Speaker 1: Yet you know boys is back and redod it all
Speaker 1: in your mind.
Speaker 2: Yeah, now deep throating.
Speaker 1: This is for the streets, the real, the railroading, the disenfranchised,
Speaker 1: the truth escapegoating, and they ain't know where we speak
Speaker 1: the truth, so they quoted because we wrote it.
Speaker 2: The North South East coaches the gie be mocked for
Speaker 2: keeping your head, Bobby, it ain't no.
Speaker 1: Stopping and wants to be drops head by then the
Speaker 1: system is so corrupt they threw the rock out their
Speaker 1: heads and then blame it on us.
Speaker 2: Don't get it twisted on coding. We danced it for
Speaker 2: no butterment biscuits. It's Willie d y'all ghetto Boys in
Speaker 2: the house back with another episode of information and instructions
Speaker 2: to help you navigate through this wild, crazy, beautiful world.
Speaker 2: In the studio, the Progressive councilman for the culture. He's
Speaker 2: also aiming to become Georgia's nace next state representative in
Speaker 2: District sixty eight. Doctor Mark Baker's in the building. Fam,
Speaker 2: Thanks so much, Thanks so much, man, I appreciate you
Speaker 2: for having me say. Man, I'm gonna tell you something.
Speaker 2: You are the type of person that we need as
Speaker 2: a catalyst for change. You've been on the street, You've
Speaker 2: been on the ground. You come from the streets. You
Speaker 2: come from where I come from. You come from a
Speaker 2: place where a lot of brothers who need your assistance
Speaker 2: and guidance come from. Why is it so important for
Speaker 2: you to fight for the you know, the everyday man
Speaker 2: and woman man. This is one of those things whereas
Speaker 2: like I'm really still fighting for myself, you know, huh.
Speaker 2: You know It's like I have family, you know, who
Speaker 2: are a part of this struggle. You know, brothers and
Speaker 2: sisters of the struggle in general is real. You know,
Speaker 2: have a cousin who's with me almost every day. He
Speaker 2: just did twenty three years. He's home, can't find a job.
Speaker 2: You know, I have this real you know, and I
Speaker 2: think that, uh, if one of us have an opportunity
Speaker 2: to step out, we can't break our arms patting ourselves
Speaker 2: on the back, you know, saying I might I made it.
Speaker 2: I got mine, you got yours to get. That's not
Speaker 2: how I'm built. That's not how I was taught. That's
Speaker 2: not how I was raised. Uh, anywhere that I've been,
Speaker 2: whether it was you know, through organizations I was affiliated with,
Speaker 2: you know, positive you know, no matter how people view them.
Speaker 2: Like nowhere that I've been, no influences that I've had
Speaker 2: have ever led me to believe that it's all on me.
Speaker 2: And when I'm good money every you know, I could
Speaker 2: just keep it moving. So it's just it's just was natural. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you let's talk about this position that you're running from. Uh,
Speaker 2: you're running for state represent I said, running from. You
Speaker 2: may be running for running from after you get in
Speaker 2: there and you with all the wolves that in now
Speaker 2: that's trying to hold the people back intentionally. But you're
Speaker 2: you're running for Georgia State Representative District sixty eight. This
Speaker 2: is a special election U that was brought about with
Speaker 2: the untimely death of Representative Ties. Right, And at what
Speaker 2: point did you know that you wanted to run for
Speaker 2: office in the first place? You know, as far as
Speaker 2: like not not not you got your you got your
Speaker 2: You made your bones as a city councilman in South
Speaker 2: South Forida, Right, but when you decided at what point
Speaker 2: that you want to go to the next level with
Speaker 2: the state rep and run for that? Man? I was
Speaker 2: at boxing with my son, a fifteen year old you know,
Speaker 2: shout out MJ. Mar Jr. And Marley but my son,
Speaker 2: he was boxing, and I got a call from a neighbor,
Speaker 2: you know, miss in the jinking. She's like, Mark, I
Speaker 2: don't know what you're doing right now, but we need
Speaker 2: you in this seat. We really loved Tish and she
Speaker 2: did a great job, but we just can't go back
Speaker 2: to not having somebody who really genuinely cares about us.
Speaker 2: And I was like, miss Brenda, can I just call
Speaker 2: you once I get out of this boxing. We got
Speaker 2: out and we spoke at great length, and I just
Speaker 2: didn't feel comfortable until, you know, after everything was over,
Speaker 2: at least a funeral, because people were really calling, and
Speaker 2: you know, she was just one you know, other people called.
Speaker 2: You know, I had a call from the mayor. Everybody
Speaker 2: was just calling accent because they knew I lived in
Speaker 2: the district and they got done too. Yeah. Yeah, And
Speaker 2: it was one of those things that, you know, after Council,
Speaker 2: I literally ran for Congress. I ran for Congress because
Speaker 2: of my legislation that I passed and I wanted it
Speaker 2: to become infectious. But it was one of those things
Speaker 2: that like, I love our city South full toon. You know,
Speaker 2: I can call myself, you know, one of the founding
Speaker 2: Fathers of Southward then when we started in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 2: Uh and it's ninety two percent black, you know, and
Speaker 2: over one hundred thousand populations makes it a large city.
Speaker 2: It's one of those things that according to the National
Speaker 2: League of Cities, it's the blackest city in America. Right.
Speaker 2: And so we have seven districts. I represent the district
Speaker 2: seven that you know carries and covers you know, part
Speaker 2: of the Old the Old no, it covers the border
Speaker 2: of Fayetteville, but the Old National Corridor too, you know.
Speaker 2: So I was a councilman on Old National That's the
Speaker 2: area that you hear two Chains talking about and Ludacrous
Speaker 2: and and JD. You know, all of these people come
Speaker 2: from that area. And I was passing a lot of
Speaker 2: progressive legislation on a black city council that had the
Speaker 2: wine and Cheese area included. You know, shout out to
Speaker 2: the people who live on Cascade Road. You know, you
Speaker 2: ever saw the movie atl where New New Live. You
Speaker 2: know t I's love interest Laury in London, she lived
Speaker 2: over near the Cascade area, you know, and that's the
Speaker 2: area where affluent black people live. So our city comprises
Speaker 2: of people who live over there and then the old
Speaker 2: National Area. So after passing legislation and fighting for you know,
Speaker 2: like all of the stuff I passed, it wasn't unanimous,
Speaker 2: and we're dealing with black people, and it just became
Speaker 2: one of those things when I ran for Congress saying it,
Speaker 2: I'm tired of fighting my people to fight for my people,
Speaker 2: if that makes sense. So it makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 2: So it was like, if I'm going to do this,
Speaker 2: if I'm I'm going to sacrifice my time and energy effort,
Speaker 2: I want to go somewhere where people, you know, really
Speaker 2: feel different overtly we in Georgia, you know, and stepped
Speaker 2: to our beef on a different platform, you know, and
Speaker 2: and just move it that way, and it felt it
Speaker 2: would feel more authentic then, you know, as Marcus Garvey
Speaker 2: talk about us and our petty differences, you know, we
Speaker 2: can move on and we've been able to be progressive
Speaker 2: and do a lot of great things. We got a
Speaker 2: long way to go, you know, like we're the next
Speaker 2: door to Atlanta, and Atlanta has had about one hundred
Speaker 2: and twenty year ahead start on South Fulton, so people
Speaker 2: will expect change immediate and overnight, but it's coming but
Speaker 2: I just felt like doing everything that I was doing,
Speaker 2: you know, as far as legislation wise, these were things
Speaker 2: that needed immediate healing on a larger scale on a
Speaker 2: national level, definitely on the state level as well. And
Speaker 2: it's not enough of us being represented there. When I
Speaker 2: say us, I mean people who understanding inwardly digest what
Speaker 2: it means to be a part of our culture, you know,
Speaker 2: to come home with the lights off, you know, to
Speaker 2: have a single mom who struggles and you know, doesn't
Speaker 2: know where how she's going to pay all of the
Speaker 2: bills and stuff like that. You know a lot of
Speaker 2: us who make it there, you know, and I want
Speaker 2: my suits and my flowers and stuff too. But like
Speaker 2: it's a detachment I think from a lot of people
Speaker 2: who represent us. You know, we make it there, and
Speaker 2: we kind of carry it different, you know, we want
Speaker 2: to prove ourselves to be worthy of being there, and
Speaker 2: like the other people there, as opposed to being willing
Speaker 2: to stand out and say, look, I'm different the people
Speaker 2: in the demographic I represent. It's different, and we need
Speaker 2: a voice at that table. I see you got your
Speaker 2: fellow Chicago and a T shirt on free Larry Hoover.
