Beck Cultural Exchange Center Racial Justice – The Divine 9

On behalf of beck and our board of directors under the chairwoman and iset houston i would like to welcome you to this our sixth virtual town hall meeting in our pursuit of racial justice we are pleased that you have joined and chosen to join us today and again i want

To always acknowledge those of you who have been joining us for this conversation ever since june when we started these thank you we appreciate your support but most especially we appreciate your participation in this important work before we get started i always want to acknowledge the extraordinary team of discovery

They’re a team of volunteers who literally dedicate their own time to working with us into ensuring that we can put on these virtual conversations on racial justice so thank you to rodney who is technically on vacation this week doing this for us alessa ferdrica robert malcolm kim jim kiki and michael

Thank you all so very much following the death of mr george floyd an unarmed black man who was murdered by police in minneapolis on memorial day may 25th 2020. beck launched a series of monthly virtual town hall meetings on racial justice we began on june the 19th during our annual commemoration of juneteenth

During our first discussion on racial justice our panelists included black leaders from our community in july we held a second session that included white leaders from our community in august we launched our annual 8th of august jubilee and we hosted our third session but we did so in two parts the first hour

Part one consisted of our youth leaders ages 14 to 19 and they were extraordinary our second hour consisted of our adult young adult leaders ages 20 to 40. let me remind you what happened after the youth so if you get a chance to watch this um the youth said on that panel

When they talked about racial justice they said reverend kessler we don’t want this to stop so i want to um announce to you that we created the back youth people’s leadership as a result of that racial discussion we meet every two weeks we have leaders

And they are killing it so i just want you to know that i have hope we have some amazing young people so again after that conversation they made that decision and the work is continuing back young people’s leadership academy as well in september after our august events

We held a panelist that included all of our highest ranking public officials our mayors our police chiefs and sheriff and the tbi director in october we focused on the vote we talked about voter suppression then and now with our panelists each of these discussions have been recorded

And you can view them online at the beck center website at beckcenter.net just click on the racial justice tab while we remain closed to the public due to covet 19 our virtual doors are wide open and we need your support please join us if you’re not already a

Member of beck we invite you to become a member if you are a member we invite you to renew your membership and if you have renewed your membership we simply say thank you we appreciate you we’re working hard to ensure black history and culture remain at the forefront

We are committed to our mission to always be the place where african american history and culture are preserved nurtured taught and continued racial justice intentionally we did not call these town hall meetings racial injustice because the truth is we know what racial injustice looks like today we are in pursuit of racial

Justice these town hall meetings are our contribution toward eradicating racism we are serious about this issue future generations are counting on us not to quit we must stop writing the same repeating history these racial justice discussions are our means of responding to systemic racism it is necessary for us to be uncomfortable

As we deal with racism we want racial justice to be a mandate we invite you to please feel free to join this town hall meeting with your comments and your questions we want to hear from you please feel free to place any questions that you might have

In the chat box today our panelist on racial justice is composed of members of the divine nine members of the divine nine have been on the forefront of justice issue as part of a lifetime commitment tuesday august 11th former vice president joe biden made history when he named california senator kamala

Harris as his vice presidential running mate harris the daughter of immigrants from jamaica and india became the first black woman in the first asian american to be nominated for a major party’s presidential ticket following an historic election on tuesday november third biden and harris became the president and the vice president-elect of the

United states on saturday november the 7th again harris would make history becoming the first black woman and first south asian vice president elect so we’ll just kind of wherever you are in cyber land we are throwing it up for vice president-elect kamala hires vice president elect harris is a member of alpha

Kappa alpha sorority incorporated i hear you out because i hear all kind of skewed going on just stuff going on in the background but she is also a member of the divine nine and so many of you be maybe out there wondering what is the divine nine so here’s just a quick video

Of the divine nine and our shout out to kamala harris to understand the significance of historic moments like this one is to understand part of what helped kamala harris rise harris is a proud member of alpha kappa alpha sorority incorporated one of nine black sororities and fraternities known as the divine nine

Many of these organizations were founded in the early nineteen hundreds we were founded when the country was in great despair following uh reconstruction and the whole disenfranchisement of african americans in this nation everett b ward is the general president of alpha phi alpha fraternity incorporated the first and oldest black greek

Fraternity in the nation he says each organization is different but they’re all part of a larger family and their mission is the same service to all college men and women recognized that they had an obligation a dual obligation both for their intellectual development but also for a strong commitment to leadership

And public service these nine organizations over the years fought tirelessly in the civil rights movement mobilizing and organizing for equal rights and the right to vote and encouraging and supporting members to run for public office during the women’s suffrage movement members of alpha kappa alpha and delta sigma theta would endure

Discrimination but marched with white suffragists anyway the first act of any african-american women’s organization as an organization was marched with the separatist it is something we have always done and always been engaged in beverly smith is the national president for delta sigma theta sorority incorporated she says while none of the organizations

Are partisan many of the more than two million members of the divine nine felt a sense of pride when kamala harris recognized their shared history family is my beloved alpha kappa alpha our divine nine and my hbcu brothers and sisters she was affirming a 100 year history of nine organizations that have been

Committed to leadership scholarship and service that’s unprecedented for generations the nation has seen the work of the divine nine and wednesday night we not only watched history but their founders wildest dream megan fitzgerald news 4 thank you thank you so much so representing members of the divine nine

Is this divine panel of great extraordinary people that i’m honored to sit alongside today representing the first the alpha phi alpha fraternity incorporated founded in 1906 on the campus of cornell university please join me in welcoming dr charles f lomax jr hey dr lomax welcome he’s throwing it up dr lomax serves as

The director of community empowerment for the city of knoxville and is the pastor of saint john missionary baptist church in alcoa driven by a love for people in the commitment to community he strives to serve in whatever ways possible to help promote people meet their maximum potential

Dr lomax 6 on a number of boards represented an assortment of community engagement but most recently he was included in the leadership knoxville’s class 2021 congratulations uh best class ever uh 2005 and was recognized as one of knoxville’s 40 under 40. so welcome dr lomax so glad to have you here

And the first female those mighty mighty women of alpha kappa alpha sorority incorporated founded in nineteen on the campus of howard university representing the ladies of alpha kappa alpha are cynthia j finch miss finch is a licensed master of social work and a certified case manager her professional career spends over 30

Years in health care as a manager owner and a clinician in 2017 miss finch launched a new program new direction health care solutions which is a partnership with connect ministries it focuses on innovative approaches in dealing with health care disparities for people of color and providing consulting work for new

And start-up business operations and management she was previously the owner and operator of hospice in the knoxville area in knoxville surrounding counties and hospice um and the end of life care is truly cynthia’s calling cynthia also today manages alongside uh the vice mayor uh gwen mckenzie the faith

Leaders initiative for those of you who may not know since may cynthia has been organizing a group of now over a hundred clergy uh within the african-american and greater community and communities of color to keep us safe from code that our parishioners and all of our surrounding

Communities so miss finch is always on the cutting edge edge of our community and making things happen but she serves as the president of the siza omega chapter of alpha kappa alpha in newport she also serves as the international membership intake chair uh she’ll be doing that

Until 2022 and she holds the distinction of serving as the 22nd southeastern regional director uh for alpha kappa apple sorority from 2002 to 2006. welcome my friend is cynthia finch representing kappa alpha psi fraternity founded in 1911 indiana university eric lattimore welcome my brother something about that red and white mr

Lattimore is a native of knoxville a graduate of an hbcu our hbcu here in town knoxville college uh he has his bs degree in mathematics he’s a member of course of the knoxville alumni chapter of uh kappa alpha psi fraternity he joined in 2001 he is the creator and

Designer of the kappa alpha psi fraternity incorporated tennessee license plate um grand chapter life member of kappa apple psi fraternity incorporated south central province life member of kappa applesau fraternity he is also the cece russell lodge 262 masonic lodge currently serving as their worshipful master which is the president of the lodge

Worthy matron of the wheeler leona order of the eastern star charter member of the alcor conservatory consisting of 32 and excuse me the 32nd and 33rd degree masons and a member of the east tennessee valley area national panhellenic council serving as its charter vice president now he’s currently serving as the vice president

But he has also served as the president bringing all of the divine nine together and we love that that has happened and that you were one of those making that happen but he loves to boast that he is a life member of the knoxville college national alumni association

And so shout out to knoxville college he is a member of the cac class of 2017 member of the spring 2017 tyson mcgee aviation academy class and a member of the 2020 fbi citizens academy class welcome eric lattimore thank you omega sci-fi fraternity there it is founded in 1911 by at howard university

Representing the omega sci fives are our very own our state representative sam mckenzie welcome sam that purple and gold is looking really nice on you today rep mckenzie is a native of knoxville and he is a graduate of the historic austin east high school he holds a master’s of science degree

Uh in physics from the university of memphis and a bachelor of science from fifth university he had to get the hbcu in there as well he is currently working in oak ridge at the lab and the spallation neutron source this fallacious new sun source is the world’s most powerful proton

Accelerator we’re going to ask him one day to tell me what that really means he said it to me only like i think sam explains this to me every year of my life and i still don’t know what that is but i’m glad you do that sam uh he was recently

Elected as our newest state representative and he likes the tone uh he’s the representative for the 15th district but he’s the first graduate of austin east high school to serve in that role now sam i’m gonna give you that you’re the first austin east state representative but we know that mr

