October 18, 2023 • 28 mins
JBMV Discussion w/ Marc Sims, Chicago, IL podcast host. We discuss schools, neighborhoods and crime on the Southside of Chicago.
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(00:11):
Welcome to the Just Buy My Vote podcast.
I am Joseph Simmons,
the host and also author of the new book,
Just Buy My Vote,
African American voting rights in the Chicago condition.
We're going to the south side of Chicago today with the Man,
the myth,
the podcast legend.
It is my pleasure to have podcast extraordinaire.
(00:33):
Mr Marc Sims.
Welcome to the Just Buy My Vote podcast,
Mr Simmons.
Thank you.
What you talking about.
You're over selling it,
man.
When they,
when they mention my name,
people start cursing man talking about Joseph Simmons.
They like Marc Sims,
let me tell you about that.
Bleep,
bleep,
bleep,
bleep,
bleep.
Yeah.
(00:53):
Right.
So,
here we go.
So there are several things we could talk about.
Of course,
in the time we have.
However,
I'd like to start by asking you to address the JBMV Avatar and I'll explain what I mean in my writing of the book.
Just Buy My Vote.
I found myself continually asking what are the best sources of American history.
(01:14):
So please address the JBMV Avatar if you will,
he or she is a 20 to 30 year old male or female and interested in history,
but for whatever reason was not a history major in school or maybe didn't attend college here.
She is wondering,
where do I start?
Mr Marc Sims.
What have you found to be your favorite or best sources?
(01:37):
Well,
like you said,
I,
I didn't,
I didn't go to a fine high school like you did back in the day.
I went to a regular high school,
which I once,
I mean,
barely got through and eventually dropped out,
you know,
uh,
if you talk to a kid,
uh,
I mean,
I'm a young person avatar whoever human being,
it all depends where you wanna go.
It all depends where,
(01:57):
where do you wanna go?
What's that old line in that?
What's that book with the Cheshire cat?
What was that called?
Alice in Wonderland.
Right.
Any,
any road will take you there.
If you,
you know,
if you,
if you,
if you don't know where you're going,
any road will take you there.
Right.
Right.
I think that's how I,
I never read the book but,
you know,
you're the line and you got some clues about the splintering of Black America.
No,
(02:17):
but I,
but I would tell them where do you wanna go?
Because as I was talking about going or,
or going,
or being raised,
you know,
going through writer,
Rider
elementary school started in 1967 all the way to Finger high school in 1980.
I was dumb as a stone in this city.
Dumb as a stone,
the public schools,
you know,
please forgive me.
I'm gonna get discursive here.
They're not designed for you to think.
(02:40):
And so I didn't even begin to read books until I think I was in my thirties or late twenties or early thirties when I started to read.
I think,
I don't,
I think I read one book between 1980 1990.
So,
for you,
I'm not,
I'm not a scholar in any because I hated school and I hated reading.
But I did get on a binge in the nineties and read a bunch of books.
(03:01):
I can't tell you all of them and of course,
then I get off of it now.
It's all video now.
But I did go back to the library upon your instructions.
You made me think of this book Disintegration Disintegration is a book written by Eugene Robinson.
Eugene Robinson still writes for the Washington Post until this very day.
(03:23):
And his great book Disintegration,
The Splintering of Black America.
I still quote from the book and I have a lot of quotes.
I mean,
I,
I would give quotes from books and I put them on my little word thing about quotes and this book was good because the America or the Black America,
if you will,
that you and I grew up with on the south side of Chicago that's gone.
(03:43):
It's never coming back.
But the,
but the Chicago,
we grew up in the 19 sixties and seventies.
It wasn't like that 100 years before or 50 years before these and constant change.
And so when it,
when it,
that's why you were talking about uh avatar who you want to tell.
I mean,
somebody said where I,
where I'm gonna learn,
I say where you wanna go.
What are you trying to do?
Because during the course of living here,
(04:04):
you have the living history of yourself living in whatever town you live in.
And then if you're lucky enough to go to school,
if you're lucky enough,
you're a reader.
I,
I mean,
II,
I like the,
the book a Rage Of a Privileged Class by Ellis Cose.
I,
I like talked about some time.
There's a quote in that book,
Ellis Cose from Chicago from the projects of Chicago.
He said,
(04:24):
I,
I'm paraphrasing a quote.
This is a rape.
No,
this is uh no,
I think this is the end of Anchor the book,
the sequel or whatever.
The second book from his book,
Race of a privileged class of the first book.
I think The End of Anger was the second book that paired with the first book.
I'm sorry,
I never,
I,
I haven't heard the police go through my neighborhood in days nine,
you're on the south side of Chicago.
Boy,
let me tell you that III I think that's the more an ambulance than the police who know and so,
(04:49):
and so he says it takes a truly exceptional person to transcend their social environment.
I'm paraphrasing.
It's really hard,
it's hard to,
to get out of it.
I'm still sort of stuck in Chicago,
which is good and bad mentally and physically and it's not a bad thing sometimes because it's hard to transcend your social environment.
(05:10):
But sometime,
I mean,
going back to what disintegration by Eugene Robinson,
he talks about some African Americans are and he calls them the transcendent African Americans because Eugene Robson,
he split.
So black,
you can look at this if you email me or send me a Twitter message,
I'll see the video.
But the point is that uh you,
you and you,
the listeners in youtube,
Mr Simmons,
he says four type of uh African Americans.
(05:30):
You have the transcendent,
maybe the Beyonce's and the Barack Obama's and the Jay Zs people to make a ton of money have a lot of power and influence.
They transcended.
I I I'm assuming it means transcending being black,
I don't,
I'm assuming.
And of course,
you have the uh the immigrant brothers and sisters from the,
from the,
from the,
from the continent they're from,
of course,
they're from the Caribbean or the continent of Africa,
(05:51):
Nigerians,
whatever they come,
I think 10% of the Africa,
the African American group here in Chicago.
10% I believe is,
is the,
wasn't born here.
And so,
and,
and that's all it's really good.
And so that's a different group.
Eugene Robson also talks about the race mulatto is an old term we don't use anymore.
We rarely use.
OK.
That's an historical context.
(06:12):
But mixed race,
African Americans like Barack Obama that he puts them in another group.
It's not to separate black people.
It's just to break down.
He calls it,
of course the fancy where he uses his taxonomy,
the taxonomy,
the different types of black people.
And of course,
he talks about the one I like to talk about because I,
I'm here and I,
I may be one of them too and delusional that I'm not one of them.
(06:34):
He calls the,
the abandoned,
the abandoned african-americans who didn't get the education of the good jobs and having transcended poverty or working class status or underclass status and with capitalism,
you're gonna have that.
So I think about half of African Americans are doing pretty well.
Like,
you know,
like American,
the other half is probably paycheck to paycheck.
(06:56):
Some of them make 100 grand a year paycheck to paycheck.
But we do have this abandoned class.
