Authentically Detroit
Authentically Detroit is the leading podcast in the city for candid conversations, exchanging progressive ideas, and centering resident perspectives on current events.
Hosted by Donna Givens Davidson and Orlando P. Bailey.
Produced by Sarah Johnson and Engineered by Griffin Hutchings.
Check us out on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @AuthenticallyDetroit!
Authentically Detroit
Facing the Future in Detroit: Power, Politics, and Faith with Donna and Orlando
This week, Donna and Orlando took an opportunity to catch up with each other on current events local and nationwide!
Detroit's current political landscape is buzzing with anticipation as the mayoral race heats up, with key candidates vying for the position amid pressing social issues and community needs.
This discussion highlights the desire for compassionate leadership and deeper engagement with residents. They also tackle critical topics like immigration policies and how they affect us locally as well as public health concerns around the closure of Lafayette Coney Island.
If you have topics you want discussed on Authentically Detroit, click here!
Up next, Donna and I talk current events in Detroit. We're talking about how the mayor's race is shaping up in Detroit and more. Keep it locked. Authentically. Detroit starts after these messages.
Speaker 2:Have you always dreamed of being on the airwaves? Well, the Detroit Eastside Engaged Podcast Network, or DEEP for short, is here to make that dream a reality. Located inside the Stoudemire, the DEEP network offers studio space and production staff to help get your podcast idea off the ground. Doesn't take a whole lot of work to get started. Just visit the Authentically Detroit page at ecn-detroitorg or call Sarah at 313-948-0344.
Speaker 1:Hey y'all, it's Orlando. We just want to let you know that the views and opinions expressed during this podcast episode are those of the co-hosts and guests and not their sponsoring institutions. Now let's start the show. We're moving on up to the East Side. We finally got a piece of the pie. It's so bright in the kitchen. Detroit and the world. Welcome to another episode of Authentically Detroit broadcasting live from Detroit's East Side at the Stoudemire inside of the East Side Community Network headquarters. I'm Orlando Bailey and I'm Donna Gibs-Davidson. Thank you for listening in and supporting our efforts to build a platform of authentic voices for real people in the city of Detroit. We want you to like, rate and subscribe to our podcast on all platforms. It's just Donna and I today and we will be running down some of Detroit's most talked about current events. But first, donna, it's a balmy 37 degrees in Detroit today. How is this day for you?
Speaker 3:I'm just sweating.
Speaker 1:It's amazing, profusely.
Speaker 3:Yeah, profusely right, Because I forgot what winter in Detroit used to feel like.
Speaker 4:I was like, oh wait, a minute, I remember this. I don't like this at all.
Speaker 3:Global warming where?
Speaker 4:are you.
Speaker 3:Yes, I'm good know, I'm really happy to have you back in the studio reading those introductions. That is not fun. Oh, my goodness, I gotta sound fun and listen. Following you doing that is no fun for me, okay, I'm like, okay, I don't want y'all to be let down listening to me stumble over these words.
Speaker 1:Okay, oh, goodness, oh goodness, you did a good job and shout out to. Dejuan Dandridge, who was amazing.
Speaker 3:He was, he was, he was really good, he was we have a new guest host.
Speaker 1:right, we have a new guest host bench and DeJuan Dandridge is first up on there. We're going to call him when one of us can't make it. It's been a good day. We've been running around all day. Yeah, all day, but it's been good. Oh, you want to know something really cool? I interviewed Henry Louis Gates Jr. That was so much fun. Oh, wow, on Thursday it's supposed to air on Detroit PBS sometime this week, I think I don't know, but it was fun. I think he's super dope, one of the greatest griots. That's great.
Speaker 3:That the Greatest Griots. That's great, that's wonderful.
Speaker 1:Finding our roots.
Speaker 3:You know I want to thank you publicly because over these past couple of weeks Kevin Davidson, my husband, has been getting long overdue recognition for his work at the Charles H Wright Museum and that has so much to do with you, orlando. You did such a good job interviewing him on American Black Journal. American Black Journal you know I forget names of things.
Speaker 3:Blame it on my age, but on American Black Journal you did such a good job interviewing him and he has been. I mean, I think Channel 4 was out there and he gave interviews on topics about every exhibit at the museum, so he's been having a great time really being the voice of the history of the museum.
Speaker 1:He should be. He's been there since the beginning. He was a mentee of Dr Wright. You know, I tell you this all the time. I live for the one on one interview, and my interview with Kevin is in my top five. And we weren't even sitting across from each other, we were on Zoom. The pandemic was restricting us and keeping us from being great, but, man, what a fun interview.
Speaker 1:They loved it so much that they couldn't air the entire thing on television, but they posted the entire interview on their YouTube. That's how much PBS loved it.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, it's amazing, talking to Kevin is always great. Our first date I was like wow, can we just keep talking and talking? Anyway, to transition.
Speaker 1:That's funny, she was in love y'all.
Speaker 3:Not right away. But you know I was on the pathway. You were smitten from the very beginning, listen.
Speaker 1:So we got a bunch of current events. It's just Donna and I. It's been a while since the two of us have just sat across from each other and kicked it. So that's what we're going to do. And so ML Elric has an opinion editorial in the Detroit Free Press. Elric has an opinion editorial in the Detroit Free Press. Contrasts claims and a questionable connection clouds Detroit's mayor's race. Emil Elric always has some of the most profound prose I've ever read in my life. And so Santel Jenkins and Mary Sheffield each served as Detroit City Council President. They both agree it's time for a woman to be elected mayor of Detroit, and each woman wants to be the one to make her story. But that's pretty much where the similarities end. I'm just going to read, you guys, the first few graphs of this. Sheffield was the first candidate to enter into the race to replace Mayor Mike Duggan, throwing a prom-like and meticulously planned campaign kickoff last month.
