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
Black Detroit Democracy Podcast: Youth Voices in Detroit Politics with Kenneth Russell
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 Kenneth Russell, a rising junior at Southeastern High School, joins them to provide a youth perspective on politics in Detroit, the mayoral race, and how politicians can do a better job of reaching young voters.
For more episodes of the Black Detroit Democracy Podcast, click here.
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 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. The Black Detroit Democracy podcast starts right after these messages.
Speaker 3:Detroit mayoral race through the lens of young people. Good journalism costs. Visit DetroitOneMillioncom to support Black independent reporting. Wake up Detroit. Welcome to the Black Detroit Democracy Podcast. Every week, we open this podcast with a reading of the preamble to the Detroit City Charter, read by the one and only Bryce Detroit. The City Charter is our constitution, which defines our rights and the way government should work. I'm Donna Gibbons-Davidson, President and CEO of the Eastside Community Network. I'm Sam Robinson, founder of Detroit. One Million to stay vigilant in the fight for justice and equality. With a special call to action for Black Detroit, we seek to build awareness of our history as a gateway to freedom, a beacon for justice and a laboratory of liberation. Today we have a very special guest with us who brings a perspective that often gets overlooked. Kenneth Russell is a rising junior at Southeastern High School and a member of Vaulted Youth Voices, our youth podcasting program. Kenneth, welcome to the Black Detroit Democracy Podcast. It's good to be back. Okay, how are you today? Hot?
Speaker 4:Very hot. Yeah, it's 85 out here.
Speaker 5:And wearing the blue jean jacket.
Speaker 3:It's not cool so why are you in a blue jean?
Speaker 4:jacket. I got my jacket on too.
Speaker 5:I wanted to make my outfit look aesthetic, especially with the uniform. And I wanted to make my outfit look aesthetic, especially with the uniform, and I was in a rush this morning, I wasn't really thinking about the heat.
Speaker 3:Well, they say beauty is pain, pain is beauty. You had a look that you had to achieve Because, in addition to being with Vaulted Youth Voices, you are part of the Eastside Youth Collective and this summer you're part of our workforce.
Speaker 5:This is my second year.
Speaker 3:Yeah, tell me about the work that you're doing.
Speaker 5:Right now we just got done with our small group type of activities for the first two weeks and I believe next week we go into our mini internships. So I'm excited for that part because I get to work in the different departments and being able to stretch out a little bit more Probably find some more opportunities too while I'm at it. That's wonderful.
Speaker 3:All right. Well, we're excited to have you here, and we were just talking before we started about this being Christmas in July, on July 25th. Talk about it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, this week we are going to learn how much money Detroit mayoral candidates and candidates for city council and several candidates for statewide office how much money they have in their campaign accounts. July 25 is the state filing deadline, so on Thursday night at 1158 pm I'm going to be opening my Twitter on my laptop and on the Wayne County Kathy Garrett website. You know Kathy Garrett's website, the Wayne County Campaign Finance site, is like the only county campaign finance site of its kind really in the state. I don't know why that is, but a very smart guy named Simon Schuster he used to be the director of Michigan Campaign Finance Network. Neil Tanadar is the director, now Sheree's son. He tells me that it's a really good software that Kathy has going.
Speaker 4:I just wanted to say that because I didn't know, that Wayne County was unique and that they have their own whole campaign finance system.
Speaker 3:I didn't either. That's interesting, that's online.
Speaker 4:Every county has its own campaign finance.
Speaker 3:Tracking.
Speaker 4:Yes, but what happens in Detroit and Wayne County is very similar to what happens on, say, the federal website FEC, the Federal Election Commission, on, say, the federal website, fec, the Federal Election Commission, or the state of Michigan Jocelyn Benson's site that she's getting a lot of criticism for right now because some of the functions of that site are down, yeah well, wayne County's is not, and just like on.
Speaker 3:Christmas. Do you remember waking up on Christmas Eve at 11.59 and wanting to go search out your gifts? Or was that just me and my family?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I did. Yeah, I mean, I would go out there at like maybe 2 am in the morning. My parents knew to, you know, not do it Before I was, you know. So I think they kept Santa up for a while. How long did you go with Santa? Is Santa still real? Probably not for you.
Speaker 5:No, I gave up on Santa after I was seven.
Speaker 4:That's probably been a good ten years yeah.
Speaker 5:I was seven. I went downstairs one time to my mom wrapping gifts. I'm like where's Santa? He's like oh, he's in the next room eating his cookies. I go in the next room and I see my dad eating the cookies and I'm the only one left out. Was that devastating? Yes, and they was drinking my favorite milk. They took the normal milk from out the living room where the cookies were and poured almond milk there. I'm like so y'all going to take my milk? And then say Santa drunk it, so y'all can drink it.
Speaker 3:Oh, so your milk was the almond milk.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I like almond milk. I don't really drink latte.
Speaker 3:Okay, I thought you might be special like that. You know you are not your normal teenager. You have almond milk and you have to wear a blue jean jacket to differentiate yourself from your 38 colleagues.
Speaker 4:It's going good. I like the Air Maxes too. Oh yeah, I mean, oh yeah you are definitely.
Speaker 5:What are these?
Speaker 4:What is this I?
Speaker 5:don't know my. What is this? I don't know. My uncle gave me these.
Speaker 3:Oh well, I like those, those are nice and they kind of match the blue, kind of matches the blue in your jacket.
Speaker 5:I can't go nowhere without it matching. At least the only thing that's probably not going to be matching is my socks. Okay, All right.
Speaker 3:You know what? I wish Orlando was here, because I saw Orlando on the three colors in his gym shoes. I was like but you made sure that you coordinated, didn't you? I think even he had the hat going on. I just love the look, but no, I think a lot of people are going to be disappointed and or excited, because this website is not just going to tell you how much people made, but where they got their money from, and it helps you to understand how many small dollar donations people got, meaning they got from people in the city of Detroit, how many donations came from Detroiters versus people outside the city of Detroit. And so I will be up either at 11.59 on Thursday or very early in the morning, waking up after my going to sleep on Friday, just trying to crunch those numbers numbers because I think that's part of the disclosure that we need.
Speaker 5:So wait do they get their donations. So are you talking about like donations from like them funding their elections I mean their campaign or like donations going back into like small businesses?
