Building Generational Wealth Episode 3 | The 14th Amendment Is Under Attack

In Episode 3 of Black Coffee, No Sugar, No Cream, former Georgia State Representative EG Smith pulls back the curtain on what's REALLY happening behind the headlines about redistricting, voter suppression, and HBCU funding battles. Spoiler: it's not about districts. It's about the systematic deconstruction of the 14th Amendment — and it's been the long game all along.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

My fellow Americans, welcome to Black Coffee, No Sugar, No Cream, 3rd Edition. I'm E.G. Smith, a former member of the Georgia General Assembly, State House of Representatives. And what I share with you is clear, concise, factually truth, and right to the point. Today, we're going to go into a different topic because initially I started out in my first two segments of building wealth for young and not so young African Americans, something that we've had a problem with generating. Due to the times, I think it's important that we delve into something factual, prescient, and more important for where we are, because where we are now is playing the long game. Repeat after me, we're playing the long game. And this is how dark times can open your eyes. So again, repeat after me, 14th Amendment. 14th Amendment. Well, Representative Smith, what are you talking about, the 14th Amendment? Well, as you know, we are under attack. I'm talking about black people in the United States of America. It's not about the redistricting, that's just the smoke that you see. The fire is the deconstruction of the 14th Amendment. This is the long game. And for my watchers that are young, you all hadn't had much experience with playing the long game, but our seasoned warriors have. And that's what this is. Now understand that the majority of your legislators across this country, especially on the Republican side of the House, this is straight talk. No, no innuendos at all. The majority of them are not the sharpest knives in the deck. They are following. They are following and they are taking orders. So what I would like for you to do is remember the 14th Amendment, because that's what all of this is about, aside from still trying to attack us. And the 14th Amendment is the amendment to the Constitution. And we're going to deconstruct this primarily in the South. What you see now is a push for redistricting. And if you notice, every single state in the South has what we would call a higher populational concentration of black Americans. And for all of my black American watchers, understand that this is not something new. You see them trying to deny you the right to vote. The reason you see that is because the most powerful tool in your cerebral arsenal is your ability to vote. If that were not so, you would not see this fight since 1964. Now, understand what I'm sharing with you now. Since 1964, the vote for black people in the United States of America has been under attack. And you see this mad push now, it's because the 14th Amendment is what they've been told to start preparing to deconstruct. These legislators, again, don't have the cerebral cerebral, excuse me, cerebral capacity to do this on their own. They're following orders. Just like Project 2025, not one of them wrote a paragraph in Project 2025. They are following orders. And I want you to let that percolate for a minute. So get back to the 14th Amendment. Now I'm gonna segue into something else. Guarding your peace. How do you guard your peace? You guard your peace by voting. That is your power. No one can take that power from you. You guard your peace by voting. From 18 to prior to your death, you have the right to vote. Americans, black Americans, let us do this. Guard your peace by voting. The threshold has been put in place. Now I'm gonna deviate. We're gonna talk about the state of South Carolina. And it's important that we talk about the state of South Carolina. I think many of you across the nation saw what happened at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, South Carolina a couple of weeks ago. Yes, you saw exactly what happened. South Carolina State was politically under attack. And if you're politically under attack in a state and it's a state-supported school, that means you are fiscally under attack. The state of South Carolina owes South Carolina State because it is a state-supported school, just like Clemson and the University of South Carolina. The state of South Carolina owes the state of South Carolina close to half a billion dollars, $500 and some odd million dollars, in what we call line item dispensations, the same as they've given Clemson over the course of the last 50 so years. Over $500 million is owed to South Carolina State University. It's in the books. You can Google line items for the budget every year. As I said, what I share with you is straight talk. Black coffee, no sugar, no cream, and it is fact. Google the budgetary process and look for the line item dispensations for Clemson, University of South Carolina, and South Carolina State and see