The community i’m jose sanders and i’m very happy to be your host for one more in our series of town halls we have a very important conversation for you and we hope that you will find it as interesting as we have before we started rolling this is going to be a
Good one there are nine historically black greek letter organizations uh bg elements that make up the national pan hellenic council collectively these organizations are referred to as the divine nine each of these fraternities and sororities is rich in history ties to one or more of these organizations may be found in many
College educated black families in the united states alpha fraternity founded in 1906 cornell university kappa alpha fraternity founded in 1911 indiana university omega sci-fi fraternity founded in at howard university five made a sigma fraternity founded in 1914 at howard iota phi theta fraternity founded in 1963 at morgan state university
We have so much to cover in this little short hour so we gotta get started we have some illustrious gentlemen joining us today and uh if you’ll indulge me i’m gonna read all of their bios because it’s it’s worth it let me introduce our guest first of all we have mr rufus williams
Jr who is the managing director of loop wealth the personal wealth management business arm of loop capital focuses on building generational wealth for ultra high income athletes entertainers artists and executives that’s why we’re just friends we don’t do business he founded olympus llc as a boutique client or representation
Firm primarily serving athletes and entertainers a broad range of services including contract representation business management investment management he also served as the cfo for oprah winfrey’s harpo incorporated and was corporate audit manager baxter healthcare after spending 10 years with arthur anderson he has a long-standing commitment to civic engagement and education
Demonstrated by his service as president of chicago’s board of education the nation’s third largest school citizen he’s also been a consistent leader on boards of several of the city’s top schools and civic organizations a life trustee of francis w parker school served as vice chairman and treasurer of
Providence state middle school and was president of the local school council of whitney young magna school he has a long and rich involvement with the better boys foundation most recently serving as president and ceo he’s from camp outside good to see you sir it’s great to see you jose thank you for
That um that background i didn’t know you did that much research on me you know what we do how we do you know what some of these are new already somebody say what next we have mr daryl williams he’s managing business partner luke capital uh having joined that firm in 2007 bringing
Over 35 years of strategic governance and financing experience toward the successful provision of investment banking and financial advisory services to loot capital clients and partners prior experience include providing investment banking services dean winter rentals and in the merger acquisition and divestitual groups at first national bank of chicago and ameritech corporation
In addition daryl has served on multiple private sector not-for-profit boards of directors and currently serves on the board of amalgamated bank of chicago city colleges of chicago and his foundation the chicago center for art and technology one goal chicago and the coleman entrepreneur center at depaul university
A life member of alpha alpha fraternity incorporated daryl has a business a bachelor of science degree from depaul university master administration from howard university graduate school of business and the bill is ring because that’s my friend hey there’s only uh naksubi chicago consulting group professional career began with author anderson
And then with the home art development company and uh he he had his career in real estate began rooted in large community changing projects while at home art he became the cfo of sears hq development project in hoffman estates that was the largest corporate relocation in the country at the time
He’s currently working as a consultant advising on multi-billion dollar real estate development project here in chicago and also in oakland california common thread theme on all these projects bringing equity to our community he has also been able to leverage his business and work experiences to be a member of a few organizations
Like francis xavier ward facilities committee and chicago professional chapter of the national association of black accountants he is part of the lin bloom high school alumni network and he is a proud member of phi beta hey cedric thank you jose great introduction great to be on the panel with these
Distinguished gentlemen uh look forward to the conversation great to have you with us sir next we have dr dennis dear who has served as cook county commissioner of the second district since 2017 one of the most diverse districts course in cook county it includes austin englewood east and west garfield
North london little italy noble square river north washington park south loop west loop communities plus the michigan avenue business uh business what is that in business of chicago theater and illinois medical district you’ve got a lot doctor i’m trying to get through it he’s born and raised on chicago’s west side is a
Servant leader passionately dedicated to north lawndale community working to impact positive change he is a certified rehabilitation counselor licensed clinical professional counselor and he has combined his passion for community and returning to north lawndale after 20 years he founded dear rehab services inc that’s one of the most well-regarded providers of comprehensive
Services for ex-offenders as an illinois law enforcement standards and training board certified instructor dr zier went on to start the law enforcement family training services he extends his work with non-profit organizations like strategic human services and north lawndale community coordinating council which he co-founded he uh the illinois department of human services domestic
