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
Detroit's Democratic Dynamics: A Deep Dive with Sam Robinson
This week, Donna and Orlando sat down with Sam Robinson, independent journalist and founder of Detroit one million, to discuss Michigan’s Democratic Convention plus the Mayoral and City Council races!
The trio discussed Sam’s insights about the convention and the implications for Detroit’s residents and leadership. Together, they explore the future of Detroit’s governance and how it will impact the community moving forward.
Detroit one million is a journalism project centering a generation of Michiganders growing up in a state without a city with 1 million people, and the competing forces working to bring people back.
Sam is currently the only independent reporter covering the 2025 Detroit mayoral race through the lens of young people, who the city’s current mayor calls “Michigan’s greatest export.”
To learn more about Detroit one million and Sam’s work, click here.
FOR HOT TAKES:
MICHIGAN LAWMAKERS OVERHAUL PAID LEAVE, WAGE LAWS IN LAST-MINUTE DEAL
Up next the founder of Detroit One Million, Sam Robinson, joins Authentically Detroit to discuss the Michigan Democratic Convention and the race for Detroit Mayor and City Council. But first this week's hot takes from Bridge Michigan. Michigan lawmakers overhaul paid leave, wage laws and last-minute deal and Detroit mayoral race just got a little more interesting. Keep it locked. Authentically Detroit starts after these messages.
Speaker 2:Founded in 2021, the Stoudemire is a membership-based community recreation and wellness center centrally located on the east side of Detroit. Membership in the Stoudemire is available on a sliding scale for up to $20 per year or 20 hours of volunteer time. The Stoudemire offers art, dance and fitness classes, community meetings and events, resource fairs, pop-up events, the Neighborhood Tech Hub and more. Members who are residents of the Eastside have access to exclusive services in the Wellness Network. Join today and live well, play well, be well. Visit ecndetroitorg.
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 Moving on up to the east side. We finally got a piece of the pie it's so bright in the kitchen. Hello 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 Givens-Davidson. Thank you for listening in and supporting us 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. We are so happy to be back this week and it's still Black History Month. It is.
Speaker 1:It's been a lengthy Black History Month.
Speaker 3:Well, a lot of great things have been happening, a lot of great things.
Speaker 1:You've had some really amazing programming happening here at ECN too, so I want to know a little bit about that. And Donna and I are joined today by journalist and founder of Detroit One Million, sam Robinson, to dive into what happened over the weekend at the Michigan Democratic Convention as well as the race for Detroit Mayor and City Council. Sam, welcome to Authentically Detroit. Is that our first time saying that?
Speaker 4:It is. Thank you guys for inviting me. You've not been here before. I'm a long-time listener, first time.
Speaker 1:You're a long-time listener.
Speaker 4:Yeah, on YouTube. I just have it playing, you and Kari Frazier.
Speaker 1:Detroit is different.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I have Detroit as my own.
Speaker 1:We love Kari Frazier here.
Speaker 4:We do an event every quarter with Kari Frazier you guys probably have the best audio shows.
Speaker 1:Oh man, thank you. We appreciate that, donna, how you doing.
Speaker 3:I'm good, I'm good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, How's the programming been going here at ECN oh?
Speaker 3:it's been going great.
Speaker 1:Afrofuturism is the theme right.
Speaker 3:I wanted to spend the entire month of February, this Black History Month, not talking about racism, but really focused on our Afrofutures. I think that sometimes we get bogged down in feelings of powerlessness.
Speaker 1:And so on Friday we had Lauren Hood come to talk about Afro-urbanism. The Institute of Afro-urbanism. It was great, was it?
Speaker 3:It was. It was interesting because we hadbanism. It was great, Was it it was. It was interesting because we had a crowd. It was a big crowd right and mostly seniors, and when we first started talking they were just in kind of a cell shock.
Speaker 1:They're like what does she think? Because Lauren be saying some stuff.
Speaker 3:She does, lauren. She's one of these people and, for my left-brain personality, sometimes I struggle with her because she know, because she's, so you know, and so she's.
Speaker 1:But they also don't realize that she's closer to them in age than they think. You know she's a couple of years away from AARP herself. That's my friend, I can say that.
Speaker 3:Okay, but you know she was talking, and she was talking about tapping into your creative self and people were looking at her and I said did anybody in this room play a musical instrument when you were young? Oh, in this room you played a musical instrument when you were young, oh, you brought it home.
Speaker 3:And people were like, yeah, yeah, do you still play those musical instruments? And reminding people of what they used to do. And so by the end of the evening, they opened up and we had such a rich conversation about what Afrofutures could look like on the East Side of Detroit. What can we do? That's within our power. It was really beautiful. So thank you, lauren, and thank you to the community for showing up and showing out.
Speaker 1:Sam Robinson, how are you doing? I'm amazing.
Speaker 4:It is a warm February day today. It's like 50 degrees. I'm not mad at it. No, I got my T-shirt on.
Speaker 1:I brought some warm weather and sun back from Miami. So I like to think it's because of me.
Speaker 3:Well, thanks. Thanks, orlando, you're welcome. Okay, next time just bring a little bit more. No, I'm just joking. I've been inside all day. I have no idea what the temperature is like Thank you for letting me know I'm not going to freeze when I go outside.
Speaker 1:Yeah the snow was melting it is.
