(Leon W. Russell) If you don't do politics, politics will do you.

-Two civil rights organizations convene in Las Vegas and stress the significance of this year's election.

That's this week on Nevada Week.

♪♪♪♪♪ Support for Nevada Week is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt.

-Welcome to Nevada Week.

I'm Amber Renee Dixon, joining you from the NAACP convention at Mandalay Bay.

Maria Silva is at UnidosUS.

We'll check in with her ahead.

And that's the convention that President Joe Biden was supposed to speak at on Wednesday, but he had to leave Las Vegas early after testing positive for COVID-19.

That was after he spoke at this conference.

(President Biden) I'm truly honored to be here to meet at this tense moment in this country, and it is a tense moment, just a few days after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

We're grateful he was not seriously injured.

We continue to pray for him and his family.

It's time for an important conversation in this country.

Our politics has gotten too heated.

I've said at the Oval Office on Sunday night, as I made clear throughout my Presidency, we all have a responsibility to lower the temperature and condemn violence in any form.

[applause] We got to remember, in America, we're not enemies.

We're friends.

We're neighbors.

We're fellow Americans.

Most importantly, let's fully and firmly reject not only political violence, but violence of any kind, period, no exception.

-Despite the President testing positive for COVID-19 and having interacted with several leaders here at the NAACP convention, this gala that I'm at right now as we tape this, which caps off this convention, went off as planned.

It's a testament to how far we've come from the early days of Covid.

That's according to Derrick Johnson.

He's the president of the NAACP.

I got to sit down and speak with him about several topics, including Henry Louis Gates, Jr., of the show Finding Your Roots on PBS, being awarded the Spingarn Medal.

All right, so it's the night of the gala.

And just a few hours ago, you learned that President Joe Biden has tested positive for Covid after having spoken at this very convention a day ago.

What have the last few hours been like for you?

(Derrick Johnson) You know, it's important to recognize how far we have come in managing Covid.

You know, there was a time where everybody would have been in panic, everything would have shut down.

But now, because we have realized that the Covid virus is very similar to the flu, people are cautious, but they're not in a panic.

Until we heard about it, we've taken the cautionary measures.

We've had people that came in contact to take the test, but things move forward.

And I think that's how society have begun to adjust to the reality of hope.

-Now, the national response to Covid initially was something you brought a lot of light to.

What do you think has changed as a result of you doing that?

And will you remind our viewers, or for our viewers who do not understand, what was the impact of Covid on people of color?

-When you think about in 2020 when we all was paralyzed because we had this virus and no understanding, didn't know about it, we also seen the weakness of the delivery of the healthcare system, particularly for African Americans, Latino community, and poor communities.

That access to health care was a true barrier, and many individuals' lives could have been saved had we simply had a delivery system that was more inclusive of all citizens and not something that was so privatized or exclusive, only those with high means had access to it.

We've come a long way, and we also recognize what the virus can do and what it won't do and how we need to take precautions.

But, you know, four years was a journey for the African American community, for society, and the medical community to understand that we have a lot of work through public policy to provide access to health care for all of our citizens.

-And it's public health.

-Public health is important.

I mean, it's not just going to the doctor, emergency room, or clinic.

It's having the knowledge and educating people on what precautionary measures we could do to prevent outbreaks.

What are some of the things we need to do to improve the quality of communities, and how do we just improve the delivery of the healthcare system as a whole?

-Different topic.

I was looking at the NAACP Twitter today.

What is going on with the NAACP and-- sorry, X, formerly known as Twitter?

-You know, social media platforms are super spreaders of information.

And unfortunately, some of the information promotes both disinformation and misinformation, and we have to be careful on how those platforms are regulated.

And when you have platforms that are not accountable to anything, anyone, any systems, it can really cause harm.

You know, you think about a few years ago, there was individuals who was being recruited on social media, radicalized, and carrying out harm.

In one week's time, we see the Latino community get attacked in El Paso, Texas, with a mass shooting at a Walmart.

A few days later, the African American community get attacked at a Kroger in Louisville, Kentucky.

And the very next day, a Jewish synagogue get attacked.

All mass shootings, and the common denominators were the individuals were recruited, radicalized, and carried out those acts as a result of social media platforms.

-And what I'm talking about specifically is a post from today responding to Elon Musk, the owner of X, saying that there have been requests to remove content that is related to the left.

And the NAACP tweeted back, Is that so, Elon Musk?

We have found that we have not been able to publish some of our content.

Am I right?

-That's absolutely correct, but it goes to when you have a platform that's not regulated.

Social media platforms are almost like public utilities.

And if there are no guardrails, you can have a single individual, whether it's a social media influencer or an Elon Musk, to leverage that platform to give unfair advantages around points of view.

