 Hi, everyone. I'm here with Isaiah James. He's back on the show to talk about his campaign He's running in New York's ninth congressional district against incumbent Yvette Clark and a lot has changed since we last talked Isaiah So welcome back. Thank you for coming back on Thank you so much for having me man. Yeah, it's a different world now the last time since we talked The Democratic primary was still going on remember when that was a thing COVID-19 wasn't a thing You know these protests the murder of George Floyd Hasn't happened wasn't it wasn't a thing back then so I mean like How has your campaign been doing give us a little bit of an update and let us know how you've been able to adapt to Campaigning in a COVID era when you can't knock on doors and you have to basically change The strategy that you were using like how's everything going because June 23rd next week is the primary so we're coming down to it So how are things currently? so I want to Not push back but correct something you said we says a different world It's a different world for some but for some people. They've been living this reality their entire existence Yeah, me as a six-foot eight black man I know what it's like, you know to look like the suspect when you walk out of the door My wife has a pre-existing condition, you know, 40 million people are now out of working out health care But 35 million people didn't have health care before this all started wages were still low So it's a different world to those who weren't paying attention, but for millions of people. This is nothing but more than the same So that's that to our campaign has changed Everything's online now. It's all digital Yeah, like we talked before we came on you're one of the first people to ever give me a platform and interview me and Let me speak to people about the campaign I'm running because grassroots campaigns You either have to have a ton of money or you have to have a ton of momentum We don't have a ton of money, but we have the momentum so all of our town halls have switched to online We can't go out and and knock on doors, but believe it or not Literally before I got on this interview with you a potential constituent left me a voicemail and called me How she got my number? I don't know but when I called her back. She was so shocked and surprised She's like, oh my god You actually called me back She said she had reached out to the other campaigns and team members and other folks had said they're gonna look into it But she left me a voicemail and I called her back I've done that with numerous folks who called me because I'm just an everyday person So everything we've done we've done now is online all of our ads we're releasing ads Literally twice three times a week on ads and digital digital town halls coming on shows like this and other shows I was on a few of the shows last week I got a few other shows tomorrow just to get a message out there because my strongest strength as a Candidate is getting out there and talking to the people letting them know that somebody resonates with their problems But we can't do that now because literally the entire world is shut down So we just we've had to you know in the military. We had improvise adapt and overcome So we were improvising at first because we were just a grassroots campaign now We have to adapt and hopefully on June 23rd. We overcome. Yeah Yeah, it's a lot going on and I'm glad that you said that in the beginning about you know This being really the same thing for everyone Because I think that what a lot of people are realizing now a lot of white people in particular realizing is that you know Racism didn't go away people with white privilege like to live in that bubble and think well, you know, I haven't seen racism I'm not racist so it doesn't affect me But the thing is that racism is a force that is malleable. It's able to adapt It doesn't just go away, you know with time if we just ignore it I mean if you think about this like when it goes to Slavery that was abolished and then we got Jim Crow Jim Crow went away And now we functionally have a version of Jim Crow in mass incarceration where we're still able to Where the system it has institutions that still disenfranchise mostly black Americans It denies them the right to vote, you know this label of felon on people I'm reading the new Jim Crow right now, which is a phenomenal book and it's going through all these things Yeah, it's it's such a great read and I'm reading it for the first time and really it's it's eye-opening and you know, what happens is that Everything is cyclical like you think that things have changed but in actuality, you know the forces that really corrupt our system They just adapt, you know, it's not just racism capital like it all adapts So I wanted to get your perspective on this because you said you're a black man in America You know, you see black man being killed with impunity. The videos are up there We're now getting reports about possible lynchings with Robert Fuller in California and Malcolm harsh How are you able to basically? Educate people while at the same time, you know be human because it bogs you down it Where's you down? So how do you how do you deal with this as a black man in America in 2020? Well, you know, we said that a lot of folks don't see racism. So it doesn't affect them I mean, you don't see gravity, but jump your ass off a building and watch what happens to you Just because you don't see something doesn't mean it's not there and it's not affecting everybody And even if you are white racism affects you because your fellow countrymen and women are being persecuted number one number two How do I not get it? Let it get me down. I mean, I've been black my whole life. So this is all I've known This is my existence. I know what it's like Like I said, so people to cross the street when they see me for people to clutch their purse when I walk by You know to