- I think that what it says it is hateful.
It is twisted perverse.
It is the type of inhumanity
that can only exist
in a culture that has lost its way, lost its soul,
is a dead soul.
So part of America is dead, it has been dead
for a long time.
The soul of America has been dead
and that's why you have people in the streets.
We're saying, "You cannot continue to extract all this
"from us and then deny us
"even the ability to live, to breath."
What kind of world can we exist in?
If we are not allowed to even breath,
to even walk down the street without being profiled
and murdered by state agents.
- Is this case with George Floyd, do you think
going to really make a difference this time around?
'Cause I know we've about these things happening before
and we hear, "Oh everybody's going to get galvanized,
"we're gonna have discussions,
"there's going to be action, there will be a change."
Do you think this might make the difference?
- [Lola] I don't know, but what I do know
is that each time we have
these eruptions, these violence types of episodes,
the country becomes more destabilized.
So, this is what I see as moving towards either a solution
or an end.
This country cannot maintain its standing in the world.
It cannot be a world leader
with all this internal turmoil and conflict.
How can you maintain social order
when there's that type of resentment and anger?
- How do we change this outrage, this turmoil, this pain
into a positive outcome?
Is there a way to get started in that direction?
- Well, it begins with asking everyone,
what are you willing to give up to build something better?
Because we cannot go back to doing the status co-business
as usual, what you were doing before you saw George Floyd's
life being taken from him?
And that was a moment of a call to consciousness.
And either you as an individual recognized
that if we are going to move forward as a united nation,
not a fractured, and broken nation.
That each of us is going to have to do something different
about how we treat each other, how we talk to each other,
the types of ideas that allow to exist in our country.
The hatred, the ugliness that is everywhere,
that we turn on TV or we watch some of our leaders speak
with such vitriol and such ugliness about people
who are our neighbors.
If we permit that to happen,
then I think it's gonna be hard to change,
but we have within our power the ability to say no more.
- Any closing thoughts?
- I think that this is a moment of reckoning,
is one last chance to become what we said we wanted to be,
what we promised people that we gonna be.
A nation that is inclusive,
a nation that believes in freedom.
We said a lot of things, but we haven't lived up to it
and we need to hold other accountable
for what we have not done and what we've allowed our leaders
to do our country in our name.
Do not allow them to speak these hateful,
horrible things and do these horrible actions in your name,
say "No more,"
say, "I will not tolerate it, I will stand
"and I will fight to protect
"what is good about this country."
And thus, in spite of what people are thinking
when they see folks in the streets,
they're fighting for you, they're fighting for us.
Don't hate on them, recognize that they have been driven
to a place where they feel this is the last result.
This is what we have to do.
They're doing it not just for themselves,
they're doing for all of us.
So I say, thank you.
- And all of this on top of a global pandemic.
- (laughs) And all this, on top of a global pandemic,
and people not having jobs, and people getting ready
to not being houseless and all these stressors that are
eroding the spirit, the spirit.
The spirit of people,
of working people.
We've gone through it, we've gone to something,
but you know what?
We've also survived hard things.
And I think we have the ability to survive this
and come out better, but it's up to us.
- All righty, thank you very much for joining us.
Thank you.