The Black Perspective: May 3, 2026

This week on The Black Perspective, Andrea Coleman speaks with Fulton County Commission Chair candidate Mo Ivory, who is aiming to become the first Black woman to lead Fulton County.

Mike Stevens sits down with Keith Stokes of the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation to explore the state’s deep Black history as the nation approaches its 250th anniversary.

Vanessa Tyler speaks with historian Dr. Christina Greer about the pivotal Summer of 1964 and the legacy of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Esther Dillard interviews internationally renowned author and professor Dr. Ibram X. Kendi about his latest work, Chain of Ideas.

And Doug Davis talks with civil rights attorney, political commentator, and autism advocate Areva Martin.

Listen Now!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's May third, the first Sunday of the month, and
on today's show, the Black Information Networks Andrea Coleman talks
with Fulton County Commissioner candidate Mo Ivory, who's looking to
become the first black woman chairperson of the Fulton County
Georgia Commission. Managing Editor Mike Stevens talks with Keith Stokes
from the Rhode Island Tourism Board about some of the
black history connected to this state as the country prepares

(00:22):
to celebrate its two hundred and fiftieth anniversary. Vanessa Tyler
talks to historian doctor Christina Thomas about the summer of
nineteen sixty four and the Voting Rights Act. Esther Dillar
talks to internationally known professor and author doctor ibrame X Kendy,
who has a new book called Chain of Ideas. Doug
Davis talks to civil rights attorney and political commentator and

(00:43):
autism advocate of Reva Martin, and we get commentary from
Rolandess Martin and James T.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Harris.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
These stories are coming your way. On today's program, Welcome
to the Black Perspective. I'm your host, Mike Island.

Speaker 3 (00:56):
Welcome to the Black Perspective, a weekly community of fairsbrom
on the Black Information Network featuring interviews and discussions on
issues important to the Black community.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
Good Sunday, and Welcome to the Black Perspective. Georgia's primary election.

Speaker 4 (01:10):
Is coming up on May nineteenth.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
While several black candidates are seeking offices on all levels
of government, some black women candidates are looking to make history.
One of those is Fulton County Commissioner Moe Ivory, who's
looking to become the first black woman chairperson of the
Fulton County Commission, the largest county board of commissioners in
the state. Commissioner Ivory recently spoke with the Black Information

(01:32):
That Works Andrea Coleman about the changes she hopes to
make if she's elected.

Speaker 5 (01:37):
Mike Many Black Atlantas no mo Ivory as a former
radio personality for one of the top hip hop and
R and B radio stations in the city. But this
HBCU graduate and college professor is now running to become
the first black and Latina chairman of the Fulton County Commission.
It's a run many in the city say is a
bit ambitious, as Ivory has been on the Commission for
just a year. What's more, she's running to replace the

(01:59):
man who help went her seat. She says it's not personal,
just reflective of a change in leadership the county desperately needs.

Speaker 6 (02:06):
People sometimes say how did you go from lord to
radio to elected? It's really all about educating. I've always
seen it as a platform to talk about things that
needed to be talked about, and I do that. I
did that on the radio, I did that at as
a lawyer, and I'm doing it as a professor, and
now I'm doing it as an elected official. So it's
all related well.

Speaker 5 (02:24):
And you did it in some culturally unique spaces too, right,
because you're a graduate of Spelman and then you also
taught at Howard, So talk a little bit about how
that all came together as well. And I guess the
role HBCUs in their education have lent to your success,
especially in public service.

Speaker 6 (02:42):
My life changed when I came and went to Spelman
College in the late eighties and nineties, and it was
just the part of teaching me who I am as
a black woman and how important my voice is. And
then I got an opportunity to go do radio in Washington,
d C. With Frank Ski at a radio station at
Howard University called wha you are? And the dean of
Howard Law School heard me on the radio. Her name

(03:04):
was Daniel Holly at the time, and gave me a
call and said, you know, would you think about teaching?
And I said, well, I've never really taught before. I
don't know what that entails. And she's like, well, I
think you'd be great at it. You teach all the
time on the radio and you should take a swing
at it. And that's how I came to teach at
Howard Law School and I tat Entertainment law and when
I returned back to Atlanta, I met the dean of

(03:25):
Georgia State University and that was nine years ago, and
I've been teaching as a full faculty member at Georgia
State Law School since then. That's tremendous. That's tremendous.

Speaker 5 (03:34):
So tell me a little bit now about the leap
into public service. You ran for the city council in
twenty seventeen and then you were elected to the commission
last year. Now you're running for chair. Yeah, that's quite
a bit and some would say maybe a little aggressive.
So your take on it, and I guess where you
stand in the midst.

Speaker 6 (03:50):
Of all of this. Yeah, I mean, you know when
I came back from It was when I came back
from Washington, DC that I saw my neighborhood. I live
in Grant Park, and I saw it gentrifying so greatly,
and the leadership not changing and really adjusting to that
shift in our neighborhoods in town. And I feel like
I could do something, and so I ran for the
very first time in that race the city Council. I
got about forty six percent of the vote, which was

(04:11):
against an eighteen year incumbent at the time, and people
thought like, wow, that's a that's an amazing turnout for
a first time candidate, And so I sort of got
the bug a little bit, but I didn't run again
after that. I went and I worked in Stacy Abrams
campaign Sacy Abrams both of her eighteen and twenty two campaign,
and then you know that became a grandmother in twenty
twenty one, and so it was sort of never the

(04:33):
right time. But when twenty twenty four came and Chairman
Pitts approached me about running for that seat, it was
the right time. Everything was really calm in my family.
My last child was leaving to go off to college.
So sometimes it's a timing issue, and sometimes it's where
you are in your life that you feel best you
can serve. And in twenty twenty four, that time was
right for me. So I took on the challenge and

(04:53):
then won.

Speaker 5 (04:54):
Wow.

Speaker 6 (04:54):
Yeah, And then now you know, I got in in
twenty twenty five, and a lot of people are wondering, well,
you know, you said you use the world aggressive, like
that's a lot for being in for a year. And
I don't really look at it that way. The way
I look at it is that if a house is
on fire and you think you can put the fire out,
you should pick up a war to hoes and do it.
And that's Fulton County. Fulton County is on fire. We
have a crisis in many areas, jail courts, health care,

(05:19):
and now elections, and I can't sit there and just
not watch change happen because people think that I should
sit longer. It's sort of a little bit misogynistic and
also a little bit you know, would you tell your
child if they were getting if they could go for
a promotion on their job, not to go because they
haven't been there long enough. I mean, it's not really
about titles or promotions for me. I feel qualified. We

(05:40):
need the help, and I think it's the right time.
Our chairman's been in office since nineteen seventy seven. I
think it's time for fresh, new ideas, and so I
don't do it out of disrespect to him at all.
I respect him greatly, but I do think that I'm
the new leader for a change in Fulton County, and
that's why I'm stepping up to do it. I'm not
stepping away from my seat. I'm stepping up to present
the whole entire county, including my district, to bring the

(06:03):
much need to change that has happened.