what you come up with. But even prior to that, let me tell you what happened in the state of South Carolina. In 1970, that was the last year that South Carolina was as Georgia is and several other states. In the state of South Carolina, prior to the end of 1970, every city in the state had a predominantly black high school. You had predominantly black middle schools, and you had predominantly black edge elementary schools. All three. In the state, there was a rhythm, there was a body. You've heard the African proper bloom where you're planted. South Carolina was flourishing just like Georgia and just like a few other states were. In Orangeburg, South Carolina, you had Wilkinson High School. In Columbia, South Carolina, you had Booker T. Washington and C.A. Johnson. In Hopkins, South Carolina, right outside of Columbia, you had Hopkins High School. In Barnville, South Carolina, you had a Black High School. In Williston, South Carolina, you had Kelly Edwards High School. In Bath, South Carolina, you had Jefferson High School. In Edgefield, you had W.E. Parker High School. In Rock Hill, South Carolina, you had Emmett. Emmett? What's Emmett? Emmett. I can't get the last name out, but that was the high school you had in Rock Hill. In Lancaster, South Carolina, you had Bar Street. In Charleston, you had Burke High School, which is still a high school. You had C.A. Brown over on the coast. So you get the drift of what I'm saying. Every state, every city in the state of South Carolina had a predominantly black high school, black middle schools, and black elementary schools. After 1970, there was something forested on the state called assimilation, but they couched it as integration. There's never been integration in the state of South Carolina. The only high school that effectively integrated in the state was in Wilk in Orangeburg, South Carolina. Orangeburg Wilkinson was the only school in the state that effectively integrated. So what that did, when you kill that, you kill the homogeneous nature of the communal and the community activities. See, you had teachers, you had everyone else in the state, in every city. If you didn't have kids that go that went to these predominantly black schools, you were adopted by them. So the village. Assimilation killed the village. This is where we are right now. Now, the first year of assimilation, the black teachers that went over to the white high school in Aiken, South Carolina, I'm gonna say it. You're talking about in their 20s and early 30s, they were literally in shock. And the female teachers would go to the teacher's lounge and they would literally weep because they were so sad and so depressed because they know they saw they were living what we'd lost. Now, why am I telling you this? I'm telling you this again to guard your peace. The way you guard your peace is to vote. That's the most powerful tool in your cerebral arsenal. Marching has its place, protesting has its place, but voting is where the rubber meets the road. That's why the fight has been on since 1964, and you still see the fight. Why do you still think you see white legislators trying to gerrymand the districts so that you can't vote? Since 1964, good gosh, people, connect the dots. If that is so important, do you think they would spend that much time trying to deny you that right? That is your power. Voting is your power. You already have that. People died so that you could have the right to do this thing. I'm gonna go out right now and tell you another truth. I'm a disabled American veteran. Now, we just left Afghanistan several years ago. Prior to that, we left Vietnam. We were not victors in either. The reason we were not victors in either is because of one thing. And I'm gonna tell you what the Taliban said. I know. I spent time in that part of the country, that part of the world. The Taliban said we will never be defeated because we are at home. And you know what? You say they're trying to beat us, they're trying to destroy us, but we are home. Do you know what that means? We have nowhere else to go. So we will fight to the death. We will fight because we are home, we have nowhere else to go. Black Americans, you are home. Do you get it? You have no place else to go. You are home. And how do you fight? You fight with your vote. That's how you guard your peace. I want you to get energized so that you understand the power that you wield. You don't have to have a nickel in your pocket. You may not be able to rub two dimes together, but you have the power to vote. This is your power. This is your right. You are Americans. This is your country. And I want you to repeat after me: this is my country. You were born here. This is your country. You don't have to ask anybody for the right. The right has been given to you by law. It is your right. And you do it. You do it because you are home. You have nowhere else to go. It's important that you understand that. You don't need to have any place else to go. This is your home. America is your home. You want to make America? We made America, brick by brick. And it's