Speaker 3:No, don't. People who donated to each candidate's campaign. Who donated to each candidate's campaign. Their campaign reports are due on the 25th and then they'll be available. I think the cutoff period was the 20th, which was Sunday.
Speaker 3:And so every campaign donation, from January 1st until July 20th, I believe will be documented, and when somebody gives, it's not just the name of the person but the amount that they gave and also their address, and that helps you to understand a number of things. Now there's dark money, contributions to campaigns, where you may not be able to get as much detail, but it's important to understand that too. So I'm excited, I think it's important, it's almost as exciting as August the 5th.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it is. If you guys want to see it for yourself, waynecountymigov. If you just click, if you type in Wayne County Campaign Finance to Google, one of the first results is going to be the Wayne County site and it's going to say elections. You're going to click on elections, it's going to take you, you'll see Kathy Garrett's profile photo and you'll scroll down overview. You'll get to a little pop-up that says campaign finance and it'll ask you you're leaving the website. Yes, and now when you get onto the campaign finance website it's kind of tricky. You're going to go to that left panel and you're going to click on view filed reports. You're going to click continue and then that will show you you can type in the committee name. So if you want to see how much Mary Sheffield has raised in her campaign, you'll type in Mary Sheffield and the Mary Sheffield committee name. It'll be something like Friends of Solomon Kinloch or Fred Durhall for Detroit or Friends of Gabby Santiago Romero, and that's how you find it. I wish that somebody had told me how to do this when.
Speaker 4:I began being a reporter.
Speaker 3:It took me a while to figure it out. I really think you doing a YouTube tutorial you did such a nice job.
Speaker 3:Why don't we get you to do a YouTube tutorial? We'll put it on our Facebook page, because people really do need to know this information. It's public information. Knowledge is power and it really helps us make our decisions. Unfortunately, a lot of times what we get is cherry-picked by newspaper reporters who have an agenda, and my only agenda is knowledge. I don't know that knowing this is going to sway how I'm going to vote, but it will help me understand who's supporting who and how. But you know, word on the street.
Speaker 4:There's a new poll out. Yeah, I see all the polls. The polls have been so wrong, but they are a snapshot of where voters are, where a select few voters are, and the newest poll. Santeel Jenkins was celebrating this morning on her social media sites.
Speaker 3:Why is that? I don't think it's a big surprise though I think a lot of us thought that Santeill Jenkins was rising in the polls.
Speaker 4:She's battling for that two spot with Solomon Kinloch. A lot of people think it's a toss-up. A lot of people in the neighborhoods don't, and I want to.
Speaker 3:When you say the people in the neighborhoods don't think it's a toss-up, what do you mean?
Speaker 4:There is a real fervor around these polls as it pertains to the Kinloch crew, all of his Facebook supporters. They are really questioning the credibility of some of these polls, sometimes fair or unfair. The polls are representative of, I think, 400 or 500 respondents. It's important to know the methodology. I think some of these polls had margins of errors of four or five. So the polls aren't fake guys. You know these polls are actual polls. It's not somebody trying to the polls.
Speaker 3:Are people picking up the phone?
Speaker 4:right, yes, yes.
Speaker 3:And the polls are dependent on people picking up the phone. Now nobody's called me, and when I get numbers that call me and I don't recognize the number, I'm not answering the phone. So the polls really are biased towards people who would answer a phone call from somebody you don't know and then not hang up as soon as you hear the person asking questions. That said, it is a temperature check. It gives you some sense of momentum, even if it doesn't give you the exact numbers, and I think what it could demonstrate for some people is what I'm hearing from a lot of people is that Santil Jenkins has momentum going into this primary. I've heard that unofficially even before this poll came out. Some of the other things that were interesting in the polls were some of the subgroups that were supporting Mary Sheffield, santil Jenkins and Solomon Kinloch, because now you know Fred Durhall is rising too. I think in this poll he rose to about 6%.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that was after the Detroit Regional Chamber endorsed Fred. It's interesting James Craig seems to have completely slipped away.
Speaker 3:We kind of figured that was going to happen. First of all, there was a ceiling to the number of people who would support him. True story I was at the African World Festival on Sunday and, as we were exiting, this lady was standing there with a clipboard and she says, well, I want to sell you my poetry. And I was like you know, I don't have any cash. And so she says, okay, well, otherwise would you sign this petition for John James, her governor, and I was like hell, no. And it was just a reaction Like why are you even asking me this?
Speaker 3:So I think that she's trying to trick people into this through sympathy or something like buy my poetry and or sign this petition. But I think John James and James Craig have a limit to how much support they're going to get in our city. When I looked on the petition, she only had about three or four names. We really do take this stuff seriously, especially in a year like this, where blackness is under attack and where black history is no longer being allowed to be talked about or taught in schools in the same way and you're having black statues and monuments replaced by Civil War heroes from the South.
Speaker 5:Did y'all hear about the Martin Luther King statue? Trump actually removed it from the White House. Right, I saw that on like 12 am in the morning and I was like why is he taking this out? That's like a very monumental feat.
Speaker 4:He's got to fit more gold inside the Oval Office there.
Speaker 3:You didn't see that he's putting everything in gold. But how did that make you feel when you saw that?
Speaker 5:It made me feel like some crap was going to happen, because if, like you're taking, because first you take away the right for us not to get discriminated from jobs, because remember he took away that- All the civil rights protections.
Speaker 5:Yeah, all the civil rights protections for us getting jobs and stuff. Then you're taking away the school board and removing the way how black history is taught. Then you take Martin Luther King's statue from out the White House and that's making me feel like that we're going to go back to segregation because you're taking away black monumental artifacts and stuff that we worked for.
Speaker 3:I mean, we are still segregated right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm talking about like, but I know what you're saying. Yeah, like split.
Speaker 3:I think that we are still a segregated nation. We've never. I mean black people remain the most segregated people in America and we live in one of the most segregated communities in America, right? So segregation is a thing. I think he's going to have limits to what he can do. Apparently, a lot of what he's doing is increasingly unpopular, and so his polls are shrinking. Now that won't matter because he doesn't care. He lives in his own malignant, narcissistic world where nothing, truth doesn't matter. But midterm elections are coming up in 2026. And what may happen is you may actually get a Congress that's willing to check some of that power and push back on that.
