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Previously on America Divided. There were lefties, there were righties.
Why now does it seem like there's just a shift in one particular direction?
Money was pumped in to local races that swung the outcome.
Republicans took control of the state.
We have a government operating in bold contrast and opposition to the
fundamental values of North Carolina.
How do these people get in power? Money and politics.
These are the mounds of coal ash covered with grass.
This whole trailer park is contaminated water.
I had three stroke heart attack.
It put in my heart the almighty dollar.
It's the root of all evil. It's what it says in the Bible. And I do believe it
because they'll do anything for it.
I have so much influence.
I'm lousy with influence.
But tonight, I'm genuinely very humbled and honored to be
part of this evening. I thought very hard and long about what had influenced
over the past couple of years. And since I had been at this dinner in 2008, I
have given birth to two boys, and I've left Saturday Night Live, and I started
my own TV show, and it's been a crazy couple of years. And I thought, who?
Besides, Madam Secretary Clinton and Lorne Michaels have influenced me.
And it was the women who helped me take care of my children.
It is Jackie Johnson from Trinidad.
And it is Dawa Chodan from Tibet who come to my house and help me raise my
children.
And for you working women who are out there tonight who get to do what you get
to do because there are wonderful people who help you at home, I would like to
take a moment to thank those people, some of whom are watching your children
right now while you're at this event.
Those people who love your children as much as you do, I say thank you and I
celebrate you tonight.
Precinct number 32. You can go in at the line.
Don't y 'all get discouraged.
Please don't. Well, this is deeply concerning.
You actually have two precincts in this one building.
One, nobody's in that line.
This one has a two -hour wait even after the polls are closed.
Right, but will that count today as a vote?
I've been told that it wouldn't count, so...
People are standing and they're saying we're not moving,
we're not going anywhere, but it's wrong for them to have to do that.
We should want people to vote and not see this on election day.
effectively sweep millions of poor people into second -class data.
Did we invest in those communities? No. Instead, we declared war.
What we have today is a wealth gap that is huge.
We are dying with money.
We are dying with money. The working class has been hammered.
These are human beings. These are people.
What can we do to get that point across?
The constant telling us that we're not doing enough is causing us to explode.
It is not a matter of opinion anymore. It is clearly exposed.
What do we do? They can only win by
dividing America.
We know that the way things are working aren't working at all. That's right.
If you just keep pushing, if you just keep trying, if you refuse to
let...
There were times when I was a small child, when I would look at a place
wanted to be and believe that I would eventually be there on the other side of
the glass.
As the daughter of two public school teachers in Massachusetts, there were
times when I would fall asleep at night, listening to my parents' hushed
arguments over car payments and future college tuition.
But they always taught me that nothing was out of my reach.
And that if people worked hard enough, they could achieve their own version of
the American dream.
But our country has changed.
The financial gap between the wealthy and the middle class is bigger than
More people are working longer hours, taking on multiple jobs, spending less
time with their families.
For way too many, it's a battle just making ends meet.
And there's one workforce holding this precarious new economy together.
Domestic workers.
an army of mostly women who leave their own families every morning to work in
other people's homes.
They are the nannies raising children while the parents are at their own jobs,
the housekeepers, and the caregivers for the elderly and the disabled.
I know a lot about my own home, about the women who help me take care of my
children.
But I hear there's a whole movement out there, domestic workers who are
organizing and demanding their rights.
Today, I'm meeting with some of the leaders.
What does CHIRLA stand for?
CHIRLA is a coalition, and we organize people to fight for their rights. We do
rallies, meet Congress senators who can help us to pass laws
for workers and immigrants.
Maru Galban has been a CHIRLA organizer for years.
And though L .A. has the largest concentration of domestic workers in the
country, the hardest part of her job is finding them.
A lot of workers are afraid because they're going to lose their job. They're
afraid if I tell someone my status, then I will be deported, right? And
sometimes they're suffering.
They're working for less than minimum wage. We help them.
They don't feel so alone.
No. We talk with them and they start learning about the rights.