Speaker 5 (06:05):
The current chair the Fulton County Board of Commissioners that
Ivory speaks of is Rob Pitts, a black man who
has been part of the Atlanta Fulton County political landscape
for decades. Pitts was first elected to the Atlanta City
Council in nineteen seventy seven and served as council president
before being elected to the Fulton County Board of Commissioners
in two thousand and three. He was elected as chair
in twenty seventeen. He's just one of her opponents However,

(06:27):
the other is more of an Errington Junior, who is
also a black Fulton County commissioner and a black Atlanta
political legacy. Errington is the son of the late Marvin Arrington, Senior,
who served as a Fulton County Superior Court judge and
president of the Atlanta City Council. What's clear is whoever
wins the election will have their hands full as a
county is facing several major issues. Let's break down some

(06:48):
of those issues you just touched on. Let's start with
the jail. It's now under a federal consent decree. We've
had at least what thirty inmates to die, I guess
since twenty twenty two, and I think people really know
the story because it's been in the headlines. You recently
went actually to the county jail and bailed out three inmates,
which is I guess the limit the most that you
could do at that time. Talk a little bit about

(07:09):
that situation, why you're so drawn to it.

Speaker 6 (07:12):
It's a human rights crisis, and my humanity was the
reason that I bailed those three people out. I did
it in twenty twenty five as well. I never said
anything to anybody about it. The reason why I felt
like it was important to tell people about it right
now is because we are at we are busting at
our seams, and I just felt like people needed to

(07:33):
know that they could do something about it. That happened
totally impromptu. We speak to the sheriff every Monday morning
and he gives us the numbers in the jail, like
there's twenty nine hundred and forty six inmates, seventy two
sleeping on the floor. Right We get those numbers every Monday.
There's always people sleeping on the floor. We're busting at
our seams. It's overcrowded all the time. On that particular Monday,

(07:54):
which was about three weeks ago, he said to me, Mo,
you know, we have a lot of people that are
in right now, and they have like eighty five dollar bonds,
and they cost the county one hundred and fifteen dollars
a day to keep a person at fullingd County Jail.
So what sense does it make for anybody who has
an eighty five dollar bond and a non violent offense
meaning that they didn't commit any crime against another person.
They were they shoplifted a candy bar from a store.

(08:17):
These are like poverty crimes, they had public drunkenness, or
they had disorderly conduct all by themselves. They never attacked anybody.
These are the kinds of offenses that I'm talking about.
And I said, well, what can I do? And he said, well,
you know there's the rule that three people can And
I know that rule because, like I said, I did
it the year before. And I said, well, I'm coming
down today to do that. People have overdramatized it, right.

(08:40):
But I went to the ATM machine. I walked in.
I didn't have any special credentials to get in or
anything like that. I just walked to the place where
it says bonding and I said, give me three names.
I said, I like three non violent offenders that have
eighty five dollar bonds. She said, here's three eighty five
times three was two fifty five or something like that.
She said you got the cash? I said yes. She
said you want to sign your name? I said, I

(09:01):
don't have to. She said, do you want to know
the people's names? I said, I don't need the names.
I just want to get them out. And then she
gave me the receipts and I walked away, and three
people got.

Speaker 5 (09:08):
Out, well, So your answer for the situation, I mean,
we're dealing with overcrowdedness, we're dealing with danger, we're dealing
with filthy conditions, all of those that are actually long
term and long time have been here for a while.
What do you plan to do to address those? And
how do you hope to get us to a place
where we're at least above what would be considered standard decency.

Speaker 6 (09:32):
Sure that kind of facility. Sure, you know, standard decency
is people having their constitutional rights adhere to, which is
that they are living in a constitutionally humane facility, not
a country club. Because that's what Chairman Pits says, I
want that's absolutely not true. I mean, you don't go
from there being conditions where the water is overflowing, mold

(09:57):
things catching off fire to a country club. You know,
that's it's really extreme, right. I want constitutionally humane conditions,
which means that all the systems are working on average.
In the jail, we have over fifteen hundred requests for
repairs a month a month, so we're already spending the
money that we could have spent on a brand new

(10:18):
facility if this had been done when it first needed
to be done, which was more than three decades ago. Okay,
So if you build a house for a two bedroom
apartment and it's supposed to be for two people, but
the max maybe four because you can put two people
in each room, you shouldn't then put twenty people in
that two bedroom apartment. And that's what we've been doing.
It's very simple to understand. So what do we need

(10:38):
to do. We need to build a new facility, right,
that's the very first thing. Well, it's not actually a
first thing. That's one of the things. Right, that's not
going to happen first because that takes a very long time.
But we need to be committed to doing that. Right.
Then the second thing is that we have to start
where the infrastructure of crowded jails begins, which is the courts. Right,
if the courts, we are underfunding our courts every year

(11:00):
and the budget, the courts come to us and say
we need more attorneys, we need more public defenders, we
need more court scenographers, we need more resources to move
the cases faster. We have a backlog that we should
be ashamed of. Okay, so we have to first fund
the courts. Because if we fund the courts, if there's
one hundred cases, and there's one lawyer working on one
hundred cases, and we get another lawyer in, then that

(11:22):
means they're only each working on fifty cases, and they
can move those fifty cases faster. That's what keeps our
jail populated. So if we fund the courts properly, automatically,
the jail population will decrease. So that's the very first thing.
And every year we don't fund the courts more. I
propose twenty five million dollars to go to the courts
in legislation and it was voted. Now, so this is

(11:45):
why I'm stepping up. So there as many layers that
we can do. We can begin to get all of
those small offenses, those bonds that are fifty dollars and
eighty five dollars out of the jail. We can put
people on ankle monitors. Right now, we have the capacity
to put twelve one hundred people on ankle monitors so
that they can wait for their core date at home.
We have less than five hundred people on it. So

(12:07):
if we have seventy two people sleeping on the floor
right away, it seems like overnight we could get rid
of that. Right If We could take the people who
could go on ankle monitors and immediately put them on
ankle monitors. We could definitely do seventy two people in
like one day.

Speaker 5 (12:19):
So what's stopping that?

Speaker 6 (12:20):
What's preventing that from happening? Leadership? People? Politics?

Speaker 5 (12:24):
So these are resources that already there. Maybe already they
were talking about building a new prison. I'm a Fulton
County resident. I'm like, oh, no, is that an increase
in taxes? Does that mean that we're gonna have to,
you know, start paying even more? But you're talking right
now about money and resources that are already available.

