Speak To The Mic Podcast Show – The Divine 9 Episode

All right all right all right ladies and gentlemen thank you again so much for tuning in to this show this is speak to the mic the unfiltered unapologetic uncensored podcast i am your host marlon joseph you discuss with you the very issues that plague our communities on an everyday

Basis creating content and providing information to our communities that we can actually apply and help advance us as a culture and as a community and acknowledging those black men and women on an everyday basis who are making a difference and immediate impacts in the black community as it pertains to our everyday life

And uh without further ado i want to make before i even go into introducing my panel today which is a full house i really appreciate every last one of you all for being on this show for this particular episode to really unpack some very issues that we

Have to talk more about right and i want to help start this conversation because it’s going to be an ongoing one for sure and um but before i go in any further than that i want to say put this disclaimer out that we are black men and women

Are in no way representing our organizations as spokesmen or women for our organizations but we are members of our organization proud members of our organizations speaking on behalf of ourselves and just giving our perspectives and experience as it pertains to what we want to see more

And what we have been involved in thus far so um with that being said i want to make sure i go in the right uh greek alphabetic order when it comes to the founding of our organizations and when it comes to introducing my panel guests for today

Uh mark anthony a member of alpha phi alpha fraternity incorporated kimberly stovall is a member of alpha kappa alpha sorority incorporated noel rock a member of kappa alpha psi fraternity incorporated uh waiting on three other members to join us uh but i can just get past them for the

For for the moment and go on let’s see who we have here on the show today okay we have also carrell ogusby who is a member of zeta five i’m sorry sigma gamma rho sorority group i’m sorry i apologize yes the zeta phi beta incorporated

Yes i saw the blue and i i got mistaken for that um denise doss is a member of sigma gamma rho sorority incorporated and my boy pasquel cook who is a member of iodify theta fraternity incorporated um as the other three members of our divine nine uh

Uh enters the uh the episode and joins us momentarily i wanna just thank you all again for uh you know taking this time to be on the show with me and uh definitely give your insight and perspective on you know what we like to talk about for this particular episode

That can trillian yes i really did i’m so sorry i went see not having everybody on the call in the right time actually throws me completely up cause i already had it in my mind exactly when when everyone was founded so yes let me make sure i i’d be clear about this with

This introduction so katria uh lashore is a very good friend of mine and she also is a proud member of delta sigma theta sorority incorporated so i want to make sure i i give you your flowers and each and every one of you are your flowers

For what you do on an everyday basis and uh again thank you all for joining this show um so i guess we can we can dive right into it you all uh again thanks for being on here taking the time to discuss these issues um so my first

Question i want to start off mark with you so in the wake of us seeing something very um un-historic if you will traditionally speaking when we think about the what 244 vice presidents have been elected uh into the uh vice presidency a seeing the first woman and the first black woman

Be a member not only a a howard university graduate a hbcu graduate of course but also a member of alpha kappa alpha sorority incorporated madam vice president kamala harris to see her in that seat as the most powerful woman in the world holding the second most powerful seat in

The world what what precedence would you say that has set for representation when it comes to black men and women who are political figures from our organizations molly first thank you for having me on man i really appreciate it uh happy to be here with everyone hello everybody

Um i am traveling today hence why i look like i am from men in black um but i’m just happy to be here yeah um so to your question man i think that having um a member of first uh hbcu and a d9 as well

Um in a seat that is in my opinion probably more powerful in some sense um in some regard i think that lends itself to showing the world that um black men and women do have the capability to do whatever we put our minds to if given opportunities

And i think that being in that position she really opens the doors for all the little black boys and black girls that have gone through this you know world in this place of not being seen and having to be ten times better is the thing but then you get to a place where

You are ten times better and it’s still not enough and i think it’s very interesting that um you know first we have barack obama in the presidency and now you have kamala harris as the vp and the reality is the treatments that they were seeing is not deemed anywhere near harmful

As what we just had in the office previously right so they are treated as lackluster in the knee where in fact the smallest thing that’s said on that opposite in recently would have put many of us in very precarious positions as a people right which it did and so i think that

Her strength um of knowing that she had the power in this because she is the reason and stacey abrams is the reason and some other strong black women are the reason why joe biden is in office i think having that in the forefront um it goes to show that

Hbtu’s d9 and the black community is so strong that we produce leaders whether they have to lead from behind the scenes or lead within from in front of the seas we are what it means to be america and although that’s been tried to be stripped away from us so many times

Countless signs again we are resilient and prove that we will stand we will fight and we will serve our world right and i think her being in that seat it really shows that the black people as a race are not out to have vengeance on anybody all we want to do

Is seek unity and to live a life that is the american dream and that dream does not look the same as though the white pig offense to dream that it once used to be all you want to do now is just be free and to live and raise a family

And to be a you know represented or respected as a true human and i think having her in that office really um i don’t think it does much to a large degree for the other you know the majority in a sense yeah but i think it does a lot for us as

A black people to know that regardless of what people say if you put your mind to something and you believe in yourself and the people that are in your community believe in you and you know that you have that there’s no reason to seek anything else because

When we come together as a people and we stick together as a people we have some strong power within us so i think her being there really represents that for us and serves as a reminder you know yeah absolutely man and you know what uh and even in the wake of that so

Representation matters right and in in the society that we live in today symbolic gestures also matter so to have her as a symbol per se obviously she’s not the first you know political figure who was also a member of one of our divine now organizations but and she understands that and she’s she’s

Been able to even accredit the the very shoulders and backs she’s standing on the day for her to even get to this point right so it took a lot of our men and women who you know in yesteryear were out here fighting advocating for us to have equal rights and things of that

Nature and even from a political standpoint being in that position does oftentimes see us in a negative light most of the time because even as a black woman for her she’s getting deemed as oh she’s too ambitious she’s too negative she’s too this to that when we have to still be politically and

Professionally you know our attitudes have to still be up to par right we can’t just write we can’t just tell people off we can’t cuss at him like the way we really want to because i i can i can almost tell in some cases looking at her and thinking about what

She could be possibly thinking when it comes to responding to some of the reddit that’s being thrown her weight the fact that she still holds her reputation and her her image at an all-time high says a lot about how we as black people are to basically do the same thing right

We’re being put we’ve been asked to do so much but yet not getting very we get very little credit for and recognition for so for us to give a great recognition and even shed some light on how she understands the the way has been paid for her to get here

I appreciate her for even highlighting that too and um i think that’s a great point um and a great uh response from you mr anthony we also i’m an advocate for children so we have to look in terms of what that do to our black children what is happening today

That we didn’t see when we were younger to see someone to have that much power or in power that looked like them oh this has a limit in their in their heads or in their imagination so it shows them that they can do it in the in the

Being that the role has been paid for them they can actually be put in those positions it gives that self-confidence so it helps them with their a confident booster just someone looks like them is is halfway ruling the world so i think with her and mr obama vice president vice president i’m sorry

Former president obama uh having that same platform at one time it has i think has been a confident booster for our kids and i think that that helps them in the long run with their lives yeah absolutely you know it came to you i want to direct

This question the same question to you as well for just to talk about the very precedence that has that this particular moment has set for us right so to that point you just made about our young black girls seeing an image of what they could be ultimately right i

Have a daughter and i’m raising my daughter to believe that no one can ever tell you what you can and cannot do no man no woman no anyone i don’t care who it is you can you set your mind on a goal and you execute that goal you can do

Anything you want in life and so for me to see that in my young daughter’s eyes to see a vice president who looks like her i appreciate it from that standpoint and and i don’t want to i know we oftentimes fixate on the symbolic gestures and say oh well you

Know this person stands for this and this we put so much pressure on that one person without understanding or even unpacking the very history that it took for that person to get there right i also want to you know sometimes talk about that a lot more too

But but it what what more like can i say one thing with that i’m sorry i had one piece to that because that was a very key point that you just said as well i think a lot of times when others get into those offices we give them a lot of

Leniency and we give a lot of forgiveness and we give a lot of well this wasn’t meant right he didn’t mean this or okay well he said that but he said i apologize one thing i definitely want people to remember as we have these conversations is that just because she’s in that

Office does not make her purpose just because barack obama lives in that office does not make it perfect and so i feel a lot of times what we do is we hold them to this highest team because they made it there but then we don’t allow them to be used

And i want us to be very conscious of the fact that she will be in that office and we won’t like everything she does so we won’t agree with everything she does but the reality is that at the end of the day the symbolism of it still is something for some child

That will do the right thing one day too right and that doesn’t mean she’s going to do anything wrong but it does mean that if she does give her the same respect to say she’s still a black woman in a position and she has made it whether you agree with what she’s doing

Or not absolutely and even to that area right this is the first one this is the first woman and first black woman in that position so she’s not going to get everything right the first time but what it’s going to do is it’s going to set even more

Presidents for the next person or the next woman next black woman to to take that stand after her and go even further same thing with barack obama too he was the first black president but again we that’s not even speaking about all of those young men and women who are aspiring to be

Presidents in their own right so when that time comes for them they’ll be able to take what barack obama set out that blueprint that he laid out and then go even further with it advance it to a point where now the next person after you have to go

Even further than that so that would be the ultimate challenge for everybody taking that place after them and so i do appreciate that uh mark what you saying that so uh noel i want to direct this to you too and before i before i go to you with this

Question uh james butts a member of phi beta sigma fraternity thank you for joining us brother i really appreciate you uh taking the time to to kind of delve in with us with this conversation uh no well to you um what presidents for you this moment set

