Speaker 1: Hey, hey, Hey, we're back. We're black. We're but b
Speaker 1: bu bu bu bu bu bu bu bu brown ambition, ambition, ambition, ambition, ambition.
Speaker 1: I'm excited because today in the stew we have some
Speaker 1: extra Brown in the studio. Today we have the one
Speaker 1: the only civil rights lawyer, Obama White House alum education leader,
Speaker 1: running to fight for the village that raise him. He
Speaker 1: currently represents over one point one million neighbors on the
Speaker 1: Montgomery County Council. Will Yemmi Jowanda, It's just real to me.
Speaker 1: So if you remember a few weeks back, depending when
Speaker 1: you're listening to this, I did a wealth walk in Maryland.
Speaker 1: It was awesome. It was like, you know, I want
Speaker 1: to say, over eighty or so people came for the
Speaker 1: physical walk and then over one hundred like stayed for
Speaker 1: the talk part. At the end. It was with Will.
Speaker 1: It was amazing, you know, Will, just we we know
Speaker 1: in our community health is a huge component, but also
Speaker 1: wealth as well. So we combined the two and it
Speaker 1: was just we walked at this really where was that park?
Speaker 2: Will?
Speaker 1: What was that park? Will called?
Speaker 3: That was Wheaton Regional.
Speaker 1: So we walked to this beautiful park called Wheaton regional,
Speaker 1: and then afterwards we talked about not just money but
Speaker 1: money as related to like what will specialties, which we'll
Speaker 1: get into today. And so that was just so awesome
Speaker 1: and I wanted to have Will back on. He also
Speaker 1: is an author of this awesome book called My Seven
Speaker 1: Black Fathers Right or Lessons.
Speaker 2: You got it?
Speaker 3: No, you got it, you got it right the first time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you might have seen it in target. I
Speaker 1: know I have many a times. But also obviously oh yes,
Speaker 1: brand I see if you watch the YouTube channel, you
Speaker 1: could see it right. And so Will is awesome. I've
Speaker 1: known him, his amazing wife Michelle. Is it three or
Speaker 1: four girls?
Speaker 2: You have? Now?
Speaker 3: We have three girls and a boy?
Speaker 1: Three girls and a boy, right in that order, in
Speaker 1: that order. They kept trying for a boy. That's what
Speaker 1: it's giving. And so Will was just an awesome, awesome,
Speaker 1: awesome resource. And I can't wait for you guys to
Speaker 1: hear from him. So welcome to the studio, Will.
Speaker 3: Well, it's great to be here, and thank you, and
Speaker 3: that was such an amazing walk and thanks for having
Speaker 3: me on the show.
Speaker 1: So well, tell us currently like what do you what
Speaker 1: do you currently do for a living now? But then like,
Speaker 1: what kind of have you done that has brought you
Speaker 1: to this place, because I want people to get a
Speaker 1: context a like who you are as we start to
Speaker 1: talk about money.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. Absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 3: So I'm on the Montgomery County Council. I'm a council
Speaker 3: member at large, which all that means is just a
Speaker 3: fancy way of saying I represent. I'm elected county wide,
Speaker 3: and as you mentioned in the lead end, I represent
Speaker 3: one point one million residents in Montgomery County. There's six
Speaker 3: million people in Maryland, and I represent one point one
Speaker 3: million of them. I'm in my second term. I chair
Speaker 3: the Education and Culture Committee, which oversees our school system
Speaker 3: and our community college and arts and culture programming. And
Speaker 3: as I know, you know, I'm also running for the
Speaker 3: United States Senate, so to represent all six million people
Speaker 3: in the US Senate. So that's what I'm doing now.
Speaker 3: I'm also a lawyer. I do some I'm a civil
Speaker 3: rights lawyer, but I'm full time as a council member
Speaker 3: of public servant on the Montgomery County Council, which is
Speaker 3: the community I grew up in and where Michelle and
Speaker 3: I are raising our kids.
Speaker 1: Question about your wife, Michelle, Who's awesome by the way,
Speaker 1: is Michelle an attorney as well?
Speaker 2: She is.
Speaker 1: You know, the kids don't even realize what they got.
Speaker 1: They got two black lawyers in the house, and you
Speaker 1: follow well on social media. Their family is just so beautiful,
Speaker 1: like Michelle is beautiful, their girls are beautiful, and his
Speaker 1: son is beautiful. It's just like you know when people
Speaker 1: like say, back to the day, that's a good black family.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: Well, I'll tell you one time I saw did Gregory God.
Speaker 2: Rest his soul?
Speaker 3: Right when I was working in the Obama White House,
Speaker 3: and I think we had two kids at the time,
Speaker 3: and our two girls, and he grabbed me and he said,
Speaker 3: he looked me dead in the eyes, and he said,
Speaker 3: you keep having those beautiful black babies. Yes, And I said, yes, sir,
Speaker 3: And then I went and we went and had two more.
Speaker 2: So we got to do our part.
Speaker 1: Yes, I love that. So one of the things that
Speaker 1: came up during the Wealth Walk that I just thought
Speaker 1: was this comes up a lot, is that sometimes especially
Speaker 1: we as black and brown people, we feel like we
Speaker 1: don't we can't play a role in like what happens
Speaker 1: to us externally. You know that, like, yes, I can
Speaker 1: do my budget at home and I can save, but
Speaker 1: as far as like what happens federally, what happens in
Speaker 1: my state, what even happens in my county is kind
Speaker 1: of out of my hands other than voting. Right, But
Speaker 1: is that really true that like there's nothing that we
Speaker 1: can do. We just have we're just we just have
Speaker 1: to suffer as a result of whatever choices are made
Speaker 1: by the powers that be.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a that's a great, great question and a
Speaker 3: great point. I mean, no, the answer, or the short
Speaker 3: answer is no, it's not true. And let me tell
Speaker 3: you why voting is certainly important.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: People fought and die for that right. There's a reason
Speaker 3: that there's people still attacking it and trying to take
Speaker 3: it away from whole groups of people, whether they be
Speaker 3: returning citizens who had been in jail or prison, or
Speaker 3: whether it's come you know, modern day literacy tests where
Speaker 3: you have to make all these hoops where people have
Speaker 3: to jump through and moving their polling stations. All that
Speaker 3: stuff is still happening today. So the vote is important,
Speaker 3: but there's so much more than that. It's actually being
Speaker 3: engaged with who you vote for, right, you know, going
Speaker 3: to the council hearing.