Speaker 6 (12:38):
Already available, And let me talk about what you just
said about resources about building a new jail. One of
the very first things I'm going to do, and I
become the first African American female chair latina, also of
the full In County Commission, and actually of any county
chair ever. I want to make sure that we do
a forensic audit of our budget, because I believe the

(12:58):
money is already there. It's just that our budget has
been in the same hands for decades for so long
that we don't really know what's there. We have a
line item in our budget called other it has eighty
million dollars in it. I've been asking for a year
what is that eighty million dollars representing, And I haven't
gotten a clear answer yet because nobody wants me to

(13:19):
know what that eighty million dollars represents. So I'm going
to find out, and I'm going to start reallocating, because
I really do believe of the one billion dollars we
collect in taxpayer dollars, I believe that we can take
care of these issues that we have if we just
look at our budget and reallocate and find money in
places that isn't necessary to be spent. There's a lot

(13:40):
of things that happen in Fulton County that I don't
agree with. For example, travel. Travel is one thing where
I think we spend way too much money. I don't
think anybody needs to go traveling internationally on economic development
and exploration trips when we have a crisis in our jail.
And currently a lot of commissioners and our chair do that.

(14:01):
And so these are simple things that I will move
away from in order to put money back into the
budget to handle the things that we need to handle
if we can.

Speaker 5 (14:10):
Let's move on to healthcare. I actually live in South Fulton.
It was very excited to hear that the Commission has
voted to bring a new facility there, especially after we've
lost too in the past our recent years and many
of us are feeling the effects of it being a
health care desert.

Speaker 6 (14:25):
Absolutely, the Commission agreed to a plan for a hospital
in South Fulton with Grady, and I think that is
a beautiful step forward. But I want to be really
truthful because this is another thing that I'm going to
be when I'm the chair. I'm going to debunk the
headlines for you so you can really understand the deal.
That hospital will not happen until twenty thirty one, So

(14:48):
I know it was exciting to hear that a hospital
was coming, but it is five years away from happening.
Because the first thing that is going to happen is
the emergency The standalone emergency room is going to happen
in Union City, and that's going to happen this year.
But then the next phase of it is an office building,
is a medical office building, not a hospital, So that

(15:11):
medical office building will happen three years down, two to
three years down the line, which is twenty eight to
twenty nine. Then the hospital comes thirty thirty one, So
I just want to I know when people here a headline,
they're like, oh my gosh, that is so amazing, But
it's it's very it's a far way away, which is
five years. It's good, but it's in the future. Okay.

(15:33):
The hospital that closed, the well Star Hospital in East Point,
the Atlanta Medical Center closed more than four years ago,
is taking four years to get a plan for hospital.
I think that's too long and there should not be
a seven year disparity of life expectancy between living in
North Fulton and South Fulton. Then there is, and that's
because in North Fulton they have five hospitals, five and

(15:56):
we are like over here jumping up and down that
we got one. That's not enough. And we have to
begin to model what we want to see in South
Fulton the way that we respond to North Fulton. And
if you look at leadership in the entire county, not
just the chairman, but our entire leadership team, the focus
has been North Fulton for the last two decades and

(16:17):
I would like to shift and bring some equity between
what happens in North Fulton and what happens in South Fulton.

Speaker 5 (16:24):
You have been before Congress testifying about the ballot grab
that took place in Fulton County. A lot of US
voters not quite understanding how vulnerable we are, what it
means to have our information in federal hands. If you
can't just share with our listeners the extent of that
of what you know, and then where does it place
voters in Fulton County? What does it mean for us?

Speaker 6 (16:45):
Sure, thank you so much for that question. It's really important.
I was on the inside of the raid that day.
It was very intense, and I thought to myself, let
me just start opening up my camera and letting people inside,
because voters should know what's happening here. I didn't have
any more authority than anybody else on that day, because
it was made very clear by the FBI moved back,

(17:06):
stay away. There was about fifty forty to fifty FBI
agents that day. They went in and just think about
like a warehouse with a cage, and it's the twenty
twenty ballots were in that cage, and they just went
in and they got them. They would not allow us
to videotape what they were taking so that we could
have an inventory of it. We just had to go
on the records that we had. I want everybody to
know though, that we had a digital copy of the ballots,

(17:29):
so we did have a backup copy, and the ballots
did not have any personally identifiable information on them, so
people don't have to worry about that. The only thing
that they got that did have personally identifiable information is
if you voted with an absentee ballot in twenty twenty,
because we did have to keep the envelopes that had
your name and address on them, and they did take that,

(17:49):
so they do have the absentee ballot envelopes from the
twenty twenty election. This is not about twenty twenty. This
was a smash and grab for twenty twenty six, meant
to make you afraid that Fulton County is not protecting
your right to vote, that Fulton County elections are not secure,
and we know that over and over again. Those twenty
twenty ballots were recounted, re audited, recounted again, audited again,

(18:12):
subject of hundreds of lawsuits, and never one time was
any fraud found in the twenty twenty election. This is
his child obsession with having lost the twenty twenty race
and worrying about losing control of the House and the
Senate in twenty twenty six, So he's just trying to
sow distrust and make people fear going to the polls.

(18:32):
It's likely that in Georgia the state Election Board will
take over our elections in November. It's pretty likely. And
what will that look like, Well, it'll just be like
an intimidating environment and atmosphere. There'll be a lot more
people watching people voting, and that tends to make people nervous.
So if you're somebody that feels like, oh gosh, is
there going to be a police officer at the polls,

(18:53):
you might think twice about going to vote. But I
want to tell you don't think twice about it, because
we're working as hard in making sure that it's safe,
that it's secure, and that you can go there and
vote without any intimidation or suppression. And Fulton County does
a fabulous job at making sure that their elections are
secure and safe. So what can you do for yourself?

(19:13):
You can check your voter registration at my voter page
on the Secretary of State's website. It's called MVP my
voter page. Make sure you're still on the rolls check
it every week. Early voting is going to begin on
April twenty seventh, and then the election, the primary election
is on May nineteenth, and then all the candidates that
win in the primary election will go to the November ballot,

(19:34):
which is November three. You hear all about this Save
America Act that has not been passed, so don't even
worry about it right now at all. Follow me at
the mo ivory on Instagram because if that changes, I'll
let you know. But the best thing you can do
to protect your vote is to check your status, make
sure you're registered, and then make a plan to go vote.
Because when you make a plan to go vote, and

(19:55):
voting early is probably the best plan, then you are
securing your constitutional right to vote, and that's the way
you protect your vote.

Speaker 5 (20:01):
Early voting in Georgia is now underway and we'll continue
through Friday, May fifteenth. The primary will be held on Tuesday,
May nineteenth. We're extending an invitation to Chairman Rob Pitts.
We will bring you that interview should it take place.