With common lahers being the first woman and first black woman as madam vice president um firstly uh again thank you for the invitation to your uh to your forum um for me uh good brother i got to be honest with you um i i kind of come from a different

Uh platform of thought in that um it’s it’s a good moral and visual victory for us as a people but i’m more focused on the work like what’s really going to happen for our people at this point now right um my thing is yes she does have the connection being

First of all black being a black woman that not only comes from a caribbean background which i am also a part of that caribbean community she understands what it’s like to grow up in certain neighborhoods what it’s like to to live as a black person as a black woman right she also

Comes with that other side of the coin being a political figure now me personally i’m not a fan of either either of the two top political parties republican or democrat and and i say that because us as as black folks we have leaned on the democratic party for a number of years

And i still think that we’re in a position where nothing is really changed for us right absolutely so this is really a chance for her um to really show us hey i’m really in it for the work not for the accolades not for me to throw up

You know the the aka pinky and we’re chucks and and say that i’m down with y’all but not really changing anything for us now it’s really a platform for her to say look we have some real issues in the black community that i myself am going to address and

I’m going to look to fix in the next four years it’s not about for me again it’s a visual victory because again like like like kim said um when when young black men and young black women see her in that platform they can aspire to be the same thing or even greater

Right but we don’t want to we don’t want to have the same discussion four years later like yeah it was cool to have her in there but what did she really do you know so again i’m more focused on what will her work be toward the black community that she

Is so associated with i mean that that’s my main thing again visual victory moral victory but i’m focused on the work it’s kind of like when you bring in a new line of news or a new line of history rose whatever it is yeah it’s cool visually

Okay you brought a new line you got 13 new members but what are they going to really do for the organization what are they going to do for the community what are they going to do for themselves you understand what i mean so at the end of the day um

I think that we have beaten a dead horse a lot of times with these political parties we believed in one person and believe that they’re going to change the world for us and i still think that black people are still anchored in a lot of ways

So again i would love to see what her work is going to be in the next four years that’s that’s my view absolutely you know what it is it’s fair to even make that assessment right especially given that like i said before we oftentimes get fixated on the symbolic gestures of placeholders right

But also keeping in mind too we have to take into account that the the very political [ __ ] if you will that surround her does make her job a lot harder to get things done right just same thing with with barack obama mitch mcconnell was on record saying that he purposely made [ __ ] hard

For rock to get [ __ ] done preferably for our community and and laughed about it on fox news so those type of things have to also be taken to account for the very things that actually gets done versus and i’ll say this to you um yes there have been many roadblocks and stumbling blocks

For people of our hue in those positions barack obama obviously being the first example of that and kamala harris is not going to be exempt from that right absolutely but making it hard does not make it impossible that’s my point you understand just because it’s hard doesn’t mean it’s impossible

Right if she shows me that she’s willing to do the work and she’s pushing these agendas for us as a people but let’s say that there’s still roadblocks in the way and she doesn’t get everything accomplished i’ll be satisfied with that you understand but don’t tell us one thing

Don’t don’t show us a smoke screen and then behind closed doors you’re really about your own agenda you understand i think that we as a people have been burned we’ve been burned too many times by these two main political parties i personally think that we need to think more on an independent level

But i’m also about giving people a chance right so let’s give the sister a chance to see what it is that she can really do and not only that i think it’s it’s it’s our responsibility as her supporters to reach out to her and let her know what we think

But she also needs to extend that outrage back out to us and say hey i need your help so this is what i’m looking to do or this is what i’m thinking of doing how can y’all pitch in how can y’all help so it kind of it’s kind of a two-way street

That i’m thinking but again i’m all about the work absolutely man that’s the thing too man we have to help her help us right so the same thing with barack obama we can’t ask him to be the president of all black people right that’s not fair to him and it’s

Not fair to her to be the vice president of all black people because the fate of the culture can’t fall on one person’s shoulder if we’re not helping her help us then we’re doing a disservice to ourselves too and so and the possibility falls on not just her

But for us too to not let her know inform her on what it is we need because everybody don’t know what everybody needs at what time and and when right so that that’s a very insightful uh assessment that you brought up so julia i want to bring this to you too so being

A woman in a sorority uh what president did it set for you to see this this this unfold being in the 2021 year that we’re in seeing a black woman is a representation of us as a vice president um well first of all just thanks thank you again

For inviting me to this poem um as a black woman um i feel as though first of all her being a woman running for the office was an amazing thing on top of they have to realize you know dealing with our organization you know years ago you know shirley chisholm also tried to

Run as well you know well for the president’s spot but i feel as though that because of the fact that she was like a forerunner to like set it you know set it out for us to where hey we can do this you know if i can do it then anybody

Else can do it and for kamala to come and to be able to you know represent for not only being a black woman not only being an hbcu student or a graduate i’m sorry and not also um only that but also being um a woman part of a greek organization

That stood out a lot for me and because the fact of dylan you know in the organization you know we’re all about you know social action you know we want to get people out there to you know register to vote you know um spread the word and i think um

In marlin you can attest to this when uh we was at rest i know my freshman year one of the first things that they did for us um freshman year was made us go registered to vote that was one of the first things that they made us do

And we had to walk from russ all the way up to um the multi building to register to vote you know and that sparked me to be able to um say hey you know anything to better our community i’m all for it but the one thing that i

Dislike about you know some of the things that are happening in the community or not we see that this woman is doing what she’s you know doing her best but we have some of our folks you know who who just really don’t care you know

And i see it on facebook all the time where so many people like okay um speaking of about what has obama done for the black community um trump has done more for our community than obama did for the you know i’m like listen y’all you have to realize just like what noel was

Speaking about earlier it’s all about the work that needs to be done and it’s like some of us we always we have our hand out all the time looking for someone to give us something but what are we doing for our own community that’s the question

And so with kamala hopefully that was a motivation for everybody from every nationality to be able to do what needs to be done to bring us all together because dealing with this election we’ve seen a lot of unity i’ve seen things that i’ve never seen before in a long time and even for

Older people because you know back then you know even though i mean they fought for us you know some people have died just you know to be able to vote and so for me to see this unity that has happened you know dealing with the election

I mean it it sparked motivation for all of us so for me to see the first black woman to you know be vice president you know she has said in stone that hey if i can do it anybody else can do it so that’s that’s my take on it yeah

Absolutely you know we have to with the momentum that we we have gained over this time period right we have to keep our foot on the gas pedal and and being being monolithic is is at an all-time high of importance right now we have to be together in order to get real change

To really impact change and really get to see the change that we want to see in our community so i really appreciate that from that standpoint uh james i’m a circle to you on this question too um as far as precedence what what what

Did it mean for you to see a black woman who obviously is a member of the divine nine as well and uh a graduate of h of an hbcu to be the vice president of the united states you’re on mute james i can’t hear you i think you still you

You’re still a mute okay i think he’s getting his microphone together i still can’t hear you you can hear me yeah i i can’t hear you maybe if i learn how to fix my all right stuff if i learn how to fix my pc stuff and stop moving around it wouldn’t come out

The plug probably oh you’re good man technology is definitely something that everybody s4 has been forced to have to get used to now especially with the zoom and right all that good stuff so right i’m gonna blame it on the captain invite me to the meeting late but yeah

They’re always trying to make the bros look bad see all right all right listen y’all do it to yourself man but we ain’t gonna go there we go all right but oh getting back to the topic man um for me for me it was definitely um

A a heartwarming uh because you know my intent was to vote for her for president anyway um you know a lot of us are uh so cynical about um people’s quote unquote past um in their in in their job it i i you know when we talk about her being the ag

Or the um uh prosecutor um in california i’m wondering sometimes what do we intend for black prosecutors to do just ignore crimes that that black people commit i mean is that is that what we want to do she put a whole bunch of black people in

Jail look hold up how’d the black people get to the court in the first place yep you know but i’m i’m a different thinker when it when it when it comes to them i’m i don’t want to say um a lot of us don’t have critical thinking skills but unfortunately a lot

Of us don’t have critical thinking skills um but for me like i said it was very heartwarming to see her um become the first black female vice president i’m hoping that she can ascend to the next level but there’s work to do on the lower end because you know what i’ve learned

Throughout my political um career in terms of being active in politics since i was a kid my grandparents you know and my family worked with the mayor’s office and served in the mayor’s office throughout many years in my on my hometown of gary indiana where we don’t we had the second black

Elected mayor in the nation um the honorable richard g hatcher back in the day um who had a 20-year run as the mayor pretty much of gary indiana but nonetheless and we had the first black female um if i’m not mistaken in the house of representatives miss

Honorable miss katie hall so i was i’ve been always active so to speak in politics um but where i was going with that is that we don’t things do not work from the top down they work from the bottom up i don’t care what people you know their their desires

Of things to change starts right here yep and nobody wants to be challenged to make a change because the hardest thing to get people to do is to change and the more and more my people fight to change themselves the harder it’s going to be for us as a community

Because i’ve always thought you know i’m sure a lot of the people on this panel have heard of gary indiana raise your hand if you have and not just because of michael jackson yeah i’m right down the street okay so you know the violence the violence in gary

Has been there since i left in 1988 yeah before that so i’ve always thought that for example from an educational standpoint that and no disrespect to the to the wonderful ladies that are on the panel but there is something to um wholeheartedly respect and stand at attention when there is a black

Male educator in the building absolutely i don’t i don’t care what anybody says like i said no disrespect to the to the ladies that are on the panel my love to you and respect to you all but um when it comes to our community strong black men who are

