"Walmart’s DEI Rollback and Hunter Biden’s Pardon: Justice or Progress?"

00:00:02 [Music] he [Music] [Music] w [Music] ladies and gentlemen you’re rocking with a goat Kow giving you motivation for growth two toes down he keep it realer than most he do it for the culture that’s always the goal giving inspiration through information providing Liberation with conversation giving fresh insight for elevation cuz he knows this is how we reach our greatness and he riding with the people of all walks of life cuz we all can vote so when one win we all win so we all in this is how we build community you dig

00:01:32 so tap in I will do it now you want answers he will break them down the most informative place around this is strategic moves with [Music] Kow this is strategic moves with [Music] Kow this is strategic moves with Kow [Music] back against corporate Dei may have scored their biggest Victory yet Walmart the nation’s largest private employer just announced it is rolling back its diversity equity and inclusive initiatives made out cries over so-called corporate wokeism and claims that Dei is more divisive than inclusive

00:02:21 Walmart says it’s ending racial Equity training programs for staff evaluating programs designed to increase Supplier Diversity reviewing funding of pride events and removing sexual or transgender products marketed to children now Walmart defends the move saying quote we have been on a journey I know we aren’t perfect but every decision comes from a place of wanting to foster a sense of belonging other companies making similar moves they include Harley-Davidson Tractor Supply and John Deere hey what’s up everybody you tuned

00:02:54 in to another episode of strategic moves I’m your host Ken D this is a place where we bring art culture politics and business all all together and we do it every week right here on this channel but when I’m not shooting this podcast I am the owner of strategic resources where we specialize in political campaigns government and public relations work been doing it in this state for about over 25 years now and I want to make your next move a strategic move and this program gives me an opportunity to do just that I get a

00:03:20 chance to bring on some of the people I met we talk about some of the issues that are going on and hopefully there’s something you can get out of it that’ll help you in your business or personal life so if it sound like something you’re interested in all I need you to do is hit the like button hit the Subscribe button and the notification Bell as well so that you’ll know the next time this program is coming up so before we get started I want to do a really quick shout out to the podcast producer of the program who helping us

00:03:44 put this thing together DJ true what’s going on sir I’m doing great you didn’t bring yourself up on the camera but that’s okay we’ll just keep things moving today all right so okay all right okay he wasn’t trying to be on the screen today all right well everything’s good so what I want to do folks we’re going to Dive Right In because today we’re going to talk about two really most important things two really big topics that’s going around and shaking up America today the first one is the Walmart Walmart the nation’s

00:04:16 largest private employer has decided to roll back its diversity and Equity inclusion policy some say it’s a move to align with the shifing public sentiment others others argue that it’s a step back backward and modalizing our communities and later we’re going to tackle another polarizing issue that’s the hunter Biden Joe Brien Hunter biding paron from President Joe Biden and we’re looking at we’re gonna talk about that to see if it’s a sign of Justice or political Char uh political change in the case or just a political charge in

00:04:50 the case or per or um let me get my words right excuse me or is it just a politically charged case or is it private privilege over um is it privilege excuse me I’m having a big time today we this this is my first live and I’m just trying to make sure we get this right so we’re gonna find out is it was just privilege or was it Politics as it relates to the Joe Biden um part so to help me get through this I brought on a group of people that helped me get through this process and in that we got congresswoman Shantel

00:05:22 Brown she’s our congresswoman for the 11 congressional district she’s a leading voice in Justice and um equity in our community we bring a Powerhouse panel with us um as well we have Norm Edwards president of the black contractors group former judge Michael Nelson and we have Dr Heather Burton um she’s a scholar um advocate for systemic change and diversity and Equity but first let’s start off by hearing from the congresswoman directly congresswoman shant Tel Brown we want to welcome you to the program how you doing today hi

00:05:55 guys how’s everybody I’m great just uh just touching down back from DC fighting these Republicans as it relates to diversity equity and inclusion um it’s been a major attack on uh these programs and um this is something that I have worked towards um elevating uh since I’ve been in local government Regional regionally at the county um led the initiative to declare racism as a Public Health crisis um because we realize that um many of the disparities that we experience whether it’s healthc care whether it’s is um education from

00:06:32 transportation to housing uh to Contracting all have um systemic institutional and structural ties to racism and so to me this uh elimination of Dei is more of an of an anti-black policy that is that is simply what it is um and let’s let’s call it what it is while they want to um Scream It’s Reverse Racism um we were just in a Committee hearing uh oh congresswoman froze oh she’s back now it’s ironic that they um that they want to Institute policies that that they claim are dedicated to reversing

00:07:21 racism but they don’t want to acknowledge that racism exist when it comes to black people what do you think um Democrats especially blackw lawmakers can do um to ensure that equality remains a priority in the face of this culture push back well we have to continue to be vocal that’s why folks like uh Norm Edwards are very important very powerful um we need leaders in the community it it’s not just can’t just be left up to um lawmakers right now we are in the minority we are in a trump Trifecta um in this particular term

