Know Dumb Questions
Know Dumb Questions
KNOW DUMB QUESTIONS FT Scott X, Farajii Muhammad, Dr. Anthony J. Davis
Unlock the potential of Black culture and education as I, Dr. Steve Perry, take you on an enlightening journey through the heart of Livingstone College. Joined by Dr. Davis, Brother X, and Brother Muhammad, this episode traverses the resurgence of interest in HBCUs, the NAACP's mission, and the awakening consciousness within the African-American community. Discover the power of education, the transformative impact of music on Black identity, and the importance of supporting Black businesses in a conversation that promises to challenge and inspire.
The tapestry of discussions weaves stories of resilience, such as the journey from foster care to college presidency, and the mobilization of efforts to provide job opportunities to the formerly incarcerated. Learn about the operational hurdles HBCUs face and the incredible strides made to overcome them. We also spotlight the influence of community support in our successes—whether it's the NAACP's job creation initiative or the cultural pride imbued in our students, this episode is a testament to the power of collective action and mentorship in shaping a brighter future.
As we celebrate the steps taken and the progress yet to be made, our guests illuminate the journey ahead with personal insights, historical context, and strategic calls to action. From the boardroom of John Hopkins Hospital to the classrooms of Livingstone College, this dialogue is a rallying cry for justice, identity, and cultural integrity. Tune in for an exchange that not only honors our ancestors but also paves the way for the next generation of Black excellence.
up here who don't want to move the culture forward. So I do what I can to identify people who are doing something meaningful, who I think are doing something meaningful, and do what little I can to push the pile in their direction so that they can have that kind of conversation, as Brother Muhammad was just saying. I think the culture ready, we're ready whenever you are All right, let's get this thing started. So we're live. It's just recorded. Oh, it's just recorded to your people, okay, okay. So, shonda, we're just gonna record this. Did I lose, shonda?
Speaker 2:Yes, we're gonna record this and then we're gonna stream it live at seven.
Speaker 1:Okay, cool, Got it. Got it. Okay, All right. So let's get this party started. I wanna thank everybody for joining us today at no Dumb Questions. We wanna take a second to record a no, no, Now recording. Now it's live Copy. All right, that was just me testing it out, Right? So I'm Dr Steve Parris. This is no Dumb Questions. I am excited today. I mean genuinely excited we're bringing this to you live. No Dumb Questions from Livingstone College, Salisbury, North Carolina.
Speaker 2:Salisbury, North Carolina.
Speaker 1:Listen how you spell North North. That's why, when you from North, please.
Speaker 3:Come on, as you know you don't miss that, you know you're from North.
Speaker 1:We don't spell.
Speaker 4:Our T-H's are F's so it's just North we don't, that's it, it is, that's. Baltimore, that's Baltimore.
Speaker 2:It's coast thing, so we say North, and if you went to school with X, it's N-O-F, it's North, it's North, north Carolina, north Carolina, that's the beautiful houses down here man.
Speaker 1:Beautiful houses. I wonder how they were made. That's a different conversation. So I really wanna just start the conversation by introducing each of you, and really I don't know too far to me doing an introduction, because I believe that through our conversation we're gonna have a great introduction. I wanna start with our host, dr Davis. Dr Davis is what number of president are you?
Speaker 2:13, the luckiest man in the world. How about that?
Speaker 1:Lucky 13. Of Livingstone College. Then I'm gonna go over to also on the scene, brother X. What's up, bro? How long have you been president of the NAACP? 18 years, 18 years in Connecticut and on the national board as well. Yes, sir, brother Muhammad. Yes sir, organizer extraordinaire. Yeah, getting it done on Black Star Network. What's the name of the show that you have? The culture which provides you Muhammad, dr Perry. So I had the opportunity to join Brother Muhammad on this show, and what each of you has in common, among other things, is your commitment to the culture. Brother Muhammad, what's the state of Black culture today?
Speaker 4:Big question Big question. First of all, mr Dr Perry, thank you for the opportunity to be a part of no Dumb Questions and I love the title and all that you're doing. I mean, when you talk about Black culture, you're talking about an experience of a people who are I would say we're still like a work in progress. We're still trying to figure some things out.
Speaker 4:After our time in chattel slavery and going through the history of our people, we're at a point right now where I think there is a lot of consciousness, I think there's like a mini revolution that's happening within our culture, where we're trying to either hold on to some old school values and old systems of patriarchy and misogyny and racism and oppression, and then you've got those of us who are saying you know what, enough is enough.
Speaker 4:Let's think about an alternate or a different reality for our people to be in. So our culture is, I think, is a mixed bag of a lot of different things. Right now. I think it's not one particular thing, but I do believe that we're at a different place in terms of our consciousness, that we all know that something has to change, and I believe that's the nature, that's the essence of our culture right now that we're engaged in it A lot more of us. As you know, dot, I always say on my show we are the culture. That's been a mantra, of course, within hip hop and in a lot of the spaces, but we know that at the end of the day, we have all that we need to really be the masters of our own fate.
Speaker 1:So, Dr Davis, we hear a renaissance of sorts around historical black colleges. It reminds me of the 90s, when Bill Cosby was on. Dr Cosby was on the Cosby show and he always had an HBCU shirt on. Is that costume or is that commitment?
Speaker 2:I think we're caught between two opinions. I think in some cases it's definitely costume, because if you ask most people to name 20 HBCUs from the top of their head, they couldn't. We can all name the big four Howard, Hampton, Morehouse, Spelman. Then you might add in a fam you a Tuskegee because of the Tuskegee Airmen. Fisk, because of the Jubilee singers. I'm at seven. I challenge someone to give me another 13 Jackson State because of what Dion was doing. You hear what I say what Dion was doing. I heard that All right. And then there are 140.
Speaker 1:I didn't see any shade, it was still sunny over here. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's 104 HBCUs, but we continue to lose HBCUs. Just this week, another one of our HBCUs lost their accreditation, or at least what is that.
Speaker 1:Let's have that honest conversation. Well, because I'm sending kids to black colleges all the time.
Speaker 2:Well, I would tell you, all HBCUs are not created equal. I believe Livingstone College is an HBCU that is committed to serving the underserved, the underrepresented and the under-resourced. 97% of the students who come to my campus require financial aid. Pale eligible 73% of first generation college attendees.