Griselda Sanchez and Maria Hernandez aren't just organizers.
They did this work for years.
I can't believe what I'm hearing.
That these stories could be happening next door to me, or next door to anyone,
and nobody would have any idea.
People don't know what happens inside beautiful houses.
They don't know.
And people think they can decide the rules in each one of their homes.
But if it was an office, then you would not be able to get away with that,
right? Exactly.
So now you are an activist.
Do you think about that story when you do this work with Chirla?
What remains in La Lucha?
They tell me there's a California law called the Domestic
Workers' Bill of Rights.
But what do they mean when they say they are fighting to make it permanent?
Why is this law temporary?
And why don't they have the same rights as other workers?
After everything I've seen and heard, I have to ask,
how do the state leaders keep their jobs?
To figure this out, I call Ari Perman.
Oh, my God.
God, I look terrible.
Hi, Ari.
Hello. How are you?
How's it going?
Sorry about my face. I was just looking at myself on the screen.
Jesus. So I'm seeing a lot of folks in North Carolina kind of unhappy with how
things are happening in the state.
If there's so much going on that people are not...
happy with.
Why can we not oust the people that are in power?
The people that are in power have created a system to stay in power.
All of the voting laws that North Carolina had put in place that made it
the best states in the country to vote, they got rid of all of that. The North
Carolina legislature knew full well that this was going to have a bigger impact
on voters of color, on young voters. So that's a premeditated thought that
whoever constructs this stuff is like, hey, let's
Let's make it difficult for the type of people to vote.
It was very explicit who they were going after.
Right after they took power, they drew the redistricting map so that
couldn't lose any kind of competitive election.
Who is the they that hooked this up?
This effort was really funded.
by the biggest names in the conservative movement. And there's one guy in North
Carolina in particular who was really, really important. His name is Art Poe.
He's one of the richest and the most powerful people in the state.
Art Pope is someone who owns discount grocery stores all over the state. He's
not in favor of things like a higher minimum wage.
He's not in favor of more progressive taxes. These are things that he doesn't
believe in ideologically, but they're also going to hurt his bottom line. So I
think a lot of the spending has been driven by self -interest.
Is it on record how much Art Pope has put his money into all this?
Art Pope has given $40 million.
It just seems psychotic.
You should talk to Margaret Dickson. She's a state legislator there who had
district dramatically changed by the Republicans.
I've been hearing how vulnerable domestic workers can be behind closed
Their work may power California, but they only recently gained state
with one law, the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights.
And it only grants them one right, overtime pay.
And we want dignity now because after so many years of exclusion, we want to
make sure that all labor protections are given so that there's equity for all
domestic workers.
Domestic workers have a hard enough time as it is.
And I've just learned that this one state law that protects them is in
The domestic workers deserve, like, dignity because everybody works so hard.
I've come to a rally where everyone's getting fired up to save the law.
I know exactly who to speak with to find out more.
So today we're celebrating domestic workers, right? Yeah. Can you explain to
what a domestic worker is? Do you know what it is?
Someone that works, um...
Yeah,
because why should they be paid well?
Completely out of order.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Very smart.
Everybody tell me their first and last name so I can know it when you all
president.
Ali Garcia.
Issao. Issao? My last name is Rodriguez.
Issao Rodriguez. Okay, thanks, guys. Amy Poehler. Nice to meet you all.
At
the
rally, I meet the woman overseeing the entire movement, Ai -jen Poo, the
director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance.
sure everybody says, well, of course no one should be mistreated.
And this is America. Everyone should be given an opportunity.
So what are you fighting against? I think that we have this history of not
seeing the work that women do as valuable, whether it's Women getting
cents on the dollar for the same work that men do or actual work that women do
has just never been seen as real work.
How amazing it would be if like every time a powerful man won an award, he
started by thanking, you know, the domestic care workers that are in his
How dope would that be? Like presidential candidates. That's when
that we're on to something. Are you listening, Donald Trump? I know you're
watching.
