebrate being free. And I do not think what we're witnessing is an act of freedom. It's more of an act of rebellion. And be it the GOP rebelling, the Democrats rebelling, liberals, progressives, Green Party members rebelling - these are all political parties. The position that this administration has taken has not leaned towards - and I'm speaking of leadership not policies, in this case - has not been kind to the American public because it has been misleading. It has, I think, exacerbated when it comes to trust, when it comes to full transparency, it has not been honest. And I think that we see this now, but we all - I can remember on election night, it's so funny. On election night, I had this pain in my stomach once the winner was announced. I had literally a sharp pain in my stomach, I kid you not, with downtown L.A. And Kamala Harris was giving a speech. And she just said, "We're gonna have to, you know, tighten up our bootstraps and fight, fight, fight." And till this day, on this very day, post-indictment day, and whatever else is coming down the pipeline, all parties are fighting. And what, the question I have, not only for the Trump administration but even towards the community and elected leaders, is to really get a clear agenda as to what are we fighting for? Not just the preservation of our constitutional rights, but there's a whole laundry list of things to fight for. And even though my sister Tiffani has said he has done a lot of good, and maybe it's not being aired out as his dirty or clean laundry-

Tiffani:  It's not.

Maleena:  And because I don't see it in him, I know he's of good nature, 'cause we all are human, but his acts and his attitude, that's what it is for me. It's the attitude of him being presidential. And yes, he's been-

Tiffani:  But he's also being very transparent. He's not even saying, "Hey, I'm-"

Maleena:  His transparency has been to me, more ignorant and folly and gaming on - be it on Twitter or when he gives his press speeches, when he's calling names to deter, calling names of people to deter the media from asking real solid questions, this is a smoke screen to him being really authentic. It's different being-

Tiffani:  Right-

Maleena:  -honest versus authentic.

Tiffani:  And I understand, I think he's being his authentic self. I don't think he's going outside of his authentic self. And there has-

Maleena:  I think he hasn't - I think he's afraid to get in touch with his authentic self.

Tiffani:  You have to understand, he's representing a group of people, whoever they are, that come from that mindset.

Maleena:  His mindset? If that's the case, he's a follower. He's not, darn sure not a leader. Because that mindset, if he's following, if that's the mindset he's following, then back to the point you made in the beginning, he's been very transparent. But to be President of the United States and be self-serving and not at least put your time to be of service to the people, not just the Republican Party, but all people, all voters-

Tiffani:  Right, but I think what he's done right now is made a change and everybody is standing up, whether you like it or don't, everybody's coming to some kind of-

Maleena:  This is the good part.

Tiffani:  Right-

Maleena:  This I agree with you.

Tiffani:  Right.

Maleena:  This is the good part, where-

Tiffani:  This is the good part, we didn't do this before.

Maleena:  His ignorance, no, his ignorance is definitely bringing people out of the woodwork. It's either bringing you out, like that old hip hop song, bring them out, bring them out, it's only, it's either bringing them out, or it's letting people who are disenchanted-

Tiffani:  That's what a democracy is. You stand up for what you believe.

Maleena:  Right. Or you lay down and you don't say nothing.

Tiffani:  Right. But we didn't - we laid down when Obama was in administration.

Maleena:  No, I think we laid down long enough before Obama- 

Tiffani:  I think so too, that's a-

Maleena:  We laid down when Bush hijacked the election year. We've been - I feel like we've been laying down for a long time. We've been sleeping dogs in America.

Tiffani:  Absolutely, absolutely, I agree with that.

Maleena:  And even when President Obama as the first black president, so to say, I think that that, too, caused us to, as black women and on that note, thank you so much for having us on, and us being your first women-

Tiffani:  Right?

Maleena:  Black women, yes, we represent the color lines.

Tiffani:  I - and let's speak to transparency, 'cause there is a transparency bill that was not supported.

Maleena:  In the Obama administration?

Tiffani:  No.

Maleena:  The one, which one?

Tiffani:  Well, not in the Obama, I would say, in the last four years-

Maleena:  It was introduced.

Tiffani:  It was introduced, but it was never passed. It deals with accounting. Show your records, show-

Maleena:  The, under the campaign finance laws.

Tiffani:  Right.

Maleena:  That's campaign laws versus-

Tiffani:  But they're trying to get it passed for more than just campaign laws.

Maleena:  It's being ratif - right. All the amendments coming under that particular bill, again, if we just stick to what transparency is, and who's being transparent, and transparent crossing party lines.

Tiffani:  Okay so what does transparency mean to you?

Maleena:  Transparency means open, clear, honest. Let me see it. 