Speaker 1 (20:14):
Mike, thanks, Andrea and Moe. Tune into the Black Information
That Work at ten thirty am and ten thirty pm
Eastern Today for an up close look at Keisha Lance
Bottom's bid to become the first black woman governor of
a state in US history. The former mayor of Atlanta
is the featured leader in today's Leading Wild Black Again.
That program airs at ten thirty am and ten thirty

(20:37):
pm Eastern Today. The value of your vote means even
more now than ever before with the recent Supreme Court
ruling which cuts into the heart of the Voting Rights Act.
The Black Information That Works Vanessa Tyler speaks with a
historian who will preserve the Summer of nineteen sixty four.

Speaker 7 (20:57):
As some try to suppress Black history, there is an
effort to boldly bring it.

Speaker 6 (21:02):
Up to date.

Speaker 7 (21:03):
Doctor Christina Thomas will take a moment in our history,
the Freedom Summer of nineteen sixty four, and give it
a look that fits perfectly with our lives today. Christina,
Welcome to the Black Information Network.

Speaker 8 (21:15):
Thank you, thank you for having me.

Speaker 7 (21:18):
Tell us about the digitizing Freedom Summer project.

Speaker 8 (21:21):
This project is a few years in the make in
but a lot of people I know but who aren't familiar.
Freedom Summer in nineteen sixty four was a massive civil
rights campaign spearheaded by the Council Federated Organizations or KOFO,
which was a very unique, distinctive civil rights group in
Mississippi that was made up of four organizations, an AACP, SNICK,

(21:48):
the Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee SCLC, as well as
the Congress of Racial Equality.

Speaker 7 (21:56):
So many others came down that summer, members of the
religious community, lawyers, doctors, teachers, all with one thing in mind,
change the ingrained blatant racism Blacks had to deal with
in Mississippi.

Speaker 8 (22:10):
And so digitizing Freedom Summer for me is looking at
all those who came down to Mississippi, so beyond the
data that we have for them or these various stories
of maybe a few volunteers, it's to help people visualize
just the significance of this project in nineteen sixty four.

(22:30):
And so my desire is that people can look at
a global map, because some of these volunteers came from
other countries, and click on a person and begin to
learn their story, who they were in nineteen sixty four,
where they were sent in Mississippi and sort of what
was their role that summer as part of the as

(22:50):
part of Freedom Summer as a whole.

Speaker 7 (22:52):
People like this volunteer who made the trip from Jersey
to the South.

Speaker 9 (22:57):
I don't believe I understood it dangers that were involved.
I think I was very naive if I knew the
South was a bad place.

Speaker 2 (23:06):
I'd never traveled in the South.

Speaker 9 (23:08):
I'd heard the stories, but it never kind of sank
into my consciousness the potential dangers that I was exposing
my South too.

Speaker 8 (23:17):
Yes, yes, and that's the beauty. The beauty and doing
some of this work and being a historian and doing
this project is you know, talking to those people who
were there in Mississippi. You know, two weeks ago, I
was just in Philadelphia have in lunch with Madeline McK
who came to Mississippi from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and she was
a close friend of someone I study. But she again,

(23:40):
you know, these memories are fresh for her. Organizing in Hattiesburg,
meaning people like Vernon Damer who hosted them their first
day with a fish fry. She just brought up the
story as if it were yesterday for her.

Speaker 7 (23:52):
And one of their goals then for Freedom Summer was
registering people to vote. And I'm just wondering what their
take is on now even today, we must constantly vigilantly
watch our voting rights and make sure what they fought
for is not taken away.

Speaker 8 (24:10):
That was one of the major goals of Freedom Summer.
And for them, you know, just conversations of this belief
where we currently are, but that people are still showing up,
showing out, and that they're still organizing to this day
as well.

Speaker 7 (24:23):
You are the first ever Robert Moses Civil Rights Research Fellow.
He's considered the architect of Freedom Summer. What does this
mean to you as a researcher.

Speaker 8 (24:33):
Oh, it's such a tremendous honor as someone who researches
Bob Moses and his legacy and you know, still sees
his impact today through programs like the Algebra Project. So
it was a tremendous honor. I was so happy to
hear the first hear, you know, that there was a
fellowship in his name, and then to go on and

(24:55):
receive it and be able to do this project. Like
you said, he was the chief architect of Freedom Summer,
and so to have to be able to propose this project,
you know, it's just something I was proud to do
and excited to put forth this project.

Speaker 7 (25:09):
How can we follow the project?

Speaker 8 (25:11):
So a lot of it is still in the archival
research stage, but I do have a blog Diary of
a Historian, where I do start showcasing some of the
Freedom Summer volunteers and their stories.

Speaker 2 (25:23):
I think one of.

Speaker 8 (25:24):
The major goals of Freedom Summer was to place a
national spotlight on the atrocities, the violence and harassments, and
the harassment that was going on in the Mississippi against
you know, black Mississippians who, in the words of Fannie Lukamer,
just try to live as decent human beings to get
their basic human rights.

Speaker 7 (25:42):
Doctor Christina Thomas digitizing Freedom Summer, thank you for preserving
the culture. Thank you follow doctor Thomas that Diary of
a Historian dot com. I'm Vanessa Tyler with the Black
Perspective on the Black Information Network Mike back to you.

Speaker 1 (26:00):
Thanks Vanessa and doctor Christina. Internationally known professor and author
doctor Ibram X Kendy recently launched a new book called
Chain of Ideas, and it deals with some serious topics
that address not only politics, but the culture wars in
the US today. The Black information Networks. Ester Dillard sat
down with the author to talk about why this book

(26:20):
is so important for readers regardless of their ethnic background
or political ideology.

Speaker 10 (26:29):
And the more I understood what was happening, the more
I began to name the ideological force that was driving
the backlash, which is Great replacement theory, the less hopeless
I felt, and the more convicted I became.

Speaker 11 (26:45):
What you just heard is a man who spent years
studying one of the most dangerous ideas in American politics,
and what he found is the playbook being used right
now in courtrooms, in state houses and on the foreign
Congress is not new. It goes back further than most
of us realize, and it has an aim. I'm Ester Dillard.

(27:05):
This is the color between the lines. And today, Doctor
Ibram X. Kindy, historian professor at Howard University and one
of the most important voices in American public life, sits
down to talk about his new book, Chain of Ideas.
Chain of Ideas traces the rise of what Kindy calls
the Great Replacement theory, the belief that powerful elites are

(27:26):
using black and brown people, immigrants, and minorities to displace
white majorities. As states battle over redistracting to reshape the
balance of power in Congress, and as tensions between the
United States and Iran continue to escalate. Kindy's research offers
a lens that makes all of it suddenly makes sense.
He's going to tell you where this argument came from

(27:48):
and how it moves from rhetoric into real world violence,
who's funding it, and what each of us can do
about it. Here's doctor Ibram X Kindy.