Speaker 4:It is when do you tie it from? I am tied from the weekend. We just had the Democratic Convention. Michigan Democrats met up and elected Curtis Hertel. He's a former state senator. Yes, the new party chair. He replaced LaVora Barnes, who was the party's first black chair.
Speaker 2:Black woman, she was like 19.
Speaker 4:She'd been there almost six years, Led the party through some historic wins Obviously 2022.
Speaker 1:They had the first trifecta and I don't think people understand that a black woman was behind that strategy at the time.
Speaker 3:I think people do and I think I don't think lay people, I don't think people knew you're right, but I think the challenge is that when it's a black woman and things go wrong in their mind, she also collects the blame and so I think, that the reality is.
Speaker 3:She took a lot of heat for everything that went wrong, and I really want to spend some time talking to you about this, sam, because I want to talk about the limitations of what a black woman can do in a party apparatus, this idea that somehow she can work magic and she can eliminate. One thing I don't think we all know is that racism is bipartisan. It's not like it just shows up on the right. People who are born in this nation are inculcated in a culture of racism and some of them feel guilty about it and some of them feel bad about it. But the reality is that, at the very least, implicit bias is there and in a lot of instances, there are beliefs that a black woman cannot do something as well as a white man.
Speaker 3:And I'm not attacking anybody who got the job, but I just know, having lived my entire life for my many years I'm well into AARP that I have never had a time where I have not had to prove my worth and prove my capabilities, and when things go wrong, I always feel as though I'm judged. Orlando was saying to me. I was saying I've been working on this op-ed and he said well, just let them edit it. And I was like you don't even understand me. As long as you've known me, I can never send something out that isn't right, because I'm so afraid of being judged.
Speaker 1:That wasn't the context.
Speaker 3:I know it's not okay, I know it's not, but you were just telling me let it off my hands, or you know she had a lot of ideas and I'm saying, get them on paper and then let him get edit it yes, let an editor suggest. Yeah, but I and I know what you meant, orlando and I know, that you meant it in good faith and I don't.
Speaker 3:I don't take it. I think what I'm trying to get at is the, you know, the kind of crazy need to always feel like I'm right, that I'm doing the right thing, I've done my homework, I can't make a mistake, I can't trip, I can't fall, that you realize one day wait a minute.
Speaker 1:This isn't healthy to always feel as though you have to get everything just right before you say it In all honesty even this show, even having Authentically Detroit, was so scary at first because you would not edit my words, it was scary for her. I was like, can you just change this? I'm like no. Hence the name, hence the name.
Speaker 3:It has to be authentic, but the idea that I'm going to be unedited and my thoughts are going to be unedited out there without me being able to fix them and make them perfect, is really scary, and I think it's true for a lot of black women. So being on this platform is very liberating, because it really taught me to trust my voice a little bit more and to be unafraid to speak out a little bit more. But when I think of LaVora Burns and I think of the double standard that when you win, everybody will give you a little applause just a little but when you lose, you get a whole lot of blame, and I think that's where she is right now, and so hats off to her for having the wherewithal to lead the Michigan Democratic Party, which is not a job for the faint of heart.
Speaker 1:So, sam? So we elected the party, elected a new chair and vice chair. Who's the vice chair?
Speaker 4:Vice chair is a very qualified person who I don't know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, portia Roberson, it's.
Speaker 4:Portia, portia. I just wanted to say it out loud, right, I was not caring about any other, I wasn't even caring about Curtis or Tell because, honestly, guys, the more interesting story of the convention, what is it, honestly, guys, the more interesting story of the convention? What is it With the dynamics at play between pro-worker and perceived to be pro-corporate members of the party and pro-Israel and pro-Gaza members of the party? I actually briefly caught Portia. People are saying that she should position herself for a US Senate run, which I heard from a number of Democrats Dana Nessel, ellie Savitt is the Washtenaw County prosecutor. He said to me and Beth LeBlanc of the Detroit News that he's interested in running for that open Senate seat left behind by Gary Peters, and so that's interesting. Portia is somebody who a lot of people in Detroit really love. When I see her out, oh Portia, everyone has something kind to say, but I can't find many bad things to say about Portia. If I'm looking for some bad things to say about some of these mayoral candidates at the convention.
Speaker 3:Oh, did I find it. I mean, you weren't here when she was running for the 13th congressional district, because there was one candidate whose entire campaign was anti-Portia, and so the reality is that people will find something to say. Unfortunately, none of us have that kind of image, and that's why. So we saw her get attacked, and when she ran, she didn't come in first, she didn't come in second, she came in third in the city of Detroit, and I think it's important for us to understand the dynamics there Once again, how good you have to be, because the first person was a man and the second person was a man, and then you have Portia. I think, before she runs for Senate, she needs to have a campaign that is almost bulletproof, because they're going to be shooting at her.
Speaker 4:Some people are comparing that race that you're talking about to the mayoral one, saying there are too many candidates.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, I think that ultimately and I want to get into our stories my belief then and my belief now is that there aren't too many candidates.
