August 28, 2025 • 40 mins
Dominique goes in on local headlines and hot topics. How are Black businesses being hit by DEI bans? Are we our own safety net in Trump's world? Can we DIY our own programs and policies? And why was everybody and their mama at the Babyface show last night?
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Kay Bla Talk fifteen eighty Good morning, Good morning, and
God bless I'm Dominique Depreem with this show is called
First Things First and my very first thing today and
every day given Thanksgiving, praises and asking for blessings from
the most High, asking for the blessings of the ancestors
and the elders, and let's go happy think Tank Thursday.
(00:25):
This is how we do things around here. On a Thursday.
Hour One we look local, our two we go national,
international and beyond, and in the third hour we do
a deep dive with a person of interest, a hot topic,
or a combination of both. Today we're looking at the
issue of what they call less lethal weapons. Less lethal weaponry.
(00:45):
We hear from law enforcement all the time, this is
what they're using at protests. Well, we will have Attorney
Carl Douglas with me and studio to discuss that he
just won a huge settlement from the county because of
the so called less legal lethal weaponry. So we'll find
out where we are in terms of policy. We get
(01:06):
the details on that case, and you, as you are
every hour, are invited to join. At eight hundred nine
to oh fifteen eighty eight hundred nine two oh fifteen eighty.
That is the number to call UH no matter where
you're calling from. UH. And you can also, of course,
join the conversation on YouTube in the comments section is
(01:28):
where the KBLA delegation is YouTube dot com KBLA fifteen eighty.
And yeah, I love to see there. I always love
to see there. Please like and subscribe and follow and
post a you know, postal something something I'd love to
hear from you there and everywhere. We when you follow
(01:51):
us on socials, that actually makes us stronger and helps
us to stay in business. So follow, like, subscribe, every
sing and go where and uh, of course I'm at
the Prima Radio D I P R, I M A
and then radio And yeah, Miles is back. Woo hoo,
(02:12):
welcome back Miles. You feel I'm good. I'm not gonna lie.
I did go out last night, so I'm a tiny
bit tired, but I'm good. How are you? I feel
charged up? I'm ready to go. Yeah. I was taking
over the world. How was the tour?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
World was good?
Speaker 1 (02:31):
World was good?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Got to got to see the whorld, went to Atlanta,
tapped it with investmentst this weekend, I was really uh,
really really Uh yeah, I mean kind of it leads
you speechless once you see that type of level of
you know, black futurism and black money kind of come together.
It was all that.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah. Yeah, well I'm you know, I'm glad to have
it home. Andy did a great job, but we know
that you got to keep expanding as an artist and
as an entrepreneur. So good for you on that. We
went and saw a baby Face and Charlie Wilson last night. Yeah,
that was last night. It was really good. Yeah, we
(03:13):
have maybe too much fun. But it was at the
Hollywood Bowl, which is one of my favorite places because
it's outside. It was packed, and I mean I love Babyface.
I'm a Babyface fan. Oh and Jodicy did I forget that? Wow? Yeah,
I forget that. And they sounded really good. Actually, everybody
(03:33):
sounded amazing. I like Hollywood Bowl because it's outside. It
was packed, and I feel like there were more celebrities
per square inch than you usually see at a show,
including Tavis Smiley. We ran a damn Tavis was there,
Anthony Anderson, I The list would be long. I saw
so many celebs that it was just wild. I love
(03:57):
I guess certain artists can bring out everybody. But I
also had the feeling like one of the reasons that
happens right now is because people are in need of inspiration, encouragement, creative,
you know, connection, and because of what's happening politically. So
(04:18):
it was really nice. People were having a good old
time and I just forget how many songs Babyfaces written.
Everything did a long show, Yeah, it was like three hours,
but it went by quick because there's so many hits.
I mean, you you know you didn't get.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Bored right, good, okay, because I know sometimes these shows
can have those you know, those filler moments where it
takes forever switch the bands out type stuff, and you
add hours on top of hours, and but yeah, if
you're saying you weren't board, he was entertained the whole time.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
That's beautiful. Yeah, no, we weren't board. I think, well
the Hollywood Bowl too. You know, you can bring your
food and so you know, when they're switching bands, you're
eating and stuff. It was really fun and shout out
to all the artists, you know, just really he's showing
up and putting on a great spectacle, and Babyface got
(05:06):
these young dudes singing with him that are you know fire?
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yeah, I haven't seen uh, I've seen everybody. I haven't
seen Charlie Wilson a live though.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Oh man, I love me some Uncle Charlie. His voice,
chef's kiss, his voice sounds the same. That's the same
to me. With Stevie Wonder was there too. I didn't
get to talk to him, but I saw he walked
right by us. A lot of people, a lot of stars, so,
and that's always a tribute, you know, when the Classic
(05:36):
Guys play, it's also a time when the stars come out.
So yeah, good times.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Any surprise guests.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
No surprise guests, well, I mean I guess jo Toasy
like because we were expecting just Casey and we got
all of Jodasy. Yeah, so that was kind of a surprise.
But they didn't bring out anybody other than that. I
think everybody was in the seats enjoying, enjoying the show.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
I mean, is Casey really an acting by himself? If
he's not Casey and Jojo for it's not Jodasy. If
it's not, I mean that's.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
What some of my girls were saying. But to me, yeah,
because they're still his songs, even if the whole group
isn't there. They're still his hits, You don't think so.
I think artists do that all the time. They tour
with one part of a duet or they're you know,
look at Tony Tony Tony. Even before Dane passed, there
were like two Tony Tony Tony's touring.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Right, And I get you, and you're right, but you know,
I don't.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Think the Temptation. How many Temptations groups are.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Touring, right, But I don't think we get the same
level of entertainment though if it was just one person
when you have these I don't know, but these mega
groups doing these, you know, I mean mega group hit songs.
Not like I wouldn't say Casey has too many songs
that I know of of his own that he can sing,
that'll be yeah, no.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
But he can sing his he can sing the Portfolio,
he can sing Casey and Jojo, he can sing Jodasy.
I mean, those are his legit hits, right, I think.
I don't. I don't take that away from an artist.
That's you know, that's how a lot of them make
a living, you know, as they you know, advance in years,
and everybody sounded amazing good everybody's sound. I remember a
(07:15):
long time ago when I used to be one of
the sidekicks on the Steve Harvey Morning Show. We interviewed
Casey and Jojo and they were it was about six
or seven in the morning because it was morning drive radio,
and they were plastered, I mean, so drunk. And you know,
you interview artists sometimes they're they're in whatever space they're is,
(07:38):
you got, this was not like normal. This was so
like even Steve was, what do we do? So it's great.
I love to see artists, you know, when they reinvent,
refresh and and just you know, kill, killing the game.