Forceful in their actions can clean up our own community you know president the honorable president barack obama said the night he got elected he stood right there in grand park and he said i need your help politics are local not federal they’re local and how many of us

Are actually in the building when town hall meetings are uh city hall meetings are held um you know well i got to work well nobody cares if you have to work community still has to get changed yep it still has to get changed so you know maybe you should go 10 years

Without having children so that you can be active in the community i don’t know i i can’t i can’t really say my wife and i don’t have children so we can be a little bit more active so i i don’t want to act like i don’t understand and i’m not sensitive to

Their position but the more the more people are there the more change can happen when we’re all unified just like georgia showed us yeah just like the honorable stacy abrams showed us okay i’m hoping that that president biden makes her a voting czar so we can change texas where we and my

Wife live now yeah you know because a lot of people are moving here from california um and from other places and it’s getting closer and closer to turning purple because i’m sure i don’t know if everyone follows here but remember texas used to be a 60

Easy win 60 or greater easy win from an electoral standpoint in terms of votes when it came to the national election that joint was down to 55. yeah and you know what i mean i’m in texas so i know yeah oh i know hey noel i know

You in texas bro cause you james harden on the other side but uh [Laughter] but it looked like james harden but yeah i mean you know texas is is is now is no longer a stronghold and everything that’s democratic isn’t right absolutely but everything far right blue uh red isn’t right either

Yep so you know i’m i’m i’m a centrist and my wife is this interest yeah um we’re literally dead in the middle um and so it it we there’s there’s lots of work to be done and georgia showed that we can unify if we can spread that energy nationwide we can make serious

Change and and now is definitely the time considering the atmosphere that is that is being driven from a diversity standpoint now is definitely the time now it’s it’s gonna be difficult because i don’t know if anyone else has been paying attention to it but probably since president clinton’s second term when the

U.s census bureau started putting out that by 2024 there would be a significant change in the population demographic absolutely and if you can remember back there’s been a lot of violence you know up ticking and it’s gotten worse and worse and it’s going to get worse and worse and worse because

They know that the jig is up yep and and they they are becoming the the new minority right so right reading something interesting that said by 2036 hispanics will be the new majority right so but but we as black people we’re going to still be in the same damn position we’ve been in

A half percent of the population in america which says a whole lot about obviously us not reproducing but more so about what it is that we’re actually doing so to your point of james about change is that two things i know about change one it’s very much so inevitable and two it’s necessary

And if we’re not changing and to think about being a player looking at change from a perspective of like being a flower or plant if you’re not growing you’re dead right if you’re not going to grow if you’re not going to evolve if you’re not going to change

Necessarily for the better then you’re already changing for the worse right staying the same is changing for the worse too so those are two disadvantages that you’re actually placing on yourself by not adapting to the very times that we live in today and so uh that’s why i always encourage people

The whole idea of being monolithic especially as black people if we ain’t got us ain’t nobody gonna have us and we have to be very so very much so mindful of that moving forward in order to even see real change happen for us and so i james i do appreciate that from that

Standpoint stated before when he stated that you know being respectful of a black man um when he didn’t want to give disrespect to the women i agree with that yeah and what for change to happen with our community it’s going to have to change within our households

Absolutely it starts at home because our black men are dying they’re being killed in front of us and we have to show that they’re relevant in our community and in our household i am proud to say my husband and i they’re all about one man which is him and i give him the

Most respect for that but my husband is present i am behind him i’m doing what i need to do to help this black man move along um and i think that needs to start a household and we need to find a way to make the household the most important part of the

Black community to move our black communities forward should start there first absolutely absolutely it starts there before it gets outside that house you have we have to be instilled in our kids on an everyday basis the importance of not only making it home safe but following the rules but also making sure

That you are representing us as a family to the utmost right you want to make sure you’re representing yourself to the utmost and you want to share the very positive light that we want to see in the world we have to inflict that and bestow that in our own kids so

Kim i really appreciate you i want to go to you for uh for this question the same question as well is moving along uh what presents for you did seeing kamala harris be sworn as president to me except it let me know as a black woman there’s there’s not there’s nothing is impossible

Yeah um so i was i was happy to see that that she’s a black woman or she has i was happy to see that because it lets me know that by her doing that i can it’s so much that i can do on my own and also to show my children

That when they get older the sky’s the limit for them i have three girls um and we watch that moment um together i mean although there’s men in the house as well but there was a moment for us because i always try to show my children especially my girls

That they don’t have to look up to the and no disrespect to the cardi b the nicki minaj is to to women that like to show their bodies i have no problems with that that’s your money however also the black reality shows that that they’re seeing today as well that

We’re it appears that we don’t know how to act so i want to show my children that they don’t have to act that way to move forward in this world so that was a proud moment for me and instead the president hi to show my children this is who you can

Aspire to be be like your mom is trying although i may not be your role model i would like to look at this person as being a role model for you as well and also other powerful black women we’re we’re in powerful places these days and i’m just happy to see her holding

That highest office as a woman to show all these little black children that it can be done it’s like candy but back on to mr noel’s point as well just because she’s there there are some things that needs to be done as well and we have to hold her accountable for that

Um and just and also support her the same way because i’m sure she’s having a lot of backlash from a lot of different angles but also we do need to let her know that we’re important and for her to push the agenda to help our community

Hey hey kim if i may ask this question you said and i think i heard noel say it as well if i may i’m sorry uh marlon when we because you know we heal this this term a lot accountable In order for her to be accountable in in her agenda someone has to work that agenda yep and it seems as though we want to put the entire plate at her at her chest you know at her at her at her torso for her to do everything

While we sit back and just wait to do this to be cynical to be critical to be you know what have you and not put in any work james it’s equivalent to praying things away right it’s very much so equivalent to the older folks who say just pray and either go away see

Prayer without working if you’re not doing the damn work the prayer is going to fall on your ears and you know the visuals and the present stuff i think it’s also important to note that a lot of our experiences are very different than our counterparts in our same community right

And so while we have had the ability to go to college and to go to hbcus and to you know have this d9 experience some people will never have that and that is something specific that has come down throughout the years so before we can really cycle that piece we also have to

Be honest about the internal trauma that exists within the community that needs repair as well right the therapy that our community gets a full need to make these young men into whole beings as they go on and grow into these roles that we want them to be into right

At the same time when you talk about the work and responsibility that she has she does have a responsibility to the community that she needs on to support her to get into the season which she is right because that that to a large degree is why she is there

But i think there’s work to be done all around so i don’t think it’s solely on her shoulders i don’t think it’s solely on our shoulders i think it has to be a happy medium somewhere where everybody is responsible for their part in the entire journey yeah absolutely now i

Want to get to uh carell miss oginski let me ask you these questions members of our divine nine that uh that have been answered this question i want to hear from them as well uh what is his name uh still in the uh the microphone

Okay uh miss ogilvy for you what does it mean for you to to see this happen right what precedent did seeing kamala harris be sworn in as vice president mean for you she may have to drop out and come back in because if she’s on a phone

There’s a lot of feedback on her phone carell if you can it drop off and drop back in yeah yeah i i’ll come back to you so uh miss doss my sister denise tell me something um about this so what precedents did this set for you to see kamala be sworn in

I was proud to see her be sworn in yeah i had my i have my reservations and the reason why i say that it’s great you know we got a black woman up there it made me wonder what could she do differently that obama wasn’t able to do and he was the president

Um i think they’re between a rock and a hard place actually and a lot of people here have already said that um that you know we have to build this community we have a lot of things in the black community that if we don’t change it doesn’t matter who’s in office absolutely

And the reason why i say that like one lady said it starts with home well our homes are broken yeah we have to figure out a way to fix these homes there’s nothing wrong with single mothers but it would be better if they were two-parent households absolutely okay um

I’m thinking of it more as you know you have to build a foundation our foundation is cracked very much it was never built to be strong because we as a people don’t understand all the components it takes to be able to build a strong foundation because we fight amongst ourselves for

Simple things like resources so if our kids are not eating people are not thinking about voting yep if our kids are not getting adequate health care they’re not thinking about voting when you make 15 an hour and you can barely pay your rent they’re not thinking about they honestly

I’m proud but at the same time i don’t think she’s going to be able to do that much for our people because our people are not invested in doing that much for themselves absolutely the number one law of nature is self-preservation if you’re not taking the textbook then

That’s not going to be much good anybody else so i do appreciate you saying that yeah and you know i i my background is sociology social work um work with kids work with people with disabilities i’ve done it since i was like 15. and i’m 40 now

I’ve um lived you know my dad’s in the military so we traveled a lot so i got to see a lot of things lived overseas and i’m gonna tell you something when i lived overseas i’ve always been a big person i’m dark skinned you know when i was overseas and i lived

In berlin and frankfort and all these places it was never a problem with skin color when i came back to the united states that was the first time i learned that i was too dark and that i was too big colorism is more of a reason well

The reason why i say that is because once i came back you know i went to military schools schools on base things like that the education is different yeah it’s it’s more fast-paced you know you learn how to enunciate you know you you have to learn these things

You’re you’re taught to speak correctly okay and when i came back to the states you know i was in the seventh grade and they were trying to put me in high school you know because of my knowledge and i was so far past my peers

But my mom said no because i was not mentally ready for something like that and i’m going somewhere with this um but right then being in the seventh grade i realized being around my peers that the education system is so broken it was never designed for us absolutely so if the education

System the health care system all the systems that have been built in this country if they weren’t designed for black people where do we actually fit in what do we need to do to be able to immerse ourselves in those programs and to be able to get what we

