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 Mayoral Crossroads with Daily Detroit
Last week, Donna and Orlando sat down with Jer Staes and Norris Howard of Daily Detroit teamed up to discuss the upcoming debate featuring some of the top polling candidates in the running to become Detroit’s next mayor!
Together, they discuss the upcoming mayoral debate partnership and the surprising withdrawal of candidate Solomon Kinloch Jr. from this community forum. They explore how campaign finances and strategic choices provide windows into how these candidates might govern, with Mary Sheffield recently crossing the million-dollar fundraising threshold.
This collaborative episode between Authentically Detroit and Daily Detroit demonstrates our commitment to putting community needs above competition. Join us at the Eastside Community Network on June 21st as we bring the remaining mayoral candidates face-to-face with the community's most pressing questions.
For more information about the upcoming debate, click here.
Up. Next we sit down with the host of the Daily Detroit podcast, Jair Stays, and Norris Howard to talk about the mayoral debate we're putting on next week in partnership with ECN and Outlier Media, as Detroiters prepare to select the 76th mayor. Keep it locked. Authentically Detroit starts after these messages. I'm Orlando Bailey of Outlier Media and Authentically Detroit, and I'm Jair Stays of Daily Detroit. Detroit. We've got something special coming up that you won't want to miss.
Jer Staes:That's right. Orlando. At 10 am on Sunday, june 21st, we're bringing together Detroit's mayoral candidates for an in-depth community forum right in the heart of the East Side.
Orlando Bailey:This isn't your typical candidate event. We're talking real issues, real solutions and real talk about Detroit's future.
Jer Staes:Join us at the Eastside Community Network at 4401 Connor Street in Detroit from 10 am to 2 pm.
Orlando Bailey:We'll be joined by my Authentically Detroit co-host and community leader, Donna Givis-Davidson, to moderate this important discussion.
Jer Staes:Space is limited, so make sure to RSVP through the Eventbrite link in our show notes. Oh, and on that form, there is a spot for your voice to be heard, to help shape our questions and the conversation. That's right.
Orlando Bailey:Whether you're a longtime resident or new to the city, come by ECN on June 21st. It's your chance to hear directly from the candidates who want to leave Detroit. 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 in the World.
Orlando Bailey:Welcome to another episode of Authentically Detroit, broadcasting Live from Detroit's Eastside at the Stoudemire inside of the Eastside Community Network headquarters. I'm Orlando Bailey and I'm Donna Givens-Davidson. We want to tell you thank you for listening in and supporting our efforts to build a platform of authentic voices for real people in the city of Detroit. We want you to like, rate and subscribe to our podcast on all platforms in the city of Detroit. We want you to like, rate and subscribe to our podcast on all platforms. Today, donna and I are joined by the host of one of the most listened to podcasts in the city. Jer Stays and Norris Howard of Daily Detroit are here in the studio. This appearance and partnership has been years in the making, so for the first time, I am really happy to say Jer, norris, norris, welcome to Authentically Detroit.
Jer Staes:It is an honor to be in your house. Yeah, welcome to our house.
Norris Howard:Norris, welcome. Oh man, I'm very excited to be here. Thank you for inviting us this is it's been a long time coming.
Orlando Bailey:It's been a long time coming, but it's here. It's here, donna, it's good to see you, grandma. Hey, grandma, how you doing. Hey, hey, grandma, how you doing.
Donna Givens Davidson:Hey.
Norris Howard:I'm doing great.
Donna Givens Davidson:Thank you. My third grandchild was born, my second grandson still. I'm not going to try to remember the second name. Hold on, I could pull it up for you. Hold on, just pull it up, so okay. So my son-in-law, future son-in-law, is Nigerian, and so they Still Akambi Heston Alade.
Orlando Bailey:Akambi Heston.
Donna Givens Davidson:Alade, akambi, heston. Alade, heston is my father's middle name and my grandfather's middle name. My father and grandfather are Donovan Heston Givens, jr and Sr, and so Heston is a family name. That was very special. And Akambi is Akambi, akambi, akambi. I'm really embarrassed by this, but he is.
Orlando Bailey:It's only not even 24 hours in, it's not. You got time you got time.
Donna Givens Davidson:That's David's mother's, father's name.
Orlando Bailey:Oh my gosh.
Donna Givens Davidson:And so the grandparents are honored in the middle names, and then, of course, elida is the last name.
Norris Howard:We love that.
Donna Givens Davidson:It's beautiful.
Orlando Bailey:And I love Steele. How did they come up with Steele? I love that name, camille came up with that. Oh, I love it.
Donna Givens Davidson:David came up with some names. She wasn't really feeling and she said, let me work on this. And so she came up with Steele. And so, yeah, we've been spending the week with his big brother, maverick, yes, and Maverick Adebayo Walker a lot and Adebayo and Walker are from their fathers and so they've honored their ancestors with these names, really excited about that.
Donna Givens Davidson:He's born a little early, but he's healthy. He's five pounds two ounces, so you know, big enough to be strong and beautiful. So I'm really happy as a grandmother. My granddaughter Luna, the oldest the seven-year-old, was with us this week and it was like a family kind of thing, family bonding, while we were waiting to see what was going to happen. Because anytime you have premature labor it's scary, and when it's like I'm, you know I'm my kids call me.
Orlando Bailey:Mama Bear and so I want to be there and supervise everything, and I can't, you know, and it's like, okay, I have to tell everybody what to do until I and go off supervise all the doctors, nurses and they don't need that from me, right and so I have to also learn how to step back and let them handle it, which they did beautifully how's that going for you? It's going well, I'm learning some things about myself.