Speaker 2: Right, I often tell people.
Speaker 3: My county council, we have a seven billion dollar budget,
Speaker 3: and that money comes from you, It comes from the
Speaker 3: people that pay taxes, right, either property taxes or sales
Speaker 3: tax or income tax. And so you should absolutely and
Speaker 3: we should absolutely be engaged and directing that money. And
Speaker 3: then we set the rules of the of the road too.
Speaker 3: We also do all the laws. Right, how fast you
Speaker 3: go on the road? Right, you know you care about
Speaker 3: your kids not getting hit, go fight for a lower
Speaker 3: speed limit. That's what we decide that too. And then
Speaker 3: you talk about land use, maybe the biggest of all
Speaker 3: of them. Where are things built, how are they built,
Speaker 3: who is allowed to build, who gets money to help
Speaker 3: them build? You know, if you talk about wealth, you know,
Speaker 3: certainly owning property is kind of a bedrock principle. I
Speaker 3: know of that, and so so the state, local, and
Speaker 3: federal government are involved in all of that. The squeaky
Speaker 3: wheel really does get the oil. And so we have
Speaker 3: to show up, We have to be at present, We
Speaker 3: have to hold people accountable who we elect and advocate
Speaker 3: for things that are going to improve our community. So
Speaker 3: I just think absolutely it matters, and you have a
Speaker 3: right to do it, and not just a right to
Speaker 3: engage with elected officials. You have responsibility and it's directly
Speaker 3: connected to the health and wealth of yourselves but also
Speaker 3: your entire community.
Speaker 1: So let's do like a walk through. Because people ask
Speaker 1: me this all the time. So you know, I got
Speaker 1: the law, aid, well, I didn't get it, but I
Speaker 1: helped to introduce a one four to one four the
Speaker 1: budget needs to leve absolutely in the state of New Jersey,
Speaker 1: making financial education mandatory for middle school students because New
Speaker 1: Jersey already has a law for high school students. So
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie. It was thankfully thankful to I'm
Speaker 1: thankful to my assembly Woman Angelovie McKnight, who came to
Speaker 1: me and said, let's do something together. But I think
Speaker 1: the vast majority, even me, I was not really clear
Speaker 1: on the process. I had to like literally, I think
Speaker 1: I watched The Schoolhouse Rock. I'm just a sitting So
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people don't realize that, like, wait,
Speaker 1: you can get like help to get a law passed.
Speaker 1: Can you walk us through the literal? Like, Okay, you
Speaker 1: have an idea and you think that maybe there's no
Speaker 1: financial education in your in your state and your what like,
Speaker 1: So what's the process of creating of change through legislation.
Speaker 1: So what would somebody do?
Speaker 3: Yes, the great question. I actually created a nonprofit to
Speaker 3: help people in low income communities do just that.
Speaker 2: Like we called our Voices Matter.
Speaker 3: And what we did is we went to the sixth
Speaker 3: lowest income census tracks in Montgomery County where I represent,
Speaker 3: and we had a community town hall and we said, hey,
Speaker 3: what are issues and we had incentives, you know, we
Speaker 3: had like so this is kind of like step one
Speaker 3: of the process.
Speaker 2: You got to get together.
Speaker 3: Either with yourself or community members and talk about what
Speaker 3: you want to see change.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: You have to have an idea of what you're trying
Speaker 3: to accomplish, right, And it could be something like I
Speaker 3: want to change the law for financial literacy like you did.
Speaker 3: Or it could be I want the door at my
Speaker 3: middle school. I want the security door fixed so it's
Speaker 3: not hanging open. That was one issue we helped some
Speaker 3: community members with. So it could be anything. So identify
Speaker 3: those needs and within your community, and that it could
Speaker 3: be an individual because the individuals you know, but it
Speaker 3: could be I think it's stronger if you can get
Speaker 3: with the group that you know on that. Then you
Speaker 3: want to do the research on who is who are
Speaker 3: the decision makers?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: Who are the people that decide that issue. So depending
Speaker 3: on what it is, it could be a local estate
Speaker 3: or a federal issue, or it could be all three.
Speaker 3: And in the case of a school, you know, a
Speaker 3: school door, it's going to probably be the local school board, right,
Speaker 3: So we we identified with that group. So so what
Speaker 3: you do is you identify the issue, you know, gather with.
Speaker 2: People who care about it.
Speaker 3: Then look at the research who the decision makers are.
Speaker 3: So those are your council people, your city council, your state.
Speaker 3: You know you should already you should just automatically know
Speaker 3: if you go into any you know, vote dot org
Speaker 3: and to type in your zip code your address, it'll
Speaker 3: tell you who your elected officials are, so you know
Speaker 3: at every level, right, so at federal, state, and local level, Okay,
Speaker 3: and then reach out to all of them and just
Speaker 3: you know, write a letter or show up or look
Speaker 3: better yet or do all three of these things. Write
Speaker 3: them a letter, write them an email, then show up
Speaker 3: to a public hearing. A lot of these, like we
Speaker 3: have people that come they can you know, testify for
Speaker 3: three minutes on a topic. They come and they and
Speaker 3: they say why they're here and what they hope to see.
Speaker 3: That's the first step in the process. Bring it to
Speaker 3: the attention of the elected officials.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, so that's great. So that's why that's the
Speaker 1: first step.
Speaker 2: There's more steps, but no, I like that, so then.
Speaker 1: So then okay, so let's just say so that happens.
Speaker 1: Angela came to me and was like, hey, Tiffany, I
Speaker 1: wanted to do something. I guess she was on the
Speaker 1: Education committee, so I didn't have to do any writing.
