Ep. 6 - Memphis vs Musk with Rep. Justin J. Pearson
“No matter how many billions you have, you don't have enough to buy our lives.”
Host Shilpi Chhotray is joined by Tennessee State Representative Justin J. Pearson, a fierce advocate taking on corporate power — from Big Oil to Big Tech.
You may know him as one of the two Black representatives who was expelled for demanding gun reform on the House floor after The Covenant school shooting in Nashville. But long before becoming one of the youngest members of the Tennessee legislature, Rep. Pearson was on the frontlines in South Memphis, organizing against a crude oil pipeline that threatened his hometown.
Now, in Rep. Pearson’s district, Elon Musk’s xAI project is expanding its empire with massive, unregulated data centers that pollute the air, threaten their water, and undermine hard-won environmental protections.
This conversation is about fighting against entrenched corruption, unchecked corporate and political power, and billionaires who put profit over people’s health and future.
Key Topics
Defeating the Valero / Plains All American Byhalia Pipeline
The rise of Elon Musk’s xAI data center in Memphis and the environmental toll of artificial intelligence
Money in politics: How corporate lobbying and billionaires shape elections and policy
Civil disobedience: The role of protest, direct action, and speaking truth to power
Keeping people power alive in the face of corruption and broken systems
Proximity to the fight: Understanding your local representatives, connecting local struggles to federal policies, and focusing energy where it can make the most impact
Resources to Explore
Rep. Justin J. Pearson’s Speech on the House floor before being expelled
“How Long, Not Long” Martin Luther King Jr. speech after marching from Selma to Montgomery
NAACP and Advocacy Groups Appeal Permit for xAI’s South Memphis Data Center
Credits
Presented by Counterstream Media and The Nation
Powered by Wildseeds Fund
Host: Shilpi Chhotray
Executive Producer: Mindy Ramaker
Engineer: Dennis Maxwell
Project Manager: Marianella Núñez
Additional Research: Sarah Morgan
Representative Justin J. Pearson
Justin J. Pearson was elected State Representative for District 86 in Memphis, Tennessee January 24, 2023. Tennessee Republicans soon after expelled him as one of the Tennessee Three when he protested their inaction following a tragic school mass shooting. Voters quickly reelected Pearson with 94% of the vote. Known for his oratory gifts, Pearson is a justice warrior and democracy champion who organizes, mobilizes and activates People Power. He co-founded Memphis Community Against Pollution in 2020, an environmental and climate justice nonprofit that defeated Big Oil and the Byhalia pipeline, a multibillion dollar project that threatened the Memphis Sand aquifer.
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A People’s Climate Ep 6 – “Memphis vs Musk” with Rep. Justin J. Pearson
Shilpi Chhotray [00:00:05] This is A People's Climate, powered by Wildseeds Fund, from Counterstream Media and The Nation. I'm your host, Shilpi Chhotray.
Clip [00:00:15] A 50 mile pipeline set to run through the city of Memphis could create major issues for residents. And that's why community activists are now speaking up big time.
Clip [00:00:27] They say predominantly black neighborhoods are being targeted. They're worried it may devalue land and contaminate the city's drinking water.
Clip [00:00:35] Now Elon Musk is coming to Memphis to build the world's largest supercomputer.
Clip [00:00:41] Elon Musk we do not want here in Memphis.
Clip [00:00:47] Last week, Tennessee's Republican-led House voted to expel Pearson and fellow representative Justin Jones, both Democrats, after they broke House rules while protesting gun laws.
Clip [00:00:59] They tried to expel the people's choice and the people vote, and they awakened a sleeping giant.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:01:14] Hey everyone, welcome back to the show. Today we're joined by Tennessee State Representative Justin J. Pearson, a voice of moral clarity in a time of collapse. I first learned about Representative Pearson during his electrifying speech on the House floor that got him expelled. But long before that, he was organizing in South Memphis fighting a crude oil pipeline that threatened his hometown. Now, Representative Pearson is calling out how corporate power, from big oil to big tech poisons both our planet and our democracy. In Representative Pearson's district, Elon Musk is expanding his empire with unregulated AI data centers, which are not only polluting the air, they're also draining local resources and undermining environmental protections. This conversation is about resistance and what it means to protect us in an age of manufactured chaos. Representative Justin J. Pearson, welcome to the show. It's such an honor and a privilege to have you here with us today. Thank you for joining.