Speaker 3:I don't know that most Americans I'm not talking about some of the diehard MAGA people who specialize in hate but I don't think most Americans want to go back to those days. I think that he is over hope, and this is just my optimism. My optimism could be really misplaced. I try to stay in an optimistic space, especially with young people. I don't want you to feel hopeless or defeated by these actions, because any action can be reversed, especially if the majority of people want to. But that also reminds me of the need to get people like you involved, kenneth.
Speaker 3:The reason some of this is possible is because so many people have checked out of the electoral process that when he ran in 2024, people, many people who could have shown up didn't. And I'll give a number. We talked about this last week, but not with you For every one person under the age of 30 who voted in 2024, there were 10 people over the age of 60 who voted in 2024 in the city of Detroit. One person under age of 30, my vote, my voice, is 10 times more powerful than Sam's when it comes to a political calculus. I'm not saying that that should be true. I'm not saying that is true. But my question to you is how do we get more young people engaged in the process? You are extraordinarily engaged.
Speaker 5:We was just talking about something like this when we had our little mini project called Build your Own Country, and in my group's project, when we had our Build your Own Country and in my group's project when we had our Build your Own Country, we added a law and this is just an example and I'm going to explain on that after we had a law that people from 16 and up can vote, but if you want to vote at 16, you'll have to take a class for you to.
Speaker 5:You have to take a class not to do proper research on voting before you can vote. Now, coming back to what you just said about how there's only one person under the age of 30 who voted in the city of voting and the research of voting so we can understand the candidates, we should be able to incorporate that into schools or at least have a program for you to go to so we can understand the process of voting, the process of voting, how to do proper research and to think about it on a wider scale than to just say, oh, I'm going to just vote for them because their ideals seem good to me and then afterwards they get in the office. It's not what you think.
Speaker 3:You know, I think a lot of people don't trust democracy works. I think a lot of people think if I vote or I don't vote, it really doesn't matter, and I hear that a lot from young people. Are you hearing that?
Speaker 5:Yeah, I hear that all the time Like, oh, a vote is a vote, A vote is a vote, I'm going to just vote because I just want to be a part of something. But like, yeah, you voting is doing something good because you're making yourself known in the election, but like you got to have a meaning behind your vote and what ideal you want. Because if you vote for something, you want something out of that person that they're trying to give to you or you want something that you like something the person is doing. You can't just vote to say, oh, I'm going to just vote.
Speaker 3:Well, a lot of people will say I'm not going to vote because they're not going to do anything for me anyway. They don't care about me anyway. And you know, I think people who are my age tend to be insensitive to that. Right, I hear a lot of people my age, a lot of black women my age especially, who are my peers I'm not going to say my age because it's also my peers employed black women who have college degrees, whatever. It's a difference, right, describing ourselves at the 92% and being very self-congratulatory about that. But we know that when people run for office, they care about us, at least a little bit, right.
Speaker 5:To be running at least.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean they want our votes and they actually go out and try to get our votes. I think very few candidates actually even know what young people want to see a politician do number one and number two.
Speaker 4:I think a lot of people think that young people don't vote anyway, so I don't care about what they have to say and when you got statistics to back it up, right, I mean, why would they spend their time and energy to a base that isn't going to go out? Is the calculus that a lot of campaigns make during their strategy. Kenneth, I think it's interesting. You said before we went on you know my friends want the next mayor. To what did you say?
Speaker 5:not add a 13th grade?
Speaker 4:no, there was something else too. You said that they wanted to give us an extra day off of school.
Speaker 5:Oh, yeah, extra days of school, or to give us less days of school less days of school. I mean, it gives us more time to study, but who's actually going to study?
Speaker 4:Right. Can I ask you? The UK plans to lower its voting age to 16. You mentioned that there was a discussion you were having on whether or not your peers feel like in America it should be lowered to the age of 16. What do you think?
Speaker 5:I think it should because, like 16, you're at the halfway point before you're an actual adult, and that's when your voice starts to have more of an impact. You're able to work, you're able to work, you're able to file taxes and you have an ID, so you're in the system all the way. So it's like being able to vote at a younger age. It gives us more of a variety to vote in those kind of systems, because then you'll have more of a population to see who's want, who won't want and who doesn't want one. Because, like older people, most people won't vote. But like if you have a kid, like if I have to vote, you have to vote. So it's like if I do it, you do it, kind of process. But it also teaches the children how to properly vote and do their research on the candidates.
Speaker 4:Yeah, there's a writer. Her name is Rachel Gianfazza. She has a really good sub stack. It's called the Up and Up and she studies the behaviors of Gen Z. She actually just wrote about this 23 hours ago. She posted this on Tuesday Voting. Just wrote about this 23 hours ago. She posted this on Tuesday voting at 16. Why Gen Z isn't all in? She talked to a number of American high schoolers who said they actually don't feel like 16-year-olds should be able to vote, and they'll give you examples as to why there's a lot of people that really doom and gloom in the future of our uh country and state and city. Um, I don't think that's really fair to the Gen Alpha kids and the Gen Z kids, because I think they got a lot of a lot of potential.
Speaker 3:Oh, absolutely. I think that. Um, I love young voters, I love young people and I think young people are smart, optimistic, have lots of ideas. Ageism is a thing. This idea that my generation was better than your generation, I'm better than you because you're young and I'm older and I was there when Martin Luther King was marching and you weren't. It's silly, it's ridiculous and it's sad. You hear it with music, right? Oh, nobody is making music like they used to make. No, they're making music like they make now, right? Things change, ideas modernize, and the problem with ageism is that we don't know everything. And to the extent I know things, it's only because I have friends like Sam and I talk to people like you and I have my children, children and I'm willing to learn from you. There are things we just don't understand.
Speaker 3:I remember when the Black Lives Matter initiative started and there were so many people my age who were saying things like oh, I hope these young people aren't violent. You know, martin Luther King was nonviolent. He was nonviolent, but the police weren't. You see those fire hoses and the dogs are sick on them. This idea that, well, if they only dress better, and it's like, okay, martin Luther King was executed wearing a suit, right? You can't dress your way out of racism. You can't non-violence your way out of violence in a world where violence is how people gain power, and so I think we have a way of turning things around against young people, where we see ourselves as being superior. You need to learn from me. Back in the day, we had tactics and we had strategies, but back in the day, guess what?
