Black Perspective: December 17, 2023

This week on The Black Perspective, we speak with the daughter of Nelson Mandela; the new executive of Moms of Black Boys United joins us; Q Parker and Tamika Scott talk about their holiday movie and more.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
It's December seventeenth, and today wetalk to the daughter of Nelson Mandela.
The new executive director of Moms ofBlack Boys United joins us to tell us
of the importance of the organization,and Q Parker and Tamika Scott come to
the studio to talk about their newholiday movie, Those Stories are War Coming
up. Welcome to the Black Perspective. I'm your host, Mike Eila.

(00:22):
Welcome to the Black Perspective, aweekly community affairs program on the Black Information
Network featuring interviews and discussions on issuesimportant to the black community. It's been
ten years since the death of SouthAfrica's first black president, the iconic Nelson
Mandela. He sacrificed his life fightingthe racist system of apartheid, and now
his daughter is retelling his life andthings we don't know about her father.

(00:46):
In her new book, The BlackInformation Networks. Vanessa Tyler brings us her
story. Mike, thanks. Thename Mendela reverberates power. Nelson Mandela was
a visionary leader, freedom finer.It is the Tosco for fittth fight Turner.
When you're saying that at the endof your days has come to live
a tradition all fair bravery, determinationto face even death for your principle.

(01:14):
The world knows him as the firstblack president of South Africa crushing the racist
apartheid system, but doctor Markazeewey Mandelaknows him as her father. Welcome to
the Black Information Network. Thank youvery much, Vanessa for having me.
We started our interview wondering what herfather would think of South Africa today.
Surprisingly, she wonders if he wouldthink sacrificing his life was worth it.

(01:38):
I think my dad would be disappointedthe fact that we haven't made big strikes
in terms of the majority disadvantage poorBlack community, and the levels of poverty
are increasing, The levels of unemployment, especially youth unemployment are increasing in South

(02:00):
Africa. The economy seems not tobe doing that well. And my father
would be disappointed at all those becauseI think he and his colleagues, not
him alone, He meant his colleaguesfought for a better South Africa and the
process that would uplift the majority ofblack poor people out of poverty of the

(02:24):
aparty system into you know, enjoyingmuch more, better, better lives.
You know, my father, whenhe was president gave away at that of
his salary to improve the condition ofchildren of black children in South Africa.
He was an advocate of education becausehe felt that education improves a lot of

(02:49):
people, and so he campaigned alot around the world and also with corporates
to give him money to pour intothe education system. And I think where
he is right now, he's lookingdown in South Africa and say, maybe
question himself was worth it. ButI know that struggle for emancipation and getting

(03:15):
read of a system that has beenthere for over three hundred and fifty years,
doesn't take a decade or two decades. It's a lifelong struggle. And
so I'm hoping I have hope inthe youth of South Africa because they have
more questioning minds. They are lookingfor something better than what they're experiencing,

(03:38):
and that you have a new generationof young leaders that are upcoming in South
Africa, and South Africa will notstay in the position that it's in today
for very long. I have foughta very family against white domination. I
have fought very family against black domination. I cherish the idea of your South

(04:03):
Africa, well all South Africas talkabout sacrifice. We know your father spent
twenty seven years in prison fighting forfreedom. What was your childhood like growing
up with your father behind bars?I went to what is between the age
of six and seven, and bythat time my father had gone underground because

(04:23):
he was hiding from the apartheid regimeand so he was not a regular fisha
at home. We would go sometimeswith my stepmother, how we need to
see Da Da in the places thathe was hiding. But still one as
a child doesn't understand the context andthe death of the impact of an apartheid

(04:48):
racist regime. It was tough forMacki Mendela her nickname. She's Mendela's daughter
with his first wife. Currently,the entrepreneur who lives in Johannesburg has a
variety of businesses from wine to jewelry. She remembers when she turned sixteen,
the authorities allowed her to visit herfamous father, such a cold visit behind

(05:10):
the glass of the infamous Robin Island, the prison where her father was sentenced
to for life. Right. Iwas disappointed when I got on the island
that I was told I can onlyspeak in English and I spoke to him
through a glass window through intercoms,so it was a rather disappointment, but

(05:30):
I think you get used to thosethings. And while listen as a child,
I didn't understand why I had thefather who has sacrificed his life for
the struggle. I think in mylater is I came to appreciate that it
was with it, you know,because I think the freedoms, the little
freedoms that we enjoy in South Africawouldn't not be enjoying if my father and

(05:56):
his colleagues had not really dedicated themselvesfully to the struggle. What was it
like the day he walked out,walked out of prison, After all those
days that my dad walked out,I was here. I was studying.
I was a fruit Brice scholar studyingat the University of Massachusetts. So I
watched my dad walk out of prisonon the television screen. I was not

(06:19):
in South Africa. When you thinkabout your dad's courage and its bravery,
how much of that fire isn't you. I don't think I can get fit
in my father's shoes. My father'sshoes are too be I mean to to
to to be able to dedicate yourselfto free your people and continue to be

(06:44):
disciplined, and to be courageous andto stand up to any injustice in the
world because my father was not afraidto speak up. He would refuse to
be silenced. But for any bodywhat changes his principles depending on whom he

(07:04):
is telling That is not a manwho can lead a nation. My father
was really discourageous men, but whoworked life very compassion and empathetic of those
who were discriminated and oppressed in thisworld. Look, I have very strong

(07:26):
feelings accounting about injustice in the world. And you know, I feel very
strongly about those issues because just becauseof how I was brought up both my
parents. My father was a lawyerand politician, my mother was a nurse,