Donna Givens Davidson:But you know, the other thing that happened is that when Camille went into the hospital and everything happened, I missed my mother so much. I just was like I have to call mommy and I couldn't. And then I have to call my big sister and I couldn't.
Donna Givens Davidson:And my big sister would have turned 70 on the 10th, and so I was just messed 70 on the 10th, and so I was just messed up on the 10th. At the same time, you know, they are part of our family. I'm sure their spirits were running through us and I realized that I've been reading Tina Noll's book Matriarch.
Orlando Bailey:Yeah.
Donna Givens Davidson:And I love it.
Orlando Bailey:I mean I finished.
Donna Givens Davidson:It's beautiful. I love Tina Noll. She and I are best friends. She just doesn't know it yet, but you know she's a really good person, like if you read this book. She's not like the stage mother, she's just a really good human being. But I realized this weekend that I am the matriarch in my family and that messed me up.
Orlando Bailey:There's nobody older than me. That transition thing yeah.
Donna Givens Davidson:I'm it, and so you know there's no grandmother my aunts I have two aunts who are still, you know, alive, but they are not mentally capable of serving in that capacity. And so this other memory, and so I'm going through this thing of step up into that role of matriarch and matriarchs really can't control we have to sort of you know, learn how to step back and to trust that the people that we brought into this world are capable of doing what's necessary that you raised them right.
Orlando Bailey:I raised them right, but you cooking on Juneteenth though, right Matriarch, you bringing everybody together.
Donna Givens Davidson:Now let me see if I can explain something. My daughters are both amazing cooks.
Orlando Bailey:Yes, they are.
Donna Givens Davidson:I'm a good cook.
Orlando Bailey:I can vouch for Camille.
Donna Givens Davidson:Oh my goodness, Camille Lanzieri. When they get together, it's crazy. So they took over cooking duties. When they became adults, they were like no, we got this from now, mommy, They've taught me how to be a better cook. But cooking is something I conceded years ago. It's the rest of it. That is a learning process.
Jer Staes:Well, you know, I lost my mom when I was 10. And I'll tell you, even decades later, you feel their presence, without a doubt, in everything that you do and you carry them.
Orlando Bailey:Oh for sure, you carry all of them with you.
Donna Givens Davidson:Yeah, it was last year I realized that my mother is actually in me in my cells, physically, right. Your parents are always with you in your cells, for sure In your DNA, and so you inherit some things. And then my grandmother I really love my mother's mother. My grandmother's like my heart too, and both of them were real freedom fighters. My grandmother was literally a freedom fighter. She was like the radical in the family, and so people I got came by it. Next year. My grandmother was a radical, and so this year, with everything happening in the world, they're showing up and they're like no, you got to do something about this. And the most important thing is, my mother reminds me to love, because my mother really led with love, and my grandmother reminds me to fight, and so fighting with love has to be what we do from now on.
Donna Givens Davidson:And it's going to be, I think, the subject of what we do next Monday. Right, yeah, it's fight, but love, remembering that people are human and we are frail and none of us is perfect. We all, you know, struggle to be the best people we can be of ourselves every day, but same thing with politicians, it's just hard.
Orlando Bailey:Yeah, we're so happy to dive into this discussion. I mean, we got Jer and we got Norris here. Jer, welcome back home to the East Side. Yeah, you have a really amazing East Side story.
Jer Staes:All right, all right. So when I was growing up, our first house I was born in Hudson Hospital, yeah, and my first house as a kid was over by Van Dyke, and we had to move right around school age when my front porch fell off. This was the 80s. Okay, things are the 80s. Ok, things are a little different. And my grandmother, who lived in Indian Village, came up with the idea OK, I'm going to separate, I'm going to go ahead and support your dad's rent instead of sending you to private school, because you know DPS in the 80s A lot of people had a lot of feelings about it.
Jer Staes:I didn't have any choice in this matter, of course. And so we get one block into the suburbs and in that one block it's like the border is actually split down the middle of the block, and at the time that border actually went through some of the houses, like the old border, they didn't adjust it to the alley. And so the apartment that we rented one part of it was in the park, one part of it was in Detroit, and the line was right around between my room and the kitchen. So I'd go between my room and the kitchen, and I was very entertained by the mayor at the time because I was you know eight nine years old Mayor Coleman Young, and to me I didn't know anything other than he swore a lot.
Orlando Bailey:Yes, he did On television. Yep, everywhere, everywhere, exactly yes.
Jer Staes:So I would be like I'm in Grosse Pointe, then I'd hop like a foot over into the kitchen and I'd be like I'm in motherfucking Detroit and then I'd hop back over.
Orlando Bailey:I, I'm in motherfucking.
Donna Givens Davidson:Detroit. And then I hear my dad from the living room. Stop yelling motherfucker across the house.
Orlando Bailey:Oh my gosh, you know that's so funny. I would not have survived, whatever age you were, if that were me.
Norris Howard:Oh no, I wouldn't be here to talk to you.
Orlando Bailey:I would not be here to talk to you guys about that.
Donna Givens Davidson:Well, you know, I grew up in a different kind of family, so my sister and I, you know, we used a lot of choice words and sometimes we strung them all together and I'm not going to tell you we got really mad at each other.
Jer Staes:We just called each other GDMFB, you know Listen a swear word well placed has a lot of impact.
Orlando Bailey:It does, it does, and so I still as I was sharing with you With the vocal variety and like the punchiness at the right time. Listen, I've had and you know how to cuss people out, donna. I mean, you know how to cuss. No, I don't cuss people out, usually no, but you know how to cuss Without cussing.
