Speaker 1: Native Lampid is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with
Speaker 1: Reason Choice Media. Welcome Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome home, y'all,
Speaker 1: this is Solo pod Day. I'm your host, Angela Rye
Speaker 1: from Native Lampod and I am elated to be sharing
Speaker 1: space today with someone who is like a little brother
Speaker 1: to me. Is doing fantastic work that I will get
Speaker 1: to in just a moment. I want to tell you
Speaker 1: that we are in a unique time in our nation's history,
Speaker 1: and so much of what we have considered normal for
Speaker 1: some time, considering issues of race, race, racial justice, all
Speaker 1: of these things are now you know, looked upon poorly,
Speaker 1: and in an era like that, it is important to
Speaker 1: find the folks among us who I will say not
Speaker 1: on my watch. I'm going to hold the line. I'm
Speaker 1: going to ensure that people understand our history, they understand
Speaker 1: what it takes for us to be able to survive
Speaker 1: in an era where black people are losing their jobs
Speaker 1: left and right. That good government job that was so
Speaker 1: safe for so long, the very jobs that many of
Speaker 1: our uncles and aunts and parents told us to go
Speaker 1: get are no longer safe. In the federal government and
Speaker 1: in some ways on the state level. And so what
Speaker 1: we have to do in these moments is to look
Speaker 1: at data. There was a point where you could go
Speaker 1: to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is an official
Speaker 1: federal government entity. But now Donald Trump has essentially gutted
Speaker 1: the Bureau of Labor Statistics. When was the last time
Speaker 1: y'all heard about unemployment rates? Right? So a person who
Speaker 1: has to provide and build out a narrative that things
Speaker 1: are so good cannot stand to stare data in the face.
Speaker 1: So as y'all are going to the runs because you
Speaker 1: can't even need to let us right now, and as
Speaker 1: people who you love are fighting for their very lives,
Speaker 1: and is now RFK says that maybe kids should actually
Speaker 1: get a measles vaccination. Is important for us to clean
Speaker 1: steadfast to truth. And that is why it is so
Speaker 1: important to me to bring to the States today doctor
Speaker 1: Wes Bellamy, who is the executive director of the John
Speaker 1: Mercer Langston Institute for African American Political Leadership, and he
Speaker 1: is also my brother, and he's also why are you
Speaker 1: not a professor, Associate professor? We need to talk about
Speaker 1: that a political science and public administration like Virginia State University.
Speaker 1: I wanted to let me that's my first question, and
Speaker 1: then I'm gonna talk about the report. He has a report,
Speaker 1: y'all though, called the Economic State of Black Men and
Speaker 1: Boys in the United States. But why are you not
Speaker 1: a professor professor who I got to write to start
Speaker 1: associate professor?
Speaker 2: You have assistant professor, associate professor, a tenure.
Speaker 3: That like it's all just a time. Why are you
Speaker 3: not a tenured I chose not to be tenured. I'm
Speaker 3: full full professor, I got full professorship.
Speaker 1: I want you to be a tenured No.
Speaker 2: I want to be able to go when I need
Speaker 2: to go, but I don't plan on going nowhere anytime.
Speaker 3: Still, let me be clear.
Speaker 1: I love you, better be careful, layd. Let me let's
Speaker 1: get into this report because this boy is on here
Speaker 1: talking big trash.
Speaker 3: Let's go. Okay.
Speaker 1: So Wes is an associate professor for his freedom, but
Speaker 1: that's just for the freedom and liberation of black people.
Speaker 1: He is not going anywhere. He loves the students at
Speaker 1: Virginia State University. I've seen it firsthand. I don't even
Speaker 1: have my earrings on. That is so route anyway. Okay,
Speaker 1: So the economic state of Black men and boys in
Speaker 1: the United States. The reason why I appreciate this report
Speaker 1: right now is we spent a lot of time WES
Speaker 1: talking about how black women have been impacted by this administration.
Speaker 1: You know firsthand that even in the last election cycle
Speaker 1: in twenty four there was a lot of discussion about
Speaker 1: black men feeling unseen, unheard by every political party and
Speaker 1: everything in between. Talk about why a report like this
Speaker 1: was so important in this hour right now.