Speaker 1:So we don't understand how big that is 97% when 13% of Americans said to be poor, when 97% of your students are poor that's everybody. Somebody said to you your wife has a 97% chance of cheating on you. You wouldn't necessarily think you should go forward with this thing. That's your ass right. That's right, like you just wrap. So 97% of students who come here are I know we want to come up with phrases like pale eligible, but by definition are poor, poor people.
Speaker 2:That's right, and 73% first generation college attendees the first in their families to ever go to college.
Speaker 1:Still in 2023.
Speaker 2:In 2023. My goal is to make sure that they might be the first, but they won't be the last. Amen. We want to help them unlock their potential, unleash their power, unveil their purpose. I constantly tell legislators and the community abroad, right here in Salisbury, that without a Livingstone College, we will leave young people trapped at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder with no means of escape. That's why what we do is critical. Us News and World Report ranked Livingstone College number 20 among top performers in social mobility. Most people don't get that, but that means as we take young people who are at the bottom of that socioeconomic ladder and by the time we finish, they have the capacity to compete and contribute in a global context with confidence and competence.
Speaker 1:That's again President Davis of Livingstone College, scott X. I just was at something you did this weekend and New Haven and it's a million jobs campaign for the formerly incarcerated. That's where I was going to go. So I'm talking to president of Livingstone, but I'm also talking to the president of the NAACP in Connecticut and on the national board of the NAACP in Connecticut who is leading the charge to employ one million formerly incarcerated citizens. Can we talk about that?
Speaker 1:Well, if I pull back a little bit I'd like to say, and can we, and just as again, livingstone folks, thank you so much for your hospitality. And technical, is X's microphone on? I just want to make sure.
Speaker 3:Microphone check up. One, two check up.
Speaker 1:Come on in. It's your studio, so dare I not Go ahead one more time? Am I on now? One more, one more. I don't hear myself. Yeah, there we go, there we go.
Speaker 2:There we go. Mike sounds nice, check one, check one yeah.
Speaker 1:We are straight from the 90s. Don't let these suits fool you, we'll break into a public enterprise.
Speaker 4:How old are you? You say, jackie Robinson, don't play with us. How old are you, brother, we're the uncles, we're the uncles at the cookout.
Speaker 1:We'll show you how to do the warp. Don't do it With a short set With a silk short set.
Speaker 2:Well, you do the silk, short set.
Speaker 4:But you got to match style. You got to match all the way down, all the way down to the socks, all the way down to the socks. No, you don't need a no socks. No, no, no.
Speaker 1:No, you got to go all the way down to the socks. You got to take it all the way down to the socks.
Speaker 3:Dr Davis is a former DJ now.
Speaker 1:That's what's up.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yes, I had to pull the turntable up. I'm going to pull out the 1200.
Speaker 1:That's right there, right there. So X is taking us through. So you are starting a movement to work with the formerly incarcerated. You had a brother there who had a.
Speaker 3:There's one piece. I have another title, ok, where several hats. I'm also the national criminal justice chair for the NAACP, so, ok, that's how I kind of got into this space.
Speaker 1:So talk about that, because, whether we want to acknowledge it or not, there are a couple elements to the conversation that we often we often leave out, which is criminality within the black community is an issue that we have to deal with. I mean, it's just, is a fact. Too many of our brothers and sisters, but brothers in particular, have been incarcerated.
Speaker 3:That's just a direct correlation to poverty.
Speaker 1:Period and lack of education, and lack of education, of course, here, and then, of course, the change in the gender roles and some of the other parts, as Brother Mohammed mentioned. So talk a bit about this project that you have underway.
Speaker 3:So my travels around the country, in Detroit, chicago, la, connecticut, new York, north Carolina. In those conversations, many individuals have approached me and said that the NAACP needs to deal with this crisis around reentry, that there's a whole lot of training, training, training and no jobs at the end. Young brothers and sisters are going through these programs and at the end of the program they may have 10 certificates in their book back but there's no job and I was like no that can't be true.
Speaker 3:And once again I sat down with brothers and sisters all around the country and they're saying listen, man, you've got to deal with this. The NAACP has to get involved with this. You've got these relationships with these companies and corporations. They write you a $100,000 check or whatever, but at the same time they're not handling their responsibility around corporate responsibility and making sure that young brothers and sisters are getting opportunities to have jobs in these institutions and corporations.
Speaker 3:So I started doing an investigation and started to do an inquiry around what actually is being, what's actually taking place in our communities and in our neighborhoods. And once again I found out that the information was accurate. So I don't want to just sit around and just talk about the problem. What is the solution? So I talked to the national staff and said let's do the research to find out who is the best in hiring formerly incarcerated individuals. So we found out that John Hopkins Hospital. This is the best that I found that John Hopkins Hospital. Well, let me just say this piece also when the factories closed down and kind of moved out of our communities, the hospitals became the number one employer.
Speaker 3:And health care. That's the reason why there's so much of fight around health care and the expenses around it and the jobs and the economic engines that they have become in our communities. So I say all that to say that John Hopkins Hospital CEO had put 10 jobs aside for the formerly incarcerated. I didn't believe it. So I went down to Baltimore and I found out that it was actually accurate. So I met with the CEO, met with the head of security, I met with the head of human resources and it was accurate. They were hiring these young brothers and sisters that had murder charges, hot drug charges, all kinds of different charges.
Speaker 3:So I said, if you all could do this, I have a relationship with the Connecticut Hospital Association that oversees all 27 hospitals in the state of Connecticut. Let's see if we can sign an MOU agreement with all 27 hospitals. We got that done. We got it up and running in Connecticut In five cities. Now we're about to expand into more cities across the state and all throughout New England. Hopefully, once we get all of this solidified, we'll be expanding this across the country. That's dope.
Speaker 1:So, brother Muhammad, you have a broadcast on Black Star Network Rollin' Markets.
Speaker 4:Network.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir, and you tackle issues in the culture and your show. Why that? Why now?
Speaker 4:It's so important because if you look at what influences people's behavior, we can go down the list. We can say friends, we can say politics, policies and legislation, we can say media. But that all adds to one thing to me the culture. The culture is such an influential force that we're influenced by the culture in a way that we may not even think we're influenced by the culture. Is the culture sick right now? It depends on you know what the circumstances are. I would ask what is the definition of the culture.
Speaker 3:Everyone has different perceptions of what the culture is, so what is your? That's a big question.