Speaker 2: You work a lot with his son, Larry Hoover Junior,
Speaker 2: A really really good dude. You're from Chicago's West Side,
Speaker 2: that's where you originally madeor bones, so to speak. At
Speaker 2: what point did you decide that you want to to
Speaker 2: be a servant to the people. Well, man, that's a
Speaker 2: good question. I kind of just I had a good situation,
Speaker 2: you know, for a little while. And our city is
Speaker 2: a new city, and coming from Chicago, it's one of
Speaker 2: those things that when I go back home now on
Speaker 2: my block, like you know, it's a it's an awkward
Speaker 2: place to be from and be affiliated with my my
Speaker 2: group of people. You know, Chicago is very It's one
Speaker 2: of those things. It's territorial, you know, and there's lines
Speaker 2: right where you can have Like I grew up on
Speaker 2: sixteenth Street, you know, and from Ktown all the way
Speaker 2: down to Kizzie is where my family is. So you
Speaker 2: have different affiliations that might be a block over in
Speaker 2: that little area from the Holy City towards Kizzie and
Speaker 2: the community, and you know the area where mister Jones
Speaker 2: owned everything. A lot of people call it Jones City.
Speaker 2: We can go up a couple of blocks on twenty
Speaker 2: first or twenty second Street and it's Mexicans, and you
Speaker 2: don't cross that street like they used to chase us
Speaker 2: from one side of the fair, like you know those
Speaker 2: little makeshift carnivals. They come and they be in the
Speaker 2: parking lot or whatever, and we would go as kids
Speaker 2: to be in that you know, space or whatever. By
Speaker 2: the time they start identifying, it's like, ah, mind less road.
Speaker 2: We gotta go, you know, and we on our way out,
Speaker 2: but they would chase us. And once we cross our
Speaker 2: side of the street, it's not like help is waiting.
Speaker 2: We could just stop because they not gonna come over
Speaker 2: there and we could pop off. They could pop off,
Speaker 2: but we're gonna be on our side. It's almost animalistic,
Speaker 2: you know, Is it still that way. I've been out
Speaker 2: of Chicago for a minute. I visited a lot for
Speaker 2: a minute. I mean I left in the nineties, you know,
Speaker 2: late nineties. Of course I left and went to school.
Speaker 2: You know, my mom made sure no. I went to
Speaker 2: dinner in New Orleans. Actually shout out the Dealer University HBCU.
Speaker 2: One of the best ever, best four years age sociology
Speaker 2: or the minor in music, one of those degrees that
Speaker 2: if my you know, steps didn't just laying where what
Speaker 2: where it did, I'd still be just in the classroom teaching,
Speaker 2: you know, But I just picked the degree that had
Speaker 2: the least amount of math in it. I like, being
Speaker 2: radically honest. It wasn't one of those things. But here's
Speaker 2: the cool thing about sociology. It's a study of human behavior.
Speaker 2: And if you can figure that out, you can navigate
Speaker 2: through anything. And you know what, I didn't understand that
Speaker 2: at the time, but not like the way I've landed.
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh my god, Like if I'd have had
Speaker 2: any other major, I wouldn't be able to sit across
Speaker 2: from people in rappert taste about their situation. Because we
Speaker 2: used to have doctor Barber Thompson. Anybody went to till
Speaker 2: the university. We know, she got busy and she made
Speaker 2: us know all of the historical framework and concepts behind
Speaker 2: what made people who they were, how they move. You know,
Speaker 2: a lot of people give credit to, you know, survival
Speaker 2: of the fittest. You know, it doesn't go to Herbert
Speaker 2: Spencer like it should, you know, because he was one
Speaker 2: of thirteen kids to actually survive infancy and that's what
Speaker 2: made him think he was built different. And these little
Speaker 2: things that happened when you when you're younger, as you grow,
Speaker 2: they stay with you, and they stick with you and
Speaker 2: ultimately become It becomes who you are, how you move,
Speaker 2: and how you navigate. And I think that it kind
Speaker 2: of brought me to a by the point where I
Speaker 2: became a public servant. I knew I'm represented old national
Speaker 2: you know, I'm from Chicago. Somebody from Atlanta couldn't come
Speaker 2: to sixteenth Street or the k Town area and just
Speaker 2: represent in them, you know, without having a conversation and
Speaker 2: knowing these people or finding out, you know, the true
Speaker 2: status of what's going on. And I made sure I
Speaker 2: did that. I tapped in with people like Bear who
Speaker 2: with all of the younger people in that area who
Speaker 2: had how could you call it the five O one
Speaker 2: C threes and the people that then set down for
Speaker 2: a minute, and now they back and they want to
Speaker 2: do better in their community. And you know, it just
Speaker 2: became one of those things like you know, we have
Speaker 2: shady part crips. It's no secret in my area. But
Speaker 2: you know, through me having you know, just the wherewithal
Speaker 2: and the knowledge base to be able to touch the
Speaker 2: people that actually influenced them, right it was nothing for me. Actually,
Speaker 2: it was a great deal for me to shout out
Speaker 2: big U. I was able to reach the big U
Speaker 2: big U k We had a you know, a meaning
Speaker 2: pastor Anthony A kreflo dollars church and you know back
Speaker 2: in like talent. No, I'm just just stopped doing stuff
Speaker 2: like that. Got has a whole different mindset to like
Speaker 2: there's a lot of different mindset or it's just as
Speaker 2: I would say. And I can't speak too much on
Speaker 2: it because I'm not a member of his church. But
Speaker 2: every time I've gone the traditional krefflo that has been
Speaker 2: spoken about publicly as we have this thing about him,
Speaker 2: he iss changed. And I've heard that he's publicly said
Speaker 2: that he was wrong about a lot of Okay, okay,
Speaker 2: so people, people can grow, you can grow. And because
Speaker 2: he threw me off man with that asking for a
Speaker 2: plane thing, you know, like trying to tell people that
Speaker 2: they were poor if they could didn't come up with
Speaker 2: the money. That threw me off. But but you're saying
Speaker 2: that that's not the kreflow dollar. You know, yes, I'm
Speaker 2: saying that. I'm definitely saying that. I've heard you know,
Speaker 2: you know, now I'm just kidd no, no, but it's
Speaker 2: like but but he did. He does allow his space
Speaker 2: for us, you know, uh to do these things. And
Speaker 2: we held it at World Changes, you know, and I
Speaker 2: connected with Big U there and we you know, we
Speaker 2: talked about what was going on, and I mean we've
Speaker 2: had a like I gave him a proclamation. I think
Speaker 2: it was almost two years ago because we went down
Speaker 2: like in that area about seventy percent in the type
Speaker 2: of crimes that was you know. But he has a
Speaker 2: program called Developing Options, you know him and I think
Speaker 2: Don Osborne, Jeffrey Osborne's daughter, was together with that program.
Speaker 2: And you know, we ain't had the money to do it,
Speaker 2: but you know, it's one of those things where he
Speaker 2: used his influence to you know, rap with people who
Speaker 2: you know are out of the power and kind of
Speaker 2: use black recognomics to make stuff work, you know, you know,
Speaker 2: passing ideas and if we have you know, other other
Speaker 2: opportunities or jobs for people. That's what his program did.
Speaker 2: But you know, he was able to help in that.
Speaker 2: And I think that you gotta go to the people. Everybody,
Speaker 2: everybody not gonna wear the suits, you know, you got
Speaker 2: to find the real people to come and give truth.
Speaker 2: You know. That's why I haven't had a problem aligning
Speaker 2: myself with people who think different, you know, whether it
Speaker 2: be shout out to Resa Islam, that's my brother. You know,
Speaker 2: we do a lot of stuff together. I gave him
Speaker 2: a day and you know, I work with him and
Speaker 2: you know, and and we do a lot together, especially
Speaker 2: during the pandemic. Him and even doctor Luma Johnson, that's
Speaker 2: my brother too. He comes down, you know, and we
Speaker 2: do stuff. So we like I'm if I'm representing the
Speaker 2: black of city in America at that time as I was,
Speaker 2: I wanted to make sure we we really dealt with
Speaker 2: our issues and we were true to you know, our demographic.
Speaker 2: So okay, So you just mentioned Riza Islam and doctor Umar.
Speaker 2: Working with these guys who have some different views, but
Speaker 2: the one thing that they have in common, even Big U,
Speaker 2: the one thing that they all have in common is
Speaker 2: that they love black people. I know they doubt and
Speaker 2: so I think that we have to get used to
Speaker 2: working with each other and not not expecting something that's
Speaker 2: superhuman from each other. Like we have to give each
Speaker 2: other grace knowing that we don't have to agree to everything.
