Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley brings her confidence and smarts to The Blackest Questions. No stranger to breaking the mold, the Massachusetts representative shares her passion for women in politics and explains why Black representation should be a priority for all of us. She also discusses her childhood influences and what’s next as she fights for equality and accountability in Washington, D.C.
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Panama Jackson [00:00:00] You are now listening to theGrio’s Black Podcast Network. Black Culture Amplified.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:00:06] Hi, and welcome to The Blackest Questions. A trivia game show meant to teach us more about Black History. I’m your host, Dr. Christina Greer, politics editor for theGrio and associate professor of political science at Fordham University. In this podcast, we ask our guests five of the Blackest questions so we can learn a little bit more about them and have some fun while we’re doing it. We’re also going to learn a lot about Black history past and present. So here’s how it works. We’ve got five rounds of questions about us, Black history, the entire diaspora, current events, you name it and with each round, the questions get a little tougher and the guest has 10 seconds to answer. If they answer correctly, they’ll receive one symbolic Black fist and hear this and if they get it wrong, they’ll hear this. But we still love them anyway and after the five trivia question, there will be a Black bonus round just for fun and I like to call it Black lightning. Our guest for this episode is Democratic Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley. She’s been serving in the Massachusetts seventh Congressional District since 2019. She’s a history maker who was the first Black woman to be elected to Congress from the state of Massachusetts and the first Black woman elected to the Boston City Council, where she served for more than eight years. Representative Pressley is a member of the squad, a group of progressive Congress members who who’ve been called the future of the younger political generation and in 2020, she revealed her alopecia diagnosis, calling it her superpower. So this brilliant congresswoman is here with us today. Congresswoman Pressley, I am so honored to have you here playing The BlackestQuestions. Are you ready to play with us today?
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:01:37] I do not know. I’m just going to be calling on all the angels for their grace and mercy in this moment. I’m not trying to be embarrassed. Okay, Let’s go.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:01:48] Okay, Let’s do it. I know you got this. Okay. Question number one. This HBCU grad is an attorney by trade and made history when she was the first Black woman to receive a major party’s nomination from governor. Who is she?
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:02:06] Stacey Abrams.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:02:07] That is correct. Stacey Abrams graduated from Spelman College magna cum laude and was very involved.
Stacey Abrams [00:02:13] I come to you as a young person, as a young woman, as a young Black woman to ask you to use us. Use the young people of the United States of America.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:02:23] She led protests against the Rodney King verdict when she was still a teenager, and it just 29 years old, she became the deputy city attorney for Atlanta, running a team of more than 20 attorneys. In 2006, Abrams was named the House Minority Leader of the Georgia State House, making her the first Black woman to hold that position and despite losing two governor’s races, she’s a champion for voting rights and is credited with helping several Democratic candidates win their positions. So, Congresswoman Pressley, it is the year of our Lord 2023, and we’re still having so many firsts for Black people in electoral politics, especially Black women. What do you think needs to happen to ensure we have more representation in our leadership on the local, state and even national level?
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:03:05] Well, you know, first we have to run. But secondly, and there are a lot of real barriers to our even running, I think people make it just about our ability. Once you’re declared, can you raise the money? And it doesn’t matter what sort of bona fides Black women have, how many degrees, what our service, what our record of service, we still have the hardest time fundraising. But even before you can get there, there are so many real life barriers. I remember when I ran for the Boston City Council the first time I am an only child. My mother’s cancer was in remission. I was unmarried and I was I had a job working for a United States senator at the time, and I had to really ask myself if I could afford to run because I didn’t have a spouse to carry me on their health insurance. I was the medical proxy and the primary caregiver for my mother in her cancer battle. I had just purchased my first first home and really. I cashed out my 401k in order to do that and so I took on a lot of debt personally just to run. But also we have to address the real barriers to the ballot because at the day, who you vote for determines who is elected. Who is elected determines the policies. The policies determine who lives, who dies, who survives, who thrives and so it becomes this cyclical circle where the policies are not serving the diversity and the continuum of needs for really anyone, because we don’t have that lived experience in that representation around the policy and decision making tables. Personally, I think that we should lower the voting age in municipal, state and federal elections to 16. Help build that muscle make it habitual as early as possible for that relationship between individuals and their government. Secondly, we have to address the barriers to voting access and so there should be I mean, I think Election Day should be a holiday. I think there should be same day voter registration. As an aside, I also support jail based voting. So we have to eliminate all those those barriers and access to the ballot. But we have to run.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:05:41] Absolutely and you know, really quickly, what gave you the courage to run for our listeners out there? There might be some people who have thought about it maybe. But you know, what sparked you to decide I’m going to really throw my hat in the ring and do this thing?