Violence advisory council partner abuse intervention program subcommittee and its executive steering committee he is vice president of illinois coalition against domestic violence and he is a proud member of omega sci-fi dr dennis dear how you doing pleasure it’s it’s good to be here thanks for having me good to see you my friend
And dr derrick j robinson is vice president chief medical officer for blue cross and blue shield of illinois he is responsible for care management operations clinical leadership and strategic oversight in providing high value health care to more than 8 million members is also the founding chair of the health equity steering committee
Which was established to develop health equity strategies across markets and lines of business for nearly two decades he has led community efforts to promote diversity and inclusion for undergraduate and postgraduate education at the local state and national level he is a member of the office of diversity and inclusion advisory committee
At the accreditation council for graduate medical education dr robertson is vice chairman of the board of trustees at xavier university in louisiana clinically active and board certified in emergency medicine he holds degrees from xavier and howard university and the university of chicago he is an agile faculty member with north western university
And he is a member of kappa alpha psi good to see you dr robinson good to be here with you jose thank you for the opportunity to see you sir now uh we we all have us at the time we were broadcasting this we were not able to
Locate somebody in this particular time period from iota i want to give a little information about older five things fraternity uh they were founded in uh september 1963 morgan state university in baltimore now initiated over 30 thousand members they have a rich history service both attorney in the city of chicago
Recognizing the decades-old relationship with the sigma omega chapter graduate chapter many leaders continue on to become in charge of the sigma omega this mission and service continues today centered around social acting action initiatives in and for black community form of social service projects to worthy causes from volunteering to activism
We want to represent them and give a shout out to our older brothers as well now we want to start this conversation now we know who y’all are i got this formal thing over that’s the hardest thing we’re going to do all day but i got to let people know who we
Talking with and who we’re dealing with here today so haven’t gotten the formalities out of the way i want to share with everybody and talk to you each about why you decided to pledge in the first place and what your particular organization means to you and i’m going to start with ruthless
Well growing on chicago uh kappa was very prominent very dominant heard kent uh we were listening to wvon and hurricane i always talked about going down to kappa carnival at southern illinois university and i couldn’t wait a capital colonel so uh recognizing as well i have an older
Cousin who i admired who went to grambling and he pledged kappa there so um when i got to southern i went to southern and baton rouge when i got to southern really the people that i was around were not that up on on fraternities and so on my own as i do
I kind of looked around and the first group that i saw pledging were the brothers of uh omega sci-fi or the sphinxmen their pledgees and this was back in the 70s jose so i had a i had a nice afro the fro had to throw
And i saw these guys and they had an omega cut into their head and i said oh this will never happen for me there’s no way anybody’s touching this row so that was all done and then about a year or so later as i got more acclimated to the campus got more
Involved on my own and i really started to pay more attention to the fraternities and watch what was going on it just felt that you know kappa and what kappa was doing felt good to me and so um in spite of where i may have been steered because there were some
Some lovely akas talking to me about pledging alpha and i probably told them that i would but my heart where my heart should have been and i pledged kappa alpha sign i’ve had not one moment of regret since well right sir i appreciate that you know we
Could have had you but you know you went a good way as well i think i’m in the right i’m in the right place let’s go with derrick uh right now and see what’s going on how did you decide to pledge you know i was really attracted to the
The kappas on campus at xavier university i’ll start by saying i’m a native of shreveport louisiana and the grandson of sharecroppers and so we didn’t have a lot of college graduates in the family uh and i did not have a lot of exposure to fraternities and sororities growing up so
This was new to me besides watching school days you know coming along but the the capitals on xavier’s campus were doing some really extraordinary work i really admire their their leadership and their number of faculty members that were also uh influential in my decision and you know this year i’m celebrating 25 years
Of membership uh in kappa alpha psi and uh you know i love the fraternity it’s given so much to me uh over the years and really has helped broaden the aperture through which i see life and opportunities and i think i’ve not had so many individuals that really poured into me
When i was a young young kappa i probably would not have achieved many of the things that i have uh achieved today so i’m very grateful uh for the experience of membership and for all the things that others have contributed to me well sir let’s assume say amen amen
Let’s go to cedric now uh uh i grew up here in chicago on the west side of chicago and what influenced me was uh our great first black mayor was a sigma and i heard him speak and then when i went off to college down at uh southern illinois
A lot of the brothers down there that played sigma were from limbo and lim bloom is kind of a tight network and they kind of took me under their arms uh and talked to it took me a year to to come to grips with pledging somebody
Telling me what to do when to do it and and i go back that was probably the best i got my best grades and i was the most focused during the time i played because they struck you know the the focus was on education making yourself a better man and being