And that's so that was a nice That was a
really nice surprise. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
I love and hearing that everybody's instrument is still working,
you know what I mean, because I've seen a lot
of people over the years, even now, you know, I
mean the younger generation artists, their voices are are gone
earlier and early and earlier. So yeah, to hear everybody
still sounding good and strong, that's what's up.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Yeah. Well, I know I've seen that too, and it's
so disappointing when you go to a show and the person,
even though you still love them, they can't sing the
songs or their voice is mostly gone, like Whitney toward
the end of her life. It's just really really sad.
But then you see people like Stevie Wonder who sound
the same. But just I know from working with him
for seventeen eighteen years that he takes care of his voice.
(08:39):
He's always drinking tea, he's got lozenges, he's got herbs
for this and herbs for that. He don't smoke like.
He takes care of that gift that God gave him.
And other people are a little more reckless. You see
the drug use and stuff and so and that's one
of the great things about Charlie Wilson story. You know,
he has he's had cancer, which he's you know, he's
(09:00):
a survivor. He's in remission and all those years of
drug use and he still has his voice. So that's
that's actually kind of like a miracle if you think
about it. So, yeah, good times, and Paul says he's
surprised I'm here because I was up late. You know what,
I'd be up late sometimes I'm a writer or die for,
you know, I'm right or die for the KBLA delegation
(09:20):
if I'm not here. That means I'm either sick or
I somehow got a vacation. I yeah, rain or shine,
sleep or no sleep. I'm here eight hundred and nine
to oh fifteen eighty, eight hundred nine to oh fifteen
eighty if you want to say a thing about a thing,
and as usual, lots of stuff going on. I didn't
(09:43):
realize that Julio Caesar Chavez, the boxer this is junior,
not seenor right. For those of you who are boxing
fans like I am, not as much as I used
to follow it, but still love boxing, was deported. They
sent him back to Mexico, and they say that he
is cooperating or doing deals with drug cartels. So finally
(10:08):
the Trump administration duports someone who is wanted for cartel
crimes in Mexico. Finally found someone that they could actually
call a criminal. They sent him to a prison in
the northern state of Sonora. And much like Huganda and
(10:29):
Salvadorian prison, something tells me a prison is in Sonora
is not probably where you want to be. But he
had a warrant in Mexico for arms and drug trafficking.
And this is the guy, this is the son of Julio,
says Archavis, the boxing great who's also a boxer. But
I guess he kind of is off and on with
(10:50):
his stuff. Anyway, he was wanted for drunk driving in LA.
He did some jail time for that, I guess. Then
he was a on gun charges. Then he had a
list of crimes. But you know, I've been critical because
I feel like they're arresting car wash workers. And I
(11:12):
went to home Depot yesterday to get a few things,
and there were no workers. Like when you go to
home depot, there's always dudes waiting around the drive way
waiting for day laborers, waiting for work. There was not
one single person there, and the home depot was so empty.
(11:32):
I usually there's a line and you can't get anyone
to help you with anything. Nope, everybody was trying to
help me. I had so many people trying to help
me and there were no people in that store. Just
a reminder of the unintended consequences of taking people whose
(11:53):
crime is maybe crossing the border, if even that, who
are just working and doing their thing, and so society,
there's a price that these corporations and we as a
society pay when we just decide to randomly and indiscriminately
just deport people or scare them into hiding. Eight hundred
(12:13):
and nine two oh fifteen eighty. That's the number to
call if you want to say a thing about a thing.
I'm Dominique Uprima for KBLA Talk fifteen eighty Right now.
You know something we haven't talked about it on I
don't know that there's a whole bunch of conversation to
be had about it, but reminded me a little bit
of the conversations I used to have with the late
(12:36):
Great Paul Mooney, which is this situation with Little nas
X where he was found reported to police or whatever,
wandering down the street. First it was reported in his
underwear because they have footage of that. Then it turned
out at one point he was butt naked. Now they're
saying he charged at the cops, and he could be
(12:57):
facing up to five years in jail because they're saying
battery with injury on a police officer and resisting an
executive officer. The reason I say it reminds me of
Paul Mooney is because I remember when celebs black men
particularly will have the sort of you don't know what
(13:21):
it is a mental health break or if they're doing
a stunt because they're trying to get publicity. I doubt
that's if he's facing these kind of charges or if
they're having a mental health breakdown. And Paul would always
talk about the illusion of inclusion and how that theme,
that kind of celebrity and all of the weirdness that
it comes with, creates this illusion of inclusion where you
(13:45):
think you can do and say anything in Hollywood, and
then you f around and find out that you are
actually still black in America. I don't know the exact situation.
I don't know the details, but I know we've seen
this with other artists when they get to a certain
level of crossover, especially success, where they kind of snap
(14:08):
and something happens and the best of them bounce back. Right.
I hope that he doesn't end up in jail. The
other thing I prison, I guess it would be. The
other thing that I don't like about the story is
people getting into well it's because he's gay, or it's
because he made videos that were very explicit. If it
(14:32):
was for explicit videos and or behavior, then most a
lot of artists would be in jail, right, I mean,
you know, or would be walking down the streets in
their underwears like that. I hate that just the same
way I hate it when a natural disaster hits somewhere,
an earthquake, a flood, a storm, and people say, oh,
it's because it's Babylon, or it's because the people are sinful. Well,
(14:57):
if that was the case, everywhere would be by a
storm and a tornado and an earthquake and a fire,
because everywhere has people that are so called sinful. Like,
if God is going to take care of people that
people sins by wiping out everyone, the sinners and the innocent,
then there would be no people left because there's people
(15:21):
that live a foul of your spiritual laws everywhere. So
I just don't like that. It feels like hate to me.
And I wish the guy. I wish him well. I
hope he does. Okay. So Miles and I were talking
about think tank Thursday a little bit during news, traffic
(15:42):
and sports, and the current thinking is to throw something
at you guys. You guys being the KBLA delegation. You
and you and me and Miles, you and your friend
and me and Miles. And from time to time we'll
(16:03):
have scholars weighing in as well on something that needs
our brain power. When we do Talking Point Tuesday, we
tend to focus on things that kind of might have
slipped by us right their propaganda points. They are things
that folks are saying over and over again without really
focusing on how it serves or does not serve our
(16:26):
community or even their personal interests. We talk about think tank,
talking about putting the collective brain power of the kbla
delegation to work on a topic of importance, a topic
of interest, And so you're welcome to callin now or
(16:48):
next hour on this. We will leave Attorney Carl Douglas
to talk about his topic, which is the non lethal weaponry.
But of course we are the last couple days along
with today, we are in the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina
(17:08):
and the incredible havoc that it really wrecked on not
just New Orleans but Black America in a way because
people from there went to their family, they migrated all
over all over this country. Some are still there. And
(17:37):
so I don't you know, I heard Tavis's show and
they're talking about how they've bounced back, and I've heard
other reports saying that, but there are parts of New
Orleans that never ever came back, right, and probably won't.