And that's what I like to talk about on my podcast from time to time because because I still live in the old neighborhood,
the whole neighborhood is disintegrating,
right?
It's,
it's,
it's disintegrating on ma in many different levels because when I was a kid,
the houses I live in living in now and the houses here they were brand new houses.
(07:17):
Now,
they're 60 year old houses,
60 plus year old houses and it's ok.
It's ok.
The,
and,
and so I like this.
I can't,
we can't go back to 1975.
But my wish as I babble on your show for the next few minutes,
my,
my whole mission or delusion,
whatever is to see the day that,
uh,
help see the day that no matter a where African Americans live,
(07:40):
especially low income African Americans,
we're not known for crime.
There's no crime,
no foolishness,
no ghetto,
this,
no matter how much money,
uh,
we don't make.
Danny K Davis is from Arkansas,
like my dad,
uh from Arkansas.
I don't know when he came to,
to Arkansas but Danny K Davis,
he's a congressman at the car for a while.
He's got to be 81 82 years old on the west side.
(08:01):
Oh,
they on the west side,
a great guy.
I haven't seen him in years,
but I need to go see him and he said,
of course,
when we were poor,
you know,
back in the day on the old South and here in Chicago we were poor.
Yes,
we were poor.
We don't act like we do now.
The poor act now.
Not all of the poor,
just the criminal poor.
And so,
and that,
and,
and that sounds nasty.
It sounds paternalistic.
(08:21):
Well,
we as African American people,
we,
we haven't,
as a group said,
I think we lost the sense of uplifting the race.
So when,
when,
when,
when you talk about going back to history and sources of history,
I like where you wanna go.
I mean,
for,
for a year,
for three years,
I was with a study group that studied the teacher of Elijah Muhammad.
Elijah Muhammad was for me as a kid and maybe for you Joseph Simmons,
(08:43):
he was,
he was the leader of this group that didn't eat pork.
You know what I'm saying?
That's what I knew about the Muslim.
They didn't eat pork and like,
what do you mean don't eat pork?
And you know,
and I found they went to the old Salam restaurant back in the day, on 83rd and Cottage and it was very good.
They had maple,
I remember it was maple syrup and beef bacon and it was very tasty breakfast.
(09:03):
We had that day,
the old salam restaurant.
Well,
hey,
listen,
I've got a question kind of in line with what,
what you're talking about there.
And I know,
you know,
you spent time in the neighborhoods and talking about violence and what have you.
I got a,
a quote here from Mayor Johnson,
your mayor of Chicago.
And he said that the Democrats should embrace and I'm quoting community safety through the lens of getting at the root causes of violence.
(09:31):
What does that mean?
I don't know.
I haven't,
I haven't met him yet and uh I gonna run into him eventually.
He,
he's a,
he's a son of a preacher and so he's a great talker,
a great talker,
but we'll see how much he gets done.
Most mayors are probably like,
most presidents are a mixed bag.
All right.
They do a few things.
They don't do a few things.
(09:52):
I don't expect him to move borough.
But I hope as a black man,
we haven't had a black man mayor in this town in a long time.
And most of the crime we neighborhood crime,
I'm talking about murders and crime.
Neighborhood crime committed by black men.
Some old,
some young,
some not so old and not so young.
And so I want him to change that but to change that,
(10:15):
you're gonna make people upset because you may sound paternalistic when you don't wanna say,
yo you people don't know how to act.
Well,
I'm gonna teach you how to act.
That sounds nasty.
You have to be more diplomatic and say we're gonna give your Children wraparound services so they know how to act.
You know what I'm saying?
I mean cause you know anybody who's raised Children and if you raise Children in a city like Chicago,
(10:37):
if you're a middle class person,
let's face it.
You,
you distance yourself from that lower class and sometimes that class is not even income,
it's values,
it's not about,
you may have the same income as someone else with some other family in the house.
So,
income may be 90 grand a year.
You know what I'm saying?
That because some people are poor but it's 10 people or five people living in the house and the household income is a 90 100 grand,
(10:59):
100 and 20 grand in the hood.
Household income.
You know?
Right.
Because you got four people making 25 grand or four people making 50 grand.
It's a 200 grand household income in the hood.
And so,
but so it's a values thing.
And so,
and you can call it middle class values bourgeois values.
But if you're a middle class person,
you,
you,
you try to,
you will keep your kids away from that and from other African Americans who don't share your values.
(11:23):
I think here in Chicago,
African Americans,
we,
we self segregate more than any other race in a lot of different ways and the schools,
a lot of us don't go to the neighborhood school or the neighborhood high school.
We,
we go,
we,
and for a lot of different reasons.
Yeah,
I did.
I did it with my Children for a lot of different reasons.
So it's,
these things are very complex.
So if Mayor Johnson is serious about ending crime,
(11:45):
it's only a half of the people,
a few people on the block,
a few people in a square mile radius,
there's only a few 1000 that keep foolishness up.
It's like we went to school back in the day there was only a few Children that kept them,
kept mess up in the classroom.
Couldn't be quiet when the teacher say shut up.
Right.
And that theory goes up all around the world.
(12:05):
Those child could be,
have a learning disability.
They have a mental disability.
They could have come from a stable home,
economically stable,
spiritually,
I mean,
economically unstable,
spiritually,
unstable,
religiously,
unstable,
whatever the instability is,
they had that and reflection,
that child's behavior.
And so that and so we as a,
as a country,
we,
we like to lock up the problem in the prisons but to actually really reform people or people,
(12:31):
you know,
I mean,
I don't wanna say transend but you know,
become different people and better people.
We don't do that in this country.
We don't do it at all.
And we,
and there's a lot of like this woman said on public access years ago,
I can't think of her name right now.
She says a lot of charity with Joseph Simmons is very little change.
There's a lot of people making money off of Black ma pathos you have with the dysfunction,
(12:53):
african-american dysfunction,
low-income african-american dysfunction,
everybody's making a lot of money,
but it's very little change.
And so we'll see what happens as we,
as our population continues to decrease.
That may be the only way the crime stops in Chicago as more and more African Americans leave the city of Chicago.
Yeah.
And so now you mentioned a couple of interesting things there.
(13:13):
I mean my,
my take on it then that's,
you know,
cause I don't live in Chicago anymore.
My,
my belief is is that a lot of problems can be cured by economics.
I believe that a lot of the crime really stems from the fact of if you look at,
you know,
the lack of money,
the lack of net worth in certain areas and you seem to be suggesting that it's not only that,
(13:37):
obviously,
it's also values and there's some other things complicating the,
the scene in terms of creation,
violence in neighborhoods.
Yeah,
because uh the demographics has changed this country.
I mean,
this is a little of my own personal story here.
I got rejected from a job today.
I shouldn't even talk about it.
The point is that and,
and I,
I'm,
I'm in my sixties.
I should have been retired with a fat pension,
(13:58):
but I made a couple of bad decisions and we are uh uh or be entrepreneur like yourself.