Speaker 3:I think they call that purple prose Overly ornate. Oh goodness gracious when is.
Speaker 2:Sarah Alvarez to edit this man.
Speaker 1:At the city's most technologically advanced union hall, just minutes from city hall. Pastors, prominent elected officials, high power consultants, neighborhood activists and a children's choir and a TV star were among the hundreds in standing room-only crowd. After the event ended, the exhausted production crew, who had done an event earlier in the week in Atlanta for R&B star Usher, caught their breath for a moment before picking up. Gary and Jenkins' launch party last Tuesday at a well-kept but old school Westside gym, not far from where her little brother had been shot and killed, attracted between 150 and 200 supporters and one well-known political operative who was either curious or doing a recon for another campaign. Instead of welcoming clusters of amped up union members, Jenkins acknowledged a half dozen or so low-key recovering addicts from a residential treatment center where she used to work key recovering addicts from a residential treatment center where she used to work.
Speaker 1:Arguably the best known person in attendance was former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's former mistress. More on that. Okay, let's get into the meat of this. So what? And Mike, come with the former mistress title. Come on, we can do better, Mike.
Speaker 3:I mean, is he calling Mike Duggan's wife the new mistress?
Speaker 1:I'm just trying to understand. How does that work?
Speaker 3:It feels very biased. I know that was his big break that brought him to, but at some point let it go.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So the gist of it is that the mayor's race in the city of Detroit is beginning to take shape. One of it is that the mayor's race in the city of Detroit is beginning to take shape, yes, and we have two folks, three people actually who have confirmed that they are running, and we have some more folks, another sitting city council person who has formed an exploratory committee. There are rumblings of a pretty well-known pastor in the city of Detroit.
Speaker 3:Solomon Kinlog.
Speaker 1:Solomon Kinlog, the pastor of Triumph Church. There are rumblings that he may run that has not been confirmed by him for mayor and there are some other folks that folks are thinking that may get in a race, people like Joe Tate I think his time is over and county executive Warren Evans.
Speaker 3:And Dennis Archer Jr. And Dennis Archer Jr.
Speaker 1:And Dennis Archer Jr. There was an article in the Detroit News last week that really didn't confirm anything. I haven't talked to Dennis Archer.
Speaker 3:Jr. I don't think it's a good idea for him to run either. Well, okay.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about it all right, because this is for me, this is one of the most exciting times in a mayoral election when everybody is sort of thinking about throwing their hat in the ring. In a mayoral election, when everybody is sort of thinking about throwing their hat in the ring. Cranes basically had a feature on Portia Robeson, who is the CEO of Focus Hope. She is not going to run. She has some things that she wants to do at Focus Hope, but this is an exciting time to see who's going to get in the race. And so, santil Mary, you got Fred Durhall, who may get in there, you got Warren Evans, who may get in there, solomon Kinloch, dennis Archer Jr. Possibly Former House Speaker, joe Tate, possibly.
Speaker 3:What are you making of all of this? And don't forget Attorney Todd Perkins.
Speaker 1:Oh, and Attorney Todd.
Speaker 3:Perkins. Sorry, he's the third person who has confirmed. He's running right.
Speaker 1:Let me listen. I don't want to get in trouble with these people. I'm sorry, Todd Attorney. Todd Perkins has also formed a committee.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, I think that it's going to be a high-profile race. I think that when— what does that?
Speaker 1:mean high-profile race.
Speaker 3:I think that the last few mayoral races you had Mike Duggan running against also ran. There was not really somebody who was seen as a serious contender.
Speaker 3:I mean, let's face it, he ran virtually unopposed after he beat out Benny Napoleon. There was no real contest in those other races. However, I think that if you look at early polling and I haven't seen any of it I think a lot of people are going to be persuaded to support some of these big names. I think the three that stand out for me are still Mary Sheffield, santil Jenkins and, if he jumps in the race, solomon Kinloch. I think they have the three best ground games.
Speaker 1:Joe Hashim has also launched the campaign I was looking for.
Speaker 3:He's a businessman, thank you, yeah he's not going to be in the top three. But you know, in August we're going to narrow it down to two and it in the top three. But you know, the next August, in August, we're going to narrow it down to two and it's going to be interesting to see which of these many candidates emerges to be one of the two.
Speaker 1:So you know people are always asking me, like Orlando, off the record what do you think? And I'm like it's too early to tell Outside of what we know these folks have already done? Right, I'm really interested in hearing what they plan to do, and I haven't heard anything yet that is imaginative, that excites me, that will get people in neighborhoods excited about hitting the streets and canvassing, but also going to the polls. What do you think?
Speaker 3:I think that I'm looking forward to having a new mayor who cares about Detroit residents in ways that I have not felt cared about for the past few terms, to be honest with you. So it's not that anybody stands out as being exceptional, although we do have some exceptional candidates, I think. But I think that and I just say that because it's hard for me to see how somebody could be the president of city council when we have two women who have led city council and not be seen as exceptional candidates. I think that is a bias against women, where we have to do so much more than men in order to be seen as being equal. So I do think that they, you know, have some exceptional skills. I think that, oh, exceptional skills, I think that oh, no doubt.
