Congressman, welcome back to
the program. First, reaction to
the US Supreme Court decision.
Yeah, very disappointed by the
US Supreme Court decision.
And from a historical standpoin,
too, I think that is is signifi.
And we need to have these
discussions about race.
But I want all of the WFA viewe,
viewers, to think about somethi,
You know, think about, you know,
Chief Justice Earl Warren.
If he were alive today,
he would literally be over 100 years old.
He was.
Probably responsible for putting more
Japanese Americans in internment
camps than than than any other
person in California, perhaps,
but something changed in his life that
made him desegregate our public schools.
Brown versus the Board of Educa,
and many other subsequent decisions that
he made that really improved the social.
The economic,
the political opportunities and
equality for black Americans.
And so now I want you to think
about today's Supreme Court.
We have a Supreme Court Justicet
one that's that's African Amerin
that voted for this decision.
You have one that has black children.
You have another one that that seemed
to intentionally have someone bk
show up at his confirmation hea.
Another talk about his experiene
with youth basketball and workin
youth basketball diverse league,
but yet all of them worked toger
to really deal quite a blow to
the black community.
And this is going to be one that
is up there with any of the othr
ones that were that were terribe
decisions that the courts made d
in respect to black Americans.
And this one is right up there.
You
said that this is a blow
to the black community.
Absolutely. It is. It's huge.
Yeah, it's I I can't understatet
enough for a lot of different reasons,
a lot of different things that e
won't have time to unpack on your show.
But, you know, basically what te
Supreme Court is saying is that
if you're if you're black and yu
would like a good education froe
of our nation's top universitie,
but for whatever reason, you di.
You know, you know,
score perfect on your SAT.
That other considerations that
all other people can be given,
whether it's because their pares
went to that university themsel,
or whether it's because someonee
that had a much lower GPA than n
you could dribble the basketball
better than you could or someone else
may be better at music than yout
they could be given special consideration.
But you could not be given specl
consideration even in even when you think
about the historical discriminan
that you and your ancestors have felt.
And I just think that it it is terrible.
I think it's a blow to our couny
and and again I'm surprised that that
that that you know Chief Justice Earl
Warren who probably didn't havef
you think about it and and how old he
would be he was it was it's not unlikely.
That he is probably likely that
he didn't even have black friens
and did not socialize with blac.
And now you have people that hae
black relatives and and have blk
people their confirmation hearis
and they're setting us back socially.
It it's it's really it it it's .
But you know,
that's that's the way it being states.
So that's the way the things go right now.
And so you know the fight conti.
Congressman, UT Austin is the oy
public university in Texas thats
going to be affected by this.
I believe Rice and Southern
Methodist University in Dallas
also have programs where they
consider race for for applicant.
But if it's that limited,
in this state at least,
how far reaching do you think this really is?
Yeah, and let me just say this,
schools are still going to use
things like race when it comes o
a consideration and and sports.
You know, for whatever reason,
and again, we don't have time
to unpack it on your show,
people feel much more comfortable with
the idea that you can give black students,
many of whom have much lower GP,
much lower test scores,
that they can come to the schood
entertain you and jump for you d
throw the ball for you and run e
ball for you and shoot it for y.
But. For some reason people get angry,
including these supreme,
these six Supreme Court justice.
Someone gets angry if a kid hasa
a 3.8 GPA and a 1300 on his SATd
he can't run and shoot and kicke
ball for you, That, that, that, that,
that's a that that's a big prob.
So racists are going to be allod
when it comes to sports.
But it's not going to be allower
academics and and again that's that's bad.
And as a country we need to talk about where,
why we're comfortable with
people being able to why you,
why you want to give somebody a
break when it comes to sports,
but when it comes to academics,
you know,
you just don't want to give someone a
break that that may be a different race.
I think that's sad.