I'm too lazy for that.
And so there are jobs out there.
But are you qualified?
I was evidently not qualified for this position.
Are you qualified for the job?
And of course,
we all know a lot of jobs that they have background checks.
A lot of people just can't pass the background checks because of prior criminality either.
(14:21):
They can't,
they haven't had their criminal record expunged yet.
Don't know how to get it expunged.
And so I think a lot of the problems and it goes into crime that lower income African Americans have is because we as a group,
we don't network as well as we should for a lot of good reasons.
Because if you're trying to do anything,
you need mentors,
(14:42):
you need counselors,
you need therapists,
you need,
you know,
and you know how it was,
you know,
integration was jumping off when we were kids.
But of course,
with older people,
our generation can say it too,
but definitely older generation can say it.
Everybody lived in the neighborhood,
the doctors and lawyers and everybody,
we all lived in the neighborhood because we had to and once we could move away,
all I think right now this is the root.
(15:02):
I was watching something on video on root TV or root website,
whatever they said,
I think half of all Americans live in integrated neighborhoods.
But the other half of African Americans people like me live in really racially not stratified,
whatever concentrated,
segregated.
Thank you.
I appreciate that Joseph Simmons segregated neighborhoods.
I mean mile after mile of African Americans and that was really low-income african-americans.
(15:27):
So a person like Mr Sims is an old square from the 19 seventies.
I I told somebody they wrote an article about me Joseph Simmons on the Chicago Tribune and I think 2014,
2014 and I was this one,
I was a limo driver and some of my uh professional European American customers.
They said,
wow,
they wrote that great article about you and the tr you,
(15:47):
Mr Sam,
they,
you must be a pillar in your community.
I say no way,
no.
What I do is so square.
If you're a lower income or have an African American with different values.
You think what I do is square just being a square dad where the wife makes more money is more educated,
like a lot of men and black men and men in general,
their wife,
their spouse,
they'll just part,
(16:07):
it makes more money and more educated than they are.
And then you,
you're,
and you work that out with,
with the spouse or partner and then of course,
you just try to be the best dad possible by being present as possible,
whether you live with your Children or not.
That's square and you know,
that's square.
You know what I'm saying?
Because if I made a lot of money,
(16:28):
if I could sing a dad and that's really held in high esteem in some neighborhoods in the city of Chicago,
probably all over the country.
But if you're just a nice square person that goes to work every day and take care of your Children and be present for them and be present for your wife,
spouse and whatever partner you have.
That's not,
that's not a lauded in my neighborhood.
It really is.
I shouldn't say that,
(16:48):
but it really isn't because there's so many different type of black people.
And so people say you have to be this type of black person and,
or you have to be a black person like me.
And so if you're not a ne a black person,
you don't like me saying the N word.
But if you're not a black person like african-american like me,
you're not african-american,
you're something else.
And in fact,
(17:09):
what,
what one of the things that spawned this book,
Dein Disintegration,
I think it spawned the book.
I inspired the book or one of the things he talks about briefly in the book is that in 2007,
I still print this stuff on social media,
Joseph Simmons in two thou I know it's kind of old but it's so it's interesting to look it up and you look up NPR 2007 pew research study said that African Americans cannot do,
(17:34):
not see themselves as a single race anymore.
And the point is that they have these values of the ones that's got a good education or got a skill,
got a training and they did pretty good.
They make it over 50 grand,
over 100 grand.
They're doing well.
Well,
the other folks,
whatever,
mainly men don't wanna work,
which I understand.
I don't wanna get a skill,
(17:54):
which I never done.
I did.
And I understand that.
So and so,
and you've distanced yourself from a little,
like somebody told me a very bourgeois black man.
He's a nice guy but he's bushy and not a bad way.
He said,
Mark,
you gotta,
you don't associate yourself with those kind of people and he's right,
you don't because you have nothing in common.
(18:14):
It's like me,
I'm not and personally I'm not into black culture as much as people think because I just don't because like Professor Henry Louis Gates says somebody but some,
some black folks might disagree with him cause he's problematic for a lot of different reasons.
But I,
but his scholarship is solid.
Professor Henry Louis Gates said there's 40 gay said on C SPAN,
(18:36):
there's 42 million black people in this country that means there's 42 million ways to be black and don't let a black person bully you on how to be black.
And so if,
if Brandon Johnson wanna stop,
stop the crime and it's mainly African American problem and it's for us,
it's more culturally because we don't have the networks and they have studies about this.
(18:56):
We don't have the networking networks that we should have.
If you,
if you were part of the sorority,
that's your network fraternity.
That's your network,
the church Easter star Mason's,
that's your network.
But beyond some of that or the local barbershop,
what is your network?
How do we,
how do we network?
And,
and I,
I know that,
see,
and I'm talking as an old person now anybody's younger because as a kid Doctor King was,
(19:19):
was,
um,
assassinated when I was in kindergarten.
So I,
yeah,
I've got a,
we got a whiff of the old,
the,
what's left of the civil rights movement and the Black Power movement.
And we had a sense of uplifting the race.
I think the sense of uplifting the race as a group has left the door,
left the train station a long,
its,
that boat sailed a long time ago,
(19:39):
which is quite sad.
And I,
and I don't think,
I don't think we're ever gonna get it back,
which is,
you know,
which is ok,
but it goes back to,
uh,
Eugene Robinson's a book about disintegration.
What about that abandoned class of African Americans?
Is that group still gonna be in the bottom,
quote unquote,
whatever that means,
the bottom 2030 40 50 years from now,
whatever it could be,
(19:59):
a small group are the,
all those poor black people are still poor and black and it's still the underclass.
Are we gonna have that discussion?
2040 50 years from now?
Right.
Hey,
Mark Sims.
Tell me a little bit about your podcast.
Uh,
I got two podcasts.
One podcast is just a few,
just a few questions.
Just type in Mark Sims.
Just a few questions.
And the other one is 400 plus African Americans have been here for 400/400 years,
(20:23):
get it 400 bucks because I had my first podcast was just two just a few questions and some African Americans got some African Americans got mad at me because I was interviewing people like Paul Vallas who ran the schools here in Chicago or Arne Duncan.
They were both thinking about running for mayor.
So I got lucky and had him on the show.
So,
oh,
you,
you're interviewing Paul Vallas or Arne Duncan.
So I started doing the,
the black but the point about podcast,
(20:45):
I'm not on my podcast.
Just a few questions.
And 400 plus,
I'm not offering anything most people want,
especially African Americans.
Cause if you're offering something,
it's got to be unique.
And so when people see me physically or hear me,
uh you know,
if you're trying to offer pro a service,
they're like,
who are you?
What are you,
what are you selling?
(21:06):
And when you tell them who you are and what you're selling like,
I don't want that because what I want to see is low-income African American neigh neighborhoods that are crime free.
We're not killing each other.
We,
we've learned to trust each other.
Uh uh enough to be at least transactional.