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:05:57] Well, I’m a cliché because I honor all the data that says that it takes a minimum of seven people to convince any woman to run for office and it only takes one to convince a man, and that’s usually himself and I have seen that time and time again. So I had I was a founding board member of an organization called Emerge Massachusetts. I had served in a number of nonprofit spaces doing the work of diversifying the political pipeline. But I was very content being an aide. I was an aide for 16 years, 11 to Senator John Kerry, forward to former Congressman Joseph Kennedy, the second who used to be the congressman for the seat I currently hold that I started in his office as an intern unpaid, working three paid jobs. Having recently transplanted from Chicago to Boston. So I loved being the person behind the person and I think a lot of people underestimate the power of being the person behind the person, the impact, the reward, the benefit. You know, it is the aide who was pulling the elbow of the member. It is the aide who’s whispering in their ear who was meeting with those stakeholders and constituencies, who is often on the front lines of what are the issues top of mind for people or what’s a bill that should be championed. So I loved being the person behind the person, but I again, very true to form. I was recruited to run. There was a gentleman by the name of Abby Green who worked for an organization at the time called Mass Vote and he just approached me and he said, This is going to be the year the first Black woman is elected to the Boston City Council. I said, That’s great. Who is it? And he said, It is you and I said, most certainly not. So there was a lot of cajoling, a lot of meditation, a lot of prayer and ultimately I said yes because I saw it as a continuation of the work I’ve been doing for a lifetime. But moreover, I was running championing gender specific and responsive programing of policies. I felt that the narrative culturally had been so dominated by our Black and brown boys as being at improving risk in girls had been particularly Black and brown girls, completely overlooked in the narrative and I knew that based upon my work in nonprofit community and my volunteer work, that we were failing girls and I wanted to do something about that. Most thought that was the work of a nonprofit and not government, but enough believed in my theory of change and elected me in 2009 as the first woman of color, the first Black woman to serve on that council in its 100 year history. But I’d be remiss if I also did not acknowledge that my mother was an extraordinary role model and teacher as a super voter, as a proud Democrat with her to vote in every election, and who taught me early on that this relationship must be one that is cooperative and symbiotic with community and the electorate holding government accountable.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:09:02] That’s such an important piece, Congresswoman, because, you know, my elementary school is a polling station and my parents let me pull the lever for Jesse Jackson in 1984 and I think that that’s part of the reason why I’m a political scientist today. Really briefly, before we get to question number two. Tell us a little bit more about I know you’re the founding co-chair of the Equal Rights Amendment Caucus that’s been working to finally make gender equality the 28th Amendment to the Constitution. Really briefly, tell us about that fight and what’s next for you and your colleagues?