get followed around stores. So it doesn't it doesn't affect me in that senses. I'm used to it Sadly, I'm used to it, you know, I mean and also I'm I'm buoyed by seeing so many people Continue to fight like as a black man I'm the seventh generation in this country of crimes committed from 1619 when those slaves landed in Jamestown The the strength and in the heritage that I come from if my people can make it through whatever they made it through and My particular background is Jamaican So my folks come from Jamaica Those are the some of the worst conditions on the sugar plantations and the tobacco plantations And if they can make it through that, we can make it through this and if they didn't give up If we I am where I am today because they didn't give up So in order for us to get the next generation of all Americans and black and brown folks to where we need to be I can't give up. I understand what I'm fighting for. You know, the greatest tree you can plant is one who shade you will never sit in I'm where I am today because somebody Sacrifice somebody said at that lunch counter in 1963 Somebody got bit by that dog and got that water hose turned on them Somebody got their head cracked by a police baton marching for rights. That's why I'm sitting here today And I want to be the last generation to have to deal with this Because like you said racism isn't out in the open anymore, you know, so instead of burning across in front of your yard They'll put a police car on the corner. They've now taken off their white robes and now they have on black robes in the gavel So it's the same racism. I like my racism out front and I've opened so at least I can see it I know how to combat it, but racism has now been it's pervasive It's move it moves in the cracks and in the shadows of our government and that's what we call it Systematic racism because it's in housing. It's an education. It's in health care. It's in the military. It's in police It's in everything and if you know anything about racism as a cancer You can't just you know cut away a slice of the tumor You have to excise that entire tumor and remove that cancer from the body or will Metastasize and eat itself like every other great empire around the world the turks the romans the greeks Syrians the ottomans the russians all of them have collapsed because they did not take care of what they needed to take care of Internally at the time and america is headed headlong in that way unless we correct ourselves right now This is a task that is So huge that it's difficult to even know where to begin I think that you know the thing about racism is that it's it's so embedded in all of our Institutions in culture white supremacy. It's everywhere. So, you know people who are Privileged they don't necessarily understand it. So my hope is that you know white people in general they actually Wake up. I mean when we're looking at all of these videos of police brutality them gassing peaceful protesters You know, this is really jarring to white people people that I talked to in my social circles who They trusted the police But I mean this is knowledge that black communities have been privy to Since the founding of this country This isn't a new phenomenon It's just that white people are learning about the black experience more so But I think that really what I hope That can come out of this besides institutional changes of course is you know a cultural shift to where You are not just apathetic or ambivalent and what I mean by that is, you know Nobody wants to say oh well i'm i'm racist of course, you know, nobody thinks that they're racist even racist But the difference is you have to go a step beyond that you can't just be comfortable saying i'm not racist because I have a black friend Or a black family member that's not good enough and that's not going to do away with racism It requires more than that and you know, it seems like we are on the cusp of a cultural shift But at the same time, you know, we've been there before where it feels like there would be change, you know, rodney king There's so many instances where it feels like, you know, we're finally going to change But racism just adapts. So my question to you is as a black man in america What would you like to see if you had a magic wand and you could do Um, or actually let's get into a little bit more concrete scenario Let's say you win your primary you're elected to congress and you are able to craft the legislation That's perfect that will get passed. What would that look like in your opinion? Because I think that people are branching out liberals at least Some liberals are trying to run away from that instinct to just opt for incremental reform That's clearly failed incrementalism. I think isn't going to suffice this time So we're talking about defund the police. We're even entertaining abolitionist arguments But for you legislatively speaking, how do you root out racism? From the institutions that it's embedded in is it is it able to be reform like what do you what do we do? In terms of like a policy approach to this because it's such a huge Thing I don't know where to begin Okay, so let's unpack a few things that you said there So when we talk about individuals and being racist I don't think individuals can be racist and I'll tell you why Everybody has a prejudice we prejudice just means to pre-judge You have a prejudice when you walk into a buffet and you look to see which food you're going to get because It looks good or that looks bad. That's a pre-judge Racism is a system and racism is like I said when I said when I say it's a system I mean it controls masses. So when we talk about racism in America, I'm not talking about, you know The the the the caffeine that caused the police or the caring that doesn't want the black person to barbecue That's them being prejudiced and ignorant But the racism comes in through the fact that she can call a police system that