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LIVE in Detroit: Early Voting Kickoff with Pistons, Leaders, and Community Members

Published Oct 19, 2024, 11:54 PM

Hosts Tiffany Cross, Angela Rye, and Andrew Gillum are live outside of Pistonsland in Detroit, Michigan! 

 

A rotating panel of esteemed Michiganders, including local and national politicians, there to discuss the issues that matter most to voters in this critical swing State.   

 

Guests include:

 

Mary Sheffield, Detroit City Council President President 

Kyra Harris Bolden, MI Supreme Court Justice 

 

James Tate, City Council President Pro Tem

 

Jessica Nabongo, Author and World Traveler 

 

Portia Powell, Owner of One Detroit Credit Union

 

Gillian Bradley, Owner of Harper Ray

 

The Bushman, Detroit Radio Legend  

 

Eric Thomas, Detroit’s Chief Storyteller

 

Bravo S, Owner of Society Detroit

 

Fatima Tekko, Owner of Fresh Rootz  

 

Dr. Rheeda Walker, Author

 

April Verrett, SEIU President

 

Garlin Gilchrist, MI Lt. Gov   

 

Cliff Albright, Black Voters Matter Co-founder

 

J.B. Bickerstaff, Head Coach of the Detroit Pistons



We are 17 days away from the election. Welcome home y’all! 

 

If you’d like to submit a question, check out our tutorial video: www.instagram.com/reel/C5j_oBXLIg0/

 

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We want to hear from you! Send us a video @nativelandpod and we may feature you on the podcast. 

 

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Watch full episodes of Native Land Pod here on YouTube.



Thank you to the Native Land Pod team: 

 

Angela Rye as host, executive producer and cofounder of Reasoned Choice Media; Tiffany Cross as host and producer, Andrew Gillum as host and producer, and Lauren Hansen as executive producer; Loren Mychael is our research producer, and Nikolas Harter is our editor and producer. Special thanks  to Chris Morrow and Lenard McKelvey, co-founders of Reasoned Choice Media. 


Theme music created by Daniel Laurent.

Native Land Pod is the production of iHeartRadio in partnership with reisent Choice Media.

Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.

Heay, we we are live from Detroit.

We are right by Pistons Land where today is the first day of early voting in Detroit. Not to be mistaken for all of Michigan, which begins their early voting process next Saturday. But we are thrilled to be here for an incredible rally that's just down the way, uh with Pistons Land.

Detroit Pistons will be there.

Several acts including Little Baby, will be performing today and we are bringing the best in the brightest of Detroit to you here today.

I'm here with Andrew Gilliman, Tippy.

Cross, my co host Native Lamb pot Well.

I want to say, do people realize there's a little sports knowledge for you folks. The NBA Pistons are known as the bad Boys of the NBA. I don't know if they're still known as that, but they were at one point. So I'm honored to be here in Detroit and we all can I also give a quick shout out. We have lovely We asked you guys for recommendations on where to eat and we had a lovely black on New last night.

It was delicious.

Without me, I had a headache.

Angela was what she was, so she was doing all this stuff, so she had a headache. But we had shout out to Savannah Blue for accommodating.

Was delicious.

Thank you. Yeah.

And we're also joined by a couple of Detroits. You're welcome home, Yeah, welcome home.

And we also have been joined by someone who has the key to the city House, the real key, open doors literally, the legendary Detroit City Council president. Her name is Mary Sheffield, and she's joining us.

Right as we say what Welcome to Detroit. Glad to have you all here.

I'm sure you do. You have this thing?

I like that we got swagging yea yeah.

Also carry blade.

Non violent practice. Mary.

I want to ask you, this is the first day of early here in Detroit.

How are you feeling about everything? What are you seeing?

You know, we're seeing excitement, We're seeing momentum. There is some contrast here. I mean just yesterday there was some you know, high ranking African American influencers in Detroit who were at a Trump rally, and so I think there's just a lot of healthy dialogue that's taken place. We know that Michigan and particularly Detroit is a battleground city and state and that the role to the White House comes through Detroit specifically. So I think people are a big anxious, nervous, optimistic, but knowing that it's going to be a tight race. And so when Trump lasts one last time, he literally won by two votes per precinct. That's how tight it was. So we really want to hone in that every single vote matters in this election, every sing vote.

Can you tell me what you said? A healthy dialogue has been taking place in light of Yeah, some folks choosing the back Trump in the community, tell us what that?

Well?

I just think that traditionally people who have not been a part of the political process are more engaged now that I've never seen before. And I think need that And I think having a healthy debate is always productive and necessary now.

Whether or not where it lands.

I believe that everyone needs to be on one side in this race regardless. I mean, our democracy is at stake in this election, and I think the progress that we made in Detroit, the sustainability of keeping that momentum moving. It really takes place in that White House, and so what I just think seeing different types of influencers, rappers, you know, getting involved in the political process is needed, and I think that that's healthy as well. Yeah, I'm curious early voting begins in Detroit earlier than it does for the rest of the state. Why is that, Well, we've made it an easy access to vote in Michigan. We want people to have no excuses whatsoever to be able to go and get their votes casted. And so there was a concerted effort years ago to make sure that early voting took place in Detroit, and our city Clerk has been phenomenal to make sure that there's absolutely no excuses. Two voting polls, voting centers in each council district, so there's fourteen locations where people can vote right now up into election day, and it's really just to make sure that we get the voter turnout as high as we can. Traditionally in Detroit we have not had the best voter turnout and so we're trying to eliminate any barriers, any excuses, and make it as easy as possible for people to vote.

Which is so key in this election, because, as people know, Detroit is one of the most populous cities when it comes to the black population, particularly in Michigan. So I'm lovely lovely to hear that.

I want to ask you to and I do want to acknowledge the city clerk as well as the deputy City Clerk, Andre Gilbert, who was so instrumental and ensuring that we were able to be here. I also want to shout out the hotel who's patio were using. We're at the Hotel Saint Regis and the owner, Crystals, has been magnificent. But just to go back to what you were saying about healthy dialogue, I think we've had like these very heated debates on the podcast about when is it time to cut off the conversation? Should you be cutting off the conversation? Have you been in any conversation? But we got to be here. I believe that's a plan that must be trying to distract me from my point. But I was gonna ask you, Mary, what types of conversions have you seen from people who said they're undecided, or folks who may have said they're voting for Kamala Harris or said they're going to vote for Donald Trump.

Who have shifted?

Have you been engaged in any conversations I have if even it might happen, I mean to people that I know most definitely. I think the more that we educate and the more that we make those connections, the correlation between your quality of life, your everyday living, in your vote, the easier it is, the better it is. So yes, I've had those conversations where people have shifted from you know, originally maybe wanting to support Trump or not really understanding what was at stake. And so I think again, those healthy dialogue and conversation is important so people can understand what is truly at stake, for sure.

So so him not wanting to do business with black folks, letting them working as corporation, not not not letting them stay in his accommodations when they can control it, not paying his bills, the black folks meaning us, not seeing our humanity in any way, shape or form.

I have it. I do have a difficult time. I'm probably the most open between the three of us of talking. She don't suffer fools, but I just, I just I'm having a hard time having conversations that grow and evolve with folks who start off jump not recognizing the fact this man don't like you as a person, and therefore what could he do for you?

Even talking about Detroit, to have these high profiles right join him, it's like he bought you cheap, bro.

If you have seen people transition from supporting him after what he said about Detroit.

So not necessarily. And I think some of the same individuals who we know who were out taking pictures with Trump, I think they've been kind of silent still on who they're endorsing or if they're endorsing anyone in this race. I know Kamala was here recently. She had a radio fine with Charlemagne A God. I'm not sure if some of those influence.

Yep.

So I think we just we have to understand the importance of that this is not a game time. It's not a time for a joke, and so it's just important that we have those conversations.

And when Trump was just.

Here, he disrespected Detroit in front of Detroit, of course, but also we had the business leaders of this embracing it and clapping, which is another thing we have to work on. But again, we know he continues to show hisself time and time again, And I just think that Detroit, we have to get up, we have to show up, and we got to vote.

I agree with that. I also and I wonder to what extent you experienced this, But black men are the second highest demographic behind the Democratic nominee historically since our conversion to the Democratic Party. Are there economic messages that you think Democrats have to do a better job at communicating that if we hear it, it sinks in for instance, Kamala Harris's plan around small businesses of the Loano and the Grand Forgiveness. Does that resonate or too little, too late?

I think it was an opportunity to let them know that we hear you. I've heard internally that black men did not feel a part of the campaign, and so her initiative to come here and have a conversation with black men I think went a long way. Because we hear a lot about reproductive rights, and we hear a lot about abortion, which is extremely important. But I think we have to also message black men as well too, So I think having that initiative around economic empowerment was big. Whether it was two late or not, at least she tried. At least she tried to say that I hear you and we're going to address you all as well.

It also should be noted because I think you made a right point to have an agenda this She may be the first president certainly that I can remember, who have ever delivered an agenda that is specifically targeted toward black folk. Yes, and for candidates who say, because this morning I heard a Trump's surgu and say that their agenda is agenda for the country, it's also for black folk.

That's right.

Well, when the country is impacted equally by what black men are impacted by, then we can get a everybody is included in this agenda. But until that happens, it's got to be it's got to be.

Saying, we know there's not an agenda on the other side for sure, right, not at all?

What are your what are your local races? Just local folks who are listening what local races?

So we well, I actually will yield to who's she's going to be on the bound coming, but I will say, you know, coming up after the presidential race next year will be an open seat for a lot of the city council local races, the mayor's race, council will be up, and so a lot of shifting will be taking place in the landscape here in Detroit, which is exciting to see. As well. Our current mayor will not be running again and so that seat will be open. And we just know that Detroit, as much as we're growing and progressing, we still have to address some of the social issues in the trade. And I mean we still have one of the highest poverty rates in the country, when one in three of Detroiters are living in poverty. Uh, those issues have to be addressed. Our neighborhoods are coming back, for sure, but we wanted to make sure that it reaches more people as well. So we're excited about some of the races forthcoming and I want everyone to stay tuned.

Andrew. Do you remember from.

Course network that Andrew co founded People for the American Way. Now that's the thing I was going to say, what you know what Andrew built in content with so many of you. I was a real bit of people who are pushing forward with progressive policy. And to that end, we have joining us the Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, Kyra Harris Bolden, who's also on the ballot this time. Mary's not breaking any news today. So I was wondering if she had any any people she was picking for the mayoral race next year. But right now we have Kyrie joining us, and there is an imminent election. People are going to vote right now. So Kyra talks us a little bit about your race and what you're expected.

Well, thank you so.

Much for having me. I just want to say my husband is a fan of the podcast, so.

Well you can be in part. Listen and see if we're doing all right.

I'm listening and thank you so much for having so Yeah, So I am on the ballot. I actually ran from Michigan Supreme Court in twenty twenty two. I lost by two percentage points and there was a one million vote drop off between the governor's race and the non partisan section of the ballot. And so I have being here in this space now just been telling people you're already.

Voting, vote the ballot.

You have to vote the entire ballot, and don't miss your judges and your justices, especially with a community that is so justice impacted, people that are making decisions about your lives every day, you have to vote for these people. Not every state has the opportunity, right, but we do have that opportunity in Michigan, and I am on everybody's ballot in the state of Michigan. So I'm just honored to sit in this space as the first black woman to ever serve on the Michigan Supreme Court, as well as the youngest, and as well as being a new mom. I have a two year old and I actually ran a twenty twenty two pregnant with my first child and have my baby in the middle of the campaign.

So man, you're a woman. It's been a Jarney.

I love that you're on the court because I think we in this country spend so much time focusing on the Supreme Court of the United States, but the lower courts are also where black women are underrepresented and then some spaces unrepresented, so a lot of people sometimes I think having a challenge with prosecutors. Vice President Harris, of course, is a former prosecutor, and we always try to point out on this show, prosecutors decide what charges to bring, what charges not to bring when the cops misbehave. They're the ones who bring charges with cops. They're the ones who can decide not to prosecute low level of sentences exactly so why what is the significance about having a black woman, a young black woman on the Supreme Court. And I just want to remind our audience that Donald Trump during his tenure appointed over two hundred mostly white metal judges to lifetime appointments and it can take a generation to undo the harm that causes.

