March 25, 2023 • 53 mins
In honor of Women's History Month, I sat down with Councilwoman and Mayor Pro Tem, Roxy Nedebumadu.
In November 2019, Roxy made history by being the youngest woman elected to serve the City of Bowie, MD as Councilwoman and the first African American woman to represent District 4 in the City.
We discuss her background, vision for the City of Bowie, the largest municipality in Prince George's County, and why Millenials and Gen Z'ers should become more involved politically in their communities.
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:03):
Hi, welcome to another edition of All Politics
is Local with me, your host,Tamara Davis Brown.
I am so excited today on thisepisode to bring a guest, a
young millennial.
She'll let us define.
I I can never get thosegenerations correctly, but she
(00:23):
is the city councilwoman forDistrict 4 for the city of
Bowie.
And she's also Mayor Pro Tem.
And we have with us CouncilwomanRoxy Ndebu Madhu.
So welcome, Councilwoman.
We're so glad to have you again.
As I indicated, um uh mydaughter was the inspiration for
(00:46):
this podcast.
She said if you wanted to reacha younger generation, we're not
reading emails, we're not doingall this other stuff that you're
doing.
That's your generation.
Start a podcast and start tointerview people our age and get
them more active and involved.
The whole purpose of the podcastis to move our millennials, Gen
(01:09):
Zers from just the ballot box toactually action.
And so I want to talk to you alittle bit about who you are,
um, who you represent in thecity of Bowie, what are some of
your um plans politically, um,some of your platform that you
hope to accomplish while you areum city councilwoman in the city
(01:31):
of Bowie.
So we'll just jump right in.
Why don't you tell us a littlebit about yourself?
Welcome.
SPEAKER_01 (01:36):
Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me,
Tamara.
And I'm so it tickles me thatyour daughter found me.
And I have to ask you one day inmore detail how, what made her
even come across my profile?
Because I find that sofascinating.
But thank you for giving me theopportunity to spend this, spend
morning with you on thisSaturday.
(01:56):
And just thank you for all thatyou're doing to mobilize and
energize Gen Z and millennialsand exennials and everybody else
that's out there.
Um, okay, a little bit aboutmyself.
Where does my story begin so,so, so long ago?
I am the daughter of a Nigerianimmigrant who came here many,
many, many years ago and had me.
(02:18):
Um, I was born at PrinceGeorge's County Community
Hospital, so I've been a PrinceGeorgian for literally all my
life.
I spent a significant amount oftime in Nigeria growing up
because that's where my mom isfrom and that's where my dad
lived at the time.
And we still have a significantpart of our family that's still
there.
However, I spent my time goingto school in Hyattesville,
(02:40):
that's where I started myeducation, and then I ended up
going to Bowie High School afterthat, and then I graduated from
Largo High School.
So bred and raised in PrinceGeorge's County, but then after
high school, I started mycareer, or if you would say my
matriculation into college atMorgan State University because
I had this burning desire to bea nurse.
(03:00):
I wanted to take care of people.
My mother was a nurse.
I came from a family of kind ofhealthcare practitioners, if you
will, in different regards, andbusiness people.
And so I started at Morgan StateUniversity.
But when Morgan lostaccreditation, I was like, oh,
it's time to get my bags andlet's get up out of here because
this degree is not gonna meananything.
And so I left.
(03:21):
I transferred to HowardUniversity at that time and
continued my studies, but thistime in healthcare sciences,
because I had learned I didn'twant to work in a hospital all
day.
I just didn't want to do that,and I learned that that wasn't
for me after going throughclinicals.
So transferred to Howard, andthat's when I switched to my
major, and I started pursuingmore of this business track, if
(03:43):
you will, because I was justmore fascinated by that.
Upon graduating from Howard, ithit me that I didn't really want
to go into business the way thatmost traditional people would,
like a comms major or likemanagement, that type of thing.
I wanted to actually go intotechnology because when you grow
up in Nigeria as well, you see asignificant lack of
(04:06):
infrastructure and you see howthere's a significant lack of
access to opportunity, andtechnology has that opportunity
to bridge that gap.
So I pivoted, I started mycareer at Microsoft.
After I left Microsoft, I wasthere for quite some time.
I went to Twitch, which is anAmazon-owned company, an online
streaming platform, and I wantedto continue this theme of
(04:27):
serving.
And so I went into trust andsafety because I had this
superwoman power thing goingthat I wanted to defend
democracy.
So I went into trust and safetycombating online harms, where
I'm getting ready to leave thatcompany now and start my own.
So it's been quite a journey.
I'm still in my 20s.
I feel like I've lived a wholelife.
(04:48):
Um, but I'm just gettingstarted.
SPEAKER_00 (04:50):
Oh wow.
So that that is a fascinating,um, fascinating story.
So shout out to Howard.
I'm a Howard Law graduate.
SPEAKER_01 (04:57):
You know.
You know.
Okay, sorry.
SPEAKER_00 (05:00):
Um, but yeah, so yeah, very, very fascinating.
So you are you are a true PrinceGeorgian.
Yeah, you were born and raised,and um that's that's excellent.
I guess with respect to Twitch,because I think I just saw that
um when I read your bio umreread it recently, that
(05:21):
platform deals with trying toensure, because you hear a lot
about um particularly girls andhigh school girls having
self-esteem problems, mentalhealth issues, suicidal thoughts
as a result of of things thatthey view and see on social
media.
Is that what you mean by umharms in social media and what
(05:47):
you were covering in thataspect?
And um if if not ex explain itand then explain what you plan
to do with your own business nowthat you're gonna be a startup
doing that.
SPEAKER_01 (05:59):
So, yes, that's a component of it.
It's a harm is external andinternal.
However, I'm I just want to flagthat I'm not speaking on behalf
of Twitch.
I'm not a spokesperson for them,so all of my thoughts are my
own.
But essentially, when I talkabout combating online harms, I
mean about I I I'm talking abouteverything that deals with
(06:19):
safety on the internet.
So that's talking aboutgovernment and government
relations and governmenttakedowns, that's talking about
misinformation anddisinformation, that's talking
about community guidelines andcontent guidelines.
So when you're uploading thingsto a service or when you decide
to use a service, there are aset of community guidelines that
you can send to.
And so what happens is that ifyou violate those community
(06:42):
guidelines, the social mediaplatform can suspend your
account or actually outright banyou.
And so my team focuses on thingslike that.
Part of it is also, I don'tnecessarily know that I think
the industry is as proactive.
And when I say proactive, I meandoing deep dive research into
how social media platformsaffect children or how they
(07:05):
affect just mental um mentalbehavioral aspects.
I don't necessarily thinkthere's a social media platform
out here that's as proactive inthat area.
So I hope that we get to that asa future state that platforms
are proactively looking at whatare the mental health impacts of
this particular algorithm orthis particular policy or this
(07:26):
particular product feature.
But I don't think the industryis there yet by any means
necessary.
As it pertains to my ownbusiness, I honestly got tired
in corporate America of peoplekind of wanting to dictate my
impact level or wanting to tellme how to make an impact or how
(07:46):
to contribute.
And I found that when you workfor corporate entities, it's
kind of like they want tocontain you and restrict you and
confine you in these boxes andtell you what your contribution
or what your persona should bebecause they want you to fit
into a mold.
And that's been something I'vestruggled with my entire life.
And so I got tired of that,quite frankly.
(08:08):
And there was a problem that wasalways near and dear to me that
evolved as a solution over timewhen I decided to pivot.
So my company does two things.
We're a digital innovationconsultant firm, but we also
plan on launching a product inyears to come.
The product aspect of it is apersonal development tool on the
front-end facing side.
(08:29):
And the back-end-facing side ofit is an HR management tool that
helps enterprise companies beable to manage and build better
teams, but also learn whensomething is going wrong from
the insights, the scrubbedinsights that they're getting
from the professionaldevelopment of the end user to
be able to proactively mitigatethat and allow people to
flourish in a way that they canflourish.
(08:51):
And it allows the company to beable to leverage their unique
talents and their unique giftsto comprise better teams and
give them better opportunities,quite frankly.
Because the reality is everybodydoesn't want to be promoted,
everybody doesn't want to get toC-suite, and everybody doesn't
want to be a manager.
So, how can you carve out aspace to allow them to
contribute in a way that's mostmeaningful for the company, but
(09:12):
also most meaningful for them?
And then if there is a sense ofa HR violation or a violation or
any sort of retaliation thatmight be going on, it allows the
the HR management tool, itallows them to be able to see
that, to be able to mitigate itand provide a better experience
for the employee.
So that's the product side ofit.
(09:32):
Yeah, that's the product side ofit.
The other side of it is reallyhelping people think about brand
experience a little bitdifferently.
People talk a lot about brandmarketing and customer marketing
and sales funnels and salescycles and all those other great
buzzwords.
However, they don't think aboutthe holistic experience that a
(09:54):
consumer, and we're allconsumers, that a consumer has
from the introductory, theintroduction to the product to
the end of the product and howthey infuse it in their life.
They just think about it from anisolated perspective of how do I
get you to buy this thing rightnow?
And what do I need to do tomarket to you so you get you to
buy this thing?
But they're not thinking aboutthe holistic cycle.
(10:14):
And so when we think about umdigital innovation, it's infused
in every aspect of the journeyfor the consumer, and that's
what we want to focus on.
SPEAKER_00 (10:23):
Okay, wow, that's interesting.
Well, congratulations on uhstepping out on faith and
starting your own business andand really um making an impact.
Um I I can see where that isdefinitely needed in the um
technology world and HR world,and I wish you much success on
(10:46):
that.
But let's pivot and let's talkabout why you decided to run for
office, uh, what what galvanizedyou, what you know, what was
that triggered that said, hey, II want to run to for office and
and become city councilwoman forDistrict 4 of the uh city of
Bowie.
First, tell us and tell thosewho are listening what
(11:09):
communities within the city ofBowie does District 4 cover?
SPEAKER_01 (11:13):
So District 4 covers South Bowie, Pointer Ridge is
another big pocket andeverything south of um
Mitchellville Road, 301 and 214.
So that's my population.
It's kind of like the newerareas of Bowie, if you will.
So you have like the Bowie TownCenter, that's District 3.
So behind the Bowie Town Centergoing towards 301, that's all
(11:34):
District 4.
SPEAKER_02 (11:35):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (11:35):
Um so if you think about the Wawa and the new
development that's coming up onum is off of 301, that's in my
district that's coming online.
And so I would like I would sayit's kind of like the newer
areas of Bowie, if you will.
That's pretty much District 4.
But in terms of why did I runfor office, wow.
So I have to give credit wherecredit is due, because I wasn't
(11:57):
one of those kids that said, I'mgonna be president of the United
States one day.
No, that wasn't me.
Um, I was much, I was living mybest life when I was younger to
some degree.
I was at the Go Go's, um, downin Sutland.
I was not thinking about how Imight be the most buttoned-up A
student so that I can bepresident of the United States
one day.
No.
(12:18):
I was at Microsoft actuallysitting in a boardroom.
I had a mentor at the time, hisname is Fred Humphries, and I
will always pay credit to FredHumphries because Fred was a big
part of my life.
Fred said to me one day, he waslike, Roxy, I think you should
run for office.
And I looked at Fred just likeI'm looking, you know, I was
like, Fred, are you okay?
I don't think they never electanybody like me.
(12:39):
Like, I'm a little out there.
Like, it's got gold nails, lookat all the books behind me,
bright orange.
Like, I'm a little out there.
So I was like, are you sure?
He was like, you know, Roxy,you're kind of outspoken.
You know, you care a lot aboutadvocacy because of how you grew
up.
Like, there's a lot there.
I think you should run foroffice.
And I was like, I don't knowabout all that.