(17:59):
And this is been twenty years. I know it doesn't
seem like twenty years, but it's been twenty years. And
we're in a point in America where we're talking about
where the President is actually talking about dismantling FEMA. Right,
And even though FEMA stumbled that disaster, they also did
(18:25):
things that were necessary and important and continue to. So
what can we learn from Hurricane Katrina that we can
benefit from now? And how do we deal with that
kind of a situation twenty years later in this environment?
(18:47):
And the reason I say that maybe it won't be
exactly Katrina, but we saw the La fires, we see
the increasing number of storms because of the climate emergency,
and so it feels like twenty years later, a disaster
of the magnitude of a Katrina is much more likely now, right,
(19:14):
much more likely now? And perhaps we are less prepared
in some ways. In some ways, maybe we're more prepared.
I don't know. Personally, I probably am more prepared as
a country, less prepared. What lessons can we learn and
what have we done? What are we doing that makes
(19:38):
us more prepared? Huh? And how do we counteract what
we're dealing with now, which is this idea that states
should be on their own, cities should be on their own,
that the help from the federal government is optional, even
though our tax dollars fund them, that it's optional. Let's
(19:59):
go to Michael calling us from Kansas City.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Good morning, Michael, Good morning, and thanks for taking my call.
Like yesterday on bi in News, I heard a report
that students and alumni at the University of Cincinnati formed
the foundation because the ost of Ohio has a new
law where you can't have DEI programs or in cultural programs.
(20:26):
But they formed the found rather than just saying, Okay, well,
we're not going to do this anymore, they formed the
foundation to collect funds to fund their program. In Missouri,
where I'm in Kansas City. In Missouri, the state's done
the same thing. There's been a block party that the
Black Student Union at MISSOO wanted to have and this
(20:50):
has been reported earlier this week. So what I did
was I went to that story and sent that to
the student newspaper at MISSOU and then the so A
group is called the HBCU Walking Billboard Kansas City.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Okay, Michael hold that thought. We've got a hard stop
for news, traffic, and sports. But this is interesting. It's like,
how do you do your own DEI when they're trying
to pretend it's illegal. Well, it's another good thought to
put into the group for think Tank Thursday, KBLA Top
fifteen eighty. Yes, indeed, Michael called from Kansas City. You
can do the same, he called me at eight hundred
(21:32):
and nine to oh fifteen eighty eight hundred and nine
two oh fifteen eighty. My question for think Tank Thursday
was let's put on our thinking caps, as they used
to say, and figure out what lessons we can learn
from Katrina, which was twenty years ago. The last couple days,
but Michael's posing another question here, which is about how
(21:55):
we take care of programs which would or could fall
under DEI, which, even though it's not illegal, it's de
facto illegal because the Trump administration has made it clear
they will punish companies and institutions that use anything they
call DEI. So basically anything that would help black people
(22:15):
is what we're really talking about, that they will punish
those institutions, so folks are afraid to do it, even
though technically it's not illegal. And you were talking about
Cincinnati students they're forming a foundation, saying that you've done
the same thing in Missouri. And then we went into news, traffic,
and sports. So where were you going with that, Michael?
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Well, the idea is that one organization has taken a
proactive approach to just not surrendering, right. You know, they
at University of Cincinnati, they formed a foundation to collect
funds to fund programs that there's student activity fees that
pay for the past, rather than just walking away from ITAI,
(23:00):
we haven't actually done that in Missouri, but in Missouri
the state has outlawed these programs. So what I did
was took the article, send it to the student newspaper
at MISSOU, and then shared it with other There's an
HBCU network group here in Kansas City. My point is
that if we see somebody that's taking action, let's replicate
(23:24):
that we just don't We just don't back down. So
that that's the point that so if you see some
in other areas, if somebody see something this came from
BI in news. I hadn't heard that you see had
done this. I'm from Cincinnati, hadn't heard that you see
had done this, So I took what I heard on
your program from bi in News and shared that with others.
That's the point I want to make. If we see something,
(23:47):
the spread the word. So that's my point.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Yeah, I think it's a good point, and I think
it's a point that applies to a lot of stuff
right now. I remember my friend, the late doctor Abel
johnsh was a Motown artist and author, a pastor who
used to feed people all the time and give away clothing, food,
whatever people needed. She always said, we're the safety net,
(24:11):
and she would refer back to the Great Depression because
she was, you know, chronologically gifted. When I was her friend,
she was in her nineties and eighties when I was
her friend. May she rest in peace. But she always said,
back then, we didn't have all of these safety net features.
(24:32):
We didn't have the well developed welfare and different safety
net programs that we have now, or that we had
now before Trump, and so we were forced to be
there for each other. And the DIY part of what
you're saying was, Okay, if they are going to defund
our programs, how do we pivot and make sure that
(24:56):
we don't just give up?
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Yeah, So thanks for taking the call.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Okay, thanks Michael, And I think that's important. It's going
to be about DIY. But the challenge is that we
don't have billions, right. I mean, you can fund your
school recovery. You can recover from your school funding cuts
by going to foundations, going to community doing a bake sale,
(25:23):
whatever you got to do. If you're talking about rebuilding
an entire city like New Orleans, it may not be
that simple. But I'm interested in hearing what you think,
what we've learned, what we should learn, and what we
can do about it. When you talk about Katrina, it's
(25:47):
easy to forget when you look at the total death
toll across all of the Gulf Coast. Eighteen hundred people
died as a result of Katrina. And the government, our government,
the federal government, remember them. They put aside tens of billions,
(26:13):
billions of dollars to rebuild one hundred and forty billion
to be exact, and actually was the biggest domestic recovery
fund ever set aside in US history. So why didn't
(26:36):
it fully bounce back? The New York Times says it's
because we're not good at long term recovery. And I
mean I'm from the Bay. I grew up in San Francisco.
San Francisco was destroyed almost a huge part of the
(26:56):
city was destroyed by an earthquake and then the subsequent fire.
But it was rebuilt. So does that mean we've gotten
worse at it? Because San Francisco was rebuilt beautifully. And
what happens if we have a Katrina level disaster today
(27:19):
with no FEMA at all? It's hard to have a
bake sale for one hundred and forty billion. But it
is true that New Orleans, although it still attracts people
from all over the world, is smaller it did. Katrina
(27:40):
changed it? You know, I get that we don't want
to write it off and we don't want to add
to the problem. But the fact of the matter is
it is different, and the gap between rich and poor
(28:00):
grew bigger as a result of that, the middle class
hasn't bounced back the way that we had hoped. The
tourism industry is not back to where it was twenty
years later. So what happens? What happens to all that money?