Prepared to have a positive impact on uh on on the on life after college so that’s what really drew me to you know if i bait the sigma forever the sum of it all mr williams i’ll start i’m trying to be good i’m trying hard to be good let’s go to commissioner absolutely
Your representative is hard no doubt always always and it is a pleasure to talk about my beloved fraternity you know i say that the person that had the most impact on me he is uh deceased now god bless his soul uh brother robert steele uh he was the predecessor before i became commissioner
But all the way back in high school he was the he was a man’s man he was accused right and so he uh excelled but also kind of introduced me to omega sci-fi fraternity inc early on and um he continued obviously to pull at my cocktail and i saw all the great work
That he was doing and uh eventually i said all right it’s time for it and i became a man of omega sci-fi which is the greatest fraternity in all of the earth and so we’re very very thankful listen we’re in black history month guess who created black history month
A man of omega sci-fi g woodson he also wrote miseducation of a negro and so it started out as achievement week and we’ve we we’ve helped grow it into black history month and so we’re all about doing what’s necessary to serve mankind to promote blackness in our communities to be in
Our communities helping to infiltrate uh whereas we have no economic development to bring in economic development there but also being a help to every single person in that community and i think i love that the most i think we are the most service oriented organization out there we’ve
Been involved in a covet stuff we’ve been involved in helping people make sure they get fascinated now we are getting rid of the myths that are out there about getting vaccinated so a long-lived omega sci-fi fraternity well i see we’re gonna have to mute the commissioner for the rest of these
He started some stuff so it’s about hey well first first of all service of all daryl bring it home for us all right brother jose first of all thank you so much for uh having us here this is truly an honor i’m happy to be um part of this great discussion
With such fantastic uh gentlemen here um you saved the best for last alpha phi alpha is the oldest and the coldest the uh as you said uh 1906 we started but you know my uh journey to alpha phi alpha um started in college uh i had
Not a lot of exposure in fact my biggest role of role models were kappas and and i thought highly of them and i thought perhaps i would uh pledge capital if i if i uh got to that point but i went through my entire four years at depaul university um not um
You know pledging we didn’t have african-american fraternities on campus at the time but you know after my senior year toward the end of my senior year alpha phi alpha came around and um i did some study and you know once i did some study uh it was pretty clear to me um
And this is from everyone from you know dr martin luther king jr uh to every brother that that is part of a community organization um you know making it happen wherever they are uh i i just thought i just saw commitment to community i saw a commitment to betterment both
Self-betterment and community betterment and for those reasons i pledge now i pledge even though i had just graduated from college i pledged undergrad because because everyone that there was a there was a reputation if you pledged graduate school right after getting out of undergrad
And so uh and so you know i was wearing my lavalier uh underneath my suit at first national bank of chicago uh and and it’s one of the best moves i ever made was honey while he plans it we play as hard like great players yeah we’re a charter line
Uh brother sanders and so every brother in the chicago metropolitan area wanted to meet us just a correction it’s the statesman club is uh those who are pledging out for phi alpha the lamps are the cues my thank you and everybody want to talk about the cues that’s okay
That’s true we do want to talk about that yeah i can relate to that uh when i was playing i played at henderson state university uh you know you know something something way back and i was pleasant and i had a trip to come to a journalism convention while i was undergrad
To chicago i’ve never been terrified you know actually here right there too because i’m saying i’m not stepping off that plane and having a pledge all the way up and down the streets of chicago you know but i can relate to that we were you were starting to was dropping
Some names commissioner started it uh go through i want everybody to go through and let some people know who are some of the members i want to start with rufus some of the members of your organization i’ll just say this as soon as dennis started throwing out names i knew martin
Luther king was going to come up as one of the alpha’s talk martin luther um you know from actually jose what i’d like to do i want to defer to derek and i’m going to i’ll backstop him uh with the with some of these illustrious captains that we have uh
In our midst eric why don’t you take that now sure i’d be happy to jump in and jose what i’ll do is i’ll walk through some of the illustrious illustrious kappas that folks who know that i’ve had a chance to meet that help kind of shape my path so i think
Individuals like dr bernard harris who is a physician and the first african-american to walk in space someone that i had a chance to see as an undergraduate helped me better see you know myself in the future as becoming a physician uh stalwart leaders like congressman the late congressman john conyers one of the
Co-founders of the congressional uh black caucus uh johnny cochran famous attorney that we all know of native of shreveport louisiana had a chance to meet him uh on on several occasions you know just to be around individuals who’ve had such a significant uh impact in society especially for you know
A young man you know you’re wet by behind the ears you’re trying to get your life started those are tremendously influential um experiences and so um i’ll name those as just a few and and pass it to rufus yeah i’ll jump back in and i’ll kind of go