Speaker 1: I just kind of gave to your point from my
Speaker 1: space of expertise, this is what should be appropriate for
Speaker 1: middle school students. Then Angela went to her team and
Speaker 1: started to craft, like what a bill, So you don't
Speaker 1: have to do that as the you know, as the
Speaker 1: like you I'm saying, like that you listening, yes, you know.
Speaker 1: So then you know the you know, you find your
Speaker 1: elected official and they you tell them kind of the
Speaker 1: components of the bill, of the proposed bill, and they
Speaker 1: will craft something together and oftentimes they'll bring it back
Speaker 1: to you where I'm thinking. Because Angela brought it back up.
Speaker 1: She was like, do you mean like this, And I
Speaker 1: was just like yes, like yes, that because for me,
Speaker 1: it was important as a former teacher. Well I'm still
Speaker 1: a teacher, but like a former school teacher, that it
Speaker 1: did and I wanted I wanted a law or a
Speaker 1: bill that didn't put undue stress on the teacher. And
Speaker 1: so there was language in there that shared that was
Speaker 1: like integration into the day versus like you have to
Speaker 1: stop and say money time, you know, and like teach,
Speaker 1: So I knew that language is important. So she might
Speaker 1: not have known that because she was not a school teacher.
Speaker 1: And so so it Angela came to me said, here's
Speaker 1: the language of this proposed bill. Then I remember something
Speaker 1: distinctly about she had to get like some stakeholders on board,
Speaker 1: so she got like a group of superintendents.
Speaker 3: Is that part of it too, Yeah, yeah, So you
Speaker 3: bring up a really good point. So, yes, your job
Speaker 3: is not to necessarily draft the language, obviously if that's
Speaker 3: your skill set. You know, there are people that come
Speaker 3: to us, you know, that have language and they're like,
Speaker 3: we want this to be drafted. But most people that
Speaker 3: just have something they want to see happen. And so
Speaker 3: then we take and work with our lawyers and our
Speaker 3: legislative councils and within our offices and we.
Speaker 2: Draft the legislation.
Speaker 3: But the part that you're talking about next is really critical,
Speaker 3: the stakeholder engagement, right, you know, getting people behind. That's
Speaker 3: why I said if you start out with a group
Speaker 3: at the beginning, because that you've already created one of
Speaker 3: your first stakeholder groups, right, and if it can be
Speaker 3: you know, the parents and the Teachers Association, the Teachers'
Speaker 3: Union and there, the more work you can do throughout
Speaker 3: the beginning and throughout the process to get others to
Speaker 3: agree that, hey, we need to do this, that are
Speaker 3: not the electeds, right, that is what ultimately will move
Speaker 3: the electeds to do it. But if you have a
Speaker 3: broad coalition and so you know, you often heard the
Speaker 3: term there's no new.
Speaker 2: Ideas under the sun. Right.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of ideas that have been proposed and
Speaker 3: are out there, But who can build the coalition of
Speaker 3: people that can create the energy behind. You know, when
Speaker 3: doctor Martin Luther King was pushing for the Voting Rights
Speaker 3: Act in nineteen sixty five, there's famous conversations and it's
Speaker 3: multiple this has happened multiple times throughout our history where
Speaker 3: he's talking to the president and they're like, we need
Speaker 3: to do x y Z and and the response back
Speaker 3: was from the president to doctor King and others was
Speaker 3: will go make me do it? You know, so you
Speaker 3: have to have the stakeholders in the community asking for it.
Speaker 3: So that's where the organizing part happens. And the good
Speaker 3: thing about that is when you do that, you improve
Speaker 3: the legislation, You improve the policy because you get feedback.
Speaker 3: Just like you said that, she took it to you
Speaker 3: and you're like, well, it has to be integration, so
Speaker 3: we don't want to The teachers are going to tell
Speaker 3: you this, the superintendents won't say you that, the community
Speaker 3: member will say that, and then through that process you
Speaker 3: get a better product that will also because ultimately you
Speaker 3: want something that will have buy in, right, because there's
Speaker 3: been a lot of laws that have been written that
Speaker 3: if they don't have buy in, they're not going to
Speaker 3: be implemented well, and people aren't going to believe in.
Speaker 3: I mean, you're never going to totally avoid that. But
Speaker 3: the more work you do on the front end and
Speaker 3: through the process to get other people's input that are impacted,
Speaker 3: the better the end product will be and your building
Speaker 3: momentum for passage.
Speaker 1: And that was that's exactly what happened to your point
Speaker 1: that I think it was like they initially wrote it
Speaker 1: and the teachers pushed back and said, ugh, we already
Speaker 1: have too much in the educational day. And I said,
Speaker 1: you know what, They're absolutely right. I totally forgot Angela.
Speaker 1: I think that integration is better because I already have
Speaker 1: to do story time. But imagine, like I just pick
Speaker 1: one book a week that's a money book. So I'm
Speaker 1: not creating a whole new segment. It's like I'm already
Speaker 1: reading anyway. I'm already doing art projects. Maybe one of
Speaker 1: those art projects is a piggy bank made out of
Speaker 1: a shoe box, you know, And so so okay, no, okay,
Speaker 1: So I love that part. It's like, okay, so you
Speaker 1: get your buying and there will is half Nigerian, but
Speaker 1: you know we're gonna claim all you. And so this
Speaker 1: is Africa, there's a half. There's an African proverb that says, right,
Speaker 1: if you want to go fast, go alone. If you
Speaker 1: want to go far, you go with others, and so
Speaker 1: that illustrates that point. So then so we so we
Speaker 1: got that buy in with the community. And then I
Speaker 1: remember her saying something like, now it has to go
Speaker 1: to committee. So what is that?