Speaker 3: Well, exactly what you said, I mean.
Speaker 2: We were able to be able to conduct nearly ten
Speaker 2: thousand conversations. Study points engagement was black men across the country,
Speaker 2: and one of the things that was consistent was brothers
Speaker 2: feeling is that they've been left out, Others feeling as
Speaker 2: if no one cares about what they have to say
Speaker 2: and whatnot, and really just an act of despair. And
Speaker 2: what we really wanted to do with this report would
Speaker 2: show that while it is indeed bleak, it's important for.
Speaker 3: Us to know the data, for us to be able.
Speaker 2: To then make informed decisions based on the data, not
Speaker 2: in you window, not what I think, not maybe what
Speaker 2: I heard, but the facts are the facts.
Speaker 3: And when we look at again like small things. Six
Speaker 3: not small thing.
Speaker 2: But when you have six hundred and fifty thousand black
Speaker 2: men who were unemployed became unemployed between quarter one and
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five and quarter one of twenty twenty six,
Speaker 2: and that number is nearly a million persons for black women,
Speaker 2: six hundred and fifty thousand black men, that's nothing small
Speaker 2: or that's nothing for us to laugh about it pretend
Speaker 2: is if it's not a major thing when you look
Speaker 2: at it. In the month of April of twenty twenty six,
Speaker 2: black male unemployment rate was at nearly seven point four percent,
Speaker 2: damn near astronomical numbers, and it came down a little
Speaker 2: bit to June and we're a six point six percent,
Speaker 2: but that's still crazy. And it's the highest ployment rate
Speaker 2: of any of the four major subgroups. So you know,
Speaker 2: black men are really in a state of despair, and
Speaker 2: it's important for us to talk about it so that
Speaker 2: again we can find tangible solutions based on strategy from
Speaker 2: the data, not again things that we think need to happen,
Speaker 2: but allow the data to make us, to allow us
Speaker 2: to make data unformed decisions.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you this too. So one thing that
Speaker 1: struck me looking at this report is you talk about
Speaker 1: the economic state of black men and boys. Oftentimes, when
Speaker 1: we talk about black economic power, it is narrowly through
Speaker 1: the lens of our buying power. So people are like, oh,
Speaker 1: we're over two point one trillion dollars power, right, But
Speaker 1: why is it with other communities they don't talk about
Speaker 1: their economic power and how much they're willing to spend.
Speaker 1: What do you hope that by releasing this report we
Speaker 1: can do in shifting that narrative as well?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think there's a couple of things. One that
Speaker 2: we're not regulated solely to what we can do for others,
Speaker 2: i e. Buying We have to look at the educational
Speaker 2: aspect and where we are. I mean, seventeen percent of
Speaker 2: African Americans as a whole, that's both men and women included,
Speaker 2: are only reading it a seventeen percent reading proficiency rate
Speaker 2: in the fourth grade.
Speaker 3: That means that we got a lot of work to do.
Speaker 2: When again you look at black males at HBCUs and
Speaker 2: rolled in colleges, we're only twenty six percent of the
Speaker 2: enrollment share. At pwi's we're only holding around twenty eight
Speaker 2: to twenty nine percent of the enrollment share. So again
Speaker 2: we want to shift the conversation solely from where we
Speaker 2: are economically to also what we're looking at from a
Speaker 2: housing perspective, from an educational perspective, from a health perspective.
Speaker 2: But we know all of those things are impact ors
Speaker 2: because me your economics are impacted by all of those
Speaker 2: other items. So if you can't get a job, you
Speaker 2: obviously aren't going to have any money. If you can't read,
Speaker 2: then that's going to limit you in terms of your
Speaker 2: buying power. That's going to limit you in terms of
Speaker 2: the wealth that you're.
Speaker 3: Able to create.
Speaker 2: If you don't have access to housing, then that too
Speaker 2: is going to impact your economics. So we used we
Speaker 2: used through this report kind of economics as the hook,
Speaker 2: but we talk about a wide variety of other factors
Speaker 2: that are playing the role in black men feeling as
Speaker 2: if they are being forgotten. But all is not lost,
Speaker 2: and I know we'll get to the solutions to some
Speaker 2: of the priorities if you will, But there there are
Speaker 2: there is a light at the end of the tunnel,
Speaker 2: and we just have to continue to put our boots
Speaker 2: on the ground and get to work.
