Speaker 1: His family is to meeke A D. Mallory and then
Speaker 1: your boy in general, and we are your host of
Speaker 1: street politicians, the place where the streets and politics meet.
Speaker 1: We're back on set. Were separated. We had a little
Speaker 1: distant a little distant travel that we had to do
Speaker 1: to a lot of folks, a lot of folks. We
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time dealing with a lot of
Speaker 1: death unfortunately, a lot of police violence, a lot of
Speaker 1: community trauma, UM over the last few weeks. But we're
Speaker 1: back on set today and this show is really really packed. Um.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be talking about COVID, but not from the
Speaker 1: perspective of the vaccinations or the health risk, which we
Speaker 1: definitely are going to do a show that addresses that
Speaker 1: particular topic. But this is going to be more about
Speaker 1: our children and what has happened to them mentally, um,
Speaker 1: emotionally and most important, I guess it's not more important
Speaker 1: than your mental health, and mental health is number one,
Speaker 1: but very important is educationally. Um. You know, they say
Speaker 1: that black children will lose at least one year of
Speaker 1: education just in the shifting of moving from in school
Speaker 1: to out of school, which, by the way, schools in
Speaker 1: the inner city are not educating our kids the way
Speaker 1: that they should be anywhere. We know that. We know that,
Speaker 1: and especially young black males. Um, we know are really
Speaker 1: really struggling in the just the the public school educational system,
Speaker 1: and not just that. There's some charter schools that I've
Speaker 1: heard from folks are not really working as well as
Speaker 1: they should as you know as well, and so just
Speaker 1: the education system in general, like every other system that
Speaker 1: we every other institution that exists within this kind tread,
Speaker 1: needs an overhaul. Um I am. I have thrown out
Speaker 1: the word reform sometimes, I might say, because you know,
Speaker 1: you gotta covery yourself because the Negroes will find the
Speaker 1: day that you said yes. So no. So you know,
Speaker 1: because I've been saying reform for so long, I catched myself.
Speaker 1: And in fact, um, you know, my book was written
Speaker 1: a while ago, and now that it's out and I've
Speaker 1: been reading it over and over and studying the material
Speaker 1: and also um, you know, just just and well, first
Speaker 1: of all, I had to read it, which was difficult
Speaker 1: for the audio over to. Thank you very much. It's
Speaker 1: coming in May eleventh, just a few days and it's
Speaker 1: gonna be released. As crazy, how this process started somewhere
Speaker 1: around July or August of last year, and now here
Speaker 1: I am like trying it's really coming out like, oh
Speaker 1: my god. But anyway, UM, what one of the things
Speaker 1: that I wish I could go back and change, which
Speaker 1: will be a part of my next book because I'm
Speaker 1: in the process of writing my memoir. UM. But it
Speaker 1: says the word reform. It talks about reforming systems. And
Speaker 1: of course, over the course of the year, as I
Speaker 1: really have done a deep dive and they have grown
Speaker 1: in my own understanding of what has to happen in
Speaker 1: this movement, I realized that reform won't work. It will
Speaker 1: not work. I've thrown that out. And even though it
Speaker 1: says reform in the book as the title of one
Speaker 1: of the areas where I'm talking about what needs to
Speaker 1: happen with systems, if you read the content, it talks
Speaker 1: about overhauling. It talks about tearing. Yeah. Transform, that's that's
Speaker 1: a good word. You're very good words. Transforming, um. You know,
Speaker 1: just dismantling really and rebuilding new systems. So education, it's
Speaker 1: one of those institutions that where that needs to happen, transformation, UM.
Speaker 1: And what we know is because they're saying one year, right,
Speaker 1: that these kids going from school every day, which is
Speaker 1: not that great to being at home, even finding a
Speaker 1: spot in your house where you could sit, and really
Speaker 1: just you know, being being a parent and and having
Speaker 1: to remote school. You know, both of my son's door
Speaker 1: remote school, and just finding two separate places in the
Speaker 1: house for them to do their own school. It's almost
Speaker 1: impossible because if you them together, that's never gonna happen.
Speaker 1: So you you sit one of them on one side,
Speaker 1: you said, the other one on that side, and then
Speaker 1: one of them is talking too loud or they hear
Speaker 1: the other one than the other one got their headphones,
Speaker 1: and and then the other one gets up because he
Speaker 1: gets a little bored. He gets a break before the
Speaker 1: other one does. He's in the screen and he's telling
Speaker 1: him to sit down. And they got breaks at different times.
Speaker 1: So it's just it's a lot. So you have that.
Speaker 1: Then of course the teachers trying to figure it out
Speaker 1: other students. It was so much so that went on
Speaker 1: for months just trying to figure that out. And and and
Speaker 1: and don't let your teacher get COVID because then the
Speaker 1: teacher the parents is out that this all of this
Speaker 1: stuff happened to try to get the education to operate online,
Speaker 1: and I still don't think that they figured out figured
Speaker 1: it out a hundred percent. And now it's May. The
Speaker 1: year is about to end, so a whole year of education,
Speaker 1: maybe even a year and some change these kids have lost.
Speaker 1: What do we do? And really, honestly, if you think
Speaker 1: about it, it is more than a year at this point,
Speaker 1: because this began last year in March, right, So this
Speaker 1: is you know, really serious. And we have a bunch
Speaker 1: of guests that are coming on today that are going
Speaker 1: to talk about COVID nineteen and education and what we've
Speaker 1: got to do to try to get our kids up
Speaker 1: to speed. Can't wait to see what they have to say,
Speaker 1: because I need some help. Yes, that's this is why
Speaker 1: why helps me. I don't have any more children, because
Speaker 1: but people who have kids, you know what it is
Speaker 1: is for me. I think the conventional way teaching is
Speaker 1: just something I adhere to. Even if you you home
Speaker 1: school in your children, just separating kids to what they're
Speaker 1: not able to interact, it's very difficult, you know, because
Speaker 1: it puts them on these games. If you off parents
Speaker 1: then you know, Minecraft, Fortnight Fortnite and roadblocks control your home.
Speaker 1: Especially in these days. They don't even want to go outside.
Speaker 1: Kids into soccer. They want to go out soccer all
Speaker 1: the time. Now they want to sit on a game
Speaker 1: and I have to have to have to force them
Speaker 1: to They only can play those games on the weekends.
Speaker 1: Like but they over Mario had us. It was like Fortnight.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like Super Mario was a big deal. Only thing.
Speaker 1: Super Mario was a big deal. Like you stayed in
Speaker 1: the house, that's just Super Mario Mario, just when it
Speaker 1: was the regular Mario. Because remember Super Mario came second.
Speaker 1: When it was regular Mario, you were in the house
Speaker 1: trying to figure out how to get that thing to
Speaker 1: climb over and go up the wall and do the things.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't Fortnite. The thing is this the difference
Speaker 1: with these games, right, your your friends had to come
Speaker 1: to your house to play technology. Right technology they're playing
Speaker 1: with their friends from across the world. My cousin with
Speaker 1: their cousins live in Baltimore. They on the game and
Speaker 1: they're talking to each other and it's like you and
Speaker 1: it's so loud. It completely takes over your house. It
Speaker 1: is the weird. It is the yourdition is the craziest
Speaker 1: thing ever. So my thought of the day today, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, and speaking of transforming systems, you know, I
Speaker 1: just listen. I've been I just be trying to figure
Speaker 1: out why do we have to fight everybody all the
Speaker 1: time about everything? It's just too much? Like that's literally
Speaker 1: my thought of the day. Why do we have to
Speaker 1: fight everybody all the time about everything? Why? So the
Speaker 1: reason why bring this up is because in New York City,
Speaker 1: the City Council of which could you know, folks say,
Speaker 1: y'all don't do nothing. Y'all y'all ain't never changed no laws.
Speaker 1: You don't you never you know, you're gonna do nothing.
Speaker 1: That also what we do. Meanwhile, in a place like
Speaker 1: New York. The other thing is you're going working in
Speaker 1: other states. What's happening in your own state? Well, well
Speaker 1: let me tell you so. First of all, many of
Speaker 1: the people in office, elected officials in the state of
Speaker 1: New York are people we fought to get them in
Speaker 1: office healthy and not just when I say that, I'm
Speaker 1: not talking about I just endorsed the candidate, or like
Speaker 1: I make you donate. That's the funniest thing. Come almost
Speaker 1: twelve o'clock right before these deadlines. My sign you gotta
Speaker 1: open up your pocketbook or you you don't have pocket
Speaker 1: book but your bank account, and you gotta donate to
Speaker 1: this one. That one when you're like, wait a minute,
Speaker 1: is too many people, and it's usually a slate and
Speaker 1: unfortunately you can. You have to at least do two
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty dollars, which we usually donate more than that.
Speaker 1: You've done probably about five hundred dollars per person. I
Speaker 1: have been expect more. Listen, they come to me and
Speaker 1: then like we need the thousand. We're gonna need some
Speaker 1: people do it. We've been doing it right. The reason
Speaker 1: why two hundred and fifty dollars is significant is because
Speaker 1: you get matching funds eight to one. So for every
Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty dollars, each dollar gets an eight
Speaker 1: dollar match from the city, so that goes into their
Speaker 1: campaign fund. And so if you so when you donate
Speaker 1: two hundred and two hundred and fifty, and that's um
Speaker 1: so it's yes two thousand dollars that they receive just
Speaker 1: off of that. So they want you to donate to
Speaker 1: fifty if you can't do nothing else, if you can't
Speaker 1: do anything else they need you to do to fifty
Speaker 1: anything else that you donate above that helps and pay
Speaker 1: the staff and do other things right, And there's usually
Speaker 1: a limit on the amount that you can donate as
Speaker 1: a regular person and definitely as a corporation to any candidate.
Speaker 1: They have like a four thousand dollar minimum. It just
Speaker 1: depends on what it is that they're running for. So
Speaker 1: you know, we've been doing that. So now that's one
Speaker 1: is that we actually do take our own personal money
Speaker 1: and ensure that we get certain types of elected officials
Speaker 1: in office. But beyond that, when I say fighting, what
Speaker 1: I mean is that we've had to actually work to
Speaker 1: transform the political landscape in New York to start getting
Speaker 1: more candidates who are more radical even in terms of
Speaker 1: they're thinking. And I like using the word radical because
Speaker 1: that pisces people off radical radical, radical, Yeah, no, so
Speaker 1: when when we say that, well, we're talking about these
Speaker 1: are people who are super liberal, super aggressive, right, And
Speaker 1: that's important because these are folks and even in their
Speaker 1: super super progressive state, we still gotta fight, even our
Speaker 1: friends to be like, yo, we need you to push harder,
Speaker 1: we need you to go harder, because they're up against
Speaker 1: systems that immediately once they walk in the door talking
Speaker 1: about we need to end qualified immunity, the whole system
Speaker 1: blows up. No, we don't want to do it. We
Speaker 1: don't want to do it. But these are individuals who
Speaker 1: work to really push the envelope in terms of the
Speaker 1: things we care about. From New York State, where we
Speaker 1: just um legalized marijuana, let let's talk about this story
Speaker 1: really quickly. The state legalized marijuana last session. They were
Speaker 1: supposed to do it. It came down to the last
Speaker 1: few moments. And our friend Senator Brian Benjamin, somebody we helped.
Speaker 1: We helped him get elected. We work with him, we
Speaker 1: we advise him, even though sometimes I have to fight
Speaker 1: Brian because Brian, like you know, can't be doing everything
Speaker 1: y'all need me to do. It just ain't gonna happen.