Rep. Justin J. Pearson [00:02:19] Thank you so much for the opportunity. I'm so grateful to be with you.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:02:22] I do want to get into where you grew up in South Memphis. It's a beautiful community, but it is surrounded by refineries, gas plants, and chemical facilities. Life expectancy there is 10 years shorter than in East Memphis. And cancer risk is four times the national average, which is startling. What really drew you to the cause and using your voice in that way?
Rep. Justin J. Pearson [00:02:45] Westwood is one of the most amazing communities on planet Earth. We have an aquifer, the water that we drink. We call it Jesus water. It was rainwater 2,000 years ago. It went through 2,00 years of filtration to become the aquifer underneath our city. We're the largest city in the United States of America that relies solely on an aquifers for drinking water. It's 2020, the height of the pandemic and two billion dollar companies, Valero Oil Refinery, and a Texas-based company, Plains All American, said, hey, we're going to build a crude oil pipeline through your neighborhood of Westwood, Boxtown, Walker Homes, and we're gonna connect this pipeline through Mississippi and then ultimately get it to Cancer Alley. The land agent said, well, we chose this place because it's basically a point of least resistance.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:03:37] I can't believe someone actually said that out loud to you.
Rep. Justin J. Pearson [00:03:42] That's how they view and viewed our community as a path of least resistance. They were willing to pollute the air that we breathe. They were will to risk polluting the water that we drink. And they were going to build a pipeline right atop that aquifer where we knew there were breaches in the clay layer. So if a spill happened, it'd be catastrophic for our community. And we stood up against that. But what drew me into that fight was it was personal. And when we are proximate, to the struggle or approximate to the fight, I think we have more strength in it compared to other folk who want to tell us what we should be thinking or what should be happening.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:04:21] That's right. The solutions have to come within the community. And I want to dig into that fight a little bit more. What did it take to beat an oil giant like Valero and what lessons can other communities take from that fight, especially right now in this current administration with all the federal environmental justice rollbacks. I mean, we're, we're really facing some tumultuous times.
Rep. Justin J. Pearson [00:04:44] Absolutely. We have to realize that the struggle that we are in is deeply interconnected to what is happening nationally at the state level but also at the local and county levels as well. And so when you have people saying things like air pollution doesn't impact climate change and that come from the environmental protection agency, like that's deeply concerning.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:05:04] That's deeply concerning.
Rep. Justin J. Pearson [00:05:07] Macro decisions do have impacts on our very lives, on the constituents that I have the privilege and fortune of representing, and we have to be honest about that. And also what I think we can learn from the Byhalia pipeline is a few things. One, you need to fight. The only way you guarantee yourself that you will not win is by not being in the fight, is by standing up, is not speaking up, by not showing up. After you hear about an injustice, find out who's responsible for it. And that helps you to determine where to effectuate energy and power. So is it your city council who has some authority? Is it your health department? Who is it that has authority over this project? And finding out who that is and how you then use your people power to effect that. My first march had five people. It didn't start out with 5,000 people marching. It starts out with you just saying, I got a few good folk who know that something's wrong and we're gonna persevere and be persistent in that struggle. I went on every social media account that I had and I said, hey, I need help. And Jay Monteverdi, I'll never forget, reached back out and said, I'm the chair of Breach Collective, I am willing to help. They were out of Oregon. Help can come from anywhere.
Clip [00:06:22] Tonight, activists and homeowners in Boxtown are celebrating.
Clip [00:06:30] Jubilation for Memphis residents fighting a proposed oil pipeline. Learning today, it won't be built.
Clip [00:06:37] They ran up against Memphis, Tennessee and Shelby County. And when you run up against us, you run into a problem because we care about the people who are here. We care about our water. We care but our future.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:06:52] I want to talk about another fight that's very present day for you, and it's against Elon Musk's XAI supercomputer project, which is highly controversial. It could become one of the biggest polluters in Memphis while using millions of gallons of water a day. Can you talk to me about what's happening on the ground right now at this moment and how you're pushing back.
