YouSaid · the spoken record

Heather McTeer Toney

lines on the record

55

first

2021-05-27

most recent

2021-05-27

sittings or episodes

1

sources

podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

1. “It and on top of that, use the experience that's been here. One thing we haven't talked about is the wealth of experience with an advice from our Indigenous community. I was so thrilled to see Deb Holland appointed as the Secretary of the Interior because finally we're seeing an Indigenous woman whose very culture is one of being protective of our natural lands, actually being the person in Tarzan our natural lands. There's so much that we can learn as opposed to being afraid. Let's figure out how to make this truly a transformative opportunity.”

   2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

2. “The innovation that's coming in every sector. And look, we don't need to stop it, just the techie side. I'm not a tech and science person. I have a law degree. I'm not an environmental engineer. But guess what? Environmental law is a big thing. I wish I'd have known that when I was in law school. Climate psychologists. people who can have conversations with how we're dealing with the impacts of climate and what we should do and shift in terms of our behavior. Climate sociologists, how communities are growing and changing with sea level rise and as a result, how do we advise cities and towns on how to plan appropriately for this? Let's stop planning to go with the aliens and leave the planet. Let's start planning again here on how we protect.”

   2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

3. “Revolution that could provide tons of opportunity and jobs and different forms of wealth building that we have not seen for the past 100 years. And so when we change the lens to talk about the hope, change the lens to talk about let's jump into these opportunities here right now that are available right now. We're not talking about 10 months from now. We're not talking about five years from now. We're talking about right now today being able to start a business where you put in EV infrastructure and homes that you can become an electrician and now this is a whole new business that did not even exist 10 years ago. These are the spaces that I think we should talk more about with not only families around the kitchen table but college students, young people.”

   2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

4. “Krober or Walmart or at your, you know, corner store, and there are these fear tactics that come in. And unfortunately, that's what we've seen across our country for the past 10 or so years is fear tactic that has been impressed on everything that has to do with environment and opportunity for how we're changing. It is the fact this is the existential crisis. It is the fact that International Panel on Climate Change has said that if we don't do something within the next 10 years, we're going to have an irreversible effect, right? So you hear all these doom and gloom stories. We have to do a better job of showing the other side, which is we are on the verge of having and being in the midst of the next big revolution. Like we saw the change to the industrial revolution, we are on the cusp of moving into a green.”

   2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

5. “Keep talking, we are persistent. I think that's the key. It's the persistence. It is the multitude of conversations that are coming from so many different angles. It's us really embracing this whole community approach. We've heard Biden talk about the all-of-government accompanying all of community approach, which keeps this at the forefront of the conversation. The problem has been that the other folks on the other side have tried to take over this conversation of what if, what will happen if. And there are all these negatives. If we don't, if we move into renewable energy, then you won't be able to find a gas station. They want to come in and all the environmentalists want to make sure that you won't be able to buy gas at your local.”

   2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

6. “Really grappling with how to get more people involved in climate policy in the decision making process, in electoral politics when we know voter suppression is very real. For the climate environmental community, we have to engage in voter suppression because the people who are more likely to Just sitting on a board in your local community, if you're an environmentalist, you should only be on the tree board. Absolutely not. That's not how it works. People who are environmentally minded, climate-minded need to be in every space because as decisions are made on how funding is spent, on how planning is done in communities and states, as how emissions are reduced, what plants get permits people that have an environmental mindset must be in these spaces. And we have to Of providing and showing the access endured to it.”