Donna Givens Davidson:Yeah, I don't usually cuss at people.
Orlando Bailey:I usually just cuss in conversation In conversation.
Donna Givens Davidson:Yeah, I try not to cuss at people, I try not to remember fight with love.
Orlando Bailey:But like when me and Donna when somebody done said something, because I told y'all Donna's mama bear, so if somebody done came for me or something, we having a private conversation. That private conversation is filled with choice words and she just knows how to place them accurately and I just, and she just knows how to place them accurately.
Donna Givens Davidson:And I just I love it. My other grandmother taught me how to fight. That's a whole, nother story. But one grandmother taught me to fight, the other one taught me how to fight and my mother taught me how to love. I don't know.
Orlando Bailey:Boxing Be boxing there you go so funny, Listen so Look like a butterfly, sting like a bee. All of the above, or you know. Did Tommy Hitman Hearns have a line that he used? Nah, because I'm trying to keep it Detroit. Did Joe Louis have a line? I'm going to beat you up. Yeah, that's pretty much it. I'm from the east side. That's probably what Joe Louis is lying. I'm from the east side.
Donna Givens Davidson:You know what my father grew up in the same neighborhood as Joe Louis and knew Joe Louis, but he talked about what a gentle man Joe Lewis was. He was a very kind and gentle person who also knew how to fight.
Donna Givens Davidson:He was not you know, he was not one of those people who just walked around wanting to fight people all the time, and in fact, when they first built that you know monument downtown, my father was really offended by the fact that it was the fist because he said it did not represent his heart that he was so much more of a person than that. So not him, but maybe that gentle part of me.
Orlando Bailey:Yeah, listen. So in partnership with Eastside Community Network, outlier Media Daily Detroit, we are putting on a mayoral debate. You guys have heard it in our ads. It's going to be on June 21st, saturday, june 21st, beginning at 11 am and it's going to be moderated by Donna Jer and myself. And so what today's episode is going to consist of is us sort of, you know, talking about what we expect and talking about some of the stories that are in the Detroit zeitgeist that the candidates will not be able to not speak to when they are here on June 21st. But the first thing that we have to let our listeners know and announce maybe surprisingly or not surprisingly is that Solomon Kinloch has dropped out of the debate happening on June 21st. He actually dropped out a couple of days ago, donna. What happened?
Donna Givens Davidson:I received an email saying that he was no longer available for the debate or the forum. I think they called it. If you have any questions, let me know. And I said well, I do have questions and concerns about him not honoring his commitment, because that's important. And so she responded I was not aware he made a commitment. What commitment did he make? And so I responded in detail that he committed to you verbally that when he came on this podcast he committed to both of us. Then, when I saw him at Mackinac at the end of May, he committed to me, recommitted to me then, and that that was not cool. And she said I'll call you back. And so at this point I let you know. And then you reached out to Ken. What did he say to you?
Orlando Bailey:He said you know I love you guys but there are some things that came up on our side with their own campaign events and that he will not be able to make it. But I'll do anything for you all. And there is a event that if you guys are interested in partnering or co-moderating on, you guys are welcome to do that. Interested in partnering or co-moderating on, you guys are welcome to do that. I promptly declined because we know and understand that co-moderating a campaign sponsored event is seen as a widespread endorsement and we are not endorsing candidates.
Donna Givens Davidson:Certainly not candidates, who I'm not endorsing. Candidates period, yeah. But if I was going to endorse candidates, they would not pull out of our event. And you know you didn't have an event conflict. You created a conflict. You decided and this is what I told her when she called me yesterday she wanted to discuss it further. I don't know why, but she said let's discuss it. You know, maybe make it go down smoothly. And I said listen, we had this commitment in place before, whatever it is that you scheduled. So you had to decide not to do this in order to do something else.
Donna Givens Davidson:If you're doing this as a candidate, how could I trust you as mayor If I'm not important enough to honor your commitments and you're breaking campaign promises before you actually went? That just tells me that you know. You say the people matter and this is a people-centered campaign. But the two events you've agreed to do one is at Mackinac and the other one is on WDIV and what does that say to the people in the community who've been calling up and saying will you show up at my forums? It's a bad look.
Donna Givens Davidson:She said, well, we're going to reach thousands of people. I said, well, you may only reach a couple hundred. But they might be the right people. Many of those thousands of people that you'll reach the WDIV won't even be able to vote in Detroit. The voters are showing up and they're expecting him to be there. So I still encourage and I said this to her yesterday him to break his promise to somebody else show up late. We're only talking about two hours, 11 to 1 pm. If he gets there late or whatever, joe up late. We're only talking about two hours, 11 to 1 pm. If he gets there late or you know whatever, that's okay. If he has to leave somewhere early, that's okay. If he can let us down, he can let them down. And I would imagine that if I was trying to host an event for a candidate who said to me I have to honor a commitment and therefore I will be late or leave early, I would respect them for being honorable.
Norris Howard:Yeah, and I think this is really interesting that this will come about, considering that the frontrunner in the race, mary Sheffield. That is her superpower. She is everywhere. She will pop up everywhere and anywhere. If you barbecuing, she might show up. If it's a block party, she just might show up. You know a ribbon cutting at the Boys and Girls Club, at the YMCA, she might show up. If it's a block party, she just might show up. You know, a ribbon cutting at the Boys and Girls Club, at the YMCA, she will show up. And that's part of the reason, at least in my opinion, why she is the front runner because she's visible, and she's visible in ways that so many of the other candidates have not been. And this is not an endorsement, this is not me saying like oh, this is who I'm voting for. This is just a simple fact that she has the name recognition, beyond just a family name, but also name recognition for meeting the voters at the ground level and just saying, hey, I'm over here too.