Speaker 1: Given your background in political science, why is it important
Speaker 1: to bring data into conversations around policy. I'm thinking in particular,
Speaker 1: you know, you're in a very interesting state, one that
Speaker 1: people would say it flipped blue. I was familiar with
Speaker 1: Abigail Spamberger's politics before she ran for governor. Yeah, she worked.
Speaker 1: She was in the House, always voting on bills that
Speaker 1: she shouldn't. But I guess my question would be, what
Speaker 1: would you your highest hope be when you think about
Speaker 1: how the governor and her administration could utilize this data.
Speaker 1: What's your highest hope for you know, local governments, some
Speaker 1: of our friends who with the African American Mayors Association.
Speaker 1: As a former elected official yourself, how do you want
Speaker 1: to see this data used to move the needle for
Speaker 1: Black men and boys?
Speaker 2: So two things specifically, I want every state to adopt
Speaker 2: a commission for African American Boys and young men and
Speaker 2: then allow them to and we can work with them
Speaker 2: in any capacity in which when we've got a whole
Speaker 2: research team, we all need to do a state by
Speaker 2: state state of economic for Black men and boys in
Speaker 2: each state and again and recognize that there is a
Speaker 2: dire need across all fifty states.
Speaker 3: So that's the first thing we want.
Speaker 2: An African American Commission for Black Boys and Men, excuse me,
Speaker 2: a commission for Black boys and men in all fifty states.
Speaker 2: And then secondly on a local level, and this can
Speaker 2: also play into the state level. Put on a local level,
Speaker 2: we want dedicated strategies on the K twelve level, so
Speaker 2: that means reading interventionists. And some folks will say, well, hey,
Speaker 2: we're already doing these things. Title I schools receive federal dollars.
Speaker 2: There are reading interventionists in each school. We're trying to
Speaker 2: do the best job that we can. We need more people. Well,
Speaker 2: that's where the state comes in terms of providing additional
Speaker 2: resources so that we again can have dedicated strategies to
Speaker 2: Black boys and men. So that's when the K twelve
Speaker 2: level early elementary we want to see again more riding
Speaker 2: interventionists for black boys. From a local municipality level, we
Speaker 2: would like to see a pathways program be developed in
Speaker 2: areas in which there are industry Not every municipality has
Speaker 2: access to a plumbing and trade school or some kind
Speaker 2: of workforce development that are a carpentry school or something
Speaker 2: of that nature, but there are other trades in which
Speaker 2: can be taught. So that means that can we develop
Speaker 2: and have a municipality pay for young men, black men
Speaker 2: specifically to go to barber school. Can we have them
Speaker 2: pay to get customer service trades things of that nature
Speaker 2: like certificates rather than things of that nature. So we
Speaker 2: want to see a dedicated workforce plan being implemented in
Speaker 2: each municipality. And then when we look at from an
Speaker 2: institutional level, we would like to see our community colleges
Speaker 2: have a dedicated strategy for Black men and boys, Our
Speaker 2: state institutions, whether you're a PWY or HBCU, have a
Speaker 2: dedicated strategy for black men and boys, and our private
Speaker 2: institutions have a dedicated strategy for black men and boys. Again,
Speaker 2: we want this data to allow these institutions, whether that's
Speaker 2: a college, community college, trade school, local government, state government,
Speaker 2: because there are all institutions as a whole. We want
Speaker 2: the data to allow these institutions to make informed decisions
Speaker 2: specific for their population. Where I live, and I'll stop
Speaker 2: with this, but where I live in Charlottesville, Virginia, nearly
Speaker 2: twenty seven percent of our population lives below the poverty line.
Speaker 3: We have some data that has been recently released.
Speaker 2: It says eighteen percent of black men and boys who
Speaker 2: live in Charlottesville and Albamar County for that matter, are homeless.
