00:00:05
Speaker 1: Joining us now is Tennessee State Representative Justin J. Pearson. Thousands of families across Memphis are still without power after a powerful weekend storm, and many do not know when their lights will be back on. Representative Pearson, thank you so much for joining us. How are you today?
00:00:24
Speaker 2: I'm doing all right. Thank you so much for having me.
00:00:26
Speaker 1: I appreciate it absolutely so. For people who may not know what happened in Memphis this weekend, walk us through the storm and the damage it caused.
00:00:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we had what's called a straight line wind if you think about a tornado going horizontal with some thunderstorms on top of that. That's what happened to our community, and several trees over down, hitting pipe, hitting the power lines, which ultimately is what impacted our electrical grid. Frustratingly, we don't know if some of the industries that are using and on our electric grid as well, including these data centers, if their power is down or if they've reduced their power consumption so that people could be getting access to more electricity. We don't know that, but that is what has happened to us, and it's impacting now. We had up to over one hundred thousand customers and people and impacted. And now it's about seventy thousand people who still aren't need of electricity here.
00:01:20
Speaker 1: And what are you hearing from families who have gone since Saturday now without any electricity?
00:01:27
Speaker 2: You know, the main frustration that people have now is not having the food because the refrigerator obviously is not working. And so we're working diligently to make sure people can reapply for SNAP benefits. Actually our organization is helping to buy some generators for families. But it's really frustrating time as you can imagine not being able to have one of the basic necessities that you need in order to live, especially for our families with children. And so we're handing out hot meals simultaneously to just help people to survive these days and survive these times. But our community is coming together in the way that we really always have, but now we need it more than ever, and we're going to have to figure out what to do because these extreme weather events are going to likely continue due to climate change and pollution and all these things that are happening. But our community is we're finding back together and stronger.
00:02:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I want to ask you about resources. I know you were mentioning on your social media that you were going to be updating that constantly for people who need some of those resources. Is there something that you can share where people can go. Is it still your social media? What can you tell us?
00:02:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, please go to my social media justin J. Pearson to see all the resources that are available today. I'll be posting some ways. Some folks have reached out very lovingly to donate to what we're doing here in Memphis is also to donate to what's happening in Gary, and I talked with the mayor there yesterday. But we want to make sure we're providing immediate assistance, whether it be financial, whether it be food, to make sure that people are taking care of and after this, we want to make sure folks are not charged for these utility bills. We want to make sure that people are protected as well from the harm that is likely to happen and to come from an incident like this that we did not anticipate or expect, but that's going to have some severe consequences for the families, particularly the most vulnerable families in our communities.
00:03:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you brought up AI data centers. I wanted to ask you. You know you've been sounding the alarm about these AI data centers. Can you explain just a little bit more how they've contributed to this power crisis.
00:03:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, data centers, particularly these hyperscale data centers, are contributing to the power crisis that we're dealing with because they're on our electric grid. They are straining grids, which in essence means they are using so much power that otherwise be going to people's homes. For instance, in Memphis, one of the data centers uses roughly the same amount of power as four hundred thousand homes in a city of six hundred thousand people. That's how much of a strain they're putting on grided on our resources. And we are being told, well, they're going to build their own substations, or they can power themselves. But when they power themselves, oftentimes they're using illegal gas turbines that pollute the air that we breathe. That ultimately leads to more cancer, more asthma, more COPD, and sort of a ligny of other problems that have to be addressed and that have their own economic consequences, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars themselves due to premature deaths that people are dealing with, which is why we need to have moratorium on these data centers in our communities. We are not ready for this, and then when incidents like this happen, there's no guarantee that they're reducing their load reducing the strain on our electric grid either, which needs to be in law and codified as well.
00:04:47
Speaker 1: And you've also raised concerns about these data centers being placed in black neighborhoods. Why do you believe these communities are carrying so much of this burden.