Speaker 4:That's a big question, big brother. I mean, you know, for me, the culture is our traditions and the way that we engage with one another, how the culture is, how do we interact with one another, right, and how do we interact with the systems that we are all a part of? So, you know, in terms of government culture like, what is our? What has been our relationship with the government? What has been our relationship around education? What has been our relationship around, you know, families and communities, right, looking at those cultural influences, such, as you know, from everything from what we get from the media to our own personal experiences, to hearing the hot takes of somebody else, right, social media or the talk that we have in our peer booth.
Speaker 3:So, in the 60s, and the 70s they called that the movement, the movement. Are you down with the movement? Are you down with Now? Are you down with the culture?
Speaker 4:And see, now we're in a time, big brother, where you say the movement, you got to ask the question which one? That's why I say which one? Which movement are we a part of? Right now we can assume, if somebody say, yeah, something such and such to struggle. Are you talking about the Black power struggle, black liberation struggle? Are you talking about the struggle to get from being unemployed to employed? Are you talking about the struggle of being Black in America?
Speaker 2:Or the struggle to keep the lights on, or HBCU Right, right right.
Speaker 4:The struggle to keep the doors open and the lights on at HBCU. The doors open and the lights on at a Black business Like which struggle are we talking about?
Speaker 1:Here's a question I ask all of you how do you think kids see Black people, our kids? Do you think that they see us, the uncles and dads, as people they aspire to be like? That's a good question.
Speaker 3:I think so, I think so. With the reflection of the music and how they display themselves in the music and how they look at one another and how they look at our community. I would say that it's very negative.
Speaker 4:I don't know, though I don't know. I'm seeing something different in this interest in Dr Perry, that you bring this up, because my son is 10 years old, my daughter's four. My son is so cerebral in terms of he's an engineer in his head you know what I'm saying Like he's an engineer, he's an artist, he loves to go on and use the film equipment that we have and make movies and things like that. I find that a lot of little young Black boys are the same way. The lore that we have been confronted with back in the 80s and 90s, the lore of the street, is not the lore that these next generation, the little brothers that my son, my son, ages. They're not on that Really. No, not all of them.
Speaker 4:Because, the music is something different.
Speaker 1:The music is pretty rough. I know you all have been watching.
Speaker 1:I know you've been watching or seen D1 and some of the conversations that he's been calling to the carpet some people who we've come to know and at least listened to, because of the vile nature and we're not talking about well, I'm not talking about it from a perspective of religion, but he is. Do you think that we now have polluted the environment with our content so much so that there's a bastardization of the way which Black people look at themselves? Or do you think that Black people can see through that and just say no, it's just entertainment.
Speaker 2:I think they can grow into that, but I don't think that some of the young minds can actually absorb that right now. They can't digest it. It's like trying to give them table food and they're just out the womb. It just won't happen. And so some of the lyrics. They think it's reality rather than an art form.
Speaker 1:Yes, I just saw Fifth. I saw Fifthy talking about how he rhymes about using drugs and he never. He doesn't use drugs, he's actually drug free.
Speaker 4:He said he just saw how that's, so I mean that's, yeah, I mean, I think that's the part of this process, like when D was calling out Jim Jones. Jim Jones response was disappointing in the sense that he was like you know, I do a lot of things for the community. You know, my music is just my music, that's just how I eat. But that's the very essence of what D1 was pointing out. The essence is you could you know? And Rick Ross responded to D and said I give out Turkey, and D was making a point of you can give out Turkey, you can give out money for all we can, but the thing that people are going to remember you the most is what you say out your mouth as an artist.
Speaker 1:But here's a question I have for all of you. This one, I mean. White people listen to the music too. Right, they're the biggest consumers of this music. What are we exporting?
Speaker 3:But I've had these debates for a long time. Okay, and you know. You don't see white people in social media or in music calling each other crackers yeah, All right. No, you don't see Hispanics even calling each other at all Negative connotations.
Speaker 1:But they call each other the.
Speaker 3:N word, yeah Right, and even whites will do that, but there's a code of ethics in their community that they don't do that, so it's a wrap and they don't cross that line.
Speaker 1:There's a rapper recently said something like you could become number one by using the N word, but you'll be canceled by being anti-semitic. Absolutely, oh yeah, absolutely. So why then is it that we? That's an unwritten rule, but see, somebody wrote on Kanye's check yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 4:Hey look, this is let's keep it real, this is no dumb question. You can't talk about artist's messages until you talk about the system that these artists are a part of. That promotes this type of thing, Right? How many artists have outgrown that lifestyle? Sure, when you come into the industry at 17, 18, 19 years old, you say it all types of stuff about your mom, Right? I remember Nah said that he's like I was 18 years old when I put out Ill-Math. My thoughts are different.
Speaker 4:But the thing about the industry is the industry will say oh, could that that was selling. That's what puts you on a map. Let's capitalize off of that level of ignorance, right and your expense. Now, as an artist, you've grown up, you've gotten a family, you're trying to build a solid relationship with the woman in your life. You move going, you're a business person. You're doing all of these things, but the industry wants to keep you on a time board.
Speaker 3:We want to keep. Let me just ask you this Hispanics are poor. Hispanics will do a lot of atrocities also, but they don't do that. Yeah, but the Hispanics.
Speaker 2:Why don't they do it, though, and why would they rather use the?
Speaker 3:N word than call themselves a negative connotation.
Speaker 4:It is his thing, because I hate the person. I personally hate to use the N word, but our struggle is different. How we came into this country is still a very much part of our DNA. To this very day, we have not fully addressed that horrendous experience of child slavery and what it has done to us. Now there are conversations about it in terms of there being certain type of traits and qualities that are placed into our DNA as a result of trauma. We're having conversations about trauma-informed care in schools and in the workplace, but we're not having the same level of conversation about historical experiences like child slavery. You don't think that if a child can go through a traumatic experience and it will affect that child for the rest of their life, think about what a traumatic experience would do to a whole people.
Speaker 1:I want to stay here for a second, because one of the things that it's easy to do is to go to the cookout and talk about the people who wore something out landish or came in and acted and had kids who were acting badly, but you each are brothers who are actually doing real work. What I don't want to do is I don't want us to put ourselves in a situation where we have an opportunity to have a conversation of this magnitude and, as we say in times such as these, let's talk about the work that you are doing collectively, that you are moved by, that is changing the community into our ancestors wildest dreams. I'm going to start with you, brother Muhammad. Talk about some of the work that you're doing, because I know people see you on Blackstar, but they don't recognize that that's part of who you are. It's not the thing.