   2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

7. “I think it's very interconnected with how we see community engagement growing across this country and the engagement of people with the electoral process and being in these spaces of making decisions. And we have truly seen a big jump in that over the past, let's say, 18 months since COVID and the deaths of George Floyd and Aubrey and Breonna Taylor and all of this that has been revealed to us the need for this engagement in such a diverse way has really opened the eyes of a lot of people such that they are looking at how not only we become more active, but what are the barriers to that? And so right now we are”

   2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

8. “Mom's was a wonderful way for me to do this work. I started off as a consultant. We came up with this program called Moms and Mayors. Perfect fit for me. And as a way to help moms engage with their local government on environmental issues. And I just stayed. I went from being the organizer consultant to being the national field director, which then changed to the senior director and I'm now a senior advisor and the climate justice liaison at the Environmental Defense Fund, but it's been an evolution of really deeply engaging in the community engagement experience and showing how that in and of itself is so critical to implementing climate policy across the country and the globe.”

   2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

9. “So, and that was for the southern region. If you were in a hot region, I could not travel to half of my region because of Vika. I was breastfeeding when the Flint water crisis happened. So as one of the environmental justice leaders of the organization of EPA, I couldn't go. I remember very vividly engaging with women who were farm workers in Florida who were Latina and who talked about how they could not hug their children when they came home for fear of pesticides that were on their clothes and not knowing what that interaction would be like with their children and being a new mother I could not imagine not holding or hugging my child so the way that I looked at these interactions changed and”

   2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

10. “My rainbow baby, my son Devin, who is the only child I have given physical birth to, and Gina sort of teased me. She's like, you would pick this is like really a perfect time, Heather. You picked a great time to have a baby. So I was pregnant with Devin at the end of the administration. And it opened my eyes in a different way. I'd always been sensitive to the issues of mothers and children and understanding those different impacts, particularly coming from the Delta region. But when I got pregnant, I was pregnant during Zika. And Zika was the virus that if you were bitten by a mosquito and you were pregnant, you could have some very challenging impacts for your unborn”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

11. “Been seeing the engagement of local people who stood in, who stayed in, who said we're still in, coming out of the Obama administration and at the moment, reckoning that we're going to have a very, very different administration moving forward. It was a point, I think, for a lot of people, myself included, to say, all right, we got to make a decision. The next four years are going to be hellacious. All the environmental policy that we have worked so hard for could go up and smoke if we don't stay involved, if we don't stay committed, and find a way to stay connected to this fight. For me, it was joining moms. I am remarried, have been married for almost 10 years now. And right when we were getting ready, we're wrapping up the end of the administration, I was pregnant with my”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

12. “A southerner, but also an African American. I took to heart the importance of being able to explain that story, to talk about that in a way that connected it to the rest of the world, as well as elevated the value of Southern and minority voices.”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

13. “But even more so, share the language of the Southeast with the rest of the world. While people may not say the words climate change, they knew certainly that something was different. We knew that we were experiencing more water in the storms and they were coming more frequently. People knew that the seasons in terms of hunting were changing and the agriculture was changing, even to the extent that coming in and out of the Atlanta airport, the jet strain shifts were happening. The airline stewardess association talked about the importance of understanding the impacts of climate change or flight and for flight patterns. So the way that we had these conversations look different than the other parts of the country, but they were just as important. And I took to heart both my experience of being”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

14. “Was the seat of all the action, and it was constant changing action all the time because accompanying one of the most diverse regions in the country that you're right holds a quarter of the nation's population and certainly has the majority of the African American population, HBCUs, but I also sort of like to think I had everything from Disney World to the Tennessee Mountains. So it was one of the most diverse regions. was very, very important for us to show people in the region that their thoughts and their concerns around environment were just as important as those to people who were in the West because there were stereotypes around the southern states, the southern region, that particular region is the south.”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

15. “Trucks from coming in to establish a landfill next to their community to this day. These communities are still fighting for environmental injustices in the way of KFOS, control animal operating feed, hog farms that establish, that have been established in these communities but create huge problems with respect to environmental injustice. One of the things that I found is that We have ignored the environmental and climate justice impacts for something else, not putting it as important. And so instead of saying that climate and environmental justice is one of the issues, one of the boxes that sits on the table, I say it is the table. Everything sits on climate and environment when it comes to black and brown and indigenous communities. How we deal with it is what we should be addressing now.”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