Tiffani:  But if someone's coming to you with the transparency of documentation and saying - outside of the campaign - and saying, "Here's what I've spent, here's what I've done," and you can see that, then-

Maleena:  That's being honest and transparent, that's showing proof, whether it's the right documents or not, you right. It's showing-

Tiffani:  I mean, I had different experiences. And thank you for sharing something with me that I didn't know about you, 'cause obviously I've met you, we've been doing - we've been on a panel before. And your experience is really is part of the reason why I think my dad got into the community and served the community, as well as myself. Because you don't understand that. And I understand where you're coming from to that degree, 'cause I've heard different things in the Republican Party, and people say different things, and I had a friend, or an associate I would say, say he was a president of a school, or dean of a school, and he had to talk to a black parent and was really upset because of the way that she had spoken to her son. And-

Maleena:  Who's he? I'm sorry. Who-

Tiffani:  I'm sorry, the guy that, I won't mention his name, but he's-

Maleena:  Okay, okay-

Tiffani:  'Cause, just because.

Maleena:  Okay, this is example, okay.

Tiffani:  And I, the reason why is because I don't even know what's gonna happen after this podcast, 'cause Democrats have been the worst, violent people that Republicans cannot even - you tread very lightly, especially in California, especially Los Angeles. It's literally, we're bluer-

Maleena:  I've seen, when it comes to expression and aggression, I've seen both parties - I've seen highstrung Democrats misrepresented - just misrepresenting people within the party who aren't for all of that. Just as I've seen and witnessed Republican, racist Republicans, in the name of Republicans, misrepresent to me, respecting people and humanity. I think that's something that we have to come to a common ground and be able to be at a table like us and be able to really talk about it. In the spirit of transparency, without tearing people down like we've seen.

Samia:  So there's a couple things I want to focus on. It's interesting that transparency was one of the first things to come up. Because I know for me as a progressive, transparency is not a word I would associate with the Trump administration, considering how resistant they've been to, for example, supporting and cooperating with the Mueller investigation, how Trump didn't want to release his tax returns, all of the scandals surrounding the Trump Foundation and their misuse of funds. So I'd love to talk more about transparency. After that, I'd like to get into the way this administration has been perceived by liberals as supporting racist policies.

Tiffani:  Okay, so can I ask you, Samia, what is your definition of racist? Of being a racist or racism? Because my definition is totally different, and I've traced it back through time, through language, through culture. So I would love to understand what your definition of that is.

Samia:  Well, the definition ranges from overt racism, white nationalism, and things like that, to more subtle forms of racism, implicit bias. For example, last week, I had two gentlemen from West Virginia on the show. And they both agreed that the vast majority of conservatives they know, and both of them are surrounded by conservatives, are afraid of black and brown people. And they said that explicitly. They were like, "They're afraid. They're afraid of them." And also they said, they don't even think about the needs of black and brown people as part of their normal thought process. So I include that in my definition of racism.

Tiffani:  Okay. And I will tell you that as a woman coming from the south, it's really clear the line that's drawn in the sand. You know that you're black or you know that you're white. That's what it is. Here in California, you don't know how people think, you don't know any of that. You think that they're your friends when they may not be your friend. Personally, I'd like somebody to tell me straight up, "I don't like you."

Maleena:  Right. I feel you on that.

Tiffani:  'Cause I can deal with the truth of that, than you trying to pretend, and the Republican Party, yes, does have, when I say stereotype, it is a stereotype in the sense that people think the all of the Republican Party's like that. People don't even know that there are black Republicans, let alone anything else. They just think that the Republican Party is made out of white, ignorant people, and that's not the truth. 

Maleena:  Facts. 

Tiffani:  So when you talk about racism, racism is something that - we can go back thousands of years on racism, and how that has affected slavery, how has that affected everything from what we're dealing with now, homelessness, all these issues. 

Maleena:  Voting rights. 

Tiffani:  Right. These issues are not new, these are like 25,000 plus years old. So when you talk about that, and truly when they were talking about they don't like the black and the brown, it's because the black and the brown are threats to them, and they're not going to go outside that. And I have told them, I said to them, in the Republican Party, I said, "If you want to better the party, you have to change the perspective." And quote unquote, “They look like the plantation owners."