Speaker 4:You didn't have YouTube.
Speaker 3:Martin Luther King was 26 years old when he ran the Birmingham bus boycott. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Council was college students who were running Freedom Riders, who were doing the sit-ins, who were registering voters. This idea that it was old folks doing that. It was never old folks. And you know what old folks were doing back in those days Complaining, complaining. Oh you rabble-rousers, you need to stop messing that up. If you've ever read Martin Luther King's letter from the Birmingham jail, he talks about why not now? Why now? No-transcript. He was in his 30s or he was in his 40s. I said he died. He was killed at 39.
Speaker 3:You look at, if you're Christian, how old was Jesus when Jesus started the movement of? You know the Christian well we now call Christianity when he started to a movement of faith? And how old was he when he died? How old was Malcolm X? When we look at history, young people have always been not just part of the solution, the people who have the ideals and the energy and the courage to go out and fight for something different. And so I don't just want young people to vote because it's nice and inclusive. I actually think that if we're going to save our planet, it's because young people are going to be in charge.
Speaker 5:Because we're behind y'all, because y'all don't got too much longer. I have plenty of time.
Speaker 3:Not you, donna, I have plenty of time.
Speaker 5:Not you, donna, not you. I'm just saying Statistically-wise like our generation is coming up and we have more of an impact going for us in the long run, because what we do from this point on is going to impact the world around us.
Speaker 3:Exactly.
Speaker 5:Especially with the whole war situation, the majority of us is going to get drafted. No, I mean—.
Speaker 4:No, you're going to be okay, i'm—.
Speaker 3:But you're right. I mean, it is young people who are at risk of being drafted. There's young people who are at risk of every consequence of climate change. People are predicting by 2050 this is going to happen, while 2050, I pray I'm still here, but I'll be like 90-something. Right? The reality is that for me, the stakes are different than for you, except that I have grandchildren. I want my grandchildren to be able to have what I had. I want them to be able to have children, and so a lot of us care. I'm not going to condemn everybody my age, but I think the stakes are very different for you.
Speaker 3:I think that we have also got to unlearn a whole lot of things that we learned as young people. We grew up in a world without YouTube, without the Internet, without a whole lot of things that we learned as young people. You know, we grew up in a world without YouTube, without the internet, without a whole lot of things, and so the ability of TV to propagandize certain things was really, really great, and it's declining now. Now, sometimes you have people saying crazy stuff on social media and crazy stuff on YouTube, but there's a multiplicity of voices that I was not exposed to when I was young and so you have access to information, and that's why we need you to vote. I don't know if, for me, getting 16 year olds to vote is a priority. I just want 18 year olds to vote.
Speaker 5:Yeah, but like teaching people under 18 how to vote properly should be pushed more, because voting is only talked about like briefly in between high school and it starts to become a topic in like mid, early middle school, so like it being more, what's the word?
Speaker 3:Well, we're going to take a break, yeah, and we come back. I want you to talk about what you're learning about civics, about history and voting and democracy in school, and I want you to explain to me whether or not what you're learning is what you're actually seeing when you look at the world. So take a break and be right back.
Speaker 2:Have you ever dreamed of being on the airwaves? Well, the Authentically Detroit Podcast Network, 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 313-331-3485.
Speaker 3:All right, we're back with Kenneth Russell, a high school student at Southeastern High School, one of our most active and strong leaders in this community, youth leaders in this community. Kenneth, what are you learning about democracy and government at Southeastern?
Speaker 5:First I'm going to shout out my amazing civic slash economics teacher, ms Z. She teaches us how the system works and how the buildup between the what was it? The civic system? I'm trying to remember it's a split class, civics yep. So she explains us how the system works and how, when we vote, it gives us a certain impact to it and how, when we don't put our impact into it, it's like how can I explain? I can't really think.
Speaker 3:Shout out DPSCD, though. I really appreciate it when I hear students at schools like Southeastern shouting out teachers who are doing a beautiful job of educating you, because the propaganda is that you're not learning anything. So this is a teacher who's really helped to educate you and helped give you know, give you a point of view, what are some important things you've learned in her class.
Speaker 5:The important things I learned is, like how the government system works is how, like, for example, you own private property right and the government will come out of nowhere and take your private property from you and then try to throw money in your face. Like's some money for eminent domain yes eminent
Speaker 5:domain yeah but I heard about that for the first time. It's like so you're telling me I could go in the middle of nowhere and buy a patch of land and call it my home. They only build a factory on top of it, like here's some money, we'll let you go somewhere else.
Speaker 4:That happens, happens to people. Uh, they're trying to build solar farms the city of Detroit is and they're offering folks money to buy a parcel.
Speaker 5:That's something I don't like, especially with the Black Bottom situation when we was talking about that, how Black Bottom had all these varieties of businesses, communities and people within it. That helps everybody and it's like we're all a big family. It takes a village to raise a child, type of situation. So then when they gave everybody money to move out of them homes, they didn't give everybody money, not everybody, they didn't give most people money.
Speaker 3:I just wanted to set the record straight because it would be great if they gave everybody money. Poletown, the Poletown, the Poletown plant, everybody got money. Yeah, the Poletown, black Bottom. They're like see, if you did not own property you didn't get money. And if you did own property, a lot of times you didn't get money for the full value of your property.
Speaker 3:And at that time think about this there were only certain neighborhoods where black people were allowed to live, because, not because of the government saying you can't live here, but because people had restrictive covenants on their deeds that said you cannot sell this house or rent this house to a black person. And so where black people lived in Detroit largely followed where Jewish people were leaving, right. So we ended up in Virginia Park, right? Our businesses were closed in Black Bottom. Think about this Businesses were closed in Black Bottom, not just shoe stores and places like that, but we had a lot of nightclubs and places you could hang out. We had a hotel, the Gotham Hotel in Black Bottom, where jazz singers used to come. Where jazz singers used to come, those businesses closed. Now where are you going to hang out? You don't have the YMCA closed, right?
Speaker 5:You can't go out to where them white people be at, because if you do, then you're going to get killed or you're going to get discriminated, or if you are even standing on the street 1967,.