So I would love to hear your thoughts time.

Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head by saying generations. Right, So, when we're thinking about the Michigan Supreme Court or just judges and justices in general, diversity on the bench is so important, especially on the Michigan Supreme Court.

There's seven of us.

Right, we need to have representation at that very important seat to make sure that everybody in the state of Michigan is contemplated when we're making important decisions.

I have a different lens.

Than some of my colleagues, and I will tell you sometimes the question might be what is reasonable, Well, what is reasonable for a six year old black kid and what is reasonable for a fifth year old white man are different, and so bringing those perspectives to the table when having those very important conversations is incredibly important. And I can say as a person sitting at that table. It is important. It's incredibly important. The other thing that's really important as far as me being a black woman is just representation. I tell this story sometimes, but I was working in an after school program in college and a little black girl that looked like me came up to me and said, miss Kyra, and Miss Kyra kN girls go to college. And the amount of youth that come up to me that said I never even thought about going to law school. I never even thought about being an attorney. I never thought about being on the Michigan Supreme Court. But now that I see it, I can see that from myself, and that is so incredibly important. So not just the voice that's bringing those lib experiences to the table, but the impact on the youth and seeing themselves in positions of power so important.

Yeah, you talked a little bit about representation, and I know, Mary, we have to let you go in just a moment. You busy today, but I do want to acknowledge we have representation at the table. In addition to Andrew, we have another black man who has joined us. He is James Tait, the City Council President pro tim and the most exciting thing about him right now? To me is this I voted sticker, exercise my franchise first and just I don't just run.

I also vote that's right.

It's important to me to make sure that I example be an example for the black man is in particular, who have pulled themselves out of the process and not realize that the amount of power they have on a daily basis right. They give that power away and unfortunately, when they give that power away, something else feels that vacuum. And we've seen over time that that's something else is not in our best interest.

Yeah, I want to make sure that we let you go. You all can stay with us, just for a moment.

Thank you.

So much. I'm going to get to the president pro teminal moment. But Justice, I would love to know. We have always been able to, I think, rely on the course, particularly the highest courts in our land and in this state. You sit on that court. But after the Supreme Court decision and Cater, you know, creating Donald Trump a king, I think a lot of people's faith in the court has been shaken. I'm curious to know at at your level, the state level, are you experiencing this sort of increased level of partisan ship at your level of government, or at least at the court level that you all supervise, that causes you concern as a justice.

The one thing that's really interesting is in Michigan, in order to even get on the ballot, you have to be nominated by one of the major political parties, which is very unique. I think the Michigan is the only state that does that, and so the Michigan Democratic Party, the Republican Party, the Green Party, and so on and so forth so forth will nominate justices from the Michigan Supreme Court. But we are a nonpartisan on the ballot. So with that being said, it is a huge concern for Michiganders given that the parties are the ones that are nominating the non partisan justices. However, my experience on the court has actually been very collegial, very thoughtful, even those that have been nominated by the Republicans. I have found that you know that there's a healthy dialogue and there's definitely a respect there on the Michigan Supreme Court, which I appreciate. You have to be able to try to get the get things right, and it requires that people with the diverse thought process, some that different from mine on a particular case is represented at the table, and so there are concerns, and understandably so, But what I have experienced is is a court that works very well together. Sometimes I may change some one's opinion and someone and I might change someone's opinion based upon you know, our life experiences and thought processes. But again, I think that's why the process of electing our judges and justices in the state of Michigan is so important because people have the opportunity to hear from me, and people have the opportunity to go to my website and see my events and things like that, and so you can vet your own judges and justices here in Michigan, and there's a level of accountability that I think there's not on the federal level.

I want to just for a moment go to you, James, And I was asking Mary before you arrived about the types of conversations that you're here in the ground. To me, I can't believe that the presidential election is as close as it is here in Detroit, especially after what former President Donald Trump had to say about Detroit. What are the types of conversations you're hearing when people are saying they're undecided or they're, you know, voting for Donald Trump?

What are what are those conversations?

Like, Yeah, I'm glad you're asking this.

So I host three community meetings every month and a lot of community engagement, and I asked the question often over the last couple of weeks, who's excited about this election? You see some hands go up. Who's nervous about this election? All the hands go up at that point, right, So then I ask about, you know, who's on this side, who's on that side, and who's who who's undecided at this point? And so then I asked, well, why are you undecided? What I'm hearing is these are folks who just literally don't believe in government at all. Wow, they've taken themselves again, as I mentioned before, out of the process.

Now they're on our sidelines.

They're complaining, they're saying things aren't right, but in terms of them believing in government at all, they're just not there.

Now.

They'll tell you, well, Tate, I like you. I'm here for you.

And so that's why it's important for me to make sure that I keep that connectivity to them.

Whether we talk about younger.

Oh, I was I was at a at an event this past weekend and I saw this brother and his family. It's a nuclear family, husband, wife, two kids that both of them just got off work, the kids that just picked them up from school. And again, are you are you involved engaged? No, not really, but I will be now, That's what he told me. I said, Okay, well, what about this big election that's coming up now? If you're voting, I mean, if you're a if you're in a ballot, I'll vote for you. I said, I'm not on the ballot. What about the this is the big election? And he told me, no, not really, not really, I'm just not feeling And it's amazing to see and hear that there's a disparity when we talk about what folks are expecting from the various from the two candidates. Right, I'm not hearing a plan. Well, brother, did you did you go online? I can even kind of run some things to you. And then he says, well, there the other guy, I mean, he does his life. I said, so what else do you need? What else do you need? Because that's what's going to set the policy. What's in their heart, what they're telling you, that's setting the policy. And he's telling me about these commercials that he sees, and he's just regurgitating things that he's seen in these commercials. And again I ask him, have you done any research at all?

Well?

No, but that's just bad, isn't it. So we have to make sure that.

Those of us who are on the ground on the local level, that we constantly stay in contact with our community and bring them in not just during these four years every four years, but every day. We have to make sure that we are reaching out to him. And that's the chair and the founder of the Task Force on Black Meling Game. Here in the city of Detroit, there's a lot of connectivity, so we have conversations. We were going to have a walk today to get folks out to vote. We've got a couple of other things going, but we're going to be out next weekend. We're going to be out the weekend after as well. So we're going to keep on pushing getting our black men in particular engage in this election.

I love that you asked the question what are you hearing from the other guy, the other candidate, because when I hear the point, I'm not I haven't heard a plan. I'm like, if you ain't heard one from her. Just listen to him. You've heard him, you ought to. That ought to be enough to help you make up your mind. But I am I'm curious. I heard from the Council president her response to whether or not you feel like the Harris campaign is going far enough with articulating a message that would be resonant with black men. Are there? I'm curious, are there pieces of the plan that you would say either work or don't work? Are there pieces that have been omitted that you think are important for black men to hear in order to make a decision that this is an election that I've got to be involved in because it affects me in my family.

So I think we go back again to you can have a plan, and it's on paper, it's online. A certain audience will gravitate towards that. We have got to get out and break it down and make it real simple for folks. How does this plan, this two page, three page plan, how does how does it translate to your actual life? And when we're able to do that, now they can see, Oh so wait a minute, I'm able to receive benefits as a result of me being a business owner so it's not just words on a piece of paper by a politician that they don't know. This is now how it's going to transform the lives of you and your family and the city of Detroit as a whole. And once we start doing that. I've been on council now for fifteen years. I'm the old dog, as they say, so being on council, part of it is about taking these policies and breaking them down to bite sized chunks so that people can consume them, understand them, and then participate in the process as well.

But don't wait every four years.

Let's continue to drive those bread crumbs every bit along the way.

Yeah.

I think that's been part of the challenge, right in some of these conversations, because when you hear people and just like you, like we've had conversations with men of all ages, some socioeconomic backgrounds that are varying, and I find that there is confusion about what branch of the government does, what, who is responsible for what. A part of that I think is I know, my biggest frustration has always been the media. The media tends to it's an incestuous conversation. They throw out these acronyms that people don't know. I remember watching TV and like, I don't even know what that is. I don't know what the CBO means. They would say the DLJ when I was younger, I'm like, what is the DJ? You know this is before Google and all that. So I wonder what as you navigate this process, what is the understanding of the constituency here, and how you've been able to bridge that gap and just have basic explainers. There's nothing to be embarrassed about, like you'd rather people be informed as they navigate this space, especially where in local government.

So you just hit the nail on the head that don't be ashamed because I was the same way as you were. I had to learn, and even being a member of city council elected official, I still am in the process of learning what acronyms mean, who does what? It is extremely challenging to understand what district you're in, especially when you talk about from a local level. You have a city council district, you have a Wayne County district, you have a state Senate, a state a state House, and then you start talking about the federal levels as well.

I go back again.

That's why it's so critically important for us, those of us who are in the local level, to make sure that we keep that constant contact so that they know this is an executive function, y'all, this is a legislative function.

This is what I do, This is what these so and the way.

That you approach us is different, and what you're expecting from us has to be different. And what we bring to you has to solidify and satisfy the concerns you have and not just placate you. Because there's a way that you know, politicians, we know how to talk to folks. You know how to smooth talk them and get them in a certain direction just to keep them calm.

Only to know.

Anymore.

Yeah, and that's the thing.

There's a lot of folks who are waking up to it, but there but when they wake up, we don't want them to just wake up and take themselves out of the process.

We want to wake up and get more engaged and involved.

And I know we're going to be transitioned to but justice. I'm in the in the wake of needing folks to be involved in knowing what it is they're voting for. What can you what are the limits of what you can go to when you're trying to convince the voter to consider you. I'm imagining that there's some things that you're not able to say.

I can't say much, okay, And what Counselman Tate was saying, it's so true. I mean, some people come up to me and they say, well, what's your criminal justice platform. Well, you know, as a justice, you know, you know, I deal with the cases that come before me. We try to make the best decisions possible based upon the law and what's the information available to us. And so no, I can't say that I'm for or against a certain issue. We're actually prohibited as judges and justices from from taking stances on positions, and so what I do, and obviously people can go to the website, but I think what I tell people is the important aspects of a justice, which are empathy and compassion and thoughtfulness right adherent to you know, the intention of the legislature. And for me, I always say justice for generations, knowing that the decisions I make today is set a precedent that will affect our children and our children's children and generations to come. And so I think those aspects are important. But that's basically all can.

Say, yeah, I love it.

Well.

We so appreciate you all time today. So thank you all so much. Go get the rest of those votes. Counseling, thank you so much. Justice. We appreciate you all being here.

Next up, we have a good friend of ours. I'm an honorary rattler. He's a real rattler, and so is she. Her name is Melissa Butler. She is the founder and CEO of the lip Bar. Y'all might have seen her. They tried to drag her when she went on a shark tank and she dragged them right with them.

Revenues and all of that, all that good stuff.

She is on this platform and absolately absolutely yes.

I'm wearing I'm wearing my lip Bar products right now.

You're always ready to hear you.

Good.

My wife and she knows.

You, yes, she sure does.

I appreciate all of the love.

I feel like I'm at home right now.

Welcome home. You know you are okay.

So Melissa, you know we're out here because there's early voting starting into Troy. You've got friends and family here. Are you voting today, ma'am?

I am going to vote today.

I wasn't okay, I was like, no, I want to vote on election day, and somebody got me together real quick. They were like, if you are decided, if you know exactly what you're going to do, just go vote and get out of the way, like so that the lines are shorter. And I was like, you know what, You're right, So I will be voting as soon as I leave here.

You bring five people, you spend your time.

I'll do my best carpooling.

Out there.

We also you probably saw this, but your big Gretch.

Big Gretch, she always.

Yes, I'm obsessed with her. But we've we've always done our part.