Speaker 4:Right, I'm just saying yeah, don't misunderstand what I'm saying. They're qualified. No, I know what you're saying. I'm just talking about the word on the street, the tone and tenor in the streets.
Speaker 3:I don't know if Mary Sheffield is smart. Oh, come on now, let's not have that conversation.
Speaker 3:It's disrespectful and I always feel as a woman that we have to stand for each other, whether we like each other or not. That doesn't mean that we are not qualified. I think the Solomon Kinloch introduces a whole nother frame to this, because we are dealing with a time where so many residents in the city of Detroit are just feeling really demoralized by what's happening at the federal level, by so much of what's happened recently, and you have a man of faith who may step up into a role that I don't know if many people think he's qualified for. He is an executive chief executive officer of the largest church by far in the state of Michigan and one of the largest churches in the nation, and they do a lot of things. He's been able to demonstrate some executive level skills. Now whether that translates into political executive function, that's another question. So if he enters the race though I think it's going to be he's going to be a real strong contender. The other ones-.
Speaker 1:That's going to be really fun to watch, yeah.
Speaker 3:It will be, so I'm hoping to get some more clarity on who's going to be in the race soon.
Speaker 1:And I'm not trying to. So the other folks. You got Fred Durhall, who was defending his voting record on tax incentives for development at the Detroit Policy Conference. You have Dennis Archer Jr, who has not said that he would run but is considering it. That's also that can be a game changing candidacy, right.
Speaker 3:It could possibly. I think that he's not a Coleman Young II. He does not bring with him the because he doesn't have those coattails. I'm just saying that when you look at Coleman Young's political machine and the coattails he brought, that helped to, you know, boost the candidacy of his son, who, joe Loving, who changed his name, you know, but he boosted that candidacy. I think that Dennis Archer is a well-respected former mayor, but he does not have those kinds of coattails. He doesn't have a machine for his son to attach himself to. And I have never seen Dennis Archer Jr hang out in the community in the way that you would need to to become mayor. So he'd have to change his whole game if he was going to do it. We saw him last at a Mackinac policy conference and I'm going to suggest that some of what he said seemed a little tone deaf. But I'll leave it there because I don't want to make you laugh today.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, one of the things that I that I'm holding in this mayor's race is that a lot of what I, what I've seen, at least in the last few mayoral elections and with the election of the, the election and reelection and reelection of Mike Duggan, is that the strategy was not to organize in the streets or to organize the entire city. The strategy was to go um in neighborhoods that were established, that were astute, that had the highest uh voter turnout records, and organize them Right. And so you have I keep making this distinction you have, like the, the voter electorate in Detroit, and then you have the entire citizenry right. Most of us are registered to vote in Detroit. Only about 18% of us have been coming out right. I'm not necessarily sure if a Dennis Archon Jr needs to organize in the way that you are prescribing him to.
Speaker 3:If he's running against Duggan, he wouldn't. But he's not running against Duggan, he's running against people who are going to turn out voters, right? Emma Elric wrote an article that came out yesterday. I think Michigan Democrats don't like Duggan. He's grateful, they're hateful and he describes his whole mindset around running and it's very strategic. It's very numeric One third of the people won't support me, one third of the people are undecided and one third of the people will support me and so if they talk about me, then the one third of the people who are undecided are going to come out for me.
Speaker 3:And I think it's very grandiose because if you really look at what happened in Detroit, you had, you know, primaries are 14% of the people showed up and general elections were 19%, so fewer than one third of the people voted. But you're right, what he did was he targeted neighborhoods and he helped motivate people. But when it looks like you're running against yourself, people don't show up. People will show up to a competitive race. I believe Maybe not 50%, maybe not 60%, but it's going to be more than 19%. And when you have somebody who has 20,000 plus members in their church, then you can how many people go to his church he got 20,000 people.
Speaker 3:How many churches does he have? Okay, he has so many campuses. I'm not saying they're all Detroiters, but I'm saying that when he does Dawn Seekers how many people show up? And these are people who respect and admire who he is. If he is able to describe a political platform, I think that is going to be a formidable challenge. Likewise, mary Sheffield has been doing the work at city council table. She's made some mistakes and I'm not going to be a person who just lost over.
Speaker 3:She's going to have to defend her record Well she is going to have to defend her record and she actually went to a Trump celebration. That wasn't good. That wasn't a good look.
Speaker 1:However, Mary has also. She's also said that she didn't know, right? Yeah, I just want to make sure I she did say she didn't know.
Speaker 3:And sometimes we make mistakes, and I, you know. One thing we know is we're not electing perfect people to public office that part we get human beings Right. And if we held ourselves as accountable as we hold people who are running for office, we probably wouldn't vote for ourselves. Ok, the reality is that you're going to have some people who make some mistakes, who make some compromises, because politics is about the art of compromise and knowing when to give in and when to leverage your power. So when you look at it, you can say what has been the greatest impact of this candidate, this person, in the role that they served? And that's going to be the question each of them has to answer. If you are in public office, you're going to have to answer that question. But I have this question for everybody who says that Mary Sheffield may not be qualified but is seriously considering Fred Durhall.
Speaker 1:Who's saying that?
