Black Detroit Democracy Podcast: Passing the Political Torch with Edythe Ford

The Authentically Detroit Podcast Network in collaboration with Detroit one million presents: The Black Detroit Democracy Podcast, hosted by Donna Givens Davidson and Sam Robinson!

Together, Donna and Sam illuminate the complexities of Detroit’s unique political landscape and give residents a resource for navigating civic engagement and election season.

On this episode, they are joined by the Director of Community Engagement and Organizing at MACC Development, City of Detroit Reparations Task Force member, and East Side Queen - Edythe Ford to discuss passing the political torch to the next generation of Detroiters. 

To learn more about Edythe and her legacy, click here.

Transcript

Detroit City Government's Purpose

Speaker 1 0:00

Detroit City Government is a service institution that recognizes its subordination to the people of Detroit . The city shall provide for the public , peace , health and safety of persons and property within its jurisdictional limits . The people have a right to expect aggressive action by the city's officers in seeking to advance , conserve , maintain and protect the integrity of the human , physical and natural resources of this city from encroachment and or dismantlement . The people have a right to expect city government to provide for its residents decent housing , job opportunities , reliable , convenient and comfortable transportation , recreational facilities and activities , cultural enrichment , including libraries , art and historical museums , clean air and waterways , safe drinking water and a sanitary , environmentally sound city . Keep it locked .

Speaker 2 1:17

The Black Detroit Democracy podcast starts right after these messages and businesses and organizations To learn more about rental options at MassDetroit contact Nicole Perry at nperry at ecn-detroitorg or 313-331-3485 .

Speaker 3 2:06

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to the Black Detroit Democracy Podcast . I'm Donna Givens-Davidson , president and CEO of the Eastside Community Network .

Speaker 4 2:14

I'm Sam Robinson , founder of Detroit . One Million .

Speaker 3 2:16

Thank you for listening in and supporting our expanded effort to build another 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 . The purpose of this podcast is to encourage Detroit citizens to stay vigilant in the fight for justice and equality . With a special call to action for Black Detroit

Word on the Street: Election Updates

Speaker 3 2:36

, we seek to build awareness of our history as a gateway to freedom , a beacon for justice and a laboratory of liberation . Sam and I are joined today by an Eastside queen and the director of community engagement and organizing at Mac Development , edith Ford , as well as a member of the Detroit City City of Detroit Reparations Task Force . Since 1942 , edith's family has served as the help house and welcoming committee of Pingree Park . When her grandparents bought their house , her grandmother passed as a white woman to skirt a restrictive covenant barring a sale to black people . Now , over 80 years later , edith is carrying on their legacy . Welcome back to the Black Detroit Democracy Podcast . How is everyone today ?

Speaker 4 3:18

Great , yeah , it's a beautiful day here . It's about 75 degrees and we didn't expect it . No , it's going to be 80 tomorrow .

Speaker 5 3:23

They say I cannot wait yeah .

Speaker 3 3:25

You know , I was talking with my husband last night and I was talking about how some people debate which is the better season , fall or spring . But there's something about spring and the renewal of nature and the lengthening of days and the beautiful , you know , just watching things bloom . That is just as opposed to fall . You're just watching things bloom .

Speaker 4 3:45

That is just as opposed to fall . You're watching them all die .

Speaker 3 3:47

Well , you know , yeah , but I just love it and I love looking at nature in the spring , so it's a beautiful time of year . You're absolutely right , it's a beautiful day .

Speaker 5 3:57

And the sun is healing for us as black people . That's why , you know , doctors at Wayne State now have us taking vitamin D , because it affects our health in the winter are you wearing sunscreen ? I just get shiny , I'm lighter in the winter . I'm out all the time they tell you to wear sunscreen .

Speaker 3 4:17

I still haven't started that one they do tell you to wear sunscreen and I'm like I never burn , that's never a problem . And then my kids started running track and that's when sunscreen became an issue , because sitting on metallic benches for eight hours in the hot sun I would come home sunburned . So I'm used to wearing sunscreen . So if I know I'm going to be at a track meet or somewhere else where I'm exposed to the sun for a long period of time , I do remember it , but it's not something that's been a practice of mine other than that Right on the bridge of my nose when I was a kid I'd be outside all day .

Speaker 4 4:49

That was the only ever sunburn I guess I could ever really remember having when I was a kid .

Speaker 5 4:53

It would make the side of my hair turn blind . Oh , wow or if I'm in Florida down south , I get sunburned . Oh wow , yeah , some burned actually , yeah .

Speaker 3 5:02

So well , it's a beautiful day and I don't think I am outside enough to get sunburned . Lately I feel like I'm indoors all of the time and I hope I don't miss all of today . But anyway , it's time for Word on the Street , where we break what everyone's been saying behind the scenes , and this is a really interesting day .

Speaker 4 5:21

Yeah , it is , sam . What have you been hearing ? Yeah , yesterday was the filing deadline . We're recording this Wednesday , april 23rd , and of course everyone was paying attention to who would get their signatures turned in and certified . A number of these candidates that turned in their signatures in the last few days are going to see their petitions certified or not in the next 10 days .

Speaker 4 5:47

But we have some surprises . We weren't expecting anyone else in District 4 . We see Vera Cunningham got her petitions in . She is an entrepreneur in District 4 there . She's going to challenge Letitia Johnson . She's the incumbent District 4 city council member . Challenge Letitia Johnson . She's the incumbent District 4 City Council member . We have some challengers from Scott Benson in District 3 and in District 7 . I think we have a couple more Clinton Topp and Jacqueline Dunlap names outside of Regina Ross , karen Whitsett names outside of Regina Ross , karen Witsett , denzel McCampbell . Dustin Campbell did get his name . It looks like he's going to appear on the ballot . After all , he was having a court fight in the third district court with the same judge who , to my understanding , would see Gabriela Santiago Romero's campaign if she takes it to court . Now what is happening in District 6 ? That seems to be the talk of this week .

Speaker 5 6:50

Is Dustin Campbell in District 6? .

Speaker 4 6:52

Dustin Campbell is in District 7 .

Speaker 5 6:54

Oh , okay , yeah .

Speaker 4 6:55

I met him at Babo last week . Yeah , I have been speaking to Gabriela Santiago Romero's campaign manager and they are telling me that they feel like the Wayne County clerk made a mistake . They feel like they acknowledge that they accidentally turned in quarterly filing when they should have turned in a pre-election filing quarterly filing when they should have turned into pre-election filing . And so what happened was they got a late fee because they didn't turn in the correct filing . They got confirmation that that filing was turned in correctly after it was turned in correctly , but it had been so many days so it was a misunderstanding whether or not the fee still applied and there was no , I guess , confirmation on either end that that fee , you know , could prevent her from accessing the ballot when she turned in her petitions . And that's exactly what happened .

Speaker 4 7:58

You have two sides , you know sort of with with they there . You know it's very two different sides here and it sounds like it's going to go to court . Their campaign has retained Mark Brewer . He is one of Michigan's most powerful Democratic attorneys and so we'll see what happens . But even if she is denied ballot access , ultimately she can still appear on the ballot in November If she is one of two people candidates who succeed in the primary election on August 4th . That is the ballot that she would not appear on if she's disqualified .