Speaker 2: So that means like homeless can be identified as you know, broh,
Speaker 2: you sleeping on the couch, your homeboy, or just being candid,
Speaker 2: you going from chick to chick. You kicking it with
Speaker 2: this one, you're kicking it with that one because you
Speaker 2: can't go back to your mom house. In many ways,
Speaker 2: we identify all of that as homelessness. And brothers were
Speaker 2: trying to get you mentally right. We're trying to get
Speaker 2: you emotionally right, and then also we want to get
Speaker 2: you fiscally right so that you can take care of
Speaker 2: yourself and your family in the future and then subsequently
Speaker 2: give back to our community. So that's why, like again,
Speaker 2: this data, there's a ton of information in it, but
Speaker 2: we're hoping that individuals read the report and not just
Speaker 2: take this as a woe as me kind of thing,
Speaker 2: but let's use it to go and make informed decisions.
Speaker 1: I think I think that's kind of this this other
Speaker 1: part of this like around data right now. I talked
Speaker 1: about it in this intro too. We have a president
Speaker 1: that runs from it instead of dealing with the what
Speaker 1: it actually says. I don't know if you all and
Speaker 1: I didn't get to see this in the report, but
Speaker 1: I don't know if you all have anything on this,
Speaker 1: but there has been this heightened fascination with trade school
Speaker 1: for young black men.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: You you are a sitting college professor, so I know
Speaker 1: you might have a slight bias here. Will acknowledge the
Speaker 1: bias sitting there to bow tie on. You know he's
Speaker 1: an elected official. Very well, it is, Doctor Wes Bellabie's.
Speaker 3: Usually not even a dressed like this.
Speaker 1: You caught me on a goodness, it's all right. But
Speaker 1: the point is, Wes, do you think that, like, where
Speaker 1: do you think that's coming from pushing young men to
Speaker 1: trade school? Is it true that there are not enough
Speaker 1: opportunities for folks who are attaining college degrees? What is
Speaker 1: the push to trade school? Is their data on that
Speaker 1: that you've seen.
Speaker 2: So what we saw was that there wasn't conclusive data
Speaker 2: that we felt comfortable putting it in the report stating
Speaker 2: that black men and boys were going to trade school
Speaker 2: and large droves. There also was a different set of
Speaker 2: barriers as people were trying to push these young men
Speaker 2: in the trade schools that were not necessarily taken into account.
Speaker 2: Some of the things that we found in preliminary ports
Speaker 2: were this one when brothers go to trade school, there's
Speaker 2: an associated cost with entering into the school if there
Speaker 2: isn't a pathway program sponsored by some entity, So you're
Speaker 2: going to have to pay to go to the trade school.
Speaker 3: The trade schools usually do not pay our young men while.
Speaker 2: They're in the school, so that means that you're going
Speaker 2: to have to have another source of income to sustain yourself.
Speaker 2: But we've also noticed is that after the trade school
Speaker 2: that doesn't guarantee you a job. In some instances, there
Speaker 2: have been three months as far as long as six
Speaker 2: to nine months, maybe even a year before after getting
Speaker 2: a trade of turning the trade you actually get a job.
Speaker 2: So you have to take all of that into account
Speaker 2: when we're saying, hey, you go and get this certificate
Speaker 2: or you just go to trade school, where some people
Speaker 2: may think is an expedited route that doesn't always lead
Speaker 2: to the immediate transfer of wealth or development of wealth
Speaker 2: that some people think that you're going to get. Now,
Speaker 2: another aspect of this is some folks percent I've seen
Speaker 2: in multiple comments from people who shared the report, they'll
Speaker 2: say things like, well, trade school still casts significantly less
Speaker 2: than a four year college, and I would agree with that,
Speaker 2: there's no denying that in most instances. However, what you
Speaker 2: can't quantify by going to college is the bachelor degree.