What we need yeah um I don’t know when education uh was deemed to be uncool as some of the kids will say but there are a lot of children that i’ve worked with personally who are embarrassed young black men that are embarrassed to show that they’re intelligent and it’s sad because you have to push so hard

To just give them that esteem to push that self-esteem up to show them that look there’s nothing wrong with the fact that you like math there’s nothing wrong with the fact that you like science let’s do something with it and and it goes back to the households

Because when you have people our age with the kids that are here now because we’re their parents whether you have kids or not somebody’s watching it absolutely and when we are not depicting what it is to be a strong black man or woman and we’re out here we’re cussing and we’re drinking and

We’re doing all this craziness that’s easy for them yeah well why don’t i just go do that because it seems like that’s something that’s way easier than you know studying you know going to school for four years to get a degree yeah you know and today i do want to

Even acknowledge each and every one of you all for being graduates being members of the divine nine you all made the choice to you know get your education further further beyond high school a lot of us a lot of our family members or even friends in our neighborhoods

Couldn’t say the same thing and to the point that james brought up about how everyone and mark brought up as well everyone is not capable of going to college and college is not for everyone and i understand that but understanding that the obligation has fallen on each and every one of us

Who are members of these organizations we we we have been put on the pedestal to a certain degree right we’re we have been labeled as black elites to a certain degree and that that of course comes with responsibilities and accountabilities that has to be had on all on all

Spectrums so if we’re not doing what we’re supposed to do to help be the example for our local communities then how can we even say we’re doing a service from a community standpoint when it comes to taking that initiative and being role models for our our black our young black men and women

So i appreciate you saying that denise uh mr cook i want to come to you um about this same question for you what does it mean to have kamala uh in the uh vice presidency um i think i said this before when um barack obama

Was uh elected um i think it’s a great start yeah um and i want to make sure that i say start because um kama harris is the first black um female vice president barack obama is the first black uh male president um yeah well the reason why i say it’s a great start

Because when you look at the history of this country as it was founded um on the blacks on the blacks on the backs of black people yeah um i won’t in even when it does happen you know there still has to be a level of accountability as

I said but i’m waiting for the trey sean’s yeah i’m waiting for the uh i’m referee to be in these offices uh um because they’re i don’t want to go into the difference between blacks difference between um our uh descendants of slavery but to me it’s a great start um but it’s it

It sounds a bit different when you’re you’re speaking about a direct descendant from slavery um to actually lead a country in which um have enslaved and prosecuted and the word i’m looking for escapes him right now but uh the people who made this country um economically industrially you know

When you have a direct descendant of that i want to see that yeah absolutely and i take no you know and this is not to take away anybody’s blackness yeah um but i want to see that happen but i think this is a great start i think um just having that

Office field uh with someone of color uh with a black individual i think is great um but yeah yeah i mean it’s a thing different shades of black right so we were the first civilizations known to man on this planet right so you know in that in that sense

Everyone every creature living every human being living has black in them right so i i want to i’ll i oftentimes want to be careful when i even talk about different pigmentations and skin colors or origins things of that nature because that now we it’s a slippery

Slope to say okay this person is not black enough versus that person is right so i want to make sure that we understand that as long as you are part of you is from like mind you her i think her mother is uh of indian descent and her father was black

So as long as you have oh j yeah jamaican so as long as you have black in you you are black as long as you are a descendant from africa you are african right so we we oftentimes get too caught up and fixated on going back and forth about all he and

She is not black enough versus me and my blackness like listen the biggest problem with us is black people is that we’re fighting too many damn fights name winning none of them we’re not winning we’re finally we’re fighting ammons ourselves we’re fighting amongst each other and we’re fighting the damn institutions

And the systemic racism that plagues our community on everyday basis can we win one damn fight first and then move on to the next we can’t keep fighting this fight with each other all the damn time nitpicking on little very minute situations that really don’t hold that much weight when

It comes to the bigger picture right so holistically we have to focus more on what the work that needs to be done needs to be talked about versus the the little things that can you know we can kind of bypass and forget about and discuss at a later date

Before you all before you all chime in because miss oakley hasn’t had her chance to even chime in on this question i want to know from you uh first off i want to make sure your mic is okay can you hear me now yes i can hear you

Guys oh [ __ ] she went and got a new phone praise jesus i was cheering for you i was about to send one fedex within an hour yeah see that this is why we’re diving on family right we going to try to help each other out the best way we can

Do this technology stuff so yeah for you what does it mean to to see this what precedence did this very moment set for you for me it was huge um my entire family we sat down i cried um not because it was a historical moment i am 42 years old

And my mother is 62 and her mother had she lived probably would have been a certain age my my other grandmother was watching and she’s alive and she’s 87 and for me that was historical right i agree with what everyone said there is work to be done

Um biggest most foremost is it starts at home i’m sure and i can’t say i’m sure but i know most organizations have um auxiliary groups for their children where they get them involved and we teach them community service and what it is to give how many of our children are even in

These programs but then all of a sudden they turn 18 and we well now we want them to go to college and now we want them to do this it starts at home bring them into there i mean you you put them in girl scouts and boy scouts

Why not you know boy girl auxiliary group of whatever your divine nine is or whatever that is um it starts at home um secondly we have got to on a local community realize that politics starts here so if you are not voting for your local whatever your school board

It starts there i’ve got two children i’m in multiple organizations my husband is in multiple organizations can we do all the things nope no we can’t but i’m gonna do what i can where i can and i think that’s the problem we are not doing

What we can where we can we want to talk but then when it comes to hey can you at least pass this voter registration card out can you at least donate twenty dollars to so-and-so’s college fund oh i don’t have it or i can’t do it or this that and other

Yeah you can don’t go to mcdonald’s that day or while you’re driving down the street and you’re headed to walmart hey let me pull over and we’re gonna do so-and-so and so-and-so um whatever it is it is sometimes it is the smallest things that over time build up and if everyone is

Doing it bit by bit little by little we can create our you know that utopia that we’re looking for like everyone says we’re looking for the american dream because we don’t have it we don’t own land we don’t have small businesses we don’t we have horrible schools

But instead of us saying let me volunteer to read at my child’s school or let me start that business that i’ve been saying i’ma start a business i’m gonna start a business i’m gonna write a book whatever it is we are the ones that people are looking

At and i’m not saying divine nine period i’m just talking about those that aspire but don’t do yeah absolutely you know in in no way possible am i saying that the the the responsibility falls at the foot of our organizations right because it’s so many different black organizations you’ve got the national

Black caucus naacp uh black women and men links have all of these groups yeah uh big brother and big big sister organization so again i’m just really speaking about the i want to unpack the very thing that we need to be talking about more consistently is about what can we be doing together

Consistently being monolithic and understanding what our roles and parts are because each and every one of us have a part to play and if we’re not doing our part then we we’re holding back the very thing that we’re trying to see happen for our community and because we we are products of these

Black communities we are members of the black community and we’re part of a black regulator organization that the the two are synonymous right so and with that being said the very community service initiatives are to service the community if we’re not getting feedback from the community as to what they need

Then how can we truly say we’re really servicing them right so from that’s one point i i do appreciate you uh sharing inside um yeah if i could i just wanted to to say something else uh to the point i was trying to make um you know

Again this is not to disparage anybody’s blackness what i what i mean what i was saying earlier was that it’s a different conversation that you have with a black person that is not a a descendant of slavery right because when you look at the uh trade the the the black people that were

Produced from that have been stripped away from their culture stripped away from what they knew right and placed into another entirely different uh scenario from which they were born so when you look at the history of culture of like being brought up from just being a black person

And then you switch the views from a person that is a direct descendant of slavery it’s a different conversation um and that’s what i meant by when i said um i’m waiting for the um the the descendants of slavery to fill these offices um barack obama uh is

Uh uh kenyan yeah right he has kenyan background uh kamala harris has um a jamaican background and i say that because they’re the culture in which they both were raised were different from the way that i was raised right yeah and when i say that i’m saying that

You know as a direct descendant of slavery yeah when will we have those cultures and those values is still then growing up um that is is different from what we see from other individuals that have grown up in household um i work as a clinical therapist right

And i work with individuals who are court appointed and everything and there’s and this is just for black people in general there’s not enough um talk about mental health in our community absolutely but it’s a bit easier and so that’s what i mean where you know when will we get

That same type of uh cultural background and upbringing that uh someone who is not a direct descendant of slavery has into which we see it in ourselves that oh i can do this you know so that’s what i meant i think can i say something

Well i want to say two quick things to uh mr cook about that so one we obviously know that representation matters right and so the two things that both and uh share with us is that they come from humble beginnings right they don’t come from money they don’t come from privileged backgrounds right

They had to work their way to the top to get to where they are just as well as any one of us that have done the same thing right so they they obviously got a chance to fight for commodore to be an alumni of hbcu

Means a lot to me because i’m a i’m a hbcu alum right russ college a couple a few of us are from russ college and we are alums including yourself uh uh pastoral so for us to see that because oftentimes hbcus don’t get enough acknowledgement and recognition for

The very very production that we actually have out here in the world they’re making a difference in our communities or just in society in general so to see that to see uh mayor uh keisha lance bottoms who was from hbcu stacey abrams is from asia you and kamala harris too so

Her name is keisha yeah absolutely so you don’t say that’s representation right so that matters to see a woman from our our community graduating from hbcu just like we did and with her being a member of delta symbol theta too uh keisha lance bottoms that says something about the