00:04:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, most Black communities are carrying the burden of legacy and hyper skilled data centers because this is what has always happened. We've been treated as the quote unquote sacrifice zones of industry for generations. It's no coincidence, and there's great research by the Southern Environmental Law Center about this that the same places that used to be plantations are now where we have plants. The same communities where where we were enslaved on plantations are the places where our lungs and our lives are being destroyed by the pollution from valero or refineries and steel mills and Tennessee Valley Authority and companies like Spacexai, which is run by Elon Musk. They don't view us and our humanity is worthy of protecting, and our elected officials have a responsibility of doing that. And unfortunately, we have Democrats and Republicans, black and white, who are also participating in our exploitation. And that's what I've been fighting against for the last two years alongside my community, and we're going to continue to do Yeah, you know you, and I would just say this last thing, mad me. In fact, sixty seven percent of plan data centers are coming to rural America. They're going to rural areas right, which overwhelmingly are white rural areas. So we've got an opportunity to build solidarity with our white brother sisters and siblings, our black brother sisters and siblings, our Native American family, because this isn't an issue about them and us. It's about the billionaire class versus the rest of us.
00:06:35
Speaker 1: And I know these are some of the issues that you have been fighting for for the last two years. And really quickly just shifting gears, just really really quickly. I know Republicans read threw that congressional district, splitting up Memphis and weakening that black voting power, but you still won the Democratic primary. What did that victory say to you?
00:06:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it says to me that people power always wins. And now we're pushing towards the general here on, and we're building a coalition, like I mentioned, of solidarity of white folks, of black folks, richer folks, and poor folks, and together we're going to win this congressional race. Because maps don't vote. People do.
00:07:12
Speaker 1: And I know you're running, as you just said, you know the people do, but you're running in a district that favors Republican How do you convince the voters outside of your traditional base that you should represent them in Congress.
00:07:24
Speaker 2: You know, I've had the opportunity to travel all fifteen counties, and I'm going to counties like in Giles County where Pulaski, where the ku Kluk Klan was found at one hundred and sixty one years ago, and it's one hundred and fifty people at the community center when we just thought it was going to be twelve. There's a lot of momentum. People are feeling optimism, people are feeling hope who otherwise haven't. And there are a lot of disaffected MAGA or disaffected Republicans who viewed themselves differently from the MAGA extremists. They don't want to be viewed as those extremists, radical people who just don't want any progress. They want government to actually work. They want endless wars to stop, they want healthcare, they want good jobs. They want us to make sure that we're doing everything we can to stop these toxic data centers. And that's how we build the coalition, because they have even told me they've never voted for a Democrat before in their life, but because I'm against data centers there for us, that's how we win. We find common ground without compromising our values.
00:08:21
Speaker 1: Absolutely absolutely now and lastly, I want to ask you, do you know when people can realistically expect the lights to come back on? What are you hearing from the power company? You know?
00:08:32
Speaker 2: For what we are hearing is it won't be until a Thursday that we'll get one hundred percent power restoration. Between now and then, we're going to be cooking food, delivering food. We're buying generators, and we're doing everything we can to be of service to our community and we'll be setting up mutual aid, which is what we've always done, but these networks will be helping to support them, fund them, grow them, and be prepared as discontinues into the future, especially heading to the Faller in the winter months.
00:08:59
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and just one more time, if you could say your social media so people can make sure that they are plugged into where they can get that help.
00:09:06
Speaker 2: Absolutely, Please go to Justin J. Pearson on Instagram, on Facebook, Justin J. Pearson and Justin J. Pearson for Congress are the places you can go. We're also on TikTok as well as the real Justin J. Pearson and We're going to continue to share everything that we possibly can as quickly as we can. And I'll be out there today at a couple of different locations at the Samwich Shop at four point thirty where would be delivering food too wrap. Justin J.
00:09:31
Speaker 1: Pearson, thank you so much for your time.
00:09:34
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. I keep the faith in the fight.
00:09:38
Speaker 1: That's your front page. I'm Meanie Brown. This podcast was brought to you by the Black Effect Podcast Network.