Speaker 4:That's part of who I'm forgetting. That's actually. I mean, I think the big work for me has always been for the past 25 years I've done a lot of social justice, grassroots organizing on the street work, starting from my hometown of Baltimore and now relocated to Los Angeles, and that's the space that I'm doing it in Now. My focus is how do we tell the stories in such an impactful way, how do we create a space for us to have conversations like this through the use of media, and so my work is let's revolutionize, like, if we're talking about the culture, let's have a cultural revolution to talk about the culture. What does that actually mean? So that's the place that I'm in.
Speaker 4:I'm taking that 25 years of dealing with police brutality, educational inequity and all of the other things that we are faced with in this country and saying, all right, let's talk to the people who are doing fantastic work and use this as a motivation, because we, I think part of the problem is is that we're thinking all of these things are on the plate of black America and we don't know how to digest it. We don't know how to really break it down into small pieces and make it in a way that we feel like we could do something about it, and that's not true. People are doing fantastic work all over this country. They just need to be given the time and the space and the exposure to highlight what they're doing.
Speaker 1:Dr Davis, one of the things that we do often is we focus on a title and we don't understand the function. I believe that one of the reasons why many young people don't aspire to certain things is because they don't really know what that person does in a day. Not asking you to pull out your calendar, your Google calendar, but what did the president of Livingstone College do today and what will you be doing tomorrow?
Speaker 2:Every day I'm doing two things Raising money, raising profile. When you raise money and profile, what you do is you end up attracting young people to the dream. I think it was rap. Artists said college is a game and it's ran. Good. It's true, because there's some colleges that will have young people come and they'll leave in debt.
Speaker 2:On my campus I've done something called a career readiness institute where every student starting their freshman year will receive four years of career readiness instruction aligned with their academic major. Ai is real, but what I'm saying is I want them to get the real AI acquired intelligence.
Speaker 1:So that's what you're doing. I want people to understand. Let me tell you a real quick story we had at one of our schools. We had the president of Coppin actually come to visit us. For those who don't know, coppin State is a historical black college in greater Baltimore area. When he came, this is our school. Our kids call our school the historically black high school. I talked to the scholars afterwards who were all black in this particular conversation, and they just sat down with the president and they said I said how was it for you? One of them said I thought he was going to be white. Wow, which was hard for me to take. Actually. I actually was very disappointed in myself. Very disappointed in myself because it's clear that I did not do a good enough job of helping them to understand that college presidents are also black.
Speaker 2:Yes, black, with a story, I mean, look, I'll tell my story real quick. You're looking at someone. You're on this podcast with someone who spent 17 years nine months of their life in foster care. Some people come in it when they're 12, 13. I was in it for 17 years, nine months, my entire life. I came into the world of water to state, now college president.
Speaker 2:I'm a college president, but I don't stop there. It would be easy for me to get here and say, hey, I'm going to be here, hey, I made it, you can pull yourself up by your own bootstrap. Somebody said that sitting on the Supreme Court. I'm not going to call them out, but the reality is. The reality is and I want to make sure our frame is correct. I had access, opportunity and exposure. Most young people in foster care don't have my story. 85% of young people who age out of foster care, just like me, desire to go to college. Only 3% go. Only 1% graduates.
Speaker 3:How many become black college presidents?
Speaker 2:Oh well, I became a black college president because preparation and purpose intersected, and that's how I got here.
Speaker 1:So the power is hey, doc.
Speaker 4:I'm sorry I just got to jump off because I got to pick up my daughter For sure, but I appreciate you so much. I thank the two brothers and I we gotta have this conversation.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, we gotta do it again.
Speaker 4:How we gonna do it.
Speaker 3:We gotta do this. I'm coming to see you when I'm out in that way, man, I'm coming with him, man.
Speaker 2:I'm coming to LA, I'm out there. They sent me some students, though, man, send me some students, man, who need the awakening, that's what I need.
Speaker 4:Okay, let's just set up something. I don't have no problems with that. I have no problems with that, and then, dr Perry, we'll talk. I'd love to help you all to see how I can be of service to you and the work that you do, brother.
Speaker 1:Certainly out here in.
Speaker 4:California, I know.
Speaker 1:Likewise good brother, and I appreciate it. I appreciate you and go get your daughter. You don't want to be that dad like I've been more than a few times. I just get hit. It's a bad feeling. It's a bad feeling. It's a bad feeling, dr Perry.
Speaker 2:I wanted to say this too. You know when you talked about. You know our platforms and our work. It would have been easy for me to stop, but one of the things, the first thing I did in May, I launched a foster care awareness program called the Center for Hope. Well, I want young men and women all across this country who are aging out of foster care, who desire to go to college, they can come to Livingstone College worry free. That is so dope.
Speaker 1:Now, in some states I don't know how North Carolina is, but in some states if you are in foster care you can go to college at the expense of the state. Is that the case here?
Speaker 2:Not in they can, but you know it got to read the fine print. Okay, you can go, but you know what they don't talk about. Where are you going to eat? What about housing? Okay, I didn't go to community college, but community college. Most community colleges, colleges, do not have housing. Okay, where do you go and stay when Christmas breaks? Our campus is open. We own all the residence halls Established in 1879, we were fooboo before Dave and John talked about fooboo for us by us.
Speaker 2:I don't have to ask permission. Young men and women who are aging out of foster care who are on this campus. They get to stay here during Christmas break and we partner with the churches to make sure that they're fed, making sure that they have heat, a home over their head.
Speaker 3:That's what we're doing.
Speaker 1:The future is so bright with brothers like you at the helm. X same question People here of a community organizer. You and I do a lot of work together. What do you do as a community? What?
Speaker 3:does that? Mean so the three of us marched in the Randy Cox case. And who's Randy Cox? So Randy Cox was similar to the Freddie Gray case, where a young man was in a paddy wagon or a police van In New Haven.
Speaker 3:And they did the rough ride where the police officers go real fast and they slam on the brakes and the young man broke his neck and he was paralyzed from neck down. We all marched and protested. Ben Crump was with us in the largest police brutality settlement in the history of America, which was 45 million dollars. So that's the type of things that I'm actively involved in.
Speaker 1:I want to talk about that. I'm going to talk about it because I want people to understand. We hear the term community organizer, but what does that make? So there wasn't just a parade, so I call Steve Perry.
Speaker 3:I need 40 people to come. I call the brothers and sisters at the Boys and Girls Club. I need 40 or 50 people. And I call the people at the churches. I need 10 here, I need five here, I need four here. And then we put a mass organizing march together of 400 people.