Like I remember in twenty sixteen, we put up a post that'sh like, Merry Christmas to everybody except Donald Trump, and people were pissed and we lost some customers then. But I was like, but if you don't understand the danger that is this man, then you weren't never rocking with us to begin with. And so in twenty twenty we helped people register to vote. We renamed our best seller in the company, it's called Boss Lady. We renamed it Boss Voter. Put a QR code on there to help people register to vote. You know, we're active with the governor, so we're always going to do our part because we are a community based business.

I love that one. I just am obsessed. I think you're so beautiful. I love your product, I love your storyline. I was introduced by Boss Lady, but either you are britt Angela. I can't remember, but they said Boss Lady looks good on everybody, so I have Boss Lady to stain the gloss all of it. So I love it. I think I'm curious about you personally and professionally and how those two intersects, because we all saw on the Shark Tank people dismissed your vision, and I think that happened so often with black women, and that there's analogous to this moment in political history as a black woman is poised to lead the country for the first time. There's also the conversation around the economics of it all and entrepreneurship when it comes to black folks. If you are there pieces of Vice President Harris's policy that she's put forth that speak to you as a business owner, a black woman, someone who lives and puts on for Detroit, and someone who's been successful across multi layers and a fam You graduate and a Divine nine.

First of all, I am rooting for this woman so hard just because I see myself and her like she is a member of the Divine Nine.

She did go to an HBCU.

She is always questioned, and as a black woman in business, you experience that often, and you have to be resilient enough to say, even though you don't see my vision, that doesn't mean that it doesn't remain clear to me. It's so funny because people give him so much credit as it relates to business, even though he is a field businessman. But I'm gonna talk about exactly, but more specifically, I don't think people realize how the form policies have hurt American businesses. Thelipper used to manufacture in the United States of America. We used to manufacture in California. At one point, I left Detroit moved to California because we were doing so much manufacturing.

And then we got tariffs twenty six percent.

I could no longer afford to keep my products made in California. I moved everything to Taiwan. So the idea that like the Republicans are better for business is a farce. And now with these additional tariffs, that are like insane. One thousand percent two thousand percent like that is not sustainable. It's not good for any business, but particularly black businesses. And we know that black business people hire black people. My team is all women, were like eighty percent black women like that.

That's not the reality for most.

Small business owners who are not of my complexion.

So from a business percent.

Respective, I believe that VP Harris like she has what it takes to make sure that that we will thrive next year. I think the Wall Street Journal said that next year, under the other guys, the orange toats policies, we will be in a recession by like mid five.

Yeah.

And we've been sort of like the Lippar certainly because I mean, makeup is not essential. It's something that's fun, it's something that you do, you splurge on. If people have to decide between their groceries or their gas and their makeup, the lipper will be out of business. And so I am fearful of her not getting elected. And frankly, I believe in you know, I believe in her policy around like investing in HBCUs. I believe in her tax cuts for small businesses as opposed to these giant corporations that frankly should be paying taxes. I believe in home ownership. Like Detroit is the blackest city in America. It is seventy eight percent black, and it's changing. It's changing right now as we speak. And the only way that it can remain this like culturally rich place is if we are able to afford to buy homes in our own cities.

So I think there's so many things.

About her approach that boats well, not just for me, but for the broader American population.

Yeah, I'm so.

Glad you hit on these terrorifts because I wonder as a business owner, if you could speak to make it clear when a business is hit with a tariff, they either eat that cost and end up having to do what you did, which is move a piece of your product line and production out of the United States, or they pass that cost through the cost of the product onto the customer. Do you know of a business that eats the costs, absorbs the increase, and keeps the price the same.

It's for the customer, It's impossible.

And so if you look, there have been many articles talking about how you know, just the price of everything is rising, it's because of these tariffs. It's because of COVID. It's because of the poor handling of COVID. Like people get upset, they're like shrinkflation. I'm paying the same amount and getting less or I'm paying more for what I used to get. It is impossible, especially for a small business owner. And small businesses are the backbone of this country. Sure, you know, a small business owner cannot eat the cost because we have to pay our people. You know, we actually pay taxes, and then you know, for businesses that are in retail, like everyone wants a cut. So you know, we have tried really hard to not increase prices, and our decision was, unfortunately, to go across the country, go across the world.

Rightly, since we love you so much, we know you got to go vote.

We're gonna call up you've laid a great trail. We're gonna call up some other business owners to join us now. And one who travels often is a good friend of yours, Jessica Nabango, travel expert, author and entrepreneur. We have Jillian Bradley, the owner of Harper Ray and porschep how CEO of one Detroit Credit Union.

So we're gonna talk some more about business.

We hear from you all out and clear regularly that the economy is at top of mind, whether we're talking about costs of goods, home ownership, tariffs. Melissa just brought tariffs into the conversation, gave us a quick little get down breakdown on economics, and I think it was super helpful to hear that from her. So welcome, ladies, We are so gill. Let me tell you what I love about this panel, and of course about Melissa is joining us. We still know that black women are the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs in this country, and it looks like that holds two.

Interesting Yeah, Hi guys, Yes, thank you all so much for being here. You'll have no questions. Okay.

I was mesmerized by Jessica because every time I fear, she's has on a beautiful fit.

And voting is my blood. John and.

Jessica, you have traveled all literally all over the globe, have been to every country in existence, and I'm just curious, from a global perspective, how does the United States look right now on a global scale. Do you imagine, like, are there spaces in the globe where they're like, oh, we hope Donald Trump is back in, or we please, Lord, let you know Vice President Harris is sent to the presidency, or people indifferent.

No, definitely, indifference does not exist globally. I was just in the country of Georgia, which was part of the former Soviet Union, and I can tell you there they are terrified of the idea of Donald Trump getting in. Obviously I am too, because I think what people don't realize is that we could potentially be looking at the reunification of parts of the Soviet Union. Right, we already know he's gonna let putin have Ukraine, but there's other countries in the world that used to be in the Soviet Union that are also afraid. And I think also, I'm gonna take this moment to talk to my Arab American friends. Obviously there's a huge population here, and you know, we have we know exactly where they stand, we know how they feel, we know how horrible the last one year plus, I mean, it's much longer than that, but we know what it's been here, the concerns. But I think at the end of the day, the unfortunate situation we're in is that there are two options.

That's right and one option.

Sure, the administration has not called for a ceasefire as soon as we'd like to see it. There hasn't been an arms embargo. I do believe confidently that that is coming very soon. But the other option is someone who was in office for less than one year and moved the US embassy to Jerusalem. That is a line that no previous president was willing to cross less than one year. Let's not forget about Jared Kushner, you know like that. Okay, he might be Secretary of State, and so I recogniz that we are between a rock and a hard place, specifically air of Americans. But I you know, this is my individual plea just to say, like, I'd rather fight for Gaza, for the West Bank, for Lebanon under a Harris administration versus Trump because they are looking to turn that into Israeli beachfront property.

Let's be honest.

So I think, you know, it is very difficult, and I understand it's hard for them to cast that vote, but there's only two options on the ballot. Somebody's gonna win, and there's two people.

Yeahound policy.

You know, one of other questions I have for you, Porsche as a community bank, a credit union, you are the one that's responsible for lending to members of our community more often than not. Can you talk a little bit about some of the things you're seeing relative to home ownership, small business loans, and the kinds of things that you all are working to ensure parity and access there.

Absolutely sooth your micro So I'm.

Sorry about that, and so I think those those are the key pillars of this election that's most important to me, especially as not how leading of financial institutions, specifically here in Detroit, where access to capital, entrepreneurship, those are things that we're all taken from us at a point in time, and so now to have those things threatened, to have the institutions that we're putting into place to ensure that we had long term sustainability are now at the top of the chopping block. I think this is the most important time, you know, in Detroit's history. I think this whole rhetoric that came out yesterday about make Detroit great again, you know, which is absolute asonized. I think that's a slapp in the face to all of the entrepreneurs like the Melissa Butler's, the Jillian Bradley's who've invested into this area and fought to make sure that businesses thrive here. And so for all of the people that's putting into the work, you know, having that type of rhetoric, those type of conversations as if we haven't been putting that work in, you know, is insane to me. And so now, as a leader of a fine institution, I'm charged with making sure we continue.

To bry access to capital.

And so you think of things like interest rates, how the FED controls the environments that we're able to lend to. Those things are even more important because what will happen is those products and services become more restrictive. We don't have a government that's in support of us providing more access to capital, and they give and support to the institutions that do that. We are a CDFI. That's super important. CDFIs are threatened every day with additional restrictions being put into place, and all that does is limit the access that the consumers will have to products and services. As Melissa mentioned, make up things like that aren't essential, but we still want them.

What is a CDFI.

CDFI is a community development financial institution and so what that means for us is we actually get support from the government to provide funding and access to capital and underserved communities, Detroit being of course one of those, And so it allows us to take additional risks. It allows us to look at things beyond the credit store. It allows us to create products and services that systematically people of color and migrants have been excluded from because things like credit and things like that. So it takes out some of those systematic banking policies that have held us back and allows us to at least have access in ways that we haven't before. And that's why you see things like small businesses driving a lot of that is not being driven by banks, is being driven by CDFI's And when you start thinking about policy, we have to make sure that we're supporting a government that is going to think about those things and how it impacts the bottom line of small businesses if those things are eliminated.

I love that.

Julian I know is another business owner. Harper k on your own. I'm curious to roper Ray. I'm so sorry, Harper Ray. Yes one, tell our listeners a little bit about Harparay and Man's second, I'd love to know how you feel the administration, how government impacts what you get to do from day to day.

Yeah.

So Harper Ray is a fashion Jury brand marketed directly towards women. Generally, Jury is marketed towards men to buy for women. So that's the difference with us. And it's named after my grandfather. He was actually one of the first black antiseesiologists in the state of Michigan.

Wow.

So definitely some history there.

And when am I like, one of the main points that she's made clear that Kamala has made clear is that she wants to give the funding to small business owners like myself. I'm able to employ other black women, I'm able to give back to my community. We do all the type of drives and things like that where we're giving back to shelters all around Detroit. And if I was able to, you know, get capital at the beginning, I would be a lot further, a lot sooner. And you know, we have to support the people that are giving back to us. There's obviously, you know, there's one candidate that has a plan and there's one candidate that doesn't.

And that was the concept of a plan, right, concept of a plan.

And you know, I think at this stage in the election, if you're still undecided, or if you're you know, teetering that fence, it's like you're making a choice, and I think things have been very clear.

Yeah, And so really to any of you, or really all of you, for the black men in your lives that you get to interact with, I'm curious how those conversations go. Is it a pro Harris conversation? Is it a pro Trump? Is it a really none of this stuff is impacting our lives from day to day, year to year, and so what does it matter. We were doing all right during Trump, we did all right during Biden, and we'll do all right with whoever comes next. Curious to hear y'all and what that experience has been like, I would.

Say, I'm sorry, you go first.

So I would just say, fortunately, the men in my life are supporting Kamala Harris, so I haven't had to have a lot of difficult conversations. But I will say I was at one of my best friend's houses recently and conversation did open up, and there were some people obviously that I'm not connected to, and I do think a lot of people because you know, I'm you Gunden, So I will say, like I don't have a whole lot of family in the US. My family is definitely all voting for Kamala. But I think for a lot of people who do have a lot of family here, I think we can't make any assumptions about how people are voting.

You know.

I think it's really important to have the tough conversations.

Even if you just have the.

Text folks because you don't want to talk to them in person, That's fine, but I think it's really important. Since we're in Detroit and thinking about the state of Michigan, you can have those conversations. We still have seventeen days. The amazing thing about Michigan is that you can register to vote the day you go and vote. Even on November fifth, you can register to vote that day, so have the conversations. It's not too late. They can still register to vote and vote the way we need them to vote.

I love that same.

Unluckily for me, all the men in my life are definitely supporting commonly Harris. But I did have a cousin who I have a cousin who is a Republican. He voted for Trump the first time, but he's not doing so this time, so he did take a lot of talks and things like that for my family, but he came to his own conclusion even that, you know, the state of the world of the United States when Trump was in office was not you know, was not.

Favorable for anyone.

