Look, we break it down, down, down, down, down.

She break it down, down, down, down, down, down.

She got to message for the people, a brilliant mind and a clean soul.

She's standing up to the evil in making sure that we all grow strong enough

To break these change we're in

They keep us in this painful condition

She gave us truth and division

That's why we listen

She break it down, down, down, down, down

Down, down

She break it down, down, down, down. She break it down, down, down, down, down, down.

Do we break it down, down, down, down, down?

I want to start in a space of remembering the past.

Y'all know I believe in the principle of Sankofa, which says that we need to go back to the past

in order to understand where we are today and in order to plan for the future. And on this day in history, the Equal Justice Initiative reminds us that in 1943, the state of California, which did not actually have like slavery, the way we understand it, they did, however, have the racism. And in 1943, a new law went into effect that required that all marriage licenses, say the race of the parties that were being married.

This was a law that was passed unanimously by the all-white, all-male state legislature, and it was basically designed to enforce California's ban on interracial marriage.

And at the time, the law in California declared, quote, that no no license marriage license may be issued authorizing

the marriage of a white person with a negro mulatto Mongolian or member of the Malay race

that was all the Asians you had the Mongolians and the Malays and I don't know where the border

stops between any one of them in the minds of whiteness but that's what they said interracial

couples who defied the statute or clerks who provided marriage licenses to

these couples would basically face a fine of $10,000 or up to 10 years in prison.

...