Robert booker is 1966 is the first austin high school graduate before the merger and before integration so we will give you that first that’s absolutely right so we’re very proud of sam in holding that um distinction but sam is very passionate about children and especially the children in east knoxville

He started and formed the east knoxville athletic association for children which is a non-profit um that does athletic activities ages five to fourteen he has served for over eight years as an elected official for knox county commission district one uh and he served on numerous boards uh

But right now he’s still serving for the last 25 years so he’s still got some some juice in him i guess as a football high school football and collegiate level officiate wow i see you sam uh and he is a member of beta theta boulet uh so he is lastly but very proudly

A member of omega sci-fi as i said but he’s the 23rd fifth district representative of omega sci-fi fraternity uh incorporated and i might add that he is also married to our first african-american female vice mayor of the city of knoxville my beloved friend gwen mackenzie glad to have you sam

Delta sigma theta sorority incorporated founded in 1913 at howard university and at representing the deltas today are tinisha holly holly is a graduate also of the elite hbcu in knoxville knoxville college she loves dear old knoxville college she holds a master’s degree in organizational leadership with a concentration

In human resources she volunteers her time with the league of women voters the knox county board of directors she does lots of community outreach he’s a leader in leadership at knoxville utilities board right now but perhaps the thing that’s so amazing about her is that in her role as a

Member of delta sigma theta sorority incorporated she really organizes uh the stroll to the polls uh she gets out the vote i would say that tanisha is really the authority on anything happening in the legislature uh that we need to know about it she keeps us updated on everything that

We need to know about legislative actions she is on capitol hill she is fighting the good fight and she is representing us well welcome tanisha holly all right full disclosure i am a member of that crimson cream delta sigma theta sorority incorporated that is not what i’m going to play that

Role today but i want to be full disclosures with my divine knight and here’s when you know here’s when you know renee kessler loves all of her divine nine when she lets them in that pink and green color outnumber those red and white girls i love all of my sisters and brothers

So everybody is welcome this is truly the divine phi beta sigma fraternity founded in 1914 howard university representing is ashford hughes welcome my brother all the way from nashville tennessee we are so glad to have you here he is a member of course of the ada beta sigma chapter there

Uh of uh phi beta sigma he has a bachelor’s degree with a concentration in political science from tennessee state university another hbcu uh he is currently the executive officer for diversity in equity and inclusion uh which involves uh designing and implementing initiatives and policies that address the academic

And social emotional needs of the district’s diverse population he also serves as a liaison to local and state uh state stakeholders focused on issues of diversity and equity he serves on the board of the tennessee diversity consortium in the health trust of tennessee he is in good standing

And a good member of the prince hall masonic lodge number 104 in nashville where he has served as the past chair to the organization young men’s mentorship program and the district director of public relations he is an active member of the shriners organization prince hall affiliate he is the co-chair of

My brother’s keeper at work uh he serves very active in his church in fact serves on the leadership team of the political action ministry the social and political uh action ministry but ashford says he aspires to empower the community through political engagement civic education and economic empowerment

So we welcome ashford hughes back home because knoxville is home for ashford so welcome back home ashford representing his sister organizations those beautiful ladies in blue and white zeta phi beta surround sorority founded in 1920 at howard university tanaya mcgee welcome to the house i’m so excited to see you

She is a mcgee is a proud native of fort worth texas she holds a bachelor’s of science in sociology from the university of north texas in a master’s in sociology from clark atlanta university she currently serves as the assistant director of the office of sorority and fraternity life at the university of tennessee

Here in knoxville in her role she serves as advisor to the eight national panhellenic council chapters six multicultural greek council chapters and co-advises order of omega with over 14 years of experience working in higher education tenea has had the opportunity to serve in an array of fields student activities multicultural life

First generation college students first year students student conduct for fraternity and sorority life i should also mention she is a newlywed happily married for one year so forgive us because we keep forgetting to put the right name but congratulations welcome to our world the other sisterhood um

So we’re very proud of her she is a new zeta chapter member of zeta phi beta sorority uh she was initiated in 1999 but most importantly she likes to say she strives to make a difference with each opportunity she takes by creating space there are value inclusive and equitable for all so

Welcome welcome miss mckee um sigma gamma rho sorority founded in 1922 butler university welcome by that shanks is in the house and we are so excited to have you she is a local educator at the historic austin east high school taking good care of our children

Um teaching us mathematics and we are so glad that you are there she has over 20 years of education experience graduating from northwestern university she is currently the president of knoxville’s alumni chapter of sigma gamma rho sorority incorporated welcome my sister we are so glad you’re here and representing iota

5 theta fraternity founded in 1963 at morgan state university brother charles brown is in the house welcome welcome welcome brother brown brother brown is a criminal defense investigator with the federal defender services of eastern tennessee he’s also the sole proprietor of c.a brown and associates which is private investigations

He’s worked as an advocate for those accused of federal crime since 1992. he’s also a licensed and privately uh in the state of tennessee he’s been licensed since 2000 but perhaps one of the greatest things that he has always worked on is his organization called no more quotes

Charles is a very strong advocate for young men and particularly young students uh and those of color he has been an advocate for helping to inspire encourage speaking to them meeting with them mentoring them and walking alongside him so he is truly not one of those who

Just talks the talk but he truly walks the walk welcome brother charles brown that is the representation of our divine nine so if you’re out there if you wouldn’t mind just to give all of those representatives a big hand thank you today is going to be a little bit

Differently because we have a very special guest and while she also represents one of the members of the divine nine she is an extraordinary woman and so i’m gonna have to just take some time to give her her accolades because when you have achieved some of the

Things that this uh amazing woman has achieved in such a short amount of time that it behooves us to also honor her about affirming her and so one of the things i want to do is i want to introduce to some and present to others this extraordinary woman

And then i want to turn it over to her so that she can then share and enlighten us as we jump off this panel um she is going to share with us she’s going to inspire us but most especially she is going to encourage us to keep on keeping on and

I’m looking forward to her words of wisdom rosalind m brock is a nationally recognized health policy advisor social justice change agent noted public speaker mentor and she holds the distinct honor of being the youngest person and fourth woman in 2010 unanimously elected to the role of national board chairman

For the national association for the advancement of colored people the naacp in its history she currently serves as his chairman emeritus we’re just gonna pump that up for just a moment wow she’s the founder and ceo of equity partnership strategies which is a consulting firm she was previously the chief um advocacy

Officer for bon secours mercy health which is an eight million dollar not-for-profit catholic health system provider she also partnered with multi-level federal and state stakeholders to transform and align regulatory and community health standards for broader health equity access and quality results her social impact extends globally she has built cross-cultural

Understanding and professional networks with young leaders in china as a as a young leaders fellow with the national committee on u.s china relations she’s been recognized for her leadership skills by several national organizations and publications she received the 2018 distinguished health care leader award from the national association of health services executive

She received the 2018 shaffner award for social impact from northwestern university humanitarian award in 2017-17 from kappa alpha psi fraternity 2007 kermit nash award from the society of social work leadership coretta scott king award from alpha kappa alpha sorority national newspaper publishers leadership award women of power award

From the national urban league featured in essence magazine as a list of 40 fierce and fabulous women who are changing the world and black entertainment televisions vet inaugural black girl rocks broadcast she graduated magna laude from virginia university she earned a master’s degree in health services administration from george washington university

In an mba from the kellogg school of management at northwestern university master’s degree in divinity my sister in the ministry from the samuel dewitt proctor school of theology at virginia union university and she holds four okay one two three four honorary doctorate degrees she’s a member of the

Board of trustees of the george washington university in the interfaith health center on corporate responsibility she is the chairman international connection and social action committee for her sorority she is a board advisor of millikin institute school of public health she’s a former trust leader catholic health she is

A diamond life member of the association um the catholic health association excuse me um and excuse me diamond life member of the naacp and of course a life member of her sorority and the links incorporated here’s her personal philosophy it’s embedded in an african proverb care more

Than others think is wise risk more than others think is safe dream more than others think is practical and expect more than others think is possible she serves as associate minister at the historic alfred street baptist church in alexandria virginia her favorite passage of scripture is jeremiah 29-11 for i know

The plans i have for you saith the lord plans to prosper you and not to harm you to give you hope and a future ladies and gentlemen and all of those who are viewing i present to some i introduce to others my newfound friend reverend dr rosalind brock greetings reverend kessler

Thank you so much for that very kind introduction i’m so grateful to be here with you and members of the bet cultural exchange and the distinguished members of the divine nine i am a proud member of alpha kappa alpha sorority incorporated who boasts of over 300 000 college-educated women across this country and

Globally i’m so grateful for the opportunity from you to share in this racial justice discussion this afternoon as we pursue and unpack the conversation around racial justice in this nation my friends in this 2020 kairos moment of clarity of purpose and pregnant pause we’ve witnessed a rising tide of racism

Hatred bigotry and fear on full display from the white house and from the halls of congress as they have shown us what textbook equity definitions of white supremacy and white fragility i don’t have to tell any of you what a defining and dangerous times we are living in in our nation

As we struggle to address a global health economic and racial pandemic conservative leaders however are adamant about maintaining their power structure as they continue to pass racially insensitive laws to remove safety net provisions for poor and vulnerable populations they scale back the rights of new workers to organize