Speaker 3:Oh, I've heard people say that. I've heard people say, well, he was at the state legislature doing what I mean. You know, lots of people are in these offices. But my question is how have you demonstrated your ability to move an agenda forward? What agenda has he had? I've seen him and this is not to put him down, because I haven't seen much of him but when they were voting on the property tax appeals process in the city of Detroit, he did stand against it. He said, well, I like the idea, but vote no. And that's one of the most significant pieces, the most significant ordinances that's passed in the past few years around justice. And so I think, when you think of the fact that Mary Sheffield was on the right side of that and he was on the wrong side and people like Bernadette Atulhene, who was pushing for that, really had people like Mary Sheffield to help her, assist her in her fight, it's hard to make the case to me, to regular Detroiters, because if Detroiters don't care about much, they care about being overtaxed.
Speaker 1:They really do. All right, y'all. So in other current events, detroit church committed to asylum seekers despite mass deportation plan. This is by WXYZ and Darren Cunningham. Central United Methodist Church opened in downtown Detroit in 1866. Dr Martin Luther King Jr spoke there several times, including two weeks before his assassination. Those are historic moments for the church and now they're bracing for what would be another significant moment in American history and what Reverend Perez believes may be a more aggressive approach to deportation during President Donald Trump's second term. The Reverend explained that he's deeply concerned and disturbed about the Trump administration's desire to implement mass deportations, to challenge birthright citizenship and to remove the protection for sensitive locations like schools and churches. Perez said schools and churches have traditionally been off limits for immigration and customs enforcement, also known as ICE agents, and serve as safe locations for undocumented immigrants to congregate without fear of being detained and for those seeking asylum. Donna, what say you?
Speaker 3:Oh, I'm emotional about this topic so I'm going to try to stay focused. Focused In the 1950s I'm not going to get the year right, but maybe around 1955, former President Eisenhower had a master deportation plan called Operation Wetback and somewhere between 300,000 and a million people were picked up on the streets, held in camps until they could be deported, put and stacked in ships and sent to Mexico, including people who were American citizens 1954. 1954, yeah, including American citizens and people who were rightfully here. And you're dropped in this place and it's like, okay, I've never lived here, I may not know the language, I don't know anybody here, work it out. And that is decriminalizing. It is so upsetting to think about.
Speaker 3:I attended something in Southwest Detroit and somebody was describing what mass deportation was like in Trump's first term and it was chilling. Somebody seeing you on the street and rounding you up and arresting you. Somebody coming to your home and searching through your home. Somebody picking school children up and school children being afraid to walk home from school, not knowing will I be picked up or will my parents be picked up? In Texas there were stories of children wearing lanyards with their birth certificates inside of them so that they would not be deported. And when I heard all of these stories I thought that sounds like slave catchers. That sounds like what happened during the Fugitive Slave Act and the Fugitive Slave Clause of the US Constitution, where it was not only illegal for people to be here, it was illegal to harbor them. Okay, if you had somebody here and you gave them safe harbor, you're breaking the law. And so if churches become a safe space and I don't know if anything is safe with Donald Trump then we're going to need churches now more than ever.
Speaker 3:Because people who are here, who are coming here, what would make them come? They're coming here out of desperation. It's so hard to cross that border legally or illegally. When you're approaching the border, you're being brought in, you're having to trek through dangerous grounds, people die on the right to come here. So why would somebody risk their life to come here other than desperation?
Speaker 3:And the desperation in many instances is caused by US foreign policy in their nations. Caused by US foreign policy in their nations, where US corporations own land, mistreat people, where our armies and our CIA and our Marines have gone in there and created warfare and conflict in those nations to enrich businesses in the United States. And we don't talk about that in American history. I'm not even sure we're allowed to talk about that anymore. But when we cause harm and then we tell the people who are harmed you can't come here and we're going to throw you out and destroy your families, it breaks my heart. And the other thing and this is the last thing I know I'm saying a lot, but the last thing I want to point out is that it's not just Latin American people at risk. We have to think about African immigrants. Remember if Trump won, where there was a Muslim ban?
Speaker 1:we have to think about and the Haitians in Ohio who were eating the dogs and the cats.
Speaker 3:You have to think about that, and so you have to think about this how are immigrants identified? Not by we don't walk around with identification papers or little word clouds over us saying we don't walk around with identification papers or little word clouds over us saying Donna was born in the US. Immigrants are identified because they look like somebody who comes from another country. So every black and brown person could look like an immigrant under some context. How do you prove you're not? Because we're not just talking about people who were raised here and speak English fluently and don't know any other language. We're talking about people who you know. I mean, I'm sorry, we're not just talking about people who came here as older people and still have heavy accents and, you know, have foreign languages and they come from a place with even dangerous connections. We're talking about people who've never known any other home, and he wants to get rid of them too.
Speaker 3:As well as birthright citizenship, which is part of the 14th Amendment, one of the amendments that came after we were enslaved, our ancestors were enslaved and that gave us citizenship. He wants to strip that, and if you allow constitutional provisions to be stripped or interpreted by a president in a way that excludes certain people. It is horrifying to me and I think it's all of our fight. It's not just a Southwest Detroit fight, it is not just a Hispanic people's fight. I've heard many of our peers say things like well, I told them not to vote for them, it's their problem. Now, it's our problem and none of us. I don't think even those of us who are so disappointed in those people who voted for Trump want to see Ryan Correctional Facility repurposed as a detention camp.
