Why Black Men Feel Ignored by Politics: The Ugly Truth

00:00:02 ladies and gentlemen you’re rocking with a goat K Dow giving you motivation for growth two toes down you keep it real the most he do it for the coach that’s always the goal this is strategic moves with [Music] K hey what’s up everybody you tuned in to another episode of strategic M I’m your host Ken D this is a place where we bring art culture politics and business all together and we do week right here on this channel I bring in people that we met along the way we talk about some of our experiences and maybe there’s

00:00:37 something out of that you can get that will help you in your business or your personal life if that sound like something you be interested in all I need you to do is hit the like button hit the Subscribe button and the notification Bell as well so what we’re going to do today getting started we decided that we’re going to take this podcast on the road we’re starting a new series and the series is called cutting the stigma of africanamerican man voting and what we’re going to do is we’re going to go around the state of Ohio

00:01:03 we’re going to be doing these series of Barbershop talks and then we’re going to start off our first talk here in Cleveland Ohio I have the pleasure of coming to one of our Premier barber shops here in Cleveland sitting down with one of our Premier Barber Shop owners as well as he’s an elected official here we’re going to talk a little bit about why African-American men are having trouble voting this year or figuring out exactly who they want to vote for and some of of the issues they’re having with the presid my guest

00:01:33 today is first the owner of uh the barber shop that we’re sitting in today and his name is Moo Robinson councilman moo Robinson he’s the councilman here in the city of Richmond h m how you doing today man doing well man I’m glad to be part of the show the podcast today thanks for inviting me and actually thanks for wanting to do the first podcast right here in diamond cut oh no man thank you for having us you you’ve been somebody we grew up on the same street for a little while K and that kind of thing going up and I knew you

00:02:03 before everybody knew you I know that you been around doing your thing for a long time man and I really appreciate and understand and appreciate your growth that you have I watched you grow up you’re a young guy coming up in the neighborhood making your way and doing the things you did here so I really appreciate you having us here and getting us started thank you also we have former counsilman of city of Cleveland he’s a councilman author a rapper piece all of that kind of stuff that you can think of and he’s been fighting for

00:02:34 African-American men in our country and in this state for a long time and that’s no other than councilman barer Jones and last but not least writing out the conversation we have Mr Kevin Conwell Jr he is the owner of wake hustle and grind he’s a marketer he does marketing here in Cleveland he’s been doing marketing around the state and around the country so we’re going to get started with the convers I’m throw out the first question to everybody why do black men feel politically marginalized by both

00:03:07 Democrats and Republican party let’s start with you oh wow this is actually a kind of difficult question to be totally honest with you but we feel distance from what’s going on because some of our issues it just seems like we crying out loud to people and we we speaking out loud and we telling people where we need to be where we want to be but our voices just don’t seem like they’re being heard anybody from Republicans Or democrats it’s like we just out here learning how to swim on our own what makes special

00:03:38 counil specialist not only is he now an elected official but he is dealing with everyday people as and if you ever want to hear like how black people are feeling for real with no Chas the barers that’s why so important you’re doing here and most people feel like the politicians only come around when it’s time for an election they don’t see they don’t fill up any other place they surely don’t feel like the issues are being addressed we look around and see other groups and other communities that are getting there

00:04:16 but when it comes to black people especially black men we don’t feel many of think question is why do many black men feel politically marginalized by the Democrat R and the Republican party and that’s what I wanted to go specifically those parties why do you feel that those parties are not speaking to your issue the Democrats not just here locally I’m just saying when I say Democrats and Republic I’m talking National local I feel like our Democratic party does lot to help out for the blacks in the community when

00:04:55 it’s time to run things like that jobs things like that but from what I see is the hardest thing is we don’t have a lot of resources in our community whether we live in the suburbs or live in the city of Cleveland the problem is they don’t see us as a value this is my opin they don’t see us as a value so as a black man and dealing with other black men when I ask about voting why should they come out to vote if they’re not seen as a valuable resource to so let me break a question down people for us the question

00:05:31 is more do you see they speaking for I’m just say most Democrats are they speaking the language that africanamerican men like so are they speaking our language are they speaking the language we want to hear do you think they speak out and reach out to us more so the Democrats versus Republicans one for me man I think that the Democrats have missed out or missing out on on a really beautiful opportunity because most black people are with the Democratic party most black connection but it feel like the Democratic party

00:06:05 has Tak advantage of that okay as a it even Democrats have power the fact is that we don’t feel like we’ve got anything out of our support for doesn’t feel like wealthier doesn’t feel like they have institions responsible for taking care of us would seem to be judges had repblic they clear about but it seem it seem clear how they feel about us but Democrats who us us fight as hard for us what specific action should political candidates take to address the thisr in Black Men towards political forms like

00:06:50 this to know your audience a whole lot more actually coming out to speak and actually going to where we are at meeting us I believe those are some actions that should be taking place figuring out like you said how can we level the playing field elected officials laws what type of legislation being part of legislation process how you be a part of the legislation process not just having Lobby firm go in lobing on our behalf how can we have a voice within the party working on all as a councilman and you’re a new councilman M and you

00:07:29 out there Heist one of the suburbs of the city what you feel that as a political person you can be the the disconnect is where we don’t trust as black African-American men we don’t trust our politician disconnectors where they’ll come out like what Brer said earlier the politicians and the candidates they’ll come out doing the campaign race and then after the campaign race once they got their positioning and where they at they’re disconnected they need to stay more hands- on they need to stay more Visual

00:08:01 and they need to stop so much just lit talking during the political races and come out there and really listen and really like perfect example when Brett Shear won w s he didn’t just talk to talk he walked to walk once he became a w s councilman he was continuously in the community continuously talking with his residents all the Talking in no show that’s what make African-American men that’s what make African-American Community period not want to be bothered with political this political scene period we get tired we always coming out

00:08:38 and we we hustle and we doing what we need to do to get things better for our communities and we entrusting ourselves with this person and we call a representative of our community but as soon as this person get to where he needs to be the phone numbers change the addresses look even different you don’t even hear from these people no more until the next time it’s time to vote again now that’s where we having a problem at with a lot of our political civil leaders whatnot because it’s the disconnect of of of leaving us stranded