Speaker 3:There is not enough to differentiate the candidates from each other. If you're running a campaign that is distinct, or you're promising to do something, other people aren't, you aren't competing with them. But when you are competing with everybody and you have the same ideas, with just a little bit of shade of different people left here. Quite honestly, in Orlando, you remember this when we had the debate saying I still don't know who to vote for because nobody was willing to go the extra mile and stand out. And the question is, in 2025, will somebody want to differentiate themselves or are they going to all play it safe, all try to make sure they get the corporate money and they don't want to make people angry, and so you play it down the middle and when that happens, you turn off so many voters that you get fewer than 18 percent even showing up to the polls. So we need candidates who are brave, and I can't wait to find out who has the courage to stand out this year. If not, it'll just be toodle-dee, toodle-dum, fleeter-dummer, whatever.
Speaker 1:So, from your perspective, what's the story out of this weekend's convention?
Speaker 4:Well, before we get into the mayoral and city council candidates, I will say the person who had planned to run against Curtis Hertel is Al BJ Williams and Al. How the party rules are set up is you have to collect a certain number of signatures that morning of the convention from members inside the conference hall, and so we were at the Renaissance Center. I get there and Al Williams' volunteers are trying to collect signatures from people who are turning them down, turning the volunteers down saying no, no, I'm not interested. Al Williams was in the room for the Black Caucus election that sort of had similar circumstances. Brandon Jussup was running to unseat Keith Williams. He's the incumbent chair. He was just reelected over the weekend. He's also the chair of the Detroit Reparations Task Force. Apparently, according to Keith, brandon did not apply in time to be a candidate.
Speaker 1:I said according to Keith.
Speaker 4:According to Brandon, he was never made aware of a January 22nd deadline to apply, despite making aware to Keith that he had planned to run. So Brandon learned that morning that he was not qualified to be a candidate and Keith Williams ran unopposed and won.
Speaker 3:I'm going to try to say this as diplomatically as I can it is time for Keith Williams to surrender that seat.
Speaker 4:You wouldn't be the only one saying that. I heard from folks who actually publicly endorsed Keith who told me you know who is this Brandon Jessup guy? Let's see what he's got.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, the reality is.
Speaker 1:let's talk about two things Surrender, of somebody to really mount a campaign against them. Because, politics people don't surrender, People want to stay Both, both.
Speaker 3:I think that there is a responsibility among elders to remember, to realize when it's your time to pass the baton.
Speaker 1:That's a word.
Speaker 3:And I think about that. Especially in Detroit. I think about that personally all of the time. When is it going to be my time? I think that we should hold ourselves accountable for understanding it's time to pass the baton If you have run out of ideas, if you have not been able to move the envelope at all. We've got a reparations task force and no reparations plan, and I don't see one happening in the foreseeable future. Based on what I understand from his leadership.
Speaker 4:We have one 400 page report allegedly done by Chad GBT.
Speaker 3:Yes and so-.
Speaker 4:From him.
Speaker 3:From him. Yeah, I mean he invited Malachi and I no.
Speaker 4:The task force and Keith are completely separate right now. They are operating-.
Speaker 1:We're talking about from the body at the task force.
Speaker 3:He usurped the voice of the task force to decide to do his own thing.
Speaker 3:Fine. If you don't think that you can actually lead other people to come to some type of consensus and build something, you're in the wrong space. So there's that. And there's also the generational difference between what the priorities are. He keeps talking in his mind he's got 1967, 1975 priorities, but it's 2025. And if you have not stayed attuned to where people are going, you can't lead them there. And so it is beyond disappointing that he made that decision to run again and also to usurp the authority, because he knew what he was doing. He knew Brandon could not win and he decided he was not going to let there be a fair voice. And the final thing I want to say is for those people who endorsed him don't whisper your disagreement. Stand up and have the courage and accountability to speak your truth out loud. I don't have a lot of respect for people who do that. And then, if you anything you want to say about me, say it to my face.
Speaker 2:Don't talk about me behind my back.
Speaker 3:I just think there's no, there's no, you up. I just think there's no courage, there's no integrity in taking those positions. And so, anyway, thank you for being there and for springing us on stories.
Speaker 1:There's so many more things I want to talk about that I saw in Substack.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about this. Michigan lawmakers overhaul paid leave wage laws in last minute deal. My colleague Simon Schuster at Bridge, michigan, wrote this. The bipartisan compromise, approved roughly an hour before court ordered laws were set to take effect Friday, will add flexibility to pending paid sick leave rules and delay implementation for small business until October. As part of the deal rushed toward the governor's desk for expected signature, the Democratic-led Senate also voted to immediately implement recently approved legislation to scale back a minimum wage increase for tipped workers. Republicans said the deal was imperfect but would avert disaster for businesses across the state. The mark of a good compromise, said Representative Bill Schuette of Midland. The deal divided legislative Democrats, some of whom opposed leadership decisions to change the paid sick leave and minimum wage increases that were backed by organized labor.
Speaker 1:The paid sick leave compromise does not include a small business exemption sought by Republicans but strenuously opposed by unions. An earlier House plan would have exempted firms with fewer than 50 employees, about 260,000 companies with 1.2 million workers. Under the final deal, small businesses with fewer than 10 workers will have to provide five days paid sick leave, and larger firms will have to provide five days paid sick leave and larger firms will have to provide nine days. But businesses with fewer than 10 employees will not have to offer additional unpaid leave, as ordered by the Michigan Supreme Court, and won't have to implement the new sick leave policy until October 1st.