(28:23):
Does it get sucked into bureaucracy? Does it go? Does
it go you know out the door? While we deal
with this maze of regulations. Apparently a lot of it
(28:45):
went to consultants, government consultants instead of going to schools
and the transit authority and the folks that really our
task with bouncing back. And so it's also reminding me
(29:12):
a lot of the houselessness crisis here in LA because
you have billions that are designated and then you don't
have the transparency about what is happening to those dollars. Now,
we know that it would be a lot worse if
we didn't have those billions. There would be even more
(29:33):
people living on the streets, intents, or under freeways. But
are we getting the bang for the buck? And I
think that the truth in New Orleans is no one
company alone got a billion dollars to consult and oversee
something called road Home, which is a program that was
(29:56):
meant to rebuild houses that apparently was a disaster. So,
you know, one of the things. And we're watching this
on a course a much smaller scale. We're watching this
play out in Altadena right as James Farr stated on
(30:18):
this show on Monday, that only two families as far
as he knows, have put a shovel in the ground
to start rebuilding two black families there. And then if
the whole idea is just try to get replicate what
was lost, can you even do that? Do you need
to build something that can withstand a fire or withstand
(30:40):
a flood, or something new and improved. One of the
things we know about Katrina is that they spend a
lot of money on neighborhoods that were below sea level
instead of trying to reimagine how they would build the
city way that could withstand not just what's happened in
(31:03):
the past, but what's coming in the future. Eight hundred
nine to oh fifteen eighty. Eight hundred and nine to
oh fifteen eighty, that is the number to call love
to use your brain. On this think tank Thursday, I'm
Dominic Uprima for KBLA Talk fifteen eighty. You are and
I'm glad that you're here. Eight hundred and nine two
(31:25):
oh fifteen eighty. Eight hundred nine to oh fifteen eighty.
On this think tank Thursday, I just you know, was
talking about lessons of Katrina twenty years later and trying
to think about how we could do better, especially since
we're twenty years deeper into the climate emergency and most
(31:47):
major cities are looking at some version of a Katrina. Obviously,
it might not be flooding for your city. It could
be fire, it could be a tornado. Right, But we
are in in era where the climate emergency has escalated
to the point where most cities could be facing the
(32:07):
kind of destruction. And you know, we can get into
the recovery itself as the storm itself, restorm immediate response
and the racism there. I mean, I think we've all
talked about that quite a bit. We can talk about
it's more how do you how do you undo that?
(32:28):
I mean, it's part of what we're facing with Altadina
here on the West coast, right, how do you build
equity into recovery? And I feel like it's going to
be more difficult now because of this anti DEI frenzy.
(32:49):
But Katrina should teach us some lessons and we hopefully
we should be applying them to Alta Dina, because even
though obviously it's a much smaller disaster in scope, it's
(33:12):
going to be impactful in some of the same kinds
of ways in terms of the impact on a middle
class black community or working class black community. New Orleans
has twenty three percent fewer folks than it did in
(33:33):
two thousand when the storm hit, thirty seven percent less
black people. It's a lot of us that never came back,
never bounced back. It has high unemployment, slow job growth.
It's near the bottom of cities when it comes to
(33:55):
gross domestic product per capita. It's the most income unequal
big city in America. And that wasn't the case before
Hurricane Katrina. One in three children living in poverty, and
(34:17):
when we're talking about black kids, that's forty three percent
hungry on any given day. This is post Katrina New Orleans.
And it's interesting because if you're you or me, we
I should speak for me, and you're not really tracking
day to day to day. You see the ribbon cuttings,
(34:39):
you see the tourist areas bounce back and some of
the corporations coming back in and maybe don't notice that
libraries didn't reopen, hospitals did not come back, schools went away,
and apparently the recovery and some of that recovery money,
(35:02):
that one hundred and forty billion was actually used to
privatize some things that don't benefit the poor. Ie. New
Orleans is now almost entirely charter schools, and the high
performing ones are full of white students, and guess who's
at the lower performing ones. So when we talk about
(35:25):
rebuilding Altadena, it's not just how do we put back
the same building? How do we put back the image
of it has to be how do we incentivize people
being able to come back? Can we do rebuilding bonuses
or some kind of support, ongoing support for people who
(35:49):
do refuse to sell and decide to do their best
to bring back what we loved about Altadena. There are
still in New Orleans lots of empty homes where the
people left during Katrina twenty years ago, and no one
(36:11):
ever came back, no one ever could afford to do,
so some of them are still jacked up, streets still
jacked up. Of course, we're talking about poorer communities, communities
that used to be thriving, black, middle class communities, and
they're still dealing with a lot of infrastructure problems. Just
(36:32):
a normal storm that's not even a Katrina level storm
causing flooding and drain systems failing, and crazy crazy rents
like La level rents, which is weird because they don't
have enough people moving back there, but yet the rents
(36:54):
are so high. Truthpeak says maybe black New Orleans and
Altadena needed diversity. Altadena was very diverse. I know that
you're one of the Republican voices in the in the
YouTube conversation, but Altadena was very diverse, very very That
was one of the things that people were touting about it.
(37:17):
I think New Orleans is fairly diverse too, maybe not
as much so as Altadena. I haven't seen the numbers
on that. I have seen numbers on Altadena, I just
can't remember them off the top of my head. One
of the most diverse places you'd ever find, at least
in southern California. The reason we talk so much about
the black community, aside from the fact that we're one
(37:38):
of five black talk stations in this whole country that
can do so, is because the middle class and working
class components were vibrant. Home Ownership was higher than anywhere
else in the country for black people, not because there
was nobody else there, but because the community was strong, vibrant, creative,
(38:04):
owned houses. And these are things we want to preserve.
These are things we want to replicate. It's not to
say there was no one else there. It's to say
this was a thriving black community along with whoever else
was there, and how do we recapture that and what
(38:25):
can we learn from the disaster? And the disaster of
Katrina is not just the actual storm itself, it's the
fact that the response was racist and lack luster and haphazard,
and then the long term rebuilding was fraught with a
(38:45):
lack of oversight, wasted money, money that FEMA wanted to
get back but couldn't get back for stuff like that
whole charterization of those schools. And it's not realistic to
say that you can just rebuild a house and then
the community will bounce back. If you're talking about recovery
(39:08):
for an Altadena, you've got to get help, you know,
not just building and getting rid of the toxic soil,
but how do you on an ongoing basis make sure
that people have job opportunities, that they have the chance
to get back what they lost in terms of their furnishings,
(39:32):
their mental and physical health. How do you pay for
folks to relocate? A lot of people have moved out
of Altadena. If they are going to move back, whether
they're renters or whether they're trying to rebuild, they're going
to need help to relocate, childcare support, all of these
(39:54):
kinds of things that we don't think about. Those are
part of recovery. It's not just buildings, and it's people.
People are what make a place great. That's one of
the things that we're talking about when we talk about
Alta Dina. It's people. It's community. Yes, it's thriving black communities,
Yes it's diverse community, but it all comes down to humans.
(40:18):
Any community is made up of humans, and if recovery
doesn't include the support, the nurturing, the healing of those humans,
then it's not real recovery. It's not sustainable. It's just cosmetic.