Speaker 2: We don't have to agree with everything that somebody says
Speaker 2: in order to support that person. As long as our
Speaker 2: common objective is to advance our people in one of
Speaker 2: the words that you like to be used is progress
Speaker 2: our people, then that's what that's the bottom line. That's
Speaker 2: what should matter more than anything, the advancement of our people.
Speaker 2: And so all of these guys, I look at them
Speaker 2: the same way. They all are working in that same
Speaker 2: But what happened with you growing up that made you
Speaker 2: want to be that type of person? Did you see
Speaker 2: something that you see somebody did somebody set you, pull
Speaker 2: you to the side and say, look, son, this is
Speaker 2: how you do it. I'm a product of my environment, right.
Speaker 2: So I think that when people look at the leaders
Speaker 2: of what they used to call gangster disciple, which is
Speaker 2: now internalized as growth and development. Right, we had people
Speaker 2: who were on the playground right doing that cusp of
Speaker 2: that change is my generation. Right. My cousin and I
Speaker 2: tell you about who just came home. He was probably perplexed,
Speaker 2: being about ten years or so older than me, trying
Speaker 2: to take on growing and developing in the community. So
Speaker 2: they had rules for us. Now I would notice that
Speaker 2: they wouldn't necessarily abide by the rules that they would
Speaker 2: we was selling us because it was kind of new
Speaker 2: to them. You know, do as I say, not as
Speaker 2: I do exactly. And so now as kids, you know,
Speaker 2: we would you know, we would still figure it out.
Speaker 2: We would get around some stuff. And I'm not perfect.
Speaker 2: I've had situations and you know, and you know, before eighteen,
Speaker 2: actually three times before I was eighteen, I was with
Speaker 2: the police, you know, and the last time was pretty serious.
Speaker 2: I had to fight a felony charge for somebody. And
Speaker 2: do you know at eighteen years years old, I came
Speaker 2: back and for like Christmas break, But it was just,
Speaker 2: you know, the bottom line is there, even when you
Speaker 2: make it out like you don't have to do nothing
Speaker 2: but exists. Not to Chicago's not different from you know,
Speaker 2: in the city, in any part of this country. You know,
Speaker 2: like this plans and traps for you to actually take
Speaker 2: a trip and fall, you know, and it's not one
Speaker 2: of those things. It's intentionally set up for that, you know.
Speaker 2: So I had people who were telling me, yo, man,
Speaker 2: it's good to see you, man, but dude, man, you
Speaker 2: broke out. You need to get away from here right now. Bro.
Speaker 2: They just left his shooting and I'm thinking, why you
Speaker 2: still want to sit on the corner the sixteenth at home?
Speaker 2: And exactly what they told me is why you gonna
Speaker 2: stay here? You know. And so it became one of
Speaker 2: those things whereas like a lot of people feel like,
Speaker 2: you know, they don't have a way out, you know,
Speaker 2: but I realized, like I'm a part of them, I'm
Speaker 2: the same. So when I had the opportunity, I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't think that nobody told me anything that was
Speaker 2: drastically different. I think I slipped through the cracks and
Speaker 2: kind of made it. And I think that when you
Speaker 2: talk about how my progressive nature, as you mentioned, it's
Speaker 2: one of those things as a black man in America,
Speaker 2: you know, so you have the progressives, you have the conservatives,
Speaker 2: you know, and or I just can't think of anything
Speaker 2: politically or political ideology that I want to like. To
Speaker 2: be a conservative means to keep the same, the root word,
Speaker 2: to conserve, keep the same. There's very little about America
Speaker 2: in its history that I want to put my energy
Speaker 2: and time and vote to try to keep the same.
Speaker 2: You don't see what I'm saying. So I think that
Speaker 2: you know, when you become you know, aware what was
Speaker 2: political when you become aware of the social political of
Speaker 2: people who were revered in my neighborhood, like Larry Hoover,
Speaker 2: you understand, and you know, just like we were talking
Speaker 2: about sociology, you have to look at the times and
Speaker 2: what was going on. You know, you have the time
Speaker 2: then to understand that Fred Hampton was just probably two
Speaker 2: or three years younger than Larry Hoover in nineteen sixty nine,
Speaker 2: December fourth, when he was assassinated right up the street,
Speaker 2: right up the street from where I was. I grew
Speaker 2: up on the West Side. It's like, so these were
Speaker 2: people who were goal oranizing our communities because of what
Speaker 2: was being inflicted on us. And no matter how people
Speaker 2: felt about them at that time, if these people had
Speaker 2: the opportunity to mature and grow and get older, you know,
Speaker 2: who's to say what that trajectory would have been. And
Speaker 2: so that's why they rooted him, right, because they knew
Speaker 2: their potential, right. And so if you'd have ran into me,
Speaker 2: you know when my mom needed money to help out,
Speaker 2: you know, in my little eighty dollars when I started
Speaker 2: working at McDonald's, how I was figuring out how to
Speaker 2: make it be more than eighty dollars. You know, it's
Speaker 2: one of those things that I wouldn't be here. I
Speaker 2: wouldn't be talking to you, you know, because I have
Speaker 2: a lot of friends who they're not here, and I
Speaker 2: see their family and they're proud of me, and they're
Speaker 2: expecting me to go faster and further, you know, you know,
Speaker 2: for their say. So I can't watch, I can't watch.
Speaker 2: I got to make sure it work. Go to Fords
Speaker 2: reloaded podcast you break after spak you mentioned being with
Speaker 2: the police. Now you at some point became a police officer.
Speaker 2: You was a school resource officer. Man, how was that experience? Man?
Speaker 2: It was amazing. It was the best place I could
Speaker 2: have been. Shout out to Bear Creek Middle, Shout out
Speaker 2: to Renaissance Middle, Langsy, Huge Creek's out. And if I
Speaker 2: wasn't I wouldn't be here either, because those same kids
Speaker 2: did I flushed, they weed in the toilet. All the
Speaker 2: kids who were like man Officer Baker Obi, they still
Speaker 2: call Obie at times. Ob You looked out. You know.
Speaker 2: If it wasn't for you, I would have gott dot,
Speaker 2: you know, and like for me to walk around and
Speaker 2: still have the deference from these young kids with bids
Speaker 2: and they thirty years old and they like remember me,
Speaker 2: and then like, yo, you look older than me, kid,
Speaker 2: like you know, and so like these are people who
Speaker 2: ran my campaign. One of them, in particularly right now,
Speaker 2: is working in my absence, like organizing. You know. So
Speaker 2: I think that you know, it's one of those things
Speaker 2: that you can't teach a child you don't love, You
Speaker 2: can't teach a child you don't understand, and you can't
Speaker 2: teach a child that you're afraid of. You know what
Speaker 2: I'm talking about. So it's like when you lead with
Speaker 2: that meaning I love you, I understand you, I ain't
Speaker 2: scared of you either, it gives them one of those
Speaker 2: things we're like, man, you know that's a man right there. Man,
Speaker 2: you just said a month full. I ain't scared of
Speaker 2: you either. We don't have the luxury to be afraid
Speaker 2: of our youth. We don't have that luxury because see me,
Speaker 2: the reason why I interveing, the reason why I'll drop
Speaker 2: the hashtag free game, and I even do this podcast
Speaker 2: is to give you that information and instructions to help
Speaker 2: you navigate through this work, crazy beautiful world. And if
Speaker 2: I don't do it, I'm more afraid of you, I
Speaker 2: would be more afraid of what you will become if
Speaker 2: I don't speak. That's what I'm afraid of, because at
Speaker 2: some point I'm not going to have the physical problems
Speaker 2: that I have today. At some point, I'm not going
Speaker 2: to be as sharp with my my brain skills. At
Speaker 2: some point I may end up, you know, one of
Speaker 2: those dudes just you know, sitting on the couch. I
Speaker 2: don't know, but if I'm going to be that dude,
Speaker 2: if I'm going to be here in any capacity, I
Speaker 2: would be more comfortable with knowing that we have a
Speaker 2: lot of great people out there that are amongst us
Speaker 2: who got the game and who understood the assignment that
Speaker 2: we got to look out for each other, that we
Speaker 2: have to invest not just lip service, but our time
Speaker 2: and our money and our resources, our connections and our
Speaker 2: young people if we are to survive, if we are
Speaker 2: to go to the next level. And man, I commend you, brother,
Speaker 2: because I was looking at some of your work. I
Speaker 2: was looking at some of the initiatives that you've been
Speaker 2: involved in, the laws that you have passed, and I'm like,
Speaker 2: how the hell does he get all this stuff done?