Speaker 1: But he still understands why we sent him to the Senate,
Speaker 1: right so he in last session was one of the
Speaker 1: only people who held out his vote. And everybody was
Speaker 1: piste off because they wanted to see marijuana get you know,
Speaker 1: they wanted to see marijuana become legalized. He said no
Speaker 1: because he did not feel that number one, there was
Speaker 1: enough being done on the expungement side for people who
Speaker 1: are currently people who was in jail forward selling weed
Speaker 1: was getting their records clean. There was one day when
Speaker 1: he wanted to do more that, but the main reason
Speaker 1: was because he felt that the license in in terms
Speaker 1: of people being able to actually sell and get in
Speaker 1: the business of those people they locked up that was criminals.
Speaker 1: Then they're gonna need to get a load licensees so
Speaker 1: they can make some legal money with marijuana, because you
Speaker 1: locked him up and said it was illegal, So now
Speaker 1: give him an opportunity to make some money while it's legal, right,
Speaker 1: except not necessarily people. I don't know this. I don't
Speaker 1: want to put this on him. I don't know if
Speaker 1: it's folks that might have a felony conviction, because I
Speaker 1: don't know exactly how that works. But he's definitely trying
Speaker 1: to make sure that more black and brown people have
Speaker 1: access into the pipeline so that they could get in
Speaker 1: the business of of of marijuana. Right. But I think
Speaker 1: most I think a lot of them people are saying
Speaker 1: that they want those who were convicted of marijuana to
Speaker 1: have to have a you know, a certain percentage to
Speaker 1: be just advocated and put to them, so that I
Speaker 1: think that that's right. So he didn't feel that that
Speaker 1: was happening because because because in the state of New York,
Speaker 1: first of all, one of the things that folks are
Speaker 1: supposed to be checking for me and I really want
Speaker 1: to know I'm under I've been told that all the
Speaker 1: Republicans that are in the Senate and the Assembly in
Speaker 1: the state of New York are white. I have not
Speaker 1: been able to having anybody show me one that is
Speaker 1: of color. Now I might be wrong, But if if
Speaker 1: I am wrong, I'm wrong by one or two no
Speaker 1: state senators and or assembly members that are Republicans in
Speaker 1: New York. It might be the city council too. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna have to check that out. I could be wrong
Speaker 1: about city council, but from the state level, I have
Speaker 1: not found one, and so some other folks are doing
Speaker 1: the research to make sure. But if I'm wrong, I'm
Speaker 1: wrong by one person, maybe two people every year is white.
Speaker 1: And so the Republicans, And of course at the time
Speaker 1: we had that I d C, which was the independent
Speaker 1: caucus of people who got elected as Democrats. But they
Speaker 1: went into a small caucus and started to mean and
Speaker 1: vote with the Republicans. So the governor Cuomo. Who y'all
Speaker 1: just love Cuomo because you see him on TV and
Speaker 1: he's doing such a good job with COVID, which he's
Speaker 1: not doing more than he's supposed to do as a governor.
Speaker 1: He's doing his job. He's charismatic, he speaks well. He's fine. Yes,
Speaker 1: he is, Ladies, I know. The white boy is fine.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, the white man is fine. I get it, ladies,
Speaker 1: I know. But nonetheless, when you look at his record
Speaker 1: in New York State, Governor Cuomo has been extremely problematic,
Speaker 1: and in some instances, I would go as far as
Speaker 1: to say that he and his administration have actually discriminated
Speaker 1: against black and brown people and particularly poor people. Now,
Speaker 1: I could go harder, but I'm not for the purpose
Speaker 1: of this conversation. So we right advocated to get a
Speaker 1: black woman back in her seat as the speaker in
Speaker 1: the state, which is um okay, which is Andreas Stewart Cousins, Okay,
Speaker 1: a black woman, Okay. We help to get a black
Speaker 1: woman who is now in the process of investigating the
Speaker 1: NYPD and investigating Donald Trump as a New York resident.
Speaker 1: Her name is Letitia James, and she is the the
Speaker 1: Attorney General of this We helped get her elected. We
Speaker 1: helped to get several progressives and key positions within the state.
Speaker 1: And Brian Benjamin, who I just we just went through
Speaker 1: what he's been working on. This is a man who
Speaker 1: was specifically one of our candidates that we ran and
Speaker 1: helped get the elector. But they're gonna don't really mean
Speaker 1: I'm not talking repentation. What were they doing, but we're
Speaker 1: not talking about representation. We just gave you just some
Speaker 1: of the things, just some of the things. Controller Now
Speaker 1: I'm supporting him. This show is not the street politicians
Speaker 1: is not involved. But I'm no, I'm supporting Brian. I'm
Speaker 1: going to support him to um now. But in the city,
Speaker 1: the second ranking highest the second highest ranking elected official
Speaker 1: in the city, the public advocates name is Jermanni Williams,
Speaker 1: who we also ran and helped him get elected. And
Speaker 1: anybody who you just go google Jamana, Well, I'm just
Speaker 1: trying to say high that school get black people free. Okay,
Speaker 1: Well we know, come on, Jamani, I'm saying you've got
Speaker 1: all the year. We heard that year they've got some stuff.
Speaker 1: Well is that gonna get black people free? So we
Speaker 1: we were gonna getting black people free? But Jermanni Williams,
Speaker 1: is that gonna get black people free? You're crazy. But
Speaker 1: Jermanni Williams yet another person who was in the City Council,
Speaker 1: and because of him, the city got has a crisis
Speaker 1: management system that actually helped to reduce violence in epic
Speaker 1: proportions in the city. First of all, we're talking about
Speaker 1: now maybe forty million dollars that is being designated for
Speaker 1: for normally incarcerated people, health services, uh, jobs and all
Speaker 1: types of programs, legal services. All of that are coming
Speaker 1: out of the City Council because of people like Jamanni
Speaker 1: Williams and also City council Member Fernando Cabrera. Cabrera excuse me, so,
Speaker 1: and we could go on. We could talk about people, um,
Speaker 1: you know, folks who are now running Vanessa Gibson is
Speaker 1: now running for Bronx Borough president. These are our people.
Speaker 1: People have done amazing things in the City of New
Speaker 1: York and in the State of New York, and and
Speaker 1: it just got to the point where we're actually able
Speaker 1: to do even more. We had just been trying to
Speaker 1: clean it up and get some people out and new
Speaker 1: people in. Now we're at the place where we can
Speaker 1: actually pass progressive laws and progressive legislation in the city.
Speaker 1: So back to my question in the day, because we
Speaker 1: went all the way around from next to get back
Speaker 1: to it. The city council signed a bill ending qualified
Speaker 1: immunity because just so we know, just so we know,
Speaker 1: just so we know, the George Floyd Justice and Policing
Speaker 1: Act is a federal bill that by the way, Joe Biden,
Speaker 1: President Joe Biden, when he did his State of the
Speaker 1: I don't know what I think it was a one
Speaker 1: hundred day address just the other day, he mentioned he
Speaker 1: stated that he wanted to see the George Floyd Justice
Speaker 1: and Policing Act passed by May, the anniversary of when
Speaker 1: George Floyd was murdered. That's what he said, and we're
Speaker 1: going to hold him to the But that's federal legislation
Speaker 1: that includes ending qualified immunity. And there are many like um,
Speaker 1: like Congresswoman Corey Bush and others who have said that
Speaker 1: they will not sign a bill that does not deal
Speaker 1: with qualified immunity. And for folks who who are listening,
Speaker 1: who are saying, what is that, it means that you
Speaker 1: will be able to sue a police officer directly, that's right,
Speaker 1: So that they will have to pay if they are
Speaker 1: participate in an issue where someone is abused or murdered
Speaker 1: in in an in an incident of police brutality. Okay,
Speaker 1: so that yes, it is a federal uh, federal legislation
Speaker 1: that we want to see get pass, but cities and
Speaker 1: states do not have to wait. Colorado as a state
Speaker 1: just ended qualified immunity. Teslin A. Figura always reminds me
Speaker 1: Colorado as a state. New York City City Council voted
Speaker 1: to pass and into qualified immunity. And when they sent
Speaker 1: the bills to the mayor, because folks don't be understanding
Speaker 1: all the details, when they sent the bills to the
Speaker 1: mayor so that the mayor could sign all the bills
Speaker 1: and say, okay, I agree to all of this and
Speaker 1: send it back. He did not send the qualified immunity
Speaker 1: build back signed. So that's why we got the fight.
Speaker 1: And that's what the problem is for me from these
Speaker 1: government officials like you work for us, you know, and
Speaker 1: and if if the people are telling you that qualified
Speaker 1: immunity does not fit the needs of the people, then
Speaker 1: how are you going to continue to tell us that
Speaker 1: it does? You know? And I think that's the reason
Speaker 1: why you know the mayor is on his way out. Well,
Speaker 1: he was gonna be out anyway because it's time is up.
Speaker 1: But I'm saying he needs to go, and he really
Speaker 1: just need to go now. He's really in a way.
Speaker 1: And at this point it's like, listen, man, we've seen
Speaker 1: what we were dealing with police, and we realized that
Speaker 1: qualified immunity is one of the things that has shielded
Speaker 1: him and protected them. There's no real responsibility, there's no
Speaker 1: real consequences. When you understand that when you harm someone
Speaker 1: and you physically abuse and you murder someone, that you
Speaker 1: can't get paid and that it's gonna come out your
Speaker 1: check and you're not gonna be able to survive and
Speaker 1: need your kids and all those things, then you think twice.
Speaker 1: When there's no real consequences of things, then you continue
Speaker 1: to move on because the same taxpayers that you're killing
Speaker 1: are gonna pay for you killing them. So that doesn't
Speaker 1: really make much sense. You know, you got to say
Speaker 1: that again because people may not understand that the same
Speaker 1: taxpayers that you're killing are gonna pay for you to
Speaker 1: kill them. Well, did you got to explain what that means?
Speaker 1: So that means the money that is being allocated to
Speaker 1: the families who win these civil suits come from taxpayers
Speaker 1: money in any cases. I mean, they have some insurance policies,
Speaker 1: but there's still a large but there's a large portion
Speaker 1: that comes from taxpayers money. So there's no consequences for
Speaker 1: that individual who takes the life or beats and abuses
Speaker 1: on a taxpayer. So that's what we're saying. So at
Speaker 1: this point, man, you know, come on, you don't. You've
Speaker 1: been boring long enough. Man, get out the way. Man,
Speaker 1: stop blocking stuff. We tied of fighting you about stuff
Speaker 1: that we want. Not only are we fighting him up
Speaker 1: our stuff that we want. This is what he said
Speaker 1: he was gonna be about when we voted for him.
Speaker 1: Today it's not the day, so you know, it's it's
Speaker 1: just I'm like, now we now we got to go
Speaker 1: to work on Deblasio again, and a whole lot of
Speaker 1: people that we do. And I and you know what,
Speaker 1: I actually really really like Deblasio as a person. This
Speaker 1: is somebody and he's a nice guy. But I found
Speaker 1: he really he betrayed. I mean I raised money for him,
Speaker 1: I supported I stumped for him, like I was out
Speaker 1: there and I and I'm like wow, and now and
Speaker 1: by the way, there was another man running, Bill Thompson,
Speaker 1: a black man who I was more insupportive, but unfortunately
Speaker 1: it didn't work out. And they also asked Billy built
Speaker 1: Billy is what we call you know, But Bill Thompson,
Speaker 1: they asked him some questions about police brutality and some
Speaker 1: other issues, and I felt like he just wasn't he
Speaker 1: didn't hit it hard enough. And Deblasio was like, boom boom, boom,
Speaker 1: boom boom, was marching with us. So because some folks
Speaker 1: will say yeah, but we said the same thing about
Speaker 1: this one and that one. No, no, no, Dablasio was
Speaker 1: with us. He was doing. He was out there and
Speaker 1: we were doing. When we were doing, occupied the streets,
Speaker 1: the game out all night, marching to end, stopping fris
Speaker 1: fifty people on Father's Day down Fifth Avenue, going to
Speaker 1: like any team. He dated, you brought your chopped. As
Speaker 1: he picked you up, he said, yea, I love you.
Speaker 1: He used to be in Jamani's position that he's down.