she knows will do something Or have an adverse effect on a black person. That's the system that we need to deal with Everybody has prejudice people can be taught and and learn to get rid of their prejudice But racism as a system has to be dismantled. You can't reform racism because police have body cameras now They're still beating people. They're still killing people that they're gassing protesters peaceful protesters on the damn news So a camera is not the way You can't retrain them because the system is set up policing in this country Literally stemmed out of slave catchers who would go and capture escape slaves and bring them back So the entire system is corrupt and if I could craft a perfect piece of legislation I don't think there is something that's a perfect piece of legislation because legislation has to evolve with the times of the day But if I could craft some legislation right now We need to demilitarize our police You know police officers are using the same exact equipment that I use when I was in afghanistan and iraq Like literally this I could get inside one of those big ass Upharmored vehicles flip all the switches turn it on and move it because I've driven it a million times They're using the same vehicles in iraq not only that they have qualified immunity Which allows them or just imagine this my wife is a teacher She in new york city you get a teaching certificate a license to teach Do you think she would be able to be on the job if she had 10 complaints of of misconduct or 10 complaints of abusing a child No lawyer could have you know 20 years worth of contempt citations against them. They would be disbarred She would lose her license to teach no police officer Who was a public servant what should be able to allow to commit acts of violence against people and be shielded because of this Silly ass law on the book. So we need to end qualified immunity. We need to demilitarize that police We need we need to end broken windows policing and communities of color A lot of folks like to say well black communities have more crimes They have more crime because they have more police if all you have is a hammer Everything looks like a nail the police officers have to be justified some way So they arrest people to justify their existence. It's a never-ending cycle that Reformation is not going to change. It has to be dismantled. So there's no one perfect piece of legislation But there are things that we can craft and put into bills. We need to tackle this stuff now Like right now new york city just passed an anti chokehold bill That's the problem that you have to pass a bill to tell an institution not to choke people to death That's that's a summation of the problems in the fact that you have to pass an anti chokehold bill How about we we reduce the number of police? So we don't so that money can go to mental health services That money can go to the to the versionary programs that money can go to the outpatient programs That money can go to mental health services So we're not using our police officers and police force as you know End all to all these other social things that we should be doing We're not using our jails in lieu of mental health facilities. We're not using police officers as immigration officers All these other things and we talk about police. We don't just have to think about, you know, 911 NYPD We have to also talk about the Department of Homeland Security We have to talk about ICE and immigration's customs and customs enforcement. We have to talk about all these other pseudo quasi police agencies that the state the government has To police people in all forms and fashions So we don't just need to look at NYPD We look at all of this damn stuff with the patriot act and the national defense authorization act And all these things Yeah, and I'm glad that you said that because I feel like if you just try to reform the existing police As it is you're not really getting to the root of the problem because it doesn't address the underlying issue that our response as a society Has collectively been just to throw more police at whatever the situation is So rather than addressing the homeless crisis with housing, we just throw more police on it We, you know criminalized homelessness. So it's like we've had this one default setting to where oh, there's crime There's these issues x y and z. Well, that just means we increase our police budgets even further We throw more police at it and I think that people are starting to wake up and realize This isn't like it's not acceptable to have a one-size-fits-all solution to all of a city's problems That doesn't make sense, right? Like we we have to be nuanced We have to acknowledge the fact that mental health care requires or mental health crises require mental health care You know, um, it doesn't require police officers domestic violence Isn't something that you can solve with policing. These are these are issues that are complex And so I'm glad that we're actually talking about going beyond reform It is a little bit frustrating that you know, you see democrats such as joe biden jim clyburn Try to co-op the language say, you know, I don't support to fund the police But I want to reimagine the police that can mean anything and it's not necessarily I mean, it might be reimagined to even what maybe his reimagination is giving them more money and more power Joe biden did give us the crime bill. So I don't trust joe biden on policing Anyone who is part of the problem who created the you know, the issues that we're dealing with I can't trust them and I'm glad that you brought up choke holds in new york because um, you responded to Something that andrew quomo said that I wanted to ask you about because this is insane to me So andrew quomo said people are still out protesting You don't need to protest you won you won You accomplished your goal society says you're right. The police need systematic reform. So