I want to hear all the names of the people that work in your house. And I'm
going to come organize them.
Yeah. Perfect.
We've already passed this bill in 2013.
So why are we still talking about this?
That's a good question. We passed this bill in 2013 with a sunset to kind of
it out.
So we're waiting to see whether we can make it through the assembly and if the
governor will agree to making it permanent law.
Why is this bill even necessary?
Aren't domestic workers protected under federal law? It's so crazy.
In the 1930s, Southern members of Congress refused to support the labor
provisions in the New Deal if they protected domestic workers and farm
who were African American at the time. Every worker, regardless of your race
ethnicity, who's done this work has been essentially living in the shadow of
that racial exclusion.
What do you say to a family that says, I care very much about...
the person that works in my home and takes care of my children, but I can't
afford overtime.
It is true that there's a limit to what families can afford and handle on their
own. We need a movement that actually helps families afford the care that they
need. There's this big American myth that you just pull yourself up by your
bootstraps. We all are in this together.
IGN is right.
Almost everyone needs help.
It's bigger than just domestic workers getting overtime.
Not everyone they work for lives in a fancy house in the Hollywood Hills.
Most families who rely on them are also struggling.
I'm on my way to Margaret Dixon's, but first I need to call someone.
Art Pope, the $40 million man.
Four rings is unprofessional. that's going to voicemail from here.
Hi,
Art. My name is Michael Moore. No, my name is Zach Galifianakis.
And I got your number from a friend of mine.
And I'm in North Carolina. I wanted to chat with you, a friendly chat.
Nothing but friendship here.
about our state and your involvement in our state and my involvement.
And I used to deliver papers to Roses, so you owe me a phone call, Mr. Pope.
Thank you very much. Hope you're well.
He'll never call me back. That was a terrible message.
Here are some important things you should know about Margaret Dixon.
One, her son Wyatt makes fantastic barbecue.
It's very important.
Number two, she lost her seat in 2010 after TV ads were run portraying her as
prostitute. Charming. Number three, the new legislature made sure she could
pretty much never run again.
The Democrats controlled both the North Carolina House and the North Carolina
Senate really for a century. But in 2010, when the dust cleared on the day
the election, the whole legislature became...
Republican, so they control the redistricting. The Republicans did
packing. They packed higher percentages of African Americans into certain
districts to minimize the minority populations in surrounding districts.
Political gerrymandering is not illegal.
Racial gerrymandering is illegal.
Is there an instance where the Republicans can say that to the
The Republicans say we haven't done anything that the Democrats didn't do
they were in control. But for the first time, to my knowledge, and I think first
time ever, the redistricting in North Carolina was done not by employees of
General Assembly and legislators.
It was done by hired consultants who did it on private computers, not on state
-owned computers.
So there's no transparency at all.
They had the computer tools to just surgically redistrict.
They could go down a street and say, well, those people are Republican. We'll
put them in this district. These people are Democrats. We'll put them in another
district. And you were affected.
I was affected.
What are we looking at here? We are looking at a blowup of Cumberland
This orange part is Senate 19 that used to be my district.
Senate 21 used to be all in Cumberland County, all in this area.
Now it is these white paint spatters.
There's no rational reason for these arms that come out and stick out all
the place. And right here, this is my house.
This funny little squiggle came down to pick me up and put me into the district
I was not in before.
Do you think they looked up your address? Oh, yes.
They said, oh, Margaret Dixon, her address is, and there it is.
Point here is where? Can you see it? If we go outdoors, we can see.
So we're walking on your new district right now, right?
Yes, we are in my new district, Senate 21.
My neighbors across the street are in Senate 19, my old district.
You stay there. Okay, we can wait. I'll stay here.
Oh, it's so much better over here, Margaret.
Oh, no, no, no. Senate 21.
Hello from Senate 21.
People feel like they've lost control of the process, and in some ways they
have. The redistricting is being done by people far away.
The advertising is being produced and paid for by people far away, people we
will never know.
I wish we could go back to the time when voters chose their legislators instead
of legislators choosing their voters through the redistricting process.