Through a quick short list but if we’re talking about sports certainly in chicago then we can’t miss gail sears who is a good kappa man and we can’t miss colin kaepernick who has um impacted society in ways in which we can’t otherwise see uh there’s also arthur ashe who many
Have heard of will chamberlain bill russell we’re talking about business we’re talking about reginald lewis uh who bought beatrice uh tlc we’re talking about bob johnson uh from bet lester mckeever locally kappa man in law there’s james montgomery um derek mentioned johnny cochran there’s also a brilliant lawyer earl b dickerson
Who is responsible for a number of things here in chicago including bur oak cemetery and otherwise in education uh kenneth clark who was one who did the experiment with the uh dolls back in in meeting up to brown versus the board of education there’s warrior carter who ran columbia college and entertainment
Currently cedric the entertainer john singleton nephew tommy is a new so if you get one of those prank calls you’ll know uh you know who’s doing that kwame rahul tom bradley john carter uh the only man who’s ever quoted biggie smalls on the floor of the u.s government hakeem jefferies is also
A brother alpha we’ve got in media actually the brother who started the chicago defender um robert singsta abbott is the cap as a brother of kappa alpha gen calvin butz from abyssinian church in in harlem uh reverend leon finney recently passed is also a brother
Of kappa alpha psi uh le rome bennett in literature and so just to name a few um we gotta we’ve got a limit you went down come on give us give us some sex so i’m going to start a little different somebody that you know a lot of the
Older guys on the phone on the zoom call will know is the temptations otis wilson ogus williams and melvin franklin from the temptations the tempting temptations okay april of randolph george washington carver john lewis you know huey newton and bobby seal the black panthers okay really let’s let’s harold washington ben chavis
You know we actually this is going to be interesting we actually have a president honorary william jefferson clinton yes we do al shaw show at the search file we’ll let you get him back a little bit later you know what we have learned to ignore omegas they’re at the end of the house
They’re in all right and then you know locally we have dr robert jones who’s the chancellor of u of i yes we actually have alan uh leroy locke the first black women scholar so just just a few we don’t want to keep going on and on lord why did i ask this
Question what that’s a good question commissioner give us give us a few give us a few times let me give you a few i gave a couple already yeah but you know us we like to go all out all right i’m gonna give you a couple people who are impacting my life today
Brother eric gilkey who is with romeo newquays on the west side uh that’s our chapter on the west side brother willie edwards is doing such a great job mentoring me uh on on the west side but let me go a little bit further so michael jordan was a queue in case you
Didn’t know right shaquille o’neal is a cue you all also got up there the reverend the wonderful reverend jesse jackson see us cues we don’t play around right we get to the top of the game and then we control the game right it’s part of us being men of omega
Sci-fi you got dr david satcher benjamin mays charles drew uh vernon jordan and guess what while you’re quoting them langston hughes poems he was a q2 well right all right with that okay we got i got to i got to give girl just just a couple more and then because we
Can do this whole thing all night representatives and we’ll move on to some more questions sure sure so um i’m particularly fond of charles hamilton houston um he he is known as the killer of jim crow he’s the one who came to the naacp to set up the entire strategy
That culminated in brown versus board of education of course uh the honorable brother thurgood marshall was his uh student um in the fight for equality in the fight before the supreme court locally we have some incredibly illustrious members of the fraternity starting with uh brother mayor um eugene sawyer
We have uh the first black attorney general and the first black treasurer uh brother roland burst um we have uh the recently elevated speaker of the house of representatives uh brother emmanuel welch we have united states congressman danny davis who is one of seven uh alphas in in congress um
Including the new uh senator from um uh we’re not um we in business there is uh of course the founder of ebony jet magazine john h johnson uh uh some of our contemporaries brothers lyle logan and chandron thomas who are very very senior in uh wall street
Uh brother bret hart president of united airlines brother um donald thompson former chief executive officer of mcdonald’s um i’m gonna i’m gonna end it i’m gonna stop there yeah listen listen like we could go you and i can go on no you know oh here we go
I think it would be good for those of us and those who would watch if we can name out some of the iotas that we know to give them some homage while we’re talking about where we are now and you know as we started there was certainly a mention
Of of congressman bobby rush as being a brother of iota and if you guys know some others that you could just throw out just to give them to as we do this uh have this conversation i think that would be good too that’s my list but you got that for me
I did thank you but there’s also your cousin we talked about history have history but let’s talk about what we’re doing today and and why it’s important for these organizations uh to have a place in today’s dialogue the conversation what are we doing to advance the cause today
I want anybody who wants to jump in on this and tell why these organizations are important in today’s world so i’ll jump in and go ahead and start there i mean we’ve all talked about our experience as undergraduates and and certainly there’s a real important you know focus of our
Fraternities on supporting universities and education being a um an empowering and liberating uh tool for for our communities but also you know we’re active as alumni members of these fraternities in our communities today chicago happens at the distinction of housing the very first alumni chapter in kappa alpha psi