Almost towards the end, and even when Biden was running, we were all like, maybe we should just break up, Maybe we should just I mean, I gues should be single for.

President.

That was a sittingment at the time. So it's like, you know, is that a place that we want to go back to.

Yeah, I think it's an easy answer.

Yeah.

I think my experience is actually much different in both these ladies. A being a leader in a financial soution in the underserved community, we have a lot of people who come in who are just detached, people who really don't see in a media impact, people who are misinformed, people who don't really have a true understanding of what this means to them, things like CDFI funding seen like affordable healthcare, the Obamacare, things that are on the chopping black. A lot of them don't resonate that to this election. And I am the oldest, I have three younger brothers, and I really feel they felt a sense of displacement and not having an identity in either candidate. For some reason, some black men have fear of Kamala Harris. And I don't know if it was to your earlier point of her being a prosecutor and how systematically you know, there were things that were put in place, but I think we have to take some accountability there too and say, Okay, hey, yes she was a prosecutor, but she was prosecuting people for things that they did wrong, you know, and so and for her, like there's education, there's inclusiveness. I think things that now black men are starting to see. I think the best thing that she did for black men and started talking directly to them so that they could really understand how she plans to imback them by strengthening the African American families, creating a pathway to a middle class lifestyle for many of them who've been excluded. Education, as we know, it is one of the biggest things that has held us back from wealth. And so now her putting plans in that in place that will support those things. Really, I think it's starting to help a black man identify with why this is a better choice for them, because to everyone's point, Donald Trump is not for you, and why are we arguing so much about why she's for us? No, but he is not, So I think that just needed to be clear. I really do like how she started talking directly to black men so that they can also find place on her, because SIMI this point, we we black women, we see ourselves. Yeah, black men did not, and so I think for her to just start talking to them has really helped transition a lot of their thinking.

And shut out this plan.

She was already just I just want our audience to know she was already talking to black men. She was hosting dinner, she was hosting private conversations. So yeah, absolutely, so.

We really we're so grateful to you Jessica, Jillian and Porsche for being here with us. We are gonna we're gonna go ahead and let you all go. Hopefully you all our early voting today as well, So thank you so much for your time, y'all. Also, uh, next time, we are gonna talk to the Brothers. The Brothers speak next, and we have someone who is a legendary voice in Detroit. I don't know why he's outside of the gate. Lo Loo, if you can go get Bush Man standing right there. Bush Man Detroit radio legend yesterday. Yes, oh yes, we did talk to radio you know. And then we also have Eric Thomas. I'm thrilled to talk to Eric Thomas today. He is a legendary entrepreneur, a writer, a strategist, and storyteller for the city of Detroit.

He also asked a question at the.

Town hall recently with Kamala Harrison and Charlot Mane the gods.

I can't wait to hear that feedback. You can go ahead, put your head sit on. I'm sorry.

I hope we all mess up them and just late honey.

You.

Guys, you you would, he told us day bring up Detroit.

Yes, at least.

So you know the thing that that we share in commons. So I met Bushman the other day and aside from talking about deer, which we took a little time to talk about some deer.

I did I was.

I missed this beautiful shot of some deer this morning.

You did? You know better than us?

So I didn't want to go no, no, no.

It's not there for us. And if you need to turn your mind down you can. But now here's the thing. I met the two of you just a couple of days ago at the town hall that Leonard hosted with or Charlotte Mane hosted with Kamala Harris. I want to know how you thought the town hall went, bush Man, and then I want to come to you, Eric, to see how you what your response was to her question, I mean to your question and her answer.

What did you think was? What got right? Was she get wrong? All of that? But Bushman, don't start with you.

I thought it was amazing. I didn't even know anything about it until I was driving into work listening to CNN, and that's how.

I found out.

Wow.

Then I called my boss, I'm like, did you know that Charlemagne Cu She's like what, Yeah? And this all came together and I thought it was amazing. And other people obviously thought it was amazing too, because the impressions that we've gotten and they're.

Still growing, yes, and they're still.

Growing over that.

And I've gotten so many d ms, so many text messages, so many phone calls, so many emails about how did this all come about?

And they thought it looked really really good.

Highest rated interview for Kamala Harris so far to date. Eric, I want to hear from you and then I'm a pivot to my co host.

I'm deeply amused you just hit my mail with the Leonard.

But all right, Charlotte, I call them Charlotte.

I don't know, I'm not.

No.

It was an interesting It was interesting because I was actually got a shock that I got called into that because I'm a bit of a robber rouser. But the whole gay right with me, vessels and everybody. So I try to bring nuance to these conversations. She said at the beginning she was gonna stick tooy talking for words.

She did. It felt like she I.

Think she said she was gonna be disciplined.

She was.

Yeah.

I think she fit one of the talking points that she had into my question about poverty and how it impacted black men, which is fine. One thing that I appreciated about Kamala is that she's thoughtful, considerate, and intelligent. Right Donald Trum would start talking about dogs, right, he would have just veered off the curve.

It.

I think it went as well as it could have possibly gone. I think it showed her warmth. I think it showed her sincerity. I think it showed that she had a real understanding and appreciation of the black community, which for some reason people are trying to act like biracial people don't have and that might be something we need to dig into a little bit more. But I like Kamala, I don't know if I was super into the answer, but I mean, healthcare is a poverty issue, yeah, right, and so I think that does fit. I think it is important, but I don't think it is a pathway out of pop.

Let me ask you, because you said, and I'm promised I'm coming to y'all, but I just had a follow on this really quick said you weren't super into the answer. And I think one of the most important things that we've all learned touching policy all the time is like it is not a single person sport, is a joint effort. So for example, the black Man Agenda that they rolled out earlier last week, that was put together by a whole team of folks, including a black man named Brian Nelson who runs her policy shop. I'm curious to know, when you say I'm not that into the answer, what are the things that you would have liked to hear or you know, if you were advising Kamala Harris's campaign, what would you say you know, Madame Vice President, here are some of the things that really need to be included when you're talking about coming from poverty and trying to get folks into the middle class that where they deserve to be.

So I think it's I'm with you. I've worked in politics and policy for a long time. Yeah, so sometimes you have to keep it a little loose, right, You can't get into the details, you don't have time. I think talking about if I asked for how do we move people from.

Poverty to middle class?

I would love to see stare step measures where we're going to be investing right or their parint You was talking about CDFI's I worked for a CDFI.

So where are we investing, what geographies are they going?

How does education what we talk about reparations, is there reparation for the war on drugs?

Right?

Like, maybe you can't go all the way back to slavery, Maybe that's difficult, but we do know all the people were impacted by marijuana incarcerations for things you could go buy in places that look like Apple stores right now, right, And so we know that if you get taken out of the workforce for twenty five years, that you are going to come at a distinct disadvantage. You're not able to vote, you're not able to work certain places. You got these boxes that they're trying to ban. So how are we looking at that really systemically? And this is in saying that all black men have been to prison. I have not, But we do know that black men are over criminalized and are impacted by the criminal justice system at a higher rate the most. Even I was pulled out of a car for dancing too much, dressed like this, all right, So there are all of these challenges they see that I would love to see what systems are we working actively to invest in and dismantle to move someone from one place to the next.

Those are the sort of things excellent.

You talked about liking vice president here is after town hall. But I'm really curious, because ratings aside, how many people were moved to vote for her, how many people were moved to be active for her, so less than our personal feelings, I'm curious, since you were in the room, do you feel like it was impactful in terms of changing hearts and minds and more so motivating people to get to the ballot box and cast their vote for her.

I'm not going to say exactly who it was in the room because I let people tell their own stories, but I remember one of the people in the room said that he was incredibly impressed by how she presented and what she presented, as they have met most of the presidential candidates, and it's not this idea that like everybody's doing the politician thing. It was Look how thoughtful that was, Look how well she knows the issues. Sometimes it's not even like I want to know that you're going to do everything on my side, but I just want to know that you.

Even know what the issue is.

And Kamala comes across as incredibly educated on what issues impact the American people in a way that other candidates don't necessarily seem.

Like they have a full grasp on that or reality.

Were you moved?

I energet I posted a video of her when she was walking in to the studio, which I typically don't like to do stuff like that with politics, because you know, I got a state neutral neutral and I definitely don't like to go read the contents because they can go left to right. There was a lot of positive contents of people where their minds had been changed by that town hall.

It was impactful, it was very.

It was I think it was.

I think that counts the most. And we have a new guest joining us conversation.

By Bravo.

I think their their mic is out, but yeah, why don't you introduce yourself and then we'll rope the convers Uh.

Well, support and raised in Detroit. I am a hospitality a nightlight partner, own six venues around from restaurants to nightclubs to to lounges, and I'm also a cast member on eleven Marors Detroit. Thank you for now. We just we just started that. We just yeah, we'll see second season middle mid break and then Huntsville starting up and then we're going to start back after that. So, so you interacted a lot of people obviously through the course of promoted for like twenty years.

Yeah, so you hear you, you hear it all.

He could tell us the folks, what's the focus group, saying Robin.

That, but so, so I know we're talking about the town hall, so I will say this, Uh, it has been a lot of people that that been convoluted by the the pandemic of the stimulus funds that they were given. I'm glad that she did break it down as to it was a Congress that really pushed that. Yes, and uh, you know, and with Trump having a signature on the checks, it's a lot of people that are thinking that they came directly from him. So that's where a lot of the from Detroit side, because Detroit they spend their money, you know, they spend their money good.

I think the second checks came from.

The same person that gave the I mean, you know, yeah.

They came from them. They so of course both x came from Democrats. There was a Democrats priorities. The president had no agenda to resolve the issue around COVID, and as we see, over a million Americans died as a result of his misaneling. I hope folks also know that those checks were delayed because weeks earlier month, But they were delayed because he gave instruction to the Treasury to go back and put his name on the line. Now our money, US expayers money that he said, go back, put my name on the bottom, and then you send those checks out. Donald Trump knew something that we clearly didn't have appreciation for at that time, and it's marketing.

Don Trump marketing all that he can do. He can't run businesses. He can just do marketing.

You can run them into the ground, those businesses. But you're right.

But until he finds out that they don't nothing.

Work, I feel like you could run circles around him my marketing.

I just want to do the debate.

I'm curious. So the checks went a long way with folks. But when we're not in the the heat of an election and to the extent that government or whatever happens in people's lives and who they blame, do you get the sense that folks make a real connection between what I do every day to make money, a living for my family, for myself, so on and so forth. They make that connection between how it impacts their lives and what the role of the government is in that.

So I feel like, look at the town hall of Iceword, Vezzo's great rapper here. He did say that, I guess in his sense he said that sometimes they feel like we get the attention right around election time. I do feel like that things are being passed and pushed all in between that timeframe. And I'm glad that it was the uh. I'm glad that she actually, you know, answer to that but I do feel like we don't look for it intelection time comes, if it really you know, it's been a lot. It's a lot of bills that pass, a lot of things that pushed a lot of grants. But I feel a lot of the people in my demographic, we don't look for it intil election time comes. It's not a three years or two years into the election, I mean two years into after the election is over, still saying I wonder what's new coming up this month by Congress? I wonder. So I feel like it's really on us, you know, that they make it more present. They're an election time, but it's always present. We just don't look for you know, and that falls on us as a community, and it falls the you know, the US is the guys that have the verbal front, you know, a platform to be able to say, I mean, we need to probably say more. Hey, guys, two years in it's you know, twenty twenty two, this is a new thing in Congress if you guys, you know, and I feel like that's really a community issue.

You know, you guys are making it.

I was going to say something sometimes too, with the way the world is, especially in twenty twenty four. If we're not seeing it on the gram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, x, whatever you want to call it today, it's not happening, right.

We don't know that it is happening.

And if it's not drama with it, it doesn't get pushed out. The algorithm just lets it go there and you don't see it. So a lot of people ignore what might be happening. We just don't know it.

Y'all. Have had some high profile black entertainer rappers of late come out for the Trump How is that landing? Do you think it's gonna land? Do you think folks are being moved shifted by it? Or is it causing deeper conversation that's worthwhile having.