Speaker 2: The bachelor degree that many institutions, and I'm talking about
Speaker 2: workplace institutions are requiring for endo viduals to advance in
Speaker 2: terms of upper management or supervisory roles. That's still a
Speaker 2: tool that individuals who are running these systems are using
Speaker 2: to prohibit black men and boys specifically from advancing within
Speaker 2: their career. The data was clear in that regard, and
Speaker 2: that's what that's indicated within the report. These systems, if
Speaker 2: you will, don't have a barriers or excuse me, brothers
Speaker 2: don't have barriers from these systems to prohibit them from
Speaker 2: again advancing and or we saw very clearly that the
Speaker 2: highest opportunity for you to gain wealth as a black
Speaker 2: man and boy in this country is still for you
Speaker 2: to go and get a four year degree. Yes, I
Speaker 2: am biased as a college professor, but I also started
Speaker 2: I started a Pipeways the Pathway, Pipelines the Pathway program
Speaker 2: in Charlottesville when I was in office. That program is
Speaker 2: still in existence today. I prefer young men to it
Speaker 2: all the time. That doesn't mean that I'm going to
Speaker 2: tell them that you're going to make more money going
Speaker 2: into that pipeway pathway the pipeline program than you are
Speaker 2: coming to school. You may come out with more debt,
Speaker 2: but again we see over time and the data is clear,
Speaker 2: you make exponentially more money going to school go on
Speaker 2: to college than you do simply getting a trade.
Speaker 3: You ask the question, where do I think that that's
Speaker 3: coming from.
Speaker 2: I honestly think that it's a design being pushed by
Speaker 2: podcast bros, by individuals who are really just trying to
Speaker 2: lead us astray. And those brothers are both black and white,
Speaker 2: who are trying to tell us to go and do
Speaker 2: something that the data isn't showing yields the returns that
Speaker 2: many are looking for. Yeah, it may work for a
Speaker 2: small minute number, so that doesn't mean that it's going
Speaker 2: to work for everybody. And our best bet is still
Speaker 2: going to get a four year degree and then working
Speaker 2: your way up the ladder.
Speaker 3: If you will.
Speaker 1: Talk to me about the mental health impacts of some
Speaker 1: of the data you've seen, we have, like witness, I
Speaker 1: think we have no people in our families in our
Speaker 1: communities who are struggling with suicide attempts or suicidal thoughts, depression,
Speaker 1: young men finally being able to speak there and boys
Speaker 1: speaking their minds about everything that the world is putting
Speaker 1: on them, and how heavy the weight of that is.
Speaker 1: Talk about, you know, kind of what you anticipate seeing
Speaker 1: from being here's the data that says, if all of
Speaker 1: these things are happening, they are probably feeling the pressure
Speaker 1: of life. How are you seeing that being made manifest
Speaker 1: in some of the conversations y'all have for this report.
Speaker 2: Well, the fastest, I don't even want to say the fastest,
Speaker 2: but the group of persons with the highest number of
Speaker 2: suicide attempts over the last four years have been African
Speaker 2: American males. For some persons, that's a very surprising number,
Speaker 2: as a very surprising statistic rather, but it's it just
Speaker 2: is what it is. What the data shows. That's exasperated
Speaker 2: when you don't have any money, Those thoughts of suicide
Speaker 2: are exasperated. When you also feel as if that you're behind.
Speaker 2: It's exasperated when you feel as if there's no one
Speaker 2: who truly cares or understands what you're going through. It's
Speaker 2: easier for you to fall into a silo with other
Speaker 2: individuals or or sit in a silo with other individuals
Speaker 2: who identified with feeling lonely than it is to work
Speaker 2: with persons who are trying to get out of that
Speaker 2: mood because they are trying to climb the ladder, if
Speaker 2: you will.
Speaker 3: What we've seen very clearly is.
Speaker 2: That again, black men and boys are not necessarily going
Speaker 2: to college the same rate in which they were. They
Speaker 2: have a lower educational proficiency in which they've done before. Economically,
Speaker 2: they're only making seventy seven cent for every dollar that
Speaker 2: white men are making. And from a household perspective, black
Speaker 2: men are leading their households in terms of being the
Speaker 2: head of how being the breadwinners, if you will, That
Speaker 2: number is decreasing exponentially year by year. The data is
Speaker 2: very clear in that one plus one plus one plus
Speaker 2: one equals four, and we can pretty much understand and
Speaker 2: draw conclusions that when brothers feel checked out, when brothers
Speaker 2: feel as if they're left alone, when brothers feel as
Speaker 2: if this life just isn't worth living anymore, they are
Speaker 2: making decisions to take themselves away from here at a
Speaker 2: much higher rate. We are working diligently to encourage brothers
Speaker 2: not to do so. We just had a Black Male
Speaker 2: Leadership Institute on Thursday. We had fifty young men and
Speaker 2: boys between the ages of fourteen and twenty four all
Speaker 2: participate in that. I work with several groups on hundred
Speaker 2: Black Men capi fhasa Urban League, so on and so
Speaker 2: forth who are also trying to implement.