Speaker 3:You're standing on 12th Street, which is now Rosa Parks Boulevard. You could get stopped and arrested for loitering and vagrancy just for standing, while being black your presence alone.
Speaker 3:Let's talk about what happened in July of 1967, right, these people were in a space that did not have a liquor license because the spaces most of the spaces that had liquor license had been taken from us. But they're in a space that did not have a liquor license, celebrating the return of a person who was coming home from a war that they were drafted and forced to fight in in Vietnam. The community comes out and celebrates drafted and forced to fight in in Vietnam. The community comes out and celebrates there's 70 or 80 people. It's called a blind pig. So the police go up in this space and they say we're arresting everybody here. We're arresting every person who joined here. We're arresting the person downstairs who cooked for them. You're going to jail. The problem was they didn't know how many people were there, I think, and so they didn't know how many people were there, I think, and so they didn't have a big enough paddy wagon to put everybody in the paddy wagon. While they were standing there waiting to transport these people to jail, somebody started throwing things at the police, which ignited a rebellion, and people say well, they were gathered in an illegal space. Legal spaces had been decimated in Detroit. The illegality. Why have we made spaces illegal for people to come together? That is part of the problem.
Speaker 3:But you're absolutely right about the eminent domain piece, and so often eminent domain is used against black people and other people of color. They called it urban renewal and we called it. What Do you know? Did your teacher tell you that? Negro removal? That's what people said. This is Negro removal because that's what was done. I-75, not just in Black Bottom, not just I-375, all of I-75, and many of the freeways were built straight through neighborhoods that were occupied by predominantly black populations. Right, my great great grandmother owned a house on the I-75, what would have been I-75, near McNichols. That got taken. We lost our property and it's the stripping away of our wealth without compensation that is so problematic, right? And they tell us oh, you guys should start businesses.
Speaker 5:We start a business and y'all destroy it right after Right, especially in one of them, big, open-spaced areas, like you know what, let's build a route right here or a factory here's some money, or if you don't go here, we're going to force you out, like that doesn't make sense. Doesn't make sense, yeah, and it's very inconsiderate because for the people and for the environment, because you're, you're going to destroy properties and then try and clean it up to the best of your abilities, then throw a factory or a road right on top of it, you're messing up the ecosystem oh, you know, I kind of did that with the kind of creek greenway right and saint gene.
Speaker 3:But, sam, you grew up in midland. Did I get that right? That's right. Okay, you grew up in.
Speaker 4:Midland.
Speaker 3:Did I get that right? That's right, okay, you grew up in Midland. What did you learn about government?
Speaker 4:I learned that there are three branches and I man they had us like. I remember third grade Richard Bernstein. He is the blind brother of Sam Bernstein. You know the Bernstein family because you see the TV ads. He is a Supreme Court justice today, but 20 years ago I don't know what he was doing, probably just being an attorney. I remember he came and talked to us once.
Speaker 4:I went to school with the daughter of Congressman John Molinar and through that, john would come into our classes. He's a Republican mid-Michigan congressman. He would come to our class and talk to us about government, how it worked. What did we learn about government in Midland? Oh my gosh, I don't know. I mean, I had a ton of good teachers. I had a lot of bad teachers too. I will never forget this and I wanted to tell her like you don't even understand, like your own question, because Obama's not a socialist but I had this one racist conservative teacher. I will leave her name out of this episode. She once hooked up with a former student after he graduated two years afterward, when he was 19 years old. So I'll leave her name out of it. Wow, yeah, just right there on air.
Speaker 1:Keep that part in it, though so I can send it to my Midland friends. They don't know who I'm talking about.
Speaker 4:On a test once she put is obama, is the president barack obama based on these things? Is he more of a capitalist, a socialist, a something or something like? I think it was like communist or something else, and I think the correct answer was socialist. And I was just like in 11th grade and I was just like you're so stupid and I told her that she did not like me. I had really good teachers that really hated Midland conservatism the conservatism that existed in Midland was kind of like a Rick Snyder smart Gretchen Whitmer won the city of Midland.
Speaker 4:It was the first Democratic governor to win in Midland in like 50 or 60 years. So they didn't really like. They don't like Trump all that much. I mean certainly outside of the city, in the rural Sanford or Larkin township or whatever in Midland County, the rural townships it was big Trump, but in the city, you know, it was definitely split. You definitely had this vein of liberalism that came from the history of Alden B Dow, the famous architect who studied under Frank Lloyd Wright.
Speaker 4:Midland High and Dow High had a combined theory of knowledge class that was held at his master work home and garden home and studio, rather where there's in his backyard. They call it Dow Gardens and everybody gets their prom and homecoming pictures shot there. Midland is definitely a place where all of the teachers at the high school level have master's degrees, and so I was very fortunate to go there. It's like people send their kids from wherever township to go to Midland Public Schools. They champion it as one of the best public school systems in the state. Is it actually that? I don't know anymore. But yeah, I learned about politics in Midland.
Speaker 3:When you look at those barometers it's like what are you learning in school? So many times you can learn factual information, but you don't necessarily learn things that are useful to you as a black person. You don't necessarily learn your history, you don't necessarily learn your pride, and a lot of times I feel as though what some of those good schools communicate is black inferiority, and so black students get marginalized inside of these really good school systems and then it's like oh, I guess those kids don't care about school or they put labels on them. I saw that with my kids in their high school. They were not in the remedial classes, but most of their classmates were. My son was in 10th grade. He's going into 10th grade. He said I just want to take regular classes, I don't want to take these honors classes. And I was like baby when you look in the mirror. As long as a black man is looking back, you do not want regular. Okay, because that is treating you like you're inferior and unfortunately that's the way it is.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, it was, was I was in all the regular classes and that was definitely like you got looked down on and guess, get this. You know the three levels of the school. They would literally put the 0.2 is how we call it 0.2, 0.3, you know. And then you had ab ib. We certainly had ib at midland. I the 0.2 classes would be at the bottom and my basketball coach shout out to him er Eric Krause, math teacher. He would call it out for what it was. He was this white guy that would rub the executive class parents the wrong way, basketball coach, so you could imagine his perspective.