Speaker 1:And then who you talk to every time on the political side, though Because you're doing more than one thing, and a lot of times we hear people say that they're organizers Right. There are a lot of internet organizers, right, but I'm talking about the analog organizers, right? What do you do? I'm an old fashioned. Old fashioned, that's an analog, and you are, that's right.
Speaker 3:So I have a list of relationships and capital of over 35 years, of relationships that I could call on in different areas across the country, and I mobilize, organize and galvanize individuals together to fight for justice.
Speaker 1:So we're in a situation now where there's a young man who has been paralyzed Because the police wanted to hurt him. Right, a lot of us are familiar with the march, right, but the march is not the point. So many behind the scenes, right. So, because I want young people who watch this, I want them to really understand that's just young. Let me take that back, because I actually don't mean that. I want people who care about something in our community, who are watching this, to get a master class from you, someone who's organized throughout the country, right. Okay, so there's a march Big whoop, but it's very important.
Speaker 3:Okay, those marches are important because it creates exposure, it helps people get familiar with the issue. Okay, it also gives opportunity for young people to come on down and start organizing themselves, learn how to organize. They sign up on the list, we follow up, we invite them to meetings. And a lot of individuals don't understand that great marches and protests and great movements and great culture changes and switches of how things switch in our community. And if you're looking for change, it has to happen with small groups. It's five to 10 to 15, 20 individuals in a meeting or in the basement of a church or in the library or on the corner, sitting around having conversations and strategizing on how to make the actual changes happen. Going to Board of Education meetings, go into police commission meetings, going to meetings where you know that certain individuals will be at so you could have a conversation. Going to cookouts, going to the club, to the barbershops, to nail salons and making sure that individuals are aware of what's going on in the community.
Speaker 1:So President Davis, you are having a movement tomorrow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's called commencement.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's right. Students who completed their academic requirements will march across the stage and join the ranks of what I call the fraternity and sororities of educated men and women. I'm excited about that.
Speaker 1:It really are miracles to make it as far as they've made it. When we talk about young people, you work with young people at among the most pivotal points in their life, where they feel grown Right. They'll tell you that, yeah, but they're not yet, not quite. What do they care about?
Speaker 2:I'll tell you what I've learned in my year and a half of being a president. They care that you care. Okay, I do something on this campus where some say you're a college president, you have time. Let your vice president for academic affairs sit down with the students. I do something to call one-on-one with 13. Students sign up for a block of time and they get to come and sit down with me and give me their constructive feedback and their criticism. Okay, and oftentimes what encourages me is that they'll come take up a 15-minute time slot to just thank me for giving them a form. That's what's up. They also want to be a part of what we're doing. Okay, I'll give you a quick example.
Speaker 2:I challenged this community to look at Livingstone College in a different context. On this campaign called Livingstone Reimagine that this HBCU is a solution to many of the problems that plague this community. However, we're the most valuable tool in your toolbox, but you never leverage Livingstone College. You can leverage us to help you close this achievement gap. You can use this HBCU to help you deal with health disparities. So we have a reimagined approach to how people view an HBCU, so much so that the county commissioners now, when they're trying to leverage business and industry to set up shop in Rowan County in Salisbury, they remind them. Did you know that we have an HBCU in our backyard, livingstone College?
Speaker 1:What don't people know about HBCUs? What do they have wrong?
Speaker 2:They don't realize that we're institutions that punch well above our fighting weight.
Speaker 1:Number one and we're not in play. So what do you mean by that?
Speaker 2:We represent 3% of all the colleges and universities in the country. But let me just give you one data point that will make most people cringe 24% of the African American graduates in STEM are graduates of HBCUs. So when you talk about being competitive, when you talk about being competitive with China and in Europe, you can't do it unless you have HBCUs in the mix.
Speaker 1:I was talking to the former president of Dillard when he was down there, kimbrough, and they had the most graduates with a degree in physics of all schools. That's right In state, that's right. So what else don't people know about HBCUs?
Speaker 2:They don't know that we're diversity drivers that develop and deploy talent. That's my line and I'm sticking to it Okay.
Speaker 1:And what does that mean in a practical sense?
Speaker 2:When businesses and industries are looking for diverse talent, where do they go? They can't find it. They can find it at PWIs, but the talent pool is diluted. They can find a concentrated pool of talent on the campuses of HBCUs that are untapped and we have the ability to pivot to meet workforce demand.
Speaker 1:One of the challenges that a lot of us who work with and or some who've gone to historical black colleges will say is that they run like a small church where the things that you want and need to exist they want to exist, like having milk in the dining hall, having air conditioning in the dorms, having professors who show up to class, a lot of people or people who would just call them back when they call the college. A lot of people speak of that experience as part of their HBCU experience. How accurate is that?
Speaker 2:It's somewhat accurate. You know, I'm always going to get a scot would tell me man, we're always going to keep it 100.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And you said what is this?
Speaker 1:No dumb questions. No dumb questions, right yeah.
Speaker 2:No dumb questions. Here's what I'll tell you. A lot of it traces back to resources right On our campus. We have a rule If someone calls you the minimum, you call them back. We have to do it. I also had a joke with my staff as I tried to change culture. I said you remember last year when HBCUs were having bomb threats? Somebody asked me do we have a bomb threat? I said they called us, but nobody answered the phone.
Speaker 1:Well, I would say it isn't challenging. I mean real talk, like we're going to have real conversation. The majority of our children at Capitol Prep schools go to historical psychologists every year.
Speaker 2:Well, I need to have some at Livingstone College, my brother.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we would be glad to send them we don't play with that and to take some of yours to teach with us. We would look forward to that as well. But one of the challenges that we often confront is if they go, what's going to happen when the financial aid letters don't come on time or the numbers are off or something like that an administrative error that could have a child on campus? What can we do to help? Historically, black colleges improved nothing else than the operations of the schools.
Speaker 2:Because some of those same things happen at PWIs.
Speaker 1:But we don't amplify it.
Speaker 2:They do, they do, it happened, but they don't amplify it. I'll give you an example. If a water heater breaks, I had a water heater break. My campus was founded in 1879. I had a water heater go out. Rather than call us and wait on the water heater to come, they went on social media. The media showed up and what I said to them listen, I can't go to Lowe's and get a water heater for a building that was erected in 1903, and Home Depot doesn't care. How do we do that?
Speaker 1:though Like real talk, Because I'm on the same side of the table as you are. As an administrator, yeah, as an administrator and founder of historical black schools, Instead of you just calling me and just having an adult conversation, why you got to call the state Like why we got to do that. Why are you going to call? We have people hang on. We have people call TMZ Like what the Like really Like they're your friends, like you're calling them.