They restrict women’s rights and attack the dignity of new immigrants and erect systemic barriers that restrict entry into our country’s borders all while demonizing the use of wear and protective mask that have scientifically been proven to reduce the spread of the deadly coronavirus the current social and economic

Political and racial climate we find ourselves in challenges all of us to re-examine and commit ourselves to the fundamental tenets of our democracy recognizing my friends that as you know we do not live in a post-racial society race matters in this country and the pendulum of justice is moving quickly

Backwards for communities of color the structural and systemic racial challenges we face in black and brown communities are not figments of our imagination for confirmation all you have to do is simply ask the families of george floyd brianna taylor ahmad aubry rashad brooks and unfortunately the list goes on and on the generational

Weathering of racism and social inequities have disproportionately impacted our communities today when families are literally living with their backs up against the wall i believe we need authentic leaders with a moral compass who understand that life is truly about others because service to others is the rent we pay

For the space we occupy we need men and women with mental courage with rightness a clarity of purpose and a burning desire to make this nation what it ought to be one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice not just for some but liberty and justice for all and so i

Submit to you this afternoon that we have to step out of our glass houses and move from our comfortable positions thinking that our neighbors problems next door or around the corner or somebody else’s problems and that they don’t impact us we have to replace the windows in our lives

With mirrors that allows us to look outside and look at the impact of society on others we must realize that as a human race that we are all inextricably tied in a single garment of destiny and according to dr martin luther king as well that we are called in an inescapable network of

Mutuality what impacts you most assuredly will impact me so i hear at this hour the whispered narratives of our four parents challenging us and strengthening us with manna from on high with this thought that while we are sick and tired of being sick and tired we can never forget

That as a race of people we’ve come too far to turn back now the trials and tribulations of our daily existence have caused us to bend with the test of time and not break under the strains of adversity that’s why in times like these we need bold and courageous leaders

Who have spiritual resources and who read the biblical texts that’s found in jeremiah 29 and 11 my favorite passage of scripture for i know the plans i have for you saith the lord plans to prosper you not to harm you to give you hope and a future and so i have hope today

And i stand firm on romans 8 that we are more than conquerors i also believe and resonate with poet paul lawrence dunbar’s quote that speaks to the resiliency of our community when he said hope is tenacious it goes on living and working when science has dealt what should have been its death blow

So my friends we need courageous leaders bold leaders authentic leaders and diverse leaders who will remove structural and systemic barriers that permit racism to survive and thrive in american society we need leaders who are willing to build back better as they educate all of our children close the disparity gaps in education

And in health care reimagine law enforcement safeguard civil and human rights and pass the voting rights act but most assuredly we need leaders in washington who are willing to pass a stimulus package that will put everyday americans first responders and small business owners back to work and on the path to economic recovery

And so as i set the table for our conversation that is forthcoming we have those leaders reverend kessler that you have assembled this afternoon authentic leaders bold leaders courageous leaders who have distinguished themselves as a part of a family of more than 2.5 million siblings who are part of the divine nine

Whose organizational histories are steeped in education in civic engagement and service to our beloved community from their audacious foundings at the turn of the century and to their transformative leadership today members of the divine nine have been on the front line and they’re still in the trenches but as

The young people would say they have quote street cred and they have receipts and so i pledge myself anew this day after seeing the victory that we brought together the divine nine in the historic election of the first black woman to be the vice presidential elect

Of this nation and also the first south asian american i dedicate myself anew and pledge to work tirelessly with my beloved sorority alpha kappa alpha sorority incorporated the naacp and the divine nine and other like-minded organizations as we look towards the rising sun of a new day begun

And challenge ourselves to be the hope and face of courage for those who look to us for leadership to be a shield for those who feel they have no protection and a sword for those who feel they have no power my friends if you remember nothing else of what i’ve said in this

Short statement of racial justice in our nation remember this when we stand united together in greekdom with divine nine nothing is impossible for us i do believe i have hope i have faith that with god all things are possible because courage will not skip this generation peace and power

Awesome that was very powerful but i didn’t expect anything any less dr brock thank you i appreciate your words of encouragement i’m on fire and i am inspired and i thank you for that and we’re definitely going to come back to you and have you join us in on this panel so

Now that you have inspired us and pumped us up i’m going to start with the panel and give them an opportunity um to really chime in here uh and so i’d like to start first with the first question for the panelists uh because we have talked about this

Divine night we’ve talked about your membership uh in this particular organization um so i want to talk about why you chose the greek organization that you chose and also if you went to an hbcu and at the same time how that rolls into how you complete this statement

Racial justice is so if you will complete the statement racial justice is but then give us a glimpse real quickly about why you chose the greek letter organization excuse me that you chose uh you were it was important for you to be a part of that hbcu experience

And i would like to start um and i’d like to say that you have two minutes and we have a time keeper here so thank you so dr lomax you’re on mute gotcha first of all uh let me say thank you reverend kessler and uh dr brock thank you as well and to

Our panelists and to all who are watching with us virtually uh truly grateful for the opportunity and um just thankful to be here and so i chose um alpha phi alpha fraternity incorporated just based off of doing my research and the history and the legacy that um this great fraternity owns and is

And it was something that was near and dear to me when i began to look at the men uh who had come through the ranks including uh thurgood marshall and w.e.b du bois and uh martin luther king jesse owens and that in and of itself uh just spoke to me and

Looking at the history and the adversity that we as a fraternity had to um endure um just starting things off and so that for me um and our commitment to manly deed scholarship and love for all mankind is what sealed the deal for me uh for both my undergraduate and

Doctoral studies i attended uh pwis but i intentionally chose to get my master’s from an hbcu which was the morehouse school of religion at the interdenominational theological center and just based off of the work that i do in ministry that for me um and the the communities that i work with

Uh said that this is where i needed to be this is where i needed to be educated and this was the foundation that i needed in order to do that particular work and so racial justice um looking at it from those lenses um is long overdue racial justice is

Something that we have been striving for and fighting for since the very beginning of this nation and and its foundations and so it’s an acknowledgement that injustice does exist and that it’s something that um we’re still fighting and pushing toward and so for me racial justice is uh not yet fully attained

But um just as as dr brock said you know we’re keeping the faith and pressing toward that and that ultimately it’s something that we will be able to uh not only attain but to to walk in thank you dr lomax and i know we’re throwing out a lot of clo

Initials and so we might not want to assume that people understand what those initials are so do you want to talk about uh the pwas and then um pwi’s and then also the hbcu give us the actual name so that when someone’s looking for this recording they won’t

Think that was just a bunch of alphabet soup yes great w predominantly white institution hpcu hbcu historically black college university all right thank you so much so that’s only recording so now they can go back and understand when we start using some of these uh acronyms we’ll know what we’re

Talking about thank you so very much this cynthia finch i can’t ask you the same question why you chose your organization and uh if or you were involved in the hbcu but again rolling that into this whole idea of what is racial justice okay yes um reverend kessler i’d first

Like to say i appreciate the great work that the vex center is doing and i am so happy to have a history of work with the center and very very proud of you and let me say to my sorority sister rosalind brock uh powerhouse i thank her for agreeing to come

On this panel and sharing she is a wonderful leader within our sorority and because of her leadership alpha kappa alpha is well positioned to do the work we thank you rosalind oh alpha kappa alpha why did i choose well i want you to know i came from a very small rural county

Just up the road about 50 miles i’ve never seen so many black folks in all my life until i came to the university of tennessee you know it’s a basically a rural community and not a lot of african-americans so when i got to the university of tennessee knoxville

I was excited about just seeing the people that looked like me but then i saw these women working and serving and doing it so i thought wondering what that’s about and when i called my mother and asked her for 150 to join the sorority she said a hundred and fifty dollars

What is that about and what do you think is important then i will support you but one reason that i chose alpha capital once again uh they were a group of and appeared to be a group of ambitious women you know they have used that word and

Said that word was a negative thing but uh then in 1977 when i became a member of alpha kappa alpha and was surrounded by all these black women i realized that being ambitious was not a bad thing it was a good thing and then when i saw that pink and green

I was sold i was sold on that particular organization now my first cousin she went and joined youth renee in there as a delta sigma theta and we were the thickest thieves when we came to ut and then we decided that it was all right because

We realized that all black women on the campus of the university of tennessee regardless of what they chose we had to stick together to survive so uh that’s my statement about alpha kappa alpha how i got there didn’t know anything about it but then once again they were working

And they were serving and that inspired me and impressed me now this thing about racial justice what i can say about it real quickly is that it uh needs to happen it needs to happen now we have been too long and too far not having the opportunity to have fairness kindness

And uh i liked what the reverend brock said about just being faithful and having hope so uh if i can say anything to those that are listening is that a racial justice needs to happen now and all those that have been uh disenfranchised those that are underserved those who are

That have been um taken advantage of that we as the divine nine the nine greek organizations i too attended a pwi and i didn’t know what that was when i heard young people talking about it and then i realized that it was it stood for predominantly white institutions so yes i attended

The predominant white institution but majority of my friends were over at knoxville college which was a historically black college so i had a week it was a walking distance it was insane distance from the university of tennessee okay that’s my share for you right this minute thank you so much

That’s great thank you so much um okay eric again and i really do want you to give me if you can a definition of what racial justice is let me see that uh but tell me tell me about kappa tell me about your fraternity kappa alpha psi