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:09:29] Right. Well, the amendment is equal rights under the law shall not be denied or bridge by the United States or any state on account of sex and for 100 plus years, there has been a movement to make that so. 80% of countries around the globe have enshrined gender equality in their constitution. 38 states. So that’s, you know, three fourths have met the ratification threshold. So the women of this country, we’ve certainly done our job, although we’re still not being compensated accordingly for it. We have done our job. We have done the work on the ballot and at the ballot box, you know, in community, in our economy, and yet we still don’t have our full freedoms. Well, 1972, the ERA did pass and it passed in a bipartisan fashion, in fact. But it was set with an arbitrary deadline for ratification. So I’ve introduced legislation to do away with that arbitrary deadline because there should not be a deadline on gender equality and myself and Representative Cori, Congressmember Cori Bush out of Saint Louis, Missouri. Together, we have joined forces to launch the first ERA caucus, which supports the momentum and the movement building that we continue to do. We have and we’re closer than ever before. We had a Senate hearing, the first hearing in 40 years and we had a Senate vote and it was the closest that we’ve come and so we’re going to continue to keep this fight up because gender equality can’t wait and perhaps.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:11:09] Absolutely.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:11:09] The Supreme Court and others would move a little bit differently if we had that set that legal standard of protection.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:11:17] Well, I’m sending I know you represent Massachusetts, but I know, you know, you Chicago, Midwestern girls will get it done and I’m sending you all the positive energy right there. All right. We are ready for question number two. Are you ready, Congresswoman?
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:11:29] Sure.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:11:30] Okay. This writer was the first Black person to have a book of poetry published in the United States in 1773. A statue of her can be found on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. Who is she?
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:11:44] Phillis Wheatley.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:11:45] That is correct. Phillis Wheatley was around seven years old when she was kidnaped from West Africa and brought to Boston. Phillis Wheatley was not her real name and she was given that name by the family that enslaved her. But the family believed in educating her, which was very foreign at the time, and they quickly realized she was a talented writer. They eventually took her to London to have a book of poems published. The book entitled Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, was sold around the world because Wheatley never saw any riches from her work. She was eventually freed, but lived in poverty and died at the age of 31. So are you familiar with Phillis Wheatley work being a, you know, a Bostonian now?
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:12:22] Yes and I actually was at the unveiling of that statue in her in her honor. That was a part of a larger effort when I served on the Boston City Council to have parity when it comes to representation in our monuments and also in public art.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:12:46] Absolutely. You know, and I spent a little time in the Boston area. You know, I went to Tufts undergrad in Medford, so I’m familiar with come and there were no statutes like that, obviously, when when I was there many, many moons ago in college. But are you you know, in this capacity I know that you are constantly traveling, you’re working, you’re serving as a surrogate for the Democratic Party. Do you take time to read a little poetry? And if so, who do you read? Because I’m a Gwendolyn Brooks fan and shout out to Chicago poet laureate of Illinois. But who? Who, if anyone, inspires you while you’re traveling and working on behalf of women and Black folks across the country?
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:13:26] Yeah. I’m a firm believer in the power of artivism. There is no movement, there is no revolution. You cannot do radical work without the arts. My my father previously was a professor of journalism, and he and my mother, one of the things that forged their love bond was their love of creative writing and of poetry and so even when my father, for a period of his life was incarcerated, he never stopped informing my Black consciousness and sending me the poetry of Sonia Sanchez and Nikki Giovanni, just as an example and so I’m very old school in that way. So poetry is what I read the most, and what I need direction or inquiry or language are probably Nikki Giovanni is who I read the most. Nikki Giovanni. Audre Lorde. Maya Angelou and in honor of the 50th anniversary of of hip-hop, I do want to also throw Tupac in there, because I do believe that he was a poet.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:14:36] Oh, absolutely and I think so many of our hip-hop artists are real poets. When you listen to how they put together language, you know, I I’d like to think that Langston Hughes would sit back, be very proud of some of the the ways in which these young rappers put together language. I just think it’s a really unique way for us to think about literature and bridge this 20th and 21st century gap, especially for young Black people.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:15:04] Yes, I agree.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:15:06] Okay. Well, let’s move on to question number three. You’re doing incredibly well, Congresswoman. Are you ready?
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:15:11] The pressures on. Okay.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:15:13] No pressure. No pressure. Question number three, Denzel Washington starred in a film telling the true story of Melvin Tolson, a professor at one of the country’s first HBCUs in Wiley College, Texas. What is the name of this film?