Speaker 3:Who's that? The NAACC? Yeah, they call it they really trust me.
Speaker 1:A lot of my organizing friends are like, yeah, they want to march against your school. For what, for what, for what my stem is. So we want to call it NAACP on this contract.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So why is it that that's the go to, instead of just calling?
Speaker 2:I don't have to answer that one. It frustrates me, because what happens if we're not here?
Speaker 1:That's what I'm saying, Like why, who benefits from that? We?
Speaker 2:gave you an opportunity when other HBCU said no.
Speaker 3:Word NPWI, npwi.
Speaker 2:And you come here in high school and your parents and everybody said no and then, we gave you a shot and then just how you would treat us.
Speaker 1:Cuz what? Cuz it the waters, but we don't want it to be broken?
Speaker 3:No, no but, that happens at Pw, it happens everywhere.
Speaker 2:My job is administrating. You know, dr Perry, you have to be responsible and responsive. Yeah, that's what I'll do. Here's something that people don't know about a Livingstone College. We have a meager endowment. I would use another M word. I got you six million. Okay, that's our endowment 145 year institution, six million dollar endowment. My goal as president is to double that in my first contract. Okay, okay, listen to this. In the absence of a huge endowment, we provide more than four and a half million dollars in need-based aid, because you asked the question about what happens when the financial aid runs out in administrative areas, we find a way to keep students in school, in the family. We invest in the families. That's why we have so much deferred maintenance on our campus, because we've opted to give it to students and their families four and a half million dollars To deal with the need. I mean we give four and a half million dollars in need-based aid every year. That means we would need an 84 85 million dollar endowment in place.
Speaker 1:What people don't understand me. So people often don't understand acts when they're talking about endowments and they're talking about investments in the in a college. The Endowment is the money that you have that doesn't come directly from the revenue, which is tuition. The tuition one of the things that you do, and and have done for a generation, is Try to educate black people in particular, about the power that they have Politically. In many cases, yeah, but one of the things I think the super dope about the way you run the NAACP in Connecticut and the contributions you make nationally is you don't stop at helping them to understand the power that they have politically. You push them economically. What happens if? If, for instance, the million formerly incarcerated, mostly black people, start getting jobs? What could happen for them and for our community?
Speaker 3:So we talked about this on Sunday, yeah you did. In reference to this number of million jobs. Can it even actually happen? So 70 million individuals in America have been formerly incarcerated or have a blemish on their record. There's 360 million people in America, so one fourth of America primarily has been affected by the criminal justice system. So the question is how do we get these individuals to work? And if we get them to work, how does that change the paradigms of the economic shift in?
Speaker 2:our community.
Speaker 3:So let's just say, basically a $30,000 job, yeah, if we were to get 1,000, or let's just say 100 individuals to make $30,000 a year, right, that's a $3 million impact in our community and we currently just got, I would say about a little over 100 individuals, a job this year at Yale, new Haven Hospital.
Speaker 1:Which is the largest employer in New Haven Right and one of the largest in the state of Connecticut and one of the largest in the nation. Yeah, a pretty good hospital, by the way. Very good Did my brain surgery, wow, yeah, yeah, yeah Saved my life.
Speaker 3:I remember when I got that call too. Yeah, yeah, man, yeah yeah. But anyway I say all that to say is that if we well, the NAACP has 2,200 branches across the country. It's the largest civil rights organization in America. So if we were to get every branch, just to get 100 jobs for individuals in their community. And that's once again that's just scratching the surface.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's just yeah.
Speaker 3:That's just scratching the surface. But if we were all to get 100 individuals a job, that's 220,000 jobs in one year and on a five-year plan. 220,000 times five we have 1,100,000 jobs and once again, if you're looking at the scale of the 70 million jobs, we're just scratching the surface.
Speaker 1:What does that look like on a practical level? So then, if a million people, who are mainly black, have jobs, they could go to college, they could send their children to college.
Speaker 3:Now they're not on the system. Now they're off the system and they're paying taxes.
Speaker 1:Now they can purchase a crib, they can purchase a whip. They can establish small businesses other than barbershops, beauty salons, weed spots and alcohol stores, liquor stores.
Speaker 3:They could also become a little league baseball coach, a little football coach.
Speaker 1:Because I think that one of the things that you talk about Exit I don't think that people truly understand is the residual impact of a gainfully employed adult Right.
Speaker 3:The other thing is the amount of violence that's in our community too, that a lot of us don't want to talk about. But come back to the baseball coach for a second.
Speaker 1:All right. So that's why I'm talking about the baseball coach.
Speaker 3:So now the brother that was out on the block destroying the community, now he's working, and now he's volunteering for the little league baseball team, and now he's showing a different way of being a role model in the community, instead of wearing a bunch of chains.
Speaker 1:It's not wrong with the I get your point, yeah, the point that I'm making to you is that we have a lot more positive role models in our community.
Speaker 3:So those 100 brothers that were on the block now now in the community going to church. The church dynamics changed now because there's more brothers in the church, there's more brothers volunteering and more brothers doing positive things in our community. So now, when we get to 1,000 or get to 2,000 or 5,000, that's a huge impact across the nation and that's the type of paradigm shift that we need in our community. So that's what we're fighting for and you asked what were we doing?
Speaker 1:This is what I'm doing every day and that's so powerful because it's so easy to be a tech gangster. Get up there and a social media genius. What percentage of your alums, president Davis, are giving?
Speaker 2:Actually we're doing a lot better than most. The average HBCU can record 10% alumni giving. We're closer to 19 to 20. Ok, 19 to 20 in the average gift size. Our average gift and I remember this because I had to give this report to the board, I'm very data driven the average gift from my alumnus, the average alumni gift, is about $1,200 at Livingston.
Speaker 1:OK, ok, you know, one of the challenges that we don't often confront is our willingness to spend with our own. The white man's ice is colder and what that often means is Killer. Mike had a documentary where he tried to spend money, only eat, only stay in black owned establishments. It is so disappointing to me how rare it is that we can or do recycle our own money. We can go to China Town.
Speaker 3:And the Black owned hotel.
Speaker 1:And we're going to talk about that. We can go to China Town and see people from China. There's certain other communities that have established a foothold, but we, as African-Americans, seem to be the perfect consumer. The more expensive it is, the more willing we are.