I'm starting to see more people giving up now. They're tired of arguing, they're tired of I think when you saw a couple of them at the last Trump rally, you can look into comments and some of some really high profile entrepreneurs in the city were like, hey, we're over it, We're not here, you know. So I think at this point, you know, it's not really pushing indy agendas anymore. It's like some people are going to vote for what they want to vote for in their own, you know, whatever reason they have. I have told a lot of my friends that I told one yesterday at my restaurant. I said, hey, if you're going to post some radical stuff, I'm gonna start calling you out now if you want to. It's a difference between conservatives, and it's differently between radicals, between you know, liberals, between radicals. It's the radical stuff that I think, honestly is really you know, if you push conservative agendas and that that fits to your lifestyle. Who am I to blame you? Who am I to tell you you know you're wrong?

Now?

It is some things that I feel like you should not overlook, you know. But I mean, if you're pushing radical you know, if you if you hit one person, that person is one person. It's a butterfly effector radicalism going on. And I think that's where the issue lies with us.

I wait, I gotta sound because then we got to wrap. So fold this into your answer. You two here it both all three of y'all quickly. So if you were giving a thirty second I know people are over it, but we can't be over it because see we're out here because there's early voting starting in Detroit today. So I hope y'all when you leave here you go down over there and vote. But if you are giving a closing argument in thirty seconds for why people shouldn't give up and why they can't give up and why they should go vote, what would you say, besh Man, you were going.

To talk to go first?

Well, I was just gonna say I had a heated, not a heated debate about some of the things that were said last night our In this debate, they said there was more to the story than what we got to hear. But what I would say to people in thirty seconds of wrapping up, you can't complain about it. In January twenty twenty five, if you didn't get out and cast your vote, I love that you got it. You can't, you know, you gotta be about it. You can't just sit around and not do anything. Your vote counts, So get out and vote.

I have a whole wide theory about why people are voting for Trump, and but let's do the quick thirty do that too, Oh my goodness.

I wouldn't really see how talented you are.

Okay, pressure, Okay.

I think that Donald Trump exists for a lot of people as a power fantasy.

It's why people have liked him for a long time. Is why rappers used.

To include him in his as mean why he became an analogy for wealth because he is almost a caricature of what rich people are like, and people will assume they want to be like that. It's why people vote on tax breaks for they're wealthy, because eventually when I become wealthy. I had a friend say once that all white guys think that they're a rich man in a cocoon, and so they're voting for their future and not their current.

And I see that in some of the rappers that want to be Trump.

Right.

If I had to say, why is it important to vote?

Though in a city like Detroit, it's important to remember that local elections matter too, and when you have a through line from local politicians mayor city council up to president.

It's why Detroit.

Got the American Rescue Plan with eight hundred million dollars. When you get that is because Mike Duggan had a relationship with Joe Biden. We had the fifth largest amount of money a city got, even though we're not the fifth largest city. And so you want to think about how the president impacts what your city gets and what resources follow on the through line because they're connected on values.

Even if you have apathy towards that person, there.

Is a connected thread from the top down to the local leadership, down to the school board and everybody in between that will allow you to get access to things you need even if the president isn't doing what you want.

That is especially with Donald Trumps whole place.

Yeah, I know he got so much top.

Hat falling up out of the air now because he said everything everybody thought. No, but I mean libs without ad libs too. Yes, yes, we've seen public schools closing here. People think public schools are with the mayor, but no, they understand it starts with it goes all the way to really to the governor has more power over the public school systems. The governor now is you know, the government from there. So I feel like we're looking at the headlines of two people. But if you trickle down to what it is, voting does not only pertain to the headlines. It's a lot of disclaimers in there that affects us. Me as a restaurant owner, me as a you know, business owner. A lot of it's a lot of disclaimers under there that affects us, that affects I mean, cannabis, I mean everything that everything, your lifestyle and locally. It's a lot of things that you have to look for that we don't really push. We're pushing them all in Trump, but they need to. They need to go in there and if they don't know what they want to vote on the top side, still, it's a lot of things to look for on the bottom side that's going to affect you in you know, in the bottom end. So I mean, so that's that's really the biggest point, you know. I love may end.

Thank you guys so much for being here, y'all, pushman, Eric and Bravo.

You're grateful for y'all.

Thank you. Go vote, y'all.

I'm gonna send them snacks to don't worry about that.

Well, you know what the good news is, that's a perfect transition because right now we have Fatima uh Techo from Detroit's Fresh Roots, who is bringing not just not just snacks, but liquid snacks, liquid wellness and wholeness and speaking of being well and whole in addition to the to the juices.

She's bringing us.

So we can promote this amazing black owned business, Detroit's Fresh Roots. We also have someone to talk to us about how to take care of your mental health during this crazy election season, doctor Rita Walker, who's a clinical psychologist, award winning professor and author of the Unapologetic Guide to Black Mental Health.

And that is this book right here, ladies and gents, and calming the chaos.

Okay, high ladies, lady, I'm ready for my juice.

I have a couple of different kinds, so we can hear you. Got it around, Harry got better better, Okay, I think it's falling back.

No, no, we hear you.

So if they're all mixed, that's my that you guys had wanted.

He probably wanted orange juice, cause I want. I couldn't decide between. I know these are what I order, b roots and ballance.

Wait, is that the one with the mint and the apple?

No, he's got the one with the this.

And I want and some chunks of mango, lime, ginger, carrot apple. This is kale, spinach, cellery, cucumber, app a, lemon, lime, ginger. You know what, doctor Rita, I will share one with you if you want. Which one you want I'm saying, I'm getting this on balance.

I have this one so much.

I'm gonna drink a little bit, but not much because you guys are sitting here for another hour and I really got a peek right now, so just go to wait. Sorry, that's the truth, but I'm just gonna take a little swallow in the juice.

But talk to us about about this amazing business fresh Roots.

So fresh Roots motto is everything is deeply rooted. So it's beyond providing the food and the nutrition that comes with it, but also services to help and mental health awareness and health and wellness and overall health and wellness.

I can't get this. You got it, We hear you, Okay.

So we also do things like pot yoga, We do health and wellness camps, things like that. So we are located here in Minton, Detroit, and we just opened up our second location in Rochester Health with plans of growth with hopefully turning it into a franchise. At fresh Roots, not only do we do health and wellness from a physical standpoint, but a mental standpoint as well, so meditations and things like that. We also offer other women on black home minority owned businesses a place to come and have like pop ups, and we don't charge them, we don't ask nothing of them. We actually do cross promotion to help build their brand of business as well. So just being deeply rided in the community, really giving back more than just great product, but amazing services.

And this is delicious. So it's citrus Land and it's amazing. And I'm also going to have half of Andrews. What do you have their refresh.

Got the refresher that's actually my favorite one. How you got to keep this one? But I want that one definitely.

Rita, I'd love to hear from you as well. Give us the motivation around the title for the book, the reason for writing in this space, because I know one thing we could all.

Use a lot more, especially in this election season.

Especially in the election season, but just in life, we have to be mindful of how we are dealing with the things, the stuff that just comes at us. And we know it's not just you know, financial stress, it's family stress, it's job stress. And now we're adding election stress on top of everything else. And I appreciate I picked up balance because we have to be mindful of how we're dealing with those things.

We're going to have good times and bad times.

And so The Unapologetic Guide to Black Mental Health came out a few years ago, and I did the workbook so that people who recognize you know they're feeling a little like they need more resources, and especially in our community, especially in our community, that we recognize that there are things that we can do, so that we can be intentional rather than just keep pushing, because that's what we are customer doing.

You just you keep pushing. You don't let them see you sweat.

You look good on the outside, so you're hoping you feel good on the inside, but it doesn't always translate. And so I want for us to be so much more intentional. Calming the Chaos actually just came out two days ago, So that is a brand newsture recognizing that we are living in really very chaotic times.

We don't have to feel chaotic on the inside.

Tell us what if we're average person in Joe walking on the street, what should we be paying attention for as really to what's happening with us? You know, I'll say snappy or what's.

The I love that question because it doesn't have to be that complicated. If you're not quite feeling like yourself like something just isn't right. I don't feel like I have my usual level of energy, or I don't feel like I'm connecting with people, or I want to withdraw sometimes, or if I want to sleep a lot, or just anything that changes. And then also if the person feels like they can't get their work done. So we all have responsibilities, whether they be outside of home or inside the home, but you can't just focus like your mind just isn't keeping up with your thoughts like something, or sleeping too much or not. I don't even know if I've said that one. That's another easy one. We live in a society where most people don't get enough rest and we take it for granted, but being sleep deprived affects our ability to do everything, to do absolutely everything. And so those are the kinds of things that we can start to be mindful of.

I love that.

Yeah, well, great, Cheldia's with the balance.

I'm also curious as we get closer to this election, hopefully y'all have decided on who it is that you're voting for, But if we were in the as we are in the closing days, what would you need to hear if you were if you're talking to people who are undecided, folks who are sitting in your communities who are maybe balancing between whether or not this election is going to make a difference, frankly, because the policies happening out of Washington aren't either reaching them or they're in disagreement what's coming from the policies out of DC.

I think it's important to be always aware of our values.

It's the same for our mental health, because sometimes, you know, we feel pushed to go in different directions based on other people's values, based.

On what's important to us.

So we first and foremost have to get real about what's important to us. You know, do we want to live in a society. I'm a mom, you know, do I want to live in a society where my child might not be able to vote in the next four years?

You know?

Do I want to live in a society that firms who I am as a black woman? What kind of society do I want to live in? And I think that's what is important for anyone to be able to make an informed decision.

I feel like there.

Was a collective depression in the country. I know, for a while I just felt kind of checked out.

You know.

We did a podcast and Angela was like, you know what it means DAP, Tiffany Grals checked out of the process because we were so just exhausted with it. And there was a collective movement of joy when she announced when Vice President Harris announced her campaign, and the things shifted. And I wonder, in terms of our community, did we feel this collectively that we pull ourselves out of it collectively? Because I think sometimes when people hear depressions or heaviness, and I know I felt like, but I'm not because I'm still getting up. I'm still putting one foot in front of the next. And my therapist told me, it's not about that, It's about the energy it's taking you to do that.

And so I.

Wonder now in this heightened, you know, time period that we live in, that we're navigating how we are I guess, qualifying and quantifying what it means to be healthy and.

Message Well, I'm I'm a clinical psychologist, and a lot of how I make sense of what's happening around me is and for other folks is how we're thinking about things. Like you're thinking affects your mood.

Affects what you're doing.

And so if we think about, you know, going back to you know, feelings of depression, we weren't very inspired, maybe didn't have a whole lot of hope.

But then we start to.

Think more about the future and what the future could look like. In the future was bright and encouraging and inspiring. And so I think because of that, you know, maybe we were pulled from, you know, a lower place where we were uninspired and still the rest of life was still happening. So it's not like life stops because of election season. Everything is still happening. It still weighs on us in a lot of different ways.

At Yeah, that's I was just gonna say, it's striking the balance of because we have to stay engaged, but then knowing when to cut off that. When I ask people why are you so stressed about the election and they say, I don't know, it's just this narrative and like I'm watching the news, it's like, cut that off because it really doesn't matter. Like what matters is you vote and you encouraging other people to vote. Consuming all this information unless you work on the campaign, I don't think is very healthy.

I wanted to come to you, Fatima, because I saw when Tim fras her last point, you kind of made a face. So I want to give you the floor to you can disagree. It's still a safe space. It's family, So I would love to know your thoughts.

I'm going to be completely transparent and honest. I have a lot of weight on my shoulders right now. Clearly I'm Muslim, I'm a woman. I'm a woman in business, so there's a lot that I have at stake, let alone a mother. There I have to be a role model. But in the same breath, I have to protect myself. And there's so much that I can say and so much that I can't say, because when I did speak on certain things, there was.

I guess there is a reaction to a reaction, right, and so.

What I'm referring to is everything that is going on overseas. Of course, I lived through the war in two thousand and six. I was over there, born and raised American citizen kids, born and raised American citizens. So just to really see what is happening over there and not hear more pushback and a ceasefire happening, more support from innocent women and children dying. I mean, it should not have led to waking up to see people dying, being burnt alive with IVS in their arms.