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:15:29] The Great Debaters.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:15:31] That is correct.
Denzel Washington [00:15:32] Gentlemen and lady. Debate is combat, but your weapons are words.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:15:37] So The Great Debaters tells the story of a college debate team from Marshall, Texas, in 1935 that made history by participating in the first interracial collegiate debate in the South. In the film, the debate team defeats Harvard students to become national champions. But in reality, the team defeated students from the University of Southern California. However, the team was not allowed to officially call themselves champions because Black students could not be members of the debate society. That didn’t change until after World War Two. So I’ve heard that you were once a competitive debater and seeing how you talked to some of your colleagues, I am thoroughly convinced that you were a competitive and champion debater. So tell us a little bit more about that and how you think it’s prepared you for the work you do now in Washington.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:16:21] Well, I have to take that back to my mother. So it was a program called Junior Statesmen of America and my mother had applied because she felt I had some natural leadership skills and and so I sent in an application and I was rejected and my mother would not let up. She was someone who may she rest in peace and power, did not want me to be denied any any opportunity and so she fought fiercely and assured them that one day she they were going to want to say I was an alum of the program. That should tell you a lot about my mother, you know and so, in any event, ultimately, I was accepted into the program and and really thrived in it and, you know, went on to become a midwest champion or representative in that regard. How was it prepared me? I mean, certainly in making an argument and trying to make a persuasive argument. But I think one of the unique things about women, particularly in public office, is that we draw from the confluence of our lived and professional experiences. I also I worked in banquets and waitstaff for six years. I in addition to being a competitive debater, I also was a cheerleader and I can assure you I draw on all all three of those experiences and many more that I’m not enumerating here that inform how I approach my work and even some of the issues that I’ve that I’ve championed. One of the reasons I’m so passionate about fighting for workforces or communities that people often see as invisible is certainly shaped by my experience representing multiple marginalized identities as a Black woman, but is also my experience working in the service industry is a quick story on that. I remember working this Black banker’s convention and I just dropped the bet place the bread basket on the table, and as I stepped away, one of the table guests said, It’s a shame, you know, people died so that she would aspire to be more and I heard that and because my mother’s child, I went back and, oh, you know, I beg your pardon, you know, people died so that I would have a choice and and I’m here because I choose to be and by the way, I work for Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy II. So I know what it is to be a part of a workforce where people look over you and through you and make assumptions about your character and your aspirations.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:19:02] I want to thank you so much for for saying that, because for so many of our listeners out there, you know, as we have the conversations about dignity and work, I think it’s really important to also, you know, when I tell my students I used to work at a shoe store and there was smiling people, greeter TGI Fridays, you know, or that I’ve been rejected from things and I think that’s where I really wanted to pick up. You know, I think a lot of folks see you as the congressman’s like, wow, everything’s been a crystal stair and, you know, I think failure and rejection and triumph is such a larger part of the narrative I keep thinking about. Janice from the Milwaukee Bucks talking about failure with the basketball season and what that really means and I think it’s really important for people to tell the holistic side of the story and I really appreciate you sharing that.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:19:46] You know, it’s all of those things that I carry shame about and actually things that people told me were liabilities in running for office that have really made me a more effective legislator, including being a survivor of sexual violence, including bearing witness to my mother’s victimization by DV and all the things that she went through, battling fibroids, being forced to have a radical hysterectomy, training and training men, mostly white men that were promoted over her never being paid according to her worth. I mean, it’s all of those things that I that I draw from and it directly shaped the policies that I that I write and also how I do this work so.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:20:26] Thank you so much for sharing that and thank you so much for your public service to all of us, not just the the citizens and the residents of the state of Massachusetts. We’re going to take a quick commercial break. You’re listening to the Black question.