time for you to step up, step out, and be the leaders that you are. You don't lead from the middle of the back, you lead from the front. Now, what I'm sharing with you is just straight talk. Black coffee, no sugar, no cream. And that's how you roll. Okay? That's how you roll. That's for all black Americans. How do you guard your peace? You guard your peace by voting. Now, I've told you in the state of South Carolina there was a rhythm. Oh man, there was a rhythm. I know because I was one of the students. And there are many others just like me can share that with you. Every city in the state of South Carolina had a predominantly black high school, middle schools, and elementary schools. And we were nurtured. You didn't get what you're getting now. Some in some places you do. In Georgia, they're getting that because you have predominantly black high schools, elementary schools, and middle schools in the state of Georgia. They're getting that here. Make no mistake about it. And these young teachers that are in there, and the not so young teachers, they're nurturing these kids. But in the state of South Carolina, you see what you're dealing with, you see what we're dealing with. So I want you to get re-energized and understand your power. Your power. Your power is your brain. You are some of the smartest people in the world. There is no race of people that is revered like black Americans. We create so much. I'm just telling you the truth. So I need you to gird up, get right, and understand that it is time to step up and guard your peace. Guarding your peace means using your strength. Your strength is your power. Your power is your vote. Because it's about the 14th Amendment and it's about money. If it was not about money, do you think they would be fighting so hard to keep you from doing that? Now you had a you had a senator not a week ago from South Carolina, sitting senator, his name's Shane Massey. He said, Well, we don't need to get the black Americans in the state of South Carolina energized by redistricting. What he meant was this: don't upset black people to the point where they will come out and vote. Let's let them be complacent, let's let them be quiet, let's let them sit on the sidelines. It's time to get off the sidelines. You don't have to get out and yell and scream and act the fool. You vote. That is your power. That's how you guard your peace with your vote. Georgia, same thing. Your power. You guard your peace by your vote. You feel me? I had to say that. It was important that we say that. Now I will be getting back to the thrust, the central thrust of why we started Black Coffee, no sugar, no cream, which is to help people, especially people that look like me, to understand how you generate wealth, wealth-generating uh paradigms that you typically have not heard about. And I want to help you to understand those things. But it was important. My spirit said, you need to say something so that they understand. And please understand, as a former sitting member of the Georgia General Assembly, I read every bill. I would go to my room. I rarely went out to social events. I would go to my hotel room and I would read every bill, line by line, paragraph by paragraph, page by page. I didn't need any lobbyists to tell me what the bill portended. But you won't be able to find too many legislators that can tell you that across the country. I did, because as a leader, my leadership responsibilities and my allegiance is to God. I'm a former veteran, always a veteran, and I'm a former legislator. The last four words that we ever speak in our oath is so help me God. That's covenant with God. I made a covenant to God as a leader to be responsible. And I could not be responsible to the people in Augusta, Georgia, if I couldn't explain to them every line or every paragraph or anything in a bill that they would ask me. Because that's the responsibility of leadership. So, as leaders, all of you within the sound of my voice, all of you that are watching today, gird up because this is about the 14th Amendment. This is not about just redistricting. Do you think that's the end? That's just the beginning. This is about the 14th Amendment, and this is about playing the long game. I want you to repeat that. We've got to really and truly look at this thing. Okay? Because this is about not just today, but tomorrow and on down the line. So let us gird up. Guard your peace. Vote. Okay? That's your peace. That's your power. This is your country. What are you? You are an American. Be proud that you are an American. This is your country. You were born here. You've earned the right to say it. This is your country. All right? This is E.G. Smith, former member of the Georgia General Assembly, State's House of Representatives. And this is Black Coffee, no sugar, no cream. This is the third edition. I'll be coming with the fourth. And I want you to gird up because it's going to be hot. And I think you will really appreciate what we're going to share. You take care. May God forever keep and bless you. And we will see you again. Take care.