How hopeful are you that we could get back to that?
I think the pendulum will swing back, but it's a question of how long that
and, in my view, how much damage is done between now and then.
Whether I like it or not, there is someone I have to talk to who knows what
under all of this.
It's time to visit an old family friend.
I started this journey to learn more about how our current economy is
domestic workers and the families that rely on them.
Today, 40 % of women are their family's primary breadwinners.
And millions of families across the country rely on some form of help inside
home. Mothers and fathers who can't support their own families without
help, and who often have deep, intimate relationships with the people who work
for them.
Bye.
I told you what my dream is, right?
At the campaign rally,
Sylvia Vasquez, a nanny and mother of four, spoke about both the need for
and her love for the family she's been working with for nearly a decade.
I'm going to meet with Sylvia's employer, Rabbi Zoe Klein, to get
her perspective.
stigma at times because this is an issue of class and race and immigration there
is this agreement sometimes between working women that they're supposed to
pretend like they're running everything and everything is going smooth when in
fact we know that to go to work and to raise a family literally takes a village
and what makes you want to talk about it today i don't know
I was really nervous about talking. What were you nervous about?
I was nervous and I kind of railed against it.
Partly because when my children, even as adults, think about what home is,
they will think of their parents and they'll think of the stories we read and
the shows we watched. But foundationally, they'll think of Sylvia.
intimate relationship.
I think sometimes people think, like, my nanny, the wonderful woman that cleans
my house, like, we all really like each other. So it's really okay if I'm not
paying them overtime because we're one big family. Right. It's complicated to
combine the idea of it takes a village with policy.
Like, why don't we make it so that the woman working and the woman that she
hires can both have a living wage?
Right.
Well, I...
I'm not an economist, but I don't know where that money is coming from. I
unfortunately am. You are?
I've tried this acting thing, but I'm going to go back to being an economist.
I love numbers.
The home is that hazy area. I think it's complicated.
I don't know the answer.
People use the language of family all the time, but family means you care
whether your nanny can have the same medical care that you get and that you
interested in the same things that affect their lives.
Family means you take care of each other.
Oh, you're right.
Sylvia.
Sylvia's relationship with Zoe's children reminds me of my own family.
If I had to live on either your quesadillas or your bean soup or your
taquitos, I think I would choose bean soup.
For my sons, the nannies that take care of them are as much a part of our family
as I am.
But what about their families?
Nice to meet you. It's really nice to meet you, too. Thanks for talking to me
today. No problem. Yeah.
So you're from Honduras.
Yes. You have four children of your own, and you also are the nanny to three
children. Yes. So you've been with them, the little one, most of her life.
Yes.
She's like my own daughter for me.
My kids sometimes are jealous. Are they? Yeah. So what do they say to you?
Mom, why are you always talking about them?
Mom, you're so proud of them.
Well, I'm proud of my kids, too. Of course. Of course, of my other kids.
Yeah? Yeah.
You were working here in the U .S.
while your children were in Honduras?
Yes. So how many years were you here before you were able to bring them over?
The first one, just two years.
But the boys,
they took nine years. Nine years. Yeah.
How did you deal with the separation of being away from them? It must have been
very hard.
A little difficult now because he said that he spent a long time alone.
So I think it's my fault because I left them alone.
You feel that way? Yeah. Even though you were working hard for them so that you
could bring them over?
With the money, we did everything, but, you know, it's not the same when you're
there. Yeah.
My daughter said that she don't want to be working life.
cleaning bathroom and stuff like that.
I hope they get, like, their career to be better, you know, to have a better
life that I have.
Zoe, come on in. Okay, thank you. Look at your brood.
Give me one here.
Say Thursday. That's a supermodel.
That's a supermodel? Apparently, because your lips purse beautifully.
Thursday.
Thursday.
You can be next to it.
What's the thing you love so much about Sylvia?
How much things she's gone through and how she can just still smile.
And what do you want to be when you grow up?
I know you get asked that question a lot, I bet, right?