00:09:10 once we do the job that we need to do so when you see that enough times you get so tired of it then you want to give up and so that’s why it it comes a time where African-Americans just say I’m not even voting because my vote don’t even matter so let me ask a question this way then why is that only seem to be happening for African American men when African-American women are the largest voting block for any Democrat and Republican African-American women is the largest voting block is out there so it

00:09:41 seems like that the women seems to have more engagement than African-American men why white African-American men aren’t trusted by white society and so that’s why I think where the problem comes at White America they trust black women more than they trust black men and and that sentiment is almost in Reverse with how African-Americans feel about White America they don’t trust us and we don’t trust them and now it’s a it’s a situation where we all got to get together and try to come up with a solution to where we can find a better

00:10:16 good to where we can try to trust each other more in today’s society because this is a systematic situation that happen to us and you can almost see why African-American men don’t trust white Amer America we can go all the way back almost into biblical day and and see the system that been put in place to keep African Americans and Africans period behind the so-called black ball man this we we we got a problem we got a real problem and it goes even deeper I believe than Republicans and Democrats and until we get that

00:10:50 situation put together it’s gonna always be the distrust and disconnect between African-Americans and white Americans always you know and as you look through history American history when come black people the system has always expressed [Music] the and demonize them even demonize us to our own womenly and the crazy part about all that is that as time been going along it’s almost touching home with our black women because they actually starting to believe they don’t need us I want to get change I want to

00:11:36 change the Nar always black and system has some of that Independence is greater of black and I still got issues depending on City County Statewide or federal there’s things that governments can do that can make sure that black people have better opportunities locally they can do better things and making sure that you have whether it comes to our housing or making sure that our safety forces reflect the community there’s things that can be put in place in every aspect but unfortunately we just don’t

00:12:24 see it just don’t feel it it’s happening we would like to hear about it prior to you yeah you say that what do you think a politician can do or the elected can do to gain stronger relationship local level Black Opps own they they need opportunities far as local funding they need to get be able to become contractors on these multi-million dollar deals that are taking place you need to see black men and black women in higher roles Within These institutions as administr politics because somebody want to build

00:13:05 something as a city we say and much respected fny Lewis who put this in place even know the state ended up fighting against it and removing it but something called law which made sure certain percentage of construction work or% jobs had to go to minority all right these are but now the Ohio Supreme Court Supreme Court fought against it and then Struck it down so no longer exist Statewide but locally the city can decide to do it now if you have majority city council as black you have a black mayor you have these blacks

00:13:40 who are all in positions why aren’t black people thriving in this community why why have been a shift of wealth to our so not just white supremacy but also the consequence of white supremacy is black s we have a black Supreme Court Justice who don’t believe in affirmative acttion look at how that work you know I mean and a lot of people feel that he got his job almost to and you don’t support affirmative action where African-Americans should be a part of most of these contracts that’s going on across America we well enough

00:14:17 good enough to uh be a part of it when it came time to pick cotton so I we can’t be part of it when it’s time to get paid it’s weird to me how do you guys feel that the economic hardship such as rising cost and job instability influence black men decisions on whether economy economy a big reason why africanamerican men are not voting even though unemployment is at a record low as far as African-American men as well as unemployment period is at an off yes from what I’ve been hearing a lot of Partners I’ve been hearing some people

00:14:53 say they’re going to vote for Trump just on the strength of the stimulus package some people able to take advantage of getting funds from stimulus that wasn’t a Donald Trump I know but that’s the narrative that’s let’s talk about that Narrative of our community being totally uninformed which is the biggest reason why I believe we have most of the apathy in our community is because of our community not being educated for and when we say that I’m really talking about the city of Cleveland prop in that

00:15:30 conversation because when we talk about the city of Cleveland proper that is where councilman barier just was telling me earlier where he was teaching in high school here and many other uh other students know that the education level for the average person in the city of Cleveland is less than High School almost and when we talk about the average amount of money that a person in the city of Cleveland make the average income is like 20 25 ,000 a year so when you get into all of those aspects of that I want to from your perspective I

00:16:06 hear what you said but it when you say that a lot of that is misinformation and a lack of Education themselves about what and even if the education is for are they grabbing it and truly can understand and do we blame that on our leaders that our people can’t understand what they’re missing or not really a mixure responsibility lie on both parts lie on the part that as a community we should be more educated but also lie on those who are in those positions who really rely on our ignorance because if

00:16:39 more people have vote a lot of people who are in office right now would be in office so they benefit off you have some politicians loc they talk to One que ground but they talk to this other person about multili right do we have responsib when you’re dealing with a sub suburbian community in the PO to a a africanamerican Inner City Community there’s different there’s different issues that go along see inner city you got real stuff on now I’m a inner city grown born and raised and I moved out to a suburbs and being

00:17:32 in those two being able to see the two different worlds the things that’s really serious in suburbian America if you was a inner city person you would think of as this is [ __ ] y’all spoing entitled and privileged up here and just because a squirrel run across your front yard and get crapped up in your in your chimney the world’s going to end in the inner city man they will probably laugh at it and tell you man figure it out but in subur America these are their issues deers in the front yard or foxes up under your porches but in in

00:18:06 the city you got to deal with real crime kids killing kids drugs and a lot of that stuff don’t go on out in the suburbs it’s it’s a totally different situation man but in the suburb when we talk let’s keep it to africanamerican so when we talk about voting and African-American men out there and your community where there’s more Republicans than there would be in the city of Cleveland how do you feel African-American men in the suburbs and out in your area are seeing this voting trend of African-American men looking to

00:18:38 vote outside of the democratic party yeah African-American men out out in suburb areas they tend to vote more because in a s speak most of them a lot of people that come that’s live in African-Americans live in the suburb they’re from the inner city so what they wanted when they moved to the suburbs they wanted more for their families those African-Americans are more conscious minded African-Americans they want it more they read more they see more and they want to know more so they’ll come out to council meeting and