Fraternity incorporate its history the chicago alumni chapter our brothers are very involved in the community we have our edward jericho foundation center in the woodlawn community where our senior kappas those that are oldest you know several years ago identified food insecurity in the woodline area as being
A real opportunity to contribute and so they started a food pantry uh which successfully you know fed up to 10 000 individuals a month and when a pandemic hit that stopped and so these senior capitals were like they they knew the impact that they were having in the community around food insecurity
We started that during the summer and really doubled down on some partnerships to ensure that during this time when folks are really feeling the heaviest economic impact you know from the pandemic that we continue to be able to serve in that particular capacity and resume that efforts and then certainly
We’ve done a tremendous amount of work in the area of mentoring working with young people across the city so it’s a real important role for our fraternities in society today building on the legacy of our founders because these are individuals who you know especially for cap alpha psi on a
Predominantly white campus in 1911 there were not a lot of uh african americans there but they really knew that it was important to really fight for their places there to assure that they also had a ladder for individuals coming behind them and so you know as we rise up to uh positions
Of influence in society we have to ensure that we’re supporting individuals in our communities so that they have those opportunities as well there’s a big question today gentlemen if these organizations are indeed relevant today are they are they just social organizations a whole load from our campus days and we still want to
You know hang on to that brotherhood would rather not doing good in the hood if you will you know what i mean is it are they really as important as we think they are so let me let me let me chime in here they are important uh certainly they keep on the camaraderie
But remember and we all joke with each other and that’s all fine but the divine nine we all come together and do service to our community at the end of the day we laugh and we talk and we joke but we all are about the business
Uh when you talk about i’ll go out and i’ll jump back to omega now um so so what i say is a lot of what i have learned in omega is stuff that i practice today right so i practice it in my role as a commissioner i know that black people uh
As always looking for something to celebrate but we want to celebrate the right thing so myself and a alpha brother brother stanley moore we came together and we introduced june 10th as a cook county paid holiday and guess what it passed unanimously now it’s not just about a
A holiday it’s about we need to celebrate what our heritage is juneteenth is the official day that we was actually released from slavery and that’s why it’s a june 10th day i had never heard of it until i got down to jackson state university you got brothers like cam buckner and curtis tarver
Cam buckler is a state rep but he’s also the the head the president of the of the illinois legislative black caucus that caucus which a lot of divine members it makes up those guys and women did a heck of a thing just this this past month they introduced and passed
Uh three quarters of what they call a black agenda the majority of them are phi beta sigma omega sci-fi delta sigma theta alpha phi alpha and aka those are what divine organizations are doing so when you ask what’s the relevance we’re we’re creating pathways for our youth
There’s a poem that all you all learned when you were pledging in your pledge process uh and and whatever process and it was called bridge building anybody remember that and at the end of the day we’re all building bridges for those individuals who are to come behind us
Whether you are omega whether you are alpha whether you are chopper whether you are iota whether you are sigma this is about bridge building so that’s what i think our relevance is today we’re building bridges and making ways for the next generation we really saw that in evidence in the last election
Didn’t we everybody we take pretty well everybody march into the polls that was really really powerful along those lines let’s talk about uh how we’re working with our sister organizations guys the sisters are representing but we we all doing this thing together who wants to stick to that well i i will
The commission i don’t want to speak the commissioner touched on it that um we all have a common mission and when we are competitive we are competitive in doing good each organization is it measures itself and uh develops bragging rights for doing trying to do the most good in uh our community
And and certainly the election of the first woman first african-american first asian vice president of the united states was a collective effort of all the uh b glow um uh fraternities and sororities and um we you know through um the through the panhellenic council uh and the other divine nine umbrella organizations
We have uh joint um activities and efforts and we um and and it serves as a conduit where when one fraternity is having something or another sorority is having something everybody can know about it and come support and and and i think one of the important things about our involvement
In the community is communication amongst ourselves um and and supporting each other and cheering each other on mr jones i think you’re dying to say something i see you there no it you know i i think about that you know one of the things is we are all in this together
We all want to do things in our neighborhoods to to uplift our neighborhoods i know if if i had something going on in my neighborhood if the sigmas did and i called rufus if i call any other uh people on this panel they’re coming because not only they
Want to be associated with doing good and in the hood and we’re going to outrace one another doing good uh and and just like when you talk about the election what the fraternities and sororities have is we have an organization and you know to do anything you have to