How am I supposed to explain that to my kids? Yeah?

How am I supposed to keep them deeply rooted and everything that they do if I can't tell them that they can speak openly about this without feeling like they're not going to be protected, without them feeling like they're not going to get the same support. When I'm getting text message after text message after text message of somebody running for an American campaign with the Jewish flag in their background, it's heartbreaking. And I had a conversation actually with low.

Man.

It feels like when I hear Kamal this week, it's like my best friend that broke my heart. There was so much that she spoke on prior to this during the Biden campaign, and we were just looking like, okay, you know, family is coming into office, and.

It was just like where are you? Yeah, what would you like to hear from her?

That's good again, just more in supporting my people as well. I mean, a ceasefire, just humanity, just real humanity.

I'm just want to be really specific here, so you would like her to acknowledge the humanity of the Palestinian people, which.

Is just the Palestinian I mean, we're talking about Sudan, we talk about Lebanon, We're talking about Palestine, We're talking about Congo. We're talking about more than just one. Genocide is not just in Palace.

It's true, very true, very true.

It's in multiple places. Right now. Our focus is.

Israel, nowhere else, right I mean, even in our own country here in the United States, we're seeing people being taken away from hurricanes and floods and all of this, and they're not getting food on their table like babies.

As a mom, that kills me.

So acknowledgment of the humanity of people who are suffering genocide right now, which should be pretty effortless. So that makes sense, And you would like her to call for an immediate ceasefire?

Is that?

I don't want to put words in your mouth, So I want to understanding you.

I've heard her speak on a ceasefire, but in the same breath aiding the other side.

What sense does that make?

M So are you suggesting that you would like to see the United States government stop funding correct?

Israel? The idea correct?

And those are so are those things going to preclude you from casting a ballot for her.

In truth, I'm very undecided right now. I'm very undecided.

And are you undecided between she and Trump? Are you undecided between?

You?

All? Got it? Got it to vote at all?

I mean, again, going back to speaking as a Muslim woman, if I vote for that, I'm voting to hurt my people.

What do you think is the the we know and we say often and I don't. I'm not just trying to throw away stuff, throw around stuff that we say all the time, but I do believe it's true. So for example, I work. I grew up working on the hill as my professional the place where I grew up. When members have stained from voting, it's still a vote, right, right, right, So if you don't vote, what signal is that send into your kids and others? Have you contemplated what that might be like?

And that's and that's where it goes back to a little bit on what you were speaking on. Truly, we might not be in a level of depression or things like that, but we we are actively in a depressed state.

Yeah, we're moving in a depress state.

So it's kind of like that moment where you just laying in bit curled up, don't know what to do, don't know what's.

Next, don't That's where it is.

So at some point, coming on situations like this and podcasts like this and having conversations like this again, I had to backtrack because I was so scared to do so. When I did do so, the trolls hit my social media, went on my Google page, went on everything, and brought my ratings down.

With fake reviews.

There you go, thank you, And I had to think, like, okay, this is just gonna hurt my business. So I going back and saying I have to be a role model to my kids. I'm trying to be a roll model to my kids. Get up and speak up. But they're saying that it's only going to hurt you to speak. So what difference is it going to make if I vote or don't vote?

And well, I wonder it makes it go ahead?

Well, I just I wonder if I can't imagine right what has to how you have to make sense out of nonsense? This process right now? When you when you can, you can name the names, you recognize the faces that would be difficult to imagine for all of us if we knew who said at the other end of the consequence of a decision we make. I am curious if if you feel like, however the election turns out, that you will be okay with the outcome based off of whatever your decision may be to vote or to not vote.

Again, I'm such an unsure state at the moment, it's.

Really difficult to call.

I feel like for me, I have a lot of processing to do, I have very little time to do. But I think what was very encouraging is agreeing to do this podcast. I mean, I had had a really good conversation with Low for her to say no, I think it'll help you to be here, and in truth that has I mean just in this little bit of time. So I can't give you a definite answer, but what I can give you is my perspective and again saying I survive something like that. I'm still living here. I have a home there that's destroyed. I have families home that is leveled. I have family members. I lost eight people in one week.

My god, wow, you hear me.

No reason a school should be touched, no reason a church should be touched, not a hospital, not nothing. There's no reason that there is no uproar from the world in regards to humanity, and when it happened on the other end and it said never again, it should be never again for anyone that can.

I just say to you, I Fatima, and I know we have to we have to wrap, but I want to just say one thing, and I mean it. I don't say things that I don't mean, but I just want you to hear my heart on this. I cannot imagine, just like what Andrew said.

What you're experiencing.

I am so so sorry for what your family, your community, that culture has experienced. It should not happen. But this is the thing that I want to promise you. I know me, I know for Andrew, and I know for Tiffany. We all know Kamala personally. The thing that I have witnessed and I've helped her to organize our conversations with people she doesn't necessarily agree with, but she's listened and she's pivoted. What I am promising you is that if you can muster up the strength to get out that bed, and you're out the bed right now. So I say that, I'm saying, in the moment when you're feeling just stuck, to take that chance and to not just trust her, but to trust us and the Rashidahs of the world that are here to just ensure that you at least have the opportunity to have the dialogue that is so much better than what is offered on the other side. And there's another candidate in the race that's promising the world but has no allies in Congress to pull off what they're promising.

I've heard.

I am going to promise you that if you can do that, we will ensure that that happens. When you listen to our podcast, we don't brush over this issue.

We talk about it and we mean I've heard it everything very loud. And that's why I'm here. Another reason that I'm here.

You might not know this, but I've actually done a lot behind the scenes work for you and with you, whether it's a Woman's March, Black Lives Matter.

I'm sure you're familiar with Queena. I love her. It's my sister.

So that's a young lady that got us in touch with the with the indigenous.

So I've done a lot of grassroots work. I've been on the front line for a lot of different causes. And what broke my heart most is when I needed, or felt like I needed the team that I stood with.

I didn't feel like was there for me.

But here I am, and I hear you loud and care, and I did listen and I did share a lot of very recent podcasts episodes that you did with my kids. And my son literally texted me and said, I feel like a.

Proud parent.

And I do feel encourage and I do appreciate it and the irony of having somebody in mental health.

We need very much so information with you. I appreciate you, but we love y'all. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I want to make sure Lolo will give you my number.

I want to stay in touch. I mean it's okay for sure, and we are just down the streets. We want to send everybody over there, but you want to support you. We want that business to stay open, so trust me, appreciate it. Walk We love you, guys. Thank you so much.

An InCred awesome conversation. And you know, I don't know, thank you, ladies. I didn't want to it felt because I hate to put a voter. You know, the ballot is still secret, right, folks should still be able to express that. But as I was thinking, listening, I'm trying to think for myself, like, if I'm in this complex situation, well, I'd be okay with regardless of how it turns out. If I make the choice that almost down, I'm gonna let them be aside. And I could answer that, at least for the moment by saying I'm not okay with any outcome, Yeah, because I know that there are real consequences that flow from that. And I just just much respect for the openness and the honesty and that conversation as.

I understand the conflict still having a ballot for a government that is funding the killing of your people and that has to impact all of us. But we all have to understand that. But I hear your point, Angel, which I thought was so great that we you know, we promise to get Vice President Harris over the line. We also promised to hold this administration accountable when it comes to the atrocities. Quite honestly, does the IDF has been acted on the world at this point.

And she said personally that she has to earn every vote. Part of earning a vote is meeting the demands of the voter. Absolutely, we are sitting here now with the first black woman International President for SCIU and Services Employee International Union. We are so grateful for your partnership. First, April, I remember April from Cali from meeting her when you were running things in California, and you have demonstrated what it means to hold on a bipartisan level administrations accountable. And I think just recently you're celebrating a really major win with Kamala Harris's announcement to support in home healthcare workers.

So please talk about that and all.

The things, and thank you for joining us and for being apartment. So first I got to say what up though, And really, it is an honor to be here. It's been far too long since we got to hang out. But I'm proud to be here in Detroit and talking about what we are going to do for care workers across this country. That I would be remiss if I don't remind us who care workers are. They are overwhelmingly women, people of color, immigrants, and it's the work that enslaved women did, right, It's the work that our great grandmothers and grandmothers and mothers did, domestic work taking care of people who cannot take care of themselves, our elders and our children, and it's been poverty work. Right, It's been work that has been dismissed and disrespected and demeaned. And because of what we heard Vice President Harris say just last week right creating a Medicare program for the first time that invest in home care, we are taking this work out of the shadows. We are going to make this family sustaining work, and we are going to begin to undo the wounds, the immortal wounds of this country that has dismissed us and our work for far too long.

I love it well. I've got my experience with the Purple folks in Florida. Yes, Monica rus the whole crew, all of that was my staff from their champion. So I love the strategic organizing that s CiU does. You don't just put an idea out there. In fact, before your ideas are out there, y'all have already workshopped the way in which you plan to get it done. So I love having s CiU on the side of at least the issues and the policies that I care about, because I know that means you guys are working to the finishes is achieved. I'm curious to know as you all have as a as A as a union, international union, what kind of the Some of the unions have struggled, and we've been less privy to some of the internal conversations around the debate of Harris, nobody or the other guy. I'm curious has s CiU had similar internal debates around where y'all would land.

Well, I will tell you.

We convened our board at about six o'clock Eastern on the night that the Vice President Harris announced her candidacy, the day that President Biden said he was step and down and it was a no brainer. I convened my board of sixty five people and in less than thirty minutes we had humanimously decided that we.

Were going to endorse our vice president.

Let me walk get back. It was two abstentions. Its just talked about that that's a vote too.

It is a vote too, But it was a it was a no breaker here for the leaders in my union who have known Vice President Harris from her time as a district attorney in San Francisco. We represent seven hundred thousand people in California, so we know her well. We know that she has walked a day in the shoes of a caregiver in Oakland, California, of a security officer right here in Detroit, Michigan. She walked picket lines with striking fast food workers in South Carolina. She knows who we are, we know who she is, we know whose she is, and so we didn't have a lot of beef, right we were able to come together and it was just like, come on, y'all, it is really clear what's at stake in the and it's clear who's going to deliver a future for work.

So as y'all translate what y'all's experiences have been with her, which you're clearly vast, to the voter out there who is either undecided or not motivated yet to go vote, what are you saying.

I am telling folks all over this country. Yeah, Kamala Harris's name is at the top of the ticket. But this election is about you. This election is about us. This election is about electing people in this country who give us a chance to fight for our themselves. I'm a union organizer, I'm a union president. I'm a power builder. But it is up to us to build power, to take our own agency and do something for ourselves. And there is one person in this race who wants to build an inclusive, multi racial, multicultural, multi generational democracy, and there's one who wants to usher in a new era of fascism. That's right, It's real simple.

I think I did a brief, very brief stint in labor, and quite honestly, I didn't understand the significant role that labor plays in politics, and I would imagine a lot of people across the country don't quite understand that. I think what we do understand is the challenging issues around caretakers. I love that you've made the point this is the work that black women have done during enslavement. I think that's so true. Care in this country is in crisis. It is as someone who's had to be a caretaker for ill relatives, who had to pay for caretakers for relatives. I'm curious what isn't in Vice President Harris's plan that speaks to people who are facing that very issue right now.

Yeah, but again, throughout her career in the Senate, she was a chief sponsor of the Domestic Worker Bill of Rights, So this isn't a new issue to her. She didn't just come up with the idea of investing in a medicare program. Right, it's who she's always been as a leader.

And you're right.

The country is in crisis. Ten thousand seniors turned sixty five every single day in this country. And if we don't want to pay people to take care of them, who's going to do it? And we shouldn't be told, oh, well, it's your responsibility as a mother or a niece, or grandparent or a daughter, right, because it falls on the women, yes, right, and.

Sometimes will be taking care of and children.

And it's not just the older care crisis, it's a childcare the most families. The cross of care is the second largest expense and your more than your more, yes, right. So let's talk about it with the only industrialized country in the world that does not have a care infrastructure that we can really clean.