Orlando Bailey:Norris and Jer, I'm really interested to hear your perspective on what I what I conceive to be a really pointed strategy on part of the Kinloch campaign to essentially shy away from showing up at community driven forums and debates. Donna mentioned he he had done the Mackinac Policy Conference debate. I was at WDIV today. He will be at the WDIV debate on Monday. What do you make of this strategy and do you think it's going to work for him?
Jer Staes:Okay, I look at it in a wider sense. Yeah, to me there aren't that many candidates that are even getting their names out there enough to even be heard. People are not going to vote for you unless they know who you are. And you shouldn't assume that people know who. You are the only candidate with any. You know, I think, a lot of the lead that you were talking about with Mary Sheffield. It's just down the name recognition. They got to know you before they vote for you. So, tying that into the community you need to be at everything. You need to be at everything you need to be doing. You know 18, 20 hour, you know whatever hour days in this kind of thing, especially when you're not the front runner and say you need to be at everything you can, and that means community events, that means visual things. It's just got to be this constant noise of everywhere you know and when you go down the street.
Orlando Bailey:Well he's doing his own thing.
Donna Givens Davidson:Listen, he has the second highest level of name recognition in the race. Right For sure. He has one of the largest churches, not just in Detroit but in the United States. The name recognition is there, I mean two certain groups, two certain groups. Well, many Detroiters this there. When they did polling, his name recognition was the second highest.
Norris Howard:It was you know, up there Just to be fair, but though, based on the latest poll that came out earlier this month, he was in third place. The second place was I don't know.
Donna Givens Davidson:I know, but I'm saying his name recognition was in, yes, second place in terms of who you'll vote for, but the name recognition was in second place, Okay. And what I'm saying is you can know who a person is, but not who they will be as mayor, For sure. And I think the challenge is letting the community know who will you be as mayor, number one. Number two when you show up at these events, prepare for those events by giving people the kind of information that they are looking for to answer those questions.
Orlando Bailey:Beyond platitudes, guys, beyond platitudes, and that goes for everybody.
Donna Givens Davidson:The feedback that I received from some people who were watching the debate at Mackinac from their homes was he is not giving us the information we're looking for. Somebody said something that was very critical about that. Now there's an opportunity to sharpen it up, but the other way to take voters for granted is to not do the homework and not do all of the preparation necessary to give them the comfort. You know. If somebody's coming to you for a job interview and I interview people a lot, right, and I'm interviewing them for a job and I say, you know, tell me what about this job description you think best fits your job Interest level, and they can't answer that question, it tells me they haven't done their preparation.
Norris Howard:Well, and this is this is an advantage that somebody like like Jenkins would have because of her policy experience or experience in government. But then it still goes back to what we're talking about in terms of the appearances and getting the name out there. And I understand what you're saying about about churches. But to answer Orlando's question about what the strategy is, I think the strategy is trying to get to the most engaged people as widely as possible, but I think the folly in that, to Donna's point, is a lot of those people can't vote in the city of Detroit.
Donna Givens Davidson:I think the strategy is honestly, I'm going to go to UAW events and let them hold rallies for me. I'm going to knock on every door. I'll go to the Pride event. I'll be in places where I'm not going to have to answer difficult questions. I think that part of the strategy is that and you know, I think you know. I want to be fair.
Donna Givens Davidson:Mary Sheffield has name recognition because she's city council president, not because she's in. She's city council president and she's been on city council for 12 years, through some of the roughest times of this city's history, absolutely Okay. I've heard people say we don't know if Mary Sheffield is qualified. I'm not saying this is no endorsement. I'm not saying don't vote for Mary Sheffield, but what I'm saying is if Mary Sheffield was Martin Sheffield and he was city council president, had been on city council for 12 years, we would not be questioning whether or not he was qualified to do the job. There is something about being a woman, and especially being a black woman, where you have to prove yourself over and over and over again just to show up as equal and I think that's really going to come to the forefront after the primary.
Donna Givens Davidson:It does. But it feels very personal to me as a woman who's always had to fight to prove myself. Now I'm at a certain age where people say, oh, you think you're so good at what you do, but for so long they didn't. For so long I had to prove myself as soon as I walked in the room, and that's where I see Mary Sheffield and, to some extent, chantel Jenkins, who are the two most qualified people.
Donna Givens Davidson:They are the two most qualified people If you look at their service records, if you look at what they've done and I'm not taking anything away from any of the other candidates but if you look at governmental leadership, both of them have served in leadership governmental posts in the city of Detroit.
Norris Howard:I mean Santel Jenkins can literally just look at some of the electorates and say I kept your lights on, like I helped you with thought, I helped keep your home warm, like that is the type of stuff.
Orlando Bailey:I think that should go on the billboard. Santel, if you listening, you need to put your face on the billboard. I kept your lights on.
Norris Howard:That says I kept your lights on Like that's just to me, that's just the reality of how some of these candidates should be operating, but we're not seeing that.
Jer Staes:But what you don't, what I also don't see enough of, are just billboards in general. Most of the billboards I see are Sheffield billboards. Well, I just saw, I just saw, I just saw sheffield's billboard.
Orlando Bailey:Todd perkins has, I think, been running billboard campaigns. The longest he has and santillo has a couple. Uh, mary, I think mary just started her campaign, her billboard campaign.