Speaker 3 8:32

Yeah , so wow , I mean , it's kind of wild to me that these kind of technicalities I was reading and she filed a report within the deadline and just made a mistake and picked the wrong kind of report and unfortunately , those types of mistakes end up costing you . And I think in her mind , if I'm not mistaken and you can correct me if I'm wrong in her mind because she had already filed the report and she was just correcting an error in where it was filed or how it was labeled . In her mind she filed the report on time . I think she corrected it one time and she corrected it incorrectly and then she corrected

Ballot Access and Political Technicalities

Speaker 3 9:09

it a second time , and the second time may have taken her past the deadline or something like that , but it was not a matter of intention to not file , and I think that what the courts may be weighing is is this mistake a rationale for denying her ballot access ?

Speaker 3 9:26

How do we interpret the rules ? Do we think the rules are intended to stop people who try to do the right thing or to stop people who simply fail to submit ? It's not clear . She says that she was never billed for that late filing fee , and so there's another question of whose responsibility is it to know or to notify her that she owes that ? Should she just assume that these are going to be interesting questions asked in court ? But I know that for many people that are in Southwest Detroit Hispanic , latino people there's a feeling that there is some corruption there . And I'm not certain that there is corruption . But I've talked to a few people who've wondered who got paid off in order to deny her ballot access . Have you heard that at all , sam ?

Speaker 4 10:10

I have heard Gabby tell Malachi that . No , I don't believe it's anything nefarious . You know these kinds of issues have been plaguing candidates over the last three , four years , obviously going back to James Craig and the number of Republican gubernatorial candidates that paid the wrong firm .

Speaker 4 10:27

That's a whole different separate issue but as Daniel Baxter told me . He said , unfortunately some candidates only discover they have outstanding obligations when their names are denied placement on the ballot . He told me that on Monday . I found this out on Monday and you know this was a pretty dramatic story . She is a popular progressive . People view her as an up-and-comer within Michigan Democratic bench .

Speaker 3 10:52

She's one of the few people from a different part of the city , representing Southwest obviously , who's actually worked with us , and so I really do want to stand with her for being a real progressive candidate who has really fought , not just for people in her community , but really seen herself as a council person for the city of Detroit , and so , although she's not at large , she's elected in her district . I really appreciate her partnership .

Speaker 4 11:17

She , politically , was very critical , openly , of the Democratic messaging during the 2024 campaign , of Kamala Harris' campaign and their sort of appealing to conservatism . She was proudly standing with Palestinian , arab American , muslim American voices and leaders in Hart Plaza during marches that they had following October 7th marches that they had following October 7th . So you know , it's really interesting if she is in fact denied placement on the ballot . Tyrone Carter he is a state representative that represents Detroit , southwest . You know , for decades . People know his name . People are going to go to the poll knowing Gabby's name and I really wonder what a write-in campaign looks like in that district , I would imagine with a candidate there , anita Martin , who , to my observations , has been connected to Lorenzo Sewell's 180 Church . She is a Republican activist who famously spoke at Trump's inauguration invoking Martin Luther King sort of mocking or mimicking , some would argue . But Anita Martin does not have the base or support that Gabby does , and so I sort of see a primary campaign having to do a write-in . Not that big of a deal . I think she makes that top two .

Speaker 3 12:41

I agree with you , and I think also because I have talked to people who live in Southwest Detroit not Gabby herself .

Speaker 3 12:47

She's a politician . She certainly can't , even if she believed there was that kind of malfeasance , accuse people of it , but there are other people in the community who do , and I think that sometimes that actually motivates people to vote for her and to get out there and learn how to spell her name . Maybe she can have a commercial expelling . It would be a little bit more difficult than D-U-G-G-A-N , but we've seen that happen in the past , haven't we ? Yes , yes , and so I think it's always good , when people are doing the right thing or attempting to do the right thing , that their names are on the ballot , and I do want to differentiate that from some of these campaigns pains . If you're paying people to collect petitions and you're not out there knocking on doors and in the streets , you're depending on people who have no connection to you other than a paycheck , then you kind of get what you paid for For candidates who are pounding the pavement and delivering on promises , that kind of thing . I hate to see them caught up in technicalities .

Speaker 4 13:44

I will say it is the same mechanism of paying somebody . It's not Gabby herself filing these campaigns . No , that's not what I mean .

Speaker 3 13:52

What I mean is collecting signatures . If you're paying people to collect signatures . To me , that's different than if you are collecting those signatures yourself and right now I'm not certain .

Speaker 4 14:02

I would imagine all of her . You know her signatures would have been certified . I don't see that they had been but that was , you know , likely because of the issue of her getting disqualified off the ballot . But you know she turned in 600 signatures the other day and you know certainly she has lots of support in Southwest Detroit among you know people like me and like my friends . You know folks like you . But Tyrone is coming man the real Southwest . You guys can go back a couple episodes and listen to Reverend Larry Simmons talk about that sort of conversation happening . You know it's kind of an ugly one going on in Southwest right now .

Speaker 5 14:41

Are you familiar with that ? No , I haven't heard that , but I wanted to add this . Me being in the Detroit Democratic Party on one of their committees , I am noticing that candidates it's happened on the caucus level in the party don't file their paperwork . So why isn't anybody behind them to make sure the correct paperwork is getting in , the stuff is getting in on time ? And it's with our younger candidates , you know .

Speaker 3 15:15

I think that that's true . I think there's so many aspects to running for office . Right , you form a campaign committee and people on that campaign committee have roles and responsibilities , and you hope that they're smart enough . What I've also seen is some candidates outsourcing the collection of signatures and the buildup of political support . That's different . That's a choice . You're always going to have a campaign committee and you want qualified people at every step of the way , but you're running for office and it just seems to me as though I was running for office and I never will . So I'm going to put that on the table .

Speaker 3 15:48

But if I ever ran for office , I would be in people's faces , talking to them and asking them to vote for me , because there's something very personal about that that motivates voters , and I think it's important also so that you can connect with people . We interviewed Fred Durhall yesterday and he talked about going to all parts of the city to collect signatures outside of even his District 7 . We interviewed Santil Jenkins and she talked about riding the bus and actually stopping in various places across the community . That , to me , that kind of shoe leather , is what I want to see . I know , edith , you have been a real critic of people not showing up on the East Side .

Speaker 5 16:23

On the East Side , if you don't show up at our door , we're not voting for you . I mean , we want to see the candidate knocking on my door when candidates come in the neighborhood . If I'm at work , I get 10 calls to come home right now and they will . If they have a problem with them they'll work that out , but that's who they're voting for yeah .

Speaker 3 16:45

So I hope that we say two things . I think one of them is just the expertise in running the campaign machine , and we need to make sure that the people who are running the campaign machines are well-trained and understand their roles and responsibilities . And the other thing is hey , candidates , please , please , please , collect at least some of your own signatures .

Speaker 4 17:03

And when you can't Adam Olie tells me this year he's going to look himself , he's going to collect signatures himself .

Speaker 3 17:08

Yes , he should be collecting himself . And also , you know , when you have friends and family and people who believe in you collecting signatures , they're much less likely to have Mike and Mel Elric's wife sign her name twice on two different forms the idea you know you have . I don't want to go back to that . I kind of do . If you are running for office and you are a black candidate in the city of Detroit and ML Elric's wife is falsified on your petition , somebody did that on purpose , because there's nobody who will research that more thoroughly than ML Elric , and so the idea that it happened . There were two petitions , separate positions .

