F  L  A  U  N  T

 **Hi, I’m** [**Juliann McCandless**](https://www.instagram.com/juliannmccandless/?hl=en)**. I’m a stylist, creative director, and now I’m doing this show.**  The things that have happened within the last three years have definitely made my friend group more angry.  We try to give each other perspective.  You can be angry and empathetic.  Hi, I’m [Gabby Richardson](https://www.instagram.com/fridacashflow/?hl=en).  I am a model, artist, and curator for Art Hoe Collective: a queer POC centered collective where try to showcase the work of people who have been traditionally denied their stories AKA people of color, more specifically queer people of color.    **You guys have been operating for a long tie now.  Do you feel like giving representation to POC and queer POC within sectors, do you thinks help generate oppression?**   One of the best things we can do when we feel this sense of hopelessness is focus on our immediate community.    **Black oppression or oppression of people of color, it’s really tricky to talk about without police brutality and mass incarceration.  What are your thoughts on the rule of law in America and how it affects people of color?**  I think there are so many policies that are so vague that it can easily be abused.  I think that in part with voter suppression, where if you to jail, not if you go to jail, if you go to prison you can lose your right to vote.  This country has used prison to suppress the black community as a judgment, not under the guise of judgment, under the guise of justice.    **Absolutely, but I feel like a lot of people believe that like they believe that it is justice and they believe that everybody who is in jail has committed a crime.  I can’t remember the percentage right now, but so many people who are in jail haven’t been convicted of a crime.**   It’s like 34.    **Their lawyers will say, like you should just plead guilty because if you go to court you can actually get sentenced for longer.  If you take a plea deal it will be shorter.   There are so many people in prison who haven’t even been convicted.  They are just sitting out their sentence when realistically they might not even have done it.   Mostly I see it online, I see a lot of rhetoric about like this group is more oppressed than this group.  Or like don’t compare your struggle with my struggle, like oppression Olympics type stuff.  I wanted to get your view on that.**  It reminds me a lot when women tried to vote and black men tried to vote.  The black men and the white women were both looking for suffrage often their campaigns pitted them against one another.  The men would say super misogynistic things and the women would say super racist things.  But what about black women? There are people who coincide with both of your struggles, first of all.  Second of all, this person is not the reason why you’re not going to be able to vote.  It’s the people above the both of you.  White people think, often times that it is the minorities who are keeping them poor.  But it’s really, you know, the rich people, the billionaires.   **The power structure that are already in place.**   We are both suffering and we are suffering because of the same person.   **At the end of the day, this is the richest country in the world.  There is so much money here, the issue is that it is being hoarded by certain people, by the one percent.**   Donald Trump just put two trillion dollars into the military.  Two trillion dollars is not even a real amount of money.  It is just conceptual money at that point.   **Why is there no discussion of how are we going to pay for this two trillion dollars because whenever we discuss things for the people everyone is always asking how we are going to pay for it.  That’s not realistic, so why is it realistic for war or why do you think in this country?** Because the US is a country of conquest.  The US cares about expansion not maintenance.  People are worried about their own survival.  Also war is a big money maker.    **I was just going to say, the military industrial complex is going to profit. It’s all about money.**   Most things are about money. **At the end of the day, the people that it is going to affect is poor people.**  Yes, one hundred percent.  I do think there will be a lot more people trying to recruit and enlist people in impoverished neighborhoods throughout the US.  You’re not going to hear about a rich man’s son dying in war because who are they targeting to enlist.  Who are the people that they find are most disposable?  **Are you going to vote in the democratic primary?** I’m definitely voting.  You think I’d be out here not voting.  I encourage everyone to research what each person believes in and what their policies are.  I think in the time of social media, a lot of people vote for who they think is cool and who they think is cool is voting for.  People who are pushing for a green new deal, who are pushing prison reform, who are pushing to decrease funding in the military, because I think I personally believe in.  But I do also encourage people to vote for people who are not taking large donations of money from corporations and those are things I believe in. But I do encourage everyone to do their own research.    * * * Talent: Gabby Richardson Creator/Host: Juliann McCandless Director/Producer: Danielle Oexmann Cinematographer: Quinton Dominguez Production Assistant: Brayde Brown Editing: Sofia Kerpan Design: Sandro Grison