00:19:07 they’ll come to get educated from their political advisers or their political Representatives they’re constantly in contact they don’t wait on their councilman or their Council woman to come to them they’ll find their way to them and so it’s more of an intimate dialogue in the dialect with the suburbians than it is because the disconnecting in it’s just like a lot of inner city it’s a real life distrust and they got good reasons for it but in in the essence what rasher was saying they rely on some of the ignorance of inner

00:19:39 city African-Americans to not want to know to not want to understand what’s going on in the give me an example you guys say that they depend on the ignorance how do they do that we vote as African-Americans we tend to just vot instead of listening to what the candidate saying what the issues is at hand we only feel like cuz I’m black I’m supposed to vote Democrat do you even take the time to even listen to what the candidates is even saying now I’m not saying I’m I’m a Democrat but I voted Republican before because the simple

00:20:11 fact of the matter is I didn’t believe that what a Democratic candidate was saying would benefit me and my community to that point and and the reason why I bring that up is that I think that goes both way because we do give black folks a choice and they have a choice when they vote for councilman when they vote for mayor when they vote for judges when they vote for anything else they got a choice and it’s not based off the ignorance it’s based off of who came to me who I felt I wanted to vote for who

00:20:40 that person was and when I get ready to vote for my counsilman you running you running I’m just the average citizen I’m gonna vote for that person of my choice so I I think the ignorance that we talk about I don’t know if this so much when you say they do it on purpose is it on purpose or is it just the way the community is and and is it just the way our black community is even though we have black folks up there who doesn’t vote because again most of the African-Americans move from the inner city to the suburbs and voting is just

00:21:11 another thing so we got aathy a just as much that but you got more of it in the city of Cleveland your War for example was one of the lowest voting wars in the city of Cleveland our years yours in war five with all the work and everything you did over the years how did you get that people are going issues and not seeing how it can affect them they just trying to get our job as elect official to be able to say this is how you’re able to get by and then once they open up their Consciousness then they

00:21:44 understand somebody may have wanted to get some and they didn’t understand process they told if I just years that I own that’s not the case this was like the hood mys City so it was up to me me as an elected official having the connections having knowledge having understanding in order to that I exle anyway I to turn into Mam alation and boy oh boy I got phone calls and emails from people on the I want to do it because a couple Reas one black people be but that was like a sleeping giant because I got so

00:22:27 many emails and messages of people that matter to right so what I’m saying is that until people see what really matters to them everyone can to have the same mindset you would think that if you were doing all that for the people in your community and you were going to change that that the people in your community would have been more engaged even when it didn’t get done I’m sure you got letters from all over the country but we live right here you thousand 28,000 people live in your War you would think that out of that you

00:22:58 would have had some of those people who would have came out and said you know what we support that and we want to do it this way it wasn’t important to and and and and it also didn’t resonate into vs neither because you tried to utilize that as a tool and it didn’t work out that’s this this conversation is all about how we can increase African of what people are going through in those areas and as you said historically not just my there’s always issue around even with the work I was doing people still have that Tred to do some

00:23:38 other things they did show up I wanted to do food I wanted to build this they came out for so the struggle that we experience in in a city we pick and choose what we want to stand up for and being a and being a barber shop owner man you get to hear a lot of different things of why black men on voting and basically it’s a really tough situation to get black men man we black men is so hard to make understand how important voting is that we had a program we in the barber shop you you hear guys I say man you vote no why you

00:24:18 Ain vote man my vote don’t count no way and I sit in the barers shop man on a regular basis and I’m trying to tell these dudes that man listen even if you feel like your vote don’t count I feel like you disrespecting people before you that gave you the privilege because it’s a privilege to vote but when you talking to African-American men in a barers shop man some of the answers of why you didn’t vote is so bizarre and crazy that you not one of the candidates we voted for goes back to what you saying earlier

00:24:53 like in the first couple questions the family Dynamic and education piece if the woman is the head of the household you have a split household man’s out working so he can pay for child’s support to do whatever he can’t miss and a lot of times if you go to your boss you work at the Marriot or something like that and you’re like hey boss I need to take off the go V they gonna frown upon you taking off that time to go vote to go do it because us as men we juggle in so many different things in time of the day we got to keep

00:25:25 our job so a lot of times I’m not saying all the aspects but majority of the people that’s in this Cleveland dynamic they work in different jobs and doing whatever or they’re entrepreneurs and they [Applause] can’t I’m not using that as an but I’m saying that’s some of the things that they will say when you say why I didn’t vote those are some of the to the next topic I know that I help this man right here run for off and both times we read on Election Day we got out and we went cuz this dude believed that

00:26:02 these young and as he call them and these folks in clev on the east side folks he still gonna argue me to death on this podcast that these guys were 100% in and we went out there on Election Day I watched this man’s face get cracked a few times when he went up to folks and he asked him hey did you vote today oh yeah I’m GNA do it I’m gonna get you going and this and that then he’ll ask the trick question hey do and they say no and when they said no it wasn’t because they didn’t vote against they wouldn’t registered to vote just

00:26:36 like they wasn’t registered to vote now he saw him maybe five or six times along the campaign road because they were standing on the same spot every day and they didn’t do it and the same thing happened again when he ran second time so again my did you did yeah and so it’s possible like you say with Afric and only making Point say the africanamerican men it’s just like you say you sit here you listen to them it’s it’s just a hard as sale maybe some of those reasons what you saying Kevin got something to do

00:27:08 with it could be the fact that the polling location just wasn’t next door to my house I find I find highly disrespectful for African-Americans not to vote every election because you look back in in the history of how we even got this privilege to vote and all of the lies blacks and whites and this still has to be signed in by President every so many years so it’s not even a law that we even got the right to vote so it’s a privilege at this particular time and I would have almost thought when we got an African-American

00:27:43 president that he would have made that his first priority told it’s been too many years that why is it it’s still a privilege for Africans Americans to be able to vote and we still have to get permission every so many years by president that could be one of the major reasons where you got some of the aathy but I like to believe that it ain’t enough of us we’ve understand that that say that’s not the reason why I’m not voting because that’s the more education stuff that you have to look into to again you to find out should I have to