my question to you is um, your response your response was that basically he ended racism It's over guys as a black man. How's it feel living in a post-racial america isaac? I mean, it's it's it's marvelous when he said that I was like, what the hell I was like that right there Again, there's a summation of the fact that andrew quomo has never lived the day in the shoes of a black man Or a black person or a person of color or any marginalized community Think about it. Andrew quomo's father was governor. His brother hosts a tv show on cnn He's now governor of new york. He's never lived the day I don't give a damn how much he tries to to sympathize or empathize He doesn't know what he's talking about people are still protesting because this is not over You just saw a man get shot in the back running away in in georgia or wherever it was Few days ago, you know, I mean they made the song after police in the 80s and we're still dealing with this stuff now You know, they were getting dogs and water hoses turned on them in the 50s and 60s This isn't a new problem and it's not going to end just because some Person in high power says it's over nothing has changed. Nobody's defunded the police Nobody's pulled the police back. We still have a six billion dollar budget for the nyp Six billion dollars. Meanwhile, new york state just cut 400 million dollars from Hospitals, so he doesn't get the problem. He doesn't even get the solution doesn't get anything He's just trying to placate everybody and give me these nice pat on the backs But that doesn't work with the people, you know and protests are supposed to make people uncomfortable If it didn't make people uncomfortable, nothing would come of it. Look at occupy wall street They sat down on the ground. They chanted Stop market got bigger the rich got richer the poor got poor Nothing changed because it did make people uncomfortable. You know what? There is no such thing as a peaceful protest Protests in and of itself is an act of defiance. You show me an act of defiance. That's peaceful You ever tried to pick up a little kid. They don't want to be picked up and they let themselves all go all crazy like that It's still hard to wrangle them. You're using muscle. That's them defying you Even when martin luther king marched across the emin pettus bridge He was marching peacefully But it was the the violence that bull corner did when he started beating people and attacking people that turned the eyes of the nation on this stuff so Black people get arrested every day get assaulted every day by the police Just because we don't all get killed like what happened to brother george floyd doesn't mean it's right It's wrong in every instance and he doesn't understand that he's speaking from a position of privilege and You know, even I have privilege as I have male privilege as a man So I know about privilege everybody has a certain type of privilege But in this instance, he's speaking from a position of way privilege He has absolutely no I tell us tell us has to come down in the crown heights And just sit in the sit in the bush somewhere and watch the police officers do to young black dudes in the subway Just just come on down here. I invite him to come down here right now Let's go to flatbush at each flatbush. Let's go to bedside of brownsville. Let's go to let's go anywhere around Let's go to the Bronx. Let's go anywhere and see what happens for absolutely nothing Just living in your skin and then tell me that people should get off the streets and go home Yeah, I think that his remarks it really speaks to this this liberal instinct a centrist instinct to Get everything back to normal. Whatever that means, but I mean, I mean, what what is normal I think you kind of spoke to this in the beginning like It seems abnormal right now to people who have been in positions of privilege, you know, if you have Healthcare, then you're living a pretty normal life If you don't have to worry about police officers, you know murdering you at a routine traffic stop You know that then this seems abnormal right now But the thing is that I think you really nailed it when you said protests are supposed to be uncomfortable And the fact that we see lawmakers squirming trying to find some way to quell the protests That shows how effective that they are. I mean, it's not just Democrats not to pick on them I mean Donald Trump threatened to use the military to crush protests They don't want these protests to happen Which is all the more reason why they should continue to happen because they're working I think that you know, you don't change hearts and minds by retreating You don't you know run away from your values the minute you get a little bit of pushback from republicans Which is what I'm kind of seeing from lawmakers like Joe Biden, for example, with you know to fund the police Oh, that's too radical No, hold your ground And if it seems too radical that just shows how comfortable people are that they think a slogan like be fund the police Is radical educate people try to get through to people who otherwise don't know about the things that are happening Who have white privilege or rich privilege or all types of privileges? So I wanted to um get to you Or ask you a question about You know more root causes of this system So you just put out an ad recently that is fantastic and we'll play that now for people who are watching Me as a black man in the united states of america like literally we were the first capital We were bought and traded as as pieces to to add to farm equipment Capitalism in and of itself cannot sustain itself It will eat itself Because when you have a system That extracts so much from so many And concentrated in the hands of so few it will collapse We better wake up and understand That we have to center all of our policies around poor people and working people and people of color and marginalized communities Every policy we have