Speaker 1:And that's what that's. The jarring thing, and the images that I've been seeing is that, you know, not only are they rounding folks up I'm really, I really want to understand the criteria that they are using, where they're saying these people pose an immediate threat and that they are dangerous and that they are criminals, they're rounding them up and they are in these detention camps right, and they are being deported on military cargo planes, but walking onto these cargo planes in chains. I mean, the imagery that is coming out of this being implemented is really, really jarring, and I'm not certain if everybody is paying attention. You are putting people in camps. Don't this sound familiar? Like today is the National Remembrance for the Holocaust? You're putting them in camps. We don't know what's going on in those camps. They're prison-like conditions. We don't know if these folks are being fed. We don't know what the conditions of these camps are, and then they're being walked via chain to military cargo planes to be deported back to their home countries, whatever.
Speaker 3:What is?
Speaker 1:presumed to be their home country. What is also disappointing. I got a call out Governor Gretchen Whitmer today. She was on CBS this morning. She was on CBS this morning. She was on CBS this morning. Y'all know that's the only piece of national news I watch because I love me some Gayle King and Nate Berglison and she had no idea how to talk about it. She had no answer on how to talk about it. The only thing that she could say, the only thing that she could muster up is we want to make sure that we're treating people with humanity. Well, aren't you seeing the images coming out of these deportation efforts, governor Whitmer? What are we saying? We want to treat people with humanity. They're not being treated with the humanity and the decency that they deserve as humans. She had, and I don't think the Democratic Party has an answer for what is going on right now.
Speaker 3:I don't think anybody can explain how mass deportation is humane. I don't think anybody can explain how our immigration policy is humane. I don't think anybody can explain how founding this nation was humane or bringing our ancestors here was humane. The reality is, we need to quit pretending like this is the greatest nation if inhumanity is not at the you know, is not a cornerstone of what we do. And the other thing is you know all of these so-called Christians. I want to know what Christ said about strangers. I want to know what Christ said about feeding people. He said feed people who are just like me, feed people who come from where I come from, and the rest of y'all starve. Maybe that's biblical and I just read part of the New Testament wrong, but I'm thinking it's not. I'm thinking that what we're talking about is really inhumane and it really makes me want to cry because of the fact that people get it wrong.
Speaker 3:We have so many people right now, so many people who are unhoused. And guess what? Unhoused people are also a lot of times undocumented. We have people we have to get Detroit IDs for because they don't have any ID to do anything. If they got rounded up, how would they prove they're citizens. They can't even get a Michigan State ID. Now you've got to prove to people who have the power of the state that you belong here. It's a dangerous precedent and you know there's people who are comparing deportations under previous presidents and saying, well, you know, president Trump wasn't worse than anybody else. No other president has been as aggressive rounding up people as President Trump in our lifetime. President Eisenhower did in.
Speaker 1:Operation Wetback. We have not called out mass deportation efforts and inhumanity at the border in any administration, including the Biden administration, where we saw horrifying images of border officials on horses.
Speaker 3:Beating Haitian people, Haitian immigrants. Let's study. Haiti and the history of Haiti. It's horrible. Yeah, we're going to take a quick break.
Speaker 1:We'll be right back with more current events.
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Speaker 1:Welcome back to Authentically Detroit everybody. It's just me and Donna today talking about current events happening in the city of Detroit. Listen Health Department offers details about Lafayette Coney's roten infestation closure. For the second time in less than three years, lafayette Coney Island, the iconic downtown Detroit diner, has closed to address a roten infestation. After a visit Friday from the Detroit Health Department, denise Ferrazzo, detroit's chief public health officer, told the Free Press on Saturday that her team visited the restaurant after a consumer complained about seeing rats while dining. How about that for breakfast, everybody? Here's the quote we received customer complaint from our complaint hotline and we take every complaint very seriously, ferrazzo said. So we went to Lafayette the following day and we saw evidence of rat droppings in the basement. They were scattered throughout the basement and that is unacceptable. They had not cleaned the restaurant thoroughly. This is Lafayette's second rodent-related closure in the last three years. In 2022, a video of rodents in the restaurant was shared on social media, prompting a visit from the Detroit Health Department and aent closure.
Speaker 4:Listen.
Speaker 1:I remember I interviewed for Urban Consulate Candace Fortman and we had a little discussion about Detroit, coney Islands and I promptly gave the revelation that I don't do Coney Island. This is why I don't do Coney, and Detroit tried to cancel me.
Speaker 3:They tried to take my Detroit card. I'm going to borrow it for a minute, though, because the reality is what Detroiters do you know who go to Coney Island? Go to either American or Lafayette.
Speaker 1:That part because we only going down there to go to Coney Island. The neighborhood Coney Island is much better, all right listen, El George's wins my poll.
Speaker 3:The reality is any restaurant can have that, but I think for those tourists and people who think they're Detroiters who are trying to choose between the two.
Speaker 3:I think at this point, American Coney Island may have won that battle, though, but I'm not eating at either one of them I love. I've enjoyed going to neighborhood Coney's and they are a staple of our community. They provide much more than Coney Island food and I've enjoyed going to them. Those are our family restaurants. Those are the places that people can go, and some of them are good. Some of them aren't great, but listen, a chicken Greek salad is unbeatable and you can't get that anywhere outside of Detroit.
Speaker 1:All you get is chicken and a little bit of lettuce.
Speaker 3:Where's the lettuce? Listen, you forgot all the other Chicken cheese, garbanzo beans, cucumbers, if you like, beets, beets and the amazing Greek dressing. And then you have to cut it up and you have to mix it up. That is great food. It's a Detroit thing. It's a Detroit thing.