So speaking of it falls on women, we're gonna make sure it don't fall on women.

Today. We got two young men who are going to join April.

Right now, we have our good brother, Lieutenant Governor Garland Gilchrist, and we also there he is, he's sitting down. He got a brace on our good brother and friend, a co founder of Black Voters Matter. He ain't bring me no sweatsuit that says we fight back.

But Cliff alright is also joins.

Right now, give Cliff a hand to y'all because he ain't from Detroit.

We should tell people why Cliff is limping a little bit. He got smart with his wife and so I wis.

Gott driving to the mountain to climb the mountain to go register some folks, Escalator should have taken Escalator.

Hapy to have you back with us, hosting us in this wonderful city.

Welcome back here to the city of Detroit. We are so proud that this was part of our native land. Yes, I am also always honored to be sitting here with my sister April s c i U in Detroit and across Michigan is one of the most powerful forces for working people. They just want a tremendous victory thanks to that was signed in the law by Governor Grecia, woman that I personally lobby for in our Democrat out of majority legislature, to put forth an opportunity for home care workers in the state of Michigan to organize to be respected and protected in a new generational way. And it speaks to that democratic governance is worth voting for because we can create the conditions for health and wealth for a new generation.

And aples leadership and that CiU leadership really made that happen. I'm proud to be a part of the two.

That's right, and it's important to remember. That's why we give a lot of attention and energy, as we should to the race for president. But we got to make sure we keep a working people's majority in the House of Representatives, the State House here in Michigan, like in the.

State Senate here in Michigan.

We got to protect right those in our state and local government as well.

Absolutely, we're so happy to see you. Are you on the blackest bus in America?

Yes, the blackest bus and americles just down the block.

Blocked off.

I don't even know not able to get over here, but I don't know.

And we were just giving out some shirts and stuff.

We want to give a couple of shirts.

Coming back to.

Everybody.

I mean.

That we've talked about, We've referenced a lot on this podcast, the work of Black Voters Matter, And during the hurricanes that impacted a lot of the southern region of the United States, I was talking about how you and our dear sister are a good friend Latasha Brown, who is our the Maya Angelou to our Oprah, like she is our deity and our lives on some level. But she talked about you guys going into these areas and not only registering people to vote, or not even focused on registering people to vote, but delivering them generators. Tell us why you all did that?

Yeah, I mean, first of all, when we say black voters matter, we mean that, right.

We were intentional when we.

Say black voters matter, not black votes matter, because there's a lot of people that care about black votes that don't give a damn about black.

So that's why.

But you know, Latasha and I and.

April, my wife, April, we've been doing disaster relief ever since Katrina. That's the first time we got a big old bus. It wasn't black, it was actually purple, and we started driving it. That's right, And so you know, and and and so that really started our intentionality around not just talking about power building the sense of elections, but recognizing that it was small churches and neighbored associations when nobody else was around, when no national guards around, that's who was feeding our folks. So we've been doing some level of disaster resistance, as y'all know, a lot of it.

I know, as Andrew knows.

A lot of these storms happened right in the middle of the vote, you know, right either by the registration deadline or the early vote period. And a lot of times what we have to do in addition to providing the relief to our communities is we have to fight those election battles to get hours expands, to expand the registration's deadline and all that. And so we got to be able to walk in shot gum at the same time, because I can't go knock it on somebody's door talk about come vote when they got.

A tree on their house or they don't have power.

Right, So we got to deal with our real lives issues, with our everyday issues, at our emergency issues before we can continue to talk about the voting.

As Cliff, y'all have also been talking to black voters, black men voters, particularly long before it became popular and we could go and I've seen more black men on television talking about black man I've never seen television. I just want to know, what, how is this resonated with you you all as an organization and the folks who are your members and the folks you serve. Does it feel real and authentic? Does it feel a little overblown? Does it reflect the reality you see an experience on the street.

Right, No, it does not feel real. It feels overblown. It feels like hyperbole. You know, I said last year, I was on some show and I said, look, people are acting like the sky's falling.

Sky's not falling.

It might be drizzling, right that there might be a real issue that you got to pay attention to, right, But the sky's not falling. There's not some big, massive shift that's taking place. In fact, the bigger shift that we saw take place isn't the shift happening now from between Biden and Kamala or even from Hillary from that year. The biggest shift what we saw with black men was when.

Karen Obama was during the Obamas.

It was from two thousand and eight to twenty twelve. Right, that wasn't about sexism. That was about brothers feeling like some of our issues, right or wrong. Some brothers felt like many of our issues were not being dealt with at that time.

They still feel the same way.

So it's overblown.

Are there some real issues of sexism is real, misogyny is real, patriarchy is real. And there's some of that group of that ten percent that we know is good to vote.

For the Orange meta right. They always do that, right, They've.

Been doing that ever since George Bush was talking about what.

Was it the faith based initiatives?

They always exist.

But you got this other batch that have some real questions that really did want to hear more discussion around black men, that wanted to be talked to you know where we are. And for many of them, the agenda that she put out, which I think is.

An excellent agenda.

It actually deals with a lot of the issues that we hear when we're in the streets. Right that agenda is going to answer some of those questions for some of those brothers who will now be like, you know.

What, I didn't know that.

I'm glad to see that some of them might still be like that ain't enough. It's too late. You know, I still don't like you, I don't like your laugh. And guess what, they wasn't gonna no matter what agenda she shout out, it wasn't gonna be enough. But our job is to inform the ones that right now are not getting enough information because disinformation only thrives in a vacuum.

As long as we're having.

These conversations and giving folks accurate information, then the disinformation can have as much impact.

And then we need to go to April because she's leaving us. You don't feel well, so I want to make sure we get to you.

But want to come the amount of people who have been just like climbing over other people to be able to take punches at black men in television, Oh, come on, come on, And and I think the irony of that is, are these the people who, then you would.

Trust to have the best interests of black men.

Anyone who would be so so eager and aggressive to attack women, we wouldn't say with supportable women. Anyone who would be so eager and aggressive to attack working people, we wouldn't say it was someone we would trust to protect working people. And so I think the better conversation is what is the opportunity that we have to be part of this future? And so that means yes, laying forward an agenda that is inclusive and responsive to the priorities of people who want health and wealth and opportunity. But It also means that we have to have a real conversation about how people can be invited to do so in the right way. And I just have never looked I do. This ain't true with my parents. This ain't true with voters. I mean by my kids or my voters. They're like, by admonishing someone, it's not how you get them to do something. If I getting mad at people's effective, yeah, it would be in a much different place.

That's right.

I want to ask you, April, because I believe Correct me if I'm wrong, But I believe SCIU is also the blackest and brownest labor union in the country.

Is that right?

We are sixty percent women and overwhelmingly people of color.

So when you hear some of the things that we're talking about, I think I got mad for We were on the CNN earlier today and I went on, I was like, why.

Why I talk to these white people? They trying to cost the elections.

So when you hear some of these things, what are some of the union responses For those at home who are dues paying labor union members, what are the things that you would say to them? Because I know it ain't CiU members, because you getting together. But for everybody else, what would you say to them about the importance of this election and voting their interests?

So, first of all, y'all gonna stop beating up on my brothers. Right, No, not y'all, but y'all them they're not like us. They know who they are, and I'm gonna stand up for my brothers. And like you said, you know, how often do white men vote against their own interests? And how often do white women vote against their own interests?

Interest is that part?

So we're not going to try to set this up to blame what I don't think will happen. But we're not gonna blame this on black men, like cut it out. But to your to your question, Angela, we know that it's going to be working people that make the difference in this election. I am really proud and I'm gonna brag a second on the two hundred million dollar investment that SEIU is making.

In this cycle. We have a goal to reach six million voters.

We've achieved that and we're gonna knock a million more doors between now and election day. And we're doing that because this election is about us, and that's what we're saying in this selection. This is about us, This is about our hopes, this is about our dreams. This is about enough power, enough agency to be able to do the big stuff like dismantle systemic and structural racism, like in poverty for once and for all, like fix a broken immigration system to heal our climate which causes the natural disasters. Right, enough power with real champions to do the big stuff.

And it's clear you.

Got a despot, right, a fascist in this race who only cares about himself, and so like, let's have a real conversation about what's at stake here and who's the best people that's going to help move us in our community forwards.

True, well, April, we know that you gotta go.

You got a million more doors than knock on and we need you well to do that. I'm empathizing because they know they left me for dinner last night because I had a headache.

I was like, bye, I can't move. So thank you so much being the d and not come by and say what's up. I really really appreciate the way you all use your platform for to tell the truth and to use it to be powerful for our folks.

So thank you.

I want to give a shout out to Denise Horn too, who made sure that you came on here and was like, and what we're gonna do to get her on Breakfast Club.

So I'm glad everything good. Yeah day at absolutely, thank you so much.

So Cliff is wearing this sweatshirt that's really supposed to be mine.

It says we fight back.

Cliff, I'm gonna.

Take this off.

Keep it. You just taking off now because you had it. He's got warm out here.

But Cliff, I wanted can you talk to us a little bit about what we fight back means? Black Voters Matter is also a partner of ours, and so I want to make sure we have a clear idea of this theme and why it's so important for us to take our power back and fight back.

Yeah, you know, so when we started the So I'm gonna give you the true story because when we first picked the theme, we pick a new bus theme every year, and we picked this like towards the end of last year. And actually it was right after the Montgomery brawl that.

We august the beloved white folding chairs.

But what it means is, you know, we picked it for a couple of reasons. One because you know, as we always say, when our rights are under attack, we fight back, right.

And so and it's not just that we fight back against.

Something right, we're fighting back also for something for a different vision, right, a different vision for our communities and our safety and our health and our jobs and all of that. But the other reason that we picked it is because we knew that there was this discussion that we just touched on it a little bit right in terms of black men, but even more more wider, it was about whether or not black folks in general we're going to be as enthusiastic right, whether or not we're going to turn out, is all. And what we wanted to send is a message that look historically, when when we face tough times, we don't just sit stuff out. We don't have the luxury of sitting on the sidelines. We fight back, right, We get involved, we get in the game. And so we wanted to send that message that you know, right now in this moment. And and and yes, there was some some some issues. I'll just talked about a major one in terms of you know, our their brothers and sisters in the uncommitted movement. But although there are some real issues, we don't have the luxury of waiting on the perfect We've got to be in the game. We got to fight back, and that's why we're going around the country spreading that message.

I love that colin Utan Governor, as you say, my bad Lieutenant Governor, I would love, would love for you to spend just a few moments as we've got a bunch of Michiganders who are paying attention, listening, some who are here with us today. What else should folks be aware of coming up on your ballot this uh and two weeks as motivation for them to get out of both the ballot.

So in Michigan, this election is incredibly consequential because not only is the person and that person will be Kamala Harris and her partner Tom Walls, who wins the state of Michigan at the presidential level when the Electoral College with the election, but we also have an open United.

States Senate seat here and Senator w.

Savanale is retiring from her lawn service to the state of Michigan. And we have Congressoman and Alyssa Slacken who is ready to be here the next United States Center here from our state. And that's important because in order for President Harris to pass her agenda, she must have at least one chamber of Congress, and so by protecting the senatece the minute in Michigan, that'll make sure that we are one step closer to at least having a fifty plus one majority in the United States Senate. Now a little bit closer to home for me. On the state level, Michigan has a one seat majority in our state House of Representatives. So let me tell you something about that one seat majority.

It's been the.