Why you choose it and end or the knoxville college so eric you’re on mute okay uh you hear me now okay oh my uh unlike a lot of people um my journey with cap alpha psi kind of like starts back in high school uh uh on top of going to

Knoxville college to go to school i also participated in the uh upper bound program at knoxville college where a lot of my tutor counselors were a member of the greek letter organizations of cap alpha psy omega sci-fi uh alpha kappa alpha delta sigma theta uh those were the primarily

Uh the uh uh memberships of the counselors uh that i had when i was in the upper bound program and so uh when i got to knoxville college i knew you know a little bit about you know each organization per se with my upper bound experience and being around

The tutor counselors and so what uh i started thinking about cap outside my sophomore year uh up in oxford college uh was uh and what brought me to it before i knew the founders was seeing the guys on campus that uh were countless and seeing how they carried themselves

This was before i even knew elder watson who elder watson diggs was who who john milton lee was who who ezra alexander was you know among a few of the founders you know marcus peter blakemore before i even knew who they were uh you know in fact that he

Sold his watch to help us get incorporated you know you know learning that you know they were the second fraternity uh behind alpha phi alpha to be founded at a pwi but you know phenomenally white institution and learning what they had to endure going to you know school every day and so uh

I wasn’t able to join cap outside while i was in college uh i ended up uh i had you know had some financial issues per se uh but i finally joined in the alumni chapter uh and and uh it’s been a great experience since then and again what you know what

Brought me to there was seeing the guys that i was interacting with on campus i created a lot of good friendships with those guys before i even became a member of cal poly and when i became a member of capital outside i just made a lot of those friendships friendships

Stronger and so that’s how i got the cap out the side now as far as racial injustice uh basically uh you know to me it’s a it’s a systemic fire treatment of people of all races resulting in the equitable opportunities and outcomes for all it goes beyond being against racism racism

It is a feeling that if i’m pulled over by uh a policeman for whatever reason that i’m being pulled over that i know that i’m gonna be fear of uh treated fire just like the next man so that’s my my answer to that and thank you for being uh renee for

Allowing me to be a member of this and uh also dr brock yes thank you thank you okay um again i want to keep it to two minutes so we can get on to the next questions uh as much as you can i know and really want to focus on

Uh that racial justice if you guys would kind of help paint a picture for us of what that looks like if you can’t and so at this time i’d like rep sam mckenzie to please speak about why he chose that the uh cute dogs and that’s another we’re gonna

Have to really explain everything but uh the omega sci-fi fraternity and of course um you know uh perhaps his role with racial justice well again like everyone else thank you for for for uh putting this on it and and thank all the guests for this you know uh with me

I simply have to look local uh growing up my uh elementary school principal was an omega man uh my junior high school that what it was back then uh raleigh nguyen uh was an omega man miles hicks at elementary and jimmy thacker at austin east were all omega men strong strong men leaders

In the community but i had to look a little closer to home my father sam mackenzie jr uh was an omega man pleasure tennessee state university and you know myself and my brothers we all played as omega in 1984 them at a pwi uh university of tennessee like like miss finch

And i chose uh hbcu fisk university uh if i it was a a a life-changing experience for me to to to get involved in hbcu affairs and so that’s what what led me to that so i’ll i’ll spend a little time talking about um racial injustice and you know um sadia

Williams who who ran the uh uh social change got the name of the of the organization she you know but back then the uh the title was racial tolerance and she would always break the relationship yes it was and she said i want to be more than tolerated and that’s

That’s it to me that that that that’s the crux of the whole thing i think we live in an environment where they’re saying what you know what the majority community is saying well we’re tolerating uh african americans and you all are doing okay no it’s equality you know when

When you look at george floyd if you just look at that video that officer that man could not have been a human being in that officer’s mind mr floyd was not a human being so he had he had regulated this man to a subhuman status and that’s happening across the states

And we are still dealing with that yes we have made great strides you know uh 2008 was my opportunity to first elected uh and that’s when our president obama was elected but in that that eight years you know they talked about post-racial i think in a lot of ways it probably

They just go a a little uh further out and and during from 2016 to now it’s just been it’s been crazy it has been under our current president and it still remains that way so to me racial justice meaning saying that for 400 years 400 years we were oppressed that doesn’t and then

For the next hundred years we would treated a second-class citizen and you turn off the law and you think magic happens it doesn’t happen it’s gonna have to permeate and enter into us and i’ll turn also into the majority of communities so that that that’s my uh

Take on it okay thank you so much brett that was great um and just before we go excuse me to the next one i want to invite the community excuse me if you’re watching or listening right now you are welcome to offer questions in the chat box and

We will try to get to those questions uh as quickly as we can and uh please enjoy uh join us we want to hear from you if you have a comment and or a question you’re welcome to put that into the q a um so now i want to hear from tanisha

Holly with the delta sigma theta sorority and again if you could just share with us why you chose dst and then also um the hbcu experience and then how that dovetails into this whole idea of racial justice um first thank you for inviting me to this conversation

Um i let me just start by saying that um my journey started as a 17 year old moving to knoxville um choosing to leave detroit um to attend an hbcu but choosing an hbcu because i felt like that would be um what was best for me from the standpoint of

Where i grew up and how i grew up and how i wanted to be able to extend um and build on the values that i had already learned um from growing up um at home in detroit so um the values that i actually gained from attending an hbcu just added to

Um the person i am today um and just increased um where i am in terms of what i’m passionate about um and those things that i’m passionate about have a lot to do with um disenfranchisement of brown and black people that’s another reason why i gravitated towards delta sigma theta sorority incorporated

I was first introduced to sororities and fraternities when i came to knoxville um and so i spent time actually doing research i attended every um sororities informational meeting when i was in when i was in college i did not actually start my journey into um sorority and

Sorority life until um after i graduated from college so i am a lifetime member of delta sigma theta at this point i have been um in the organization for 20 years um and have been active um all 20 years um with that said when we talk about um why i joined i found

That the organization aligned with my values and the things that i wanted to see um in my community i felt like the organization fought for those things um when i think about using my influence towards the enactment of laws to help the unfortunate and weak um i think about delta sigma theta

I think about um the fact that they’ve helped me to grow in that um um in the area of the in the areas that i’m passionate about as well they’ve helped me to grow in leadership um you know i stand on the backs of dorothy height and shirley chisholm so

Um i’m very appreciative of my time with the organization um and i’ll say that when i think about racial justice um i think it’s crucial i think it’s necessary i think it is required in order to move towards what we say is a more perfect union so that means um for me

Fighting for um you know for for again black and brown people um from main street to wall street from the halls of congress to the white house making sure that we are advocating or that i am advocating um for um people who um are like me um who

You know for me it’s about making sure that they have everybody has the same um that there’s equity everybody has the same um you know ability to to move forward and we can’t do that if we do not recognize this addiction or i’m sorry this disease called racism

Absolutely all right thank you so much so so happy to hear from you ashford hughes speak to me tell me why you made the decision tell me what you’re doing what is racial justice i’m gonna start on the back side so i’m gonna start first with the important

Piece on racial justice equity and then lead into how overcame a sigma so when i think of what it means to me in my career around racial justice and racial equity it starts with making certain that along the lines of policies practices and procedures uh color of our skin class does not play

A factor in the quality of life or the enhancements that we are able to achieve when i think about that’s an outcome though but i also think along the lines racial justice racial equity is along the lines of a continuum as well as a process to get there

Right we first have to educate not only ourselves but our colleagues and counterparts that aren’t black or brown on the history of the founding of this country and what this country was founded upon once we can educate ourselves on that history and what race actually means is race being a construct

Then we can have folks acknowledge the racist policies practices that have led to the country that we have formed right now today once we get to that piece then we’re allowed to sit with that and let it resonate so we can fully understand the beast that we are dealing with that is this

American ideology around a democracy because we still are just an experiment in democracy then we can identify how we show up and how our counterparts show up in places and how they participate in the racist system the anti-equitable systems that we have in this country and then we can then move to address

Them we can put policies to place equitably to address those the way that i began to come to tennessee state university was you know i followed a lot of my friends here you know i was influenced by spike lee school days in a different world and i wanted to be

A part of that and many of my friends that grew up in east knoxville and burlington and walter p where i was at many of their winter college were going to tennessee state so i wanted to follow them and be a part of that same atmosphere so i also did not uh

Pledge undergrad because i was me phi me and i was a little more street at that point than i was wanting to join greek letters to be frank with you but then after i lost quickly after i lost my best friend in knoxville to gun violence that’s when i began to

Really change my mind and trajectory and i got a my minor in african american studies from that point on i really shifted the narrative around fighting for race and equity and then now while i joined phi beta sigma was around any organization right now that shows me

They are about the process of helping young men and young women developed to the greater good of this country to our community that’s what i want to be a part of and with the sigma beta club that’s what phi beta sigma was doing and that’s where my treasury is right now

And where i’m going to put my time and energy and that’s why i kind of went from that end to joining phi beta sigma excellent thank you so very much um okay miss mcgee i think we’re following the path of my good brother ashford uh for me i’m gonna

Start with the end in mind so when you think about racial justice i think about the words from my brother al sharpton get off my neck right give me the opportunity to show up in an equitable manner that everybody else has access to and so we’re looking at the opportunity