Speaker 5 17:45

And she didn't know she was signed . She didn't sign .

Speaker 3 17:47

She did not sign . Ok , someone falsified her signature on two separate forms . It's almost asking for that , because there's also the opportunity for political corruption , like , if I'm paying somebody and I'm running against you , edith , you might actually be able to pay them more to silence me . Adam Olier was running against a billionaire .

Speaker 5 18:12

And you know the billionaire . He was buying people cars and all that kind of stuff . He could buy people cars .

Speaker 3 18:15

All he had to do was and I'm not saying that that's what happened , but it very well

Political Candidates and Community Engagement

Speaker 3 18:19

could have happened yeah you know , and so I just don't want to get you know .

Speaker 4 18:23

That's why I don't sign my name , you know , sorry , every candidate that has ever asked me to sign their petition . No , I will not , because I don't want to look like you know any kind of you know impropriety or conflict .

Speaker 3 18:38

I sign petitions all of the time if I believe in something or someone .

Speaker 4 18:42

It's not the signing of the petition that's the problem , as you should Me in my role .

Speaker 3 18:47

Well , that's true . It's not the signing of the petition , that's the problem . It is somebody else putting my name on the petition without my permission . That I have issues with , and you know it may appear some places , but it's just kind of funny because if you know who ML Elric is and who he has been in the city in terms of political muckraker , the last person you want to do is put his wife , Tressa Beldas , who is actually a reporter for Detroit Free Press , on your petition twice .

Speaker 5 19:16

Somebody had a good laugh .

Speaker 3 19:19

I laughed really , really hard when I saw that . I guess but yeah , that's the word on the street Anything interesting with the mayors ? It seems like the mayoral field expanded a little bit yesterday .

Speaker 4 19:29

Well , you know , we see who the field is . I don't think it's really changed in terms of the candidates that people are taking really seriously .

Speaker 3 19:37

Right , but there's some names I've never heard of Not to disrespect any of these candidates .

Speaker 4 19:40

Not to disrespect any of them , but you Not to disrespect any of them , but there's five candidates that have supporters . I'm going to be honest .

Speaker 5 19:47

I thought it was 19 people running .

Speaker 4 19:48

No , I think there's nine . Now they cut it down . I think there was like 34 people that pulled petitions to run . It actually was a number and it's whittled down . A number of them have their signatures certified already and then again in 10 days we will find out who's officially on the ballot .

Speaker 3 20:06

Yeah , you know , I hear you and I agree with you . It's just interesting to read some names because we are actually having a campaign forum at ECN on June 21st , and so we reached out to all of the candidates and , as you know , sam , we're doing a mayoral series on Authentically Detroit , and so we've reached out to every single candidate , as we should , to invite them in and tell their story . Now there's some we have not heard from at all and might need somebody's help contacting some of them , because they're not responding to any of our outreach . Others we just hadn't heard of , and so now it's like , ok , we have to do more work now , get more names on there . Who do you think you said there's a top five ? Who are the top five , sam ?

Speaker 4 20:46

Well , I'm going to say , you know , todd Perkins has a little bit of a base . You know he's really confident in himself . You know , sunteel Jenkins and Fred Durhall definitely have a base , solomon Kinloch and Mary Sheffield and of course Hollywood Craig , you know . So maybe that's six , but those are what's .

Speaker 3 21:05

Hollywood Craig's base .

Speaker 4 21:06

You know they're people that are his friends , I think , and Republican voters . In Detroit there's 19,000 of them that voted for Trump . Don't know the overlap there in terms of the blacker huh . Yeah Well , you know Lorenzo Sewell's soul to the polls when Andy Church , he hosted Trump Just today . From a source I hear that Lorenzo this is for the first time , I haven't even tweeted this out yet Lorenzo is actually considering running as a Republican in Michigan's opening Senate seat in Congress .

Speaker 3 21:32

I think he should . I think he should . I think all of those people who think that they have a political future doing this should . So they can lose publicly . Craig is on the ballot and stays on the ballot .

Speaker 4 21:44

He'll be on the ballot this time around .

Speaker 5 21:46

But they don't care about losing publicly , they just keep running and running .

Speaker 3 21:50

Well , you know he hasn't really lost publicly . He tried to get on the gubernatorial ballot and messed up with the signatures once again .

Speaker 4 21:56

So it was a clean slate for him In his mind . This is his first real campaign .

Speaker 3 22:00

Yes , I cannot wait . And you know , he actually embraced the term Hollywood .

Speaker 4 22:05

I thought that was so ridiculous that was the first words that he said to the podium at this barbershop press conference . I wasn't actually there , I was watching it . You know , Hollywood Craig is back . Y'all , oh Lord .

Speaker 3 22:18

And he has been so missed right .

Speaker 4 22:22

It's interesting I was talking .

Speaker 3 22:24

I was out somewhere I'm not going to tell you where I was because I don't want to give away the person but my husband and I were out somewhere on Saturday talking to somebody who shall remain nameless , and they were talking about the political stuff that's going on . I said , you know , I just am disappointed that Trump didn't get the stock market up like he did last time . And why is he having to put tariffs on everybody in China ? I mean , he said he was going to China . Why is he doing it to everybody ? And I'm sitting here looking at this man like You're on Earth .

Speaker 5 22:50

Three .

Speaker 3 22:50

You are on Earth . Three black man . I'm sorry you voted for him because you thought he was going to make you wealthier , Because he thought he was going to make him rich in his T-shirt and pit bull puppy business . Trump don't care . So it's interesting to me how people can make decisions , and we're in this era now where we're told that people make political decisions based on self-interest , and it's so horrible to me to think that the only interest we care about is self .

Speaker 3 23:22

You know , imagine there were people back in 1862 or something like that , who were not themselves enslaved , who are not African-American , who were voting for people because they wanted to see African-American people free . I imagine there were people who in the 1930s , who were not themselves poor , who voted for FDR because they wanted to see economic parity . It should not always be about you and you listen to some people and it's like this one lady was online and she was saying things like I thought I was going to get free IVF and so I voted for Trump to get free IVF . And it's like so mass deportation did not stand in your way and all of the racism did not stand in your way , as all of the racism did not stand in your way . As long as you have a baby through IVF , you're cool , right His lie .

Speaker 5 24:09

This is what I don't get . He's been racist before he ever ran for president . Everything has been about him always . So how did he win in 2016 ? How could he win now ? And that's because this country is built on racism . Yeah , and that is their focus Not understanding that every freedom , even the freedom of this nation from Great Britain , was from the blood and the work of black people well , you know , I think that as we move forward , as we move forward we have to think about .

Speaker 3 24:50

there have been so many amazing movements that we don't even know about . There's a chicana movement here . There has been a native american movement in detroit . Very interestingly , japan actually sent people in the Black Dragon Society to Detroit who were actually instrumental in forming the Nation of Islam . Some of the partners in that to build alliances , and so I think that the multiracial alliance has been significant , that you have people who have been left out and cut out , and we hear about movements almost in silos , but what Barack Obama represented was all of these people came together and worked with a minority of white people then to put a black person in office , and I feel as though there has been effort ever since to fragment a multiracial coalition of people and have us infighting . Well , we're the ones who deserve this and we're the ones who deserve this , and some people do it all in the name of Christ and it's like did you read the Bible ?