Speaker 4:It's a.
Speaker 3:Detroit staple.
Speaker 1:That and spinach pies. Chili cheese fries.
Speaker 3:Come on now. We do it differently in Detroit. Now you give me some chili cheese fries, I will go to town on them, I'm not giving you any chili cheese fries, because you just went off on Coney's, so you know what you don't get any.
Speaker 1:I was going off on the people who wanted to cancel me Because I don't do C on.
Speaker 3:Duke Coney Island. That's why I'm canceling you. Let me tell you something Borrowing that cancellation.
Speaker 1:Lafayette, Coney Island. This is the second time in under three years y'all got shut down for rats. Listen.
Speaker 3:Can we cancel Lafayette Coney Island? Okay, let's cancel them, not the good ones, not our neighborhood folks, because if you closed down Coney Island in Detroit, if it was closed down in Coney Island Detroit, we wouldn't have any restaurants.
Speaker 1:Okay, Other than Taco Bell. That's it In some neighborhoods. For a long time they were the only sit-down restaurants that we had in the city of.
Speaker 3:Detroit and in many neighborhoods they are still the only sit-down restaurants. We have that McDonald's that's closed down the street from us, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Connor and Mac.
Speaker 3:Connor and Mac. I keep hoping somebody is going to turn that into a Coney Island. It's such a perfect location I can walk there. I know you won't, but you don't work here anymore.
Speaker 1:I don't work here anymore, so you don't have a vote. And listen. After the restaurant uses the downtime to clean up because they're shut down, the health department will reinspect the establishment and hopefully give it the green light to reopen.
Speaker 3:Can we talk about Denise Fierrazzo for a moment? Yes, the green light to reopen. Can we talk about Denise Fierrezzo for a moment? Yes, she has the sweetest looking face I love her.
Speaker 2:I like her a lot. She looks so sweet, I do too.
Speaker 3:I serve on a board with her with Trinity Health, but she has the sweetest face I saw her yesterday. She's got such a sweet face, but let me tell you something she's got some stillness and a smile. She is and I love calling out black women leaders because we get put down on time, and Denise Fierrezzo is a very strong and dynamic young woman leader. So hats off to her for doing that, for calling it out and being unafraid to stand up for the residents of the city of Detroit and people who may actually choose to eat at those establishments.
Speaker 1:You know I had the privilege of interviewing her and I am not an easy interview and she took it like a champ. And then you, and then we opened it up to residents to ask questions and some residents tagged her. You know what she did? She stood there, she listened and she responded. And she didn't respond in a condescending way. She really wanted to address and get to the root of the concerns that residents brought up and she did that all while she was there. So I have nothing but respect for a public official. Can I give?
Speaker 3:you, my Denise Fair Reslo story. Sure, so I'm on this board and we're interviewing these folks looking at a project we want to do, and we had some environmental specialists there talking about contamination on the site and there's residential housing nearby, and so someone said should we notify the residents that there's contamination on this site? And so the environmental consultants I don't know, we don't have to do that because it's not a threat to them and I said I'm sorry, because now that I know a little bit of science, I'm an expert, right, so I'm sorry. My understanding is that this, that that contamination or toxins can flow through via vapor intrusions into those adjacent households oh no, no, that's not possible. And so I'm sitting next to Denise and Denise spoke up and she gave all of the science behind it.
Speaker 3:And just what are they dog walked that consultant into silence. Okay, I was like, yes, that's my girl, because it's appalling to me that people are willing to let our people be exposed to toxins and not even warn them or protect them. And so we actually talked about partnering with the health department on some initiatives. I actually have to follow up with her on some of that because we have some concerns on the East side. This was not an East side location, but I really liked the fact that she knew her science. She was willing to speak up and be very specific and support me when I needed it, because I'm going against somebody who calls himself an expert and he was trying to treat me like I was a civilian who had no knowledge of the situation.
Speaker 1:And let's not forget y'all, and I would never forget this, and Donna and I were on our podcast tipping our hat to her and the mayor for the operation that they erected to get Detroiters vaccinated during the height of the pandemic.
Speaker 3:I'm tipping my hat to her, not to the mayor. I just want to be really clear.
Speaker 1:Trump's executive orders rolling back DEI and accessibility efforts. This is an op-ed by the ACLU. The Trump administration's three executive orders targeting diversity, equity and inclusion and accessibility initiatives take a shock and awe approach that upends longstanding bipartisan federal policy, meant to open doors that have been unfairly closed In the first few days. President Donald Trump is undertaking a deliberate effort to obfuscate and weaponize civil rights laws that address discrimination and ensure everyone has a fair chance to compete, whether it's for a job, a promotion or in education. With these actions, the administration is not only undoing decades of federal anti-discrimination policy spanning Democratic and Republican presidential administrations alike, but also marshalling federal enforcement agencies to bully both private and government entities into abandoning legal efforts to promote equity and remedy systemic discrimination. Trump's executive orders undermine obligations, stating back to the Johnson administration that firms doing business with the US government and receiving billions in public dollars are held to the highest standards in remedying and preventing violence.
Speaker 1:You guys, if you want the actual language of the executive order, you can actually go right to the White House website. You can see it there the name of this executive order. Well, one of them is called Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based. This is funny to me. Merit-based opportunity, donna, what say you?