Speaker 3: So the bills introduced, like you said, a bill, a bill,
Speaker 3: just a bill, you know, like schoolhouse. Right, the bill
Speaker 3: is introduced by a council member or assembly person, whatever
Speaker 3: the vehicle the level of level of government is, or
Speaker 3: a congress person or center, and then it goes to Normally,
Speaker 3: what happens is there's a public hearing at the local level,
Speaker 3: and that's what we have. So two weeks after we
Speaker 3: introduced the bill, and this is common for a lot
Speaker 3: of local and state legislation, there's a there's a hearing
Speaker 3: on it, and it goes to committee. And in this case,
Speaker 3: if we're talking about this, it would be probably an
Speaker 3: education committee, and and I chair that committee for my counsel,
Speaker 3: So go to it would go to us and then
Speaker 3: we would review it, right, and we would have we
Speaker 3: would call witnesses and have people there like the school,
Speaker 3: the school system, maybe some of the teachers, the advocates,
Speaker 3: people who have advocated on this bill, uh, and then
Speaker 3: try to start working through the legislation and maybe there's
Speaker 3: amendments offered and you know, like well let's change this
Speaker 3: language to this or let's do it this way, and
Speaker 3: and so it could be one or two committee sessions
Speaker 3: or more, depending on how complicated the issue is. Then
Speaker 3: it would be voted out of committee and so it
Speaker 3: would hopefully receive a you know, positive vote. In our case,
Speaker 3: we have three person committees because we have an eleven
Speaker 3: member council, so you have to have two people agree
Speaker 3: to move it forward. So say it comes out, then
Speaker 3: it goes to the full body. So in our case,
Speaker 3: eleven member council it could be. Or if it's the
Speaker 3: full you know, state legislature of New Jersey or whatever,
Speaker 3: it would go to hundreds of people. But then it's
Speaker 3: it's reported at a committee favorably or unfavorably, and then
Speaker 3: it's voted on by the full council and then.
Speaker 2: It would be passed. Uh, it would.
Speaker 3: And now if it's a state legislature, it has to
Speaker 3: go through the House.
Speaker 1: And she was telling me, yeah, so tell us about that.
Speaker 1: I remember she was like, it had to go to
Speaker 1: the House and then it had to have the Senate.
Speaker 1: So what does that look like?
Speaker 3: So yeah, So every at the state and federal level,
Speaker 3: you have you have an executive. At every level of government,
Speaker 3: you have an executive, a legislative and the judicial. The
Speaker 3: executive signs the laws and implements them. The legislative passes
Speaker 3: the laws and it in most and then the judicial
Speaker 3: reviews and says what's constitutional, you know, kind of reviews
Speaker 3: the laws to see if they're in line with the Constitution.
Speaker 3: And that the legislative branch, which we're talking about now,
Speaker 3: in at the state and federal level, it's comprised the
Speaker 3: two houses, usually a House and a Senate. And and
Speaker 3: so you have the House of Representatives. At the federal
Speaker 3: you have the US Senate. At the state level you
Speaker 3: have some people call it assembly, some people call it delegates,
Speaker 3: but there's a House and then there's a Senate. At
Speaker 3: the local level, at the county or municipal level, often
Speaker 3: there's one body that's everything. So there's eleven council members,
Speaker 3: we have committees, but the body of the whole.
Speaker 2: There's no Senate.
Speaker 3: It's just if the council passes it, they send it
Speaker 3: to the mayor or the county executive and they sign
Speaker 3: it or be to it okay. And so at the
Speaker 3: state level you have a House and Senate, and in
Speaker 3: those cases you have to get it through one chamber,
Speaker 3: and then the bill goes over to the other chamber
Speaker 3: of the Senate in this past, and then it goes
Speaker 3: to the executive, which would be either the president at
Speaker 3: the federal level, the governor at the state level, or
Speaker 3: the mayor or count executive at the local level, and
Speaker 3: they would sign it and then it becomes law.
Speaker 1: Well, even just to I hope y'all getting like, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's the whole history lesson or whatever. You're welcome. Oh
Speaker 1: my goodness, honestly, Will, I am learning so much. I
Speaker 1: feel like I'm back in history class. But give us
Speaker 1: a moment. We need to pay some bills, and we'll
Speaker 1: be right back, black and brown and we're back. Wow. Will,
Speaker 1: this is so fascinated to keep going. So I remember distinctly.
Speaker 1: Now I'm like, things are coming to me. I remember
Speaker 1: that one of the things that the assembly woman did
Speaker 1: is that she because she is a Democrat, I think
Speaker 1: she found somebody across the aisle, so like a Republican
Speaker 1: to co sponsor the bill. I believe, yes, and so like,
Speaker 1: because to your point, like, if we can get more
Speaker 1: people to say we're on board, you have less likely
Speaker 1: to have this kind of pushback.
Speaker 3: Exactly. It's something we need more of in the Congress
Speaker 3: right now. You know that I want to do when
Speaker 3: I get to the Senate is work across the aisle
Speaker 3: on things that you can work across the isle on, right, Like,
Speaker 3: you're not going to agree on everything, like I always
Speaker 3: tell people all the time, Michelle, my beautiful, amazing wife,
Speaker 3: we don't agree on everything. So and we've decided to
Speaker 3: be life partners. So of course we're not going to
Speaker 3: agree with everyone we're working with on everything, but you
Speaker 3: can get to a place where you're ring on the
Speaker 3: majority of it and the intent of the legislation. And
Speaker 3: so that's part of that process.
Speaker 2: When you're working on.
Speaker 3: You know, building your stakeholders and building your support, you
Speaker 3: want those folks to also reach out to other members
Speaker 3: of the legislative body to tell them why, you know,
Speaker 3: because it's just like in like influencing, if I tell you,
Speaker 3: if I'm trying to convince you, that has some effect.
Speaker 3: But if other people from who have a different interest
Speaker 3: in me come to try.
Speaker 2: To convince you, that's going to have a different impact.
Speaker 2: So but a lot of times.
Speaker 3: That even before you introduce the bill, like like you're
Speaker 3: assembly woman did she was like, well, let's give it
Speaker 3: a better chance if we can make it bipartisan or
Speaker 3: or get more co sponsors. The more people you have.
Speaker 3: You know, if I'm going to introduce a bill on
Speaker 3: my council there's eleven members, it needs six votes to pass.
Speaker 2: If I can get.
Speaker 3: Six co sponsors on it at the beginning, that means
Speaker 3: it's going to pass. So so so it's it's kind
Speaker 3: of a also, you know, trying to get do that
Speaker 3: work on the front end.