So when someone puts a bug in myhair, I'm gonna do my due
(13:02):
diligence.
So I did.
I went to www.runforoffice.org.
I put in my address and I said,What am I even able to run for?
Like, where do I even start?
How do I find out?
So I went to that website.
On that website, it listed acity council race that was
coming up.
And I was like, hmm, this isinteresting.
(13:22):
But the crazy part about it, itwas nearing the end of August.
So I was like, yo, this electionis in November.
We're already at the end ofAugust, getting into September.
That's a little quick.
And there are a lot of people inthis constituency.
You're talking about an upwardsof like 25,000 people.
So in my in District 4, in thecity of Bowie, I really would
(13:45):
tell you it's above 70,000.
But so I said, you know, this isa pretty short amount of time.
So what I did was I spoke to, Imet this young man.
His name is Brandon Cooper.
Brandon later on in this storybecame agreed to become my
advisor.
SPEAKER_02 (14:00):
And no, yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_01 (14:02):
So Brandon, I'm like, Brandon, I don't know.
Brandon's like, Roxy, you shouldrun.
Just go ahead and do it.
The worst that's gonna happen isthat you're gonna lose.
And I was like, that's true.
But at the end of the day, I'mstill gonna have a job.
I'm still gonna be a betterperson.
I would have learned so manythings about what's important to
people.
Who do I have to lose?
(14:22):
So I did it.
I filed to run for office aroundSeptember 7th.
We launched a campaign September15th, and the election was
November 6th.
So we ran for about, I want tosay about 45 days, somewhere
around there.
And the crazy part about it isthat I ran against four other
people and won by 16 votes.
One by 16 votes.
(14:44):
Nuts, crazy.
Because we didn't expect to winwhatsoever.
Like, I mean, I was one of the,I was the second to last person
that registered for that race.
And was running against otherpeople that had been running for
an entire year.
So to go back to your question,what made me decide to run was
my mentor.
Because my mentor saw somethingin me that I didn't see in
(15:04):
myself that I didn't think wasgoing to be relatable to people.
So that was the first thing.
The second thing was when Ithought about his suggestion,
and I thought about howpassionate I was about defending
democracy, protecting community,preserving community, but also
at the same time making surethat communities like ours have
(15:25):
opportunity and have access toopportunity.
I was like, you're right, thereis no better person for this.
And honestly, if people don'tresonate with me, then that's
fine.
At the end of the day, I stillhave me.
I still told my story.
I still owned my narrative and Itold people what it was that I
wanted to do for them.
And if they resonated with that,I loved it.
(15:45):
If they didn't, then I alsoloved it for them.
Because that means that theychose the best person for the
job at that time and what thejob needed.
So that was the reason why Iran.
SPEAKER_00 (15:54):
Great, great, great.
Interesting story.
Interesting story.
So what do you think didresonate with voters?
What what was it in yourplatform?
What was it that you spokepassionately about that did
resonate with voters as youknocked on doors or as you
talked to people, you know, inthe shopping center, you know,
(16:15):
at the Wawa, um, where wherewherever you met them?
Um, what was it about what yousaid that you think actually won
the voters over?
SPEAKER_01 (16:25):
I think the first thing was it was authenticity.
I think when people knew thatthey were voting for me or when
they met me, they knew that theywere getting me.
They knew that they weren'tgetting a seasoned or a
politician or politicaloperative, if you will.
They knew they were gettingsomebody that had understand
experiences, had been throughthings that was at least going
(16:46):
to try an unconventionalapproach to bring solutions to
the forefront because I was notthe typical norm, if you will.
Right.
And so I think the authenticitypiece was what was what
resonated with them.
And I'll tell you really brieflya quick story and then I'll I'll
get to the other part of thequestion.
I remember when I sent out my mylast mass text, no, it was a
(17:06):
second to last mass text.
I said to people, I was like,hey, my name is Roxy, I'm
running for office, newgeneration, new voice.
Um, I really hope to earn yoursupport.
And if you want to learn moreabout me, please go to my
website.
I've recorded this video, butI've also listed out the things
that I care about and that Ithink need to change in our
community.
I had an I had a woman who textme back who said, How dare you
(17:28):
violate my privacy and text meon my cell phone?
You politicians are getting outof control.
What's wrong with you?
And my heart was broken.
I was like, oh my gosh, how cansomeone think of me this way?
So I text her back because Iresponded to all the text
messages.
I literally respond toeverything if I see it.
So I text her back and I said,ma'am, I can assure you, number
(17:48):
one, I can't even see youractual phone number.
I'm using a system.
And number two, I work afull-time job and I'm running
for office.
I got into the late really,really, I got into the race
really, really late.
But I really wanted to be ableto use the resources at my
disposal, at my disposal, tomake sure you knew who I was and
reach you where you were.
But it was never my intent toviolate your privacy because I
(18:10):
can assure you I can't even sayyour phone number.
And she was just like, wow, thefact that you took the time to
respond to me and really betruthful and explain.
I've gone to your website.
Thank you for helping me, right?
So the day of election, I go tothe booth and she walks up to
me.
She said, Do you remember me?
I said, No.
(18:32):
Can I remember you?
Because I don't know if this isa trick question here.
So she said, I'm the woman youwere texting who got upset that
you text me and I just voted foryou.
Oh, we took a picture, it becamea story, and all this other
stuff.
SPEAKER_00 (18:45):
That is a fabulous story.
SPEAKER_01 (18:47):
It was the authenticity piece of being
honest and just not ignoringsomebody, not saying, Oh, people
are gonna be angry, let them beangry.
No, telling the truth andmeeting them where they are.
The other things that I thinkpeople really resonated with was
the stuff that we were trying todo around technology and for
children and bring communitiestogether.
(19:07):
The stuff that we were lookingto do around the budget.
I am a fiscal conservativethrough and through and through.
Um I've learned that from my ownascension to from poverty to
what you would call the top 10%.
I've learned that ascension.
And I've learned how things areset up for it to be a barrier
for you to be able to get there.
(19:27):
It's like the higher and thehigher and the higher you go,
the more hurdles and hurdles andhurdles present themselves.
The more, the more areas thatpop up and things of that sort
that make it harder for you toget there, make it harder for
you to pay your bills, make itharder for you to be able to
provide new things.
And the last thing that I wouldever want to do on earth is tell
people that I'm gonna continueto raise taxes to provide
(19:49):
services and duplications thatare already offered in other
areas.
That's not helping people, one,leverage their resources and
have access to their money.
That's me asking them to give itto me.
And I don't I don't believe inthat.
And so for me, it was aroundbalancing the budget and making
sure that our budget continuesto stay in a fiscally strong
(20:11):
state, but also being likeconservative and really being
able to assess where there'sduplication, being able to
assess where we're spendingunnecessary money so that we
don't ask our presidents to payfor inefficiency.
And then I think the last piecewas around small businesses.
My mom was a small businessowner, she owned dollar stores
when we were growing up.
Um, when she was becoming anurse, we had a dollar store in
(20:33):
Glen Arden.
We also had a dollar store inCamp Springs.
So I'm very familiar withpermitting processes and also
just the struggles and howdifficult it is for small
businesses when you have largercorporations that are looking to
monopolize and go intofranchisees in the name of doing
it for small businesses, butthat's not what the actual
experience becomes.
And what ended up putting mymother out of business was a
(20:55):
Dollar Tree.
A Dollar Tree came around thecorner and ended up putting us
out of business because wecouldn't compete with them
anymore.
They had access to largermanufacturers, they had
different manufacturingrelationships that a small
business owner couldn't get.
And the relationships that wehad were in DC, if you guys are
familiar with what is now unionmarket, that used to be a
warehouse area for smallbusinesses to go and get
(21:17):
merchandising.
That's not that anymore becausethat those costs have gone up
and those larger corporationshave come in.
And so those are the things thatI said that I wanted to change
for my community.
Now I know that it was difficultin the beginning because COVID
hit and we had to legislatethrough COVID and make sure that
we were making sure that thecommunity was safe from a health
(21:38):
perspective and also from afinancial perspective when
different things were hittingus, because we had to figure out
how to provide vaccinations forour community and figure out how
to partner with the state.
But I believe in this shortamount of time, I would say
within this two years, becauseI'm gonna give a year to COVID,
within this two years, that I'vebeen able to deliver on the
things that I said that I wasgoing to do.
And one that remains to be seen,which is the budget, which I
(22:00):
promise you would get done thisApril.
Um and I think I've been able todeliver, and that's probably why
they voted for me.
SPEAKER_00 (22:07):
Excellent, excellent, excellent.
I love that story, love thatstory.
And also tell me um your termbegan when, and is it is it it's
a four-year term, and so it endswhen?
SPEAKER_01 (22:19):
Yeah, so my term began in November of 2019.
That's when I was 26, is when Ifirst won.
Term ends this year in November.
I do plan on running forre-election.
Um and so we serve four-yearterms.
So it ends this year inNovember, and the election is
the um, I want to say I thinkit's November 6th or 7th of this
year.
SPEAKER_00 (22:39):
Okay.
So um you mentioned being afiscal um conservative, so let's
uh let's um get the the elephantin the room.
(23:08):
Uh you're a young black womanand you are a registered
Republican.
So tell us, um you you spoke alittle bit about being a fiscal
um conservative, but tell uswhat resonates with the
Republican Party and why you diddecide to um register, you know,
run as a registered Republican.
SPEAKER_01 (23:30):
So there was a point in my time when I was a
Democrat, when I was younger.
And I think for me, I was thatbecause I felt like people
always told me that I was.
Every time I meet somebody, theyautomatically assume that
because I'm black, that I'm aDemocrat.
Right.
And when I got out of college, Istarted to research for myself
(23:52):
to figure out.
I think I had a sh a pre-lifecrisis.
I can't call it a midlifecrisis.
I haven't reached the middle ofmy life, but I had a pre-life
crisis where I was like, what ismy identity?
Like, who am I?
What am I?
Like, what is what is this?
Like, I had two jobs when I wasin college, I had an internship
trying to get into corporateAmerica.
Like, what am I?
Like, what am I doing?
And so I started looking upvalues and solutions and
(24:17):
legislation.
And I looked up the RepublicanParty and I looked up the
Democratic Party.
I looked up, I took all types oftests where it's it asked you,
what do you care about, what doyou not care about, things of
that sort.
And I found out that I actuallywas much more aligned with
conservative values than I waswith democratic values.
(24:37):
But there was a caveat to that.
Let me tell you the caveat.
Because I think today we are soquick to tribalize people.
And I see it too because I, andas being a Nigerian, we have
different tribes in Nigeria.
You have Alza, you have Yoruba,you have Egbo, we're all
tribalized andcompartmentalized.
And if you're with this tribe,it means this.
And if you're with that tribe,it means this.
(24:59):
But that's not what modern daypolitics means to me.
Just because I'm a registeredRepublican does not mean that I
resonate with every Republicanvalue.
And so for me, it was the value,it was the premise of the
Republican Party that I alignedwith, which was around
businesses and small employees,fostering small business and
(25:20):
creating an incubation for smallbusiness.
It was around the mechanisms ofopportunity, how you go about
providing opportunity.
It was around certainlegislation.
I studied healthcare.
I understand the healthcarelaws, I understand providing
insurance for everybody.
We studied that very copiouslyfor a lot of years.
And it was the way that theywent about the solutions and the
(25:44):
embracing of opportunity, theembracing of achievement, the
reminding people that you cansucceed, you can have the
quality of life that you dreamof, and everybody's quality of
life does not look the same.
And what frustrated me is Istarted to become a little bit
more aware, and I'm not aspokesperson to get anybody here
(26:04):
to join the Republican Party.
Make your own decisions becauseyou're your own individual.
But my frustrations, it almostfelt like the Democratic Party
started telling me how I neededto be.