Speaker 1:The late night agreement on sick leave came a day after the Republican-led House approved legislation to retain a tipped credit for restaurant workers. The Democratic-led Senate had not voted to let the policy take effect immediately, until Thursday night. Under the deal, michigan's $10.56 minimum wage will rise to $15 by 2027. But the state will not phase out its sub-minimum wage for tip workers. Instead, the rate will rise to 50% of the standard minimum wage by 2031. Donna, what say you?
Speaker 3:What does Sean Fain say? I think that Sean Fain has some profanity.
Speaker 1:He went viral on my.
Speaker 4:Twitter for saying you know, democrats can't figure out who the F they want to represent. He said Trump is president because of that and he called out not by name but by the number of Senate Democrats in Michigan who voted with Republicans at the sort of mercy of Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Senator Winnie Brink. She's the Senate minority leader there in Lansing and Senator Winnie Brink she's the Senate minority leader there in Lansing. They wanted a compromise on this. Republicans with a group called Save my Tips, sort of galvanized restaurant industry leaders and their workers to go and show up at the state capitol a number of times and apparently a number of Senate Democrats are believing this Republican back group over the union groups.
Speaker 3:I have colleagues who think that way. It was very upsetting to me. When I think about somebody not having paid sick leave, I think about women giving birth on a plantation, on a field, having to work that day while their children were still nursing at their breast because they didn't have paid sick leave, they didn't have time off. I think about how many people had to work for free or who had to sacrifice lost wages and I think about all of the work that people across generations put into achieving that kind of thing. There's never been a time and I have been running nonprofit organizations since 1999, and for a period of time running for-profit organizations there's never been a time where people did not get paid because they were sick. When people are sick and they work in my organization, usually if they're really sick, I let them take, pay them even when they're still, when they exceed their paid sick leave time, because it feels humane.
Speaker 3:If you can't figure out how to make money without depriving people of the ability to live, then maybe business is not your calling. And I'm not trying to hurt anybody's feelings, I'm just saying that there's got to be a way. And the other thing I think what people are so short-sighted. When you treat people like that, they don't stay with you. Your turnover rates go up and the cost of turnover is so expensive to small businesses, but they don't think like you. Your turnover rates go up and the cost of turnover is so expensive to small businesses, but they don't think like that. They talk about the work ethic of workers without looking at the ethics of employers. I expect myself and anybody who follows me in this job, I just pray they always remember that when you take good care of your workers, they take good care of you. And it is implausible to me that there are black people who are standing around acting like they don't know their history, acting like they didn't come from somebody who was doing sharecropping, talking about oh you know, I'm just trying to make sure businesses have profit. So I feel very passionate about this.
Speaker 1:Five days we're talking about five days. We're talking about 40 hours out of how many hours there are, and I'm saying 40 hours because that's the traditional work week. But we're talking about five days out of 365. Days is what we're talking about, and even when it was more, we were talking about something like 72 hours.
Speaker 1:That was one of the original pieces and for the life of me I couldn't understand why anybody was opposing it, because there's this argument around profit and how harmful it would be to businesses and small businesses and things of that sort. But there is, to me, this knowledge one should have that there is a cost to doing business and if you want to play the game of capitalism and open a business and do business, there is a cost. I can't fathom needing to be off and not being able to be off because I don't have sick leave. Now, this is something that would really affect small businesses who hire a bunch of part-time people, because traditionally in the state of Michigan you didn't have to provide any kind of non-monetary benefit to part-time workers here in the state of Michigan. That's why a lot of folks hire part-time, because non-compensation benefits are attached to non-compensation Benefits are attached to full-time employment. This levels that playing field right.
Speaker 1:And I want to say this that the people that we were calling essential workers in 2020, the people that we were holding up, the people that we were honoring, most of them didn't have medical insurance and were at work every day. Most of them were not full time. Most of them didn't have to pay time off. They not only had to go to work, but they became our essential workers and our first responders, our heroes, our heroes. What happened to that sentiment? What happened to that acknowledgement of freaking humanity? And I know that there is a case that some people would make that says that, well, businesses needed an opportunity. There's no funding, there's no stimulus for small businesses to be able to provide this benefit To me, baby, baby, bubba, there's a cost to doing business. And, secondly, you have until October 1st. You have until October 1st. You got a little cushion.
Speaker 3:But if you have 11 employees, you don't right, right. And how many businesses intentionally hire people for 29 hours because they don't want to have them, pay them those benefits. And you know you were here when I got here. If I had a person who was working 29 hours, I brought them up to 40 because I was like I want you to feel like you were part of this. You know that we don't have part-time workers, really unless they are in positions. In certain positions, our minimum wage is $15 an hour. Right now, we don't have to work well, not with our youth in the summer but we brought things up to a certain standard because we felt like it was important and that meant that you know we had to make certain sacrifices of certain things, but it makes the business grows. You know why it grows? Because your business grows and your workers make it grow.
Speaker 3:There was and I wish I could remember his name, there was, my goodness, this guy who had a custodial business, starting working with U of M hospitals, and this is many years ago. He had one of the fastest growing custodial businesses in the nation because he was paying his workers a higher wage than anybody was and his mindset is I pay you high, you're going to work, you're going to stay and you're going to care about this job. And so he was able to grow his business. He wrote a book about it. I'm so bad with names I'll have to tell you his name unless you remember it, but it was an African-American man in Ann Arbor who became a major business owner and expanded into other fields because he paid his workers well, you don't have to choose.