is the rich people don't need any more money All those gig workers millions of jobs and the rest of our industry millions in the hospitality industry Millions of jobs in the service sectors that don't have those protections that have been lost Because our country has allowed union membership to be Decimated those are the millions of people who don't have any protection tens of thousands already dying every year because they didn't have health care Is there going to be a hospital bed for me? If I need it is there going to be a ventilator if I need it Am I going to lose my job if I get sick or I can't go back to work Capitalism does not care about working people a damn show doesn't care about poor people or sick people It only cares about replicating and making more capital These are the viruses that still plague our body Is the income inequality and racial adjustments and health care and security and housing insecurity and food insecurity because once this virus Pass and it will pass the systems that are in place that are exploiting people right now must be dealt with But it's going to be up to our generation to get this ball rolling because we cannot rely on the white house We cannot rely on republicans. We cannot rely on corporate democrats Martin Luther King jr. Said don't tell me what you believe Show me what you do And I'll tell you what you believe With regard to that ad the first thing really it stood out. You said black americans They were the first capital in this capitalist system. Their bodies were literally capital So i'm curious, you know tying capitalism to all of this I want to know your take on this. Um, is it possible to change policing to to root out racism effectively I mean, it'll never go away, but I mean, can we can we change it enough without actually tackling Capitalism itself. I'm curious what your take is on this because you always break things down, you know So beautifully in a way that's easy to digest. I mean, these are big issues And it's it's kind of tough to wrap your head around it But what's your take on capitalism's role in all of this because I feel like it's it's present everywhere And we also have to address this as well Well, that's a great question. So Again, no, you can't do it peacefully. It's systematic. So like I said in my ad You know black people literally were the first capital, you know, the more slaves you owned the more property you owned You know, the bigger your plantation could be and so on and so forth and the richer you could get So we were the first capital if we want to capitalism It it's it's it's in line. It runs through all these things criminal justice policing because if you think about it For profit prisons have to make a profit. So they need bodies to fill those prisons That's what they have That's what they funnel money to the police forces to make them quasi military forces to arrest more people to lock them up To fill up for profit prisons So now all the contractors can provide the beds and the foods and the meals and then we can we can get the guards We can pay the guards now because now they're part of this capitalist system Oh this capitalist system that's funneled super super amounts of money into the military industrial complex Well, we have surplus equipment. So what do we have to do with it? We're going to sell it to other countries to kill their poor people And we're going to sell it to our police force so we can keep our poor people and our working class people in check capitalism It's a vein that runs through all these things and in my ad when I say that Capitalism doesn't care about poor people and working people. It really doesn't I mean if it did it wouldn't be capitalism It would be socialism it cares about making more capital and replicating that and criminal justice is a big big business It's it's about it's about the second biggest business. Everybody thinks, you know, it's pharmaceuticals or technology No, one is the military industrial complex and then it's criminal justice Because it runs the vein through all that stuff and if we don't systematically reform or systematically dismantle This capitalist system. It's never going to change. I mean we've been talking about these things for 100 years for 200 years the first slave that said let me be free Wanted to end capitalism. They didn't like it. So we've been talking about this for hundreds and hundreds of years and we've never Nothing's going to change unless we get a A critical mass of people like me and aocs and receded to leads and ill hands Into office who actually given them about to people because they have these lived experiences Bro, I can go out this door right now as a highly decorated disabled veteran Metals ribbons letters from the president thanking me for my service and my bravery and be shot dead By some damn idiot because my blackness is seen as a threat That system cannot be reformed that system has to be dismantled Yeah, and you said something in that ad that also stood out to me He said capital only cares about replicating and making more capital And that's so simple and it's easy to understand capitalism Is like a virus like it has led to the commodification Of everything like human lives, you know are commodified, but this isn't necessarily a new phenomenon This has been a thing that's happened since the founding of the country And you know these problems like the rate that capitalism is able to replicate It's faster than the rate of change, which is why we kind of see things getting progressively worse throughout the country Why it feels like, you know, we're not really making change You know and you think that with time, you know progress It is going to head in one direction that change is linear, but that's not necessarily true I mean just this week we got the landmark ruling from the supreme court that workplace discrimination against gain trans people is Outlawed but then days before that