(07:46):
and so the way in both caringprofessions, they care about humanity.
But above all is that my fatherleaves the true essence of compassion and empathy
and he truly loved other fellow humanbeings. We are honored to be speaking

(08:07):
with doctor Marca ze Way Mandela,the oldest daughter of Nelson Mandela Medeeva,
which was of course is the nicknameof South Africa's freedom fighter and first black
and Mandela. Now you have nowwritten a book about your father. Tell
us something about him. That wedidn't know. Well. I think that

(08:31):
I'm telling a story about nursing Mandela, the son, the brother, the
uncle, the great, the father, the grandfather. And as my daughter
has said, Nasi Manda did notfall from the sky as most people understand
him, that he was the samethat fell from the sky. He has

(08:52):
a sense of place. He wasbrought up by parents and they taught him
the various and traditions of the crossof people, and that's what he carried
into life and into politics. Thoseare the things that shaped my dad and
and that basically my dad embraced peoplefrom different cultures of the world. And

(09:16):
I think for me it was importantto write the book actually to also show
how my father valued the rest ofthe continent of Africa, and that's africas
on the continent of Africa played avery huge role in supporting the emancipation of
the people of the south of SouthAfrica. One thing I noticed I was

(09:39):
looking over some of your dad's oldspeeches. He had such an incredible sense
of humor. And their husband,in his embarrassment to drop their voice,
said Mia and dear lady, sobut I asked, oh, what is

(10:00):
it famous for? And Without waitingfor an answer from the husband, she
turned to me answered, what areyou famous for? I'm as confessed,
I couldn't answer that question. Oneof the things that I talk about is
how that I was so fond ofwhere he was born and brought up,
and that all the time when weused to gather together as a family,

(10:26):
he would really regardless about the storiesabout how he grew up and the importance
of being amongst your people. Andyou had to actually oversee dispuse over chickens
and sheep from the village. Youmentioned something about farming. As a boy,
he was on a farm, Hetended animals. He was basically a

(10:48):
farmer. He was he grew upas a county board. That's what he
always caused himself, a countboard.But what are the things that people also
don't understand is that he loved,you know, gardening. You know,
he had a garden on Robin Islandin which he planted vegetable. And then

(11:11):
when he was released, is thathe brought himself a farm and he would
grow vegetables and supply the local villagewith vegetables. Why now the book,
Why did you decide to write thebook? Now? The book whenass was
not necessarily targeting the tenth anniversary ofmy dad's passing. I mean, the

(11:31):
book was started just before COVID brokeout, and it took me a long
time to put everything together. Butfortunately it was published this year and it
coincident, it actually coincident with thefact that my dad tended anniversary is this

(11:54):
year, and actually on the tentsthere's the day that we bettered my father
of December. Yes, legally andpolitically we have achieved emuncipation, but our
major challenge is the social economic disaberitiesthat are still very much entrenched in society.

(12:16):
That's right, America has its strugglesand the battle is constant here to
keep moving forward as forces continue totry and pull us back. And I'm
sure that's the case also in SouthAfrica. Yes, I mean, look,
my dad and his colleagues land fromthe struggles in this country, from

(12:39):
Matin Luther King and his colleagues,and I think if you look at this
country, if you look at UK, if you look at South Africa,
using just those three countries, itshows that the forces, the evil forces
that actually dominate and control this wellare not going to let go that easily.

(13:03):
And that we ourselves were in thetrenches, have got to sustain the
struggle from one generation to the other, and that we should not get tired.
I never had my dad or hiscolleagues say, you know, we've
been in the trenches for long,we now need to rest and not be

(13:24):
consented. They were consent, andthey were in the trenches and fought until
they closed their eyes. And forme, that has been a very good
example. For me is that weare all charged which responsibility as black people,
whether in Africa or in the diaspora, to continue to hold hands across

(13:50):
the seas, across bridges, becauseour struggle is the same. It's a
struggle of identity, it's a struggleof humanity, and it's a struggle of
saying, we met her as muchas the other people met her, and
yet we are here, not temporarily. We are here permanently, and we've

(14:13):
contributed to make these countries what theyare. And so we are not begging
for the seats on the table.We are demanding a seat on the table.
Wow, that's powerful. Are yousure you don't have any political aspirations
and there's another now president? Areyou sure I do? I'm a fan

(14:35):
believer that all of us have aresponsibility and accountability to do our little piece
to make this a better one forourselves. The book she's written ten years
nearly to the day of her father'sdeath at ninety five, is titled Nelson
Mandela in Honor of an Extraordinary life. It is a beautiful book and captures

(15:00):
the essence of who my father was, you know, from bed until he
closed his eyes. Let that bejustice for all, Let that be fall
the son Sean level sent on soclorious. Hey sure may not share.

(15:22):
Let's freer bread, Doctor Markazeewe Mendela, thank you for sharing your father with
the world. Thank you, VanNessa ter much. I appreciate this,
Thanks Vanessa. In this age ofsocial justice, those who don't necessarily want
to lead a movement or join aprotest march are left wondering how can I
make an impact? In microactivism.Former political consultant turn activist coach, I'm

(15:45):
Karie Williams shares her expertise in empoweringintroverts and highly sensitive people to help each
of us, no matter our temperament, find our most satisfying and effective activist
role, and she is the subjectof this week's segment of The Color Between
the Lines. I'm mister Dillard onthe Black Information Network, chatting with writers
and authors who offer an added perspectivefor our listeners. This is the Color

(16:10):
between the Lines. On this editionof The Color Between the Lines. We're
speaking with the author Omkari Williams.She wrote a book about how you can
become an activist and even if wehave busy, busy lives like probably most
of us do. Williams is apolitical consultant and life coach for about thirty

(16:33):
years, with an emphasis on supportingactivists, and the book is called micro
Activism. Welcome, I'm Omkari Williamsto the bi in. Thank you so
much for having me esther. I'mreally happy to be here. I can
tell how much I like this book. You can see all the little marks
that I have, all the littlenuggets in here. This is awesome.