Speaker 1: This is great and so so just so you can
Speaker 1: so in the beginning, my the bill that you know
Speaker 1: I helped to work on, it was for elementary and
Speaker 1: middle school. It did all of that, you know, It
Speaker 1: went to committee and went to the House, went to
Speaker 1: send it. Then it got to at the time Governor
Speaker 1: Christie's desk. He said he would sign it. He did not,
Speaker 1: and it was his last year in office, so it
Speaker 1: was literally it got on his desk right before he
Speaker 1: was leaving office. He did not sign it. And at
Speaker 1: least in the state of New Jersey, it unsigned bill
Speaker 1: is basically vetoed like it's just you know, it's gone.
Speaker 1: So we brought it back to the table and this
Speaker 1: time there was this new pushback where they didn't want
Speaker 1: the elementary school component, so went all the way through.
Speaker 1: They were like, take off this elementary school part. I
Speaker 1: said fine, She said fine. And then it got to
Speaker 1: Governor Phil Murphy Murphy's desk and at the time he
Speaker 1: was out, So Sheila Oliver, who is our what is
Speaker 1: that called? What do you call when you're like, it's
Speaker 1: almost like governor and second governor. No, I'm like second governor.
Speaker 1: So the tech the governor.
Speaker 2: So it was off.
Speaker 1: So it's awesome because we got to like what was
Speaker 1: great about it? Since it was middle school, they picked
Speaker 1: them middle school in Newark called the Barack Obama Middle School,
Speaker 1: which I love, and right the kids got to see
Speaker 1: watch her sign a bill into law, which was really awesome,
Speaker 1: and I got to be there. Of course, my mom
Speaker 1: always like, you know, as a Nigerian, she was like, hey,
Speaker 1: my daughter has made me. I was like she was
Speaker 1: actually mad, will because you'll know this about Nigerians that
Speaker 1: like that. They wouldn't let her talk on stage. I'm like, Mammy,
Speaker 1: why would? I was like, Sylvia, honestly, just sit down.
Speaker 1: So that was an amazing people. So but one so
Speaker 1: knowing that and you know you are wanting to make
Speaker 1: this shift from local government to state government. You said
Speaker 1: something that was really powerful because I don't live in Maryland,
Speaker 1: and I remember being like, well, not why should I care,
Speaker 1: but why should I care if you're the senator or
Speaker 1: who our senator was? But then you told me something
Speaker 1: that was really powerful. Do you want to share if
Speaker 1: you remember, like, why does it matter who if I
Speaker 1: live in New Jersey, who the senator in Maryland is.
Speaker 3: Well, there are only one hundred senators, right, so that
Speaker 3: there's two from each state of the fifty states. We
Speaker 3: need to get DC two senators. They should be a state.
Speaker 3: But that's a separate issue. And so, but we vote
Speaker 3: on the US Senate votes on things that affect the
Speaker 3: whole country. You know, you know, your your freedom to
Speaker 3: have your own reproductive health care right, you're the tax
Speaker 3: rate you pay, the funding for education that comes from
Speaker 3: the federal government. You know, any I think imagine any
Speaker 3: of those laws. So all one hundred Senators, no matter
Speaker 3: what state they're from, are voting for those things. They're
Speaker 3: voting to confirm Supreme Court justices in all the judges
Speaker 3: that decide what rights we have. So that's why it
Speaker 3: certainly it should matter for the voters of Maryland. But
Speaker 3: it should matter for everybody because the control of the Senate,
Speaker 3: who's in there, what their priorities are, what they're doing
Speaker 3: in the House, is the same way it affects those
Speaker 3: five hundred thirty five people four hundred and thirty five
Speaker 3: in the House and one hundred in the Senate, along
Speaker 3: with the President, are deciding things for the whole country
Speaker 3: off you know, three hundred million plus of us. And
Speaker 3: so that's why this should have mattered to everybody that
Speaker 3: was really powerful.
Speaker 1: I had not thought about that, because you're right, we
Speaker 1: are currently seeing now, you know, some of our laws
Speaker 1: being stripped right in front of us in ways that
Speaker 1: we could have never imagined. And it's as a result
Speaker 1: of who currently is in the Senate. And of course
Speaker 1: I think people just think, like as laws are both
Speaker 1: for president, that's what matters most. But you know, you
Speaker 1: shared something during the Wealth Walk that like where you
Speaker 1: can really flex your most political power is your local government.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, and not only can you flex the most power there,
Speaker 3: because like I said, we just ran through that process. Right,
Speaker 3: you get some people in a room, you show up,
Speaker 3: there's a force multiplier when people show up that don't
Speaker 3: normally show up because people are like, oh, what's going
Speaker 3: on here? Like they're used to hearing the people that
Speaker 3: always show up, the lobbyists and the people that are
Speaker 3: always the squeaky wheels. But you get ten or fifteen
Speaker 3: people to show up from a black of brown community
Speaker 3: talking about an issue that have never been there before.
Speaker 2: And people are going to be like, huh, what's going on?
Speaker 3: And that's the power of democracy. And not only that,
Speaker 3: will take the example of the law you passed. When
Speaker 3: you pass when you're successful and you change and pass
Speaker 3: a local law, that is what we at the federal
Speaker 3: level are often looking for as examples and models to
Speaker 3: use for federal legislation. So when I worked in the
Speaker 3: White House for President Obama, when I worked in the
Speaker 3: Senate for Senator Obama and Shared Brown who Center from
Speaker 3: Ohio and Nancy Pelosi, which were my jobs on the hill,
Speaker 3: we were always looking for that local story or local
Speaker 3: idea that had an impact. It was a unique or
Speaker 3: innovative way to address a problem that's impacting others in
Speaker 3: the country. So not only are you helping your own community,
Speaker 3: you're potentially serving as a model to help others across
Speaker 3: the country. So that's why it's just really a force multiplier.
Speaker 1: No, I love that will like you know, you and
Speaker 1: I have to like privately discussed like my concerns with
Speaker 1: the appraisal process and surprise. I remember, I was surprised
Speaker 1: when I saw the current you know, administration and our
Speaker 1: current president, President Biden talk about like acknowledging the appraisal process.