Have an organization that fraternities and sororities are built in organizations that you can mobilize around activities or initiatives that’s going to uplift our neighborhoods and our people i mean it’s our responsibility that’s part of pledging being in the authority that is our responsibility and i would answer cedric cedric’s
Comments you know i think we’ve taken that camaraderie that you see on the college campuses and brought that into our community relationships as adults and when we look at our service projects i think we found opportunities to bring those together i know kappa’s worked with all of the sororities
I recall during some over some of the years working with our kappa league program uh in chicago how we would team up with the deltas with their delta gyms programs bring these young men and young women together and talk about issues like how to appropriately interface with law enforcement
Some of the pearls of wisdom around dating safety and other health related issues because we wanted to find opportunities to have some synergy with the work that we’re doing in communities so i think we found those opportunities working with the sororities and honestly even with the fraternities working together
Uh as well and there’s a certain beauty to the divine nine because we continue after our after our undergraduate years and so these organizations that have been developed in the brotherhoods and sisterhoods that have been developed continue on facade was founded on the principle of achievement and so we find ourselves achieving in
All fields of human endeavor and giving that back to our respective communities we don’t see that in other we don’t see that in white fraternities and sororities but for this divine nine that’s what we do when we go we didn’t jump in on the question about our sister organizations because cap alpha psi
Doesn’t have a natural sister organization we have done partnerships with everyone and those partnerships have all been good whether those have been social things or what went on delivered food and done done other things around the city oh i didn’t mean literal system organization i met the other members of the divine nine
Sisters right they’re doing doing things yeah we are we are all family did you guys say when you first pledged that it will be this important to your future lives you know what i mean first it was it was there was a reason for pleasant it was and we all had them
Different various reasons we saw what was happening around us and to us and for us but did you have any idea that we have this lasting impact well let me say this when we pledge yes we did know it had a lasting impact on our lives particularly particularly those of us
Who pledge undergrad but you know given what you sacrifice to get into these organizations and the meaning that it has over the weeks or months or however long of those pledge periods were that was important and i do know that as soon as we went over
The first thing they told us was that now you’re a kappa now the real work starts and i looked at him like he had eight heads because i thought the real work was just out of hell week but then to look and go on and it ebbs and flows jose so i was
Involved a lot when i was an undergraduate involved a little bit when i got out of undergraduate and stepped away but have really acclimated myself very much into the fraternity and very much into what we do going around so it’s something that sits firmly in my in my uh in my spirit and
Wants a cap always a kappa because you know as we say many are called a few are chosen so it’s a lot to um there’s a lot of burden to carry and i think it’s you know i speak for us but certainly these things are that resonate through
All of us who are in in these that’s right brother uh jose you know this is my 40th year you know wow uh it will be 40 years with my ship uh uss excalibur from 1981 i knew be a lifetime love um a lifetime of opportunity because even back then
It was impressed upon me and you pick up very easily that this organization is about creating servant leaders and i suspect that each of the fraternities and each of the sororities have the same mission of creating building servant leaders and um and so it wasn’t a matter of so
I enjoyed alpha walking as much as the next brother and and i was at the party at iit uh the parties that neuro used to have uh and and they were great times um but you know i i also knew that this was um this was a a lifetime uh opportunity and um
And wouldn’t have it any other way you know i had to actually get on a calculator figure out how many years ago uh it will be 45 as of this year some vital issues right now we’re dealing with especially covert i know certain organizations and i know
You’ve been involved a lot in the the covert effort and helping our people talk to us about that sure you know the kappas have been involved in partnering with local organizations around a given away mask and helping make uh covet testing more accessible and more affordable and
I think we all know that this is something that’s really important um there was you know new report out today that shows that you know life expectancy in the united states has dropped almost a year overall from january to june of 2020 that’s right an african-american community has dropped even bigger and for
African-american men you know compared to white men their life expectancy dropped eight tenths of a year during the first wave of the pandemic for african-american men we lost three years of life expectancy just accounting for january deaths from january to june of last year so that’s not accounting
For the second wave in the third wave so we are really in the midst of a compelling high-stakes public health emergency and especially in black and brown communities and you’re going to see members across all of our fraternities represented today as well as individuals who are not members of the divine nine
Really working diligently to try to educate members of our communities to try to validate acknowledge many of the root causes of distrust that there are in our communities but also making very clear the choices that we have before as we think about getting vaccinated against covet 19 it’s having a detrimental
Impact on all communities but we are really seeing it hardest hit in african-american community and in our indigenous and uh latino communities and that’s built on many of the historic uh injustices that we’ve seen that’s right multiple structures of our society whether it’s education housing employment health care those