Speaker 1: Joining us now is Tennessee State Representative Justin J. Pearson. Thousands of families across Memphis are still without power after a powerful weekend storm, and many do not know when their lights will be back on. Representative Pearson, thank you so much for joining us. How are you today?
00:00:24
Speaker 2: I'm doing all right. Thank you so much for having me.
00:00:26
Speaker 1: I appreciate it absolutely so. For people who may not know what happened in Memphis this weekend, walk us through the storm and the damage it caused.
00:00:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we had what's called a straight line wind if you think about a tornado going horizontal with some thunderstorms on top of that. That's what happened to our community, and several trees over down, hitting pipe, hitting the power lines, which ultimately is what impacted our electrical grid. Frustratingly, we don't know if some of the industries that are using and on our electric grid as well, including these data centers, if their power is down or if they've reduced their power consumption so that people could be getting access to more electricity. We don't know that, but that is what has happened to us, and it's impacting now. We had up to over one hundred thousand customers and people and impacted. And now it's about seventy thousand people who still aren't need of electricity here.
00:01:20
Speaker 1: And what are you hearing from families who have gone since Saturday now without any electricity?
00:01:27
Speaker 2: You know, the main frustration that people have now is not having the food because the refrigerator obviously is not working. And so we're working diligently to make sure people can reapply for SNAP benefits. Actually our organization is helping to buy some generators for families. But it's really frustrating time as you can imagine not being able to have one of the basic necessities that you need in order to live, especially for our families with children. And so we're handing out hot meals simultaneously to just help people to survive these days and survive these times. But our community is coming together in the way that we really always have, but now we need it more than ever, and we're going to have to figure out what to do because these extreme weather events are going to likely continue due to climate change and pollution and all these things that are happening. But our community is we're finding back together and stronger.
00:02:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I want to ask you about resources. I know you were mentioning on your social media that you were going to be updating that constantly for people who need some of those resources. Is there something that you can share where people can go. Is it still your social media? What can you tell us?
00:02:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, please go to my social media justin J. Pearson to see all the resources that are available today. I'll be posting some ways. Some folks have reached out very lovingly to donate to what we're doing here in Memphis is also to donate to what's happening in Gary, and I talked with the mayor there yesterday. But we want to make sure we're providing immediate assistance, whether it be financial, whether it be food, to make sure that people are taking care of and after this, we want to make sure folks are not charged for these utility bills. We want to make sure that people are protected as well from the harm that is likely to happen and to come from an incident like this that we did not anticipate or expect, but that's going to have some severe consequences for the families, particularly the most vulnerable families in our communities.
00:03:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you brought up AI data centers. I wanted to ask you. You know you've been sounding the alarm about these AI data centers. Can you explain just a little bit more how they've contributed to this power crisis.
00:03:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, data centers, particularly these hyperscale data centers, are contributing to the power crisis that we're dealing with because they're on our electric grid. They are straining grids, which in essence means they are using so much power that otherwise be going to people's homes. For instance, in Memphis, one of the data centers uses roughly the same amount of power as four hundred thousand homes in a city of six hundred thousand people. That's how much of a strain they're putting on grided on our resources. And we are being told, well, they're going to build their own substations, or they can power themselves. But when they power themselves, oftentimes they're using illegal gas turbines that pollute the air that we breathe. That ultimately leads to more cancer, more asthma, more COPD, and sort of a ligny of other problems that have to be addressed and that have their own economic consequences, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars themselves due to premature deaths that people are dealing with, which is why we need to have moratorium on these data centers in our communities. We are not ready for this, and then when incidents like this happen, there's no guarantee that they're reducing their load reducing the strain on our electric grid either, which needs to be in law and codified as well.
00:04:47
Speaker 1: And you've also raised concerns about these data centers being placed in black neighborhoods. Why do you believe these communities are carrying so much of this burden.