Rep. Justin J. Pearson [00:07:17] So XAI, Elon Musk's company came to Memphis in June of 2024 with a whole lot of fanfare. Mayor Paul Young, Mayor Lee Harris, Congressman Steve Cohen, state representatives, city councilors, all were applauding the fact that Elon Musk was coming here. One elected official who was not was me. I wanted to know where it was going to be. And it wasn't nothing but a couple months later that we learned they were very illegally polluting our community using gas turbines.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:07:46] Why do you think they picked your community in the first place?
Rep. Justin J. Pearson [00:07:49] I think these corporations are looking for economically struggling places and politically exploitable places. And when you have very weak political leadership, you also find corporations that are able to do things that are disastrous to communities because they know that the elected officials and mads are not standing up.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:08:09] They could be bought.
Rep. Justin J. Pearson [00:08:10] In essence, the tax money that the company is bringing becomes the reason to sell the lungs of your own constituents. And that's what happened here in Memphis.
Clip [00:08:23] In Memphis, Elon Musk is making a play to control the future of artificial intelligence. But the digital future needs power, lots of it. These are the gas turbines fueling the supercomputer they call Colossus. They emit hazardous pollutants like formaldehyde and nitrogen oxides, according to the manufacturer.
Clip [00:08:45] President Trump also planned to sign three executive orders on AI. One reportedly targets what the administration called ideological bias in AI chatbots. Another aims to make it easier to build massive AI data centers and the energy infrastructure they require.
Clip [00:09:02] America must once again be a country where innovators are rewarded with a green light not strangled with red tape so they can't move, so they can't breathe.
Rep. Justin J. Pearson [00:09:12] And so for 12 months, they pumped 1,200 to 2,100 tons of nitrogen oxide into the air, 17.2 tons of formaldehyde. And the reason that's troubling is because according to the Environmental Protection Agency, our community is out of attainment, is in non-attainment as it relates to ozone or smog. And so we have an air pollution problem exacerbated by XAI, exacerbated by Elon Musk Company, and then the people who are supposed to protect us have failed to do so. And we're responding. We have an appeal, thanks to one of our coalition partners, Young, Gifted, and Green, led by the illustrious Latresia Adams and the Southern Environmental Law Center, as well as an intent to sue has been brought forward by the NAACP president, Derek Johnson and Abre' Connor. So we are fighting back. We are organizing across Memphis and across this country to speak up with one sound and one voice that our lives matter, that our air matters. And that no matter how many billions you have, you don't have enough to buy our lives for most.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:10:18] And this is really important because what happens in Memphis is going to be either replicated or stalled in other areas of the country. I thought it was pretty fascinating how fast and quickly this has all come together and honestly disturbing. For instance, Trump has rolled back the environmental safeguards to fast track the data centers like this one. And meanwhile, the Chamber of Commerce is celebrating Musk as an economic savior, which is wild. How do you counter that kind of entrenched corporate and political power, especially in a red state?
Rep. Justin J. Pearson [00:10:56] I mean, we have a responsibility for telling the truth, right? Our state is rigged to be read, but most people want accurate information and knowledge about what is going on. And we know that the Memphis Chamber of Commerce lies, tells half truths, has admitted XAI is their largest funder. And so they're gonna do whatever XAI asks for them to do, including send out propaganda pieces against the community. They can't be trusted. XAI can't trusted. And a lot of these elected leaders cannot be trusted to tell us the truth about the consequences of these corporations being in our communities because there's a little bit of money being shelled around to schools, there's little bit money being given in taxes, and it forces them into a complicity and complacency of silence against their own people. And so what do you do when you have these headwinds? You go to the people and you tell them the truth. And so we had hundreds of people. To attend town halls so that we can tell people what is happening, so they're not distracted when folks go on TV and they say this or they say that, right, like we are giving them clarity about what the actual problem is and telling them XAI, Elon Musk Company, is exacerbating a problem that already existed.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:12:17] And for what? A racist AI platform.
Rep. Justin J. Pearson [00:12:20] Exactly.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:12:21] Let's be honest about that.
Rep. Justin J. Pearson [00:12:22] And we haven't even gotten into, truly, like as a community, we have not even gotten into what Grok is as a racist chatbot.