Speaker 3 25:49

or is it me , because I don't think that there was this choice about . These are the people who matter . You were born , you're human and therefore you should matter , and our love for people should transcend our self-interest , at least to the extent where people are having their basic needs met , when my self-interest allows me to be okay watching somebody snatched off the streets and taken anywhere , putting in an El Salvadoran prison , if my self-interest tells me that's okay and I'm also saying I'm Christian , I might have some mental illness or I'm lying about something because- .

Speaker 3 26:29

You haven't read the Bible , you haven't read , or if you've read the Bible . You stopped at the Old Testament . You never got to .

Speaker 5 26:34

But even in the Old Testament it's over 69 verses in the Bible that says you must take care of the foreigner or the traveler like it was your family . Help them start a crop , help them build their homes , treat them like your family . Is that taking care of the poor and children and the elderly ? You can commit all other kinds of sins and be forgiven . You will not be forgiven for that . So I don't know where they get this idea .

Speaker 3 27:06

There's passages in the Bible that defend all kinds of stuff , including slavery . So I think that people can read the Old Testament and pick out the books , but what you cannot read is the gospel of Jesus Christ Exactly , and tell yourself hate is okay . And I can say this right after Easter , that on Easter Sunday I was really thinking about the fact that Jesus was an undocumented immigrant , homeless , homeless , and he was also a rabble rouser . Yes , and this undocumented , homeless rabble rouser somehow was killed by the masses for not really standing up for blasphemy . Standing up for blasphemy , and look what we're doing right now for homeless , undocumented people who stand up and express their voice .

Speaker 3 27:46

The idea that we're going to raid or kick somebody out of this country because they fight for what they believe in with their heart , the idea that somehow we can twist what they believe in and call it anti-Semitism when whole Nazis are part of this government , it makes no sense to me .

Speaker 3 28:02

It's okay . I mean you know it wasn't that long ago when good people on both sides were , or on one side were , marching , saying Jews will not replace us , but anti-Semitism is saying don't kill Palestinians , stop the genocide . It just makes no sense and it speaks to something like you said . That is really rotten in our culture . But I also want to say that my grandmother is rising up in me and reminding me that , yes , I am a black woman , proudly black , never want to run away from that . But I'm also a woman who believes that all people of all ethnicities matter , and we have a whole lot of people who are treated like they are discardable in our society right now , and if it doesn't break your heart , it should One of those stories right now is this guy , Hugo Prada .

Speaker 1 28:49

He was a Venezuelan immigrant living in Detroit .

Speaker 4 28:53

One of his friends in Chicago says he simply disappeared in January . He took a wrong turn , went over the Ambassador Bridge and never came back . There might be more people that are being captured in these videos that they're posting and promoting than we first knew , and so this is a New York Times story that people are reacting to today , from April 22nd . Abdul El-Sayed is a Democratic candidate for US Senate , among Haley Stevens and Mallory McMurrow . We hear Joe Tate's going to throw his name in that mix as well .

Speaker 5 29:29

Yeah , he told me that Friday . And what does he think ? What ?

Speaker 4 29:31

did he tell you ?

Speaker 5 29:33

I said well , what's going on ?

Speaker 4 29:35

How you ?

Speaker 5 29:35

guys going to beat it and he was like well , you know , the Republicans are in charge , but you're not saying anything . And this is my problem with our party . Sometimes , when you get there and you know something's going on , that's not right . Why aren't you telling us your constituents , so we can get behind it too ?

Speaker 3 29:57

You're opening up such a great line of questioning . We are going to take a break and come back and revisit that question because it's important .

Michigan Senate Race Analysis

Speaker 2 30:14

Detroit One Million is a journalism project started by Sam Robinson that centers a generation of Michiganders growing up in a state without a city with one million people . Support the only independent reporter covering the 2025 Detroit mayoral race through the lens of young people . Good journalism costs . Visit DetroitOneMillioncom to support Black independent reporting . And we're back .

Speaker 3 30:55

And Edith was questioning why we don't hold our own people accountable . Why is it that we allow the kinds of things to happen that are happening in our society , where Democrats don't tell people what's wrong ? And I think that it's not a matter of Democrats or Republicans . I think it's a matter of political parties existing more like cliques and clubs and gangs sometimes than actual sources of democracy . Democracy should transcend your party label , but when you get into those party offices , then you are disloyal if you say certain things or do certain things . The Democrats have a much wider range of things you can do , but one of the things you can't really do is criticize Democrats and still , you know , remain in good graces . So I think that might be one of the things , but what else were you seeing at the ? Where were you at , where you had this conversation ? Let's talk about that .

Speaker 5 31:43

Oh , I was at the annual TULC Good Friday Fish Fry .

Speaker 3 31:49

What's TULC Trade ?

Speaker 5 31:50

Union Leadership Council . Tell me the history of that before you go on the history of that . The Trade Union Leadership Council was started as the UAW was being created . The UAW was being created and it was a lot of union leaders Sheffield , mary , sheffield's grandfather , a few others that started that leadership council to help expand our rights for African Americans to be in the union and to get benefits . So I think for about 35 , 40 years they've had this fish fry and in between elections it's like maybe 100 people there , but when it's election seasons everybody is there and everybody running for office was there .

Speaker 3 32:44

And this because this is an exciting election season . We have a real competitive mayoral race and District 5 and District 7 .

Speaker 5 32:51

Even the mayor was there . Oh wow , it was all kind of people .

Speaker 3 32:55

Gubernatorial candidates were there . It's primarily black .

Speaker 5 33:00

It's primarily black , so it was kind of different seeing the mayor there . But it's primarily black and I've kind of different seeing the mayor there , but it's primarily black and I've noticed there's younger people there now which I really appreciate , you know , and they're out there trying to get you to volunteer or help them run for office eating drinks .

Speaker 3 33:20

Yeah , I was going to say you were telling us earlier that the food was good and the drinks were better .

Speaker 5 33:24

Yeah , the food was good , the drinks was good and like . I kind of get around . So I made sure I took a picture with everybody and they were like are you going to vote for me ? And my thing is , if you're over 50 , you can hang it up . I'm not voting for you . We need some younger progressive candidates for you . We need some younger progressive candidates . As older people we can sit back in the cut , give advice and help promote them .

Speaker 4 33:50

That's why we're friends , you must like the Senate race now . Then he's got all these 40-year-old Democrats running for Congress .

Speaker 5 33:56

Yeah , but to me you got to be younger because our people are afraid . Now . They are afraid to speak up , they are afraid to be bold . You have to speak up and you can't worry about the consequences .

Speaker 4 34:10

Mid-30s . That's a good Mid-30s yes .

Speaker 3 34:15

We could have people in their 20s running quite honestly for a lot of these seats you don't have to even be in your 30s .

Speaker 3 34:21

I think there is brilliance that is encouraged . The young people sometimes have more courage , but when you get into these systems , a lot of times your courage is sacrificed for a sense of belonging . And so we do need people inside of party spaces , but when you look at what Rosa Parks did , it was not within anybody's political party . She was in the streets doing it . When you look at what MLK did , it was not as part of anybody you know . I mean , let's see Malcolm X talked about the ballot or the bullet . Yes , but whose party did he belong to this idea that progress and justice are going to be found inside of parties which have their own self-interest at stake ? You have to push institutions to reform . Institutions don't reform themselves . If I can do what I want to do , then I could be 100 years old . Nancy Pelosi could be in Congress until she's 100 , because it's her self-interest and other people have found it to be in their until she's 100 . Because it's her self-interest and other people have found it to be in their self-interest to keep her there .