Donna Givens Davidson:Haven't seen a kenlock billboard what I'm really excited about is our forum, our debate. Yes, I'm really excited about that because I think we're going to ask the kind of questions that are going to get real answers from the candidates, specific answers from the candidates. What I've heard from some people is they're all saying the same thing, and some of the questions are what do you think about keeping business in Detroit? Well, I think it's a good idea. Who doesn't? It's kind of hard to fight over that you know. So then you the devil is in the nuance. We're not saying things like um, what do you think about this policy related to keeping business in detroit? Do you think that we're spending too much money downtown? And we are, you know, short-changing neighborhoods in our approach to keeping businesses downtown.
Donna Givens Davidson:Those types of questions really will help, and these are the questions orlando and I've been asking in our individual interviews um of each candidate. But I and these are the questions Orlando and I've been asking in our individual interviews of each candidate. But I think, as we ask specific questions that people want to know answers to, you know one thing we haven't heard like is water a human right and, if so, what policy changes will you support to make? Enshrine that in you know our laws and policies in the city of Detroit. There's things people want to know. We got to ask them.
Orlando Bailey:You know, one of the things that I've been thinking about as it relates to the WDIV event is that it is a regional broadcast network. It's going to be on network television. It is a huge platform and I'd be interested to see how the candidates use that platform to speak not just to Detroit voters, but Detroiters who may not always vote but will still be subject to their policies.
Orlando Bailey:I'd be interested to see how they balance speaking to their donor base and groups that may have endorsed them, like Mary Secure the Emily's List endorsement, solomon Kinloch has the UAW endorsement, and the business community and other lawmakers, because I think, especially at that platform, I think we should pay attention to what ranks of importance to each of them by who they are directly speaking to with most of their speaking time. Speaking to with most of their speaking time. I think we will be able to draw many conclusions around how they are going to govern by watching them on that particular platform.
Jer Staes:And I also wonder with that particular platform is I am a WDIV alum myself. I was a floor manager back in the day that particular platform is going to reach people who are not as keyed in where they might vote or they might not, and so will that actually move some of the points in the polling? That part too, yeah.
Orlando Bailey:Right Cause you might be able to pick up, or will it stabilize? Like will Ken like be able to move up or keep his support? Will Santil or Fred like be able to zoom past? It would really be interesting to see what happens and what the pulse is after yeah.
Norris Howard:And happens, um, and what the pulse is after, yeah, and and also, like what the performance of mary sheffield as the current front runner is going to be right, because, as we all know, a bad debate performance can literally get you removed from your campaign, as we saw.
Orlando Bailey:I don't, I don't see that, I don't see it, I don't see it right, I'm just saying mary's good no, say this she's very good in a debate right.
Donna Givens Davidson:She's very good at making's. Very good in a debate right. She's very good at making her point. She comes across. She's very positive. She's done her homework right. Some of the other candidates have their up moments and down moments. I will say Mary is consistently good in her debates. Santill has been good. Sometimes the messaging gets a little lost, so maybe sharpen it up a little bit. I think we have good candidates. Der Hall is actually good at throwing punches and he's got some really good one-liners right. I think the questions that we're going to ask are going to really allow us to compare. Goodness right, because we're going to ask difficult questions.
Donna Givens Davidson:And yeah, I'm excited about it. I think you're right. I think one of the things I've been interested in is also looking at campaign donations, so I've been to the city.
Jer Staes:I mean to the county. Well, just today, mary Sheffield, in my inbox there's an announcement. She just crossed a million dollars in donations.
Orlando Bailey:Yes, and I know she's getting ready to spend. She's going to spend a lot. She's going to spend a lot. She's going to spend a lot. She's going to spend a lot.
Donna Givens Davidson:But I mean, I looked at her. Who's donating to her, yes, and who's donating to Santil Jenkins?
Orlando Bailey:The Millerites folks.
Donna Givens Davidson:It's very hard to find documentation for any of the other candidates, because most of them did not declare until this year and so we're kind of behind. I know we have to.
Orlando Bailey:No, we're good, we're going to take a quick break. We're going to do one more hot take surrounding the deportation of a Detroit Public Schools student. We'll be right back. Keep it locked. Have you ever dreamed of being on the airwaves? Well, the Authentically Detroit Podcast Network is here to make those dreams come true. Podcast Network is here to make those dreams come true.
Orlando Bailey: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. Interested in renting space for corporate events, meetings, conferences, social events or resource fairs? The MassDetroit Small Business Hub is a 6,000 square feet space available for members, residents and businesses and organizations. To learn more about rental options at MassDetroit, contact Nicole Perry at nperry at ecn-detroitorg or 313-322-3222. 331-3485.
Orlando Bailey:All right, Welcome back to Authentically Detroit. We are here with Jair Stays and Norris Howard of the Daily Detroit Podcast Listen. So something interesting, an interesting nuance, came up this week in Malachi's City Council notebook. Everybody in the city who loves news knows who Malachi Barrett is over at Bridge Detroit my former colleague and it is about this deportation case where a student at Western International was on his way to a field trip and got pulled over by Warkwood police. He could not speak adequate English in the police's estimation, and then they called Border Patrol to help them translate, which I nobody calls border patrol to help them.
Norris Howard:translate I refuse to believe there's not a Spanish speaking office.
Donna Givens Davidson:They violated the law in order, a city ordinance, in order to get them to translate, because Let me let me set it up and then we can go.