Clip [00:12:32] Elon Musk's AI chatbot, known as Grok, made several anti-Semitic posts on X, including praising Adolf Hitler.
Clip [00:12:42] Elon Musk's AI chat bot, Grok, has turned into a neo-Nazi. The bot has been praising Hitler, targeting users with Jewish-sounding names, and recommending a second Holocaust.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:12:56] I would love for you to break that down for us.
Rep. Justin J. Pearson [00:13:00] We have a super computer, as well as labeled here in Memphis, called Colossus. There are two huge plants, one in southwest Memphis and one in south Memphis, the White Haven community, and one at Boxtown, Westwood area. The energy that's being used are these gas turbines, and in South Haven, they are going to actually have 66 gas turbines to power the second plant, Colossos II. But what is it powering? Is Grok. Which is a chat bot, you think of chat GPT, this is the rival that Elon Musk has created with the sole intention of being a tool of racism, of antisemitism. It has called itself Mecca Hitler. It creates racist and bigoted images and the information that's supposed to be non-biased and it was supposed to learning all of humankind's knowledge. It actually goes to Elon Musk's Twitter account to determine what answer it's going to give you in response if you ask it a question. So it's a very untruthful tool, and it's very dangerous one, but what makes it scarier? The Department of Defense just signed a $200 million contract to use Grok. People are using this for their different equations, mathematical things, using this in ways that is- ultimately going to be harmful for our society. And there is a question that we're going to eventually have to get to which says at what point do we say enough? What point is it that you actually don't need something to write your emails for you? You don't something that can create an image of a Hitler and a Mickey Mouse put together or other evil vile things that Grok does. When do we enough? What does that mean for working-class, blue-collar cities like Memphis? And you get people like the chamber saying, well, we're gonna be the digital Delta. They use these little catchphrases. No, we gonna be digital Delta dump. We're not getting the headquarters, folks. We're getting the trash bin. That's what's happening. We get the trash and we suffer the consequences because of it. And of course, the power source, the energy use, the fact they're using fossil fuels is all really negative, all really bad. But what world are we creating or allowing to be created. In our name, saying, this is what humans need. This is what we need. Why? Why do we need this? What good is this truly bringing to us and into our communities? And I'm struggling to see the benefits. I've been writing emails for myself for a long time. I don't need, you know, the thing to start completing my sentences. And the folks who are benefiting from this the most are people who are multi-billionaires. The point zero one percent, right, like it is not the majority of us. And why are our communities being sacrificed on the altar of their wealth creation?
Shilpi Chhotray [00:16:11] I'm gonna shift gears here to your work with gun violence because it's such an important piece of what you do. When you started your term, you risked your seat to confront gun violence after the Covenant School shooting in Nashville where there were three nine-year-old children and three adults that were killed. Yet the legislator punished you more harshly for a protest than for failing to protect these children's lives and these teachers' lives. Who gets to define what counts as violence in America, and how does that definition shape the fight that you take on?
Rep. Justin J. Pearson [00:16:49] March 27, the trajectory of my life, our state's life, changed. What happened at the Covenant School joined a very sad list of mass shootings that have happened in our country. And that year in particular, there were more mass shootings than days. And we're on a similar path now. If you are under the age of 18 in the United States of America you are most likely to die by a bullet than a car accident and illness such as cancer or anything else. You would think that we would see this as a problem, but in our country, violence is being determined by a status quo that's profiting off of it. And then they'll look at you in the face and say, you know I would never want anything bad to happen to your kid. But you have power to do something and you're not doing it. And in the general assembly, we went to the well of the house floor in a peaceful protest to say, we have to listen to these students. We have to listened to these teachers. We have listen to this parents. And instead of focusing on how we elevate their voices and deal with this crisis and deal this epidemic. My Republican colleagues instead decided to punish me and Representative Jones, the two youngest black lawmakers in the country.
Clip [00:18:25] Representative Pearson was one of two Democratic representatives expelled for breaking House rules when they participated in a gun control protest on the House floor.
Clip [00:18:35] I hereby declare representative Justin J. Pearson of the 86th representative district expelled from the House of Representatives of the 103rd General Assembly of the state of Tennessee.