Speaker 3: Groups for support groups for young men.
Speaker 2: But again, we need these numbers so that we can
Speaker 2: develop and form strategies. I'm tired of us just throwing
Speaker 2: stuff at the wall based off of what we do
Speaker 2: think is happening.
Speaker 3: Now we have the data and now we can create
Speaker 3: a plan.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you brought up kappas you a Kappa, You
Speaker 1: brought up one hundred black men. You were in one
Speaker 1: hundred black men also brought up urbanly and I think
Speaker 1: that this is a good opportunity Wes, because we talked
Speaker 1: last week about the importance of joining and supporting our organizations,
Speaker 1: can you talk about why that also is important for
Speaker 1: young black men who are trying to find their way.
Speaker 1: I tell this story all the time about my godson
Speaker 1: was getting in trouble at school. He was six, and
Speaker 1: we went up there. You know. My cousin was like,
Speaker 1: you need to come because you're the lawyer. You's scary, like,
Speaker 1: so come on. So I went up there and we
Speaker 1: talked to them, and at the end of the meeting,
Speaker 1: west I was I was walking out and I was like, well,
Speaker 1: we're gonna call it in double ac and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I gotta pay my dues, you know. So it's like
Speaker 1: it's one of those moments where you're like the very
Speaker 1: organization that sometimes you know, we'll say, well, what are
Speaker 1: they doing? I don't need and understanding, well, that's old.
Speaker 1: Well and it's not just NBA said it about the
Speaker 1: National Bar got back involved in the National Bar now
Speaker 1: lifetime member of National Bar. Last year, I had never
Speaker 1: paid dues to NCNW. I love Shaban. I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm supporting that, like I'm in all of them now.
Speaker 1: But it took like it took crisis. It takes us crisis.
Speaker 1: Why would you if you were doing a PSA to
Speaker 1: these young men, like, hey, I want to make sure
Speaker 1: that y'all are tapped in, plugged in. Why are these
Speaker 1: community organizations so important to us culturally, especially in such
Speaker 1: a difficult time.
Speaker 2: I think that just as you said, when we're in trouble,
Speaker 2: those are the groups that we often look to rally
Speaker 2: support for us.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 3: But I think it's bigger than that.
Speaker 2: Not necessarily just are solely from a historical lens, because
Speaker 2: we know the work in which they've done in yesteryear
Speaker 2: and continue to do now. But I think that for
Speaker 2: black men specifically, you need a peer group, a peer
Speaker 2: group of individuals who are moving in a direction that's
Speaker 2: based around community empowerment. Now, one of the issues is
Speaker 2: that for younger black men, we don't find our peers
Speaker 2: too often in these organizations. These organizations often have older brothers,
Speaker 2: which makes it a little bit harder for younger men
Speaker 2: to find their voice, for them to find connectivity, for
Speaker 2: them to find relatability, and often when that happens, you
Speaker 2: kind of check out.
Speaker 3: So it's a two edge sword, if you will.
Speaker 2: I think that there's an obligation and absolute obligation and
Speaker 2: responsibility for us to join these organizations, and I think
Speaker 2: it's incumbent on those organizations to be more strategic in
Speaker 2: terms of how they make younger brothers feel included. I'm
Speaker 2: thirty nine, I'm not a young spring chicken anymore. I
Speaker 2: remember you saying to us and some time back, like
Speaker 2: we always say to young people, the young people, but y'all, we.
Speaker 3: Not the young people anymore.
Speaker 1: We a is not young you think that?
Speaker 3: And when you said it, I was like, dang, I
Speaker 3: mean like you're right, I serve you still.
Speaker 1: Would be in a young adult ministry at church.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would still be because I ain't forty yet. Okay,
Speaker 3: I take it.
Speaker 1: But I think even when you forty, like it feels
Speaker 1: like that bar just kind of right, yeah, like until
Speaker 1: we die.