00:04:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, most Black communities are carrying the burden of legacy and hyper skilled data centers because this is what has always happened. We've been treated as the quote unquote sacrifice zones of industry for generations. It's no coincidence, and there's great research by the Southern Environmental Law Center about this that the same places that used to be plantations are now where we have plants. The same communities where where we were enslaved on plantations are the places where our lungs and our lives are being destroyed by the pollution from valero or refineries and steel mills and Tennessee Valley Authority and companies like Spacexai, which is run by Elon Musk. They don't view us and our humanity is worthy of protecting, and our elected officials have a responsibility of doing that. And unfortunately, we have Democrats and Republicans, black and white, who are also participating in our exploitation. And that's what I've been fighting against for the last two years alongside my community, and we're going to continue to do Yeah, you know you, and I would just say this last thing, mad me. In fact, sixty seven percent of plan data centers are coming to rural America. They're going to rural areas right, which overwhelmingly are white rural areas. So we've got an opportunity to build solidarity with our white brother sisters and siblings, our black brother sisters and siblings, our Native American family, because this isn't an issue about them and us. It's about the billionaire class versus the rest of us.
00:06:35
Speaker 1: And I know these are some of the issues that you have been fighting for for the last two years. And really quickly just shifting gears, just really really quickly. I know Republicans read threw that congressional district, splitting up Memphis and weakening that black voting power, but you still won the Democratic primary. What did that victory say to you?
00:06:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it says to me that people power always wins. And now we're pushing towards the general here on, and we're building a coalition, like I mentioned, of solidarity of white folks, of black folks, richer folks, and poor folks, and together we're going to win this congressional race. Because maps don't vote. People do.
00:07:12
Speaker 1: And I know you're running, as you just said, you know the people do, but you're running in a district that favors Republican How do you convince the voters outside of your traditional base that you should represent them in Congress.
00:07:24
Speaker 2: You know, I've had the opportunity to travel all fifteen counties, and I'm going to counties like in Giles County where Pulaski, where the ku Kluk Klan was found at one hundred and sixty one years ago, and it's one hundred and fifty people at the community center when we just thought it was going to be twelve. There's a lot of momentum. People are feeling optimism, people are feeling hope who otherwise haven't. And there are a lot of disaffected MAGA or disaffected Republicans who viewed themselves differently from the MAGA extremists. They don't want to be viewed as those extremists, radical people who just don't want any progress. They want government to actually work. They want endless wars to stop, they want healthcare, they want good jobs. They want us to make sure that we're doing everything we can to stop these toxic data centers. And that's how we build the coalition, because they have even told me they've never voted for a Democrat before in their life, but because I'm against data centers there for us, that's how we win. We find common ground without compromising our values.
00:08:21
Speaker 1: Absolutely absolutely now and lastly, I want to ask you, do you know when people can realistically expect the lights to come back on? What are you hearing from the power company? You know?
00:08:32
Speaker 2: For what we are hearing is it won't be until a Thursday that we'll get one hundred percent power restoration. Between now and then, we're going to be cooking food, delivering food. We're buying generators, and we're doing everything we can to be of service to our community and we'll be setting up mutual aid, which is what we've always done, but these networks will be helping to support them, fund them, grow them, and be prepared as discontinues into the future, especially heading to the Faller in the winter months.
00:08:59
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and just one more time, if you could say your social media so people can make sure that they are plugged into where they can get that help.
00:09:06
Speaker 2: Absolutely, Please go to Justin J. Pearson on Instagram, on Facebook, Justin J. Pearson and Justin J. Pearson for Congress are the places you can go. We're also on TikTok as well as the real Justin J. Pearson and We're going to continue to share everything that we possibly can as quickly as we can. And I'll be out there today at a couple of different locations at the Samwich Shop at four point thirty where would be delivering food too wrap. Justin J.
00:09:31
Speaker 1: Pearson, thank you so much for your time.
00:09:34
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. I keep the faith in the fight.
00:09:38
Speaker 1: That's your front page. I'm Meanie Brown. This podcast was brought to you by the Black Effect Podcast Network.