Speaker 1: There there is unfortunately racism like just woven all through
Speaker 1: and I experienced myself personally the home that I live
Speaker 1: in now you know, it was a praise for about
Speaker 1: forty thousand dollars under. At first I wasn't sure, and
Speaker 1: then the New York Times to the story where I
Speaker 1: was included, they did their own independent appraisal a few
Speaker 1: weeks after the appraisal that I got that I felt
Speaker 1: was low, and sure enough they found it was about
Speaker 1: forty thousand dollars under. But what was really kind of
Speaker 1: terrifying was that it wasn't a matter of well, potato potato,
Speaker 1: this is my The way my home was appraised was
Speaker 1: intentionally under appraise because there are there are codes that's
Speaker 1: assigned to your home and my home although my husband
Speaker 1: and I at the time we had us moved in,
Speaker 1: not even six months there was literally still stickers on
Speaker 1: the window, every doorknob was new, every hinge because we
Speaker 1: renovated it, gutted this like one hundred year old place.
Speaker 1: And they even exclaimed it, how beautiful a renovation that
Speaker 1: they assume someone else did when they were here, and
Speaker 1: they they what they put in our appraisal paperwork that
Speaker 1: our home was a wear and tear home, like that
Speaker 1: was the code, so not a yes. So that's not
Speaker 1: accidental when you say wow, because there's a code for
Speaker 1: a fully renovated, sure new or broken down. And they
Speaker 1: purposely gave us an appraisal a code that did not
Speaker 1: match the home to their own admission, and then they
Speaker 1: used that code to then use comparables comps right that
Speaker 1: were broken down homes, wear and tear homes, And so
Speaker 1: it left our home undervalued, and at the time I
Speaker 1: did not know what to do. Spoke with Angela and
Speaker 1: she said, you know, let's let's see if this is
Speaker 1: a law of a bill that we can introduce and
Speaker 1: get a law passed. So I'm sharing that because sixty
Speaker 1: four percent of wealth in the United States is really
Speaker 1: based on home ownership, and unfortunately, black and brown people,
Speaker 1: especially black people, we under indexed in home ownership. But
Speaker 1: then also the value of our homes. On average, a
Speaker 1: black home is undervalued at about forty thousand dollars, which
Speaker 1: I think is it is it the Bookings Brookings, what
Speaker 1: does that report?
Speaker 3: Brookings Brookings?
Speaker 1: And I think it costs a black community like well
Speaker 1: over a billion dollars.
Speaker 3: Right, oh, absolutely, And we actually have a case. It
Speaker 3: was also in the New York Times, I think last
Speaker 3: month maybe there was like an extreme case of this
Speaker 3: where a family had when they put it had the
Speaker 3: appraisal black family, it appraised for four hundred and four
Speaker 3: hundred and seventy two thousand, and then when a white
Speaker 3: they were like, there's no way because we bought it
Speaker 3: for four fifty and we put a new water heater,
Speaker 3: and we did all this stuff. We did all the
Speaker 3: you know, and the comps and everything. But then when
Speaker 3: a white when they came and got and praised and
Speaker 3: thought it was a white home, it appraised for seven
Speaker 3: hundred fifty thousand dollars, so like almost a three hundred
Speaker 3: thousand dollars gap. And because they didn't get their present,
Speaker 3: they wanted their refinance, their loan was denied. They're trying
Speaker 3: to refinance and and so it's just the that's an
Speaker 3: extreme example, but yeah, the average of forty thousand, that
Speaker 3: is a direct you talk about the racial wealth gap,
Speaker 3: I mean, that's it's a huge.
Speaker 1: Issue, yes, And so this is when we're talking. One
Speaker 1: of the reasons why I wanted Will to come on
Speaker 1: here kind of explain how do you actually get lost
Speaker 1: pass from the local, state and federal level is because
Speaker 1: that getting something like that passed on the local level,
Speaker 1: and I'm so glad that you share that. Will that
Speaker 1: like at the state level, this is what you've seen
Speaker 1: they look for. So getting a law pass on like
Speaker 1: a local level for this or at a state level
Speaker 1: can potentially have you know, the federal government looking to say, hey,
Speaker 1: what can we put in place to make this like
Speaker 1: absolutely illegal? And then there are there are punishments in
Speaker 1: place if you if you engage in this, and that
Speaker 1: would from radically affect the value of black homes, which
Speaker 1: would dramatically affect like this racial wealth gap. And what
Speaker 1: does that statistic will by twenty fifty if we continue
Speaker 1: the black community continues in the same vein that we
Speaker 1: have financially, that would be officially bankrupt isn't that the same?
Speaker 2: Yes, that's correct, that's correct.
Speaker 3: And you know, some states are worse than others, but
Speaker 3: there's like a thirteen to one white black racial wealth gap.
Speaker 3: Our state is about eight to one, but still, you know,
Speaker 3: still significant. And yeah, no, and and so much of it,
Speaker 3: as you said, is tied up into you know, to
Speaker 3: home ownership, but also the cost of everything, right, like
Speaker 3: you know when and you know the volatility. You know,
Speaker 3: I just passed a rent stabilization bill in my county
Speaker 3: and we have you know, one point one million people
Speaker 3: forty percent just about our renters. So you're talking about
Speaker 3: over four hundred thousand people, and a lot of people
Speaker 3: are renting now. And obviously we want to encourage passways
Speaker 3: to home ownership, but we also don't want people to
Speaker 3: go broke while they're trying to live because the stability
Speaker 3: of a home, whether it's rental or owned, is so
Speaker 3: important for so many other health indicators, you know, school mobility,
Speaker 3: you know, you know your your overall health, uh, your
Speaker 3: ability to get to a job, you know, transportation, and
Speaker 3: you know, so we capped the increase at three percent
Speaker 3: plus inflation, which in a normal year is somewhere inflation
Speaker 3: is normally one two percent, but we capped it at
Speaker 3: six percent, so it can't go any higher than six percent.
Speaker 3: And one of the reasons we did that is because
Speaker 3: you were seeing people get these increases of ten, twenty, thirty,
Speaker 3: forty fifty percent and there's no protection. And when you
Speaker 3: have forty percent of your population written that type of volativity,
Speaker 3: and I don't have to tell you disproportionately they're black
Speaker 3: and brown, of course.