Clip of Rep. Andrew Farmer [00:18:45] That's why you're standing there, because of that temper tantrum that day. For that yearning to have attention. That's what you wanted. Well, you're getting it now.
Clip [00:18:57] They called a peaceful protest a temper tantrum. Is what's happening outside these doors by Tennesseans who want to see change a temper tantrum? Sarah whose son Noah was at the Covenant School. He survived. He's five years old and she showed up here demand that we do something about gun violence, is that a temper tantrum? Is elevating our voices for justice or change a temper tantrum? But there's something in the decorum of this body that makes it okay to say that folks who are exercising their First Amendment rights, to speak up for the hundreds of thousands of people collectively that we represent, there's some thing in the décorum of his body that says it's okay to call that a temper tantrum, to call people we disagree with on the issues, to say all they want is a temper.
Rep. Justin J. Pearson [00:19:59] So they assault the individuals instead of attacking the problems with assault weapons. It's such a disconnect from the reality that we have a responsibility to do something. And it doesn't have to be this way. There was a time in this country where you couldn't buy an assault weapon. Assault weapons were banned. But the National Rifle Association, organizations like the Tennessee Firearms Association have created a mythology that is disconnected from the realty of everyone else in the of Tennessee. 71 percent of people want to see more gun safety laws, such as having a permit to carry a firearm. That's a lot of people. Do you know that also includes MAGA Republicans?
Shilpi Chhotray [00:20:43] Really?
Rep. Justin J. Pearson [00:20:44] There are MAGA Republicans, a significant percentage of MAGA Republicans who want to see gun safety laws. There's a guy I know who owns a gun range who says, me and every last one of my employees want for there to be a permit in order for you to be able to carry a firearm. Republican mainstream and politics is not connected to the mainstream gun owners who want more gun safety. And you know, I lost one of my brothers in December to gun violence. He died by suicide in December 2024.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:21:18] I'm so sorry.
Rep. Justin J. Pearson [00:21:19] I know, it was horrible. Worst day of my life for sure. I mean, he didn't show these signs, but there are people who do, who are having, you know difficult mental health crises. There's no red flag law to say, hey, the police officer needs to take the firearm away from them. You want to give yourself as many tools as possible to keep people alive. That's the job. And I'm sick and tired of the thoughts and prayers. How are you offering thoughts and prays when you have the pen? You are the one responsible for the laws. You got thoughts and praise when you're not in power. You get you you do work when you got the job. You change the law when you've got the job, but if you don't care about people's pain and you're more interested in the money or more interested and what Beretta is doing, because they literally signed a law in a Beretta factory here in Tennessee, we're going backwards. We are going backwards, and we are living with the consequences of that decision-making, which is why it's important that we still organize, even when it seems so dark. We still need to be doing. March for our lives, we still need to be doing Moms Demand Action, Students Demand Actions, Group Here, Young Minds United, Freedom from Unnecessary Negatives, Moms Over Murder. We still have to organize because it can't be like this forever. It can't like this for ever.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:22:46] I'll tell you, you know, I graduated from Virginia Tech University in 2007, 32 students were killed. It was the largest school shooting at that time. Then 2008 happened. We thought things would get better. 2009, 2010, we kept waiting and waiting and wait for anyone to do anything. And like you're saying, it's just getting worse. And this was, you know, almost 20 years ago. In the position you're in, what does give you hope?
Rep. Justin J. Pearson [00:23:21] My hope comes from people like you, people in our community. I had a town hall and Hashim was there. He's nine years old. And I met his mom, Jennifer, and she said, he made me come. I said, what are you talking about? He saw your flyer in the mail and he said, we've got to go. She said he was an accent. He said, we got to go, take me here. Take me to this meeting. I want to know what's going on at nine years old.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:23:56] That's incredible.
Rep. Justin J. Pearson [00:23:58] Things are not gonna get better because time keeps passing. It's because what we do with the time that we have can help to change and create the conditions of the world that we live in. And so the world that we continue to pass forward to Hashim is going to be different if we stay focused and committed. But if there's no town hall for him to go to, if there is no news for him read, if there are no people for him to look up to. Then we are leaving our kids and future generations of people to the devices of a status quo that is only interested in creating more profit over the needs, the desires, the wants of regular folk. Then so I'm getting hope from our people power because we still here through it all.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:24:47] You know, in today's climate, there's even more risk tied to speaking out. So how do you think about civil disobedience now?