00:07:56 upcoming term in 2025 2020 2025 2026 Republicans have the White House they have the uh the House of Representatives and they have the Senate the good news is they have very thin majorities um particularly in the House of Representatives and so they may not be able to shove these policies that they are pushing um as quickly and as aggressively as they may like um so we’ll have to just continue to hold the line and and be um the voices that say this is wrong um and that it is racist do you think that um what’s going on

00:08:32 with the Walmart situation how do you think those kind of stance um affected the election coming up do you think that um the American public just didn’t care about that thing or what was your thoughts on that you know Ken I um I’m still trying to collect the data and see what happened as a black woman I took it very personal I felt like this election was um very the outcome and some people voted along racial and gender lines um I I feel like that was a big uh part of it when people talk about the economy

00:09:06 um the vice president had an an opportunity economy plan that she rolled out something specific for um black men uh she rolled out so when people started saying it was about the economy I kind of have to call BS on that because the policies that the Biden Harris Administration and Democrats put forward were um we’re definitely dealing with the economy now are people still hurting yes but we are we are recovering from a worldwide pandemic um it’s hard to um explain to folks it would be worse they

00:09:38 would be worse off but perhaps we’re in that um fool around and find out phase right as as they like to say I’m gonna keep it clean um the fool around to find out phases when you have uh president Trump who campaigned on policies about weaponizing the government uh retribution getting revenge and all of those things are coming to fruition a person who denied that he even knew what project 2025 half of his nominees for um cabinet appointments are affiliated with I shouldn’t say half but a good portion

00:10:07 of them so you know the things that he um that people thought we we were being frantic or hyperbolic about are actually coming to fruition um the only thing that we can hope for is that the Senate will have a a strong enough spine to push back on some of these ridiculous nominees that will inevitably um roll back the progress that we have been able to make when you talk about a ramas Swami and and Elon Musk their pockets have increased exponentially since election day I mean they have gotten billions of dollars in their bank

00:10:44 accounts and people out here are still paying high prices for eggs and so they they are winning they are doing um what they that they intended to do and I don’t see this trickling down to um the people who needed the most and who are going to be impacted by The Reckless policies that they are proposing um as it relates to uh our community but especially around diversity equity and inclusion you know we’ve seen the dramatic shift in public opinion when it comes to diversity equity and inclusion better known as

00:11:16 Dei um what is once priority for businesses and a point of interest for the public is now becom an enlightening rod for political controversy but do you but let’s take the um let’s take the words out of it let’s I want to show you a video I want to show uh Latif let’s show them this other video I going to show you a video and after this video we gonna bring up our other panelists to kind of discuss this and in this video it talks about the shift in Dei and how it affected um going into this election

00:11:47 Let’s Play that video how do people feel about companies taking even a stand on the issue now this is where it gets very interesting because here we have a real time Trend so let’s take a look at it all right businesses Dei public stance important to know back in 2021 so he can go all the way back then right just after the summer of George Floyd which of course was back in 2020 how important did folks think it was to know the Dei stances of businesses it was 68% it was 68% look at where we are now in 2024 a

00:12:18 real decrease just 53% of Americans want to know a business’s Dei stance so what we’ve seen here is back right after the summer of George Floyd there was a lot of interest in Dei a lot of interest in folks knowing business’s stances towards Dei now considerably less so in 2024 this is a drop of 15 points that’s a considerable drop I like looking at Paul questions you often times don’t see this type of drop unless there’s a real change in public opinion that’s striking those numbers I remember 2021 very well

00:12:50 and how important it was to people in the community and frankly voters overall it’s become this issue of Dei and concept a political lightning rod especially among conservatives Harry how do Republicans and Democrats view it yeah this what is driving this decline it’s Republicans okay important to want to know a b a business is Dei stand you go back to 2021 look there was a partisan divide between Democrats and Republicans Democrats coming in at 86% Republicans coming in at 50 Democrats have basically stayed pretty steady on

00:13:21 this issue right in 2024 at 79% a slight drop but not so far off from that 86% look at Republicans look at this drop off in this this number 50% back in 2021 said it was important to know a business’s stance on Dei now it’s just 22% that is a drop of more than half of more than half from 2021 to 2024 and that of course is mirroring what we’re see mirroring what we’re seeing from politicians from Republicans folks like Donald Trump the bottom line is the Republican base on Dei three years ago lukewarm now inv vast opposition to it

00:13:56 they don’t want to hear anything from uh businesses on D and I think that’s why you’re seeing a lot of businesses differentiating themselves out saying you know what we’re taking a so there you have it you know we look at those numbers we know that Dei has taken a dramatic drop since the beginning of that and some folks like to believe that a lot of that was due to when it first started was the George Floyd incident and everybody was really hot and heavy on that and as African-Americans you know we got behind