Speaker 3:But you know, I'm really excited about Kenneth because, kenneth, you're learning stuff that's useful to you and I hope that you take that and hold on to it and discard messages about the inferiority of Detroit public schools. You know because your teachers at least some of them are caring about that and I think we don't always evaluate the importance of that. When I grew up in Detroit, detroit was mostly black city. It was almost all black. I mean neighborhoods. Most of the schools in neighborhood schools were, and students there didn't necessarily get high test scores, but a lot of those students didn't have high test scores, went to college and got really good jobs. Test scores do not determine your intelligence or your future or your path.
Speaker 4:Nor does your GPA. I had a counselor one time tell me, you know, because my GPA went Test scores do not determine your intelligence or your future or your path. Nor does your GPA. I had a counselor one time tell me, you know, because my GPA went under a three. I was in, I was like a sophomore in high school and I got like a C in two classes. And she's like you know, if you want to get into a good school, you know you're going to have to. You're not going to. And it's like what? Like you know, they were trying to doom and gloom me, man.
Speaker 3:They were trying to tell me that I wasn't going to do nothing. They told my husband that he could not do anything but woodwork. So we've made progress. They told him he couldn't go to college. He was able to do woodwork. He was not college material and, yes, he did get his bachelor's degree from the College of Creative Studies, which was really hard to get in, and I'm so proud of him for pushing beyond that, like so many students in my day did. But now the way test scores are used, I think it discourages students and makes them feel like, oh, there must be something wrong with you. Test scores are inherently racist and biased. They do not communicate intelligence and I want everybody to know that, because so many people begin to think and internalize those things. So a school that doesn't have great test scores is not looked at as a good school. You are learning how to learn in school and I bet you have learned more now than you have when you were even when you were in college just through doing work.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, way more. I mean I can imagine like actually doing journalism. I always think about that Like I didn't really need to go to school to do this, you just continue doing it and you learn new things every day.
Speaker 3:Uh, or you talk to people yeah, and you learn from them. I was a cd student in high school, but I tested well. I'm a reader. People read a lot test well, so I'm a reader. I tested well, right, but I was a cd student.
Speaker 4:You didn't like doing the homework or what oh, I just hated.
Speaker 3:I went to um mercy high school majority white all girls school in the suburbs. I was a CD student. You didn't like doing the homework or what. No, I just hated it. I went to Mercy.
Speaker 5:High.
Speaker 3:School majority white all-girls school in the suburbs. I was called the N-word my first day of school and I was always in protest mode. I'm saying that to say I was a CD student but I tested well but I had no reflection of my intelligence in my CDs. I used to call Ds Donna's Listen. I was not taking this seriously at all.
Speaker 2:That's pretty good. That's pretty good.
Speaker 3:And so I did well on the ACT. And some of my classmates found out and they reported me and they said there's no way this loser could test that well. And so my counselor called me in and said Donna, you tested really well, but your grades don't reflect that. Did you cheat or get lucky? This is my high school counselor, only time I ever talked to her and I said I don't know option three, I'm an underachiever, and so I was so angry with her I say racism got me into college because I was so angry with her, I decided I was going to get all A's on everything I did to show her that I could do this. And I don't even think she cared. But it just you know, I'm the same person. The same girl who got D's got A's. The same person who got this grade point average is a judge. The same person who got this grade point average is a doctor. So I hope what you're learning is how brilliant you are.
Speaker 5:I was always taught that the school, the school doesn't make the student, the student makes the school. So it's like you can't people who say, oh, I go to Cass Tech and blah blah split. You can go to Cass Tech and be dumb as bricks.
Speaker 4:I've seen it. Yeah, I know a lot of those folks. No, you absolutely can Dumb as bricks. I've seen it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I know a lot of those folks. No, you absolutely can. This idea that schools make you smart. I tell people this all the time Schools don't make you smart. God made you smart. You were born smart. You were born with intelligence. Schools help teach you skills, but they do not. God gave you these skills.
Speaker 3:Our ancestors at least some of them were not even allowed to read. Our ancestors at least some of them were not allowed to do math. Our ancestors at least some of them had to pretend that they did not know what they knew in order to save their lives. And they were as gifted, as intelligent as we are. The difference is they didn't have a chance to express it, and so I think one of the ways that we're raised in America especially young black, you know, generations of people not raised in enslaved circumstances is to believe somehow that because I went to this school, I'm better than my grandmother and I'm here to say no, you're not. You know, you're not greater than these. Great, great, great, great great grandparents were smart. They were doing things. They made your life possible. You're in these schools, you get what you can from the school, and I'm so proud of you for having what you have? Where do you learn outside of school?
Speaker 5:What do you mean?
Speaker 3:Where do you get your information outside of?
Speaker 5:school. Do you read? I read news articles.
Speaker 4:That's good. Where do you read them on?
Speaker 5:Either on CNN.
Speaker 4:Like on articles. That's good. Where do you read them on?
Speaker 5:Either on CNN or on the social media platform.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Instagram, twitter, instagram and Twitter. Do you subscribe to Detroit Web Million?
Speaker 5:I don't know what that is. I look on News 1, detroit.
Speaker 3:I suggest you go to Substack and you start looking at some of the independent journalists on Substack. It's an app you can download. It's one that I absolutely love, and Sam Robinson is on Substack.
Speaker 4:Can I ask you know streamers? Are you watching people on YouTube? Who are your favorite people to watch?
Speaker 5:Besides myself. Yeah, let's talk about that. Oh, um, it's slow right. Now I'm back to doing my videos. I just uploaded one recently, last week. Today I have to go home after this and record, and then I got to sit these next couple days editing. I made my thumbnail.
Speaker 3:So tell us about your YouTube channel though.
Speaker 5:My YouTube channel consists of gaming, soon-to-be reactions, voice acting, and I am going to probably because I'm already writing a book slash a movie, so I want to finish that up and then try and get it made into a comic book of some sorts and then get it illustrated as either an animated TV show or a live-action adaptation.
Speaker 4:That would be sick. Do all those things now, while you can. I wish I would have started when I was started writing my book, when I was 16, and I could have been done by now. Who are the people that you're inspired by, like content creators or streamer people Kai Snack, corey Kenshin and what's his name?
Speaker 5:people that you're inspired by, like content creators or streamer people kai snack, cory kenshin and, um, what's his name?