There were so many caps and somany ceilings around certain
programs that weren't asempowering anymore.
It was if you stayed in thisparticular box and bubble and
(26:24):
you had access to this.
And if you stayed over here, youhad access to that.
And if you got over here, youstopped getting access and we
didn't help you as much.
And then we kind of placed theburden on you instead, and that
dynamic started to shift.
And so I think as mycircumstances in life started to
shift, my awareness levelstarted to shift, but my values
were always there.
(26:45):
I've always had the same values.
Those values never strayed awaybecause integrity is important
to me.
But I think where most peopleget confused when it comes to my
persona and my political, Iguess you would say,
affiliation, is that I am verymuch so aligned on certain
social issues.
(27:05):
And I don't even want to callthem social issues, because to
be honest, Tamara, I find thatterm to be very demeaning.
Because certain things are notsocial issues.
You talk about abortion andhealthcare, those are not social
issues.
Those are essential issues thatare an integral part of how you
survive in this world becausethey're essential to your life.
But as somebody who got pregnantat a very young age, faced
(27:27):
sexual assault at a very youngage, and actually got pregnant
and had an abortion because ofthat traumatic experience.
There are certain things thatI'm aligned with and there are
certain things that are I'm notaligned with because I speak
from a place of experience.
I don't speak from a place ofwhat I think the universe should
be doing.
I speak because I live this.
I lived domestic assault with mymother.
(27:49):
We lived that life.
I lived poverty.
I lived not having health care.
I didn't have health care untilI turned, I want to say almost
like 20.
So when I first got access tohealthcare before that, I was
going to the hospital andeverything that happened to me
got placed on my bill.
And so when I turned 18, mycredit score was already a 480.
I was already starting at adisadvantage.
(28:10):
I paid for my college.
I did that.
I wasn't even able to take outloans.
And when I got to the point thatI did, I was able to take out
loans, I couldn't even reallyget grants.
So I had to take out loans.
But the interest rate was sofreaking high, and the
institutions kept raising mytuition price that I couldn't
even barely keep up.
(28:31):
And so I had to have multiplejobs to try to alleviate the
cost.
And so I think for me, it doesnot make sense to have similar
voices in the same room.
My values are aligned with theRepublican Party.
I believe I belong in thoserooms for the black community
because those voices are not asprevalent on that side.
(28:52):
So I believe I belong there forthat reason because of my values
and because the way I approachsolutions, it's always going to
be at promoting opportunity andallowing people to live the
quality of life that they dreamof because you are deserving of
that.
And that's the promise of theConstitution.
That's why it's there.
(29:12):
That's the purpose of it.
And so that's the purpose thatI'm living in.
SPEAKER_00 (29:16):
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
SPEAKER_01 (29:18):
You better.
SPEAKER_00 (29:20):
I like that.
That that I I'm I hey, if I wasliving in District 4, that would
resonate with me.
It really would.
It really would.
I I um enjoy that perspectiveand I understand that
perspective, and I and I I seeit.
Excellent.
SPEAKER_01 (29:36):
And that doesn't mean that the Democratic Party
doesn't have some good solution.
I'm all for bipartisanship.
There's nothing that boils myblood more than partisanship.
When people say, Oh, I can'twork with you because you're a
Democrat, oh, I can't work withyou because you're a Republican.
SPEAKER_02 (29:47):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (29:47):
There's nuance to everything.
Everything is not black andwhite.
And so I think, in order for usto have the solutions that are
most reflective of America, ithas to come from Democratic and
Republican places because at thesame time, that's reflective of
our.
Constituency.
We're not a monolith.
SPEAKER_00 (30:02):
That's right.
That's right.
Yeah, no, I I wholeheartedlyagree with you on that.
One thing that I've learnedabout you, and this again, this
is my first time meeting you, myfirst time talking to you, but
you don't like to be put inboxes, whether that's in
corporate America or I doubt orin your political affiliations.
And so that's good.
You're free I won't even sayfree spirited, but you know what
(30:26):
matters to you, you know um yourset of values, and you speak
truth to that.
You speak truth to those values,you speak truth and power to
what is important to you.
And I I can see why you won thatrace, I can see why voters
resonated with you with that,and I love the fact that you
(30:48):
said that um you wanted to be avoice in the room for the
Republican Party, for you know,that black representation, that
younger generation, womengeneration, if you will.
Um, and I love that.
And and to to be honest, I don'tknow if I've I've thought about
it that in that way, in thatlight, but I'm fully persuaded.
(31:12):
Yeah.
I'm fully persuaded and I lovethat.
Okay, so um you talked a littlebit about um your term being up
and what you've been able toaccomplish, and obviously the
first two years, again, you hadthe every local government,
state government, federalgovernment had to pivot and
figure out how we handle andcome out of this COVID crisis.
(31:33):
Um, but are there other thingsum on your platform that you'd
like to um focus on for the cityof Bowie?
And you said you were you wereplanning to run for office again
for re-election.
And so what is the focus for thenext four years?
What would you tell a voter umwhy they should um re-elect you
(31:56):
as councilwoman for districtfour?
SPEAKER_01 (31:59):
I'm gonna be honest with you and tell you that I
don't have the answer to thatyet because I don't want to sit
here and uh give soundbite clipsof uh uh getting people riled up
and trying to generateexcitement and energy when I'm
still reflecting on that myself.
And I think when I do approachthat time, it needs to be
(32:21):
intentional and authentic.
And I don't know that I have theanswer yet.
But I will tell you, there isone thing that has been on my
heart for a really long timethat I didn't do this term, I
didn't get a chance to, but wedid it in increments, like two
things.
We established a partnershipwith Rosetta Stone and we
established a partnership withCoursera, and we gave residents
(32:42):
the Rosetta Stone um uhpartnership got held up in like
negotiations, legalnegotiations, in terms of the
contract agreement.
But we did establish theCoursera partnership and we gave
residents access to licenses forone year.
So if you wanted to get Courseraand learn a new skill, we gave
you access to that for free, aplatform that normally costs
(33:04):
about five to six hundreddollars.
And then we also were givingaway Google scholarships.
So if you wanted to get Googlecertified or Salesforce
certified, we gave you ascholarship to do that, and at
the end of the completion ofthat certification, they would
pair you directly with therecruiter, and you'd have access
to jobs starting out at$85,000.
And so that was something thatwe did um this year that was
(33:24):
along the lines of what it laidthe groundwork for the things
that have been pulling at myhard heartstrings.
But I've always had this dreamof well, I've not always had it,
I've had it since I've been inoffice.
I've had this dream of buildinga community slash innovation
center and partnering withcertain other companies to do
(33:46):
it.
Because what I have found to betrue over my time in office and
before I even got to office ispeople don't understand our
culture, and people don'tunderstand the essence of human
ingenuity and how beautiful itis and how powerful it is.
And when I was in New York thispast weekend, because I went to
(34:07):
go speak at the UN for umWomen's History Month about
women's gender equity, and Iwent to this exhibit called Hip
Hop Conscious Unconscious, andit took me through the time of
how hip hop was the pillar ofthe African-American community
from when it first began, andthe beauty and the essence and
(34:30):
the amalgamation of like cultureand history that came from that
and the movements that itstarted, kind of like a
zeitgeist, if you will.
And when I was in there, I waslike, yo, this has been on my
heart to create this center thatinfuses culture, infuses
learning, infuses innovation,products, and gives people a
(34:52):
place to gather and havecommunity.
So let me bring that down andspeak to you in layman's terms.
What that means is having aco-working space for if you want
to work remotely that day, yougot this place to go to and work
remotely.
And it's it's it's of access toyou because it's a community
center.
There's a cafe there, there's acoffee shop, there's a cafe by
your local budding uhrestaurateur, your budding chef
(35:13):
that's that's trying to find aplace to get started.
There's a space there for him orher, or there's a there's a
top-notch kitchen.
If you're learning how to cook,go in there and rent time and
rent space and practice yourrecipes.
You're you're you're you'retrying to apply for a food
contest network show.
Go in there and practice.
Go in there, film.
There's a state-of-the-artproduction center.
(35:34):
Great.
You want to work with hip hop,you want to become an artist?
Why don't you learn how tobecome a sound engineer too?
Why don't you learn how to dothe take one, take two, whatever
they call it, but I'm not asnow.
Okay, you want to learnrobotics?
There's an AI and roboticsfacility in there.
Why don't you go learn that?
Okay, but you're passionateabout farming, green space,
sustainability,climate-friendly.
(35:54):
There's a state-of-the-artagricultural center.
There's a green space in there.
Why don't you go in there andlearn about that and learn about
how that triculates to society?
I've always dreamed of havingthe center of all of those
different components in therethat bring community together
because it has differentaspects.
You want to start a business,you're looking for grant
funding, well, there's anincubation hub right in there.
(36:15):
And it has direct ties toventure capital funding that our
communities typically don't haveaccess to, that you just now
have access to in that center.
I've always dreamed of havingthis in one place, but I don't
know.
I just don't know if the climateis ready for that.
And that's been the kind of likepause for me in terms of going
(36:36):
full throttle with that.
Um, but I see the need for it.
But my question starts to becomedoes everybody really see the
need for it?
And so that's one of the biggerthings that I want to do that
can be done in a short, arelatively short time frame
because we already have land forit.
I mean, you have the old IceArena, you have the Ken Hill
Center, we already have the landfor it.
(36:57):
Um it's just about knowing thatthere's an appetite for it and
attracting the private sectordollars that it would need to be
able to bring it to fruition.
And that would also take certaincapital improvement costs off of
the city, to be quite honestwith you, and put it back in the
budget so that we also don'thave to raise taxes.
SPEAKER_00 (37:14):
That's great.
That's great.
I love that.
I love that idea.
So, Bowie, um, this podcast umcan be accessed nationwide.
So a lot of people may not knowabout Prince George's County and
Bowie, like what we do, butPrince George's County is a
county in southern um Maryland,right outside of the District of
(37:35):
Columbia.
We're considered part of thequote unquote DMV district of
Columbia, Maryland, andVirginia.
And Bowie is the largestmunicipality within Prince
George's County.
It has its own mayor, it has itsown council, um, has its own
police force, all of the all ofthose uh good things.
(37:57):
Tell our listeners um aboutBowie as a as a place to live
and why um they should um moveto Bowie, move to District 4 in
particular.
You talked about some newdevelopment that's that's coming
along.
Um but um I know personally thatit's a very progressive um um
municipality and very powerfulmunicipality actually in our
(38:19):
county.
Like I said, it's the largestmunicipality.
Um but tell our listeners, thosewho of you in um listening for
the first time or um don't quiteknow anything about the city of
Bowie, uh just a little bitabout that, and then we'll we'll
we'll close on um how we canencourage millennials, Gen Zs to
(38:40):
get more involved, to movebeyond the ballot box and move
to action and maybe some of theaction things that you'd like to
see residents in the city ofBowie, Prince Georgia's County,
or nationwide really getinvolved in.
I know that was a a mouthful,but we'll I can we can go back
to the last part.
But let's let's talk a littlebit about the city of Bowie.
SPEAKER_01 (39:01):
And getting so excited because Bowie is
amazing, it's a wonderful place.
And I've been here since 1999,so I'm biased.
Well, what I will say is Bowieis the largest municipality in
Prince George's County, and wealso have the largest budget in
Prince George's County at$77.4million.
So we are a pretty powerfulmunicipality, and we're also
(39:23):
just just pretty large.
Like we're very sophisticated,very established, and very
robust in terms of how weapproach things.
But it's interesting that youasked this question because we
just did a branding exercise anda branding study where we got a
branding firm to come out andjust do that research to really
tell us in our constituents'words what makes Bowie so
(39:44):
energetic and energizing.