Speaker 4 35:28

What do you got to be ? Do you got to have a little power for that to go anywhere ? Because I hear people who do just that . Their message doesn't go anywhere . Talk about some of these candidates .

Speaker 3 35:38

Well , I think that their message doesn't go anywhere because they don't have a vehicle to spread the message . Right , what you're doing on Substack Detroit one million y'all , he's going to get to a million of us . It's important . I think even the little bit that we're doing here is important . You've got to create a forum for messages to be heard . I think also about people who did make change , when you think about the outrageous idea that Barack Obama became president of the United States . Whatever you think about his politics , he was out there in small towns .

Speaker 1 36:10

He was organizing people .

Speaker 3 36:15

He was finding points of similarity . He was saying to people hey , listen , I know you live in this farming town and you've never really talked to black people , but we care about the same things and he was able to relate to them . But we care about the same things and he was able to relate to them . If I were running for office free advice , right for state office I'd be talking to people in small town America , in all these places , helping them understand the conditions that unite us across the state . We're all dealing with a housing crisis . We're all dealing with underemployment . We're all dealing with if we want to talk about it too much violence . We're all dealing with too much drug addiction . We're all dealing with all of these things and we can come together and as one we can change things . But if people don't have a compelling message , if you're running on a very safe democratic platform that's bought and paid for by the corporate investors , then you're not going to get at any kind of change . So I look forward to seeing candidates get out there . And the other thing is not one and done right .

Speaker 3 37:08

How many candidates ran one time ? It didn't work . You ran for the same office a second time . Maybe by the third time it works .

Speaker 4 37:15

That's Mike Rogers' bet .

Speaker 3 37:16

Well , you know .

Speaker 4 37:18

For the Republican Senate To some extent .

Speaker 3 37:19

It's Abdul's bet ? Yeah sure , but you know he's not running Different race . Abdul's bet yeah sure , but he's not running Different race . It's a different race because again he ran for governor . It was a big wild card thing Run for governor again . And then I watched his commercial and I'm not sure the message is the same . Maybe it just feels different . For me All-American Abdul feels a little bit different than the old Abdul .

Speaker 4 37:40

He's still Bernie-backed . He's going to get the AOC , I would imagine .

Speaker 3 37:43

Oh yeah , he will , but I mean whether or not the— .

Speaker 4 37:46

I think it's a response to the moment . You know , his—this is the Bernie version of meeting . The moment is to do what Whitmer did it it's to appeal to men , and that's exactly what he did . You see what he said . It was like I'm a podcast , bro , and I like cars .

Speaker 3 38:02

His appeal is to men , to white men in particular .

Speaker 5 38:07

Yeah , how does that help people ? I feel you have to meet people where they are . How does that help my neighbors ? How does that help that guy that's up at the gas station up on Van ?

Speaker 3 38:17

Dyke and Mac . I don't think he's running for your neighbors either .

Speaker 3 38:19

Yeah , and that's the issue , and I think one of the things that Bernie Sanders has been very , very vocal about is the need to get rid of identity politics , which is so outrageous to me when Donald Trump is the epitome of identity politics and it worked because he is a white man and he ran on white manhood and the supremacy of white men and won but this idea that somehow ethnic minorities and women should suppress their identities , that we can run as a raceless people . Bernie Sanders attributes racism to economic stress , not understanding that racism transcends all of that , and so I think running and like that may attract a few white men . I mean , I don't think it's going to attract very many .

Speaker 4 39:05

But it also Some of those people go into the Bernie Sanders rallies .

Speaker 3 39:07

They do , they go to the rallies . There's 10,000 of them .

Speaker 4 39:10

Those are the biggest rallies going on right now . Most of them don't care , because what happens ?

Speaker 5 39:14

You know who had nice rallies . Because it doesn't affect them .

Speaker 3 39:17

I mean Kamala Harris had great rallies .

Speaker 5 39:19

Her rallies were good . I mean , I was at some of her rallies .

Speaker 3 39:22

It was like whoa , everybody's here Rallies , don't vote . And the reality is that there's people who would vote for you if they felt like you were running for them , and I would love to see Do you think he's taking his Arab-American-Muslim support for granted a little bit , not talking to them directly in the initial ads ?

Speaker 4 39:38

I mean he's going to get their vote , I mean .

Speaker 3 39:41

I don't think some of them are Republicans . I think some of them are Democrats .

Speaker 4 39:44

They're going to vote for him .

Speaker 3 39:47

Some of them will . I think some of them won't . I think he stands for things that some of them don't support , because I really don't think that people vote solely on identity . I think people also vote on other social issues , and he is definitely . Unless he's moved right on a whole lot of social issues , there's some people who will never vote for it . I , he's moved right on a whole lot of social issues , there's some people who will never vote for it .

Speaker 3 40:06

I said unless he has there's some things people will never vote for , remember . There's some people who are really staunchly anti-LGBTQ . There's some people who are very staunchly anti-abortion , anti-reproductive freedom , anti-woman , and so if he's not running on those messages , just being Arab American enough is not going to get him over that hump enough is not going to get him over that hump , are there even ? Enough Arab Americans to wear it ?

Speaker 4 40:25

That's the question 100% of them vote for him . A lot of people are viewing him as a Mallory spoiler . Mallory's got a lot of support and had the viral speech that Hillary Clinton retweeted and everything . She had a lot of support in DC as well . How that translates to West .

Speaker 3 40:45

Michigan and up north . Yeah , who else is running for Senate ?

Speaker 4 40:47

Haley Stevens and of course we're going to hear Joe in the next few weeks , but Haley's going to get that West Michigan support from Democrats and certainly is it by next year . Are we going to be really , really angry and really really upset , to the point where her saying you know Chuck Schumer is a great leader , is that going to bite her , you know come next year , I think , if people he needs to go too she's defending him . Of course she is .

Speaker 3 41:17

It's the machine . It's the machine exactly , and the machine itself can only be saved by renewal , and it can only be renewed by people taking the power back from that machine what do you think about mallory ?

Speaker 5 41:30

I don't even know her .

Speaker 3 41:31

Yeah , I mean none of these people . This is the black detroit democracy podcast . This is the black detroit democracy podcast . Yes , right , and my thing is this what do any of these people have to say to black people , other than showing in some little pieces of photo ops passing out things to black kids ? What is Abdul's message to black people ? Running as an all-American Abdul , because we certainly don't feel all-American right at this moment , I think that we feel .

Speaker 4 41:58

I think he would tell you , I think he would have a Say it publicly .

Speaker 3 42:02

But you don't whisper it to me . What is your public message ? Because , as a community , when we see people disavow us or seem to disavow us or move away from us , we feel betrayed . He might lose some support for people feeling betrayed by him , but it's not about him , it's not about Mallory , it's not about any of these people , it's not even about Joe Tate . It is really about our people running on messaging that resonates with black Detroiters . Are they running on messaging that resonates with black people in Flint , in Saginaw , in Midland , in Muskegon , in Benton Harbor ? If you're not running on those messages , you're not going to assume

Building Multiracial Coalitions for Justice

Speaker 3 42:39

that you're going to get that black vote People . May you know what is it ? Somebody said the couch is the biggest threat , not necessarily your opponent . What is it about , haley ? That ?