Rep. Justin J. Pearson [00:24:55] Absolutely. I mean, we have to realize risk are real, but there's no justice without sacrifice. There's no just without risk. And I praise God for those who risk a lot in order for us to be here and have the opportunities that we currently have. I think oftentimes about the folks in Selma who march from Selma to Montgomery.
Clip [00:25:23] And the verse started on a mighty walk from Selma, Alabama. They told us we wouldn't get here. There were those who said that we would get here only over their dead bodies. Well, talk, talk. All the world today knows that we are here and we are standing before the forces of power in the state of Alabama saying we ain't gonna let nobody turn us around.
Rep. Justin J. Pearson [00:25:58] And I did this march with my brother once a few years ago, and when you walk up the bridge, it's a steep bridge. You can't see to the other side until you get to the top. And I think about that, the folks who marched and didn't see over just yet, but when they did, when they saw the state troopers on their horses and with their batons, when they the gas cans, when they saw the dogs, they didn't stop marching. They didn't stop marching. That is the spirit we must have, that is the Spirit we must engender and remind ourselves we are the inheritors of. It's of the people who kept marching. And people, there was violence against them. Some folks probably lost their jobs because their employers saw who they were. There was a lot that went into building up these marches and there was a lotta at stake. And I think there's a lotta stake for us now. And we have the responsibility, even at this moment, to speak up and to stand up. Texas House Democrats had to flee the state. We have to do whatever we possibly can in this moment to defend this experiment of this constitutional democratic republic. It's an experiment. It's not guaranteed. It's sure that this is going to be here forever. But what is sure is if we do nothing, we're going to continue to fall into fascism, autocracy. An oligarchy ruling and running our country, and we've gotta fight back with all that we have. And sometimes that means you've gotta do a sit-in. Sometimes that means that you've got to speak out of turn. Sometimes that mean you get expelled, even if you're an elected representative. Sometimes that you have to flee your state. Sometimes that it means you have a response and have five House seats in California become Democratic because Texas turned five Democratic seats into Republican-leaning districts. We've got to fight back with all that we have, and civil disobedience is an inheritance that we've learned from the struggles before us that we need to tap into now.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:28:15] So well said and you know I'm really concerned that once we get to the point of full-blown fascism it's very hard to turn back. I mean it's nearly impossible right? So this is actually the time before we get into the full- blown era which feels like every day we're getting closer. It also reminds me of something Nick Tilsen said who I had earlier this season. I'm not sure if you're familiar with him. He's this incredible Oglala Lakota activist. He said Sometimes you have to be willing to break unjust laws because if we don't organize against them, then they become normal. My follow-up question to you is what do you think of that statement as someone who's sworn in to protect that law and how do you grapple with that?
Rep. Justin J. Pearson [00:29:00] My responsibility is to protect and fight for and defend just laws. And the reality is these, a lot of the laws that we are seeing, or a lot of the actions, sometimes they aren't even laws, but a lot of the action, the policies that are being pushed are unjust. They're antithetical to the Constitution, antithetic to the Declaration of Independence. But we have to realize what happens, right? They pass an unjust law, you protest it, and they say, well, it's the law. But it was unjust the moment that you passed it. They may be law, but King called it, right? There has to be a consciousness above law. We have to have a consciousness that goes above what's written on pieces of paper because some of those things that are written on pieces a paper are wrong, are immoral, are unjust. And we, as people who believe in freedom, who believe injustice, who believe democracy, we also have to reclaim our stance on those issues. We got people who are literally trying to destroy the United States of America, and they're waving American flags as they do it. We can't take that. We have to say that is not America. That is not the country that we are. Kidnapping children, kidnapping parents, putting them in detention camps, sending them across the country, that's not American. Telling us that the Environmental Protection Agency is now the corporate Environmental Protection agency, that's now America. Having these activist judges in the United States Supreme Court who overturned Roe v. Wade taking away a woman's right to choose, which was constitutional law in this country for half of a century, that's not American. Maybe the law may have come from the Supreme Court, but that is not who we are and we have to use the institutions and we have to have people outside the institutions like those 7,000 people who marched in Nashville after the Covenant School shooting. We have to people outside of the institution who push the people within to do different to do better. But we need to reclaim our nation. We need to claim our stake in this country, and we have to fight with all that we've got to preserve what we know it ought to be, even though we know that's not what it is right now.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:31:09] I really appreciate you. I wish more representatives would think like you do. There is a question that I've been really excited to ask you, and it's around the money in politics which you've hit on. You know, we're seeing powerful lobbies like AIPAC pour unprecedented money into elections across the country, often to defeat progressive leaders of color who are vocal about Palestine. Could you explain how the APAC machine actually works to buy this influence in various levels of government?