00:28:17 understand that for the elect officials to fight because you got a Republican Senate it was time that we had majority house and majority it was it was it was it was a time where they had that I’m not here to defend that because I don’t know I’m just saying so let’s move on to next I to stay on that democrats should have done and I believe that’s one of our questions we know that the Democrats and Republicans how change we gonna talk about that but I don’t want to be the person who say I got the answers for all what is the most

00:28:55 significant issues that black men are feeling are being ignored by public officials the system the government what is that one thing that you believe we start with you can’t well jobs and education is being igned like I saying earlier like me having nonprofit W Inc we go to a lot of places to see what the school boards are doing we go in and we’re fighting Vision get the kids when they’re at second third and fourth grade they don’t want to uh get kids earlier into learning financial literacy learning things as of being Civic

00:29:32 engagement and voting they don’t want to spend the time to do that because I feel like get certain type of money dictate what type of program have so let’s talk about on the national level because that’s local coming up africanamerican men why do you believe what do you believe is the number one thing that the government should be doing to help improve africanamerican life big issue is overation the prison so many are in jail for nonviolent offenses can’t consider issue but for someone else it can be small businesses

00:30:07 Access Capital these become and also the system itself getting in the way of the progress of family situations like child support this is a big issue that facing child support issues having a felony and not being able to get job as the type of job or the type of f so these are some of the conern you got homeownership jobs entrepreneurship man we getting blocked out of trying to be owners of everything it’s it’s systematically and I feel like it happened I had my my credit score was at 800 and I literally was turned down I’m

00:30:52 sitting up here like I didn’t know if I was being discriminated against or what happened and and these are some the things that that make you frustrated with America in in our society because of you when you doing everything the right way and you still being turned down you got to try to figure out what just happened here and you hear these rumors and and you you you listen to brother brashier and some of his Muslim podcast and and they speak on stimulus racism and all of this stuff but then when you got all all your stuff in order

00:31:30 as an africanamerican man and you still get denied for something that you’ve already been approved for before I’m talking about refinance not to buy a house I can almost imagine what africanamerican men has to go through to even own a house or to buy the house or even open up a storefront business because I’ve done it all I want get down into what we really mean when we say that when we say that what system can the government put in place that would have helped you be able to refinance your house better but what would he

00:32:02 could he done to made your process easier for you to get your house more African-American uh programming tell the banks that you know what I’m saying if this credit score is good and he has the the income for this and and if if he be fought on this loan or he have some type of a financial issue or whatnot then we got that we FHA though VA FHA well evidently they’re not pushing the programs and they’re not pushing the the the um program well enough because it’s still happening to African-American men

00:32:35 this just got everything in order and I’m an example of it myself okay onal side that’s have local politicians who have knowledge about these type of things who are meeting with the local banks because when I was in Council I would meet with the heads of Banks and say what are you doing with your C your investment like what are you doing within the community for us who are elected officials who have the knowledge that’s when we have to be able to translate into the community about what the what you know what programs are

00:33:06 available and making sure that programs are you got you got to be willing to answer and talk to these people and when if if you got at least one person who want to be educated on something that got to get done in our communities you got to at least talk to that one person man you can’t stall a mountain run and hide and that’s what some of our elected officials will do once they get elected into office they and that’s where I think a lot of the disconnect will come in with a with the African-American men

00:33:35 in our elected officials it just feel like man I keep telling the story but I ain’t getting no answers and after a minute that’s when you keep telling the story so many times you get frustrated and just say hell man I ain’t got [ __ ] to say to them so don’t we gonna keep the same energy when it come time to vote I’m going keep the same energy you had when you when I came to you and that’s what a lot of them get it from let’s keep this energy since you don’t see me I don’t see you do you think the E the economic promises

00:34:04 from candidates are not enough to win over black males or is there a deeper sense ofren that needs to be addressed do we really think that when a candidate comes in here and says all of that stuff and you guys believe it do you think that’s enough or do you think there’s something really deeper the history of what this government has meant to black people and every year we’re reminded the government had something to do with King every year we reminded about how Muhammad Ali had to fight against

00:34:36 them all of our freedom fighters black people are con Jun all of everywhere we’re constantly reminded of of the government attack on us as black men so when you ask the question what can the government do I give you a perfect example just locally so people understand we had these ARP dollars from the American Rescue plan dollar that came Cleveland got 00 million I was a part of that counil that but the east side of Cleveland still hasn’t been invested at $200 million targeted to the east side of Cleveland how could that

00:35:10 have impacted the community so just how people we get excited about the presidential election but as a community we should be more focused on but who’s our local judges you understand who is our local council members who is our mayor because that impacts us quicker than who the president is so I just think that locally whether it’s the mayor or city council dollars that are coming in federal dollars that are coming in as local officials we have to do a better job of communicating how to get it take advantage of it so when I

00:35:41 was in Council if you built in my neighborhood you couldn’t just build in certain apart without also putting resources to help other houses that were around in that that neighborhood so if you just built this $50 million project we need certain dollars that put aside to take care of grandma Johnson who Grandpa porch so then people can then feel that the growth is happening around them that they also taking part so what economic reforms do you think can be gained to support um that can be done to

00:36:11 gain support for African-American men I do know as far as economics support us like you said it does start with the Lo Lev and working to get making sure a Democrat is in there very important we still got to fight to get the people to come out and vote because when that money being passed on the federal level and we got somebody like a republican gets in I’m not say the guys name but you a Republican to get in and we got those dollars they can get snatched up and moved around so it’s very important

00:36:40 for us to fight to get what we need in the right system to come in so we can have people to fight to get the money so they can be allocated in the right areas so when the money goes to the state it it won’t evaporate it disappear because if we have Republicans in certain positions can get legs and disappear so you want to keep that structur but then also too you want to empower people in the community to know what’s going on so why it’s important to vote so I think better messaging within all parties need