Representation that we very much so want to see more of you know in in the near future so i do appreciate that and then you know my last point to that is that if we’re able to even identify right to your point about the the trade bonds and uh the quiches

And tamikas right we’re getting to see more of that in other political figures right so and in the house and then senate and congress things of that nature they’re they’re obviously being elected in these positions and possibly have aspirations to become president or vice president who knows you know so that again sets

Precedence for the very thing kamala harris has been able to basically benefit from it at this present moment so i want to circle back uh kim for you this is my next question i want to make i want to make sure i’m sensitive on time for everybody so i

Want to give everybody a quick moment to kind of chime in on this question uh for you because kamala harris has been on record of crediting a lot of her leadership skills to her organization to alpha capital officer roy incorporated for you how has your organization helped you from a leadership standpoint

Be able to apply that to your your professional life well um i’m a social worker as well well my background is in social work um so i did graduated from russ college um in 2005 and also from the university of memphis in 2017 with the masters of social work so i

Have yet i have now moved my career from social work to human resources um and so i’m kind of climbing that letter um of being it actually was a promotion so i moved from working with families and children to actually working with employees to assist with you know helping and helping principals

Discipline their employees or come up with different plans of helping them to change the culture inside of their schools so that has helped me along the way because i’ve always seen women in higher places so it has helped boost the confidence from me as well and also has

Let me know that there the sky’s the limit so i’m not afraid to go into different areas and different jobs to apply for things that are that um you may that i may have once said that i don’t qualify for so moving from social work to human resources can be kind of difficult

However i have transferable skills and i have to show that i have that in order to move into a different career and i’m going to try my best to move that together so that i can one day create my own nonprofit to assist with helping children so by me doing

That i have the skills of social work along with the skills of human resources so that way and my husband has a mba so he knows how to run a business and we’re going to bring that together and come up and we’re going to have a business for

Our family something we can give to our children later on in life so that’s what it has helped me done to just see people in in high places as well as seeing how the sorority helps communities and people of all mankind and to so it shows me that i can i can

One day do that and it assists me with bringing these plans together to move forward so that i can yeah and i appreciate that too we need to see more of that of us you know combining our uh the very fervor that that makes us in the professional realm right we want

To make sure that we’re obviously taking that professional uh that leadership skills that we learned from organizations and applied into our professional realm and being able to combine the two and and thereafter you know making up creating our own business plans or even just you know collaborating with other people

Or other organizations i do appreciate you sharing that um let me see i’m gonna go to contri let me ask you this question so how has your organization the very leadership skills that you’ve learned from your organization how has that been able to help you professionally in your professional life

Well um i feel as though that for one i’ve never i’ve always been a shy person so uh being able to speak being an orator has been like one of my biggest issues but um within my organization they taught me that pretty much you know i can pre um

Pretty much do whatever i want to do if i put my mind to it and it got to the point that even though um i was one of the youngest because i um i crossed 2017 even though i’m still a newbie um we have um delta dears that are there to to help

Us and that’s one thing that i do love about my organization that even though we come from different backgrounds we uh we have different careers but you know we’re always there to help one another so um even though i mean uh we have doctors we have nurse practitioners

We have um of course i’m a pharmacy tech so my thing was i at first i felt as though that really nobody could help me advance in my field because no one just had the mentality that i had within my certain field of study but they showed me that you know um there’s

More than one way to do anything or no more than one way to skin a cat you know so um with the leadership skills i mean they have helped me of dealing with my president in my chapter actually my past present and my present present president i’m sorry

At this time they both have helped me because they’re both our leaders as well you know and uh they have became my role models so it’s to the point um i feel as though they get i can improve in my field and actually i feel as though that

That motivated me to start looking in um other positions within my uh career field um and not even trying to be funny when i say this but if trump taught me anything he taught me that i can apply for a job something i’d be qualified for because he’s him being the president you

Know no he has no background whistle i’m like not yet he can get in there then surely i can be qualified to get any job i feel as though that i’m you know that i can get so that’s what uh they have done for me you know dealing with uh my career field

Okay and i appreciate that yeah he he did nothing but hire damn people who who knew nothing about the damn job they were being hired for so but but that’s another story for another day uh mr rock for you man what what’s um with the leadership skills that you have have learned from

From the frat what how have you been able to convey that to your professional life um forgive me if you hear achilles and me in the background my son is up and he’s eating lunch so um let me first uh say what kappa has taught me um in in my professional careers that

Um excuses are [ __ ] yeah you know reasons reasons for something not happening that’s different if you got caught in traffic and you were late or you know something devastating happened in your family and you couldn’t make an a deadline that’s something different but excuses excuses of [ __ ]

Like and we all know that you know we’ve had people not only in our organization but in our professional and personal lives that have come up with excuses time after time after time and i think that’s one of the main reasons why you know i don’t really associate myself with a

Political party because we hear the excuses all the time we were given promises during your campaign but then when it came time to work nothing happened that you talked about you know what i mean so um in my professional life how how uh i’ve been able to apply that

I’m never late for anything you know i i pride myself on being on time or being early um if i say i’m gonna do something i do it you know it may take me some time to get it done and one thing i’m good at is being accountable for myself and being

Letting people who i’m working with be informed hey i’m running a little behind on this project but it’s going to get done you know um another thing that has taught me is teamwork sometimes your strongest person in your organization has that one thursday that they’re not

That strong and you need to step into that role and kind of like replace them at that point you know or uplift them in that moment where again we’re all human so we’re gonna have moments of weakness so there comes a time where you as a follower may now have to

Step into the role of a leader based on all the nuggets that the leader has given you during your time with them you understand so i think one of the things of being an effective leader is being an effective learner if you haven’t learned anything from your predecessors from your mentors you know

People have taught you along the way then you’re not really doing a good job as a follower and know where you do a good job as a leader um and the last thing i wanted to say was that um i think somebody had addressed it earlier connie what’s up uh

I i wanted to shout you out earlier what’s up connie p um what i wanted to say what’s good um you had said brother brother marlon that um you know you think that us as a people we need to focus on one fight at a time to be successful

To a certain degree i agree with you but to a certain degree i disagree because i feel that as people of color when you get jumped sometimes you got to swing in all different directions you know and i feel like that’s true i feel like i feel like

Sometimes sometimes when you get jumped you can concentrate on one person and beat the [ __ ] out that one person and let them set an example to the other people jumping you but they’re not going to stop jumping right so we’re advocating violence no no not at all not at all

I’m just using that as an example yeah absolutely absolutely you know i should have elaborated more when i when i was speaking about that but yeah you know i apologize for not making that clear i apologize but what i’m saying is like you know if if you’re getting jumped and you’re

Getting attacked not only from the front but you’re getting attacked from the side from the back sometimes you got to swing widely to to to get yourself out of that to get a clearer head to focus on now okay i didn’t clear clear the dust let now let me focus on this dude

You know let me focus on this problem um i don’t think that we’re necessarily um going in a bad direction when we try to tackle multiple things at a time i think that there’s a degree of efficiency that comes with that right absolutely there are there are certain topics and

Certain subject matters that we need to to focus more on because they’re of more importance but it doesn’t take away from our responsibility from tackling the other things so absolutely and saying that you have to be able to agree you have to be able to walk and chew gum you’re absolutely right

I agree if you got one opponent that you that you need to tackle and you need to take care of okay that’s fine but i think that us as a people and and and i forgot who mentioned it it might have been i know it was one of the young

Ladies but i don’t remember who and i forgive you for saying that but there’s so many things within our internal community that we need to fix before we can start branching out to other things that it’s hard for us to just concentrate on one fight that’s just my opinion no no you know

And you’re right for pointing it out too right so obviously the fight the direction of the fight or the intent of what you’re fighting for obviously matters too right so unnecessary fights right versus the ones that are more pressing we we have no quorum with each other we shouldn’t be fighting each other

There there is no there was there was no upside to that for any for any one of us we need to be fighting together against the system and against the system alone and anybody who’s for that damn system that hasn’t been working or hasn’t even been in place

To even for our benefit then if you’re not fighting against that then you’re fighting against us that’s the simple the simplest way to put that because you either for us or against us you can’t there’s no gray area here there is no room for error there is no

Room for the i don’t knows any [ __ ] more it’s not you have there is no excuse for ignorance either you you know because i’ve always said this on my show that ignorant means two things it means to not know something at all and it means to know and not give a damn

There are a lot of people even in our own community too that know but don’t give a damn about knowing see and that’s problematic so when i speak about the very issues that we’re talking about in terms of the fights we have to be very cognizant of what we’re fighting for

And what that end goal looks like because if it’s not gonna it’s not gonna improve us advance us as a culture then there’s no reason to be fighting that fight right so yeah i do appreciate you for pointing that out um my next question um

Kim for you i want i’m going to ask this question what community service initiative resonates with you the most about your organization well there are so many that they do that are actually just um becoming a part of um so it’s that’s kind of hard when marvin [Laughter]

Because i’m just signing up for some um and i’m doing more behind the scenes with my organization right now so my organization chapter is relatively new um so there are some little kinks and things that we’re working on to kind of move the to try to bring more members into that particular

Uh into that particular um chapter so i just like the things that they do inside the community um as far as during the time of registering the vote um we were assisting with registering people within the community to vote so that was something that i was um happy to be a part of

And during that time it was most of uh that was most wanted and that’s that’s what resonated with me during that particular time okay yeah i appreciate that because obviously we all know that each and every one of our individual organizations are a part of some initiative right when it comes to