(16:56):
Can you please explain to our listenerswhat is microactivism? Honestly, it's exactly
like what it sounds. It istiny, little activist actions that when you
put them together, really make abig difference in the world. I think
often we look at activism as thisthing that is huge and beyond the capacity

(17:18):
of an everyday person, right,And this is saying no, that's not
the case. If you look around, you probably know people who are doing
activist things all the time and youjust don't know that you know them.
There's probably a neighbor who's working ata food pantry once a month, or
someone's doing a community garden around thecorner from your house. There's so many

(17:40):
things we can do that fall underthe category of microactivism, and too often
those things are not valued or evennoticed. And I just felt like it's
so important in this moment in time, with all the challenges that we are
facing as a global society, tolift up both the people doing the work
and also give people a way intothe work that they can sustain themselves.

(18:04):
You mentioned in the book about yourCaribbean heritage and how your dad was a
humanitarian who spent time in Bosnia andRwanda, and then I was really shocked
to hear about your grandmother, whoat one hundred and one, did her
own version of activism in a nursinghome. Can you talk about how they
influenced your desire to become an activistand perhaps even writing this book. Yeah,

(18:27):
you know, when you grow upwith a father who is a humanitarian
and a relief worker and goes tosome of the worst places in terms of
what's happening in those places at agiven moment in time, it shapes you.
And for me, it made merecognize that for all of the challenges

(18:48):
that we have in the United States, for all of the challenges that black
people have, that women have,I'm still living somewhere that is not in
a war zone, right, I'mstill living somewhere where there hasn't been a
genocide. I'm still living somewhere where, relatively speaking, I have a great
deal of privilege. And that mademe think about, Okay, well,

(19:11):
that was just the luck of thedraw right, that was the baby lottery.
Where do you get born? Butonce you're here and you know that
you have an obligation, you havea responsibility to do what you can to
leave the world a little bit betterthan you found it. So my dad
was a humanitarian and my grandmother wasjust feisty, and she was just you

(19:33):
know, she was in a nursinghome the last few years of her life,
and she actually came to really likeit. She liked the community,
she liked everything about it except thefood. And so she said, I'm
going to do something about it,and she started writing to the mayor of
New York City and then organizing allthese other people and they would go down

(19:53):
and they would have meetings with amember of the mayor's staff and talk about
how they needed to improve the qualityof the food. They needed to improve
not only you know, just likehaving more fruits and vegetables and fresh food.
And I was like, you go, Grandma, I mean, well,
you know, and she basically herattitude was if you see a problem

(20:15):
and you're doing nothing to fix it, I don't even want to know you.
So with that kind of inspiration oryou know, maybe shove more of
the right word is how I foundmy way into activism. Wow. I
like how you interviewed different types ofactivists throughout this book and from different cultural

(20:36):
backgrounds, used their responses throughout thebook to kind of the same set of
questions. How did you select thosepeople that you interviewed. I am really
lucky. I know some amazing people. And I started looking around and thinking
who do I want to talk tofor this book? And honestly, I
think I interviewed thirty people and therejust wasn't in the book for all of

(21:00):
their stories. So then it was, okay, whose stories are going to
show the breadth of activism? SoI picked different stories from people. And
there were a couple of people inthe book that I've never met in person
in the world of Zoom, youknow, we've communicated in other ways,

(21:22):
and so it was kind of funto just be able to hear about aspects
of their story that I would nototherwise have really known about until I started
really digging. Most of the peoplein the book, I know them in
my own life, so I knowtheir stories. But to find people and
just realize that in every community thereis someone doing something that is really important

(21:45):
and really interesting and really needed.And that's what I wanted to uplift.
Anyone that in particular that stood outfor you. Okay, So I know
all these people and I want themall to still love me at the end
of this, but I gotta tellyou to me, the most inspiring person
in the book is Coco Pappy Guthrieand Coco. Coco is someone who just

(22:12):
lives her work from every fiber ofher being. She is a straight,
cisgender white woman who could very easilyjust step aside and you know, just
have a regular job and do regularthings. And instead she really focuses on

(22:32):
doing work for people who do nothave voices to use to speak for themselves.
And she inspires me all the time. And yeah, I would have
to say that of all the peoplein the books, she's sort of the
one that I would say, ifyou can only meet one activist in your
life, you want to meet herbecause she will make you want to go

(22:52):
out and do what you can dofor those of you who are just joining
us. I'm Esther Dillard speaking withthe author I'm Kari Williams about her book
Microactivism and this is the Color betweenthe Lines on the Black Information Network.
You mentioned that being a successful activistrequires a person to build community and collaborations,

(23:14):
and can you talk a little bitabout that. Why that's so important?
Yeah, you know, Esther,we live in a society that is
so much about the rugged individual.I mean, we really elevate that myth,
honestly, because nobody gets anywhere allby themselves. That just does not
happen in the real world, right. There's always someone that's given you advice

(23:37):
or a helping hand or really beenthere when you needed it, and that
is ultimately how we build better societiesas together we look at what we all
need and we figure out through ourdifferences how to bring the most good to
the community. You're never going toget every single thing you want. That's
just not life. But you canwork together, and in working together you

(24:02):
can often find that even if youhave a different path to something, you
have a shared goal, and theshared goal becomes more important than the sort
of small differences that we can getso obsessed with and that can drive us
so far apart. So I thinkthat looking at the work that you're doing
in the context of how is thisgoing to help the community at large,

(24:26):
and by at large, it couldjust be the two blocks around your house,
right, but just moving outside ofyour own little bubble into the world
of other people and their needs andtheir ideas, and also just so we
start seeing things in a bigger way, because otherwise we're just spinning around in
our own heads and we can reallybe missing important things and not even notice

(24:47):
it. Yeah, that kind ofleads into your pragmatist versus purest thing you
talk about in the book as well. Could you talk a little bit about
that, because I thought that wasreally interesting. How you know, a
lot of people get stuck in inone being person on the left or the
person on the right, and youkind of talked about, you know,
this collaboration needs to be a littlebit more practical. I really think so.