Speaker 4 42:48

people think that she's going to get some of the , you know , southfield , lathrop Village , black elder , the auntie class , that's what they say Black people are burned out .

Speaker 5 42:58

They are tired .

Speaker 3 43:00

Especially after this last election Yep .

Speaker 5 43:02

They feel betrayed . They have saved everybody's life every step of the way .

Speaker 3 43:11

Well , have we ?

Speaker 5 43:13

I'm not trying to be mean , but I really want to question that Most things that we've done .

Speaker 3 43:19

But I'm just saying , you know , example we were .

Speaker 5 43:22

The thing they voted against . Look , the 14th Amendment . Everybody's been blessed by that .

Speaker 3 43:30

Yeah , but that was . But I just want to challenge that right . Okay , because when people were fighting against genocide and are still fighting against genocide in the Middle East , were we really saving people's lives ? Were we really at the forefront of that ? Because it seems to me as though a lot of us were not openly , physically putting ourselves on the line for that . When it comes to mass deportations , have we really been on the side of that ? I've heard so many people actually agree to some extent . I think the reality is that we have played a very , very significant and powerful role in freedom and justice movements all across the world , but so have some of our allies , and I think the best way for us to really look at it and say how do we hold hands with these other people who probably feel and I've heard some of them say abandoned by us , and how do ?

Speaker 3 44:19

we hear that how do we hear that without being defensive and saying you know what ? No , we've been for you . If people feel abandoned , maybe we should hear them . I'm looking for the intersectional candidate who really does care about us and is going to fight for black people , but can understand that injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere . When I think about Martin Luther King , he began his fight on behalf of black issues Towards the end of his life . What was he fighting ? He was fighting against war in Vietnam .

Speaker 1 44:45

He was fighting for trade unions .

Speaker 3 44:47

He was fighting against poverty , and all of those things transcended his racial identity . When I think about Malcolm X , where did he begin ? Nation of Islam ?

Speaker 5 44:56

He was white devils .

Speaker 3 44:57

He goes to Mecca and comes back and he says you know what , let's fight for justice . And so I think we are at our best when we fight for justice , as we are never leaving our own people behind and always making sure our people are there , but recognizing that ours is not the only important fight .

Speaker 5 45:15

I think we are not leaving that . It's just that people are disappointed and they're tired . But at the end of the day , if we don't get out there and fight , we're going to be in that mess too .

Speaker 3 45:27

And if we don't get out there and fight together ?

Speaker 5 45:29

And together there are not enough you talk about .

Speaker 3 45:31

Are there enough Arab people ? Are there enough black people to vote to elect somebody statewide ? Nope , nope . Are there enough Arab people ? Nope . Are there enough Hispanic people ? Nope . Are there enough Indian , asian people Nope . But are there enough people who can coalesce with allies among the white community and when ?

Speaker 5 45:47

I think so , and I think that's the challenge , and we need to have them conversations , like Fred Hampton was having in Chicago . They scared the authorities so bad . He went to the poor white people , he went to the Puerto Ricans and then they all figured out their problem and enemy was the same person . And it's time for us to have them conversations , because we'd have gotten away from each other and everybody's in their own silo and it's just time to sit down and have those hard conversations like I have with my neighbors . They don't want to have them publicly allowed .

Speaker 4 46:23

We don't have to . We haven't gotten away from each to . We have been played against each other yes .

Speaker 3 46:26

We have been played against each other . Donald Trump , Mexican people are taking black jobs . That's playing us against each other and rather than us saying you know what , let's put our arms around Mexican people who are doing jobs , and you know , working under inhumane conditions . Instead , there's people who say , well , what is a black job ? Uh-uh , we're too good for that , and I mean , that's not . You know what I'm saying .

Speaker 3 46:48

Sometimes we have a way of not intending to , but playing into the hands of people who would divide us . So Fred Hampton is a perfect example . Fred Hampton became dangerous when he reached outside the black community .

Speaker 5 46:59

And they all started getting along together , martin Luther .

Speaker 3 47:01

King was executed when he started reaching outside of the black community . Malcolm X was executed when he stopped . Paul Robeson had his passport snatched when he went around the world and started to unite people across the world . It's dangerous .

Speaker 5 47:15

You can go back to Bacon's Rebellion . They got mad . They gave the white indentured service lands and enslaved the black people . Like whenever we get together to unite but we have I think now is this time that there is going to be a change , it's going to be a break in this .

Speaker 3 47:35

What do you think , Sam ? You're not from here , but you've been here . You've talked to a whole lot of people . Do you see us uniting ?

Speaker 4 47:42

You know , I just think the conversation , when you talk about having those difficult conversations people are retreating more than when I first started interacting with public bodies of government , elected officials in politics . You know , almost 10 years now , since 2015 , 16 , 17 . People are retreating more and they're not able to be . There's like this spoken language among Democrats , this unspoken language , excuse me , and you saw Elizabeth Warren be asked about Biden's mental acuity and she said well , I said what I believed to be true at the time . And before she said that , you know , she kind of gave a like you know , an expression on her face to indicate that you know , we knew , yes , we knew that that Biden's mental acuity wasn't as sharp as it was in 21 . And we all just felt like we needed to be loyal and allegiant to the Democratic leadership . And I think that is not happening with Republicans . They're getting steam , they're steamrolling over the Republicans . Republicans are afraid happening with .

Speaker 3 48:45

Republicans . They're steamrolling over the Obama administration . Republicans are afraid . I'm trying to remember which Republican senator was a woman who said we are afraid Lisa Murkowski , from Alaska . Lisa Murkowski said she is afraid . She's not the only one who's afraid . They will dock you and send people to your homes . We don't know what other kind of threats are being made . So I think that we also have to understand that thugs are running our country and that thuggery is a long history too . We don't have time to talk about it , but it's not new to look at thuggery . So I think , rather than Democrats versus Republicans , I think we organize the people . We hit the streets , we organize and we make demands and we let the candidates who really should represent us rise up .

Speaker 3 49:26

And when I say we , as somebody pointed out not me , I'm not of that age group , but I support people and I will definitely provide everything I can to help make people successful .

Speaker 3 49:37

I agree with Edith this is a young people's fight . This is the world you want to grow old in . This is the world you want to gift to the generation that follows you . We've done what we can do , I think , and I think our time is up to be at the forefront of these movements . We don't have the vision , we don't have the energy and we don't have the same stake in this as younger leaders , and so I have felt so strongly that it is my job to pass on what I know and equip people with all that I have , and they don't have to use it .

Speaker 5 50:12

They don't have to accept it , and I don't judge you if you don't , and I'll help you fix it .

Speaker 3 50:19

You know my favorite poem your Children Are Not your Children . You know poem your Children Are Not your Children . You know Khalil Gibran . You know they are the sons and daughters of life's longing for itself . They come through you but not from you , and you can be like them , but don't seek to make them like you . I mean , that's part of it . This idea that we have got to let go of power and this idea that we have to be in control and we know everything and we want to relate every freedom struggle to 1967 is abhorrent to me .

Speaker 4 50:50

Why is it Al Green getting removed from the chamber during the State of the Union and not ?

Speaker 5 50:58

Because he was flipping them tables over and throwing objects To my point is that is the representation that's the symbol now of is Al Green shaking his cane . He shouldn't shake his cane .