Speaker 1: He was the advocated. You took him on the date
Speaker 1: and he said yes that he didn't call back. No,
Speaker 1: he called back. He called, but now he got a
Speaker 1: baby on me and you know what I mean, he
Speaker 1: got he got to other families found out about It's like, seriously,
Speaker 1: this this is what I realized. The policy, everything he did,
Speaker 1: what he did security I realized in the banana and
Speaker 1: the tailpipe thing is really serious. Man. We don't we
Speaker 1: keep falling for not again though now. But you just
Speaker 1: gotta stay. We have to stay on time. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: still on top of but I understand my thing is
Speaker 1: this what I realized I was having this conversation yesterday. Right,
Speaker 1: we have to understand what to expect from politicians because
Speaker 1: they still politicians. So if they promise you a hundred things,
Speaker 1: we're gonna fight for twenty because that's the reality. And
Speaker 1: we're gonna try to get the next a d out
Speaker 1: of the next four people that we voted, because we
Speaker 1: ain't gonna get fifty sixty. The reality is fight for
Speaker 1: twenty and expect fight fight for every day. But because
Speaker 1: that's the reality that we live, that's what politicians do.
Speaker 1: That's what this system and this system instruction was really
Speaker 1: never get towards giving us equal the injustice inequality right.
Speaker 1: So as we incrementally get it piece by piece, we
Speaker 1: have that's what we have to expect We can't. Like
Speaker 1: I tell people all the time, nobody we voted in
Speaker 1: is gonna change give us freedom. It ain't gonna get
Speaker 1: Black people are not gonna get free by the vote.
Speaker 1: What we're gonna do is get incremental change and incremental evolution.
Speaker 1: And we utilize that incremental change in evolution, and we
Speaker 1: added to what we do on our own. We added
Speaker 1: well because the communities still have to operate. The communities
Speaker 1: still have to obviously within the hospitals need to work,
Speaker 1: they need a grocery store. These are things that still
Speaker 1: have to happen. And therefore these elected officials you have
Speaker 1: to keep until they do away with the elected officials
Speaker 1: in America, which is not gonna happen anytime soon. We
Speaker 1: gotta you gotta make sure that the ones that are
Speaker 1: in there are people that you can push their buttons
Speaker 1: and make them do the things that you need to do.
Speaker 1: And it may not be all of it, but I'm
Speaker 1: not willing to allow any area around me to go
Speaker 1: uncontrol where my voice at least is not a part
Speaker 1: of the process. So that's the deal with that. So
Speaker 1: my favorite segment is the changemaker. Second, we have a
Speaker 1: great brother who is coming to us today. His name
Speaker 1: is am In Raw, but he is better known as
Speaker 1: Principal Raw, Principal Raw Compton. Who Compton is what I'm
Speaker 1: talking about. So he's the founder of the University Pathways
Speaker 1: Public Service Academy. Uh. He has known to be a
Speaker 1: revolutionary educator. UH. And he's with the Compton Legacy Foundation. Now,
Speaker 1: this man is changing the world in education. And we
Speaker 1: know that Compton is not one of those places where
Speaker 1: they like to educate our kids, especially you know, the
Speaker 1: regular school system. Right, that's right. So you have to
Speaker 1: actually create your own, which is what you were talking
Speaker 1: about earlier. You said, Hey, we need to work the
Speaker 1: elected officials that we have because they first of all,
Speaker 1: we have to shake their money, their pocketbooks out and
Speaker 1: get the budgets so that we can use our taxpayer
Speaker 1: dollars to create things for ourselves. But we have to
Speaker 1: use the system that currently exists and reduce its um
Speaker 1: reduce its influence in our communities as much as possible.
Speaker 1: But still since it exists, we have to have our
Speaker 1: feet in it and make sure that we have control
Speaker 1: over and at least at a huge part of our
Speaker 1: voices are heard in those spaces while at the same
Speaker 1: time creating our own Principal Raw has figured out how
Speaker 1: to create an educational component for our communities, um where
Speaker 1: we can what is it for us by us foo woo,
Speaker 1: you know, is to educate our own kids. So we're
Speaker 1: happy to have Principal Raw with us today. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for joining that, you know, thank you, thank
Speaker 1: you for allowing me to be in this space, and
Speaker 1: uh just thank you for the platform and thank you
Speaker 1: for what you guys do to advocate for our communities
Speaker 1: and put it out there in the way for our
Speaker 1: young people to connect with. So thank you for allowing
Speaker 1: me to be here. Well, thank you man. We we
Speaker 1: we want to always celebrate brothers and sisters from our
Speaker 1: community are doing things to uplift and be revolutionary and
Speaker 1: help our kids you know, have a better chance than
Speaker 1: we did. So we want to salute you man. So
Speaker 1: so give us some background. You founded this University Pathways
Speaker 1: Public Service Academy, Like how did you how did you
Speaker 1: get to this? What is the process of too? Absolutely
Speaker 1: first and foremost, you know, we go by to you
Speaker 1: because we know University Pathways Service Academy is a long name,
Speaker 1: so we go by to you and I was I
Speaker 1: was the youngest principal to be the founder in the
Speaker 1: second largest school district in l A U. S D.
Speaker 1: And how this came about was I'm born and raised
Speaker 1: in the city Watson Compton. If you know about the
Speaker 1: West Coast, you know it's the hub and a dub.
Speaker 1: So to create a school in which I came from,
Speaker 1: in which this I come from, was a dream come true.
Speaker 1: So really the concept of the school is under my
Speaker 1: under my my ideology is we can't if we grant
Speaker 1: the system permission to feed us, then we also grant
Speaker 1: them permission to start us, which is coming from education.
Speaker 1: So it was important for us to have some kind
Speaker 1: of ownership so we have autonomy so we could teach
Speaker 1: our young people how to go out in the world
Speaker 1: and make a real change. So I sat down with
Speaker 1: those who were bringing the funding in the capital and
Speaker 1: they said, like, you know, typically schools they have a
Speaker 1: mascot with lion tigers and all that. But me growing up,
Speaker 1: I said, no, we gotta be a change agent. You
Speaker 1: know we are. Our mascot is called the change Agents
Speaker 1: because I want young people too. If I call them
Speaker 1: that every single day, then they're gonna believe it. You
Speaker 1: want to go out there and they're gonna make a difference.
Speaker 1: So when they see an authentic leader I was younger.
Speaker 1: I opened the school at twenty nine and thirty four.
Speaker 1: Now they can see a young black man that comes
Speaker 1: from the same streets, that have the same struggles, that
Speaker 1: that can deliver the message in the same way, but
Speaker 1: also teach them about capital markets, teach them about understanding
Speaker 1: colonialism so they can figure out how to navigate capitalism. Right.
Speaker 1: So this this knowledge is sacred knowledge that we want
Speaker 1: to provide for him. Came to just being an educator
Speaker 1: in the district, No ex l a U. S d.
Speaker 1: For believing and taking a chance on a young principle
Speaker 1: to be the founder to write the plan. And I'm
Speaker 1: proud to say that right now we got on graduation rate.
Speaker 1: Um that graduation rate. Yeah, so we open the school
Speaker 1: and uh now now we're here to our first graduating
Speaker 1: class this year. So we're talking today about COVID nineteen
Speaker 1: and the impact on our kids, particularly in the realm
Speaker 1: of education. Uh. And if you're a good educator, then
Speaker 1: you know that you can't just deal with books reading
Speaker 1: what they say, reading, writing, arithmetic, but you also have
Speaker 1: to understand the mental capacity of our youth and what
Speaker 1: this pandemic has done. UM, we see violences up, clearly,
Speaker 1: suicide is up. UM. You know, it's actually pretty traumatizing
Speaker 1: watching some of the videos that are out there showing
Speaker 1: what's going on in our own communities as a result
Speaker 1: of UM, what we believe it's isolation people. You know,
Speaker 1: the poverty rate has risen, all of that. So what
Speaker 1: what have you? First of all, what are you finding?
Speaker 1: I mean, the statu is that that our kids will
Speaker 1: you will lose somewhere around the year, shifting from in
Speaker 1: school learning to remote learning, and you know, people not
Speaker 1: having the technology that they needed and all of that.
Speaker 1: So give us some insight on what you've been what
Speaker 1: you have found throughout this pandemic, and then moreover, what
Speaker 1: have you been doing to try to balance Um, you
Speaker 1: know all that's all yet that's happening. Absolutely. I would
Speaker 1: start off with what my father told me that the
Speaker 1: best cure to any disease is prevention and being an educator.
Speaker 1: I I'm trauma and formed because I'm I have a
Speaker 1: lived experience. So prior to the pandemic, we built we
Speaker 1: built the school based off of trauma and foreign practices
Speaker 1: based off of building a culture where our kids felt love.
Speaker 1: So when the pandemic happened, we were able to I
Speaker 1: always say a visionary leader. We was able to see
Speaker 1: some of the things prior to it. So we were
Speaker 1: able to build a virtual kind of of of culture
Speaker 1: where our kids are posting on Instagram and they're coming
Speaker 1: on Instagram live feeling connected. Um. I always say the
Speaker 1: educators too. You know, we don't at our school where
Speaker 1: high school, we don't focus on our kids trying to
Speaker 1: identify jobs. We want to identify that purpose right. We
Speaker 1: want to identify their gift and share it with the world.
Speaker 1: So what we found is that critical hope hit hard
Speaker 1: when the pandemic. It the loss of critical hope. People
Speaker 1: want to say loss of academic It was a loss
Speaker 1: of hope because hope started to linger in and when
Speaker 1: in the idle mind now you start to lose it more.
Speaker 1: Now it's like I don't want to read, I don't
Speaker 1: want to do mad I don't want to do a rethmentic.
Speaker 1: I only want to do an elective. So we have
Speaker 1: to provide critical hope and we did that by bringing
Speaker 1: in and having I don't know if you guys, remember that,
Speaker 1: don't rush challenge, trying to focus on joy, because when
Speaker 1: you find joy and you connected to your purpose for
Speaker 1: our young people, then that is an avenue in the
Speaker 1: pathway for their gift. And then when you're gift driven,
Speaker 1: then you can find ourselves having a still a hundred
Speaker 1: percent graduation rate, still kids wanting to come to school, virtually,
Speaker 1: still kids feeling connected. So you know, it's not always
Speaker 1: about the arithmetic, it's about how you feel to provide
Speaker 1: that critical hope um. The pandemic created what's called hope deferred,
Speaker 1: where where they tried to ignore the realities of trauma,
Speaker 1: the digital divide and and all those types of things
Speaker 1: which which made a lot of of a lot of
Speaker 1: young people falling in spiral. So I would say that,
Speaker 1: you know, shout out to my teachers. They have some
Speaker 1: revolutionary educators who who put boots to the ground to
Speaker 1: connect with young people so they can feel a sense
Speaker 1: of belonging. I really, I really identified with that because
Speaker 1: I think that's the way that I utilized my voice,
Speaker 1: you know, just coming from that perspective, understanding that where
Speaker 1: we come from and utilizing our trauma and all things
Speaker 1: that we dealt with to be able to apply that
Speaker 1: and give it to these kids who they have a
Speaker 1: better opportunity. So I just want to say I salute
Speaker 1: you for that. But one of the things that really
Speaker 1: stood out to me was that your school concurrently offers
Speaker 1: you get a diploma an associate arts degree when you graduate. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely absolutely, So I'm I'm gonna give your context. So
Speaker 1: before we had this dual enrollment program of a B
Speaker 1: two eighty eight in California, I was I was a
Speaker 1: product of a program similar when I went to high school,
Speaker 1: I graduated, and I graduated high school two thousand five,
Speaker 1: and then shortly after I got my A A degree
Speaker 1: which awarded me to start teaching at a young age
Speaker 1: and become a principal at a young age. So I
Speaker 1: wanted what I wanted that same thing for my young people,
Speaker 1: because we know how the system works. Are young people
Speaker 1: gotta identify some things a little bit quicker and once
Speaker 1: they identified a gift and they can navigate the system
Speaker 1: or work the system, then now they equipped to change
Speaker 1: the system. So if if our our school we offer
Speaker 1: our students to take and we know the two year college,
Speaker 1: it's the same classes you're taking in high school, you
Speaker 1: just taking the community college, So why don't you take
Speaker 1: them concurrently? So now when you graduate high school, now
Speaker 1: you you finished two years. Now you don't gotta pay
Speaker 1: as much being a transfer student instead of starting as
Speaker 1: a freshman, and you can still have the luxuries of
Speaker 1: staying at a university for four years. So that's what
Speaker 1: we offer right now. We're proud to say that we
Speaker 1: have like of our students that's in that program that's
Speaker 1: working towards that. So, uh, it's doing well. Now, do
Speaker 1: you get a lot of support from the traditional public
Speaker 1: school district? Um is their collaboration from the city or
Speaker 1: do you feel shunned because you know, you guys have
Speaker 1: a program that is operating probably better than the regular
Speaker 1: public school education. Yeah, you know, it's a it's a
Speaker 1: unique We're in a unique state because you know a
Speaker 1: lot of times, uh, in education, they want to they
Speaker 1: want to find something that they can do what we
Speaker 1: call cookie cutter, right, they want to cut something. And
Speaker 1: I'm a firm believer that every community school, for it
Speaker 1: to be a true community school, it has to have
Speaker 1: a uniqueness about it. We scale to be a replication
Speaker 1: of something because every Detroit is like Compton, but this unique.