Freedom of speech is okay, unless you scream fire in a theater, which could cause harm.

Platforms represent a true nature of freedom, but there has to be some guardrails.

And if you have an owner of a platform that's powerful of what formerly known as Twitter, what could happen is you give deference to one point of view and you remove content from another point of view.

And that's not healthy in the public discourse or in the debate.

-Under your leadership in 2018, there was the Logout Facebook campaign, and that was in response to reports that black people were being targeted by Russian hackers in order to influence the 2016 election.

Eight years later, another big election ahead of us.

Has anything changed?

-It's accelerated.

You know, anytime we know that there's a foreign threat trying to influence our electoral system or public policy or public perceptions, we should all be alarmed.

It's an issue of national security.

It wasn't a belief that they were doing it; it was proven that they were doing it.

It was Russia, it was Iran, it was China, it was others simply trying to influence the outcome of the elections to give themselves an advantage in a geoglobal world.

We should not allow that to happen as a nation, particularly when they are targeting historic divisions within this country based on race or based on gender or based on sexual identity.

That's dangerous, and it can cause this country to unravel.

-Tonight you will be honoring Henry Louis Gates, Jr., with the prestigious Spingarn Medal, the highest honor that the NAACP gives.

You have said that his impact on the black community has been profound.

So I wonder, when you think about that impact, what's the first thing that comes to mind?

-Truth teller.

He is a historian.

He is-- he's been able to weave together American history from a black perspective.

Black history is American history.

And so he's able to weave together to show all of the contributions that have come forward to make this society what it is today.

He's a truth teller.

We need more people like him to be willing to really dig deep and separate what's facts from fiction and show our story, the American story, is inclusive of many voices, many perspective, and many communities.

(Henry Louis Gates, Jr.) To say that I am deeply, deeply appreciative would be an understatement.

Let me say that I am mindful of the single honor of being the first scholar of African American literature, as Evelyn mentioned, to be awarded this award and also one of the few active teaching professors.

My goal, ladies and gentlemen, is nothing less than for every African American to be able to trace their family tree and define their ethnic origins back in the motherland.

[applause] And I'm determined to use all of the resources at my disposal to achieve this historic goal.

Even as we explore the history of our own people, we must remember that we all, ultimately, are connected.

As Dr. Benjamin Mays, the spiritual mentor of Dr. King, once declaimed, and I quote, The destiny of each man is tied up with the destiny of another.

We are so interlaced--he continued it--so interwoven that what affects one touches all.

We are all bound together, Benjamin Mays said, in one great humanity, unquote.

-So if he's a truth teller, let me run a couple of things by you that he said.

He has said antiblack racism and antisemitism are rooted in economic insecurity.

And so if we can address the cause of economic insecurity, we can begin to address the cause of antisemitism and antiblack racism.

What do you think of that?

-Absolutely correlation.

When you see in this country, historically, when there's economic insecurity, you see the rise of hate targeting communities, because people are looking for someone to blame.

What group, they took this from me.

The scarcity mentality kind of emerged out of that.

And so there's a direct correlation.

When you see when there's economic security and people feel good about the economy and the price of bread or the price of things, you see there's a lessening of racial hate, whether it's targeted towards the Jewish community, the black community, the Latino community, or towards women.

So we have, as a nation, we need to educate and align people's fears so we're not fighting against one another during hard times, we're fighting with and for one another to get through hard times.

-So is there any logic in thinking, if I'm an American voter concerned about racism, perhaps I should be voting for the candidates that I think are best suited to improve the economy?

-I think this is a package, right?

You know, race have long been a tool used to get people to act outside of their interests.

It's almost distracted people over here with the questions of race and otherness so you can change tax policy over here.

So it becomes a tool, a distraction, to further an economic agenda.

And those economic agendas can go in two directions, primarily: one that feed corporate interests and individual greed and wealth, and one that support a healthy environment and the common good.

And there's a lot of things in between.

So understanding that race is a tool when you're looking at candidates on the ballot, what is the future we would like to have?

Is it more reflective of the diversity and the riches of this country, or is it something where we try to go back to 1930 where it was very limited.

-Mr. Gates is also adamantly opposed to ideological bullying, in particular when someone is telling a black person how to be black.

And I wonder what you think when you hear political leaders from both sides of the aisle saying to black voters, If you don't vote for such and such candidate, you're not black.

-You know that is foolish, to say the least, right?

We're not a monolith.

African American community, we like country music and we like jazz.

We love to go to the rodeo, and we also love to go to NASCAR.

There isn't a black way to be.

It is the reality of who we are.

We influence society as we consume societal influences.

So there is no way to be black.

-Last thing.