The way that I would describeBowie, I would describe it as a
vibrant community that's veryengaged, filled with very
passionate, successful, and umpeople with a certain level of
bravado and gravitas.
(40:04):
Honestly, like I that's just theway that I would describe buoy
residents, to be honest withyou, um, especially those in
District 4.
We are known for havingresidents that are very actively
engaged, that are very concernedabout their community, that want
an active voice and an activeseat at the table.
We are also known for ouramenities.
(40:26):
We have a number of amenities.
We've got a golf course, we'vegot various tennis courses,
we've got the buoy based sockstadium, we've got the Buoy Town
Center, we've got South LakeDevelopment that's getting ready
to come online.
We had a movie theater for areally long time that's getting
ready to close down and becomesomething else.
So Bowie has for a long timebeen known for its amenities and
its services.
We have trash pickup do that twotimes a week.
(40:48):
We have all these differentservices and amenities that um
many other municipalities maynot have access to and don't
provide.
We've got a gymnasium, we've gota senior center, um, we've got a
hospital um called a stack here.
So we've just got so much.
Um, and it's continuing to growand it's continuing to expand.
Uh, hopefully we'll get a newschool here soon in the next
(41:10):
coming um months or years.
So there's just a number ofdifferent things that make Bowie
such a beautiful place betweenits services, between the
amenities, between the way thatwe govern, the way that our
residents are so activelyengaged, and the level of
sophistication, whether that'shistorical preservation or
that's new, embudding um peopleto the workforce.
(41:34):
It's just been known to bedynamic.
Where we, I would say we kind oflack, and I'm not gonna try to
sit here and hide from you, iswe don't have a huge, large
young population that isactively investing in Buoy.
As in what I mean is that theyare starting their lives and
their careers and their familiesand they're moving to Bowie.
(41:54):
I don't necessarily know that Isee that trend as much.
We do have Bowie StateUniversity, so that also makes
it unique that we have auniversity here.
Um, the longest and the oldesthistorically black college and
university is Bowie StateUniversity, and we have that
here.
And so we have a number ofdifferent things, but I think
over the next couple of years,what you'll see is we'll start
(42:16):
to shift our posture to keep upwith the times so that we can
attract millennials and Gen Zersto want to come and invest in
this community as well and wantto move to this community.
Because what's beautiful aboutBowie is that you're about 30
minutes from everything.
You're 30 minutes from Virginia,you're 30 minutes from DC, and
you're 30 minutes fromBaltimore.
(42:36):
So we serve as kind of thiscentral hub as somebody, as
somebody who wants to tap intoall of these neighborhoods.
Like I'm always at Fed Hill downthere in Baltimore at Inner
Harbor, or you have Virginia,Arlington, Old Town, um, Old
Town Virginia, or you have DC,you have Union Station, Union
Market, all those little areas.
And so for somebody who likesthat being a little bit of all
(42:59):
of it, it's a great centrallocation for you to take
advantage of.
They still have a certain levelof amenities that will keep you
engaged and keep you sustained.
But we will, I do think that itis our posture and it is our
intent to continue to elevatethose amenities and make sure
that we have things like livemusic, beer gardens, um,
(43:19):
different outdoor diningoptions, different high-class,
high-tier stores, because that'sthe feedback that we get most of
the time is we want to seehigher amenities and things like
that.
So we are shifting our postureto align with what it is that we
believe our constituency wants.
SPEAKER_00 (43:35):
Well, that's good.
I I live in the southern part ofthe county, so Clinton,
Maryland, not too far fromNational Harbor.
But I do like to to come toBuoy, uh PJ's uh coffee shop,
black-owned.
Yes! I go there to be a beignet!Yes.
And um tomorrow I host my bookclub and we're going to Black
(43:56):
Cow, another black-owned uhrestaurant.
And yes.
For brunch.
And we're gonna be reading.
I selected the other Westmore inhonor of our new black governor,
Westmore.
Um, so yeah, I know um Bowie tobe a bit like I I describe it as
a little bit more progressive.
You have it's it's it's aninteresting amalgamation of a
(44:20):
county, of a municipality, inthat, like you said, there's
this historic area of Buoy, butthen there's this very
progressive area.
And I do see more millennialsand Gen Zers moving in, young
families, African-Americanfamilies up and coming.
I do see them.
SPEAKER_01 (44:41):
Um just for anyone watching who's interested, South
Lake does have houses comingonline.
They are starting in, you know,I want to say the low fours all
the way up to the high eights.
So wherever you are on thatspectrum, we've got something
for you.
SPEAKER_00 (44:57):
Got something for you.
Okay, all right.
Well, you heard it here fromCouncilmember Councilmember and
Councilwoman Roxy.
One last question I forgot toask.
You are considered mayor protem.
I am.
So tell us uh what thoseresponsibilities are as mayor
pro tem, and um, and then thenwe'll kind of close on um being
(45:21):
more active and involved and notjust being a citizen who said, I
voted and okay, I've done mycivic duty.
How what else can they getinvolved in?
So, mayor pro tem, what's what'sthe mayor pro tem?
SPEAKER_01 (45:33):
So the best way to describe mayor pro tem is when
you look at the president of theUnited States and the vice
president, it's a similardynamic.
SPEAKER_03 (45:42):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (45:42):
So essentially, mayor pro tem is vice mayor.
And so essentially what happensis that you end up representing
the mayor whenever the mayor isunavailable, absent, or God
forbid something happens to themayor, you essentially become
mayor.
So it's essentially that umrepresentation of the mayor when
the mayor is unavailable,similar to the vice president
(46:03):
concept.
It's pretty much the same.
And I would definitely say theresponsibilities to me are more
attributed to leadership at thistime and making sure that things
stay on the right track andthings are getting done and
they're moving forward.
I think because we have um a lotof council members, there are
seven of us in total, you'retalking about stakeholder
management.
Now you're talking aboutcollaboration across the board
(46:25):
and making sure that people arealigned and on the same same
page.
So it's a lot of inner workingbehind the scenes and making
sure that people are movingforward.
You're corralling the troops andmaking sure that everybody stays
on target and that everything isthat things that need to be top
of mind are top of mind, andthat one, I would say people are
being seen and heard and um feellike they're included and
(46:46):
they're not left out of theconversation and solutions are
being presented, and that we'reworking together.
So it's a lot of that behind thescenes, uh, and a lot of just
really representation and makingsure that the mayor is able to
multiply because I do love ourmayor and I think he's doing a
phenomenal job.
And so being able to umrepresent him and continue to
(47:07):
make sure that buoy remains topof mind and is a part of the
conversation and that our valuesare seen and heard, and that the
things that we desire continueto be put at the forefront, even
though many people tend to lookat us like, you're a
municipality that's bougie.
You guys don't need anything.
Like, no, we do, we do, becauseif we adopt that mentality, then
we will become one of thosemunicipalities that does need a
(47:29):
lot.
So, and we don't want that.
We want to make sure that we'removing ahead of the curve and
we're being innovative.
So that's pretty much the mostpart of it behind the scenes.
SPEAKER_00 (47:39):
Right, right.
I love your mayor too.
Actually, I campaigned for himfor mayor uh Tim Adams, um first
African-American uh mayor of thecity of Bowie as well.
And so um very good, excellent.
So we're gonna end the show withum you talking about what you
(48:02):
would encourage someone your ageum or younger to do and why it's
important to not just vote andyou know and say, hey, I've done
my civic duty, but shouldactually get actively involved
in their community.
Um maybe they don't have to, youknow, rise to the level of
running for elected office, butcertainly um what would you say
(48:26):
to your generation and youngergeneration about being more
active and involved in in thecommunity?
SPEAKER_01 (48:34):
I think there are a number of ways to do that.
But I think it starts withfiguring out what area you want
to make the most impact.
Because community involvementlooks like you being a community
activist and making sure thatyou are representing issues that
matter to you to those who areelected.
Sometimes that looks likehelping those who you want to be
(48:54):
elected get elected.
Sometimes that looks likerunning for office your actual
self.
Sometimes that looks likejoining, excuse me, a city
commission or a city board orstate commission or a county
commission and being able tolend your expertise and your
advice and the perspective thatyou bring to the table to make
sure that issues that arepertaining to Gen Z and
millennials stay at theforefront.
(49:15):
Um sometimes that looks likejust getting engaged with think
tank groups.
Like I am a member and I havebeen for a very long time of the
Brookings Institution and theRobert S.
Brookings Society forMillennials and Gen Zers.
So sometimes it looks likegetting engaged in things like
that.
If you're a woman, sometimes itlooks like getting engaged in
organizations like the PolicyCircle.
The Policy Circle is anonpartisan organization for
(49:35):
women who are looking to getengaged and informed about being
more active in the community.
And they have certain learnings,briefings, I mean, it's an
amazing organization.
So I think it starts withunderstanding what area do you
want to impact and what area doyou want to get engaged.
And once you decide that,whether that's running for
office, there are a number ofdifferent organizations on both
(49:56):
sides, on the Republican sideand the Democratic side, that
are willing to jump in andsupport you.
They're nonpartisanorganizations as well.
Um, but if that looks like moreon the community side, there are
a number of different thinktanks, there are a number of
different city boards andcommittees and commissions that
you can join that are in this,that are in the city.
Um there are a number ofdifferent ways.
Um we have a lot of umcommittees like Economic
(50:19):
Development Committee, and Iactually might just start a Gen
Z Millennial Community to focuson Gen Z millennial issues,
actually, now that you gave methe thought.
Um, and then sometimes if thatlooks like being an activist, it
just means that you join otherkind of uh how do you call them,
uh, community engagement likeorganizations that help get
people elected and volunteerbehind the scenes.
(50:40):
So there are a number ofdifferent things that you can
do.
Um, what I do want to say is forthose who are interested in
learning, if you are millennialand Gen Z, I am always open to
taking anybody with me toanything that I go to.
So if I'm asked to speak at anytype of occasion, whether that's
a conference or I have access toa conference that is paid that
you might not want to pay for,um I'm always open to bringing
(51:02):
people with me.
If I have to do something forTV, I'm always open to letting
you see the behind the scenesbecause I know that that access
was not there for me.
So I'm all about giving it toothers.
And so if you ever have anythingthat I'm involved in that you're
curious about or that you'relike, oh, I want to learn more,
or I want to go to a Brookingsevent, or I want to do something
with Aspen Institute and seewhat they're doing there so I
(51:24):
could determine what engagementlooks like for me.
You're always welcome to reachout to me on Instagram because I
still am a true millennial onInstagram.
Maybe not email.
Instagram is best, and thenFacebook, and then maybe email.
SPEAKER_00 (51:37):
Excellent, excellent.
Well, I so appreciate you justspending your time with me today
to tell us a little bit moreabout you, about your um
community in Bowie, District 4,some of the aspirations, what
got you here, and I hope that itinspires our listeners and
particularly our millennials andGNZ to get up and and do more
(52:02):
and be more active in theircommunity.
I loved your story and lovedlearning and hearing about you
again for the first time.
I have to thank our daughter, uhJessica Brown, who's my
executive producer all the wayout on the West Coast, for um
finding you and saying, hey,this looks like an interesting
person that you should interviewand get more involved.
(52:25):
And we so appreciate your timeand effort, and I do plan to
keep keep in contact with youand continue to follow you on
Instagram and uh see what'swhat's what's the latest and
greatest and what's going on.
I wish you much success um inyour capacity, not only as an
elected official and your yourbid for re-election, but also in
(52:49):
your business and what you'replanning to do in that space as
well.
So thank you so much for joiningus with All Politics is local
with me, your host, Hammer DavisBrown, and we look forward to
having our listeners uh come inagain.
Please continue to subscribe andlike and download and share this
(53:11):
podcast wherever you get it,where it's it's Spotify, Google,
Apple Podcasts, we're on all theplatforms.