Speaker 1:You don't, and you know. I had this argument with Brian Calley when I was co-hosting the Metro and he really had no real substantiated opposition to this, other than people are going to abuse it. People are going to, you know, say they're sick when they're not.
Speaker 5:I'm like dude Well think about how easy it is on their end to convince their workers.
Speaker 4:All I got to say is if this happens, guys, I won't be able to hire you anymore and I won't be able to employ you. I'll have to lay back, cut off workers. And people are just operating off survival. So I don't really blame the people that don't have the information for themselves that are being told by their bosses hey, I need you to go lobby for me in Lansing or you're going to lose your job well, you know, there's some waitresses who, because they're pretty, because they're white, because they're young and because they fit certain characteristics that make a whole lot of money in tipped wages.
Speaker 3:But there's also this power that people have to disadvantage the person who may be less attractive, who may be black or who may in some ways. I pay people at least 15%, regardless, right, because I feel like that's the job. You're doing your job. If you bring me the food, you don't need to bring me the food with a smile on your face. If you do, you might get a little more money. But the reality is that this mindset, that this we have this power thing going on. We go to restaurants where you know what you work for me and you better come here and if you don't do this on time, I'm going to punish you. I'm going to give you one penny of a tip, knowing these people aren't making a lot of money, and so you can take the most privileged servers and you can get them to buy into the system, because maybe they're making $40 an hour, okay, and, by the way, they still will.
Speaker 3:I just came back from Canada and tipping is so reflexive. I was paying people and I'm pretty sure they have minimum wage there. I was tipping them anyway because I'm just used to it. You know, the reality is people tip because they're used to it. We tip people all the time who don't have to have tips. But this idea that we're going to make policy based on the needs and perspectives of the most privileged people in any industry is part of the problem. Let's look at the people who work in places where they don't get big tips. Let's look at the Denny's worker not the worker in the most expensive restaurant in town, at Joe Muir's, because a Joe Muir's worker, first of all, is making so much more than that anyway that it's not really their fight and they're able to somehow manufacture these arguments and speak on behalf of employers. I just don't believe it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that was the argument of the one fair wage folks that I spent almost two years talking to that effort. The fight is like seven years going. 2018, michigan had a ballot initiative that said that they were going to raise their minimum wage by, I think, $27 to $15. And now, because of signed law by Governor Whitmer, we're going to be waiting until 2030, I believe it is.
Speaker 3:Do you remember why the Bell Initiative failed?
Speaker 4:Because of Adopt an Amend.
Speaker 3:Because, yes, explain to the listeners what Adopt an Amend is.
Speaker 4:It's a legislative maneuver that the Michigan Supreme Court last year found unconstitutional. And that's why you'll hear Michigan Republicans talking about our state Supreme Court. They'll say these activist judges talking about our state Supreme Court. They'll say these activist judges and yeah, adopted amend was you know you have a ballot initiative proposal where you say it's a referendum and lawmakers can take a successful ballot petition effort and just vote on the proposal in the legislature, able to sort of amend the bill as they do any other bill. And really what happened with the minimum wage laws was it was gutted by Republicans that controlled the legislature at the time.
Speaker 3:They adopted it for the express purpose of stopping the voter referendum from taking effect. They knew what they were doing. They killed that initiative and then they amended it. So it was intended deception. They intended to deceive voters and that's the reason the Supreme Court struck it down, because it was done in bad faith. They adopted legislation in very bad faith and the idea that the legislation now, this is the same party I'm not going to say the same individuals, because most of them aren't there who are voters with emergency managers law I can't remember the name of that law bill, whatever.
Speaker 3:The Republican legislature voted to put a new emergency management bill on the table. Voters came out in a referendum and struck it down. Then the same Republican legislature went back and voted again and added a revenue item to that, which means it could not be repealed. They keep on playing games with democracy in our face, and that should be illegal, that should be overturned. But it happened, and so this is an example of where the Supreme Court luckily a group of Democrats said no, and right now the Supreme Court is going to be even more democratic in Michigan. It's going to be harder for them to play these kind of games with us.
Speaker 1:Let's take a quick break. We will be right back with Sam Robinson.
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Speaker 1:All right, welcome back to Authentically Detroit. Everybody here with our special guest journalist Sam Robinson. Listen, the race for mayor in Detroit just got a little bit more interesting last week with Pastor Solomon Kinloch announcing his bid for mayor. He had some points that he wanted to make in his announcement. He wants to build 10,000 new affordable units through a housing strike force I want to know what that is 10 new grocery stores in strategic locations in food deserts and he wants support for federally funded job training and down payment assistance programs. Here's what he had to say about corporate citizens. He said we are willing to work with any CEO and any corporate leader that is willing to work to invest in the future well-being of the people of the city of Detroit. Solomon Kinloch has entered the race y'all. It got interesting. I saw him on the front page of many, many news publications, which I got to say about this.
Speaker 3:Oh, you know, I'm happy. I think that it definitely changes the conversation. I think that there's a certain person who was planning to run, who changed his mind at the last moment because he understood that the stakes were a little higher. You know, you're talking about Representative Joe Tate. You have Fred Durhall, who is running to the right of everybody I don't know, he's like a full sprint and then you have he says he's going to bring his democratic values to the mayor's office at the convention and I want to know.
Speaker 3:I saw that you posted that and I was like I want to know what those values are.