00:37:11 to come out to understand on economic front being probably one of the most important things why it’s important to come out the boat so we can have an opportunity to get dollar that’s coming across councilman what you think from an economic fir not just the city of I know that’s where our heart is but your constituents out there in Richmond Height some of the people you listening to and others in business is there any economic reforms that you believe that can be done that can gain more support from africanamerican males U first of

00:37:43 all we got to educate our African-American males of there there are plenty of programs but we got teach us how to go after the programs and how to utilize the programs for instance trying to own up your own business there are plenty of programs out there that to help us get the money but the problem is how to get the money we’re not educated enough to understand on how to run a business to even create the business so we got to get our our our leaders to teach us more about going down to like the Urban League or even the

00:38:18 representative in Urban League to get them to come out and let the inner city communities and and and know that man it’s here it’s here but what you got to do you got to know how to get it from us and that means you have to go and get your paperwork see everybody want to own a business but you don’t know how to structure the business now once you get taught on how to run the business and how to structure the business then now we talking a whole another ball game and that’s where it starts at for real but

00:38:47 man what we got to do is stop bitching so much man and get out here cuz here it’s like everything else man ain’t nobody going to help nobody that don’t want to help themselves that’s why they think that we we’re a joke not just White America all the other ethnic groups that’s in America think the black men are a joke because sometimes if you look at wom look at us me we don’t take we want it all we want educ Divine people man I feel you but what we overcame man it ain’t been no People Like Us on the entire planet in

00:39:27 the history of we got to stop we got to stop man I know it’s a systematic problem but when do we stop the Jews been enslaved every ethnic group in in in this world been enslaved at some point but somewhere or the other I understand we got our just do and we do deserve everything that this country got to give us back because we basically put it on our shoulders but it’s G to come to a time that we going to have to start burden some of our own responsibilities and get that monkey up off our back and quit

00:39:57 making ourselves look we don’t want this thing because man they just keep saying what we want and not getting out there and figuring it out and making ourselves cuz man listen we get in our communities man we here’s perfect example man one day I was riding down Superior I was riding down 185th I Liv in Richmond hikes and so it was a car about four or five young African-American men was in this car so we coming out of Richmond hikes and we coming down into Cleveland right so here’s the thing these young

00:40:25 boys no sooner than we pass Cleveland Bo they just start throwing stuff off the car just jumping out throwing now they wouldn’t do it right up on top of the hill because I don’t know if they felt like the the penies are more severe up there or it just don’t matter cuz we in the inner city of Cleveland but even animals know got to throw so we could keep blaming the white man for all our downfalls and all our mistakes but somewhere the other almost would have threw the trash out on the top of the

00:40:55 hill before they got home and threw it out you know what I mean it’s sometimes we self-inflicting wounds and and we won’t take the ability or the time to say man when are we going to accept some of our own downfalls to create a me personally I have uh shifted my marketing business over to just really helping the kids first off stting hey this would have been a good business something to do with my son but when I’m out here with all my sons friends baseball stuff like that we’re doing I see the day don’t have the mental

00:41:28 capacity they don’t have father so what we’ve been doing is implementing the entrepreneurship program that we have in Camp first ever Sports and entrepreneur camp together and what they’re learning is not just also how to get a business like we’re showing them EIN numbers and stuff like that but the mindset of credit yeah we were able to get 380 kids last year we have a thous business owners registered through this company called block we’ve got a thousand business owners now they’re pledging to

00:41:58 get their kids inla that they all have a business so that when they get older they won’t have to go ask somebody for a job I think it’s important for us to educate our kids on how important credit worthiness is and teach them that these other ethnic groups are starting their kids off from day one on being not working for anybody but owning and having people work for you that’s the state of mind that we got to get our kids into also man damn working for other people man figure out a way to sell something on your own first and if

00:42:29 that don’t work out then it’s okay man one thing I believe that this damn pandemic did it made everybody believe that they can be an entrepreneur we can’t find a workforce out here because everybody believe that they’re a boss nobody wants to work anymore nobody wants to be employees they all want to be the boss some of them are young and it’s a lot of experience and mo you said yourself man it’s growing in the business is experience you there’s nothing you can go into college and that Professor is going to tell you every

00:43:05 book thing you can but until you get out here and you open up these doors yourself and you pay these light bills and you figure this stuff out for yourself it’s hard right now Society social media and everything else has made everybody feel as if they can be one you talk to people you see them online I help this company raise a million dollars I help this person do this I can help you grow your business too and you talk to them and you ask who’s on your Client List and they don’t have nobody they have never helped

00:43:34 anybody I’ve been beens 30 years man I’m still learning so brother we ain’t gonna get caught up we got to get to this juicy stuff so I’m GNA ask one more question along these lines and then we gonna move on and that is what strategy do you believe is most effective in engaging these young black voters I’m gonna start with Conwell barer then you move then we going to get going okay engaging young black men we know that when we talking to I’m talking to 18 and over that are eligible to vote that we

00:44:03 all know are less engaged than even the brothers who should be more engaged what’s the strategy you believe that can be utilized to get those guys involved said Judes Eng looking at important you have a certain type of judge you vot and you going Tri against one day you want to have some type of you want to be judged by your PE you go in one the judicial system and something to do with the police I feel like that’s speaking their language because we are we H we are hunted we get pulled over by the police telling our sons like hey

00:44:44 when you pull over it’s a certain type of way we got to answer to the police when we get pulled over just in safety so we we send our 18y old black men out it’s a different type of way they have to move in the world no other race has to tell their kids act certain type of way with police so I believe policing issues with energized kids to be able to come out and vote when they’re 18 because their life depends on it not just the economic down the road but what’s most important their literally life depends on whether they get a

00:45:16 felony or not whether what’s going to happen to them if they do get a felony all those things play a part of in the tradition process yeah on the strategy side it just depends upon the group that you’re talking to in my neighborhood when I would do expungement clinics it would be jam-packed there’ be hundreds of people that will come out and get their records spune when you marketing to people you have to understand their language in my neighborhood experement clinics do well helping right now working with to really help the seniors