donald trump stripped away health care protections for transgender people So it's not like you're just going to move in one direction. It's going to take time But if we don't actually address the root causes Then you know, it's it's going to be undone So i'm curious because there's so much that needs to be accomplished. What is your are you feeling? At all optimistic because people are out in the streets because I think that this hyper focus on electoral politics While electoral politics is important I think people are starting to really realize the value in direct action Do you feel optimistic at all that we actually will for the first time? Even if we fail at least try to target like these root causes in the system There is I don't think there's there's no such thing as failure. Everything is a lesson It's an opportunity to learn and to get better, you know The only time you can fail is when it's over. You're dead. That's when you stop trying You know, I mean, so I think it will get better It is going to get better and out and it's because of electoral politics You know because i'm running for congress, but state assembly your local mayor your your ombudsman, whatever Those people when they have to answer to the people When people start actually making their voices heard and I give a lot of credit To not just the folks who've been doing it for 30 40 years on the front lines But I give a lot of credit to Bernie Sanders He awakened an entire generation of apathetic youth that was not even engaged In social, you know the social milieu that is American politics And now that's what you see on the streets black white young old gay straight trans Able disabled differently able rich poor whatever Everybody's out there saying yo This has to change because Martin Luther King Jr. Said it we may have come here on different ships But we're all in the same boat now and America is a big boat She is the titanic and we see the iceberg that ahead The iceberg is racial injustice. It's income inequality. It's poverty. It's food insecurity It's healthcare insecurity and housing insecurity And if we don't turn this ship that is america right now We are going to hit it and we are going to sink that if you know anything about ships It takes a long time to turn it so we have to start right now and i'm so Enthused to see so many young people. I say young people like i'm old i'm 33 But 18 year old 19 years 50 me and my wife were coming back from somewhere the other day we saw literally A tiny family kids could have been no more than eight nine years old Single family standing on the corner and one of the richer neighborhoods in my district with black lives matter posters They're the only ones out there and they were white But that is the seed that has been planted and all these seeds That are planted will eventually grow and like I said before The shade that the the the youth are going to sit under are the seeds that we're planting right now It's a daunting task. Yeah, it is but guess what? It was also a big task to end the system that existed in this country for 200 years that built the country That system was slavery. It was a daunting task to end the system that kept black people Unequal for 100 years that system was jim crow. We fought those things. We ended those things now Like we didn't remove the the cancer all together like I said before because it metastasized into something else It metastasized into the war on drugs into the 96 crime bill into into you know welfare reform It metastasized into all these things. So now we have to get our scalpel out We have to put on our stethoscope. We have to go back in the body and we have to excise that tumor It's a big operation, but we can do it. Yeah, and you you break things down in such a great way Like you paint a really clear picture and you know the sense that I get after being really demoralized this year Like, you know, bernie sanders lost. So it felt like man. We were this close to the white house You know, we have covet 19 everything's going on and I felt really demoralized and I was trying to grapple with like moving forward How do I keep going and you know, I've come to realize that that's the point like the system is going to beat you down But if you feel beaten down if you feel exhausted and tired that means that you are actually Accomplishing something you're fighting that that's worthwhile. Right. It's important So the the feeling it's like, you know, when you get a good workout when you haven't worked out in a while And your muscles are sore That's part of the process not that I've been to the gym in a while. So I'll be honest there But I mean like that's that's part of the process like it's it's important every movement I think experiences growing pains and even if you know, it's really easy to be bogged down Uh, you know, I do feel some sense of optimism buried deep like within my cynical heart only because people are actually taking to the streets And they've been in the streets like when I first saw the protest break out in Minneapolis. I thought I can't believe what I'm seeing currently. I hope this lasts and weeks later It's still going on across the country throughout the world. So I feel like you know, like you said it's such a great way to frame it, you know, the seed has been planted and Now it's just a matter of what we do with it. So I mean all of this It's important what we do is important But at the end of the day, we do have to elect people into Institutions who have the power to make that change which is where your campaign comes along So again, June 23rd is when this election takes place. Uh, there's a lot of elections coming up I mean Jamal Bowman. We have AOC's reelection, which is gonna define. I know those folks literally like I can call them now I know Jamal. I know the folks running in new york 15 5 16 14 10 12 Most of us are brand new congress members. So we've all we're all on the same