Rep. Justin J. Pearson [00:31:41] Yeah, I mean, you see this with AIPAC. You see it with Blackwater. I think we need to have a different system for funding campaigns. When they were given the same rights as people and given the ability to put hundreds of millions of dollars into our politics, politics stopped being about people. It started being about what's good for companies. I see this at the state level. It may not be AIPAC, but the Tennessee Firearms Association or corporations gave themselves a $1.5 billion tax cut last session. Well, we don't think that you can tax us on our property. And the governor said, okay, we'll stop. So corporations are running our government. But when it comes down to who has the most money to knock the most doors, send the most mailers, reach out to the most people, take over the airwaves, it creates an imbalance. And an imbalance is bad for democracy because you don't get the best person. You get the most funded person. And that isn't good for us.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:32:52] So how do you keep people powered politics alive in the face of this all?
Rep. Justin J. Pearson [00:32:58] We have to keep organizing. I don't think we get our way out of this if we stop having really capable people in elected office. I don't think we'd get out of it if we just move to another country. I think we have to be more dedicated now than we have ever been before. And we cannot take our foot off of the gas just because it's not a presidential cycle, just because is not a national election. Who's your mayor? Who's your city counselor? Who's you county commissioner? Who's is your sheriff?
Shilpi Chhotray [00:33:34] And who are they getting money from?
Rep. Justin J. Pearson [00:33:35] Who are they getting money from and what are they doing in your name? It's really important to know Mike Johnson and John Thune and Mitch McConnell. It's good today people know those names, right? But we've got to know who is your Speaker of the House in your state. We have to get more proximate to the people who are closer to us because that is also where a lot of the ideology that we get out of the national government is starting to be late. In our lives here at the local municipal level. You need to know them because they are the ones who are closest to you and most responsive and responsible for you.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:34:17] Well, I have one last question for you, Representative Pearson. What's your message to all people, especially those who care about climate and democracy, and for those of us who may feel discouraged by the system?
Rep. Justin J. Pearson [00:34:32] But first, things are hard right now. And it's okay to recognize that we have these moments of joy of laughter of lightness. And we also can recognize that the situation is not the way we want for it to be. And the message is this, we are still alive, which means we still have an opportunity to something, whether that be to tell someone about the fight. Commune with someone else about the situation and that you want for it to be different and to cast a different vision into the world. We are still here. And so as long as we never quit, we can't ever lose. If we never quite, we can never lose. So we gotta keep going. And I'm in it with you for the long haul.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:35:25] Thank you, Representative Pearson. You are so badass. Thank you for showing us why people power still matters, even in the face of money and the power lined up against it. Thank you being here.
Rep. Justin J. Pearson [00:35:39] Thank you so much. You're an inspiration. Let's keep going.
Shilpi Chhotray [00:35:48] What stays with me after this conversation is democracy isn't something we inherit. It's something we practice. And after seeing a young elected leader like Representative Pearson take on unchecked power during the Trump era, it gives me a lot of hope for what's still possible. Tangible change happens wherever people refuse to be silenced, in the streets, in town halls, and in the stories we tell. If you like today's episode, share it, rate it, and drop us a line at hello at apeoplesclimate.org. Thank you to Wildseeds Fund for making this podcast possible. This episode of A People's Climate is executive produced by Mindy Ramaker, with engineering and sound design by Dennis Maxwell, theme music by Khafre Jay, and additional research by Sarah Morgan. Recorded at Studio 132 in Oakland, California. From Counterstream Media and The Nation, I'm your host, Shilpi Chhotray. Until next time.