00:14:26 that issue and everyone was looking for some type of quality out of that and then as things started to change and um um affirmative action um started to um take highlight from people who wanted to end affirmative action seemed like this Dei thing took off and everyone got involved and let’s do Dei equity and inclusion and I I’m want to pose a question to the congresswoman and to all our our panelists who joined us now as it relates to that how do you think um how do you think de is losing its Traction in the public sphere and what

00:15:02 does it mean for black Americans in a marginalized Community I want to start with um congresswoman let you um start with that question and then from there I want to um um have our first guest Mrs um Dr buron to follow up with you she’s the newest and new person to our whole panel here and we’ll follow up with her and then everyone else can chime on in so start with you congresswoman and then Dr Burton you can go ahead and take it from there well I I do want to highlight something um Ken and that is that this

00:15:31 year the CBC reached out to all the for Fortune 500 uh companies and asked them to update us on their diversity commitments and a a good majority of them did so what we’re seeing from Walmart though is uh caving to bullying caving to the Republicans that are um pushing their extra conservative extreme conservative repu um cons conservative policies and claiming that they are pro business when they are not these Pro business so-called Pro bus policies are truly anti-black so that’s the one thing

00:16:01 that I want to say the other thing that I think that is important for our marginalized communities when we’re talking about um people who have again been struggling to make ends meet this might not be at the top of their RAR but it is going to impact them the most and so that is the that is the thing that as a a member of Congress and as a a member of the CBC that I am fighting for every day in the halls of Congress is to make sure that these folks um that are trying to take away the uh programs and

00:16:34 services that have given us an opportunity to make some progress do not uh alleviate them so it is it it is just it is the fight that we are in right now it’s a fight that we’ve been fighting since we’ve been uh brought over here on on boats and ships and it will be a fight that we have to continue we can’t turn a blind eye and act as if um everything is all good and that race does not matter in this country because clearly it does and the Republicans are putting up a real fight putting up a real fight to make

00:17:06 sure that we not continue to make any advancements and and is very frustrating um from my perspective Dr Burton Welcome to our program thank you thank you yes um I actually I agree with the congresswoman and I think um when we talk about Dei diversity equity and inclusion the buzz word has caused it to become this negative thing um and in thinking about diversity e inclusion it’s important to point out that we didn’t just start doing diversity equity and inclusion and so when we let me let me back up what I

00:17:42 really like to say is that diversity has become the water down thing to include other populations and when other populations marginalized populations became it then diluted the work and so when we really think about diversity e inclusion we’ve been doing this work as a congresswoman said since 1619 when the white lion landed in Jamestown Virginia so this work is not new oh I think somebody I need to mute somebody I think there somebody yeah I think it’s this guy here all right um one second all right I think I got it okay y’all

00:18:36 now and so it’s become this attack and when we think about it diversity equity and inclusion we started with affirmative action and then many people can remember we move to minority Affairs and from Minority Affairs we move to multiculturalism and from from multiculturalism we then move to diversity equity and inclusion but when we think about minority Affairs when we think about multiculturalism especially when we’re talking about the higher ed context is that it was about the black and brown community and then we added

00:19:03 diversity and as soon as we added diversity and I’ll backa we added diversity because everybody said what about me but in the what about me they left the black community behind and so now we have this we’re gonna pull back and we’re not going to support the black community and congresswoman said this it’s it’s it’s racism it’s racism that is finest it will always be racism and so when we talk about diversity equity and inclusion and the pullback am I surprised no I’m not surprised I’m also not surprised because when we think

00:19:34 about 2020 and in 2020 we had George Floyd we had Brianna Taylor we had the social unrest and there were many companies and many individuals that committed to diversity and inclusion but what happened to the work is that the work started getting people in the work that did not know how to do the work and so they got in the work and they didn’t know what they were doing and I can’t tell you how many diversity equity and inclusion professionals I have run into that said I am in this role because I am

00:20:02 such and such I am in this role because I am black but I really don’t know what I’m doing and so when you start putting people into the role just to say we’re doing this as window dressing but they don’t understand what the work really is and how to do it we get a lot of things that have happened within Society Norm Edwards you’ve been a constant voice for contractors and people in this community for years as it relates to just what we’re talking about what what you say as relates to this like uh the uh doctor

00:20:36 said and uh congresswoman it’s it’s racism at is finest uh we’ve been dealing with it for a long time we thought that we made some progress with the George Floyd uh when they murdered George Floyd they gave up a $100 million Walmart for diversity equity and inclusion how do you snatch that off the table you snatch that money off the table hasn’t been five years since they put that money in there and Walmart has been one of the most racist it’s the largest retailer in the US it’s been one of the most racist

00:21:20 institutions in the United States since this in Inception so it just didn’t happen you know 20 years ago I was watching Mark moral uh from the Urban League talk about how he had a great relationship with with uh Walmart over the past 20 years but yet he was never contacted about them pulling the plug on the Dei it’s only getting worse they’re getting richer uh we are in serious trouble I wouldn’t buy anything we’re we’re we’ve uh been in contact with uh other groups in Atlanta in Baltimore in Chicago and Detroit and we’re looking at