Speaker 1: Detroit is unique. Chicago is like Compton, but Chicago is unique.
Speaker 1: So in our school, we do have some things that
Speaker 1: we have to navigate, right, the politics, you know, street politicians,
Speaker 1: but this is the politics and the bureaucracy of the district.
Speaker 1: But we do get support because we're doing something that's
Speaker 1: the data is speaks right, the data honey. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1: and I will say this, Our primary focus is kids.
Speaker 1: We don't focus on the test score, we don't focus
Speaker 1: on comparing our students to their white counterparts. We focus
Speaker 1: on how they can be their best self and then
Speaker 1: the data speaks for itselfs So, um, we navigate with
Speaker 1: the with the district politics, and we have a we
Speaker 1: haven't saying do what we have to do, so we
Speaker 1: can do what we want to do. It's funny you
Speaker 1: say that, because that was the same thing that made
Speaker 1: us begin, um, you know, really focusing on data for
Speaker 1: the crisis management system, because people were saying, it's no
Speaker 1: way that a program that specifically hires formally incarcerated people, Uh,
Speaker 1: it's proven to do violence intervention, like to bring the
Speaker 1: number of violent incidents down, and we were saying, yes
Speaker 1: it does, but they would not really flood the program
Speaker 1: with resources until the data came in from the first
Speaker 1: you months to prove that the program actually work. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: absolutely absolutely, And that's I mean, that's really what we do.
Speaker 1: I mean, we have a law academy in a courtroom
Speaker 1: on our campus. We have we actually partnered because we
Speaker 1: know the school to prison pipeline exists, right, So we
Speaker 1: have a law society where we teach our kids and
Speaker 1: shoutouts to to oh G that I'm wearing off school grounds. Um,
Speaker 1: that that works collaboratively with supporting it. So it's just
Speaker 1: something that I feel that shout out to, oh G. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I work with them too, man, Dope, I don't organization
Speaker 1: absolutely so yeah, that that that organization that supports the
Speaker 1: coalition anti principle, so we can share best practices for
Speaker 1: this to work. Wow. So that you one of the
Speaker 1: most sought after schools in your right now. Who are
Speaker 1: some of the other people that you partner with that
Speaker 1: have made it possible? I know you need funding and
Speaker 1: things like that, So who have been some of the
Speaker 1: people who stepped up? Yeah? So I want to give
Speaker 1: a big, big shoutouts to the think Watts found Nation
Speaker 1: and a rapper and an activist named Sticks him and
Speaker 1: I you know, we met through social media. I'm born
Speaker 1: from Content, he born in Watts and a rapper and
Speaker 1: a principle came together to bring a brand new gymnasium
Speaker 1: sponsored by the Los Angeles Clippers, a brand new weight
Speaker 1: room sponsored by Planet Fitness, where we worked on financial
Speaker 1: literacy with the Bank of California, And right now we're
Speaker 1: working on chartering a credit union at our school because
Speaker 1: I feel that if we want to change our community
Speaker 1: and change our world, we've got to change the criminal
Speaker 1: justice system. However, if we really want to change the
Speaker 1: criminal justice system, personally, I feel we have to change
Speaker 1: the educational system because the mindset within the pipeline of
Speaker 1: education is a condition mindset. So the partner with Think Watts,
Speaker 1: we're trying to work on the economical divide that exists
Speaker 1: in public education by charting our credit union. So now
Speaker 1: macro Economics becomes a self sufficient school within our community.
Speaker 1: So now we can have a self sufficient community. So
Speaker 1: shoutouts to Think Watts, shoutouts to Sticks for for making
Speaker 1: uh an environment at our school. When you walk on
Speaker 1: our campus and you see a new gymnasium and you
Speaker 1: see a Planet Fitness and you see great paintings on
Speaker 1: the wall and murals, you're expired. So that's one of
Speaker 1: our biggest partnerships. Absolutely. I'm like, they got Planet Fitness.
Speaker 1: Can I get enrolled in high school again? Because my
Speaker 1: high school years, I threw that in the trash somehow,
Speaker 1: you know, just running the street, and um, I ended
Speaker 1: up in a program to your point, where I got
Speaker 1: my g D and my UM associate's degree at the
Speaker 1: same time at the College of New Rochelle. And then
Speaker 1: of course we don't want to get my bachelor's and
Speaker 1: to do other great things and and to your point,
Speaker 1: life experience has taught me so much. But I would
Speaker 1: love to go back. If people always ask me what
Speaker 1: would I go back and do, I would go back
Speaker 1: to high school because you actually need to pay attention
Speaker 1: and not just be cut in school all the time,
Speaker 1: m like I did. But the other thing I would
Speaker 1: do is go to an h b c U, right,
Speaker 1: Like I would want to go through the experience of
Speaker 1: being at HBCU because I just want to get you
Speaker 1: want to go to school days? Yeah, days it was dope.
Speaker 1: But I just want to ask you a question because
Speaker 1: when you look at this school, right, and and just
Speaker 1: being from being a young black boy from marginalized communities
Speaker 1: and understanding how hard it is for black boys to
Speaker 1: to fit into the public school system. Like what percentage
Speaker 1: on males like males in your school, because you got
Speaker 1: a hundred percent graduation with So I just want to
Speaker 1: know how many black men are graduating? Yeah? Absolutely so,
Speaker 1: I mean at our seniors of our black men are
Speaker 1: graduate right. So now when we let's break this down,
Speaker 1: so our total school, we have six women, right, young
Speaker 1: young young girls that are on our campus. We have
Speaker 1: thirty percent boys. But to your point, similar to me,
Speaker 1: like I didn't find no relevance in public school. No.
Speaker 1: I I thought I was to change my circumstances. I
Speaker 1: thought I was gonna be a rapper, and I thought
Speaker 1: I was gonna play football. I hadn't made like play
Speaker 1: for the Dallas Cowboys. Boom, get up out of here.
Speaker 1: But you know, reflecting back, you know, are the school
Speaker 1: systems like they equate good schools and marginalized communities on
Speaker 1: how well we can get students out the community? Right?
Speaker 1: And when I open the school, I wanted to say,
Speaker 1: like how well can we like transform our community? It's different. Right,
Speaker 1: So as a principal, I still teach a class. So
Speaker 1: I teach all my ad hope boys, right, all my
Speaker 1: adhole boys. They work with me because I say, like
Speaker 1: nobody on the campus can connect with them like I can.
Speaker 1: So I class one day a week where I teach
Speaker 1: them just how to be a king, but also it's
Speaker 1: important for them to see how I treat my wife,
Speaker 1: how I treat my daughter, how they can see relationships
Speaker 1: in the family dynamic. So we just teach them that
Speaker 1: those things um and I think that's found the greatest
Speaker 1: success at our school time and that you gotta see
Speaker 1: it to be it. And lot of times people talking
Speaker 1: about leaving the hood, I'm saying, you gotta fix the hood.
Speaker 1: I want to. I want to be able to be
Speaker 1: to contribute to making the lives of those who come
Speaker 1: from where I come from better. You know, I don't
Speaker 1: want to take my success outside with someone else be
Speaker 1: able to, you know, reap the benefits of my success.
Speaker 1: I want the kids to see me and say, hey, this,
Speaker 1: I can do this because he's from here and he
Speaker 1: can do this and he actually still here. So you know,
Speaker 1: I really want to applaud you because I've always said
Speaker 1: that these public schools, they don't teach us the way
Speaker 1: that we need to be taught. We don't have visions
Speaker 1: of success of people that come from where we come
Speaker 1: from that look like us. You know, I actually do
Speaker 1: consulting with schools and public schools, and I deal with
Speaker 1: teachers and deans and principles and explain and a lot
Speaker 1: of the questions is how can we keep you know,
Speaker 1: the the engagement and the focus of these young black boys,
Speaker 1: because they they're not engaged, you know. And I said,
Speaker 1: what you have to do is find out what it
Speaker 1: is that they're interested in. You gotta create curriculums and
Speaker 1: you know, lesson plans and everything around with interest young
Speaker 1: black boys. You know that the regular public school system
Speaker 1: is not engaging us. So I want to applaud you, man,
Speaker 1: because it seems like you figured out, you know, the
Speaker 1: formula in this working Yeah, and I know we have
Speaker 1: to wrap up, but I did want to just ask
Speaker 1: you really quickly about what you're teaching your young people
Speaker 1: in terms of who we are, where we come from. Right,
Speaker 1: Because of course, the public school system teaches from the
Speaker 1: book of enslavement. That's the first step that you hear
Speaker 1: about you don't hear the history before we actually, you know,
Speaker 1: we're enslaved, and so I just wonder what type of
Speaker 1: curriculum are you teaching them that connects to the struggle
Speaker 1: that we're in today. Absolutely so, like Marcus Garvey said, right, Uh,
Speaker 1: a student that doesn't know their history is like a
Speaker 1: tree with our roots, there's no way for them to grow.
Speaker 1: So for us, you know, my I grew up on
Speaker 1: sand code for principles and the negoz Osaba. Right, you
Speaker 1: know where you're going, you have to remember where you
Speaker 1: came from. So for our young people and specifically my teachers,
Speaker 1: we have to we have to unpack and unlearned the
Speaker 1: system in which oppressed our minds. Right, Like a lot
Speaker 1: of the teacher programs don't teach how do you can
Speaker 1: connect how to make it relevant? So what we do
Speaker 1: is we come together and we have real deep book studies. Right.