Speaker 2: You have been busy, like damn bro, like, what are
Speaker 2: some of the laws that you passed when you we
Speaker 2: was a city council in south in the city of
Speaker 2: South Forton. Man, thanks for that. First of all, it's
Speaker 2: been interesting, man. I think that the first thing was
Speaker 2: that was big, I think was the decriminalization of cannabis
Speaker 2: and what I'm saying cannabis because I had to do
Speaker 2: somewhat of an education campaign for a lot of our
Speaker 2: old people are older adults who you know, like, you
Speaker 2: know how it is they think of it riefles. What
Speaker 2: was it called what I was growing up. I don't
Speaker 2: want to smell riefles everywhere, and you know, but I
Speaker 2: had to let them know that I did it not
Speaker 2: just for criminal justice reform. I did it for criminal
Speaker 2: justice reform, not just so people can smoke weed. Pointing
Speaker 2: out the truth that you go to Fulton County Jail,
Speaker 2: over ninety percent of the individuals who were there at
Speaker 2: the time, they looked just like me and you, and
Speaker 2: they just didn't have a thousand dollars for a fine,
Speaker 2: you know, and they would lose their jail that mean,
Speaker 2: lose their job because they're in jail. So you know,
Speaker 2: six months, you can't pay a thousand dollars is something
Speaker 2: that people on the other side, on another coast, I'm
Speaker 2: making billions of dollars. They're putting it back in their
Speaker 2: education system. And this was when it was unpopular that
Speaker 2: I passed that. People told me, yoh, you'll never get reelected.
Speaker 2: You know, your base is older adults. You know, they're
Speaker 2: not going to vote for you. Butction campaign proved wrong,
Speaker 2: and I was like, you know, this was I think
Speaker 2: the third piece of legislation to decriminalize cannabis, which I
Speaker 2: like to say now so because it's different than the
Speaker 2: other word, you know, and it's it allows to be
Speaker 2: it allows for one to re educate themselves. Although I
Speaker 2: don't smoke, and I don't I'm not even the guy
Speaker 2: that's into it like that, because I really feel like,
Speaker 2: you know, given the controls that they have now is
Speaker 2: no telling what it's being infused with the different states
Speaker 2: of things, you know, And I know you know reason
Speaker 2: or reason to get into that with you and you know,
Speaker 2: trust me, we rock out and talked about that before.
Speaker 2: But the bottom line is we can fix all of that,
Speaker 2: just take us out those cages because of it, you know.
Speaker 2: So that was the first thing, and then I realized
Speaker 2: that when it passed, I need to just go. I
Speaker 2: need to just go, like I can literally sit down
Speaker 2: with an attorney and ultimately an excellent city manager. Shout
Speaker 2: out to Odie Donald. He's the chief of staff now
Speaker 2: in the City of Atlanta for Andre Dickens, but he
Speaker 2: was our city manager in South Fulton. I would sit
Speaker 2: down with him and our attorney, Amelia Amelia Walker. Shout
Speaker 2: out Amelia Walk, amazing black woman attorney. She sat down
Speaker 2: with me and everything that I wanted to see different
Speaker 2: that I would talk to my people about. Man, I
Speaker 2: went for it. I went for it. Starting with that,
Speaker 2: then I was like, okay, I didn't even realize it
Speaker 2: at the time. But being an educator, you know, I
Speaker 2: taught at Clark as well. You know, I went there
Speaker 2: for my master's and my doctorate, but I taught at Clark.
Speaker 2: I taught current issues in African American studies, and I
Speaker 2: was the first male professor of women's studies there. And
Speaker 2: being an educator in African American community and living in
Speaker 2: the city where you're still acknowledging Columbus Day, you know
Speaker 2: it's an issue. So you know, when I abolished Columbus
Speaker 2: Day and the news people started calling, and I didn't
Speaker 2: know that I was the first in the state of
Speaker 2: Georgia to abolish Columbus Day for Indigenous People Day. And
Speaker 2: I was like whoa. And then that's when the Italian
Speaker 2: Americans started stepping to their beef. But I don't know.
Speaker 2: My bully used to live across the street from me,
Speaker 2: so you know, you can't scare me on the internet.
Speaker 2: But it was like, you know, it was one of
Speaker 2: those things that you know, I didn't. I wasn't like
Speaker 2: trying to say, hell, this is the first, you know,
Speaker 2: but I found out in the process that it was
Speaker 2: the first, and it was a big deal. You banned
Speaker 2: Columbus Day. Yeah, yeah, yeah, thanks, it's a big deal.
Speaker 2: Say don you ain't got to do nothing else. You're
Speaker 2: going to help to get his ass Upboudy here man, man,
Speaker 2: it's crazy. So we lived like we live about thirty
Speaker 2: miles from Gordon County, right. Gordon County is the headquarters
Speaker 2: for the Cherokee Nation, right, and it's in Georgia. The
Speaker 2: Trail of Tears started that you know, the small explain
Speaker 2: the trailers is when you know all of the natives
Speaker 2: were uprooted, giving their land up and they were sent
Speaker 2: off to I believe Oklahoma, and uh they literally had
Speaker 2: to go on foot and they had blankets with you know,
Speaker 2: smallpox uh infused in order to kill him off. You know.
Speaker 2: And this guy didn't even know where he was going.
Speaker 2: And we call them Indians to this day because he
Speaker 2: thought he was going to India. But that's why he
Speaker 2: thought he was like any from understand he never even
Speaker 2: stepped foot on American saw. But he has a day.
Speaker 2: He's amplified, you know in Georgia, which was so hypocritical
Speaker 2: and you know, but I mean it's one thing to
Speaker 2: be a trail and start something, because I think like
Speaker 2: two other cities have done it, possibly three now, but
Speaker 2: it's becoming infectious. It's a movement now where people are
Speaker 2: doing stuff and I've had a shout out to you're
Speaker 2: not along with my sister, she's a fair CON's granddaughter.
Speaker 2: She comes with me every year we try to do
Speaker 2: something to amplify and let people know what it is.
Speaker 2: Shout out the fair con and his granddaughter. Yeah. So,
Speaker 2: I mean it's one of those things, those two things
Speaker 2: they're like, oh, you're shaking up the table down there,
Speaker 2: you know, you're doing. And that's the thing about the
Speaker 2: older cowardice people in position. You know, you get somebody
Speaker 2: with some energy, they want to do something different, they
Speaker 2: want to step to our beef, and they try to
Speaker 2: pull your coat tail and tell you to cool out.
Speaker 2: I was going to ask you about that. You beat
Speaker 2: me to the punch. I was going to ask you
Speaker 2: what's more difficult penetrating the white gatekeepers of the old
Speaker 2: Negro black gatekeepers. You be surprised, man, how many amazing
Speaker 2: white people want to help our situation and how many
Speaker 2: black people want you to be quiet talking about your
Speaker 2: anguish and your pain. Are they saying that out of
Speaker 2: fear of retribution? Are they saying that because they feel
Speaker 2: like you're gonna mess with their bag? I think it's both.
Speaker 2: It's an amalgamation of both. You have some who feel like, man,
Speaker 2: I've been in this seat for twenty years, and I've
Speaker 2: been here because I've been quiet and I haven't shaken
Speaker 2: the table. And then you have people who feel like,
Speaker 2: you know, man, don't push this because you're gonna mess
Speaker 2: with my personal situation, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 2: it's like it's probably a little bit of both. But
Speaker 2: like when when you ain't when you ain't make me,
Speaker 2: you can't hold me. You know. It's one of those
Speaker 2: things the people who like I said, my kids from
Speaker 2: those schools and a lot of them don't walk past
Speaker 2: and became famous. Shout out Playboy Carti who was one
Speaker 2: of my students. Shout out Gunner there was, you know,
Speaker 2: one of the students who walked walked the halls to
Speaker 2: Bear Creek Middle, Like these are people you know who's
Speaker 2: gone on and you know, made millions of dollars or whatever.
Speaker 2: But their classmates are the ones who run my campaign
Speaker 2: and help, you know with literature, and they're out, you know,
Speaker 2: and and they make stuff happen. But that's the point
Speaker 2: of a community, you know, you have the phonics in
Speaker 2: the world is community, common unity. We have a common unity.
Speaker 2: We understood when I let my garage go up in
Speaker 2: the morning when I was working. Then I would see
Speaker 2: the same kids that I was about to see in
Speaker 2: fifteen minutes where I drove because I lived in the
Speaker 2: same community, and they like, good morning over. I'm like, man,
Speaker 2: I ain't got to talk to y'all till another fifteen minutes.
Speaker 2: Leave me alone, you know. But they would knock on
Speaker 2: my door. We would go play basketball. I would open
Speaker 2: the gym sometime on the Saturdays. And they knew that
Speaker 2: I cared, you know, because I had people who cared
Speaker 2: about me when I was that age and and you know,
Speaker 2: pour it into me. So I think that, you know,
Speaker 2: that's that's how everything ultimately works out. But you gotta
Speaker 2: when you're in the position. Back to your real question.