Speaker 2: So you know.
Speaker 3: So it's just those type of protections are just so important.
Speaker 1: So what do you hope Like, I mean, Mandy is
Speaker 1: currently quote unquote not here, although she's listening. Heym Andrew
Speaker 1: grew because of childcare, Like I know that, you know
Speaker 1: that is you. You you have, you know, four beautiful
Speaker 1: children of your own. Like what are some things that
Speaker 1: you could see yourself in the Senate but also just locally,
Speaker 1: like what are options for like making childcare more affordable?
Speaker 1: I know, Mandy said, what really saved her is that
Speaker 1: recently universal preschool was brought to Like Newark has that,
Speaker 1: like the Abbot program. I don't know if they still
Speaker 1: have Abbot, but they have preschool that's for twenty four
Speaker 1: year olds. You don't have to pay because my sister
Speaker 1: had two kids I remember in daycare twenty two hundred
Speaker 1: dollars a month. I'm like, yep, how does one afford that? So, yeah,
Speaker 1: what are some things that you know, what are some
Speaker 1: solutions that you've thought of or maybe passed that you
Speaker 1: can share with us?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So, well, one, this is one where there needs
Speaker 3: to be things happening at both the local, state and
Speaker 3: federal level, because ultimately we need a federal childcare program
Speaker 3: that makes care for three and four year olds you know,
Speaker 3: free and gives money to states you know, and like
Speaker 3: District of Columbia they have it free for all four
Speaker 3: year olds. Now Maryland we don't have that. We have subsidies,
Speaker 3: and it's a patchwork across the country.
Speaker 2: We need.
Speaker 3: This is where we need federal intervention because you know,
Speaker 3: like you said, you know, the average for a four
Speaker 3: year old in our in Maryland, if you take the
Speaker 3: whole state, is about eleven just under eleven thousand a year, right,
Speaker 3: but if it's an infant, you know, it goes up
Speaker 3: to over almost sixteen thousand. And in some parts of
Speaker 3: our state, like the more you know, Montgomery County where
Speaker 3: I live, it can be twenty thousand a year, which,
Speaker 3: like you said, is like you know, for one child,
Speaker 3: for one child, and so obviously most people can't pay that,
Speaker 3: so we have to dramatically increase the amount of subsidies
Speaker 3: that we give and create federal programs. The other thing
Speaker 3: we can do in the interim, and that I've done
Speaker 3: at the local level, is we created a guaranteed income
Speaker 3: pilot where we give eight hundred dollars a month to
Speaker 3: three hundred low income families, and they use it. A
Speaker 3: lot of them use it for childcare or they're housing
Speaker 3: because we just squeeze people too much. We've squeezed them
Speaker 3: on housing costs, we've squeezed them on childcare, we've squeezed
Speaker 3: them on healthcare, cost of higher education, and so when
Speaker 3: you just add all that up, it's just there's no room.
Speaker 3: There's no room, and you have to relieve that pressure. So,
Speaker 3: you know, I think ideally you set up a government
Speaker 3: system at the state and or federal level that provides
Speaker 3: that care, because it's not only good for those families,
Speaker 3: it's good for the country. Most of ninety percent of
Speaker 3: brain development happens before you're five years old. My children,
Speaker 3: you're you know, children that have access to pre K
Speaker 3: and early childhood education when they start kindergarten, they have
Speaker 3: millions more words than kids that have not had any
Speaker 3: formal care, and that starts that opportunity achievement gap from
Speaker 3: day one, and so it's just not even smart for
Speaker 3: us as an economy.
Speaker 2: So it's there's so.
Speaker 3: Many reasons to do it. It's going to cost money though,
Speaker 3: there's no way around it. But you've seen states and
Speaker 3: some jurisdictions say we're going to do it, and it's
Speaker 3: just we have to keep building that movement because the
Speaker 3: price is are just continuing to rise, and at the
Speaker 3: same time, we don't pay the workers well. Right, So
Speaker 3: you have this thing where that's why it needs a
Speaker 3: federal government intervention because childcare workers are some of the
Speaker 3: lowest paid artists workers, and so you have this thing
Speaker 3: where it costs crazy money. But there are also the
Speaker 3: people that are involved are paid so little, so that
Speaker 3: just is begging for a governmental solution because the market
Speaker 3: is not handling it.
Speaker 1: Yes, okay, yes, no, you're right, because I remember distinctly
Speaker 1: back then that like each child, we were getting paid
Speaker 1: nine thousand dollars per child. But it wasn't reflected. I
Speaker 1: was like, but the why am I still buying all
Speaker 1: the scissors and the tape in the right.
Speaker 3: And those are kids that aren't like babies, right, those
Speaker 3: were like you know, own kids.
Speaker 1: I taught preschool three and four, and I still came
Speaker 1: out of pocket tremendously in order to support my kids.
Speaker 1: So I have a question. This is a little like
Speaker 1: a side but I've been hearing more and more and more,
Speaker 1: you know, my my Senator Corey Booker, and I think
Speaker 1: it's it's Ayana Presley. Yes, I can't Where's where is she?
Speaker 3: She's in the Boston area, like Massachusetts.
Speaker 1: So I have seen her talk. So Boston is crazy.
Speaker 1: So their racial wealth gap is the average black family
Speaker 1: their net worth is eight dollars eight and then the
Speaker 1: average white family in Boston two hundred thousand. That is criminal.
Speaker 1: So anyway, I've seen both of them, like I guess
Speaker 1: they've they've partnered together to really try to address some
Speaker 1: of this via reparations, like having like that baby bond
Speaker 1: and so like can you maybe just share like what's
Speaker 1: like you know what, like what's the buzz on, like
Speaker 1: what what reparations and like how likely do you think
Speaker 1: something like that is possible.
Speaker 3: That's a great question. And actually I'm getting ready. I'm
Speaker 3: actually drafting a baby bond bill right now.
Speaker 2: There's two.
Speaker 3: Connecticut has one.
Speaker 2: As the first.
Speaker 3: They were the first state last year to develop one.