Speaker 3:Let's go back to the history, perry, because historically, blacks have always come together and spent together and have done business together. Ok, but when we organized and mobilized our communities like that, whites came in and destroyed those communities also.
Speaker 1:So why not build them back?
Speaker 3:Well, it's not that easy though. Ok, all right, and a lot of people were killed, harmed, hurt and some families destroyed.
Speaker 3:Ok, so it's hard to come up out of that after you've built, so you feel, if they're afraid to try it again and if they come together in that type of success, they're scared that they will get killed and destroyed again. So you had that in Tulsa, you had that in Raleigh, north Carolina. You had that in Richmond, virginia, you had that in Rhodeswood, florida. So there's a lot of these huge economic engines that were put together. I don't want that image out there that blacks never came together, they never did business together, because that's untrue. We've always come together. Do you think we're more critical of each other? I think that they don't know the history.
Speaker 1:But do you think that people, do you think that we to your question, that's why the KKK came together to destroy those communities. But do you think and President Davis, you talked about this, but I'm asking you more directly do you think that black students are more critical of a black college than they would be if they had gone to a white college? Do you think that that's the case?
Speaker 2:Yes, until you push back and give them information.
Speaker 3:Why did we?
Speaker 2:build the colleges, though, and first of all, a lot of them don't know.
Speaker 1:And so we need to teach that history, and I agree with you there. But the question I'm asking is Because you couldn't go to PWIs back then? Well, some say you still can. But one of the things that concerns me is I see, when people send them to me, I see the run up on social when they rip a black school and let's be clear, that's some black schools that we work with and I'm just like dog, you can't make it this hard. It's just like let's just talk, like we want to help and it ain't got to be this hard.
Speaker 1:It really order eggs Like don't accept that many kids. If you know you don't have the dorms, right, you just don't do it. Hire the professors, it's a risk, right, but you're paying them so much, so like, how big of a risk is it? You don't need a full class in order for you to make the money back. There's just some nuts in both things that, just as somebody's been sending kids to college for a little while now, it's annoying, to say the least. That's right, but it isn't that. It only happened at ACBCU's, right, and I it rocks me to my core when I see that the first place, that some of the young people and their parents go is to social media to just annihilate, just eviscerate the school, steve.
Speaker 3:Look at this piece, though. Also, let's look at the other ethnic groups. 110 HBCU's is amazing for our community. All the atrocities that we've been through for us to develop 110 HBCU's is amazing, coming straight out of out of slavery right, and there's still a lot Many of them, yeah.
Speaker 2:But some of them were formed as a way to keep us separate Right. Not all HBCU's were founded for the purpose of liberating black folks. Some of them were found.
Speaker 1:I would argue very few were. Yeah, I would argue that very few were. I would argue the very few were. Bethune Cookman was Right Livingstone was, livingstone was.
Speaker 3:That's piggy right. Book of T Washington left Hampton.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm not that I'm leaving that one alone, but I know I know some that were Right, I know some that were, and I would agree with you that I don't know that they were all formed for the same purpose. But here now, and part of the question that I have is why does it feel to me that we are often so critical of our own community in ways that feel like it's a zero sum, like Self-hatred?
Speaker 3:Okay, right, and that's the trauma that we've been through, through history of slavery and coming out of slavery, jim Crow, the 60s movement, crack epidemic We've been through so many. Covid is now the new tragedy that we've gone through. So we've gone through so many tragedies and traumatic situations over the years that we are so much self-hatred and how we look at one another and how we were treated with the light skin against the dark skin and the field Negro against the house Negro.
Speaker 1:I just saw a flyer today. This is a true story. I just saw a flyer today for a party Dark skin versus light skin girls. I didn't think it was serious.
Speaker 3:I didn't think, Well, Spike we talked about it in what was the name?
Speaker 1:of that, the, the, the, the, the, the right thing yeah.
Speaker 3:But yeah, you do the right School days.
Speaker 1:school days school days, school days, school days school days, school days, school days, school days, school days. Talk about the light skin sorority with the dark, the deltas and the.
Speaker 3:AKs, you really was trying to get at that part.
Speaker 2:But you know what else I'm going to. You got to remember. Well, you don't have to remember, but I want us to also remember that we have a generation that, if Google doesn't say that it didn't happen, we also have a generation where they don't understand black excellence. I'll tell you something that I had to do, and X was, was there to to witness it. I had an assembly. When I bought X down to see, the campus was trashed. He would say man, you got a lot of work to do. One assembly. We changed that, you know. We told them how dare you, how dare you trash the grounds that your ancestors toiled, teared over? They left this for you. You want to try this. It's not state money. How do you do this? You can't go to the campus down the street and around the corner and take your fried chicken boxes and leave it. Students starting to movement, throw trash out. Now the students will police one another Now. We don't do that here.
Speaker 2:Dog we don't do that here Campus is beautiful, you just walk through it. It's beautiful, you know, and that's not hype. But they understand that educated gotta educate them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so and this we could do this for the next six hours, but I wanted to. I want us to to leave where we started, which is a question about the culture. Everyone's perspective on the culture is different.
Speaker 3:What is your definition? My?
Speaker 1:definition of culture. Yeah, my definition of culture is the intersection of behaviors, beliefs, art, art and strategies, which is different than behaviors. It's a way of thinking that establishes a group.
Speaker 3:That's a very good perception. Strategies I like that one, yeah, strategies.
Speaker 1:There's some communities that clearly have a strategy, Clearly have a strategy, and that strategy is to own stuff, Lots of it. And then there's us. I don't I don't see a lot of evidence of African Americans working really hard to, to educate black, to support black civil rights efforts and to buy black, and once again that was destroyed. But it is where we are, If you know we have a duty and responsibility.
Speaker 3:And just to go here, julian Bond said this to me Just fucking this. If I pushed you out of this, I pushed you out of this chair and knocked you on the ground. That's my fault. That's a bad thing that I did to you. I should be held accountable for knocking you on the chair. But no matter what, if I come back two weeks later and you're still on the ground, whose fault is that? And so we are sitting on the ground, so you're talking about strategy.
Speaker 1:Right, strategy is the strategy of way of thinking, and so one of the things that I see when I'm in communities is not even you know wherever, not just where I live, but where I go is, so rare is the occasion that when I'm driving in a black community, that I see black owned businesses beyond some of the predictable ones a barbershop, a beauty salon, those are important. I'm not saying that.