It's corporate recovery. It's not actual humanitarian bounce back. We've
(40:42):
got news, traffic, and sports, and then it's the perfect
time to call me. Eight hundred and nine to oh,
fifteen eighty. I'm Dominique Daprima for Unapologetically Progressive KBLA Talk,
fifteen eighty
Kay Bla Talk fifteen eighty Good morning, Good morning, and
God bless I'm Dominique Depreem with this show is called
First Things First and my very first thing today and
every day given Thanksgiving, praises and asking for blessings from
the most High, asking for the blessings of the ancestors
and the elders, and let's go happy think Tank Thursday.
(00:25):
This is how we do things around here. On a Thursday.
Hour One we look local, our two we go national,
international and beyond, and in the third hour we do
a deep dive with a person of interest, a hot topic,
or a combination of both. Today we're looking at the
issue of what they call less lethal weapons. Less lethal weaponry.
(00:45):
We hear from law enforcement all the time, this is
what they're using at protests. Well, we will have Attorney
Carl Douglas with me and studio to discuss that he
just won a huge settlement from the county because of
the so called less legal lethal weaponry. So we'll find
out where we are in terms of policy. We get
(01:06):
the details on that case, and you, as you are
every hour, are invited to join. At eight hundred nine
to oh fifteen eighty eight hundred nine two oh fifteen eighty.
That is the number to call UH no matter where
you're calling from. UH. And you can also, of course,
join the conversation on YouTube in the comments section is
(01:28):
where the KBLA delegation is YouTube dot com KBLA fifteen eighty.
And yeah, I love to see there. I always love
to see there. Please like and subscribe and follow and
post a you know, postal something something I'd love to
hear from you there and everywhere. We when you follow
(01:51):
us on socials, that actually makes us stronger and helps
us to stay in business. So follow, like, subscribe, every
sing and go where and uh, of course I'm at
the Prima Radio D I P R, I M A
and then radio And yeah, Miles is back. Woo hoo,
(02:12):
welcome back Miles. You feel I'm good. I'm not gonna lie.
I did go out last night, so I'm a tiny
bit tired, but I'm good. How are you? I feel
charged up? I'm ready to go. Yeah. I was taking
over the world. How was the tour?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
World was good?
Speaker 1 (02:31):
World was good?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Got to got to see the whorld, went to Atlanta,
tapped it with investmentst this weekend, I was really uh,
really really Uh yeah, I mean kind of it leads
you speechless once you see that type of level of
you know, black futurism and black money kind of come together.
It was all that.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah. Yeah, well I'm you know, I'm glad to have
it home. Andy did a great job, but we know
that you got to keep expanding as an artist and
as an entrepreneur. So good for you on that. We
went and saw a baby Face and Charlie Wilson last night. Yeah,
that was last night. It was really good. Yeah, we
(03:13):
have maybe too much fun. But it was at the
Hollywood Bowl, which is one of my favorite places because
it's outside. It was packed, and I mean I love Babyface.
I'm a Babyface fan. Oh and Jodicy did I forget that? Wow? Yeah,
I forget that. And they sounded really good. Actually, everybody
(03:33):
sounded amazing. I like Hollywood Bowl because it's outside. It
was packed, and I feel like there were more celebrities
per square inch than you usually see at a show,
including Tavis Smiley. We ran a damn Tavis was there,
Anthony Anderson, I The list would be long. I saw
so many celebs that it was just wild. I love
(03:57):
I guess certain artists can bring out everybody. But I
also had the feeling like one of the reasons that
happens right now is because people are in need of inspiration, encouragement, creative,
you know, connection, and because of what's happening politically. So
(04:18):
it was really nice. People were having a good old
time and I just forget how many songs Babyfaces written.
Everything did a long show, Yeah, it was like three hours,
but it went by quick because there's so many hits.
I mean, you you know you didn't get.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Bored right, good, okay, because I know sometimes these shows
can have those you know, those filler moments where it
takes forever switch the bands out type stuff, and you
add hours on top of hours, and but yeah, if
you're saying you weren't board, he was entertained the whole time.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
That's beautiful. Yeah, no, we weren't board. I think, well
the Hollywood Bowl too. You know, you can bring your
food and so you know, when they're switching bands, you're
eating and stuff. It was really fun and shout out
to all the artists, you know, just really he's showing
up and putting on a great spectacle, and Babyface got
(05:06):
these young dudes singing with him that are you know fire?
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yeah, I haven't seen uh, I've seen everybody. I haven't
seen Charlie Wilson a live though.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Oh man, I love me some Uncle Charlie. His voice,
chef's kiss, his voice sounds the same. That's the same
to me. With Stevie Wonder was there too. I didn't
get to talk to him, but I saw he walked
right by us. A lot of people, a lot of stars, so,
and that's always a tribute, you know, when the Classic
(05:36):
Guys play, it's also a time when the stars come out.
So yeah, good times.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Any surprise guests.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
No surprise guests, well, I mean I guess jo Toasy
like because we were expecting just Casey and we got
all of Jodasy. Yeah, so that was kind of a surprise.
But they didn't bring out anybody other than that. I
think everybody was in the seats enjoying, enjoying the show.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
I mean, is Casey really an acting by himself? If
he's not Casey and Jojo for it's not Jodasy. If
it's not, I mean that's.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
What some of my girls were saying. But to me, yeah,
because they're still his songs, even if the whole group
isn't there. They're still his hits, You don't think so.
I think artists do that all the time. They tour
with one part of a duet or they're you know,
look at Tony Tony Tony. Even before Dane passed, there
were like two Tony Tony Tony's touring.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Right, And I get you, and you're right, but you know,
I don't.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Think the Temptation. How many Temptations groups are.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Touring, right, But I don't think we get the same
level of entertainment though if it was just one person
when you have these I don't know, but these mega
groups doing these, you know, I mean mega group hit songs.
Not like I wouldn't say Casey has too many songs
that I know of of his own that he can sing,
that'll be yeah, no.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
But he can sing his he can sing the Portfolio,
he can sing Casey and Jojo, he can sing Jodasy.
I mean, those are his legit hits, right, I think.
I don't. I don't take that away from an artist.
That's you know, that's how a lot of them make
a living, you know, as they you know, advance in years,
and everybody sounded amazing good everybody's sound. I remember a
(07:15):
long time ago when I used to be one of
the sidekicks on the Steve Harvey Morning Show. We interviewed
Casey and Jojo and they were it was about six
or seven in the morning because it was morning drive radio,
and they were plastered, I mean, so drunk. And you know,
you interview artists sometimes they're they're in whatever space they're is,
(07:38):
you got, this was not like normal. This was so
like even Steve was, what do we do? So it's great.
I love to see artists, you know, when they reinvent,
refresh and and just you know, kill, killing the game.
And that's so that was a nice That was a
really nice surprise. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
I love and hearing that everybody's instrument is still working,
you know what I mean, because I've seen a lot
of people over the years, even now, you know, I
mean the younger generation artists, their voices are are gone
earlier and early and earlier. So yeah, to hear everybody
still sounding good and strong, that's what's up.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Yeah. Well, I know I've seen that too, and it's
so disappointing when you go to a show and the person,
even though you still love them, they can't sing the
songs or their voice is mostly gone, like Whitney toward
the end of her life. It's just really really sad.