Speaker 10 (27:57):
It positions at Americans and even black immigrants as stealing
the jobs of white people. It positions diversity as discrimination,
It positions immigrants as invading the nation, and it imagines
that white people are facing a genocide. Indeed, the shooter

(28:22):
who ended up murdering a number of African Americans in
Buffalo at the supermarket believed in great replacement theory. And
so this theory, even though we may understand it from
the US context, we may remember in Charlottesville, Virginia when
they chanted you will not replace us. But the book

(28:42):
documents how this is quite an old theory and it's
circulated around the world, and it's being used all over
the world to justify the re emergence of authoritarianism.

Speaker 11 (28:58):
Kendy opens by defining exactly what great replacement theory is
and why that name alone understates how deeply it has
already shaped American life.

Speaker 10 (29:09):
They keep telling let's say, white people that as black
people make progress, that progress is coming out of your expense.
They keep telling white people that civil rights legislation is
not ensuring equal opportunity for everyone black, white, brown, that

(29:29):
it's actually seeking to take things away from white people
and give them to undeserving black people. It presupposes that
black people, who are in positions of influence and power
are unqualified and undeserving and took jobs from more qualified
white people, when in actuality, what I thik chain of

(29:52):
ideas shows is these elected officials are saying this.

Speaker 2 (29:56):
To white people so that white.

Speaker 10 (29:59):
People will blame black people when they struggle to get
jobs or keep jobs, so that they won't blame the
actual people who are behind their struggles, which are those
elected officials and their financiers.

Speaker 2 (30:11):
So people are being hoodwinked.

Speaker 11 (30:13):
Kenny calls it zero sum theory, and he traces exactly
how it was built and who built it.

Speaker 10 (30:19):
I think the biggest thing we should understand is that
when you've had periods in which let's say racist authoritarians
are striving to regain power, and in order for them
to regain power. They need to convince a critical mass

(30:44):
of white people that they're regaining of power is going
to be beneficial for them. So, to give an example,
during the enslaving era, of course, we have long talked
about how horrific slavery was for enslaved Africans and black people,

(31:06):
and what we haven't spoken enough about is how they
were meant, about five million poor whites in the South
who largely were almost totally controlled and dominated by a
very small enslaver elite, and they didn't have public schools,
they didn't have access to public resources, they didn't have

(31:26):
access to healthcare. They you know, more or less functioned
as the army, maintaining a slavery that was actually leading
to their own exploitation as well as the hyper exploitation
of black people. So then when these enslavers after the

(31:47):
Civil War tried to figure out how to regain power,
the way they went about doing that was essentially saying
that those new black politicians are not actually trying to
rate programs and policies that lift black people and poor whites,
that they're actually trying to institute policies that are harming

(32:10):
the white South. That's the message they gave during the
reconstruction era. That's the message they gave to justify the
emergence of Jim Crow, and the actual facts on the
ground completely contradicted that. So something like public schools in
the South was largely an idea of black politicians that
benefited a large majority of white people who did not

(32:33):
have access to free public schools during the enslavement era.
So this is a way to con people into submitting
to their own domination, because you're sort of deflecting or
making them believe that, let's say, black people are their
political opponents when actually we're allies.

Speaker 11 (32:53):
Kindy doesn't leave the theory in the abstract. He walks
through exactly how an idea moves from away site to
a church to a body count, step by step, and
the example he uses should make you stop and think.

Speaker 10 (33:08):
There was a young white man who did not really
have much going on in his life who ended up
coming across this website by this so called conservative organization

(33:29):
that listed quote unquote black on white crimes. And these listings,
of course, were completely decontextualized, which is to say, the
vast majority of white Americans are harmed by other white Americans,
and so this person started reading those listings, then started

(33:51):
reading the larger point, which is that white people are
suffering this genocide at the hands of black criminals, which
of course him He ended up getting a gun, ended
up traveling to Charleston, South Carolina, and shooting a black
people during a Bible study. And so that's an example

(34:12):
of how this sort of happened. And of course I'm
talking about Dylan Roof for the shooting in twenty fifteen,
who of course was incited to that shooting by great
replacement theory.

Speaker 11 (34:24):
The question of why so many people are genuinely convinced
that they're being erased is one doctor Kindy answers in
a way that will change how you see the news,
the politics, and the people around you. The full conversation,
including what he says, is waiting for you on the
Color between the Lines. You can find it on iHeartRadio, YouTube, Spotify,
or wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 1 (34:45):
I'm Ester Dillard, Thanks Esther and doctor IBRAMX. In line
with our Nations two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, we continue
to highlight true Black American history that started in many
cases before the Declaration of Independence. The black information networks
Managing editor Mike Stevens introduces us now to a tourism
official who says, don't forget about the sometimes overlooked place

(35:09):
in American history for his state, and he tells us
Rhode Island is a great place where African Americans to
visit and get a better sense of the past.

Speaker 4 (35:18):
Well, joining us now is Keith Stokes to talk about
a desire for more black tourism in the New England
state of Rhode Island. Thank you for joining us, sir, We.

Speaker 2 (35:27):
Thank you for having me on.

Speaker 4 (35:29):
So what is it about Rhode Island that you want
us to know about that should be appealing to black travelers,
Things that we normally wouldn't consider.

Speaker 12 (35:38):
Well, I think what's most important is if you are
a traveler that has an interest in historic travel, cultural
travel are clearly Rhode Island, which is one of the
earliest of the States, is the center of that. I'm
here in Newport, Rhode Island, my home and for most people,
Newport is one of the most traveled international destinations in

(36:00):
the United States. We see over three and a half
million visitors each year for our Fame sailing events, our
Fame jazz and folk festivals, our historic mansions. But most importantly,
some of the earliest Black and African heritage history in
America took place right here in Rhode Island, particularly here
in the city of Newport.

Speaker 4 (36:20):
So a lot of our country's earliest history has been
shall we stay kept from us or not easily revealed?
A lot of people don't really know about the historical connection.
And I do know of a number of Black folk
who have come from Rhode Island. They speak highly of it,
but they never really gave me much of a reason
to come and visit. Tell me, tell me a little

(36:42):
more about that.

Speaker 12 (36:43):
Well, I've always believe my professional background's been in business
economic development, A run chambers, municipal state commerce departments, marketing,
and I sit on most of the historic boards. So
a large part of our successful travel tourism economy is
really tied to what we call his historic travel, which
is always based upon authenticity. I mean, people look for authentic, unique,

(37:06):
compelling stories and sites, and we certainly have that. And
when you talk about early Black history, as I said,
it really has as much of a.