Um, continue to follow follow uson wherever you uh download and
listen to your podcast.
So thanks for joining us today.
And remember, let's move fromthe ballot box to action, and
(53:31):
all politics is local.
Thank you.
Hi, welcome to another edition of All Politics
is Local with me, your host,Tamara Davis Brown.
I am so excited today on thisepisode to bring a guest, a
young millennial.
She'll let us define.
I I can never get thosegenerations correctly, but she
(00:23):
is the city councilwoman forDistrict 4 for the city of
Bowie.
And she's also Mayor Pro Tem.
And we have with us CouncilwomanRoxy Ndebu Madhu.
So welcome, Councilwoman.
We're so glad to have you again.
As I indicated, um uh mydaughter was the inspiration for
(00:46):
this podcast.
She said if you wanted to reacha younger generation, we're not
reading emails, we're not doingall this other stuff that you're
doing.
That's your generation.
Start a podcast and start tointerview people our age and get
them more active and involved.
The whole purpose of the podcastis to move our millennials, Gen
(01:09):
Zers from just the ballot box toactually action.
And so I want to talk to you alittle bit about who you are,
um, who you represent in thecity of Bowie, what are some of
your um plans politically, um,some of your platform that you
hope to accomplish while you areum city councilwoman in the city
(01:31):
of Bowie.
So we'll just jump right in.
Why don't you tell us a littlebit about yourself?
Welcome.
SPEAKER_01 (01:36):
Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me,
Tamara.
And I'm so it tickles me thatyour daughter found me.
And I have to ask you one day inmore detail how, what made her
even come across my profile?
Because I find that sofascinating.
But thank you for giving me theopportunity to spend this, spend
morning with you on thisSaturday.
(01:56):
And just thank you for all thatyou're doing to mobilize and
energize Gen Z and millennialsand exennials and everybody else
that's out there.
Um, okay, a little bit aboutmyself.
Where does my story begin so,so, so long ago?
I am the daughter of a Nigerianimmigrant who came here many,
many, many years ago and had me.
(02:18):
Um, I was born at PrinceGeorge's County Community
Hospital, so I've been a PrinceGeorgian for literally all my
life.
I spent a significant amount oftime in Nigeria growing up
because that's where my mom isfrom and that's where my dad
lived at the time.
And we still have a significantpart of our family that's still
there.
However, I spent my time goingto school in Hyattesville,
(02:40):
that's where I started myeducation, and then I ended up
going to Bowie High School afterthat, and then I graduated from
Largo High School.
So bred and raised in PrinceGeorge's County, but then after
high school, I started mycareer, or if you would say my
matriculation into college atMorgan State University because
I had this burning desire to bea nurse.
(03:00):
I wanted to take care of people.
My mother was a nurse.
I came from a family of kind ofhealthcare practitioners, if you
will, in different regards, andbusiness people.
And so I started at Morgan StateUniversity.
But when Morgan lostaccreditation, I was like, oh,
it's time to get my bags andlet's get up out of here because
this degree is not gonna meananything.
And so I left.
(03:21):
I transferred to HowardUniversity at that time and
continued my studies, but thistime in healthcare sciences,
because I had learned I didn'twant to work in a hospital all
day.
I just didn't want to do that,and I learned that that wasn't
for me after going throughclinicals.
So transferred to Howard, andthat's when I switched to my
major, and I started pursuingmore of this business track, if
(03:43):
you will, because I was justmore fascinated by that.
Upon graduating from Howard, ithit me that I didn't really want
to go into business the way thatmost traditional people would,
like a comms major or likemanagement, that type of thing.
I wanted to actually go intotechnology because when you grow
up in Nigeria as well, you see asignificant lack of
(04:06):
infrastructure and you see howthere's a significant lack of
access to opportunity, andtechnology has that opportunity
to bridge that gap.
So I pivoted, I started mycareer at Microsoft.
After I left Microsoft, I wasthere for quite some time.
I went to Twitch, which is anAmazon-owned company, an online
streaming platform, and I wantedto continue this theme of
(04:27):
serving.
And so I went into trust andsafety because I had this
superwoman power thing goingthat I wanted to defend
democracy.
So I went into trust and safetycombating online harms, where
I'm getting ready to leave thatcompany now and start my own.
So it's been quite a journey.
I'm still in my 20s.
I feel like I've lived a wholelife.
(04:48):
Um, but I'm just gettingstarted.
SPEAKER_00 (04:50):
Oh wow.
So that that is a fascinating,um, fascinating story.
So shout out to Howard.
I'm a Howard Law graduate.
SPEAKER_01 (04:57):
You know.
You know.
Okay, sorry.
SPEAKER_00 (05:00):
Um, but yeah, so yeah, very, very fascinating.
So you are you are a true PrinceGeorgian.
Yeah, you were born and raised,and um that's that's excellent.
I guess with respect to Twitch,because I think I just saw that
um when I read your bio umreread it recently, that
(05:21):
platform deals with trying toensure, because you hear a lot
about um particularly girls andhigh school girls having
self-esteem problems, mentalhealth issues, suicidal thoughts
as a result of of things thatthey view and see on social
media.
Is that what you mean by umharms in social media and what
(05:47):
you were covering in thataspect?
And um if if not ex explain itand then explain what you plan
to do with your own business nowthat you're gonna be a startup
doing that.
SPEAKER_01 (05:59):
So, yes, that's a component of it.
It's a harm is external andinternal.
However, I'm I just want to flagthat I'm not speaking on behalf
of Twitch.
I'm not a spokesperson for them,so all of my thoughts are my
own.
But essentially, when I talkabout combating online harms, I
mean about I I I'm talking abouteverything that deals with
(06:19):
safety on the internet.
So that's talking aboutgovernment and government
relations and governmenttakedowns, that's talking about
misinformation anddisinformation, that's talking
about community guidelines andcontent guidelines.
So when you're uploading thingsto a service or when you decide
to use a service, there are aset of community guidelines that
you can send to.
And so what happens is that ifyou violate those community
(06:42):
guidelines, the social mediaplatform can suspend your
account or actually outright banyou.
And so my team focuses on thingslike that.
Part of it is also, I don'tnecessarily know that I think
the industry is as proactive.
And when I say proactive, I meandoing deep dive research into
how social media platformsaffect children or how they
(07:05):
affect just mental um mentalbehavioral aspects.
I don't necessarily thinkthere's a social media platform
out here that's as proactive inthat area.
So I hope that we get to that asa future state that platforms
are proactively looking at whatare the mental health impacts of
this particular algorithm orthis particular policy or this
(07:26):
particular product feature.
But I don't think the industryis there yet by any means
necessary.
As it pertains to my ownbusiness, I honestly got tired
in corporate America of peoplekind of wanting to dictate my
impact level or wanting to tellme how to make an impact or how
(07:46):
to contribute.
And I found that when you workfor corporate entities, it's
kind of like they want tocontain you and restrict you and
confine you in these boxes andtell you what your contribution
or what your persona should bebecause they want you to fit
into a mold.
And that's been something I'vestruggled with my entire life.
And so I got tired of that,quite frankly.
(08:08):
And there was a problem that wasalways near and dear to me that
evolved as a solution over timewhen I decided to pivot.
So my company does two things.
We're a digital innovationconsultant firm, but we also
plan on launching a product inyears to come.
The product aspect of it is apersonal development tool on the
front-end facing side.
(08:29):
And the back-end-facing side ofit is an HR management tool that
helps enterprise companies beable to manage and build better
teams, but also learn whensomething is going wrong from
the insights, the scrubbedinsights that they're getting
from the professionaldevelopment of the end user to
be able to proactively mitigatethat and allow people to
flourish in a way that they canflourish.
(08:51):
And it allows the company to beable to leverage their unique
talents and their unique giftsto comprise better teams and
give them better opportunities,quite frankly.
Because the reality is everybodydoesn't want to be promoted,
everybody doesn't want to get toC-suite, and everybody doesn't
want to be a manager.
So, how can you carve out aspace to allow them to
contribute in a way that's mostmeaningful for the company, but
(09:12):
also most meaningful for them?
And then if there is a sense ofa HR violation or a violation or
any sort of retaliation thatmight be going on, it allows the
the HR management tool, itallows them to be able to see
that, to be able to mitigate itand provide a better experience
for the employee.
So that's the product side ofit.
(09:32):
Yeah, that's the product side ofit.
The other side of it is reallyhelping people think about brand
experience a little bitdifferently.
People talk a lot about brandmarketing and customer marketing
and sales funnels and salescycles and all those other great
buzzwords.
However, they don't think aboutthe holistic experience that a
(09:54):
consumer, and we're allconsumers, that a consumer has
from the introductory, theintroduction to the product to
the end of the product and howthey infuse it in their life.
They just think about it from anisolated perspective of how do I
get you to buy this thing rightnow?
And what do I need to do tomarket to you so you get you to
buy this thing?
But they're not thinking aboutthe holistic cycle.
(10:14):
And so when we think about umdigital innovation, it's infused
in every aspect of the journeyfor the consumer, and that's
what we want to focus on.
SPEAKER_00 (10:23):
Okay, wow, that's interesting.
Well, congratulations on uhstepping out on faith and
starting your own business andand really um making an impact.
Um I I can see where that isdefinitely needed in the um
technology world and HR world,and I wish you much success on
(10:46):
that.
But let's pivot and let's talkabout why you decided to run for
office, uh, what what galvanizedyou, what you know, what was
that triggered that said, hey, II want to run to for office and
and become city councilwoman forDistrict 4 of the uh city of
Bowie.
First, tell us and tell thosewho are listening what
(11:09):
communities within the city ofBowie does District 4 cover?
SPEAKER_01 (11:13):
So District 4 covers South Bowie, Pointer Ridge is
another big pocket andeverything south of um
Mitchellville Road, 301 and 214.
So that's my population.
It's kind of like the newerareas of Bowie, if you will.
So you have like the Bowie TownCenter, that's District 3.
So behind the Bowie Town Centergoing towards 301, that's all
(11:34):
District 4.
SPEAKER_02 (11:35):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (11:35):
Um so if you think about the Wawa and the new
development that's coming up onum is off of 301, that's in my
district that's coming online.
And so I would like I would sayit's kind of like the newer
areas of Bowie, if you will.
That's pretty much District 4.
But in terms of why did I runfor office, wow.
So I have to give credit wherecredit is due, because I wasn't
(11:57):
one of those kids that said, I'mgonna be president of the United
States one day.
No, that wasn't me.
Um, I was much, I was living mybest life when I was younger to
some degree.
I was at the Go Go's, um, downin Sutland.
I was not thinking about how Imight be the most buttoned-up A
student so that I can bepresident of the United States
one day.
No.
(12:18):
I was at Microsoft actuallysitting in a boardroom.
I had a mentor at the time, hisname is Fred Humphries, and I
will always pay credit to FredHumphries because Fred was a big
part of my life.
Fred said to me one day, he waslike, Roxy, I think you should
run for office.
And I looked at Fred just likeI'm looking, you know, I was
like, Fred, are you okay?
I don't think they never electanybody like me.
(12:39):
Like, I'm a little out there.
Like, it's got gold nails, lookat all the books behind me,
bright orange.
Like, I'm a little out there.
So I was like, are you sure?
He was like, you know, Roxy,you're kind of outspoken.
You know, you care a lot aboutadvocacy because of how you grew
up.
Like, there's a lot there.
I think you should run foroffice.
And I was like, I don't knowabout all that.
So when someone puts a bug in myhair, I'm gonna do my due
(13:02):
diligence.
So I did.
I went to www.runforoffice.org.
I put in my address and I said,What am I even able to run for?
Like, where do I even start?
How do I find out?
So I went to that website.
On that website, it listed acity council race that was
coming up.