Things predated the pandemic and we just see them really kind of blossom in a very ugly way during the pandemic these are the type of things that members of our fraternities have been fighting for for so many years that’s right and this didn’t happen overnight and so
As we try to turn this ship back in the right direction we really got a lot of work to do what do you guys think is the vital issues that we are fighting in addition to the pandemic today well it’s racism it is you know injustices just as derek has indicated
I think this fight has been going on certainly for quite a while and it is a fight but but i see light at the end of the tunnel so us as divine nines uh members of divine nine uh organizations have been fighting this in the middle of
It doing food drives doing uh pppe um in fact i just did we just did something on ppp you know for those black owned businesses who are um need to get some of this free money that’s out there uh due to the pandemic you know get your paperwork together and
Get some of this money to help your business thrive which takes us to economic development uh we want to ensure that economic development is paramount in the black community this is an opportunity for that to happen uh it goes back to the old saying proverbial said each one reach one
You know and so i think that we’re doing that as organizations and we we certainly need you to continue to do that there’s a lot of work ahead you know our issues are deep profound profound and entrenched and so there’s so many things that have to happen as derek pointed out
As the commissioner pointed out and you know it’s racism but you know it’s also castism and this caste system that we fight against here in the united always existed understanding that better understanding what we have to do to dismantle that that’s right how we continue to achieve these higher places
It’s wildly exciting to have kamala harris sitting in the vice president’s seat because what we can see is four years from now she should very well be sitting in the presidency and someone with that level of engagement certainly what we’re talking about here and where we are can help to dismantle
Some of these systems that exist and it’s these systems that have kept us in places that we can now go in and dismantle with us and divine nine the one thing that you always know when you see people wearing black greek letters is that as a college educated person
That thing you know every time you see one of us and we all know then we’ve all gone through some pretty difficult times and these are people who you know can give you and these are people who you know you can count on when things get really hard
They’re not going to give up because we haven’t given up in order to get to where we are and so in these things that we look at going forward this big fight against castism racism all the things that perpetuate these issues these disparities and health
In our lives are the things that we will always continue to fight and certainly for me i look strongly at what we have to do in our education system and how we deal with this imbalance when we continue to have this achievement gap that will be made even
Greater when we come out of this pandemic because we know that there are people who can’t engage in the same way as others through distance learning or whatever that is because it was already there before we even had this pandemic is that the biggest challenge that your
Gentlemen see jose wanted i just looked saw some research the other day where in the black community we spent about two trillion dollars a year but only about six percent of that stays in our neighborhood so think about how much if we just stay if half of that state in our
Neighborhood where we could create jobs education opportunities and how it would change people’s lives so it’s not that we don’t have the economic power we’re just not placing it in the right places so if we continue to educate and get the message out that we can we have the resources we
Just have to be strategic and purposeful about where we place and use those resources that would make a significant change so brother brother jose you know we are fighting on all fronts um and they’re we’re fighting both the systemic challenges with uh racism caste uh ism um and and economic um
Economic disinvestment uh you see on the west side on the south side um what has happened there uh produces the challenges that we have now the food deserts produce the diabetes the high blood pressure um and and so it’s incumbent upon us to do programs like at xylamda we have a we
Have a wellness challenge where where all the brothers are have signed up to uh to change behaviors in our families and we set up teams and we and individuals to attack these issues with exercise with um with eating correctly with other forms of wellness so that we can impact our families and our
Communities in a positive way but you know these are these are symptoms that we’re dealing with even as we are dealing with the systemic problems associated with uh how this how this nation came to get to this place where we are right now are you are you optimistic or pessimistic as we look
Around today i am optimistic yeah yes yeah i’m filled with hope i think that we’ve come we’ve gotten a lot done over the years and we have a do and we can get it done each time you know this pendulum swings and i was certainly troubled last year so many were
With the murder of george floyd but what happened in that same time was that it opened so many eyes to the plight of black people over all of these years i mean they may have seen it in slavery and may have understood what that was but this has been a continuum that’s to
This point and so when you’re marching around lincoln so for adults who are saying black lives matter and 16 shots and cover up it gives me a sense that perhaps we do we’ve reached a different point and we can make some some more monumental change
A little bit as we as we start here to wrap up what’s what’s been a really fast hour i would love for you to move around and uh start with you and talk to me about what this means to you uh your organization being there and what you hope to