Speaker 2 (37:14):
Beginning in Rhode Island. Rhode Island was not.

Speaker 12 (37:17):
Only one of the first of the thirteen colonies, of
British colonies, but well before the American Revolution, Rhode Island
was the most active slave trading port in British North America,
mostly centered in Newport. In fact, one of the more
extraordinarily important aspects of that is that as these Africans.

Speaker 2 (37:33):
Arrived, they brought more than their labor.

Speaker 12 (37:35):
They brought their language, their culture, their food stuff, and
in fact, some of the earliest free African institutions later
African Americans are taking place in places like Newport, Providence, Boston,
and Philadelphia. So coming to Newport you can get to
see historic sites and buildings that were once occupied by,
lived in, worked in, worshiped in by enslaved in later

(37:57):
free Africans and later African Americans. In fact, today in
Newport we have the oldest existing enslaved in free African
baron ground in America. Now there should be others, particularly
in New York and Philadelphia and Boston, but many of
them have been dislocated, lost, vandalized, and reconstructed. But when
you come to Newport, you actually get to see the

(38:18):
authentic original bearing ground. And what's even more interesting is
many of the Africans enslaved and free in the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries. They didn't just arrive here anywhere. They
arrived from what the majority community called the Gold Coast.
Today we recognize as Ghana. So you can get to
see markers with images of African people, markers that have

(38:40):
a con day name, such as Kuffee, which should be
Kofee boys going on Friday. So all this history, this
earliest history of African survival and arrivals, has as much
ties to Rhode Island as compared to anywhere else in America.

Speaker 4 (38:54):
So you could live anywhere, I would assume, and you
could vacation anywhere. What is it for you that you
know is the attraction?

Speaker 2 (39:05):
Well, I'm biased. I was born in Newport.

Speaker 12 (39:08):
My granddaughter represents the eleventh generation of our family of
color tied to Newport. So I've always been in an
environment where I've been very grateful to have heirlooms, to
have stories that very much anchored me to the importance
of being in Newport and being in Rhode Island. I've
also had the fortune to travel across the African diaspor
both for business, for history, and for travel and enjoyment.

(39:31):
And in each and every case, I could be in Jamaica, Barbados, Cursow, Ghana.
There's always a not only Rhode Island tibe or a
Newport tie with our African roots. So for me, every
day is just enjoying the history that I've been privileged
to be a part of in my family.

Speaker 4 (39:49):
So for a first time Black visitor to Rhode Island
who says, Okay, you know what, I'm going to take
them up on that I'm going to go through, I'm
going to go visit there, give us an ideal itinerary,
like a two or three day experience that would showcase
both the cultural significance and I guess you could call
the leisure lifestyle appeal of the state.

Speaker 12 (40:11):
Well, again, we're busy from Memorial Day to certainly across
to Labor Day through that summer it's a peak season.
We're seeing several million visitors. I would always suggest the
best time to come is the spring, in the late fall,
where it's a little bit less busy, but the attractions
and the weather and the opportunities are still there.

Speaker 2 (40:30):
If you're a.

Speaker 12 (40:30):
First time visitor to Newport, and particularly if you're a
travel of color, I would highly recommend that you take
one of the accommodations in the downtown waterfront area. Because
unlike Philadelphia, Boston, New York, even of Charleston, South Carolina,
Newport's a small town. We only have twenty four thousand
year round residents. It is a very walkable town. It's

(40:51):
a very scalable town. So having an accommodation in the
downtown waterfront area, you can nearly walk to or have
access to most of the attractions.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
In a very short period of time.

Speaker 12 (41:02):
With that said, if you enjoy sailing, Newport is a
sailing capital of America. There are sailing regards events, there
are recreational boating events, from commercial fishing activity to recreational fishing,
it's all there for you. If it's beaches, we have
a number of public private beaches available for the visitor.
It's really the history piece that really has us stand

(41:22):
out in the eyes of visitors. Our Newport mansions, which
are owned and operated by the Preservation side of Newport County,
is a number of Gilded Age mansions that are open
and available to the public with their grounds. That really
takes you back to what the Gilded Age was. And
that's an interesting story for me because during the Gilded Age,
if you had a chance to see the wonderful HBO
series Gilded Age and it's depiction of the Black community.

(41:43):
I have the chance to work with them, and what's
most exciting is that depiction of the Black community during
the Gilded Age is exactly what was going on in Newport.
In fact, most of the African American residents of Newport
during the Gilded Age, we're involved in high skill, high
trade professions and became serial entrepreneurs running their own hotels, catering, dressmaking,

(42:05):
service businesses and became quite wealthy through that era. So
for me, anyone that really cares passionately about history and
wants to be in an authentic place where they can
actually walk the walk, engage and see where early people
lived worked in worship, there's really no better place and
more manageable place, an affordable place as compared to Newport,

(42:26):
Rhode Island.

Speaker 4 (42:27):
So you mentioned Philadelphia, That's where I'm from. If I
was going to go back or advise folks to come there,
I would, as an insider know what to say or
where to suggest people go. For you, being an insider,
you have a perspective that others may not. What is
your message to black travelers from other places who might

(42:48):
be hesitant to visit Rhode Island or New England in general.
And if I could be somewhat frank, parts of New
England have not had the greatest reputation for being welcoming
to Africa and Americans. So what do you do to
make sure Rhode Island feels welcoming?

Speaker 12 (43:06):
I do that all the time. I mean again, you
gave you the example of Philadelphia. My own ancestors are
tied to the seventh Ward. In fact, if you really
enjoyed Black history in Philadelphia, which I do, and you
talk about some of the early origins as an example,
the first black churches in America are very much tied
to Philadelphia. Mother Beth l Am Church, the first of
its kind by Reverend Richard Allen. Reverend Absolom Jones would

(43:28):
found the year before, in seventeen ninety two, the African
Episcopal Church at Saint Thomas. Those Africans, Reverend Absolom Jones,
Reverend Richard Allen in Philadelphia in the eighteenth century, they're
corresponding with Africans in Newport, and those Africans in Newport
and Philadelphia, they're also talking to a man named Prince
Hall and Boston at that time, who go on and

(43:50):
founds that bears his name, the Prince Hall Masonic Order.
So if you have an interest in discovering and engaging
and enjoying authentic early Black history, and you're in Philadelphia,
you're in the African baron Ground in New York City,
you're in Boston in Beacon Hill on Joystee with the
African Meetinghouse, you have to connect Newport with that because
it's all connected. We're all one people, we were all

(44:13):
part of the American leg of the early African diaspor.
And again, where I feel Newport has an advantage is
that it's more affordable, more scalable, and more walkable than
some of those larger, larger cities.

Speaker 4 (44:26):
And of course this being the country's two hundred and
fiftieth anniversary, there certainly is a lot to connect the
dots in Rhode Island, as you've mentioned, absolutely.