Speaker 3:Oh boy, so many things. Let me start with this. I'm so glad they use the term shock and awe, because nobody in this room probably remembers that. But when the US government prosecuted the Iraqi war, that was the plan was to use shock and awe. We're going to go in there and we're going to bomb them and we're going to cause them to be defeated. No, we're just going to defeat them with the power and might of our great military in Iraq. And so they went in there with a shock and awe campaign and that war dragged out for years, where Iraqi people said we will not let you win. And what ended up being was supposed to be a short war where we used our military might was a war where people fought back the ACLU. I mean, the President Trump did that. So one of the things they did was they ordered the removal of the Tuskegee Airmen videos from Air Force training videos.
Speaker 4:It's back now.
Speaker 3:Now, this means a lot to me, because my mother was in the Air Force. My father was in the Air Force. That's where they met and I have family members who are Tuskegee Airmen. They removed it and within two or three days they had to put that thing back up because people said no. We have to say no. They want to shock and awe us with the power of the government, but the reality is we have to remember there's court systems. We have to remember that. We do not have to comply Over the weekend.
Speaker 1:Disappointingly- Can we put a pin right there? Because one of the things that I am not seeing covered by the media and I know that is happening I'm not seeing resistance being covered by the media.
Speaker 3:No, there's no resistance being covered by the media and that's really, really unfortunate, unfortunately, because the media is complicit in this whole thing. Mass media covered Donald Trump in a way where they allowed him to deny large parts of his record, to lie, to lie, when he said he didn't know anything about Project 25. And somebody would bring up Project 25, you'd actually have people who take themselves seriously as journalists saying well, donald Trump says he doesn't know anything about Project 25. Ma'am, did you go to school for journalism? Do you think you can research that and bring me back an informed opinion, rather than just throwing out and just parroting his words? So when you look at who owns our mass media, that's the reason why outlier media is so important, because it's an outlier in what we usually get from media. And, for those of you who don't know, orlando is the executive director of outlier media and in fact, when he was just talking about Candace Fortman, he was interviewing her years ago. She was the initial executive director of Outlier Media. But Outlier Media independent media that is not funded by corporations is so important because they all benefit the same.
Speaker 3:There is this perspective that they are trying to promote that racism is bias against white males, and I think we have to talk about what racism is real quickly, right? Racism is not how you feel about somebody. Racism is about how you oppress somebody. When people talk about racism, they say you don't know what's in their hearts. You don't need to know what's in their hearts. Okay, because if I'm oppressing you and there is disproportional impact on people who are like you, if it's systemic, if it's institutionalized, if it's predictable, if it's happened, if there's a historical basis, that's what racism is.
Speaker 3:So let's look at the data who's getting the jobs, who's getting access to loans, who's getting included in colleges, who's living in communities where there's more investment in housing and schools, and all of that. If you look at that, you can look at a nation where you have disproportional outcomes for black and brown people. Now what a racist person will say is that that happens because those people don't measure up. But the reality is that there are clear and documented efforts to prevent them from having equal access and equal opportunity. And it's historical, it's documented, it's current. If you go to many places and you're trying to buy a home, as a black person, you will be denied at many times the rate as a white person with the exact same credentials as you are If you're trying to rent an apartment in a place that is predominantly white you will-.
Speaker 1:Thank you, Andre Perry, who did that research. Yes, and so many more people.
Speaker 3:And there's a whole civil rights group the federal civil rights group, that goes out and enforces. They send out straw buyers, they send out straw lessees and they say, okay, I'm trying to lease this as a black person. They say no, we don't have any apartments available. Then they send out a white person and they let them in. This is part of what the federal government has been doing for over 50 years. Trump has rolled that back, so it is now legal or there will be no enforcement of bans to keep people out of these communities. However, also there have been programs that are designed to help underrepresented minorities is what they call us right, those of us who have been oppressed by racism? Programs to help underrepresented minorities? Under this new executive order, if you try to address past harms and level the playing field, leveling the playing field is now called racism.
Speaker 1:And the government will enforce efforts to level the playing field unless we fight back of civil rights language, that continues to happen. That takes language, justice-oriented language, and uses it to create mass hysteria, scare folks and turn it around so we can talk about terms like woke. We could talk about terms like diversity, equity and inclusion. I think the other term that's probably going to, that they're going to be gunning for soon, is the term belonging Right, because that's, you know, another term that folks use. How cerebral. So many oppositions of justice-oriented programming and policies utilize the same language to flip it on its head and to create campaigns, drive policy like the ones that Trump, the Trump administration, is trying to drive with these executive orders and with the gunning of departments within the Justice Department, the Inspector General's office. He fired every Inspector General that's supposed to be completely nonpartisan and that was also completely unprecedented, using language that civil rights folks, that black folks, that justice-oriented folks invented and weaponizing it. And so it is a shrewd campaign.
Speaker 3:It's what they do. It's what people in power do they appropriate? You can look at an abusive relationship, right? People who abuse accuse the people they are abusing of mistreating them. Well, I wouldn't have to do it if you weren't. This is abusive behavior. It is, you know, not. It's not. I don't think to do it if you weren't. This is abusive behavior. I don't think of it shrewd. I think of it as what manipulators do People project their harm onto you. When people are harming you, they accuse you of doing what they are actually doing to you, and that's a psychological. I mean we have all these terms like gaslighting and things like that. It's all part of a psychological warfare, but it's longstanding and this is what they're doing.