Speaker 4:kaggy films uh, do you like speed? Yes, oh my god, you like speed?
Speaker 5:I like this, so every time I see him on wwe.
Speaker 4:Music Artists.
Speaker 5:Dizzy 8. Divide Music, thousand Foot Crutch and Sleep Theory All right and then, yeah, I don't know any of those artists, you finally got me man, I don't know any of those. What genre? Tell the people?
Speaker 4:What is this?
Speaker 5:For the majority of them, besides Thousand Foot Crutch, Set it Off and Sleep Theory, those are rock Okay, Rock slash, Christian rock Okay. And then the other people I named before them. They're like nerdcore slash Christian.
Speaker 4:Okay. Who are your friends listening to? What are the music artists?
Speaker 5:The majority 11th grade, I know, but like Say them, skillababy, right DaBaby.
Speaker 4:DaBaby, skillababy's way better than DaBaby.
Speaker 5:I can agree with you on that one.
Speaker 4:I know Tay B Freestyle. You know that one yeah.
Speaker 5:Like music like that. It's like repetitive to me.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 5:So I'm I don't like listen to it, but like repetitive to me. I don't listen to it, little baby Too many babies.
Speaker 4:There's baby Osama.
Speaker 3:I like her. I just want to say this I'm hearing the Christian influence, your church, your pastor, shout out Pastor Ellison, pastor Brian Ellison, he's like my brother. We really grew up together. Our fathers were best friends. There were five Ellison boys and four Givens girls and we spent so much time together. We were like cousins and so, yeah, I love him and we share so much thinking. So I'm glad I was so happy to hear you went to his church.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I haven't been in a minute. I'm actually supposed to be getting baptized soon, so I'm going to try and go this weekend.
Speaker 3:Well, let me know when you get baptized, because I'm going to come and see it.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I got to see when he's ready. I got to get in contact with him, that's sick.
Speaker 4:I wish I was cognizant for that. I was just a wee infant child when I got baptized. What church? It was Sanford Methodist Church in Midland County. My grandmother is a lifetime member of that church and it is where my mother got baptized actually Same church. How old were you? An infant? I was zero.
Speaker 3:My kids got baptized as infants in the Catholic Church and then I divorced their dad and I ended up joining a Baptist church and so they talked about them getting baptized and they're like we've been baptized. So every church does it differently. A lot of Baptist churches wait until a person is conscious of their faith so that people can make decisions around baptism. Is that correct? Yeah?
Speaker 4:I think that's a little bit more ethical honestly. Because as a baby now I'm just permanently Christian.
Speaker 3:We're saving your soul. We're saving your soul.
Speaker 5:So there's a song that I listen to, and I listen to it reoccurringly when I need that motivation. It's actually by the artist Dizzy 8. Shout out Dizzy 8. He's probably never going to hear this podcast, but hopefully he does. It's two songs by him that I listen to a lot. That if, when you listen to the lyrics, you can actually get the grasp of what he's trying to talk about. It's Against the Odds and then Different. Grasp of what he's trying to talk about. It's against the odds and then different. When you listen to the lyrics of those two songs, it's very it's like very sentimental. You can hear where he's trying to come from trying to motivate people to be themselves, to work hard for what you need and what you want, um, to not let nobody knock you down. I like that kind of motivation when I listen to music so I can know that I'm not like everybody else and I can push myself to my best.
Speaker 3:Yeah, who wants to be like everybody else?
Speaker 4:I'm going to make sure Dizzy 8 hears that I'm going to send it to him.
Speaker 3:Oh, thank you. I'm going to listen to Dizzy 8. I looked him up. Sam and I were looking him up at the same time. I've never heard of him Me, him but it sounds like you listen to music and actually listen to the lyrics, and those lyrics mean something to you. I've always been that way too, so I'm connecting on that front. My question is now we've talked about you, we've talked about whatever, but how can you, kenneth, encourage your peers to get more knowledgeable about politics? What could we do? What is the format or the framework for increasing knowledge?
Speaker 5:Well, first thing to set the foundation is to not think about what's going to happen in the present and look what's going to happen within the future, because whatever choice that you make now is going to impact you months, years, centuries, decades later from now. And then also understanding that you shouldn't just go off of what someone else tells you and you should take your own undivided research on things before just jumping to conclusion about something and then verifying your facts and information before going off what someone told you.
Speaker 3:Oh, all right. Well, that sounds exciting, but I think that we have to get people listening. Have you been paying attention to this mayoral race, the men of my own race? The mayoral race in Detroit.
Speaker 5:Oh, race for mayor Last time I looked at it was when the last time I was on the podcast about it. Besides that, I haven't been keeping track.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you helped us interview Santil Jenkins. Mm-hmm, yeah, you did a great job. So who, based on your knowledge, do you think you would vote for if you could vote today? Do you have a preference? Is there anybody you've heard that stood out.
Speaker 5:It's between Kenlock and Jenkins. Mm-hmm, it's between Kenlock and Jenkins, and I say that because of their ideals and the kind of impact they want to give into the community. It kind of reminds me of Duggan, but at the same time it doesn't, because it's not Duggan. So I'm on the fence of both of them right now.
Speaker 3:So what are their?
Speaker 5:ideals. What are their ideals? Like the aspect of them regarding to the youth. That's what I was. The first thing that caught my attention when it was talking about the youth. Then like detroit itself, like regarding to the city and the health of the city. So it's like, okay, y'all are looking at it from a bigger aspect, but at the the same time, I need more. I need more of an eye catcher for me to lean onto you about your aspects and ideals.
Speaker 3:So you probably need some more education on where they're standing and all of that kind of stuff. So if we were to enlist you in educating some of your peers, do you think they would look at a comic book? Would they look at a YouTube? What kind of thing would get them to pay attention?
Speaker 5:Music, music. Nine times out of ten, it's going to be for music.
Speaker 4:You know that some of the music artists that are from here have shouted out Mary Sheffield on songs Big Sean and Iceware Bezzo.
Speaker 3:Why do you think that is?
Speaker 5:Probably because they like them, in my opinion. I honestly don't care, because I don't pay attention to the lyrics of them kind of songs, but when I hear somebody that I know I'm like.