Speaker 3:He wants to expand the downtown development authority and, if you know me, I'm trying to actually reduce it or eliminate it. So it's like, oh so you and I are actually on opposite sides of a coin, but there's just so many times that he's voted, even if you look at his voting record. His voting record is just not what we need it to be. So we've got him. We've got Santil, who I think has lacked clarity in what she would do differently. You have Mary, who has said some things that sound good, but she's also said some things that make me question those things that she says that sound good. I don't know that there's consistency in her messaging. And now you have Solomon Kinloch, who is definitely running a more progressive campaign and definitely saying things that the other candidates are not willing to say at this time. You were at his announcement.
Speaker 4:Talk about it, one of those things being that Detroit is a tale of two cities. He went hard, contrasting himself from the current mayoral administration in a way that none of the other candidates dared to do. I don't know out of fear of retribution from Mike Duggan, I mean, I don't know. It just doesn't seem like he was at all unwilling to go there to talk about the issues facing Detroiters that we're not going to hear city leaders talk about. Despite issues like our 60-year-old pipes bursting, causing massive flooding in Southwest Detroit neighborhoods, despite two children dying in a car, the city has been really, really fortunate over the last few years through the NFL draft and through, really, the narrative being peddled by coastal you know news organizations like New York times and LA times. And what have you talking about? How Detroit is back, a narrative that has been ongoing when I go on newspaperscom and read the Detroit free press from 1994. And that I mean it's just ongoing. The same stories over and over and over again.
Speaker 4:Um, so Solomon certainly came off as somebody that had a different message. We're hearing um Mary Sheffield is interested in galvanizing her own group of pastors to talk about some of the same housing issues. Grocery stores what kind of grocery stores. Are they going to be man? Are they going to be like Food Pride? Or like Meyer Rivertown Market, like the little cutesy Meyer on Jefferson, or is it going to be like a full-blown Meyer, like what's in Brightmoor on 8 Mile right now In the neighborhoods? I would like to know how you partner with large companies like that to bring them here.
Speaker 3:Well, what Kenlock said is that he was going to partner with nonprofit organizations and others to do it. And I have to say, as a nonprofit leader, when I hear somebody running for mayor saying they want to partner with nonprofits, I certainly hope he's talking about nonprofits like ours, because it feels respectful. We have been holding up neighborhoods for so long doing work and being disrespected and ignored by the city administration that now exists Not necessarily prior administrations, but certainly this one. So that was music to my ears. I was ready to dance on that one. I think that he's also come out challenging some of the other people of faith, some of the other men of faith, and saying wait a minute, where have you been? Even before he ran for mayor. He has challenged them Now in full disclosure. Many years ago I joined Triumph Church.
Speaker 1:Oh I didn't know that.
Speaker 3:Yes, I belonged to Triumph Church when I lived in Southfield and one of the things I loved about the church was I didn't hear prosperity Christianity preached inside that church. I didn't hear a bunch of homophobia preached inside that church. I didn't hear messaging which conflicts with my values, and so I loved him as pastor. I used to go there with my son. It was like amazing to me and I stopped because I have a good friend who's a minister and I wanted to support my good friend. But I have always admired his leadership of the church and I've said this publicly. What I'm not going to do is endorse for mayor. I don't believe that that is my role anymore. But what I will say is that I'm liking what I'm hearing and I'd like to see how he plans on pulling this off, if he's going to do it.
Speaker 1:Can I ask? Louis Aguilar at the Detroit News wrote a story on I think it was Friday, friday or Thursday talking about tax liens that Kinloch had. Can I ask you all this question what do we need to know and what do we want to know from our candidates running for mayor? In what context and framing right, what is a go and what is a non-starter Like? Is there a line?
Speaker 4:I want to know personally how all of them make money, their revenue streams, and Solomon particularly. I want to know Are you just making money off the operations of Triumph Church?
Speaker 3:Well, you know, I think— I want to know that.
Speaker 4:I don't think I'll find out, but certainly there are nondisclosure agreements that the mayor will fill out each year. I think on his he'll put Mike Duggan will put NA. I don't think he's collecting much else than from what his city paycheck is, but that's going to be a question that's going to follow all these folks is how are you making money?
Speaker 3:Well, you know, I'm sorry. Since he is a pastor, I want to get biblical with it, okay. So when they continued asking him, he lifted himself up and said unto them he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her, okay? Speaking of the adulterous woman, detroit has an average credit score of about 520 points. Okay, so there are very few people who live in Detroit who vote, who don't have some kind of debt. He paid the bills, the bills were paid.
Speaker 5:He is no longer. Those liens are not outstanding Because liens are not outstanding?
Speaker 3:How many Detroiters who are now judging him talking about greedy pastors also have had liens of some type in their accounts or lawsuits. Or lawsuits. I would love to actually I think we should do some FOIA on some of these reporters so we can find out what their finances are.
Speaker 4:No offense, but I'm sitting. You're going to have a lot of parking tickets. I have parking tickets.
Speaker 3:Well, you know what? I wouldn't do it for you, but for those people who've decided they're going to call people out stand in your own mess. You cannot judge people by a standard by which you're not going to be judged. The question is does he have outstanding debt now?
Speaker 3:The reporters aren't running for public office, but what they are doing is they are making judgments about the fitness of people that they would not allow to be made on themselves, because there is a public trust that we also give to reporters. Right Reporters get paid off too. Right Reporters sometimes take money under the table too. So if I'm worried about ethics, not the good ones.