Speaker 2: Y'all young dogs, they keep it until they gone. But
Speaker 2: I mean, I mean serious. It's like we talk about
Speaker 2: this in one hundred Black Men all the time. We've
Speaker 2: developed an emerging one hundred in which we have a
Speaker 2: few chapters across the country. But younger brothers often feel
Speaker 2: like they don't have peer circles that can help them
Speaker 2: improve their quality of life and not just go turn up,
Speaker 2: Like I don't want to talk to you about two K.
Speaker 2: I don't want to talk to you about like just
Speaker 2: going out and let's go, let's go get some chicks
Speaker 2: and let's go do a B and C. Like Nah,
Speaker 2: there's real life that we also have to be working
Speaker 2: on and we need to be talking about development as manhood.
Speaker 2: And I think these organizations can play a role in that.
Speaker 2: They should be playing a role in that. Many of
Speaker 2: them are trying to play a role in that. But
Speaker 2: we got to be able to find the bridge and
Speaker 2: in many regards, and I just don't think that that's
Speaker 2: happening at the speed in which some of us want to.
Speaker 2: That could be a technological divide, that could be just
Speaker 2: a cultural divide, or into generational divide. But I would
Speaker 2: say that these kind of divides, if you will, have
Speaker 2: been existence within our community forever. It hasn't stopped the
Speaker 2: generations before us, and the damn sure shouldn't stop us.
Speaker 3: So let's not make excuses.
Speaker 1: Let's get to work unstoppable. So we're going to make
Speaker 1: sure that we put in our show notes the link
Speaker 1: to the report, WES, what do you want people who
Speaker 1: are listening to you talking about this today, what do
Speaker 1: you want their main takeaway to be? And what is
Speaker 1: like a call to action for them? We normally end
Speaker 1: our shows a call to action cost action.
Speaker 3: So three things One we see we have in the report.
Speaker 2: There are three instances specifically that we point out or
Speaker 2: three institutions that we point out who we believe are
Speaker 2: doing really good work. In Baltimore, Maryland, shout out to
Speaker 2: Mayor Scott. They have a Pathway and Pipeway's program in
Speaker 2: which they are connecting young men directly with jobs after
Speaker 2: they go and get a certificate in trades. I firmly believe,
Speaker 2: and I think the data will show when it comes out.
Speaker 2: They don't have a direct conclusion yet because it's still
Speaker 2: relatively new, but think that has a strong correlation in
Speaker 2: the decrease in violence gun violence specifically in Baltimore.
Speaker 3: Brothers getting jobs.
Speaker 1: But that's one trade program that's working in for sure.
Speaker 2: For sure again, Okay, I think that's brothers getting jobs.
Speaker 2: Brothers can take care of themselves, Brothers have methods to
Speaker 2: de escalate when situations rise up, and then that helps
Speaker 2: decrease violence. Alabama A and M and both Morgan State
Speaker 2: University have seen increases in black mail enrollment and retention.
Speaker 2: It's one thing to have brothers come and join or
Speaker 2: come and join your school or enroll in your institution.
Speaker 2: It's another thing to retain them. Those numbers are also
Speaker 2: translating to higher graduation rates, specifically for black men. So
Speaker 2: all hope isn't lost. And I know those are two HBCUs,
Speaker 2: but we have pwis who we also have to demand
Speaker 2: to do the same thing. The other HBCUs again across
Speaker 2: the country russo demand they do the same thing. So
Speaker 2: when you ask me what's the call to action, I
Speaker 2: think again, it's encouraging your municipality. So we got to
Speaker 2: show up to city council, school board meeting and so
Speaker 2: forth to develop dedicated strategies for black men and boys.
Speaker 2: But then also collectively, brothers. Just because it's bleak right
Speaker 2: now doesn't mean it will not sun. The sun won't
Speaker 2: shine later. We love you, we believe in you, and
Speaker 2: there's much more to life than what you think is
Speaker 2: in front of you. Right now, let's go out and
Speaker 2: get to work. Let's go out and be the best
Speaker 2: versions of ourselves. And next year, in twenty twenty seven,
Speaker 2: when we publish the second edition of this report, I
Speaker 2: fully anticipate the numbers being much better than they are
Speaker 2: today because.