What are your hopes for the NAACP members who have come to this convention, gone through it?

What impact do you hope it will have on them as they head home?

-They're more equipped going home to be the leaders in their communities that they came here as.

This is the opportunity for our leaders across the country, in 47 states, to be-- to get rejuvenated to learn policy issues and talk about strategies to ensure not only that this democracy work, that public policy represent the needs and interests of the communities that we represent.

And that's really important.

We want to make sure every child is afforded quality education.

We want to make sure when we go to the ballot box, you can cast an effective ballot, meaning you cast it and actually count.

We want to make sure children are not hungry and our elderly are taken care of.

The health of any society is measured by three things: How well are we preparing our young people for a future, do we take care of the elder in their lean years, and do we protect the rights of the disadvantaged, however we describe the disadvantaged.

That's the, that's a healthy society.

We want our leaders to go home and fight for a healthy society.

-Derrick Johnson, President and CEO of the NAACP, thank you for joining Nevada Week.

-Thank you.

-The 2024 election was, of course, a focal point of this convention so much so that the NAACP got to Las Vegas a week early and held a three-day civic engagement boot camp for its state leaders from across the country, teaching them the latest strategies in voter engagement.

(Karen Boykin-Towns) We got to keep the main thing, the main thing.

-The main thing, says Karen Boykin-Towns, is mobilizing 13 1/2 million black voters across 12 priority states, including Nevada.

The Vice Chair of the NAACP National Board of Directors was one of several speakers working to motivate state leaders of the civil rights organization at a civic engagement boot camp.

-And what we know to be true is that if we do the work and we turn out black folks in these areas where we have populations, we can save this democracy, period, point blank.

-Among those doing that work will be boot camp participants, Zarinah Washington and Chandler Cooks.

(Chandler Cooks) They showed a lot of data and showed how certain messages reach certain groups and what's effective, what's ineffective.

(Zarinah Washington) Understanding additional strategies that can help us to reach folks is important.

We can't rest on our laurels like we know everything.

-It's the third boot camp the NAACP says it's held around its annual convention, and the focus on the day that we attended was messaging: not just what you say, but how you say it and who you say it to.

(Phaedra Jackson) You've got a lot of angst with voters.

I think one thing to take away from that is you gotta acknowledge where they are.

If you say, everything's great, like we've had the best economy in the last decade and black unemployment is at the lowest, but folks aren't feeling it, then it just feels like a false sale, right?

You're just trying to sell them something that isn't real.

-Taking it back to more of a cultural basis, right?

We think about who are those influential folks in our community that we really should be engaging, because that center of influence will literally affect an entire community.

I'm thinking of just recently, we talked about our big mamas and our aunties and our grandmas, like all those women or men in our community that are so influential.

We have to engage them.

-If you don't do politics, politics will do you.

Leon W. Russell is Chair of the NAACP National Board of Directors.

(Leon W. Russell) People were talking, and some fellow said something about other folk coming into this country to take black jobs.

So we raised the question, What the hell is a black job?

A black job is to vote.

Now, we are nonpartisan, but we ain't stupid.

-How nonpartisan do you think your remarks were in there?

-I didn't call any names.

I think I talked about issues.

If you look at what I said, I talked about issues that impact people's lives.

My call is for people to examine those issues and then make a decision about candidates based on how those candidates will deal with those issues.

-Housing, housing insecurity, especially here in the Las Vegas Valley, is huge.

Folks are nervous.

They're scared.

They're like, Well, how are we going to become a homeowner when we can't raise the funds to support our lifestyle now?

How will we be able to support our children?

How are we going to find food to eat.

-Those are the issues Zarinah anticipates Nevada voters will want to talk about.

Armed with an NAACP voter guide... (Dominik Whitehead) Those voter guides were able to do compare and contrast and a lot of fact checking around what candidates stand for, what they voted for.

They've already been in elected office.

-And the strategies she says she's learned here, she says she's ready to educate and motivate her community.

-Oftentimes, we find that our residents don't have the time to do their research about who's running and what their platform is.

We try to take that opportunity to do that research for them and then educate them on what the various positions are.

And then they can make informed decisions on their own from that.

-The affordable housing issue that Zarinah Washington mentioned, that was talked about briefly by President Biden on the same day that his administration released a plan that calls on Congress to implement a cap on how much rent can be raised each year.

That cap would be at 5%, and it would be applied to landlords who own more than 50 units.

We move now from this convention, the convention of the oldest and largest civil rights organization in the U.S., to the convention of the largest Latino civil rights group in the U.S. That's UnidosUS.

It was held at the MGM Grand, and that's where we find Maria Silva.