00:45:44 because they’ve been getting scammed these are some of the issues that we’re facing in our neighborhood the biggest issue is that most people are afraid to actually get out there to talk to these young cats and have that engagement with them how important is that that’s very important man very important you you gota you got to be hands on you can’t be scared on man you got to get out there and you got to talk to them you got to be in the faces and you got to sound just like sometimes and that that might seem a little crazy and

00:46:11 whatnot but sometimes you can only connect people in the way they know how to be connected and and and coming out in in your business suits and your and your nice slacks or whatever that don’t read sometimes you got to take that stuff off you might even have to put on a pair of Jordans or a pair of Yeezys man if that’s what what what makes them comfortable around you to even hear what you got to say and that’s basically it I can’t get longwinded on this on this situation it’s just about getting out

00:46:37 there and gaining they trust by all means necessary and what if that mean changing your outfits then that’s what it mean if that means changing your L language then that’s what it means you got to speak their language I got a I got a barber to cut in my shop his name guy he gets out there with with boxing gloves when he get out there he got programs where he go on man since we tired people just killing young people just killing man listen how about killing these boxing Bloods man since you don’t like him you don’t like him

00:47:08 how about y’all two get out there and just squ at something but like I said man I don’t want to get too longwind on on the issue but man it’s just about speaking a language and making them trust you as a person and that’s what the importance of it is all right right we gonna get into some speed rounds now so we can get up out of here G ask some questions and get some answers for you guys foral president Donald Trump who has a history of racial controversy is now poised to win 20% of the black vote

00:47:34 what do you think is behind the shift of black voter black male voters and do you believe the poll at all let’s start with Conwell with the myth going on Trump gave out all the money the time pass so I know that language is going not just here in Cleveland some of my business partners La a couple people in Atlanta a couple people in Miami where I business with all of them saying lean more towards Trump just because of that because the business aspect of it they don’t care less about the feelings part

00:48:09 of it I don’t care if you feel like whatever you’re going to Har me name but on the money I need this money my they feel like Donald Trump showed them the money oh man they they feel like that was the closest thing that African-Americans going to get to 40 acres in the MU with that with that pandemic money that came out and besides the pandemic money they they feel like he signed the crime bill that let a lot of African-American men that was doing life in in federal penitentiary go and they felt like that was a situation

00:48:39 where Obama could have did that now Obama did right but the but the stigma is or the belief is that Trump did it yeah and that’s what a lot of it got to do with they feel like Trump can’t be racist as as as they they making us believe he racist because RAC white men don’t let black men out of penitentiary and that’s that’s a big one that comes up in the barber shop a lot only only difference is is how people market and and and how um Donald Trump did a better job than Obama and taking credit for [ __ ] that he just didn’t do

00:49:15 and he does it just like the stimulus checks and everybody oh the people who know that he’s a con man sit back and they even know that is Con and sometimes don’t say nothing but it’s it’s purely that but what’s your thought my thought KD man is that okay if Trump is a Comm man what’s B what is as a as a as a member of the Muslim Community here in America we definitely was told by President Biden that this genocide would have been over with talking about the the war you let me no we don’t get into the war bro I’m

00:49:58 people some people are supporting Trump because of them but some people W support Trump so they not going support bid you have a group of people who feel that bid time is done and so you have something that’s going to love Trump and support him and I’m talking about people that don’t even like voting like you talk about people who just from the neighborhood like I’m voting for Trump I can relate to real thing man lot of people think he keep it [Applause] but you know how we think and you know how we it’s a reality in our world we

00:50:33 like it real and he bring it real turn how many politicians win disrespectful it’s disrespectful to some and BR just flat out no matter how it is it wasn’t even brilliant to nobody it’s flat outes president B disrespectful president B he wasn’t the president the time Senator with the crime bill that he pushed that still affects our community I know when people talk about the Democrats they like to just talk about what the Republicans are not but we got to talk about what the Democrats are what they have done the crime bill that

00:51:12 affects our community there’s certain aspects that President Obama they’ve been a part of that impacts our community that they still they don’t want to address that they just want to tell us what Trump isn’t but don’t want to tell us what they’ve done part of that is that barer Jones and dors Cornell West who is critical to both major parties U what do you think about his candidacy you believe resonates with black male voters he has a history of speaking up for our issues he has a history of being a voice for the

00:51:45 voiceless which is a major part of it that he’s got a new face a new voice as we travel around the country and we go into the hoods of different cities the people know exactly who we are and they appreciate the work that we’ve done he’s talking about topics like reparations he’s talking about demilitarizing police he’s talking about making sure that everyone has access to a home and resources to purchase them but he’s talking about white supremacy and how it shows up in political processes these

00:52:11 are all things that black people can relate now they may not go with him in drugs because we’ve been programmed to either go democrat or republican we look at him and we don’t see a president we just look we see a philosopher we see a teacher for me we saw Donald Trump we didn’t see a president but he became a president because it was his time and I feel that this is the first time for me where I’m voting for my heart I’m not voting politicals I’m voting the person that I believe speaks my language and

00:52:40 President Biden genocide Joe and Donald Trump who wants a Civil War I just can’t morally I can’t support either one of those Camp about Conwell what’s your thoughts on Cornell West being in the race we already know what time isal scale right educ decision when you vote what’s most important in your household knowing that he really didn’t pass those financial things Trump on the left and also knowing about that Prime Bill back in the day Joe Biden you got to make the best decision for your family and I

00:53:21 believe that’s how all should be best decision for your community so you have a right to vote whether you agree or disagree but just know why you’re V what’s your thoughts on Cornell West in the race the possibility that you got a third candidate that could be in the race that can possibly make a hardship for I didn’t I haven’t done a lot of research on on his messaging and what Corell is bringing to the uh presidential candidacy but he is a credible africanamerican man and and that will hurt the Democrat rats a

00:53:57 little more than it will hurt the Republicans because he will actually take some votes I feel from Biden then will make it a little bit more easier for Trump to actually gain the white house he’s going to take some some very well needed African-American votes because his credibility I haven’t researched his message I haven’t heard much from him but I do know that there are African-Americans that don’t need to hear what he’s saying but they know that he is a very credible African-American leader and they will go and vote for him