Speaker 1:I said beyond that but, beyond the predictable ones, most of the hair that people are sewing in their heads, they're getting from someone who's not African-American and the hair is not African or, you know, African-American. Many of the restaurants that we dine at when we want to go somewhere and take our spouse out are not African-American. It is rare. It is rare we were talking, actually introduced me to someone, a young brother who owns a restaurant bar and he was talking Mahadev, in a tanned up Morehouse.
Speaker 3:Grant.
Speaker 1:Yep, he owns a restaurant.
Speaker 1:I mean, but we got us continued to support we do and I do and you did, and you introduced me to him and I appreciate that. And so where I am concerned is that when we're having a conversation about what we can do, we also have to talk about what we are doing. I have seen too many of us castigate people who are trying to do right Every time they see somebody who and I'm not, this is not a cultural thing, this is a person, these are people and they are in every culture, but the impact is greater in our community, I believe. But when I see us not supporting people of color, black people in particular, it concerns me. And I see somebody coming after the NAACP Capital prep, capital prep.
Speaker 3:I get those phone calls.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm sure you do. You ain't the only. It's always tripping.
Speaker 4:We all get it.
Speaker 1:It's always tripping to me when somebody chooses our school, and you probably can feel this when you choose our school and from the time you get there, you complain about all the things that we do, when you could just choose another school. You can go somewhere else, bounce, yeah. What will Bill Bill me say?
Speaker 2:Bounce my statement to my students who do exhibit that behavior like us enough to love us, but love us enough to leave us In a hurry. We know how to like us In a hurry, just go Like right bounce.
Speaker 1:I don't know an organization definitely not mine that is without the need to improve. But damn dawg Like. Is this how you handle all the relationships you're in? You get with somebody and all you do is dawg them out every single time. Ain't been to nothing that's going to help us do anything but to go somewhere to. But then they can find a civil rights worker, they can find Sharpton, they can find anybody. But when I need them to come in and do something in the schools, like, ah, I got to work, did you have to work when you were sending that email?
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, I'll tell you one more thing, and this is funny. It's not really funny, but it is funny. Yeah, watch this. I had alums at my first town hall meeting. At the end you know what I told them as your president, I will field every criticism, provided provided that you've made a contribution in supporting the institution.
Speaker 1:Man, please, Pay to complain. That's the best thing about social media.
Speaker 2:It's free complaints, yeah.
Speaker 1:All day, every day, yeah.
Speaker 2:Thanks, giving them this opportunity If you haven't made a contribution well, it call it.
Speaker 1:Money in the bank is what we call it. When, when there's a parent who I see at the school regularly and she says you know, dr Perry, this is that and that is this, I'm like you know what. You got that because you, you know you. But if all you do is is see complaints, and you see complaints, and that's not up, thank God, that's not just for black people, that's everybody All right. So, as we come to a close, I want to give you an opportunity to hear what is your working on? Plug it. What is your working on X?
Speaker 3:Well, you know, I'm working on the million jobs campaign. We also do the great debates where we have intellectual. So fantastic yeah, we have intellectual competitions between the Ivy League colleges and HBCU's. Currently, a dr Davis and I are working on striving to have Organized a debate team here at Livingstone College.
Speaker 1:That's what's up.
Speaker 3:We're gonna have Hampton and Howard come down here and have a debate here I think it's February 12th, still on the birthday of the NAACP and Mobilized young people who started the Bay team here on this campus. So we want to get as many young people involved in intellectual competition, not only to Get engaged in sports and entertainment, but also into intellectual Debate, conversation and discourse and learning how to articulate and communicate not only with your, with your friends, but also to be able to get on a platform and Articulate for on behalf of our communities on a world stage.
Speaker 2:All right, right, and then here we are Livingstone College, the Livingstone College, the Livingstone College founded by the Amy's Island Church in 1879 gave birth to an audacious idea that Education would be the true emancipator. Powerful. 145 years later, still stand. Still stand, the 13th president. That's right. Things were working on.
Speaker 2:I talked about on foster care program. That is my social justice platform. Okay, the Center for Hope. Hope stands for healing opportunity, preparation and empowerment. How do you become a college president after emancipating yourself from the foster care system? Had healing opportunity, preparation, empowerment. I want to offer that to any young person who's trapped in that system, who desires to go to college worry-free and also taking a look at the achievement gap here in our community. We are in a community where we are the fastest growing minority majority school district, one of the fastest growing, but so many of our young people who look like you and I, mm-hmm trapped at the bottom of the social economic ladder and also when it comes down to academic achievement. What if there was a charter school that took students who were low performing and we have the same model that we have in our Collegiate programs to help liberate them through social mobility, but started as early as seventh and eighth grade? It's gonna be a game changer.
Speaker 1:We call that capital prep, so I was very Hold on.
Speaker 3:So you didn't talk about how he's gonna get a doctorate on the campus.
Speaker 2:Oh man, that's right. We can't leave with that In about 24 hours.
Speaker 3:You also have the head of any Casey Foundation, yeah definitely so.
Speaker 2:So dr Dr Perry yes, dr Perry tomorrow will be a member of Blue Bear Nation because he will receive an honorary doctorate from where Livingstone College and I'm proud to be the president that will shake your hand and welcome you to Blue Bear Nation. Also, gospel extraordinaire Brian Courtney Wilson he'll be in your class and sister Hamilton, who is the CEO of the Annie Casey Foundation, one of the single most advocates for foster care reform in this country and and philanthropic organizations, she too will be a part of this class.
Speaker 1:I am. I am humbled and honored and it's huge and here's a here's a roundabout. Our building, in One of our buildings in Bridgeport, used to be the Annie Casey. Yes, full circle. Wow, folks, thank you so much for joining us. I know, I'm really honored to have. This is a great now. Now we're gonna get something to eat.
Speaker 3:I've never seen you in this capacity. I know right like, like you know, brian Gumpel type thing.
Speaker 1:Well, livingstone, livingstone made me look good. It's just they put all this Like that. I'm like wait, I need the body's things. I'm gonna take a picture this now man.
Speaker 2:But you know what, though? You need to change the name of the show man, because you don't ask dumb questions, you ask thought provoking question.
Speaker 1:But thank you. That's why it's called no dumb questions to know, know W to know, right to know. I know no don't see you like to avoid them at all costs, because you know when I Believe this modest person room is not the one with the best answers, the one with the best questions.
Speaker 2:That's our strategy. Bible says doubts are not still, but that one's gone. I'm gonna use that.
Speaker 1:You got that. Thank you, gentlemen, thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. Have a nice All right you.