Speaker 4 51:08

Well , not to say he shouldn't he should have thrown that mug , but why are they not all walking out with him ? Exactly that's what I wanted to know .

Speaker 3 51:15

But because there's self-interest involved . If you can go into Congress as a thousandaire and walk out as a millionaire , everybody's corrupt at some level , in my opinion . We'll take another break before we talk to Edith , a little bit more about Edith herself , the work you're doing , what you're seeing in your community , and also , before we let you get away , the reparations task force . Oh yes .

Speaker 2 51:49

Have you ever dreamed of being on the airwaves ? Well , the Authentically Detroit Podcast Network is here to make those dreams come true . Formerly known as the Deep Network and located inside the Stoudemire , the Authentically Detroit Podcast Network offers studio space and production staff . To help get your idea off of the ground , just visit authenticallydetcom and send a request through the contact page .

Speaker 3 52:24

All right , edith , you are a friend , a colleague . You know we are two strong Black women in the same community , neighbors and people who have just been so supportive , neighbors and people who have just been so supportive . I can honestly say that through all the challenges I've had in this community doing this work , you have been somebody I've counted on for your support , and so I just want to say publicly how much I love you as a human being for always just being a support of not just me but the work that we do organizationally , and I admire the work that you do . Can you share with people what the queen is up to over there at Mac Development ?

Speaker 5 52:58

So

Edythe Ford: Community Organizing on Detroit's Eastside

Speaker 5 52:59

what we're doing right now is , of course , we're working with our community partner , ecn , to make our resiliency center of the commons our coffee shop laundromat more of a resiliency center . We were kind of doing it underground until we got with you guys because we got in trouble with building and safety a few times , but now we're making it official . So the Commons is a place that was designed by the community , down with the business that's in it the paint on the walls , the furniture and the mirrors . It's all selected and supported by the neighborhood . We work with people in the 48214 .

Speaker 5 53:43

One of our biggest projects was when I moved back to my childhood home in 2012, . It was like everybody was moved out , and so when I started exploring what was going on , people were losing their houses because they had been illegally over-assessed . That's how Mack Development found me talking to my neighbors , making them talk to each other to try to find out what was going on . At that time , by 2014 , over 21,000 of our neighbors were in foreclosure or going to the tax auction , so we started working really hard . That's what made me get in the streets . I put my Gucci purses down in my fancy suits and started hitting the streets and started hitting the streets . So one thing that I do do in my neighborhood . It takes me three weeks to walk every block and I do it four times a year till I hit every house three or four times or leave a message . And I just started into doing what my grandparents did . They were just grassroots people . We had 21,000 houses in foreclosure and last year we were down to 1,200 . So that was quite an accomplishment .

Speaker 5 55:06

There , of course , we're on Mac and Infamous Van Dyke , so we see a variety of characters there and we try to not give them dignity , because God gave them dignity . We affirm their dignity and make sure they are talked to and they have people to listen to . One of my jobs is to advocate for my neighbors and to let people know what people actually need . To let people know what people actually need . I have found in my experience that we got a lot of people that want to tell us even our own people what we need . But I've learned the simplest way to find out what people need is to ask them .

Speaker 5 55:50

Like how we did our building , we asked our neighbors what we wanted . That alone saved us $100,000 in other people asking and coming up with plans and designs , so we asked them what they need . We have English , mac education , reading classes and sports . Our church , mac Avenue Community Church , is on Mac and Hardy in Old Salvation Army . We had the church gym redone with a scoreboard so we just like have a lot of resources for people . I'm on a couple of community boards and right now , until I can get somebody to take over the Pinckney Park Neighborhood Association where I live , I'm the president of that . President of that and the last year I have been a member of the Detroit Reparations Task Force and I was appointed by Mary .

Speaker 5 56:46

Sheffield , who is my city council rep , shout out to District 5 .

Speaker 4 56:49

Yes , shout out to District 5 . I'm in District 5 now . Yes , the redistricting .

Speaker 5 56:53

So y'all table turned a , turned up in there in District 5 . Yeah , and it was kind of rough at the beginning . It's different when you're grassroots and you're with others that are not Like they think they know what people need . They don't really talk to them and ask them . We had some situations going on there that I did not appreciate . I had to come to Donna like I'm going to choke somebody .

Speaker 3 57:21

No , no , you know what the word on the street ? Speaking of word on the street , I heard from somebody yesterday that you're a peacemaker there and a bridge builder , so some people are really honoring your work .

Speaker 5 57:31

Oh , thanks , I didn't know that . Well , one thing I do is I'm like we have to listen to these people . They know how they're harmed and they know what they need and you know , kind of , when we got one person straightened out , it started getting to be more peaceful .

Speaker 4 57:49

You got him straightened out . You got Keith straightened out .

Speaker 5 57:51

Oh , you brought his name up . Yeah , well , yeah .

Speaker 4 57:52

Yeah , it was . I talked to Keith last night at the I-3 name up .

Speaker 5 57:54

Yeah , well , yeah , I know .

Speaker 4 57:56

Yeah , it was . I talked to Keith last night at the I-375 meeting . Yeah yeah , he was like these people aren't even residents here . I was like yeah , right , you know , oh yeah .

Speaker 3 58:04

Well , that's all . We could have a whole number . We could have an .

Speaker 4 58:07

I-375 . Going back to reparations , though yeah , I mean that was the issue was the . You know , it seemed like he was at odds with you guys . He produced his own report .

Speaker 5 58:17

Yeah , he produced his own report and sent it around . Immediately . Everyone in my circle started calling me and asked me did I know about it ? And unfortunately I work at the Commons , which is a very open door , so I got about five , six reporters at my door .

Speaker 4 58:34

Yeah , I love it there , Like you've seen at my door .

Speaker 5 58:37

I'm like you cannot do this to me when I'm at work because I'm too easily accessible , cause I also help manage the building , cause I'm like the longest term member there and most of the people come in there I come in cause they need help . So we kind of like stay downstairs and that wasn't cool , because sometimes I might not agree with what the groups does . But if we're doing something together we just can't spring out surprises on people like that . And it kind of upset the people in our Detroit Michigan Democratic Party too , because they were calling me . They like do you know about this ?

Speaker 3 59:15

I'm like no , so my understanding is that the report is due in June .

Speaker 5 59:21

Yes , I don't , personally I don't think it'll be ready in June , because what this person is basically writing a dissertation .

Speaker 3 59:30

Yeah , I mean , I really admire the person who was selected . She's good , but the process of writing has to be one where you're documenting feedback from the people who are coming at the table .

Speaker 5 59:41

Exactly as members of the task force right . Yes , and the community , yeah . That's what I mean . And because it's reparations , you know there's going to be a fight about it . So we need sociologists to quantify , to talk about those harms and how they affect people as a group . We need an economist .

Speaker 3 1:00:05

You mean , as speakers , to address the community and educate people on those things ?

Speaker 5 1:00:10

And also be a part of the paper , because these are the things . If it's taken to court , these harms have to be proved .

Speaker 3 1:00:20

Now I have a question about the Reparations Task Force , and that is when we look at reparations , are we looking at repairing past harms or are we also looking at repairing policies that are producing current and future harms ?

Speaker 5 1:00:32

So it's fixing past harms and also creating . We would like to create a committee or a division . That's part of the city to go .