We don't have to be best buzz and buddy,
buddy,
buddy,
but enough to be transactional and not going back to Henry Lewis Gates.
(21:28):
He said in the same talk C span.
He said,
I tell my,
uh my uh class at Harvard,
what Harvard,
I think he teaches that.
And he says the point of my class is telling this black history class.
He says to show you that Africa American has been arguing about who's black and how to be black ever since we got here.
And I still see it like I told you the other day when I lose my tan in a few next month,
(21:52):
you know,
I'll be going back to being a high yellow negro and,
and,
and,
and so so for African Americans still think that they still make,
they still say so these are grown people,
50 60 years old who make reference of my skin because it's lighter than a brown paper bag.
Well,
and I understand other people because the the,
the America that you and I grew up,
(22:13):
you just saw a person like Marc Sims as a light skin.
Uh uh we were black when we were kids,
of course,
before we were Negroes.
Now we're African Americans.
But people would see me,
especially when I was a limo driver and now about the airports all over,
they say what are you?
Which is totally understandable because all these two different peoples of the world weren't here when we were kids,
(22:33):
they were here,
but there were very few now a whole bunch of them.
So I I'm not offended if somebody says you're Puerto Rican when I was in the um airport as a limo driver,
people come to me all the time,
speak Spanish and I never learned to speak Spanish.
So, no
habla espanol is all I can say,
which I understand.
And then of course,
the,
and then of course,
if you're a younger person,
you may think Marc Sims.
(22:53):
And I'm,
when I talk about Marc Sims,
I'm talking about African Americans.
People gotta say I'm not talking about ego tripping per se.
I'm talking about African Americans.
So when a younger person will see me,
any American will see me,
they'll see me as a mixed race person.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Right.
And that's why we have to break this stuff down.
Like I always tell people and I told you before,
when you see Sasha and Malia Obama,
(23:14):
you will never know that their grand maternal,
their great maternal grandmother is a white woman from Kansas.
And so I mean,
and this is why all of us have to be,
that's the one of the worst things in this country,
two bad things in this country right now as you well know,
this is my opinion,
inequality,
income inequality and just flat out ignorance.
(23:34):
I mean,
we just like,
we don't,
we,
we just like,
I would like to know Mexicans.
OK.
So when did Mexico become Mexico?
Right?
Or,
or they say uh uh Jamaica,
OK.
When did Jamaica become Jamaica?
We should know at least a brief history of that kind of stuff.
I think the British,
I think the Jamaica's got the independence.
What?
In the late sixties,
at least late sixties I believe.
Right?
I don't know the whole history.
(23:55):
American imperialism,
right?
African Americans,
about 80% of us have a white bloodline.
There's a bunch of white folks in this country who have a black bloodline.
And I'm not saying this and,
and we can end our problems of economics,
but we have a capitalist system that capitalistic system had slaves in this country.
Preer then the colonies,
of course,
America total 246 years.
(24:16):
So they say so we,
and now we have wage slaves.
Ok?
So we've all,
anywhere you go,
you want the cheapest labor you possibly can,
whether it's at Walmart or McDonald's anywhere Amazon these days,
you want this cheap versus slave labor and ginger server too.
And just,
you know,
you know,
the,
the uh the uh what you call it,
the uh the national,
what you call the hourly wage is like 7 25 something pretty different.
(24:39):
The minimum wage is something ridiculous.
And the city of Chicago,
I think it's 15 but some places 77 25 which is insanity.
But we have to have a,
even a cursory,
a strong cursory knowledge of this country and who are these people and where are they from?
And we're all human beings.
How do we make this as,
as this country,
as this country continues to decline?
(25:00):
That we are in a declining empire and other countries are getting stronger.
You see,
with the BRICS and then the,
and the Chinese and the China and all that kind of stuff.
So we like that.
We have to understand we can't play this game uh of uh fighting each other as a,
as a people.
And of course,
we haven't learned it.
The Republicans definitely haven't learned it and they need to grow up and stop it.
They need to grow up and stop it.
I think the first way is it's a real good history lesson of who's in America and where are they from?
(25:27):
Marc Marc Sims.
You are far more full of wisdom than you let on sometimes.
Do me a favor.
And the time that we have left,
what's one piece of advice you'd offer to your 20 year old self?
I mean,
I wrote this down,
man.
I'm glad you told me earlier.
I would get,
I would get the 20 year old Marc Sims,
a therapist,
(25:48):
a guru,
a life coach,
an academic tutor.
And I don't know,
man,
a few other things because I was crazy as a loon,
looney tunes as when I was a 20 year old.
Just crazy.
I was a high school dropout.
I went back to night school.
I think I was,
I think I was 24 24 years old and I was just working at McDonald's,
(26:11):
I think,
and I could have had a chance to go to McDonald University and maybe at some point own my own store or be the general manager.
But I was such a horrible student in grammar school and high school.
The idea of McDonald you in a university I couldn't handle.
And just,
and I,
and I didn't do it.
And the rest is history.
Even if I just bought stock at McDonald's 43 years ago and,
(26:33):
and held on,
I still would have had some damn money.
But you know what I'm saying?
That,
so you,
you're,
you're most of,
most,
most of us crazies as a loon.
But just like they say in the Wizard of Oz movie,
I like telling this story all the time.
Wizard of Oz movie.
They said Scarecrow Crow told Linda,
how can you tell Dorothy all this stuff in the first part of the movie?
(26:54):
And Glinda the good way said,
I ain't tell Dorothy.
She had the Ruby S and all that kind of stuff because if I told her she wouldn't have believed me and she had to learn it for herself.
There you go.
And so you can't teach a child wisdom.
You can just tell her what you,
what you're going through.
But they have to,
you can,
you can tell them all you want,
you can put them in the right direction,
but you just have to learn it for yourself.
But I wish I had probably hassle since got that de degree a little bit earlier and had a 10 year plan to go to the community college.
(27:20):
It took me 10 years to get a community college degree or whatever,
uh five or 10 years.
But that goes back for us,
African Americans.
We just don't have the network.
I know people tried to help me when I was young.
I was still,
but,
but older black folks were so mean,
but I didn't know why they were so mean because they were closer to slavery than I was because the slave master was mean and the overseers were mean.
(27:41):
And then mom and daddy had to be mean and my mom and daddy had to,
had to discipline me.
And I'm like,
what is your old,
what is wrong with our old people?
But I did not understand it.
Guess what?
Nor did they,
they didn't understand it either.
I,
I don't blame them.
Well,
listen,
this has been a real pleasure for me,
Mr Marc Sims.
Thank you so much and thank you for sharing with our listeners today.
(28:03):
Thank you,
Joseph Simmons.
Well,
well,
we hope you enjoyed that episode of the Just Buy My Vote podcast.
We're looking forward to the next episodes.
You can find the book at Just Buy My Vote dot com and feel free to follow us at Just Buy My Vote podcast dot com for notification on upcoming podcasts and events.