And I was like, hmm, this isinteresting.
(13:22):
But the crazy part about it, itwas nearing the end of August.
So I was like, yo, this electionis in November.
We're already at the end ofAugust, getting into September.
That's a little quick.
And there are a lot of people inthis constituency.
You're talking about an upwardsof like 25,000 people.
So in my in District 4, in thecity of Bowie, I really would
(13:45):
tell you it's above 70,000.
But so I said, you know, this isa pretty short amount of time.
So what I did was I spoke to, Imet this young man.
His name is Brandon Cooper.
Brandon later on in this storybecame agreed to become my
advisor.
SPEAKER_02 (14:00):
And no, yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_01 (14:02):
So Brandon, I'm like, Brandon, I don't know.
Brandon's like, Roxy, you shouldrun.
Just go ahead and do it.
The worst that's gonna happen isthat you're gonna lose.
And I was like, that's true.
But at the end of the day, I'mstill gonna have a job.
I'm still gonna be a betterperson.
I would have learned so manythings about what's important to
people.
Who do I have to lose?
(14:22):
So I did it.
I filed to run for office aroundSeptember 7th.
We launched a campaign September15th, and the election was
November 6th.
So we ran for about, I want tosay about 45 days, somewhere
around there.
And the crazy part about it isthat I ran against four other
people and won by 16 votes.
One by 16 votes.
(14:44):
Nuts, crazy.
Because we didn't expect to winwhatsoever.
Like, I mean, I was one of the,I was the second to last person
that registered for that race.
And was running against otherpeople that had been running for
an entire year.
So to go back to your question,what made me decide to run was
my mentor.
Because my mentor saw somethingin me that I didn't see in
(15:04):
myself that I didn't think wasgoing to be relatable to people.
So that was the first thing.
The second thing was when Ithought about his suggestion,
and I thought about howpassionate I was about defending
democracy, protecting community,preserving community, but also
at the same time making surethat communities like ours have
(15:25):
opportunity and have access toopportunity.
I was like, you're right, thereis no better person for this.
And honestly, if people don'tresonate with me, then that's
fine.
At the end of the day, I stillhave me.
I still told my story.
I still owned my narrative and Itold people what it was that I
wanted to do for them.
And if they resonated with that,I loved it.
(15:45):
If they didn't, then I alsoloved it for them.
Because that means that theychose the best person for the
job at that time and what thejob needed.
So that was the reason why Iran.
SPEAKER_00 (15:54):
Great, great, great.
Interesting story.
Interesting story.
So what do you think didresonate with voters?
What what was it in yourplatform?
What was it that you spokepassionately about that did
resonate with voters as youknocked on doors or as you
talked to people, you know, inthe shopping center, you know,
(16:15):
at the Wawa, um, where wherewherever you met them?
Um, what was it about what yousaid that you think actually won
the voters over?
SPEAKER_01 (16:25):
I think the first thing was it was authenticity.
I think when people knew thatthey were voting for me or when
they met me, they knew that theywere getting me.
They knew that they weren'tgetting a seasoned or a
politician or politicaloperative, if you will.
They knew they were gettingsomebody that had understand
experiences, had been throughthings that was at least going
(16:46):
to try an unconventionalapproach to bring solutions to
the forefront because I was notthe typical norm, if you will.
Right.
And so I think the authenticitypiece was what was what
resonated with them.
And I'll tell you really brieflya quick story and then I'll I'll
get to the other part of thequestion.
I remember when I sent out my mylast mass text, no, it was a
(17:06):
second to last mass text.
I said to people, I was like,hey, my name is Roxy, I'm
running for office, newgeneration, new voice.
Um, I really hope to earn yoursupport.
And if you want to learn moreabout me, please go to my
website.
I've recorded this video, butI've also listed out the things
that I care about and that Ithink need to change in our
community.
I had an I had a woman who textme back who said, How dare you
(17:28):
violate my privacy and text meon my cell phone?
You politicians are getting outof control.
What's wrong with you?
And my heart was broken.
I was like, oh my gosh, how cansomeone think of me this way?
So I text her back because Iresponded to all the text
messages.
I literally respond toeverything if I see it.
So I text her back and I said,ma'am, I can assure you, number
(17:48):
one, I can't even see youractual phone number.
I'm using a system.
And number two, I work afull-time job and I'm running
for office.
I got into the late really,really, I got into the race
really, really late.
But I really wanted to be ableto use the resources at my
disposal, at my disposal, tomake sure you knew who I was and
reach you where you were.
But it was never my intent toviolate your privacy because I
(18:10):
can assure you I can't even sayyour phone number.
And she was just like, wow, thefact that you took the time to
respond to me and really betruthful and explain.
I've gone to your website.
Thank you for helping me, right?
So the day of election, I go tothe booth and she walks up to
me.
She said, Do you remember me?
I said, No.
(18:32):
Can I remember you?
Because I don't know if this isa trick question here.
So she said, I'm the woman youwere texting who got upset that
you text me and I just voted foryou.
Oh, we took a picture, it becamea story, and all this other
stuff.
SPEAKER_00 (18:45):
That is a fabulous story.
SPEAKER_01 (18:47):
It was the authenticity piece of being
honest and just not ignoringsomebody, not saying, Oh, people
are gonna be angry, let them beangry.
No, telling the truth andmeeting them where they are.
The other things that I thinkpeople really resonated with was
the stuff that we were trying todo around technology and for
children and bring communitiestogether.
(19:07):
The stuff that we were lookingto do around the budget.
I am a fiscal conservativethrough and through and through.
Um I've learned that from my ownascension to from poverty to
what you would call the top 10%.
I've learned that ascension.
And I've learned how things areset up for it to be a barrier
for you to be able to get there.
(19:27):
It's like the higher and thehigher and the higher you go,
the more hurdles and hurdles andhurdles present themselves.
The more, the more areas thatpop up and things of that sort
that make it harder for you toget there, make it harder for
you to pay your bills, make itharder for you to be able to
provide new things.
And the last thing that I wouldever want to do on earth is tell
people that I'm gonna continueto raise taxes to provide
(19:49):
services and duplications thatare already offered in other
areas.
That's not helping people, one,leverage their resources and
have access to their money.
That's me asking them to give itto me.
And I don't I don't believe inthat.
And so for me, it was aroundbalancing the budget and making
sure that our budget continuesto stay in a fiscally strong
(20:11):
state, but also being likeconservative and really being
able to assess where there'sduplication, being able to
assess where we're spendingunnecessary money so that we
don't ask our presidents to payfor inefficiency.
And then I think the last piecewas around small businesses.
My mom was a small businessowner, she owned dollar stores
when we were growing up.
Um, when she was becoming anurse, we had a dollar store in
(20:33):
Glen Arden.
We also had a dollar store inCamp Springs.
So I'm very familiar withpermitting processes and also
just the struggles and howdifficult it is for small
businesses when you have largercorporations that are looking to
monopolize and go intofranchisees in the name of doing
it for small businesses, butthat's not what the actual
experience becomes.
And what ended up putting mymother out of business was a
(20:55):
Dollar Tree.
A Dollar Tree came around thecorner and ended up putting us
out of business because wecouldn't compete with them
anymore.
They had access to largermanufacturers, they had
different manufacturingrelationships that a small
business owner couldn't get.
And the relationships that wehad were in DC, if you guys are
familiar with what is now unionmarket, that used to be a
warehouse area for smallbusinesses to go and get
(21:17):
merchandising.
That's not that anymore becausethat those costs have gone up
and those larger corporationshave come in.
And so those are the things thatI said that I wanted to change
for my community.
Now I know that it was difficultin the beginning because COVID
hit and we had to legislatethrough COVID and make sure that
we were making sure that thecommunity was safe from a health
(21:38):
perspective and also from afinancial perspective when
different things were hittingus, because we had to figure out
how to provide vaccinations forour community and figure out how
to partner with the state.
But I believe in this shortamount of time, I would say
within this two years, becauseI'm gonna give a year to COVID,
within this two years, that I'vebeen able to deliver on the
things that I said that I wasgoing to do.
And one that remains to be seen,which is the budget, which I
(22:00):
promise you would get done thisApril.
Um and I think I've been able todeliver, and that's probably why
they voted for me.
SPEAKER_00 (22:07):
Excellent, excellent, excellent.
I love that story, love thatstory.
And also tell me um your termbegan when, and is it is it it's
a four-year term, and so it endswhen?
SPEAKER_01 (22:19):
Yeah, so my term began in November of 2019.
That's when I was 26, is when Ifirst won.
Term ends this year in November.
I do plan on running forre-election.
Um and so we serve four-yearterms.
So it ends this year inNovember, and the election is
the um, I want to say I thinkit's November 6th or 7th of this
year.
SPEAKER_00 (22:39):
Okay.
So um you mentioned being afiscal um conservative, so let's
uh let's um get the the elephantin the room.
(23:08):
Uh you're a young black womanand you are a registered
Republican.
So tell us, um you you spoke alittle bit about being a fiscal
um conservative, but tell uswhat resonates with the
Republican Party and why you diddecide to um register, you know,
run as a registered Republican.
SPEAKER_01 (23:30):
So there was a point in my time when I was a
Democrat, when I was younger.
And I think for me, I was thatbecause I felt like people
always told me that I was.
Every time I meet somebody, theyautomatically assume that
because I'm black, that I'm aDemocrat.
Right.
And when I got out of college, Istarted to research for myself
(23:52):
to figure out.
I think I had a sh a pre-lifecrisis.
I can't call it a midlifecrisis.
I haven't reached the middle ofmy life, but I had a pre-life
crisis where I was like, what ismy identity?
Like, who am I?
What am I?
Like, what is what is this?
Like, I had two jobs when I wasin college, I had an internship
trying to get into corporateAmerica.
Like, what am I?
Like, what am I doing?
And so I started looking upvalues and solutions and
(24:17):
legislation.
And I looked up the RepublicanParty and I looked up the
Democratic Party.
I looked up, I took all types oftests where it's it asked you,
what do you care about, what doyou not care about, things of
that sort.
And I found out that I actuallywas much more aligned with
conservative values than I waswith democratic values.
(24:37):
But there was a caveat to that.
Let me tell you the caveat.
Because I think today we are soquick to tribalize people.
And I see it too because I, andas being a Nigerian, we have
different tribes in Nigeria.
You have Alza, you have Yoruba,you have Egbo, we're all
tribalized andcompartmentalized.
And if you're with this tribe,it means this.
And if you're with that tribe,it means this.
(24:59):
But that's not what modern daypolitics means to me.
Just because I'm a registeredRepublican does not mean that I
resonate with every Republicanvalue.
And so for me, it was the value,it was the premise of the
Republican Party that I alignedwith, which was around
businesses and small employees,fostering small business and
(25:20):
creating an incubation for smallbusiness.
It was around the mechanisms ofopportunity, how you go about
providing opportunity.
It was around certainlegislation.
I studied healthcare.
I understand the healthcarelaws, I understand providing
insurance for everybody.
We studied that very copiouslyfor a lot of years.
And it was the way that theywent about the solutions and the
(25:44):
embracing of opportunity, theembracing of achievement, the
reminding people that you cansucceed, you can have the
quality of life that you dreamof, and everybody's quality of
life does not look the same.
And what frustrated me is Istarted to become a little bit
more aware, and I'm not aspokesperson to get anybody here
(26:04):
to join the Republican Party.
Make your own decisions becauseyou're your own individual.
But my frustrations, it almostfelt like the Democratic Party
started telling me how I neededto be.
There were so many caps and somany ceilings around certain
programs that weren't asempowering anymore.
It was if you stayed in thisparticular box and bubble and
(26:24):
you had access to this.
And if you stayed over here, youhad access to that.