Speaker 1: A book that we're covering right now is Black Appetite,
Speaker 1: White Food and understanding the systems of like the poverty
Speaker 1: of culture that exists at many schools. Right Like they
Speaker 1: think that they got to fix the community. So we
Speaker 1: have to unpacking and learn those things. And we do
Speaker 1: what's called link learning. So link learning at our school
Speaker 1: is see when we went to school, you have math
Speaker 1: and isolation, English and isolation, and you just went to
Speaker 1: your individual class. At our school, we do what's called
Speaker 1: link learning, where you will get a project and then
Speaker 1: now it's linked to all your classrooms. And I'll just
Speaker 1: give you a quick quick link on one of our
Speaker 1: case studies is we study environmental racism. So we're in Watts,
Speaker 1: so we go in our study our our environment. So
Speaker 1: you may get this in English class where it's like,
Speaker 1: all right, we're gonna look at some research and the
Speaker 1: mad they're gonna be looking at where are the locations
Speaker 1: and mapping out the different liquor stores, looking at centers,
Speaker 1: looking at those different things. And then we took them
Speaker 1: to the field trip to u C. L A. Where
Speaker 1: they start to do the same thing. How many parts
Speaker 1: is in this area? And then they have to have
Speaker 1: a contrast. And then and then in their science class,
Speaker 1: I mean history class, they talked about the rise of
Speaker 1: the Roman Empire in the democratic system and different things
Speaker 1: like that, so they start to see how legislation and
Speaker 1: things start to structure. And their science class they start
Speaker 1: to look at epigenetics and and and D and A
Speaker 1: and how to do fingerprints. And then after that they
Speaker 1: built up these skills and then we did a murder mystery. Right,
Speaker 1: we did a murder mystery on our campus, and they
Speaker 1: have to use all those skills together to come up
Speaker 1: and and infer and come up with evidence and claims
Speaker 1: about what happened. So that's like our environmental racism. And
Speaker 1: then we do crime scene investigation and then they go
Speaker 1: and acted out in the courtrooms. I need y'all, let
Speaker 1: me get a money. I need a month like I
Speaker 1: want to go to class. I need to be matriculated.
Speaker 1: Need me a little I D give me an I
Speaker 1: d y, I cut my bid and everything. Well, I
Speaker 1: want to say thanks again for having you man. You're
Speaker 1: doing an excellent job. You know we unfortunately we got
Speaker 1: to end this. Will continue to work, man, You're doing
Speaker 1: the work that needs to be done. Principle Roy, one
Speaker 1: of our change makers University Pathways, Public Service Academy, revolutionary educator.
Speaker 1: Keep doing what you do, man, and thank you so
Speaker 1: much for my book. State of Emergency is going to
Speaker 1: be on campus. I've been in I've been in touch
Speaker 1: with Jamala, so we're working on. We're buying three and
Speaker 1: fifty for our school. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Listen,
Speaker 1: black folks are gonna make my book a success, and
Speaker 1: that's what I always wanted, and I appreciate it so much. Brother,
Speaker 1: I really do. Keep keep going. We're rooting for you.
Speaker 1: Thank and appreciate. I appreciate you all. Appreciate you all. Right, y'all,
Speaker 1: Before we go to the next segment and have our
Speaker 1: special guests joint, we're gonna take a quick break for
Speaker 1: our sponsors. New York is obviously home to us, and
Speaker 1: we were educated in New York City and educational system.
Speaker 1: So whenever we get to talk to people who understand
Speaker 1: our hometown, were like, give me more, give me more.
Speaker 1: It's a lot to unpack, that's you would say. And
Speaker 1: today our guests, um, she wears a few hats, but
Speaker 1: one of them is very high level within the administration
Speaker 1: in the Department of Education. So but today we're not
Speaker 1: speaking from that chat. I just had to mention that
Speaker 1: because black women need all their flowers all the time,
Speaker 1: and black people, yes, all the acknowledgements. It takes us
Speaker 1: a lot to get to these high level positions. But
Speaker 1: we to have the real, real conversation today. And when
Speaker 1: you speak on behalf of an institution, it's a little different,
Speaker 1: you know. So that's not what we're doing today. Today
Speaker 1: we're speaking to Dr Maury Diego Vaya as a leadership
Speaker 1: strategist and an educational expert. You are, you know, educate her.
Speaker 1: You're an expert in this area. UM, and I'm happy
Speaker 1: to have you with us today. We have to have
Speaker 1: you on set. Thank you so much for happy to
Speaker 1: be here. Pleasure. You would be probably the third person,
Speaker 1: third in studio guests. You know, COVID had us everywhere outside,
Speaker 1: so you know, it's good to be of close and
Speaker 1: personal with people who we admire and who are doing
Speaker 1: the work that we want to celebrate and and the
Speaker 1: feeling is sentimental and awesome, mutual. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: I love your work too, Thank you. Thank you. So
Speaker 1: let me start off by thanking you for supporting State
Speaker 1: of Emergency, for reading the book. You gotta pre copy
Speaker 1: of a pre release copy of the book, had an
Speaker 1: opportunity to really check it out, and UM, I appreciate
Speaker 1: the feedback and also just your willingness to try to
Speaker 1: include it in some of your work that you're doing so,
Speaker 1: thanks a bunch. Um. So the schools have been closed
Speaker 1: our first of all, all the schools really open. Are
Speaker 1: the children? Are they in the seat every day? So
Speaker 1: what does that look like? What it looks like is
Speaker 1: New York City has reopened. We have fully opened elementary,
Speaker 1: middle and high school schools are open. Children get to attend, right, parents,
Speaker 1: we are allowed to opten. So we actually have more
Speaker 1: children in now than we did let's say at the
Speaker 1: beginning of the school year. Right. So a lot of
Speaker 1: few things that have allowed for that. One is just
Speaker 1: an understanding of what creates good health and safety measures? Right?
Speaker 1: How can I be safe? It does a parent that's
Speaker 1: the number one concerned, right, watch out back. I want
Speaker 1: to create some degree of normalcy or defining of this
Speaker 1: new normal and getting our children back. And that was
Speaker 1: the biggest prior already. So at this point all schools
Speaker 1: are all children back. No for the parents who have
Speaker 1: opted in and one of the itials to come back,
Speaker 1: they've had the option and they're they're okay. So a
Speaker 1: blood question, do you do you guys have the COVID test?
Speaker 1: Like are there for the administrators particularly And I know
Speaker 1: we're not speaking from a d OE perspective, but just
Speaker 1: teachers in general across the nation are they doing COVID
Speaker 1: testing on a regular basis. So within New York City
Speaker 1: we do have testing and tracing going on for students
Speaker 1: and staff who are in place, but we might be
Speaker 1: done with COVID. COVID not done with us, right, So
Speaker 1: that's just a brutal truth. So the parents who have said, yes,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna opted and guess wanna send my child back?
Speaker 1: That is a part of the agreement that you're having
Speaker 1: your child tested. UM. A lot of Department of Education
Speaker 1: employees have also gone for the vaccination. We can't mandate that.
Speaker 1: That's that's a personal choice. But people have, you know,
Speaker 1: taken on these measures to help again, just reacclimate and
Speaker 1: get back to what we would consider, you know, what
Speaker 1: we formerly knew as normal, even though it's never going
Speaker 1: to be the same. Why they get right, But the
Speaker 1: idea is we know that our kids learn best when
Speaker 1: they're back in person. I truly believe that. So from
Speaker 1: your point of view, how many how many not your
Speaker 1: point of view, but how many? What percentage of children
Speaker 1: would you say it back in UM? I would say
Speaker 1: maybe a little less than okay, And so what are
Speaker 1: the measures that you're taking all you're doing homeschooling for
Speaker 1: those who opt out, right, so you have remote remote
Speaker 1: learning apologize. And this is across the nation, because we're
Speaker 1: not talking about New York specifically, across the names. You've
Speaker 1: seen school districts take on the idea of you like
Speaker 1: a hybrid model where some children are in person and
Speaker 1: some children are remote. You've seen school districts that are
Speaker 1: fully open, right depending on Tenne's mandated that your kid
Speaker 1: come back, come back. So schools are I think it
Speaker 1: really it depends on community demand, parent voice, which is
Speaker 1: something that's really been important, I know for me thinking
Speaker 1: as an educator, I'm listening to the community, like I
Speaker 1: need to know what parents really want to see happen,
Speaker 1: Like what are their concerns? Where are we missing the mark?
Speaker 1: Sometimes those conversations can get contentious, but it's in the
Speaker 1: contention that you actually get the answer. So when we
Speaker 1: when we're bugging as parents were wilding out that's taken notes,
Speaker 1: I'm like, uh huh. Because I'm a parent myself, I
Speaker 1: have an eight year old. Another have yes, it's another hat,
Speaker 1: I have an eight year old and have an eleven
Speaker 1: year old and then both in public schools. Right, so
Speaker 1: I'm clear what it's like to be in a meeting
Speaker 1: like it was a hyped COVID, Right. I know it's
Speaker 1: like to be in a meeting upstairs and my son
Speaker 1: is in the hallway and my daughter's in the living
Speaker 1: room and everybody's on remote and the Internet goes down
Speaker 1: because the expander wasn't working. I'm clear what it looks like,
Speaker 1: and it's and it was, and I'm an educator and
Speaker 1: I was like clicking and rocking myself. So it's it is.
Speaker 1: So unless you've had that experience, right, and then their
Speaker 1: parents were dealing with other experience, you have fair and
Speaker 1: families who are living in shelters and families who are
Speaker 1: living in timber every how, saying so the empathy level
Speaker 1: has to go off a whole notch and be also
Speaker 1: able to not take it personally. But let me hear
Speaker 1: your story, mom, we got on this day coming up.
Speaker 1: If you really want to honor mothers and like single
Speaker 1: moms who are in these situations with their children, knowing
Speaker 1: that if you've got five kids, you need five devices, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, you can't be sharing devices one child might
Speaker 1: be in high school another two mighty school too, might
Speaker 1: be an elementary won't might be an early childhood and
Speaker 1: everybody gets to learn right. So a lot of it
Speaker 1: has also been educating teachers administrators around their own social
Speaker 1: emotional awareness. Where are you and your empathy meter? Right?
Speaker 1: And then and then the dynamic girl also up agins
Speaker 1: is that teachers and educator and administrators, they too needs
Speaker 1: an empathy right. You all heard the African program. You
Speaker 1: know it takes a village to raise a child, but
Speaker 1: I always say who's in the village? And during this season,
Speaker 1: for me, it's been around a three sixty approach, like
Speaker 1: all the way around to all stakeholders have to be well, right,
Speaker 1: so that our children are well. We have focused a
Speaker 1: lot on our kids. But in order for our children
Speaker 1: to learn, order for our children to get access, and
Speaker 1: order if our children to really be able to ride
Speaker 1: this wave, the social emotional peace must be in place.
Speaker 1: You know, I think prior to COVID, we would say
Speaker 1: things like, you know, order perceives learning. Now I would
Speaker 1: say like, social emotional awareness proceeds learning, so that parent
Speaker 1: who comes to be frazzled. Right. And then let me
Speaker 1: say this. Even though we say schools are open, if
Speaker 1: there's a certain amount of cases, schools have to be
Speaker 1: responsible and say you gotta close down, so you may
Speaker 1: be on the drop of a dime going right back
Speaker 1: to remote. So that's not because it's in the school
Speaker 1: systems are horrible, bad people, but we are also navigating
Speaker 1: and negotiating through this pandemic, which no one has done before.
Speaker 1: So it's that type of flexibility. We also gotta you know,
Speaker 1: hug parents. Don't use the word hug, hug them through
Speaker 1: because that's really because I gotta go to work, right,
Speaker 1: I gotta go to work. Man's real talk. I to
Speaker 1: go to work. And now you're telling me the school
Speaker 1: schools because it was a case. Does my kid have it?