I've been thinking about it, and I feel like the two really strong things for me
are writing and drawing.
And if you were writing a story about...
The job that Sylvia does.
What would be the title of the story?
The title would be the fairness between love and work.
I'm going to work for you in like five years.
Carter Wren has been helping Republican candidates win races in North Carolina
for decades.
When it comes to politics and Republicans in North Carolina, what
doesn't know isn't worth knowing.
How do you do?
Good to meet you. Thanks for having me. I saw your movie.
My apologies.
I know, it was good.
Well, I've done more than one, you know. I saw the one in North Carolina. Oh,
the campaign. I played a Republican in that one. But I have to say, this is a
little weird for me.
My Uncle Nick ran and lost in a race for U .S. Senate in 1972.
The guy that beat him was Jesse Helms.
In the years after my uncle's defeat, Carter helped Jesse win four elections.
So this climate that's happening in North Carolina, I think people feel like
they're not being heard or that their vote's not going to count or there's
planned confusion from another team to thwart voting. And I think that's
causing a...
Some anxiety. And I'm just wondering how that's playing out in your mind and
your feelings on that. I don't think there's any doubt that Republicans
those laws because they analyzed, for instance, on voter IDs who didn't have
IDs. And it was pretty clear to everybody.
that requiring IDs might mean less Democrats voted, less African Americans
voted. So the law has a political intent.
I agree with that. I mean, I'm not going to sit here and argue that
redistricting and voter IDs are not political.
They absolutely are partisan political moves.
You know Art Pope. You must know him. Oh, yeah.
New Art's dad.
I'm trying to get him on the phone. He won't talk to me.
How does it work? Okay, so let's say that maybe somebody walks through this
and you're impressed with them.
Let's call her Sheila.
All right.
So this person that walks through the door, what do they need?
Money.
Let's call her Pope.
Does that happen? Would that be part of your thought process? You thought there
was an attraction there.
Art is basically a philosophical conservative.
I could call Art an ideologue.
Art supports what Art believes in.
And if Sheila believes the way Art does, then I might call Art Pope and say,
would you meet with her?
Art Pope, he's absolutely given to support his ideological agenda.
I have no problem with that. That's the purest form of free speech.
There is no corruption.
Well, it's a pure form of free speech with a check.
Yeah. What's wrong with that? Well, purity and writing a check sometimes are
sometimes not used in the same sentence.
If I say to use that, I agree with you. I think you're a good man. I'm going to
spend a million dollars to get you elected.
And I don't want a damn thing from you.
Isn't that a good thing? As opposed to me saying, Zach, I'll give you a million
dollars if you'll put a tax break. You're a very intelligent man. I can
you're a very intelligent man. You and I know there's no such thing as anything
free, especially in this climate.
I have to do favors all the time in my business because I've been given things,
you know.
I've had good fortune. I'm lucky.
But nothing is free.
And by the way, if you're saying he's not wanting anything, yes, he is. He's
wanting his. He's wanting the craziest want to me is that the
world must be like me and have my thoughts. Thus, let me write a check.
wait a minute.
All right.
What's more American than being able to stand up and speak out for what I want?
I'm more concerned about what's human being. You're concerned that you
with him. When you say that's so American, that might be the problem with
America. Are you going to put a limit on Arts Pope's right to speak out for what
he thinks is right?
It's tricky.
If you don't agree with him, you've got a right to speak too. As long as the
money is not corrupting and that it buys favoritism from the government.
I don't have any problem with it
Hello? Ari.
Zach?
Sorry,
I don't know what time it is on the East Coast, but North Carolina, it's 2 in
the morning.
I just talked to this guy, Carter Wren, and I'm a little frustrated because he
said something and I didn't really have anything to counter with. He had said
that money is free speech.
I didn't really know what to say.
Thank you.
Give me something to say to him.
I'll try to think of my best 2 a .m. response.
It's now 2 o 'clock.
Okay, good.
Well, I'm no less awake than I was before.