(25:11):
And I mean, again, thissort of kind of goes back to
my dad, because he was tryingto negotiate with people who were on very
very opposing sides of things, withsome really long, deep seated tensions between
them, and you had to berealistic about what you could accomplish. And
so when I talk about purists versuspragmatist, I'm talking about if your mission

(25:34):
is to reduce the number of incarceratedpeople in the United States, does it
really matter if the person that you'reworking with is coming at it from a
different point of view. So let'ssay I want to do it because I
think that our carceral system is terrible, but someone else, a more conservative

(25:56):
person, wants to do it froma perspective of their deep belief in forgiveness.
And second chances, that might notbe my motivation and they might not
share, you know, the motivationthat I have may not be that meaningful
to them. But we have thesame purpose, and we can put aside
our differing reasons for how we gotthere and say, let's accomplish this goal

(26:18):
and then we can, you know, move on and go our separate ways
or whatever. But even if wedecide to go our separate ways, something
has been built there. There's nowa pathway that opens up other conversations.
And we're so polarized right now thatI think it's really important to keep opening
pathways and being willing to hear someoneout, you know, and just say

(26:42):
I'd like to understand how you cameto think what you think, and see
what happens. What is your finaltakeaway for those who let our readers who
you know are interested in learning moreabout microactivism. The reason I titled the
book Microactivism, How you Can makea Difference in the world without a bullhorn,

(27:03):
is because I don't want people tothink that it is beyond their capacity.
There are little, tiny things thatanyone can do that will move the
needle. And I think when westop thinking about it as trying to accomplish
this huge goal and instead try toaccomplish a small action that's part of a
goal and moves us in the directionof that goal. That's when we are

(27:26):
able to make meaningful change in theworld in a way that is sustainable for
us. So find your thing,break it down into pieces that are so
small that you laugh at thinking aboutnot doing it because it's so simple,
and then keep going. Well,thank you so much. I'mkari Williams for
coming to VIM and sharing about yourbooks. Cool. Thank you so much

(27:48):
for having me. That's it forthis edition of The Color Between the Lines.
The book is microactivism, how youcan make a difference in the world
without a bullhorn. I'm Aster Dillard. On the Black Information Network, Thanks
Esther. Moms of Black Boys UnitedIncorporated, also known as MOB United and

(28:14):
MOB United for Social Change Incorporated.The two sister advocacy and support organizations are
focused on reshaping societal perceptions and policiesconcerning black men and boys the Black Information
Networks Mimi Brown talks to the newexecutive director of MOB United and MOB United
for Social Change, Mimi, ThanksMike. Moms of Black Boys United is

(28:36):
a leading voice and resource for momswith black sons. I had a conversation
with founder Delle Pleisha McGruder about howshe started mob United. I always say
I started a nonprofit accidentally. Iwas not trying to start anything. But
if you remember the summer of twentysixteen, it was a summer when there
were two back to back killings withintwenty four hours of each other of unarmed,

(28:59):
innocent block so one was Alton Sterlingin Batan's Rouge, Louisiana, and
then the very next day, BlandoCastill in Minnesota was shot in his car
buy an officer with his girlfriend andher four year old daughter in the car
watching. So just seeing those imagesreally just paralyzed me. It's the way

(29:19):
I can describe it. I wasin bed, and I'd been watching the
news, and I decided to getup and start a private Facebook group that
I only sent to people I knewpersonally who had black sons and could relate
to what I was feeling, whichwas a lot of sadness, anger,
confusion on why this kept happening,because this was the summer twenty sixteen,
But by then we had already seenTrayvon Martin, Mike Brown, John Crawper

(29:44):
to me or Rice, so manythat came before them, and sadly,
so many that came after, andI just wanted to connect with people who
could understand what that feels like asa mother of black sons in America,
seeing over and over again them beingtargeted and assumed to be you know,
criminals, and killed with within amatter of seconds, without even a conversation
in some cases. And so Isent it to about thirty people as a

(30:06):
private Facebook group, and unbeknownst tome, I didn't know how Facebook group
works. Facebook groups even worked.I didn't know people could add people without
my permission. I didn't know likethat people could join on their own.
And it grew virally, very quicklyinto twenty one thousand that day, and
shortly after that, one hundred andseventy thousand moms within a matter of months.
And Kimberly was one of the peoplewho don't I don't remember if you

(30:27):
joined the same day, but whojoined very early on and not just joined
the group, but got involved quicklyin helping build an organization. So a
week later we were on a conferencecall with moms from all around the country
talking about what we wanted to do. We didn't just want to post on
social media about it. Wanted toactually spring into action and do something.
So we did. We ended upforming two nonprofit organizations of five O one

(30:48):
C three Moms of Black Books Unitedand MOB United for Social Change, which
is our five and one C four. Kimberly, congratulations on your appointment as
the first executive director of a MOB. Can you tell us a little bit
about your journey and what led youto take on this crucial role. I
got into the group probably a coupleof days after the Pelsher started the Facebook