Speaker 1: Not Grandma, it's just spirals. So my number one job
Speaker 1: has been listening. I have to hear what your story
Speaker 1: is because I know my household was not your household. Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, happy Mother's Day, you know, because happy
Speaker 1: Mother's Day to you. So just listening to this, right,
Speaker 1: I know that it is affecting the teachers as well
Speaker 1: as the students. When when you when you started to
Speaker 1: open the schools back, did you know what did you
Speaker 1: notice was the biggest takeaway that was impacted. Did you
Speaker 1: see children were having a problem getting back into the
Speaker 1: groove of just going to school. Kids are so happy
Speaker 1: to be back in school. They are so happy, They
Speaker 1: are so happy. My sister said to me today that
Speaker 1: she felt like my niece could have been on board,
Speaker 1: like borderline depression, Like she was really worried about what
Speaker 1: was happening in the Skyla because she was home. First
Speaker 1: of all, my mother had a stroke and Skylar became
Speaker 1: the caregiver. She was like the the extra hands in
Speaker 1: the house because my mom is like, my dad is
Speaker 1: taking care of my mom. But my niece is a
Speaker 1: girl that's home, so she's like, I don't want to
Speaker 1: talk to him about certain things. So scholar Skylar, Skylar,
Speaker 1: and and of course my niece got in there and
Speaker 1: did a good job. But after a while her own friends, like,
Speaker 1: what happens to your life? You become grandma and Grandpa's
Speaker 1: best buddy. It's very crazy because for me, like school
Speaker 1: is such an intricate part of childhood. You know, when
Speaker 1: you think about all of the most important things that
Speaker 1: happened you especially do from grade school through high school,
Speaker 1: it's it happened in school. Yeah, but you know the
Speaker 1: first argument you had in third grade, the first girl
Speaker 1: you liked that was in your class, you know, all
Speaker 1: of the things social factors. Really, so when I when
Speaker 1: I'm looking at my sons who are seven and nine
Speaker 1: years old, in this whole year they were in the school,
Speaker 1: and what they did was, you know, go straight to
Speaker 1: this computer and play these games all day and started
Speaker 1: losing social skills. Had to turn it office. And when
Speaker 1: we're going outside, you're gonna do something outside in the park,
Speaker 1: you know. So just definitely understand in the groove. But
Speaker 1: are they having mental health issues or so? This is
Speaker 1: when sensitivity comes in. Right, So there's been a great
Speaker 1: push around the social emotional learning supports. Right, So where
Speaker 1: do you do in the child's in crisis? Right? Because remember,
Speaker 1: for some children coming back it's darring. And if you
Speaker 1: were let's say you were remote, maybe you're coming back
Speaker 1: in person, which is cool on one hand, But the
Speaker 1: teachers who you may have remotely, you may not have
Speaker 1: in person because teachers also have different accommodations. Some people
Speaker 1: have health measures that they're considering. Me. Well, six hundred
Speaker 1: thousand people died almost now some of them is because
Speaker 1: of the actual virus and other parts if it is
Speaker 1: because of the care that we should have been yet
Speaker 1: lack thereof, right, So let's be clear about that, because
Speaker 1: I'm you know, really like the numbers. We understand six
Speaker 1: hundred thousand people were impacted and they died. But some
Speaker 1: of it is because the systems are failing. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: and that is where schools get to say, when you
Speaker 1: see a child in crisis, who are you? And that.
Speaker 1: So there's been a lot of effort around training. So
Speaker 1: we're doing things like yoga and mindfulness training. So we
Speaker 1: have a program of I'm I'm a shout in New York.
Speaker 1: Cite from me. We have the Yoga and Mindfulness Teacher
Speaker 1: Preparation Program And in that program where we've done is
Speaker 1: take educators and initially, to be honest, it was about
Speaker 1: fort really trying to conserve money because schools are spending
Speaker 1: a lot of money on vendors. So we wanted to
Speaker 1: have teachers within our school system certified and trained in
Speaker 1: yoga and mindfulness. And I cannot tell you we finished
Speaker 1: our first cohord, which was Cohorn zero last January and
Speaker 1: talk about it. I was a part of that cohort.
Speaker 1: Timeliness was everything because to be able to go into
Speaker 1: meetings now and let's start off with a mindfulness meditation.
Speaker 1: Let's do the six movements of the spine so you
Speaker 1: can move right and bringing that two schools has been transformative.
Speaker 1: So the childhood was in crisis, let me work with
Speaker 1: you on deep breathing, let me calm you down, let
Speaker 1: me let you see that your agency still lives with
Speaker 1: inside of you and that you're not You're not a
Speaker 1: product of what you've gone through, but you're a possibility.
Speaker 1: So that is that's been the work, and you know,
Speaker 1: making sure again that the teachers and the leaders are
Speaker 1: well positioned to think that way because if you are
Speaker 1: in crisis, just because the adults are in crisis, some
Speaker 1: of them right talk right. So making sure that there
Speaker 1: is a wellness on the adult spectrum also can help
Speaker 1: mirror would have happened. So that that's a one example
Speaker 1: the yoga in mindfulness work. UM. There's also been a
Speaker 1: lot of supports within the school culture and climate division
Speaker 1: around what happens when UH teachers are trained within different
Speaker 1: modalities around social emotional wellness. Right, So that could look
Speaker 1: like the breath that could look like movement, that could
Speaker 1: look like how you organize your class right, because sometimes
Speaker 1: you know, you walk into a classroom where there's social
Speaker 1: distancing going on, right, everybody's coming at you in a mask.
Speaker 1: You know you can't You're there with your friends, but
Speaker 1: you don't see them like you're student. You can't connect
Speaker 1: with them at lunch stopes dynamics. Let me ask you
Speaker 1: this last question because we were unfortunately we have more
Speaker 1: guests than usual today talking about this COVID crisis and education,
Speaker 1: and I want to get to this one point. They
Speaker 1: say we're losing a year, that our students will lose
Speaker 1: a year. So as someone who I'm sure you're working
Speaker 1: with teachers all across the country, you guys are parts
Speaker 1: of different groups that talk about this stuff. What are
Speaker 1: we missing? What do parents need to know and how
Speaker 1: can they help their children to get this year back.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's been you're on the pulse right, tell
Speaker 1: me where my child is and how they're performing. It's
Speaker 1: really we got to get some baseline assessments where our
Speaker 1: children as readers, where our children as writers, as mathematicians.
Speaker 1: Help me understand where they are right because because for
Speaker 1: some children, they thrived in this arena of remote learning,
Speaker 1: like oh this is I'm I'm more Some kids are
Speaker 1: more on point now than when they have to go
Speaker 1: in personally. Maybe maybe in person whose it was a
Speaker 1: long community to get there. But now I can turn
Speaker 1: our computer and be excellent. Right, So there's that which
Speaker 1: whether the bottom line is tell me where my child
Speaker 1: is and so the assessments that get done, so you
Speaker 1: can you can say your child is level and reading,
Speaker 1: your child is doing this in math. And then the
Speaker 1: connected point that you mentioned earlier my song, right, the
Speaker 1: idea I'm a connected parents, I am still even though
Speaker 1: I might be remote, even though you might be going
Speaker 1: back and things just shifting over these next couple of
Speaker 1: weeks until we get to the end of the school year,
Speaker 1: because this teacher might be different and so forth. Tell
Speaker 1: me what you're working on, Be curious about where my
Speaker 1: your child is in terms of what's expected from the
Speaker 1: teachers and so forth. So that way you, you too
Speaker 1: have your finger on the post to help guide from
Speaker 1: the home, and that's how the homeschool connection gets strengthened
Speaker 1: as well. We really thank you you got to come back.
Speaker 1: We ain't have enough time, but we just want to
Speaker 1: thank you for what you're doing and continue, thank you
Speaker 1: all for taking our kids because when this remote learning
Speaker 1: himself for us having to do it ourselves is driving
Speaker 1: me in saying daddy, school was okay, but it was
Speaker 1: driving me. I needed some more time off and the
Speaker 1: little breaks there wasn't enough. So we wanted to says
Speaker 1: on that we are with you and that's why we
Speaker 1: have to make sure that our priorities to reopen school
Speaker 1: so across the country of seeing that, I hope people
Speaker 1: are experiencing that and benefiting. Thank you so much a
Speaker 1: Dr Maury. We appreciate you so much and we can't
Speaker 1: wait to have you back to talk more and and
Speaker 1: really and tell us about the progress. Ye yeah, these
Speaker 1: parents come up to an advocate for a job, right
Speaker 1: and we need we need community building, rebuilding to bring
Speaker 1: our children up to speed because they're not going to
Speaker 1: be able to compete on the global right. That's right.
Speaker 1: You have to write on that right. Enough of our
Speaker 1: children being marginalized as not being able to our children
Speaker 1: are more than capable. And what's your position in that way?
Speaker 1: Well you should Dr Murray. You need to teach me
Speaker 1: and my child, teach me, teach thank you before we
Speaker 1: go to the next segment and have our special guests joined.
Speaker 1: We're gonna take a quick break for our sponsors that
Speaker 1: we are so keeping up with our theme about COVID
Speaker 1: and his effect on our schools. We have another guest
Speaker 1: and we have msr abdu Selim Hassan. He is the
Speaker 1: Superintendent of Schools for the East Orange, New Jersey School
Speaker 1: District and the former Assistant Commissioner for the State of
Speaker 1: New Jersey. How you doing today, my brother? How are
Speaker 1: you doing, sir? It's it's great to be here with
Speaker 1: you two. Last year has been really tough. You know,
Speaker 1: my kids go to school in Jersey, so I understand
Speaker 1: a lot that's going on in there. Can you give
Speaker 1: us like some updates our kids back in school? Fully,
Speaker 1: what's going on in Jersey? Well, first again, I want
Speaker 1: to just thank you too for the work that you
Speaker 1: both do out in the community and uh you know,
Speaker 1: I just can't thank you enough for addressing the real
Speaker 1: needs of our community. Um as. You know that you know,
Speaker 1: all school districts are totally impacted by this pandemic uh
Speaker 1: in COVID and when it comes to our families, um
Speaker 1: et cetera. Um As you have previously stated. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm the superintendent of Eastern School District and the former
Speaker 1: assistant commissioner of New Jersey Department of Education, which oversees
Speaker 1: all the superintendents in the state of New Jersey. UM.
Speaker 1: With that being said, we wrote the book the Menu
Speaker 1: in conjunction with other stateholds around the country. When it
Speaker 1: came to reopening, currently, I am reopened. I opened on
Speaker 1: April the nineteenth, and it is some things that impact
Speaker 1: of the urban community. So we may not have opened
Speaker 1: like some of the suburban community because of certain issues
Speaker 1: and concerns that that that is transparent of that we
Speaker 1: can address when it comes to equities of servety communities
Speaker 1: versus rural communities and urban communities of our needs. So
Speaker 1: it took us a while to get it open. Um,
Speaker 1: we got it done, and we got it done in
Speaker 1: a safe manner. And that's always my goal as the
Speaker 1: superintendent to protect the students, the families and the community stakeholders.
Speaker 1: And it was all a partnership between our mayor, UM,
Speaker 1: the local health department, and the school district and you know,
Speaker 1: of course our elected officials. So what could I ask
Speaker 1: a quick question, what do you think are some of
Speaker 1: the issues that affected black and brown communities that didn't
Speaker 1: affect the other comunities that you know first and primary
Speaker 1: and you heard it all over the country. It was
Speaker 1: the digital divide impact to our community because unlike suburban communities,
Speaker 1: they could just go out in the schools or parents
Speaker 1: could just go by three d all chromebook for a student.
Speaker 1: But when it comes to these large school districts, large
Speaker 1: school districts like North having thirty something students or my
Speaker 1: district having ten thousand plus students, when you're talking about
Speaker 1: buying chromebooks for a whole school district is a whole
Speaker 1: different a vision, and it takes funds to do that
Speaker 1: when you project your budget year to year. So right currently,
Speaker 1: when you're in COVID, you don't have the budget to
Speaker 1: go by that volume of computers. But thank thank you
Speaker 1: to the Cares Act and all the support from the
Speaker 1: federal government and local government. We were able to achieve that.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't on the on set of July. You know,
Speaker 1: we lie we were supposed to open up. All of
Speaker 1: us were always planning. So when we got to September,
Speaker 1: many school districts didn't have the adequate computers because like
Speaker 1: the things that go over overseas when it comes to China,
Speaker 1: they weren't able to send the computers over to us
Speaker 1: in the ways that they usually send computers. So all
Speaker 1: of us were in the deficit a waiting for computers
Speaker 1: with impact, which impacted the readings of schools. So when
Speaker 1: you're sending kids home from a brick and mortar which
Speaker 1: you're used to going to school every day, to an
Speaker 1: online platform. You can't have an online platform if you
Speaker 1: don't have a computer, and if you don't have a computer,
Speaker 1: you can't log into a learning management system to get
Speaker 1: inside of a classroom. But were I'm sorry and we
Speaker 1: heard you know, one of the um one of the
Speaker 1: other educators who was on with us earlier was speaking
Speaker 1: to you know, not being able to share computers because
Speaker 1: that was the thing in a lot of households that
Speaker 1: they were being or asked to or had no choice
Speaker 1: but to share devices and that doesn't work. Yes, you're
Speaker 1: absolutely correct. And if you think about when kids are
Speaker 1: home and it would be on the online platform, that
Speaker 1: could if the computers with one student or one family member,
Speaker 1: what is the other family members doing when they're supposed
Speaker 1: to be classes, so we were able to accommodate our
Speaker 1: students and three students and the three family members of
Speaker 1: the house. We were able to give them all devices.