But then you see people like Stevie Wonder who sound
the same. But just I know from working with him
for seventeen eighteen years that he takes care of his voice.
(08:39):
He's always drinking tea, he's got lozenges, he's got herbs
for this and herbs for that. He don't smoke like.
He takes care of that gift that God gave him.
And other people are a little more reckless. You see
the drug use and stuff and so and that's one
of the great things about Charlie Wilson story. You know,
he has he's had cancer, which he's you know, he's
(09:00):
a survivor. He's in remission and all those years of
drug use and he still has his voice. So that's
that's actually kind of like a miracle if you think
about it. So, yeah, good times, and Paul says he's
surprised I'm here because I was up late. You know what,
I'd be up late sometimes I'm a writer or die for,
you know, I'm right or die for the KBLA delegation
(09:20):
if I'm not here. That means I'm either sick or
I somehow got a vacation. I yeah, rain or shine,
sleep or no sleep. I'm here eight hundred and nine
to oh fifteen eighty, eight hundred nine to oh fifteen
eighty if you want to say a thing about a thing,
and as usual, lots of stuff going on. I didn't
(09:43):
realize that Julio Caesar Chavez, the boxer this is junior,
not seenor right. For those of you who are boxing
fans like I am, not as much as I used
to follow it, but still love boxing, was deported. They
sent him back to Mexico, and they say that he
is cooperating or doing deals with drug cartels. So finally
(10:08):
the Trump administration duports someone who is wanted for cartel
crimes in Mexico. Finally found someone that they could actually
call a criminal. They sent him to a prison in
the northern state of Sonora. And much like Huganda and
(10:29):
Salvadorian prison, something tells me a prison is in Sonora
is not probably where you want to be. But he
had a warrant in Mexico for arms and drug trafficking.
And this is the guy, this is the son of Julio,
says Archavis, the boxing great who's also a boxer. But
I guess he kind of is off and on with
(10:50):
his stuff. Anyway, he was wanted for drunk driving in LA.
He did some jail time for that, I guess. Then
he was a on gun charges. Then he had a
list of crimes. But you know, I've been critical because
I feel like they're arresting car wash workers. And I
(11:12):
went to home Depot yesterday to get a few things,
and there were no workers. Like when you go to
home depot, there's always dudes waiting around the drive way
waiting for day laborers, waiting for work. There was not
one single person there, and the home depot was so empty.
(11:32):
I usually there's a line and you can't get anyone
to help you with anything. Nope, everybody was trying to
help me. I had so many people trying to help
me and there were no people in that store. Just
a reminder of the unintended consequences of taking people whose
(11:53):
crime is maybe crossing the border, if even that, who
are just working and doing their thing, and so society,
there's a price that these corporations and we as a
society pay when we just decide to randomly and indiscriminately
just deport people or scare them into hiding. Eight hundred
(12:13):
and nine two oh fifteen eighty. That's the number to
call if you want to say a thing about a thing.
I'm Dominique Uprima for KBLA Talk fifteen eighty Right now.
You know something we haven't talked about it on I
don't know that there's a whole bunch of conversation to
be had about it, but reminded me a little bit
of the conversations I used to have with the late
(12:36):
Great Paul Mooney, which is this situation with Little nas
X where he was found reported to police or whatever,
wandering down the street. First it was reported in his
underwear because they have footage of that. Then it turned
out at one point he was butt naked. Now they're
saying he charged at the cops, and he could be
(12:57):
facing up to five years in jail because they're saying
battery with injury on a police officer and resisting an
executive officer. The reason I say it reminds me of
Paul Mooney is because I remember when celebs black men
particularly will have the sort of you don't know what
(13:21):
it is a mental health break or if they're doing
a stunt because they're trying to get publicity. I doubt
that's if he's facing these kind of charges or if
they're having a mental health breakdown. And Paul would always
talk about the illusion of inclusion and how that theme,
that kind of celebrity and all of the weirdness that
it comes with, creates this illusion of inclusion where you
(13:45):
think you can do and say anything in Hollywood, and
then you f around and find out that you are
actually still black in America. I don't know the exact situation.
I don't know the details, but I know we've seen
this with other artists when they get to a certain
level of crossover, especially success, where they kind of snap
(14:08):
and something happens and the best of them bounce back. Right.
I hope that he doesn't end up in jail. The
other thing I prison, I guess it would be. The
other thing that I don't like about the story is
people getting into well it's because he's gay, or it's
because he made videos that were very explicit. If it
(14:32):
was for explicit videos and or behavior, then most a
lot of artists would be in jail, right, I mean,
you know, or would be walking down the streets in
their underwears like that. I hate that just the same
way I hate it when a natural disaster hits somewhere,
an earthquake, a flood, a storm, and people say, oh,
it's because it's Babylon, or it's because the people are sinful. Well,
(14:57):
if that was the case, everywhere would be by a
storm and a tornado and an earthquake and a fire,
because everywhere has people that are so called sinful. Like,
if God is going to take care of people that
people sins by wiping out everyone, the sinners and the innocent,
then there would be no people left because there's people
(15:21):
that live a foul of your spiritual laws everywhere. So
I just don't like that. It feels like hate to me.
And I wish the guy. I wish him well. I
hope he does. Okay. So Miles and I were talking
about think tank Thursday a little bit during news, traffic
(15:42):
and sports, and the current thinking is to throw something
at you guys. You guys being the KBLA delegation. You
and you and me and Miles, you and your friend
and me and Miles. And from time to time we'll
(16:03):
have scholars weighing in as well on something that needs
our brain power. When we do Talking Point Tuesday, we
tend to focus on things that kind of might have
slipped by us right their propaganda points. They are things
that folks are saying over and over again without really
focusing on how it serves or does not serve our
(16:26):
community or even their personal interests. We talk about think tank,
talking about putting the collective brain power of the kbla
delegation to work on a topic of importance, a topic
of interest, And so you're welcome to callin now or
(16:48):
next hour on this. We will leave Attorney Carl Douglas
to talk about his topic, which is the non lethal weaponry.
But of course we are the last couple days along
with today, we are in the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina
(17:08):
and the incredible havoc that it really wrecked on not
just New Orleans but Black America in a way because
people from there went to their family, they migrated all
over all over this country. Some are still there. And
(17:37):
so I don't you know, I heard Tavis's show and
they're talking about how they've bounced back, and I've heard
other reports saying that, but there are parts of New
Orleans that never ever came back, right, and probably won't.
(17:59):
And this is been twenty years. I know it doesn't
seem like twenty years, but it's been twenty years. And
we're in a point in America where we're talking about
where the President is actually talking about dismantling FEMA. Right,
And even though FEMA stumbled that disaster, they also did
(18:25):
things that were necessary and important and continue to. So
what can we learn from Hurricane Katrina that we can
benefit from now? And how do we deal with that
kind of a situation twenty years later in this environment?