(28:30):
We thank you for the privilege of your time and until next time Just Buy My Vote.
Welcome to the Just Buy My Vote podcast.
I am Joseph Simmons,
the host and also author of the new book,
Just Buy My Vote,
African American voting rights in the Chicago condition.
We're going to the south side of Chicago today with the Man,
the myth,
the podcast legend.
It is my pleasure to have podcast extraordinaire.
(00:33):
Mr Marc Sims.
Welcome to the Just Buy My Vote podcast,
Mr Simmons.
Thank you.
What you talking about.
You're over selling it,
man.
When they,
when they mention my name,
people start cursing man talking about Joseph Simmons.
They like Marc Sims,
let me tell you about that.
Bleep,
bleep,
bleep,
bleep,
bleep.
Yeah.
(00:53):
Right.
So,
here we go.
So there are several things we could talk about.
Of course,
in the time we have.
However,
I'd like to start by asking you to address the JBMV Avatar and I'll explain what I mean in my writing of the book.
Just Buy My Vote.
I found myself continually asking what are the best sources of American history.
(01:14):
So please address the JBMV Avatar if you will,
he or she is a 20 to 30 year old male or female and interested in history,
but for whatever reason was not a history major in school or maybe didn't attend college here.
She is wondering,
where do I start?
Mr Marc Sims.
What have you found to be your favorite or best sources?
(01:37):
Well,
like you said,
I,
I didn't,
I didn't go to a fine high school like you did back in the day.
I went to a regular high school,
which I once,
I mean,
barely got through and eventually dropped out,
you know,
uh,
if you talk to a kid,
uh,
I mean,
I'm a young person avatar whoever human being,
it all depends where you wanna go.
It all depends where,
(01:57):
where do you wanna go?
What's that old line in that?
What's that book with the Cheshire cat?
What was that called?
Alice in Wonderland.
Right.
Any,
any road will take you there.
If you,
you know,
if you,
if you,
if you don't know where you're going,
any road will take you there.
Right.
Right.
I think that's how I,
I never read the book but,
you know,
you're the line and you got some clues about the splintering of Black America.
No,
(02:17):
but I,
but I would tell them where do you wanna go?
Because as I was talking about going or,
or going,
or being raised,
you know,
going through writer,
Rider
elementary school started in 1967 all the way to Finger high school in 1980.
I was dumb as a stone in this city.
Dumb as a stone,
the public schools,
you know,
please forgive me.
I'm gonna get discursive here.
They're not designed for you to think.
(02:40):
And so I didn't even begin to read books until I think I was in my thirties or late twenties or early thirties when I started to read.
I think,
I don't,
I think I read one book between 1980 1990.
So,
for you,
I'm not,
I'm not a scholar in any because I hated school and I hated reading.
But I did get on a binge in the nineties and read a bunch of books.
(03:01):
I can't tell you all of them and of course,
then I get off of it now.
It's all video now.
But I did go back to the library upon your instructions.
You made me think of this book Disintegration Disintegration is a book written by Eugene Robinson.
Eugene Robinson still writes for the Washington Post until this very day.
(03:23):
And his great book Disintegration,
The Splintering of Black America.
I still quote from the book and I have a lot of quotes.
I mean,
I,
I would give quotes from books and I put them on my little word thing about quotes and this book was good because the America or the Black America,
if you will,
that you and I grew up with on the south side of Chicago that's gone.
(03:43):
It's never coming back.
But the,
but the Chicago,
we grew up in the 19 sixties and seventies.
It wasn't like that 100 years before or 50 years before these and constant change.
And so when it,
when it,
that's why you were talking about uh avatar who you want to tell.
I mean,
somebody said where I,
where I'm gonna learn,
I say where you wanna go.
What are you trying to do?
Because during the course of living here,
(04:04):
you have the living history of yourself living in whatever town you live in.
And then if you're lucky enough to go to school,
if you're lucky enough,
you're a reader.
I,
I mean,
II,
I like the,
the book a Rage Of a Privileged Class by Ellis Cose.
I,
I like talked about some time.
There's a quote in that book,
Ellis Cose from Chicago from the projects of Chicago.
He said,
(04:24):
I,
I'm paraphrasing a quote.
This is a rape.
No,
this is uh no,
I think this is the end of Anchor the book,
the sequel or whatever.
The second book from his book,
Race of a privileged class of the first book.
I think The End of Anger was the second book that paired with the first book.
I'm sorry,
I never,
I,
I haven't heard the police go through my neighborhood in days nine,
you're on the south side of Chicago.
Boy,
let me tell you that III I think that's the more an ambulance than the police who know and so,
(04:49):
and so he says it takes a truly exceptional person to transcend their social environment.
I'm paraphrasing.
It's really hard,
it's hard to,
to get out of it.
I'm still sort of stuck in Chicago,
which is good and bad mentally and physically and it's not a bad thing sometimes because it's hard to transcend your social environment.
(05:10):
But sometime,
I mean,
going back to what disintegration by Eugene Robinson,
he talks about some African Americans are and he calls them the transcendent African Americans because Eugene Robson,
he split.
So black,
you can look at this if you email me or send me a Twitter message,
I'll see the video.
But the point is that uh you,
you and you,
the listeners in youtube,
Mr Simmons,
he says four type of uh African Americans.
(05:30):
You have the transcendent,
maybe the Beyonce's and the Barack Obama's and the Jay Zs people to make a ton of money have a lot of power and influence.
They transcended.
I I I'm assuming it means transcending being black,
I don't,
I'm assuming.
And of course,
you have the uh the immigrant brothers and sisters from the,
from the,
from the,
from the continent they're from,
of course,
they're from the Caribbean or the continent of Africa,
(05:51):
Nigerians,
whatever they come,
I think 10% of the Africa,
the African American group here in Chicago.
10% I believe is,
is the,
wasn't born here.
And so,
and,
and that's all it's really good.
And so that's a different group.
Eugene Robson also talks about the race mulatto is an old term we don't use anymore.
We rarely use.
OK.
That's an historical context.
(06:12):
But mixed race,
African Americans like Barack Obama that he puts them in another group.
It's not to separate black people.
It's just to break down.
He calls it,
of course the fancy where he uses his taxonomy,
the taxonomy,
the different types of black people.
And of course,
he talks about the one I like to talk about because I,
I'm here and I,
I may be one of them too and delusional that I'm not one of them.
(06:34):
He calls the,
the abandoned,
the abandoned african-americans who didn't get the education of the good jobs and having transcended poverty or working class status or underclass status and with capitalism,
you're gonna have that.
So I think about half of African Americans are doing pretty well.
Like,
you know,
like American,
the other half is probably paycheck to paycheck.
(06:56):
Some of them make 100 grand a year paycheck to paycheck.
But we do have this abandoned class.
And that's what I like to talk about on my podcast from time to time because because I still live in the old neighborhood,
the whole neighborhood is disintegrating,
right?