But money is speech, but some people can have...
more speech than others because if a guy like Art Pope spends $2 million in
North Carolina and the average North Carolinian doesn't have that kind of
well, then Pope's speech is worth a whole lot more than all of those other
Carolinians who give a little money or no money.
Do you think that sounds like a good response to him?
I think that sounds like a good response. Is it okay if I don't? Quote
it, I just act like I came up with it myself.
Yeah, you can always have my best material.
But even if someone like Art Pope has a lot more speech because they have a lot
more money, I think it's really important that people vote as a way to
influence in the state.
You should talk to people like Reverend Barber who are in the streets fighting
for voting rights.
So you're saying speak to Reverend Barber?
You've got to talk to Reverend Barber.
Okay. Just don't wake him up at 2 a .m.
According to this thing called the Internet, every eight seconds, a baby
turns 65.
Between all those boomers, more parents working, and our ever -changing economy,
there's going to be a lot of job openings for domestic workers.
So how do we protect them?
While researching the bill, I come across some of the opposition who is
out against it.
I'm going to meet with one of them.
Jody, tell me about your company.
Well, we're probably one of the leading home care agencies in Southern
California. We've been in business 25 years.
I was a real estate developer.
And my parents moved out from New York and they were quite ill. And it was
impossible to get an agency to do critical care. They don't do difficult
So your work is personal to you. Very personal. Right. We want to help people.
Right. That is our goal.
The Domestic Workers Bill of Rights was passed in 2013. How has that affected
you and how has that affected your company?
In order to do good care, the...
Client needs 12 hours a day minimum or a living. Now it's unaffordable because
they have the overtime rules.
They're saying to you, Jodi, it's getting too expensive for me. Your
saying that to you.
Yes, and their children are deciding to send them to some convalescence or
something against their wishes.
It's very upsetting.
I hear your concern for the client. What is your concern for your employees?
The people who do live -ins want to live in because they have free room and
board. And they send their money back to their country, whether it's the
Philippines, Belize, or Uganda, wherever.
Others who do 12 -hour shifts, they have families with children. So they want
the 12 -hour shift as well. Why can't they still work 12 hours?
Because we have to pay the caregivers.
Because she has to pay the caregivers.
Jodi doesn't think that the domestic workers shouldn't work 12 and 24 -hour
days. She just thinks they shouldn't be paid overtime for the extra hours.
Here's the disconnect for me.
Because you have such great professionals who you admire and respect
tell, why wouldn't you as an employer want to say, my agency is...
I'm going to support the bill that so many people are supporting because what
I'm doing is I'm trying to give my employees a way to make more money. But
have to look at the other side.
Who's paying it?
It's not me paying it.
The client is paying it. I can only raise the client so much. It does affect
business. It makes these people go underground to these agencies that have
these.
Illegal. Right? You're saying, if they can't afford me, they're not going to
me. So it's about money for you, Jodi, right? It's about money for my clients.
Right. And it is the business of the future. I will get more clients and more
clients and more clients. I have no doubt. The point is, these people need
and these people should have help.
proper help. It's tough being a person that needs help.
That's the thing.
Whether it be a vulnerable elderly patient or whether it be a domestic
we need to protect them and take care of them.
We need to give them good care.
That's right. Well, thank you. That was awesome. And I really, really appreciate
talking to you.
Jodi and I are not on the same page about much.
But I do agree with her that some families can't afford the financial
paying high wages for help inside their home.
Help that is sometimes literally keeping grandparents alive.
Jody's solution is simply to push back on the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights.
But why should domestic workers have to carry our country's financial struggles
on their backs and be underpaid because the rest of us are under pressure?
It's been months since the domestic workers' campaign began, and now the day
they've been waiting for has arrived.
Tomorrow,
the California Senate will vote on the Bill of Rights.
If they vote yes, it's the first of many steps toward making the bill permanent.
If they vote no, it's the end of the road.
At midnight, after long days at work.
They board a bus for the overnight drive.
At dawn, buses from across the state pull up to the Capitol.
Good morning, Mr. Chair. Good morning, members.