(31:11):
group, and I was put inby my very first friend, and I
always shout her out just for steeringme in that direction. At the moment
in which the Pelshia started the groupbecause of the vicarious grief that she was
experiencing, I was experiencing primary griefbecause of an incident that was going on
with my son. I live inHouston, Texas, and he had police

(31:36):
contact for the first time at nineyears old and forty seven pounds in elementary
school. And I always say thatthe group just came at the right time,
in the right space, in theright place for me in my life,
because I'm a huge proponent of outrageto action and this was my action
point. It was my entry intoan organization that was forming that allowed me

(31:56):
to have a foundational role and trulyuse the gifts of talents, but also
just the pain points that I wasexperiencing at that very moment to further the
mission and purpose that we were togetherdeveloping. And do you mind sharing,
like why your son had police contact, because that's the mind blowing part of
it, Like what it was about? Yeah, or my son at the

(32:19):
time, Like I said, intwenty sixteen, he was nine. He
was one month shy of his tenthbirthday. Many don't know the age of
arrest in Texas is ten. Hehas an incurable condition I'll say it EOS
and the philick esophagitis for short EOE. Because of this condition, he is
allergic to the proteins and food,and at that very week was learning that

(32:42):
he would be getting a feeding tubeand would not be able to eat my
mouth at all anymore. He inhis processing is all I can really think
of. He started getting obsessed withFood Network programs, and at the time
there was a program on Food Networkthat you guessed different like Earth and Spices,
And he went to school with aziploc bag of oregano and asked his

(33:05):
classmates if they could guess what itwas. A teacher saw him and reported
him to the principal, who thencalled state troopers on him. They came
to his school with police dogs andbasically told him if he was ten,
he would be in handcuffs. Theywouldn't have fit, but they said he
would be in handcuffs and he wouldhave been arrested. The exponential sin of

(33:28):
it all was that I was actuallynot notified for seventy two hours when this
was going on. So every daymy son was coming home just afraid and
didn't know what to do, butwas also afraid to share it with me.
That led me to school board meetingsand you know, just contacting the
legal department of the school district andreally just trying to find an outlet,

(33:52):
and just at that pivotal moment inour family and in my life, that
was when the group was started.Wow, so sorry that happened to your
son. My son just turned tenlast week, and when you were saying
that, my heart was just rippedopen. I can't even imagine. I
can't even imagine. Talk to mea little bit about how that experience has

(34:15):
shaped the work that you do andyour leadership style within the organization. So
I didn't know then what seven yearslater would look like for my son.
And so that was kind of themoment where his mental health issues started.
And it has been a seven yearlong journey for us in trying to kind

(34:38):
of recenter him and get him backon track. Like he navigates the world
really afraid and really anxious, andjust last night had a mental health break
where he threatened to jump off aroof of a building. And so the
Pelsha asked me just ten minutes beforethis meeting, was I okay for it?

(35:01):
And I said yes, And Isaid yes because this is the work.
The impact that that encounter had onmy son still to this day drives
how he navigates his world, andtill this day drives what I do for
mob United by Trade. I havebeen a nurse for thirteen years and if

(35:25):
you asked me six months ago wouldI be sitting in the seat, I
would have said no. I lovebeing a nurse. But the bottom line
is that I have four children andtwo grandchildren. I have a grandson and
two sons, and I can't bethe hero of this world, but I
can make the difference that I canmake, and this is the only way

(35:50):
I know how to do it,my leadership STYLELI would love. For seven
years, we've been on this journeytogether, like the Pelshia said, and
I genuinely love the people we worktogether with. And I know the pain.
I know it firsthand, and Iknow it because I'm a mother.

(36:15):
So there's no better place for meright now, in this time, in
this world, in this time withthe organization. I am so proud of
the work that we've done and I'mjust looking forward to moving it forward absolutely,
you know, speaking of moving itforward to Pelsha the upcoming podcast,

(36:37):
the new Talk for Moms of BlackBoys, It sounds so exciting. What
inspired the launch of this podcast andwhat can listeners expect from the first episode
or we're very excited about this,and you know, we've been having webinars
and seminars for the past seven years, monthly, sometimes more frequently on all
kinds of topics that are rent fromMoms of Black Boys, things like educating

(37:00):
people on the school to prison pipeline, knowing your rights, learning how to
interact safely with law enforcement, dealingwith the trauma of you know, all
of these encounters and seeing these casesso These are conversations when we've been having
consistently, but we want to expandour audience. We want to make it
accessible to more people. So wethought a podcast would be a great way
to do that, and the titleI really love. We deliberated a lot

(37:22):
on the title, But the reasonwe call it the New Talk for Moms
of Black Boys is because I oftensay in starting this organization that I'm sick
of people talking about the talk,you know, the talk that you're supposed
to have with your son about howto interact with law enforcement, how to
be respectful, how to comply,which often does not work. Bilando cast
still complied to mere Rise, neverhad two seconds, was never given an

(37:43):
opportunity to comply. There's so manycases where it's just not valid. But
even so, it really bothers methat we're expected to have this talk with
our children, whose brains are noteven fully formed yet, about how they're
supposed to stay calm and have acertain demeanor in the face of an aggressive
encounter with someone who's supposed to beprofessionally trained to protect and serve the community.