00:22:06 doing a massive boycott so we’re doing talking we’ve been on the phone with with folks in in different cities I wouldn’t buy anything from Walmart at all I wouldn’t buy a Ford I wouldn’t buy any other of those listed on that those 20 or so large companies and I told my family members also now not to buy and we we we’re going to pick one of the Walmarts here probably the one in University Heights or south uclid on warville Center Road and we are goingon to gather and and and protest it and let them know we are

00:22:42 ticked off we we are angry we are mad you know we have been left out for so long and we have NE the the the playing field has never been leveled and the young lady from case talked about uh the the unqualified people she’s absolutely right they get in there take a paycheck and they don’t have a clue we don’t need clueless people just there for a job we also need our and I’ve talked to congresswoman Brown she did an outstanding job when she was at the county she stood up that made sure that black contractors got a piece of the

00:23:27 pie our politicians and our ministers they cannot be silent and they don’t have to like me and I don’t have to like them we have to get United and we have to build up and we have to get strong together to defeat them because we can beat them I mean we we’re gonna be around we’re not going nowhere we’ll be here let me let me say something to that point because you brought up something when you talked about the protesting and and not going to Walmart and congresswoman throw this at you because you understand this um a little bit you

00:24:07 know unfortunately for many of our communities they have no choice whether they go to a Walmart or whatnot to do their grocery shopping because of the food deserts and things that are in our communities that are there and it seems like that the Walmart seems to be the one that’s taking that big void and that’s the reason why there’s such a big Powerhouse in that um just talking about and and um I will segue into judge Nelson on it too what’s your thoughts about you know Norm wants to do that and

00:24:41 we can that is the best way of doing it but how do we get around that for people to maybe make that stance but be able to you know still survive out here can I say oh go ahead nor yes where is where where is the closest Walmart in city of Cleveland University in South uid and most of the people in the city of Cleveland do not have transportation to get there so they don’t shop there so and even if they did there are other stores that they could go to Lowe’s is another store I think Toyota is involved

00:25:22 in this now so our dollars black people spend a lot of money trillions of dollars and we cannot continue to get slapped around like take our money take our jobs give us we need that training for management training we need to progress they don’t give us enough time and like I said the playing field is not level we still have a hell of a long way to go congresswoman right and and I agree with Norm as it relates to the the um playing field not being level and that we have to continue to be vocal I

00:26:02 think that there are many ways to get the attentions uh to get the attention of leaders in these corporations be it boycotting be it um uh you know making your message her with your uh with your pocketbook or your checkbook and not by not shopping there um picketing those types of things are definitely options I’m a legislator so what I what have to figure out ways is how we can um remind Corporate America there’s more than one side to the story they cannot succumb to the pressure of the Republican bullying

00:26:38 um because too many other people are being impacted and the the unfortunate thing is those that are being most impacted are often those who are least involved and so that is um that is part of the challenge but as a representative democracy when I’m sitting across from these folks and they come into my office and they have requests the first thing that I’m asking them is what does your organization look like what does uh is it reflective of the United States who are your black leaders who are you know

00:27:08 those are things that I um have learned largely in part at Regional level because of folks like Norm Edwards I also think it’s um it’s important to point out that these Republicans have been playing a a long-term game while we’re playing checkers they’re playing chess they have dominated the court so I’m looking forward to hearing what judge Nelson has to say because a lot of them are also fearful when you have this Republican dominated um bench is that they are they don’t feel like the cases will fall in

00:27:47 their favor even if they are supportive of Dei efforts because the Republican courts are um dominated by these extreme Maga Republican judges right now now because when Trump was in office back in 2016 he was able to appoint these judges who have weighed in on these decisions that have reversed course on Decades of precedent so now we’re back we’re virtually back to pre- Civil Rights era fighting for things that we once had and and it’s a trifecta they’re doing it with education they’re doing it with

00:28:20 government and now they’re attacking the private sector so with that I’m gonna yield to the judge because judge help us tell us what we can do to deal with these courts well you know I think that the first thing we have to recognize is that affirmative action which has led to which Dei is now the the final form of started by JN F Kennedy when he created the EOC in 1964 the problem was when the ELC was created in order to to address a racial discrimination it was significantly underfunded and has never been funded to

00:28:57 a level where they create a tremendous backlog of discrimination cases so you have this back you have this backlog because of the lack of staff and resources and then let’s look at how the EOC progressed the first director was Clarence Thomas Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas then you look at when Lyndon Bane Johnson signed the executive order that created affirmative action also uh in 64 after Kennedy Kennedy died was was assassination he didn’t die he was assassinated we have been in this ongoing struggle for the last 59 years

00:29:36 where we reached a Zenith at one point and it’s been chipped away affirmative action has been being chipped away the Voting Rights Act is being is being chipped Away by judges who’ve been appointed by Republican judges over a period of time so this ain’t like new we’ve been in this struggle now since these institutions or or ideology were first created so we look at and we look at affirmative action what was it designed to do it was to redress discrimination against black folks and create the dis and eliminate