Of power privilege and position we don’t do the unpacking of the layers to see how historically the systemic racism has shaped those opportunities and so if i had to give a visual representation of what you asked for with racial justice is the visual of get off my neck and give me the opportunity

For me why i chose zeta brother ashford talked about school days if y’all remember back in the day used to be a step show competition on tv and all i knew is my cousin had a horseshoe on his arm so i literally knew nothing about greek life and so for me

When i showed up to the campus of university of north texas i literally had a book from fraternities to sororities and so i’m like what is this experience and so for me zeta was the opportunity for me to align myself with an organization who was not here to change me

But to enhance who i was and so when you think about the one of our founding principles of finer womanhood that distinguished us from other organizations but also what was pivotal for me on the local level um the person who brought me into zeta she always made a point was zeta is

Bigger than just the experience of north texas it’s bigger than just zeta she was always inclusive of the other communities and oftentimes on a collegiate campus you see you know different organizations going against each other but she made a big pivotal understanding for me to understand i’m part of a larger community

And so for me i was always continue to do the work more so what i do right now i had such a great experience it enhanced what i do right now and because we were founded on the model community conscious action or organization that’s what i’m actually going to do now

And so i had the choice to go to a pwi and the hbcu and so i tell people i don’t get into that debates at the privilege of going to both and so what i say is going to an hbcu is a lived black experience going to a pwi is a learned

Black experience and so for me because my institution at that time was a pwi but now when i go back we’re a majority minority with 40 000 plus students so that’s a flip dynamic so having the privilege to go to both is not a comparison of which one is

Better which one is less it’s just a unique opportunity of how my blackness shows up awesome awesome thank you so much all right vivette check shanks tell me what tell me tell me all about racial justice and why you chose what you chose first up thank you for having me at this

And with the amazing members of the divine nine i’m glad to be a part of it um why i chose sigma gamma rho sorority incorporated um first my sister is a member so i am a legacy within sigma gamma rose so that was my main reason and i admired my sister and

The sores she had and what they were doing when they were on campus and then when i was at northwestern university like miss brock which is a pdwi why did i go there um i went there i had actually looked at an hbcu i looked at spelman

And i really wanted to go to spelman but i had a counselor who told me i don’t think you would be able to do northwestern which is one of the top 12 universities in the nation and so for that reason i decided to go there because i wanted her to know

A black woman can go there and graduate from there and when i was on the campus i saw all these other women of sigma gamma rho who were in there too pursuing education and then finding out about sigma gamma rho that it was built on educators black women who wanted people to advance

In their education they were about persevering and that’s another thing that was important to me in the midst of the rise of the kkk they persevered and built the organization a sigma gamma rho sorority and for that reason i joined it not only that the because of perseverance

I i wanted to be a part of service which is the main thing with sigma gamma rho greater service greater progress that is our motto that is what we live and we want to build up the community you asked also what is racial justice and i think that is one of the main

Things that my founders were looking at as they built it like i said amidst that rise in the kkk in indianapolis they wanted to make sure people were making amends for the past wrongs and so i think it is making amends for the past wrongs and being able to make a better future

For our kids and the kids at austin east they need to be able to have something better than what is they shouldn’t have to be scared of the police they should know that they are equal and that they have the opportunities that everybody has it should be racial justice is everybody

Understanding what has happened and not just pretending it doesn’t exist because i think there’s a lot of people who want to say it doesn’t exist there’s the education of it you have to have it in your schools teaching about black history there shouldn’t be a history that’s left out and i think

That’s a part of being racist having racial justice so i think thank you yeah thank you about that i was just gonna i thought i thought you’re gonna throw that culture exchange center that’s why we are so yes yes so wonderful thank you so much for that um brother brown help me why

And then what is racial justice um thank you miss renee thank you for inviting me uh for the people that i know uh i love you great to see you for the folks that i’m just meeting great to see you i love you still okay um

I’m gonna go the opposite way just like ashford and the young lady and miss mcgee did i’m gonna go racial justice first okay it’s being seen for character rather than for color all right being provided the benefit of the doubt um i say this because i also went to a

Uh pwi wilmington college of ohio and i could tell that uh when i got there things were a little different i’m the first uh male in my family to to graduate from college my family is from georgia but because of the the racial injustices of uh supposedly years gone by

Even though it’s still here now everyone left for georgia and went to philadelphia so i wear a few different hats i’m a northerner i was born in philly uh i was raised in ohio my parents divorced i went to california then i came back to ohio

So i’ve been all over and i’ve had the ability to understand the things that i’ve seen and experienced okay um i pledged iota because it was the only black fraternity at the predominantly white institution i went to i didn’t know anything about any other greek organization at that time and and

Also being from the north we i i i’m glad to say i’ve i’ve grown and i’ve atoned we could be some different people real strong in our opinions so what what i’ve learned is over the years that guess what some of my best friends are cues cappers cygnus from all over the country

All right so uh i pledged iota because individuality is what we focus on and we’re building a tradition not resting upon one is our motto therefore any time that i can have the opportunity to meet and greet other people i’m definitely going to do it and i also wanted to be the individual

Of myself in that to change people’s way they think about us okay uh again being judged for your character versus your color wilmington prepared me for knoxville okay i got it said i’ve been here i’ve been here almost 30 years and i and i’ve been i’m too black for white folks

I’m too white for black folks i have the ability to kick the bobo and also be in court and speak to king’s english it is it’s it’s different it’s a strange phenomenon and as we continue to talk we’ll talk about some things relative to to criminal justice as as to what my

Expertise is excellent excellent thank you so much charles interesting you’re right there in the heart of the civil rights movement when you guys come around so so much history uh tied up in all of these things so thank you for sharing that with me and um i wanna i wanna ask the quick

Question here’s how i wanna do this one minute that’s all we get is one minute our time is going to go really really fast racial justice there are so many things that are unjust but here’s the question real simple i want you to tell me the number one issue

Facing black folks today with respect to racial justice the number o that’s preventing us from having racial justice what’s our number one issue and uh why you have one minute so in other words i know that’s hard because you’ll say well we got this and then we got this okay

I know i know but you’re gonna have to choose a moment choose it choose something that one thing and tell me why and please do it in one minute i’d like to start with dr brock very quickly racial inequities and health care all i have to do is say covet 19 a race

Is no respected person uh it does not discriminate and so i believe that health care and access to quality affordable health care is the gateway to economic opportunity in this nation if you don’t believe me 19 shut this nation down ashford i see you biting at the bits uh i would say um

Probably the acknowledgement that systematic racism exists beyond the individualized construct of a race oftentimes our white counterparts that hold that power dynamic often see racism as saying that they particularly are racism or that they in their family held slaves getting beyond that to understand we were talking about a

Systems of racism we were talking about systematic structures that have allowed race to seep into how we operate seeking to the policies particularly the policies and practices is vital we have to acknowledge and our counterparts have to acknowledge racism as a core systematic foundation of america exists

If we can’t accept that first and foremost we’re not going to get to addressing the health disparities in a systematic way or the economic disparities or the education disparities all right sister finch and i i think i know where you want to go but i’m going to give you a question

Well i think sister brock she my passion area in the area of health care but let me just tell you about one thing that is right on us on tv every second this issue about this vaccine and the distribution of this vaccine you’ve heard them talk about that it’s going to be distributed

In tears tier one tier two tier three i mean it might be our way down to here 15. so i just want to ask everybody where do you think black and people of color are going to be in the distribution line that’s where we need to keep our eyes

Open and that’s the work that i’m doing now it’s a very important work just to be at the table sometimes i have to push my way and sam knows it’s to be the truth i show up and i speak up about being left out left behind so that area of healthcare

Excess but specifically in the area of these vaccines because you know they’re saying that that’s the answer well we need to be there and be a part of the answer thank you i was listening to you i’m sorry if i could jump in real quick and

Just say that i’m going to have to agree with ashford um there’s a level of denial in this country and it’s been here for as long as the day is long with respect to racism and until we can come to um this an issue of acceptance that it is real from um

From our leaders we have leaders right now who are up um on capitol hill who say that there is no structural structural racism so when you have when you hear people saying those things then you have to go from from from below um important rural neighborhoods and in corporations who are

Who believe that and because there is no acceptance of racism and until there is that acceptance we can’t even begin to deal with structural racism or to deal with the issues in the health care system or with the economy um and so forth until we actually get beyond tonight

They’re in denial absolutely absolutely thank you thank you for jumping in there uh and throwing that out there and echoing those comments and i wanted to say as cynthia um and um and dr brock were answering the question as well i just wanted to uh to

Reach over into the chat box because i know there was some chat going on with our community panel and they too were talking about and i think state representative may have answered the question but it did talk about covert 19 vaccinations that the governor will be given in determining

Who will receive those vaccines and do you feel as black people we will receive the necessary and appropriate vaccines or do we need to have a feed at the table to make sure that we’re not left out so uh i think uh rep uh mckenzie has begun to

To um uh speak to that but i think you’re also speaking to that cynthia uh and and talking about what we’re going to need to do and dr brock about that particular issue with regards to racial injustice and so um i want to also stay right here on this

Vein because i think you’re right we know that racism exists all around and the first point is probably to acknowledge that it exists because you’re right there are people who still have not acknowledged that we have an issue in fact if you look at the history of knoxville from the very beginning in