(38:05):
So I think that talk needs tobe with the people on the other
side and us trying to push forchange there. So that's what we're calling
it the New Talk, because we'retrying to flip the model. Yes,
we're going to do our part andraise our children to be respectful, productive
member of society. But if thesystems don't change, and if behavior on
the other side doesn't change to seethem as fully human and to treat them
as people were worthy of respect aswell, then we're not going to get

(38:28):
very far. So we'll be havingmany conversations about things like that, and
you know the whole gamut of thingsthat MAB United covers, which mostly focuses
on the education system, the mentalhealth system, and the criminal justice system,
which are all interrelated and often funnelingour children through the school of prison
pipeline. You know, Kim,your extensive background in healthcare is very,

(38:50):
very impressive. How do you thinkthat experience in healthcare uniquely prepares you for
the challenges of leading an advocacy organizationlike MOB United. The Peltier says,
school to prison pipeline. I've oftensaid, you know, cradle to prison
pipeline, because it really does startfrom the time that our children are born.
We see kiddos as young as threeyears old being diagnosed with stuff like

(39:13):
ADHD. We have participated and readthrough studies countless of studies that talk about
how our young children are treated differentlyfor regular ages and stages things. So
being able to sit with moms,being able to sit with families and just
have those conversations, explain what isis typical and atypical, getting true and

(39:35):
independent evaluations done for their children,arming them with the definitions of the words
that they don't know what they needwhen they don't know what they mean,
and just being able to point themin the right direction. You know,
when the Pelcher talked about the MobConnections project, we really want not just
to be kind of the white pages, the Mob United white pages for individuals,

(39:58):
but really to point people to thequestions that they need to ask,
who they need to talk to.Those kinds of things are not intuitive for
lots of people. They don't knowwhere to go when someone says no.
Every door is not closed just becauseone person said no. And when you
know the right language to use,when you know the right words and the
definitions of what people are telling you, and we take our doctors and nurses

(40:22):
for that matter, and everyone elseoff of those pedestals in describing who you
are an expert in your own child, then we truly do make a difference
in how we navigate those systems andde pelsiha congratulations on the recent honors such
as the Forbes fifty over fifty listsand the Harvard Business School Alumni Achievement Award.
How do these recognitions contribute to raisingawareness for MOB United's mission? Thank

(40:46):
you? You know, I don'treally I don't think a lot about honors,
you know, I take them asthey come. It's a blessing,
but I think what it does primarilyis get our mission and our platform to
a broader audience, right Like,we don't want to just preach into the
choir to people who understand this andexperience it and innately get it. We
want other people to understand. Sothrough these various times that I've been honored,

(41:08):
I've been given a platform to talkabout that, which hopefully makes more
people aware of the experiences that blackboys and men in particular face. And
you know, they may not thinkthat someone like me, like I'm a
Howard and Harvard graduate, they mightnot think that I would be worried about
this for my son's right, butyet I am so. I think it
like opens up another window for peopleto see something they wouldn't ordinarily see.

(41:30):
And we've gotten, you know,support as a result of that, whether
it be financial support and donations frompeople whose eyes were opened to outreach for
partnership and all kinds of things.So I hope that that will continue.
And I wanted to know we're wrappingup here. But as the founder and
board chair, what moments or achievements. I know you just spoke about some
of the achievements, but what momentshave brought you the most satisfaction or the

(41:54):
most pride since starting the organization.Well, I think it's hard to pinpoint
a moment, but what I willsay as a general theme is that when
we started in twenty six sixteen,the reason we started is at that time
it was virtually unheard of for apolice officer to be held accountable in anyway

(42:16):
for killing a black boy. Ifyou look you think of what had happened
by that point with their Garner case, with Tamiya Rice, with Rayvon Martin,
we saw time and time again eitheracquittals or not even getting indicted in
the first place. Like they wouldjust say, I feared for my life.
I thought he had a gun.Oh it was a cell phone,
too bad. I thought it wasa gun, and that would be the

(42:37):
end of it, like there wouldbe no no further discussion. And I
think what I'm most proud of,and this has you know, been done
in concert with all the movements thathave been speaking out on these issues,
is that now we're seeing some accountability. It's not where we needed to be,
but now the killers of George Floydand Amart Arbery and Jordan Edwards and
both in John and you know afew others are in jail and so it's

(42:57):
not unheard of that they will beconvicted and hew accountable. So that's what
I'm most proud of because that wasthe genus of the issue that started this
right, so we have to continueto make progress there. Then the other
thing I'm proud of is that we'restill together. Like you know, I
heard a statistic early on that mostnonprofits don't make it three years or five
years. So the fact that we'restill here standing with many of the women

(43:19):
who answered the call strangers. Ididn't know these people's strangers in a random
Facebook group who came together to buildsomething that really gave us a voice and
helped us to feel empowered, becausethat's a big part of it too,
Like we didn't want to feel helpless, like we're just posting hashtags of people's
names over and over. We wantedto do something, and we know it's
a long term journey and long termfight, but the fact that we're still
in it and we're still committed,and now we have this huge announcement of

(43:43):
having our first full time paid executivedirectors and major milestones. So that's the
thing I'm most proud of in thismoment. Thanks Mimi. Our next guests
are known for their vocal abilities andthe iconic groups they lent them to,
but now they are sharing their abilitiesand their new holiday movie, The Christmas
Ring. Qu Parker and Tamika Scottjoined the Black Information that works on Med
Gordon to talk about their time onthe set and what good singing means to

(44:07):
them. Med. Thanks Mike.In the studio with me right now are
two legends of the R and Bgame. I have mister Q Parker and
Miss Tamika Scott. How are wedoing today? What's doing? I am
doing excellent? Usually when I youknow, see you guys talking or see
you guys doing what you do.It's about music, It's about you know,

(44:27):
love and R and B. Buttoday, on today we are talking
about acting. We are talking abouta movie called The Christmas Ringer that is
on b ET plus. And thething that I love about both of y'all
is, and this is my firsttime meeting Miss Tamika Scott, the thing
I love about both of y'all isbeing able to do other things, you