00:30:10 the disadvantages to level the playing field now some folk may have thought the playing field was gonna be like leveled instantaneously it didn’t happen that way and as we did make significant progress because the creation of both the EOC and and Johnson uh initiation of affirmative action were great steps in progress and it was a it was an Ascension but we reached the point when when Reagan came in who is anti-affirmative action and every time we have another election whatever progress we make is

00:30:48 knocked down by that Republican president but it’s not just that Republican president the Republican president represents the sentiment of the country if you look at C you you you you had some videos up earlier Ken that showed how progress and support for affirmative action Dei has declined significantly among certain segments of our community and represented by three of the four last five presidents or six presidents so you got to understand that this struggle is tied to both voting power and the fact that

00:31:26 many of our allies when the when when when di was created the the focus moved from redressing uh problems that and discrimination against blacks to this larger pie where everybody jumped in and the focus began to be also divided because it represented so many other constituencies there too many constituencies in the pot for the program to be as effective as it’s supposed to be talking about Walmart you know two two years ago Walmart had to settle by paying 4.4 million to a family who had been racially profiled in a Walmart

00:32:04 store 4.4 million Walmart needs us much more than we need we can get along fine without Walmart Walmart needs us more than we need them and the same thing remember we’ve been the we’ve been the profit margin for a number of major corporations from cat laac on down Mercedes Benz we buy all the cars and they treat us like crap so it’s time for us to start becoming more discriminating with our dollars now the other problem is that how do we get this message to the average person so they don’t see these subtleties and

00:32:40 these these small points that we’re talking about people buying fur coats and people that discriminate against them buying products and people that don’t that hate them that hate us but yet we’re their margin we’re their profit margin every year Black Friday we flood the stores on Black Friday to move to move retailers from the red into the black those are our dollars and we have to those dollars to our interest when we’re spending at these various insundry retail operations Dr Burton how what you say as

00:33:14 relates to that and you’re dealing in that field every day and as that as you take in everything and we’re getting ready to round this this discussion down with Dei so I’m gonna let you go in and give us your thoughts and your closing remarks on this whole Dei subject well I think for for Dei and understanding you know the the the words and this is what I always say talking about is diversity equity and inclusion and whether you say belonging Justice it all falls in that category and I think where people really go wrong is

00:33:42 understanding that diversity impacts everybody um it doesn’t matter what your social identities are we all deal in some aspect of diversity of who we are we may not want to accept it we may not want to believe it and we may not want to acknowledge it but diversity impacts everybody it impacts every system that we’re in but when we talk about the anti- Dei legislation it is specifically aimed at certain population specifically that of the black community to K black folks and and however we want to

00:34:12 classify that as black people um specifically those who are descendants of slaves but when we think about it is that it keeps them from progressing when we think about the Supreme Court decision around race-based neutrality and higher education when we think about other things an impact when we think about the state bills the Senate bills and the dismantling of diversity equity and inclusion offices and I always go back that we’ve got to think about where it come came from historically but we got to continue to do the work so in

00:34:41 spite of the dismantling of diversity equity and inclusion uh offices of people not funding as um Norm said we are the ones who hold the power we have money and we keep spending we also won’t come together it just makes me to I’m about to go on a tangent because it also takes me to this whole idea of separatism and how as uh black folks we won’t come together to fight an issue and be on the same page and that all still goes back stemming from history and and where we trying to fit in and trying to identify and figure out who we

00:35:13 are but we still got to keep pushing forward and do the work we gonna bring you back on to have a whole program just to talk about that that’s for sure go ahead you know I’m looking at some of the comments what and and they are really anti-d what we have to re respect and understand is that this country had was a good idea when it was started in 1776 three years later they decided that African-Americans black folks would be only three- fifths of a vote if they could have voted we have been in a con

00:35:47 constant slide it for and then in 1861 instead of just signing a piece of paper that ended slavery like many of the other countries did we decided to go to war and kill each other M kill each other and Destroy infrastructure in the country because the attitude of many Colonial Americans which extends to this day is that fairness and Equity somehow has not penetrated their thick evil skulls and we have to recognize this is who we are we are dealing with that kind of population it is a undereducated

00:36:21 population is a population that is that grows up in a certain uh demographic and they have not been able to expand to a larger worldview that’s what we’re stuck with in the United States and we have to figure out how to you talk Dr Burton talked about education and I don’t mean they’re stupid what I’m saying is that they don’t understand how our Bill of Rights Constitution works with the basic underpinnings of this country and what separates us from monarchies they never got over being you you have people who have immigrated to

00:36:56 this country from places where you could not vote out the king and they never got over that kind of cultural grow uh cultural growing up and that’s what we’re dealing with today uh Norm Edwards we want bring you on uh one of the comments I bought up one because it’s a whole bunch of comments but you’re right there a lot of them I’m just not gonna bring up but this one I bought up it was from Valery she said Democrats have taken our civil rights and help all minorities except for black Americans I would believe that