Speaker 12 (44:36):
So I mean, just to give you an example, I mean,
I'm the state's historian laureate, So I spend a lot
of time probably touting Rhode Island's participation in the American Revolution,
the relevance and one date that everyone is very engaged
with we should all be engaged with is July fourth,
seventeen seventy six.

Speaker 2 (44:53):
That's when the Decoration of Independence is signed.

Speaker 12 (44:55):
I would suggest that four years later, there's a date
that every African American should wreck. On November tenth, seventeen eighty,
four years after the signing of the Decoration of Independence,
twelve African freemen came together in Newport and founded for
the first time the Free African Union Society. This is
the first time where Africans, by the end of the

(45:18):
eighteenth century, at the dawn in the early beginnings of
the United States of America, are now exercising their organizational skills,
their political skills, and their civic engagement skills to establish
themselves as free Africans in America. And that group in
Newport I'm at date, literally contacted Boston, Philadelphia, Providence of
New York, and all of those communities would form the

(45:40):
first free African societies. And I can also tell you
each of one of those African societies would evolve into
some of the first and earliest free Black churches in America.
So again, coming to Newport is like understanding the very
early origins of the African diaspor and how it arrived
in the Americas and particularly in the case of colonial
America during the Transatlantic days. And we have the physical sites,

(46:04):
we have the physical documents, and we have the really
exciting travel experience.

Speaker 2 (46:08):
It's all wrapped into that.

Speaker 4 (46:10):
Well, you make a compelling argument for us to come
and check out Rhode Island. I appreciate you coming on
with us and giving us the insight that many of
us didn't even have. You for so, thank you, Key
Stokes with Rhode Island Tourism. Thank you for being with us.

Speaker 2 (46:26):
Thanks for having me bank to you, Mike.

Speaker 1 (46:28):
Thanks Mike. Civil rights attorney and autism advocate of Riva
Martin returns to the Black Information Network next to talk
about her special needs in network boot camps, getting Black
parents and resources for autistic kids, as well as another
program to uplift our future leaders.

Speaker 3 (46:43):
Doug, Hey, Thanks Mike, This is Doug Davis, of course back.
Famed civil rights attorney and author at Reva Martin returned
to the Black Information Network. We spoke late last week
on the day of the Supreme Court struck down Louisiana's
majority of black congrescial district, and she broke down the
impact of the ruling. She's back with us now to
talk more about her advocacy surrounding autism and her development

(47:03):
initiative for the next generation of Black leaders. So Riva,
welcome back to the Black Information Network and the Black Perspective.
So National Autism Month is a rap. It's May now
and you are still leading several major efforts right now,
including your Tools for Transformation initiative. Share more details about this,
and you know what's the big message that you want
to convey to people.

Speaker 13 (47:24):
What we've done here at the Specialties Network is moved
from awareness to action. We believe that individuals on the
autism spectrum, individuals who are neurodivergent, deserve an opportunity to
live a rich and full and productive life. And what
that means is what it means for all of us.
Just like for our neurotypical children, we have dreams of

(47:45):
them going off to college, whether it's a two year
college or four year college or some kind of vocational school.
We have dreams of them owning their own home, owning
a car, having good health insurance, having a job that
pays them a living wage, not just a job, but
a career. And what we're doing at the Specialties Network
is not just raising awareness this month, but saying, let's

(48:07):
ensure that neurodiversion people have those same pathways, have the
same opportunities as our neurotypical children to go off to college,
to vocational school, to get a job that can lead
to a career where they can make the kind of
money that will allow them to live independent lives, buy homes, travel,

(48:28):
and you know, as we would say, just live their
best lives. So we've been working closely with partners at
the federal level, the state level, corporations, nonprofits, trying to
stand up or standing up a workforce development program, particularly
because in Los Angeles, over the next three years, we're
going to see the World Cup, We're going to see

(48:48):
the Olympics and the Para Olympics. All of those world
events will be happening in Los Angeles, and it's estimated
that those world events are going to bring about ninety
billion dollars in economic impact to our city, and we
want to make sure that neurodivergent individuals are a part
of that economic boom.

Speaker 3 (49:06):
Absolutely, I understand that you know, Black Americans are disproportionately
affected now by autism Is that true.

Speaker 13 (49:14):
Yeah, So what we see is with respect to African
Americans from the beginning the beginning meeting diagnosis, African American
and Latino children often wait or it takes them two
to four years to get a diagnosis compared to their
white counterparts. And I want to make sure I'm not
misleading anyone, and I say, wait, it's not as if

(49:35):
black parents or brown parents are waiting. We face a
system that makes it more difficult for our families to
get an accurate diagnosis. A lot of that has to
do with access to health care. A lot of that
has to do with access to train professionals in communities.
And because of the lack of healthcare, because of the
lack of training doctors that can provide those kinds of diagnoses,

(49:58):
we see our children game behind and that wait time,
that time between getting a diagnosis and getting into services,
is critical because all the evidence based research tells us
that early intervention. The earlier we diagnose someone on the spectrum,
and the earlier we start interventions, the better we can

(50:18):
predict that person's ability to move on to say a
mainstream classroom on a public school campus or private school campus.
The more likely it is for that individual to acquire
language skills and the other skills necessary for them to
be successful in school.

Speaker 3 (50:34):
And beyond right, I know you're not a medical doctor,
but I mean, what is it that separates, you know,
the diagnoses from black children compared to any other race?
I mean, what is it? I'm trying to figure out
why we're not getting that early diagnosis.

Speaker 13 (50:52):
A lot of it is our healthcare system, and it
is the inquisit bias, pystemic races.

Speaker 4 (50:57):
There we go.

Speaker 13 (50:57):
That is inherent in our healthcare systems. And so many
of our families live in communities where they don't get to.

Speaker 6 (51:03):
See a doctor.

Speaker 13 (51:04):
They may see a nurse practitioner, or they may see
a nurse's assistant, and on top of that, they're not
seeing that person consistently.

Speaker 6 (51:11):
So you may go to a community.

Speaker 2 (51:13):
Clinic where you take your kid.

Speaker 13 (51:15):
The kid is, say twelve months, and you say, I
think there's some issues, and that person, if they're not
specifically trained to identify signs of autism, will tell you
all there's nothing wrong with your child.

Speaker 2 (51:25):
Just wait and you go back.

Speaker 6 (51:27):
The child now is.