Maleena:  And if I can jump in on that, that was one of the nails on the head that we were hitting, is that the part of Republican Party, Democratic Party, because there's Democrats that are highly conservative Dems. And when it comes to just preserving democracy, it simply is that opening of people having the respect and the exercise of their rights freely. When it comes to racism or racist policies, I think we do have to start with the mindset of individuals, the mindset of individuals and legislatures, since we're in the spirit of politics, looking at people who have been in this game for years, like generations after generations after generations, because slavery was pimped through political parties. I remember, for example, my grandmother telling me I had a skewed perspective on what it was to be a Democrat, what it was to be a Republican. My grandmother, we were having pillow talk, and she said, "You know sweetie," and this was maybe a year ago, or actually, it was during the presidential campaign, when my grandma was saying to me how she remembered in Delaware, she said, "Our family was not always-“ mind you, she said, "our family." She said, "Our family was not always Democrats. We didn't become Democrats until like later, maybe during like, I don't know, '70s or something, I don't know." 

Tiffani:  Yeah, Martin Luther King. 

Maleena:  Right, exactly. But before then, prior to that, we were Republicans, and we were farmers, we were business owners. We were definitely doing our part not only to pay our taxes, but to provide services in our community. She said she could remember in order to get out the vote, Republicans would come through and make sure we had chicken dinners and a fifth of liquor. That's how they would get out the vote in the neighborhood. Then that same chicken dinner concept went into getting out the vote in the Democratic Party. When she told me this story of our family going from red to blue, it just opened up my eyes, because I still respect my family first, you know, their party lines, and whatever else happened in local politics happened. But when it comes to understanding righting wrongs in a party, I think that's all parties' responsibility, when it comes to race-bait policies, to bring them to the surface, because again, that separation, it does go back to enslavement, it goes back to the-

Tiffani:  It goes back further. 

Maleena:  -William Lynch letter. Exactly. It goes back. My nephew and I just left the King Tut exhibit, and we were looking at how Rome conquered Egypt, and how all these different sects and countries came in and conquered Egypt when they had a civilized government, and they had these laws of balance, call them Ma'at, if you will. Then we rise up, and we have these same laws that countries adopted and created a democracy in the name of whatever, you know, be it Democrat, Republican, today in modern times, Green Party, liberals. Your show is made up of liberals, a conversation between liberals and conservatives. Yes, I'm taking a liberal approach, because that's quote unquote, "A new beginning of looking at things." But everybody should have a new beginning and way of looking at things. If you're truly liberal, you should have a liberated frame of mind in order to create new things and systems-

Tiffani:  But believe it or not, Republicans want you to have that, they want you to have independence, they want you to have freedom, they want you to have that, but they don't want you to sit there on the couch and collect an SSI check and think it's okay, because at that point, when are you utilizing your skills and your ability to do more if your purpose is to do more? 

Maleena:  I think we as a community, and when I say, "community," not just black community, because welfare was established also, in the beginning, it helped white women get on their feet. It also helped when families started getting welfare, when a lot of white women started opening up the doors to people of color, it was like, "Oh okay." But then we created a system. When you have welfare, and then you create - just like bankruptcy laws, you know, when corporations started filing for bankruptcy, versus individual businesses, and then people of color started filing bankruptcy individually. Bankruptcy law started changing when the filing status started changing in order for bankruptcy...same with welfare. When people started filing for welfare, I remember, I'll never forget, and this was a time even when I had to file for food stamps, what I came in as, dignified young black woman, next thing you know, I went from a dignified young black woman filing for food stamps, trying to get on my feet, moving to LA, I had to come back the next day. Girl, I walked in there like I was going to work. I walked in there like I was going to work. Still sitting, 4:30, still sitting. I'd been there all day. All day. It's like, "Well, we think we can help you. You're going to have to come back tomorrow. We ran out of time for the case worker." I'm like, "Can I get some food? Can I get emergency assistance?" Then the next thing you know, I came back the next day, I said, "Oh ..." Guess what I did? I scanned the room. I scanned the room, I came back, and unfortunately, when I scanned the room, there were generations of people in conversations, that yes, I heard. "If I get it, then you get it, and then we got it, or we can have more, and I sell one of this." I said, "Okay, I heard all those type of conversations." But when I came back, true story, I had a scarf on my head, I had sweats on, I had my dirty lawnmower shoes on, and I didn't put on my lip gloss. I was out of there by noon with my food stamp card. To me it was humiliating at the concept, because it is supposed to be - my tax dollars are in that return, too. And I thought to myself, "Yes, you have people who are pimping the system, and we do need to do something to either train them, provide them, or give them, but is that really real?" You know what I'm saying? Is it an obtainable goal? It's openended, but is it obtainable-

Tiffani:  It is. 

Maleena:  -in reality?