Orlando Bailey:And so he was arrested and detained by ICE and eventually he was somewhere in the UP and then somewhere along this week he got moved to Louisiana. Really came out a mass really pushing them to release some sort of a statement in support of keeping him here so that he can finish his high school career. Angelique Power, the president of the Skillman Foundation, released a newsletter yesterday calling for a stay from his deportation and folks came to general session or formal session at city council last Tuesday and voiced major, major concern in front of the city council. So city council member Gabriela Santiago Romero said a proposed declaration of opposition to President Donald Trump's immigration enforcement policy, spearheaded by city activists, is ultimately ineffective and could put an unnecessary spotlight on vulnerable communities in Detroit. The activists urged the council to reject cooperation with federal law enforcement in response to Trump deploying US Marines and National Guard troops to squash protests in Los Angeles.
Orlando Bailey:Some asked Detroit to declare itself a sanctuary city, which we are not okay, formally limiting its cooperation with federal immigration enforcement agencies. Here's her quote when I see a majority of white folks asking me to make the city a sanctuary city, they're not going to be the ones impacted when US Immigration and Customs Enforcement comes into our communities, are they ready to come out and put their lives on the line to protect residents? I think this is much more nuanced and we need to be more strategic. The night before at the DPSCD board meeting, board member Sherry Gay Danogo said this. Member, sherry Gay Danogo, said this we are cautious in not bringing unnecessary attention that will prevent us moving smoothly in having this issue addressed, and so a little bit of reluctance on part of folks who have been elected to serve and service the concerns of Detroit residents. Okay, don, I'm sorry.
Donna Givens Davidson:I just wanted to set it up. No, I just wanted to say that I just don't believe that anybody calls Border Patrol because they need help translating. There are actually official services available to do that. The police department has a process for getting people. It was somebody doing that and this is the cover-up, and I think that's unfortunate. I think that we do have to do a better job of holding police accountable to following local ordinances, not just in this, but in so many instances. So I want to set that.
Donna Givens Davidson:I do think that this is a nuanced situation. I don't think there's anything any politician or any board or anybody can do in Detroit to stop what's happening on a national level. With Border Patrol and ICE coming into communities. It's scary. I mean, the military coming into communities, national Guard coming into communities is very scary, and I can understand how people who are in political positions don't want to say things or do things that trigger that kind of national response, because you know that we have a very you know thin-skinned person in charge of this nation right now. My son lives in LA and you know it's scary to think about what's happening there. Luckily he's not that political, so he'll be safe.
Norris Howard:He's just partying and doing film, stuff Shout out to Phillip, just party and do film stuff.
Orlando Bailey:I don't know, phillip, you're much more nuanced than parties and film stuff.
Donna Givens Davidson:I'm saying that he's not a person who's going to go to a demonstration.
Orlando Bailey:I want the simple life I want that life.
Jer Staes:Let's start partying and doing film stuff.
Donna Givens Davidson:He's preparing for his birthday party. He's turning 30. Happy birthday, son, but he's not going to be at a demonstration. Now, if my daughters were there, I'd be terrified, but my son, because they're going. They're going, okay, my son not so much, right, yeah, but it's scary. As a person I can understand. There's this thing that sometimes we're doing performative stuff just because we feel like we have to do something and we're not sure what to do.
Orlando Bailey:And so having people go to a Detroit City Council meeting and making that pressure when they're not necessarily Detroit residents I don't know if they are feels a little bit odd. So do you think Gabriellalla had a point, especially when she really keyed? She really keyed in on white folks.
Norris Howard:He was like I, I have caution so as, as somebody who has has covered a lot of the, the protests and demonstrations that have been happening since the start of this, the second administration, second trump administration um, there is an element of that and I think that there she's perfectly within her right to bring that up as as a concern, because, if you are following black threads at all or black Twitter at all, a lot of us are we not going? A lot of us, a lot of us in African-American community have flat out said we are not going to these demonstrations, because we've gone to demonstrations before and we have felt betrayed by every other community we not going. So what I've seen personally, and, truth be told, anecdotally, is that it is a lot of people from the suburbs and it is a few people who live in court town, midtown and downtown. But there is an element of that and so I think to ignore it would be silly. However, on the other foot, understanding to Donna's point of what is happening just in the local sphere of things and local municipalities, it's important that the authorities are held responsible, because this whole situation shouldn't have even happened.
Norris Howard:The, the, the, the kid that was was pulled over and is now been held, was pulled over because he was allegedly tailgating the police, which I don't know. Any person, honestly, that would do that right, but I'm not. Also not sure if that is a thing we just pull over and toss a bunch of teenagers out of their car for. So we we already are getting into a profiler situation. We're getting into a a legal situation, which donna said. There are translation services that they're supposed to be calling Border Patrol Because you called a.
Norris Howard:Border.
Donna Givens Davidson:Patrol, because you called a Border Patrol. And you want something bad to happen.
Norris Howard:So what? They send the guy who probably also doesn't speak Spanish, because we don't live on the southern border, we live next to Canada. So off, rip. There was a chance that they might not have even sent a Spanish speaking person. Go ahead, jer. Go ahead, rip. There was a chance that they might not have even seen a Spanish-speaking person. Go ahead, jer, go ahead.
Jer Staes:I mean, this whole situation is a mess because, number one, the national policy is not thoughtful. It's based on raw numbers, it's not based on this whole idea of like oh, we're going after the worst of the worst, they're picking up thugs from Home Depot and from the elementary school.
Jer Staes:Right, this is just about raw numbers to try to hit some sort of goal, to make people look good on X. This isn't about actually like fixing any kind of purported situation. So, number one, this kid needs to be able to finish their school. I mean, this is, this is deportation is this is about white supremacy.
Donna Givens Davidson:Yeah, this is about white supremacy. Any white person listening to this show, please continue to put your bodies on the line to fight white supremacy, because you have the privilege to do that, and maybe not get beat up or shot or killed. I think that one of the challenges and I see this on my Twitter threads too we're not doing this. This is not our problem.