(Maria Silva) Amber, we are saying Bienvenidos a Las Vegas, welcome to Las Vegas, to 1,500 attendees here at the UnidosUS annual conference.

[mariachi performs] (Janet Murguia) Es nuestro momento, our time is now.

-Our time is now.

That's the theme of this year's conference.

UnidosUS, the largest Latino civil rights and advocacy organization, has been around for 56 years, and Janet Murguia has served as president and CEO for nearly 20 of those years.

-Our hope for our participants in this year's conference as they attend and as they go back to their communities is that they will be informed and inspired not only to participate in this upcoming Presidential election, but in every election.

-The Latino vote, once again sought after and crucial in this election, especially in swing states like Nevada.

Polls conducted by UnidosUS reveal the pressing issues important to Latino voters.

-Latino voters care a lot about the economy.

They want to make sure that jobs are plentiful and able to have strong wages.

We also want to make sure that someone is going to address inflation.

They feel a little stuck by the way that it has been moving forward.

So we care about the economy, but we also care about housing, access to housing, affordable housing, and even to have that dream of homeownership is something Latino voters care deeply about.

So addressing those issues is going to be a very top priority for Latino voters, and, of course, the continued access to health care so that folks don't have to worry about the prices and insurance.

So those are all top-tier issues.

Immigration is still an important issue for our community.

-These important issues, discussed in detail during the three-day conference.

Day one of the conference kicked off with guest speakers, including Secretary Xavier Becerra, the first Latino to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

(Xavier Becerra) My dad used to tell me [in spanish] Mijo, si me puedo levantar en la maana a ir a trabar, es un buen dia.

And I suspect for a lot of these folks, the fact that they could get up today, that you had your conference here, you gave them a chance to come to work as hard as it might be, it's a good day.

It's a good day.

-And Nevada lawmakers, Congressman Steven Horsford and Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar... (Cisco Aguilar) The Latino vote is strong in Nevada.

Nevada is a battleground state, and we know 30% of our community is Latino.

And you look at the makeup of our public education system, with 56% of the students are Latino, that's the future of Nevada.

And to be able to have UnidosUS here with us is a very important statement about our future as a state.

-Secretary Aguilar, also taking part in the Latino Power en Acción: Defending our Democracy panel alongside his cousin, Arizona Secretary of State, Adrian Fontes.

(Adrian Fontes) Encourage people to vote early.

It's just better for the whole system.

-1 in 5 people registered to vote are Latino; however, only 50% of that 1 in 5 turn out.

And if you look at how close our elections are, you increase turnout 3-4%, you're going to flip the dynamic of some races.

-Civic engagement, a big part of the organization's mission.

-Through our network of community-based organizations, we provide support for those who are interested in becoming citizens and making sure they're supported and receive all the classes and then see them through to the day that they actually can become citizens.

(Judge Silva) Congratulations.

You are now U.S. citizens.

Round of applause.

[cheers and applause] -Mildred Abarca, and I am now a U.S. citizen.

-Proud new U.S. citizen, Mildred Abarca was one of 30 Nevadans from 12 countries who took their oath of allegiance at a naturalization ceremony held at the Clark County Government Center.

(Mildred Abarca) I'm so honored for this day and for this privilege, especially being a Mexican, young Mexican.

I was brought here when I was four years old, and it took me 30 years of this journey.

But I'm here now, and I accomplished my American dream.

So I'm able to vote now, so I'm so honored for that as well.

-The naturalization ceremony, one of several community events UnidosUS helped organize while in town.

Also teaming up with Community Services of Nevada and other nonprofit organizations and community sponsors for a backpack giveaway and resource fair at the East Las Vegas Community Center.

-Our network of 300 community-based organizations across the country serve our community members through programs and services, but also in promoting advocacy of policies.

So we want them to feel empowered to make a difference in their communities and do not only what's best for the Latino community, but what we believe will be in the best interest of the country going forward.

-Here's another great way that UnidosUS is giving back to our local community.

Check this out.

This is called Hecho en Las Vegas, made in Las Vegas.

It's an artisan market where local business owners get to sell their handcrafted items as well as their fine art.

And here's the best part: They get to keep 100% of the profits.

That's pretty awesome.

So Amber, I think I'm going to go do a little shopping here and support our local small business owners.

Sending it back to you at Mandalay Bay.

Hasta luego.

-Gracias, Maria.

And gracias to you, our viewer.

Thank you for watching.

For any of the resources discussed on this show, go to vegaspbs.org/nevadaweek.

And that is also where you can find our Nevada Week In Person interviews, including our interview with Quentin Savwoir.

He is the president of the Las Vegas branch of the NAACP.

Again, vegaspbs.org/nevadaweek.

And I'll see you next week on Nevada Week.

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