Speaker 3:Not the good ones and not the good politicians. But ethics are ethics. If we're going to bring ethics to the table and I think we should I think there's certain lines we shouldn't cross. For example, $168,000 over 10 years is a whole lot different than $168,000 over one year, and the way we frame it and the way we describe it is either meant to exaggerate an issue or it's not. When Mike Duggan was running for mayor who brought his finances to the table, there's so many things in his past that were deemed not germane. In fact, we had ML Elric on here when he was running for city council and I pointed out to him all of the things that he did not cover in his coverage of Mike Duggan that he covers in his coverage of black politicians. I'm not willing to accept a double standard.
Speaker 1:I agree. I don't think there should be a double standard. I think I was asking a larger question outside of the situation with Ken Locke, and that is when people are seeking elective office, what does the public deserve to know? Yeah, I understand. So that's the answer that I'm trying to get. What do we want to know? I get that, but I think that what I'm saying is the gotcha stuff?
Speaker 3:no, I do want to know how they make their money. I do want to know who their relationships are. I do want to know who they got campaign contributions from.
Speaker 3:I do want to know this current state of their assets. Are you financially stable or are you vulnerable to blackmail? Those are reasonable questions, not some of the gotcha stuff, and that's what I differentiate. I want to know their fitness right now, not whether they've had past errors and I know that you know, because I think that those are two different frames and I think sometimes we get distracted by one or the other. I don't want to know whether Mary Sheffield has had any financial miscues. I don't want to know that about Silent Hill, jenkins or even Fred Durhall. I want to know what is your current status. Are you stable? Are you capable? Are you in the pocket of somebody and can I trust you? And I think that we know when that makes sense. I think it was a smear job and I think it was intentional.
Speaker 1:Oh for sure, that's why I said, and I think I was intentional, oh for sure, that's why I said, and I think I said that like from the outset, like it was a non-story from my vantage point as-.
Speaker 4:I heard a lot of journalists talking about the story. Not a lot of people, not a lot of people Right, so it's a non-story and people wouldn't care about that, especially because it's paid off and he's talking, he's going back, I think, story one that is relatable to thousands, tens of thousands of my fellow Detroiters, it will come.
Speaker 1:I will say this I am not surprised that that kind of story came from the Detroit News. Right, I'm not surprised about that. Both of you made around the things that the public deserves to know. I think even more importantly is the point that you're making is how we frame these things and how we engage with these candidates Now so far. Here's my gripe these people aren't sitting down for rigorous questions with journalists. They're not sitting down for a rigorous conversation to question their record, to question their platform, to get underneath the surface, I mean a lot of them— so far Mary has been the one that has the most.
Speaker 4:I will say she has answered questions from me and Malachi over 20 minutes. Phone calls that go on. So Mary has to the furthest degree, I think, of any of the candidates alongside Fred Durhall, who was just one call or text message away.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, I think that they all are responsible for answering questions and I think it was a misstep for him to not answer questions after the announcement Kinloch. It's disappointing and he's going to have to step up to the plate because there are questions about how he's going to do all of these things and details we want to know.
Speaker 1:People want to know, like the simple question will you still pastor?
Speaker 4:I think that's a question that a lot of folks which I've gotten sort of a half answer on that from folks close to Solomon, which is yes, really he believes that, or his people believe. Well, his people believe he believes. I should couch that, while his role as pastor will become limited and perhaps may not be weekly, he will still use that bully pulpit.
Speaker 1:What do y'all think about this? Right now there are two preachers running for mayor in the city of Detroit Solomon Kinloch and I guess this is news for some people but Mary Sheffield preaches. Mary Sheffield is a minister, she's a preacher.
Speaker 3:I think it's fine to be a minister. I think that people of faith should have the right to exercise their faith outside of whatever they're doing. As long as they are not saying things that are intolerant or harmful to people, I don't have a problem with that.
Speaker 1:I saw activists on the internet that said Detroit loved them a preacher and I laughed. I was like, Well, you know, we do.
Speaker 3:We are, you know, up South okay.
Speaker 1:We come from a place where we come from the church house.
Speaker 3:We're the church house and you know I don't actually come from that tradition, but I am definitely respectful of that tradition.
Speaker 1:I come from that.
Speaker 3:You come from that tradition okay, and I certainly worked at Vanguard for Second Ebenezer Church for seven years, so I have been steeped in that. I think it's important that we don't try to limit people's expression outside of their jobs. Raphael Warnock is somebody's reverend, he is somebody's.
Speaker 3:And I met him when he was just a reverend. I met him At Harvard right no, yes, at Harvard in 2002. I met him At Harvard right no, yes, at Harvard in 2002,. I met him and he was one of the most upstanding, genuine down-to-earth people, and he preached. I mean, he had to preach that final day. I was like, wow, he could be my pastor. He's great. So when he was running, I was really excited, and I can understand how, if that's your calling, you can't walk away. I think there have to be guardrails placed around it, though, and he can't be the senior pastor. He can be a pastor who sometimes comes and preaches Pastor at large, but you can't be running that church just like nobody?
Speaker 3:There's that conflict of interest if you're running the church and you're running that business, that's my money question, that's my question what's the money?
Speaker 4:question?
Speaker 1:What is the money?