Most productive legislature in Michigan in fifty years in terms of putting money back in people's pockets. Our appeal and the tax and retirement income that Republicans put in place thirteen years ago so that they can give task custom rich people and big companies. It is quintupled the working families task it because there are so many people who are working in Michigan and still need a little bit of help to make ends meet. And this is putting thirty two hundred dollars in seven hundred and fifty thousand households pockets. That is lifting half of the children in Michigan literally out of poverty. With this that one seat Democratic majority delivered that at a time when things are so expensive. We have to hold onto that majority because all one hundred and ten members are on the ballot. And so I'm literally leaving here to go not doors to one of our candidates in Macomb County. Earlier this morning, I was in Grand Rapids, Michigan, three and a half hours away kicking off people to not doors in Grand Rapids, Michigan, but one of our members who made us the majority the last time. So I'm basically organizing sixty to ninety people every single day to go not doors something in Michigan every day between now and election day. You know, we have to make sure also and very important that I know you had her on this show here, but I got to lift her up again. The Michigan Supreme Court also has a one seat Democratic majority thanks to Justice Kyra Harris Bolden, and we need to elect not only send her back to the court, but also elect the one and named Ken Thomas alongside her, which will give us a two seat majority on the state Supreme Court. And the trifecta is the governor Lieutenant governor plus the legislature plus the Supreme Court. And that is what leads to progress in Michigan on the climate crisis, on environmental justice, on economic opportunity, on the path of the health and wealth, on the record investors in public education, including free breakfasts and free lunch for every kid who goes to school in Michigan. Like this is what we're voting to protect in the later foundation to expand because even if we had even just one more seat in that majority, a two seat majority would have helped us go even farther on our reproductive health app to protect reproductive freedom.

Because we got everywhere except for it.

There's still an anti science, anti woman, twenty fo hour waiting period on abortion services in Michigan. There's no reason for that. But we couldn't get that across the finish line. But if we had just one more vote. So that's why all these elections are critical, and I am doing my best using my platform. The privilege that the voters in Michigan gave me to be able to go every place in Michigan is still be home. That's why I go every place from the Upper Peninsula to the southwest and southeastern Michigan and right here in Detroit, will be knocking doors on the west side tomorrow about the opportunity you have to put your stamp on this state's present future.

Well come, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome.

Speaking of going west, I want to go all the way to the best coast really quick.

There you go to some of y'all.

I'm taking a point of personal privilege.

Sitting next her, Lieutenant Governor Garland Gil Chris is a good friend. We went to Santory School together where I'm from in Seattle, Washington. His dad was the coach of the SuperSonics that I really want Seattle SuperSonics to come back. I know our resident sports expert knows all about that, Tiffany Cross.

I feel that there was also a baller.

Garland is a baller, But there's a baller named John Blair Bepperstat who is now the coach, the head coach of the Detroit Pistons, and he's joined us today.

And I'm so so grateful you did. I'm more excited just personally because I'm like you, oh God, this is great.

I appreciate it. I'm happy to be here. I'm looking forward to it.

It's been a while all the way fourth or physical some time.

Good I've seen him on mind.

He's been killing it. He's been killing it.

Thank you so.

Talk about the importance of having Pistons land here the first day of early voting in Detroit.

Why is it so important? Why was it important for you all to be involved?

I think you know, even before I got here, the Pistons have done a great job of being a member of this community, understanding what their responsibility is, the platform that they have, and their ability to reach people. I think one of the things that you know, we take pride in as a sports organization the NBA as a whole, is one thing that sports does is it brings people together, and it unites people that look like you know, every different color, from every different place, from.

All over the world.

It attracts that.

So if you have that large of a platform, it's part of your responsibility to make sure that you're reaching out and just getting people involved. Right, all of us got here on the backs of somebody else, and it's our responsibility to pay that forward. And that's what the Detroit Pistons are doing. They're giving people an opportunity, creating an environment form to understand what our civic duties are. And then we got to go out and impact change the best of our ability.

I love it. I want to ask you anything that's gonna get you in any trouble. We want you on your job. I know. But I'm curious to know whether or not your team has a commitment around your members voting. I've heard different coaches commit to one hundred percent players, staff, administration, getting out and voting where they're registered. I'm curious to know whether you all have a similar commitment or.

Working towards We're working towards it, obviously.

You know.

We just got here not too long ago, just got the job not too long ago. But we had the Secretary of State come down and talk to our guys. We've hired someone, Misty Boyd, who's there helping as well, and we're pushing to get all our guys either registered here in Detroit if they can, or some of them have residents other places. So we're working to get all those guys registered to articipate in the process.

I love that. I guess I could because she knows that.

She probably always don't mind. I think my co host know a lot about sports. To shift into a little bit of sports conversation.

I'm careful.

I would like to know. It is a sports question. When the Pistons were known as the bad boys of the NBA, which they were, you guys, thank.

You during the heyday.

You don't know, during the heyday of Isaiah Thomas and Joe Dumars, who now works at the NBA, by the way, and overseas operations, by the way, he's played for the Pistons, how might.

You had ideas and find them during that era?

There was a game where they walked off the court and did not shake the hands of the Chicago Bulls. This was a major I'll.

Explain it to you, guys, Pistons player, and then Joe already said.

I'm Isaiah Thomas.

Can you give it to retired.

Rick White?

But got white guy name was Bill?

You were talking about it.

There's a bob to any who.

How might you have advised guys when they walk up and didn't shake. Do you think that it's like part of the norm now? Or would you have said no, you guys should have shaken the hands in the bay.

Thank you?

Okay, where we're going.

If you were their coach, would you have said, yes, shake their hands? Relevant about good sportsmanship that across a lot of politics.

Thank you.

You guys definitely always preached good sportsmanship, but I think when you go back to that group, the rivalries were deeper than that, and it was you know, those those rivalries got personal. So those guys did what they did. You know, they were they want a ton of games, they were champions.

Uh.

They set the tone of what I think Piston basketball should be. That toughness, that mentality that they played with uh where they didn't concede anything. So those are the messages that we're trying to give our guys now as we try to rebuild this uh, and we're using them as you know, a way to establish that like we want to go back in the past and appreciate those guys and their legacy and hopefully carry that forward.

Well, if there's ever the opportunity, I know this is your way of probably asking, so I'll just spare you for having having to ask. I'm happy to come talk to the players and any kind of motivational capacity about sports. Definitely about sports.

You got her number right.

I'm going to make sure that I give her guidelines that include do not talk about sports.

I got sports guidance for them. Shut up and don't.

What sport did she say? Did they make a goal?

If you guys are making closing our missed today about the importance of getting out the vote, telling people to go right here to vote. It's early voting in Michigan. Of course, there's are in Detroit rather a huge concert taking place. We want to be entertained, but we don't want just want people to be entertained. They need to do something with that. We have to take action. What would you tell them?

I think the simple thing for me is like, you can't complain if you don't participate. And that's one of the things that you know, we sit around and we talk about the problems, We talk about the issues, but then we don't participate in ways to solve them. And it's our responsibility. You know, we live our lives. You know, we're trying to pass things forward to our families, our children, those types of things. So if we don't participate, you know, we don't have the right to complain about it when things don't go our way.

That's true.

I met a nineteen year old guy named Beyonce and Flant a couple of weeks ago, and this will be his first election, and he said honestly, he would shake you all about making the decision. He registered to vote because we have preregistration laws in Michigan now, so he was registered. But he said, you know, I don't know, like I don't know what this is about. And I asked him, well, is there anything in your unity just start on your street?

Is anything that you want to see different?

And he said, yeah, you know, I wanted to do something about you know, I think the homes could be better taking care of on my street. And I was like, all right, dance, So what do you think could happen? Like who could do something about that? And he said, well, we can get the people together and we could clean some stuff up, and maybe we can get some money or resource to the community. And now I did hear that, you know that the city spends money on stuff like that, maybe we could do it. So what I said, Tom, is I want you to do all that. I'm gonna help you get connected so you can organize. It's clean up, you can organize talking to people in the local Flint government. There's a good public service there. I want to add something on top of what you're doing to make sure you make a difference, like voting can only help you. Voting can help you get closer to the vision of the community that you want. And I believe that you are powerful enough to use all the power at your disposal to make the change that you want to see. And I think the way we encourage people to vote, because that young man is casting an early valot, he voted absent you already. But the way that you get people to vote is letting him know that they have power, like I'm not giving you power, you already have it, and then just making sure that there are enough avenues for them to use it, and that they include voting and how they make a difference.

It's not the only thing you can do.

It's not everything you should do, but it's a necessary thing you must do in order to make sure we can get closer and doing so at every level to make sure we have allies at the local, county, state, federal level we share our values and are going to help us get posted that vision.

That's what this is all about. And I think our people, I think our.

Voters in Michigan, all ten million people in our state, are important enough to participate in that power.

So that's what I asked them I love to think about.

When they vote.

Yeah, so Cliff, when they go to the blackest bus in America, what are you telling them and say this for Michigan and for black voters and other folks who are watching at home.

Yeah.

Yeah, So two things. One, Lieutenant Government stole my answer because the way that yeah it was, and the way that I answer that question around that closing argument really does depends on whom I'm talking to at that moment, because everybody's got a different issue that's their motivation, right, And so what I tell people was pick an issue. Whatever your issue is, it is on the ballot right now. If your issue is our health, it's on the ballot. If it's about abortion rights, it's about democracy, it's about our economy, our kids, our schools are housing.

All of that is on the ballot.

And so depending on who I'm talking to, I really try to speak to that and drive that point home. And the overall thing is exactly again what Lieutenant Government said is that you've got the power to make a difference.

Right.

There's a story that I often tell I'm not gonna tell it now because it goes into some.

History around Birmingham and Selma but.

It's basically the heart of the story is about how one person's decision, who wasn't overly political, he was a high school student at the time in Birmingham, but one person's decision created a chain of reaction that led to Selma, that led to Bloody Sun Day, that led to the Voting Rights Act, that has literally led in some ways to today. One person's decision to get involved literally changed the course of history. And so the only question we really have to ask ourselves is what is our action going to be today?

What is that step that we are going to take today that.

Might cause that ripple effect that can literally change the future for us, our communities, this entire country. Each of us has the power to do that. Everybody we touch is an organizer, not just a voter that's important, but everybody we touches an organized who has the power to spread that message to five, ten or fifty other people us.

Well, they're so good. We up at the end of the show, y'all got closing thoughts.

I just want to say, I am so happy that we had so many black men on this show. You know, there's a narrative that tries to divide us, but I think these conversations are healing, not just in our politics and our policy, but in our personal community. We've never been such staunch advocates for this democracy that was placed upon us. We've always voted in favor of harm reduction, and we've built community with each other. So I really appreciate you guys being open with your thoughts and showing up today. I really and I'm happy to follow up with you on any pistons, assistance questions, anything you need.

I'm there for you. It's too bad that Mike's didn't cut off.

You're out of time, you know. I like you. I enjoyed the conversation and the emphasis on black men, and not through the lens that we've heard it necessarily through the national media, but moreover through personal, lived experiences that folks are reflecting on. And then my mind immediately jumped to once we're through this election, how do we make sure that the voices, the issues, the concerns of black men continue to be present, not as the community had fault for a loss. And I won't even state the opposite of that, because we never get the benefit of the privilege of being credited for the game. All the wins that we have been participatory and delivered on behalf of the candidate that we believed in, but the blame that we largely get. So just thinking in my head like, okay, well, what's our job now through this election to ensure that if we're centerfold to the conversation and the debate around policy now, that we also be centerfold to that conversation when it's talking about advancing that the Congress initiative from the White House to Executive order, so on and so forth. Because I have to tell you, if we're at this four years from now and our reflections are we're still not seeing, not heard, not reflected, and no benefit, no game, We're gonna have a hard road to hold trying to convince folks that it matters to vote and participate in the process. And so I think that's a charge we all ought to accept and figure out a solution for.

Well, for those of you who joined us today in Detroit, what up though we saw.

At home? Thank you so much for tuning in.

This is episode forty six of Native Lampard and there are only sixteen.

Days intel election.

I'm in this like I did my bet Cipher and say go vote.

We all.

Thank you for joining the Natives intention of what the info and all of the latest rock Gulam and cross connective to the statements that you leave on our socials. Thank you sincerely for the patients. Reason for your choice is clear, so grateful it took the execute roles for serve defending, protect the truth human if case.

It, we'll welcome home to all of the Natives.

We thank you.

Welcome, y'all, Welcome.

Native Land Pod is the production of iHeartRadio in partnership with Resent Choice Media. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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