00:54:32 just on that assumption alone so he’ll hurt the Democrats and team that be an ideal situation because then like you said it wouldn’t be splitting votes but just on a number standpoint thing and a dollar stand he who has a go makes the he who has the bank that’s just what it is I believe given uh just for you counsilman giv your experience erence in community engagement how do you address the political disconnect and mistrust among black men in the community I’m just trying to talk to him I go out I’m in my

00:55:07 communities I’m walking and I’m talking and and being a new councilman this is exactly what my campaign was about and this is what I’m trying to actually to be really honest with you I’m really following the footsteps of my colleague here Brer Jones He Walked that walk man he talked that talk and walked that walk he was out there he was on the he was in the beat he was talking to his residents he was doing for his resident all that bsing and Li lip action you hold on to that people tired of hear and all that

00:55:38 don’t nobody want all that talk no more man people want that’s one of the things that this giving Donald Trump actually a up on by because he out there doing he out there he L he talking that smack man more than anything you just got to be there you got to be there man and you can’t just be lip service people TI to lip serviceing especially us as black people councilman bar Jones how do you address the economic and social concerns of black men who feel disenfranchised from the political process how do you

00:56:12 address the economic and social concerns of black men we we understand that that uh White structural racism and how it’s uh played out in the systems of America from the financial system to the medical systems all these different systems is a real thing they exist and here in Cleveland you can go to the major institutions and you’ll find most black people Valley and cars so people of power in the city have to make sure that we’re being proper translators it gives people opportunities to better their

00:56:46 economic situation which will better their social situation so as a political figure as or a person who has some level of influence we have to make sure that when we are in those back rooms that we’re ensuring that those who are the least of us are being represented and sometimes the unfortunate part is that Corporate America corporate Cleveland corporations in general they Thrive off of the ignorance of people we have to give them knowledge as we give them knowledge they’ll do the right thing by

00:57:15 it if they don’t know then they have to either search for it or we have to come and give it we can’t drag them you got to want it they got one councilman Conwell how can Community leaders have vaguely address the political economic concerns of black men in your field of marketing and business there something you feel they can do one I’ve been seeing for a while is being able to bridge the gap on social media right we need to use this tool come together as like you’re using platform on podcast people subscribe to get more information

00:57:48 I believe we’re not using tools 30 second a and us getting that information at a young age help us come together so what I believe we should do just as a community Grassroots is get together on social media a whole lot more strategic versus um just posting something out or sending stuff out people on the Cleveland remembrance page whenever death is happening but when voting is happening it’s crickets so I feel is US using the tools that’s out there more effectively I think we can have a greater future do that councilman um

00:58:24 Robinson question to you is do you feel that Trump’s recent Outreach efforts towards black men are genuine or merely performative and why we know that Trump is a actor we know that he knows how to put on the show I am a Democrat and I look at the facts and I try to understand it and I don’t think that Trump will fit our political aspects at this particular moment even though our president ain’t doing a good job at bring bring his message to the Forefront this election here is going to be a classic one but I it’s hard to believe a

00:59:04 man to um almost order Insurrection on on the capital and and look for votes and he’s a convicted felon and he it’s just a mess this this is so what do you do in this election man really though we got one president that can’t stand ight for long and then you got one dude stand up right for long man man listen start looking at some of his literature man me a question how old is Cordell West this is old as these guys same age right I don’t know man B least he can walk and stand up he can’t do that this for you Jones in what way do

00:59:50 you think both Biden and Trump has failed to address concerns of black males voters you want to hear our voice you might have these little white house groups that black men are but we don’t see it on the Grassroots level you don’t feel it on the Grassroots level and and I consider myself to be someone who is educated about the process and I have a hard time so imagine this brother who’s illiterate he has a felony he has this situation that situation the barriers that he has it becomes tough man black

01:00:21 men mental health is a major issue right mental health is a major issue access to capitals and Ma issu as I said the overcriminalization the jail system this that whole system of the Injustice system all these things have to be they have to be fixed it have to be acknowledged and the Democrats have had the power in the past to do something about it and we just don’t find them having the same um for black men as they have for other groups in this community but we don’t see them having the same fervor for the Jewish Community as they

01:00:55 do for black Community as they do for black men no other group is being looked at and respected and left off of being taken care of like black men but when we come up and say hey man so we’re not doing this for you because you’re black we doing this because I’m not the president for black people I’m the president for all it’s like only when it come to us do these type of responses take who the hell is in charge of getting the African American Park done down here on East B that’s disrespectful now that is totally

01:01:27 disrespectful man now everybody’s partk down there been redone and done twice over but we can’t get our representation and our people and our communities to get that part finish man africanamerican culture and they made progress from what they said now how can we B together to get our social problems together man and we can’t even bind together enough to get our heart created and I’m G to tell you what’s really sad about that and we going to get back on cuz these things go I I got you you said we got WRA up I was

01:02:01 watching channel 8 news and you guys been down there to see the new Vietnamese Garden that they put down there as a woman she got a a statue she talked about how they put it on the boat and had lost pieces this she had a whole big old story about this thing they travel thousands and thousands of miles and if you go down there to the Garden it’s the last Garden before you get to the freeway on your right hand y going look for it came it’s a big Ivory statue beautiful and I sat there and I watched that and I said wow this

01:02:34 woman raised all this money here amongst a group of people that’s a smaller group than African-American people here in this country to raise the money to go all the way over to some Mountain that she said they pulled this all of this stuff out to bring a thousand and thousands of miles here losing pieces of it and everything and they got that thing up man it’s beautiful and to your point we still don’t have a guard I know I know had at least 10 years or 15 years of history of people knowing working with elected officials like you

01:03:08 and others beforehand with that committee trying to get it done but that’s not why we here I’m gonna get us up out of here we’ve been here a long time I’m gonna ask the number one question is on everybody’s mind when we get out of here we gonna close on this one for you Mr par John what’s your thoughts on Biden Administration foreign policy practice in Gaza and impact on black voters I you C at first man I I I tried my best to keep my thoughts about that whole go situation but unfortunately it’s it’s a