16. “That is climate, that is housing policy, but it's also directly related to increases of heat disparities, extreme heat, even in our urban communities like Chicago or Richmond or Detroit or New York. It is how we are dealing right now with higher rates of asthma and cancer and heart disease in black and brown and indigenous communities because we are more likely than anyone else to be within one mile of an oil and gas facility, an emitting facility. Even we go back to the early 80s, which we're technically people put the start of the environmental justice movement in Warren County, North Carolina, a black community fighting, literally laying on the ground to keep”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

17. “Absolutely. The intersections of racial injustice and inequity in our country through the lens of climate, we can directly tie every social justice issue of our country to climate in some way, shape, form or fashion. And so whether or not it is today's heat islands which come as a result of systemic racist housing policy of the 50s and 60s that created these redlined districts and these housing developments that were concrete blocks, quite frankly, where you have black and brown people who were put in places where you had no trees, just strictly concrete, no sidewalks, no parks. And that was intentional.”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

18. “I wasn't crazy all those years ago, even though I'm sure people thought, you know, okay, black women in Mississippi doing environment, really, but Lisa saw it, Lisa Jackson saw it, and she saw enough in me that she asked me to be the chair of the local government advisory committee for EPA. I was all excited. I would have been thrilled just to be a member, but she asked me to chair it and I was just in awe. Thank you so much. And she said, hold on, you don't know what you've gotten into. You don't know what you don't know yet. And at that moment, she became mentor status for me, particularly since two weeks after I was appointed, the BP oil spill happened. Yeah. I remember that well.”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

19. “It doesn't seem possible, especially when you put those two 500 years, even within a shorter time period of the eight years that I served. Both of those happen at the end of the first term and through the second term. So it was back to back, but so much was learned about not only the vulnerability of the community, but the opportunities here to really change the wealth of the community.”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

20. “And I didn't know it. And so I felt like, you know, here I am doing this work. And, you know, how did I miss this? I was really going to a point that it had not been seen. But then I got this urgency to say, this is a huge opportunity for us. A, because recognizing that the climate crisis in and of itself could have a dramatic impact on the very face of our community, just the way the Mississippi Delta has been shaped has been by water, the river, and how that water has been ebbed, flowed, and controlled even by the Army Corps of Engineers. So knowing that the climate crisis in and of itself was going to put more water, more floods into the space, it was a critical area that we had to address for the topography. The ecology and the environment, the people period.”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

21. “No, ma'am, it's not. I'm just a mayor trying to get streets, you know, sewer for my city. She's like, no, no, no, no, no. You're doing environmental justice work. And she began to explain to me how it was connected to the environment in a way that I had not seen before. And after those conversations, there were two things that I felt. One, I felt angry. I felt angry at the fact that for all these years I had been raised in a justice but a very agrarian society. And no one had shown or I had never seen myself as an environmental person. And the reality was every space around the Mississippi Delta, every connection from our levee points to our agriculture to our water to the food and music, every single aspect was deep in environment and climate justice.”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

22. “Absolutely. It was when I really was digging into infrastructure. President Obama had just been elected when he was campaigning, he had come through Greenville. So, you know, had an opportunity when he was a senator to show him some of the issues around water infrastructure. And then after he was elected and Lisa Jackson was appointed, in that moment we ended up on the front page of the Washington Post for water. truly working on water infrastructure and knew in my heart of hearts that this was one of the issues that was an economic engine and had to do with really strengthening the foundation of infrastructure throughout the delta and garnered enough attention to get not only a Washington post story but Lisa Jackson to come and visit and while she was visiting and we were touring she pulled me to the side and she's like you know this is environmental justice work right”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

23. “Own my value, own my authenticity, and was a perfect setup for when I met the person who put me into the environmental space, which was Administrator Lisa Jackson.”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