(44:50):
know, move outside the multi talent. Come on the multi hyphenated abilities of
you both. To me about themovie and what part are you playing it?
So my character is his name isRoland, and Roland is like the
og of the choir. He wasused to be in the R and B
singing group, kind of has somewhatof a little moderate success, but he's

(45:13):
back home now and just kind oflike one of the heartbeats of the choir,
along with Tamika's character, Sharis,who's also a choir member. But
I mean, you know, Iasked her earlier today, I said,
is it really worked when you're havingfun and when you're with family, And
that's really what the temperature and thetemperament on set was every day. Yeah,

(45:34):
we are all friends outside of beingcastmates on this film, and so,
man, we had we had alot of fun, laughing, joking,
singing. Man, I mean,you know myself, Tamika, Kelly
Price, Prisette, Michelle Tyler,Leplie, Tanise Cobbins. It's a great

(45:54):
leave anybody out Kelly, Yeah,yeah, no, no, it's a
great cast and it's and when youhave a feeling like that on set,
it literally permeates through the movie absolutely. And so for both of you,
and I think somebody had said thisabout R and B that the problem with
R and B now is that wedon't have enough people coming from the choir

(46:15):
anymore. Both of you guys werein the choir growing up. Yes,
so talk to me about some ofthe choir isms that you guys remember about
being in that church choir growing upto me talking about every day when we
weren't in church, we were inrehearsals. And then the fun part about
it is we got a chance tosing with the older and the older people

(46:36):
in the choir, so it reallyhelped mature our voices more and then learning
notes and stuff, so it justhelped a lot. It's different you know,
it's different than just without no typeof teaching, you know what I
mean, It's like, it's alot different and it helped us, helped
us a lot. To say,I always say that the church is the
best proving grounds, It's the bestteacher because of the consistency, the hours

(47:01):
required, the time that you hadto devote to your craft. And then
I think the most important part ofall of that was the confidence that you
get from the church because you know, growing up in the Black Church,
whether you sound good or not,they're gonna encourage you. Are right,
That's all right, baby, yougot it. Q Parker to Meeka Scott

(47:21):
Christmas Ringer is available right now,right now, please go out and check
that out. Get them numbers streamingnumbers up. We appreciate both of you.
What is your gospel truth? QParker? My gospel truth is,
man, I'm just I'm a loverof people. I am truly committed to
service. I love the fact thatI've been able to do a lot of

(47:42):
things in my lifetime and in mycareer. However, none of that could
have been done without somebody investing andseeing something in me. And so now
that I have a platform and Ihave a space of influence. It's my
responsibility to give back and pay itforward and reach back and do what I
can. All right? To me, he don't said everything that I was
gonna say. Follow that up tome? Why can you follow that up

(48:07):
everything? What is your gospel truth? To Meca Scott? My gospel truth
are kids. I loved kids.I love mentoring. I just recently,
I literally just flew back in thismorning from Faibelle State University where I went.
I mentored to the students there andallowed them to sing and ask me
questions. So my gospel truth islending out my gifts and my wisdom to
help others. Love it absolutely,love it again. What's your gospel truth?

(48:30):
My gospel truth love man. Honestly, it's just it's love, loving
oneself, loving others, making surethat people feel good, man, because
I just don't think enough people arenice, you know what I'm saying.
Being don't cost nothing to be nicerkind, And I just tried to be
that wherever in whatever space that I'min, all right, And I love

(48:51):
supporting folks. That's my thing.Christmas Ringer available right now, BT plus
Mike back to you. Thanks,Mad Black Information Network anchoring Natasha Williams down
with chew Opara, a financial advisorwith trans America Financial Advisors Incorporated in Dayton,
Ohio. He has more than adecade of experience and takes a different
approach to helping families achieve generational wealth. He will share some of those details

(49:14):
about that as well as details froma new survey. Natasha, I'd like
to welcome to Apara to the Blackperspective. Of course, we like to
bring in professionals who will tell usthe things that we need to know as
far as what we're trying to doand what we're trying to educate our listeners
to shee as a financial professional whowill give us information that we need to

(49:34):
know to attain financial freedom. Toplease educate us, will you well?
For sure that will be the goal, and I'm confident that we can get
to some value in that front.Before I get started, I just we
want to mention that I am registeredwith TFA trans American Financial Advisors and securities

(49:54):
and investment advisory services offered through transAmerican Financial Advice is member FENRA, MSRB
SIPSEY. It's a federally registered investmentadvisor. So now I can just talk
like a human. So we spenda lot of time talking about financial wellbeing.
It's really popular right now to talkabout our generational wealth become a really

(50:17):
hot topic of late. But you'dlike to take a different approach, you
talk about how money works. Whydo you take that approach? Well,
primarily the reason I take that approachis because a lot of times when people
talk about legacy stuff, or theytalk about generational wealth, or they talk

(50:37):
about investing or growing to the future, they're talking in terms or thinking in
terms of what others have done andwhat they should be doing. But the
truth is, you can't really judgeby what other people have done and what
other people are doing as it relatesto your own goals, because ultimately,

(51:00):
the thing that makes me unique andas a person are my values and who
I'm connected to, and what myresponsibilities are as I see it, and
what I believe I want to doin the world. And so rather than
going from a perspective of what Iought to be doing, when people understand

(51:22):
how money really works, they thencan see where the levers are so they
can get their money working for them. And so starting there allows people to
appropriately vision and dream and consider whatthey want to create, and now we're
empowered. Now we're off to theraces in terms of building something that allows

(51:46):
us to pursue our goals. Andso that's really why we start with the
how money works things. You know, frankly, money is not taught in
schools, and as a result,most people don't know how money works.
And when we don't know how manyworks, we make a bunch of money
mistakes. And then this untangling needsto happen. And so rather than starting

(52:09):
where people are where they don't understandand feel suspicious, let's take a few
steps back. I would suggest figureout who we want to be and live
what experiences want to happen, andthen grow from there. So you're starting
baby steps, absolute baby steps,from the very beginning. Because money is
not taught in schools, we don'thave like financial literacy classes that basically start.