01:03:47 horrible situation that’s going on in goip man way the way the world is turning Blind Eye to what the Jews is actually doing to some of those pantian that’s they those people over there almost living in Brick Huts now man and it’s sad that the world can find the justification on what’s going on in there and and they can send millions and millions we gonna say not millions billions of dollars to a country that seems to me that got all the money and we sending even more and more support than it’s just it’s a catastrophe man

01:04:25 and I really believe that that bid should investigate more and ask the Jewish leaders to ceasefire and come on out of there man it ain’t nothing else left over there man it’s nothing it’s and it’s sad that we only see one side we only seeing Mally in the world one side of that war what you say Conwell think think I found out recently the money that they with from the Russian government when you hold the money sanctions so that sanctions money that could came over here to do something they put that

01:05:05 money back into the war like they I I just took your I took your money H could have solve a lot of problems over herey a whole lot of stuff I’m G get this SE CRA after I already just L you with a whole bunch of money I seen that news bite I was like yo W turn off on the whole situation I don’t even know what to really believe for me personally my personal opinion I don’t know what to believe I believe genocide is wrong I know that beef over there is real and that’s something happened since biblical

01:05:41 time so that’s the thing I think they’re fighting over land and I don’t know the whole details of it but I feel like it’s all about money and it’s sad that lives are being lost a lot how do you think it makes you feel as a voter and B’s position on how he’s been handling I feel like it’s not good it’s not good at all terrible it almost makes you want to to Corn West but in a situation of our vo aspect it’s left us with a left and right so my thing is going back we need to have some more talks and making a

01:06:18 solution figure out how we can become stronger economically so they can see us as valuable so our vote as valuable so they can start paying so B what’s your thoughts on um the way the president has handled this war and the impact on not just africanamerican males in this electri but there is a huge Muslim Palestinian Lebanese Community here in the United States period and you got some history from when you was down Houston and doing stuff down there in Texas so honestly give me just a really good one not we

01:06:51 all jokes aside what’s your thing on how you believe the administration is hand this whole thing in God and how it affects black folks the largest Muslim contingency in America is actually African-Americans African-American Muslims make up the largest percentage of Muslims in America really so what you have is that so black is so this what’s happening over there is affecting black people um because whether your cousins are Muslims family members or some [ __ ] the genocide that’s taking place in

01:07:22 Palestine is is not different from the genocide that’s taking place here in America and and and particularly amongst and black men um and and the over militarization of the Palestinians is the same over militar militarization that we see against black people particularly black men the same Weaponry that you see you being used in Gaza it was used first against black Americans like they get their practice here in the hoods of America and they take that and and utilize it in other places from the surveilance right there’s no country in

01:07:57 the world that that surveil um that has greater surveillance than Israel and America they are the greatest in cilian but they practice it here they practice it in the MOs they practice it in Black communities where you have cameras everywhere in our community under the Guides of we want to be more safe but it’s really surveillance as we’ve been telling people the genocide that take place in in Palestine is no different from the genocide that’s taking place here in hoods in America and and what I

01:08:27 tell black people is if you go back and look at the Palestinian Liberation Army or PLO or yat they have very close connections with the black p movie here in America right Malcolm used to always say that our success come will come in also in the form of of a free Palestine so the Zionism is like white supremacy throughout the world and it and it has an impact on on people of color wherever in the world so I guess the point I’m making is that President Biden he just proved to us what we had already knew

01:09:02 which was this is not United States of America it’s the United States of Israel this is Israel right here America is Israel and as we’ve been expressing to Muslims if you want to help India if you want to help Palestine if you want to help Congo Sudan you have to help them from America there’s nothing that President Joe body can do for some of us to ever get our support by the way that he’s uh dealt with not just Palestinians how he’s dealt with what’s happening in Congo what’s happening in Sudan what’s

01:09:32 happening any place where black and ground people are suffering look at how he has responded but look at how he responded to Ukraine if it was bombing taking place like the bombing that we see in guaza in Ukraine look at America’s response there in comparison to their response to what’s happening everywhere else in the world where white babies are not being killed so this is the reality I think it’s unfortunate that we live in a country that even people who have good Hearts don’t want to say nothing about it that’s the

01:10:03 situation we in I want to thank everybody for coming out on the show today this is a real good conversation the one thing I will ask you to do is really go out and get all the information that you need to make the best decision for yourself we’ll put links to everybody’s information where you can go fact check some of this information for yourself and so that you can tune in and look at and find out what you need to be to arm yourself to make the best decision on who you support for um this upcoming election

01:10:32 and as always we’re encouraging everybody to vote no matter who you decide to vote for we want africanamerican men to take this to a new height and we actually be the Difference Maker in this election so until next time I’m gonna give everybody just a quick moment to say something on our way out we’re g to start with our host and owner of this establishment councilman M Roberts you want to say a few words to the first I want to thank you for bringing this panel and bringing this discussion to the diamond Cup Barber Shop but first

01:11:02 of all I want to ask the African-American men and women to get out and vote this election it’s very important for the future of the United States and it’s very important for the future of your communities Conwell se you f DC my dad f for your community keep up the good work I want to say please go out and vote it’s very important you can find me at wc.com or.org we are working with children that’s our passion working with children and getting youth involved and then we get them now we have some chance to get

01:11:39 them later to where they can have some economic councilman Jones hey I’m looking at right here what up what’s happening I want to say man much respect to KD Kow man Latif man for doing such an amazing podcast to my brother councilman man who was so just proud of man his he’s always been a community leader and just to see him Elevate it’s just a beautiful thing to see man Kevin Conwell Jr is always a pleasure and I just want to say to everybody out there man make sure you get out and vote wherever you want to vote for whatever

01:12:11 your opinion is get out the stands get on the court and get in the game and and let your voice be heard there comes a time that silence become betrayal betrayal in the words of Dr K silence is betrayal so you can’t afford to be silent you got to speak up excellent so all right we’re going to have another one we’re shooting another one just next week on the 30th so make sure you tune in and check that out it’s with the Millennials that one’s going to be interesting so make sure you tune in talk to you next week

01:12:41 peace this is strategic mov with k