24. “Yes, that's it. She reminds me when I talk to her. And she's a wonderful mentor. You need people like that in your life who keep you focused. And she was one of those people. She's just been a family friend for years. And so she was one of those folks that could call on. At the time, Congresswoman Carolyn Kilpatrick. I remember calling her saying crying like, oh my gosh, you know, this is happening in my personal life. And she's like, look, I went through a bankruptcy, a divorce, and I still got re-elected. You'll be fine. Wrap it up. Wipe your tears because this is what we do. And the strengths of black women of getting things done, of knowing that we do need these moments to not only be vulnerable, but to be very real with one another. I was extremely grateful for. And that was something that helped me to own my space.”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

25. “Public divorce. I lost a child. I had a miscarriage. I had significant personal issues that believe it or not, all women have at some point in their life. For some reason, I figured that oh, you know, being a mayor, you are dealing with it in a different way. And I did not accept the reality that life happens, period. I will say that I had some great mentors that I could call on and they would tell me to get it together. You're going to be all right. One, and this is outside of my parents. Of course, my parents were always there and supportive. Renee Ferguson in Chicago was a great, wonderful mentors. Like, get it together, sister. Let's just write a press release. You'll be fine. Carolyn Kilpatrick.”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

26. “Absolutely, absolutely. It all comes at a cost. And I learned the hard way that the job and people will kill you. The stress of it will be very difficult. I had my fair share of since in the hospital for being so overworked and so overwhelmed with stress. I remember one time my physician said, I couldn't figure out why I was in ICU. He was like, I'm in, I'm putting you in ICU so that people will leave you alone. I know that it was craziness because, you know, one side of my body literally went numb. They thought I was going to have a stroke. And here I am. You know, I'm not even 35 yet. And this was happening. It's like, you can't keep doing this. It cost me a marriage. I was divorced while I was in office. I went through a very”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

27. “To do that's a hell of a way to start coming into an office not only as the first, but being so young, people didn't think you knew how to balance a checkbook, let alone a city budget.”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

28. “Work I was doing was not just for me and that whatever the difficulties were I would press through in a way that kept the door open for others. And that was hard. You know, that was not easy work for anyone to do. And certainly the side that a lot of folks don't see, you asked about the initial sort of reality of governing within the first week I got to office and realized our city had no money. We didn't know that before. So there is a great front page picture of me and the city council member, Kenny Gines from Ward One sitting looking at a budget and realizing that the city was bouncing payroll check, that we had no money and we had to figure out what we were going to do.”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

29. “Absolutely. It was a deep sense in need to not just be successful for the sake of being successful, but be good and good enough that the next person who tried to run wouldn't have to face the same challenges. And so I would celebrate being first, I always said, this should be a short-lived celebration. We should be celebrating the second, third, and fourth to come along. And so there was always an extra pressure to make sure that”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

30. “Oh, yes, absolutely. There were threats all the time. I would get written letters. I had people who followed me. I had, I came to the office one day and there were these little notes scattered out all outside of my window outside the office. There was always a threat of something that was happening. And it was hard because no administration before me ever had to deal with that. And this is prior to me too. This is prior to a lot of people taking serious threats against elected officials. So this is certainly prior to the Obama era. There weren't very many women in office. Certainly none of my age. So it was common. And even though some people didn't believe it, I still had to deal with it. And that was the reality.”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

31. “So while there was a moment of exhilaration, immediately the moment of reality stepped in of they're going to fight you tooth and nail to actually take this seat. And they did. It was fraught with questions. It was fraught with threats. At the same time that I was elected shortly thereafter, the first black sheriff for the county was elected. And I remember, you know, having a conversation where he was like, look, either you're going to have some kind of security or I'm going to sign somebody to go to the bathroom with you and you're not going to like it. But we're not going to lose the first black person we have elected as mayor because you got people who don't like that in the state. And he was right. So it was a time that while it was very”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