Service in the community but you know for for us personally we have like that one those one or two initiatives that really mean something the most to us right so i appreciate that um mrs oglesby for you what what does what is one community service act or initiative that your organization

Participates in that resonates with you the most um for me will be our scholarship program um mainly because that money can literally help a child’s future right we’ve gone to college some of us have student loans and then you graduate and you are held down by those scholarships i mean

By those student loans so it’s hard for you to buy a house um it affects your credit all of these different things right so you are literally setting someone up hopefully for success so that one for me is the biggest one okay yeah i do appreciate that because yeah uh honestly

He was speaking about student loans too uh elizabeth warren has been advocating for canceling student loans and i always told people this me too if if she canceled all my student loans they’re gonna have to drag me out that often because jesus himself gonna have to come

Get me and tell me i’m doing too much because it made the tv understand what it’s like to have that be just sitting on your credit and then having to pay on it yeah you pay back a hundred thousand damn dollars that i don’t have at the very moment right

I’m still working to fully establish myself and establish my household and be able to create general like generational creation for my own family and for my and helping the community do the same thing i can’t do that when when this is lingering over my damn hate every day right so exactly

Yeah i do appreciate you speaking on that um denise for you what what community service initiative stands out about your organization with you personally um sigma gamma rho we have a program called project cradle care and project cradle care is a uh initiative that we have that also works with march of dimes

Um this is a program that works with young mothers that are uh still in childbearing age and we help with programs as far as like pre-net prenatal excuse me health programs and you know trying to change the outcomes for people who are high risk okay and it’s

Something that i try to heavily be involved in because in as you can see in our community um we have a high rate of deaths you know right at the beginning stages of life um there’s a reason why our community has stayed set at 13.5 for over you know

20 30 years basically the whole time we’ve been living um besides the crime and everything like that but with the lack of health care in the urban areas uh the lack of uh nutrition understanding nutrition um the lack of being able to you know do simple things like go

Take your kids to the dentist yeah you know all those things are covered within this um within this initiative um the march of dimes we help to raise money for that as well i know everybody does saint jude’s you know which is which is a great program you know i’m

Banned from going to saint jude’s because i love the kids you know so but but you know that along with operation book bag is another initiative we have and operation bugbet also goes into the schools and we bring into the urban communities or the communities that are you know in the country

You know where there’s not that many hospitals there’s not that many resources and we bring what they need to them um there’s some kids you know they don’t have any school supplies that that list of supplies that every kid gets at the beginning of the school year

That that’s very stressful for a lot of parents absolutely because they yeah they don’t know how they’re going to get these things you know and what bothers me more than anything is us as black people we know what’s needed in these schools you know but it’s not my kids

That that’s a problem it still takes a village yeah it takes a moment to do this then yeah again we’re doing a disservice and yeah i have seven god kids you know and each one of them well they’re all in private school because we made the

Effort to make sure that they get the best education they can get yeah but that’s because you know me and my source and along with all of you we have the knowledge we have the resources to be able to do so but technically no one should have to go to a private school

If education was even across the board absolutely education is supposed to be uh accessible to everybody whether public or private right absolutely adequate education too and so absolutely kids should not be lacking for anything and and i i used to be an educator in memphis so

I know what it could what it takes for what people go through on an everyday basis and i’m always advocating for teachers because i feel like teachers have been have been put in the position to part the red sea without a damn staff and that’s it and it’s it’s very much so

Unfortunate that teachers are asked to do so much but the very parents aren’t being looked at enough and being held accountable enough for what they’re doing and not doing but then even to that point if you if you don’t have if you don’t have the access or the the capabilities of getting everything

For your child you have to be you have to speak out you have to speak up about that you we don’t know what what you don’t know right so we don’t know what you need either until you until you say something and so right i’m always sticking up for

Teachers because i i know on the everyday basis which go through and uh with the budget cuts and them spending money out of their own pockets to buy school supplies for kids who are in need who are less fortunate i mean and they do that out of the

Kindness of their hearts and they don’t get very they get very little recognition if any recognition at all when it comes to that and so here on this show i’m here to give them their flowers now and i’ll be speaking on education in a couple of months and

Talking to pwi faculty members as well as hbcu faculty members to compare and contrast the two as well as talking to secondary and post-secondary educators as it pertains to just their level the parent’s level of involvement uh when it comes to pta meetings too so i i do appreciate that initiative that

You share with us uh mr cook for you what what what initiative stands out for you for your organization uh what what what personally uh impacts you in in a personal way um so when i first when i’ve joined iota um we had the knife i can never say this right and maybe

That’s why you know they changed it uh nafiya jima which is i’m probably saying it wrong but it’s swahili for good health um and in that umbrella um program they had a lot of uh programs addressing the the needs of um of health whether it’s physical mental and emotional health so

Definitely me being a clinical uh therapist uh you know i work with people with emotional and uh mental health every day yeah and um that definitely still speaks to me yeah um in regards of bettering our community which is if we feel better if we think better

We can actually do better um a lot of resources has been have been pushed and i’m not you know i’m not a lobbyist for uh for mental health right now but uh a lot of resources get pushed into you know education you know what whatever it is and

The thought process is like okay now do do good do better yeah and that’s not specifically the case when you for the black community we you know for lack of a better words at the time uh you know for right now we have to feel better we have to do

Better we have to think better and it’s a warp perception of our way of thinking that is leading to some issues that we are now still facing and now i i feel like is more prevalent in our face even though we’ve been doing it for years uh so yeah that’s that’s me

But you know even to the appointment think about this from from this perspective right so as black men and women everywhere that we wake up it’s almost exhausting to wake up being black sometimes as much as we love to celebrate our black culture we love our black culture

To wake up every day knowing that the world looks at us in such a negative and just uh disrespectful way that we have to just wake up and say okay what the hell else happened today but what’s next on top of when i leave the house when we

When we all leave our houses it’s like all right the goal is to just get to where i’m going get the hell out of there and get back home safe regardless and today and just that mindset tells you the trauma that we deal with every day

We are a walking ptsd uh we’re going through post-traumatic stress on an everyday basis and it’s just absolutely exhaustion of it it’s just it’s paramount to highlight and talk about and even have the conversation so my very first episode of this podcast i had my wife and her co-workers who are

In the mental health field talking about this very thing and i’ll be circling back in a couple of months talking about mental health too as it pertains to from the black men’s perspective right so i’ll be talking to mental health experts uh and counselors who are black men in this industry because

The the the the bug or the box if you will of black people in mental health in the mental health field is very small but it’s even smaller to see black men in it as well so the representation that we oftentimes see it’s more black women in education

It’s more about women in the mental health field than it is black men so that representation from that perspective that representation still matters and so we have to unpack the very issues that we as everyday black i will never be without a job absolutely absolutely

You know and i hope to have you on the show uh speaking on that very issue because that is something that we we have been highlighting in recent years we’ve been highlighting that just being active just i’m sorry being advocates for black mental health is something that’s been highlighted for

The past few years which is a good thing but we want it to be a whole lifestyle and not just a trend right we don’t want it to be just okay just for the summer we’re gonna keep talking about mental health and then once the fall hits we’re talking about something else

Mental health is ongoing it’s every day because every day as black men and women we’re unpacking and having to deal with the world on top of dealing with everyday people at our jobs we’re being told to still maintain a certain level of professionalism while we’re still going through this

Very [ __ ] that’s out there in the world that still affects us we’re still impacted by the very things that can happen to either you me or anybody else out here if you if you are black and you don’t look at these issues from a perspective of

This can happen to me just like it can happen to you then you’re part of the damn problem and that’s a bigger problem to have to unpack and deal so yeah i do appreciate you saying that james for you what can i interject one second marlon yeah yeah go ahead

To go back um to the initiative that resonates with me by you all stating that one of the main things that targeted with us as well is um economic uh economic legacy yeah under that umbrella with us is credit repair and also entrepreneurship right those things are relevant in our lives today um

And that resonates with me because i’m my family like i have four children and i want to leave my children with something i don’t want to leave them with a dick absolutely first my credit is it’s good my husband’s credit is good and we’re actually um we have multiple businesses

And we’re trying to leave something for our children so we’ve started them young of learning how to operate a business um for one so we’re we’re teaching them that so that when we pass away it’s passed on to them um so that they can pass it on to their kids and their

Grandkids and and and um and do it yep so that’s one thing that resonates with with me within my sorority one of the target areas that we um that that’s within my sorority because that that’s very very important to the black family and to black people period we have to

Buy back our communities um we have to do that so that we can service our community so that we can be stronger um well that’s one of the the ones that really resonated with me i’m sorry you kind of caught me off guard the first

Time i have a my son’s in the track meet okay an so yeah but to your point though financial uh independency and economic empowerment is very it’s something that’s very important in our community especially given the fact that we oftentimes go broke trying to look rich and that’s a big ass

Problem so but that’s something that we’re gonna have to unpack you know in later dates so i actually have a money talks month but i’m talking to people who are in the financial industry to talk to the very issues that we need to be discussing more of and

And being much more cognizant of mindful of what we need to be doing to further advance our financial uh independence so uh james for you what’s uh what’s a initiative that you’re a community service initiative that your organization uh does that resonates with you personally okay oh i’m answering that question here

But i got a couple of questions for kim uh kim um question what state do you live in tennessee uh how unfortunate anyway uh he got jokes man no seriously um how many how many businesses and or companies do you and your husband run three three do you have a holding company

No why not maybe we need to talk offline about that there you go there you go see network reason why we need to talk about things yeah while we’re talking about this man so so important look for me on the pooty tang on um on facebook and uh