Speaker 13 (51:28):
Eighteen months, twenty four months, and you see a different person.
So that person now doesn't have the history of the
original person who you saw, and they tell you wait
and you may not go back for another year. So
you could just see how someone could get lost in
a system of care that really isn't designed to ensure
the kinds of outcomes that happen when you are again

(51:50):
someone that's blessed and you have a different kind of insurance,
you have a different kind of relationship, you have an advocate,
you can speak up. I can remember my own story.
I'm a parent of a young adult on the spectrum,
and I'm a civil rights lawyer. My husband is a lawyer,
and even with all of our resources, it took so
much of our time, our skills as a lawyer, our

(52:13):
access as business owners and entrepreneurs to even get a
diagnosis for our own son. So think about the mom,
the single mom, the single dad that's working two jobs,
that's going to get doctor pay, will be docted if
they miss work, who may get fired if they miss
work to take a child to an appointment. So there

(52:35):
are so many barriers that exist in our communities that
make the diagnosis more difficult and then make getting the
interventions even harder.

Speaker 3 (52:44):
Gotcha, I know our time is running short. Let's switch
gears quickly speak about your leadership regarding young Americans. You're
launching the next Gen collective. What's that all about? And
why was it so important for you to create a
space specifically for a millennial and Gen Zug.

Speaker 2 (53:01):
They are a future.

Speaker 13 (53:02):
I am a firm believer that all of us have
an obligation to lift as we climb, and if you've
been fortunate enough to have a successful career and to
achieve something in your own professional life, then you have
an obligation to pay it forward. To whom much has
been given much is expected. And for me, I live
by that model and I understand the importance of building

(53:25):
a strong bench and specialties network has grown from a
grassroots organization that literally started in a cubicle in my
law firm eighteen years ago. We now have seven offices
across southern California.

Speaker 2 (53:38):
We have over six hundred.

Speaker 13 (53:39):
Employees, a eight figure budget, twenty free programs, and providing
services to tens of thousands of families. But we got
here because of the hard work of a lot of
dedicated board members, community partners, volunteers and parents. And if
we are going to continue the growth that we've seen
over the last couple of years, we're going to sustain

(53:59):
the work that we do, the transformational work that we do.

Speaker 2 (54:03):
That means we've got to build.

Speaker 13 (54:05):
Up a workforce, a cadre of young people that can
carry that work forward. And that's what the Next Gen
collective does. We are training the next generation of philanthropic leaders,
of civic leaders, of board members of nonprofit leaders, of
entrepreneurs and business people. And we know if we invest
in our young people, we will get an exponential return

(54:28):
on that investment.

Speaker 4 (54:29):
It's beautiful.

Speaker 3 (54:30):
I know our time is super running short. We didn't
have the time to go into some of the historical
questions regarding your career, but I do want to ask you,
how do you see the fight for justice today? You know,
connecting to the work that you have done throughout your career,
the fight.

Speaker 13 (54:45):
Is I think more important today than it ever has been.

Speaker 2 (54:49):
And I know each generation who.

Speaker 13 (54:51):
Likes to think that what we are experiencing is new, different,
or novel, and if you are a student of history,
you will realize and understand that it it is not that.
Where we are in this country in this moment, this
moment of attack, where all of our institutions. All things
that we have fought for feel like are crumbling some
days under our feet.

Speaker 2 (55:12):
We've been here before.

Speaker 13 (55:13):
We've watched African Americans, black folks in this country make
tremendous strides, make tremendous gains, only to see attacks on
those gains, and only to see this country retreat. And
we saw that after George Floyd was murdered in twenty twenty,
we had this racial reconing. I remember talking to friends
who own bookstores who told me they had sold more

(55:35):
books about Black America in that six month period than
they had sold in the whole history of owning their bookstores.
And we know that DEI experts were going into major corporations,
getting paid tens of thousands of dollars to talk about
systemic racism, to build out whole departments. We saw black
women getting hired in record numbers to lead these DEI efforts.

Speaker 2 (56:00):
And now we sit here with.

Speaker 13 (56:01):
Three hundred and fifty thousand black women who have been fired.
Jobs have been eliminated over the last twelve months or so.
In this country, we see institutions eliminating their diversity and
equity and inclusion departments, renaming them coming up with novel
ways again to try to sustain themselves in this period

(56:24):
of attack.

Speaker 3 (56:25):
Famed civil rights attorney and author of several best selling
books at Riva Martin, thank you so much for sharing
your time with us here on the BIM. We hope
to have you back soon. We're going to have some
great conversations that I would love for you to be
a part of. This is Doug Davis and you're listening
to the Black Information Network and the Black Perspective.

Speaker 1 (56:42):
Thanks Doug. Henareva and that's our show for today. For
more on these stories, listen to the Black Information Network
on the free iHeartRadio app for log on Tobinnews dot
com for all of the latest news impacting the black community.
We would love to hear from you about the Black Perspective.
Log on to the Black Information Networks Talkback Live feature
on the iHeartRadio app as well as the new feature

(57:04):
on binnews dot com to share your feedback. Also, be
sure to follow us on social media at Black Information
Network and on the X and Blue Sky at black
Info net And make the Black Information Network first on
your car radio and iHeartRadio app precepts. I'm Mike Island.
Have a great Sunday and start to your month. We'll
see you next week with a new episode of The

(57:26):
Black Perspective with stories from our great BION anchors right
here on the Black Information Network.

Speaker 14 (57:32):
The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed in this commentary are
those of the author and do not necessarily represent those
of bi IN and its founding partners and employees.

Speaker 6 (57:44):
Now it's time to bring the funk with Roland S.

Speaker 2 (57:47):
Martin.

Speaker 15 (57:47):
I keep telling y'all, Maga is deranged. So after the
Saturday attempted shooting at the White House Correspondence Dinner, Donald
Trump goes before the cameras of the White House and declares,
this is why my White House ballroom needs to be built.

Speaker 2 (58:09):
Seriously, is that what we're doing? First of all, let
me explain something, y'all.

Speaker 15 (58:15):
The White House does not control the White House Correspondence Dinner.
That is a dinner, a fundraiser put on by the
White House Correspondence Association that is not controlled by the
White House. Second of all, the dinner is attended by

(58:37):
more than two thousand people. This ballroom that Donald Trump
wants to build won't even seat one thousand people. What
are we talking about here? And so now all of
these MAGA people, build a ballroom, Build a ballroom, build
the ballroom. Build a ballroom, y'all, the person who was

(58:59):
the eye occup it of the White House is invited
to this dinner. The White House ballroom would be paid
for or the event would be paid for by taxpayers.
This is how stupid these people are. It literally makes
no sense to me. And so all of these MAGA
accounts are repeating the exact same thing. And now you got,

(59:21):
you know, Senator Fetterman of Pennsylvania saying same thing. Oh, Democrats,
just stop complaining, build a ballroom. The event wouldn't even
be held in the ballroom if the ballroom existed. This
is just dumb, but it goes to show you how
MAGA will just follow anything. This man says, I'm Roland

(59:43):
Martin on the Black Information Network