Speaker 1: Not only are devices a conversation, it's also a WiFi
Speaker 1: conversation of WiFi. So that is an issue too in
Speaker 1: the urban community because we're buying all these new devices,
Speaker 1: all these new chrome books, new dells, they're pulling more
Speaker 1: sprint from the wifis, Everybody Networks which called some of
Speaker 1: the places the city wifis and moved slow, as well
Speaker 1: as the infrastructure inside the school district on the hybrid.
Speaker 1: So it's a lot of conversations that we didn't always see,
Speaker 1: of course, doing doing the pandemic that we had to
Speaker 1: address and become reactionary too. And I experienced that, you know,
Speaker 1: do having to do zoom meetings and calls and having
Speaker 1: two children that are on two separate computers just completely
Speaker 1: taking up the WiFi and and everything is pausing and
Speaker 1: it's just not really working. So you know, I'm understand
Speaker 1: that was a real challenge for us. Who were you know,
Speaker 1: parents dealing with remote learning. But since children have been
Speaker 1: back in school, what do you think us some of
Speaker 1: the major steps that you've taken to help them reacclimate
Speaker 1: to school and keep them healthy at the same time,
Speaker 1: my son, that's a good question, my brother, and and
Speaker 1: some of that area is that we know that our
Speaker 1: students as well as the community has experienced real trauma
Speaker 1: during this pandemic. So the first thing we gotta do
Speaker 1: is address social emotional learning to get them back into
Speaker 1: the mindset of learning UM though, because we know, and
Speaker 1: you've heard it all through the news, that the whole
Speaker 1: country is being impacted with the learning laws by far.
Speaker 1: So if we hear that the suburban community is impacted
Speaker 1: by learning laws, rural communities are impacted by learning laws,
Speaker 1: you can only imagine the impacts the urban community because
Speaker 1: when it comes to assessments using our assessment scores a
Speaker 1: lot like the suburban communities, so that learning laws is
Speaker 1: significant in our communities. So what we're doing in our
Speaker 1: community is really focusing on UM after school enrichment online
Speaker 1: platforms as well as focused on summer enrichment for our
Speaker 1: students in person full day, because a lot of times
Speaker 1: when you look at summer school for peopleho have kids,
Speaker 1: a lot of times just half a day, and then
Speaker 1: you gotta figure out what you're gonna do. So we
Speaker 1: want to give some academics and also address on social
Speaker 1: emotional learning, doing that summer enrichment, so we can we
Speaker 1: bring our kids back in September that they're straight and
Speaker 1: they're ready to go to school. And is there a
Speaker 1: plan to have actual summer school, not just in in
Speaker 1: New Jersey that you know of, but across the country.
Speaker 1: Are you hearing this idea of having instituting summer school
Speaker 1: to try to catch up. We've been talking on this
Speaker 1: show today about this one year gap, uh that you know,
Speaker 1: the studies are saying and we're here on the meet
Speaker 1: and then that is that our kids are going to
Speaker 1: lose one year. Black kids, particularly black and brown kids,
Speaker 1: in comparison to the few months that white kids who
Speaker 1: live in suburban communities or children who are are more
Speaker 1: well off, Um, it won't be as bad. So do
Speaker 1: you think summer school is what needs to be instituted?
Speaker 1: Do you think that there also needs to be a
Speaker 1: curriculum that the parents have at their disposal to work
Speaker 1: with their kids over the summer. I think, Mallory, I
Speaker 1: think that's the great point that you're talking about right now.
Speaker 1: It is definitely needed um, the enrichment and from what
Speaker 1: area that it that students needed. I'm open up my
Speaker 1: summer school for pre k to twelve for all great um,
Speaker 1: full day for all students. UM. I did work it out.
Speaker 1: How are you gonna pay for it? And that's the beautiful,
Speaker 1: great question. I'm very thankful that the federal government gave us,
Speaker 1: like we talked about earlier, the CARES funding. Some of
Speaker 1: the CARE funding is broken down in specific areas where
Speaker 1: you have to use it, and part of the money
Speaker 1: is used for summer enrichment or learning laws. All our
Speaker 1: money for that learning laws also to I'm very thankful
Speaker 1: that the federal government as well as our state government
Speaker 1: gave us some money to also address trauma and mental
Speaker 1: health and not only just for the student, but also
Speaker 1: for the staff. So the last thing I just want
Speaker 1: to ask, um is what are we missing as a community?
Speaker 1: What are we missing? What is it that you feel
Speaker 1: like it's something that the entire community, educators, parents or
Speaker 1: not can be want to help our kids. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm always and I see you do it all the time.
Speaker 1: Advocacy is keys key and we need to continue to
Speaker 1: advocate for our rights, our citizen rights. And I'm talking
Speaker 1: about being very transparent with that conversation. And sometimes when
Speaker 1: you go to certain key stakeholders, you may think you
Speaker 1: don't have rights, but you do have rights. So we
Speaker 1: have to really, like they say, a squeaky whiells gets
Speaker 1: get the attention. We got to continue to be that
Speaker 1: squeaky will to get what is needed for our communities
Speaker 1: and advocate for our rights. So I always tell parents, advocate,
Speaker 1: advocate to your local elected officials to get your just
Speaker 1: do to make sure your students and your stakeholders get
Speaker 1: what they need. The other thing is too we want
Speaker 1: to make sure that we're taking care of facilities because
Speaker 1: you know COVID was all the ages back concerns. We
Speaker 1: want to make sure not only do we comply with
Speaker 1: CDC guidelines, but we want to make sure our schools
Speaker 1: look like the schools and the suburbs just like any
Speaker 1: other school, college campuses, all the landscape being all when
Speaker 1: you going to malls in different places where they hire
Speaker 1: extra staff to white down peop. Want to make sure
Speaker 1: we have we provide all the resources the other communities have.
Speaker 1: We want that in urban distries as well. Can I
Speaker 1: just want to end on this question, because this is
Speaker 1: very important. I was a student athlete, you know, and
Speaker 1: a lot of these children are going to school with
Speaker 1: athletic you know, abilities, and they missed the whole year.
Speaker 1: Like if you if you're a junior or you're a
Speaker 1: senior and this was your last year and you're playing
Speaker 1: basketball and you were hoping to get scholarships, like this
Speaker 1: is very serious. So is there some type of plan
Speaker 1: implemented because a lot especially black and brown communities, we
Speaker 1: we don't have a lot of finances and a lot
Speaker 1: of us are looking for scholarships and looking to be seen.
Speaker 1: And a lot of people have missed whole years of
Speaker 1: sports that have put their whole life parments, have invested
Speaker 1: pretty much their whole um career and their whole education
Speaker 1: for these kids to this, you know, to be able
Speaker 1: to play these sports. So is there any process or
Speaker 1: something being put in to make sure that these kids
Speaker 1: still have opportunities? My brother, again, great question, and and
Speaker 1: we were able to to have sports and curcriculine activities
Speaker 1: doing COVID. Our basketball team went nine and two. How
Speaker 1: we had to address the COVID uh CDC compliance guidelines.
Speaker 1: Our football team had a season, our girls volleyball team
Speaker 1: had DFCAS and we got boys volleyball and you know,
Speaker 1: very thankful to the New York Jets that they sponsored
Speaker 1: in addition girls flack football. So it's a couple of
Speaker 1: school districents that gotten into that. So the kids have
Speaker 1: been playing sports. The cheerleaders have been doing there on
Speaker 1: the air part, but we also had to address anything
Speaker 1: that dealt with positive contact racing with that and it
Speaker 1: was very limited, but that did impact some of the season. Um,
Speaker 1: but it's been fine. The kids are attending extracurriculum activities
Speaker 1: and also to we've been able to get some of
Speaker 1: our kids in to do social justice activities definitely starts
Speaker 1: campus high school, so they've been doing amazing stuff. Mayor
Speaker 1: has also put out a murder for Black Lives Matter,
Speaker 1: so we're you know, we're addressing these things because we
Speaker 1: have to. We have to also understand they're doing this pandemic.
Speaker 1: We also had another current going on Lives Matter, and
Speaker 1: our kids are very impacted by that because even though
Speaker 1: we see and other communities sat our family members or
Speaker 1: their family members being assaulted or sometimes death, but it
Speaker 1: also happened in these communities too, and it's not in
Speaker 1: the newspaper. So our kids are very impacted by this,
Speaker 1: and to see that type of energy on the news
Speaker 1: for weeks and weeks and weeks with COVID, that tour
Speaker 1: into the mental health of our students as well. And
Speaker 1: when you when you when you look at those who
Speaker 1: have who have lost their lives from George Floyd, Brianna
Speaker 1: Taylor on My Arm Break and Dante Right and many others,
Speaker 1: this is not over the work. So that level of advocacy.
Speaker 1: I always appreciate YouTube for the love of advocacy you do,
Speaker 1: but our students are doing it as well. Well, thank you.
Speaker 1: This was a joke show. It was very I learned
Speaker 1: a lot. Man. We talked to educators from our communities,
Speaker 1: educating our children, talking about how these disparities impact our children.
Speaker 1: So you know, it was really dope. UM. Excellent guests, uh,
Speaker 1: politicians because the number one show that's that in the
Speaker 1: world in the world's um. But also because we get
Speaker 1: to bring the type of content that we want to see. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what we always Yeah, we get to bring the
Speaker 1: people we wanted because a lot of people have to
Speaker 1: bring who they should bring, and you know, we want
Speaker 1: to bring people who need to be highlighted. Building from
Speaker 1: the pH we want to give your roses. Now, we
Speaker 1: want to elevate you before the world see we we
Speaker 1: had to see this town really making change. A lot
Speaker 1: of shows are built around what big celebrity you're gonna
Speaker 1: have on And not to say that we won't have
Speaker 1: those people at different times. We've had a number because
Speaker 1: we've got friends that we've had a number of people.
Speaker 1: But I like the fact that we're not We're staying
Speaker 1: true to who we are, and that is that you know,
Speaker 1: our celebrity friends, they're our friends. They're not celebrities, they
Speaker 1: are friends, you know what I'm saying. So when we
Speaker 1: bring them on, it's because something impacting the world as well.