Tiffani:  It is obtainable in reality. Kind of like going back to Samia and what Samia was saying with how people view the party as being a racist party. I think that people need to open their eyes a little bit more, and research what is being said. Don't rely on media to give you the information. I can tell where anyone has been from a conversation. If they've looked at any of these news channels, I know which one I'm going to have a conversation-

Maleena:  Girl, I took a sabbatical. I'm going to tell you all straight up, I took a sabbatical on this news, because it was just so...the filtering of information was so misguided, and honestly, it's just poison when it comes to our current news and these current events. I've been unplugged for quite some time, and it's only because it's not discussing what we can do right, what we could do in spite of our differences. 

Tiffani:  Yeah, you have a bunch of-

Maleena:  It's like, how many times can you show a rerun and the same stock photo and video of someone coming to the news podium calling for the indictment, talking about the tweets of…our president's tweets. It's just like, bam. What I really want to say is, when it comes to, be it Republicans or Democrats or progressive, we might need some new parties up in this piece. You know? It's like new parties-

Tiffani:  I know, there are nine different ones, there's just like-

Maleena:  -yeah, there's beyond these parties, and that's exactly-

Tiffani:  There's not just two. 

Maleena:  Exactly, and that's what I love to share with people, it’s beyond Republicans and Democrats. It's like crazy families, you know what I'm saying? It's a whole bunch of stuff happening inside, and you have to come to a common ground and come to the table to have that common ground, but case in point, when it comes to turning your nose up at a Democrat or a Republican...I have one of my cousins, dear cousin, we grew up together, he's a Republican. He's running for public office in Delaware. Just because he's a Republican doesn't mean I'm not going to challenge him, support him, or get out to vote and tell people to vote. If his platform is right, if his platform is in support of improving the community. And he's so much for education, he's so much for economic sustainability. I think it's the perception in the...it's back to the attitude of our parties coming to a common ground and supporting one another, and in saying that, the leadership of the party, because our government, our legislator is predominantly...our Congress is high in Republican seat holders, and all that good stuff. We have to look at what people really have to say. We can't dismiss people, because if you dismiss an elected official, or you dismiss a community, you're also dismissing policy opportunities. You're dismissing an opportunity to have a conversation to improve a policy, to pass new policy, or kick another policy out and write it off, or do away with a policy that has been a proven economic hardship, or whatever the issue is within that policy. And so I think it's a responsibility for all of us to clean up the attitude. 

Samia:  Do you guys think that this current administration is helping or hurting when it comes to diffusing racial tensions, bringing people together? Do you think that they're doing a good job of that? 

Tiffani:  I think personally, and again, I get privy information from the Republican Party myself because of my involvement, so what you guys see is not what I know to be true. Ben Carson, for example, has a lot of people around him, and people would think, "Oh, it's so easy for somebody within the Republican Party to get to him." It's not so. We wanted to do a homelessness project, we are going to be addressing homelessness, and everyone's like, "We should talk to Ben Carson, Dr. Ben Carson," and it is, to some degree, one of the hardest things to do, and he has a lot of people around him that won't allow certain information to get to him. So when people talk about, "Well, it's the Republican, it's all the Republican, the Republicans..." And especially here. I have, like I said again, you have to walk on eggshells, especially in the City of LA and the County of Los Angeles. I personally don't engage. I have friends who will invite me to barbecues to engage in politics, and I'm like, "I'm not here for all that." Because once we start engaging, then my difference of opinion will probably anger most of them, and that's okay. 

Maleena:  And it's such immaturity. It's such a level of maturity which is why I'm glad we're having this relatable conversation, because let's just be clear. Based on, Samia, what you just said, or asked, it is difficult for average Americans who aren't openminded. It's one thing to listen in, it's another thing to engage, because many people can listen and hear what they want, but then what you have to literally engage your people in settling, and moving beyond to improve conditions, it's a whole nother animal, because then you got to get the work, and whatever you got to do to get to work, you got to take action. I think that the current administration, I don't think they are doing enough, because at least what we see. And that's why I said looking at the-

Tiffani:  What you see, exactly. 

Maleena:  You see what I'm saying?

Tiffani:  No, what you see. 

Maleena:  Yeah, what you see is you got to be able to exercise your mind enough and look real clear at what's being presented to you versus what's really happening in your community, because you have a federal level, which is - we're getting a glimpse at the federal level every millisecond on social media, on mass media, in underground media. You're getting bombarded every day with all of this chicken-fighting, in-fighting. Honestly, it's party against party, party member against party member. It's-

Tiffani:  Gang - red or blue, call it what you want. 

Maleena:  Exactly. 

Tiffani:  It's gangster mentality in the White House. 

Maleena:  It is, it is, and that's sad.