Speaker 3:So we're going to have to get Skilla 8 to make a song about Mary Skilla Skilla.
Speaker 4:Baby, yeah, not Skilla. Baby make a song about Mary Skilla.
Speaker 3:Skilla Baby, not Skilla Baby. He supports.
Speaker 4:Mary too. They did a gun buyback program that he actually sponsored. He didn't show up to the event, but he put his name on the event and told people to support her gun buyback program. Skilla actually just survived an attempt on his own life. He was shot in the head and the hand. Yeah, just recently. Yeah, like last month.
Speaker 5:Everybody was going crazy about it and personally, something I've noticed too is that a lot of people like Skilla Baby, especially in my age group. So if he were to make a song about politics and stuff for the youth, I feel like people will. Well, kids will actually try and put some attempt to it, especially if the song's getting there listening to it over and over and over, so they get the grasp of it and then they start impacting it.
Speaker 3:Alright, so we've got music.
Speaker 4:Skilla Baby, if you're listening, Skilla, we need a politics song from you.
Speaker 3:We're going to send this, we're going to make sure Skilla Baby hears this too right?
Speaker 4:Yes, we are.
Speaker 3:And I did not call you Skilla 8. That was Dizzy 8.
Speaker 4:I meant to say I just got the names wrong right and Skilla Baby. I've actually met Skilla Baby a few times, played basketball with him. He's a nice guy.
Speaker 3:All right. Well, this has been really really getting your point of view. And what did you get out of your? Before we close, what did you get out of your interview with Jenkins, because she's the one candidate you had an opportunity to interview, right?
Speaker 5:Yeah, that was the only person I did.
Speaker 3:What did you get out of her? What were your takeaways?
Speaker 5:To be honest, Donna, I can't even remember the majority of it.
Speaker 3:Okay, well, I'm going to send you a copy of that recording so you can listen again and then pull it back up. So when we have you on again, you're going to talk about it. We're actually going to have an election night watch party here and we want to have fun. We want to just spend some time talking about this, and I'd love for you to be there as well as some other young people, because, again, it's your future, it's not mine, and I really want to see young people empowered, encouraged, told we believe in you, because I think that one of the reasons people disconnect is they feel like people don't care about their voices and their needs, and I think we've got to reverse that. All right, so any closing thoughts?
Speaker 4:I just enjoyed this conversation, learning a bunch of new Christian rap. Artists Rock as well, christian rock bands. My Christian rap ended at Lecrae. Malice also made some Christian rap. You don't know clips probably, but Malice was a Christian rapper for a decade.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I heard that, so I actually listened to the clip album. It's good.
Speaker 4:It's good For all his you know he's kind of doing a little bit too much. Some of those songs, yeah, without Chad. Also the Neptunes, you know they're done. Ain't no more neptune. So peace saturn is what malice said on the song.
Speaker 3:Um, yeah, I appreciated you coming on here, kenneth, um gotta have you back drake or kendrick kendrick, all that yeah I figured yeah I know I liked you and your peers.
Speaker 4:Though what? What is it like? What is the know like? How many out of 10 are going for Kendrick and how many are going for Drake?
Speaker 5:Everybody I've heard said Kendrick.
Speaker 4:Really.
Speaker 5:Especially after I heard Not Like Us, unlike you and Drake. You just put it down. Push Up was your only good song.
Speaker 4:Oh, push Up. He was going after Kanye in that one. He didn't even. That was for Pusha T wasn't it?
Speaker 5:I, I think. Oh no, the push up song was for Kendrick. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but like the only reason why I like push up, and it's the only Drake song that's on my playlist too. It's like I like the beat to it okay and I like, like the, like the motion of it, and then the beat drop at the end. I like it.
Speaker 4:He's going hard. He needs to make more songs like that rapping like that.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, he just needs to, because he needs to just understand maybe his time has come and gone, everybody's time is not forever, and the way he has acted since everything is just kind of, he's kind of disqualified himself from future serious conversations.
Speaker 5:Where's 2019 Drake at?
Speaker 4:I don't know Where's 2016 Drake man. 2012, 11 Drake man that's what I need.
Speaker 5:I think it's the beard.
Speaker 4:Can I ask one last closing question? It's not the braids.
Speaker 3:The braids could be it too.
Speaker 4:Pull in his braids. Aiden Ross Do your peers. How do we feel about Aiden Ross? He's another streamer. I know you didn't mention him. Good thing.
Speaker 5:To be honest, I don't hear nobody talk about me no one's talking about me.
Speaker 4:Okay, this is good. This is good. It's restoring my faith and humanity over here. Man, we don't care about Aiden Ross.
Speaker 5:Aiden Ross is 2020.
Speaker 4:Yeah, he's leaving.
Speaker 3:I don't know who he is I'm not sure I want to, all right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we don, aiden Ross.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, look at Nicki Minaj. Have you seen anybody? Shoot themselves in the foot more than she has.
Speaker 4:Kanye, yeah, yay Wes.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean you know, but he has. Yes, I guess she might have some mental health issues too, Because it's like girl, you are at war with everybody here and I don't know if it's a good look.
Speaker 4:No, when people just go to media angry, um kind of sad, but you know Megan's in love she is.
Speaker 3:You win more with the honey than you do stinging people. It should have been me, and I'm mad, though I'm so happy to see her in love, I have to be. I love love. I love seeing people get happy and overcome things and I just love seeing a smile on somebody's face who has been through so much and so many attacks so let's just see how long it's going. Well, you know, I believe it'll last. I have faith in it.
Speaker 5:You said the same thing about.
Speaker 3:Sierra and Russell when you find somebody who believes in you and loves you. You are no longer the same.
Speaker 4:It's kind of a similar, your comparison. Sierra and Russell Wilson is kind of very similar to Clay and Megan.
Speaker 3:It's kind of very very similar. Yeah, I mean, you know, you become a different person when you find your person, and I can say that personally.
Speaker 1:Anyway, thank you so much.
Speaker 3:That was a good one. Thank you so much 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 because good journalism costs. And read the Michigan Chronicle political reporting from our very own Sam Robinson.
Speaker 4:Yes, that one's free.
Speaker 1:All right, that one's free. Thank you, the the. I'm going to show you how to make a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Thank you, the the. Thank you.