Speaker 2: It's a lot of people who know that we've been wrong,
Speaker 2: right and want to help, and we gotta get old
Speaker 2: the hurdles of ourselves. Like when I said, fight my people,
Speaker 2: to fight for my people, man, it's hell. It's hell
Speaker 2: because it's like, yo, don't talk about it like I
Speaker 2: when I passed to Breonna Taylor law right, and this
Speaker 2: is the thing with police, and this was the first
Speaker 2: two to end no knock warrants in the city. Actually
Speaker 2: nobody has done that in the state. So I passed
Speaker 2: that and we have a large police department. Man, And
Speaker 2: it didn't make me popular, but my license is clean,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying, Like I'm I'm I'm doing
Speaker 2: what I'm supposed to do. So even if it you know,
Speaker 2: the biggest thing was I mean, being able to do
Speaker 2: certain things. Even with the marijuana. It was argued that
Speaker 2: this takes away a tool from the police because it's
Speaker 2: normally that scent, that smell of weed that allows them
Speaker 2: to go further in their investigatory process. And it's like, well,
Speaker 2: first of all, you know, fall back in the first place.
Speaker 2: You know, why are we looking like our community does that?
Speaker 2: And then we don't do it in other communities. You know,
Speaker 2: we normally checkpoint and fall back to see how they
Speaker 2: want to lead in their communities. Like policing in America
Speaker 2: is that's hobby here forever, if I got to popping
Speaker 2: into that. But the point of it is, it's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I think fighting those people with the old guard is
Speaker 2: probably the biggest one because like I've I've worked with
Speaker 2: black politicians and I call myself a public servant. You know,
Speaker 2: I think it's Minisafarka who says that probly means multiple
Speaker 2: and ticks means bloodsuckers. You know, so a politician you
Speaker 2: follow me. So so it's like I I like, I
Speaker 2: know politicians who have been if this ain't going my way,
Speaker 2: no matter how great it is for the community, this
Speaker 2: will never happen. Promise you that And minute and actually
Speaker 2: moved that way, whereas it's been negatively detrimental to our society.
Speaker 2: And these people will constantly be elected, they will constantly
Speaker 2: be there. How does this happen? And state after state,
Speaker 2: city after city, municipality after the municipality where you have
Speaker 2: elected officials who have done nothing but lip service and
Speaker 2: go around taking pictures at your grandparents' anniversary, fifty anniversary,
Speaker 2: they comes show up at the barbecue, they make a
Speaker 2: speech when somebody is murdered by the police or something
Speaker 2: like that, How are these people consistently reelected? Like? And
Speaker 2: how do the people allow it?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: How do they how do they get away with this man?
Speaker 2: So I'm gonna say something. It's going rough for a
Speaker 2: couple of fellas, But it doesn't matter. It is what
Speaker 2: it is. It's the same way you could ask that
Speaker 2: question to the people on the motherboard. Bless my mama.
Speaker 2: Her pastor is actually kind of cool. But those devoted
Speaker 2: people who go every Sunday and get rocked asleep oftentimes
Speaker 2: in our community to a church that doesn't service the community,
Speaker 2: to a person who's just taking a bag and running off.
Speaker 2: I think these politicians, they have a similar disposition to
Speaker 2: the preachers, and when you watch how they move, how
Speaker 2: they give it up, it's really no different. They have
Speaker 2: a sermonic response to your grandmother and everybody else, and
Speaker 2: they continue to vote for that person every single time
Speaker 2: because that's the name that they know, and he probably
Speaker 2: showed up it gave a good talk at the anniversary
Speaker 2: or other graduation. At the anniversary. At the graduation, man,
Speaker 2: I got talked by them how to move at funerals.
Speaker 2: Like literally, hey, man, whether it live is you stand by,
Speaker 2: you wait till the car come up. You go in
Speaker 2: with the family so everybody see you walk around to
Speaker 2: the casket, and then you could just circle straight out
Speaker 2: to church like the like they rock people to sleep
Speaker 2: all the time, and I'm like, yo, like this is
Speaker 2: a science to them, just like preachers with preachers say, oh,
Speaker 2: you ain't preached unless you kill them and brought them back,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying Like this, like like I
Speaker 2: think it's a thing where our people sometimes, you know,
Speaker 2: we look for somebody who just gives us the nostylia
Speaker 2: of leadership and then we just lock in with them.
Speaker 2: We lock in with him. So I mean, I don't
Speaker 2: get me wrong, I have on this shirt, especially in
Speaker 2: the absence of my brother who wanted to be here,
Speaker 2: Larry Jr. But I'll clean up, you know, And I
Speaker 2: even put my flower on to remind myself to be
Speaker 2: a gentleman in this whole you know, conceptual framework. But
Speaker 2: these people really like end up being like that, and
Speaker 2: the younger people doesn't, like, they don't have faith in
Speaker 2: this system, you know. And so I go out of
Speaker 2: my way to let people to make it look good too,
Speaker 2: you know, to other people. And I've engaged and I've
Speaker 2: inspired a lot of people, and I could tell like
Speaker 2: they've jumped in and they're ready. They're ready to do it,
Speaker 2: and they're ready to do it different like going to
Speaker 2: bed beat because we really outserving, you know, like the
Speaker 2: sceniors in my district. I had a situation where I
Speaker 2: was going to their houses, you know, like saying, hey,
Speaker 2: I'm coming, don't shoot me. It's eleven and we still
Speaker 2: out here. We're bringing y'all the n nine to five mass,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm and and we're feeding. Every time
Speaker 2: Umar came just out forward and we were feeding people,
Speaker 2: he was like reasons I got pictures with him and this,
Speaker 2: you know, still got his boat own putting we yeah, man,
Speaker 2: more than that, like we're putting boxes in it. I mean,
Speaker 2: shout out to feeding families Georgia, you know. Uh, like
Speaker 2: we do this stuff and were true servants. And I
Speaker 2: think that people are able to see through it, but
Speaker 2: not enough of them go for reloaded podcasts right back
Speaker 2: after this week. Are you getting a lot of help
Speaker 2: from the hip hop constituency? Uh? And the and the
Speaker 2: artists themselves? Mm hmm, not really, not really. Uh. I
Speaker 2: do appreciate, uh what Tip did shout out to Tip,
Speaker 2: you know, and and some connectivity of course through Big
Speaker 2: U and Big L. Shout out Big L, but not
Speaker 2: a lot. Mike. Mike is good, Mike lives in the city,
Speaker 2: you know. Uh, and uh, he's he's he's been helpful.
Speaker 2: But you only have I mean, I mean it's the
Speaker 2: same people doing the same work over over again. Like
Speaker 2: everybody's calling on T I and Mike, you know. Uh,
Speaker 2: it seemed like they're the ones who who are who
Speaker 2: are mostly out on the front line. And I could
Speaker 2: be missing some people, but it just seems like it's
Speaker 2: always t I and Killer Mike. But you know what,
Speaker 2: they get busy though. You know, it's like like, for example,
Speaker 2: I have a developer, you know, Uh. I started our
Speaker 2: city's development authorities about four years ago, and I had
Speaker 2: a developer, Jeff Butler. He came from the Bay Area,
Speaker 2: fifty some year old man. Uh wanted to buy the
Speaker 2: land back in South Forton where his ancestors were once enslaved.
Speaker 2: Beautiful story. We ended up taking them showing them, you know,
Speaker 2: you know, the areas of Southward then because we found
Speaker 2: out he was a developer. Now we have Manson part
Speaker 2: of course, you know what that's named for, Manson Mousa.
Speaker 2: So we have Manson Part coming and like several twenty
Speaker 2: I believe twelve twenty five story buildings right on Old
Speaker 2: National Hilton O Hyatt Waldorf Astoria and like jobs guaranteed
Speaker 2: over ten thousand jobs minimum to this one particular site
Speaker 2: that we started all together. And the first people are
Speaker 2: tagged in were the people in that area who get busy.
Speaker 2: So we have a text We had a text look
Speaker 2: with Killer, Mike and Ti and you know, a vetting
Speaker 2: process and a re establishment of making sure that people
Speaker 2: who are typically excluded have a seated at the table,
Speaker 2: you know. And so that's that's still my look. I
Speaker 2: didn't grow up on Old National, but this is their home.
Speaker 2: So I reach to the people and make sure that
Speaker 2: they have a seat at the table. And you know,
Speaker 2: they've been really, really helpful, and uh, it should be
Speaker 2: a gate coming up. I think in June. I talked
Speaker 2: to the developer yesterday, so I mean right across from
Speaker 2: World Changes. Actually, so pretty excited about that because that's
Speaker 2: one of my one of my my main things outside
Speaker 2: of legislation for growth and development of this city. Now,
Speaker 2: what's what's the complexion of the people that's doing the construction.