It's,
it's,
it's disintegrating on ma in many different levels because when I was a kid,
the houses I live in living in now and the houses here they were brand new houses.
(07:17):
Now,
they're 60 year old houses,
60 plus year old houses and it's ok.
It's ok.
The,
and,
and so I like this.
I can't,
we can't go back to 1975.
But my wish as I babble on your show for the next few minutes,
my,
my whole mission or delusion,
whatever is to see the day that,
uh,
help see the day that no matter a where African Americans live,
(07:40):
especially low income African Americans,
we're not known for crime.
There's no crime,
no foolishness,
no ghetto,
this,
no matter how much money,
uh,
we don't make.
Danny K Davis is from Arkansas,
like my dad,
uh from Arkansas.
I don't know when he came to,
to Arkansas but Danny K Davis,
he's a congressman at the car for a while.
He's got to be 81 82 years old on the west side.
(08:01):
Oh,
they on the west side,
a great guy.
I haven't seen him in years,
but I need to go see him and he said,
of course,
when we were poor,
you know,
back in the day on the old South and here in Chicago we were poor.
Yes,
we were poor.
We don't act like we do now.
The poor act now.
Not all of the poor,
just the criminal poor.
And so,
and that,
and,
and that sounds nasty.
It sounds paternalistic.
(08:21):
Well,
we as African American people,
we,
we haven't,
as a group said,
I think we lost the sense of uplifting the race.
So when,
when,
when,
when you talk about going back to history and sources of history,
I like where you wanna go.
I mean,
for,
for a year,
for three years,
I was with a study group that studied the teacher of Elijah Muhammad.
Elijah Muhammad was for me as a kid and maybe for you Joseph Simmons,
(08:43):
he was,
he was the leader of this group that didn't eat pork.
You know what I'm saying?
That's what I knew about the Muslim.
They didn't eat pork and like,
what do you mean don't eat pork?
And you know,
and I found they went to the old Salam restaurant back in the day, on 83rd and Cottage and it was very good.
They had maple,
I remember it was maple syrup and beef bacon and it was very tasty breakfast.
(09:03):
We had that day,
the old salam restaurant.
Well,
hey,
listen,
I've got a question kind of in line with what,
what you're talking about there.
And I know,
you know,
you spent time in the neighborhoods and talking about violence and what have you.
I got a,
a quote here from Mayor Johnson,
your mayor of Chicago.
And he said that the Democrats should embrace and I'm quoting community safety through the lens of getting at the root causes of violence.
(09:31):
What does that mean?
I don't know.
I haven't,
I haven't met him yet and uh I gonna run into him eventually.
He,
he's a,
he's a son of a preacher and so he's a great talker,
a great talker,
but we'll see how much he gets done.
Most mayors are probably like,
most presidents are a mixed bag.
All right.
They do a few things.
They don't do a few things.
(09:52):
I don't expect him to move borough.
But I hope as a black man,
we haven't had a black man mayor in this town in a long time.
And most of the crime we neighborhood crime,
I'm talking about murders and crime.
Neighborhood crime committed by black men.
Some old,
some young,
some not so old and not so young.
And so I want him to change that but to change that,
(10:15):
you're gonna make people upset because you may sound paternalistic when you don't wanna say,
yo you people don't know how to act.
Well,
I'm gonna teach you how to act.
That sounds nasty.
You have to be more diplomatic and say we're gonna give your Children wraparound services so they know how to act.
You know what I'm saying?
I mean cause you know anybody who's raised Children and if you raise Children in a city like Chicago,
(10:37):
if you're a middle class person,
let's face it.
You,
you distance yourself from that lower class and sometimes that class is not even income,
it's values,
it's not about,
you may have the same income as someone else with some other family in the house.
So,
income may be 90 grand a year.
You know what I'm saying?
That because some people are poor but it's 10 people or five people living in the house and the household income is a 90 100 grand,
(10:59):
100 and 20 grand in the hood.
Household income.
You know?
Right.
Because you got four people making 25 grand or four people making 50 grand.
It's a 200 grand household income in the hood.
And so,
but so it's a values thing.
And so,
and you can call it middle class values bourgeois values.
But if you're a middle class person,
you,
you,
you try to,
you will keep your kids away from that and from other African Americans who don't share your values.
(11:23):
I think here in Chicago,
African Americans,
we,
we self segregate more than any other race in a lot of different ways and the schools,
a lot of us don't go to the neighborhood school or the neighborhood high school.
We,
we go,
we,
and for a lot of different reasons.
Yeah,
I did.
I did it with my Children for a lot of different reasons.
So it's,
these things are very complex.
So if Mayor Johnson is serious about ending crime,
(11:45):
it's only a half of the people,
a few people on the block,
a few people in a square mile radius,
there's only a few 1000 that keep foolishness up.
It's like we went to school back in the day there was only a few Children that kept them,
kept mess up in the classroom.
Couldn't be quiet when the teacher say shut up.
Right.
And that theory goes up all around the world.
(12:05):
Those child could be,
have a learning disability.
They have a mental disability.
They could have come from a stable home,
economically stable,
spiritually,
I mean,
economically unstable,
spiritually,
unstable,
religiously,
unstable,
whatever the instability is,
they had that and reflection,
that child's behavior.
And so that and so we as a,
as a country,
we,
we like to lock up the problem in the prisons but to actually really reform people or people,
(12:31):
you know,
I mean,
I don't wanna say transend but you know,
become different people and better people.
We don't do that in this country.
We don't do it at all.
And we,
and there's a lot of like this woman said on public access years ago,
I can't think of her name right now.
She says a lot of charity with Joseph Simmons is very little change.
There's a lot of people making money off of Black ma pathos you have with the dysfunction,
(12:53):
african-american dysfunction,
low-income african-american dysfunction,
everybody's making a lot of money,
but it's very little change.
And so we'll see what happens as we,
as our population continues to decrease.
That may be the only way the crime stops in Chicago as more and more African Americans leave the city of Chicago.
Yeah.
And so now you mentioned a couple of interesting things there.
(13:13):
I mean my,
my take on it then that's,
you know,
cause I don't live in Chicago anymore.
My,
my belief is is that a lot of problems can be cured by economics.
I believe that a lot of the crime really stems from the fact of if you look at,
you know,
the lack of money,
the lack of net worth in certain areas and you seem to be suggesting that it's not only that,
(13:37):
obviously,
it's also values and there's some other things complicating the,
the scene in terms of creation,
violence in neighborhoods.
Yeah,
because uh the demographics has changed this country.
I mean,
this is a little of my own personal story here.
I got rejected from a job today.
I shouldn't even talk about it.
The point is that and,
and I,
I'm,
I'm in my sixties.
I should have been retired with a fat pension,
(13:58):
but I made a couple of bad decisions and we are uh uh or be entrepreneur like yourself.
I'm too lazy for that.
And so there are jobs out there.
But are you qualified?