00:37:30 is so I wonder uh what’s your thoughts on that Norm we’re gonna let you chime in on that one to get started she said that could you repeat that question was she said she just made a comment her comment was that she felt that the Democrats have taken our civil rights and help all minority groups except for I believe black Americans that’s a stunner uh you know that that is so not true I mean some of the comments that are on there where you can tell racism is still alive and very very well uh we pay taxes all

00:38:21 of us pay taxes so our monies go into tax funds and they want to exclude F us feel like we are second class citizens uh we are trying to do the you know you try to do the right things just just like trying to get the young men and young women in the Building Trades it’s a difficult task because in the 108 year history we have never had a black or minority business manager so they can call the union halls and they can ask for 10 blacks or 10 minorities ities and 10 whites and they’ll tell you that all

00:39:00 the blacks are working they’re sitting in the back on a guard rail at the union hall so we don’t have the people to put them into play to put them out there so we are so F we are so far behind and and and we’re trying to get to where we need to be and you know what it’s going to take a lot of intervention from the man up above with with with God watching over us we shall Prevail Prevail there is no fear and we’re fighting for our future our kids our grandkids nieces nephews your kids that I don’t know so the hell with the

00:39:43 comments the fight is on we’re not going nowhere okay so they can say whatever they want to say we’re doing the right thing the congresswoman stood up when she was at the county the doctor standing up over at Case Western Reserve you’re out doing your thing Mike Nelson is out doing his thing they don’t want no they think that we are stupid yoyos and you know what we are just as smart if not smarter than they are and they don’t feel as though we deserve anything that we should still be slaves that’s where they want us to be

00:40:19 and we’re not going there they can all go to hell we’re not going there and I’ll be damned if I don’t stand stand up and fight not just for my family but your family and everybody on the panel’s family everybody in the city of Cleveland everybody in the state of Ohio and we will boycott we have to boycott we will not spend our dollars and they slap us and kick us out the back door that’s not happening and again they go to H hey nor remember we only get 1% of kyoga counties budget with minority vendors so we ain’t

00:41:02 got go to Washington we can just go let me say this the the business that I’m in the construction business the black contractors only get one 100th of 1,000% of the trillions of dollars that are spent every year so it’s nothing they give us peanuts and they want us to bow down and shine shoes we don’t shine shoes anymore we don’t do that and we’re going to continue to fight and do what we need to do and and get we need the unity just just because a couple of us got a couple of dollars they feel it they made it so you

00:41:47 move the Pepper Pike so big deal okay we need to stand together the politicians I’m going to sit down with the mayor next week I’m sitting down with Blain the council president and I’m telling them we have to take the city of Cleveland we cannot let the people from the suburbs run this city because they give you money for the election don’t take it don’t take the money they can’t vote because they don’t live here so that votes don’t mean anything congresswoman I want because I know I got you on a tight schedule here

00:42:30 you had a comment because I want to transition to my next segment so we could get you out on time go ahead well I just wanted to duvail into what Norm was saying when he talked about the unions right we have been excluded for um decades from being um recruited or able to work in the unions and so that is a prime example of the systemic institutional and structural racism that we’re talking about that puts us um as black people at a dis Advantage so I wouldn’t I wouldn’t expect people who have never um experienced not having um

00:43:06 their white privilege to understand the struggle of black Americans who have been oppressed that is oppression um the fact that we came over here and built this country for free put our white counterparts at a much greater advantage in life so they were able to pass down generation wealth to their children things that we did not get the privilege of enjoying so that is why other minority groups can come over here and Advance a lot faster they have not had the barriers they have not had the systems they have not had the

00:43:43 institutional um oppression that black people have experienced in this country to make it harder for them to be on a Level Playing Field and I often refer to um an analogy that I saw online is if you were playing Monopoly and somebody told you you could not roll the dice for 400 rounds and during that 400 rounds you had to work for the other person that is that is putting people at a disadvantage that is what essentially has happened to black people so for people to ask and act as if they can’t

00:44:20 understand the disparities and the differences and the disadvantages that black people have experience and continue to experience to this day because of government policies and practices that have been in place for decades that is why so no we we’re still celebrating first in this country as black people um because we have been held back for centuries and so when we do get a chance to advance the opportunities are then again snatched away like they did with rose would like they did with Tulsa like we’re seeing

00:45:00 now as a result of civil rights and now we’re seeing judges stack the deck and pull away the progress as it relates to diversity equity and inclusion so that is what I wanted to say it’s because of the systems it’s because of the institutions if we had come to this country and have been given the same opportunities and not treated as three fifths of a human being then we could have a conversation about um why we don’t need these programs but when a an entire Community has been held back based on their skin color not because