Donna Givens Davidson:We're resting the idea that white supremacy is only the problem for immigrants coming from Latin America is offensive. It's not true. It's ahistorical. There are Haitian people who are also at risk of being- 40% of those held in ICE detention centers are Haitian. But we're acting like? And then those of us who are Eidos, where they were not descendants of slavery, because there was no slavery in. Haiti right, I mean the amount of ignorance and the amount of distancing that it takes for us to decide.
Orlando Bailey:I didn't know, they were still around.
Donna Givens Davidson:We're going to have on next Friday at ECM. We're having a unity breakfast. We have got to understand that we are our brother's keeper. Everybody doesn't have to do the same things. I'm not marching right, but I support other people who do, and what I'm not going to do is say that's not my problem.
Orlando Bailey:I do want to. I think there is something to be said really quickly, and I know I've been like quarterbacking and pointing to you guys, but the point that I want to make I do think there is something to be said around the concern of, uh, adversarial and retaliatory federal attention and action. If the right person in the city of detroit, or if governor whitmer because we've seen him go to war with Governor Whitmer says something that he doesn't like, and then we have a real issue, an escalated issue, on our hands, and so it's interesting to see how they're towing this line. It really is, and I'm wondering if there's ever going to be a point where it's just like this this is stupid, this is wrong, what you know, consequences whatever.
Donna Givens Davidson:I just think the city council, a city council resolution, is performative right. It is A march, is not.
Jer Staes:Let me tell you about the concern that I have that there is a strategic cleaving of the black and brown community. That's happening. Let me tell you a story. The other month, I was over in line at Dutch Girl Donuts, right, and I'm listening to this African-American group of people talking about how worried they are about immigrants taking their jobs. We're just in the donut line, I'm keeping my mouth shut, I'm just listening, and that fear that's being put in to divide black and brown people is only in service of that supremacy, and so people need to be aware of what's going on there right.
Donna Givens Davidson:I'm 100% in agreement with you, jer. I think that it is absolutely something that is being cultivated by hateful people and those of us who buy into it based on our own perceived grievances. This is a presidency of grievance, and so, if your grievances was driving you, my grievances with those people and not those people. Some Mexican people are racist. This Mexican person did that, this Arab person did that, this Arab person did that, this Jewish person did that. When we allow ourselves to be pulled into that, or even, you know, sherry Gay Daniego, who has recently made a lot of really inappropriate statements about other groups of people, most recently today I think it was today or yesterday. No disrespect, but what we're not about to do.
Norris Howard:I don't mean to be, no disrespect, but what we're not about to do, this is never a good statement, man.
Donna Givens Davidson:He said no disrespect, no disrespect, but what we're not about to do is turn the focus of Juneteenth to immigration. Nobody helps us. Stop waiting on us to save everyone else. It's offensive, it's wrong, it's not historical. Everybody is not waiting for us to save them. Sometimes they're just waiting for our support. Sometimes they just want to know we care and we want to know they care. Everybody doesn't have to go to the same marches and be on the same platform. But when we say things like that that this immigration thing is happening around Juneteenth and therefore we're mad that no King's Day is happening around Juneteenth and we want to bring this focus back to Black Americans, it's silly to me and destructive, especially from public figures.
Jer Staes:The score is the score, and as long as black and brown communities are separated, what was happening now is going to continue to happen, because there aren't enough numbers alone on either side.
Donna Givens Davidson:I agree with you and I'm completely in agreement. I actually wrote an op-ed about this a couple months ago, talking about the fact that we have to figure out how to come together and get over it, Because if we don't get over it, then we are playing into the hands of folks who want to see us divided. When they say black people are taking Mexican people are taking black jobs, these first of all. They're coming here. They have no workers' rights. For the most part, the immigrants have no workers' rights. They're living 100 to a house because they don't have housing rights, they don't have OSHA rights, no occupation safety and health, no minimum wage, none of those things. And why are we angry with the people who are working under those subhuman conditions when we're not angry at the people who are hiring them, bringing them over? And those people are never being arrested or taken to prison.
Norris Howard:See, now, that is the key that I'm always talking about, because there's videos that have just come out this week of ICE agents literally running after people as they are trying to work in fields. And these are just normal folks who are just trying to work, but nobody is arresting the guy who owns the field, who's employing undocumented workers and who is being enriched by this employment. Absolutely.
Donna Givens Davidson:We are angry at each other, and that benefits the people who are benefiting from all of this internal strife.
Norris Howard:And I just want to chime in on what Orlando was talking about, because I think it's very key to sort of make this parallel. This is the same thing that we saw happening about a month or two ago when Trump was going after the universities and you saw certain it still is, it still is, but you saw, you know, Columbia and University of Michigan and Harvard, and these universities that were being attacked for having, you know, more liberal acceptance policies for foreign exchange students, and then particularly the University of Michigan. We had the president literally just quit. A little bit of pressure got put on him from the Trump administration. He just dipped out. Quit got put on him from the Trump administration and he just dipped out quick.
Norris Howard:And now we are in. Now we are in a situation where, if we don't have the ability to learn with freedom and converse with other people in our institutions, in our institutions of higher learning, if people are afraid to go and make connections with others at protests and at other places, if people are afraid to go and make connections with others at protests and at other places, if people are stuck on their social media platforms ingesting algorithmic content getting them to hate one another, we are putting ourselves in silos where all we're going to do is be out for me, me, I, I, my people only.