(18:47):
And the reason I say that maybe it won't be
exactly Katrina, but we saw the La fires, we see
the increasing number of storms because of the climate emergency,
and so it feels like twenty years later, a disaster
of the magnitude of a Katrina is much more likely now, right,
(19:14):
much more likely now? And perhaps we are less prepared
in some ways. In some ways, maybe we're more prepared.
I don't know. Personally, I probably am more prepared as
a country, less prepared. What lessons can we learn and
what have we done? What are we doing that makes
(19:38):
us more prepared? Huh? And how do we counteract what
we're dealing with now, which is this idea that states
should be on their own, cities should be on their own,
that the help from the federal government is optional, even
though our tax dollars fund them, that it's optional. Let's
(19:59):
go to Michael calling us from Kansas City.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Good morning, Michael, Good morning, and thanks for taking my call.
Like yesterday on bi in News, I heard a report
that students and alumni at the University of Cincinnati formed
the foundation because the ost of Ohio has a new
law where you can't have DEI programs or in cultural programs.
(20:26):
But they formed the found rather than just saying, Okay, well,
we're not going to do this anymore, they formed the
foundation to collect funds to fund their program. In Missouri,
where I'm in Kansas City. In Missouri, the state's done
the same thing. There's been a block party that the
Black Student Union at MISSOO wanted to have and this
(20:50):
has been reported earlier this week. So what I did
was I went to that story and sent that to
the student newspaper at MISSOU and then the so A
group is called the HBCU Walking Billboard Kansas City.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Okay, Michael hold that thought. We've got a hard stop
for news, traffic, and sports. But this is interesting. It's like,
how do you do your own DEI when they're trying
to pretend it's illegal. Well, it's another good thought to
put into the group for think Tank Thursday, KBLA Top
fifteen eighty. Yes, indeed, Michael called from Kansas City. You
can do the same, he called me at eight hundred
(21:32):
and nine to oh fifteen eighty eight hundred and nine
two oh fifteen eighty. My question for think Tank Thursday
was let's put on our thinking caps, as they used
to say, and figure out what lessons we can learn
from Katrina, which was twenty years ago. The last couple days,
but Michael's posing another question here, which is about how
(21:55):
we take care of programs which would or could fall
under DEI, which, even though it's not illegal, it's de
facto illegal because the Trump administration has made it clear
they will punish companies and institutions that use anything they
call DEI. So basically anything that would help black people
(22:15):
is what we're really talking about, that they will punish
those institutions, so folks are afraid to do it, even
though technically it's not illegal. And you were talking about
Cincinnati students they're forming a foundation, saying that you've done
the same thing in Missouri. And then we went into news, traffic,
and sports. So where were you going with that, Michael?
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Well, the idea is that one organization has taken a
proactive approach to just not surrendering, right. You know, they
at University of Cincinnati, they formed a foundation to collect
funds to fund programs that there's student activity fees that
pay for the past, rather than just walking away from ITAI,
(23:00):
we haven't actually done that in Missouri, but in Missouri
the state has outlawed these programs. So what I did
was took the article, send it to the student newspaper
at MISSOU, and then shared it with other There's an
HBCU network group here in Kansas City. My point is
that if we see somebody that's taking action, let's replicate
(23:24):
that we just don't We just don't back down. So
that that's the point that so if you see some
in other areas, if somebody see something this came from
BI in news. I hadn't heard that you see had
done this. I'm from Cincinnati, hadn't heard that you see
had done this, So I took what I heard on
your program from bi in News and shared that with others.
That's the point I want to make. If we see something,
(23:47):
the spread the word. So that's my point.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Yeah, I think it's a good point, and I think
it's a point that applies to a lot of stuff
right now. I remember my friend, the late doctor Abel
johnsh was a Motown artist and author, a pastor who
used to feed people all the time and give away clothing, food,
whatever people needed. She always said, we're the safety net,
(24:11):
and she would refer back to the Great Depression because
she was, you know, chronologically gifted. When I was her friend,
she was in her nineties and eighties when I was
her friend. May she rest in peace. But she always said,
back then, we didn't have all of these safety net features.
(24:32):
We didn't have the well developed welfare and different safety
net programs that we have now, or that we had
now before Trump, and so we were forced to be
there for each other. And the DIY part of what
you're saying was, Okay, if they are going to defund
our programs, how do we pivot and make sure that
(24:56):
we don't just give up?
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Yeah, So thanks for taking the call.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Okay, thanks Michael, And I think that's important. It's going
to be about DIY. But the challenge is that we
don't have billions, right. I mean, you can fund your
school recovery. You can recover from your school funding cuts
by going to foundations, going to community doing a bake sale,
(25:23):
whatever you got to do. If you're talking about rebuilding
an entire city like New Orleans, it may not be
that simple. But I'm interested in hearing what you think,
what we've learned, what we should learn, and what we
can do about it. When you talk about Katrina, it's
(25:47):
easy to forget when you look at the total death
toll across all of the Gulf Coast. Eighteen hundred people
died as a result of Katrina. And the government, our government,
the federal government, remember them. They put aside tens of billions,
(26:13):
billions of dollars to rebuild one hundred and forty billion
to be exact, and actually was the biggest domestic recovery
fund ever set aside in US history. So why didn't
(26:36):
it fully bounce back? The New York Times says it's
because we're not good at long term recovery. And I
mean I'm from the Bay. I grew up in San Francisco.
San Francisco was destroyed almost a huge part of the
(26:56):
city was destroyed by an earthquake and then the subsequent fire.
But it was rebuilt. So does that mean we've gotten
worse at it? Because San Francisco was rebuilt beautifully. And
what happens if we have a Katrina level disaster today
(27:19):
with no FEMA at all? It's hard to have a
bake sale for one hundred and forty billion. But it
is true that New Orleans, although it still attracts people
from all over the world, is smaller it did. Katrina
(27:40):
changed it? You know, I get that we don't want
to write it off and we don't want to add
to the problem. But the fact of the matter is
it is different, and the gap between rich and poor
(28:00):
grew bigger as a result of that, the middle class
hasn't bounced back the way that we had hoped. The
tourism industry is not back to where it was twenty
years later. So what happens? What happens to all that money?