00:45:36 they didn’t qualify not because they didn’t have the um knowledge we were brought over here because of our skills and knowledge but we weren’t given the opportunities to advance or given the um the opportunities to utilize our skills to put us in an in at an advantage our skills and opportunities were used to Advance white people and they they built a country on our backs and now we’re trying we’re still recovering from that hey I want to end this discussion on Dei right at that point I want to

00:46:11 thank all of my guests for coming on Dr Burton again this is your first time on you guys going to see more from her she had wrote a book and a few other things that she got going on that I want to bring her back on and talk more to us about her book and some of this other work that she’s doing in the community we’ll um look forward to that judge Nelson is going to always be a contributor to our program we will see him pretty soon as well as Norm I want to thank you brother for coming on giving us your energy and and your

00:46:41 knowledge of this whole situation and um thanks again for you guys coming on we’re going to get faded into our next segment of our program and what we’re going to do there is we’re going to play a really quick little video and we’re going to bring in one of our guest who’s going to be working with us on this one Pastor Aaron Phillips so let’s um bring um Latif let’s get that video rolling and we’ll go from there let me ask you something that’s going around right now a lot of this conversation about

00:47:12 President Biden getting criticized from both sides of the AL for pardoning his son Hunter after repeatedly saying he would never do it and a lot of people are saying that it’s hypocritical Etc as if the other side doesn’t do it but what’s your reaction to it I mean I think all of the critic is valid because you know a Democrats stand on this moral High Ground all the time and you know they act so self-righteous the reality is he didn’t have to say anything in regards to uh you know whether or not

00:47:38 you know his son wanted to be pardon he could have said hey man I’m not I’m not focused on that right now but since they were calling Trump a threat to democracy and they were saying that you know nobody’s above the law but they were speaking about him that’s what they were running on so when he kept saying things like H you know nobody’s Above the Law I respect you know uh the jury’s decision in regards to my son he didn’t believe that but he didn’t have to volunteer that lie to begin with I’m going to stop

00:48:01 you for a second uhoh only because you don’t know that it was a lie we don’t know why he changed you really think he just changed his mind over Thanksgiving weekend all no I’m gon to tell you what I think okay I think he changed his mind because he got sick of watching everybody else get [Applause] over all right there we go congresswoman wanted to get a chance to get you and I got Pastor Phillips Pastor you’re walking around your house sir can you sit still for a second so we can talk to you for a minute man gez you waited the

00:48:36 whole time and now and I got you on mute hold one second all right sir now okay I know I was on mute so I thought I had some more time to get ready no we was waiting on you was moving around getting everybody dizzy so we well welcome you to our program thanks again congresswoman you watched that video and I know that uh I brought Pastor Philip on because he was one of the main people who saw the uh knew what was going on and he had some really strong words about that and I wanted to get your your opinion on it I

00:49:06 know we’ve been riding with Biden I’m one of them riding with Biden guys with you all along I never wanted him to get out the race in the first place I honestly believe he would did a better job just based on the circumstances and the time but that’s neither here or there at this point so I want to hear your opinion was the DC worried about it and what everybody the buzz worried about Joe Biden going out now and saying you know what hell with this I’m GNA Parton my son I listen I am I’m I can’t

00:49:34 speak for uh DC and all of the Democrats because there’s a split but I I I believe President Biden did the right thing listen we all want the justice system to be fair and what I think what we have seen is that Hunter B and I saw this up close and personal because I serve on the oversight committee um and I saw Republicans just repeatedly repeatedly going after Hunter Biden for his laptop the man was never a uh um he should not have been in our oversight committee because he’s never been a part

00:50:04 of government he’s the president’s son and I think the only reason they attacked him the way that they did so aggressively Prosecuting him was because he was President Biden son um there are people who have had similar cases uh that uh similar charges that have not undergone the prosecution and persecution of um President Biden’s son so I thought president B and did the right thing and I also think that he has an opportunity to do the right thing for some other folks who have been unfairly prosecuted and persecuted and have

00:50:35 received um excessive excessive sentences and so um I think that he Li legitimately changed his mind um I think that and I’m and I’m gon and I’m gonna turn it over to the pastor after I say this one remark I think we need to afford people the grace that we would want to receive and that is um we have the right to change our mind um I don’t think in the in the Decades of service that President Biden has given to this country that he has ever um demonstrated character that would say that he has been an abusive of his power

00:51:13 and so I would I would say that he did the right thing exercise the grace that you would want to receive and he has the chance to do even more for other folks who have um suffered similar situations Pastor Phillips amen hey good good evening everybody good to see everyone today I uh don’t understand why any Democrat is against uh letting Joe B having Joe Biden dep paron his son that’s one one of the things I have a problem with and I generally speaking I vote for Democrats I follow and support my congresswoman

00:51:46 but sometimes the Democrats can be so weak and one thing we can learn from the Republicans is they know how to stay together and they know how to be strong and uh you know I was one of those people as well Ken who believe that Biden should have stayed in the race we actually had a whole rally at our church at sh Baptist Church where the congresswoman came to to stand for Joe Biden I couldn’t believe then that Democrats and liberal people were publicly denouncing uh our president you will never see that from the Republic