California is blessed to have over 300 ,000 hardworking domestic workers, many
of whom are here today, that work as housekeepers, nannies, and caregivers.
Before passing of AB 241, I worked for 24 hours a day for five to six days a
week. I was only paid $4 .16 an hour.
I rely on attendance to assist me with such things as getting up in the
getting dressed, and cooking.
I strongly support overtime for California domestic workers.
If you have any other support, I want to step forward. I am Naina Ruiz. I am the
member of the Association of the Filipino Workers.
The California Employment Lawyers Association.
Pro People Youth. The support is overwhelming.
Not just workers and organizers.
Employers, too, from all over the state.
In support.
In support of SB 1015.
Apoyamos. Gracias.
Okay, thank you so much for your testimony, and we're going to go now to
oppositions. Before, we had a lot of what would be called live -in care. With
this change, we now have to employ six caregivers to do that same job.
I'm Jody Sherman from AAA TLC Healthcare.
What's happened is terrible for the employees. The clients can't afford it,
a number of our clients have gone into the underground, and they're not doing
legally. I think that there is a way for us to work through this. If a for
-profit agency can't take a little pay cut, maybe we're doing something wrong.
This is such a tragic situation in so many respects. We want to protect the
workers, and we also want to protect the consumers.
I think it would be very difficult for us to go backwards.
All of us are one breath away from requiring this kind of...
Life -sustaining health. And so I think we have to be mindful of that.
All right. With that, bill's been moved.
Madam Secretary, please call the roll. The motion is due past two
appropriations. Mendoza?
Aye. Mendoza, aye. Stone? No.
Stone, no. Jackson? Aye.
Jackson, aye. Leno?
Aye. Leno, aye. Mitchell?
Aye. Mitchell, aye.
Great. Your bill has four votes. It's out. Thank you. Thank you.
I can't help it.
Seeing Griselda and the hundreds of others, it's pretty hard not to be
Thank you. Thank you.
Some
might
think of domestic workers as among our country's most powerless people.
But in Sacramento today, I hear them roar.
Today is a victory, but one law can only do so much.
Many workers are still paid below a living wage.
Many remain unaware they even have rights.
Families are still unable to afford care for their loved ones.
And we, as a country, have yet to figure out how to take care of everyone.
So, La Lucha continues.
Every day, people wage battles to help their families and friends achieve their
version of the American dream.
Because at the end of the day, we all still believe
we can be on the other side of the glass.
Reverend Dr.
William J. Barber II is the president of the NAACP in North Carolina.
He is the force behind the Moral Monday movement that has been protesting in the
streets of North Carolina since 2013.
In the days before the primary, I find him barnstorming the state, getting out
the early vote.
June 25, 2013.
Our legislature passed.
The worst voter suppression laws in the country. Not in North Carolina, not in
the South. In the country.
Everything they tried to stop were things that black people and Latino
were using.
They said we're going to cut the first week of early voting. 70 % of those that
used the first week were black.
They cut same -day registration.
Over 40 % of African Americans used...
Same day registration.
And then they passed that photo ID knowing that blacks were 50 % more
to have the particular kind of photo ID that they're required.
What didn't they change?
Absentee ballot.
Who mostly uses absentee ballot?
White voters.
So people are winning now, not because they're winning, but because they're
cheating.
But if we vote, we can break the cheating up.
is immoral and it's unconstitutional. And if we come together and we stand
together to protect and expand voting rights and we stand and say we will have
nothing left than equal protection under the law, once again the South can
change the nation and we will change the world.
Let's march.
There's something to know in all this voting rights talk.
It's about voter fraud, and it's something Ari told me before.
There's a common sense argument, my favorite kind, that we need to make sure
elections are free of voter fraud.
This is the reason given by all the politicians who have passed all these
ID laws.
The thing is, there really isn't fraudulent voting in our country. Not
that voter ID stops anyway.
In fact, out of a billion vote, Between 2000 and 2014, one researcher found just
31 incidents.