(28:23):
Does it get sucked into bureaucracy? Does it go? Does
it go you know out the door? While we deal
with this maze of regulations. Apparently a lot of it
(28:45):
went to consultants, government consultants instead of going to schools
and the transit authority and the folks that really our
task with bouncing back. And so it's also reminding me
(29:12):
a lot of the houselessness crisis here in LA because
you have billions that are designated and then you don't
have the transparency about what is happening to those dollars. Now,
we know that it would be a lot worse if
we didn't have those billions. There would be even more
(29:33):
people living on the streets, intents, or under freeways. But
are we getting the bang for the buck? And I
think that the truth in New Orleans is no one
company alone got a billion dollars to consult and oversee
something called road Home, which is a program that was
(29:56):
meant to rebuild houses that apparently was a disaster. So,
you know, one of the things. And we're watching this
on a course a much smaller scale. We're watching this
play out in Altadena right as James Farr stated on
(30:18):
this show on Monday, that only two families as far
as he knows, have put a shovel in the ground
to start rebuilding two black families there. And then if
the whole idea is just try to get replicate what
was lost, can you even do that? Do you need
to build something that can withstand a fire or withstand
(30:40):
a flood, or something new and improved. One of the
things we know about Katrina is that they spend a
lot of money on neighborhoods that were below sea level
instead of trying to reimagine how they would build the
city way that could withstand not just what's happened in
(31:03):
the past, but what's coming in the future. Eight hundred
nine to oh fifteen eighty. Eight hundred and nine to
oh fifteen eighty, that is the number to call love
to use your brain. On this think tank Thursday, I'm
Dominic Uprima for KBLA Talk fifteen eighty. You are and
I'm glad that you're here. Eight hundred and nine two
(31:25):
oh fifteen eighty. Eight hundred nine to oh fifteen eighty.
On this think tank Thursday, I just you know, was
talking about lessons of Katrina twenty years later and trying
to think about how we could do better, especially since
we're twenty years deeper into the climate emergency and most
(31:47):
major cities are looking at some version of a Katrina. Obviously,
it might not be flooding for your city. It could
be fire, it could be a tornado. Right, But we
are in in era where the climate emergency has escalated
to the point where most cities could be facing the
(32:07):
kind of destruction. And you know, we can get into
the recovery itself as the storm itself, restorm immediate response
and the racism there. I mean, I think we've all
talked about that quite a bit. We can talk about
it's more how do you how do you undo that?
(32:28):
I mean, it's part of what we're facing with Altadina
here on the West coast, right, how do you build
equity into recovery? And I feel like it's going to
be more difficult now because of this anti DEI frenzy.
(32:49):
But Katrina should teach us some lessons and we hopefully
we should be applying them to Alta Dina, because even
though obviously it's a much smaller disaster in scope, it's
(33:12):
going to be impactful in some of the same kinds
of ways in terms of the impact on a middle
class black community or working class black community. New Orleans
has twenty three percent fewer folks than it did in
(33:33):
two thousand when the storm hit, thirty seven percent less
black people. It's a lot of us that never came back,
never bounced back. It has high unemployment, slow job growth.
It's near the bottom of cities when it comes to
(33:55):
gross domestic product per capita. It's the most income unequal
big city in America. And that wasn't the case before
Hurricane Katrina. One in three children living in poverty, and
(34:17):
when we're talking about black kids, that's forty three percent
hungry on any given day. This is post Katrina New Orleans.
And it's interesting because if you're you or me, we
I should speak for me, and you're not really tracking
day to day to day. You see the ribbon cuttings,
(34:39):
you see the tourist areas bounce back and some of
the corporations coming back in and maybe don't notice that
libraries didn't reopen, hospitals did not come back, schools went away,
and apparently the recovery and some of that recovery money,
(35:02):
that one hundred and forty billion was actually used to
privatize some things that don't benefit the poor. Ie. New
Orleans is now almost entirely charter schools, and the high
performing ones are full of white students, and guess who's
at the lower performing ones. So when we talk about
(35:25):
rebuilding Altadena, it's not just how do we put back
the same building? How do we put back the image
of it has to be how do we incentivize people
being able to come back? Can we do rebuilding bonuses
or some kind of support, ongoing support for people who
(35:49):
do refuse to sell and decide to do their best
to bring back what we loved about Altadena. There are
still in New Orleans lots of empty homes where the
people left during Katrina twenty years ago, and no one
(36:11):
ever came back, no one ever could afford to do,
so some of them are still jacked up, streets still
jacked up. Of course, we're talking about poorer communities, communities
that used to be thriving, black, middle class communities, and
they're still dealing with a lot of infrastructure problems. Just
(36:32):
a normal storm that's not even a Katrina level storm
causing flooding and drain systems failing, and crazy crazy rents
like La level rents, which is weird because they don't
have enough people moving back there, but yet the rents
(36:54):
are so high. Truthpeak says maybe black New Orleans and
Altadena needed diversity. Altadena was very diverse. I know that
you're one of the Republican voices in the in the
YouTube conversation, but Altadena was very diverse, very very That
was one of the things that people were touting about it.
(37:17):
I think New Orleans is fairly diverse too, maybe not
as much so as Altadena. I haven't seen the numbers
on that. I have seen numbers on Altadena, I just
can't remember them off the top of my head. One
of the most diverse places you'd ever find, at least
in southern California. The reason we talk so much about
the black community, aside from the fact that we're one
(37:38):
of five black talk stations in this whole country that
can do so, is because the middle class and working
class components were vibrant. Home Ownership was higher than anywhere
else in the country for black people, not because there
was nobody else there, but because the community was strong, vibrant, creative,
(38:04):
owned houses. And these are things we want to preserve.
These are things we want to replicate. It's not to
say there was no one else there. It's to say
this was a thriving black community along with whoever else
was there, and how do we recapture that and what
(38:25):
can we learn from the disaster? And the disaster of
Katrina is not just the actual storm itself, it's the
fact that the response was racist and lack luster and haphazard,
and then the long term rebuilding was fraught with a
(38:45):
lack of oversight, wasted money, money that FEMA wanted to
get back but couldn't get back for stuff like that
whole charterization of those schools. And it's not realistic to
say that you can just rebuild a house and then
the community will bounce back. If you're talking about recovery
(39:08):
for an Altadena, you've got to get help, you know,
not just building and getting rid of the toxic soil,
but how do you on an ongoing basis make sure
that people have job opportunities, that they have the chance
to get back what they lost in terms of their furnishings,
(39:32):
their mental and physical health. How do you pay for
folks to relocate? A lot of people have moved out
of Altadena. If they are going to move back, whether
they're renters or whether they're trying to rebuild, they're going
to need help to relocate, childcare support, all of these
(39:54):
kinds of things that we don't think about. Those are
part of recovery. It's not just buildings, and it's people.
People are what make a place great. That's one of
the things that we're talking about when we talk about
Alta Dina. It's people. It's community. Yes, it's thriving black communities,
Yes it's diverse community, but it all comes down to humans.
(40:18):
Any community is made up of humans, and if recovery
doesn't include the support, the nurturing, the healing of those humans,
then it's not real recovery. It's not sustainable. It's just cosmetic.
It's corporate recovery. It's not actual humanitarian bounce back. We've
(40:42):
got news, traffic, and sports, and then it's the perfect
time to call me. Eight hundred and nine to oh,
fifteen eighty. I'm Dominique Daprima for Unapologetically Progressive KBLA Talk,
fifteen eighty
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