1791 knoxville has always taunted it does not have a race issue right just our community in general um but i do want to focus and just put put the nails into the fire because everyone there it’s so big that we have to begin to break it into pieces

So we can say if if i were to say the one thing um this thing and this is why again it doesn’t negate the other things and it doesn’t negate the obvious but it does help us be able to see positioning what what kind of stands out in your mind

And so if you can help us with that by that maybe share with us what you think that that that one issue is and why uh there’s a barrier to racial justice for black people well i think a large part is lack of conversation and not being able to have open conversation

Without somebody without some type of white fragility um you need to be able to speak about it and if someone’s going to um deny the conversation merely because they will be hurt and feel hurt by it then you can’t move on you need to be able to have open

Conversation and until we can do that i think it will be difficult to have racial justice i think you need the other side in order to make any type of change you need i mean we can discuss it among ourselves a lot but the people who need to change

Also need to be involved right great dr lomax i completely agree with everything that has been said thus far and i would simply add to that um part of the issue is those that are in power not having the willingness uh to relinquish that power and the idea

Is that you know when you have been in the position of the oppressor at the point that you begin to deal with conversations regarding equity or equality then that seems like oppression in and of itself and so you feel that you are being uh chastised or criticized when in all

Actuality we’re simply trying to level the playing field and so i think that you know the ability to um to have those in power relinquish that power is one of the major issues that we are dealing with as it relates to the prevention of racial justice thank you miss mcgee

Yes i think everybody’s trying to struggle with the first name is tania so it’s definitely fine everybody’s like what’s the first thing and so definitely i think i want to support what everybody’s saying but i think it’s truly the understanding of diversity equity and inclusion so we can have the liberation

Towards the end because as uh sister vivette said we’re not having that conversation oftentimes we’re in spaces particularly as black professionals sometimes race is our everyday lived experience we don’t have the opportunity and privilege just to take this off and so the racial fatigue and burnout is real and so

Now coming to the table like oh i’m woke now i want to have this conversation we’ve been here right and so sometimes we have to figure out do i have the the bandwidth to want to show up today to deal with your biases and so we have to be able to

Equally show up to unpack those conversations but at the same time particularly us as a divine not a lot of i know a lot of our divine organizations have mentoring programs but we have to continue to do this in kofa mentality to reach back and give back so we can

Educate others because if we’re not educating each other we’re not empowering one another so it’s an and dynamic of understanding diversity equity and inclusion but also educating ourselves so we can all show to the table in an equitable manner thank you thank you stay rep sam

You know and i i don’t i don’t want to repeat but everything everyone said is absolutely correct and and it’s it’s a multi-tiered thing and and and my piece is access to wealth you know uh a powerful preacher my old preacher eric lee uh said it one time we have to

Make millionaires and billionaires because we care about ourselves but we we and we need the same access if you look at atlanta uh as they were building the airport um maynard jackson said we’re gonna make millionaires you have to be you have to be unapologetically uh intentional about uh creating black wealth

And so you know it’s tiered because with that it’s going to come jobs with that’s going to come a culture things for for our children so that that to me is a is another layer that that has to happen absolutely i’ve always thought that fear was a huge issue with the majority

Okay um oftentimes uh if you express yourself in a certain way to specif to just let folks know how how you feel they always look at you crazy and i think in their minds they know you got a right to be hostile so what are you looking for

So they’re afraid of the conversation that might show them the light and what it is is you you just want to be given the benefit of the doubt and an opportunity to play on the same level playing field uh uh brother mckenzie just talked about wealth okay wealth means guess what you

Can make a whole lot of different changes right manny jackson says yes we’re gonna do this and jobs came and there’s a whole lot of folks that have a little more money in atlanta right imagine that here in knoxville are you kidding me folks would be upset they would be upset

So the situ i i’ve always think it comes back to fear okay why are you afraid i’m letting you know how i feel and it’s from a specific rationale of my life experience so fear is huge i think i think a lot of times the majority um

Oh my god for they are not uh able to to understand because they’re choosing to to tone it out and not see it okay and that’s it okay eric brother that anymore um you know there’s a comedian um that that i like uh dion cole y’all y’all

Y’all probably know dianko and one of his uh committed uh skits he talks about uh sometimes you have to tone down your blackness uh especially when you go to work and interact with other you know other people that don’t look like yourself uh to to also you know

Brown talks about fear i think organizations especially you know the the corporations and uh businesses that we work for they need to create safe space opportunities for us uh uh uh uh and what i mean by that is that you know they create uh the there’s a meeting where it’s just us

It may be an outside you know rep uh of uh that they’ve hired to come in and they and that rep comes in and listens to us to see how we are actually feeling you know working you know uh for our our corporations in in the organizations that we’re involved in and

And the information that they get from that you know those meetings they you know that rep takes it back to the hr director and what we expect is that you know if we are having some bad feelings about things at work we intend for them to act on

You know so that’s how i feel about that all right very good um i want to switch gears a little bit because we started this conversation off talking about george floyd and really talking about the police department we talked about brianna taylor we’ve mentioned that ahmad aubry and there’s always been

These encounters with police officers and things like that and so there’s been much talk about police and justice for black people my question is should we defund the police is that the answer to fund the police yes or no why why not and please keep it to about a minute minute

And a half and um we’ll start with um i’ll start i’ll start with you sister holly um first let me um say that i’m not a um proponent of slogans um so i’m gonna answer your question by saying no um defunder the slogan itself does not define what one means by the term

Right and so when you use those terms you everybody because nobody wants to hear defund the police and there’s no explanation on what you mean all they know is you’re trying to get rid of a police force so no now we want to talk about restructuring

We want to talk about um you know taking funding or using funding or switching funding around to where um we have more community resources then that’s a whole nother conversation but to say defunder poll the police that’s not helpful in my opinion okay thank you very much and so we’re talking about uh

Police and justice and whether we should or should not defund the police whatever that may mean to you and if not what is the answer um because how do we stop police injustice uh dr lomax yeah i would argue for a reallocation of funding and moving funding to those entities and areas

Where it’s needed and so um i think that we need to make sure that um we are adequately putting funds into training and making sure that they’re getting the the best and proper training that needs to be done including you know with learning how to write reports and

And shoot weapons that they’re getting cultural competency and learning do the ins and outs of various communities uh across the the city in which they’re serving in this case knoxville i think that we need to make sure that um you know along with reallocating those funds that we do put funds into social

Workers uh not every call needs a armed and uniformed police officer to show up and so you know empowering those and funding those other entities to be able to do that work as well excellent excellent dr brock um i do not believe and i agree with uh

Sister holly and the term defund the police is a misrepresentation of the goals and the ideas of the young people who came up with that theme i do however believe that we need to reimagine uh what the duty to protect and serve means to our community it means the respect should be given

To those new my brother is a 28-year retired police officer so i see it from both sides yes i want him to come home to my niece and my nephew and my sister-in-law however i do understand that we ought to ate can’t wait is the campaign zero

That we need to adhere to when we think about how to creatively address the issues that happen in our community it’s around de-escalation around use of force around banning choco’s knee restraints around requiring warning before you’re shooting banning shooting at moving vehicles and exhausting all other alternatives we want to know why

Uh if you are white you can walk away from a heightened situation but if you’re black you never make it out there’s something wrong with that and also a duty to intervene and how reporting happens with those who wear blue excellent thank you so very much miss mcgee

I think that’s the number one fundamental piece um sister holly talked about the the definition of defunding police we all have some type of definition on how we show up and so i think we have to look at a new model on what the premises of what we

Can do with it i think some of the systemic pieces is what are the penalties for those police officers that are doing the the excessive shooting pieces of it what’s the educational pieces that we’re getting so there’s opportunity but i think defunding is a different rub for people in different spaces

The outcome and the intention means well but i think there’s an opportunity for us to look at the hundreds plus years of what was nationally meant to enslave people but how does it empower a community and so whether you’re doing training education community relationship piece it’s a holistic

Experience on what needs to be done but i can’t i don’t think there’s so much crime out there for us to completely be funded but we got to change our structural systems up on how we go about it thank you uh brother hughes man i i’ll push back a little bit i kind

Of think the question in the premise you know i wouldn’t start from there oftentimes we start with a deficit mindset or we hear about defunding the police whatever you want to call it imma start with if we invested in communities economically beforehand if we input in or had insight into housing reforms

And we had insight into workforce development reforms that put dollars in our community invested in black businesses then we would have to always keep the main focus on criminality and criminal justice reform now i don’t care what it’s called we spend way too much time focusing on what the thing is called

Rather than focusing on having our elected officials and those in charge focus on the policy focus on the practices to change what’s taking place so i don’t want to spend you know defund do away with disinvest reinvest let’s focus on the things that puts money back into the community first and

Foremost before we come into interactions with the police let’s focus on those things that are tangibly that we know have disaffected our community to lead to these interactions first and foremost thank you thank you brother brown i think the fun means uh different things to different people i

Think the majority thinks the fund means take monies away from police departments for them to to police which to me is absolutely crazy i think more interest should be put on as everyone was saying to us for understanding the community to serve and protect versus to just

Uh criminalize people that they see okay uh it would be everyone knows we need policing but we need good policing we need to be that understanding our kids need to understand what the police are there for they’re they’re they’re there to protect and serve however you could see the way