Speaker 1: But there are so many people to your point, that
Speaker 1: need their flowers, and especially I really and they need
Speaker 1: to be highlighted before you know. They need somebody to
Speaker 1: see them and help them along the way, not just
Speaker 1: get them when they already made it. Hey now you
Speaker 1: know that ain't a word, but you know. And then,
Speaker 1: and I also think that we should every three months
Speaker 1: at least check in with professionals about what's happening in
Speaker 1: education because guess what, everything else we're talking about every
Speaker 1: day we have you know, every week we have different
Speaker 1: shows with different content. That's important, But how our students
Speaker 1: get re acclimated to the educational system, it's probably one
Speaker 1: of the most important things we could ever cover, especially
Speaker 1: in our communities, which brings me to my I don't
Speaker 1: get you don't get it? What don't you get? You know,
Speaker 1: there's been a lot of things lately, like we've been
Speaker 1: overwhelmed with police brutality and you know, and losing lives
Speaker 1: at the hands of police, and just so many differ
Speaker 1: front disparities that black and brown people are dealing with
Speaker 1: in this community, in the world period. And to see
Speaker 1: black leaders and you know, politicians actually say that America
Speaker 1: is not a racist country is some ship that I
Speaker 1: don't get at all. How do you build the found
Speaker 1: when you build something on racism? It was built this
Speaker 1: America was built on racist slaves were brought here and
Speaker 1: built this country enslaved people. People were enslaved and brought here,
Speaker 1: and those people built this country brick by bricka. So
Speaker 1: the foundation of America is racist, right, And then you
Speaker 1: look right now, we still have a structure of white
Speaker 1: supremacy that functions and profits off racism. It profits of
Speaker 1: keeping marginalized communities more arginalized, the profits on the backs
Speaker 1: of imprisoned black and brown people who are the people
Speaker 1: who they's enslaved in this country. So when you have
Speaker 1: black people who I've actually and obviously know that, to
Speaker 1: utilize their voices and platforms to say that America is
Speaker 1: not a racist country, I just don't get it. It's
Speaker 1: not even genuine, it's not real. What happens is you
Speaker 1: make our people lose faith in you. And that's just
Speaker 1: a fact. And no matter how much you want to
Speaker 1: support and how much you respect some of the things
Speaker 1: that people have done, when you say things like that,
Speaker 1: you lose credibility. It's hard enough for us to get
Speaker 1: people to buy into this system at all. You know,
Speaker 1: it's hard, and you want and you want things. You
Speaker 1: want people to be successful. You want our vice president
Speaker 1: to be successful. You you you love that they would
Speaker 1: actually be able to help our career, be able to
Speaker 1: help out community. So we don't want them to fail.
Speaker 1: So exactly America is built on racis him. That's not
Speaker 1: something that the whitest white person can tell you that.
Speaker 1: You know, So when you, as a black man who've
Speaker 1: experienced a black woman who've experienced racism say that it's
Speaker 1: not it's just like, it's not even genuine if people
Speaker 1: experienced racist people, but they're not, they're they're they're they're
Speaker 1: attempting to separate the country from them. Okay, but that's
Speaker 1: not true because what Kamala said was like actually oxymona
Speaker 1: because she's the country from the people. We'll listen to
Speaker 1: what she said. She said, I don't believe that America
Speaker 1: is a racist country, but we have to be honest
Speaker 1: about the history of racism in this country and then
Speaker 1: talk about racism in this country now. But if you're
Speaker 1: honest about the history of racism in this country, then
Speaker 1: we realized that this country was built with both racism.
Speaker 1: And if we're honest about the present state of racism
Speaker 1: in this country, then we honestly know that racism still
Speaker 1: is one of the major factors of this country. So
Speaker 1: if it was built on it and it's still flourishing today,
Speaker 1: then America is a racist country. But this is what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, what she is attempting to do, right, which
Speaker 1: is unfortunate because they're following someone like Tim Scott, who
Speaker 1: met exactly what she said and how he said it right,
Speaker 1: He ain't no uncle of mine, And I get that
Speaker 1: you're making a funny reference, but no, he's actually not,
Speaker 1: because while Tim Scott has actually been a part of
Speaker 1: a few very progressive things like mass incarceration, dealing with
Speaker 1: trying to end mass incarceration, he's been involved in opportunity
Speaker 1: zones and a few other things that have been sort
Speaker 1: of I just I've never seen. My thing is this
Speaker 1: Tim Scott is one of those black people, right who
Speaker 1: just tipped the icebergs point. Let me just finish my point.
Speaker 1: When I say involved, I'm saying that there are he's
Speaker 1: at tables as a part of a group of people,
Speaker 1: a group of Republicans and others who have sat down
Speaker 1: together with Democrats and said we're gonna work on these things.
Speaker 1: And so my point is that he tries to use
Speaker 1: that as a way of showing that I'm in solidarity
Speaker 1: with my community, when in fact he supports a party
Speaker 1: and is used often as a token to speak against
Speaker 1: what black people the majority of us feel and say
Speaker 1: and think and what we are experiencing. So I don't
Speaker 1: play around with him. He usually guts most of the
Speaker 1: major things that we need in our community. He tries.
Speaker 1: That's his major focuses every time. He said, yeah, we'll
Speaker 1: give you this, but you's you don't need the parts
Speaker 1: that are actually the most powerful. And so of course,
Speaker 1: and and my point wasn't that he's done anything great.
Speaker 1: I'm saying that he's been a part of a number
Speaker 1: of caucuses, if you will, have addressed certain issues, but
Speaker 1: yet and still none of it it's operating in the
Speaker 1: ways that it needs to. Because if you don't believe
Speaker 1: that America is racist, you can't possibly pass legislation that
Speaker 1: addresses institutional and systemic racism in this nation. So Tim Scott,
Speaker 1: I don't even talk about him much. That's my only
Speaker 1: thing I have to say about that. I voted for
Speaker 1: Kamala Harris. So that's why I want to talk about right,
Speaker 1: and that's why I voted so I can have the
Speaker 1: right to talk about all the time. When you vote
Speaker 1: for somebody, then you get the call them out and said,
Speaker 1: oh no, this is bullshit. So and we love you,
Speaker 1: but this is a bullshit and we're gonna make sure
Speaker 1: you get it right. We're gonna shoot you down because
Speaker 1: we voted for you, and my vote counts, and I
Speaker 1: need you to hear what I'm saying, because you can't
Speaker 1: get this vote again if you don't hear what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: As Vice President, you know, I have a great deal
Speaker 1: of respect for Kamala Harris, for Vice President Kamala Harris,
Speaker 1: but I still know and understand that she and Congressman
Speaker 1: Jim Clive Born, who I also have a great amount
Speaker 1: of respect for, they are part of the institution. They
Speaker 1: are a part of a group of people who would
Speaker 1: like to believe that they can, which makes me so angry.
Speaker 1: And it's one of the biggest things that I was
Speaker 1: upset about with Congressman Clyburne in terms of defunding the police,
Speaker 1: when they try to make it seem as if because
Speaker 1: certain candidates even support or or even cool with people
Speaker 1: who support defunding the police, that that's why they were
Speaker 1: they either lost their election or why they were struggling.
Speaker 1: And we know that it's not accurate because look at
Speaker 1: someone like Corey Bush, who Congresswoman Corey Bush, who won
Speaker 1: based upon the fact that she was down ten toes
Speaker 1: down defund the police. Same with AOC, same with ilhan Omar,
Speaker 1: and the list goes on and on and on. Okay,
Speaker 1: so it's not true because the problem is again, being
Speaker 1: a part of the institution is that they want and
Speaker 1: and of course you can't really become vice president without
Speaker 1: supporting and being a part of this, you know, the system,
Speaker 1: this this whole thing, and and and what they are
Speaker 1: trying to do, what they are attempting to do, is
Speaker 1: to win over people who do not like us. They
Speaker 1: don't work with us, they don't care about our issues,
Speaker 1: They are not they don't support you. They don't, they
Speaker 1: do not. And I understand the whole like, well, there
Speaker 1: are other black and brown progressives who also don't like
Speaker 1: the language defund the police. They may not, but I
Speaker 1: tell you one thing, they will not vote against you
Speaker 1: because of it. Those people will not. They the ones
Speaker 1: who will vote against you are the same people who've
Speaker 1: been voting against you. But those who say, well, I
Speaker 1: am progressive and I support the movement, they might say
Speaker 1: they don't like the language defund the police, but they
Speaker 1: are not about to say, well, that's a deal breaker,
Speaker 1: and I don't support you as a result of it.
Speaker 1: So when you sit and try to equivocate or you know,
Speaker 1: you try to find a way to maneuver certain things,
Speaker 1: and we've all been in those situations when you get
Speaker 1: asked questions that require you to speak to things that
Speaker 1: you know can be problematic. The next day you know
Speaker 1: it and you're trying to maneuver your response. What happens
Speaker 1: is you lose so many people. And the reason why
Speaker 1: we know this is because there are other elected officials
Speaker 1: who will one hundred percent say that this is a
Speaker 1: racist country. To your point, when the institutions are racists,
Speaker 1: the country is racist unless because now the representation of
Speaker 1: our country that's Joe Biden, President Biden and Vice President Harris.
Speaker 1: You can change it. That's right. You have the opportunity
Speaker 1: to change it. And I say all the time you
Speaker 1: must change it. Like you have to be low to
Speaker 1: your constituents, you have to be loyal to the voters,
Speaker 1: the people who got you in. You know this trying
Speaker 1: to play the middle, it's not really going to work.
Speaker 1: You know, when you ask questions that you know are
Speaker 1: going to negatively affect your base, the people who actually
Speaker 1: support you, and you sacrifice your base to try to
Speaker 1: get support from people who never supported you. It's not
Speaker 1: a winning strategy. It has never worked. It's not going
Speaker 1: to work. It never will work. It is not a
Speaker 1: winning strategy. So what I say is this everybody who's
Speaker 1: on my on my Instagram saying, well, y'all voted for Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is what you get. Yes, you're a hundred percent right.
Speaker 1: I voted for her, And when I voted, I told
Speaker 1: you I was gonna call everybody out every time they
Speaker 1: didn't do something that made sense to our communities because
Speaker 1: we voted them in. And everybody who voted this administration
Speaker 1: and has the right to challenge them to tell them
Speaker 1: that they're wrong, to call them out every time. So
Speaker 1: that's why that's why we voted for them, because we
Speaker 1: want them to understand that they have to be loyal
Speaker 1: to us. Nobody is perfect. There's no such thing as
Speaker 1: a perfec leader. I know that the last administration had
Speaker 1: to get the hell out of it. They were actual
Speaker 1: white supremacists. People were running up the side of the wall,
Speaker 1: killing people and hanging nooses on the state capital property.
Speaker 1: So you know, you pick your poison. Of course, we
Speaker 1: understand that these people are not perfect, Like you said,
Speaker 1: we understand that the structure of this country is exactly
Speaker 1: the racist structure that that I'm sure Vice President Harris
Speaker 1: is working within and learning even more at When she
Speaker 1: was a senator, she knew it, but now that she's
Speaker 1: vice president, she damn sure knows that this country is
Speaker 1: dangerously oppressive and it's it's racist at the core, and
Speaker 1: maybe for whatever reason. And I understand the hope and
Speaker 1: vision of well the country meaning that all the people
Speaker 1: here are not racist, but that nobody was talking about
Speaker 1: the people. People are talking about the country and the
Speaker 1: the institution. That's what we're talking about. And if you
Speaker 1: want to make the distinction, what she should have said,
Speaker 1: in my opinion is that American the American people are
Speaker 1: not overall racist, but America's institutions are definitely racist and
Speaker 1: must be changed and listen, would be and that she
Speaker 1: would have said that with people, I'm gonna go when
Speaker 1: you say that, I'm gonna go to war with you, man, Listen.
Speaker 1: The bottom line for me is if you tell the truth,
Speaker 1: you're gonna shame the devil. And with that said, I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna always be right. Tamikad Mallory is not gonna
Speaker 1: always be wrong. Most of the time. She probably will
Speaker 1: and I'll be right, but we both always and I
Speaker 1: mean always be authentic. We got a few days go.
Speaker 1: Pre ordered my book, Shameless Plug, State of Emergency, State
Speaker 1: of Emergency, Salute number one Podcast. Thanks for joining stuff.
Speaker 1: Let us know if you've got something you want to head.
Speaker 1: You've got some topics we hit. We hit number one,
Speaker 1: We number one, We number one. Dude good. That's how
Speaker 1: we owed it. That's how we owed it. That's how
Speaker 1: we owned it. That's how we ow That's how we
Speaker 1: owed it.