And if you got over here, youstopped getting access and we
didn't help you as much.
And then we kind of placed theburden on you instead, and that
dynamic started to shift.
And so I think as mycircumstances in life started to
shift, my awareness levelstarted to shift, but my values
were always there.
(26:45):
I've always had the same values.
Those values never strayed awaybecause integrity is important
to me.
But I think where most peopleget confused when it comes to my
persona and my political, Iguess you would say,
affiliation, is that I am verymuch so aligned on certain
social issues.
(27:05):
And I don't even want to callthem social issues, because to
be honest, Tamara, I find thatterm to be very demeaning.
Because certain things are notsocial issues.
You talk about abortion andhealthcare, those are not social
issues.
Those are essential issues thatare an integral part of how you
survive in this world becausethey're essential to your life.
But as somebody who got pregnantat a very young age, faced
(27:27):
sexual assault at a very youngage, and actually got pregnant
and had an abortion because ofthat traumatic experience.
There are certain things thatI'm aligned with and there are
certain things that are I'm notaligned with because I speak
from a place of experience.
I don't speak from a place ofwhat I think the universe should
be doing.
I speak because I live this.
I lived domestic assault with mymother.
(27:49):
We lived that life.
I lived poverty.
I lived not having health care.
I didn't have health care untilI turned, I want to say almost
like 20.
So when I first got access tohealthcare before that, I was
going to the hospital andeverything that happened to me
got placed on my bill.
And so when I turned 18, mycredit score was already a 480.
I was already starting at adisadvantage.
(28:10):
I paid for my college.
I did that.
I wasn't even able to take outloans.
And when I got to the point thatI did, I was able to take out
loans, I couldn't even reallyget grants.
So I had to take out loans.
But the interest rate was sofreaking high, and the
institutions kept raising mytuition price that I couldn't
even barely keep up.
(28:31):
And so I had to have multiplejobs to try to alleviate the
cost.
And so I think for me, it doesnot make sense to have similar
voices in the same room.
My values are aligned with theRepublican Party.
I believe I belong in thoserooms for the black community
because those voices are not asprevalent on that side.
(28:52):
So I believe I belong there forthat reason because of my values
and because the way I approachsolutions, it's always going to
be at promoting opportunity andallowing people to live the
quality of life that they dreamof because you are deserving of
that.
And that's the promise of theConstitution.
That's why it's there.
(29:12):
That's the purpose of it.
And so that's the purpose thatI'm living in.
SPEAKER_00 (29:16):
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
SPEAKER_01 (29:18):
You better.
SPEAKER_00 (29:20):
I like that.
That that I I'm I hey, if I wasliving in District 4, that would
resonate with me.
It really would.
It really would.
I I um enjoy that perspectiveand I understand that
perspective, and I and I I seeit.
Excellent.
SPEAKER_01 (29:36):
And that doesn't mean that the Democratic Party
doesn't have some good solution.
I'm all for bipartisanship.
There's nothing that boils myblood more than partisanship.
When people say, Oh, I can'twork with you because you're a
Democrat, oh, I can't work withyou because you're a Republican.
SPEAKER_02 (29:47):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (29:47):
There's nuance to everything.
Everything is not black andwhite.
And so I think, in order for usto have the solutions that are
most reflective of America, ithas to come from Democratic and
Republican places because at thesame time, that's reflective of
our.
Constituency.
We're not a monolith.
SPEAKER_00 (30:02):
That's right.
That's right.
Yeah, no, I I wholeheartedlyagree with you on that.
One thing that I've learnedabout you, and this again, this
is my first time meeting you, myfirst time talking to you, but
you don't like to be put inboxes, whether that's in
corporate America or I doubt orin your political affiliations.
And so that's good.
You're free I won't even sayfree spirited, but you know what
(30:26):
matters to you, you know um yourset of values, and you speak
truth to that.
You speak truth to those values,you speak truth and power to
what is important to you.
And I I can see why you won thatrace, I can see why voters
resonated with you with that,and I love the fact that you
(30:48):
said that um you wanted to be avoice in the room for the
Republican Party, for you know,that black representation, that
younger generation, womengeneration, if you will.
Um, and I love that.
And and to to be honest, I don'tknow if I've I've thought about
it that in that way, in thatlight, but I'm fully persuaded.
(31:12):
Yeah.
I'm fully persuaded and I lovethat.
Okay, so um you talked a littlebit about um your term being up
and what you've been able toaccomplish, and obviously the
first two years, again, you hadthe every local government,
state government, federalgovernment had to pivot and
figure out how we handle andcome out of this COVID crisis.
(31:33):
Um, but are there other thingsum on your platform that you'd
like to um focus on for the cityof Bowie?
And you said you were you wereplanning to run for office again
for re-election.
And so what is the focus for thenext four years?
What would you tell a voter umwhy they should um re-elect you
(31:56):
as councilwoman for districtfour?
SPEAKER_01 (31:59):
I'm gonna be honest with you and tell you that I
don't have the answer to thatyet because I don't want to sit
here and uh give soundbite clipsof uh uh getting people riled up
and trying to generateexcitement and energy when I'm
still reflecting on that myself.
And I think when I do approachthat time, it needs to be
(32:21):
intentional and authentic.
And I don't know that I have theanswer yet.
But I will tell you, there isone thing that has been on my
heart for a really long timethat I didn't do this term, I
didn't get a chance to, but wedid it in increments, like two
things.
We established a partnershipwith Rosetta Stone and we
established a partnership withCoursera, and we gave residents
(32:42):
the Rosetta Stone um uhpartnership got held up in like
negotiations, legalnegotiations, in terms of the
contract agreement.
But we did establish theCoursera partnership and we gave
residents access to licenses forone year.
So if you wanted to get Courseraand learn a new skill, we gave
you access to that for free, aplatform that normally costs
(33:04):
about five to six hundreddollars.
And then we also were givingaway Google scholarships.
So if you wanted to get Googlecertified or Salesforce
certified, we gave you ascholarship to do that, and at
the end of the completion ofthat certification, they would
pair you directly with therecruiter, and you'd have access
to jobs starting out at$85,000.
And so that was something thatwe did um this year that was
(33:24):
along the lines of what it laidthe groundwork for the things
that have been pulling at myhard heartstrings.
But I've always had this dreamof well, I've not always had it,
I've had it since I've been inoffice.
I've had this dream of buildinga community slash innovation
center and partnering withcertain other companies to do
(33:46):
it.
Because what I have found to betrue over my time in office and
before I even got to office ispeople don't understand our
culture, and people don'tunderstand the essence of human
ingenuity and how beautiful itis and how powerful it is.
And when I was in New York thispast weekend, because I went to
(34:07):
go speak at the UN for umWomen's History Month about
women's gender equity, and Iwent to this exhibit called Hip
Hop Conscious Unconscious, andit took me through the time of
how hip hop was the pillar ofthe African-American community
from when it first began, andthe beauty and the essence and
(34:30):
the amalgamation of like cultureand history that came from that
and the movements that itstarted, kind of like a
zeitgeist, if you will.
And when I was in there, I waslike, yo, this has been on my
heart to create this center thatinfuses culture, infuses
learning, infuses innovation,products, and gives people a
(34:52):
place to gather and havecommunity.
So let me bring that down andspeak to you in layman's terms.
What that means is having aco-working space for if you want
to work remotely that day, yougot this place to go to and work
remotely.
And it's it's it's of access toyou because it's a community
center.
There's a cafe there, there's acoffee shop, there's a cafe by
your local budding uhrestaurateur, your budding chef
(35:13):
that's that's trying to find aplace to get started.
There's a space there for him orher, or there's a there's a
top-notch kitchen.
If you're learning how to cook,go in there and rent time and
rent space and practice yourrecipes.
You're you're you're you'retrying to apply for a food
contest network show.
Go in there and practice.
Go in there, film.
There's a state-of-the-artproduction center.
(35:34):
Great.
You want to work with hip hop,you want to become an artist?
Why don't you learn how tobecome a sound engineer too?
Why don't you learn how to dothe take one, take two, whatever
they call it, but I'm not asnow.
Okay, you want to learnrobotics?
There's an AI and roboticsfacility in there.
Why don't you go learn that?
Okay, but you're passionateabout farming, green space,
sustainability,climate-friendly.
(35:54):
There's a state-of-the-artagricultural center.
There's a green space in there.
Why don't you go in there andlearn about that and learn about
how that triculates to society?
I've always dreamed of havingthe center of all of those
different components in therethat bring community together
because it has differentaspects.
You want to start a business,you're looking for grant
funding, well, there's anincubation hub right in there.
(36:15):
And it has direct ties toventure capital funding that our
communities typically don't haveaccess to, that you just now
have access to in that center.
I've always dreamed of havingthis in one place, but I don't
know.
I just don't know if the climateis ready for that.
And that's been the kind of likepause for me in terms of going
(36:36):
full throttle with that.
Um, but I see the need for it.
But my question starts to becomedoes everybody really see the
need for it?
And so that's one of the biggerthings that I want to do that
can be done in a short, arelatively short time frame
because we already have land forit.
I mean, you have the old IceArena, you have the Ken Hill
Center, we already have the landfor it.
(36:57):
Um it's just about knowing thatthere's an appetite for it and
attracting the private sectordollars that it would need to be
able to bring it to fruition.
And that would also take certaincapital improvement costs off of
the city, to be quite honestwith you, and put it back in the
budget so that we also don'thave to raise taxes.
SPEAKER_00 (37:14):
That's great.
That's great.
I love that.
I love that idea.
So, Bowie, um, this podcast umcan be accessed nationwide.
So a lot of people may not knowabout Prince George's County and
Bowie, like what we do, butPrince George's County is a
county in southern um Maryland,right outside of the District of
(37:35):
Columbia.
We're considered part of thequote unquote DMV district of
Columbia, Maryland, andVirginia.
And Bowie is the largestmunicipality within Prince
George's County.
It has its own mayor, it has itsown council, um, has its own
police force, all of the all ofthose uh good things.
(37:57):
Tell our listeners um aboutBowie as a as a place to live
and why um they should um moveto Bowie, move to District 4 in
particular.
You talked about some newdevelopment that's that's coming
along.
Um but um I know personally thatit's a very progressive um um
municipality and very powerfulmunicipality actually in our
(38:19):
county.
Like I said, it's the largestmunicipality.
Um but tell our listeners, thosewho of you in um listening for
the first time or um don't quiteknow anything about the city of
Bowie, uh just a little bitabout that, and then we'll we'll
we'll close on um how we canencourage millennials, Gen Zs to
(38:40):
get more involved, to movebeyond the ballot box and move
to action and maybe some of theaction things that you'd like to
see residents in the city ofBowie, Prince Georgia's County,
or nationwide really getinvolved in.
I know that was a a mouthful,but we'll I can we can go back
to the last part.
But let's let's talk a littlebit about the city of Bowie.
SPEAKER_01 (39:01):
And getting so excited because Bowie is
amazing, it's a wonderful place.
And I've been here since 1999,so I'm biased.
Well, what I will say is Bowieis the largest municipality in
Prince George's County, and wealso have the largest budget in
Prince George's County at$77.4million.
So we are a pretty powerfulmunicipality, and we're also
(39:23):
just just pretty large.
Like we're very sophisticated,very established, and very
robust in terms of how weapproach things.
But it's interesting that youasked this question because we
just did a branding exercise anda branding study where we got a
branding firm to come out andjust do that research to really
tell us in our constituents'words what makes Bowie so
(39:44):
energetic and energizing.
The way that I would describeBowie, I would describe it as a
vibrant community that's veryengaged, filled with very
passionate, successful, and umpeople with a certain level of
bravado and gravitas.
(40:04):
Honestly, like I that's just theway that I would describe buoy
residents, to be honest withyou, um, especially those in
District 4.