Speaker 2: So I'm glad you asked that. In the contract, you know,
Speaker 2: it is stated that individuals again who are typically excluded,
Speaker 2: which is the wordplay that we have to use for
Speaker 2: legal rights. But it's our HT Holmes Hamilton E. Holmes,
Speaker 2: which is a major street, you know, exit off Our
Speaker 2: twenty is in the city of Atlanta. His son is
Speaker 2: working with us. I think we have Russell, you know,
Speaker 2: who helped Maynel Jackson build the air rest in Peace
Speaker 2: to Bunny Jackson, Mainer's wife who was one of my
Speaker 2: mentors and made sure that that was something that we
Speaker 2: had a part of that project, you know, I said
Speaker 2: with her a lot, and you know, she helped me
Speaker 2: a lot with that and talked about how you have
Speaker 2: to be feelss and how Maine it was feeless, and
Speaker 2: you know he didn't care, even though he ruffled a
Speaker 2: lot of feathers. You know, but at some point we
Speaker 2: got to do that in order to make sure that
Speaker 2: we have seen at the table, especially when it's our table.
Speaker 2: Why hasn't some of the other mayors that came after
Speaker 2: him just basically just taking that same blueprint and said,
Speaker 2: this is what it is, take it or leave it.
Speaker 2: You want Atlanta, you got it. You gotta deal with us.
Speaker 2: You got the you know, like, and why do why
Speaker 2: do these even when we do have the numbers, Why
Speaker 2: do we feel compelled to give the business to somebody
Speaker 2: else who is not a part of the community. I
Speaker 2: can't speak on that because I ain't never been that guy,
Speaker 2: and even back then, I wasn't political. You know, I
Speaker 2: just literally jumped into this thing at the buzzer and
Speaker 2: you know, so I had no expectations in no real direction.
Speaker 2: But I can say that ain't nothing different, you know,
Speaker 2: from with our people. You know, throughout history, you have
Speaker 2: a situation where people actually feel like other people's ice
Speaker 2: are it's colder. Yeah, you know that is right there. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and again I think it's also fear though. I think
Speaker 2: a lot of it is feared. Ooh, if I don't
Speaker 2: get mass, some work gonna come and take my position
Speaker 2: from me. Y'all got five it's five candidates running for
Speaker 2: office for State Rep to represent district at sixty eight.
Speaker 2: What do you have in your in your heart if
Speaker 2: you believe it's different than the other four candidates? Okay,
Speaker 2: I just met her. That that will, that will that
Speaker 2: the people of Georgia can benefit from. I feel like
Speaker 2: I just met three of them, I think, you know recently.
Speaker 2: They seemed like good people. And one of them I
Speaker 2: knew he was a state Rep before and after six years,
Speaker 2: I don't I can't tell you one piece of legislation
Speaker 2: that he's passed, you know, and so I do know
Speaker 2: that I said in a debate with him, and you know,
Speaker 2: he avoided every single question about what he's done. And
Speaker 2: so it's kind of like the somonic thing that you
Speaker 2: can do. You know. I kiss my wife every morning
Speaker 2: when I get up, and you know, paint this thing,
Speaker 2: you know, and it's like stop, you know, everybody listen anyway,
Speaker 2: Paul that Nah, no, you're lying, you know, so I
Speaker 2: think that that's part of it, you know, And then
Speaker 2: I could just say the difference is if you look
Speaker 2: at my work. You know, I didn't name all of
Speaker 2: the stuff, but I banned the box on applications for
Speaker 2: those convicted feelings. Of course, I ended on knock once
Speaker 2: with the Breonna Taylor abolish Columbus Day made fifteen dollars
Speaker 2: a minimum wage, which you know is now we need
Speaker 2: a livable wage. You know, of course twenty dollars should
Speaker 2: be that now. But you know I did this. I
Speaker 2: passed the Central Park five legislation with a shout out
Speaker 2: to Raymond Santana and use of salaam. They're part of
Speaker 2: the Exonerated five, those brothers from New York. Two of
Speaker 2: them live in our metro area. It's just one of
Speaker 2: those things when you're a juvenile and you saw what
Speaker 2: happened through Averduren ads. When they see us the movie
Speaker 2: that portrayed what happened to the Central Park five, you know,
Speaker 2: it's just to ensure that those things don't happen to
Speaker 2: our young men. Of course, like making sure they're filmed.
Speaker 2: Things of that nature. Properly and you know, no interrogating them.
Speaker 2: This rules around interrogating juveniles, you know, uh, so to speak.
Speaker 2: But I was able to pass that, you know, with
Speaker 2: their help and all. And that's a first in Georgia.
Speaker 2: But it's a lot of legislation that I've passed, including
Speaker 2: George's first reparations legislation, and that is something that nobody
Speaker 2: did before. This was years ago. Shout out again Odie
Speaker 2: Donald who helped me with that. Uh he was the
Speaker 2: city manager at the time. We had a brave news
Speaker 2: reporter who did a short story on it, and then
Speaker 2: it was hushed, you know. But now you're seeing task
Speaker 2: for us coming about in California. We have one in
Speaker 2: Fulton County.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: Now, of course, now that we kind of about to
Speaker 2: cycle into a presidential year, everybody's gonna want to say
Speaker 2: something about reparations now, you know. And so now it's sexy,
Speaker 2: But I did it when it wasn't sexy, and so
Speaker 2: it's one of those things that I'm like, I'm not afraid.
Speaker 2: I'm not afraid. I love people, I love my constituency,
Speaker 2: but even they know that I'm a real person, a
Speaker 2: genuine person. I used to tell one nameless constituent, like yo,
Speaker 2: she would call me in the middle of the night
Speaker 2: about something. I'm like, Okay, I find out it's a light,
Speaker 2: I get a LIGHTE fix. For example, I would share
Speaker 2: with them that if you call me at two or
Speaker 2: three in the morning about a light in your neighborhood
Speaker 2: that need to be fixed, I'm gonna get it fixed.
Speaker 2: But I'm gonna call you back at two o'clock the
Speaker 2: next morning and let you know, Hey, wake up. I
Speaker 2: just wanted to let you know I got this fixed
Speaker 2: because I know my people, and I know how to
Speaker 2: deal with my people. I'm literally from them, you know,
Speaker 2: and I'm willing to step out and be unapologetic for
Speaker 2: them because if it all fails, you know, I know,
Speaker 2: but it's like to lose and I can never lose
Speaker 2: like I've lost in the past, and I just go
Speaker 2: back to being me. I'm a land on my two
Speaker 2: I just want to make sure my people do the same.
Speaker 2: So I think that's what separates me. Bro. That's dope.
Speaker 2: With black people being the most marninalized group in this country,
Speaker 2: how do you ride for black people? How do you
Speaker 2: make sure that black people have fair and equal treatment,
Speaker 2: but also let those constituents out there that are not
Speaker 2: black know that you're going to also represent them. That's
Speaker 2: a great question. I think that it's a lot that
Speaker 2: comes along with understanding. Man and I had held in
Speaker 2: a council meeting to say, this is ninety percent African
Speaker 2: American city black a city in America. They're calling it.
Speaker 2: They're saying it accord to the National League of Cities.
Speaker 2: So that mean contracts ninety percent of the resources shouldn't
Speaker 2: be people, right, and so to me, that's a common
Speaker 2: sense statement. It makes sense. A lot of people was
Speaker 2: afraid that he said that and never repeated again. My
Speaker 2: thing is you got to serve the people. And like
Speaker 2: we passed something, you know, a welcoming ordinance that really
Speaker 2: made my stomach hurt, and I didn't want nobody to
Speaker 2: feel excluded about it. But it was just, you know,
Speaker 2: it's not that I didn't support it, it's just the
Speaker 2: mental framework that we have to deal with when we
Speaker 2: are at the table. We have to feel like we
Speaker 2: gotta you know, black people are the most accepting people
Speaker 2: on the planet. You know, Sandy Springs in different parts
Speaker 2: of the Metro Atlanta area that's predominantly white, they're not
Speaker 2: passing welcoming ordinances, you know, but because we are saying
Speaker 2: now and the mayor shut out may Collie he jumped
Speaker 2: out the window with myself of course, telling everybody once
Speaker 2: we found out, y know, we're the blackest city in America.
Speaker 2: Like people need to know that, you know, Like what's
Speaker 2: up Stacey Abrams coming, we need to go ahead and
Speaker 2: name old National Obama National Parkway. And when they come
Speaker 2: stump with Stacy, we could have you know, the grand
Speaker 2: you know, the sign revealed. Like people are like, man,
Speaker 2: we don't want people to think they were black like that.