32. “It was so, yes, the night of the election was awesome. It was wonderful. I remember seeing my dad and just giving him a hug and we both just being in tears because there wasn't anything else we could say. It was just a powerful moment. But I remember also waking up the next morning to a front page that said that declared both myself and the former mayor winners because they said that we had to recount the votes. I know for two weeks that we sat in City Hall while they went through and counted ballots to certify the election because there were this denial that this 27-year-old black woman had beat a two-time incumbent white man to be mayor of a city.”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

33. “But no one who had been successful in a city that was not only in the Mississippi Delta but was over 70% African American, maybe right around 69, 70% African American. So we had black city council members but had never had a black mayor elected citywide.”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

34. “Narrative around what do solid, strong Mississippians really look like. And when I got home, there had been a lot of conversation about local politics. I knew both of the men who had run for mayor before and were denied the opportunity because they lost the election sketchy about if he actually lost the election or not. There were some questions around that. I knew both of them. They had been a part of my life. I knew their children. And so there was this sense almost of hopelessness that it couldn't be done.”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

35. “Because I felt very strongly that for so long people in the Mississippi Delta had watched their children leave. They'd watched the best and brightest of the community leave this community, leave the state, and go to New York, California, Texas, Georgia to make their success and not have the benefit of that talent to help at home because home was so challenging and so difficult. And so even in the decision to come back home and work with my father, it was a decision to say, I want to be a part of what makes Mississippi successful.”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

36. “My idea of it was why not? What is the stop here, which is very similar to my father? Why not? Why could I not do what it is that I want to do? Why not correctly for the family?”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

37. “You get elected. You know, thinking about the trajectory of my family and my dad, it's not really that surprising that to be the daughter of a man who argued before the Supreme Court at 25, that at 27, I'd be running for mayor. That's true. And there's some similarity in that. I think”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

38. “He did not. He urged me to do whatever it was that I wanted to do. I think my father secretly chuckled that he knew I would end up in law school. But he really encouraged me to do what I wanted to do. So, you know, he's like, if you want to go to law school, go to law school. Don't find what you want to do.”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

39. “No one in my group could figure out how I got all the best deals when I went to market. It was truly a cultural experience that really taught me a lot about acceptance, but also openness and being willing to be Yourself, but at the same time respect others. And I think it really helped me when I came back home in politics and being a Democrat, a black woman, an elected mayor in a very conservative state.”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

40. “Black white person. They didn't know what to do with me. But me coming to her home unrequested and me putting myself in a position to say I understand and respect the culture, at least gave them an avenue to have this conversation. And it completely changed my experience there. It completely changed the way that I looked at different cultures and the way that I looked at myself in terms of being an African-American, what I identified with, how other people saw African Americans in our experience in the Americas. And even the Islamic faith. I am a born-again Christian, yet I made Salat five times a day with these women, and they brought me my own burqa and they would take me to market. And when I tell you, I had the best time.”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

41. “Fates all my life. That's another aspect of how I was raised. My godfather was Morton Stavis, Center of Constitutional Rights in New York, so I grew up with a Jewish part of the family. I had Islamic friends, Hindus. You can just basically put me in any space and I was very comfortable. So I went to her house and I took off my shoes at the front door and she looked at me and she said, take off your socks too. And so I took off my socks out of respect for the home and for the religious beliefs that I knew she had. And when she brought me into the house, she explained to me that they didn't know what I was. They didn't have a word in their language for an African-American. The word in their language for American was white. So the only way they could describe me was a black”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

42. “And I noticed that my colleagues were treated differently than I was. I was fully expecting to go and have this. In fact, the women seem to almost ostracize me because they did not really interact with me in the same way that they did with the white women who were on the group. So, you know, for about a week, I was walking around not knowing what to do, really having a moment and just saying, I don't know how I'm going to exist for the next, for the rest of this summer here. I got to figure this out. And so I went to the woman's house her name was Anabu and she was the lady who was the interpreter and the lead for the groups that we were going to be engaging with. And this community was Islamic, part of Islamic and half was a Gary Ami tribe, which was Christian-based tribe. But I went to her home and I have had interactions with different”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