Police officers speak to uh folks in black communities versus folks in white communities we see it all the time how can a person with a license permit get shot down for having it and an individual walk down with an ak-47 shooting at people don’t nothing happen to him there’s a mindset difference so

Defunding means different things to different people okay so my point of view we need more understanding gotcha thank you so much sister finch yes yes yes i i like the word uh i’m like uh holly let’s don’t use all these words but i’m thinking that we need to have a redesign

Of government redesign we need to look at all the budgets and then we need to make sure that uh various departments are appropriately funded yes there is probably a lot of dollars that are put inside of law enforcement but there’s lots of things that we could do in

Other parts of government to do what asheville was talking about is that we need to go with housing we need to deal with the fact that we have a lack of health care we need to do something about the homeless because all of that escalates all of these problems

But we’re not looking at the entire picture so i would say that we need to look at redesigning and the entire governmental system and then whether you’re taking resources from various from all departments and pushing them to housing pushing them to health care put them to the back center pushing them

Pushing them to uh all the different things that are causing these people to act out you know lots of these things is when we close uh when we would close the lakeshore you know that was our mental health hospital what happened to all those hundreds of people when they started going around

And uh institutionalizing mental health and spreading people out in the community they spread them out and said oh we’re going to integrate into the community but they did not put enough resources out there there’s not enough mental health centers there’s not enough social workers and not case management that’s

All these things redesign redesign for your design brother yes um renee uh you know the reality is you have people going into the police force i mean academies or you know the sheriff’s office around here some of them are not the most right people you know going into these jobs uh

Believe it or not some of these are people that just they’re fresh out of high school uh and they don’t want to go work at mcdonald’s they don’t want to go work at taco bell you know so that’s where you’re getting a lot of that in

You know in the initial part of these guys going into you know the career to be a police officer or sheriff officer uh you know my suggestion would be hopefully you know you know as far as the funding the police i don’t believe in that i got

A cousin who’s on the police force here i would not you know defund any opportunities that you know he has but i i wished our police force was a little bit more educated uh per se uh at least a associate’s degree in some type of you know a criminal justice uh

You know uh also uh as they went through that criminal justice uh degree uh they would get a bunch of psychological training per se you know with you know what it what it takes to be a police officer absolutely absolutely all right one minute real quick um representatives mckenzie

Chuck brown had it absolutely right he is he he hit the nail on the head i know he has a career in criminal justice and and law enforcement he’s right you know um but i’ll say a bad policeman is bad for police and they need to acknowledge that so no

I would not want to defund um the the police in any way shape form or fashion but i i like to redirect their their in their energy i know when they put on the badge in the shield and they leave that they could not come home that’s not something that i would do

You know they are run to a problem when everybody else is running away i get that but at some point they have to acknowledge that not every policeman and police farm is created equal and when they do bad they need to be held accountable

For that and i think a lot of that is that training that um uh um dr lomax talked about uh we have to do a better job they have to protect and serve the same way uh here in knoxville you know they’re more fluent folks are

More toward west and and the more urban the black area is it there’s more to these it’s the same knock on the door it has to be the same knock on the door the same response to a to a tail light out we have to get to that point

And i will ask the uh people on the panel there are questions coming in the q a so you all jump in there and start answering i’m gonna read one of them out loud and let you guys go out loud with it for those who can’t do

Because there’s some folks on the phone as well so i’ll try to read those out loud as well let me get uh by that um sister shanks would you mind to share on this and then we’ll move on and i’m going to read one of them

Um i i really want to piggyback on what was said i think um the word defund um is the incorrect word again we need to uh reallocate funds um i think it was earlier mentioned we need to put more social workers in place we need there is no reason that a person

Who has a mental um a mental uh some mental disease or something should be um should be gunned down because of that or if a parent calls when they know theirs their child is handicapped that their child should be gunned down um if that type of call comes in

There should be a social worker on hand that can handle those things i believe um and maybe the money i think the money needs to be changed to add on people that can de-escalate and not escalate problems and have things that happen to my own sorority sister

So our bland um where it was escalated for a stop just a taillight and she ends up not coming back to her family um so we need people who know how to de-escalate absolutely i just want to read uh this message over in the q a and give someone an opportunity to respond

Uh to her quickly uh if someone would like to do that it says what suggestions or wishes do you have to dialogue with white people about white fragility weight privilege for example i am white and i don’t know how i just took a course on white fragility

And only white people were in the course of about 45 people she joined the back we know she’s a wise woman um suffice it to say will someone like to jump in here and um and share and answer this specific question what suggestions or wishes do you have

To dialogue with white people about white fragility about white privilege well i guess i’ll i’ll jump in real quick and i i think it’s you know you have to be open and honest about how we got to 2020 it can’t be but you all had no for

As i said earlier we were brought here in chains between us and and the native americans we we we were the only people that that just either showed up here or was brought here involuntarily so you you have to go back to that and and people

Said well that’s a long time ago but it it it instilled some things in the white community that still exists today so you know it’s a hard conversation but uh you know i tell folks you gotta you gotta put on your your big girl and your big boy pants and

Let’s get down and have a brass tacks conversation about when i walk in a room as opposed to when someone else walk in the room there’s a difference and start with that and just and just let the dialogue flow and i’ll i’ll be quieting with someone else

Amazing yes i’ll pick it back on what uh brother sam mckenzie just said i think at the university of tennessee we have a new initiative we’ve started through um dr tanisha jenkins called ncbi we’ve a new chapter with that’s called the national coalition building institute

And so what i encourage them to do is continue to do the work oftentimes we talk about cultural competence and that’s a place of i’ve arrived i know everything and opposed to looking at cultural humility it’s a pendulum of the ongoing doing work and so showing up in spaces where you may be

Uncomfortable but you have to make yourself uncomfortable to make others comfortable so if you know by nature you are not really um competent or have the awareness of the lgbtq plus community showing up spaces where they’re having intentional conversation so you can sit with that unrest and say

They talk about what’s on your record to talk about those footprints that cause those biases and how you show up in different scenarios and so begin to unpack what those issues and how you have grown up because sometimes even as a african-american black identifying person based on the culture in the community i

Grew up like oh hold up we used to say that all the time but something about that’s a little racist right and so you guys are like what’s that ouch why do i have this you know resistance in there so challenge yourself to not only have those conversations but

To show up in spaces where those conversations are happening where you’re not in the majority of the representation first i want to say thank you so much for participating uh in a white fragility class for so often i think brother brown had talked about the f word and the f word is fear

I think it’s important to have courageous conversations in my experience and my consulting work with c-suite ceos following george floyd’s murder many of them were asking the questions what do i say to my employees and i told them silence is not an option and empathy is not engagement i mean real talk

And so most importantly we need you to listen uh so it’s not enough to be quietly non-racist we need you to be vocally anti-racist that’s that’s the question and so don’t go in thinking you know it all uh and then don’t wear your your feelings on your sleeve if you are

Asking people to really talk to you from their authentic selves you have to honor the space that they are in and not try to explain it away and so first of all start by a recognition of i commend you for even going to an anti-racist

Uh um meeting i i just would want to have been a fly on the wall to see how that went uh with no uh diversity in the room if that were the case but really uh you know it’s generally the nomenclature everyone says oh i’ve got a black friend i’ve got

A black friend well ask that black friend talk to me real talk straight shoot no chase as we say culturally in our community tell me about myself and tell me about white supremacy and white fragility and how i can do better and then do it as the kids say just do

It don’t talk about it be about it because we’ve done that uh in american society okay and one thing that i will add to that as well is just um in addition to all of that that’s been said connect the dots it’s no accident that blacks have less home ownership it’s no

Accident that we make less on the dollar uh it’s no accident and all of that is part of the systemic issues that we’ve faced through the years and so even in having those conversations and in listening and in that acknowledgement of that uh connect the dots to see how we’ve gotten

Where we are so that we know the fixes that need to be in place to rectify those wrongs to bring about the equity and the equality that we need and i would say that i would say uh renee in regards to uh the piece is that uh the opportunity to provide

Education the whole issue about our history uh you know young people are growing up fast you know you get up you have a niece nephew a dollar they grow up and then on the even on the on the white side by the time you get 10 years 20 years deep they don’t know

What happened you know like john lewis says we’re getting in in good trouble he don’t know what that means start talking about martin luther king they don’t know what that means they know we have a martin luther king day but the issue of educating everyone black white people of color

Latinos we need to be talking about each other’s history and i often say i’ll use this as an example is they say well you know why do we have so many latinos i said well do you know that they pushed the border of the territorial line from that particular peak way into

Mexico way into the that area and those individuals were on this side the on inside so the whole issue about history is something that is valuable needed what renee does at the cultural center and across the country i just have to keep on saying and giving them kudos because you are

Feeling a big board in our community and that void is not knowing what happened in the past thank you so much appreciate that and we are about out of time and we’re wrapping it up and this is important i know right it goes so fast

But here’s what i need us to do um i’d like for each one of us um to take a moment our last moments to share together and to really give advice or to to make a call right so let’s there’s a lot of people who tune in for

This there’s a lot of people who come back because these are recorded and they watch it later so we’re going to have community folks watching we have elected officials watching we have leaders watching we have our youth watching in our community and they’re tuning in we need to i would like to share