Speaker 2: But I think that you know, the right you have
Speaker 2: to deal with you have to deal with that concept.
Speaker 2: But like I tell people, you know, of course, my
Speaker 2: whole thing is Mark Baker for the culture. You know
Speaker 2: your cousin, and I tell people, you know, your cousin,
Speaker 2: not like the cousin's cousin, but family cousin. You know,
Speaker 2: you're my relative. Like doing the trans Atlantic slave trade,
Speaker 2: a lot of people didn't realize that when they it
Speaker 2: took us. They stopped at these Caribbean islands, for example,
Speaker 2: and this was what they call the seasoning process. During
Speaker 2: the seasoning process, they would take and separate the families. Right,
Speaker 2: So if I had a wife, she would be sold
Speaker 2: on the island. If the woman next to me had
Speaker 2: a husband, he would be sold there to intentionally separate
Speaker 2: the families, to break us, you know. And now I
Speaker 2: know her trauma, she knows my trauma, and we move
Speaker 2: forward to America with the shared trauma. My shared trauma
Speaker 2: comes from the West side of Chicago, right, and black
Speaker 2: people is funny because we probably the only people that
Speaker 2: actually had cousins. How many white people you know talk
Speaker 2: about their cousins. We know they have them, but damnybody,
Speaker 2: that's crazy. I never hear that. You damn everybody ever
Speaker 2: thought about that. Everybody that's black gotta play cousin wow,
Speaker 2: or somebody that they grew up with. Who mama can
Speaker 2: whoop you? That we share the same experience. So if
Speaker 2: we were to lead a block and make it and
Speaker 2: go out of town somewhere, we know we not related
Speaker 2: by blood, but that's my cousin. You follow me, and
Speaker 2: we're cousins with family because of the shared experience. And
Speaker 2: my shared experience comes from understanding that where I come from.
Speaker 2: Of course, no farther in the picture. I love the
Speaker 2: man right now shout out bishamb London, my dad, but
Speaker 2: he didn't raise me. You know, I understood by watching
Speaker 2: my mom struggle and then getting old and learning the
Speaker 2: work of doctor Claude Anderson that black people are systematically
Speaker 2: trapped in the real in the lowest level of a
Speaker 2: real life monopoly game. And these are my cousins and
Speaker 2: we're trapped together. Think about it, systematically trapped in the
Speaker 2: lowest level of a real life monopoly game. Bro Like,
Speaker 2: if you're looking at it like that, you start off monopoly,
Speaker 2: you get two hundreds, two five hundreds, whatever it is,
Speaker 2: two fifties, six twenties, five fives, five tens, and five ones,
Speaker 2: and you all are set on go. You pick your
Speaker 2: little whatever you're gonna do to march around this board,
Speaker 2: and when you shake the dice, you go and you
Speaker 2: accumulate property. You accumulate wealth to the point where somebody
Speaker 2: laying on that wealth and they have to pay you,
Speaker 2: and you end up winning. You picking cars, and life
Speaker 2: gets good and you're building. You're building houses, you building hotels.
Speaker 2: Can you imagine what it's like to be systematically trapped
Speaker 2: in the lowest level of a real life monopoly game?
Speaker 2: Where you don't start out with that currency, you don't
Speaker 2: start out with any of that. But every day you
Speaker 2: gotta shake the dice, you and your cousins, and you
Speaker 2: got to move around this board and figure out how
Speaker 2: stuff is gonna work out for you. But everywhere you laying,
Speaker 2: you gotta pay, and you get to go. You probably
Speaker 2: get that lit two hundred, but you still hit once
Speaker 2: you get down the block. Soon as you get to
Speaker 2: two hundred, you got to give it back to somebody
Speaker 2: else got to give it back too. And so it's like,
Speaker 2: I know what it's like to be in the hole.
Speaker 2: My mom worked three jobs, you know, like three jobs,
Speaker 2: and when I got old enough, she saw me get
Speaker 2: you know, what was happening around me. Of course, what
Speaker 2: happened to all of my cousins, all of them of course,
Speaker 2: you know, affiliated a certain way and doing things, trying
Speaker 2: to teach us better, but still ending up, you know,
Speaker 2: jammed up. She was like, you're going as far away
Speaker 2: as possible. And really I wasn't the most brightest kid,
Speaker 2: you know, I played a little basketball. I had you know,
Speaker 2: some interest and opportunities to go somewhere. But it's like,
Speaker 2: at what point are we gonna be able to not
Speaker 2: wrap and not hoop or play football and make it out.
Speaker 2: You know. Doctor Kawanza Juwanza Konjufu says that you know
Speaker 2: that did you do most? Or be that did you
Speaker 2: do best? At some point we have to start investing
Speaker 2: our kids in science, engineering, math and things other than
Speaker 2: directly sociology. Right, I can know a lot of stuff,
Speaker 2: but unless I really figure it out and I land
Speaker 2: the way that I landed, I'm here looking for that job,
Speaker 2: you know. But if we can encourage these fields and
Speaker 2: try to get our kids to do something else more often,
Speaker 2: you know, and and be best at it, then we
Speaker 2: can look out for ourselves and our cousins. You know. Yeah,
Speaker 2: as my boy Willow said, we own cool, right, we
Speaker 2: own cool, but we have to so. And because we
Speaker 2: own cool, then we can actually make being a scientist,
Speaker 2: a doctor law you're cool. We can make being a
Speaker 2: city council and a state representative of a congress person cool.
Speaker 2: We can make being an entrepreneur cool. We can make
Speaker 2: being a bus driver cool. We can make being an
Speaker 2: entrepreneur cool. We can make having good grades cool. We
Speaker 2: can make not having a criminal record cool. It's all
Speaker 2: about what do you say? What you what you say,
Speaker 2: what you are, what you do the most? You become?
Speaker 2: How do you do most? Will be what you do best.
Speaker 2: What you do most will be what you do best.
Speaker 2: That is that is a true statement. And I'm telling
Speaker 2: you something, bro, Uh, that statement was actually crafted for
Speaker 2: you because what you do most is help our people,
Speaker 2: and that's why you do it the best. Man, And
Speaker 2: I appreciate you for coming on the show man, thank
Speaker 2: you so much for having me. So so, what do
Speaker 2: we have to do to make sure that you become
Speaker 2: Georgia's state representative for District sixty eight, the very next
Speaker 2: state representative to represent Georgia. Starting point is, uh, just
Speaker 2: get to the money man, come on, cause just don't okay,
Speaker 2: come on, Yeah, what they gotta do to h Banker
Speaker 2: for Georgia's baker for Georgia dot com. You got seventy
Speaker 2: four dollars put it up in there. Got to be
Speaker 2: a big deal. If you got less than that, I
Speaker 2: take whatever you have. At this point, I'm mailing out
Speaker 2: you know soon and uh, this is real grassroots. So
Speaker 2: my volunteers are doing, you know, most of the work.
Speaker 2: I just got to be able to you know, make
Speaker 2: sure we had the materials to reach the people. And
Speaker 2: you know, I'm not looking for no big one person
Speaker 2: that just dump something because I ain't built like that,
Speaker 2: or one person got with it, come on with it.
Speaker 2: But know that you you're not going to govern me
Speaker 2: based off of you know, the bread. You know I'm
Speaker 2: gonna do what's right for us, and you know you
Speaker 2: can hold me accountable for that. So visit you know,
Speaker 2: baker Ford Georgia dot com. Visit Counselman Mark that's my Instagram,
Speaker 2: And let's figure out the future. What's the most amount
Speaker 2: that a person can donate? What are the I think
Speaker 2: to max out in the race? Like this is three thousand, Okay,
Speaker 2: it's three thousand, But when I ask for a number
Speaker 2: like seventy four, it's like it's less than one hundred.
Speaker 2: And why is seventy four significant? I mean growth and development?
Speaker 2: Seven letter, fourth letter? What's that? Growth and development? Okay,
Speaker 2: that's what I want to do. It's one of those
Speaker 2: things that you know, everything ain't negative when you think
Speaker 2: about it. You know, it's the number I always ask
Speaker 2: for under one hundred dollars, and you know it's a
Speaker 2: number that I grew up and I've learned, you know,
Speaker 2: the transition for it, and we're just showing like even
Speaker 2: the vision of Larry Hoover wanted, you know, twenty first
Speaker 2: century vote. You know, shout out to Gator Bradley, who
Speaker 2: was the first person from Growth for Development to actually
Speaker 2: run for public office in Chicago, you know, and the
Speaker 2: late nineties, and you know, twenty first century vote was
Speaker 2: something that he talked about changing and making sure that
Speaker 2: we had people on the ballot that understood the community
Speaker 2: and was trying to change the community. And of course
Speaker 2: Dan Boone, let's ship him off to a ADX super
Speaker 2: max prison. Tupac same time. Ninety six, right, you know
Speaker 2: who was saying, I got I sold four million records.