Speaker 3 1:00:44

How far in the past , Like if I had my home illegally foreclosed on two years ago . Is that a past harm or is it ?

Speaker 5 1:00:51

No , we're going back almost to 1917 .

Speaker 3 1:00:54

So anything that happened after 1917 is not included in this report .

Speaker 5 1:00:59

No , from like 1917 to maybe like 1978 are where we are at right now .

Speaker 3 1:01:05

I think that's a challenge for me . I'll be honest with you . I feel as though people of every era can look back 50 years and say , oh , this was . We were really messed

Detroit's Reparations Task Force Insights

Speaker 3 1:01:15

up then . Glad we got it together . 40 years from now , we're going to need a reparations task force for 2025 . And at some point we've got to stop the bleeding and say how can we not continue to perpetuate these injustices ?

Speaker 5 1:01:29

One of the things we have in there is the loss of the over $100,600 million from the property tax losses . But we want to have this commission that is going over every city policy and ordinance . All right , because that's the problem , right there , yeah , and then another thing that we're urging things like problems with people's home , home repair . We would like those monies to be granted to large nonprofit organizations like ECN and ours to make sure people's property , their inheritable property , is taken care of , that they're getting their sewer line done , they're getting their roots done , stuff like that . Because my experience and I'm sure yours has been when the city is running these programs people are on lists for 10 , 20 years . They had a home repair list where people had like passed away . They had been on the list so long had passed away . They had been on the list so long . They require too much for the sewer line replacement . They're requiring more paperwork and verification for a $20,000 sewer line than I would have had applying for a $60,000 loan for grad school . You know that's part of the issue .

Speaker 3 1:02:59

And the other thing is there's so many ways to do things differently . Right , the city contracts with contractors , many of whom are not from here and don't hire people from here . Building up a labor force and getting Detroiters together and trained and equipped to fix up each other's homes would be such a powerful thing . When you think about the workers after the Great Depression and how they got together , I forget what they called them . My grandfather was part of that , where he was working to support the family through the government , the workforce .

Speaker 5 1:03:28

It was the WPA or something like that . Yeah , the W something board .

Speaker 3 1:03:33

We have to have a different mindset if we're really going to do things at scale . But imagine the skills , imagine the connectedness , imagine how we could improve our community if we were really brought together and believe that we had something to offer . The city does home repair , but so do we Exactly . So why doesn't the city contract with us ? You know we don't have the same red tape that you have to go through . Not just us , there's several organizations across the city contract with us .

Speaker 1 1:03:57

You know we don't have the same red tape that you have to go through . I'm not just us .

Speaker 3 1:03:58

There's several organizations across the city , so there's ways to make government more efficient , make government more responsive , make sure the government is not just hooking up private people who make big campaign donations . I admire you for the work that you're doing and for sitting in on that task force , because it's emotional , it's triggering to talk about all of these issues . When you talk about racism , you don't walk away feeling great about the world . When you talk about passing justice , you don't feel really good . You may feel very informed , and so being in that space and sticking with it and still trying to hear people and be a broker for peace is a skill set that only a queen of the East side brings . It's hard .

Speaker 5 1:04:36

You have to do what you got to do .

Speaker 3 1:04:38

And I just think if we had and we empowered and equipped people like you in every neighborhood in the city of Detroit to listen , to care , to hit the streets , know who people are , to broker peace , to advocate , we would have a much stronger city . And that is actually what the Black Detroit Democracy podcast is all about is really trying to promote citizen activism and then bringing citizens together to demand shared change . Because , although you may not be at the forefront of a movement , you are part of the forefront of community healing and change .

Speaker 5 1:05:11

As Reverend Barry at Church of the Messiah said in this room , we're all the power . Yes , Every one of all the power .

Speaker 3 1:05:16

Yes .

Speaker 5 1:05:16

Every one of you are powerful . Yeah , and I'm telling you , my favorite moment was about three months ago . I had a group of young adults that sometimes I go to their protests with . They were up at City Council protesting about ShotSpotter . So I get a call to come down . I was coming downtown to help with property tax exemptions and I get a call from one of the City Council person saying they were going to give me some parking tickets . I'm like , well , somebody's taking me down there , they can use the parking tickets . But actually when I got up there they were in front of his office and outside of the city council room protesting loudly , and when I walked got off the elevator I heard people hollering that's Miss Ada .

Speaker 5 1:06:08

So then when I get down there , the city council's office manager came out and said I want you to go in there and support ShotSpotter . I said , well , I already told you I don't do it like that . I have to talk to my neighbors , like a sampling at the least of 100 of my neighbors , and if I hadn't had to , I haven't had to . She said , well , go ahead and go in there . I said , well , hey , I'm going to ask them . I said do y'all want ShotSpotter . They was like no . So I told them well , I don't want ShotSpotter . End of story . Then she said well , what are we going to do with them ? I said that's your problem . Then I turned around to them and said if they arrest you or the police , contact you . I think Aaron was there .

Speaker 5 1:06:57

I said you got my number , text me up , I'm going to get the IT's . We coming to get you out of jail . We going to have to hit them 401k's and them IRA Roth .

Speaker 3 1:07:07

We going to come get you we might have to do that anyway , because time's getting crazy right now oh yeah , every time I look at my 403b you know I'm non-profit it's like it's smaller every day .

Speaker 5 1:07:16

I know . I better be able to take that money out so I can remove some . I moved mine to an IRA Roth . That's what they had me to do . It's kind of been hit , but it's not .

Speaker 3 1:07:24

I moved mine into bonds , yeah . And so someone told me a friend bonds away from these small cap , medium cap growth funds , because nothing's growing right now .

Speaker 5 1:07:39

And nothing is wrong with doing like our great grandmas and grandmas . Stuff you some money in your mattress because cash is always king .

Speaker 3 1:07:45

My grandmother didn't do that . My grandmother put it in a Maxwell House coffee can and buried it in the backyard . Oh yeah , that's good too . And so in 1967 , july of 1967 , we were right near the epicenter of the rebellion , right , right ? And so we leave town and my grandmother said what about my money ? And she sent my father back to her house to dig up her money . And he was like Ma , if I get caught with all this money , I'm going to prison to do it anyway . He never forgave her for that , but no , that's what the old people did because they were .

Speaker 3 1:08:17

Depression era people and they remembered when the banks failed them . So there is no Maxwell House coffee jar , but people keep telling me the market is going to improve . I actually tried to see how I take money out of my account and found that at that point they didn't want me to do it . They said I was not qualified to take the money out and you get big penalties . Well , I don't get penalties anymore at this big age , right .

Speaker 5 1:08:40

That's true .

Speaker 3 1:08:41

Yeah , If you're over 59 and a half , you're entitled to simply withdraw it . But so I reached out and I said why not ? And I said , oops , there was some type of software error . It'll be fixed in about a week . I think they were worried about taking a run on it . But you know good stuff , edith . You're doing great work and we really are happy to have you here . Thank you Really enjoy partnering with Sam crossing that generational divide and having some conversations that we need to have .

Speaker 3 1:09:12

So I want to thank everybody for listening to the Black Detroit Democracy podcast . Be sure to like rate . And want to thank everybody for listening to the Black Detroit Democracy podcast . Be sure to like , rate and subscribe to our podcast on all platforms and , of course , support Black Independent Reporting on Detroit1millioncom no-transcript

Community Empowerment and Final Thoughts

Speaker 3 1:12:45

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