Speaker 3: We all going to work at it.
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it. Thank you very much,
Speaker 1: doctor Wes Bellamy. I appreciate who is a professor for liberation,
Speaker 1: that is an associated professors but no, seriously, I'm really
Speaker 1: grateful for the work you do, and Wes, it is
Speaker 1: it's always such a dope thing to see you interact
Speaker 1: with your students because it is very clear that you
Speaker 1: make an impact on all of your students. That I
Speaker 1: also deeply appreciate the love you have for our young
Speaker 1: men because it is so so necessary in this moment.
Speaker 1: So I am very proud of you and look for.
Speaker 3: Proud of them y'all, so you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Cookie ended this interview with all them on it. But no,
Speaker 1: I am very proud of doctor Wes Bellamy, and you're
Speaker 1: gonna let us know what else we can do to
Speaker 1: make sure. So are you telling Abigail you want this commission?
Speaker 1: Did you already tell her?
Speaker 3: So?
Speaker 2: The Commission for Men and Boys is up in Virginia.
Speaker 2: Just announced it last week. Oh yes, Oh, I didn't
Speaker 2: hear you say that.
Speaker 3: Did you say that? Well, not for black men and boys,
Speaker 3: it's for men and boys.
Speaker 2: But oh, but but we have had conversations her administration
Speaker 2: and I literally just spoke yesterday.
Speaker 3: We had a very fruit conversation.
Speaker 2: There's a conference of seminar that we're going to be
Speaker 2: doing in September of working together on that. So I
Speaker 2: told her rather that working on that together. So we
Speaker 2: got some We got some positive steps that we're taking
Speaker 2: in here in Virginia and they hoping it will be
Speaker 2: a model for everyone else.
Speaker 1: Well, maybe we need to come do Native Lampard in
Speaker 1: Virginia and have Abigail on to answer why there's not
Speaker 1: a commission for black men and boys yet. I'm happy
Speaker 1: to ask the question. Abo. We got questions because we
Speaker 1: can be doing things a little bit differently here since
Speaker 1: we got to keep these people motivated to vote. They
Speaker 1: don't see if you're doing something different, they're gonna have
Speaker 1: a problem now, So come on anyway. That is charged
Speaker 1: to me, not to doctor Wes Bellamy. But I met
Speaker 1: what I said. We look forward to fellowshipping with you
Speaker 1: in Virginia West and definitely talking to the Spanburger administration
Speaker 1: about what's good. Okay, all right, we'll see, so we'll
Speaker 1: drop the Lincoln the show notes. All right, Uh, okay, y'all,
Speaker 1: this has been an incredible show. I think it's so
Speaker 1: important for us to understand, you know, really what's at
Speaker 1: stake for our kids, for our young people. Things are tough,
Speaker 1: our kids are coming up disappearing. They ended up with
Speaker 1: with sentences that are far, far, far too long, you know,
Speaker 1: getting killed on you know, graduation night by police officers.
Speaker 1: Like we really got to make some changes. So I
Speaker 1: applaud this work, and I especially applaud the idea of
Speaker 1: developing a village. I'm going to tell y'all often my
Speaker 1: point of privilege growing up the way that I did
Speaker 1: is I grew up with a true village of black folks,
Speaker 1: chosen family and actually blood related, and it's just shaped
Speaker 1: my world view. It determined what I believe I was
Speaker 1: capable of. It helped to establish confidence in me. I
Speaker 1: want every child, particularly every black child, to have that.
Speaker 1: So whatever we can do to make that happen, I
Speaker 1: know that doctor Wes Vellami will join me in that fight,
Speaker 1: and I know so many of you all who are
Speaker 1: watching and listening at home or wherever you may be,
Speaker 1: will do that as well. We always in this show
Speaker 1: and begin the show with welcome Home, and the importance
Speaker 1: of that is we want to have a sacred space
Speaker 1: for us all we deserve, that we have earned it.
Speaker 1: That is our path way a liberation. And so with
Speaker 1: that welcome Home y'all. Native Lampard is a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and partnership with Reising Choice Media. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from iHeartRadio, visits the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.