With those audiences uh something something impactful that you would encourage or inspire for them to do so in this moment what is it that you would say to either our community our youth our leaders our elected officials whoever that group is that you would like to speak to i’d like

You to speak to that group for just a minute each of us could just take a minute to speak to that group with words of wisdom or advice in this moment as we pursue racial justice what would you say to them to encourage and to empower them and i’d like to start

Back at the top again with dr lomax uh again thank you very much and for those that are watching and um participating in this and that we’ll see it in the future um i would just say don’t stop fighting don’t stop pushing we we’ve been at this we’ve made

Uh some tremendous headway but we still have a long way to go and so for generations that are still coming up um continue to look at ways to get involved to invest in your community uh be that through a greek letter organization or any other organization are you just

Being in your own community doing what you can to make an impact um in in your neighborhood whatever the case um don’t stop fighting we’ve seen uh over the past couple of weeks just how things can change and turn and georgia has shown us that

And we can have that same effect here in tennessee and in knoxville but we just got to keep fighting and keep striving thank you sister fitch yes uh i would say that this is a time of a call for action offer action for us to pick up the manual and do the work

The opportunity to volunteer that’s a word that we i’m speaking directly to young people is find places that you can volunteer because that’s where you will have an opportunity to be side by side with leaders i encourage you to come to the free medical clinic i run a free medical clinic

We need volunteers then as long as also along with volunteering i think about uh look at areas where you already have leaders that are doing great things i know in alpha kappa alpha we have eight congress women and i always say that this is the time of the woman

And then uh have an opportunity to see what leaders are doing so volunteering uh will take an opportunity to see what other leaders are doing but just get involved so i say that to young people get involved in a positive way and ask your mama and ask your daddy

Where where should i go what can i do all right well those would be a call for action for young people to get involved absolutely thank you so much yes i was watching cbs sunday morning uh this past sunday and i was um listening to watching the story about

The founder of estee lauder you know cosmetics and you know the the the emerged i can’t remember his first name is still alive 94 years old and one thing he said that he wanted to be known for was just two simple things and i think the youth need to do this

More and i think they would be better off if they did this more two things listen and love and that’s it all right thank you very much representative mckenzie you know um as him goes every round goes higher and higher and that’s what i would strongly encourage is to

Keep keep keep lifting keep keep it keep it going a lot of times i’m i’m hearing a little negative in terms of not wanting to to sit at the table and listen to you to your predecessors i’ve learned so much from doing that we you don’t you know want to make the

Same mistake so what i would encourage uh our youth to do is figure out how we got to this point verbally you can read it in the books but have conversations go to the back talk with your elected officials give me a call uh you know uh and and have these

Conversations and then make it better say i i get how we got to here now what can i do to make it better in this environment so you know just just just but but we have to keep fighting we have to just keep pushing and keep fighting absolutely

Thank you so very much sister holly um i would just say that um we need to remember that we have power and we have power in our voice we have power in numbers and that it is essential that we actually come together to try to make some things happen if we

Want to see um structures um change then we need to come together to do that um so i would say you know one are don’t let going to the voting booth be your last or the end of your democracy make sure that once you go into the voting booth that you understand that

Your job is not over there is still a lot of education and participation um in order to make this democracy work and in order for us to advance towards this more perfect union thank you thank you so much brother hughes i’m in with a conversation i gave last night in our chapter meeting

Um dr king and where do we go from here community of chaos talked about the four institutions that were going to be leading and change for our community fraternities and sororities the black media the black church and black civic organizations now while we salute and we are happy to support our sister

Pamela harris and her role now is the time that we can’t romanticize our elected officials we have to have a strong call to action joe biden president-elect biden everybody needs to make sure they have this locked in on their phones wherever he stated black community you have always had my back

You helped me get to where i am now and i’m gonna have your back we need to hold that accountability for the next year for the next two years and it’s three things that we can champion and work on and hold our elected officials accountable to make certain that the black agenda

That has been put out there since the last 100 years is catered to that’s restoring the voting rights participation section 5 and the voting rights act that’s allowing those economic resources for black-owned businesses for black-owned community organizations that are doing the work and then it’s around education equity making certain that public education

Has the funding it needs to address these urban communities that need that money right now within my organization and within every organization i implore you to make certain that your mentorship program for young black girls and young brown boys is top of mind and robust if we do not give

Back to our young people and urge them in leadership and develop them in leadership then we will reap the benefits of that or the negativity of that we have to address that mentorship with our young people and hold folks accountable that are in elected position whether they’re our church member or not

All right very good sister mcgee all right i think brother sam will be i’m quite proud on this one i was watching the founders day celebration for omega sci fi i don’t remember his first name but i do remember his name is dr ray he was a past president

Of omega sci-fi fraternity incorporated and he talked about in order to be a visionary there’s three aspects of sight that you must have there’s hindsight insight and foresight and so to that point of having hindsight you have to know where you have been and where those obstacles have come when it

Relates to racism and systemic um issues that have caused us to be where we are then you have to have insight to know presently what we are currently doing a lot of our divine organizations have mentoring programs so when we’re talking about our local officials what can they do

Lean into our community officials but also leading to the divine nine we are the pulse of the community because we are in the community and then having foresight to know where we’re going just like brother brown just said identified theater’s motto is building a tradition not resting upon one so we

Can’t say what we have done in the past we have to look at what we continue to do and then when we talk about across generations we have to be bridge builders we can’t we live in a day and age of dr martin luther king

Of i have a dream but at what cost we have generation z who have admirations who want to make an impact with social justice work but generations x and baby boomers are not telling the story of how we overcome but we have the expectation for them to

Push forward so we have to come to the table to have a conversation so we can have the foresight to know how we move forward all right thank you so much sister shane thank you um i think my first thing was stay stay trying to get educated your education is so important without

Education we stay stagnant there’s a quote that says without education you are not going anywhere in this world that was malcolm x you need to continue your education so that you can move forward on top of that you need to share what you learn when you are when you have been

Indicated don’t just keep it to yourself you necessarily what you haven’t learned you need to get active and stay active volunteer as has already been said help out the community and definitely vote vote when you get the opportunity and not just for a president because we can put a president in office

But we need to help them so that the laws that we need to get passed get passed so you need to vote for your congressman your congresswoman your senate and so those those times for those um votes are important as well and you need to know who you’re voting

For don’t just go look at a name and vote for a name but read up on the people know who you’re voting for um and write write the congressman don’t just stop there we need to make sure they’re doing what we need so you need to write write the congressman write the president

Tell him to put obama’s portrait up because it needs to be up tell him to do what we need to have done all right very good very good brother brown i think we might have lost brother brown are you still here mister he may have lost his connection

Uh i’m sorry about that dr brock i think i’m last and uh the number seven is the number of completion that was my number online at virginia union university so i’ve got seven things that i put in my toolkit that i try to share with our young people one as we think

About divine nine relationships are primary all else is derivative number two what my mother taught me as a young girl you don’t have to compromise to be recognized the third thing is always trust but verify trust but verify the other thing is for young people remember that things happened before you got here

There’s nothing new in the world so just know that there are some elders that you can talk to and that you can reach out to also the next thing is to maintain and keep spiritual resources your gifts will make room for you the next thing is to keep the faith

And the last two things that are important that we always tell young people is to trust the process but most importantly on this journey enjoy the journey enjoy the journey awesome awesome well i want to thank dr charles lomax sister cynthia finch brother eric latimer representative sam mckenzie sister tanisha holly

Brother ashford hughes sister cindy mcgee sister sister by that shanks and brother charles brown thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and for your advice i want to especially thank dr rosalyn brock for sharing her time and her wisdom you guys have blessed my heart and i’ve gotten all kind of text

Messages and other messages that people have been listening and watching and they will continue listening and watching as this is recorded um as i close i want to um just again affirm each of you that we’re here on this panel and all of you who are there listening uh who

Will come and listen to this later i want to leave you with this because becca is the place where um african-american history and culture are preserved and i like the way um james baldwin says it he says we’re not afraid to look back then nothing we’re facing can frighten us

History is so important and as we begin to look back we can face the future uh with courage uh to understand and to learn another thing i want to always remember is the african proverb that says when you take the elevator to the top floor don’t forget to send it back down so

Someone else can write it up it is incumbent upon each of us to be great but i double dog dare you to make sure someone else is great as well and then finally there’s an african proverb that says my ears cannot hear what you say because my eyes see what you do people

Are watching us and whatever it is that we’re doing they’re watching and it’s uncommon upon us to do what we say we’re going to do so this is our role here at beck is to tell truth because truth is what sets us free to tell the stories so that every

Generation will know that we come from a great extraordinary people with an extraordinary legacy and although history is replete with all of the horrors that we keep tending to repeat there’s something else about history that i think we have forgotten there were some good things that we knew and that we did

And we have forgotten them so it’s time for a history lesson so thank you all for joining me thank you for being here support that culture exchange center we are the only african american history and culture center in the region doing what we do my predecessor mr avon rollins and mr robert booker

Dedicated their lives to just this inequality and they were those the shoulders i stand on and i gave them my word that when i came here i’d leave it better than i found it and then i would make them proud so that’s my mission is to do that which

I promised to do when i came here on behalf of the board of directors and miss anazah houston who is our board chair i thank you and i bid you good night god bless you all thank you

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