Touré [00:20:40] The eighties gave us unforgettable songs from Bob Marley, De La Soul and Public Enemy. I’m a Black man and I can never be a be a veteran. Being Black The Eighties is a podcast docu series hosted by me Toure, looking at the most important issues of the eighties through the songs of the decade. Dope man can I have another hit? The dope man said look I don’t give a. A decade when crack kingpins controlled the streets but lost their humanity. You couldn’t be like the soft smile and happy go lucky drug deals. You have to suppress that. And I just feel so good everytime I hear, I’m coming out. It was a time when disco was part of gay liberation. It provided information to counter narratives that were given to gay people by the straight world. This is the funkiest history class you’ll ever take. Join me, Toure, for Being Black The Eighties on theGrio Black Podcast Network, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:21:41] Okay, we are back. We’re playing The Blackest Questions with Representative Ayanna Pressley. You are inspiring me to want to pack up and move back to Massachusetts. So are you ready for question number four?
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:21:52] I think so.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:21:52] You’re doing incredibly well, I might add. Okay. Question number four After speaking out against the Vietnam War, this civil rights activist was monitored by the FBI for several years. When she died in 2006, four U.S. presidents attended her funeral. Who was she?
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:22:12] Coretta Scott King.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:22:14] You are correct. Coretta Scott King, the wife of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And the pair who met in Boston, actually, and had four children together, though her husband was the face of the civil rights movement, Coretta Scott King was very much part of the cause. In fact, just days after MLK funeral, she was out marching in a labor strike. Coretta Scott King was also the driving force behind the federal holiday that honors her husband’s birthday, an honor only given to two other Americans, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. And So did you know that Coretta Scott King and Martin Luther King met and fell in love in Boston when she was attending the New England Conservatory of Music?
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:22:51] Of course, I know their whole love story. But but I’ve been a long been an admirer of Coretta Scott King and been very intentional about holding her and lifting her up, because, as is so often the case, Black women are rendered as a footnote or are completely erased and she was her own woman and she was already a civil rights fighter, a progressive. She was the one who convinced Dr. King to take that position against the Vietnam War. She also championed a federal job guarantee and as you just alluded to, there was a huge champion and an ally in the fight for workers rights. So she was something extraordinary and even as a student at the New England Conservatory, the songs that she sang were the songs that fueled the movement, you know, freedom songs. So it’s no wonder that. She caught the attention of Dr. King, although she admitted that she was not immediately impressed by him. She had heard all this talk of him and then he was much shorter in stature than she had anticipated and had a different demeanor. But but ultimately, you know, clearly, they were enamored with one another and the rest is history and I think Martin and Coretta proved the power of Black love in a Black radical love to birth movement. So before there was Montgomery, before there was a Chicago, before there was Atlanta, there was a Boston.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:24:29] Let’s take a break. Stay with us. And We’re back in the early 90s. In the early 1990s, this Chicago native rapper was crowned the fastest English speaking rapper in the world by the Guinness Book of World Records. Who is he?
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:24:48] Twista.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:24:50] This is Carlton Terrell Mitchell, a.k.a. Twista. So he was then known as Mr. Tongue Twister, and he earned the title by rapping 598 syllables in 55 seconds. When our listeners just to sort of meditate on that 598 syllables in 55 seconds and more than 30 years later, he still holds the Guinness title.
Twista [00:25:11] Feelin fury from my torture that could never be cured wit no penecillin, I’m telling you Trick I’m finna steal them! Got me swinging crysie and Hennessy bottles, in the club with my thug homies goin for the skrilla.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:25:16] Twista grew up in K-Town, an area of West Chicago, and began rapping at the age of 12. He’s best known for his number one hit Slow Jamz, featuring Jamie Foxx and Kanye West.