Speaker 4:question? Well, that was my. You asked me what do we deserve to know? You know what? Are you going to absolve yourself from your business dealings? I mean, I told Solomon I was the only reporter to get FaceTime with Solomon after on Wednesday, the day of that extravaganza event at Fox Theater where more than 3,000 people came out to support him. And that's nothing. He's filled up rooms larger than that 40,000 members of Triumph altogether.
Speaker 4:I told him one of the questions that we would have asked you when talking about these 10,000 affordable housing units, when talking about these 10 new grocery stores how are you going to pay for it? He talks about these private-public partnerships and really kind of puts the impetus on nonprofits, saying you know, you guys need to step up and we need to have a better relationship.
Speaker 1:I think the relationship with the city yeah, you know, I think what he's trying to do is the relationship with the city, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:You know, I think that in addition to him talking to nonprofits, I would like for him to talk to me and other, I mean to the press, I would like for him to talk to me right.
Speaker 3:I think that when you run nonprofits and you're in these communities I've talked conversations when people run for office and they don't make time or make space for community leaders such as myself, that's a bad sign to me. So I'm hopeful that all of them will take the time to sit down and listen to what my expectations are and what my experiences are and what my perspectives are, because my expectations are and what my experiences are and what my perspectives are, because you know there's this way of people deciding that they're going to compete with the work that we do and that's not cool. And I'm not saying he will, but I'm saying I'm expecting a conversation and if not, then just like you will talk about him. Not speaking to the press, speak to us. You know the mayor, mayor Duggan, when he first came to office, had all these ideas. He was going to build 5,000 homes in five years. Remember that in the Fitzgerald.
Speaker 1:Oh, I remember. Oh goodness.
Speaker 3:And it was just never realistic and anybody who worked in the city would have known that if he had talked to us, but he didn't have enough respect to have that conversation, and so, again, I'm hoping that we'll continue having conversations.
Speaker 1:And this first comp plan dispossessed nonprofits doing that work of community development block grant dollars and all of the monies that nonprofits depended on to do the work do it intra-city. I wonder how that worked out. If you have topics that you want 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. It's time for shout-outs. Donna, you have any shout-outs?
Speaker 3:You know, you caught me unprepared, so you do your shout outs first.
Speaker 4:Sam, you have shout outs, shout out to all of the people that I saw over the weekend and the people that I missed at the Republican convention. Sorry, juicier, drama was at the Democratic one, so next year perhaps I'll go back, perhaps you'll get my attention.
Speaker 4:Republican friends and Sean Maddock and Jim Runstead. That my Republican friends and Mishawn Maddock and Jim Runstead. That was a surprise. Trump endorsed Mishawn and lost Strength of the Trump endorsement. Shout out to all the people that I saw there supporting Detroit One Million, which is my website, detroitonemillioncom. It's about a generation of us growing up in the state of Michigan without a city with a million people. If you guys look at the United States map and you see the states that have cities with a million people and you see the states that don't have cities with a million people tells a story. Competing forces are actively working to bring back one million people to the city Probably a million Detroiters running around in the world right now. That could tell you what the city was like when there were a million people here. Probably a lot of them are like we. There were a million people here. Probably a lot of them are like we don't want more people here.
Speaker 3:I mean, I think that I grew up in Detroit, where there was over a million people here and I can certainly speak to a lot of great things about Detroit. Then I think what Detroiters don't want is to be displaced and erased. And I think as long as people can come here respectfully and help to prop up whatever we have, that's great. But a lot of times, the plan is erasure, the plan is replacement. There is this narrative out there that Detroit was a great city and then Coleman Young came to town and then messed it all up. And now Doug and Kate.
Speaker 3:But listen, I grew up in Coleman Young's Detroit and I loved it and there were a lot of people who really loved their childhoods here, and so a lot of wealth was made here. A lot of business owners established business here, a lot of people purchased homes here, a lot of people sent their kids to college here. There was upward mobility here. So, despite the rhetoric, detroit went ahead over 1 billion people and we had successfully overcome housing segregation and many other ills like that. It was a good place to be growing up. But anyway, listen, I'm a subscriber and I encourage other people to go to Substack. I think the Substack is not owned by Musk or who are the other people. It's not owned by Zuckerberg. So I think Substack is a great place. Reddit, blue Sky get out of these other spaces, but I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1:I really want to divorce Facebook Exactly. I got to figure out how, because I'm over it and I'm over Twitter. I'm over all of it.
Speaker 3:Exactly Blue Sky. I like Blue Sky, but also Substack allows you to support your own journalists. So I support two journalists you and Phil Lewis and I will find other black journalists to support, maybe Joy Reid, if she starts a sub-sec account now that she's been pushed out. I try to support Roland Martin on YouTube because I think it's important that we support independent media. My shout out is for our new chief development officer.
Speaker 1:We have to have her on Deanna Solomon oh my goodness, deanna Solomon.
Speaker 3:It's been a long day Deanna Solomon has come to us and she's already made such a great difference. I really appreciate the partnership and I'm looking forward to what happens next.
Speaker 1:Congratulations. All right, thank you all so much for listening. Love you, neighbor. We'll see you next time. To the east side, there's a deal of the heart in the sky. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. To the east side, we finally got a piece of love. It's so bright in the kitchen. I've seen some burn on the grill. Took a whole lot of trying. It's so bright in the kitchen. Beans on burn on the grill. Took a whole lot of trying Just to get up back here.