00:52:17 from the Republicans all of the stuff that Donald Trump has done they don’t come out and they stay they don’t come out against him they stand for for him stand with him and he’s about the evil and I don’t really think he changed his mind I think that when he said I’m not going to pardon my son he believed like we all did that commala Harris was gonna win so if Kamala Harris wins she was gonna do it so it would there been no problem so I I don’t I think that anybody who wants to say anything smart

00:52:44 elic or be negative about that they just want to be a negative person and that’s what’s wrong with the Democratic party we need to learn how to be unified you know people always say Democrats fall in love but Republicans know how to fall in line we need more falling in line in the Democratic party and saying we should be we should be applauding and thanking Joe Biden for his service and thanking him for putting an end to the hunt o after his son Hunter we should be thanking him for that because otherwise we’d be

00:53:11 hearing all about that all through the Trump’s term so it’s just a smart move we should stand with it if I was the president and my son was in that predicament I would pardon him if I was a president I was in that predicament I’d pardon myself that’s we just need to just be honest with each other and say that’s what we going to do nothing what’s wrong with being honest and being bold with our statements and standing strong on it but you know I’ve seen a a Democratic senator who said it was good

00:53:36 for him for the as a as a father but not as a president that is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard in my life it’s because you’re the president of the United States you do not stop being a father and that he’s a father not only for Hunter Biden but he’s a father for our country he set an example what it what it means to be to stand with and support people and that’s how we need to become as as Dem rats well some people seem to feel that because he said one thing it did something else make him

00:54:03 hypocritical man that’s the crazy thing I’ve heard in my life you know people all the the H the hypocrite is the people who voted for Donald Trump the people who think who want who believe in democracy but they voted for a dictator the people who believe that we should have a person who knows how to run the country and voted for Donald Trump those are the Hypocrites if you believe in our country and what we do you said I can’t believe well it was very close but I can’t believe there’s still millions of

00:54:27 people who are believing and and following this liar what what about all these Nation these Christian nationalists who stand up and they want to be with Jesus on Sunday but with they with the devil on Monday through Saturday with Donald Trump they’re the Hypocrites he is not being hypocritical he’s being strong and we need strong leadership I am so tired of Democrats being weak Milly weak weak and and and sorry we need to learn how to stand up and be strong and not and not be afraid of criticism and I was that was the

00:54:55 greatest thing I was so glad to see him do that uh and I understood why he said no in the first place it was political he should have said he should have said he wasn’t going to do because he didn’t want anybody to use that for a reason for not to vote for the Democrats I get it that makes sense in the world so we should you know we some people just want to make a name forsel and get on there I could not believe charl the G did that you know he’s supposed to be a strong young black man where’s your strength at

00:55:18 now brother now you want to be weak you want be weak sometimes strong sometimes got to be the same got to be the same he’s pitiful PM congresswoman we going to let you in we got three minutes left I said I was going to get you out on time you got you get the close our show out I want to tell everybody here thanks for watching our program anything we gonna leave links in the description where you can find out more information about Dei programs that are going on and what’s going on and how you can reach out to

00:55:48 everybody who was on our program today congresswoman your last words and get us out of here oh gosh okay well I just want to thank you kend for the priv of your audience today and this amazing panel um I it I thoroughly enjoyed being um a part of this conversation I just want to remind folks that um the their vote still has value and the next election has already begun um so we cannot Wadd in self-pity if the election did not go your way and for those who think that there was a landslide Victory

00:56:18 I need to remind you that the uh House of Representatives is is a very slim margin and a banana peel a cold a a a delayed flight can change the game in the House of Representatives any day of the week right now and so we need to be uh thoughtful about what we are going to do strategic and how we’re going to move forward and still keeping our foot on the gas we cannot take our foot off the gas one of the things that I respect about these Republicans is that they are Relentless in their pursuit of power

00:56:49 they do not give up they have been fighting to overturn roie way for decades and so we have to be equally equally um Vigilant and really focused on what it is that we want to accomplish so yeah they may have won um this election but we still got a lot of fight in us and as black people I strongly believe we are the most resilient resourceful um engine uh creative and and and and uh brilliant people that can really come up with some ways to survive so we will continue we will not only survive we are going to thrive we are

00:57:23 going to continue to to Blossom and be the best version of ourselves and until we meet again um just stay encouraged y’all stay encouraged stay in the fight and let’s go because it’s not over we still got a lot of work to do excellent work I want to thank everybody for watching the program and we’re going to continue to keep working hard at this one thing is for sure those Republicans they strong because they jumped all in these comments we I advertised we were going to do this program the Republicans

00:57:56 showed up for Donald Trump our Democrats that’s what we talk about this fight and everything and we talk they are show up man and we pushed it out to everybody so we’re gonna continue to do our work and we want you guys to continue to do yours thanks for all the hard work you do congresswoman thanks to all my panelists and we will see y’all at the next show peace good job everybody