slate So we literally have met each other know each other talk all the time. You know, I mean and It's even if only one of us gets through that's one more than there was That's what I'm talking about with the seed that's planted. You know, I mean, we're in a very difficult race and COVID has thrown this the whole thing through a loop. But one I don't think that the the the systematics racism is going to go away tomorrow So there's always going to be another opportunity to fight the next day the next day the next day and two Like you said earlier You if you're not if you're not in pain if you're not feeling beat down That you're not trying because guess what? There are a lot of folks out there who are in pain because they're not paying attention They don't give it there. It's not on their radar But the fact that you feel dejected or I feel dejected think about this Even when the stock market closes at five o'clock companies are still trading They're still deciding what communities to carve up. They're still police are still buying weapons They're still they're still sending folks at at five o'clock police still going on their patrol black and brown communities So the fight doesn't stop just because we're tired. You know, I mean I can give up when I'm dead That's when I can give up until then I can't give up because I understand what I'm fighting for And somebody like me who was willing to die Because america asked me to I don't take these things lightly The only thing I've ever quit in my life is smoking and that's the only thing I'll ever quit That's perfect. I like that. Okay. Tell us what we can do to help your campaign because you know We can't just ask people to knock on doors for you now because of this pandemic And you know, new york is one of the first states that was really hit hard. So how can we get you elected? I mean, we have a few days left, but we can still really we can make this happen So what do we do? Um, if we live in new york or outside of the state, how can we help you? if you live in new york, you could go to Isaiah for congress.com and sign up to phone bank with us We've so far in the last two weeks. We've made almost a hundred thousand calls to voters and sent almost uh Since almost 70 80 thousand texts. We're trying to do a big push to make another hundred thousand calls Literally before the election even up until election day. So you can sign up to phone bank or you know, knock on some doors We are doing literature drops at some of the essential businesses that are open putting up posters and flies around the community um I really feel weird asking folks for money because people out there are hurting But if you do have a spare dollar or five dollars to donate, you know You can go to isaia for congress.com and there's the act blue donation link in there Follow me on social media help share the message because the more people we get our message The reason i'm on this show is because somewhere My message got to you and you reached out to me and we we got on this show. That's how grass roots is That's why it's literally called grass roots because the roots spread You know, I mean So if folks out there can donate or sign up the phone bank or text bank or anything like that Follow me on social media All that stuff will help us get over the finish line because anybody who tells you they know how this race is going to go You're a damn lie. Nobody knows how this is going to go because Coronavirus just threw everything through a loop. So we have a puncher's chance just like everybody else in this race Yeah, and you know, when you doubt the underdog sometimes, you know, um, you get surprised. Um, I'm Yeah, I'm really really, um, I feel hopeful About this election coming up. Um, there's a lot of races to look out for and we will absolutely be watching because, um If you win I'm gonna lose it. I'm gonna I'm gonna freak out. Um, but I won't be on camera so nobody can see that. Um, I haven't even thought that far You know, I mean, I like I win. I'm like I'm probably gonna be elected to come. I'll be elected to come. My whole life would change But I haven't thought that far, you know, like I like my drill started told me when I was a young private Nobody ever was born on the top of Mount Everest. They get there one step at a time Yeah, so if you want to conquer that giant mountain Putting the hard work start taking those steps Yeah, absolutely well said. Um, is there anything else that you wanted to leave us with before we go? I'll leave you with a quote that It's a paraphrase quote you know, I mean for folks who have Or out there disingenuous or not this dude, but disenchanted With our system and it's a quite forget who it's by But it says it goes Socialism never took root in America not because Americans or the proletariat see themselves as exploited But they see themselves as temporarily embarrassed millionaires Meaning that the system is set up is such that it's they give you the care in front of You know, the donkey instead of freedom. It's redo So we got to change we have to dismantle the system and install a system that helps every day Hardworking folks. That's why I'm running. That's why I'm so grateful to be on your show And that's why I said James ain't going away Awesome. That's what I like to hear and I love that quote. I also do not know who that is by but it's such a good quote So, all right everyone Yeah, I I don't know either There's a lot of quotes in my head that I always refrain from using because I don't know who they're by So I don't want to like say oh it was by this person, but I that really is an important quote Well, thank you so much. Isaiah. Hopefully we can catch up once you win your primary and you know, um Talk about what we did going forward. So we've been talking with isiah james running in new york's ninth congressional district The primary takes place on june 23rd. Get out and vote if you are in this district