We are known for havingresidents that are very actively
engaged, that are very concernedabout their community, that want
an active voice and an activeseat at the table.
We are also known for ouramenities.
(40:26):
We have a number of amenities.
We've got a golf course, we'vegot various tennis courses,
we've got the buoy based sockstadium, we've got the Buoy Town
Center, we've got South LakeDevelopment that's getting ready
to come online.
We had a movie theater for areally long time that's getting
ready to close down and becomesomething else.
So Bowie has for a long timebeen known for its amenities and
its services.
We have trash pickup do that twotimes a week.
(40:48):
We have all these differentservices and amenities that um
many other municipalities maynot have access to and don't
provide.
We've got a gymnasium, we've gota senior center, um, we've got a
hospital um called a stack here.
So we've just got so much.
Um, and it's continuing to growand it's continuing to expand.
Uh, hopefully we'll get a newschool here soon in the next
(41:10):
coming um months or years.
So there's just a number ofdifferent things that make Bowie
such a beautiful place betweenits services, between the
amenities, between the way thatwe govern, the way that our
residents are so activelyengaged, and the level of
sophistication, whether that'shistorical preservation or
that's new, embudding um peopleto the workforce.
(41:34):
It's just been known to bedynamic.
Where we, I would say we kind oflack, and I'm not gonna try to
sit here and hide from you, iswe don't have a huge, large
young population that isactively investing in Buoy.
As in what I mean is that theyare starting their lives and
their careers and their familiesand they're moving to Bowie.
(41:54):
I don't necessarily know that Isee that trend as much.
We do have Bowie StateUniversity, so that also makes
it unique that we have auniversity here.
Um, the longest and the oldesthistorically black college and
university is Bowie StateUniversity, and we have that
here.
And so we have a number ofdifferent things, but I think
over the next couple of years,what you'll see is we'll start
(42:16):
to shift our posture to keep upwith the times so that we can
attract millennials and Gen Zersto want to come and invest in
this community as well and wantto move to this community.
Because what's beautiful aboutBowie is that you're about 30
minutes from everything.
You're 30 minutes from Virginia,you're 30 minutes from DC, and
you're 30 minutes fromBaltimore.
(42:36):
So we serve as kind of thiscentral hub as somebody, as
somebody who wants to tap intoall of these neighborhoods.
Like I'm always at Fed Hill downthere in Baltimore at Inner
Harbor, or you have Virginia,Arlington, Old Town, um, Old
Town Virginia, or you have DC,you have Union Station, Union
Market, all those little areas.
And so for somebody who likesthat being a little bit of all
(42:59):
of it, it's a great centrallocation for you to take
advantage of.
They still have a certain levelof amenities that will keep you
engaged and keep you sustained.
But we will, I do think that itis our posture and it is our
intent to continue to elevatethose amenities and make sure
that we have things like livemusic, beer gardens, um,
(43:19):
different outdoor diningoptions, different high-class,
high-tier stores, because that'sthe feedback that we get most of
the time is we want to seehigher amenities and things like
that.
So we are shifting our postureto align with what it is that we
believe our constituency wants.
SPEAKER_00 (43:35):
Well, that's good.
I I live in the southern part ofthe county, so Clinton,
Maryland, not too far fromNational Harbor.
But I do like to to come toBuoy, uh PJ's uh coffee shop,
black-owned.
Yes! I go there to be a beignet!Yes.
And um tomorrow I host my bookclub and we're going to Black
(43:56):
Cow, another black-owned uhrestaurant.
And yes.
For brunch.
And we're gonna be reading.
I selected the other Westmore inhonor of our new black governor,
Westmore.
Um, so yeah, I know um Bowie tobe a bit like I I describe it as
a little bit more progressive.
You have it's it's it's aninteresting amalgamation of a
(44:20):
county, of a municipality, inthat, like you said, there's
this historic area of Buoy, butthen there's this very
progressive area.
And I do see more millennialsand Gen Zers moving in, young
families, African-Americanfamilies up and coming.
I do see them.
SPEAKER_01 (44:41):
Um just for anyone watching who's interested, South
Lake does have houses comingonline.
They are starting in, you know,I want to say the low fours all
the way up to the high eights.
So wherever you are on thatspectrum, we've got something
for you.
SPEAKER_00 (44:57):
Got something for you.
Okay, all right.
Well, you heard it here fromCouncilmember Councilmember and
Councilwoman Roxy.
One last question I forgot toask.
You are considered mayor protem.
I am.
So tell us uh what thoseresponsibilities are as mayor
pro tem, and um, and then thenwe'll kind of close on um being
(45:21):
more active and involved and notjust being a citizen who said, I
voted and okay, I've done mycivic duty.
How what else can they getinvolved in?
So, mayor pro tem, what's what'sthe mayor pro tem?
SPEAKER_01 (45:33):
So the best way to describe mayor pro tem is when
you look at the president of theUnited States and the vice
president, it's a similardynamic.
SPEAKER_03 (45:42):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (45:42):
So essentially, mayor pro tem is vice mayor.
And so essentially what happensis that you end up representing
the mayor whenever the mayor isunavailable, absent, or God
forbid something happens to themayor, you essentially become
mayor.
So it's essentially that umrepresentation of the mayor when
the mayor is unavailable,similar to the vice president
(46:03):
concept.
It's pretty much the same.
And I would definitely say theresponsibilities to me are more
attributed to leadership at thistime and making sure that things
stay on the right track andthings are getting done and
they're moving forward.
I think because we have um a lotof council members, there are
seven of us in total, you'retalking about stakeholder
management.
Now you're talking aboutcollaboration across the board
(46:25):
and making sure that people arealigned and on the same same
page.
So it's a lot of inner workingbehind the scenes and making
sure that people are movingforward.
You're corralling the troops andmaking sure that everybody stays
on target and that everything isthat things that need to be top
of mind are top of mind, andthat one, I would say people are
being seen and heard and um feellike they're included and
(46:46):
they're not left out of theconversation and solutions are
being presented, and that we'reworking together.
So it's a lot of that behind thescenes, uh, and a lot of just
really representation and makingsure that the mayor is able to
multiply because I do love ourmayor and I think he's doing a
phenomenal job.
And so being able to umrepresent him and continue to
(47:07):
make sure that buoy remains topof mind and is a part of the
conversation and that our valuesare seen and heard, and that the
things that we desire continueto be put at the forefront, even
though many people tend to lookat us like, you're a
municipality that's bougie.
You guys don't need anything.
Like, no, we do, we do, becauseif we adopt that mentality, then
we will become one of thosemunicipalities that does need a
(47:29):
lot.
So, and we don't want that.
We want to make sure that we'removing ahead of the curve and
we're being innovative.
So that's pretty much the mostpart of it behind the scenes.
SPEAKER_00 (47:39):
Right, right.
I love your mayor too.
Actually, I campaigned for himfor mayor uh Tim Adams, um first
African-American uh mayor of thecity of Bowie as well.
And so um very good, excellent.
So we're gonna end the show withum you talking about what you
(48:02):
would encourage someone your ageum or younger to do and why it's
important to not just vote andyou know and say, hey, I've done
my civic duty, but shouldactually get actively involved
in their community.
Um maybe they don't have to, youknow, rise to the level of
running for elected office, butcertainly um what would you say
(48:26):
to your generation and youngergeneration about being more
active and involved in in thecommunity?
SPEAKER_01 (48:34):
I think there are a number of ways to do that.
But I think it starts withfiguring out what area you want
to make the most impact.
Because community involvementlooks like you being a community
activist and making sure thatyou are representing issues that
matter to you to those who areelected.
Sometimes that looks likehelping those who you want to be
(48:54):
elected get elected.
Sometimes that looks likerunning for office your actual
self.
Sometimes that looks likejoining, excuse me, a city
commission or a city board orstate commission or a county
commission and being able tolend your expertise and your
advice and the perspective thatyou bring to the table to make
sure that issues that arepertaining to Gen Z and
millennials stay at theforefront.
(49:15):
Um sometimes that looks likejust getting engaged with think
tank groups.
Like I am a member and I havebeen for a very long time of the
Brookings Institution and theRobert S.
Brookings Society forMillennials and Gen Zers.
So sometimes it looks likegetting engaged in things like
that.
If you're a woman, sometimes itlooks like getting engaged in
organizations like the PolicyCircle.
The Policy Circle is anonpartisan organization for
(49:35):
women who are looking to getengaged and informed about being
more active in the community.
And they have certain learnings,briefings, I mean, it's an
amazing organization.
So I think it starts withunderstanding what area do you
want to impact and what area doyou want to get engaged.
And once you decide that,whether that's running for
office, there are a number ofdifferent organizations on both
(49:56):
sides, on the Republican sideand the Democratic side, that
are willing to jump in andsupport you.
They're nonpartisanorganizations as well.
Um, but if that looks like moreon the community side, there are
a number of different thinktanks, there are a number of
different city boards andcommittees and commissions that
you can join that are in this,that are in the city.
Um there are a number ofdifferent ways.
Um we have a lot of umcommittees like Economic
(50:19):
Development Committee, and Iactually might just start a Gen
Z Millennial Community to focuson Gen Z millennial issues,
actually, now that you gave methe thought.
Um, and then sometimes if thatlooks like being an activist, it
just means that you join otherkind of uh how do you call them,
uh, community engagement likeorganizations that help get
people elected and volunteerbehind the scenes.
(50:40):
So there are a number ofdifferent things that you can
do.
Um, what I do want to say is forthose who are interested in
learning, if you are millennialand Gen Z, I am always open to
taking anybody with me toanything that I go to.
So if I'm asked to speak at anytype of occasion, whether that's
a conference or I have access toa conference that is paid that
you might not want to pay for,um I'm always open to bringing
(51:02):
people with me.
If I have to do something forTV, I'm always open to letting
you see the behind the scenesbecause I know that that access
was not there for me.
So I'm all about giving it toothers.
And so if you ever have anythingthat I'm involved in that you're
curious about or that you'relike, oh, I want to learn more,
or I want to go to a Brookingsevent, or I want to do something
with Aspen Institute and seewhat they're doing there so I
(51:24):
could determine what engagementlooks like for me.
You're always welcome to reachout to me on Instagram because I
still am a true millennial onInstagram.
Maybe not email.
Instagram is best, and thenFacebook, and then maybe email.
SPEAKER_00 (51:37):
Excellent, excellent.
Well, I so appreciate you justspending your time with me today
to tell us a little bit moreabout you, about your um
community in Bowie, District 4,some of the aspirations, what
got you here, and I hope that itinspires our listeners and
particularly our millennials andGNZ to get up and and do more
(52:02):
and be more active in theircommunity.
I loved your story and lovedlearning and hearing about you
again for the first time.
I have to thank our daughter, uhJessica Brown, who's my
executive producer all the wayout on the West Coast, for um
finding you and saying, hey,this looks like an interesting
person that you should interviewand get more involved.
(52:25):
And we so appreciate your timeand effort, and I do plan to
keep keep in contact with youand continue to follow you on
Instagram and uh see what'swhat's what's the latest and
greatest and what's going on.
I wish you much success um inyour capacity, not only as an
elected official and your yourbid for re-election, but also in
(52:49):
your business and what you'replanning to do in that space as
well.
So thank you so much for joiningus with All Politics is local
with me, your host, Hammer DavisBrown, and we look forward to
having our listeners uh come inagain.
Please continue to subscribe andlike and download and share this
(53:11):
podcast wherever you get it,where it's it's Spotify, Google,
Apple Podcasts, we're on all theplatforms.
Um, continue to follow follow uson wherever you uh download and
listen to your podcast.
So thanks for joining us today.
And remember, let's move fromthe ballot box to action, and
(53:31):
all politics is local.
Thank you.
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