43. “I participated in a program called Africa Crossroads, which was a precursor to the Peace Corps, but had a lot of the same elements and often Peace Corps volunteers would come back and lead these summer groups. And so I was on one of the first groups that was solely women and that was focused on working with women along the eastern coast of Kenya to help develop some entrepreneurial skills, understand maybe how to set a goal and do a particular project. And so I was thrilled, I was excited and never been to Africa before and found myself as the only black American that was traveling with a group of seven white women to Africa. I get to Africa, get to Kenya, and we were living in a village called Watamu, which is halfway between Mombasa and Milan.”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

44. “And it's the reason why movement and movement building is critically important to continuing to keep in the forefront of our minds those obvious things that can quickly be pushed to the back. We have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. And Black Lives Matter made a lot of folks uncomfortable, even though it was obvious, even though it has been happening across this country, Black Lives have seemed to not matter when it has come to police brutality. This year we are celebrating the centennial of the Tulsa massacre where for years people did not even recognize or reckon with that tragic incident that took place and pretended that it didn't happen, let alone matter. The fact that we have to say that.”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

45. “I think that sometimes it's important to state the obvious. We can see it every single day, but if we don't say it, if we don't verbalize the obvious, then people can continue to ignore it. And when we say Black Lives Matter, we're unfortunately having to state the obvious because it has been ignored for such a long time.”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

46. “For us all to be a part of the process and to show the people in the community that we needed to stand together, we needed to stand up as one. And when I look at images today of peaceful protests and peaceful marches, I understand, absolutely why it's a necessity to be present and in that moment at that time, despite whatever else is happening, because making the statement of what's important to the community and making the statement of equity and equality sometimes only comes through those types of visualizations that I was fortunate to learn early.”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

47. “That's right. There's a picture that appeared in a newspaper back in the 80s where my dad was representing Robert Merritt, who was going to be the first African-American superintendent for the Indianola Public School District, but was denied that opportunity. So I remember Saturday morning we were going to March in Indianola, and there I am on the front lines with my younger brother and my dad and Dr. Merritt's daughter. You know, we're all told arm in arm together, marching down the street. I asked my father later, were you not afraid? You know, were you not scared of something that might happen to not only you, but he said, of course I was. I was absolutely terrified. Your mother, gosh, you know, it's explained to her, you know, having the kids out here on the front line. But it was at the same time that significant and that important.”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

48. “In short, he had the knowledge and wherewithal to do this work. It's the people I refer to sort of as my uncle Willie, who's now a state senator, but who was a sharecropper and became an attorney and worked alongside my father. Johnny Walls, who again grew up in the Mississippi Delta, but was one of the men who worked alongside my dad and ended up being a judge. So just coming from these spaces and understanding not only the struggle of people, but the tenacity and the resilience and the will to do well and have and fight for access for all people, to me, that's just the bravery and a courage that I fully intend to uphold and support, not just for myself and the work that I do now in climate justice, but even for my children to come.”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

49. “On behalf of an unmarried black woman who got fired because she had a child out of wedlock. In Mississippi. Yeah. Again, the courage that it took to do that from my parents' perspective, but also, I think, from the family's perspective, from the people who supported him, is the reason why my family's had such a commitment to the Mississippi Delta. Because my father will tell you, he never does this. It's never been him by himself. It's always been the village. It was my mother who was supportive. It was the other attorneys that were in the delta that”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

50. “25 years old and he has shared with me and my brother his memories of doing that and of the family sitting there you know to watch that moment I couldn't I can't even imagine that now you know it's it's it's it was baffling to me even then as a”

    2021-05-27 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 445 — Heather McTeer Toney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source