You know i got no sense marlon i don’t know why you invited me but uh i’m glad that’s a real name on there for real no my name is james on on facebook it’s james but i’m stopping i found to believe that his last name is actually what he acts like you know

But just pointed out now i’m definitely i’ll be in your inbox relationship yeah yeah please do please do um i appreciate it uh now as a moment of first of all transparency here uh marlon i’m probably the only one on this post uh on this panel that has not graduated from college okay

I’m nine credits short as a matter of fact matter of fact i dropped out in 2008 when my uncle died and i never went back and right after that because i was in all of us yeah yeah no it’s okay i appreciate that but so i started my company a year later yeah

Um my my major was actually information systems and i you know i thought i was going to be this great computer guru the best it ever was and bank of america let me know twice that now you weren’t going to be so i ended up starting my own company um

Which i own a uh a call center virtual culture and all of my agents work from home but i have about 612 agents um and then my wife and i started some other companies after that and that’s why i was asking you kim about the holding company yeah

I’ll definitely be in your inbox after this asking you about it yeah it’s about networking networking so but uh a a community project that we have or a community-based project is the sigma beta club for me when i was in charlotte where i was made i was the single beta advisor um

Because right now we live in texas and my wife is actually military and i’m a military veteran myself but we move around a lot so um that’s the that’s one of the number one things that resonates with me because i’m always open and love working with children because adults are hard-headed

But very much though and some damn [ __ ] a ways man yeah i tell you didn’t they go on nukes i tell you but things in um you can tell us something you can tell us a few things but you can’t tell us much man right i’m i’m still working with my

Father who’s a newbie he still won’t learn and i’m like well he always said he always sees you with that signature don’t be like you know what my condolences you know everyone makes bad decisions in life you know it’s unfortunate that you made the one that you made but it’s okay

He’s still mad since 1998 still but um still he’s still mad he’s he’ll be all right though but um that’s the one that resonates with me and another is always um our partnership with the um uh cancer society yeah so um but the number one is is sigma beta club uh

I i i still sometimes feel like i failed um a few sigma betas because back then we had a couple go to jail but um and for long periods of time um but it was just one of those situations where um they just made a bad decision

Yeah you know what to that point man i do first and foremost i want to i do want to say that i appreciate your service to uh to our country too for being military both you and your wife right and um my uncle who recently passed away he was a 30-year veteran

Uh he was also a 30-year retired uh lieutenant for the chicago fire department and um he used to often times tell me that when it comes to doing things for the community especially and even for your own friends and family you do what you can while you can for as

Long as you can yeah and the fact that you get you’re as far as sigma beta to my knowledge you guys are getting to those young men early in life so that they so that they don’t make the wrong decision going down the wrong path you know later and so i do appreciate

You saying that because again we have to give them early and if as early as we get them as possible it’s going to make the much more of a difference in their lives because when you get to them when they’re teenagers now i’ve always said this teenagers know

Every damn thing about nothing right so they they are the dumbest uh human beings in the world when you think about it because they feel like they know everything and it’s not it’s not to insult them but it’s always in the sense of talking about how they can’t be talked to

They they can’t be reasoned with and sometimes for some of them it is too late depending on how deep in the situation that they are currently in and so getting to them early as possible is something that’s a it’s very much so a paramount of importance

And we have to be more focused on starting them off when they start walking and start talking and start understanding and listening helping them understand the very things to do and not do and so i do appreciate your initiative uh in sigma beta and mentoring them that we need more of us

To do that as black men we have to take back our communities and mentor them more right what does it say in the word raise them up as is the way they should go absolutely and you know i think that you know and no no disrespect to anybody on the panel

But you know i mean i would be lying if i didn’t hear or listen to what appears to be the cynicism that seems to permeate throughout our community that is one of the things that stops us from growing cynicism and we we have to eliminate that yeah we we must and i implore

You all and i used to have it too i’m not gonna lie um i used to have it too i hope that you know i don’t know if i’m the oldest on the panel i’m 51 but i hope that you all can get rid of that as soon as possible because

The longer you hold on to it the longer everyone else around you holds on to it too that you have an influence over yep because they’ll hear it come from you um because change only happens when it starts with us and i i think this is a great uh this is

A great podcast for real marlon and i thank you for inviting me and i i don’t i don’t ever say things just to be blowing smoke if your joint was trash i would tell you offline of course um no i do appreciate that man because the whole topic of me starting this podcast

Is yeah not only bring awareness and start the conversation but i want us to i want people who are looking in and who follow the show to take the information they learn from this and apply to their own local communities their own association and really help understand help them

Understand that we each have a part to play in this when it comes to the advancement of our culture in our community and if we’re not doing our parts then we’re doing a good service to ourselves and to our own friends and family we can’t just be so gun hold to just me

And mine or you and yours it’s about all of us and no no one person organization can do every damn thing so and i always said this that i don’t have all the answers but i’m willing to talk to the very people who are in these positions in these in these professions

In these organizations who can speak to the very issues that we can obviously unfold and unpack and come to some sort of you know foundational resolution to where we can all each contribute to our community in that sense so well i’m not like you i got all

The answers i don’t care what you talking about i got all the answers sure sure of course you do because you because you didn’t listen to nothing your dad said clearly all jokes aside because i believe in sharing information so um in this in this in this um

Environment or this time that we’re in right now especially when filing taxes um by a show of hands who all does their own taxes just started doing moments a couple years ago yeah i did up until this year why why why you stopped it it got real

Complicated this year so i had to get someone else to do it did i complicate it well because i made actually more money okay than i’ve ever than i made before so it got a little complicated so i had to get someone else to take a

Look at to ensure that i’m doing it right but i’m just gonna let them do it yeah we’re gonna have to take that offline yeah yeah yeah yeah and now again i’ll have an episode to talk about you know uh real estate talking about tax credits and talking about just

Overall underscores and things like that the whole financial independency i want everyone to to literally this this isn’t my book this is just something one of the people that i learned from uh a guy that i found about 10 years ago okay uh your advertisement all right

I don’t care about free i want people to learn yeah i’ve i’ve bought i’ve purchased a lot of irs books textbooks this one right here is one of the best bibles you can have on the irs yeah this one right here so um if you get a chance to get that

No no free advertising because i don’t even know the cash i just happened to find them on the internet yeah so that is that relevant to all the changes it’s relevant to any type of correspondence that you get from the irs should you quote unquote get in trouble

Okay can you can you can you can you type that in the google chat so we have it like in text so we can research and order it yeah did he just call me by like my initials is that what he just did she said jb i’m that cool man don’t

Worry about that yeah yeah it’s cool yeah let me put the chat send me the information i’ll make sure i put that in the description of this episode that way people can can obviously uh get to much easier too so yeah um um just wrapping up because i want to make sure i’m

Again sensitive on time my last question and uh i’ll start just real quick i want everybody to give me their answers on this too so last question is i’ll start with you uh noel what can we do more together as a divine niner obviously a few of my divine members could make

The call they have a technical difficulty that was like texted me in between the shows so i was just you know obviously just rolling with the flow of everything and everybody was freaking out so and i do appreciate you all for still being able to you know be flexible enough to

Just speak out of turn or whether i was going in alphabetical order or not um starting with you noelle what what what can we do more as a divine non collectively what can we do together we know what our organizations do individually because we’re all different branches on the same tree

Right so what can we do more together i think what we need to do more together um is three things uh acknowledge accept and move forward and i’ll explain what i mean by that right real quick acknowledge the fact that excel acknowledge the fact that everybody that shares our letters did

Not does not share our ambition so just because we have the same letters on does not mean we have the same drop to do the same things right so you can’t you can’t look at a dude that crossed in 2021 and think that he’s gonna be about the forward advancement of black people

Right he may be about strong at a party and that’s his thing all right let him have that but we have to accept that and and we have to move on we have to say look we have to focus on the people that are ready to afford the advancements

Of our people hone in on their talents what are their talents if their talents is financial if their talents is networking if their talents are whatever it is hone in on that and we come together like voltron stop the petty [ __ ] as far as like saying oh you’re cute you don’t do this

Who gives a [ __ ] my older brother is an omega and i’m the first greek in the family but we work together on on different things like some of my best friends are are not even in my organization so i don’t care about that i look more about what we can do as a

People because we were black before we would greek you understand what i’m saying so at the end of the day we need to focus on what our talents are what we can what we can bring to the actual movement and actually focus in on those things and actually move forward with them

That’s my answer absolutely appreciate that man uh kim real quick for you what can we do more together as a developer with noel but i think having conversations like this and i think you’re doing it you’re doing a great job is trying to move us together by having this platform

So i think more things of this nature will help us to move um come together and move forward together but pretty much our second what noel said i agree with everything he stated as far as moving us all together all right i appreciate that james for you

Real quick what can we do more together with the divine knock uh as a divine nine i think that uh quit with the separation um not just not just based on what noel said quit with the separation i mean it’s all it’s all it’s okay to you know to do the

The the every now and again jabs you know like you know the iota is still waiting for they’ve sent you know centennial from you know forever um pasqual not even laughing like i’m not paying attention to this dude but um you have to he wanted to say something

Like whatever man but no um i think that you know more more more ability to communicate with each other effectively um and find a unifying message you know it it obviously starts with the um the national pan you know uh showing up at a community rally in our colors

Arm and arm if necessary if that visual needs to happen yeah you know to say hey we’re here to you know be a voice for the people in a massive way because we have you know we have key people in positions judges lawyers police chiefs vp other congressmen you know state