(52:31):
You know, you're an adult,you've made mistakes, and you have
to kind of back your way intothe beginning. I mean, how does
that look as an adult who hasbasically maybe student loans, has already purchased
a house, who's already two cars, two kids, and two dogs.
How does that look, well,a lot of times, you know,

(52:54):
I think it's important to magnify wherewe're going, not necessarily the obstacle,
but the obstacles have to be addressed. Right, So if I say,
hey, what do you want yourfuture to look like, most people's first
responses, oh, man, well, you know I have a you know,
this debt and these things, andyou probably wouldn't want to work.

(53:15):
I mean, I get all ofthat sort of resistance sometimes. But the
truth is, the way it typicallylooks is imagining first, well, how
do I want to treat my ownhousehold, how do I want to treat
my kids? How do I wanttheir experience to go? And how important

(53:39):
is that it to me? Sothat I can start building towards a future.
And so practically the way it looksis for a lot of people,
there's what's called the rat race,right, like the cycle of financial instability,
and it often goes a little likethis. You know, most people
who are in debt, for instance, are not in debt because they're reckless.

(54:00):
Typically the way it happens is wedon't have or haven't not learned the
value of having an emergency fund setaside, cash that we can access when
things that we don't see coming comeanyway, and so because of that,
this is I'll just kind of maybesomebody can relate to this. We don't

(54:22):
have cash on hand, but somethinghappens to our car and we don't have
the twelve hundred dollars it's going totake a fix, So we swipe the
credit card, borrow from Uncle Rayand then like whatever we need to do
to get some money. And thenmeanwhile we're still paying that back when it

(54:45):
was it was fall football season andour son got his arm broken, and
now we've got medical bills that wehave to deal with, and then we're
still recovering from both the car andthe medical bills. When in February where
all three of your kids get theflu and you have to take some time
off of work, and what happensis, I mean, your debt would

(55:07):
be awesome if you didn't have topay it back, but because we do,
our cash flow is getting smaller andsmaller. And so it's under that
stress that we find that we're notsaving for the future. We're we're not
making any financial plans, we're notleveraging financial principles, ancient financial principles that

(55:30):
we all should be able to leverage, but we're not because we're in that
cycle of paying that things that happeneda year ago, ten years ago in
some cases. And so what wewant to do is first identify what is
the anchor, what is the thing, what is the vision, what is
the purpose that you see for yourselfthat's strong enough for us to get ourselves

(55:52):
off of that wheel and for usto start even in just a little bit.
Maybe it's reducing our expenses in someway. Maybe it's realizing the lifestyle
that we're living right now is nevergoing to allow us to get off of
this rat race. Maybe it's saying, I thought ten years ago I had
arrived to this version of lifestyle,but if I stay here, I'll never

(56:14):
get free. I need to.But if the vision of the who you
want to become isn't strong enough todo that, if you haven't had adequate
time to really really get clear onthose things, it becomes very very difficult
to make any emotion. And thenadd that to the general suspicion that most

(56:35):
people have to what's the right moveanyway? Should I do this or should
I try that? And so thecombination of getting the how money works piece,
plus getting real honest about where weare and what it's going to take
to get off the road grown andonto a new road that takes us to
a future that we would prefer tohave, not the one that we just

(56:58):
get thrown into. That's kind ofthat's that's how that how that typically takes
shape. Not everybody get not everybodyruns with that. But I will say
this life is generally hard for mostpeople. But the beautiful thing is that
we get to choose our heart theinteresting. But but the thing is,

(57:21):
the younger you are, the moreenergy you have typically to address the hard.
So do we want hard now todeal with where we are and how
do we get on a new roador do we want to just wait for
hard later to run us down?And so that's the that's I mean,
these are these are not necessarily easythings. But I will tell you if

(57:43):
if you were going to go climba mountain, Let's say I said I
wanted to go climb Mount pilim andJar, I don't have any ambition to
do that. But would you liketo google mountain climbing and then go try
it? Or would you like somebodywho's been up that Mountain one hundred times
to come take you up on thisnext trip. And so that becomes the

(58:04):
difference. Do you want a guidewho's helped hundreds of people get from where
they're so afraid they're the only personwho's made these mistakes or not has helped
some people get there to help you, or do you want to just kind
of google it and hope for thebest. Wow, it's probably the first

(58:28):
time in a long time that I'veused basically two questions and done the entire
interview. So I want to thankyou very much, sir for a very
comprehensive interview that gave me a lotof information to give to my listeners on
a very important topic. I mean, it's so important that we help our

(58:49):
listeners navigate this very complicated process becausewe all want financial freedom. We all
want a chance to have a betteraccess to financial freedom. So thank you
so much much, chew a Powerfor giving us that information and joining us
here on the Black perspective, andwe hope that you come back and join
us again and bring us some moreinformation. So thank you very very much.

(59:12):
We appreciate your time and information.Thanks Natasha for more on these stories.
Listen to the Black Information Network onthe free iHeartRadio app or log onto
Bionnews dot com. You can hearthis program in its entirety on demand.
Also follow us on social media atBlack Information Network and on x formerly known
as Twitter. At black info Net, we thank you for joining us on

(59:36):
the black perspective and look forward tocontinuing to have needed conversations for the black
community. Next week, I'm MikeIlan on the Black Information Network.