Orlando Bailey:And that is how we get destroyed. And that is not intrinsic, especially when I'm in, my frame is always talking about black folks, I, my people only. And that is how we get destroyed. And that is not intrinsic, especially when and my frame is always talking about black folks because I love black people. That's not intrinsic to who we are. We are not traditionally, are not a people that has widely subscribed to rugged individualism. We couldn't.
Donna Givens Davidson:We have no choice. We literally couldn't, and in the history of our path to whatever it is we are right now. We've always worked with other groups of people around their issues Always. When we were fighting. Even in my recent lifetime, when the divestment battle was going against. South Africa.
Orlando Bailey:Oh, that one.
Donna Givens Davidson:Divestment of South Africa. Who was on our side fighting with us? Palestinians were. There were Jewish people who were in South Africa getting arrested and fighting on behalf of divestment and freedom from apartheid. We've worked intersectionally with other groups in the past. This idea is me, mine and it's us against the world is not healthy and it's not historical. It's never worked and it's not going to work right now. I think it's important for us to understand that inhumanity, injustice anywhere, is injustice everywhere.
Orlando Bailey:Come on, MLK.
Donna Givens Davidson:And our leaders who were most placed at risk. Look at what happened when Paul Robeson went abroad, right, and he was trying to build international unity with all these people pointing out that oppression around the world. He was in Russia. He was in Spain during the Spanish Civil War. He was doing in places, really fighting on behalf of human rights. In Ireland, they took his passport. Look what happened when Malcolm X went to Mecca and came back and said wait a minute, we're all brothers and whatever, and let's figure out a way to fight against this real problem, which is racism. He was executed. And so Martin Luther King was internationalizing his fight and he was executed.
Donna Givens Davidson:The greatest threat to white supremacy is not black people and other people working together. The greatest threat is when we form coalitions and we decide that we are each other's keeper and we're going to do what's needed to be done. Form coalitions and we decide that we are each other's keeper and we're going to do what's needed to be done, and a time such as this has never been a time where our cooperation across different groups has been more needed. And so I refuse the spirit of my grandmother. I told you my grandmother's revolutionary. My grandmother was, very specifically a person who was interested in international justice, peace and freedom and she visited every continent in the world she tried to. You know, follow many Paul Robeson thing. You'll never know her name because so many black women like her die and they're not known. But that's her spirit coming out in me, saying let's be unified, let's love each other, and love is resistance, not separatism.
Orlando Bailey:So make sure you come and join us on June 21st, because a lot of this has local implications, like there is a candidate right now who's saying he supports Trump's policies immigration policies and would support the bringing in of National Guard troops against protesters.
Donna Givens Davidson:All he has to do is pick up a phone and call him.
Orlando Bailey:And so I'm really really happy that we're doing this partnership. We are big fans of the Daily Detroit podcast, I mean we're a huge fan of yours, yeah. And so I'm glad that the intersection is happening. The chemistry is already. Oh, it's going to be good and fiery. It's going to be good so this is us demonstrating unity right. Yeah, because many people want us to be competitors, exactly Not coming together in the spirit of competition, but coming together in the spirit of unity and love.
Donna Givens Davidson:Let's love our city well enough that we're going to try to hold candidates accountable. I decided I'm not endorsing this year, I'm not going to get publicly behind anybody this year. May the best candidate win. Our responsibility and I think it's our shared responsibility is to make sure Detroiters know who that person is. That's right, right, and that we now, after this person wins, whoever becomes mayor, we still have to organize, we still do all of the things at the community level to hold them accountable for governing in a way that makes sense. But right now let's just try to make sure that we're informing our people and listen. Pastor Solomon Kinloch, the door is open. You can always change your mind. We hope you come. We're not going to attack you. We want you to make your case in front of our audience, and our audience is bigger than you understand and also more influential than you understand. And when you put our audiences together, we have power here too, not WDIV power but, authentically, detroit Daily, detroit Power.
Orlando Bailey:If you have topics that you want to discuss on Authentically Detroit, you can hit us up on our socials at Authentically Detroit, daily Detroit Power. If you have topics that you want to discuss on Authentically Detroit, you can hit us up on our socials at Authentically Detroit on Facebook, instagram and Twitter or X. You can email us at authenticallydetroit at gmailcom. Jer and Norris. Thank you so much for coming on Authentically Detroit. We're going to do a post-mortem, too, of the debate.
Jer Staes:Yeah, you should come over by our place. We'll come to Daily Detroit and do the post-mortem.
Orlando Bailey:Thank y'all so much for coming on and until next time, everybody, love on your neighbor. I'm Rolando Bailey of Outlier Media and Authentically Detroit, and I'm Jair Stays of Daily Detroit, Detroit we've got something special coming up that you won't want to miss.
Jer Staes:That's right Orlando. At 10 am on Sunday, june 21st, we're bringing together Detroit's mayoral candidates for an in-depth community forum right in the heart of the East Side.
Orlando Bailey:This isn't your typical candidate event. We're talking real issues, real solutions and real talk about Detroit's future.
Jer Staes:Join us at the Eastside Community Network at 4401 Connor Street in Detroit from 10 am to 2 pm.
Orlando Bailey:We'll be joined by my authentically Detroit co-host and community leader, Donna Givis-Davidson, to moderate this important discussion.
Jer Staes:Space is limited, so make sure to RSVP through the Eventbrite link in our show notes. Oh, and on that form, there is a spot for your voice to be heard, to help shape our questions and the conversation.
Orlando Bailey:That's right. Whether you're a longtime resident or new to the city, come by ECN on June 21st. It's your chance to hear directly from the candidates who want to leave Detroit.