Senators yeah people don’t realize who their state senators are and they worry about the u.s senator and the state senator has more power than the u.s senator in your state yeah you know they you know governors we local mayors we have local people and you know people are so bent on on

Tearing each other down if we could stop doing that in 2021 we should still not be saying oh you sound like you white you sound like you’re trying to be white we should still not be doing it which is what lolita talked about earlier we should still not be doing that yep

Absolutely and you know and so to me that’s what we need to do quit tearing people down quit tearing each other down stop with the colorism and find ways to unite yeah find f we spend more time separation instead figure out how we can work together

I don’t like i don’t like the way my sorrow carell look so we crashed in the bucket right oh and that’s been problematic before she’s lighter than she lighter than me she got more opportunities because she light skin and lolita and kimberly you know we dark-skinned so we don’t have any opportunity what

How do we work together fixated on stupid [ __ ] yeah yeah so uh yeah and i appreciate that too james um it’s always be for you what what can we do more together um being active we we talk about oh i’m in a divine nine i’m in this organization but what have you done

Absolutely um if you’re not being active then what’s the point um are you paying for friends are you actually paying to do the work so and i think that’s across any organization that you were in church whatever you want to call it are you being active and then what are you doing

That’s that’s it for me you got to be active it’s no point in you being in an organization there’s no point of you doing whatever if you’re not doing anything and at this day and age especially what has happened within the past i would say 10 years

We know that we have got to do something like i said you saw her smile you work your way b i got two kids my my son is in the sigma beta club he’s in um nights of prince call we we have to get them active early and today he had meetings

All day long i don’t want to do it i don’t care because had it been a football game that so-and-so will lose so-and-so had to be it you would have made sure the little so-and-so and i’m not knocking i’m not knocking sports because our kids are in sports too

But you have to have that same type of drive that same type of commitment to your organizations to your community that you do to you know the juniors football team because you think one day he’ll make a vegan nfl now we we’ve got to have that same drive

That same i want to see that same passion for what you do now that you have paid for your divine nine you can wear your shirt where you wet it’s time to sweep up you know sister so-and-so’s whatever you know we’ve got to we’ve got to be active

Yeah we definitely very much so especially in our community that we obviously come from so if you’re not servicing your own community then you’re doing a disservice to yourself into them too um ms dawes real quick what what can we do more together um oh well everybody’s pretty much said

Everything i was going to say but one thing that i want to bring up that bothers me i went to a pwi okay and for reasons you know that that’s where i ended up going i went where the money was okay and the one thing that bothers me about nphc

We black folks we find anything to divide ourselves on and to try to put a tier to make us better like this group up here is going to be better than this group because of whatever school they went to when i crossed it mtsu middle tennessee state university

I was proud to have my letters i did what i had to do i was a solo i i crossed in the summertime i’m ready to go i’m ready to do my thing you know but there were actually stores and people from other organizations when we were toured to go to different schools

That had a problem because i went to a pwi so i’m not a real greek yeah and i’m like it doesn’t matter we’re all supposed to be doing the same thing and that’s uplifting the community and we’re so worried about well you can’t be a delta because you’re

Not this or you can’t be an aka because you’re not light skinned enough why why is that even an issue we’re all supposed to go to school if that’s what you’re gonna do it’s fine to join your organizations but at the end of the day even if you don’t

You’re still supposed to take the education you get from that institution and apply it to yourself and apply it to others absolutely you’re supposed to still get in the community and uplift your community whether you have the letters or not and the other part that bothers me about the whole nphc

Nobody is and i’m not going to say nobody but like the young lady said within the last 10 years i’ve seen greek life shift so much that i honestly don’t recognize it anymore i came in in 2000 and you know 2002 which wasn’t that long ago but you know

I might be considered overweight i don’t know but the effort’s not there yeah they these kids are coming in and they base everything off of the stereotype of each organization and they run with that and they feel like that they are entitled yeah these are privileged organizations that were founded by

African-americans of prestige absolutely okay and i respect every organization i don’t care what colors you have on absolutely we’re still black men with still black women and we’re all supposed to be doing the same thing and the bickering that goes on um the disrespect of the organizations to be a sigma gamma rho

You have to have a thick skin let’s just put it out there yeah you know and i have that thick skin and i say what i have to say i’m sorry did somebody say something oh okay but you know you have to have a thick skin yeah and it shouldn’t be like that

Because at the end of the day we’re still women still men out here in the same communities that most of us all came from trying to make it better but we have to find that for some reason and i don’t know why the black community is like that we have to find that

Distinction of being able to say i’m better than you yeah no matter what it is we don’t matter because we’ve been fed a lot of [ __ ] misconceptions about the black community from tv media and all this other [ __ ] that has been working black people are like this and then

People have fed into that very propaganda that it’s been a negative image and a negative light being [ __ ] on us from time to time again so yeah i do uh agree with you to that point that’s one of the reasons why a lot of people are not

Active that’s why some people get their letters and they run with them because once they get into the cesspool of what is called greek life and you all know what i’m talking about they get discouraged yep they get discouraged and it’s it’s too much foolishness and who wants to put up with

That yeah i’m not going to continue to give my money to something like this when these people over here act in the food just because they have letters on their back absolutely and you know what to that point i want to make sure i’m clear about this too because

Part of me even doing even starting off with each month with different topics starting this topic off this month uh specifically was because i felt like a lot of times uh non-greeks look at us as black elites they think they think that we think we’re better than everybody else absolutely and that misconception

Although some of it is warranted by some of the individual members of our organizations but they don’t steal they still don’t speak for the entire organization itself right so we obviously have a huge responsibility that’s put on us to be basically a great representation of our organization on

Everyday basis as well as being great representations of black men and women because of the negative stereotypes and [ __ ] that’s being portrayed out there and being perpetuated on an everyday basis uh in so many different media outlets and and tv shows and whatever they’re showing us in the most negative connotative

Images that is it’s making our jobs even harder to have to deprogram these people and say hey this is not every black person i’m not that damn person i’m not this person i’m me but i also speak for my organization and for my culture as a black man or as a black

Woman and so yeah it does make it hard for for all of us to be positive representatives when we have so many negative images being portrayed on an everyday basis so i appreciate that uh pasquale for you what more can a divine nine do together

Um i want to piggyback on what ms dawson was saying about having thick skin uh first of all to be a member of iodified theater you have to have a level of i don’t give a [ __ ] um oh there you go so you know it the the the differences in

You know letters and colors um definitely should be you know diminished and looked at um so yeah everybody said basically what i want to say anyway but that to your appointments that is definitely true um it is very ridiculous when you go into spaces um because i was the uh the first iota

At rust and um you know it’s definitely a conversation these uh a conversation about you know respect and Coming from a place i guess it really doesn’t matter because iota’s don’t care but i mean it’s just more so it will be better from the outside looking to share throughout um which is definitely a great start um so yeah that’s all but everybody else said everything i wanted to say anyway

Yeah tearing down all the negative stereotypes and and stuff and pretty much putting a stop to all aaron that’s something that we have to do a hell of a lot more of in today’s society so i appreciate each and every one of you all for sharing light and perspectives on that

And um yeah uh before we wrap up i want to just say again thank you all so much for being on the show to talk about these different things and share your perspectives and insight on you know the very issues that we are faced with on an everyday basis as black

Men and women what our obligations are and what they should be in terms of service in our black communities that we from which we come and being able to do more together right so that’s been the premise of this entire conversation for this episode and i appreciate each and every one of

You all for shedding light on that from your perspective um make sure you all get your your frat brothers and your sorority sisters to like share and subscribe to this podcast definitely give me some feedback on what you like and don’t like about the podcast too because as i’m

Moving along with it i’m improving more and more with it i’m i’m adding more content information i’m interviewing i’m reaching out to people who are in these different uh professions and different organizations who can speak to the very different things that we need to be talking more about uh

Creating more content and providing more information to our black community so we can each do our part in service in our black community a hell of a lot better than what we’ve been doing and so for that i really appreciate you all hope you guys are staying safe and staying sanitized we

We seem to almost be at that end point or close to it rather when it comes to this pandemic so i hope to uh get to see you all physically uh sometime in in the near future uh hopefully before this damn year is out because i’m

Ready to travel lord knows i need to be on vacation more than i ever needed more in my life so um uh again thank you all for your time i really appreciate it make sure y’all like share subscribe to speak to my podcast you can find me on instagram speak to my

Underscore podcast show uh follow me on my facebook page speak to the mike podcast show as well as uh youtube and spotify uh definitely let me know what you guys think about previous episodes as well as the future ones as they come and um we’ll we’ll definitely be having this

Conversation again man because i think this is a good start for us but i definitely wanted you know other organizations to find men and and and continue on with this education this educational moment that we’re having to bet to best help our communities the best way we can and so

Again y’all much appreciation to you all um yeah we’ll be talking again thanks for having me thanks for having me now turn the recording off so we can act the food all right because you know everybody don’t need to hear this part they don’t need to hit a after

Party after the party they don’t need If you like what you’ve heard from this week’s episode and like to hear more from previous episodes be sure to like share comment and subscribe to my youtube channel below you can also find me on social media platforms at speak to the mic underscore podcast show on instagram and

Speak to the mike podcast show on facebook be sure to also like share subscribe to my spotify page at speak to the mic podcast show as i put out more thought-provoking content your opinion and thoughts are needed and appreciated i thank you all in advance for your

Support and look forward to hearing from you soon

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