I was evidently not qualified for this position.
Are you qualified for the job?
And of course,
we all know a lot of jobs that they have background checks.
A lot of people just can't pass the background checks because of prior criminality either.
(14:21):
They can't,
they haven't had their criminal record expunged yet.
Don't know how to get it expunged.
And so I think a lot of the problems and it goes into crime that lower income African Americans have is because we as a group,
we don't network as well as we should for a lot of good reasons.
Because if you're trying to do anything,
you need mentors,
(14:42):
you need counselors,
you need therapists,
you need,
you know,
and you know how it was,
you know,
integration was jumping off when we were kids.
But of course,
with older people,
our generation can say it too,
but definitely older generation can say it.
Everybody lived in the neighborhood,
the doctors and lawyers and everybody,
we all lived in the neighborhood because we had to and once we could move away,
all I think right now this is the root.
(15:02):
I was watching something on video on root TV or root website,
whatever they said,
I think half of all Americans live in integrated neighborhoods.
But the other half of African Americans people like me live in really racially not stratified,
whatever concentrated,
segregated.
Thank you.
I appreciate that Joseph Simmons segregated neighborhoods.
I mean mile after mile of African Americans and that was really low-income african-americans.
(15:27):
So a person like Mr Sims is an old square from the 19 seventies.
I I told somebody they wrote an article about me Joseph Simmons on the Chicago Tribune and I think 2014,
2014 and I was this one,
I was a limo driver and some of my uh professional European American customers.
They said,
wow,
they wrote that great article about you and the tr you,
(15:47):
Mr Sam,
they,
you must be a pillar in your community.
I say no way,
no.
What I do is so square.
If you're a lower income or have an African American with different values.
You think what I do is square just being a square dad where the wife makes more money is more educated,
like a lot of men and black men and men in general,
their wife,
their spouse,
they'll just part,
(16:07):
it makes more money and more educated than they are.
And then you,
you're,
and you work that out with,
with the spouse or partner and then of course,
you just try to be the best dad possible by being present as possible,
whether you live with your Children or not.
That's square and you know,
that's square.
You know what I'm saying?
Because if I made a lot of money,
(16:28):
if I could sing a dad and that's really held in high esteem in some neighborhoods in the city of Chicago,
probably all over the country.
But if you're just a nice square person that goes to work every day and take care of your Children and be present for them and be present for your wife,
spouse and whatever partner you have.
That's not,
that's not a lauded in my neighborhood.
It really is.
I shouldn't say that,
(16:48):
but it really isn't because there's so many different type of black people.
And so people say you have to be this type of black person and,
or you have to be a black person like me.
And so if you're not a ne a black person,
you don't like me saying the N word.
But if you're not a black person like african-american like me,
you're not african-american,
you're something else.
And in fact,
(17:09):
what,
what one of the things that spawned this book,
Dein Disintegration,
I think it spawned the book.
I inspired the book or one of the things he talks about briefly in the book is that in 2007,
I still print this stuff on social media,
Joseph Simmons in two thou I know it's kind of old but it's so it's interesting to look it up and you look up NPR 2007 pew research study said that African Americans cannot do,
(17:34):
not see themselves as a single race anymore.
And the point is that they have these values of the ones that's got a good education or got a skill,
got a training and they did pretty good.
They make it over 50 grand,
over 100 grand.
They're doing well.
Well,
the other folks,
whatever,
mainly men don't wanna work,
which I understand.
I don't wanna get a skill,
(17:54):
which I never done.
I did.
And I understand that.
So and so,
and you've distanced yourself from a little,
like somebody told me a very bourgeois black man.
He's a nice guy but he's bushy and not a bad way.
He said,
Mark,
you gotta,
you don't associate yourself with those kind of people and he's right,
you don't because you have nothing in common.
(18:14):
It's like me,
I'm not and personally I'm not into black culture as much as people think because I just don't because like Professor Henry Louis Gates says somebody but some,
some black folks might disagree with him cause he's problematic for a lot of different reasons.
But I,
but his scholarship is solid.
Professor Henry Louis Gates said there's 40 gay said on C SPAN,
(18:36):
there's 42 million black people in this country that means there's 42 million ways to be black and don't let a black person bully you on how to be black.
And so if,
if Brandon Johnson wanna stop,
stop the crime and it's mainly African American problem and it's for us,
it's more culturally because we don't have the networks and they have studies about this.
(18:56):
We don't have the networking networks that we should have.
If you,
if you were part of the sorority,
that's your network fraternity.
That's your network,
the church Easter star Mason's,
that's your network.
But beyond some of that or the local barbershop,
what is your network?
How do we,
how do we network?
And,
and I,
I know that,
see,
and I'm talking as an old person now anybody's younger because as a kid Doctor King was,
(19:19):
was,
um,
assassinated when I was in kindergarten.
So I,
yeah,
I've got a,
we got a whiff of the old,
the,
what's left of the civil rights movement and the Black Power movement.
And we had a sense of uplifting the race.
I think the sense of uplifting the race as a group has left the door,
left the train station a long,
its,
that boat sailed a long time ago,
(19:39):
which is quite sad.
And I,
and I don't think,
I don't think we're ever gonna get it back,
which is,
you know,
which is ok,
but it goes back to,
uh,
Eugene Robinson's a book about disintegration.
What about that abandoned class of African Americans?
Is that group still gonna be in the bottom,
quote unquote,
whatever that means,
the bottom 2030 40 50 years from now,
whatever it could be,
(19:59):
a small group are the,
all those poor black people are still poor and black and it's still the underclass.
Are we gonna have that discussion?
2040 50 years from now?
Right.
Hey,
Mark Sims.
Tell me a little bit about your podcast.
Uh,
I got two podcasts.
One podcast is just a few,
just a few questions.
Just type in Mark Sims.
Just a few questions.
And the other one is 400 plus African Americans have been here for 400/400 years,
(20:23):
get it 400 bucks because I had my first podcast was just two just a few questions and some African Americans got some African Americans got mad at me because I was interviewing people like Paul Vallas who ran the schools here in Chicago or Arne Duncan.
They were both thinking about running for mayor.
So I got lucky and had him on the show.
So,
oh,
you,
you're interviewing Paul Vallas or Arne Duncan.
So I started doing the,
the black but the point about podcast,
(20:45):
I'm not on my podcast.
Just a few questions.
And 400 plus,
I'm not offering anything most people want,
especially African Americans.
Cause if you're offering something,
it's got to be unique.
And so when people see me physically or hear me,
uh you know,
if you're trying to offer pro a service,
they're like,
who are you?
What are you,
what are you selling?
(21:06):
And when you tell them who you are and what you're selling like,
I don't want that because what I want to see is low-income African American neigh neighborhoods that are crime free.
We're not killing each other.
We,
we've learned to trust each other.
Uh uh enough to be at least transactional.
We don't have to be best buzz and buddy,
buddy,
buddy,
but enough to be transactional and not going back to Henry Lewis Gates.