Accomplish and you and your your legacy what i what i want to do is is is i believe you know we were founded you know back at howard university and now our first woman vice president graduated from howard university that we can continue to build on what we’ve done
Educate our youth provide opportunities back into our communities be a face in our community not you know not for it to stop with the partying and undergrad but as alumni and as senior members of the community that we’re continually striving to keep the name out there to keep the programs going to educate
To have these kind of panels to uh to have coalition with the divine nine so that we can continue to uplift our community so i’m very optimistic because again i i hate to say this because we got two alphas on here but martin luther king said i have a dream
And i and he’s he is my hero and so i will always have hope because that’s what my foundation is so well as my as my brother kim says it’s not miss jesse jackson keep hope a lot yes we always do that see i’m going to
Start and go with derek any any final thoughts uh your what you hope the legacy will be of the organization absolutely kappa alpha size model of achievement has worked wonders for me i like to describe myself as a turtle on a post i didn’t get there by myself
And so when i think about legacy for the fraternity and legacy for my membership it’s about really giving back to others in the community to help empower them and help them be as successful as they can and i think that you know goes back to the fundamentals of our organization
Um and i think it’s consistent with the efforts of everyone on the call today so uh look forward to helping contribute to that legacy over time commissioner thank you so much and i do i agree with what’s been said by the other brothers there is a great legacy in omega sci-fi fraternity and
And uh what i’m most proud of is the great work that we’ve done up until this point but also the fact i think you know we also have to make sure that we uphold our organizations so i just became a life member of omega sci-fi and while we uphold omega sci-fi
Or whatever organization we have we have to ensure we then take those same cardinal principles and implement them into our communities so i’m i’m very excited about our future let’s go let’s go there i am also excited brother um you know we we we all stand on great big strong shoulders and um
And we didn’t get here without a lot of hard work a lot of blood sweat and tears a lot of effort um and so it is incumbent upon us uh we owe it to our ancestors and to our future descendants to um to take the baton that we’ve been given
To run hard um to uh to lift as we climb uh and leave every door open for every young person and if we do that uh focused on the the challenges that we’ve discussed here uh in particularly economic development um you know i can’t help but be optimistic for our future
Because it is in our hands uh you know people are gonna do what they’re gonna do systems are gonna do what they’re gonna do but it really is in our hands that’s right buddy how are you how you feeling about all this what’s happening right now and
And the legacy that we hope to leave behind jose one of the things that was one of the profound periods for me in the fraternity was when i went down to bloomington indiana in uh 2011 to celebrate our 100th anniversary and to be down in that space and to
Think about what these 10 men did 100 years earlier in the midst of the ku klux klan in the midst of everything else and and note capital was originally kappa alpha nu and we changed said look at that look at that kappa alpha negron and so the brothers overhearing that
Shifted our name to kappa alpha psi so i think about what they dealt with 100 years ago and what we can do now so our burden is heavy but there’s so much that we can do i’m excited about our guide right program our kappa league program what we do to
Raise young men and identify these young high school men and move them forward through their lives and what we continue to do there and the connections that we have with all these men on this call which is just just as symbolic of the connections that we have with men throughout the country
And certainly throughout the divine nine is something that we know that we must do we will do and it gives me great tremendous hope towards what we can do in the future you bring up that i didn’t know about the name change what misconceptions gentleman do you think people have about divine nine
Organizations well i think in many cases people see us as elitist um you know we set ourselves as partners and um you know i don’t know whether that’s people will perceive it however they do but everybody has a choice to try and get into one of these
Organizations or not i think what we see is uh not counting what we see really in the in the misconception is that we are all in competition when the fact of the matter is we are all striving ahead cedric and i talked earlier about thinking back to the civil rights movement
When there was dr king there was an alpha there was jesse jackson a q that was ralph abernathy or kappa that’s right that was john moores and omega all together right there all making it happen all that’s right for the people so the misconceptions whatever they are our
Real conception is that we continue to move us forward well gentlemen it has been indeed a pleasure for me to to be with you to be a part of you and just to be able to as we say to fellowship together even fruitfully yes we must do this
More often because uh their strength in numbers and uh we didn’t get here alone and we got a long wait to go i appreciate you you’re being here and sharing some insights with us and with our viewers here at abc7 we we like to reach out and see what’s really happening
And we know you are part of organizations and individually that make those things happen and do great things for our city and for our world on behalf of everybody here at abc7 you all know y’all got a home at abc7 long as we there and we plan to be there for a while
For all of us at abc7 thank you for being with us thank you gentlemen and thank you thank you thank you
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