Congressman,
we've seen some big decisions
from the US Supreme Court in
the in the past few days here,
88 to one decision said that the states
cannot tell the executive branco
to arrest and deport along the border.
And another decision you've seen to this,
the US Supreme Court rejected A lawsuit
that would have given the states
more power over federal electio.
You know, many thought the
conservative majority,
the former President Donald Tru,
really instituted into the US Supreme
Court would run roughshod over liberal
values and even moderate issues.
But we haven't necessarily
seen that until this decision.
Now, what do you read into this
US Supreme Court and and can
you really draw conclusions from
it? Yeah, yeah. I don't know.
You know what, this US Supreme Court,
how, you know, when it comes
to certain issues like that,
sometimes they seem to be.
You know more political than you know
and and at those times they seem to be
less and so it's it's hard to to draw.
I would just say as as as mostlu
know conservative white Americas
they just probably felt uncomfortable
despite their familial ties andd
and friendships that they seem to have
they felt uncomfortable you know giving
black Americans a break when it comes to.
To to being able to get
enrolled in the college,
but certainly seem to be making,
you know some decent decisions
on on some other things.
But it doesn't under score just
how drastic and how bad this
particular decision is going to
be for black and brown American.
It's going to be it's going
to be detrimental when it
comes to college admissions.
What do you think is going to happen,
just fewer blacks and and Hispas
and and Asians allowed into col.
I think that that that's probaby
what's going to to be the resulf
that when it comes to a lot of r
state universities that even wih
affirmative action action progr,
as you know Jason,
these schools have had trouble recruiting.
African Americans outside of oue
of sports, to be quite frank with you,
if you look at all of our
large state universities,
they've had a very tough time
recruiting black and brown stud.
And so I think that you're goino
see less and less of of of blacs
and brown students on campus.
So you're going to see less socialization,
which I think is a huge problem.
You think about the issues that we've had
with a certain fraternities and sororities.
On a lot of these large campuses
that were racially motivated and
raised and racially related,
it's because these kids,
they go to these schools and seeing these
chants and things like that bece
they have never socialized or or
had blacks as social equals amongst them.
And as and as these schools
get more segregated,
you're probably going to see
more incidents like that.
And I think that is unfortunate.
I don't see any upside.
With having our universities
be more less black and brown,
Congressman,
you're also on a an organization
called the Helsinki Commission,
which is made-up of members of legislators
and parliaments around the worl.
You're heading to Vancouver here
very shortly, and one of the
things on the agenda is going to
be the attempted coup in Russia.
Tell us what you expect to
happen here this week.
Well, yeah, I'm leading a
resolution to have the Wagner G.
Actually, and I've been working on it
for months at the Wagner Group designated
as a terrorist organization and going
to be working with other nation,
European nations around this of
the Helsinki Commission has madp
of made-up of America,
Canada and European nations.
And so I'm very proud of this w.
It's long overdue and we have at
of other resolutions that we're going
to be working on that centered around.
Russia's unlawful invasion of the Ukraine.
And so I really do hope that
this meeting is productive.
I expect it to be so.
And I am looking forward to, ag,
just making a statement and havg
and working with these other mer
state organizations and condemng
the Russians and what they've d.
Why is it so important to declare the
Wagner Group A terrorist organization?
When you look at what they've d,
not just as it relates to Ukrai,
but the things they've done arod
the world and places like Africa
where they have basically traind
mercenaries to go in the countries and
create just unspeakable and tere
atrocities and barbaric acts an.
They need to be designated
as a terrorist organization.
It's no question that they are d
they're one of the most effecti.
And it will be,
I think the perfect time to just sort of
highlight everything that they've done,
regardless of what happens
to the group moving forward.
As you know,
obviously they're they've now been moved
out of Russia and they're in Belarus,
but their leader remains very
much relevant and we need to
make sure that he knows that the
world is watching them.
Congressman,
we appreciate the time and
be safe on the travels.
Hey, thank you very much. Good to see you.