(21:28):
He said in the same talk C span.
He said,
I tell my,
uh my uh class at Harvard,
what Harvard,
I think he teaches that.
And he says the point of my class is telling this black history class.
He says to show you that Africa American has been arguing about who's black and how to be black ever since we got here.
And I still see it like I told you the other day when I lose my tan in a few next month,
(21:52):
you know,
I'll be going back to being a high yellow negro and,
and,
and,
and so so for African Americans still think that they still make,
they still say so these are grown people,
50 60 years old who make reference of my skin because it's lighter than a brown paper bag.
Well,
and I understand other people because the the,
the America that you and I grew up,
(22:13):
you just saw a person like Marc Sims as a light skin.
Uh uh we were black when we were kids,
of course,
before we were Negroes.
Now we're African Americans.
But people would see me,
especially when I was a limo driver and now about the airports all over,
they say what are you?
Which is totally understandable because all these two different peoples of the world weren't here when we were kids,
(22:33):
they were here,
but there were very few now a whole bunch of them.
So I I'm not offended if somebody says you're Puerto Rican when I was in the um airport as a limo driver,
people come to me all the time,
speak Spanish and I never learned to speak Spanish.
So, no
habla espanol is all I can say,
which I understand.
And then of course,
the,
and then of course,
if you're a younger person,
you may think Marc Sims.
(22:53):
And I'm,
when I talk about Marc Sims,
I'm talking about African Americans.
People gotta say I'm not talking about ego tripping per se.
I'm talking about African Americans.
So when a younger person will see me,
any American will see me,
they'll see me as a mixed race person.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Right.
And that's why we have to break this stuff down.
Like I always tell people and I told you before,
when you see Sasha and Malia Obama,
(23:14):
you will never know that their grand maternal,
their great maternal grandmother is a white woman from Kansas.
And so I mean,
and this is why all of us have to be,
that's the one of the worst things in this country,
two bad things in this country right now as you well know,
this is my opinion,
inequality,
income inequality and just flat out ignorance.
(23:34):
I mean,
we just like,
we don't,
we,
we just like,
I would like to know Mexicans.
OK.
So when did Mexico become Mexico?
Right?
Or,
or they say uh uh Jamaica,
OK.
When did Jamaica become Jamaica?
We should know at least a brief history of that kind of stuff.
I think the British,
I think the Jamaica's got the independence.
What?
In the late sixties,
at least late sixties I believe.
Right?
I don't know the whole history.
(23:55):
American imperialism,
right?
African Americans,
about 80% of us have a white bloodline.
There's a bunch of white folks in this country who have a black bloodline.
And I'm not saying this and,
and we can end our problems of economics,
but we have a capitalist system that capitalistic system had slaves in this country.
Preer then the colonies,
of course,
America total 246 years.
(24:16):
So they say so we,
and now we have wage slaves.
Ok?
So we've all,
anywhere you go,
you want the cheapest labor you possibly can,
whether it's at Walmart or McDonald's anywhere Amazon these days,
you want this cheap versus slave labor and ginger server too.
And just,
you know,
you know,
the,
the uh the uh what you call it,
the uh the national,
what you call the hourly wage is like 7 25 something pretty different.
(24:39):
The minimum wage is something ridiculous.
And the city of Chicago,
I think it's 15 but some places 77 25 which is insanity.
But we have to have a,
even a cursory,
a strong cursory knowledge of this country and who are these people and where are they from?
And we're all human beings.
How do we make this as,
as this country,
as this country continues to decline?
(25:00):
That we are in a declining empire and other countries are getting stronger.
You see,
with the BRICS and then the,
and the Chinese and the China and all that kind of stuff.
So we like that.
We have to understand we can't play this game uh of uh fighting each other as a,
as a people.
And of course,
we haven't learned it.
The Republicans definitely haven't learned it and they need to grow up and stop it.
They need to grow up and stop it.
I think the first way is it's a real good history lesson of who's in America and where are they from?
(25:27):
Marc Marc Sims.
You are far more full of wisdom than you let on sometimes.
Do me a favor.
And the time that we have left,
what's one piece of advice you'd offer to your 20 year old self?
I mean,
I wrote this down,
man.
I'm glad you told me earlier.
I would get,
I would get the 20 year old Marc Sims,
a therapist,
(25:48):
a guru,
a life coach,
an academic tutor.
And I don't know,
man,
a few other things because I was crazy as a loon,
looney tunes as when I was a 20 year old.
Just crazy.
I was a high school dropout.
I went back to night school.
I think I was,
I think I was 24 24 years old and I was just working at McDonald's,
(26:11):
I think,
and I could have had a chance to go to McDonald University and maybe at some point own my own store or be the general manager.
But I was such a horrible student in grammar school and high school.
The idea of McDonald you in a university I couldn't handle.
And just,
and I,
and I didn't do it.
And the rest is history.
Even if I just bought stock at McDonald's 43 years ago and,
(26:33):
and held on,
I still would have had some damn money.
But you know what I'm saying?
That,
so you,
you're,
you're most of,
most,
most of us crazies as a loon.
But just like they say in the Wizard of Oz movie,
I like telling this story all the time.
Wizard of Oz movie.
They said Scarecrow Crow told Linda,
how can you tell Dorothy all this stuff in the first part of the movie?
(26:54):
And Glinda the good way said,
I ain't tell Dorothy.
She had the Ruby S and all that kind of stuff because if I told her she wouldn't have believed me and she had to learn it for herself.
There you go.
And so you can't teach a child wisdom.
You can just tell her what you,
what you're going through.
But they have to,
you can,
you can tell them all you want,
you can put them in the right direction,
but you just have to learn it for yourself.
But I wish I had probably hassle since got that de degree a little bit earlier and had a 10 year plan to go to the community college.
(27:20):
It took me 10 years to get a community college degree or whatever,
uh five or 10 years.
But that goes back for us,
African Americans.
We just don't have the network.
I know people tried to help me when I was young.
I was still,
but,
but older black folks were so mean,
but I didn't know why they were so mean because they were closer to slavery than I was because the slave master was mean and the overseers were mean.
(27:41):
And then mom and daddy had to be mean and my mom and daddy had to,
had to discipline me.
And I'm like,
what is your old,
what is wrong with our old people?
But I did not understand it.
Guess what?
Nor did they,
they didn't understand it either.
I,
I don't blame them.
Well,
listen,
this has been a real pleasure for me,
Mr Marc Sims.
Thank you so much and thank you for sharing with our listeners today.
(28:03):
Thank you,
Joseph Simmons.
Well,
well,
we hope you enjoyed that episode of the Just Buy My Vote podcast.
We're looking forward to the next episodes.
You can find the book at Just Buy My Vote dot com and feel free to follow us at Just Buy My Vote podcast dot com for notification on upcoming podcasts and events.
(28:30):
We thank you for the privilege of your time and until next time Just Buy My Vote.
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