Speaker 3:When I first started working at Warren Kahn Development Coalition in 1993, which is now Eastside Community Network, we changed our name in 2015. When I started working here in 1993, I was hired to run a program that was new it hadn't really started and to bring it to life called the Partnership for Economic Independence, which was supposed to help relieve intergenerational poverty of women on the East Side or families on the East Side. Looking at how all the factors that cause intergenerational poverty and getting people on their feet and it was actually a wonderful program. I loved doing it and we made significant progress with so many people. I have a lot of pride over doing that work. But as I started working here in 1993, I started in 1994, john Engler Governor.
Speaker 3:John Engler, the Republican governor of Michigan, created the Family Independence Agency and the Family Independence Agency co-opted all of the language around welfare reform, which was designed to help poor people exit poverty, and used it as a justification for eliminating anti-poverty programs. He did crazy things. Like he said okay, you know what families our welfare payments don't pay much. You know what pays more than that Disability. So if you have disabled children, the federal government pays for disability, you should try to get them on disability. So if you have disabled children, the federal government pays for disability, you should try to get them on disability. So you have parents who are going to survive, going to schools, trying to have their children labeled disabled so they could collect SSI or SSD to support their households. These are evil people. And then after that, then they started denying all of these disability cases. But you know, when you put a label on your child like my child is disabled, how do you dislabel that?
Speaker 4:child. How do you remove that label?
Speaker 3:How do you convince a child?
Speaker 3:And you know there's something that is so evil about these people and I want to call evil what it is. It's not political difference. And for those of you who are friends, who ever listened to this show, there is no negotiating with evil. That makes sense. You can't say you know, and I think you know. You have to look at grief. What does grief look like? Right, anger, sadness, denial, bargaining all of those things are part of grief. And I see people in denial where they say, oh no, it's not going to be that bad. Or, you know, obama was bad too, biden was bad too, so this is not a singularly risky time in our thing. But then the other thing is bargaining. Well, maybe if I just try to be nice to these people and try to show him respect, he'll respect me back.
Speaker 3:You know, you've heard the story the frog and the scorpion. So the frog is the frog has to go. So the frog has to go. I'm just going to say for the listeners real quickly the frog, the scorpion, can't cross a pond and it wants to get to the other side of the pond and can't cross because the scorpion can't swim. And so he sees a frog. And he says to the frog Mr Frog, can you give me a ride across to this other side of the pond? And the frog says no, I'm not going to do that, because if I give you a ride you're going to kill me. And he says well, if I kill you, we'll both sink. And the frog says oh, that makes sense. So the frog gives the scorpion a ride to the other side of the pond. When he gets to the other side of the pond, the scorpion stings and kills the frog. And as the frog is dying, he says to the scorpion why would you kill me after I already gave you a right to the other side.
Speaker 1:Both of them did it, both of them died. The scorpion died too.
Speaker 3:The scorpion died. And the scorpion said because I am a scorpion.
Speaker 1:It's my character.
Speaker 3:It's my nature. The nature of evil does not get bargained with. Evil has to be met with resistance, and shock and awe has to be met with resistance. Now I know that many people say love is stronger than hate and we're going to find out over the next few years, and I do think resistance is happening.
Speaker 3:It's just not being covered, but we also need to be more intentional and more informing coalitions in our local level for that resistance. You know, we need a new underground railroad for people who are being pushed out. Okay, we need to figure out how do I put myself on the line and say it's not something that just makes me sad, but I'm going to do something. How does ECN do something? How does Donna do something? How does Orlando do something? We can't just sit back as bystanders, you know, because democracy is not a spectator sport, and so I'm encouraging everybody to jump in and do something and don't try to negotiate with evil, because it never comes out to benefit us.
Speaker 1:If you have topics that you would like discussed on Authentically Detroit, you can hit us up on our socials at Authentically Detroit on Facebook, instagram and Twitter, or you can email us at AuthenticallyDetroit at gmailcom. Donna, it is time for shout outs. Who would you like to shout out today?
Speaker 3:I like to shout out my grandchildren. I had such a good time with Maverick and Luna this weekend, but you're sleepy Now.
Speaker 1:You're sleepy, I am a little sleepy.
Speaker 3:But I'm telling you, I want to say, and a lot of grandparents agree with me children bring me joy, because children have joy. Children have not become cynical. Children are fun and they like each other and like doing nice things, and so being around children reminds us to be good people and to have fun. Kevin and I had the best time playing with Maverick. He know he doesn't have a whole lot of words right now, but he has some and he understands everything you say to him, and so you know.
Speaker 3:just the interactions are different. It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's going to change. I have a quick little shout out. Shout out to Bernadette Atuahene. Her book Plundered how Racist Policies Undermine Black Homeownership in America is coming out this week and I will have the distinct honor and privilege of sitting across from her for a book talk this upcoming Friday, january 31st, at the University, detroit Mercy Law School. Get your tickets Just Google Plunder by Bernadette Atuahene Book Talk in Detroit or go to nextchapterbookscom and you will be able to register there. The cost of the event, I think, is $30, $31.
Speaker 3:There are, but we also have a few tickets that we can give away. We purchased 30 tickets and each ticket comes with a signed, autographed book. We purchased 30. If you want to come with ECN, let us know. We'll put you on the list.
Speaker 1:All right and I hope to see you there. Thank you so much for listening. Love on your neighbor. We'll talk to you soon. Bye.