Speaker 3: There are some other jurisdictions that like cities that have them,
Speaker 3: and we would be actually the first county in the
Speaker 3: country to have one. But I think that is a form,
Speaker 3: like a really viable form of reparations because you can
Speaker 3: target it. The other thing is the Supreme Court with
Speaker 3: knocking down the affirmative action cases. This current Supreme Court,
Speaker 3: which we also need to change, and I have a
Speaker 3: plan on that too. We need some ethics reform. I
Speaker 3: think we need to look at expanding the court. The
Speaker 3: country has grown, we've expanded it in the past. We
Speaker 3: have to get out of you know, you had most
Speaker 3: a vast majority of this court now was appointed by
Speaker 3: a twice and twice impeached, criminally charged president. So so
Speaker 3: let's it's just it's not in a good place. But
Speaker 3: baby bonds are a really effective way because they can
Speaker 3: be targeted to medicaid, like in the one in Connecticut
Speaker 3: is targeted targeted to medicaid recipients which are disproportionately black
Speaker 3: and brown, and that allows you know that I think
Speaker 3: at the end it get to about their initial investment
Speaker 3: is like twenty five thirty five hundred dollars will grow
Speaker 3: to somewhere between sixteen and twenty five thousand when the
Speaker 3: child turns eighteen, which could be used to go to school,
Speaker 3: could be used for a house down payment, could be
Speaker 3: used for a lot of different things. But the larger
Speaker 3: recreations talk, I think is one that we continue we
Speaker 3: need to have because if you've done any sort of
Speaker 3: racial equity training or know any history of this country,
Speaker 3: wealth was system that systematically denied to black families and
Speaker 3: other groups, but primarily and always there were other types
Speaker 3: of discrimination against Asian Americans and white immigrants at some
Speaker 3: point and other people, but the one constant Black people
Speaker 3: were always excluded. You know, when you talk about redlining,
Speaker 3: like where people were given loans to buy homes. There
Speaker 3: were communities where Jewish folks were excluded and other types
Speaker 3: of white immigrants are excluded, but that eventually changed, but
Speaker 3: always one hundred percent Black folks were excluded.
Speaker 2: And so yeah to this.
Speaker 3: Day, and so you were talking about the appraisals, you
Speaker 3: still have the legacy in that and effect. So I
Speaker 3: think my personal view on reparations is that you got
Speaker 3: to study it. There are some places. I have a
Speaker 3: good friend who's a local elected official in Evanston, Illinois,
Speaker 3: the sister they were the first municipality, so Emiston, Illinois
Speaker 3: was the first municipality to pass a local reparations where
Speaker 3: they actually gave checks or you know, did the analysis
Speaker 3: and figured out how to give money to descendants of
Speaker 3: enslaved people in Evanston. So California just had a big
Speaker 3: study and a report that came out. There's a bill
Speaker 3: that Corey Booker and others like you said, Anna Pressley
Speaker 3: had to try to do a similar type of commission
Speaker 3: to look at the issue. I personally think there's a
Speaker 3: lot of ways to attack the racial wealth gap.
Speaker 2: Baby bonds are one.
Speaker 3: Guaranteed income is another, child investments in childcare and education
Speaker 3: or another. But there also is an argument for a
Speaker 3: direct investment into communities, into individuals that have been historically
Speaker 3: excluded from government.
Speaker 2: You know, if you think.
Speaker 3: About the GI Bill, the Homestead Act, you know, policies
Speaker 3: that gave certain veterans, certain white people, not black people
Speaker 3: land for free.
Speaker 2: Or houses for free, or education for free.
Speaker 3: You can't have and that's not that long agough, so
Speaker 3: are these policies. So I think we absolutely need that conversation,
Speaker 3: but we need to put it in the context of history.
Speaker 3: That's why we're being told by Defantus and others right
Speaker 3: now that slavery benefited us at of course it didn't,
Speaker 3: and all these other crazy things, because they know if
Speaker 3: you tell the real history that you can't come to
Speaker 3: any other conclusion of that. You have to do something
Speaker 3: about it to correct it.
Speaker 1: So well, my last question to you is, so you're
Speaker 1: running for Senate, So when does that When does that
Speaker 1: election come up?
Speaker 3: It's May fourteenth, twenty twenty four is the primary election,
Speaker 3: and then November, the same time as the president. In Maryland,
Speaker 3: we vote in May for the primary and then Novembers
Speaker 3: the general next year. It's about nine and a half months.
Speaker 1: So what can people do if they hear this and
Speaker 1: they're like, oh my gosh, I'm in California. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm in Ohio. But I like wease talk about
Speaker 1: I want to support you know, like I have a
Speaker 1: cousin that lives in Maryland. So certain that can make
Speaker 1: a phone call. But how can people connect with you
Speaker 1: and support you, you know, on this run if they
Speaker 1: feel aligned with your mission.
Speaker 3: Yes, they can go to will Juando dot com, w
Speaker 3: I L L J A w A N d O
Speaker 3: dot com and they can sign up to donate there,
Speaker 3: they can sign up to volunteer. They can see you
Speaker 3: know what I'm about, read about me, and I'm just
Speaker 3: at will Jowando on all social media. And like we
Speaker 3: talked about earlier, there's one hundred US senators in this
Speaker 3: country that vote on everything that affects everybody here. So
Speaker 3: and there's not a lot of people that look and
Speaker 3: have like me or have my experience. So I think
Speaker 3: we need more of that in the Senate.
Speaker 1: Ye, I think so too. Thank you so much, Will,
Speaker 1: You're so awesome and honestly thank you're always being a
Speaker 1: good friend, but also for being truly a servant leader.
Speaker 1: You don't see too many servant leaders. I mean, like
Speaker 1: I said, you did that Wealth walk with us. They
Speaker 1: loved it. You're here back again, and you know, you've
Speaker 1: really committed your life to be in service to all people,
Speaker 1: but especially you know, carving out a space for black
Speaker 1: and brown people to make sure we get seen, heard
Speaker 1: and looked after.
Speaker 3: So we thank you, thank you, and thank you for
Speaker 3: doing the same thing. TIF Love you much, Love you too.