Twista [00:25:27] I can tell you aint no messin with kan-man and twist, from the chi and I be Sippin hennessy. Twistin almarie? Tryina smoke a b . Lookin properly . Feelin on a g? And always well well well.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:25:32] What was it like growing up in a city that produced so much musical talent? You know, we all oftentimes think about Detroit or, you know, New York, but Chicago has some some greats that have come through that area.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:25:45] That’s true. But I have to acknowledge it’s like any city that you grow up in, you appreciate in hindsight, those things. I was raised in Chicago until the age of 18, and then I left to relocate to Boston to attend Boston University and so I’ve only had the opportunity to go back as an adult four times in, you know, 30 years or whatever, and and or 20 plus years and now I have that appreciation. But honestly, because I was very close with my grandfather, who pastored a storefront church on the South Side of Chicago, most of my musical, my music influences and live performances that I experienced were jazz. Jazz. Blues. There is a thriving blues scene and history in Chicago. So blues and jazz was most of what I experienced and listened to when I was there. I was also there at the heyday of the Bulls, which coincided with another job I didn’t mention, which is I went to Foot Locker.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:26:57] Oh, yes!
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:26:59] I draw from that retail experience every single day. But but, you know, Chicago is an extraordinary city and in many ways very similar to Boston and so I think it primed me. I mean, it’s a city of working class neighborhoods. The downtown is is a metropolitan. Many people, you know, are mayors are usually in office for a very long time, you know, And yeah, they’re both great, great cities. So Boston changed my the trajectory of my life, really, where I sort of crystallized my purpose and so I’m eternally grateful. It’s an honor now to serve as a congresswoman. That’s certainly something that I forecasted for my life.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:27:44] Well, you know, as I’m reminiscing and thinking about, you know, I was in high school during the era of the the bulls and, you know, where he had heirs of Buster Brown at girding those outlet mall. Way up near Wisconsin and I got a shout out a friend of the podcast Blackest Questions, Diallo Riddle, who’s the one of the co-creators and actors and directors in South Side and this great show that had three seasons on HBO that really highlighted just the beauty of Black people on the South Side of Chicago and so it makes me think about that. They had lots of, you know, politics and jobs and.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:28:19] That is a great show and my husband and I are faithful watchers of The Chi.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:28:24] Oh, indeed.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:28:25] It was originally only recently in Chicago to campaign for Brandon Johnson. Shout out to Brandon Johnson.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:28:31] We get to have him on the podcast.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:28:32] Yes and it was such a full circle moment because the very first campaign I ever worked on was Harold Washington to elect the first Black mayor, and I was probably about 10 or 11 years old. So, you know, when people think this is a, you know, magic, you know, it’s been this work. I’ve been on my grind, you know, for for a while and a believer in the power of movements and I thank my mother for teaching me early on that that was the most transformative way with which to effectuate change is through is through movements. But on The Chi, I actually get into debates with people all the time about how authentic it is. I think it is a very authentic. So yes. Yeah.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:29:12] Well, and you know, I, I don’t know The Chi as well as I know South Side. I think what I loved about South Side was that even though it’s very Chicago specific, there were so many parts where it could be any city where you have Black people thriving and working and and just, you know, living life and having having fun, even if they’re not, you know, seconomically stable, you know, it’s like Blackness is not doom and gloom and misery.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:29:40] That’s right.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:29:40] I mean, we make a way out of no way and we definitely find joy no matter where we are and what we’re doing with that.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:29:46] I’d agree with that and I have to just say, I’ve really been enjoying this last decade of Black storytelling because it is not one dimensional and so I you know, I love seeing that diverse representation of our lived experience and and how we’re showing up from creatives and skateboarders to, yes, engineers and architects to faith leaders. I mean, that’s the true story of all of our lives and so it’s been wonderful to see more accurate telling of the diversity of who we are.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:30:16] Absolutely. Okay. So before I let you out of here, I can’t believe I’m spending time with Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley. I appreciate you so much. We’re going to get to the Black Lightning Round. So this is where there’s no right or wrong answer and before I let you out of here, we’ll talk about some of the policy things you’re working on. But this is Black Lightning where whatever comes to mind, you just say the answer. Okay, You ready?
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:30:40] Hmm?
Dr. Christina Greer [00:30:41] Okay. Okay. Boston Cream pie or cannoli?