Ain't gonna let no voting laws turn you around. Keep on walking.
Keep on talking. March.
You say justice.
We want justice.
Black lives. We want justice.
You know, I am a...
evangelical, conservative, theological, biblicist.
You had to work on your icebreakers.
That's who I am. And yes, and I don't know how to be that and not be concerned
about justice and liberation.
And the love and lifting up of all people. The fact that God allowed me
a lot of help to come back from a disease where I was in a walk on a walk
a wheelchair.
What's the purpose of life if I'm not going to use it to be about love and
justice and mercy?
Do you get angered by racism or saddened by racism? Both.
Here we are in 2016 and we're still wrestling with race, systemic racism.
2016.
15 presidents debate and holly a word about voting rights in the very time
we have less voting rights today. On both sides, Democrat and Republican.
It's not just the money in politics.
It's the money in politics combined with voter suppression.
Extremists cannot win if there's a full vote. It's impossible.
They can only win by dividing America.
They can only win by suppressing the vote.
two states primarily states where you've had high african -american turnout and
latino turnout have rewritten voting laws north carolina being the the crown
jewel of voter suppression which means people are getting elected now through
unconstitutional voting laws and unconstitutional redistricting faith
and history tells me that every time people have stood up we've ultimately
how do you keep your chin up in all this how do you
Rosanelle Eaton, 94 years old, walking with me today and reminding us that she
fought the Klan.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Did you hear me well?
Yes. When I was young, I could talk so loud I didn't have to have a microphone.
But I'm still talking, and I'm still pushing.
It is good to be here today.
Miss Rosenell Eaton marched with Dr. King.
For years and years, she was never without her clipboard and her
forms, and she signed up thousands of voters all over her part of North
Carolina.
If you'll tell us the story about the time when you were trying to register.
I really hitched up the mule and the wagon. That's what we rolled on.
And it was just a mile down the road.
When we got there, it was three men sitting around talking in the
told me to stand right up against the wall and put your hand there beside it
you, both hands.
Look straight at us. Don't blink.
Don't miss a word.
And recite the preamble of the Constitution of the United States
of America.
Then I stood up with my hand in and I repeated it. When they finished, they
looked at each other and said, well, she did it.
Now, are you all fired up?
All right, then.
You want me to keep talking?
You see the new rules like as completely being a deterrent to allow a
certain group of people to vote.
It's that obvious.
It's that obvious.
Right.
This plan.
They want to think that the world belongs to a certain race of people.
And they want us equal.
The intestinal fortitude that people like you have, I'm in awe of. How do you
hold that up, knowing our history and how difficult it must be to try to keep
positive light on all this?
I just keep going and keep pushing and keep on going and doing.
You don't have so many days here anyway, but you're doing it for the future
generation.
The interest of the future generation is for we the people.
It's not just for you.
You know,
I was going to call Art Pope back, but what would that have accomplished?
Probably just weirded out his secretary.
who I would like to imagine is a sweet elderly woman named Helen, or Ethel, or
Sheila.
No, Art Pope is not the audience for this.
You are.
And in the end, I think the best thing to do is to remind ourselves of some of
the people we've met along the way, and to remember that people like this are
fighting the same fights all over the country.
North Carolina is the place I care about, but really we all live in our own
North Carolina.
So Ari Berman, thank you, Ari.
The white folks at the NAACP who showed me that the fight for fairness has no
color.
Tracy and Leroy who showed me that decency has no party.
Tracy Edwards who showed me that you should always choose justice over
Margaret Dixon who showed me that we're not imagining it. The game is rigged.
And Carter Wren who pretty much confirmed it.
And of course, Rosanelle Eaton.
and inspiration to good people everywhere.
And Reverend William Barber, who reminds us that, well, I'll let the Reverend
say it.
We all know by now that he's better at death than I am.
You can't stop the people.
You can't stop democracy.
If you just keep pushing, if you just keep trying, if you refuse to let
the nightmares have the last say, eventually the dawn will break, the sun
come out, and you will be in a brand new day.
you
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