Speaker 2: Snoop sold two million records. I see our own political
Speaker 2: party coming. You know, those record sales I look at
Speaker 2: like votes. I might not be the leader of it,
Speaker 2: but I'm sure I could spark it. Ninety six, Tupac gone.
Speaker 2: But the thing is, we got to keep popping up.
Speaker 2: We got to be like Weed's bro. We got to
Speaker 2: keep popping up, and we got to really do whatever
Speaker 2: we need to do to make sure that the next generation.
Speaker 2: Stevie has a song. He says it best in Our
Speaker 2: the add Song at the end when he says, we
Speaker 2: all know sometimes life pains and troubles can make you
Speaker 2: wish you born in another time in place. But you
Speaker 2: can bet your lifetimes that and twice that double that
Speaker 2: God know exactly where he wanted you to be placed.
Speaker 2: So make sure when you say you're in it but
Speaker 2: not of it, just make sure you're not helping the place,
Speaker 2: this place, helping him make this place called earth a
Speaker 2: place sometime called hell. Change your words and the truth,
Speaker 2: and then change that truth and the love. And maybe
Speaker 2: our children, grandchildren or their great grandchildren will tell man,
Speaker 2: you just quoted Stevie. Man, we're gonna be alright. Me
Speaker 2: and you, we're gonna we're best friends for life because
Speaker 2: I tell you that Steve Stevie to me is the greatest,
Speaker 2: the greatest writer ever ever ever. No, ain't nobody close.
Speaker 2: And that says a lot. When you think about all
Speaker 2: of the great musicians that have come along, you know,
Speaker 2: they're lucky he wasn't rapping. They lucky. Rapping wasn't part
Speaker 2: of his stuff back then because he was a beast.
Speaker 2: But he was rapping. Like if you listen to some
Speaker 2: of the stuff he was saying. You know, he was
Speaker 2: rapping one last thing that I wanted to cover this
Speaker 2: the notion of giving right. You know, freedom got a shotgun,
Speaker 2: but it also has a bank roll MM and people
Speaker 2: don't understand that. A lot of times our people think that, well,
Speaker 2: if you work for the people, then you wouldn't be
Speaker 2: have to ask for no money, if you didn't need
Speaker 2: no money, you wouldn't need no money. If if if
Speaker 2: you're doing it, you should just be doing it. They
Speaker 2: don't understand that the advertising costs money. You know, in
Speaker 2: order in order for you to compete against those people
Speaker 2: who they don't think is worthy to get them out.
Speaker 2: In order for you to compete to get in and
Speaker 2: do the work, you first have to be elected. You first,
Speaker 2: you first have to be seen in order to get
Speaker 2: a chance to be elected. You got to be seen
Speaker 2: and heard. So you need money so that they can
Speaker 2: hear you on the radio and hear your message, so
Speaker 2: that your message message can get out, so they can
Speaker 2: see you on TV, so they can see you on internet.
Speaker 2: They can see the bill boards, they can see the
Speaker 2: rolling vehicles with your ads on it. They they don't
Speaker 2: understand a lot of people just don't understand that it
Speaker 2: takes money to get in here and get this work done.
Speaker 2: It ain't free. How do you express that to our people?
Speaker 2: How do you get the word out and to those
Speaker 2: who don't know. I mean, a lot of us are
Speaker 2: catching on. We're getting it, We're starting to get it.
Speaker 2: We're embracing the idea that we have to in order
Speaker 2: to become an economic power, we're going to have to
Speaker 2: invest in each other. I think it's so like we
Speaker 2: know it already, Like it's so think about it. You
Speaker 2: have so many people who got their own businesses and
Speaker 2: starting up and they're like, man, you know what, I
Speaker 2: get more love from strangers on the internet than I
Speaker 2: do my own people. Right, And it's like, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm here with you. You know, of course I appreciate you.
Speaker 2: I appreciate you, Prince, I appreciate Larry Jun everybody that
Speaker 2: helped bring me. You know that, you know these are
Speaker 2: the people and these are the folks that you know
Speaker 2: have embraced me. It's like, the way this works is
Speaker 2: that no problem is a problem until it's your problem.
Speaker 2: You understand what I'm saying, No problem is a problem
Speaker 2: until it's your problem. What I mean is that when
Speaker 2: they start trying to tell you what to do with
Speaker 2: your body, you know as a woman, when they start
Speaker 2: trying to tell it. And these agendas have nothing to
Speaker 2: do with our community, right, nothing to do with our
Speaker 2: community because we constantly cut. Our numbers are large. But
Speaker 2: we ain't got to get into that. But when things
Speaker 2: start to impact you and affect you, you look for it, right,
Speaker 2: and you have to start before we're at a traumatic point,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying, Like, you got to heal
Speaker 2: the trauma before it's spreads. You know, people who have
Speaker 2: out you know, all of these little pains and illnesses
Speaker 2: that actually spread throughout the body and by the time
Speaker 2: it get to the heart as a rap, Like, there's
Speaker 2: a trauma in our community, and yeah, you gotta you
Speaker 2: gotta treat that. But at the same time, you got
Speaker 2: to stop it from spreading. And you gotta understand that, Yo,
Speaker 2: I'm your cousin. You know what happens to you, I'm next.
Speaker 2: So just because it happens to you, you can't just
Speaker 2: be like, ah man, I mean it happens to me.
Speaker 2: You can't just look at it like, oh man, that's
Speaker 2: messed up. It happened to him. You gotta feel that yourself,
Speaker 2: You gotta you gotta see your brother in everybody around you,
Speaker 2: and then you have to jump in and say, look,
Speaker 2: this is my responsibility, Like it's my responsibility. They might
Speaker 2: be going down to drain now, but I'm circling and
Speaker 2: so the money, the money is nothing like it's not
Speaker 2: gonna be a big deal. And if that's why I
Speaker 2: try to start with stuff. That's what people can do
Speaker 2: who don't have an extra seventy four dollars, who don't
Speaker 2: have extra twenty five dollars that they can, you know,
Speaker 2: do something if they hear what I'm saying and understand, like, yo,
Speaker 2: I believe him. I believe that he'll do what he's
Speaker 2: He's actually done it already. You know, I wouldn't have
Speaker 2: no reason why would not go and be the same way.
Speaker 2: I am a step to our beef on that level
Speaker 2: where we need it done because we're seeing that we
Speaker 2: needed like we're seeing that we're living it every day.
Speaker 2: Since nineteen eighty four, prescriptions drugs have been tax exempt
Speaker 2: because it's a necessity. People are broke and can't afford necessities.
Speaker 2: At what point are we going to make basic groceries,
Speaker 2: tax examp. At what point are we going to make
Speaker 2: electric bills tax exempt? They'rect you said, diapers tax exemp.
Speaker 2: These are things that we all need as a community,
Speaker 2: sharing our common unity in going down this drain if
Speaker 2: we don't stop it. So I think that we gotta
Speaker 2: we gotta, we gotta hurry up and address issues before
Speaker 2: they become everybody's problems. See it happening to your neighbor
Speaker 2: and know that you're next, and let's figure out how
Speaker 2: do we do what I mean, how do we get involved?
Speaker 2: Last thing I want to say is that people feel
Speaker 2: like so many other people. They not like me. They're
Speaker 2: not trying to change the laws. There some people just
Speaker 2: like to get in the suit and carry on. But
Speaker 2: at least register to vote. If you how many people
Speaker 2: you know have felt like they've been railroaded, are sent
Speaker 2: up by people who wasn't a jury of their PIDs.
Speaker 2: We complain about that all the time. But if you're
Speaker 2: not registered to vote, you're never gonna get called for
Speaker 2: jeury duty. Like you could be the person that's called
Speaker 2: and now you're sitting on the stand that could actually
Speaker 2: understand better than the other people and vy for your
Speaker 2: brother or sister that's about to go get up, so
Speaker 2: we gotta be a part of it. It ain't no a
Speaker 2: that ain't for me. I don't have nothing to do
Speaker 2: with that. They'll never help me like you can't. You
Speaker 2: gotta shake that. You gotta shake that. Figure out how
Speaker 2: to infiltrate it and be great at it, because that's
Speaker 2: what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to infiltrate it
Speaker 2: for us. Oh man, you ain't just trying, brother, You
Speaker 2: are doing it, man, and we appreciate you. Once again,
Speaker 2: ladies and gentlemen, Doctor Mark Baker, and I appreciate it. You.
Speaker 2: I won't talk.
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Speaker 1: Radio