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:30:45] Neither. Lactose intolerant.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:30:48] Favorite holiday and why?
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:30:52] Hmm Juneteenth and Thanksgiving are probably tied.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:30:57] Okay. Sunset or sunrise?
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:31:01] Sunrise.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:31:03] Okay. You have one hour uninterrupted conversation. Are you sitting down with Michelle Obama or Barack Obama?
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:31:09] Oh, Michelle. Yeah.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:31:11] What would be can you watch over and over?
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:31:14] Love Jones.
[00:31:15] Hmm yes. Are you walking along the Charles, or are you going to go to Walden Pond?
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:31:21] The Charles? Yeah.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:31:22] This new this might be controversial. The Martin Luther King, Coretta Scott King. Embrace sculpture. Love it or hate it.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:31:30] Love it. It was there. Spoke at the unveiling.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:31:32] Okay. I saw you looking great with your popping red lip. Okay, so here we go. You are known to always look fabulous with these popping lip colors. What’s your favorite lipstick brrand?
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:31:44] Oh, look at me today with a nude lip.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:31:47] I know.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:31:48] Actually, I’m big on drugstore makeup, to be honest, so, I mean, I do. I love. I love Fenty if you’re going to go there. But. But I like a couple of Black owned cosmetics as well. Outside of Fenty. Mented. Okay. Mented is incredible Lip Bar.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:32:05] Okay.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:32:05] And then for just regular old CVS, NYX is a good brand.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:32:10] Yeah because you know why? Because it’s basically Wet n Wild 508.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:32:16] Yes! Well okay. But you ask me the color. I can’t tell you that because I blend my colors a lot, so.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:32:21] Okay. Well, see, I tried to I tried to do a bold lips today just because I knew you were coming.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:32:26] Well, funny that you say that I had glasses on. I took them off and and I don’t know why I did. I did a more muted, muted lip today.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:32:33] I do love the lip, though. Okay. Last question. Your husband is my birthday twin. We figured that out one night.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:32:39] Oh.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:32:40] Your favorite date night activity. Are you going to go out or stay in?
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:32:44] Oh, we’re gonna go out, yeah.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:32:47] Okay. You’re going to go out? You tell my birthday twin I asked about him. Okay. So before I let you out here, Congresswoman, tell us some things that you’re working on. Tell us some things that we should be looking out for and paying attention to and any ways that we can help support you and your agenda.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley [00:33:02] Mm hmm. Yeah. Well, you know, I’m still in the fight to end qualified immunity, and I’ve just reintroduced my legislation with Senator Markey to do away with this unjust doctrine that denies accountability for families who’ve been robbed of their loved ones as a result of brutality and murder at the hands of law enforcement. We have got to do away with this unjust doctrine which was created by the courts, which has been codified in court after court and yet, look, there can never be justice for those families. Justice would mean that their loved ones would still be here, but there must be accountability. Otherwise, what’s the deterrent? What are the consequences? People will continue to act or act will continue to operate with callous disregard of a Black body of Black bodies.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:33:55] Well, I want to thank you so much for all that you do for our listeners out there. Thank you all for listening to The Blackest Questions. I’ve been speaking to Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, brilliant Black woman, my shoes store worker, twin. I just want to thank you for all you do. I really just I so appreciate you taking the time to to let us know what you’ve been up to. To spend time on theGrio and for those of you listening out there to The Blackest Questions. This show is produced by Sasha Armstrong, Geoffrey Trudeau, and Regina Griffin is our director of podcasts. If you like what you heard, subscribe to this podcast. So you never miss an episode and you can find more at theGrio Black Podcast Network on theGrio at the website and YouTube.
Touré [00:34:46] I’m Toure. Join us for crazy true stories about stars who I really hung out with like Snoop, Jay-Z, Prince, Kanye, and the time I got kidnaped by Suge Knight. Don’t miss my animated series Star Stories with Toure from theGrio Black Podcast Network.
